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December 22, 2006
Christmas Departure
» Well, it is that time of year. Christmas. A time in which I try my best to get OFF the computer for a little bit. Stay away from blog worthy things and spend time with friends and family. I suggest you do the same.

Have a fantastic Holiday break everyone. I will be back before you know it.. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Joyous Festivus.

Take care.
03:19 PM » [ Comments (2) ]


Christmas Treats
» Seeing as how it is that time of year - here are some Christmas treats for everyone:

Chris Williams Xmas Mix - 26 songs of family friendly Christmas songs. From some serious classics to more contemporary artists this one seems to have it all. If you're looking for some mood inducing christmas tunes, this is it.

TubAtomic GiftRap - it's the yearly present from TubAtomic Studios - and it's a doozy. Get your nerdcore on with their Christmas beats.
02:29 PM » [ Comments (0) ]


Calm Village
»
Calm VillageCalm Village : Matthew Curry
Calm Village is the latest project from personal favorite Ninja Cruise. The project consists of two original mixes of music and wealth of new drawings / sketches. I haven't downloaded the music yet but the art pieces are top notch (no surprise).
01:14 PM » [ Comments (0) ]


Getting Over On The DMV
»

Part 1

Part 2
I am amazed at what these guys are able to get away with. Seriously ridiculous.
01:05 PM » [ Comments (0) ]


Linerider Wii
»

Urban Run
I'd say there is no better match than the now extremely popular LineRider game and the Nintendo Wii. Apparently I'm not the only one that thinks these two should come together in glorious harmony as it appears that Line Rider is coming to the DS and Wii. What a match! Lets hope this is not just unsubstantiated rumor.
12:24 PM » [ Comments (0) ]


2006 Best Of - Round 2
»
2006 Best Of
After a slight zip file mishap yesterday my Best of 2006 mix was delayed.. so here we go again. Frankly, putting together a mix of the 'Best Of' anything is near impossible. So, I decided that every great song on my mix had to be taken from an album (or EP) of equal value. There were plenty of songs this year that I loved but came from albums that I felt didn't have ultimate staying power. For example, Islands "Where There's A Will There's A Whalebone", Grandaddy's "Jeez Louise", or Danielson's "Did I Step On Your Trumpet?" were in my top tier of great songs of 2006 - but the albums didn't have the same umph to them that I had hoped for.. so, ultimately, they were cut.

So please, go download my Best Of and let me know what you think.
11:46 AM » [ Comments (3) ]

December 21, 2006
Transformers Movie Trailer
» The full length trailer for Transformers: The Movie is now available for viewing. Maybe it's just me but I get a serious War of the Worlds vibe from it. None of the robots seem personable or charismatic at all but rather come across as pretty intimidating alien creatures. A somewhat different take on the franchise overall.
11:10 AM » [ Comments (10) ]


From The Basement...
» I need to spend some time with the new music series From the Basement. Apparently it's exclusive live performances from artists like Thom Yorke or The White Stripes with live sound from producer Nigel Godrich. The ingredients are all there for a series to keep your eye on.
11:01 AM » [ Comments (1) ]


There's an Emo Title In Here Somewhere
» Moths drink the tears of sleeping birds - I don't think I could say more than that headline already does. Absolutely fascinating.

White Kangaroo, White / Blue Peacock - consider these treats as little bonuses for your day.
10:56 AM » [ Comments (3) ]


EyeJammy Mix
» Another Christmas mix coming your way right here - from Eyejammy, a true master of the mix.
10:52 AM » [ Comments (1) ]

December 20, 2006
No Post Wednesday
» Sorry for the lack of posts today. We finally finished up the major steps in our office renovation today and it has been a beast getting back on track! The past two days were spent out of office as the painter did his thing and today we cleaned the place from top to bottom. Add to that the fact that I had client deadlines to meet and my browsing time become pretty much non-existent.

Not to worry though.. I've got some real treats for tomorrow.

