Archive for April, 2010

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Thursday, April 29th, 2010

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Google Voice No.1: Eric

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

“I’m Anne, I’m in a bird you’d like tom. Hello Doug tires so long, strange story. No more you with the details now, but I I’m gonna call and ask if I could borrow another day to have lunch with logo project. Anyway, I was gonna do it now, so too bad. Okay. I’ll see if I had a problem is. Bye.” – Not Anne. Not what Eric said. Signing up for Google voice is signing up for intermittent joy.

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Very Big Text/ Very Big Array

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Big Array This (fairly) quick exploitation of some CSS attributes came about when discussing variable character display grids with a friend yesterday. The application of the presently undisclosed project will not follow these same construction principles, rather it was an exercise in pre-scripted grid output. This is not a typeface writ large, each character is an arrangement coded into a grid. It’s written in the trite and true combination of CSS, Javascript, and HTML. It’s easily scalable, easily randomized, and fairly portable.

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Monday Ride No.2: Finding One’s Self (77miles)

Monday, April 26th, 2010

I spent today in search of Lyman. A vague place 30-ish miles to the Southwest of Portland. I added about 20 extra miles to the journey because the self, it turns out, is a difficult thing to find, and not really worth the journey according to locals. I found myself off map around Alfred- a charming little hampshire itself, and proceeded to get more lost from there. The whole ride today was gorgeous- no wind, sun for most of the trip, through absolutely beautiful and untrafficked countryside. Once I got to the back-roads outside of Hollis (which has an incredible bridge over the Saco River) there were very few cars out at all- only rolling hills, deep trees, beautiful old farmhouses, and pots of gray water. It was very different having both a non-distinct and unknown destination and page of fairly complex directions for this ride. Brunswick was a destination I knew well, with a great lunch waiting, and a straight shot there and back. This journey had me weaving in and out of old state roads and looking for long-non-existent signs. The suspicion of going off course really occupied a large chunk of my thoughts- even when I was on the right track. I stopped to get directions and a banana in Alfred and got some vague directions that set me off on a circuitous route that bordered on disheartening. I was happy for the ride itself, but I had come a long way, and very much wanted to find this place that I had a name in common- if for no other reason than that. I did eventually pass through Lyman- had that banana from Alfred on the bleachers of the boarded up middle school. It wasn’t until I got back home and plotted my points that I discovered just what I had managed to accomplish (or not accomplish depending):



Note the location of Lyman smack dab in the middle of that huge circle I drew in search of it. I’m at this point unsure if I have to now journey back. If I would have plotted a straight line there and back there would be no feeling, but I’ve managed to encircle MYSTERY! I’ve created a giant (w)hole, with the attempted destination right in the middle. I don’t know if I can ignore the potency of that kind of pull. I would have never known if I didn’t look it up when I got home. We’ll have to see if I journey back that way. So what should have been a 53 mile ride turned into 77miles. I feel pretty great actually. Brunswick last week got a lot of the creaks out of my joints. I am fairly exhausted though, and believe I’ve earned my spot in bed tonight. Go in search of the self- find it when, despite being lost, you give up your objective and trust your intuition. That’s how I found Lyman today. Beautiful. Exhausting. Out there still.

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Who let me hang out with rappers?

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

These were recorded last month when Astronautalis and P.O.S. were in Portland for a show. I guess this site Absoulte Punk is crazy about those guys so they arranged a “backstage session”. I met Andy (Astronautalis) through some mutual friends in Seattle a few years back. We were on the same team in Capture the Flag. The rest is pretty much history. Back then I just thought he was a really great guy- I didn’t know that he was also an incredible musician and performer. P.O.S., it turns out, is great too. That was one of the most invigorating shows I’d been to in a long while.

Anyway, why am I standing in the background of this video with three kinda big-deal indie hip-hop dudes playing guitar? I’m still not entirely sure, but I now know that sometimes it’s just who you know. If I have any advice to give it’s to make excellent friends.

Link to the Page and other videos

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Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

(NOTE: That white dot smaller than the “.” represents the Big Six)
This image I drew up yesterday is not accurate, but illustrative. It’s based on cobbled old data from a number of different sources, but the generality of the image hold that a very small percentage of the companies in the industry (between 6 and 10) rake in 90% of the profits. The small publishers, which make up 99% of the bulk are left with about half of that remaining 10%.

Sources-ish:
Google
Publishers Weekly
Books Ahead

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Monday Ride No.1: Portland to Brunswick (56miles)

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

Mondays are my days off. I intend to spend the next few months of Mondays on 40+ mile bike rides around Portland. Yesterday was the first. I went 56miles round-trip up Route 1 from Portland to Brunswick. One of the longer rides I’d taken in a long while, and I was thrilled to get back into it. The first five miles (especially when you’re against a strong wind) seem like the worst idea. You want to turn back, you want to quit, your legs and back are already getting sore. At some point though, you let go. The ride, the discomfort, the surroundings become the full reality- simply the way things are. There are no thoughts of stopping, no thoughts of turning back. You talk and sing to yourself, reacting to people and signs you pass. You’re aware of your own discomfort, but only so much as you’re aware of your body ever. On the way back I composed a poem. It is this:

alas and alack!
no wind at my back
but returned home again all the same

my body and hair
no worse for the wear
in fact, maybe better from strain

two hours there
and two hours back
to travel three sixty degrees

a line in my head
while lying home in bed
mocks the pain of a lifetime of ease

yet no mountains climbed
and still so much time
to know: not the places we sleep

but the rides that we share
with the cool springtime air
it’s the rides, not the places we seek.

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Juno and the Paycock Poster

Monday, April 19th, 2010

A poster image I just finished up for the American Irish Repertory Ensemble here in Portland. Good folks them.

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Ten days remain to NOT Die Young Yet

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Ten days left to commission a story for NaDA’s upcoming collection of fiction by Jacob Cholak, Didn’t Die Young Yet. We’ve been soliciting stories from (friends and) strangers to compile into a book of shorts. Jake is one of the most legitimately brilliant and insane people I have the pleasure of knowing first hand. I highly HIGHLY recommend you take this opportunity to enable some fiction.

Order a Story

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Sleep is Death

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

In the late of last night, Jacob Cholak and I attempted a new computer game called, Sleep is Death. It’s an extraordinary game made by a curious and fascinating individual, Jason Rohrer. The game can only be played with two players. One in the role of the player, the other as the creator, the wizard behind the curtain. Each player has a 30 second turn to both advance and react to the unfolding story. It’s tremendously confusing, frustrating, hilarious, and unlike anything I’ve played before. Improvised adventure role playing computer game. Jake and I played through a couple times and were only ever able to come up with story-lines involving Dads, naked children, and cowering. Maybe some day we’ll figure out what that’s all about. In the meantime you can flip though one of the creations. Sleep is Death: Movie Rentals and the Late Voice of God

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