iPhone Orchestra

I have only been to a handful of orchestral performances in my time. Some of them were exhilarating and others were boring; the Boston Pops being the most enjoyable. However, I was consistently impressed at the ability for so many different sounds to assimilate in a coherent manner.

Over the years orchestras have tried to keep up with musical trends and popular interest. Performances have ranged from entire renditions of musical scores from main stream films to Video Game theme songs:

Eminence Orchestra performing songs from the video game Metal Gear Solid

Video Game Orchestra performing at the Berklee Performance Center, Boston

Students from Standford University led by their conductor, Ge Wang have taken it to the next level with their group MoPhO(short for Mobile Phone Orchestra) using, what else, iPhones.

Wired's Erin Biba goes into further detail, "MoPhO plays mostly improvisational pieces using an app that Wang built (and hopes to make public soon). Each player touches a button onscreen to select a tone, then tilts, twists, or shakes the mobile phone to change pitch and timbre..." (full article).

Get Rid of that Annoying DiggBar

Here's a quick way to opt out of the Digg Toolbar appearing in your browser:
1. Go to: http://digg.com/settings
2. Where it says "Show Digg Bar?" select "Never Show DiggBar for external links" from the drop-down menu
3. Click "Save Changes"

Below is a helpful screenshot of the page....

Is Superman faster than a speeding dildo?

Aerodynamics redux...

Suprb Scandanavian Designers

Smaller is often better...especially in the case of garage design studios, and loft creative firms. Supbr fits the bill perfectly and executes their creative influence and technological know-how with ease. For those who are familiar with the term "Too many cooks in the kitchen", being a designer/developer can be, at times, a very stressful endeavor.


Suprb are a Swedish design duo (Andreas Pihlström and Emil Olsson) based out of Stockholm. Their message is clear...they choose who they want to work with. What makes them stand-out among other small creative agencies is their open source style of working: "We see Suprb as a network of people around the globe with no beginning and no end - because it’s constantly changing. We always aim to create workgroups that combine the talents of people within Suprb’s network. This allows us to scale our team according to the size needed for a specific project, and to ensure that only the best people are hand picked to be part of the process, guaranteeing high quality results."

From a design point of view, their own website accurately reflects their style and way of thinking. With a mixture of a blog style posting format and the clean minimalist design we come to expect from the brilliant Nords; there's a very calming reassuring effect that tells the client we mean business without being pretentious.

sidenote: checkout their cool spinning "favicon"
hint: (little square image in browser)

English Premier League Top Scorers 2008/09

Poster by Daniel Elliot (Australia)

I will always be a fan of print art, long after it falls from grace and settles in the shadows of online/digital works.

typo/graphic posters is a fantastic directory of posters from a plethora of very talented designers. The website's simplicty and usability make it such an attractive destination for any designer. Two man Swedish design team Suprb (Andreas Pihlström and Emil Olsson) are the brains behind this wonderful layout, and are the subject of my next post.

With over a 100 different artists to choose from, be sure to set aside plenty of time to peruse the global talent.

The Twitter Ticker

As you may notice I've added a new feature to my blog "BL+G Tweets". This nifty little widget was discovered by a coworker of mine who was dabbling with the idea of having a stock ticker style list of peoples tweets. Our company toyed with this idea during the inauguration and it worked pretty well. People essentially came to our Inauguration 09 web page and could watch as people commented on the days events. We also implemented a similar feature during the Oscars.

A great website that has decided to use this in a more lighthearted fashion is Cursebird.com.

Here's a website that gives you the tools to replicate this on your own site: Monitter.com

The Art of 3-D

Many of us witnessed the unveiling of the 3D Superbowl ad's this year, and some were fortunate to have purchase a SOBE product which came with a pair of 3D glasses. I for one completely missed out, and blame the poor marketing campaign put forth by SOBE of alerting the public on how to obtain said "glasses".

I digress.

Wired online put out a great little 3 minute video where, "Area 2881 artist Carl Pisaturo explains how to make a 3-D camera and viewer". I've actually always been interested in how the effects are achieved, and possibly you are too. Here's the link to the video (I was going to embed, but thought better of it and want to give full credit to Wired).

ENJOY!

Shepard Fairey Has A Posse

"Shepard Fairey is a sellout..."

I've seen, read, and heard this or something like it over the last couple months, and it saddens me...

Comments like these stem from Hipsters, Skaters, self-proclaimed Street Artists, and the occasional "suit" who overheard some kids having a conversation in Downtown Crossing. Oh and i forgot to mention the disgruntled blogger looking for more hits*.

*By the way if you read this article, you're probably one of 2 (not including the contributors) who actually came across my blog.