Oh, and a big Happy Birthday to my brother.
05:30 PM » [ Comments (1) ]

December 19, 2006
Apostle of Hustle
»
Apostle of Hustle
Folkloric Feel, the debut album from Apostle of Hustle, may very well be in my top five all time favorite albums. I can't particularly explain what about it is so very appealing to my ears but I could listen to it for days and never get bored with it. The news that the band (aka Andrew Whiteman) would be releasing a new album entitled National Anthem of Nowhere is extremely exciting and sort of scary. The first album is so particularly special to me that I don't want to soil the idea of the band with another album that may be sub-par in comparison. I suppose that is the risk you take. Regardless, there is a new track available for download and it is slowly growing on me.
» Apostle of Hustle - My Sword Hand's Anger

01:54 PM » [ Comments (2) ]


Whole Fantastic World Demos
»
The Whole Fantastic World
It's been some time since I've heard anything new from The Whole Fantastic World - a Nashville band that has since relocated to Chicago. However, while browsing their site the other day it hit me that they've got five 'new' demos available for download and they are all quite good. Granted, they were actually recorded some time ago but it's nice to see that they are officially available now.
» Whole Fantastic World - Colossus
» Whole Fantastic World - Color in your Cheeks
» Whole Fantastic World - Eloise
» Whole Fantastic World - To the Lives and Loves We've Known
» Whole Fantastic World - Monsoon

01:45 PM » [ Comments (3) ]


Invisible Creature
» The launch of Invisible Creature is a sad and joyous event. Sad because it marks the official split of Asterik Studio. Joyous because it marks the official beginning of a great new portfolio and loads of new work on the way. Don, Ryan, and Josh have always created innovative, imaginative, compelling album packaging or tour posters and Invisible Creature will be no different. The site looks great (though that scrolling mechanism is a bit tricky at times!) and the work speaks for itself.. top notch.
01:06 PM » [ Comments (2) ]


Save The Internet
»

Save The Internet
In case anyone is still not too clear on the basics of Net Neutrality it appears that Save The Internet has released a new video that gives you the rundown about what is happening and what few little things you can do to help.
11:10 AM » [ Comments (0) ]


Architectural Wonders 2006
» Architectural Wonders 2006 is a quick 11 entry rundown of some of the best designed buildings from the past year. I think the Hearst building wins lamest looking and the Donghai Bridge is probably the most impressive.
11:03 AM » [ Comments (0) ]


EPIC Movie
» Should I be entertained by a movie trailer featuring a movie trailer written by two of the six writers of Scary Movie? Probably not. However, I couldn't not watch the trailer for Epic Movie without smirking a little bit. It's quite stupid but it's still vaguely amusing.
10:57 AM » [ Comments (0) ]


Samsung NV10
» Jamie has been pushing the Samsung NV10 as the next great camera to buy. I admit that the 1980's body style and innovative interface are tempting but I've decided not to buy another camera without at least trying it out first. Does anyone have any experience with Samsung cameras? What's the concensus?
10:28 AM » [ Comments (2) ]

December 18, 2006
PopJunkie - Winter 2006
»
Pop Junkie
Pop Junkie has launched their Winter 2006 line of apparel and it's great stuff. The above lion print is fantastic. I'm not sure on the type of shirt being used but based purely on looks, I'm sold. This print is pretty great as well but it is only for the ladies. Lots more good to see.. check `em out.
03:57 PM » [ Comments (4) ]


Inbox Cleansing 4
» Inbox Cleansing - a myriad of links to empty my inbox of pending messages.

Documentary on The Good, The Bad and The Queen. I hate that they are all WMV streams but that shouldn't stop you if you want to become a hardcore fan of the new band starting now: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Beard News - seems like beards are coming back into public conciousness as an acceptable, manly way to look. I credit Whiskerino exclusively.

Brit Rock band Editors have put out a Remix EP.. which I usually don't get so into but here are two free mp3's to sample it. I give this band a bit of the benefit of the doubt after seeing them at SXSW... Adobe CS3 Public Beta - with a valid serial for CS2 you can download the new Photoshop CS3. The list of features is pretty impressive, just as you'd expect it to be.

The Northridge Rangers - rare 1963 appearance of this band on the Gene Williams show. The humor is subtle but it's worth a listen.
03:41 PM » [ Comments (3) ]


iPhone Timeline
» The iPhone was finally released today and it's 100% not what people were expecting. Here is the full timeline on the rumor mill and what the end result really is. What blows my mind about the whole deal, aside from actually believing it for even a second, is that Digg and Engadget were both playing right along with it. I don't understand why two of the most trusted sources in technology news and nerd lifestyle would go along with something that obviously puts out their entire readership.
03:10 PM » [ Comments (7) ]


DiGG Redesign
» Looks like Digg has done a bit of a redesigning. The overall vibe / structure of the site remains the same but there are two sub-categories now beyond "News" - one for Videos and one for Podcasts. Basically Digg is rendering the entire blogosphere irrelevant, myself included.
03:03 PM » [ Comments (1) ]


