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January 31, 2007
Electric Soft Parade - New LP
»

After the release of last years The Human Body EP I was rather excited for what the future may hold for Electric Soft Parade. They manage to create a breed of Brit Rock that balances squarely between your standard fist in the air style rock and delicate segues and transitions. Recently I read that they would be putting out a new album in April entitled No Need To Be Downhearted. Turns out there is plenty of insight already available about the disc. The cover art appears to be incredibly.. umm.. shoddy and amatuer but the music is quite the opposite. Download and see for yourself.

» Electric Soft Parade - Life In The Back-Seat

» Electric Soft Parade - Cold World

04:18 PM » [ Comments (1) ]

FavIcons
» Inspire Yourself: 50 Remarkable Favicons - if you are not aware of what a favicon is then you probably aren't a nerdy web designer who enjoys the little details as much as the overall grand scheme. This article goes through 50 different favicons they feel are impressively strong.. and for the most part I agree.

03:28 PM » [ Comments (0) ]

Want Jaws? Get Jaws 2
» Keith Olbermann is quickly becoming known for his impassioned rants on MSNBC against the current political Administration. The points he makes in his latest about the possible facade of foiled terror plots are interesting enough in and of themselves but I think it brings about a deeper inquiry about the strength of your message through its delivery. I give Olbermann serious cred points for putting himself out there as a fired up journalist willing to put his career on the line to expose what he see's as serious atrocities being committed by the heads of our government but is his fevered delivery actually hurting his cause? I understand that these can / are incredibly frustrating but after awhile you just appear to be crazed and delusional - even if you're more correct than any other news outlet.

I fully endorse any journalists attempt at exposing what they feel is an injustice and attempting to give the public the truth (or at least a version of it - as there really is no news without opinion - spin is inherent in comprehension) but if it means actually damaging the ends to your mean then it may be time to reconsider your tactics.

03:24 PM » [ Comments (0) ]

Two From Chad
» Two quick links from Chad:
The Truth About Ronald McDonald - I don't know if this is trying to be racist or edgy or what but it seems well done.

Montgomery Burns True Identity - typically I stray from too much pop culture bashing, particularly on individuals, but this combination of images was a bit too ridiculous to pass up.

03:17 PM » [ Comments (0) ]

Alana Celii
»

The photography of Alana Celii runs a wide gamut of styles. It's got everything from the artsy / vaguely bizarre people in masks to reflective memoirs of a grandmother. The "On Apartment Dwelling" set is probably my favorite of them all.. worth a peek. Link via Jeremy.

02:28 PM » [ Comments (1) ]

Posting Delays
» Some days the time flies by incredibly fast. How is it 2:20pm already and I've not posted a single thing? Work is getting busy again and I've been doing my best to tackle projects with extreme swiftness. This means my browsing time decreases dramatically. Fear not.. links are on the way.

02:18 PM » [ Comments (2) ]

January 30, 2007
podLob
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Woah, when did podLob redesign? I guess around mid-December but somehow it totally slipped past me. Travis Beckham, aka Squid Fingers aka podLob, has always been a favorite of mine. He's able to balance on the fine line between being a great designer (his patterns may blow your mind), photographer, and code nerd. Not to mention the fact that he's got good taste in music, movies, and books.

05:05 PM » [ Comments (5) ]

Spike Jonze commercials
» This article serves as a nice repository of links to commercials directed by Spike Jonze. Everything from his GAP Renovation ad to the Karen O scored Adidas trip and as far back as the Y2K Jogger or IKEA Lamp. Superb commercials for sure.

02:48 PM » [ Comments (1) ]

Annuals on AOL Interface
» The Interface With Annuals - four songs performed in-studio with Annuals plus interview. If it's half as good as the Daytrotter Sessions it should be worth the download.

12:36 PM » [ Comments (1) ]

LOMO Photoshop Script
»

Often have I searched for a digital camera that could somehow recreate the beauty of the LOMO camera without any post-processing. This is a pipe dream that isn't going to come true any time soon but I have managed to run across two techniques that seem to fit the bill without much effort. First is this tutorial - a simple step by step process that will boost the contrast, saturation, and add a simple vignette to your pics.

The second technique is much more automated and can be found here. It's a Javascript for Photoshop (which I did not even know existed) that takes your image through a system of actions to create the LOMO style effect.

I'd love to see the steps of the first technique implemented with the automation of the second - as the output on the second can be a bit much at times. Both are worth trying out if you, like me, hope to have vivid off-the-cuff LOMO style photos from your digital images.

Bonus: There's a Holga Script that works even better. Great!

12:31 PM » [ Comments (11) ]

Mint Vs re-invigorate
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It appears that two of the web's finer services have launched new versions of their products at essentially the same time. Earlier in the week (as in, yesterday) Shaun Inman launched the official Mint 2.0 site and application. The low price tag, robust tracking and professional look certainly make it an attractive piece of software. Then today, reinvigorate sent out invitations to join their beta testing. I can't speak much for how well their service works as I just installed it here but if it is anywhere close to the previous version - it will be a handy commodity. Oddly, I feel like both of these products are actually in decent competition with Google Analytics - despite Google obviously being a much larger corporate entity. Anyone have thoughts on which service they prefer more and why?

11:53 AM » [ Comments (9) ]

Clearification
»

Windows Vista was released yesterday and unbeknownst to me (but quite known to Chris) is that Demetri Martin is the spokeperson for the new OS. Microsoft has launched a big campaign called Clearification in which Demetri Martin stars as an aggresive businessman that finds himself being rehabilitated at the Institute for Advanced Personhood. The odd part is that there is absolutely no overt attempt at pushing Windows Vista anywhere in the site or the Wes Anderson-esque episodes that go along with it. Granted, you see computers running Windows Vista - and the site features screenshots of the new OS - but it's not being shoved in your face. Honestly, you should spend loads of time on the site. The style and execution of the site is great and the short film is quite entertaining.

11:26 AM » [ Comments (5) ]

January 29, 2007
Menomena - Friend and Foe
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Menomena - Friend and Foe

Ever since I gushed over the packaging for the first Menomena album, I Am The Fun Blame Monster, I knew I was destined to be a bit of a superfan. I can keep my fanboy mentality in check but there comes a time when you just have to sing the praises of a band that is completely worth of it. Friend and Foe, the latest release from the Portland trio is a great step forward for them. Aside from being released on a larger label the album pushes the bands sound in new directions without completely losing the unique sound they'd developed with previous releases - not an easy task to accomplish.

The biggest draw to Menomena, for me, is that they pay very special attention to the packaging and artwork involved with their albums (the Blame Monster Vinyl packaging still blows minds). The Under An Hour packaging was a disappointment but for some reason I don't even count that as a full release. The latest album features artwork by Craig Thompson - a maniacal, intensely detailed onslaught of illustration within a die-cut booklet that interacts oh-so-cleverly with the disc design. It's rare that a disc release these days can be entertaining just to look at the packaging, not to mention one that compliments the artists sound perfectly.

In summation - Menomena has the goods. Compelling, unique and catchy music coupled with incredible, clever and engaging packaging. I'm hooked.

