Words escape me when it comes to expressing how entirely excited I am to officially announce the debut full-length from And the Relatives. Green Machinery is now available courtesy of yk records and Theory 8 Records. You can snag the record digitally here or snag some limited edition vinyl right here.
The packaging on the vinyl is a thing of beauty that is not easy to capture with photos. The gatefold design contains the photography of the extremely talented Matthias Heiderich, screen printed with a clear overlay and custom exterior sleeve from BOSS Construct. It's nothing like the flat jpg image representing it, it's layers of beauty. Granted, I'm biased but I assure you it is awesome.
I could gush on and on about the record but I'll let you form your own opinion. Please, go listen and let it sink in.. there's much goodness to be gained from it.
Photographer Damon Winter recently shared a number of images from his time with the 87th Infantry of the 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan - not a particularly noteworthy event in and of itself but the fact that he used his iPhone and the Hipstamatic app to take all of the photos in this series is. He notes that the soldiers were more comfortable with a cell phone taking shots than a huge Canon 5D. It's a great gallery worth browsing..
After reading this review of the app Aweditorium I was curious to see what was really going on. The interface looked interesting and I've never been sold on any "Music Discovery" service, so it seemed like it was worth a try. Turns out, it's The Sixty One as an iPad app. This is both good and bad. It's bad because there are notes popping up over your song all the time and there are icons that do things but it's not clear, at all, what you're doing when you click on something. It's good because they actually have a good repository of music and the overall interface is much more suited for iPad than the web... you just need to stumble upon a good string of artists all together.
Here's the story: my friend Chad worked at a little startup called Hot Potato. They have since been consumed into the massive entity known as Facebook and he has moved on to other adventures. While there he made some fantastic illustrations to serve as awards / badges for their users. I find them quite amusing and suggest you spend some time with them deciphering which is your favorite. My vote is on Bookworm, Foodie or MacGrubed.. how about you?
It was somewhat big news yesterday when Apple announced that they'd be offering their "Find My Phone" service free for everyone as long as you have an iTunes / MobileMe account setup. That's great and all but did you know about the service I Can't Find My Phone? They, simply enough, call your phone so you can hear it ring. Granted, if you actually lost it out and about or happened to have your phone on ringer it's not going to do much good but it's cool to see tools like this exist and are so easy to use.
The idea behind the forthcoming Jake Gyllenhaal undertaking Source Code sounds pretty ridiculous - the government has developed a way to insert the consciousness of one of their soldiers into another person, for the last 8 minutes of their life. If this were described to me with no other explanation, I'd say it would make for a fairly average, but likely forgettable, sci-fi movie. The trailer isn't half bad but still leaves a little to be desired. However, it is directed by Duncan Jones - who won me over 150% with Moon. So, I'm reserving judgment until I actually see the thing as I bet he handles it better than your average director.
I really need to get my act together and finish another mix of my own but I've really been enjoying the goods from other people.. and I believe you will as well.
Cold Front - a single mp3 mix of twelve songs intended to get you hunkering down into the winter-y weather.. brought to you by Davis.
Moonville Tunnel - I haven't even finished downloading this yet but based entirely on the track listing I've got a good feeling about it. I mean, White Denim and an intense R. Kelly remix on compilation? Sign me up. via Paige.
I haven't really watched the ole Tim & Eric Awesome Show in a long time - I prefer to just see the highlights on YouTube instead of trying to persevere the intense awkwardness of the majority of skits. That being said, I'm still curious about their success and how exactly it is that they get people to be involved in their sometimes nightmarish show. This Vulture countdown actually does a good job of talking to the both of them about the celebrity appearances they've had and how they came out. The most surprising part about is that they seem to answer the questions somewhat seriously.
Loving the layout and portfolio over at WINTR - lots of little subtle animations to bring you into the page without ever being over the top. The work itself is quite nice as well but I'm having a blast just clicking through every page checking out their usage of HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript combos.. and feeling sort of jealous about it. Sites like this are great inspiration to push yourself further.. it's not intensely over the top but just the right amount of new technologies to be quite tasteful.
I will readily admit that I think NBC's Community is fast becoming one of the brightest shows on TV. After reading interviews with Dan Harmon, Danny Pudi, Gillian Jacobs, Alison Brie and Donald Glover it is obvious that everyone working on the show gets it. So, when I read that they were doing a claymation episode I wasn't filled with the cringing feeling one would normally have. Long story short, if you aren't watching (or downloading) this show - you should probably consider it.
A pretty decent playlist this week I believe.. please enjoy.
Ukranian 60's Pop - it's 7:30 long but it's enjoyable from start to finish. The perfect soundtrack for any day.
Coffee Dream - I start dying laughing every time this video fires up. The craziest part about it is that there are a ton of shots.. this obviously took a whole lot of work.
Cat Hiccup Fart - Is this likely an overdubbed sound? Probably. Do I care? Absolutely not.
Kitten Surprise - sometimes the best place to look for a heartwarming surprise is under a pile of kittens.
Inception (Animal Edition) - I keep telling myself I shouldn't enjoy this but I can't help it.. I was highly entertained.
Naked Grandma - you know those clip shows of outrageous old game shows where people say outlandish things? And you wonder - why don't people do that anymore? Well, they do. This one will be repeated on America's Funniest Game Show Moments Volume 48 for years to come.
