Blog: Jake 2.0

The End.

2011-08-08T16:04:00.001-04:00

This site is no longer active. Jake's website and blog all live at http://jacobleidolf.com

Lost Art of Advertising

2011-01-02T12:06:00.000-05:00

Yesterday sitting in the Top Secret Lab and talking of print and promotion with Catch Wreck, discussing the downsides of homogenized Pen and Pixel style pop advertising, I felt compelled to show some of the pieces we looked at in the History of Graphic Design class I took last semester. Some of the artists, like Alphonse Mucha, I was already familiar with, and their iconic style of work - but there are countless examples of advertising from eras where form was as at least as important a consideration as function. And design was an artistic discipline, not a formulaic series of steps in Photoshop. When type was physical and set and images were illustrated, not live traced. These are some of the ones we gravitated towards:

Beggarstaffs

Alphonse Mucha

The Helmsplitter EP

2010-12-20T14:27:00.003-05:00

Just in time for the holidays, FREE MUSIC! The Helmsplitter EP highlights unique voices in the Boston area through spoken word and music. Recorded / Produced by Daniel Fairclough and Rene Dongo. Shoutout to my dude Rene for putting this together and Pause, Catch Wreck and O.T.O, just some of the many talented people featured on the project.

Download the whole EP for free here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?uwv7lixawbee2di

Track List:
1. Seyonia Washington - Imagine if the Beat Stopped
2. Pause - Where You Should Be
3. The Helmsplitter - Fight An Animal!
4. Zayde Buti - Hot n' Juicy
5. O.T.O. - Sail On Freestyle
6. Jasmine Mans - Nicki Minaj
7. Zeek - Hold To The Time
8. Anthony Febo - First Time
9. Catch Wreck - 1Tyme4UrMynd
10. Jack Kahn - Crisis
11. The Helmsplitter - Outro
12. Daniel Fairclough - Her Eyes (Bonus)

Spiritual Doom

2010-12-20T11:31:00.000-05:00

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom." ~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Found an interesting post comapring some stats about military spending on the Guardian Data Blog. Pretty mind boggling - if not surprising.

Share

Backlog

2010-12-17T11:17:00.000-05:00

Again I find myself bewildered by where to start now that I have some time to get back to my blog. Its been a crazy month. I am finally done with my semester, which ended well though with a frenzy of projects, studying and crits. I am still waiting to pick up some of my work and document what I did over the fall, but It was a busy semester. I took 5 classes, 4 being studio classes. But more on that later...

Outside of school, Scope, Pen and Sword / PS-Design and all of the other ventures associated with our recently formalized network, the Grassroots Grind Group are proceeding with a life of their own. We are all working on our respective projects and launches and its exciting to see everything happen so fast and new people coming in to the fold. I have nothing but hope for the upcoming year.

On the home front, things have been bittersweet. Last Saturday, we had to put down Blizzard, our loyal hound for the past 14 years. We got her during the April fool's blizzard which was to be her namesake of '97 when she was still a puppy and she had become a family fixture. All of our friends and neighbors knew her, and indeed loved her. She was the reason some people got dogs, the reason some got over their phobia of them. For us she was a reason to leave the house, even in the darkest and most miserable conditions, a wellspring of unconditional simple love, a dish washer and food disposal, a foot warmer and heat hogger. We will miss her very much.

1,465

2010-12-06T23:44:00.001-05:00

Tonight I launched the mostly complete version of a website I have been designing for my Information Design class to visualize the findings of the 20 Year Homicide Report by Darrin Howell, A resource made publicly available through Blackstonian.com. This report breaks down the 1,465 murders that took place in the city of Boston between 1988 and 2008 by district, victim age, month etc. Check it out here: blackstonian.com/20yearhomicidereport.

It is sobering to think that in the time I have been alive, more than 1,500 people have been murdered in my city. I've been looking at these stats for the past month, presenting them and representing them, trying to make myself remember they are people and not numbers.

I guess I was most shocked at how unsurprised I was by the data when I really saw it. Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan all have triple digit numbers for their district, while the other 9 districts in the city never exceed 40 in the same time frame. Across the board, most of the victims are between the ages of 14 and 25, killed by a "GSW" (gun shot wound). In the districts with the highest numbers of murders, there are the least number solved proportionally. Overall, less than 10% of murders result in a conviction, with the majority never even resulting in an arrest.

And yet we continue to spend more on an ever increasing and clearly ineffective police presence, spend less on addressing the issue of poverty, youth jobs, high-school dropout rates and the "achievement gap," community, youth and social programs designed to encourage alternatives to violence etc. We need to stop trying to address violence as the issue and address the root causes. Why is it that the path of least resistance for a youth from one of Boston's "hot spots" leads into the waiting arms of the prison system, be it for gun drug or gang charges? Why is it that for some, crack and 9mm are more readily available and attainable than a minimum wage job (let alone a living wage job) or a degree or diploma? Clearly we are not serving entire segments of our city, and as always it is no surprise who gets the short end of the stick and winds up paying the price.

Last week, when a gun and knife fight erupted in a pizza place up the street from my house, it received national news coverage. That's because this incident, in which 3 people lost their lives, happened on Centre St., in the affluent gentrified end of the Jamaica Plain. But walk less than a mile towards Egleston Square and the border with Roxbury, and events like this are almost expected - routine. I love my city, but we have some serious divisions we need to address. As this years homicide rate climbs into the 70's and the official response is more police presence, a few more street workers, massive cuts for all sorts of social programs and continued support for ineffective yet connected organizations, I'd say we still have long ways to go. Hopefully it won't take 1,465 more lives to see that.

Catch Wreck - Concerto

2010-12-06T21:12:00.003-05:00

Last week, Catch Wreck released the first track off of the forthcoming ADHD mixtape: "Concerto" over the classic roots track. Its been floating around on the web and getting some good feedback so I figured it was about time we posted about the art. Actually, in all honesty school has been consuming my life, and this is the first free moment I've had to write about it. But never mind the details. Wreck has been ready to release this track for a while now but due to the aforementioned school consuming my life thing, it took us a while to find a time to sit down and shoot and design the cover.

Once we found time, the rest was pretty easy. Catch had a clear mood and concept he was going for, having sent a lot of reference photography in the style he wanted. Then it was just a matter of gathering some readily available props and getting the shot. We did some very minor post process stuff to the photo to make the colors have the right relationships and very simple typography.

Overall, I, and more importantly Wreck are very pleased with the results and I think they the track justice. So far, the new material he's been working on for this mixtape is of a new caliber and I can't wait for what's next.

Concerto by Catch Wreck

Jailbirds

2010-11-22T16:18:00.002-05:00

We've been working on info graphics for class recently and my classmate sent me this example he found. Its by Frank Chimero and is a brief look at some of the horrifying stats about prisons in this country.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMXjmHXroEY

Of Medium and Message

2010-11-17T12:26:00.017-05:00

Recently, I have been enjoying listening to the new creations from my boy Catch Wreck - his newest stuff is a big break from what he's been doing, mostly as a response to some of the challenges of making music about real stuff without sounding preachy. We've been talking about it a lot lately and I think in many ways, we have parallel problems as artists - namely, how do you make your craft, something you love and enjoy, do or address something important without doing a disservice to either the medium or the idea you want to convey through it.

In my own work, I have been struggling with ways of making my prints and pieces be effective as things that can get people to think and act. I find myself making work that honors people from the past, movements that have already happened or illustrating some horrific thing one group of people has done or is doing to another - but I am still in some ways reliant on the viewer to have enough interest and understanding in who these people or situations are in order to convey the proper importance. Like I did a series of portraits - of figures who have been influential in my personal development politically - people who's actions or ideas have inspired me or changed the way I see the world. But the meaning of what they did, although sometimes caught for a fleeting moment in the representation of a persons body, can never fully be captured by building monuments.

I have started moving away from specific people and have found strength in images of anonymous figures, whose relationships between one another, either fighting or facing off, subduing or submitting carry a lot more power and meaning than any specific conflict or fighter I could reference. But I still have yet to find the balance between all of the elements. On the conceptual end, I have the problems of what am I trying to say, how can I best say it, what voice, so on and so forth - on the technical end, how do I make the work, through my formal choices be not only an effective messenger, but do justice to the importance of the subject matter I want to present.

As I begin to think about my senior thesis project and what I want to spend next semester doing, I guess these are good problems to have. I know what I want to say. I know what I want to get across and how badly I want it to be conveyed and to whom. Now it comes down to the most important and fun part - how.

Reading the Matrix

2010-11-13T19:38:00.002-05:00

On Friday in class we watched a really interesting video of Jonathan Harris speaking at an AIGA event about coding, technology and the impact it has on human life. To me it was a fascinating and astute observation of the state of our technical world from one someone on the inside. In his talk, he describes the Internet as a still developing and still growing awkward teen of a medium, yet to realize its full potential or proper balanced place within our world and social interaction.

You can find about more about Jonathan Harris and his work at number27.org.

Members Only

2010-11-13T19:27:00.000-05:00

This week my snazzy AIGA card came in the mail. This is the first professional association I've joined and I am interested to see if it lives up to the hype. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the idea of a designers community, events and network to tap into - but I am always skeptical of the efficacy / purpose of such organizations. I guess, what it boils down to is my general skepticism surrounding formal groups and their ability to do what they say they formed to do.

The crew we started in high school, Voices of Liberation, operates under the motto "You don't make a difference by joining the struggle, you join the struggle by making a difference." If you take that and apply it to this situation: you don't become part of the design community by joining a group for a membership fee, you become part of the design community by building a community with other designers and artists. Now, that being said one of the benefits of groups is that the purpose of the grouping is explicitly stated, allowing you (in theory) to decide if it is a group of which you want to be a part. I joined the AIGA because 1) they had a sweet student discount, 2) because the group is supposed to do something I want to do, which is build a network and community of creative and design professionals and 3) because all the cool kids were doing it. But that doesn't mean my job is done or mission accomplished. I still think you have to meet some people the old fashioned way.

Thus far, the AIGA has been a great resource in terms of information and I hope I can meet some other folks through it and go see things I might not be exposed to and open some doors which might have been closed, but at the end of the day I know the best network is one you build piece by piece, on your own, over a lifetime.