» Menomena - Muscle N' Flo

» Menomena - Wet and Rusting

» Menomena - Cough, Coughing - from I Am The Fun Blame Monster

05:08 PM » [ Comments (2) ]

Music Video Monday
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Tornados - Robots

Blur - Coffee & TV

The Tornados video is rather ridiculous but if someone told me it was made last month I wouldn't falter in believing them. Parts of it remind me of Animal Collective, is that nuts?

The Blur song is just good Blur that you may not have listened to in awhile and probably need to re-acquaint yourself with. And that little milk carton is just too engaging to deny.

12:31 PM » [ Comments (1) ]

Ninja Cruise Decks
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For some time now I've thought it would be great to have some skate decks hanging on the wall, painted by some of my friends / favorite artists. Turns out that dream is a lot easier to realize than I thought as Matt Curry - aka Ninja Cruise - has a series of skate decks available from enjin. The question now is - which one to get?

12:25 PM » [ Comments (2) ]

OS X Emulation
» There seem to be a lot of nifty resources at Mac Emulation for those using a PC that want a little OS X flair. Mostly a lot of icons and/or skins for your XP machine but the occasional font collection that could come in handy.

12:14 PM » [ Comments (0) ]

Dead Silence - Hilarious
» Caught the trailer for the upcoming horror movie Dead Silence and laughed aloud in the theatre at the ridiculousness of it. I am not a horror movie fan.. I think that 99% of them rely on shock and cringing reactions to violence to carry their awful plots along. But with Dead Silence you can see that they are starting to move away from gritty realism and go straight into absolute absurdity. Didn't Hollywood already do this many times before? Oh well, I guess a retarded yet successful franchise is still a successful franchise!

11:25 AM » [ Comments (4) ]

Weekend Movie Roundup
» It's only appropriate to mention the movies that I saw this weekend given that last Friday I mentioned that I was in the mood to watch movies (sorry Chris, no Garfield 2).

- Delicatessen - I've loved everything that I've seen by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and this was no different. Stylistically it's a perfect combination of gritty realism and exaggerated surrealism. The characters are whimsical and entertaining even when they are an apartment buildings worth of starving, desperate cannibals. I wish more directors would embrace such style without losing any substance.

- Imaginary Heroes - for whatever reason I am drawn to vaguely dark trouble family movies (The Ice Storm, Squid and the Whale, etc) and this seemed to satisfy me for the time being. I thought the cast was stellar; it's amazing to me how much of an awful person Jeff Daniels can play given how good he was in Dumb and Dumber. The twists and turns of the plot were a little over the top and too numerous in quantity but I still liked it.

- The Atlas Moth - part 2 (of possibly 3) movies about Minneapolis savant and rock enthusiast Dan Cleveland. Not as good as Driver 23 but still contains a large amount of baffling anecdotes and duct taped creations.

- Smokin' Aces - Sometimes a movie can suffer from having way too many characters. Smokin' Aces seems to tread the line between too much and just the right amount. It was an entertaining way to spend a Sunday afternoon but don't try to comprehend some of the plot holes, the lackadaisical ending, or the gratuitous violence - it's not worth the effort.

Overall, a good weekend of relaxation.. I look forward to more of that in the future.

11:19 AM » [ Comments (4) ]

January 26, 2007
Friday Videos : Funny or Sad?
»

Flea Market!

Wash A Cat

Friday Videos: Funny or Sad?
I'm going to go with a bit of both for each of these. The first one gets a bit old after about 20 seconds but those first 20 seconds are glorious.

03:59 PM » [ Comments (5) ]

Music Video Friday
»

Whitest Boy Alive
Golden Cage

Ken Andrews
SOTLS Behind The Scenes

The Whitest Boy Alive video is pretty entertaining even if you don't pay attention to the song at all. The Ken Andrews video is interesting but lemme tell ya, that new album is pretty mediocre.

03:34 PM » [ Comments (9) ]

Movie Weekend
» I've sort of got a hankering to see some movies this weekend. Anyone have any high recommendations? Most of the stuff in theatres right now isn't doing much for me but I'm thinking The Good German and Little Children might be pretty good - though something more lighthearted might be preferred. Whatcha got?

03:22 PM » [ Comments (13) ]

Grand Palace
»

Grand Palace is hard to describe. It's a Record Store, a Silkscreen Shop, a Recording Studio, and a Record Label - and, surprisingly, it is able to do all of these things very well. The concept behind the four-in-one is something that I highly admire. How they are able to accomplish so much continues to baffle me. However, one thing they weren't so great at was web design - so I decided to lend a helping hand. I was able to learn a lot about Wordpress and hopefully gave them a nice, clean, organized, informative design. I don't think the layout itself is mindblowing in any way but it serves up the content properly - and that's often more important.

Overall, I think of it as a big success. They deserved a proper residency on the web and I hope that I was able to give it to them. Please visit Grand Palace and be sure to drop by the next time you are in Murfreesboro.

02:37 PM » [ Comments (11) ]

January 25, 2007
Incredible Things
» Two Incredible Items. One Large. One Small.
Frozen Tidal Wave - I have my doubts about this being an actual tidal wave vs. a rather large frozen block of ice but it's an incredible concept if you think about it.

Paper Robots- fully articulate other robots. This one is great.

04:01 PM » [ Comments (2) ]

Ricky Gervais meets Larry David
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Part 1 / 5

Part 2 / 5

It will probably take some time to really have the time to watch the entire 5 part series but the BBC 4 documentary with Ricky Gervais meeting Larry David is pretty great. There is another series as well with Gervais meeting Christopher Guest.

Ricky Gervais / Larry David » 1 » 2 » 3 » 4 » 5
Ricky Gervais / Christopher Guest » 1 » 2 » 3 » 4 » 5

12:53 PM » [ Comments (2) ]

Big Screen, Little Screen
» Big Screen Little Screen may become my new favorite movie news site. It's actually more of a blog than an all encompassing latest updates type of site but the amount of engaging content is incredible. For example: round-up discussing new films (Noam Baumbach, PT Anderson) and a few that I've never heard of but would love to see (I'm A Cyborg, But That's OK), or Michel Gondry solving a Rubiks Cube with his feet. Bookmarked for sure.

12:47 PM » [ Comments (2) ]

Jenny NC
»

Tons of great photos to be seen in the babojeen photostream. If you're not one to languidly browse through someone else's collection I suggest checking out these beautiful Holga shots and/or the polaroid transfers. Though honestly, there are gems in every set.

12:14 PM » [ Comments (0) ]

January 24, 2007
Demetri Martin
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Part 1

Part 2

Demetri Martin is a comedian. This is his comedy special. It is actually a 5 part series but the first two parts give you a good indication of what to expect overall. You can always find more if need be. I suggest you do so.

01:16 PM » [ Comments (4) ]

Conglio Hat - and more bunnies
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The Coniglio Hat is one of many great Leporidae related items from Bunnylicious. If the high concept headphone / hat system isn't your thing I can understand but don't jump to conclusions that the blog is all cutesy and impractical - far from it. There are plenty of great art works there (some of which are NSFW) including the Run Wrake animation that you should watch if you haven't already.

01:01 PM » [ Comments (0) ]

Toddlerpedo
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I believe I've seen a glimpse of the Jon Beinart Toddlerpedes before but it appears that he has created quite a few more. He may not be the original pioneer in the act of creating nightmarish creature sculptures from doll parts but he's certainly the best. Seriously bizarre. Via Rob.

