Maybe not an innovative form of art, but I'm always very impressed by so-called realistic painters – a.k.a. photo-realistic or even 'ultra-realistic and 'hyper-realistic' .

The amount of detail (skin wrinkles, dirt, reflections etc.) they bring into their paintings is amazing.

David Kassan makes these wall paintings that look as if a picture was taken from someone standing in front of the wall:

(Several more pictures here)

Damian Loeb is both a photographer and a painter. Notice how some of his paintings look like photographs, even out-of-focus ones:

Omar Artiz from Mexico paints beautiful semi-nudes:

Yigal Ozeri has a special technique: he makes photos, updates them with Photoshop, prints them, and then uses these prints as a guide to paint with oil on large canvas.
You would not say these are paintings:

Yigal does not seem to have his own website, but you can find plenty of his paintings with a Google search.

My earlier posts in the series Art is Present: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13)

This video does not need many words

This video is an ad for online marketing firm Purplefeather.
Original title: Homage to Historia de un letrero,
The Story of a Sign by Alonso Alvarez Barreda
 

Youtube user TaiStar42 balances a tower of 3118 coins on a single dime:
600 quarters, 501 dimes, 313 nickels, 1699 pennies, 5 foreign coins, and 7 hours of building.

And he went on to 3838 coins (2007 pennies, 387 nickels, 807 Quarters, 629 Dimes, 8 other coins. $304.07 plus the foreign coin values. 3837 coins on a dime, 3836 coins on a five pence piece, 3835 coins on a penny, 3834 on a nickel, 3833 coins on a quarter):

My earlier posts in the series Patience: (2)

Ho-Chi-Min city traffic time-lapse:

Traffic in Frenetic HCMC, Vietnam from Rob Whitworth on Vimeo.

A colourful feast for the eyes.

What do Spaniards have that other countries appear to be missing?
There seem to be many bizarre traditions and abundant festivities that are unique to Spain.

Example 1: The annual festival of Els Enfarinats.

In the town of Ibi in Alicante, on December 28 as part of celebrations related to the Day of the Innocents,
participants dressed in mock military dress stage a 'coup' pretending to take over the town. Dressed in a slovenly manner, they enter banks and shops stirring up trouble in a good-humoured way, imposing fines on shopkeepers and bankers, mocking local dignitaries and reading humorous speeches. Those who oppose are assaulted with flour cakes and eggs:

Example 2: La Tomatina.

In the town of Bunol in the Valencia region of Spain, on August 31, several 10 thousands people pelt each other with tons of ripe tomatoes.
The origin of the Tomatina festival dates back to 1944. During a parade of gigantes y cabezudos, young men who wanted to participate in the event staged a brawl. Since there was a vegetable stand nearby, they picked up tomatoes and used them as weapons. The police had to intervene to break up the fight, and forced those responsible to pay the damages incurred. The following year the young people repeated the fight, only this time they brought their own tomatoes from home. They were again dispersed by the police. After repeating this in subsequent years, the party was, albeit unofficially, a fact:

Example 3: The festival of San Fermín (or Sanfermines)

This festival in Navarre, from 6-14 July is known for the encierro, or the running of the bulls.
The week-long celebration involves many other traditional and folkloric events:

Example 4: The Spanish Baby Jumping Festival of El Colacho

Every year during the month of June, the Spanish village of Castrillo de Murcia near Burgos holds its traditional Baby-Jumping Festival as part of its Corpus Christi celebrations. During the act, known as El Colacho, men dressed as the Devil (known as the Colacho) leaps over babies born during the previous twelve months of the year who lie on mattresses in the street:

Example 5: Fallas in Valencia

The city of Valencia particularly has some great events, e.g. the international fireworks festival:

After all that fireworks violence you can get some reat in Europe’s biggest aquarium, the Oceanografic, or visit the City of Arts and Sciences.

Running in front of bulls is not my sport, but for all those other festivals I wouldn't mind living in Spain!

For strange festivals in other countries look here and view my earlier post about Holi.
 

Meni Ozeri from Israel doing Bamboleo from the Gipsy Kings

200-pin bowling:

I've always thought of owls as fascinating animals:

But be warned: owls are not pets

Show us what’s in your bag and we’ll tell you who you are. That is the motto of Jason Travis’s photographic project Persona. The home page shows a mosaic of people and their personal effects. Click on a segment to get a closer look. Each picture consists of two parts. The upper half is a portrait of a person, standing against a background that matches their style:

The Playing for Change folks keep making these lovely videos and doing their great work.
Here's Stevie Wonders' Higher Ground.

I never really listened to the lyrics before:

People keep on learnin'
Soldiers keep on warrin'
World keep on turnin'
Cause it won't be too long
Powers keep on lyin'
While your people keep on dyin'
World keep on turnin'
Cause it won't be too long
I'm so darn glad he let me try it again
Cause my last time on earth I lived a whole world of sin
I'm so glad that I know more than I knew then
Gonna keep on tryin'
Till I reach the highest ground
Teachers keep on teachin'
Preachers keep on preachin'
World keep on turnin'
Cause it won't be too long
Oh no
Lovers keep on lovin'
Believers keep on believin'
Sleepers just stop sleepin'
Cause it won't be too long
Oh no
I'm so glad that he let me try it again
Cause my last time on earth I lived a whole world of sin
I'm so glad that I know more than I knew then
Gonna keep on tryin'
Till I reach my highest ground…Whew!
Till I reach my highest ground
No one's gonna bring me down
Oh no
Till I reach my highest ground
Don't you let nobody bring you down (they'll sho 'nuff try)
God is gonna show you higher ground
He's the only friend you have around

Don't you let nobody bring you down!

Here are three more versions.