Archive for March, 2008
Mar 28th 2008Lightbulb Doodle and Midnight Spaghetti
Cleaning my room tonight I found the original scrap of paper that inspired me to make a painting out of the doodle. It was a simple drawing that was done in a meeting at work, and as I looked at it more, I saw the possibility of a cool painting. So a 3′ x 4′ canvas is in my room right now with this swirling lightbulb glaring at me and begging me to finish it.
I’ve been so incredibly busy lately…I feel like I’m living 8 lives at once. So finding this little doodle tonight really put things into perspective, that big things can be created from a mindless sketch, that great things can come accomplished with a simple optomistic mentality.
In other news, I will be on tour with Midnight Spaghetti next weekend in Burlington, VT (I’ve never been there) and Albany, NY (never been there either)! I’m quite excited to get back up on stage and lay down some funk, especially with such a great band that’s known for their energetic performances. I’ll fit right in.
Comment? »Mar 27th 2008Ledonne Creative
I recently had the opportunity to construct a website and blog for Ledonne Creative, a web marketing firm in Pittsburgh, PA. Ledonne Creative specializes in search engine optimization, online marketing strategies, and design. Thus the design was nicely set up for me, all I needed to do was bust out the ole’ Photoshop knives and carve it up.
The main site is all Flash, leaving the blog section to do the heavy lifting from an SEO standpoint. For the Flash end of things, I mostly used Flash’s built in tween class, and simply added some little animations for rollover states. Subtle, but effective. I also executed a PHP contact form for the site from within Flash, which was a first for me.
In regards to the blog, I simply modified the existing site design and placed it within Wordpress’ architecture. The same arrows in the Flash site were regurgitated as list bullets and title headers, and Century Gothic (not your traditional web font) was used for the titles and some of the site nav.
Since this blog will be used for SEO, I installed some of the most popular SEO plugins for Wordpress, including Headspace 2 and Google XML Sitemap Generator. Since the client knows all about optimization, these simple tools and tweaks will provide the necessary framework for the company to boost its rankings and provide some killer content.
All in all I’m quite happy results for it being a quick and dirty job. I look forward to seeing what sort of helpful SEO and design tips Ledonne Creative writes about in the near future.
Comment? »filed under:design
Mar 11th 2008Midnight Spaghetti Summer Tour ‘08
Its been an interesting couple of weeks. One of the most exciting developments is my invitation to tour with Midnight Spaghetti for a week (June 15th through 22nd) this summer. Midnight Spaghetti and the Chocolate G-Strings is an eclectic funk/hip-hop/jazz band that is loosely based in Harrisonburg, VA and know how to put on a phenomenal live show.
I’ve been in close collaboration with Seth and Mickey of Midnight Spaghetti for the last 4 and a half years, working together on many projects: organizing benefit concerts, recording side projects together, and Seth jumping on stage with Dangus Kahn to drop some freestyle rhymes. But I’ve never had a chance to play with them, so I’m excited to finally perform with a band that has made me get up and dance so many times.
I want to say it will be a challenge to learn their entire set, but I feel it will be easy. The songs ARE technically difficult, but I’ve been listening to them since I entered college and my bass style naturally fits in with the funk genre. Plus, I’m just super excited to play with other people again. I’m pumped.
Until I post some dates, listen to their long-awaited debut album, Velour on the Floor.
Comment? »filed under:music
Mar 4th 2008Gospel of Wonderland
I’ve spent the last few days recording score music for my my friend Sean’s first feature length film, Gospel of Wonderland. I have only seen clips, but it looks fantastic. I am constantly impressed with Sean’s ability as a filmmaker, which is why I’m proud to assist in the process. My role was to create several ambient tracks to serve as the main theatrical theme music for the film. The film is still in post-production, but hopefully I’ll be able to post a link soon when the film debuts. Until then, here is the theatrical trailer for Gospel of Wonderland.
Comment? »filed under:music