The Printed Word

2010-11-11T19:46:00.001-05:00

Thursday we had a visiting artist in our printmaking class. Jacqueline Barrett who does amazing lithography, silk screening and photogravure work, mostly utilizing fragments of text and forms of her own creation. She works mostly with photo mechanical processes which lends itself well to working with type but with the richness and strength that only screened color and litho black can give. She went through some of her work and how she approaches pieces both conceptually and technically and answered questions about her process. She also talked a little about how initially she met some resistance from professors and others when she wanted to work with type in fine art printing. Now its not even a question if thats valid but it is important to acknowledge the constraints and expectations around art that are always being broken and redefined by people not doing what they're told.

I loved seeing the way she addressed text as I am working on a print piece now that is text-based. Seeing a word, raised off a sheet of paper in tangible black ink, or as relief in a field of plate tone gives it a physical presence and power I am interested in looking at.

Rest in Peace

2010-10-26T12:17:00.002-04:00

Some weeks are just full of terrible news.

Last Wednesday, our dear family friend Amy Grabel passed away after battling cancer for years. I consider Amy part of the village that raised me, and her death is very sad for the friends and community who loved her. She was a warm, generous soul, dedicated activist and community member, teacher, artist and fabulous cook who often invited her friends over to share her home. I feel blessed to have known her and find it hard to believe such a good person is gone.

This weekend's violence struck close to home for many of my friends who grew up with one of the victims, Tito, and the cycle of violence and grief that plagues our city is wearing so thin. Its incredibly frustrating / heartbreaking to watch time and again senseless death go unchecked by ever-increasing police presence and countless pleads for peace, while the root problems continue to fester.

And then on Sunday night I got a call from a friend who had been watching the news about the death of Josh Stimpson, a kid I met working at BU who had just graduated last may. We had been doing freelance web design projects together and he was helping us when he could with coding and development and some of the business stuff for Scope Apparel. He had just started his job at a consulting firm and was excited to be starting his life. My heart goes out to his parents and family. It's not ever supposed to happen like that and the loss of such a bright young life so early is tragic.

At this point I don't know what to think except to be grateful for the friends, family and loved ones I have, and the time I have to spend with them, and to hang on to the memories I have of the people we've lost.

C'mon and Raise Up

2010-10-13T13:39:00.009-04:00

For the long weekend I took a little trip to Ashville NC to visit a friend who attends school there. I've never been to North Carolina, or anywhere in "the South" for that matter and I was excited to see a new part of the country. It was great to reconnect with my friend, and meet all of her friends and the community she has built down there - a bunch of easy going, funny and eco-conscious folks. Its funny how there are dorks of all trades, and it was cool to see people geek out on sustainability and forestry, farming and plantlife: It made my passion for design stuff seem a little less eccentric. More than that, it was a literal breath of fresh air to get out of Boston and spend some time in beautiful mountains. I have waaaaay too much work to do now that I'm back but being able to forget life and have a little adventure was exactly what I needed.

While I was there, I got to see my friend go through her NSS, a high pressure presentation / final project / culmination of independent research that science majors at her school (Warren Wilson) do in their senior year. It's awesome to see someone I have grown up with in their element, ready to go out into the world and kicking ass at whatever it is they are interested in. Whether its design or partridge berries or hip-hop, we're finding where we belong and what we are meant to do and its a really exciting time.

Ashville, tho I didn't spend much time there, seems like a great little town - although the airport is so tiny you sometimes get a scary old school plane. First time on a turbojet and all I can say is don't worry what it sounds like, just know you'll land and you will.

I Declare War

2010-10-07T10:01:00.001-04:00

I've been loving the new videos from The Getback click recently and Rafael Casal's "Up Your Sleeve" is no exception. I think this is one of the best videos he's done, visually and conceptually and as always its some real, relatable music. Anyone who's been in it knows the gambling nature of love, the need the for a cards-on-the-table time...

Boston's Own: Rene Dongo

2010-10-05T15:39:00.000-04:00

The latest Boston's Own episode, part of the series Dante Luna is producing, presented by Scope Urban Apparel, is on Rene Dongo, local filmmaker who I initially met through his work on Catch Wreck's music videos.

Signed.

2010-10-05T15:21:00.002-04:00

There's been a million things going on so I'm finally getting around to putting up a few pics from Saturday's trip to the Rob Stull Signing at The Million Year Picnic, one of the oldest local comic shops. I try to go to most of the events I design stuff for but I really look forward to Rob's events. I've always loved comics and there's nothing quite like seeing the original book art. The signing coincided roughly with the release of Black Comix, an extraordinary artbook in which Rob is one of 50 featured artists. It's an awesome book so make sure you cop it.

Me, Jero, Rob Stull

I was glad my some of the team could come too, and the Scope shirts, especially Steal Art Make Money, were something we talked about a lot. The event seemed to be a hit and the tiny store was packed the whole time we were there. Of course I couldn't leave without getting SOMEthing - call it a comic shop tradition.

This time I went with The New Avengers Illuminati book which happens in the middle of the Skrull Invasion story. It's a short piece collecting several stories about the covert activities of the leaders of the super-hero world: Iron Man, Professor Xavier, Black Bolt, Dr. Strange, Mr. Fantastic and Namor.

Advertising without posters is like fishing without worms

2010-09-24T15:03:00.000-04:00

"Advertising without posters is like fishing without worms" ~The Hatch Brothers

This nugget of marketing wisdom is one of the many quotations on the walls accompanying the Hatch Show Print traveling exhibit which is currently at BU. I dropped by the gallery to take advantage of this opportunity to see the work of the Hatch Show Print Shop up close and in person. I had been familiar with the style and work of Hatch, ever since I bought an incomplete box of postcards of Hatch posters at a yard sale. Seeing it in real life, at full size, however, was incomparable. Hatch is a working letterpress shop whose extraordinary posters defined the visual look of some of America's greatest moments in music and history. Their enduring style and techniques survive to this day, using movable letterpress type and hand cut wood blocks to create amazing posters.

While it was awesome to see the beautiful colorful posters full size, I think my favorite part was being able to look at some of the actual blocks they used and the hands on mode of making. In this digital era of pixels and vectors, it is refreshing to see people still working with physical materials and their own two hands.

I found this cool video about Hatch while writing this:

Showtime

2010-09-23T09:22:00.031-04:00

This feels like it has been the week of art shows. One of my favorite projects has been designing a flyer for Rob Stull's Signing at The Million Year Picnic on October 2, celebrating the release of the new Black Comix book in which he is a featured artist. Definitely go and check it out - should be a good time to talk comics and hang out with one of the legends of the industry.

RSVP via Facbook

On the home front, BU's Annual Undergraduate Student show at 808 Commonwealth Ave. has a couple of my pieces from my classes up on display. Some photo work and an etching I made last year.

Then, this weekend, my work will be shown in Critical Views 5 at Red Sun Press, part of JP Open Studios. This show highlights emerging artists illustrating contemporary struggles for social justice, the environment, and economic and political change. I will have two of my prints, an etching and a woodcut up in the show. It's always an awesome place to go see some political art by local artists and this years lineup includes the work of some amazing people locally to across the country. Featured artists include: Anonymous, Santiago Armengod, Tyrone Boucher, Ramiro Davaro-Comas, Design Action Collective, Shanthony Exum, Lisa Factora-Borchers, Eric Gulliver, Nancy Haver, Elliot Higger, Anh Ðào Kolbe, Jacob Leidolf, Angela Mark, Bernal Murillo, Erin Murray, Favianna Rodriguez, Skip Schiel and Michele Vavonese.

RSVP via Facbook

Finally, I began some of the visual and conceptual work for Conscious Styles, a multidisciplinary political art show series, featuring work by young artists working in all mediums which we hope to be starting in the next few months.

The New Busy

2010-09-09T08:22:00.000-04:00

So I thought I was busy before, when I was just doing my day job and my design work and my tee shirt company and my organizing. Enter into the mix: School. So I've been just readjusting my priorities now that I have new projects and work. So far my classes have all been great - I've had one of each of Printmaking, Typography, Information Design, History of Graphic Design and Graphic Design studios. It looks like its going to be a fun and challenging semester.

This labor day weekend was great - I provided a more in depth and photo heavy recap on the Scope Blog. There are also photos on the Scope facebook fan page. We spent a lot of it networking and building with cats about everything from music hip-hop and the scene in Boston, to fashion, art and entrepreneurialism. Friday and Saturday we put the Scope Tees on consignment in our first physical store and opened a facebook web store in addition to the store on our website. We also placed the orders for the next tees to come out - I'll let you wait and wonder.

Saturday was also the day Catch performed at the Boston common and we went deep to support and enjoy the gorgeous weather. Later that night a group of us went out to Dane's Video Party at Sammy's Patio in Revere. It was pretty chilly and windy on the water but it was a good night with a good mix of people.

I spent Sunday and Monday doing the homework I have been given already and cleaning my room, putting away clothes and otherwise getting my self ready for the semester. Tonight local filmmaker Rene Dongo's "Three Witnesses" by Sofia Snow is being shown at the MFA - be sure to see this and his other videos "The Audacity of Hope" and "Fight Back" on Friday and Saturday respectively.

Also, on Monday, had a chance to build face to face with Mike Norman of SoChange, a local initiative to mobilize economic power within communities for the benefit of the community. The pilot program is being rolled out in J.P. and will hopefully be a great way to find out how to spread this idea further. I am excited to be working with them on some visual design stuff but also to just to give some general feedback on such a dope program.

So yea, lots of exciting things on the way - I hope I have time to write about it all.

Peddlin' Music

2010-09-07T14:13:00.001-04:00

So I guess I've been pegged as the stop-motion-hip-hop-music-video-loving guy so here's the latest favorite: Fatgums and Bambu "Peddlin' Music."

One of the most comical, simple and well done videos of it's kind, this is for a track from Fatgums and Bambu’s A Peaceful Riot.

For Jobs and Freedom

2010-08-31T22:50:00.001-04:00

On August 28, 1963, civil rights leaders, most notably Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” This event, which drew hundreds of thousands of supporters to DC was where the now historic "I have a Dream Speech" was delivered. While this is undeniably one of the most significant moments of the period, I had never thought of materials required to mobilize such a gathering might look like - now I know.

