This is not your aver­age car com­mer­cial. It has the look and feel of the lux­u­ry car com­mer­cials you’ve seen so many times. And yet it fea­tures a car with 141,095 miles on it. Film­mak­er Max Lan­man cre­at­ed the ad to help his girl­friend sell her used 1996 Hon­da Accord. For rea­sons you’ll quick­ly under­stand, the video went viral, clocked more than 5 mil­lion views this past week, and when the car was list­ed on eBay, bids soared to $150,000–before eBay appar­ent­ly pulled the plug “due to con­cerns around ille­git­i­mate bid­ding.” Enjoy the ad. And remem­ber, “Lux­u­ry is a state of mind.”

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. Or fol­low our posts on Threads, Face­book, BlueSky or Mastodon.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

178,000 Images Doc­u­ment­ing the His­to­ry of the Car Now Avail­able on a New Stan­ford Web Site

Hunter S. Thompson’s Edgy 1990s Com­mer­cial for Apple’s Mac­in­tosh Com­put­er: A Med­i­ta­tion on Pow­er

Jim Henson’s Com­mer­cials for Wilkins Cof­fee: 15 Twist­ed Min­utes of Mup­pet Cof­fee Ads (1957–1961)

In the spir­it of Andrew Sul­li­van’s Men­tal Health Break, we give you this: The Addams Fam­i­ly Danc­ing to The Ramones’ 1976 track, “Blitzkrieg Bop.” For a brief moment, for­get the hur­ri­canes, the threat of nuclear war, the fires burn­ing in LA, Mon­tana, Wash­ing­ton, DC and the hearts of white suprema­cists. Breathe in. Breathe out. And repeat after me. “Hey Ho.…..Let’s go!”

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. Or fol­low our posts on Threads, Face­book, BlueSky or Mastodon.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

John Astin, From The Addams Fam­i­ly, Recites “The Raven” as Edgar Allan Poe

Talk­ing Heads Per­form The Ramones’ “I Wan­na Be Your Boyfriend” Live in 1977 (and How the Bands Got Their Start Togeth­er)

The Ramones’ First Press Release: We’re Part Musi­cians, Den­tists & Degen­er­ates (1975)

Hear Joey Ramone Sing a Piece by John Cage Adapt­ed from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake

Above you can watch “The Woodswim­mer,” a new stop-motion music video shot by Brett Foxwell. As Foxwell describes it, the film was shot with “a straight­for­ward tech­nique but one which is bru­tal­ly tedious to com­plete.”  Elab­o­rat­ing, he told the web­site This is Colos­sal, “Fas­ci­nat­ed with the shapes and tex­tures found in both new­ly-cut and long-dead pieces of wood, I envi­sioned a world com­posed entire­ly of these forms.”  “As I began to engage with the mate­r­i­al, I con­ceived a method using a milling machine and an ani­ma­tion cam­era set­up to scan through a wood sam­ple pho­to­graph­i­cal­ly and cap­ture its entire struc­ture. Although a dif­fi­cult and tedious tech­nique to refine, it yield­ed gor­geous imagery at once abstract and very real. Between the twist­ing growth rings, swirling rays, knot holes, ter­mites and rot, I found there is a lot going on inside of wood.”

Final­ly, Foxwell notes on his per­son­al web­site: “As a short film began to build from [the filmed sequences], I col­lab­o­rat­ed with bed­times, an ani­ma­tor and musi­cian of spe­cial tal­ents to write a song and help edit a tight visu­al and son­ic jour­ney through this won­drous and fas­ci­nat­ing mate­r­i­al. WoodSwim­mer is the result.”

Watch it, in all of its glo­ry, above.

via This is Colos­sal

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. Or fol­low our posts on Threads, Face­book, BlueSky or Mastodon.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

The His­to­ry of Stop-Motion Films: 39 Films, Span­ning 116 Years, Revis­it­ed in a 3‑Minute Video

Watch The Amaz­ing 1912 Ani­ma­tion of Stop-Motion Pio­neer Ladis­las Stare­vich, Star­ring Dead Bugs

Mes­mer­iz­ing GIFs Illus­trate the Art of Tra­di­tion­al Japan­ese Wood Join­ery — All Done With­out Screws, Nails, or Glue

Watch Japan­ese Wood­work­ing Mas­ters Cre­ate Ele­gant & Elab­o­rate Geo­met­ric Pat­terns with Wood

It’s true. And you can try it your­self, at home. Just sing “I see a lit­tle sil­hou­et­to of a man.” Then let Siri do the rest.

Have fun!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

65,000 Fans Break Into a Sin­ga­long of Queen’s “Bohemi­an Rhap­sody” at a Green Day Con­cert in London’s Hyde Park

1910 Fair­ground Organ Plays Queen’s “Bohemi­an Rhap­sody,” and It Works Like a Charm

Inside the Rhap­sody: A Short Doc­u­men­tary on the Mak­ing of Queen’s Clas­sic Song, ‘Bohemi­an Rhap­sody’ (2002)

Bohemi­an Grav­i­ty: String The­o­ry Explored With an A Cap­pel­la Ver­sion of Bohemi­an Rhap­sody