Christmas Box
»

Christmas Box
While I highly recommend watching this SNL Digital Short immediately and without hesitation, I have to be up front and let you know that it's just a wee bit NSFW. And when I say that I mean if your boss walked by and heard you listening to it you'd probably have to go to a seminar or something about inappropriate work behaviors. But then again, if you work in an environment like that you should probably look into other work anyways.
02:45 PM » [ Comments (3) ]


Spring St Followup
» Following up on the post last week about the Spring St. building in NYC being turned into an art exhibition featuring loads of fantastic street artists there are a load of great photos to be seen - here and especially here.
12:58 PM » [ Comments (0) ]


Christmas Music
» Anyone interested in some Christmas music? Here ya go:

Cowart Christmas Mix 2006 - I can imagine this mix being played in the background during your Christmas Eve dinner or anywhere with snowfall and a fireplace. Quite pleasant.

All In The Mix Mix - brought to you by dubstyle features some classics as well as some more 'novelty' tracks - such as Wesley Willis and "Really Horrible Singer." Awesome.
11:50 AM » [ Comments (2) ]


Celebrity Best
» The 40 Best Celebrity Rumors Ever is pretty amusing. Some of the standards are in there (Richard Gere vs Gerbil is #1) but there are some others in there that I'd never run across (Keanu Reeves married David Geffen?).
11:35 AM » [ Comments (0) ]


Science is nuts!
» I'm sure that it will be many years before any of this science will actually make it into any mainstream application but it's fascinating none the less...

Scientists Levitate Small Animals - Okay, so it's just a few small bugs and a tiny fish but levitation has occured in the lab.

New Body X-Ray Unvealed - supposedly "better" than your standard X-Ray that detects metal, this one reveals concealed items through the users clothes. The technology, called backscatter, "has been around for several years but has not been widely used in the U.S. as an anti-terrorism tool because of privacy concerns." You've got the see the photo to get the full effect but basically it visually removes the users clothes to reveal any hidden devices beneath the clothes. Obviously there are some "graphic" concerns with the technology...
11:23 AM » [ Comments (0) ]


TMNT : Full Trailer
» Looks like there is a full trailer for the upcoming TMNT movie. The humor / kitsch side of the movie comes out a bit more in this one but it still looks entertaining. Overall it's still being marketed as a kids movie and not as a complete preying on 20-somethings nostalgia but that doesn't mean that isn't just a little bit of that mindset in there. The CG looks good and it seems like the plot may not end up being complete drivel.
11:11 AM » [ Comments (0) ]

December 15, 2006
Sunday antics
» My good friend Blake is in the process of shooting a movie. Part of this movie requires a lot of extras to be present at a high school dance. If you are at all interested, I suggest you come to University School of Nashville (map) on Sunday, December 17th from 11am - 7pm (or anytime during that duration). He really needs your help and there will be live music and lots of people just hanging out having a good time. So if you're in the Nashville area, please come by!
02:15 PM » [ Comments (0) ]


Friday Videos
»
Computer Man

Elmo's Wish

Friday Feelgood

Jerome Murat

Harryhausen
Nothing like a good dose of videos to perk up your Friday slums.
02:01 PM » [ Comments (3) ]


TILT Game
» Tilt is a surprisingly addictive and engaging Flash game where you attempt to balance a weight on a pole. I think I have the patience to make it to about Level 5 before I get what is commonly known as 'crazy mouse' but I'm curious how far everyone can get? Level 15? Level 30?
12:37 PM » [ Comments (5) ]


Christmas Gift Guide 2006 - Part 3
» Christmas Gift Guide 2006 - Part 3
Engadgets Meta Gift Guide - less of a gift guide itself and more of a depot of links to other gift guides (hence the 'meta'). Rest assured they are all fairly nerd / tech based in nature.