I was shown some scans of an original program / portfolio which are an amazing resource for any activist, but particularly people interested in political art and the way art has been engaged in the service of movements and revolutions throughout history. I've seen lots of black and white photographs of posters, signs, banners and flags made for the march, but seeing this "collection of graphic collages... created specifically as a memento for those who participated in the historic March on Washington for Freedom and Jobs" is amazing. This booklet contained several collages which "depicts mans inhumanity, his cruelty to his fellow human being" and served as "a reminder of generations of generations of hope, of sacrifice and of faith."

It was made by the artist Louis Lo Monaco. I had not known about him before and while information is sparse, this is his best known work and can be found in the library of congress. The collages are gorgeous to me, using lavish amounts of black and limited splashes of red and blue in really elegant ways. At the same time, they combine powerful / striking and disturbing images in a way that forces you to confront the realities of the time - something I think all (good) artists do.

The Best Logos in Hip-Hop

2010-08-27T14:24:00.002-04:00

As a designer, I do a lot of album covers and logos and things of that nature for Hip-Hop artists but growing up in the CD era, I remember when brilliant, creative cover design and striking logos were part of the experience, before everyone and their cousin had photoshop. I have assembled a top ten list of the best hip hop logos I thought of, most coming from that golden age I remember so fondly.

#10 Lupe Fiasco
This is the most recent on the list and for that reason it comes in at number 10. I like this one for its type concept which is supported by the form and type choice.

#9 Outkast
Southen Playalistic Cadillac Music makers Outkast were one of the groups that consistently pushed the sound of in a new direction. Their logo comes off as an old caddy's chrome encrusted hood ornament.

#8 Jurassic 5
One of the more "designed" logos of the bunch if that makes any sense - this is a brilliant comibnation of the initials of j5. I like a lot of things about this logo - it can make a kick-ass stencil, it could be on a suberheros chest or cape, and it reminds me of starwars graphics somehow.

#7 Busta Rhymes
Remeber when Busta was one of the best in the game, bringing us consectuive albums with a coherent idea and sound - the days of "Do My Thing" and "Break Ya Neck" - before his descent to "Arab Money" and such buffoonery? Well I do. I loved the way this combined westcoast-gothic-ganster-type with destroyed-hand-lettering and the biohazard symbols. It was just a great logo, and on the covers of Anarchy and Later projects. I also loved the type logo he had for When Disaster strikes etc.

#6 Gang Starr
Boston's Own Guru formed Gangstarr with DJ Premier and the rest is history. This logo is one of my favorites, again for the stencil factor and the way it imprinted Gangstarr visually into my mind. R.I.P. Keith E. Elam (July 17, 1961 – April 19, 2010)

#5 Rawkus Records
Okay, so not an artist but Rawkus is known for the Sounbombing mixtapes and having had the likes of Mos Def and Talib Kweli, Pharohae Monch, Skillz, etc. The Rawkus Razor was once one of the most recognizable and to me creative logos of any label.

#4 Big Pun
One of my favorite logos of all time, itself a play off of the Jordan logo, except with a portly pun soaring with a mic in hand. One of the greatest logos of any hip-hop artist.

#3 Run DMC
Perhaps one of the most well recognized hip-hop logos, Run DMC's logo has been the source of countless spin-offs, spoofs and imitations probably because of its immediate recognizability as a Hip-Hop icon.

#2 Wu-Tang Clan
One of the most distinctive and well known logos - the Wu "W" has also been seen cut and curved into myriad logos for the Wu members and their various ventures. I've always loved this logo for how it combines in typography the hip-hop graffiti side and Shaolin-swordzmen / kung-fu movie sampling side in one logotype.

#1 Public Enemy
Taking the top slot is the infamous Public Enemy with their sniper scope logo of a beret rocking revolutionary. I love this logo for the way it inverts positive and negative space, uses stencil lettering with such appropriateness and for the way it is a perfect visual representation of PE, which is what all logos (should) strive to do. Not only is this one of the best known logos of any music group, and especially within Hip-Hop, it is a logo that beyond looking cool or utilizing nifty effects came up with a brilliant and simple way to capture the spirit of the group.

So, I know I probably omitted some embarrassingly important examples but this is what I cam up with. Doing the research and brainstorming for this blog was a lot of fun and something I want to return to. Please feel free to comment / e-mail me suggestions or additions. In keeping with the tradition of giving a dishonerable mention in my top ten lists - here is one that will never make my cut:

The Dipset logo, (if you can call it that) with its stock image eagle, colored in red white blue, combined with terrible and clashing free-font typography and cheesy effects in this stunningly appropriate emblem, is a perfect example of what the internet and widely available computer design programs have done to the lost art of logo and mark making.

Smokin' a broken Wu-note

2010-08-26T13:25:00.001-04:00

Designer Logan Walters has a project he's been working on brilliantly entitled the Wu-Note Project, recreating WU covers as iconic Blue Note covers.

Blue Note Records was (and is) a Jazz label which among other things, earned a reputation for distinctive covers, designed by Paul Bacon, Gil Melle and John Hermansader who developed the signature Blue Note look along with Photographer Frank Wolff.

Logan pays great tribute to the original artists sensitivity to typography and color with his covers as well as to the musical minds of the Wu-Tang Clan. Great Stuff.

When Hip-Hop and Comics Collide

2010-08-25T14:30:00.002-04:00

Saw this the other day on Ivan Rott's blog Brilliant Corners. An artist kennykeil who does amazing comic / pop culture posters did a series of Superhero CDs covers based on Hip-Hop classics - combing two of my most favorite things.

More here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/47140275@N05/sets/72157623207329307/with/4373971094/

F*CK YOU

2010-08-25T09:37:00.000-04:00

As Catch Wreck astutely noticed, this song is fast becoming the new anthem for a lot of people. What did it for me was actually not the song by Cee-Lo (which is dope, dont get me wrong), but my favorite part was the video. I like the colors and really clean well exectuted type affects. Maybe I'm just a geek for that kind of stuff, but seeing how they choose to animate the words, and arranged them was really intersting - like a combination of a poster and some bouncing ball sing along words. All together its a great effect and a perfect compliment to the song. And as for the song, Wreck posed the best question, "When doesn't Cee-Lo kill it?"

Do you belive in...

2010-08-23T20:03:00.000-04:00

The latest in a series of video releases from the prolific Rene Dongo is Catch Wreck's "Magic" off of The Young and The Restless mixtape. Gotta love the Scope Apparel on set. What are you feeding your mind?

Big Week

2010-08-22T20:52:00.001-04:00

So this Sunday marks the end of another tremendous summer week that has kept me so busy I have not found time to write it all down until now.

On Tuesday, Pause released his brand new album Stuck on 100 (Download Here) which he had me do the cover and photos for. Pause was a pleasure to work with and I look forward to more projects with him in the future as well as his appearance on the Scope Urban Apparel promo mixtape. He directed the entire cover project from the concept to the shoot to providing the signiture scripts which are personally my favorite part. (In the spirit of the chef who is able to most appreciate the part of the meal he did not cook.) Anyways, download the album - its crazy good and totally free.

Mid-week brought Catch Wreck's Appearence in the Boston Phoenix: "Young Gifted and Black makes responsible rap cool Drama of the Gifted Child", a long time coming and hopefully the first of many press pieces on the moves we're making out here. Big up Chris Farone, author of the piece and frequent supporter of the community and artistic endeavors we have put together in the past.

Also if you haven't seen the new video "Ooo...You Didn't Know" off of the upcoming mixtape Grindmode by Catch Wreck, Rey Leon and Illiam Savant, you are definilty sleeping. As always Rene Dongo comes through with the stunning cinematography.

And to end the week in the best possible way, Young Gifted and Black 8 was another success, with spectacular performances by MC D, Sofia Snow, X-Rated and many, many more!

Making Up for Lost Time

2010-08-21T11:05:00.004-04:00

This past weekend me and my Mother Esther ventured up to Maine to a cabin on a lake - no TV, no cell service - no wifi - just us and some boats and the water and some books and some chairs - PERFECT. This trip was really a blessing as Es was unable to attend the Niederkorn Family Reunion in Blackduck, since she had to attend to our now-on-the-mend dog Blizzard. We set very good attainable goals for our selves: Have fun; Don't Stress; Rent a motorboat; Have fun. Pretty straightforward. And when you make a good plan it's easy to make it work.

We drove up Friday night - listening to a shared music playlist featuring the entire Roots album, Billie Holiday and whatever stations we could pick up along the way. Silence and talking was good too. By the time we got there I was nodding off. We pulled down the ridiculously steep driveway , unloaded into the beautiful cabin, and headed down to the dock. In the night away from the city you can see so many stars, the variations in thickness becomes visible with layers of stars beyond stars, in clusters of their own. On top of that we were given a spectacular shooting star show - featuring one that fell up and another which flared right through the middle of the sky above our heads - so good sign for how the weekend would go.

Saturday Esther woke up early and picked up the boat rental and drove it through the lake to our dock where I jumped on board and we took off - in search of breakfast and my sunglasses, left in the car at the marina. we boated the long way out, tied up at the dock and went into town for breakfast. We spent most of the day like that, boating from one part of the lake to the other, hopping out a couple of times to go get food or get out of the sun. We made a few stops at some of the many antique shops which populate the area - which had great cheap comics and VHS tapes. The boat was by far the highlight of the trip, and something we want to do again. Both Es, and I had a blast driving it - and while she is quite nautically experienced, it was my first time really figuring out how to drive one, fast - which is so fun. We had to return it by 5 leaving us an evening to hang out, relax with as few electronics as possible and just enjoy spending time together.

Sunday, we hit another string of Antique / Junk shops, one of which had dozens of sequential issues of comics for like 50 cents. Needless to say, I stocked up, bringing some 80 comics home, all for about 45 bucks. By the time we got back to the cabin, it was about mid-day and we spent the rest of it enjoying the lovely weather from the porch or big adirondack chairs outside, squeezing out every last drop of tranquility until we had to pack up and head home in time for the work week.