What constitutes being a sellout?
Is it:
- creating a clothing line based off your original artwork
- selling that clothing online and in boutiques
- creating an iconic piece of political art that will resonate for generations to come
- being interviewed by a multitude of media organizations (the majority being of the independent type)
- selling books of your work
- having your work in galleries and museums
- seeing pictures of your work posted on blogs, flickr, and facebook accounts

You're right, what a fucking sellout...

I mean what artist dead or alive would want their artwork critiqued by millions of people? What artist would want to be publicly recognized for their contribution to Arts and it's community by a national figure like the President of the United States?

Just because someone becomes famous for what they've achieved DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE A SELLOUT. Besides Andy Warhol I don't think I can recall another living artist achieving such "celebratory" status. What's even more interesting is that Shepard achieved this by completely avoiding the "elitist" channels (i.e. galleries and museums). His work is more prominent on a street corner than in a Guggenheim, and that is the true nature of his work.

If you watch any interview, or read any blurb from Shepard you will notice that he almost always stresses the point that his art is interactive.

I believe that his work is for the masses, and his themes are direct representation of that. Rather than going to see the art, the art is brought to you. His ability to interact with society at such a "grass roots" level defies the common laws of art, and challenges the viewer to react to what they see. Whether that person enjoys what is actually contained within the piece should not be the point. It is the fact that they stopped and took time to actually engage it.

The question should not be what, but why.

------------

sell·out
Pronunciation:
\ˈsel-ˌau̇t\
Function:
noun
Origin:
1855–60, Americanism; n. use of v. phrase sell out

1. an act or instance of selling out.
2. an entertainment, as a show or athletic event, for which all the seats are sold.
3. Informal. a person who betrays a cause, organization, or the like; traitor.
4. Informal. a person who compromises his or her personal values, integrity, talent, or the like, for money or personal advancement.


If Shepard Fairey is truly a sellout, please enlighten me on what cause, organization he has betrayed. Or better yet what personal values, integrity, talent he has compromised for money or personal advancement.

...chumps

Inauguration 09 - Comments, Pictures and Videos

Watch the Inauguration.

Live comments from Twitter

Check it out!

Notorious! - Interview w/ Jamal "Gravy" Woolson

Check out this great video of Rapper/Actor Jamal "Gravy" Woolson as he talks about his role as Notorious B.I.G. in the upcoming biopic about the late rapper.

Holding Barack Accountable

The elections are long gone. The excitement from it was quickly subdued (mainly thanks to the big Wall Street mess).

Santa is having to buy a lot of over-priced coal this year.

Obama is making his selections for his cabinet. Many voters are blindly agreeing with his decisions, and on the other end of the spectrum there are already some heavy critics.

Me? I am right smack in the middle, unsure of what the future will actually bring.

I want to believe Barack is making the right choices already, but I also want to make sure he's held accountable for everything he promised. That is to say, I don't believe he will fix everything in his first term (hopefully a second term will see some progress).

The Phoenix has begun a great little project called "Take Back Barack", a blog written by Jeff Inglis.

Here's the rundown straight from the site:

"So, what can you do? And what's this blog all about?

First, check out our story - "Take Back Barack" is its name. Also, see the stuff I've tagged as related in some way or other, using Google Reader. (The link is also an RSS feed, if you want to get updates on the stuff I tag in the future.) Then, post comments here on this blog, saying what you want Barack to do, and what you think of his choices so far."

Please check it out!

P.S. I designed the Header for the Blog!!

Hero Dog "Saves" Best Buddy

!!CAUTION!!
The footage may be upsetting to some...

I am calling Bullshit that Scrappy here saved his buddies life...maybe saved him the humiliation of being scraped of the road, but I am pretty sure he is a gonner...

See the video

Graffiti Wars

Would you like your city spent about $250,000 a year cleaning up graffiti in your neighborhoods?

Some would argue that this is money well spent because Graffiti is a damper on our society.

Other have the opinion that it's artistic expression.

I'm of the opinion that as long as Graffiti is done in it's most elaborate form (masterpieces or pieces): burners, rollers, etc. should be respected and left up for the public to enjoy, comment, and critique. Places like heaven spots (high-up places like rooftops or sides of buildings) and slams (highly dangerous locations) should also be given some respect due to the extreme danger the artists put themselves in to accomplish their piece. Simple Throw-ups or tags are a thing of the past, because of their simplistic and careless nature. Long gone are the days when bombing a street or neighborhood got you respect, now it's about how creative you can be.

Public places are becoming more popular with shops, stores, schools, and neighborhood rec centers giving up a space or wall for local artists to show off their talents.

This Phoenix article discusses the great lengths which Massachusetts authorities have undergone to disrupt and prosecute Graffiti artists.

