The kid Woostaar made a rad video for Mission rapper A-1. H/T to The FADER for pointing out the awesome in our own back yard. Art directors – hire this dude now.

Oh, you’re not an Emmy Award winning cinematographer traveling the world shooting for Tony Bourdain? That’s too bad. Zach is. Watch his reel and get mad that you sat at your desk all day.

Photo: Zach on assignment for No Reservations.

I’m kind of over the cookie cutter DSLR video profile thing that everyone who can afford a camera makes these days, but this series that KCRW produced on LA vinyl shops is pretty nice. The audio is mixed really well and the stores they visit are legit. Also KCRW is the only radio station I listen to any more, so if you aren’t up on their mobile apps yet def download it now. It makes every morning commute a little easier.

Wayne White was the set designer for Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. This documentary is about him. It’s premiering at SXSW 2012. I don’t think anything else I write is going to influence you to see the film any more than that.

Remember when you found out that a sexy Estonian chick had moved to London and started making the best videos and psyched out morning music? I do. Now every time Maria Minerva posts something up on her youtube channel my Google alert blows the fuck up. She’s constantly referencing Cabaret Voltaire. See the influence. SONIC FEEDBACK LOOPS YALL.

There’s forty nine million people who think that they know what kind of shit people say. Probably only two or three are actually right on, but even when they are, no one really wants to hear it. And although some of them are pretty hilarious, watching too many over the last few months became a study in formulaic video creation. When does comic timing overtake production value as the driving force in a video, and which is more important? I’ll be the first to say that the content of your picture will always be the most important part of it – you could have an eighty million pixel still camera or a 4K digital video recording device and your projects can still suck. This is exactly the kind of creative truth that makes Instagram so interesting – and I understand that iPhone ownership is not a universal truth – but the idea that everyone could be given the same tool and told to go out a tell the-story-of-your-life-as-it-happens is something that Walter Benjamin might have freaked out over. Art has always been a communications platform, and when the masses have access to its construction processes things can get a little muddy, but letting everyone into the party is ultimately going to be the best way for a medium to truly innovate. So no matter how good or bad the Shit People Say videos may be, I’d rather watch a bunch of shitty videos, crit and over analyze the edits and break down the humor then not have them at all. Cause where would we be then? I bet Rupert Murdoch could tell you.

When I’m looking for a neo noir life soundtrack to start off the new year I usually reach for a film score that shows up somewhere between James Caan’s John Wayne pictures and his cocaine fueled Hollywood burnout days. So it’s a good thing that in 1981 he starred in Michael Mann’s first film Thief, a caper flick about professional safe crackers. And it’s even better that Tangerine Dream scored the whole thing – that way whether no matter which dystopian metropolis I find myself in next year I’ll always have the right music to escape to.

I bet it’s a crazy enough job to manage a dude like Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire, but Vic Reznik handles that *and* makes all his videos. Grimy and raw and colorful like some new Spike Jonze if he was drinking too much shitty vodka. I’m following his work. Do it 2. Also, scoop eXquire’s tape on Mishka’s BandCamp page. Huzzah!

The Bay Area’s Matthew Africa made the best Christmas mix ever. Beleedat.

Happy Birthday Woody Allen! You’ve made some of my favorite films and written some of the funniest stories I’ve ever read, but you’re stand up is the shit.