James and Karla Murray have done a phenomenal job of documenting the, now, declining storefronts of NYC. This gallery shows a tiny bit of their eight year undertaking and the great signage they were able to capture. I'd love to believe that one day all the Papa Johns, Subway and Burger King signs scattered about any metropolitan area will look as vintage and compelling as this but their lack of uniqueness prevents that from ever happening. These stores are, most likely, Mom and Pop undertakings that are seeing their last light.. it's a bummer to see them go but at least someone is out there capturing them.

via Courtney.

Seems like developers are really going nuts with the Instagram API lately, huh? There was Inkstagram, then Carousel and now The Barbarian Group has released Screenstagram - a custom screensaver that plugs right into your Instagram account and displays photos from your connections. The animation demo shows that it's a pretty lively (and smooth) bit of animation. Not too shabby!

It has come to my attention lately that the Weather Channel App I'm using for insight into weather forecasting is maybe a bit subpar in the UI/UX department. I realized this by stumbling upon Shine - a very sleek, clean, fun-looking weather app. I'm not sure it's as informative but it certainly looks nicer. And then Chad pointed out that Weather HD is really the only way to go. It's iPad / iPhone compatible so you get your moneys worth and it successfully rides that line of absurd information presentation and engaging experience (i.e. you float through a giant storm when it's raining).

In the long run, I'm not all too concerned with what Weather app I use (first world problem) but I do love a good design battle.

For some reason I've got it in my head that very few people actually care about my ongoing documentation of the Nashville music scene via podcast in the form of We Own This Town. Is that going to stop me? No way. So, with that said - here's Volume 44; a half hour of solid rock from top to bottom. You don't like the rock-n-roll? So be it! If so, I implore you to listen, download and find out more about the bands you enjoy the most.

While checking out the Mutual Benefit record that I told you about yesterday it came to my attention that the artwork was put together by one Nathaniel Whitcomb. His work mainly consists of a lot of different collage undertakings; many of which are what he calls Motion Collages. Though they are slow paced, they provide a nice bit of additional life to some already engaging pieces of work. Take some time to go through the plethora of collages he has made fro Holy Spirits, Mutual Benefit and (especially) Monster Rally.

For as much flak as Flash receives for being an archaic bit of technology (clunky, poor UI/UX, somewhat un-necessary) there are times when its usage is quite appropriate. Enter: the official site for Terrence Malik's The Tree of Life. If you've not seen the trailer yet, do so now. Then dive into the site and enjoy the fact that it gives you a vague idea of what's going on in the movie but doesn't give too much away. The interface is interesting, the content is engaging and pulling it off without Flash would be a nightmare. Approved.

Heads up via Keegan.

Though I've not actually used it (yet) I have to thank Chad for the heads up on BoxyTunes; an iOS app that syncs with your Dropbox account and lets you play music and create playlists from your cloud storage. From the description I'm not entirely convinced it is the be-all, end-all solution to the cloud music player but it's one of those underdogs that I'm happy to see in the running. Read more here, get it here.

I am not sure how I'm just now becoming aware of the works of Dana Tanamachi but better late than never. While she's talented in a number of formats it is, absolutely, her Chalk Lettering that will grab you. The old world letterforms are perfect.. particularly when paired with her great eye for layout and presentation. You should browse through each and every one of them that she has posted - both for fueling your jealousy to work harder and your inspiration to know someone is doing something so great.

And when you're done with that, check out her vimeo to watch a number of timelapse videos of the creation process.

It recently came to my attention that Mutual Benefit has released another musical excursion on Father/Daughter Records. The album is a split 12" shared with Holy Spirit - so maybe it's just half an album but it's still new and it's still quite enjoyable.

You can preview or order the album here or snag an individual track below.. part of it reminds me of Grandaddy and that's about the highest praise I can give.

Reduxed movie posters have a short lifespan in the fickle world of Internet browsings.. there's always a new one right around the corner. However, Silver Screen Society aims to make that lifespan a little longer with a two-fold maneuver.. choose only great movies as subjects and keep the list of designers involved short and talented. Example: this Chris DeLorenzo poster for O Brother, Where Are Thou? is phenomenal; no denying that.

The only bummer is that the archives of the site aren't as easy to browse as the main homepage feature. There's a lot of clicking back and forth.. so you may just want to dive into the blog archives to see all the previous works. You'll probably see a familiar face or two.

Shablazm gave me the heads up on two online emulators created to properly hold steadfast to your nostalgic days of Nintendo immersion. Gameboy Online and Play Nintendo are both huge repositories of all your favorite carts playable right through the browser (assuming you have Java enabled). It's not exactly the same enrapturing experience without the controller handy but sometimes it's nice to revisit the old look of days gone by.

Another busy week and some crazy YouTube hiccups prevented me from putting together a more fleshed out playlist but I think you'll still find plenty enjoyable here.