Make a Scanner Camera

Pretty fun little project, reminds me of the old camera obscura.

All Dogs Go To Heaven?

DIY- Braised, Stuffed Pig's Head

For any foodies out there, you may have heard of Carol Blymire, a PR exec who decided to cook every dish in the French Laundry cookbook and blog about each and every recipe it took her over 18 months to get through the 100 recipes in the book, some of which take several days to prepare. French Laundry of course, being one of the nicest (if not the nicest) restaurant in the US. The cuisine at the restaurant is ridiculous in both imagination and scope of preparation (a tasting menu runs about $250-$400 per person, between 5-20 courses, with dinner lasting between 3.5 and 4 hours). Now, this blog has been out for a while, and as I write this she's completed the challenge she set for herself, but I recently came across this post, which details the 3 day process of braising and stuffing a pig's head. Bad. Ass. With video footage.

The 8 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books Which Most Desperately Need Movies

It's been a slow and very distracting Monday, so, courtesy of FARK, I present the list (complete with explanations) of the 8 sci-fi and fantasy books which most desperately need to be made into movies. In addition to the lovingly arranged summaries of each book ("An albino emperor and last descendant of an ancient dynasty with a sentient, evil sword that gains power with each being it kills, Elric is the ultimate anti-hero and a complete badass"), take a moment to appreciate the fact that this list was posted on a website called ToplessRobot.com- a site dedicated (in its own words) to "Nerd news, humor and self-loathing."

Procrastination Technique #557

For those people who cruise Icanhasahotdog or The Daily Puppy at work (as I've been known to do) comes this live-stream of cuteness- a livefeed of a pen full of Shiba Inu puppies. I've never even heard of this breed before, but the puppies seem to embody all things adorable: fluffy, a little bit stupid, kind of fat, and sleepy. While it was launched last week, it's new to me today, a much-needed pickup for a Monday.

You may also enjoy Gawker's explanation for the site's popularity, found here.

Hyper-Networking

Sree Sreenivasan a Columbia University journalism professor and WABC-TV's technology reporter came into to our office today and gave a phenomenal lecture on New Media. I have taken some of what he talked about and adapted it into some my own thoughts. Please feel free to comment!

Having a website is one thing. Having one that generates traffic on a constant basis, now that's the challenge. Consider the amount of websites we visit on a daily basis. Now consider how many more we don't visit.

WHY?

We all have our little nest of websites we hit up to get our daily fix of information, whether it be a blog, forum, or a news corporation. So for the most part we ignore the rest of the content out there. If you're really itching to know about something outside your nest, you'll probably go to Google and search it. You'll probably look at the first 5 or 6 results and possibly go to one of those links.

But what about all those other sites that might have an even better answer to what your looking for? You'll probably click on nbc.com when you could be clicking on johnsmith.com. The problem for johnsmith.com is that it didn't show up in the Google seach results until the 6th page.

So being a popular website is about having the most money and resources?

Absolutely not. In fact paying Google to have your website show up higher in a search or as a sponsored link is a waste of money. What you need is an audience. Where to get one is the fun part. Sreenivasan tells to look around at the technology being produced for the web. He's talking about things like Facebook Apps, Twitter, Flock, Kayak, etc. All of these tools are free and widely used among the internet community. The audience is right in front of you, all you have to do is join the crowd. Have a news site that you keep updating with awesome articles? Start Twittering the headlines to your friends, update your status on facebook, crete a facebook page, give your page and RSS feed, email the story to bloggers.

Remember all those times you've heard your friends in Business world talking about "Networking" being the best way to move up in the world? Well however shallow or pretentious they might have sounded, they're actually right on the money (no pun intended). Networking is taking a new form, and it's happening on the web. People are making business deals because a friend on Linkedin recommended their online product to some investors that were his friends on Linkedin. A small blog that reviewed the newest first-person shooter for the X-Box gets picked up by one of his/her readers and they write an article on Wired.com (hopefully CITING and LINKING the credits back to that blogger). That blogger might in turn blog the fact his posting was mentioned on Wired.com and link back to Wired.com, and so on and so forth.

This is Hyper-Networking. Obviously not a real word; I made it up. But who knows maybe someone will read this post and reference the word and.....well you get the point.

With so many people to meet at the touch of a keyboard, opportunities are endless. We should always be looking at ways to get our ideas out there, by any means necessary.

Please visit Sree's site, it has a great list of things to try. Happy Procrastinating!

Cheerleaders Gone Wild!

I don't know who to be pissed at: the NFL for firing someone for something so trivial, or the girl for being such an idiot.

I never take pictures when I draw swastikas on my friends.

http://www.fannation.com/si_blogs/nfl_tracker/posts/20702