This was a trip that has been a long time coming, and it was exactly what we needed to do - great way to end the summer.

As usual, there was a post-vacation work binge (and blog vacuum) both of which I hope to address shortly, but the weekend itself was about as relaxing of a trip as you can get and I am grateful to have found that a few weeks before I go into my last year of college. Good family time isn't hard to do, its hard to make time for, something I gotta be better about.

A Tale of Two Weeks

2010-08-12T11:36:00.000-04:00

Well I have been seriously neglecting my blog and a lot has been happening so a recap is long overdue. I spent the first week of august in Scenic Blackduck, MN, a town and lake in northern Minnesota, at the 2nd Niederkorn Family Reunion in celebration of my grandfather's 80th birthday. We did this for the first time 5 years ago and it was great to do it again. All of my cousins have grown frighteningly older - which means I must be doing the same. This trip, I was officially of drinking age - which boggled the minds of my aunts and uncles. Whats even scarier is how old we'll be in another 5 years. One of the perks was that I could partake in my uncle's obsession with micro-brewed darks and IPAs and the guy's night out on the boat with Bourbon and Cigars with all of my uncles and the ancient one.

Being on the boats (pontoon, kayaks, fishing boats) was one of my favorite parts. My dear mother who grew up a water rat on the Delaware river gave me an appreciation for small boats - just being out on the water and this was a gorgeous lake. I think that was one of the worst parts about the trip too, because Esther had to stay home, and could not enjoy the things we did that she would have loved. She elected to stay home with our sick hound and help Blizzard through her recovery from the surgery to remove cancerous stuff from her leg. While we have all agreed that getting the dog the surgery sooner rather than later - and having one of her people there with her while she healed - was the right thing to do - but it still sucks it meant Esther missed the big to-do and a chance for some family time. Fortunately we are making up for that as much as we can - so look forward to more travel-related-posts.

So, I enjoyed a 7 day vacation, something I've discovered I'm not very good at doing. I brought my laptop with me under the impression I would do SOME work while I was there, as the resort advertised a wifi connection. Serendipitously, it was never working right, so I really did get a vacation from staring at screens. Unserendipitously, I dropped my phone (while it was one) into a sink full of water - effectively cutting me off from everything else. It was great to be where no one could reach me - but breaking the nicest gifts I've ever gotten was not the highlight of my trip. If anyone knows a cheap reputable repairer for iPhones - holla. I took it as proof that I cannot have nice things as I tend not to know how to treat them.

But sufficed to say, I was happily technology deprived for the first week of August. When I got back Saturday night though, I could not help but fret over all that I had supposed to accomplish that week, and while I was relieved to find out the world was still spinning and the sky still aloft when I got back, it was nice to return to the grind I am used to - and thrive in.

So to celebrate my return I cranked up the ol' laptop and worked on what is now the second version of scopeurbanapparel.com as well as a bunch of new shirt designs to flesh out the store section. This turned out to be a big week for us because not only did we relaunch the site, we ordered a new design called Steal Art Make Money, a tribute to the dubious "art" that Shepard Fairey sells. #DISSOBEY. We also made some new connections with potential partners and got our first international order from Glasgow. I really am curious how someone found us out there - but find us they did.

But beyond everything on the Scope Front, the most exciting news of the week is that my man Catch Wreck opened up for Public Enemy at the House of Blues - thanks to Professor Griff and uncle UNO. I remember when Catch was a 14 year-old with the Huey Freeman Afro, going to the PE video shoot, meeting them and making his way to their Staten Island studio. Everything has come full circle and this was one of the proudest moments of my life. Things like this encourage me to keep going - because like it or not, we're coming for ours - and we're going to get it.

So - moral of the story: I suck at taking vacations, I'm too young and ambitious. But when I do slow down and enjoy life - it IS enjoyable - if a bit unsettling. I am really glad I got to see the fam, and wonder where we'll all be 5 years from now. One things for sure, the wonderful wackiness that makes us who we are is sure to stay. After all, why be normal when you can be a Niederkorn?

Bad Type

2010-07-27T14:18:00.001-04:00

Found this on a design blog and loved it - check out the designer Craig Ward. He's got some great typography work on his blog, wordsarepictures.co.uk.

Y'all Just Been Waitin'

2010-07-27T14:10:00.002-04:00

The last studio session at the bridge yielded fruitful results - you may have already heard the track Waitin' by Catch Wreck and O.T.O circulating on the web.

Now the video documenting the recording is out courtesy of PSwetheBEST and Dante Luna.

I've certainly been waiting for a Catch/O collabo since I heard the first Prime Suspects Music Mr. Wreck brought around. Patience prevails - and good things do come to those who wait. I just hope this is the first of many. As usual I did a cover to promote the single with - a little more mainstream mixtapey than I usually like to do - but it seemed appropriate for the track. Shouts to Igor Buckets for the insane production.

All City Evolution

2010-07-25T09:25:00.000-04:00

After a day up at the PR fest (which sadly is continuing its downward spiral when it comes to attendance and energy) we went to check out the All City Evolution Art show featuring the works of John Brewer, Thomas Burnes, Robert Gibbs and Ricardo Gomez, All talented local artists whose work represents a variety of media and themes. I was especially interested to see ProBlak and Kwest's work, who'm I have admired for years. I was also very taken by some of Ricardo's work. It was a great show and even though we arrived fairly late, it seemed like it was a jumpin' event.

One of the things I have been persistently frustrated by living in Boston is the seeming lack of coordination and collaboration among talented, like-minded folks. How wonderful it is to be proved wrong by an event like this. I can only hope for more in the future.

Under Siege

2010-07-24T03:11:00.000-04:00

My latest indulgence was the Siege Prelude book, which comes after the Skrull Invasion story in the Marvel Universe. Tony Stark has fallen from favor, taking much of the heat surrounding the Skrull Fiasco and S.H.I.E.L.D has been Dismantled. Norman Osborm A.K.A. the Green Goblin has returned to power, becoming The Iron Patriot and leader of a new group of Avengers comprised of villains (some from the Thunderbolts). He is the leader of a new peace-keeping agency H.A.M.M.E.R and is seen as a force for good. Meanwhile, other heros and those who know Osborn's true nature resist his efforts to overtake both the super-human community and the world in general.

I am psyched about this new direction Marvel is taking things, almost into a post-rapture dystopia with the wicked left in charge. Marvel has come along way from the epic duels between costumed enemies, and I love the way their story lines affect every end of every characters world.

This re-wet my whistle and I think the local comic shop might have found their new best customer.

Uncharted Domains

2010-07-24T02:56:00.000-04:00

This week we picked up a few new domain names for our collective camps. First, El Movimiento, a high school student movement for ethnic studies in the public schools curriculum picked up ethnicstudiesnow.org for their campaign. In the works are a logo, new site design and some tees.

Then, my man Catch Wreck got rapperslashblogger.com for his blog, trying to reach a broader audience and also brand the blog as something which could stand more alone from the Catch Wreck Music site.

Stay Tuned.

And I'm Legal

2010-07-22T11:43:00.003-04:00

At exactly 12:01 on Monday, July 19, I got a phone call, from across the globe (12 hr. time difference), from a very special person, wishing me a happy birthday and wanting to hear my voice. That set the tone for what has been a fantastic birthday week. Thank you to all my loved ones and friends for making it what it was. I feel like this whole week has been a series of celebrations - which was great. On Sunday night I met with some of my boys to toast at midnight and have limited festivities given that I was working the next day.

My actual Birthday was spent at my job (as usual) before going home to celebrate with some friends, and then go out. We hit up Central Sq., B.U., Downtown, the Beach - all made possible by Chad's Benz and expert driving. While it was fun, Boston is totally dead on a Monday night - yet another indicator that I gotta get out of this city, if only for a while. The comic book store in Allston was playing with my emotions, as it was full of lights and people at 1:30 in the AM but not open. It was a great night though.

Tuesday, I went in to work late and celebrated my birthday with my supervisor and several coworkers who had their birthdays within days of mine. That night it was birthday dinner with the folks at a bomb Indian restaurant. Later that night we went to check out the iStandard Producer Showcase at the Temple recording studio in J.P. Center. It was a 2 day showcase featuring local artists and produces including our friend the Archetype, who is the engineer at the Bridge Sound and Stage where we record much of Catch's music. He was featured the second night so Tuesday was really more of a reconnaissance mission. Wednesday we returned with shirts, CD's, flyers, business cards and utilized the opportunity to network with all kinds of people.

So, I guess it feels good to be 21, and able to hit up whatever scene this city has left. I'm glad all my family and good friends celebrated with me and I definitely had fun.

A Group Team Awesome Production

2010-07-16T08:15:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I finished up my training with Adobe Youth Voices training program which was getting me (and my fellow educators) ready to run our adobe-grant-backed media programs. I will be teaching through Eye to Eye, a media program currently being run for students of the Curley Middle school in Jamaica Plain. The 3 day training program, centered around brainstorming and story telling and AYV's "Create with a Purpose" mission, was held at the oh-so-swanky Nine-Zero hotel on Tremont street. It consisted of a micro project where we created a media piece based on the loose concept of change, from conception through post production and exhibited it on a small scale on the final day. Our work time was divided around informational slideshows and discussions with other educators who got the grant in the Boston area. It was dope to hear about what people have done before and in other places as this will be my first year on board. Sometimes it was frustrating to be working on a mini project instead of debriefing what I would have found to be more relevant information, but it was certainly a fun exercise - and a new experience for me as I don't do very much video stuff at all. I also got to make the poster, which was fun.

Even though they fed us quite well (steaks and salmon and so forth) we all had food even over our next door neighbors, a high level census conference, which had lavish breakfast lunch and desert spreads. (Your tax dollars at work). I also liked getting out of my daily routine for a few days. Even though this was an all day training, it was something different than my regular work which was fun.

All in all, I can't say the training was super-helpful, mostly because it was tailored for the other educators, most of whom were returning from last year. What it did give me was a lot of inspiration and ideas for the school year, if not concrete strategies and lesson plans or better knowledge about the Adobe program suite. Definitely a great learning and networking opportunity.

