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Ryan Catbird, Catbird Records and Art21 Blog

Recently Ryan Catbird sat down with Art:21 and had an interview regarding his mindset on the Catbird Records project. Aside from hearing insight into the actual production process of each of the releases it's always refreshing to hear Ryan's take on releasing records in general. His insight on why he took on the Unbunny vinyl project is dead on:

...when I really love an album (as I do Black Strawberries), I always want it on vinyl. We listen to a lot of records in my house, and certainly not for any sort of "indie hipness" reasons, and not necessarily for nostalgia’s sake, but because I really like to sit down and actively listen to albums—as opposed to them just being background noise while I do something else—and the LP format really lends itself to that.

There are more insights into Catbird Records in general - such as his shift from hand-screened sleeves to On Demand production and remembering that your time and labor are worth $0 when it's something you're passionate about.

Overall, a fine read. I can only hope that yk records establishes itself as worthwhile as Catbird Records some day..

Tumblr Mosaic Viewer

The Tumblr Mosaic Viewer is a pretty great way to get an overview of what a particular site has to offer (or just a slew of random images) with such a simple concept; make a never-ending grid of images based off of what that user has posted. It reminds me of how Madrid has his blog setup but limited to photos only. Here are some fine examples:

yewknee · entrauge · kateoplis · Jeremy Okai · Pope St. Victor · Owl Foreigner

It actually seems like a good way to catch up with a site that you read regularly and may have missed a few things. Now to find a similar tool that works with any site...

Via Kate.

Reeder

Big thanks to JAson for pointing me in the direction of Reeder - a Google Reader App that I've found myself pretty impressed with. It's in the App Store for just a few dollars and seems to be doing a fantastic job of taking the onslaught of Google Reader info I have and presenting it in a manageable manner. It's clean, easy to use and has just enough extras without being overwhelming or cluttered. I also appreciate their use of status messages in the top bar of the app, nice use of space.

Anyway, long story short - check out Reeder, I think you'll like it.

Sense of Smell w/ Bryan Cranston

Honor Student has released a new short to Funny or Die entitled Sense of Smell. The video features Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle, Breaking Bad) and is, essentially, one big fart joke. The number of terms they break out in reference to flatulence is pretty amazing but you've got to go in with your 13-year-old mindset to truly appreciate it.

I think it's safe to say that I like Bryan Cranston in just about anything - even a four-minute dramatic fart joke.

Monday Morning Distraction: Home Sheep Home

Spend some time kicking off your week shirking work with Home Sheep Home - a fun flash game where you direct a ragtag team of sheep from Point A to Point B. I love the art direction of the whole thing and the playability is just challenging enough to keep you pushing forward.

Via Will.

Friday Videos - Mar. 12th, 2010

You know the drill. Here's the playlist and the breakdown:

• Hutts and Recreation - I could do without the singing but the edit is spot on perfect with the opening of Parks and Recreation. It's dumb but it's an enjoyable dumb. Via Falfa.
• El fin del mundo - this is incredibly entertaining, hilarious and perfect in so many ways. However, it requires that you read along and pay attention - the humor is not served to you on a platter. Pay attention and you will be rewarded. Via WAXY.
• Cyriak - Cycles - it gets more and more insane as it goes so stick through the entirety. Amazing piece of work.
• Bill Murray NBA announcement - I'm sure this is old but I have no idea what's going on and it's new to me. Bill Murray continues to dominate.
• Zoobooks! - I've watched this at least 30 times this week.
• Sex Offender Shuffle - I'm sure there are any number of parody's of the Chicago Bears shuffle video but this is pretty funny; especially as the introductions of each offender keep getting more and more absurd.
• Raquel Welch Space Dance - I don't want to question why this exists but... why does this exist? Is this a legit video for her version of California Dreamin? Is this a Youtube mashup of completely unrelated clips?

Bonus
→ Star Wars Uncut - Scene 378 - I've no idea how this fits into the overall scope of the Star Wars Uncut project (aren't you supposed to re-shoot scenes, not recut existing footage?) but it is so great that it must be visually consumed right away.

Have a great weekend.

Feed America with a Backpack

Email marketing firm Emma has teamed up with Feeding America to donate 1,000 backpacks to hungry kids / families - all you have to do is help them gather up 1,000 clicks on their promo page. It's actually a pretty slick page - very well designed and fun - and provides a link to their newly renovated site; yet to be fully unveiled to the public. Do the right thing - go click and donate.

