Young at Heart is by far the best documentary I have seen in a long time.

It follows the Young @ Heart Chorus, learning new songs for their upcoming show. The difference with this group is that they are all aged 80 and up. This is not just a bunch of oldies singing songs from their youth, they cover songs by Radiohead, Sonic Youth, Buzzcocks and Bruce Springsteen.

Watching a 92 lady singing “Should I stay, or should I go” initially is a little humorous, but as that subsides you start to take the chorus seriously and get caught up in the charm, energy and pure will power of these elderly people to perform.

The chorus is led by Bob Cilman, who at times comes across as hard on the ‘elderly’ folk, but it is what a director must do to get the group ready in time for their performance. The members feel he is a little harsh on them at times, but respect him for that. You also get to see how much he cares and respects the members and his commitment to taking the chorus seriously and wanting them to succeed.

The documentary is charming and inspiring. If you are suffering from any small aches and pains the documentary puts your life suddenly into perspective.

Watch the trailer.

There’s a new book that’s been published by maomao publications called Blogs, Mad about Design, featuring profiles and screenshots from more than 250 blogs about design-related topics—including this blog. Sort of a compendium of sorts. But is it really?

The irony about producing anything about the web in print is that as soon as you’ve published it, it’s out of date. Case in point? We re-branded the company and re-launched the blog before the book ever made it to print. Hence, the Industrial Brand double page spread showcases our old design, back when it was called We’re Not Wired Right. And there are numerous other blogs and websites that have since changed or even been shut down since this material for this book was assembled.

And so it goes with books about Web—as soon as something has hit, it’s almost too late to publish anything that will have any lasting use more that a short period of time.

Icograda has formally announced Design Week 2010 to be hosted by GDC in Vancouver with official event profile information on their website.

A little while ago my wife and I were in a restaurant. For some random reason I suddenly wondered what the difference was between ‘assume’ and ‘presume’. I asked the waitress if she knew, she didn’t. To our surprise a few minutes later she returned with a printout of the definition she had just looked up online (great customer service).

Here is the difference.

Assume: To accept something to be true without question or proof:
‘I assumed (that) you knew each other because you went to the same school’.

Presume: To believe something to be true because it is very likely, although you are not certain:
‘I presume (that) they’re not coming, since they haven’t replied to the invitation’.

Well, there you have it.

I love when “research” time comes around at the office. It gives me a valid excuse to do what I clandestinely do the rest of the week: Surf the Internet. We’re deep into work on an architectural firm and researching all things architectural and found a documentary on West Coast Modernism called “Coast Modern: Open space, modern mind.” . It seems to fall in the footsteps of Helvetica and Objectified. No real information on the website about official release, though the blog talks of a fall release. Can’t wait to see it!

Likemind is gaining momentum in Vancouver, with over 200 members on its Facebook Group. Events the each 3rd Friday of each month, with the next gathering on June 19th at Elysian Coffee’s new location at 590 West Broadway, between Cambie and Ash. Bring your travel mug and be prepared to taste some of the finest coffee being brewed in Vancouver while enjoying casual conversation with likeminded professionals from a myriad of backgrounds and industries. If you miss the event, you can check out photos on Flickr and follow the conversation on Twitter.

Please spread the word and come join us for a coffee!

Daniel Packard is a professional dating coach.

He won the National College Speaker of the Year in 2007, and from the video samples on the website I understand why. His style is funny, upfront, a little crazy but also caring and informed. Watch this video titled “Horny guy and nice guy…It’s the same guy” and you will see him in action.

Mark Thomas is a UK comedian. He uses intelligence, research, wit and great editing resulting in a very funny and poignant message.

Watch him take on MacDonalds

Then there is just the downright silly and immature

Then there is the political, for example his stand against the Arms Trade

Though a relatively famous short film, I saw C’était un rendez-vous by french director Claude LeLouch for the first time this morning. In short, it’s an 8 minute tour through Paris by way of a camera strapped onto the front of sports car, allegedly a Ferrari, going by all accounts somewhere between 140-200 miles/hour. The official story was that an unnamed Formula 1 driver was at the wheel, while it has also been suggested that LeLouch himself was at the wheel and later overdubbed the sound of the Ferrari to finish the film.

Regardless, it’s a fun watch of a high speed romp through Paris! (via Scout Magazine)

If you’re familiar with ‘Inbox Zero‘ from 43 Folders you’re already aware of how problematic emails can be. How many emails do you have in your inbox? How many have you been putting off because the response is too long? Check out five.sentenc.es. The concept is to get people to respond to emails like they would a SMS message. Short and right away. In this case in under 5 sentences.

There also sites from the same family called four.sentenc.es, three.sentenc.es and two.sentenc.es.