Nick Zammuto is best known for his work as one-half of The Books.. a band I've held near and dear since Chad introduced me to Thought For Food. They've officially called it a day but Zammuto will be releasing his solo full-length next Tuesday. Spin has an exclusive stream of the whole thing and I'll be damned if it isn't phenomenal. I can already tell that I'm going to run it into the ground by overplaying it ad nauseam. Give it a listen, download a track or just explore his site... I'm sure you'll find it all enjoyable.

Bob Odenkirk is making the promotion rounds for his new Adult Swim show Let's Do This and ended up doing an interview with Nerve in which he gives some random sex advice. Obviously, the tips are ridiculous:

I want to pick up girls at bars, but I'm shy. What's a good approach?
Get a fake plaster cast for your arm, and put a bunch of fake friends' names on it, so that the girl thinks you're injured and have loads of friends.

But I'll give him credit for this little gem about how he and his wife have been together for as long as they have:

What's the single best piece of marriage advice you can give?
You've got to know when to shut up. You learn when you're young never to put nasty or angry words in an email or letter — you realize that even though it was all true at the time you wrote it, you don't want it between you and the other person forever. With a marriage, think of it as if there's a stenographer in the room at all times who's making a permanent record of your discussion. So when things get hairy, watch how far you go, because in order to keep the relationship going, you need to not say things that you can't live with. My wife and I are very honest with each other, and it's one of the reasons I'm with her — one of the things that made me be in love with her was that she was very straightforward with me, and she allowed me to be very honest with her and not walk on eggshells around her. But that's all up to a point, and then you have to make sure you don't go over a line.

Oh, and he also did a Reddit IAmA that was enjoyable insightful.

Nice article on Responsive Web Design Patterns using five real world examples. Once any design has been boiled down to a series of blocks they all appear pretty simple but this does a nice job of walking you through the transformations. While I'm not always comfortable with using a pre-defined pattern to steer a layout, it is a good idea to have these things in the back of your mind before putting pixel to paper. via Will. Hammer.js is a 2kb javascript library to help support multi-touch gestures. I've not implemented myself so it may have questionable results (like yesterday's Touchwipe) but it's worth noting its existence even if it's just to appreciate the MC Hammer mascot.

Kelly Malone took on the daunting task of redesigning the interior office space of The Bold Italic - one of San Francisco's finer publications. The headquarters "encompass three floors and nine rooms" but she still managed to steer clear of prefabricated items and do a whole lot of quality recycling. The images that go along with this story are inspiring - loads of great ideas for your own space.

The photostream of Joel Robison is filled with creative self portraits inspired by a wealth of ideas. I particularly enjoy the faux miniatures he works in from time to time. I'm not sure what kind of time commitment is involved with making these digital creations but it seems like a healthy daily exercise to keep the imagination sharp.

via it's not what i thought.

Meadownoise has a full record coming out this summer but, in the meantime, you can get familiar with their offerings via this preview or the above video for Little William. It's simple but engaging - love that projector trick.

I dunno how I'm just now running across this jQuery Touchwipe plugin but I'm glad I did. It's lightweight and seems to work exactly as expected. Plus, it's likely compatible with Android devices as well - bonus!

via Will.

Needing a little pick-me-up? Head over to Reasons for Optimism and get some positive insight from the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, Helen Keller, and countless other designers, artists, and general motivators.

What's it take to get a product to go from concept to reality? I ask because David Riesenberg has created a beautiful, though speculative, Canon AE-D Mirrorless Camera that looks like a classic analog Canon - down to the quick aperture controls and manual settings - but takes advantage of an 18megapixel sensor and proper lens swapping. It's a beautiful piece of work and I've got my fingers crossed someone actually takes notice and manufactures it.

via Travis.

Casey tipped me off to Askolo; a new site that might be described as a user-focused Quora in which you ask questions to specific folk. You might also describe it as a minimal version of Formspring; as their concepts are basically the same. Based on a few examples I can see it being an interesting resource to have at hand if you really wanted to ask someone you admired how they accomplished something - be it a specific creation or a broader goal. Feel free to ask me a question.

I love a good collaboration and the new film 88:88 seems to have all the right ingredients for something particularly special. The film is directed by Joey Ciccoline, scored by Makeup and Vanity Set, and has accompanying artwork from Version Industries. You can check out the exclusive first song from the soundtrack and the trailer by heading over here. The trailer works just as a teaser should - it doesn't give much away about the plot but it creates a good bit of intrigue. I'm looking forward to the both the full soundtrack and the film itself.. I think you will be too.

Will Jardine and I tend to share a lot of nerdy interests. Many of my development links come straight from his blog. When I saw that he was working on an iPhone game I was excited for its debut. That day has come and the game is available now. You can preview A Little Turbulence right here but I suggest you just steer on over the App Store, drop .99cents on it and enjoy. Hopefully this is just the first of many games to come!

Technically speaking, it's been two weeks since I've posted a collection of videos because ole Mikesell handled the duties last week. So, with that in mind, this weeks playlist is rather hefty. Maybe you've seen them all. Maybe you haven't. Either way, it's another installment of weekly distraction.