Game Elevation

2010-07-08T14:12:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we finally got our business cards for Scope Urban Apparel. I took this opportunity to also get new personal business cards. I guess this is part of my continued effort to refine / improve my personal brand as well as the ones I am developing as their own entities (like Scope or Political Pirates).

For my card and the Scope card, the approach was keep it simple. Anyone who has seen my previous business card (designed in high school to match my first web site) will recognize this as a departure from what I was doing initially. My card is pretty boring, just clean and easy to look at. With Scope though, I wanted to make it be very professional but also reflect (and contribute to) the look I am developing for the company. So our products and site feature the magnifying glass motif pretty heavily, so it was fun to work that in on the back in a playful way, magnifying the .com.

Goal this time around: pass out all my cards BEFORE I get sick of the design.

No Rest for the Weary

2010-07-06T01:15:00.002-04:00

This "holiday" weekend was a lot of productive and entertaining sleep deprivation. Friday, I reconnected with my team, some of whom have been out of the state (if not the loop) for a while. Then I got some work done for more of DD's clients in the ATL music scene. Really though, Friday was about the party, which was a low key event at my boy from BU's spot. It's funny because during orientation, me and this dude got cool, and I swore to him we knew some of the same people because of where he grew up. And small-ass-Boston proved me right. It was good to finally make the full connections though.

Saturday we went in to production on some concept shirts for our company Scope Urban Apparel. Jero, Big Byrd da Boss, Marsalito, and myself spent most of the day cutting stencils, airbrushing shirts and admiring our work. By the time we were cleaning up, Catch and other folks were arriving in time for the post production debrief.

More Photos on the Scope FB Fan Page

Sunday I had to try to catch up on my sleep but later in the day we all got up again to work on some more designs before heading into downtown Boston to catch some of the festivities. We spent the Monday holiday working on a few more designs and a few more airbrush shirts, getting concepts down on actual tees to see how they might work for a silk screen run.

More Photos on the Scope FB Fan Page

I love how in the summer, with the long days and the warm nights, we stay up so much later working and socializing, not worried about having to walk home or crash at someones spot. And this summer feels like one of the best I've had in a while. The most powerful motivation for me is having a circle of equally hard working, thoughtful and ambitious people around me, who inspire me to do better work by producing and involving me in things that I want to see be successful, not because they are our projects, but because they are interesting projects.

Doing Business Already

2010-07-01T23:00:00.004-04:00

Today me and my business partner Jero made Scope Urban Apparel an official, certified, legit, synonym, synonym, synonym, company. We went to city hall and registered our business, got our EIN and made our first purchase orders and invoices - now all we can do is wait. And this waiting for our products and promotional materials to arrive is really testing my patience - I feel like I got a present in the mail. Luckily we've been busy in the lab cooking up the next batch and the next batch to keep ourselves from going completely crazy...

Don't Quit Your Day Job(s)

2010-07-01T20:36:00.002-04:00

This week was unusually busy for me - both at my 9-5 jobs and outside. Usually, and not that I am complaining, things are fairly calm at my work. Not since last summer, when we were pulling 6 day weeks to finish bmc.org have things really been stressful. There has been a manageable level of work which has slowly but surely gotten done. But this week some exciting stuff happened. At my BU job, working for the Metropolitan College Marketing Department, we launched a redesigned site on Wednesday. This site was just starting to come together at the beginning of my time in that office, and it is satisfying to see it come all the way to a successful launch. While I was not involved with the design process of this site, I was part of the production team which spent days clicking through page after page, updating content, adding images and fine tuning SEO. For me it was also an opportunity to familiarize myself with the Wordpress cms. I am fairly comfortable working on a content management platform after spending months wrangling BMC,s RedDot and tweaking countless blogger and wordpress theme, but it was impressive to see a well utilized, well planned out set of themes and plugins applied to such a large and content heavy site - in terms of courses, programs, downloadable forms and so on. I have a better grasp of how these systems are put together and how to design and edit sites built on this kind of a platform. More than that, I'm just glad to have been part of a project that has been so long in the making. The new bu.edu/met is a huge leap forward from the previous incarnation of the site, so its nice to finally have all of that implemented and live on the web - not just our development server.

At my other job, in the Boston Medical Center development office, one of the print pieces we have been working on for a while is finally posted in the lobby of the Yawkey Ambulatory Center. As part of a campaign to raise awareness about breast cancer and encourage screenings, I was tasked with designing a large poster. The poster coordinates with other pieces (like bags for the pharmacy) and uses a vector illustration I drew. While this was not the most creative design project I've ever gotten, it was a break from what I typically do, so I feel like it was a good challenge for me. I know I can make an in-your-face poster that makes you want to come scream at the state house, but doing something within an already established brand, for a much different venue and target audience gave me a better appreciation for the way things work in a large institution environment. Definitely a great experience.

Los Macheteros

2010-06-29T12:58:00.001-04:00

So it looks like the first design to be printed for Scope Urban Apparel will be the shirt we did commemorating the Macheteros Struggle for the independence of Puerto Rico: R.I.P. Filiberto Ojeda Rios 4/26/33 - 9/23/05

I can't wait!

Worlds Collide

2010-06-28T06:45:00.001-04:00

I always love it when I can get all my different circles of friends together in one space. This past weekend, my dear mother broke in her BRAND NEW Propane Grill - (call it a mid-life crisis) hosting a cookout for some of the neighbors, friends of the family and my boys. As always there was world-class potato salad, black bean and corn salad, Greek salad, hamburgers and other offerings. But beyond good food and beautiful weather, I think the best thing about yesterday was the way everyone just hung out and met people they might not have met before.

It was dope connecting my musical genius friends with my visual /design genius friends with my super genius friends - a flock of friggin Freud's to use a Jim Carey riddler line. Lately I've been spending a lot of time working with my business partner Jero on our clothing company, Scope Urban Apparel and other people we've brought in on the project. So far the response and reception has been tremendous and we are getting ready to make our first moves. With a fairly tight production schedule planned out on top of all the other stuff going on in my life, its going to be a busy month - but it was nice to take a night off to politic and eat, shoot the shit and catch up with people.

The absolute best thing though, was undeniably the home-made strawberry shortcake, (Another of my mom's many summer specialties...)

Like the PE Logo

2010-06-25T16:14:00.000-04:00

This week we finalized many of the details surrounding the shirt company we're starting called Scope Urban Apparel. We made vectors of the first two shirt designs and created the first version of the company website, replacing the coming soon page we did several weeks ago.

The concept behind the company is to encourage people to be analytical and educated, and to make shirts that dig beneath the surface. The magnifying glass, the key icon in the logo and a frequently used image in our designs relates both to the mission of the company and to the fictional comic book series that will be created in conjunction with some exclusive shirts which is focused on a detective character.

For the site, we went with a simple 1-page design to accommodate the limited content. Mostly we wanted to highlight our shirts and provide some links for people to learn more about us. Since it was not an extensive site, the details were crucial. Things like the magnifying glass icons and custom captcha sequrity form make the site very specific to the company despite being a fairly simple and minimal design.

I am very excited to get our first batches of shirts and produce our other designs but I am very pleased with progress we are making so far.

Stop Motion Graffiti - Blackbook - 001

2010-06-21T21:21:00.001-04:00

I love traditional animation techniques, especially stop motion, for the crazy different ways it can be used. When I was in middle and high school I did a few claymation projects, using a still camera and characters I made move one frame at a time and this really opened my mind to the possibilities. I have seen several videos showing a piece or mural develop one step at a time and have always wanted to try it myself. I made a video of me coloring in a piece in my blackbook to try it out on a small scale.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4e2nv5-tyI

So this was mostly an experiment - to see if I could pull it off, I plan on trying to do this again, and better - and also make my life easier by figuring out a more efficient method. This one took me a long time to make, mostly because I had to press the button each time to get the shot - I need to find a camera that can shoot at a set time interval - so, To Be Returned To...

Weekend Warriors

2010-06-21T11:23:00.001-04:00

This weekend I have been tremendously inspired and energized by all of the powerful work going on in this city. On Friday, El Moviemiento held their first conference for Latin@ Studies in the public schools. Although I only managed to get out of work in time to catch the end, they had a really successful event with many students from schools all over the district coming together to strategize for better and more relevant education.

After that, Voices of Liberation, In solidarity with SIM, held an open mic and speak out at the State House, where SIM has been holding the Mass Hope 2010 vigil for the past 14 days. El Movimiento was also there in force, brining many strong young voices to the mic. One of the things that has been great for me to see is young(er than me) folks passionate and dedicated to making something happen - and doing it. It reminds me why this work is important, and how it never ends - just gets carried on.

And speaking of carrying on, Sunday marked the Third Annual 10,000 Strong Boston and was again a success, with hundreds of community members, organizations, elected officials and clergy showing up to share some food, meet each other and come together around some of the problems facing our communities. Governor Deval Patrick made it this year, along with many other prominent and powerful speakers. I think I was most moved however, by the families whose lives have been touched by violence and the youth who face it every day.

From standing with my friends Jesse, Jerememy, Santiago and discussing why each of us were there with Jack Nicas who wrote an article about 10,000 Strong in the Boston Globe, to watching these high school students from El Movimiento and VOL hold it down - telling people about their work on this event or their experiences or their ideas and solutions - I could not help but to be re-energized and inspired to keep doing what I do. As long as people care about making their world a better place, and are willing to grind for it - the least I can do is support their efforts. I know flyers will not make the revolution - but its nice to see hard work pay off - and important to acknowledge the victories we have won, and the people behind that work.

Finally something I approve of

2010-06-16T07:57:00.002-04:00

I'm a usually a pretty big Eminem hater - maybe it has something to do with the fact that people try to say he looks like me (or vice versa). But last night there was no denying that he - or whoever comes up with his ideas for him (there goes that hater in me) is a f***ing genius! I think by far his biggest contribution to the world is not his angry white boy rap, nor his I'm going to pretend I'm not a white boy rap, not even his music. The best thing to come out of Em is the commercial for his new project which I caught during last night's game - FEATURING VINCE, better known as the Sham-Wow Guy.