MAKE: Gifts for the Intelligent Designer - you might spark some ideas from here or you might just be amazed at the odd variety of gifts proposed, i.e. a garment printing machine.
12:33 PM » [ Comments (0) ]


Horny Manatee
»

Horny Manatee Origin
Apparently this week Conan did another round of characters on his shows and, off the cuff, mentioned that you could see more at HornyManatee.com. It turns out that NBC legal requires that all domains which do not currently exist that are mentioned on air be purchased by NBC. So, Conan did just that and has launched a full fledged Horny Manatee site, complete with absolutely ridiculous fan art.
12:29 PM » [ Comments (0) ]


Googlenomics vs iTunes
» This article proposes that some business (be it Microsoft or Google) take a large chunk of money, pay it to the major and indie record labels, open up a new online digital music store, and give the music away for free - generating the rest of their income entirely from interior advertising. I'm, obviously, not entirely convinced such a plan could work but the article explains it in a way where you wonder.. what if?
12:17 PM » [ Comments (1) ]


Worlds Tallest Man
» World's tallest man saves plastic eating dolphins - sometimes the headline says it all.
10:44 AM » [ Comments (1) ]

December 14, 2006
Typhoon - Band
»
Typhoon
Typhoon is a large collective of musicians who, apparently, met on the 18th floor of the Tokyo International Youth Hostel and came together in Portland Oregon to create an onslaught of music. The production valus, the immediacy of the songs, and the sheer number of musicians involved can't help but invoke thoughts of Broken Social Scene or The Most Serene Republic, despite the band not sounding exactly like either one. I can't state a full fledged opinion yet on the band because I've only heard a handful of songs but from what I've heard so far, I'm hooked. I snagged the first two tracks off the bands MySpace page and the last three are from their official site.
11:22 AM » [ Comments (4) ]


New Blogs
» Two new blogs from quality people:

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time - new music / whatever strikes his fancy weblog from eclectic.. I completely expect quality hip-hop to be available for download right alongside indie gems and old school country favorites.

The Culture Warrior - a political blog that I can only hope drums up the same style of content that Killing Goliath and other informatively scathing blogs of days gone by have done.
10:57 AM » [ Comments (1) ]


Nerdcore / Norton Furniture
»

Nerdcore For Life

Norton Furniture

10:47 AM » [ Comments (1) ]


Canvas Goes Condo
»
NY TimesPhoto by Sara Krulwich / NYT
Dolan sent me a link to this article about 11 Spring Street, a condo in New York that is somewhat infamous for the amount of graffiti and street art that it receives. The kicker to the article being that the building has been purchased and all of the art will be removed. However, the new owners of the building have opened up the full interior of the condo to tons of street artists to allow them one last hurrah of expression. Aside from how great of an idea it is the work itself being showcased looks to be pretty much incredible. I look forward to spotting pics of the show on Flickr.
10:38 AM » [ Comments (1) ]

December 13, 2006
Hale Links: Volume 33
» Hale Links: Volume 33
Best USB Jump Drive - EVER. If that link doesn't work for you, go directly to the swf.

Communist Bicycle - technically an Americanized watered down version but it actually doesn't look too bad. If it were done a bit more subtle and you ditched the logos it would be great. More here.

Inopportune - art installation featuring tigers pierced with loads of arrows. It is from 2004 but that doesn't take away from how fantastic it is. This image in particular is quite tragic in the best way possible.

Car Crash - two model cars are slowed crashed together over the period of a month. I don't understand how this gets the same results as two cars violently smashing into each other but it looks incredible. And the best part is that it is just the beginning of a full size art piece doing the same thing.

Super Suck Store - some of the toys may be vaguely inappropriate for work areas but thats what happens when you're peddling an action figure entitled 'Gay Empire.' So many horribly good figures.
03:44 PM » [ Comments (3) ]


Asimo
»

Asimo Spill

Making Family Guy
The Asimo thing cracks me up every single time and the Family Guy thing is just odd to see the voices coming out of those people. Particularly the conversation between Lois and Clevelands wife.
12:10 PM » [ Comments (0) ]


Adobe Flash is 10
» Happy Birthday to Adode Flash, as it is having its tenth anniversary. The presentation on 10 years of Flash looks to be pretty fairly impressive but it's playing so incredibly slow on this machine that I couldn't even begin to tell you if it's worth it or not. That's the one drawback to emerging Flash / web technology. If your computer isn't completely souped up, you're out of luck.
12:08 PM » [ Comments (4) ]


Best Photos of 2006
» TIME Magazine has posted their Best Photos of the Year 2006 and I must say - some of them are rather lame. Granted, when cars are exploding or bombs are being dropped it's not exactly prime time to set up the perfect shot. I was a little let down by the sheer number of political photos but I suppose that's the best way to encapsulate the year 2006.
11:27 AM » [ Comments (1) ]

