You look away from the Internet for one day and you might end up missing out on something incredibly worthwhile. This almost happened to me yesterday with the I Come To ShanghaiKickstarter project. The duo of Sam Frigard and Robert Ashley created one of my absolute favorite records with Eternal Life Vol. 1 and now they're looking to put Eternal Life Vol. 2 together with it in one complete 12" package. The fundraising has actually already reached its goal but I implore you to go ahead and submit your monies to get the record - I've been fortunate enough to hear it and it's every bit as good as Volume 1.
Drew gave me the heads up on this new Universal logo from the fine folks at WETA. You can read more about it here and here but I think you get the gist; they updated the logo to celebrate their 100th anniversary. My only wish was that the very first iteration of this bumper had all the continents connected as Pangea and they've slowly been drifting apart with every iteration since.
Timothy Allen is a phenomenal photographer. His work with the Human Planet series is captivating. He recently posted about his wintery travels to the Bulgarian tribute to Communism, the Buzludzh Monument. The building is absolutely enormous, intricately designed inside and out and, since 1989, completely abandoned. Take some time to read the story on his travels there, it's historically insightful and provides plenty of visuals to go along with it.
I dunno how I'm just now stumbling into the interview archives at The Great Discontent but I am glad that I am. Tina Roth Eisenberg, Chuck Anderson, Derek Webb and a whole huge host of others are interviewed and showcased in some beautifully designed pages. It's a real treat and I'm bummed that it's taken me this long to come upon it.
Thanks to a handy headsup from Beautiful Pixels and Casey Britt I've been digging into this wonderful creation; a demo of a user dashboard for a user admin called 'Pastel.' There's a ton of CSS3 / JS there to blow your mind and it looks good. If you like it, you can make it your own and send your thanks to Jakob Pedersen - wherever he may be.
I'll admit it, I always assumed the Keep Calm and Carry On poster was British War Propaganda but never bothered to look up the exact story behind it. This video does a very pleasant job of telling the story of how the poster was unearthed at Barter Books just as recently as the year 2000. The story is certainly more interesting than the deluge of meme materials that have spun-off from it, so get familiar!
Upon first viewing, the campaign America Give Up doesn't really clearly promote anything in particular. It's just a man complaining in short burst - an intriguing enough concept in and of itself. Turns out, it's just a viral campaign for the band Howler. The jury still still out on their music but I give them credit for creating interest in such a strange way.
Ted Martens and Ken Kopecky are in the process of creating Hexels; "a new art tool based on hexagon-shaped pixels." I've no idea what the UI/UX of the actual application will be like but this gallery of examples seems pretty promising - especially if the possibility of some movement and animation could be involved.
Really loving the watercolor works of Dan Gluibizzi. Be forewarned, the majority of pieces involve nudity in some shape or form - so if you're in that Corporate IT department that frowns on artistic depicitions of the bare male and female form; maybe wait until you get home to browse through the fine archive of work.
This Speechjammer device seems to be a pretty nifty little technological undertaking. Two scientists at Japanese universities, Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada, developed a way to create an audio loop of a persons speech directed right back at them on a 0.2 second delay. Turns out that when you hear your own words on such a short turnaround it baffles the brain and shuts you down. The practical implications are still a bit unclear but you can imagine it being put into use in theatres, libraries or other such places where quiet is of the absolute importance.
Here's your playlist. Stop what you're doing, watch the videos, have an enjoyable time, rinse, repeat.
Savage Factory - inspired by Marble Madness, this animation is oddly engaging.. I want to see more of the world that's been created here.
Hyundai Azera via Wes Anderson - you've probably seen this on the TV but did you realize it was directed by Wes Anderson? You probably did because it looks like it was directed by Wes Anderson. Also, this one.
Rick Santorum - A Bad Lip-Reading - yea, it's the same trick as all the other Bad Lip-Reading videos but, as Paul says, it's a joke that never gets old. "I borrow meat... to provide for my putty-tat."