Unfortunately, like all other products advertised to me on a blue TV screen, with suspiciously low prices (and high shipping costs) and an annoying pitchman - Recovery just won't be making it into my collection this year - or ever - but at least I can say there is SOMETHING I like that Eminem did. Best of all, this commercial showed far more practical uses for the CD than listening to it, which c'mon, we all know just isn't going to happen...

I know

2010-06-15T21:25:00.002-04:00

This blog has thusfar been used as a collection point for stuff I do/work on/think about and then cool stuff I run across online. But today marks the first day I post something cool online I did not just run across - this bit of coolness found me. Arjen over at Elasticbrand dropped me a note about the vidieo they produced for Breez Evahflowin's "I Know."

I'm a huge fan of hip-hop and stop motion animation - so this video was right up my ally. In these days of smoke machines and camera cranes and green screens, its nice to see some tried and tested (and not massively expensive) techniques used to make stellar video.

Busy Weekend

2010-06-13T22:22:00.001-04:00

One thing I've noticed since I've been out of school for summer break is how much more productive I am. Not to knock what I produce for school, but its nice to be able to focus on real and tangible projects - especially ones for things I believe in. This weekend a lot of projects I've had in the works came more firmly together. As always, websites will be expanded and improved, refined... but getting everything launched is a pivotal start.

On the home front, we hit the streets heavy for 10,000 strong with flyers, posters and printouts of all sizes. Coming to a telephone pole, lightbox or payphone near you... Also minor updates and changes to 10000strongboston.com, keeping it accurate as the event nears.

For Voices Of Liberation, I created a much needed new and improved blog layout, especially after all the old graphics links died. Then updated the VOL twitter and VOL myspace to match.

Then, we launched all 4 of the sites I have been doing for Divine-Design clients, some extremely talented artists from ATL: Round Table Kings, Solar Sound Studio, Starbabies and Vance Vexed. With all of these sites, I worked off of one similar template, since all of the sites are heavily crosslinked, I left the navigation, footer and social networking icons in similar locations. I tried to keep it cohesive while still making each one uniqe and reflective of the client - especially with Solar Sound which already had some great graphics to work off of with the logo and intro animation - or the killer Round Table Kings Emblem Logo.

And finally, a relief from all this web work, a flyer for the annual 4th of U-Lie Show by S.O.S. Productions. (Shown with .25" bleeds).

That's it for now folks, but stay tuned: I have a feeling its going to be a busy summer.

Nothing Ventured...

2010-06-13T11:16:00.003-04:00

This week we secured the domain and finalized the logo for Scope Urban Apparel Co., a tee-shirt venture with an emphasis on literacy and education. I am very excited to be part of this project - conceptually it is a lot deeper than a tee-shirt company and the products we will be putting out go above and beyond the gimmicky tees dominating today's market. I'm most excited by the story behind Scope and the way original artwork - in particular comics - will be integral to the shirt designs and the brand.

Anyways, you can go check out the logo and site at scopeurbanapparel.com. I am very pleased with the way the logo came out - clean with an emphasis on typography. The magnifying glass ties into the story behind Scope, which is the story of a deaf detective who solves crimes in the hood. Intrigued? - You should be. So stay Tuned!

The Dark Knight Returns

2010-06-08T17:45:00.002-04:00

As you may have gathered - I'm a Huge fan of Frank Millers work and I just finished his contribution to Batman, "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" a 4 book event set in a dystopic near-future. Batman is an old fart - his already grim outlook and cynical nature all the more potent after years of fermentation. Gotham - and the world for that matter - is in chaos. Gotham is at its worst in terms of crimes, with a new gang "the mutants" threatening to take over the city. On top of that, the most dangerous villains Batman faced (Joker, Two-face) are being loosed at the hands of a Dr. Wolper who claims to be rehabilitating them. Dr. Wolper is the most vocal critic of Batman and his vigilante ways - going so far as to blame criminals crimes on a psychosis induced by the Bat. Commissioner Gordon is due for retirement and his replacement will be far less understanding - driving batman into open conflict with the police, the government and their pawn, Superman - the only super hero obedient enough to The Powers That Be to remain active. Batman and Superman - in an epic clash epitomize their brands of heroism. Superman remains the white bread wonder - loyal to police and presidents - controllable, predictable. Batman sees the world for what it is - violence and corruption and crime running rampant. He returns, for better or worse, to play his position - whether or not there is a place for Batman in this world anymore.

I loved this take on the DC universe and characters. To me the darker, more morally ambiguous aspects of Batman were the most interesting and Miller does an incredible job of playing with these grey areas - in the same ways, the things I always found to be superficial or one dimensional about superman are played up painting him as a puppet to the conventional notions of right and wrong. I had heard a lot of praise for these books, saying it redefined who these characters are. Not to be contrary to the high praise (as I think it is well-deserved), I think one of the best things about Millers work is the way he stays true to the soul of these characters and extrapolates out how their futures would unfold. If Batman were to ever grow old - this is how he would do it, haggard, grizzled, cynical - not afraid to recognize the most horrifying truths about humanity and our world.

So definitely a satisfying read - especially for someone like me who tends to favor the post-apocalyptic, social breakdown, martial law, political corruption, media manipulation, types of themes when it comes to graphic novels.

Metropolis

2010-06-07T09:58:00.000-04:00

This weekend I hit up the coolidge corner theatre to catch a remastered and restored version of Metropolis - Fritz Lang's 1927 science fiction classic. I guess somewhere in 2008 a copy of the film (including many scense previously beleived lost forever) in Buenos Aires. I knew about this movie's tremendous impact on development of the sci-fi genre - its art deco styling - its iconic machine-woman - and this was enough to make me want to see it - purely for its visual and artistic qualities.

I was most surprised by the acting and the way it was edited. In our attention deficient era we can barley watch the same camera angle for more than 30 seconds. It was a very differnt experience to watch a movie where there was no dialog except written on screen in between highly dramatic and physical acting. The mellowdrama of everything - from the facial expressions and gestures, the intense closeness and physical contact between all of the characters, the repeated and overstated caricatures of emotion - read very differntly than the hyper-lifelike acting we see today. By modern standards much of this movie can seem silly, over the top and clumsily done, like a middle school play. But that is why I had to remind myself this movie was not made for modern standards, but rather was one of the films to establish them.

One of my favorite flicks from my childhood is Singin' in the Rain, which covers the transtition in hollywood from silent pictures to "talkies" but I had never really thought about what it must be like to try to concieve of and put together a movie - without words, without dialogue, without sound effects (except for the score). I was struck by how much the visuals had to tell the story - not just record what was going on. There were crazy montaged scenes where many layers of film were all eerily smashed together, sped up sequences when the characters are propelled in a frantic fast-forward type of frenzy. It was just interesting to see how the format it was made for influenced how it was made when compared to what we expect in modern cinema.

More than that, I loved seeing the 1927 vision of a dystopic future. The machines, the sets, the characters were fascinating and like the acting - interesting to compare to modern visions of a futuristic technological world where machines rule our lives. This was another thing I thought was really intriguing about the film. It was produced in the inter-war Weimar Republic, an unstable flirtation with parliamentary government in German history, between the fall of imperialism and the rise of fascism. Many of the messages about the relationship between labor and owners, big capitalism and wage slavery in service of the mechanized factories are striking - with the heroine saving the grubby masses of working class children from the evil plans of the master of metropolis. The way the boss and his agents seek to turn the people against the one person advocating for them and discredit her so as to keep the laborers subservient - just interesting to think about as the product of what preceded one of the most racist, oppressive, authoritarian regimes in modern history.

10,000 Strong Boston III

2010-06-02T13:20:00.000-04:00

On June 20th we will have the Third Annual 10,000 Strong Boston - a community gathering / rally / call to action addressing such issues as street violence, the prevalence of guns and drugs in the community, the lack of jobs or adequate resources for education, housing, healthcare, employment, the problems with the CORI system and the prison system, police - community relations etc. Come through, get involved, support in whatever way you can. For more information visit 10000strongboston.com.

As with every year - we did a total redesign of the site and some coordinating print pieces. I tried to maintain the orange color scheme and cityscape design elements while making the site more modern and less cluttered. One of the things thats cool to see is the progression form one year to the next - both in terms of the event and my abilities to make a website. Now we swing into full promotion mode and I am excited to see how this year's event manifests. Once again - if you're in the Boston area, come thru and check it out.

The Movement Continues

2010-06-02T13:03:00.000-04:00

Yesterday my comrade brought me to a meeting with some high school students he's been working with around bringing Latino studies in to the public school curriculum. I came through to provide some minor design services but sitting in on an all volunteer organization created by youth brought me back to the start of Voices of Liberation, the youth organization we started in my high school years. I am inspired by these young folks, and their dedication to working for what they want. I guess it just was a much needed reminder that the struggle never ends - and that there will continue to be people doing this work long after we're all gone - which is a good thing. Just as I look up to people from history - the tremendous figures who shaped our world - I look up to these students - because, not on some hokey-we-are-the-future-shit, they will be the ones who shape our world. You either make things happen or you don't. And I applaud El Movimiento Estudiantes Latin@s for trying to make something happen. I'm glad I could help with a flyer and a blog-site and am excited to see what kind of moves they're going to make.

Definitely show them some love - if you're in high school or work in education - check out their first conference on June 18. And hopefully look for more in the future on movimiento-estudiantes.blogspot.com

Hear Me Coming - Daveed Diggs

2010-05-28T22:22:00.001-04:00

I just heard the latest release from Daveed Diggs "Hear Me Coming" - definly feeling the work coming out of the Getback camp.

Becoming a Blog Builder

2010-05-28T21:59:00.000-04:00

Like HTML, and anything else I taught myself, the blogger code was at first mistifying, then confusing, then manageable and finally now something I feel pretty confident working with and editing. This is good since traditional web pages are on their way out with blogs and CMS based systems setting the new standards both visually and functionally. This week I have been working mostly on two blogs, catchwreckmusic.blogspot.com, and pswethebest.blogspot.com. Both are for local hip-hop artists who wanted a way to add content and information to their sites without having to learn how to code or asking me to make edits to a static page.

