where i'll be for the next week

learning some photoshop:



and hopefully seeing some of this:

music monday

here's what i'm listening to today:

in memory of Sparklehorse: Dark Night of the Soul with Danger Mouse

also, Florence and the Machine

The Sandpit

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

I didn't see Avatar, but...

also, in honor of book club:


by Tavis Coburn via kitsune noir

This Too Shall Pass - OK GO

i freakin love the olympics

but really, who doesn't?


Awesome photos from here The Big Picture

TeuxDeux

My new favorite thing on the internet. A digital, organized, editable, to-do list.
And it's free.

teuxdeux.com

Way to destroy more of our privacy, Google

"Here's what happened. When Google rolled out Buzz last week they activated an unknown number of users and chose people for them to follow automatically based on who they email most frequently with. Presumably these people had to also be on Gmail. And the list of people you follow is public. Therefore the list of people you email with most frequently is now public. They are now trying to close this hole as quickly as possible. But the damage is done, people have to realize that -- the information was already disclosed. You can close the door after the horse gets out but that doesn't get the horse back."

read more here and here

The Films of the 2000s

packed into 7 minutes.

(watch out for spoilers if you're concerned about that sort of thing.)



via buzzfeed

La Puerta

A stop motion animation by Limow and Sam3



via Wooster Collective

Mr. Saul Bass

"I want to make beautiful things, even if nobody cares."

David Rumsey and his maps

David Rumsey's collection of more than 150,000 maps...is now digital. And you can overlay them with Google Earth and Google Maps.



via David Rumsey and Design Milk

Evolution of the Hipster

via Paste

Obama’s 2011 Budget Proposal: How It’s Spent

Click here for interactive map.

via The New York Times

The Third & The Seventh

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

Completely computer-generated. Which is incredible.

via thirdseventh.com

Get Ready

So, I love a healthy competition. Especially ones that involve prizes. And creative decorating. In our office, we're having a Christmas decorating competition between the departments. The creative area is shaping up nicely. I'll give you a few hints before I post the final product tomorrow.

What do you get when you combine:

lots of lights


a projector

many, many rolls of paper

500+ hand cut snowflakes

branches, spray-painted white

okay....one preview shot:

*all photos (save the last) shamelessly stolen from Google images.
The last one I stole from KC's twitter.

To my beloved Ryman, which hates me.

I love the Ryman: it has great acoustics, a nice atmosphere, and adorable pews to sit in. Whenever I attend a concert there, I feel like I'm experiencing either some sort of church service or a symphony. I've decided that this is the reason that I tend to always get annoyed. Is it so wrong to want respectful silence and appreciation of the aural beauty floating around the room?

I'll give you three examples from three different shows: Iron & Wine, Andrew Bird, and Regina Spektor.

1. Drunk Titans Fans/Tourists (Iron & Wine)
This lovely group decided to visit the Ryman without knowing who was playing. This was an exercise in personal independence: concert by myself, absorb the music, et cetera. Which was interrupted by my new, loud friends: middle-aged women and men who met at the Titans game and decided to see a show. They left after 5 songs...and after yelling back and forth at each other, tripping over an entire row, spilling a cup of beer, and getting the whole section to turn around and glare at them.

2. Turtle Man (Andrew Bird)
You may ask, Turtle Man? What does that even mean? I don't really know, but he reminded me of one, so I nick-named him that. Imagine a rather husky fellow who happens to be your next door pew-mate. He has turtle-like posture: hunched over, concentrating hard on the music. So hard, that he rocks back and forth the whole evening, shaking the pew.

3. Adolescent Boys Whose Voices Haven't Changed (Regina Spektor)
Apparently the local high schools gave out concert vouchers, because we were surrounded. The four girls in front of us got up every other song or so in a group to go buy t-shirts, take photos, go to the bathroom, etc. The boys behind us...sang half a beat off to every song, yelled like 12-year-old girls, and yelled I LOVE YOU REGINA! at every break. I thought one of them was going to start crying because she didn't play his favorite song. Literally. I would not have been surprised to hear sobbing. I would also like to give a shout out to our great white leader, Ms. white outfit/white hair, front-row conductor of each song.

All this to say, I have bad Ryman luck, and you should probably find someone else to go with if the mood ever strikes you.

seeking suggestions

If you were to make a "must-read" list (not necessarily favorites, but books that you always try to convince other people they need to read whether they want to or not), what would be on it? I need some suggestions.

For example, a few on my list:
Jane Eyre
Ender's Game
Anything by Roald Dahl (The BFG and his short stories)
Twilight
Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art
C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy



totally just kidding about twilight.

so, on my ipod, in my car, and at work:

new moon soundtrack.

lineup including:
death cab
thom yorke
the killers
muse
bon iver+st. vincent
sea wolf
grizzly bear
editors
magic numbers
etc.

need i say more?

actually, my favorite part about this soundtrack is trying to figure out which scenes each song will accompany. agh, twilight, you've sucked me in.

living on the edge

(aka, breaking my personal rule of posting past 10pm)

There have been a lot of old-school bands hit Nashville recently: for example, Third Eye Blind is playing on Monday (alas, sold out), and more ridiculously, Creed is gracing us with their presence this month. And although there are two pricing options ($85 or $7), no one I talk to seems to think paying $7 for an evening of hilarity and blatant ridicule would be worth it. bummer. I was ready to pull out all of my grungy rock attire and sing "with arms wide open" at the top of my lungs.




That could be me, right there, inches away from Scott Stapp. hah