12:44 PM » [ Comments (1) ]

Monsieur T Sale
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Not that any of us really need any more t-shirts (can you really have too many?) but Monsieur T is having a rather large sale that is only valid until Friday. Why must Plumed Serpent only be available in Small!? Oh well, the prices are so reasonable that I should stock up on these and give them away during the next Whiskerino. Consider it done.. prizes must be gathered starting now!

11:45 AM » [ Comments (0) ]

Boss Construct
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Looks like screenprinter extraordinaire Boss Construct has uploaded a ton of new stuff to his site. It's a shame that I rarely see his work hanging around town but I suppose that is a testament to just how good it is - as soon as it goes up, people love it and take it down to add to their personal collection. I know I would. It's hard to pinpoint favorites within the portfolio, especially in the posters section but I must point out several favorites of mine for good measure. I'm consistently impressed with the work done by Boss Construct mainly because I find myself blown away by the technique, design, and implementation of work that is promoting bands that I don't even have the slightest care for.

11:35 AM » [ Comments (1) ]

January 23, 2007
iConcertCal
» Mike sent me a link to iConcertCal the other day and now I see it on Blankenships site. Two trustworthy sources and an application that supposedly integrates right into iTunes to notify you of upcoming concerts. I like the idea but I'm still a bit timid to install it. Anyone want to give it a whirl and let me know how it is?

03:12 PM » [ Comments (8) ]

group94
» Design firm group94 has a new site up. Sort of. They meant to launch it but due to timing conflicts and a project manager not giving enough build time they've had to put up a temporary placeholder - and it's a doozy! Incredibly well done and fairly amazing to me that they probably slapped it together one hectic afternoon. Link via Arlo.

02:48 PM » [ Comments (1) ]

Threadless Success
» Seeing articles like this one that discuss the success of 'crowdsourcing' - particularly in the context of Threadless - make me want to develop something similar but on a much smaller scale for friends and associates. Very cool to see their ever growing level of success.

02:22 PM » [ Comments (2) ]

Polaroids by This Image of Man
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Ryan was either bored or feeling rather inspired to doodle because his Altered Polaroids set on Flickr is pretty fantastic. Aside from the fact that it's impressive how many self-portrait polaroids he had lying around, it's nice to see a variety of styles and humor integrated. Hopefully this is something he'll keep doing.

02:19 PM » [ Comments (4) ]

Spam prevention
» My apologies to those of you that aren't web developers.. this may not be too interesting. While doing some research on htaccess files I ran across this article that proposed a way to prevent some, not all, spam robots from crawling your site and harvesting any data that it finds. Looking further into the concept I ran across this page that has a nice large list of bad bots that you can easily return a 403 error to instead of reaping your site. As with all spam / malicious internet tools you could never stop 100% of it but this is possibly a nice tool to have at your disposal.

12:35 PM » [ Comments (5) ]

MacGruber!
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MacGruber 1

MacGruber 2

MacGruber 3

He's an awesome dude.

11:12 AM » [ Comments (5) ]

January 22, 2007
Theory 8 Records
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Theory 8 Records

Today marks the official relaunching of the website for Theory 8 Records - one of my favorite record labels. I approached Aaron many many months back about redesigning his site as a way to give something back to him as he had provided a means for so much great music to come to me. Theory 8 is home to many of my favorite bands - Apollo Up!, Forget Cassettes, and The Whole Fantastic World in particular. I tried to make the site clean and unobtrusive while still being informative and easy to use. Hopefully I was a success on some level. Please download all the tracks below to help you get an idea of what the label is all about and then buy some music (please note- webstore not redesigned by me - but at least they made it look somewhat close). Anyway, a big thanks to Aaron for letting me help him out and I hope he is happy with the results - I learned a lot in designing the building the site / CMS.

» Theory 8 Records

» Apollo Up! - Situation: Hot!

» Forget Cassettes - Quiero, Quieres

» The Carter Administration - Oxycontinental

» The Whole Fantastic World - Postcards From Out Of Town

» De Novo Dahl - All Over Town

» The Sincerity Guild - Where To Now, Moses?

02:17 PM » [ Comments (11) ]

A New Sith
» Caution: The following is for only the nerdiest of nerds. And I don't mean in that 'I understand science in a way that the common man can't comprehend' but more in the form of interest for an essay entitled entitled A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope: Reconsidering Star Wars IV in the light of I-III. There is a part of me that is a bit ashamed at reading it at all but there is an even larger part of me that grinned widely while enjoying it immensely.

01:46 PM » [ Comments (3) ]

Michael Eades - Wikipedia
» Woah! I'm on Wikipedia! I died in 2002 and have a nature reserve named after me. Guess I'm not on Wikipedia after all.

11:45 AM » [ Comments (6) ]

Josh Keyes - Studio Insight
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Josh Keyes Studio

Fecal Face has a great feature up showing inside the studio of Oakland artist Josh Keyes. Hopefully this is a feature they will continue to add to the site as it is insightful and, really, just plain interesting. Nashvillians should also consider this as a reminder that he'll be having a showing at the Tag Art Gallery in early March.

11:44 AM » [ Comments (0) ]

Podington Bear Podcast
»

Talk about an ambitious project. The Podington Bear podcast promises to deliver three new instrumental tracks a week for the year of 2007. That's a whole lot of music to put out there. You can subscribe via iTunes or just check out the sites on the official site. It will be interesting to check back in come March, or July, or October to see if the project is still going strong.

11:37 AM » [ Comments (0) ]

Honor Student on Super Deluxe
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Ulysses S. Grant

Honor Student has posted some of their shorts over on Super Deluxe. The above is probably one of my favorites (though there isn't much of a resolution) but they are all good. And while it is, technically, safe for work - Double Date may be one of those that you should wait to watch until you get home... despite that it's really nothing more than a good ole fashioned hand orgy (not the way you're thinking).

11:23 AM » [ Comments (3) ]

Photo Atlas - Pt 2
» Recently I had mentioned the band The Photo Atlas and now I find myself with a variety of new information to share. Apparently they are signed to Stolen Transmission, have a free downloadable mp3 of "Handshake Heart Attack", and a video for it as well. Oh, and people think they sound like At The Drive-In. Not bad.

» The Photo Atlas - Handshake Heart Attack

11:11 AM » [ Comments (0) ]

Awful/Awesome 80's Video Game Music
» Madrid gave me the heads up on Ronnie Jones and his musical opus entitled "Videogames" that is actually quite the funky treat. The song comes from this archive of mostly inanely ridiculous songs about video games. Unfortunately, I can't recommend any of the songs listed there beyond the following two - both they should be more than enough for you.

» Ronnie Jones - Videogames

» Buckner & Garcia - Do The Donkey Kong

10:57 AM » [ Comments (0) ]

What Is Parsefork?
» So Wolf Notes just launched their new application Parsefork, "The Completely Unnecessary Music Review Aggregator." But what is it exactly? Apparently it is a way for you to filter music reviews from a number of sites (Pitchfork, Stylus, and Tiny Mix Tapes at the moment) and then a ton of statistics based on the information pulled from the site. As it stands now it's really just a quicker, nerdier, way to find reviews from those included sites but it'd be nice if there was a way to compare reviews from one artist across all sites. As it stands now if you select an artist (from an incredibly non-user-friendly dropdown) and filter based on that artist, it just filters that one particular site. I like the notion but there is obviously still some work to be done.