December 12, 2006
Pauly Shore gets Knocked Out
» If you've seen the video for Pauly Shore Gets Knocked Out you may be led to believe that Pauly Shore did, indeed, get assaulted on stage at a comedy club in Odessa, TX. However, a little research reveals that this guy is the Comedy Club owner and there is a comment on his site from someone claiming that their son did the "acting" on stage with Pauly. AKA the whole event was staged, probably for viral publicity. Either that or "The Weasel is delving into a realm of comedy not too far removed from Andy Kaufman - blurring the line of reality and comedy stunt. Somehow I don't think that's the case...
02:06 PM » [ Comments (1) ]


Top 50 Videos
» The Top 50 Music Videos Of 2006 from DoCopenhagen is sure to keep you busy for awhile. Personally I've barely scratched the surface on all of these but judging from the list of videos that I am familiar with, there are a load of quality videos to be seen here. It's good to see that the art of the music video didn't die completely despite the fact that the major US video channels don't really even show videos anymore.
01:52 PM » [ Comments (1) ]


JT Daly - Art
» JT Daly Art has a nice portfolio of textured goods and typography. The "Poster" section in particular is quite intriguing.. love that BRMC piece.
01:49 PM » [ Comments (0) ]


Harry Potter - new trailer
» This is probably seriously old news but there is a new Harry Potter trailer for The Order of the Phoenix, due out next Fall. I should probably be mildly ashamed of my love of the franchise but for whatever reason, I am not.
01:43 PM » [ Comments (3) ]


Developing Tank : Joey C Photography
»
KNI via Devloping TankKNI
I have long been a fan of the photography of Joey Ciccoline so it is good to see a full fledged site showcasing his portfolio. Developing Tank has a wealth of great photos from Joey ranging from the above KNI pic, to various band photography, to some gorgeous spaces. I hope the site continues to grow and showcase the best of the best in regards to his work.. it's a pleasure to view.
01:35 PM » [ Comments (4) ]


Pool Tricks?
»

Pool Dominos

Van Hammersley?
I don't know if these are impressive or completely underwhelming.
01:25 PM » [ Comments (1) ]

December 11, 2006
The Death of Hypercolor
» According to this post there is a very specific reason we don't see Hypercolor shirts anymore (yes, you remember the heat activated / color changing apparel from your younger days). Unfortunately I can not allow myself to fully believe that the reasons listed are completely true or accurate but it's such an entertaining notion that I'm willing to suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride.
12:28 PM » [ Comments (7) ]


AdVerbatims
» AdVerbatims is an ongoing collection of quotes between Executive types and Designer types - typically of an incredibly misinformed style. The ongoing saga between business exec and artsy designer is not one that is ever going to end so we have loads and loads more of these style quotes to look forward to:
"Their eagle soars more than our eagle."

12:24 PM » [ Comments (0) ]


Musical Videos
»

Eglantine Gouzy

Cowart / Paper Route

12:15 PM » [ Comments (1) ]


Good things never last
» Despite only being around for 6 months Good Hodgkins was easily one of my favorite mp3 blogs. Consistently good taste, great site layout, and a lot to read without ever being too much. Unfortunately, it seems now that the site has been laid to rest and Wolf Notes has been named as the official successor. So far so good on the new site front but it has a whole lot more content so it takes a bit more dedication to keep up. Keep your eye on it I have a feeling it will be a worthy read.
11:48 AM » [ Comments (1) ]


Worth 1000 - Land vs Sea
» Worth 1000 always has some sort of interesting Photoshop contest going on but I was particularly entertained by Surf and Turf - a contest in which the outcome is a new creature consisting of both Sea Creature and Land Animal. Most of them are ridiculous but sometimes they are almost believable. Almost.
11:37 AM » [ Comments (0) ]


Mii's
» Jamie made my own personal Mii on his Wii this weekend and I have to say it's pretty accurate. Check out these Celebrity Mii's and try to decipher who is who before checking the answer.. your success rate will be higher than you think. And if that's not enough for you, check out the Celebrity Mii Group.
11:23 AM » [ Comments (0) ]

December 08, 2006
Friday Videos
»

80's McDLT

Cornelius - Music

Cat in Goldfish Bowl

Octopus Escape
Kudos to YouTube for their new nav buttons. Finally redesigned something that looks better than it did before. I still miss the original video player controls.
12:21 PM » [ Comments (1) ]


Peter Callesen - Origami
»
The miniature origami style works of Peter Callesen blew me away. Rarely do I sit down with a website and browse through each and every single page but I was so enamored with these works that I could not stop. This work is brilliant, beautiful, and amazingly well done. Please spend some quality time with this one.
11:37 AM » [ Comments (0) ]


The Roving Bug
» Ryan send me a link to this article about a recent court ruling in which the FBI was legally allowed to use your cell phone as a listening device with no prior consent. The scary part of this being that you phone doesn't even have to be on in order for it to work. Modern cellphones still function even when powered down in case an alarm is set and they need to power up at a specific time. This means that if they desired to, the government could listen in on you and your conversations at any time AND use GPS tracking to decipher where you are.