• Best of Troy Barnes - for some reason these compilation videos of Donald Glover are making the rounds and I'm rather enjoying them. Be sure not to miss this or this, especially.
• Singer Smacks Guitarist Over Awful Solo - not even a good guitar solo could have saved this song. Ridiculous.
• Cat is in charge - never seen an animal behave like this.. insanity.
• Kitten vs Scary Thing - yes, a second cat video. The music is beyond perfect.
• Badi (Turkish ET) - not something I expect anyone to actually watch but just scrub through and you'll be greeted with a bit of weirdness no matter where you land.

Not even bonus videos this week. Sorry! Enjoy your weekend.. it's Friday the 13th!

Daniel recently went hunting around for some Photoshop actions that mimicked the filtered look of Instagram and came up empty. Instead of just throwing in the towel he decided to take it upon himself to bring them into the world. So, he's posted Instagram Filters as Photoshop Actions for the world to download at their leisure. Thus far he's taken a stab at the "Nashville" and "Earlybird" effect. They're so close to the original you'd be hard pressed to find anything to complain about (yes, the borders were omitted and, no, you won't miss them).

Long story short - go grab these actions.

I've been a fan of Jay Howell for some time now but I'm particularly smitten with his latest round of art on book pages. Aside from being a sucker for aged paper I think the interplay between the titles and his characters is just too entertaining. According to one of the posts a selection of the pieces will be made into a zine for Mt. St. Mtn. - so, keep an eye out for that.

Thanks to Jessica for the heads up.

The Man In Blue is, apparently, a man of many talents. Not only has he created a dense mash-up of Daft Punk with loads of other samples but he's taken it to the next level and created a visualized realtime breakdown of what's happening. It's impressive to see how much is packed into one song and even more jaw dropping to realize the visualizer is done without the aid of Flash. Even if you don't care about the technology behind it, give it a spin.. you can't help but be drawn in.

via Madrid.

I'll be honest, I saw the Chromebook site and wasn't all that jazzed on the idea. Then I saw their amusing commercial and started to think a bit more highly of the undertaking. The idea of an Internet only machine is absolutely where we are headed but I don't think we're there yet. I recall a WIRED review that said much the same thing. Someday down the line we'll look back at our non-cloud based computing and laugh at the thought of it but that day is a way off in the future. I commend Google for pushing things forward but I can't imagine the Chromebook being very handy for much of anything beside some lazy browsing or emailing.

I'm obviously biased given that I sit in front of a computer for 9 hours a day and do plenty of things without the aid of the Internet but there are those that could do with a machine that just emails and creates spreadsheets... so maybe this is exactly what they need? Thoughts?

Whatever your thoughts are on Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth; put them aside. While it's true that the site for Our Choice is in promotion of the same subject matter that's not what I'd like you to pay attention to. The site design itself is what you should be looking at - as it is rather spectacular bit of subtle treatments all throughout it. The way the videos expand or zoom up, the enormous / borderline hilarious footer, the tooltips, the giant iPad / iPhone screen transitions, etc. It's a nice site and the app itself looks to be incredibly well done.

The subject matter also looks interesting but I know that there are those that get riled up about anything vaguely political / environmental so I'm trying to play the cautious card for the nut jobs.

via Chad.

Whenever I hear that there is some new phenomenal show at Gallery 1988 I am fairly suspect of the contents. There are only so many paintings of the Mario Brothers that I can look at excitedly. So, reading that there was a Olly Moss show was met with some trepidation. Fortunately, seeing the results has quelled that feeling. The show consists entirely of silhouettes of pop culture characters ranging from Lord of the Rings to The Simpsons to Die Hard (the John McClane is particularly good) to ET to a load of other vaguely nerdy subjects. The simplicity of the style and the sheer volume of the pieces is enough to make you love it.

heads up via Waxy.

Apparently Angry Birds is stopping at being one of the most popular apps for mobile devices, now they want your desktop too. You can grab the Chrome app version of the game and play right there in your browser. It's still beta and, frankly, not as enjoyable of an experience using a mouse but it's impressive that it's being done without the use of Flash.

via Derble.

On a somewhat unrelated note, what's up with Chrome store links being the most un-memorable thing in the world? Why is there a nonsensical hash associated with every entry? You'd think since it's brought to you by Google that they'd strive to have a decent url.

I am very pleased to announce that the next yk records release will be from one of my favorite bands of the past few years; Kindercastle. One of the founding members of the group is Ross Wariner; also known as Uncle Skeleton - the first artist I had the pleasure to work with.

But I digress, the debut Kindercastle album, In A Tizzy, was a phenomenal little piece of pop music - influenced by a myriad of artists like ELO, Mouse on Mars, Raymond Scott and even Carl Sagan. The follow-up, number b, is much the same but even more realized. It's a pop gem through and through but not without actual depth. It's incredibly smart, textured, catchy and experimental. It manages to do a lot and still stay within the confines of a pop record. Long story short, I love it and am pleased beyond belief that I get to have a hand in getting it out into the world.

The album will be released May 27th, 2011 and be available in digital and vinyl formats on that day. The incredible artwork is by S. Britt - whom I've also been a fan of for some time and seemed like the perfect collaborator for the task (he was).

I'll stop gushing now but expect to hear lots more about this. Please get excited / intrigued by listening to two tracks from the record - Beddie Bye and D's All Round.