David Kadavy is author of Mind Management, Not Time Management, The Heart to Start & Design for Hackers.
In an effort to give my poor little fingers a break, I’ve started producing some video. It’s a little show called 8 Things This Week, and it’s already on it’s second episode. keep on reading »
The possessions that by far take up the most space in my self-proclaimed lifestyle of minimalism are my books and my records. Until now, I just had a crappy WAL-MART (yes, I went shopping there, but only once, I swear) shelf for my books, and a bunch of cardboard boxes for my records. Besides looking bad, this system also wasn’t very space-efficient, so, since I’m not going to convert my vinyl to CD anytime soon, I decided to search for something much less crappy.
When a video capable iPod comes out, and you know it will, the concept of a static album cover will soon be outdated. Instead of a still image, short animations or videos will be more appropriate to have flash upon your iPod screen as you start playing an album. Naturally, your iPod will play music videos, too.
I’ve found a very affordable way to listen to a wide variety of music for very little money. Sure, it’s great to surf around Amazon or the iTunes Music Store, but there’s no way I could afford enough music to satisfy my craving for virtually any kind of music. Inspired by the music listening habits of a friend, I recently purchased a turntable. With a sense of adventure and a little patience, you too can satisfy your musical cravings with records from a number of sources (usually for less than a dollar an album). Even new vinyl tends to run cheaper than Compact Disk, but some of the older titles you acquire can end up being quite valuable.
So I’m on a business trip in Des Moines at a bar called The Lift (it has Wi-Fi), and it is the first implementation I have seen of iPod DJing. People hand their iPods to the bartender with a fifteen minute playlist on it, and free of charge, he plays each iPod in the order it was received (except tonight, since it’s “Ladies 80’s,” and ladies go first). One of my friends had this idea awhile ago, and we were pretty surprised to see someone was already doing it. His idea involved an automated system though, but that may not be worth it until iPods have Bluetooth or something similar. I told them I was blogging about their bar, and they took a picture of me. It should be included with the other iPod night photos soon.
Cheers!
This month’s Wired includes a CD full of music with Creative Commons licenses. You can download the tracks for free, share them all you want, and even sample music to create your own tracks, which you can then share and even (for most of the tracks), sell.
Artists on the CD include Beastie Boys, Chuck D, The Rapture, and I was please to see the greatest band on the planet, Spoon in the mix.
I just completed my latest fun side-project: a poster for Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, and more importantly, for One Percent Productions, who organize the absolute best rock shows in Omaha (the music scene is the best thing about living in Omaha). So here is the poster that will decorate the streets of Omaha (and Lincoln…this happens to be for a Lincoln show).
Yes, it is a little Saul Bass inspired. It started out as a visual interpretation of the music. I had some blobby forms to represent the sounds of the horns, some dots for percussion, and the still surviving vertical bands are what the organ sounds like. I felt it should look a little political too, a fact you can’t ignore if you hear their music.
A little disclaimer: the political nature of this band has nothing to do with me doing for a poster for them. The opinions they express are not necessarily mine.