April 11 2008
Big thumbs up and a thank you to D6 and Champagne & Bacon for their hard work keeping Electronic Music alive and flourishing in Reno. The Reno News & Review has posted their list of the most influential people in Reno music over the last 25 years and has them both listed. I find this to be extremely exciting and it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.
The list is a great read in itself. I urge you to check it out.
Lists are always controversial. When Rolling Stone released its list of top 500 albums of all time, the comments came fast and furious. “Thanks for completely shitting on hip-hop and the influence it has had,” wrote one reader. “According to this list who needs the last 20 years anyway?” wrote another. Even seemingly safe choices proved divisive. “Please get the stinking Beatles off these lists. They are a glorified pop band that for some reason we are all programmed to believe were great.”
Essentially, the comments revealed the problem with lists—they are incredibly subjective and getting two people to agree on what should be included is an exercise in futility. We expect this list to have the same issues.
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With that in mind, here’s our list of the most influential people in Reno music over the last 25 years. While we know not everyone will agree with the choices, we look forward to the dialogue it will generate.
March 25 2008
Noble Studios took us on a trip to Amsterdam for a 2 day workshop, team building, and they 5 days of whatever the hell we wanted. It was not wasted, although, we definitely were. The workshop was unexpectedly productive and the entire trip has brought the whole office closer together. We were mentally stripped down built up again. Personally I feel refreshed and focused. More focused than I have been in a long time.
We knew it was going to be a good trip from the minute we got the airport at 6am. Everyone was all smiles and completely embracing, especially towards Nicole. This is the first time they have met here and honestly, they probably, up until that moment, didn’t think she existed!
The flight was easy. We started drinking in Reno and didn’t stop until Amsterdam. Definitely made the trip smoother. Once we were finally there, and thanks to our pilot we got there an hour earlier, we unloaded our gear and headed straight for a coffee shop. From here the trip is a blur of laughter, fun, productivity, art, drinks, good food, and flight butt. Oh and the best pot I have ever smoked. I could probably go on and on on details that are unimportant except to those of us that were there, but I won’t. Basically, the trip was amazing. Everyone I work with is amazing. And it was absolutely incredible to have shared this experience with Nicole and crew. I can’t wait to go back to Europe.
Nicole and I at the Bushdoctor coffee shop:
Drawing and smoking at the Bushdoctor:
The best pancakes I have ever had in my life. Something I am going to crave for years:
February 05 2008
Everything old is new again, and though the rise of 3D games has made sprite maps obsolete, the concurrent rise of mobile devices with 2D gaming capabilities have brought them back into vogue. And now, with a bit of math and a lot of CSS, we’re going to take the basic concept and apply it to the world of web design.
Specifically, we’re going to replace old-school image slicing and dicing (and the necessary JavaScript) with a CSS solution. And because of the way CSS works, we’re going to take it further: by building a grid of images and devising a way to get each individual cell out of the grid, we can store all buttons/navigation items/whatever we wish in a single master image file, along with the associated “before” and “after” link states.
This is a pretty , and definitely something to look into.
February 05 2008
The Perry Bible Fellowship always puts a smile on my face. Its brilliant in every way.
February 02 2008
I sat down this morning to try to outline a few of our processes at work that are a bit on the blurry side. There is no accountability for tasks, and for that matter, there are not any real roles defined to assign tasks to. In an effort to bring it all into focus I started creating a flowchart of a web development project. I also created flowcharts for handling a new client as well as one for working with SVN. I can’t believe it required a flowchart to visualize the process of creating/handling a new client, but it is apparently a bit more work than I thought. Anyways, back to the topic at hand. Graphs and charts!
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November 29 2007
I haven’t put pen to paper in a long time. I want to, it’s killing me inside that I don’t. But I can’t. Every time I sit down I feel that I am forcing myself to do it and nothing comes out. It is all very frustrating. Nicole mentioned it could be my environment. I shrugged that off at first, but now that I have had a nights sleep I am entertaining the idea.
I am just not inspired at the moment to do anything. This is common and is perfectly normal, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it is excruciatingly frustrating. Trying to force creativity doesn’t work. However forcing myself to draw and play might help to get back into things. I could just practice life drawing again, or do some still lifes. Something to simply exercise the muscles. The blank page of my sketchbook is intimidating. I want to squash that.
Some things that have helped in the past have been very simple. Getting out of the house to meet with some friends during the week. Going to the book store. Taking a walk. Simple things, but very refreshing. I should treat my inspiration like I do the actual art. Don’t force it, let it come naturally. It comes from not thinking about it. When I do eventually put some color on a page I am not thinking about the next line, I am thinking about everything else. What I need is to stop thinking so hard about it.
Update:
I have started re-reading ”Art & Fear” by David Bayles & Ted Orland. Fantastic book that puts the process of art making into perspective. I highly recommend it for anyone who creates art.
September 24 2007
a warning to the American people not to fall into the same trap as the Soviets, not to see only a distorted and desperate view of the other side, not to see conflict as inevitable, accommodation as impossible and communication as nothing more than an exchange of threats.
Let us call a truce to terror. Let us invoke the blessings of peace. And as we build an international capacity to keep peace, let us join in dismantling the national capacity to wage war.
Harry Truman once said there are 14 or 15 million Americans who have the resources to have representatives in Washington to protect their interests, and that the interests of the great mass of other people, the hundred and fifty or sixty million, is the responsibility of the President of the United States. And I propose to fulfill it.
These quotes are great. Check it out:
September 20 2007
It has take some time to get myself together enough to even have time to sit down and update my thoughts. Burning Man takes a lot out of you. For me, anyways, the event, the desert, all the elements, break me down and absolutely strip me to my bare self until there is nothing left but me. Mentally, it takes a while to come back to the default world. I will say that in 2 months I will be completely absorbed again into every day life. I am not sure if that is a good thing or not. It will take a long time to get everything out, but I did want to post at least this update.
This year was incredible in how perfect and utterly chaotic it was. From the man burning monday night (fuck you Paul Addis), to the overwhelming police presence, insane dust storms, beautiful sunsets, overwhelmingly enjoyable people, amazing rainbow display on friday, it was… well. You get the picture. It was nuts. However, none of it compared to the absolute joy that I felt the whole week. Early Tuesday morning I proposed to my girlfriend. There was no better time or place. The best, was that we got to tell her parents on Thursday when they showed up. Amazing.
Love you moosh…
September 20 2007
Scott Hansen has always been a huge inspiration to me. It has been a while since I have looked at his work, but today I took a peek. Wow, as usual, he pisses me right the fuck off and makes me want to grab my pen and start sketching. His style is top notch. I urge you to check it out if you haven’t already.
If you are into some really good spacey electronic sounds, check out his music project Tycho as well.
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