This brought up a few questions. 1) Is this legit? ZDNet has an article talking about the same 'roving bug' technique being implemented so maybe it is. 2) Why isn't this a much bigger news story? I realize that the government has little reason to spy on 95% of citizens but still - should it have carte blanche to do so?

Hopefully this isn't straying too far from my regular style of feel good links but I personally believe that a system of checks and balances is important. Having carte blanche to spy on people is a slippery slope.
11:24 AM » [ Comments (4) ]


Apple Fake
» I was shown this fake Apple.com design yesterday coupled with this scathing review and found myself highly amused. Was the mock up intended to trick someone or was it just a design exercise for someone? The best part is how intense you can read the review - i.e. "This is not Apple Myriad." I like to imagine someone sitting at home cursing the heavens, turned red in the face and typing as fast as they can about the improper use of Myriad! In all reality the review is very accurate and makes some great points about branding and attention to detail but where's the fun in that?
11:11 AM » [ Comments (2) ]


Christmas Gift Guide 2006 - Part 2
» Christmas Gift Guide 2006 - Part 2 An ongoing listing of gift ideas, cool sites, and other gift guides to spark your imagination for the holiday season.

Crown Dozen Gift Guide - loads of stuff here and an optional PDF download so you can print it out and carry it with you (sort of). Highlights include (but are not limited to) Sqube, Rotolog Watch, Madvillain toy vinyl, Sukie Pillows and a whole whole lot more.

Turntable Lab Holiday Gift Guide - incredibly well organized guide broken down by receiver category - music nerd, apple nerd, design nerd, hipsters, regular folks, and $15 and under. If you can't find something worth buying here you are beyond my help.

Habitat Shoes - no gift guide but a great online place for finding a number of great brands.
11:07 AM » [ Comments (0) ]

December 07, 2006
Christmas Gift Guide 2006 - Part 1
» Christmas Gift Guide 2006
I'll be posting links to random items, other gift guides, and various deals to help ease your Christmas woes. Lets hope this helps out.

100 Cards of Christmas - want to send some Moo Cards to someone? Well, Madrid is here to help. It's free so what's the harm in trying it out? It will be a small reminder that you care.

77 Design Gifts Under $77 - a nice collection of ideas from Core 77 (and Ronnie). A wide arrange of miscellaneous gifts ranging from a designer coffee cup to jewel ice cube trays to miniature designer chairs to a greyscale Rubiks cube.

Arkitip Printed Matter - lots of great design portfolio books for reasonable prices and some artworks if you're feeling like spending a little more. The Green Lady book is nice and the Evan Hecox prints are beautiful.

Quiet Life Store - some fantastic t-shirts and they now offer a military shirt and simply sweater featuring a tiny little moustache logo. Both are great.
01:31 PM » [ Comments (1) ]


Tony vs Paul
»

Tony vs Paul - from Ronnie

01:09 PM » [ Comments (2) ]


Lorenzo Petrantoni
»
The illustration work of Lorenzo Petrantoni is blowing my mind. Incredible compositions of all kinds of vintage drawings, clipart, typefaces, and more. I officially am striving to reach somewhere near this level.
12:07 PM » [ Comments (1) ]


Top 89 most redundant rock cliches
» Spinner has The Top 89 Most Redundant Rock Cliches of all time prepared for your reading pleasure. The layout of the list is less than ideal but the content is right on. I've been through about 4 pages of it and it's amazing just how repetitious the music industry can get. Though, the same can be said of the movie industry and the design world as well.
11:56 AM » [ Comments (4) ]

December 06, 2006
Christmas Gift List - 2007
» Every year about this time I try to think up some good gift ideas for friends and family. Back in 2004 I even made Gift Guide to help me remember places to pick up choice goods. The music section is outdated but the rest of it, for the most part, stands true. But it's 2006 - so lets hear some new gift ideas. I'll start:

1up Mushroom Kit - a green pipe planter combined with seeds, water, a little custom miracle gro, and a dark corner will result in a perfectly shaped Mario Bros 1-Up Mushroom.