10:38 AM » [ Comments (1) ]

Must Not Sleep / Must Warn Others
» Must Not Sleep / Must Warn Others is a photography collective that I believe I've mentioned before. They seemed to have added a few new members to their ranks (Bryan Schutmaat included) and have a plethora of great new work. Just taking a look at the news reveals all sorts of shows and exhibitions they've been involved in recently. Be sure to check out more from Greg Lutze (and even more variety here) while you're poking around on the site.

10:32 AM » [ Comments (0) ]

Monday Videos - instead of Friday
»

Automan

Jack Black Pitfall

Sorry I didn't post any of the typical Friday afternoon video funtime but I didn't have anything crazy to go with. Instead, here's some Monday morning goodness to kickstart your week.

10:25 AM » [ Comments (0) ]

January 19, 2007
Banksy "Shop"
»

I meant to mention this last week and seeing it posted over on Flux-Rad reminded me that I failed to do so. Banksy has opened up a "Shop" section on his site in which he gives away high resolution images suitable for prints. I am impressed that Banksy has stuck to his morals this long into his rising popularity and continues to not create watered down versions of work just to pander to a wider audience. Oh, and the free prints make for great desktop wallpaper too.

04:55 PM » [ Comments (0) ]

Sunshine Movie
»

The Sun

So, Danny Boyle (director of Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, and more), has a new film coming out entitled Sunshine. The premise is that 50 years in the future the sun has burned out, the Earth is dying and a group of scientists must be sent to revive the star. The first team fails at their attempt and a new, presumably rag-tag, group must be sent to finish the deed as Earth's last hope. You can watch the trailer here and make your own judgements but I'm a bit skeptical. Danny Boyle has made some great movies and while this one has a great visual appeal I am not sure such a story can be pulled off without being incredibly cheesy. Sort of like Armageddon meets with a hefty dose of the visual style of Solaris. Maybe. We'll see.

01:47 PM » [ Comments (4) ]

Music Video Friday
»

Tall Hands
Three Full Virginias

Metronomy
Trick or Treatz

Hopefully this is the first installment of many to come but I'd really like to start posting great music videos here. Either amusing, impressive, or just great songs. So please, email me your suggestions and I'll start compiling a list.

12:31 PM » [ Comments (2) ]

Hybrid Home Interiors
»

Design Public has a bunch of great prints available from Hybrid Home. The best pieces have a nice balance of whimsy, top notch illustration and obviously a great backbone in graphic design. My favorite pieces are those created by Brian Flynn (whose official site I can not seem to track down) but there are plenty of prints by Dora Drimalas worth checking out too.

12:20 PM » [ Comments (0) ]

Top 7 Weirdest Zune Commercials
» Have a peek at the Top 7 Strangest Zune Commercials. While I have no interest in the device itself I have to admit, the commercials are pretty amazing. Mostly due to the fact that they really don't showcase the product a single bit. If you don't have time to watch them all, at least watch this one.

12:05 PM » [ Comments (1) ]

Grandaddy B-Sides and Bootlegs
»

Seeing as how Grandaddy is now officially defunct I think it's only appropriate that everyone that considered themselves a fan browse through the Grandaddy FTP site and marvel at the incredible amount of material available. If you've ever wanted to beef out your bootleg or video collection, this is the place to do it. Fortunately, there are also a ton of b-sides to download from the band - a feature that is much more up my alley.

12:02 PM » [ Comments (1) ]

The Doomsday Clock
»

I heard a quick news tidbit on NPR the other day about the fact that the Doomsday Clock has moved its minute hand to 5 minutes to midnight, meaning that we're closer to global annihilation than we were in 2002. The concept of the clock is pretty fascinating but depressing to think that the farthest it's ever been from final countdown is seventeen minutes to midnight. Granted, it's an arbitrary setting determined by the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists but if you can't trust them, who can you trust?

11:50 AM » [ Comments (0) ]

January 18, 2007
SXSW
» I really need to buy my ticket to Austin for this years SXSW because the band confirmations are rolling in. It's up to 240 acts and I'm sure it will grow from there. At first glance I'm going to say I'd love to see: The Big Sleep, Menomena, Zach Galifianakis, Octopus Project, and Cute Is What We Aim For (despite never having heard a single note from them). I'm sure the list will grow to an incomprehensible amount but that's the way it goes!

12:28 PM » [ Comments (10) ]

Ferris eBay - take 2
»

Turns out that the first Ferris Plock eBay auction was taken down and they've had to start over. If you were unenthused about bidding on two stickers before you should now reconsider - as Ferris has agreed to include "an original piece of artwork of undetermined size and weight to the winner." So you get some cool stickers AND an original Ferris piece!

12:16 PM » [ Comments (1) ]

Eno scores Spore
»

Brian Eno is responsible for a lot of incredible music - alot of which is very ambient and atmospheric. According to this article he can now add 'videogame music composer' to his list of accomplishments as he is the man responsible for the sounds behind the upcoming Spore game (which if you know nothing about, you owe it to yourself to watch this). Beyond the notion that Eno is responsible for creating the ambient music behind what is sure to be a groundbreaking videogame it should be noted that the music is composed by a piece of software called "The Shuffler" which will graft bits and pieces of the pre-arranged music into entirely new compositions every time - supposedly never repeating itself.

11:53 AM » [ Comments (2) ]

LineRider Videos
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One Eyed Giant

Spirale Infernale

LineRider never seems to go away!

11:43 AM » [ Comments (3) ]

Art 2 For 1
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Dulce Pinzon Photography · Matt Terich Print

Here's an art 2 for 1. While completely unrelated both are worth a quick peek. First is the photography series by Ducle Pinzon "The Real Story of the Superheroes" that features Mexican immigrant workers dressed as superheroes - questioning the definition of "hero."

Second is the Matt Terich print entitled It Sleeps. Obviously I'm going to be drawn to just about anything featuring a cephalopod but the color choices and supporting texture take it to the next level.

11:38 AM » [ Comments (1) ]

Adventure Time!
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Adventure Time

Chris made me aware of the new Pendleton Ward cartoon entitled Adventure Time. It features a unicorn shaped like a rainbow, an ice wizard, and a magical dog with the voice of Bender. It's an innocent romp but it's incredible fun and the animation style is perfect.

And once you're done watching that a few times, be sure to spend some time on the creators site exploring fantastic cartoons and characters such as this or this.

11:01 AM » [ Comments (3) ]

January 17, 2007
Harping On Nostalgia
»

As much as I am not a fan of having my childhood memories reharvested for contemporary money making schemes there are a few projects that seem to be getting it right. The new trailer for the forthcoming TMNT movie doesn't appear to make things too hokey or pandering - yet it retains an appeal to kids. I am looking forward to it.

