MIX (04) – Cerysmatic Factory

YouWorkForThem releases a juicy, lovely mix, MIX 04 – Cerysmatic Factory. I’ve only listed to about 5 minutes of it, but I’m totally grooving the part beginning around 10.00′.

You Asked For It promo

Here’s a little promo I put together for our upcoming series, entitled You Asked For It. Built entirely in After Effects (with a little pass to Compressor to downgrade some of the elements and make them more interesting), the promo highlights the six topic we’ll be covering. Audio by Hecq. Next week’s promo will be significantly different than this one.

You Asked For It Promo 01 from Ken Wilson on Vimeo.

Live Free Live Loud 2008

Live Free Live Loud 2008

Originally uploaded by avclub

Live Free Live Loud was searing hot this year and I’m not talking about the temperature. The band’s two sets were solid and awesome and Lee McDerment is my hero. The omission of an opening band was refreshing, and well suited for this type of gathering.

Welcome.

Glad you’re here.

[Enter loud guitar]

And that’s the way we roll at NewSpring. The addition of plentiful Hawaiian Shaved Ice was a nice relief from the heat, and it made our tongues pretty colors. Great job to everyone involved. I seriously enjoyed attending and being a part of things.

I didn’t find much time to Twitter the event, but I did get this one out.

Yes and No

Yes (with optional photo gallery) and No.

nin.com download map

The guys running the Nine Ninch Nails machine continue to impress me, and we should probably take a lesson or two from their open-source, creative ideas. Evidence needed? Just look at this. It’s a Google Earth file that plots from where their new album was uploaded. Amazing.

GI Joe addons

I twittered this the other day, but it deserves to be highlighted here. Why is it that 1980s GI Joe toys find ways to attach missiles to EVERYTHING? Am I right?
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coloruser.net

Here’s a budding repository of Apple Color effects settings. Could grow into a viable community. Or not. But you should at least visit coloruser.net.

RJD2, Magnificent City Instrumentals

If you aren’t listening to this, if you don’t find yourself to be funky but desire to be, if you need a style injection, if you should take up your groove and cool factor a few notches, you couldn’t do much better than RDJ2′s Magnificent City Instrumentals.

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This entire album is (1) lyric free save for some BGVs, (2) bossa-nova and trip hop influenced, (3) and could be my favorite new collection of music this year. It’s full of gritty, buzzy sounds, trippy drums souped up with a vinyl flair, and maybe a horn section or two. If you know me you know I don’t like the brass… this album makes me take it all back. Loving it. Sample a bit of it here, the run off to Amazon or iTunes and pick it up. Make sure you get the instrumental version. It’s much more delicious.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MGS4 / Logan.tv

There are some incredible pieces over at Logan.tv for the new Metal Gear Solid 4. Very slick, makes me desire their CG skill.

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Gardner’s Factory

Gardner’s Factory

Originally uploaded by avclub

Saturday, Gardner and I built a factory. We started with cardboard boxes, a pocket knife, and tape. And time. We ended up with a functioning (in his mind) factory that he can play with. It houses his Playmobil characters, a process line, apparently makes pom-poms, as is generally awesome.

Check out my Flickr for more photos.

Factory overview here.

Mirrorshade.tv

Nice reel from the gents over at Mirrorshade.tv. Very cut-n-paste, in a good way.

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Yes and no

Yes and No

My office

Will posted a collection of photos showing the NewSpring video crew’s offices. I just got around to tagging mine (sorry, Will). Check it out.

Day off + Willow Arts video

Today’s Friday, and Friday means day off. Oh the plans I have, the plans I have. I had to custom order one of the windows for our house and it came in. I’ll probably be tackling that this morning first thing. I’m sure gym, grocery shopping, and errand running will fall in there somewhere as well. Along with my Friday chores, I was going through my photos from the Willow Arts Conference (www.towardwonder.com) and found a lot of photos I haven’t shared yet. And there are a few videos that I snagged as well. The quality’s not stellar, but the intent was to capture the moments so I could remember them later.

(excerpt from Vimeo)
This is a capture from my Canon SD1000 (which explains the quality) from this year’s Willow Creek Arts Conference. I love the visual style and tempo of this piece. It’s a guy’s testimony, but told in a very creative manner.

Now, I’m not convinced that the dude dancing would be suited for NewSpring’s stage, but it does work in the suburbs of Chicago. Even still, I’m inspired and encouraged to explore interview styles and avenues like this. It was very impactful.

As a sidenote, I’ve been trying to place that synth sound ever since I heard the piece and it just hit me where it’s from. That’s the demo song that first launches when you fire up Propellerhead’s Reason. Cool.

Video testimony piece – Willow Creek Arts Conference from Ken Wilson on Vimeo.

Netflix is becoming not-my-friend

It appears Netflix thinks it a good idea to remove features that people have come to love and rely upon. Hacking Netflix reports that Netflix will be removing their multiple profile feature beginning September 1st, 2008.

Here is the official statement from Netflix.

Me? I’m pretty disappointed. I’ve come to heavily rely on this feature and use it to keep my wife’s, my children’s and my DVDs separated. Taking this away is going to be very inconvenient for the Wilson family.

What do you think? Anyone else out the use profiles to keep their DVD Queues separate?

I wonder if Netflix plans to replace this feature with something superior in some fashion. I’ll vow to remain open minded until we reach the end of this and they disappointment me.

Kid Rock says “take my music…”

Wired.com reports that Kid Rock suggests listeners acquire his music any way they can. From the article:

He advises fans to download his music for free from P2P services, although he himself doesn’t have to. “I don’t steal things,” he told the BBC. “I’m rich.” As for everyone else, he says, “Download it illegally, I don’t care. I want you to hear my music so I can play live.

Of course, he also later suggests we steal gas from gas stations, too. Hmm. What do you think? Do you buy into this “culture of free?”

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MTV piece

Um, yes on all levels. Color grading, yes. Technical proficiency, yes. The printer at the end with the logo, yes. Is Ken jealous of this, yes.

MTV from James Houston on Vimeo.

Veeyou: 8 free plug-ins

Let me present Veeyou. It’s for After Effects, it’s free. Enjoy it.

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I’m home!!!!

Though you may not have noticed, the AV Club has been run by happy little robots for the past two weeks (how very Matrix of me, no?). I was on a family vacation for the first week, puttering around the house for a few days, then off the the Willow Creek Arts Conference for all of last week. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll probably feel a little more connected than if you don’t. Wifi was spotty in places but the iPhone was comfortable for Twittering and general minute (that’s My-Nuuute) web interaction.

However, if you’d like to know what I learned on the trip, check out my avclubbreakout Twitter feed. I split it from my main feed so as not to tick off my friends and inundate them with information. Here’s a brief image… expect about 100 more later this week as I offload my camera.

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I’ve had the opportunity to sit in an airplane, a subway train, and in several cars (as well as in coffee shops, in airports, and in hotel rooms) with minimal distractions over the past few weeks and thus have been able to digest some new media. Here are a few things I’m digging:

Choosing to Cheat by Andy Stanley; RJD2′s Magnificent City Instrumentals; Weezer’s Pork and Beans; DJ Tiesto’s In Search of Sunrise 7 (didn’t get the Armani Exchange T-shirt); Wicked; a cool Chicago Art gallery opening; Starbuck’s (probably visited 6 different stores in the past two weeks)

More on what I’ve learned later.

Yes and no (needs yes)

Yes and No