Kumi Yamashita

The work of Kumi Yamashita reminded me of the trash silhouettes from Tim Noble and Sue Webster but his her work is done with a much more subtle touch. Browsing through her selected work you see a lot of pieces that are a single slat of wood that, when properly lit, will cast the full intended silhouette. I've been through a good chunk of his work so far and there's not been one era without a significant dose of great stuff.

Genetically Modified

Chad pointed out this series of MTV bumpers from Umeric that are incredibly bizarre. Some even say worthy of expanding into something more fleshed out... a concept not entirely worth discrediting. Be sure to watch the A and B versions.. along with their other great work.

Thomas Hudson Reeve

Pinhole camera photography always has an appeal to it due to the built-in ethereal quality of the images it produces but I gotta give it to Thomas Hudson Reeve for seemingly taking it to another level - creating the entire camera out of light sensitive photo paper and exposing the entire interior creates a bizarre canvas shape that you've got to sort of piece together. The set showcasing them has some unfortunately small images but Google Images provides some bigger views - such as this blog post.

Via Drew.

Dusdin Condren

Heads up - the goodness of the Dusdin Condren photostream that was found here is now located here. Update those bookmarks and contacts; as he has never failed to deliver consistent visual goodness as long as I've been following along.. you don't want to miss out.

He's also got a tumblog that I just came across that should, more than likely, be in your worldview as well.

Viola Cangi

Spend some time with the photostream from Viola Cangi - a predominantly quiet bit of photography with some great diptych's, some cinematic moments and a healthy dose of artsy.

Via Pope Saint Victor.

Appear DK

I'm absolutely loving the portfolio site of Denmark based agency Appear. The click through might take you a moment to get used to what with the dragging and scrolling but it's incredibly well done and it's not Flash. There are some great sites out there really pushing the boundaries of what can be done with javascript vs what you'd expect with Flash and I think this one ranks way up there.

Via Will.

The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour

I guess when you're prohibited from having a TV show and Twitter starts to get boring you launch a nationwide comedy tour. It seems to be the next logical step when prohibited from doing the thing that you know best. I've no idea how a live Conan tour would translate from the TV show but I would bet good money that some of his more absurd characters will be showing up - like this guy or this guy. Not that I'll be attending said show (the closest he is coming to me is Bonnaroo, and I'm not attending that) but I really hope there's some way for him to recreate this.

Makeup and Vanity Set

Local 8-bit electro artist Makeup and Vanity Set has launched his latest, self-titled, album and I'm recommending you go listen to the record and take a moment to partake in the cover art; courtesy of Version Industries. It's rare that I see cover art for an artist making the kind of music that MAVS is making that actually feels right on the money. It's gritty, it's dancey, it's rooted in 8-bit and it's got a dark undercurrent to the whole thing - a description that could apply to either the music or the cover art; hence my feeling of ultimate appropriateness for it.

→ Get the album
→ View the Cover Art

yk mix: Summon Solstice

Spring is around the corner.. summer just right beyond that. I am very ready for this winter to be over and return to a refreshed state of mind. I put together a mix of various songs that have been grabbing my attention lately and it just so turns out that a large majority of them seem to evoke this mindset of a brighter, upbeat, renewed state of things.

Please partake in my latest mix offering - Summon Solstice - and lets get this whole Spring Season cranked into high gear.

[ Download Summon Solstice ]

1. Sparklehorse - Happy Man (EV11 Mix)
2. The Goldroom - Strangling Gloves
3. Junk Culture - Carmel Valley Girls
4. Phantogram - Make A Fist
5. Jack Penate - So Near (Penguin Prison Remix ft. Travis Allen Archer)
6. Pantha du Prince - Bohemian Forest
7. Jaga Jazzist - One-Armed Bandit
8. Yppah - Son Saves The Rest
9. Secret Machines - Terrible Light
10. Savoir Adore - We Talk Like Machines
11. Field Music - Let's Write A Book
12. Kid Static - I Been Good
13. Zeus - Kindergarten
14. Caribou - Odessa
15. Port O'Brien - Tree Bones
16. Sparklehorse - Piano Fire
17. Jason Lytle - Wonder Why in LA
18. Keegan DeWitt - End Credits

Alberto Seveso

I'm loving these works from Italian designer / artist Alberto Seveso. The rest of the works in his portfolio are quite a bit different but intriguing in their own way as well. There is just something about ink and water photography that grabs me every time.