Ghostbusters

The other revival that I've come across that seems like it could have some serious appeal is the supposed Ghostbusters game for Xbox 360. The video (see left) is exciting at first and then gets a bit boring when you realize there isn't so much going on but the look of it is pretty accurate. I'm sure it will be mired in copyright battles for whatever reason but if I owned a "next generation" gaming console, I'd be stoked to get it.

01:34 PM » [ Comments (4) ]

Nashville News
» This Tennessean article is chalk full of local music news and what is in store for 2007. Lots of insight as to what the likes of Forget Cassettes, Apollo Up, Carter Administration, Umbrella Tree, Turncoats, Clutters, How I Became The Bomb, Lone Official, The Features and oh so many more have planned for the next year.

12:24 PM » [ Comments (2) ]

January 2007 Mix
»

Although it is a little bit late I have finally gotten around to posting my January 2007 Mix. It's a fairly decent group of songs and I enjoy listening to it myself.. hopefully you will as well. I've got a nice themed mix plan for February but it may not happen if I'm not able to get together with Paul. Anyway, let me know what you think of the mix.. I am curious.

11:16 AM » [ Comments (4) ]

Science News
» Now NASA Says It's Getting Warmer - a government agency agreeing that global warming may, in fact, be an actual legit phenomena that is happening right now. I could get riled up over this but it's just another depressing article.

EDGE - a community of people trying to save endangered species. It's sad to browse the Top 100 and realize that all of the species that appear on the list could vanish from the Earth forever. How could you not feel compassion for the likes of the Long Beaked Echidna, Hairy Eared Dwarf Lemur, Saiga Antelope or the Long Eared Jerboa?

11:00 AM » [ Comments (0) ]

January 16, 2007
Hale Links: Volume 34
»

HALE LINKS : VOLUME 34
It's be about a month since the last set of links from Ryan and that's just far too long. I'll try and keep on it more often but at least you know you're in for a real treat this time around...

Running From Camera - simple concept. Set the self timer for 2 seconds and run as far away as you can. The results are hilarious and sort of massively compelling.

I Did Not Know That Yesterday - a blog for learning such things as 'Who Invented Basketball?', 'Why do we say "pair of pants" when referring to one garment?', 'Why is normal vision referred to as 20/20?' and many more.

Gobler Toys - fictional toy company site featuring a few gems that never made the cut. Watch this animation to get a feel for the humor.

Minus - a punk band’s entire equipment frozen at -25° Celsius immediately after their concert, arresting the transitory moment of the performance in a kind of standstill. By Christopher Buchel.

Badgemaker Deluxe - I'm totally going to get one of these and put it somewhere inappropriate - like a washing machine.

Airplane Series - a gorgeous series of photos from Jeffrey Milstein.

Teenar, Girl Guitar - creepy, disgusting, awful and a must see. Especially the last pic.. what?

The Design Can - portfolio site of a firm making a number of products worth checking out. The paint can / tree holder site navigation can be a little tricky at times but once you run across Self Portrait Mirror series or Deathwish Mirror you'll be sold on their artful and innovative designs.

02:25 PM » [ Comments (1) ]

NetFlix Streams
» So the big tech news today is that DVD empresarios Netflix have announced that starting this week they will have online delivery of movies. Meaning, you can watch the movie immediately from Netflix on your XP powered machine in the IE browser. I think it's a great idea but the application of it currently falls a little short. I'm down with the idea of a streaming movie in a decent quality (FLV style) but I've no interest in sitting at my computer to watch a movie. Maybe if there is ever an actual "Download" option where I can watch it in my free time and not immediately go for it I'll be more on top of it.. but as it is now I'm just impressed with the notion, not in actually using it. Oh, and does anyone else find it slightly odd that the movie they are using to promote the new feature is Liar, Liar? Something is fishy...

02:15 PM » [ Comments (0) ]

Catfish Haven
»

Photo by Steve Cross

This past weekend I caught Catfish Haven. I am not a huge fan of their debut album but not because I think it's poorly done.. it's just not my thing. Or so I thought. I don't think I've been as blown away by a live performance as I was with these guys for a long time. The energy was incredibly high the entire time and every song hit the mark perfectly. George Hunters voice is arguabley the best part of the bands recordings and it held up live without a trace of fatigue. All and all I would say that even if you don't consider yourself a fan.. you should do your best to see them live (or, at the very least, download the Daytrotter Session).

» Catfish Haven - Crazy for Leaving

» Catfish Haven - Please Come Back (demo)

12:48 PM » [ Comments (0) ]

Microsoft continues to suck
» In a rather unsurprising turn of events it appears that Microsoft will be taking email back five years. The forthcoming Outlook 2007 will stop using IE to render emails and will now "use the crippled Microsoft Word rendering engine." The article regarding this issue has some side by side comparisons about what this actually means for email campaigns. Many people may see this as a relief due to annoyance with HTML emails but for those of us that like them (and keep our email clients HTML enabled) it is a serious downturn. The decision is baffling but not so baffling that I'm all that surprised.

12:19 PM » [ Comments (5) ]

Ferris Plock on eBay
»

My pal Ferris Plock has put some stickers up on eBay to help him buy.. umm.. Jameson Irish Whiskey.. or paint supplies. Either way, it's for a good cause.

12:11 PM » [ Comments (4) ]

G-Mo Hearts 2D
»

My friend Mike Landry just launched his new Motion Graphics reel over at I Heart 2D. I've posted his work here a few times before so some of the reel may look familiar but there are plenty of new clips in there to keep your attention (see above Printer Head people... weird).

11:54 AM » [ Comments (0) ]

Steve Harrington - aka The Best
»

Steve Harrington

A big thank you to Blankenship for posting about the latest updates on the Steven Harrington site. His impeccable style continues to make me drool. Aside from all of the incredible prints on display there's even a pair of one-off Vans to check out.

11:31 AM » [ Comments (3) ]

Idiocracy vs Children of Men
» This Slate article is an compelling comparison of the recently released to DVD Mike Judge film Idiocracy and the Alfonso Cuaron drama Children of Men. Interestingly enough, despite them both being very different style films they seem to tackle very similar issues.

11:26 AM » [ Comments (1) ]

Awesome
»

11:22 AM » [ Comments (4) ]

January 15, 2007
Martin Luther King, Jr
»

The overall message of Martin Luther King, Jr. seems as prevelant today as it did in his time. Granted, people of different race and color are now granted the same rights as everyone else but there is still a huge problem with racism, bigotry, and overall social hatred in this country that needs to be addressed. In reading the famous "I Have A Dream" speech (which, shamefully, I had never read) I realized how far backwards we have progressed from Kings goal. Freedom does not ring from every mountainside. Our borders are getting tigher. Racism is gearing up again, only this time in the face of the Hispanic societies and Arabic nations. As the US manages to abuse its power of world superpower I think the following quote is a good one to remember:

Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The US has the power to do so much good (and it does quite a bit) that it is almost inconceivable how well things could be around the world in terms of social, political, and economic goals if the right focus was applied to our resources. Martin Luther King, Jr had a dream that has yet to be achieved and never will be if everyone in the nation fails to do their smallest part of contributing to a greater society. Call me a socialist but I think it's possible.

Hopefully everyone will take note of why we are honoring Martin Luther King, Jr today. It's important to understand how far we've come from the late 60's and how far we have to go.

