Been rather enjoying these illustrations and various drawings from Lucinda Rogers. The New York and London series are nice slices of life and make up the majority of the content of the site but be sure to swing by the sketchbook area as well to see some quality doodles.
I've been following it for a few days but I'm going to go ahead and recommend you point your browsers towards The Brief; a regular wrapup of the days biggest tech stories. I'm having it deposited in my inbox for maximum awareness.
The NY Times has a great article on The Program - an NSA initiative called Stellar Wind that allows for data mining on every US citizen. Now, I love a healthy dose of conspiracy theory but all this seems to be happening out in the open, it's just not being publicized very well. Go watch this video (it's short and compelling), read up on the Utah Data Center (a real, massive, thing), keep this in mind and do your own research. It's an interesting topic to say the very least.
sf.citi just launched this video on How Technology Will Create a Smarter San Francisco. It's a roundup of solid ideas from the likes of Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Brian Chesky and Hosain Rahman. None of the insights have been implemented yet but it's the first step to getting things moving forward. Aside from the one horrible hipster joke, it's actually a great exercise in shooting for the moon in terms of solutions that could improve your city.
Granted, there practical implications on all of them that could allow you to immediately refute them. However, you should let yourself be open to the idea that with some ingenuity and data wrangling we actually can change things. I don't live in SF but I'm totally on board with these guys and I love the style of that video.
The content of Game Console Browsers is quite nerdy; a technical look at the web browsers contained in many popular gaming consoles, how they operate, what standards they support and their input devices. Oddly, the presentation is spellbinding. The page layouts are ultra clean, informative and responsive. It's like reading through a tech manual that isn't boring.
Matt clued me in to the Widsam Field Guides series of books and their debut offering - Field Guide 01: Nashville, Tenn. The guide seems to contain many intriguing elements and I'm totally on board with their foundation insight - their goals and inspiration for their undertaking are quite admirable.
Louis CK did a wonderful thing when he released his last comedy special on his site; he opened the floodgates of evidence that self distribution is entirely possible. He's now taking that success and spreading it around a bit. He recently just released a 30 minute audio stand-up special from Tig Notaro. Here's why..
I stood in the wings behind a leg of curtain, about 8 feet from her, and watched her tell a stunned audience "hi. I have cancer. Just found out today. I'm going to die soon". What followed was one of the greatest standup performances I ever saw. I can't really describe it but I was crying and laughing and listening like never in my life. Here was this small woman standing alone against death and simply reporting where her mind had been and what had happened and employing her gorgeously acute standup voice to her own death.
The show was an amazing example of what comedy can be. A way to visit your worst fears and laugh at them. Tig took us to a scary place and made us laugh there. Not by distracting us from the terror but by looking right at it and just turning to us and saying "wow. Right?". She proved that everything is funny. And has to be. And she could only do this by giving us her own death as an example. So generous.
It's $5 and part of that goes to charitable means. You can read more about it here, here. Basically, it's an incredibly raw and seriously funny bit of a comedian working out her personal strife in front of an audience. It's worth every penny.
Will Bryant is always doing a great job but I feel like he's achieved some next level inspiration & execution on this WHY? Tour Poster. The "Part 2" image is especially grabbing my attention. I want this print.
Matt Oliver, aka TV Torso, doesn't put out a ton of music. Typically he's busy recording bands for Daytrotter at his self-made Texas studio. His previousreleases are top notch and I recommend them fully. I'm still settling down with it but it appears that his new Clear Lake Strangler EP is another quality one for the list.
Great article on how 37 Signals built Basecamp Mobile - combining Turbolinks and an entirely separate set of markup; as opposed to the all-inclusive responsive approach. I like the idea of a fully compartmentalized mobile version of an application but I also know maintaining two codebases for every project can turn into a nightmare very quickly. Long story short, well worth a read - even the comments are solid!
Venus Patrol has been doing a great job of supplying exactly the kind of information I expected from it in regards to the independent game world but they really knocked it out of the park with this new ongoing feature - Tigsource Devlog: Dom2D's Visual Showcase of Awesome New Games. The title is a mouthful but it's appropriate given the massive amount of content within. There are links to over 25 new games at various stages of development. It is absolutely overwhelming but when you click through to Cutthroat EP, Barbarium, The Walled Garden, this awesome looking thing or FarmerGnome's Game Dump you know you're in the right place. A treasure trove of quality content if ever there was one.