For Catch, this was the latest step we took to unify and revamp his web presence, following the new website and twitter. With his blog, we were inspired by not only other artists sites, like J-Live, but also other hip-hop blogs, like Hip-Hop Is Read. We are still fleshing out his ambitious sidebar where he wants to provide users links to all kinds of local, conscious and free music from other artists and his own projects. On top of that, we wanted something that, while not seamlessly matching his site (like how my blog and website are essentially the same design), went with the overall scheme we had developed for The Young & The Restless.

Stay tuned as we add more of the content he's been pulling together and add some elements to highlight special features he has introduced to his blog such as the Watch for it series and #Nowplaying posts.

The other blog I've been working on is a website replacement blog for the Prime Suspects. I had designed a very similar HTML site for them a while ago but it was something they couldn't add to themselves. The solution we came up with is based on a template I found online that closely matched what I had built for their original site. Then it was mostly a matter of reformatting the content into blog pages and posts. The guys over at PS have already taken control over their blog and hours after I uploaded the final design and graphics, I saw new posts populating it.

I guess thats what I like most about sciencing this blog business out. Its a very convenient way of separating the design from the content and easily dropping old content into a new design or vice versa. I can work on what I do insulated from what my clients actually want in terms of information on their sites. I have several more blog projects / clients in the pipeline so stay tuned for more as I delve deeper in the land of XML.

Can't write no songs about you

2010-05-27T18:02:00.000-04:00

I have still yet to put my music on my computer and phone so I have a limited but fortunately good selection that I've been playing pretty heavy. Besides the new The Young & The Restless mixtape from Catch, I've been bumping Jay Electronica's Victory and Rafael Casal's Monster projects pretty heavy. This song, Hurricane off of the latter is one of my favorite joints although with a album like that it's really hard to pick.

Fresh Starts

2010-05-27T15:10:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I had to make a little detour to the art store to re-up on a sketchbook. Earlier in the day I had filled the last usable pages of my previous book, leaving it ready to join the stack of used black books collecting dust on my shelf. When it comes to my sketchbooks I've been told I'm rather compulsive (what my photo teacher might refer to as "AC.") I like to go sequentially, and use every page. Not so novel a way to use it to me, but out of profile for a graff artist - who're supposed to epitomize disregard for traditional canvases and traditional ways of looking at and making art. Get over it. I like sketchbooks that read like normal books, showing a progression or at least a succession of ideas - the work from a particular time period. So when I completely finish up a book, it is typically accompanied by a well deserved sense of accomplishment - a triumph over laziness, and inconsistency.

When I start a new sketchbook - its even better. A new sketchbook is kinda like a beautiful girl you want to talk to - an intoxicating mixture of inviting and intimidating. On the one hand, you don't want to fuck up. On the other, you see nothing but possibility - the infinite things you could draw - the blank pages you have to fill. Too soon it will be all used up - and left in a stack with the others - but for now I see nothing but beautiful pictures in our future... (minus the cheesy - hokey images that conjures up)

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The Young & The Restless - OUT NOW

2010-05-18T01:04:00.006-04:00

After a marathon night of uploading tracks, websites, graphics and videos The Young & The Restless Mixtape from my man Catch Wreck is AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD. We coordinated the redesign of his website and twitter with the release of his second and latest project which coincides with hip hop appreciation week. Definitly go download it, show some love and prepare to be blown away.

I feel lucky to have been a part of the many recording sessions and late night builds putting together all the marketing materials, having the opportunity to see this project come together, and see how solid the final product is. I am excited to see how other people react to it... as a designer my job is to make my dude look as good as he can, and make his work look as official as it can - so people focus on what he's saying - can access it well, so it can be delivered to them.

Cover

For the cover - I mostly wanted to highlight the photography by A. Garcia. I tried to keep the typography simple and relate the layout (at least for the front) to what I did for Violence Transformed. The back we had some fun with things like associating symbols with the producers to give credits for who did which track - the signature glasses for Blizz Cartel, $ for DMoney etc. From the cover - we redesigned the website.

Website

With the site I wanted to keep the layout and basic elements from Catch's previous site the same, but update the photgraphy and colors to match the current scheme much as I matched the last site to Violence Transformed. We expanded and updated the videos and discography and be sure to check the blog for more frequent info.

Twitter

A simple color coordination and background image - to make it sync with the site. The goal is as seamless a navigation as possible from site to social network and vice versa.

Freaky Baby YouTube Graphic

To follow up the release of the All the Way Turned Up Freestyle as a video-less video on youtube, we did a slightly more elaborate vid for Freaky Baby, a remake to Lady Gaga's Love Game. We made a graphic specifically for the song that still tied into the general look we had established for The Young & The Restless and then made a simple video with it to go along with the release of the mixtape.

Beyond having a blast designing a system for this project and Catch's Identity materials, I am just glad I can help my friend do his thing. I love hip-hop but I am often deeply saddened by the trajectory it has taken as of late. Catch is someone my age who is as passionate, as dedicated and as hard working at what he does as I am with what I do. He is a talented artist and wants to use his art to do something good for his people and community. I have nothing but respect for that. Oh, and did I mention the shit is hot. Catch has articulated that his goal with this project is to reach his (our) generation and give them something meaningful and substantive and positive but not Corney. He more than lives up to his goals with The Young & The Restless. Get yours.

Jay Electronica and the Boston Hip-Hop Unity Fest

2010-05-17T10:08:00.004-04:00

Saturday Night I went to check out the 4th Boston Hip-Hop Unity Fest organized by Edo G featuring the incredible Jay Electronica.with my homie Catch Wreck (check out his recap of the nights events on his blog) It was a dope show - with a surprise special appearance by Jeru the Damaja and a seemingly endless list of Boston acts. I have to give it up to the cats from AR Classics: Dominick Omega, Carolina Black and Vice Versah, they definitely did their thing. Also Dre Robinson for being a professional and doing an amazing two song set instead of bitching about not being able to perform his entire catalog unlike some of the fools who fail to recognize people paid mostly to see Jay, not them. Don't get me wrong - I have nothing but love for my city and many of the artists from here. But when the headliner ends up going on at 1:30, don't complain because you couldn't do the 5th song of your set.

As a white boy from Boston who loves hip-hop, Boston (and especially Cambridge) hip-hop white boys are tremendously disappointing - in general - to me. I don't understand why they continue to get the co-sign and who actually tells them its a good idea to go and talk about the nonsense they do. I mean I think music is something anyone can love or do - but if you gonna do it, do it right and be true to who you are, not what's popping at the moment.

That being said, none of the minor flaws I've been pulling out could detract from what was a tremendously fun night. Boston gets a (fairly well deserved) bad rap for being an un-supportive environment so it was dope to go out to something that really did bring a lot of people together for a fun night of good music. I salute Edo G. and anyone else who tries to do something like this. What really made everything worth it though, was the no-holds-barred performance Jay gave. The Paradise is a pretty small and intimate venue - and the insane amount of energy during his performance - the crazy scene outside the club afterwards where the police tried to bounce Jay (and the throng of people around him) - the acapellas where he cared about heads UNDERSTANDING what he was saying, not just bopping to it - all made it a night well spent.

The rest of the night was spent making the 4 odd mile hike from Brighton to my crib. By the time we got back at 4 I could see the sky in the east getting a touch lighter. It was a night well spent and I am glad I went. I'm not one to typically buy tickets to shows - I'm more of a chill with friends and listen to music at home - kind of person. But some cats are worth going out to see. This was totally one of em.

Version 5.0

2010-05-13T23:30:00.000-04:00

After weeks of tinkering and tweaking, coding and cropping I finally launched the 5th incarnation of my personal website jacobleiolf.com and blog Jake 2.0. I followed the same process as last time with as always refinements made with the benefits of hindsight.

I found a template for my blog that I liked, one that was flexible and had a lot of the room for me to modify it to suit my needs. Prowess from Blogger Templates was the foundation I built on, keeping the blog very similar except for colors, graphics, details and navigation structures.

Then I built a website around the graphics and main structure of the blog, as I am a lot more comfortable working with html pages than picking through the blogger code. I can do it but right now it is still time consuming and at times baffling.

The content remained mostly the same with a some new samples in the portfolio and art and design galleries, a new photo (but still no bio) on the about page, a showcase of my other websites, some more links, a cool contact form with a customized catpha security thing (note the color and font coordination), a favicon, and a lot of cleaning and streamlining. This is my first experiment with a 1000px wide main area as opposed to the 780px sites I used to design. I am hoping and assuming that most people (if anyone looks at my site at all) will be using a screen that is at least 1024x768. I mean who uses 800x600 anymore anyway? The (who looks at my site anyway) brings me to the analytics which is also something I am trying out. So be warned - I'm (errr my google robots) watching you! This is one of the many features I am testing out on my site before I go and offer it to my clients. One of the benefits of having a bunch of sites to play around with and constantly redesign is that I get to try out new ideas and techniques before I go and add it to my list of services. So enough about my site - heres some before and after shots.

Call Me...

2010-05-09T00:07:00.002-04:00

This is one of my favorite videos from Joell Ortiz - classic song, and romance is so much cuter at a young age - innocence and all that good stuff. Plus you gotta love the Al Green Sample.

Born Stress-Free

2010-05-07T16:22:00.000-04:00

So yesterday I saw M.I.A.'s video for "Born Free" which was banned from youtube and has stirred up quite a bit of controversy over its graphic content. Naturally I loved the video and had to go check out the filmmaker Romain Gavras and look at his other work. What I saw both cpativated and distrubed me, much like the video for M.I.A., especially a music video he did for a song called "Stress" by Justice.

I think what I like most about his work, besides the fantastic filming, editing, concepts etc. is the raw, in-your-face, thought provoking effect of his work - the way it comments on social issues like police brutality, racism, persecution of "minority" groups, racial profiling, xenophobia, gangs, youth violence etc... and not in a way that is preachy or corny or propagandistic or theatrical - but in a way that is real, believable and therefore very effective in getting across a message and making the viewer ask the right questions. Definitely going to be watching for more of his work.