11:51 AM » [ Comments (10) ]

January 12, 2007
Friday Videos
»

Why Must I Cry? - NSFW

Shoes.. NSFW

Hexafluoride

The Shoes video is pretty old but needs to be seen (and vaguely NSFW.. the end particularly). The Hexafluoride video is actually part of a series of science videos that I highly recommend. And last, but far from least, the Why Must I Cry? video is an absolutely stunning, incredible, jaw-dropping example of reaching the pinnacle of humor perfection completely by accident (but remember, it's NSFW if you're in that stodgy corporate-esque environment... or somewhere that doesn't approve of watching an amatuer rapper wash himself).

02:14 PM » [ Comments (2) ]

Roxik - Impressive Flash
»

The Roxik Pictaps Flash application is one of the more impressive things I've seen lately. In fact, so impressive I can't really even wrap my head around how it was done. Aside from the character generation engine that was built, how is it running so smoothly? There is so much going on in the animation but there doesn't seem to be much slowdown. Absolutely nuts.

Also, be sure to spend some time with this toy.. tons of fun.

12:51 PM » [ Comments (3) ]

Feltron 2006
»

The Feltron 2006 Annual Report is a fantastic example of informative, clean design that still has a personality. I've been pouring over the simple illustratons and data arrangement for the past few days with joyous admiration. And that's just the tip of the iceberg - there is plenty more to see Fetron.. including the 2005 Annual Report.

12:31 PM » [ Comments (3) ]

Chimera
» Did you know that Matt Curry, aka NinjaCruise, had a prototype vinyl toy made entitled Chimera? Unfortuantely the viny toy manufacturer ultimately decided to pass on the piece but there now exists one, rather large, solo Matt Curry vinyl toy.

12:08 PM » [ Comments (0) ]

Blades of Glory
» Will Ferrel and Jon Heder are set to star together in a new film called Blades of Glory. The basic premise is that they are both shamed from the male figure skating world and have to band together to exploit a loophole to skate as a couple. Obviously the setup is amazing and Will Ferrel can do nothing but make it more ridiculous. You can watch the trailer here. Hopefully all the best jokes aren't spoiled from that.

11:35 AM » [ Comments (3) ]

Aqueduct Until Death
»

I've often been on the fence with Aqueduct. The albums are fun but wear themselves out after awhile. However, the live show that I caught was a true spectacle and a ton of fun - even if only six other people were there. So I'm a bit skeptical of the upcoming release Or Give Me Death. I'll let you judge for yourself based on the two songs below but the "As You Wish" song is just a little too much with the kitsch (I just don't personally care for a song about The Princess Bride.. as great of a movie as it is).

» Aqueduct - Living A Lie

» Aqueduct - As You Wish

11:01 AM » [ Comments (1) ]

Jaws of Life Video
»

Wintersleep - Jaws of Life

Ever since Jeremy introduced me to Wintersleep awhile back I've been consistently impressed with their music videos. Aside from just how many of them there are, each one has a nice unique style and compliments the song well. Memorable but not too obtrusive. I suggest watching the above "Jaws of Life" video and then watching Faithful Guide seque right into Danse Macabre.

10:54 AM » [ Comments (2) ]

January 11, 2007
Romantic Static
»

Aaron Feiger, the man responsible for the t-shirts / site for Pop Junkie Design, has a website of his design related projects outside of t-shirts entitled Romantic Static. The image carousel at the bottom is an easy and nostalgic way to browse his portfolio items while the black and white color scheme is sure to focus your eye on the selected design piece.

01:53 PM » [ Comments (0) ]

Brand a Brew
»

Luke Worley, aka dubstyle aka Luceria, is holding a beer fueled design contest. Literally. He recently made some home made brew and now he needs a name and a label design for them. That's where you come in. If you RSVP by Friday (the 12th) he will mail you a bottle of the brew so you can taste it and concoct your design idea. If you win the contest, he'll send you a six pack of the beer complete with your design adhered to each bottle. Spots are limited, so if you want in - get in quick.

01:46 PM » [ Comments (0) ]

JustinBaum
» It appears that my pal Justin Baum has gotten himself into the world of blogging. Why is this interesting to you? Because Justin is a serious music afficionado. His tastes cover a wide range but he does tend to lean more on the electro / dance style offerings of the contemporary music world.

01:40 PM » [ Comments (2) ]

Rosa Love - Design For Good
»

♥ Rosa Loves

The concept behind Rosa Loves is an admirable one to say the least. The duo behind the company will find someone in their community in need, listen to their story, design a t-shirt that is somehow related to said events, and all proceeds of the sale of the shirt go towards benefitting that individual. There aren't a ton of shirts / stories available at the moment but what they do have is quite nice. I am particularly fond of the Indo Made fisherman tee.

12:01 PM » [ Comments (1) ]

Detachment Kit - new EP
»

Detachment Kit - +

Despite that it is 13 tracks and clocks in well over half an hour the new release from Detachment Kit is being touted as a CD-EP. The bit that I've heard so far is certainly not quite as epic as Of This Blood but it still consists of loads of angular, up-beat, sometimes frantic / sometimes pleading rock. The difference here being that I think the songs are more catch and accessible while still being discordant and abrasive.

» Detachment Kit - Mr. Dash Dash (Demo)

» Detachment Kit - Finale

» Detachment Kit - Heavenly Escort

11:49 AM » [ Comments (0) ]

The Explorers Club
»

Some time ago I found a link to The Explorers Club via an old blog and have been listening to "I Lost My Head" quite regularly ever since. To say that they are influenced by The Beach Boys is a bit of an understatement. It seems that they are attempting to carry the same torch. And, really, there is nothing wrong with that. What they do is very harmony laden pop music. Who can fault them for that?

I did get to see them live last weekend and, while I enjoyed it, I think the recordings are superior. If you're going to have 4 people singing 4 different parts on a consistent basis, you've got to be 100% dead-on with your pitch or it's just going to sound a bit odd. Maybe I just caught them on an off night.. who knows. The cover of "Johnny B Good" was pretty dead on, complete with Michael J. Fox intro.

» The Explorers Club - I Lost My Head

» The Explorers Club - Forever

11:23 AM » [ Comments (0) ]

January 10, 2007
Jeremy Cowart - Relationships
»

Jeremy Cowart - Relationships Series

It's no surprise that the latest photo series from Jeremy Cowart contains some pretty stunning images. The diptych method is tried and true and doesn't fail to misrepresent here. After trying to pick a few favorites to link to I decided that it's actually easier to pick the image pairs that I don't like rather than the ones that I do - as that seems to be a much smaller number. However, that's a bit negative of a route to take so I'll just offer up a small sampling of the pairs that I felt were particularly striking.

Pair 23, Pair 30, Pair 32,Pair 52, and 56.

12:50 PM » [ Comments (0) ]

Autolux - Scribble Shirt
»

Rarely is a band unveiling a new t-shirt post-worthy news but when it comes to Autolux and their extreme lack of news in recent months (apparently they are recording) I will take anything. Despite the notion that I'm just grabbing at straws for new insight into what the band is up to, the shirt is actually fantastic. The bands name is incredible subtle and the overall presentation is much more of just a 'cool' shirt - rather than a 'band' shirt.