Hot Chip - "Didn't Know What Love Was" - with Bernard Sumner and Hot City... and sponsored by Converse. It's kind of a bummer that the corporate tie-in is involved here (everyone is wearing their sneakers in the video) but it is a good video regardless. So, does it matter? Is that what they're going for?
Have you ever wanted your own personal jingle? Well, for just $10, Horrible Jingles is here to help. The best part? The jingle is "guaranteed to suck." I've been through the entire site and I can't stop listening to the offerings.. perfect blend of crappy, hilarious and self-aware. I mean, there's a jingle for I Love Hamburgers! Who doesn't!?
There are also Horrible Logos being offered by nothing tops the jingles as far as I'm concerned.
W+K is no stranger to creating greatness but I have to give it to their Amsterdam offices for creating The Shop; a simple gallery of goods ready for purchase populated with items ranging from respectable artist prints to absolutely absurd offers. Want 10 minutes of time with a creative time? €100. Cheese In Between Bread? €10. Perfect Peanut? €.50. Champagne Valentine ad agency? €10,000,000.
The descriptions are perfectly dry and there are loads more to jump through. Go shop.
Please take a moment to read through this entire post courtesy of Kate and Mark Morford. The tone of the headline, "Your Angry God Will Not Save You Now", is quite misleading in the argument that it presents as it really has more to do with the behavior of mankind and the terrors we create than it has to do with religion at all. I don't even know how to frame this post as an enticement to read the article - it's just a damn fine take on our society and behavior of our species.
The upshot: Environmental and social factors are much more influential in terms of disturbing and damaging the human spirit than previously thought. Which means the liberals had it right all along — the only real way to address mental illness, depression and the like isn’t with drugs; it’s about improving the toxic social climate in which they fester and breed like Tea Partiers in a bathtub of Coors. Imagine that.
And now, the grand finale. For not only does environment play a devious and even deadly role in our socio-mental downfall, but we are often the agents of our own pain. We cause our own deaths, conflicts, illnesses, every single day. We made cancer. Also, we invented war. Turns out we are disastrously good at destroying ourselves. Scientists have found almost no trace of cancer in the mummified remains of bodies from ancient civilizations. It simply did not exist. Is it because they all died too young to suffer from the disease? Maybe. But unlikely. Cancer is, it’s increasingly believed, a lovely byproduct of heavily industrialized, high tech, toxic modern society. We’re soaking in it.
That's a taste of the contents but, honestly, doesn't do the whole thing justice. Please read it and soak in the message; it's worth your five minutes.
Please take a moment to fire up your browsers (all of them) and check out 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and The Web - an impressive online book done entirely with HTML5 that tells the history of Interneting and computing. Even if you have no interest in the contents of the book, the presentation is well worth partaking in. The transitions are smooth, the URL is clean (especially in Webkit) and, frankly, I've just not seen anything like it before done with the tools used (it's nothing new for a Flash site but pure HTML / JS is worth taking note of).
Tonight, November 19th, Action! will release their debut album Friend Weakend on vinyl and are having a little party over at Welcome to 1979 to accompany them. You may remember their open video call that goes right along with this event. I put together a video for Stare Straight Ahead and it sounds like the band was okay with it enough to show it tonight at the show. Personally, I think it's maybe a little too 'Art School' in its execution but, hey, I have no idea what I'm doing so I feel fairly excused. Regardless of my self-deprecating thoughts on it - please go watch it, listen to the band and buy that limited edition vinyl.. it sounds great.
I caught the red band trailer for the forthcoming Danny McBride / James Franco buddy movie Your Highness yesterday and I have to say I was fairly intrigued. I'm still blown away that David Gordon Green has gone so headstrong into the world of comedies but everything he's done (Pineapple Express, Eastbound and Down) has absolutely worked. I have a feeling the movie will be more of a sendup to 80's fantasy quests than the trailer might lead you to believe but I am 100% okay with that.
Heavy handed political comics can be a little too much for their own good but I'm rather enjoying The Adventures of Unemployed Man - a very traditional looking piece of work courtesy of Erich Origen and Gan Golan. You can preview a portion of Unemployed Man vs Superlotto over at CNN. I doubt I could handle an entire novel of this but it's great in bits and pieces.
I'll be honest in that I should find the new Griffin Nano Slap Wristband to be utterly ridiculous. Maybe if I was a teenage girl I could appropriately be excited about it but I'm not.. so I should find it ridiculous. But, in reality, I think it's kind of great. There's something very Dick Tracy / Batman about having a piece of electronics strapped to your wrist that lets you do so much. Would it probably look absurd if I actually wore it? Yes. Does that prevent me from considering it? Absolutely not.
PS, it's Free Shipping Day at Griffin today.. so if you want one, today's the day to get it.
ProCSSor - clean up your CSS all nice and purty with this automated tool. Seems to do a good job of condensing whitespace and, thus, saving a little bit of bandwidth (every little bit helps). via Your Favorite.
Typekit Colophon Bookmarklet - sometimes you can't tell what typeface is being used on a site implementing TypeKit.. this handy little JS snippet will figure it all out for you. I've not encountered said problem as of yet but, apparently, it's common enough to need a JS snippet so it could be good to have around! via Courtney.