Sadly, I haven't seen Looper yet. I fear spoilers any minute now but I'm trying my best to avoid them. However, it did come to my attention that director Rian Johnson is offering up this in-theater audio commentary meant to be played while you watch the movie for a second time in the theatre. He says of it:
It is totally different from the commentary track that will be on the Blu/DVD, a bit more technical and detailed. Needless to say, this is NOT to be listened to on a first viewing, or before you've seen the film. Also, please work it so that a glowing screening is never out of your pocket during the movie.
I'm sure the studios love the audio of enticing audiences to go back to see a film a second time with different audio and, frankly, I have to agree. I would gladly pay full price to go re-watch a movie if it gave me all kinds of new insights into the filmmaking process and I didn't have to wait 6 months before the bonus content from the DVD was unleashed.
Photo by Frank Turner
Have you heard the Beauty Pill album The Unsustainable Lifestyle? It's one of those records that creates an instant connection with anyone else you encounter that is familiar with it. If they know it, they also likely know Smart Went Crazy, Faraquet, Medications, Mary Timony, Helium, etc. etc. Also, it's a great record. But I digress...
It turns out that the band has come back together for the first time since 2007 to record a new album. The Immersive Ideal was recorded over two weeks in a public arts center and acted as a voyeuristic exhibit for anyone to come and watch the band as they created the album. This article has more details on the process but I'm just blown away by the actual music that's come from the sessions and can't wait to hear them in their final form.
What's happening this week? Is there an overload of incredibly good videos or are my standards lowering? Possibly both I suppose. Here's the playlist and the breakdown below:
Emma's Flowers - there's a flower store here in Nashville that's been around for forever. I never thought much about them until I heard this commercial.. and now I think they're the greatest place in the world.
Wanna Have My Secret? - this is one of the creepiest videos I've ever encountered. Every single solitary moment of it - audio and video - is disturbing.
Wedding Fails Compilation - yes, more people falling over.. only this time it's during one of the biggest days of their lives.
Empire Uncut: My Hands Are Dirty - so I've been keeping an eye on the Star Wars UncutVimeo Channel and feeling overwhelmed by all the great submissions coming through. This particular snippet - the Noir Han and Leia interaction - is the perfect example of the sort of spellbinding creativity that SWU fosters. Love it.
COPS: Refund - I am sure there are countless numbers of incredible clips from COPS but this one really entertained me. Stick with it to the end.
Imaginary Forces Reel - I can't wrap my head around the notion that one studio did all this work. It is downright incredible.
Not Into Asian - I can't begin to explain this and I don't care to. Some things are best left just being weird.
This week VHX launched the full premiere of Broken Kingdom and Kingdom Come - a pair of films from first time director Daniel Gillies and producer John Lyons. The first, Broken Kingdom, is an original screenplay weaving multiple stories together.
The second, Kingdom Come, is a documentary about the trials and tribulations of filmmaking. It is a phenomenal primer for anyone looking to make movies within the Hollywood system on just how difficult of a task that will be. I am sure the duo would have preferred things go smoother but the strife they experienced really does make for a compelling film. They also managed to interview a ton of celebrities - Mark Ruffalo, Don Cheadle, Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Morgan Spurlock, Bruce Campbell, etc. etc. - and get their insight on the harsh world of making a movie. It really is great.
Go here to buy both films - immediate streaming or DRM free download - for just $8 (or $5 if you want just just one).
If you haven't listened to it yet, I highly recommend this WTF Episode with Loren Bouchard; best known for his work on Dr. Katz, Home Movies and Bob's Burgers. The episode isn't particularly vitriolic or anything but Bouchard does manage to share alot of meaningful life insight just off the cuff. His take on the craft of creativity, working in teams, the power of restrictions and having the chutzpah to take some risks are all particularly pleasant.
Every sooften I stumble upon some new work from Mattias Adolfsson - like this mind-bogglingly intricate piece Washed Herring - and I'm smitten every time. I end up poring through his vast archives of work and just feeling absolutelymarveled.
He has a book out now and I think it's obvious that I must procure it immediately.
I can't recall whom I swiped this link from but I thank whomever linked up this fairly exhaustive Icons as Webfonts list. So many great icon sets to look at - Symbolset, Pictonic, Fontello and the list goes on and on. Granted, it's probably best to just pick one set and figure out how to make it work for you, jumping around different icon sets will create a lack of visual consistency but it's nice to have options.
