While Textmate is pretty solid right out of the box it's great that it can be extended and improved. Arlo pointed out some handy changes worth looking into.

• The Missing Drawer - granted, there's a drawer already but this makes it appear more integrated with the OS.
• Replacement Folder Icons - scroll way down to the bottom of this page and snag the OS standard icons to replace the ones used inside the app.

I'll admit it, this weeks playlist is weird.. but that's alright, sometimes you gotta include some oddities.

• Fight for Your Right Revisited - there's a 30 minute short film included with the forthcoming Beastie Boys record that shows what happens after the party depicted in the "Fight For Your Right" video. I've been reading about this for awhile now but it's great to see a legit trailer for it. So many great people involved and even if you're not a Beastie Boys fan, it looks amusing.
• Fruit Gushers Review - I can not explain the appeal of The Food Reviewer but I can admit that it is spellbinding. This kid has tons of various food reviews that mostly consist of him eating and making surprised / pleased faces. It's weird but you can't not enjoy it.
• 2x4 Through My Windshield - even with that title, knowing what will happen, when the event occurs you will jump. Read the description for why she was filming these two trucks. Scary.
• Lemme Smang It - likely one of the more inappropriate videos I've ever posted. It's awkward, NSFW lyrics (sort of) and completely ridiculous. I love it when I can't tell if a video is a parody or not. I mean, what's going on with that guys facial hair in the rap breakdown at 2:00??
• Bicycle Built for Two - videos like this are therapeutic. Mute the sound and just enjoy the sights of an adorable dog riding on the back of a bike.
• 1979 Muppet Movie Camera Test - while there's nothing totally gripping about this or any substantial jokes it's great to see Muppets ad-libbing. Oh, and anything Muppet related that features Sweetums is a-okay in my book.

BONUS

• QR Code Resume - I still don't understand QR Codes but this is too clever not to enjoy and respect.
• Net Husk Virtual Pavilion - I may be a little late to this one (it was posted 4 months ago) but this Dean Fleischer-Camp + Jenny Slate video is perfect. Hilarious, absurd, ridiculous and gripping. The language is sometimes offensive / NSFW if that's a concern for you but, otherwise, it's phenomenal.

Have a great weekend!

For the first time in a long time, We Own This Town (the Nashville music blog I help run) posted a new video podcast. There hasn't been a podcast done in this style since 2007 - when volume #8 was released. This re-emergence into the visual medium is thanks to WOTT founder Doug Lehmann, all around video expert Andy Snyder and the recording studio gurus at Battle Tapes. Oh, and the featured band D. Watusi.

The podcast installment is different from the regular podcasts in that it's not a mixtape of musicians - it's a straightforward performance from an incredibly high-energy band. So, if you've shy'ed away from the podcasts in the past due to a time commitment - fear not! This is only about 5 minutes of your time. Watch it now.

Yesterday, Casey clued me in to the existence of FileShuttle and I can't be more happy with the results. If you've ever used an image sharing app like Cloud or Tiny Grab you know the basic premise - take a screenshot, send it to the app and you've immediately got a short URL copied to your clipboard to share it. This is incredibly handy for sharing comps, quick grabs, miscellany, whatever. But FileShuttle does it a little differently in that it uses your own server - not an Amazon bucket - so you aren't restricted by anything other than your own hosting. The setup is easy and the notification system makes it easy to know what the app is doing. I am loving it and I think if you've got the need for an app of this style, you will too.

Nashville's Zeitgeist gallery is currently showing an exhibition from artist John Donovan entitled This Ridiculous Fight that portrays a number of bizarre cast of characters influenced by "Pre-Columbian clay warriors, Japanese Haniwa horses, colossal Olmec heads and primitive weapons." There's a nice mix of sculpted pieces and detailed drawings, all depicting these odd warriors branded by Hello Kitty logos brandishing various tools of destruction. Long story short, it's well worth a visitation if you're in the area. If not, enjoy the goods online.

I previously mentioned the recently released Superbrothers game Sword and Sworcery and now I'm equally excited to inform you of the downloadable Jim Guthrie soundtrack, The Ballad of the Space Babies. If you've played the game, you know the vibe of the music. If you've not played it yet, spend some time previewing it.. it's an odd mix of hypnotic looping, 8-bit influences, medieval tones and grand sweeping gestures.. not an easy mix to pull off but he definitely does.

Get it and then be sure to read more about it.

Heads up via Caspar.

• Solarized Theme - a color scheme developed by Ethan Schoonover that works just as well on dark backgrounds as it does on light backgrounds. Aside from being great to implement in your code editor of choice the actual rationale behind it is fascinating and quite smart. Even if you're not into the colors presented, you can't deny the thinking involved. Download the variants here.
• Life Beyond HTTP - it's odd to think that HTTP may become extinct one day in favor of something more efficient but it's already happening. Google has developed the SPDY protocol and, assuming you use Chrome, you may already be using it.

Aaron has posted up a great new mix entitled Soily: The Other Side of Paul McCartney (1970 - 1972) that examines the post-Beatles song exploration. He says it best here:

You can feel what must’ve been an enormous sense of freedom pour through some of these songs. The recordings are reckless at times, almost always joyous, and rarely exactly what you’d expect.

The mix comes with particularly serendipitous timing as I've been hanging out with John Baldwin and there is no bigger / obsessed McCartney fan that I've ever met than him. Just earlier this week he was showing me this footage of McCartney in a reclusive state after the band broke up... which just so happens to be right in time with when many of these songs from the mix were recorded. Go get it.

My pal Jed encounters a number of links that tackle topics typically far beyond the cognitive requirements of the standards of this site but I still appreciate them. The following I found particularly interesting and I'm reposting them directly from him.