12:35 PM » [ Comments (1) ]

The Oops List
» The Oops list is an overwhelming amount of images, sounds, and movies about various accidents, amusing signage, and whatever else. Basically it's a giant repository of fun. I mean who can deny such classics as Sign03.jpg, SpeedEnforcement1, Nothing_Changes, or possibly my all time Short Landing? Basically if you had the time, this site could easily take up the majority of your day and you'd be entertained the entire time. Thanks Chad.

11:19 AM » [ Comments (6) ]

Open Tabs
» Real Life Thumper and Bambi - apparently these shots were not staged and if they don't manage to warm your heart in some way then you are already dead inside and there's nothing I can do for you.

Collosal Squid - not a 'Giant' squid but rather it's recently discovered big brother. I mean, check that size chart!

Spiders on Drugs

Spiders on Drugs - there is video footage that goes along with it but becomes a pretty hilarious, and obvious, joke about 20 seconds in.

MSNBC

Steve Jobs went on MSNBC shortly after announcing the iPhone and spoke about the future of Apple, Inc and a little bit of insight on the stock options scandal. Overall, nothing too surprising but I don't think I've seen too many interviews with him before.

11:11 AM » [ Comments (1) ]

January 09, 2007
Videos
»

Old Spice · Bruce Campbell

Basically everything in this commercial is perfect. The chair, the painting, the words coming out of Bruce Campbells mouth, and.. Bruce Campbell. He really should do more stuff.

01:05 PM » [ Comments (11) ]

Crash Numbering
»

Crash Numbering Kit

Blankenship posted a link to the Psy/Ops Type Specimens and I ran across the above little diddy - Crash Numbering. It's like Clarendon mixed with the tiniest bit of "grunge" but I'm a fan and there are plenty of other nice typefaces to check out there.

12:50 PM » [ Comments (0) ]

DayTrotter - Annuals
»

Daytrotter has new in-studio sessions from Annuals. The tracks sound good and it gets me more excited to see the band later this month (despite hearing that they weren't so great live).

On a slightly unrelated note.. I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth but is it just me or is the process of downloading songs from Daytrotter a little less than ideal? There are four free, great, tracks available but I have to visit four seperate pages in order to download them. Couldn't they all just be on one page with a Save As link? Again, not trying to complain about such a great free, weekly, feature but it seems like there is some room for improvement.

12:25 PM » [ Comments (6) ]

Swyphs
» There's not a ton there yet but it appears that Arlo is headed back into the world of "blogging" with a new Swyphs blog. Hopefully he'll stick with it.

12:20 PM » [ Comments (0) ]

Apple KeyNote
» The Apple KeyNote is going on right now and they are making new product announcements. The iTV (now Apple TV apparently) has already been announced and it looks decent but will be hard to make a final decision before seeing all the specs. I suspect more will be announced about Leopard and possibly a new iPod.

11:39 AM » [ Comments (5) ]

January 08, 2007
DS iPod Mod
» I really can't foresee the DS iPod Mod taking off and inspiring people to start modding their Nintendo DS but it's a clever application of the touch screen.

01:06 PM » [ Comments (1) ]

Zach G : Live DVD
»

Comedian Zach Galifianakas will be releasing a new DVD entitled Live at the Purple Onion exclusively through Netflix on January 16th and then in stores sometime in March. If that's not a recipe for DVD pirating, I'm not sure what is. Regardless, you can queue up the disc now if you're already a fan. Or, as this review suggests, take some time to familiarize yourself with his prior work. Maybe start here.

01:00 PM » [ Comments (1) ]

Bob Trotman
»

Bob Trotman

The Frist is having an exhibition of Modern Art through February that has a special sub-exhibit of Bob Trotman, an artist who specializes in creating characters that seem to orginate from a 1950's aesthetic typically looking forelorn or worn in some way. The character designs themselves are impressive (many have switch-able eyes or mouths for various expressions) but the execution of the designs is even more incredible to witness as they seem to be constructed from giant blocks of wood or carefully pieced together blocks.

The modern exhibit on the whole is somewhat questionable just due to the nature of modern art and it's sometimes flimsy defnition of what 'art' is but anytime you can see a Warhol or a Lichtenstein in person, it is worth it.

12:21 PM » [ Comments (0) ]

Children of Men
»

This weekend I caught the the latest from Alfonso Cuarón, Children of Men. Aside from the slightest stretch of the imagination that women may become infertile in the next 20 years, the movie was incredibly realistic. The future (2027) is not so different from now aside from a few odd looking cars and the proposed failed economy creates a world view that is entirely plausible. The final action packed scene is absolutely intense and, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think the camera ever cut away during the majority of the sequence - impressive on many levels.

Overall I'm going to have to suggest everyone see this one. Ignore any comparisons you hear made of it to V for Vendetta or even 1984 - this one needs no comparisons.

12:03 PM » [ Comments (13) ]

Matthieu Badimon LAB
» The LAB of Mathieu Badimon is quite impressive. And I say that having seen a lot of Flash experiment sites. The warped text, block clock, and perspective text are among my favorites but they are all worth taking a peek at.

11:46 AM » [ Comments (0) ]

CES - Apple rumor high gear
» Now that the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show is underway the rumors that Apple is going to announce something big are stepping up into high gear. I am as excited as the next nerd to see what they have up their sleeves but hopefully not at the expense of missing out on all the other great and bizarre announcements from the event.

10:43 AM » [ Comments (7) ]

Dreamhost tries to save face
» Given their myriad of problems over the past year it appears that Dreamhost is finally coming clean and fixing the problem. Ignore the fact that the data center they are in now has at least 1/3rd of the activity that it had (once (mt) left I'm sure things started to clear up) but maybe focus on the fact that Dreamhost is climbing off their soapbox and starting to lower the amount of diskspace and bandwidth to new customers. Basically they were overselling, which meant cramming too many users per server and ultimately not being able to keep up. Overall I'd say it's a rather lame problem to have as it is their own fault for trying to 'sell' themselves on some fancy tactic instead of just offering reliable hosting and, to some degree, I am sure it backfired. I have stuck with them and hopefully they will get their act together but it's interesting to see a company actually come out and admit that their main source of their technological trip-ups was based in bad marketing.

10:38 AM » [ Comments (2) ]

January 05, 2007
Impossible Is Nothing
»

Impossible Is Nothing

Impossible Is The Opposite of Possible

The original video (left) is amazingly arrogant and narcissistic. The parody (right), starring Michael Cera of Arrested Development, is an amazingly well done bit of dry humor and I really wish it wasn't a parody, and was just some genius bit of writing from Cera. Either way, it's worth a viewing.

02:36 PM » [ Comments (4) ]

Misc Goods
» Here's a random bunch of links worth checking out.

KAWS Alternate Companion - in black vinyl with full color organs. I prefer the grey one that I posted about the other day but this still looks incredible.

Mad Villain Vinyl - as in, vinyl toys of the cartoon version of the hip-hop MC. It's probably just the photos, but I think it looks great.

The Photo Atlas - a band recommended to me by Crantek hailing from the Denver area. It's got a mix of Q and Not U with The Faint a little bit.. aka dancey, vaguely chaotic, indie pop/rock.

Top 50 Videos of 06 - yea, now that it is January 07 the Best Of list is a bit dated but it's nice to have an archive of some of the best of the best of the best from last year.