Kangaroo Press - beautifully designed screenprinted poster. Pick your friends favorite band and hook em up.

Please post good gift ideas in the comments!
11:31 AM » [ Comments (6) ]


YouTube Marketing
»

Beer Ape

Ziddio VLC

Bike Pursuit
All cool videos - all developed specifically for YouTube viral marketing. It's sort of weird to see how advertisers / marketing plans are already adopting new tech like YouTube.
11:21 AM » [ Comments (3) ]


Linerider.ORG
» The classic Line Rider just got more official by launching Linerider.org. A full fledged domain that hosts the game, additional downloads, a gallery of the best line rider videos, and 15,000 forum members. Basically you just need to spend the rest of the day watching gems like this or this.
11:16 AM » [ Comments (1) ]


MyTabbs
» myTabbs is a social bookmarking tool that seemingly takes the concept of del.icio.us and Netvibes and pumps it up 10x. Basically you setup groups and tabs within those groups to browse your favorite sites. Forget RSS feeds, you browse the actual site all within mytabbs.com. I suggest everyone browse around it and leave some feedback in the comments about what you like / don't like about it because I'm fairly sure the author of the site is looking for some feedback.
11:13 AM » [ Comments (5) ]


Gingerbread Tie Fighter
» More items to spread Christmas cheer:

Gingerbread Tie-Fighter - a step by step photo essay on the construction of what may possibly be the nerdiest gingerbread product to date. I would like to see someone make the helmet of Darth Vader - now that would be tasty.

Jamie Randolph - White Christmas - free downoad from Marauder Records artist. It's a somber, yet unique, take on the classic.
10:59 AM » [ Comments (0) ]


Blockbuster wants your Netflix
» Desperate times call for desperate measures. Case and point - Blockbuster retail stores will now allow you one free rental for each address label brought in from their Netflix envelopes. The offer is only good until December 21st but if you play your cards right that's double the rentals! The full story is here and also goes on to describe the fact that if you rent from Blockbuster online, you can swap out DVD's from the mail service at the retail store. Not a bad idea... too bad Blockbuster retail store selection is usually pretty sub-par.
10:37 AM » [ Comments (3) ]


Failure related music news
» If you're on the Ken Andrews mailing list this is all going to be rather redundant but if you're not - listen up to the following:

· New Ken Andrews solo album in first quarter of 2007 - new song previewable here. It's fairly underwhelming but better than some of his more recent output.

· The Los Angeles Digital Noise Academy wins the award for worst band name in a long time but, admittedly, it is a fair description of what the band is. Basically a bunch of like minded artists upload snippets of songs to a common digital depot, someone else downloads them, adds to them, and puts their pieces back into the depot. The concept is great - the name is terrible. A new song featuring Sharky from Creeper Lagoon on vocals is up here.

· First there was Golden and now there is a Failure Best-Of compilation entitled Essentials. It's a two disc set with the second disc being a bunch of demo's and a few b-sides that most diehard Failure fans have probably downloaded at some point but can now have on CD. Pre-orderable here the best part of it sounds like the "double sided poster with 14 song critiques by Ken and Greg." Bizarre.
10:29 AM » [ Comments (4) ]

December 05, 2006
Local Love
»
If you hadn't noticed there is a new mix available for download entitled Local Love. I picked through a bunch of Nashville / Murfreesboro based artists and compiled them together. Oddly enough, it turned out to be far more difficult than I had anticipated. Nashville really has a ton of quality music to choose from - all of which strays from the country label that the city is so, unfortunately, well known for.

Check it out and let me know what you think.. there should be one more mix before the year is done to round out my 12 mixes for 1 year self-imposed challenge.
11:46 AM » [ Comments (17) ]

December 04, 2006
Christmas Spirit
» Are you getting in the Christmas spirit yet? Well, you better be because it's here wether you like it or not! That being said, here are some links to help boost your Xmas enthusiasm.

Last Christmas - if you're a fan of the Wham Song then this is your new favorite website. Aside from various remixes of the original song there are 21 different versions of the song by approximately 18 different bands. That's an entire audio CD of the same song reinterpreted by various people. Hope you really like the song.

