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so friday is when we're supposed to submit our graphic design entries to Best of Ringling. i'm also going to get my portfolio back from the Ringling Design Center tommorrow (at which point i will be informed that i am a talentless hack and there's no chance in hell i will ever get a decent graphic design job...or not).
while for the design center we could submit any printed graphic design work we'd done and liked, for best of ringling we can only submit up to five things and they all have to have been for our graphic design classes from march 2004 to march 2005.
right now i'm thinking i'll submit a print of the percussive type poster i made in september, a remade biomedical passport from last march (i reprinted all the transparencies a couple hours ago and i'm hanging it on fishing wire this time rather than lame blue thread), a cd-rom with my kraft macaroni & cheese webpage from february (or was that january? i can't remember right now), and my Marty DVD case from last april (which i've been meaning to put online for a long time now)and something else, either the gender type poster i made in september, or my candy packages if i pull an all nighter and finish them thursday night, which i just might do. i haven't pulled an all nighter since my Intimate Communicators packages back in december (that was a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG and rewarding night. as soon as i made the cardboard base for the microphone at 4am, i jumped up and did a dance of joy)

while i really all the box projects i've made this year (studio architetti associatti chaise lounge, intimate communicators figures, and passion candy) i don't feel that they are particularly strong pieces. i liked the general design and feel of all of them, but something felt off. maybe when i add an accent color to these passion boxes it'll look awesome.

i also got my first reply to a resume today! Fuse (the music television channel) hasn't confirmed that they've filled the position, but they're pretty sure they have, but they confirmed that they do have my information just in case they need to find someone else. awesome, it only took three months to be rejected by them.

update: the boss of level three of stinkoman 20X6 is totally easy once you figure out its pattern or whatever.



in fact, i had to beat him three times in a row in order to get this screenshot to come out because the end animation moves faster than my computer likes to process things.

my candy box system is apparently coming along well. my rough comps met nearly unanimous acclaim in class yesterday, which was a tremendous surprise. even though i need to make some adjustments to nearly ever piece of the system, i made a test batch of the buttons that will come in each box last night, and they're totally sexy. i've got all eight of the ones i designed so far rocking out on my messenger bag right now. i'll try to take a picture later. they're all hot pink, basically. not gay at all.

also, since it is now spring, i declare that everyone must perk themselves up from their winter ruts and shake themselves out for high spirits. thus, a new mixtape was born:


- click to download DANCE!!! part three of the sanskrit mixtape series -

i've been listening to this a couple times a day for almost a week now and its great. all songs that make me move. very few are technically "dance" music, and a few of them are artists you would never see side-by-side on a playlist before. straight up hip hop like M.I.A., sweet pop like Annie, orchestral stuff like Yann Tiersen, its madness.
at least three of the tracks are from albums that haven't come out in the US yet, so...hmmm...yeah, i am pirate. arrr...

if they ever make a revised dictionary to include definitions as they pertain to the internet, i'm pretty sure you'll find homestarrunner.com's Stinkoman 20X6 game as the primary definition of "absurd"

i just got to level 3.3.
anyone who has played the game a couple times can attest to that being no easy task. i'm fairly convinced that my getting through all of level 2 was sheer luck.
the boss to level 3 seems like he'd be pretty easy if i just concentrated a bit more. but really, why am i even playing video games? oh yeah, because everything else makes me want to have panic attacks.

i actually think this is a pretty awesome clock

i'd like to shift gears from talking about my mundane life, my popular-on-the-blogs taste in music, and plugging my mediocre website (ducktastic.com) to talk about something america loves even more:
BIG BUDGET MOVIES!!!

there are five films of 2005 i've been looking forward to, and the first one comes out at the end of this week.

Sin City (April 1st)

from every review and article i've read, this is absolutely, without a doubt, the most true-to-the-comics adaptation ever, as well as the just plain best comic book movie ever, ranging from superhero movies like Superman and X2 to the more literary ones like Ghost World and Road To Perdition. the graphic novels are intense, and Robert Rodriguez refused to make anything that wasn't exactly Frank Miller's vision. they used the panels of the comic book directly as storyboards, and the film (which was shot almost entirely on green screens) is leaps and bounds ahead of the technological effects used in the past. i really can't wait to see this. they even had quentin tarantino come in for a day to shoot the scene with dwight "talking" to jackie like they were in a buddy film.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (April 29th)

Of course, the books are fantastic, that goes without saying, and people (read: nerds) have been waiting for this movie for a very long time, and that wait is almost over.
Alan Rickman (most well known for portraying Snape in the Harry Potter movies) provides the voice for Marvin the Android, which is so eerily perfect i have trouble watching the trailer remembering that its not a real Android with emotional problems. plus, Mos Def is Ford Prefect, and he's just fantastic.