Douchebag Siri - I probably shouldn't enjoy this as much as I do but you know you agree with the sentiment.
World's First Beatboxing Champion (1938) - I'm not sure I'd call this beatboxing in the sense that you typically think of it.. maybe more Scat Singing? But whatever you wanna call it, it's great. Particularly the "trumpeting."
Ummm, Chad created this VHX Neon and I'm really hoping it becomes a reality. If you haven't picked up on it yet - I'm really smitten with VHX and think everyone should be using it to share videos and any video development needs you may have to display YouTube and Vimeo videos.. it's only going to get better.
I have previously mentioned the work of Sharpneck (aka Buddy Hughen) and my anticipation of the release of his first EP. Well, that day has come and all my hopes for it have been met - not a moment of disappointment while listening through every sometimes psychedelic, sometimes sweet, always pop song. You can preview or download it here or at whichever online retailer you typically prefer. If anything, I've probably been listening to it too much but, thus far, haven't worn it out.
If you're a web developer of any sort, you likely know the "-9999px" text indent trick to make block level elements contain crawlable SEO text but actually display graphics of some sort. It's a pretty standard undertaking but definitely a "hack." Zeldman suggests that it is time to replace that technique in favor of The Kellum Method.. which looks like this:
This kind of hackery will probably fall by the wayside as @font-face gains prominence but it's nice to have a way to achieve the same ends that doesn't require the browser to draw a 10,000px wide box with your text way offscreen.
About a month ago I got this ridiculous idea that it would be cool if Nashville's Smallest Art Gallery had a show that really utilized the street level space. Lauren Rolwing did it with her Cut-n-Paste show but I wanted to push it even further. NSAG Curator (and ridiculously long-time friend), Daniel Box, made me put my money where my mouth is and booked me for the next show.
Today marks the unveiling of said piece. Diorama Drama is now on display at 1807 21st Ave S. If you can't make it by, here's a good shot of it... and many thanks to Jamie for helping me build the structure and all the artists who's work I distressed for the backdrop.
I'm super proud to declare that today marks the launch of the newly designed menu's over at Fido Cafe that I've been working on for the past little bit. If you don't live in Nashville, this probably means next to nothing to you. If you are a resident here you can probably understand my excitement for being involved with the overhaul of a menu for a restaurant that is as respected and enjoyed as Fido.
I really should update my portfolio of works because this is a shining example of the kind of thing I'm quite proud to be working on. If you're in the area, go check them out. If not, there are onlineversions to see as well.
I'm officially calling 2012 the Year Of the Music Video Rebirth (Despite Them Never Going Anywhere)! We've had that Shins video, then that new Islands video and now this grand new Gotye video - which seems to take a nod from the Michel Gondry school of stop motion effects, simple, repeating camera moves and seemingly lo-fi production with big results. I mean that as the highest compliment - it's familiar but still very original. Darcy Prendergast at Oh Yeah Wow did a phenomenal job creating a video you can't stop watching and wondering "How'd they do that?"
The other day I stumbled on to the music of Absofacto; the side project of Mason Proper's Jonathan Visger. If you're a fan of that band (understandably) then this will be right up your alley, as his distinctive voice is as engaging as ever. If you're unfamiliar, start with Sinking Islands or All The Songs and just dive right in.
What really caught my eye through all this was the cover art archive - consistent in color palette and texture throughout - created by The Silent Giants. Even if you're not in the mood for any kind of quality new music, browse those covers for a good bit of inspiration.
Much like last year, the new Feltron Biennial Report takes a slightly different skew on the original slant of creating infographics from personally, seemingly mundane, facts. This edition explores "how his personality varies based on location and company." Whatever the angle may be - he always manages to create some compelling imagery.
Yesterday, FourSquare announced they are now using Open Street Map for their map data; instead of Google Maps. Apparently the new pricing structure from Google isn't setting well with a lot of people and FourSquare is taking charge to do something about that. Though the alternative they went with, Mapbox Streets, has their own pricing structure - so it's certainly not a free ride for anyone else looking to make the switch.
