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Lin-Manuel Miranda, writer and star of the runaway hit musical Hamilton, is the star of the latest American Express ad about neighborhoods. Via Adweek:

Odds are, to make your dreams come true, you’ll need some help—both in terms of loyal friends and a credit card or two.

In a new ad starring Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of the pop culture phenomenon Hamilton, American Express persuasively makes the case its financial services are a friendly hand supporting you on the road to success.

Two edits of the commercial created by agency mcgarrybowen—a 60-second spot and a 30-second version—both focus on Miranda’s connection to Washington Heights, the neighborhood in New York City where he grew up and now lives.

In the ad, he waxes philosophical while visiting actual businesses and locales notable to his life and career. There’s Dichter Pharmacy, where he picks up coffee on the way to the local barbershop, where he cracks jokes with friends.

There’s a visit to Hunter College Elementary School on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where he actually substitute-taught for a year, in 2002 (and, some years before, was a student). And naturally, there’s a visit to the Richard Rogers Theater, on West 46th Street, where Hamilton has enjoyed its smash Broadway run since 2015.

First Beach is a short video about foster kids and orphans seeing the beach for the first time, a partnership between 2 organisations. Via CSR News:

To ring in National Beach Day, REEF, the industry leader in beach footwear and apparel, announced the premiere of “First Beach,” a new docu-short featuring non-profit organization Urban Surf 4 Kids. The film takes viewers behind-the-scenes and features the raw emotions of ten children living within the foster care system as they experience the beach for the first time.

On July 26, REEF and Urban Surf 4 Kids – a unique grassroots organization that provides mentoring and water therapy activities to children who are at-risk or within group homes – hosted ten foster youth from Arizona with a beach day and surfing lesson at La Jolla Shores in San Diego. In their first-ever ocean visit, the kids spent all weekend experiencing the various beaches of sunny San Diego and meeting and surfing with REEF ambassadors, including surfer Mike Lay.

This is the third year REEF has partnered with Urban Surf 4 Kids and the first year the two partners joined forces to facilitate a “First Beach” trip. REEF’s brand purpose –to unite the world around the fun, freedom and spirit of the beach– was a natural fit for Urban Surf 4 Kids’ mission of using the ocean and water sports as a catalyst to empower young people.

“We are honored to partner with a unique organization like Urban Surf 4 Kids to bring the incomparable spirit and restorative quality of the beach to young people, who otherwise wouldn’t have this experience,” said Mike Matey, REEF VP of Marketing. “The beach is so ingrained in our culture here at REEF and we are thrilled we were able to seed that love and passion to this inspiring group of young people.”

Shadow of the Cute Raider is an official Tomb Raider parody trailer starring an Australian Shepherd dog trying to rescue a puppy. Via Comicbook.com:

The trailer can be watched above. In it, it looks like a traditional set-up for a Tomb Raider game, until we realize we get a dog in the place of Lara Croft, and a cat in the face of a Mayan villain, who keeps a poor mutt locked up for good measure.

But it’s action packed to say the least, with the Lara Croft-ish dog setting a trap for the cat that’s pursuing it, managing to lure it with (what else?) a ball of string.

From there, we see the dog make a dramatic leap across a gap in the mountains, while that evil cat threatens the locked-up mutt with…a razor? To shave it, I suppose?

It’s all part of the cuteness, but when they do get into their final battle, the Lara Croft-ish dog unleashes its greatest weapon: a Roomba. Yep, that distracts the evil cat long enough for the hero to rescue the locked-up mutt and look out into the Mayan landscape as the trailer concludes.

It’s hilarious, to say the least, and good fun from the folks at Square Enix, after seeing all the dramatic trailers we’ve seen for the game. But damn it, now we want a Cute Raider mode thrown into Shadow just for good measure. We want to use balls of string to lure enemies and stuff. Hmmm…maybe with DLC…

Yes Pantone now has a game, of all things. Maybe we shouldn’t really be surprised. We’ve read the rules and objective and don’t really get it. Via DesignTaxi:

Cryptozoic Entertainment has teamed up with Scott Rogers—game designer and creative director behind video game series such as God of War—for ‘Pantone™: The Game’.

“In this easy-to-learn competitive party game, 2-20 players try to recognize characters from popular culture who are represented only by abstract arrangements of colors, inspired by Pantone™, the world’s leading color expert,” explains Cryptozoic Entertainment inside its press release.

“[T]he player who is currently the Artist chooses a Character Card and then designs a representation of that Character using only color Swatch Cards (in 15 different colors).”

“The other players subsequently take turns trying to guess who it is. If no one can guess the Character during a round, a Hint is given at the start of the next round, with each Hint reducing the number of points awarded to both the Artist and the player who correctly identifies the Character. The winner is the player who has the most points after each player acts as the Artist three times.”

For $70 on Amazon we’re not sure if the game’s worth it, but it’d definitely be a hit at design geek parties.

Long Way Back Home is a beautifully shot music video starring Michael Shannon trying to track down his character’s lost siblings. Via Short of the Week:

Our music video channel here on Short of the Week has been somewhat barren of late. It’s not the we don’t love a good MV (we really do), but we decided sometime ago to only focus on the ones that were either narratively strong or innovative and pioneering. Jeff Nichols’ (yep “that” Jeff Nichols) eight-minute video Long Way Back Home, for his Brother Ben’s band Lucero, isn’t exactly the most groundbreaking thing you’ll see in 2018, but what it lacks in originality, it more than makes up for with its unmistakable quality.

