Archive for July, 2008
Not So Cuil
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
So today was the launch of cuil.com (pronounced like "cool" I guess?), the supposed Google-killer. The main draw is that they index three times as many sites as the big G, but after a bit of testing I don't think Google has much to worry about. The site is a little on the slow side, although they just launched so I can overlook this for now. The main problem is with the results -- for some reason they think it's "cuil" to show them as columns, so you maybe get 12-15 results per page (with a lot of scroll). There's also no clear ranking of items per page; I can pretty safely assume that the top left result is first, but after that it's a crapshoot. But the most bizarre thing though has to be the images associated with each search result. This probably seemed really clever on the drawing board but in practice it just doesn't work -- unless someone changed my personal portfolio site to a Pop Culture Trivia page while I wasn't looking.
Tags: cuil, fail, usability
Posted in Internets | No Comments »
Bowling pour la Gloire
Monday, July 28th, 2008
Snippets from an as-yet unreleased movie called "Bowling for Glory," edited to try and secure funding for distribution of the full-length. Directed by Mikko (nipsnipsnips on yootube) and staring Logan (me) and a bit of Travis.
Tags: bowling, mikko, movie
Posted in Lulz | No Comments »
3 Flickr Sets
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
Otl Aicher's Munich 1972 poster series (uploaded by Blanka)
Vernacular Typography Polaroids (by onpaperwings)
Otl Aicher is one of my favorite graphic designers, and his identity work for '72 Olympics in Munich is worth studying if you have any interest in how work like this is supposed to be done. I don't much about the Vernacular Typography Polaroids other than there are some great examples of hand-drawn type in there. Check out the book "Handjob" by Mike Perry for more (modern) examples. Lastly, a set of posters for Int'l Male, a nightclub act. Loved this bit from the description: "Images were sourced variously and used without permission. Posters were printed digitally and thrown away after the gig." Must be Swedish or something.
Tags: Design, flickr, poster
Posted in Design | No Comments »
Expantse Mixtape Series #2
Saturday, July 12th, 2008
The second "mixtape" in the Expantse blog series. This one has way better fades than the first one, and it's significantly longer. The songs are aren't literally about basketball, I just tried to make it something I would enjoy listening to out of a boom box in my parents' driveway while playing. It's kind of beat-heavy, at least compared to the psych-pop vibe of the first one. Tracklist:
Europe / Black Keys / Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (w/ Wu Tang Clan) / Charizma + Peanut Butter Wolf / Deerhunter / Girl Talk / Yesterday's New Quintet / the Roots / Lupe Fiasco / Dr. Dog / James Brown / the Cool Kids / LCD Soundsystem / Madlib / the Hold Steady
Yeah, three Stones Throw tracks. Europe at the beginning is like the warm-up, inflating the ball etc. Listen for the Monocle call-out in the Lupe track. Slurpee shot at the end with the Hold Steady.
I think this is my most coherent mixtape yet. Let me know if you're into it or not.
Download: Expantse Mixtape Series #2: Backyard Basketball (53:46)
Tags: basketball, mixtape
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We Can Believe In
Thursday, July 10th, 2008
The facebook guy had to know this was going to happen. Thanks to Matt for the tip.
http://www.wecanbelievein.com/
Tags: furries, obama
Posted in Lulz | No Comments »
Deerhunter – Microcastle
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
2008 so far for me has been the year of the D bands. New albums by Dr. Dog, the Dodos, and Deerhunter have all been on heavy rotation for me lately. It's hard to pick one, but I came across this video of Deerhunter playing two new songs from Microcastle and it pretty much blows my mind. I never liked Deerhunter before, too dress-up for me maybe, but I got really into the Atlas Sound record and they seem to be going more in that direction. Seriously watch this video, the second song is even better than the first.
Expantse Mix 2 is coming hopefully by the end of the week. It's all songs "inspired" by amateur basketball. And yeah, don't ask me how it fits, but the second song from the video above is on it.
Tags: 2008, deerhunter, dr. dog, the dodos
Posted in Music | No Comments »
Times New Viking
Thursday, July 3rd, 2008
I stopped following it for awhile, but recently I've become reacquainted with WFMU's Beware of the Blog. They post great rare stuff all the time, but this week there was a special treat. Times New Viking, creators of one of my favorite new albums in recent memory, stopped by the station and played a live set. They posted the whole show (9 songs, 18 minutes) the very next day, download it here.
Also, I finally caved in and got internet for my house, so I'll probably be writing here a bit more from now on (although I also got Fox Soccer Channel so I may be busy).
Tags: times new viking, wfmu
Posted in Music | No Comments »