02:31 PM » [ Comments (2) ]

We Are Constance
»

We Are Constance

Constance is an upcoming limited edition book of artworks from artists in and around the New Orleans area making art about the NOLA region. Fortunately, that concept is pretty wide open to interpretation and lends itself to some nice results. I'd love to see more of this and this.

02:20 PM » [ Comments (0) ]

B'Owl - Tim and Eric
»

Tim and Eric Awesome Show

I am not entirely sure what I think about the forthcoming Tim and Eric Awesome Show, mostly because their previous show, Tom Goes To The Mayor, really sort of weirds me out. Their humor is a strange mix of trying something subtle and then beating the joke into the ground. That being said, the intense hackey sack competition and B'Owl skit featured in their new show preview gets funnier every time I watch it.

02:15 PM » [ Comments (3) ]

Entrauge
» Madrid launched a new Entrauge and it looks like he's doing a bit of blogging with it this time around. Pig Radio, Jensen Sportag, his own homemade gifts, and a rad sidebar navigation. Looking forward to reading more...

02:09 PM » [ Comments (1) ]

January 04, 2007
2007 Year of Music
» Is 2007 going to be an incredible year for indie rock music releases? Let's see:

The new Modest Mouse track "Dashboard" from We Were Dead Before We Sank has hit the Internet (here).

The track "Intervention" from the sophomore The Arcade Fire release Neon Bible is available on iTunes with proceeds going to charity.

AIR has a new album, Pocket Symphony, coming out in March and a few tracks are floating around from that.

Menomena has a new album coming out this month that you can preview in its entirety here.

The new Of Montreal, Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?, has been getting serious rotation thanks to the promo I received from Relative Theory.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. What else should I be excited for?

02:00 PM » [ Comments (19) ]

Nerdy Videos
»

Vintage Star Wars

Mario / Wario

These two videos epitomize the larger nerdy side of myself. I am unapologetic in my utter enjoyment of the above two short clips.

11:05 AM » [ Comments (4) ]

ShoZu
» I've been noticing that Ronnie is using an application called ShoZu to upload images to Flickr from his camera. What is the benefit of doing this versus setting up a private forwarding address that relays to your flickr address? Do most phones have email capabilities these days or is that still considered an extra?

10:46 AM » [ Comments (5) ]

Sideline
»

Rob Malpensa

Sideline has a growing selection of t-shirts and art prints that might be worth checking out - particularly the pieces by Rob Malpensa and the t-shirts by reknowned doodler Jon Burgerman.

10:44 AM » [ Comments (1) ]

Chris Glass / Jon Burgerman
»

Facial Hairshirt by Chris Glass

After seeing the above Facial hairshirt by Chris Glass I started to get excited about the forthcoming Whiskerino. I do my best to keep the beard and facial hair talk to a minimum (both here and in real life) but sometimes a great design can't be denied. Please be sure to watch the Making Of video found on that page as well.. very nice.

10:40 AM » [ Comments (4) ]

January 03, 2007
Bah! Bah! Bah!
»

Bah! Bah! Bah!

Do I think this is fake? Yes. Do I think it's an incredibly amusing way to waste 58 seconds on a Wednesday afternoon? Undeniably.

02:38 PM » [ Comments (0) ]

CBR 008
» Is it just me or did Catbird Records slowly evolve into a fantastic example of clean, straightforward, usable design? I was checking out their latest release and when I hit the front page it just struck me - this is pretty much perfect. No frills sure but in my opinion, that is preferred.

02:35 PM » [ Comments (4) ]

Hair Humor
» Hairy Mail is both disgusting and hilarious. The "Smear A Message" is much more entertaining than typing.

Best Haircut Ever? - the answer is a resounding, yes.

02:33 PM » [ Comments (0) ]

Digital Cameras
» Well, I think its crunch time for me in terms of "time to buy a new digital camera." I am open to any and all suggestions but I would like something that isn't quite as prone to hand shakiness as my tiny Canon SD20. The main contenders for new digital camera are the Panasonic LX2, the Samsun NV10, and (just for kicks) the Leica D-LUX 3. I would almost buy that one based on the name alone.. it's deluxe!

02:30 PM » [ Comments (6) ]

January 02, 2007
KAWS
»

KAWS

I'm not really sure I need to say much more than the above image is already saying. Absolutely mindblowing.

Oh, and KAWS has a blog. Bookmark it immediately.

10:57 AM » [ Comments (0) ]

Videos
»

Mahogany - Neo Plastic Boogie-Woogie

Diechkind

Meg & Dia

That Meg & Dia video goes to show that even if your song is mediocre, a good video can still get you some exposure. Nice simple concept that makes me want to watch but really.. the song is pretty eh.

10:52 AM » [ Comments (6) ]

Xmas Dunny
»

dbox, mackle dunny by sibhod

Eric will be returning from San Francisco this month for a little while to gather up his remaining belongings before making his move to the West Coast final but it appears that in his time in SF he was able to make two seperate Munny figures of both myself and Daniel. While I am quite excited for Eric to return to Nashville for a little bit, I am pretty stoked to see these figures in real life.

10:47 AM » [ Comments (4) ]

Beautiful/Decay
» I've been thinking about my t-shirt collection a lot lately. Using this collection from Beautiful/Decay has a gauge I have been trying to determine at what level of quality my shirts reside. Regardless of the fact that I'd never be able to wear something as insane as this, I'm still impressed by it's design and execution. The question is - what is the quintessential t-shirt? I'm hoping some of the How I Became The Bomb shirts that I helped design fall into that category...

10:40 AM » [ Comments (0) ]

crappy movies of 07
» There is a fine line between "good/bad" and "bad/bad" - particularly when talking about movies. Here is a good example:

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - aside from the fact that Silver Surfer is an incredibly lame comic book character you have the fact that the cast of Fantastic Four (the first one) didn't exactly blown anyone away in their first film. That being said, this movie will be "bad/bad." You might likely still see it - but you will hate yourself a little bit for it and probably have a hard time finding anything redeeming in it.

Hot Fuzz is the tale of a cop that's too good for his district and is reassigned to the most duldrum town in the UK. The premise is flimsy but given that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are the lead roles AND it was written by the same people that wrote Shaun of the Dead.. well.. this one will be "good/bad." Ridiculous, hokey, over the top, and perfectly entertaining. Just the way it should be.

10:36 AM » [ Comments (0) ]

2007
» Welcome to 2007. Unfortunately, things don't look so different around here quite yet. I had big plans but due to some obligations from the `06 rolling over into this year, they will have to be continuously put on hold. However, I do have a plan.. hopefully it will actually happen this time.

I hope everyone's Christmas / New Years break was good. Mine was for sure. Lots of time with friends and family and not a whole lot of time at work - a rare feeling indeed. I love my job but it was nice to discover what it felt like to not think about it for a week.

Anyone get any good Christmas gifts worth sharing? I just picked up this Jeremy Davis original last night as he was passing through on his way to Portland. I can't wait to hang it in the office.

So here's to 2007. We can only hope it was as good as 2006 (on a personal level that is - I think in terms of global worldview we could see some improvement).

10:17 AM » [ Comments (2) ]