Narratively and structurally, Long Way Back Home doesn’t add anything new to the music video form. It’s essentially a four-minute dialogue-free piece bookended with two scenes of character interaction. However, Nichols does a great job (as you would expect from a director of his quality) of building character and backstory in the video’s sub eight-minute run-time.

Supported by a stellar cast, including Michael Shannon, Scoot McNairy and Paul Sparks, the narrative follows a brother returning to town, eager to track down his younger siblings. It’s a moody, atmospheric piece that’s quick to hook you in, but if you’re looking for a strong narrative conclusion you might be a little disappointed with this one, as Nichols was eager to leave things open-ended.

Territorio de Zaguates is a no-kill dog shelter within the mountains of Costa Rica, the feature of this National Geographic short film. Via National Geographic:

At the Territorio de Zaguates no-kill dog shelter in Costa Rica, every animal coming to live at the rescue facility gets a name. And at the moment, there are approximately 970 dogs living here.

British photographer Dan Giannopoulos recently spent time with the dogs and the people who take care of them at this notable rescue facility, which translates to “Land of the Strays.”

Located about an hour from downtown San José, the shelter is famed for its approximately 378 acres of tropical mountain land where scores of canines stroll, frolic, and race alongside human visitors, shelter employees, and volunteers. The vast majority of the animals are up for adoption and visitors can bring their own dogs to play with the rescues.

“To look out and see hundreds of dogs running across the field was completely breathtaking to me. I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Giannopoulos, a self-proclaimed dog lover currently based in Nicaragua.

Giannopoulos, who has spent the last few years shooting alternative cultures in the UK, thought it might be difficult to photograph a story about dogs instead of people, but says they were all friendly, curious, and well-behaved. A labrador with a paralyzed leg stuck by Giannopoulos for an entire day, waiting for him if he dropped behind the group to take pictures. When it was time for him to leave, she followed him all the way to the gate and watched him get into a taxi. “There are a lot of dogs there that you can fall in love with,” Giannopoulos says.

Shooting Star is the latest Overwatch animated cinematic short, featuring Korean pro gamer character turned defender, Hana Song (D.Va). Via Polygon:

The short, called “Shooting Star,” debuted at Overwatch’s Korea Fan Festival. It takes a look beyond the glitz and glamour of D.Va’s fame and gives us a glimpse at what life is like for the former esports champion and current world-saving pilot. In the short, we see that D.Va is the leader of an elite squad of mecha pilots in an organization called MEKA who are tasked with defending the city of Busan from the Omnic threat.

While a news broadcast goes on and on about what a magic life D.Va is living, we see her and her best friend hard at work repairing her mech from the last fight and getting ready for the next one. Suddenly, a new batch of Omnics come flying in toward the city, and with no one else around to help, it’s up to D.Va to take them down solo. Undeterred, she launches off into the fight and shows off the skills that make her Overwatch’s best pilot.

While the short gives us plenty of mech vs Omnic action, its real focus is on Hana, the girl behind the D.Va name. In the short, we can see Hana’s constant dedication to her work with the Mechanical Exo-Force of the Korean Army, in order to help keep the people of Busan safe. We can also see her tireless work ethic and the close relationship she has with her best friend who helps provide support for her while she’s piloting.

Alongside this new cinematic short, Blizzard also announced the new Busan map that takes place in some of the areas we see in the short. According to Overwatch’s game director, Jeff Kaplan, the MEKA base, which appears in both the animated video and the map, was developed through a close collaboration between the game’s design team and the cinematic team.

Serena Williams stars in a beautifully shot new ad for Chase with regards to the US Open, featuring her newborn daughter Alexis Olympia. Via GlowUp:

As we await Serena Williams’ first appearance at the U.S. Open since giving birth to daughter Alexis Olympia, don’t be surprised if we totally fangirl out. Every day, we seem to get a new slice of greatness from the G.O.A.T., and her latest commercial for Chase is, simply put, next level.

In a voiceover, Williams recites the lyrics of LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out,” a strikingly fitting narrative as one of the world’s most famous working moms prepares herself for a moment pretty much any working mom can relate to: She’s going back to work. But don’t call it a comeback. Aside from admirably making it to the finals at Wimbledon 2018—her first Grand Slam competition since giving birth—LL’s classic rhyme reminds us Williams has been here for years, and still serves with the force of a hurricane.

And notably, despite taking maternity leave, Williams still tops Forbes’ 2018 list of the highest paid female athletes—in large part, because of her entrepreneurship and corporate partnerships like the one she continues to enjoy with Chase.

Following MIFF2018, the Melbourne Writer’s Festival (MWF) is next up, with guests like Ted Chiang (the Arrival), the New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow, and Ta-Nehisi Coates (Between the World and Me). See you guys there! In the meantime, here’s a short story from Ted Chiang, The Great Silence (full story here):

The humans use Arecibo to look for extraterrestrial intelligence. Their desire to make a connection is so strong that they’ve created an ear capable of hearing across the universe.

But I and my fellow parrots are right here. Why aren’t they interested in listening to our voices?

We’re a nonhuman species capable of communicating with them. Aren’t we exactly what humans are looking for?

***

The universe is so vast that intelligent life must surely have arisen many times. The universe is also so old that even one technological species would have had time to expand and ll the galaxy. Yet there is no sign of life anywhere except on Earth. Humans call this the Fermi paradox.

One proposed solution to the Fermi paradox is that intelligent species actively try to conceal their presence, to avoid being targeted by hostile invaders.

Speaking as a member of a species that has been driven nearly to extinction by humans, I can attest that this is a wise strategy.

It makes sense to remain quiet and avoid attracting attention.