• News You Can Use - a list of useful facts that likely go against your daily habits but would be ideal to adopt to improve your life. I think the non-daily shower routine is something I can get into...
• Constitutionally rotten - a great writeup on the the flawed thinking involved with constantly drumming up the Constitution / Founding Father Worship™ for rationale against a progressive mentality. The idea being, a revision to the somewhat antiquated text might do our country some good. I like the idea here but I fear what kind of horrible mess would come of it if anyone actually tried to make it happen.

It seems that Bandcamp is quickly becoming the ubiquitous destination for bands to host their music, a mentality I can approve of. Bandcamp Hunter scours through the offerings of said service and posts the best findings. Discovering new music these days is a difficult task given the number of options out there.. it's entirely possible that Bandcamp Hunter could serve as a gatekeeper straight to your preferred tastes. Give it a go.

I had previously posted about some Small Business Advice from Jason Fried that I found insightful and now I'm encountering more gems from the head of 37signals that I think most of us could benefit from. His take on Why I Run a Flat Company is particularly pertinent to those of us who work for small endeavors - companies where moving "up" isn't really an option. He stresses that the upward mobility option is for some but shouldn't be for all. He emphasizes that employees become "experts" in their chosen focus rather than worry about when they'll be entering the management realm. It's an inspired take on the standard business setup.

Nashville's Smallest Art Gallery recently posted a new show featuring works from Adrienne Miller. The show, We Have Been Here Before, features 14 pieces that incorporate a number of styles I enjoy - vintage photography, chaotic interruptions, traced and collaged elements and a color palette that is right up my alley. If you can, swing by the gallery and take a look. If not, enjoy the show online.

As a side note, if you do the whole Facebook thing - go Like NSAG.. it deserves more than 7 fans.

Photographer Mark Tucker took it upon himself to create a series of profiles / mini-documentaries on various artists, craftsmen (and women) and any number of talented individuals from around the Nashville area and compile them into a site entitled My Day With. The range of people covered is pretty fascinating - Hal Humphreys: Private Investigator, Lain York: Art Curator, Mike Grimes: Music Proprietor, Sarah Souther: Marshmallow Maker, etc. etc. There's a lot to take in but none of the profiles are so intense that you can't enjoy them in just a few minutes time. It's a great repository of people doing inspiring things - no matter where you reside.

If you haven't heard, Jay-Z recently launched a lifestyle site called Life + Times. There's an introductory video of sorts to give you kind of idea of the types of things they'll be covering - just about everything related to social culture. I know next to nothing about the world of Jay-Z and couldn't comment how any of the content is directly related to his interests or personality but I can say that it's a rather interesting layout and user experience. At the root of it, it's a traditional blog but the way the information is presented is unique. Music posts are oddly enigmatic until you click to hear the song, the search is huge (but not the biggest I've seen), etc. etc.

Long story short, even if you have no interest in a Culture Site - you should check it out for the design and user experience. And then maybe commend Area17 for a job well done.

The What Font? Bookmarklet is a handy little tool from Chengyin Liu to identify fonts used on a website. He makes a good point that tools like this already exist but can be a little overboard if you're just curious to know what typeface was implemented and don't want to dig through a bunch of source code. I'm enjoying having it handy, I think you will too.

via Daniel.

My friend Martin stumbled across some amusing samples tucked away in the "Voices" Jam Pack from Apple and decided to post them for us all. His description does it the best justice:

I was idly flipping through all the various samples in my install of Logic when I stumbled upon this gem. Apparently as part of the "Voices" Jam Pack, Apple offers this set of sounds for anyone who doesn't have any "urban" friends but would like to make their Garageband production sound a little more "street".

Prepare to cringe. This is just me playing a chromatic scale on through. Oh and inexplicably at the end it goes all fake David Lee Roth and Wanky British Session Musician.

Mindblowing.

Mindblowing indeed. And hilarious.

I'll be totally honest, I'm entirely ignorant to the musical styles of Hidden Pictures. However, I do know that their latest album, Synchronized Sleeping, was designed by Jordan Gray and the results are great. I love the illustration style, the texturing and the notion of having an album cover that you really have to spend some time with to fully appreciate all the little details. So, it is my utmost recommendation that you browse through the design and listen to the album while doing so.. I'm doing just that.

I'm a sucker for a well done Double Exposure photograph and this entire set from Dan Mountford is a prime example of why. According to the descriptions none of the effects were created in Photoshop, only color and level balancing. It's actually hard to believe that since they are so so good. Take some time, browse them all and then visit his online store if you're curious about the possibility of purchasing one of these incredible creations.

via Courtney

Graham Roumieu is an amusing guy. If you've not read his Bigfoot books you should take some time to find a copy and enjoy. His portfolio is full of ridiculousness and just plain goodness. So, it's no surprise that browsing through his Junk Drawer of quick drawings, emerging ideas and general absurdity is so entertaining.

via Zea.

Sadly, my time with Tumblr lately has been limited due to overwhelming work demands but I can't assume that's how it is for everyone. So, I'm going to go ahead and recommend that you add the following two streams to your Dashboard; you're sure to gain from it.

• Flux-Rad, expect to find random images, amusing memes, industry news, absurdity and the occasional music track to enjoy.
• Anthony Volodkin is Fascinated - Mr. Volodkin runs Hype Machine and I had the pleasure of hanging out with him at the last SXSW; quite the down to earth and amusing individual. His Tumblr has a bunch of great insight on music industry related goods, music to check out and various NY culture.

Who else should I be following? I mean, beyond the obvious.