Specialized Bikes Christmas Greeting - an interpretation of Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker Suite" performed entirely with bicycle parts with accompanying animation. Pretty sweet.
03:42 PM » [ Comments (3) ]


iPhone rumors abound
» More Apple iPhone rumors to be found right here accompanied by one of the most aggravating to watch videos featuring Kevin Rose of Digg sharing some of the supposed features. Seriously, don't watch the video - it's beyond borderline retarded and falls straight into infuriating. However, the "facts" that are shared are available in the article..
03:11 PM » [ Comments (4) ]


Cable-Free USB Hub
» The Cable-Free USB Hub is a bit of a misnomer given that it still has to have a power cord to run it but it's a great idea for those of you that primarily use a laptop around the house or office.
01:13 PM » [ Comments (0) ]


Threadless Tees
» According to their own official news, t-shirt aficionados Threadless will begin manufacturing their own t-shirts. No more Fruit of the Loom or Gildan for them.. they plan on making a mixture somewhere between American Apparel style snugness and FOTL sizing.. yet still lightweight. If they turn out as good as they sound I'd hope they put them up for wholesale.

In other, unsurprising, news it looks like they have a ton of great new shirts for sale. Most of which are too "clever" for my personal taste but all of which are incredibly well done and nice to look at.
01:12 PM » [ Comments (1) ]


Preying on your nostalgic love
» This article poses the question - Why Do a Smurfs movie? Unfortunately, it doesn't answer it very effectively. The real answer is; the kids who watched the cartoon series are now late 20 to early 30 somethings who love a good nostalgic throwback. Everyone loves to remember their youth, right? Further examples include Transformers: The Movie, Charlottes Web (Redux), the new TMNT movie, Miami Vice, and countless others. Who wants to take bets on how long it will be until we hear about an A-Team movie in pre-production?
12:53 PM » [ Comments (7) ]

December 01, 2006
Ask Eades
»
Ask Eades
Apparently Madrid, Witjze, and Demetre put together a little site called AskEades.com - where people could submit questions to me and I could answer. Granted, it's really just a joke and a ridiculous play on Ask Jeeves but that doesn't mean I appreciate it any less. Many thanks to them.. I'm flattered and highly amused.
11:53 AM » [ Comments (4) ]


Friday Videos
»

Hamster Video Game

Seinfeld - The Lost Episode
The Hamster thing is just weird and the Seinfeld thing may be a bit of beating on a dead horse but it's actually so well done that it's worth posting.
11:44 AM » [ Comments (4) ]


PeekVid
» Peekvid appears to be a fantastic spot for people without much access to TV (but high speed Internet) to watch loads of shows. Sure, you could bitTorrent download that stuff but this is streaming, instant gratification. Mostly it is just a collection of videos hosted on other servers so the legality of the whole site really isn't in question (it's more just about convienence) but it's super handy. Maybe I can catch up on MythBusters or The Wonder Years.
11:34 AM » [ Comments (1) ]


ElasticHeart
» It seems that I made a little faux pas last week when mentioning the goodness that is Swoon. The site is actually a collaboration between Flux-Rad and Elastic Heart - who was gracious enough to post this mix of Tropicalia / Portguese music that I've been enjoying quite a bit recently. It should also stand on the record that Elastic Heart (aka Aaron) does quite a bit of great design work (including the fresh new look at Swoon). So, my apologies for this exclusion.. ElasticHeart deserves a proper sendup and hopefully this will serve as one.
11:13 AM » [ Comments (0) ]


Zune Arts
» Despite the fact that the majority of works make little to no mention of the actual device I gotta say that Zune Arts have some great things to offer. Unfortunately I can't directly link to any of them but there are goods on there from Jeremy Fish, Porous Walker and a whole host of others. Be sure to check out the Bent Image Lab piece "Moodbot" - the stop motion style is fantastic.
10:36 AM » [ Comments (0) ]


SPAM out of control
» Recently I found myself getting about 110% more spam than I had been getting normally. I believe this is a typical after effect that we will see with Spammers learning what it is that can't get past filters and adjusting their tactics. However, I found that there are a few simple solutions to help circumvent this.

Thunderbird users have a built-in spam filter but over time it can becoming increasingly ineffecient. I have found that if you just reset the adaptive mail filter and retrain the software (a task that will take about 40 seconds given the amount of spam going out these days) then it will catch on to the latest tactics and keep that inbox clean.

Mac Mail users may want to check out JunkMatcher - an add-on for the software that, supposedly, removes a good majority of spam. Link via k10k so it's coming on a good recommendation.

Now if only I could squash all comment spam entirely (I've fought off about 95% of it but I'd love a good 100%).
10:14 AM » [ Comments (2) ]