Music, Art, & Design
The Fantastic Adventures of Adam Ant
Alternate Post title: “Adam Ant – Hero of a Hundred Ages…” I love it!
via Yucky Tuna
Excellent Live / Stop-Motion Video by Oren Lavie
This has been making the rounds on a lot of the blogs I watch. It’s a pretty amazing stop-motion video (using live people) for the song, Her Morning Elegance, by Oren Lavie.
I really like this song, but the rest of the album doesn’t really appeal to me.
YouTube Link
Anna Nalick Covers Breaking the Girl
Anna Nalick covers the classic Red Hot Chili Peppers song, Breaking the Girl. I like it. I think she did a nice job.
Anna’s version is available on iTunes.
via O’Bedlam!!!
Prevent cables from falling behind your desk with “CableDrop”
One of the coolest things I saw at Macworld this year, was actually one of the cheapest, and smallest. They’re simple little doohickeys (technical term) from a company called, Blue Lounge. They call them CableDrops, and as the name implies they keep your cables from falling off the back of your desk when you disconnect your device.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t buy any CableDrops right now, as they won’t be available for another 6 weeks. I did get a couple free samples, and they’re pretty cool. They’ll sell 6 for $10 when they come out. Check the site around the end of February.
Podium: The best iPhone Stand on the Market
A friend of mine recently quit his day job to follow his dream. He formed a new company to make great products, and do some great industrial design. Their first product went on sale this week after being announced at Macworld. It’s called the Podium. It’s a new stand for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and it really is pretty cool.
My friend actually showed me the prototype for the Podium about a year ago, long before there was anything even similar to it on the market. Since then a few stands have come out that are in the same vein, but the quality of those other stands just don’t compare.
The Podium is really precision made, and has substantial weight to it (it’s heavy). The other thing that really sets the Podium apart is the ball joint on the back. It allows you to swivel your iPhone in just about any angle. I forgot to mention this in the video, but the hole in the back is a cable pass-through, to help manage clutter when your iPhone is plugged in.
I’ll be honest and say that the current price of $68 is a little steep, but you have to consider the quality. You get what you pay for.
I ended up throwing this little video together because the pictures just don’t do it justice, but if you want to see the stills I shot first, here’s the front, and here’s the ball joint.
Check out the Podium (and buy one) at www.podiumrevolution.com.
UPDATE (1/26/2009): The Podium guys have just come out with an Affiliate Program. I updated my links in this post to reflect my new affiliate link. Buying a Podium through my link will send a few bucks my way. :) And, if you use my link, with the coupon code, “revolution”, you’ll save 20%.
How to upgrade your music to 256 kbps DRM-Free versions in iTunes
Earlier today Apple announced that they’re removing Digital Rights Management (DRM) from music bought through the iTunes music store. They also announced that you could upgrade your previously purchased music from the old standard (128 kbps protected file) to the new format (256 kbps DRM Free) for $0.30 per song on individual tracks or 30% of the current album price on full albums, but it’s not immediately apparent on how you go about doing that.
It’s actually very easy… simply open iTunes and select the iTunes Store in the sidebar (on the left). On the store home page, look in the upper right, under QUICK LINKS, for “Upgrade my Library”. Clicking that will take you to a summary page of what it would cost to upgrade everything you’ve bought. Don’t worry, you won’t be charged unless you click the “Buy” button on that summery screen.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any way of upgrading individual tracks or albums… it’s either everything you’ve bought, or nothing. Also, since the entire catalogue offered through iTunes hasn’t been upgraded to the new format yet, not everything will be available. In my own tests, only about half of what I’ve bought is available for upgrade. Apple should have everything updated by the end of March, 2009.
Personally, I’m bummed about the all or nothing approach Apple has taken. I really don’t want to upgrade everything I’ve bought.
UPDATE (1/07/2009): Macworld has posted much more information about this.
Website Interface Stencil by Design Commission
If you’re a web designer who still likes to do your initial sketches using good old fashioned paper and pencil, this ingenious little web stencil kit may be exactly what you need.
Originally sent out as a limited-edition promotional item by Design Commission, their web stencil was so popular they’re doing another run that will go on sale in January, 2009.
The kit will include:
- Custom-etched eraser shield
- Browser pad (fully W3C compliant!)
- A handy mechanical pencil for those “hard to reach” places
See their blog post for more information.
via Swiss Miss
Content precedes design
I just came across this quote by Jeffrey Zeldman in my bookmarks and realized I forgot to blog about it:
Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration.
I couldn’t agree more.
It seems pretty simple, right? It’s along the same lines as, “form follows function”. But regardless of whether it’s a website, brochure, poster, or whatever, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been asked… Can’t you just design it, and I’ll give you the content later? My answer is always the same… yes, but it won’t be as good.
Now that’s a big freakin calendar
For 2009 Anne Marie and I decided to dress up our kitchen with a little classic design… or should I say, a BIG classic design. It’s the Stendig 2009 Wall Calendar, available from Crate & Barrel.
This 4′x3′ calendar is based on a 1966 design by Massimo Vignelli, which is on permanent display in New York’s Museum of Modern Art. It alternates every other month from black text on white to white text on black. It really is beautiful.
Bettie Page dies at 85
I was so sad to hear this. Celebrated 50’s pin-up model and pop icon, Betty Page, died yesterday as a result of a heart attack she suffered on December 2nd. She was 85 years old.
From LA Times:
A cult figure, Page was most famous for the estimated 20,000 4-by-5-inch black-and-white glossy photographs taken by amateur shutterbugs from 1949 to 1957. The photos showed her in high heels and bikinis or negligees, bondage apparel — or nothing at all.
Decades later, those images inspired biographies, comic books, fan clubs, websites, commercial products — Bettie Page playing cards, dress-up magnet sets, action figures, Zippo lighters, shot glasses — and, in 2005, a film about her life and times, “The Notorious Bettie Page.”
Interesting note on Bloomberg:
The college-educated beauty queen who disappeared from the public eye after 1957 was unaware of her renewed popularity until “Entertainment Tonight” broadcast a television segment about her almost 40 years later. She had disowned her glamour lifestyle after becoming a born-again Christian in 1959, and later battled mental illness in Florida and California.
Links: BettyPage.com | Wikipedia | Time | LA Times | CNN | Bloomberg | Flickr
The Author
Categories
- Advertising (10)
- Apple (541)
- Art (12)
- Bay Area (128)
- Design (19)
- Environment (6)
- General (280)
- Hardware (126)
- iPhone (11)
- Just for Fun (248)
- Mac (16)
- Movies & TV (263)
- Music, Art, & Design (351)
- my work (25)
- Personal (91)
- Photography (19)
- Quickies (65)
- Random Image (35)
- Software (391)
- Technology (109)
- Tips & Tricks (217)
- travel (38)