The Outside Lands festival was a memorable experience with its great music, food and wine. The event which was held in the Golden Gate Park was beautiful with its surroundings and cultural feel that is San Francisco. Although, it seemed to have less people than expected it did not put a damper on the experience or the quality of the event. The organizers of this event deserve major props for its fast tickets lines, its ease of movement and with the placement of the stages. So many festivals seem to put there stages so close it's like listening to a train wreck.
On Saturday, thousands descended upon the heart of Golden Gate Park for a day of cultural experience from the food to the wine and finally to the talented musician's that made the festival rock. To recap Saturday's experience I will have to start with Bassnectar who dropped some of the sickest dupstep I have heard since seeing Dieselboy at Bonnaroo. Bassnectar, also known as Lorin Ashton, made sure his homecoming was remembered as large black objects were launched into the crowd during his 50-minute set on the Sutro Stage. The crowd was eating up the stage presence and the bass was wobbling the crowd into a dance fury of fist pumps and dance movements.
Then came the Tokyo Police Club who kept their stage presence with the assistance of the crowd. Who throughout the set assisted the band in different clap sequence to keep the flow of the music. The four band members also took their turns leading the crowd and making sure everyone stayed engaged at least until the next song came around. “Thanks for helping out,” lead singer Dave Monks would say with a smile. If only every band could show that kind of enthusiasm.
Finally came The Strokes who closed out the night with a bang. The return of this band and their stage presence was more than anticipated. The band just picked up where they left off and played like they never stopped. They got the crowed going with classics from their 2001 release of "Is This It" they then went on to play a collection of other great tracks from their other two albums. This was a great set to close out the evening for Saturday. Unfortunately I was only able to experience one day of this great festival but it was enough to satisfy my music hunger for the time being. I'm sure that next year will have more of the great same experiences that this year provided. See you next year Outside Lands.
Today I wanted to share Kitsune Noir's Mixcast No. 40. I have been digging this mix for a hot minute. The first thing that caught my attention for this mix though was the cover art. From the post on Kitsune blog the photographer who took these photo's was one of Kitsune friend Ed Fladung. I have to give Ed props on his photography skills. I also need to give a thanks to Kitsune for his nice collection of tracks that he put together on this mix. He put brand new stuff by Arcade Fire, Blonde Redhead and The Books as well as some smaller artists like Brothertiger, Twin Sister and Gold Panda. Unlike most of his mixcast on his blog this one doesn't have voice overs on the tracks which I particularly like. So if you want to hear a good mix today then go ahead and download this Mixcast No. 40. Also check out Kitsune Noir's Blog. He has some great material that I'm sure most of you would enjoy. I know I do.
I have finally generated a new website which showcases my photography and graphic design works. To build it I used WIX.com which is a Webtop publishing platform that lets users create any kind of web content (web sites, widgets, blogs, myspace layouts) and publish that content anywhere they want. WIX provides all that you require to create adequate exposure. It offers a simpler, faster and better ways for you to build Flash web content. Another great thing about this platform is that you can have an amazing flash website without needing to know any code. Wix does this without the need to use complex publishing systems and without being constrained by the limitations of template based solutions. It also provides a simple SEO friendly solution to make sure you're getting found online. You get all this absolutely free although if you're looking for more perks then maybe upgrading to a monthly plan might be your deal.
This will be my second site that I have built using this publishing platform and I couldn't be happier with the outcomes of both sites. If your an entrepreneur and your looking for a way to build a site for your business with ease then give WIX.com a try. If your interested in checking out my portfolio website then click the image below or click the portfolio button in the main menu.
Pencil's have been used by many of artists but I don't think they have been used like this. Sculptor Dalton Ghetti slowly and carefully carves the tips of pencils into amazing micro sculptures. These carvings are a side project that Dalton works on when he has free time from his full time job of carpentry. Dalton uses a razor blade, sewing needle, a sculpting knife, a steady hand and lots of patience to meticulously carve the graphite which can take anywhere between a few months to a few years. I like what Dalton said in an interview with NYDailyNews.com. He said, "It's like I'm removing specs of dust at a time because the scale is so small," he said. "If there's a little bit of dust on my table at the end of the day and I didn't break it - that's a good day's work." If he does break a piece that he is working on he will keep it and place it in his cemetery collection as he calls it. Another fascinating things about these tiny works of art is that he has never sold them, only given them away to friends as gifts.
To live in a tiny house would you do it if you could? If it could take your electric bill now and make it 6 bucks would you be willing to shed some square footage. Some have chosen to take this option of a tinier home. Jay Shafer is one of these people who has taken this choice. Jay Shafer is the ingenuous architect and resident of this tiny house, one of many he has built as part of his Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. He currently lives in a 100 square foot house which features a compact fireplace, a tiny kitchen, a tiny bathroom, and a loft that serves as a tiny bedroom. If you watch the video below you can have a little tour of the home (Yes, pun intended).
My birthday was last month and I wanted to do something fun and different. So I decided to head over to Daytona, FL to hang with some friends and go surfing. Now I don't get to do a lot of surfing here on the Tampa side due to the lack of waves. So Daytona was an upgrade for me.
While on my trip I wanted to capture some of the moments but I wanted to try something different. I wanted to get a underwater camera and see what kind of effects that I could capture with this camera. So below are some of the pictures that were taken from the surfing trip. Although I do want to mention that the first two pictures were taken on Clearwater Beach, FL after my surfing trip. Hope you enjoy. If you want to see more of my photography you can check out my Flickr account. I will also have a new photography/design website coming soon!
If you want to look super pimp riding your bike at night while still being safe, than check out these tires. The Cyglo Bike Tires($TBA) have LED's embedded in the rubber, and will glow in a circle of light around your tire as the wheels turn, making you safe and also making your bike look cool! The founder of the Cyglo Bike Tires, James Tristram has made it so that the lights are powered by motion so no batteries are need to get your new Tron look. Currently their is no info or idea of the cost for these tires but I'm sure they might cost you a pretty penny.
Freelance Whales have been playing nonstop since I downloaded their CD Weathervanes last week. I highly anticipate in seeing then at the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco this month. The sounds of FW is intergrated with mass amounts of different collective instruments from guitars, banjos, tambourines, harmonium, and glockenspiels to yes the occasional keyboard and laptop assist. Amidst a strange amalgam of unfamiliar instruments, and precariously arranged pop songs. This five member band worked at crafting songs with interlocking rhythmic patterns, lush textural layering, and an engaged group-vocal energy. The band is also gaining a lot of attention and besides that their label Frenchkiss, already has a great track record of locating bands with quality plus commercial appeal (Passion Pit, the Antlers, Dodos, Local Natives), FW sound is on the surface of a lot 00's Indie Hall of Famers Arcade Fire, Ben Gibbard, and Sufjan Stevens. So check out their sound and let me know what you think. I also want to give the band props for making their whole album available to the public via stream.
This video below was a video that Olympus made to celebrate their 50th anniversary of the PEN camera. Olympus created a stop motion video which I'm sure you have seen a lot of them but I think that they did a great job in creating theirs.
The video is accompanied by some impressive numbers. For the PEN Story Olympus shot 60,000 pictures, developed 9.600 of them and then reshot 1,800 pics. In the video, there are 20 different locations. Another nice detail: there was no post production done on this video! So check out and let me know what you think.
Here is another stop motion video that I also think deserves a watch. It was very well done and the song I think goes with the video. The song Her Morning Elegance was done by Oren Lavie.