Heads up via Kitsune Noir.

Various Distractions

If you haven't played the new Adult Swim game Robot Unicorn Attack, take a moment to partake. The artwork and music are perfect and the Death Screen is not to be missed. The gameplan is pretty rudimentary but that's really beside the point. I found it highly amusing to see Conan O'Brien on Twitter with a handful of posts; all perfectly self-deprecating and in line with what you'd expect from a man who had his late night dream snatched away from him. It just so turns out that he's really running seven other accounts - @CoCosBeard, @ConansSharpie, @CoCosATMCard, @ConansTaurus, @ConansMonkey, @ConansFreckles, and @ConansSquirrel. Granted, Conan himself may not be writing them alone but that is beside the point.. it's a good gag and an entertaining way to keep up with ole Conan if you're somehow feeling a void.

My Little Gentleman

For awhile now I've been keeping up with the postings of My Little Gentleman - a blog of men's lifestyle and fashion. The About says it all:

Man-fashion. Mahogany. 6 o'clock shadow. My Little Gentleman keeps your life running on all cylinders, and looking classically mannish while doing so. We're not olde-tymey, and we won't clothe you in the latest-greatest; we focus on being tasteful and prudent in our selections.

It's an ambiguous vibe on the whole - there are no specific attributes that make something appealing in this realm - but it works. The Internet offers a lot of content aimed towards men and most of it is fairly low-brow and not so intriguing - MLG fills a bit of that void with some worthwhile content. Read it.

Joseph Kosinski

As a bit of an addendum to that TRON post everyone should take a moment to check out the work of director Joseph Kosinski. The majority of it seems to be commercial work for various vehicles but that feels appropriate for the world of TRON. Be sure to watch his faux ad for iPod 3 - it gets good about 45 seconds in.

Heads up via Jeffrey.

Tron Legacy: Trailer

If you've somehow managed to not be inundated with the news that Disney has released the official trailer for Tron Legacy, please allow me to point you in this direction for partaking in such goodness right away.

I easily count myself among the skeptics that think Hollywood is running dry on ideas and that un-needed sequels and remakes are incredibly frustrating. They are exploitative of our need for nostalgia and, usually, pretty boring. However, for whatever reason, I have high hopes for this continuation of the TRON story. The storyline itself seems like it could be well thought out and the special effects seem to be a pitch perfect balance of the old style mixed with much updated technology. Maybe I'm playing right into their hands but I am legitimately excited to see this.

The hint at the Daft Punk soundtrack is a nice little bonus too.. it sounds quite a bit more epic and fleshed out than most anything I've heard from them before.

Usually I don't make this recommendation but I will say that if you are able to watch this in HD - you should. It lends itself to poring over.

Bridges: Backstage

I've always had an affinity for Jeff Bridges but after seeing his acceptance speech at the Oscars on Sunday I think my appreciation of him catapulted into the upper echelons. Watch him backstage after accepting the award talking about how movies & music can save the world (in a serious way) and how much he loves 'The Dude.' Approved.

Believe it

• Woman Crashes Car While Shaving Bikini Area - confirmed: never go to the Florida Keys.
• 24 Secret Restaurant Menus Revealed - basically if you don't think most fast food restaurants offer enough terrible things, there are unlisted items you can partake in. I will admit to wanting to order a Hypocrite Burger after reading this.
• 8-Bit NYC - it's New York + Google Maps done in the style of Zelda (or overhead RPG of your choice).

put.io

Casey pointed me in the direction of put.io - an online storage service that, supposedly, stores your media for you and streams it instantly to any device. It even seems to support downloading torrents for your account. Sadly, it is in closed beta and it doesn't look like too many invites are being sent out due to the amount of bandwidth such a project will require but I am quite intrigued. So, if anyone gets in there and has a chance to have a go with it, I'd love to hear how fast the media stream is.

Facebook Designs, Redesigned

Sometimes ignorance is bliss. These Facebook Designs Redesigned are quite nice and, had they been put in place, I might actually use Facebook more. So maybe it's good that they weren't approved. A three-column view for the type of content being feed to your via facebook just makes sense.. sort of a shame that they went with what they have now; a layout that I still struggle to find pertinent links from.

I'm not saying the comps are perfect and make sense for every page of the site (how would an event look? how would you edit your profile? etc) but they are worth a little poring over. Also, be sure to pay attention to the comments used in there.. some funny stuff sprinkled throughout.

Via Will.