Batman Begins (June 17th)

yes, another batman movie, whatever, but this one can't be anything but great. i refuse to believe it couldn't be great. Christopher Nolan (Memento) is directing it, and i can't remember any movie Morgan Freeman has been in that i've seen and haven't liked.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (July 15th)

one of my all-time favorite movies is getting the remake treatment by the seemingly infallible team of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp (with Danny Elfman, of course). ok, so this one is actually more closely based on the book, but there's no denying that they couldn't make this movie without alot of cues from the Mel Stuart/Gene Wilder version. i'm trying not to get my hopes too high for this, but its hard. it seems like the absolute perfect story for Burton to build on, and i'm loving a handful of the things i've seen in the trailer. fingers are crossed for this.

Serenity (September 30th)

if you haven't taken the time to sit down and watch the whole first (and only) season of Joss Whedon's Firefly on DVD yet, you're absolutely missing out. one of my favorite tv shows ever, even though it only lasted about a month or two on tv and i only got to watch two episodes during that time because i was just starting art school. anyway, this feature film picks up six months after the final amazing episode "Objects In Space" and...well, yeah, its more Firefly, only BIGGER because its a movie. yay!

so in conclusion, the one thing you can discern from the five movies i've listed here is that i am a GEEK!

annoying as bugs are, we don't like squishing them when they bother us in our apartment. usually we open the door and try to lead them out. sadly, though, this one cockroach managed to come across a battalion of Z-Bots the other night.



i think the picture speaks for itself (photo courtesy of max lawson)

wow, i'm still five weeks from the end of my junior year and already everything's hectic. my life right now is a madness swirl of projects, studying, sending out resumes, putting together my portfolio, figuring out where i'm living next year and what i'm doing with all my stuff over the summer, and, oh yeah, the mocca art fest, which i'd rather not discuss here.

this past week was a pretty big week for cd releases in the indie scene. four of the most heavily anticipated cd releases of the season came out in the US on the same day, and thanks to the power of the internet, i have them all.



Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
Decemberists - Picaresque
M.I.A. - Arular
Out Hud - Let Us Never Speak Of It Again

after listening to all four a bunch, i've decided that Silent Alarm is a heavy contender for best record of 2005 and Let Us Never Speak Of It Again is easily one of the most catchy records of the year, totally dancetastic. Not to say the other two aren't great. sadly, though, neither of the other two lived up to my expectations. there's alot of fun and good stuff on Arular, but its not phenomenal. Picaresque is about as good as we could expect from a new full length Decemberists album. better than a few people expected, not as good as some other people might have thought. i'll admit i only liked two or three songs on first listen, but after a day or so it really grew on me.
seriously, though, everyone should love Silent Alarm. ever since i first heard "Banquet" back on November 3rd (god bless iTunes for keeping track of information i don't really need) i knew i loved these guys, and the album does not quit being awesome, except maybe the last track which bores me, but whatever. the M83 remix of "Plans" (which was already one of my favorite tracks on the album) featured on the Japanese version (or all over the internet, whatever's easier for you) is pretty inspiring though. plus, the US release includes the b-side "Little Thoughts" which isn't on the UK release, so that's great.

ok, this was stupid. back to work.

oh...my...god...



M-Audio has made a USB Drum Pad/Sampler.
And it runs native in Mac OSX with no drivers.

I'm amazingly enthusiastic about this for someone who hasn't finished a song since the winter break.
I'VE COME REAL CLOSE ON A FEW, THOUGH!!!

yeah, if i had more free time and/or a more suitable recording space, i'd crank out more rockin' tunes, and i would CRAVE this piece of machinery more than i do right now.

sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sexy.

i also eventually need to get either an iMic adapter so i can plug a real microphone into my computer or a usb extension cord to get my usb mic farther away from the humming of my computer, moniter and external hard drive. i'm not sure if its all that humming that leads to really lousy recordings, but i'm sure that has something to do with it.
i can't wait until i'm like my dad and just buy this stuff when it feels appropriate.

seriously, though, getting that USB drumpad would be the last reason i need to order iDrum from Glaresoft. when they first announced that program i tried a demo adn knew i loved it, but it's really awkward doing all that with the mouse so i never bought the full program, and this thing says it works with iDrum, along with Live and Reason which i know i can't afford either of.

spring break was basically lame. i spent most of it sneezing and being sick.

i did, however, get a good chunk of work done on DUCKTASTIC.COM!!!

i also made a stencil and did this to the back of my army jacket:


oh yeah...i am sassy graphic designer.

COMING NEXT WEEK:



TELL YOUR FRIENDS

IT'LL BE TOTALLY SWEET OR SOMETHING


seriously, if you go there now, you'll see pages and stuff that don't work.
go next week, after i say something along the lines of "NOW!"