• Aziz Ansari's Dangerously Delicious Promo - yea, I mentioned earlier this week that I was involved with the VHX team and the launch of the new Aziz Ansari site but it bears repeating. Let's make this thing a success!
• Mad Men: The Game - just watch the opening sequence on this. The actual "gameplay" isn't all that engaging but the title sequence done with 8-bit graphics and sound is top notch.
• DJ Flula Remixes Celebrities - why not make these press junket interviews interesting? And who better to make uncomfortable than the comic cast of Jeff Who Lives At Home. My favorite part is that Mark Duplass seems incredibly un-amused.
• Good Books "Metamorphosis" - Good Books sells books online and pases profits on to Oxfam. The relationship of that idea to this phenomenal animation paying homage to Hunter S Thompson is sort of unclear but... whatever. It looks great.
• Sony Xperia via Wes Anderson + Laika - reknowned animation studio Laika and everyone's favorite director, Wes Anderson, did this great bit for Sony Xperia. I've no interest in the product but it's a quality commercial.
• Pentagram Sam - words fail me in describing my delight in this video. Is it parody? Is it an actual complaint against people faking interest in dark arts? Is it a legit expression of keeping it legit? Whatever it is, it's captivating from start to finish.
• High-Pitched Voice Theory - vocal expert examines neanderthal vocal tracks and theorizes what our ancestors might have sounded like. Because it's British, it's impossible to tell if this is a joke or actual news reporting. It can go either way.
• Coca-Cola Contest - just an impressive animation that you should definitely watch.
• Kurt Vonnegut on the Shapes of Stories - Vonnegut's delivery style is always amusing and his take on story archetypes is a great example of his perfect blend of sarcasm, bitterness and goofiness.
• Don't Talk - I've no background info on this feel good pixel animation and I don't want any. Especially because the ending is just too inexplicable.

There are loads of other videos that you probably shouldn't miss out there on the Internet this week - like this or this or this or this but I'll trust that you've already run across them.

Have a great weekend.

Browsing through the photostream of Joe Holmes I was impressed at the number of amusing or terrifically solid captures he is consistently capable of. Then I hit up his official portfolio and got my mind blown. Turns out, Mr. Holmes actually uses his photostream for the day-to-day captures and his portfolio isn't just a mirror of that - it truly is a collection of his best works. The Workspace and AMNH sets stopped me in my tracks.

Ever find yourself in need of some Social Sharing assets and end up having to go to Facebook, take a screenshot and clumsily insert a placeholder for your comp? Well, Squidfingers is here to help ya out with this Share Buttons PSD. Go nab it and rest easy on procuring assets until the next social network takes off and you need their buttons.

Are you familiar with the Adult Swim show Superjail? You probably should be. Every episode begins with a complete different intro sequence of bizarre, ridiculous, hilarious or murderous scenes. You can watch a compilation of them here or just head over to the blog of Matt Taylor; who is posting screens from every intro from Season 2. It's hard to imagine coming up with so many different scenarios for every episode but he certainly does it.

via Mr. Jelinek.

Remember when I told you about the forthcoming Hunger Games prequel game Girl on Fire? You know, the one developed by the likes of Adam Saltsman, Danny Baranowsky and Paul Veer? Yea, well, it's now available for download and I recommend snagging it. First and foremost because it's really well put together and entertaining to play but, secondly, because it's Free - so why not? Thirdly, this is definitely a trend we'd all like to see continue (right?) and the more downloads the better for the cause.

The art style is great and the gameplay is simple but not so dumbed down that it's not challenging. Just how a game should be. You can read more about it but, really, just go snag it.

Adobe has released the beta download of Photoshop CS6 - always a vaguely exciting time to check out their crazy new features like Content-Aware Patching and the like but their biggest features are rarely the things I use all that often. Fortunately, the folks over at Bjango have a great list of CS6 improvements for designers - including Layer Styles on Groups, Lorem Ipsum Pasting and a load of other tiny improvements that, on the whole, should make a big difference. I know there are those that argue that Photoshop may be on the way out for lighter alternative but I think as long as they keep maintaining these kinds of improvements, they'll be around for quite awhile long.

Maybe you still don't quite understand Inception or maybe you're just a fan of well designed animated infographics related to topics you enjoy? Either way, browse on over to this Inception Explained site for a bit of scrolling madness. Site creator Matt Dempsey deserves some major pats on the back for his work on such a thing - it's perfectly simple and engaging. I particularly love the little details like the snoring icons or the death badges that appear on characters - well played!

Yesterday, Aziz Ansari launched a new website touting his latest comedy special, Dangerously Delicious. It costs $5 and the funds go straight to Aziz; no middleman distributor or additional hands in the pocket of the artist. You may recall Louis CK doing this first (and Jim Gaffigan planning it for April). It's a trend that's worth repeating. You can watch a preview of the special but if you like Aziz, it's a safe bet that it will be five bucks well spent.

So why is this important to me beyond the comedy special itself? Well, I designed the whole thing in collaboration with VHX and Aziz's people. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and couldn't be more excited to see the VHX Artists platform (an empowerment tool to sell video directly to fans) make its with someone so worthwhile. Read more about the whole thing right here.

Long story short, Aziz Ansari has a new special you should go buy. Not only because Aziz is great but because it will prove the undertaking by myself and VHX is something worth growing.