Hand Cut Type

2010-05-04T09:24:00.010-04:00

So, for my Final Reviews, we were encouraged to do a typographic piece that represented who we were - a "personal statement" to add a certain amount of us into the collection of our assignments for class. I had to go with the sing lyric "I hold my marker like Huey P. held his revolver" from the song "Audobon Ballroom" by the Black Market Militia. This reacquainted me with my love of stencils and especially stenciled lettering. So when May Day rolled around, and people around the country posed the question "Do I Look Illegal?" in response to Arizona's sb1070 legislation, I decided to do two short demos on the Political Pirates blog, showing folks how to make their own "Do I Look Illegal?" and "How About Now?" stencils (props to Sofia and First Wave Panama for that one). The first stencil is done with the counters or the middles of the letters (A's O's etc) cut out. The Second one is done so that the counters are attached to the rest of the stencil (as is more traditional). Please, check out the blogs, give it a shot.

One of the biggest things I took away from my final crits this year was the encouragement to try things I like and to not be afraid to use the visual language I like. Well hand cut letters - stencils are one of my favorite things. I love the way they are uneven, inconsistent and have texture within the letter forms - the physicality of the final words and the act of cutting them. So under the list of things I like - characteristics of the Jake design aesthetic - hand cut type should be featured prominently.

Step by Step Instructions from the Political Pirates Blog

Unreal. Like a Dream.

2010-05-04T08:12:00.002-04:00

So during the end of the semester I severely neglected my blog, as it was more important to get shit done than document it. One of the best things that I have yet to really acknowledge is the wonderful girl I met - and the great but far too brief time we had together. Now its been over a week since she went home, probably never to come back - and while we've stayed in touch over e-mail and this app she got me for my phone - we both recognize how unlikely it is we will meet again - and how badly we both want to do so. When I met this girl, I was in a cold place, where I was not so keen on reaching out and meeting people. She reminded me how I much of a mistake that was. No matter what happens, who you meet, there are always amazing and wonderful people in this world, right around you. I just want to thank her for showing me that - for making me try new things - and like it - doing things I would never do before. I tend to look at relationships as a balance between learning about the other person and sharing your interests and loves. It was great to go out and see what she wanted to show me, taste new foods, go to new places - and do the same for her.

I will remember you forever not because I made you take a bunch of pictures for me, not because you gave me an iPhone and fancy backpack - but for being a tremendously sweet, ambitious, hard working, smart, and kind person who I was lucky enough to have in my life - even for a short while. You showed me how to trust again - and how to get my hopes up (in a good way) - and how to just have fun, no pressure, no plans. I'm just glad I met you... glad we're still in touch, And I hope I can see you again.

Grind Transformation

2010-04-30T00:03:00.001-04:00

Today I passed in my photo portfolio box and my revised pieces for creative writing bringing my semester and junior year to a welcome close. Yesterday I presented my work from typography and graphic design for final review by my teachers, other faculty and an outside guest who on my day happened to be from Converse. It was good to get the combination of feedback, the initial impressions of people who had never seen my work but recognized my areas of strength and weakness, and the observations my teachers have made watching me as a student over the semester. I was happy to hear that my drive (to complete two semesters' worth of material for both classes, in just the spring) was having noticeable affects. It gives me inspiration and motivation to continue in my own projects over the summer, with new T-Shirt Campaigns, stickers, stencils and all those things that made me love this in the first place. I am finally getting back to the freelance and personal projects I have been putting off or squeezing in here and there and I look forward to productive summer. One other thing my teachers reminded me, (after I gave a similar answer about my summer plans) I need to have fun. It's great that I feel like I am getting my shit together, making things happen and all of that but I need to look at the balance in my life. Right now I am young and able to spend entirely too much energy doing way too many things. But as I get older I am realizing where spending my energy and time really counts. And where it is utterly wasted.

I am a simple guy. I want to do right by my family and friends - the community I love and am shown love by. I want to do what I love which is make websites and flyers and stencils and sketches and hopefully use those to do something good. I want to support my city and especially young people from my city I want to make the people who do good work look just as good as the people who make millions of dollars selling us crap we don't need. I want to make art that sells us messages we do need. These are the things that are important to me. Being with people I love who make me appreciative of life. Doing what I love for something I believe in. It's not a lot to ask for. Not absurd goals to have.

I must be a giant

2010-04-22T00:13:00.002-04:00

Last month it was Jay Electronica, this month it's Rafael Casal. (For all of you who ain't heard the sh*t, next month it'll be Catch Wreck!) But I have found my new current favorite hip-hop artist in Bay Area Poet / MC Rafael Casal. His new LP Monster is a solid album, start to finish and As Wreck writes in his recent blog post about young artists to watch for "Giant is a song any man who's been in a disfunctional relationship should have no trouble relating to." This video / song is currently on my Jam'n 94.5 style queue of about 10 joints that I have on near 24/7 rotation.

Introspective moments

2010-04-21T23:57:00.002-04:00

Tonight I started falling asleep on the couch at like 8:00 which is a sign I need to get more sleep in my life. Having woken back up I am now finding myself staying that way. Its been a while since I have used this blog for more than a partial list of what the hell I've been doing with my time. I kinda forgot how it can serve as more than a reminder of what projects I did. But that's me in a nutshell I guess. I know there is more in my life than my work, but I'm not terribly concerned with sharing that with people.

What do I mean. I guess I mean that my work as an artist and designers, as an organizer is what I think I most want to share with the world. Like if we could give anything, or rather if we had anything we could give, that would be what I would do. I guess the other things in my life, I tend to want to keep to myself, like women who bring joy into my heart, or friends who watch out for and take care of me when I need it. You forget how lucky you are sometimes. I know after every fall, there is that period where you are scared to climb back up, for fear you will only fall again, possibly harder or farther. I guess I am remembering what it is like to go without fear, to trust like you've never been hurt, be open to new good things and watch them come in to your life.

As my junior year ends, I feel like I have never been surrounded by better people, and am nothing but excited for the moves we are making. As always, my mind wanders back to the work side of my life, to all the projects we have in front of us - but I guess Its nice to know who your friends are, especially when at the end of the day your team is as strong as mine.

"I Still Love Her" Video

2010-04-21T06:58:00.005-04:00

So yesterday Rene Dongo (Boston's resident young film-making genius) uploaded the "I Still Love Her" video he did for Rey Leon off of the upcoming EP "The Pledge" set to drop in a few short days. You can also watch "I Still Love Her" on Rey Leon's Youtube.

I Swear every video this guy does he gets better - and each time I think it is not possible to GET any better. But it does. This video fits that unbelievable pattern. Many congratulations to Diego (Rey Leon) for the way his project is coming together. After weeks of hearing tracks going down in the long lab sessions in Somerville I am real excited for the whole project and this Video is the perfect way to showcase the EP.

Rene, excellent work as always. Rey Leon, keep grinding - its dope to see where cats can take through sheer hard work and dedication. I am glad I was able to provide cover art and graphics for this project - if you notice, the photography we used for the front and back are shots from the same time he filmed the video. I like seeing how everything works together, the original photography, the EP art, the Video, the Logos. Now we're just waiting on the hard copies of the Inserts which should be on their way as I write this post.

The Young & The Restless - Available Everywhere May 18th

2010-04-17T19:19:00.000-04:00

Today we converted catchwreckmusic.com to a new splash page that showcases the upcoming mixtape "The Young and the Restless." Mostly this was based off of a promotional graphic we worked on the other day, but with the addition of some links and key info as well as the three videos he has so far for this project, we had a nice way to get people excited and looking for the mixtape, coming a month from tomorrow.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the reaction to The Young and the Restless, its a good departure from Catch's EP, Violence transformed in that it covers a lot more subjects and a lot more of his musical depth.

Photo 101

2010-04-17T17:49:00.000-04:00

Not really. I think it was AR 415 but that makes a bad title. So anyways, as the end of the semester nears I have finished my coursework for one of my classes, photography. Last week we mounted our portfolios and wrote creative titles on the back. So I finally got to being home all these pictures I've been taking of all my friends all spring. I threw a few of the better ones (but not the best since those are in my portfolio at school) on the scanner just to put it out there for my friends and family to see.

I thought this was a cool class- it gave me a new appreciation and distaste/disillusionment with the digital age we live in. Paying 6 dollars to take 36 exposures which are wayyyy to easy to mess up is not fun. Nor finessing the printing of a particular photo at 30 cents a pop. But learning about filters, and contrast, exposure and burning and dodging and all these terms I'm afraid to admit I learned through Photoshop and am finally associating with their origin, is really intersting. I love the physical way that light relates to the way we make the image. Its not a slider we can play with on a program, its an aperture we have to open to the right size or for the right amount of time. It makes you understand how things connect - more or less... I dunno it was pretty fun. Especially the photograms, which are something I would love to do more of.

So anyways, here are a fe of my favorites (of the second best photos, which I could bring home)

CS5

2010-04-14T13:00:00.000-04:00

Well, rumors and sneak peaks and video clips and the like have been all over the web regarding the soon to be released Creative Suite 5 from Adobe. Today I looked to see what kind of features were being added, what was changed and if it was going to be worth the upgrade. I just recently went from using a hodge podge of CS2 and CS3 programs to having the CS4 master collection. Just in time for the release of 5. They do that on purpose though. So the change to CS4 was somewhat drastic and there were significant improvements - especially over CS2. There were also things they messed with where they should have left well enough alone - and while I am getting used to the new way things are, I miss some of the features and format of the older programs. The new suite looks like it has some pretty slick features though and while its still to early to tell - I'll probably check out CS5 and see what all the hype is about. Maybe about the same time they come out with 6...

All the Way Turned Up Freestyle

2010-04-14T12:39:00.003-04:00

So I finally figured out the right settings for encoding youtube videos in Adobe Premier. After poking around and comparing several samples I found the right balance of quality and speed for videos which youtube ultimatlely rencodes anyway. One of the first "videos" I tested this on was my man Catch Wreck's "All the Way Turned Up Freestyle" remake of that mind-numbingly stupid Travis Porter / Soulja Boy Song. All I did was drop the song on the audio track and make the Mixtape cover be the video - then encode and upload. This was my first time really farmiliarizing myself with Premiere, especially the new CS4 but I have to say it's a pretty sweet program. I hope to use it to do some actual video editing - not just still images and songs, but we gotta start somewhere.

Anyways, check out the new track from the upcoming mixtape "The Young and the Restless"

Looking the Part

2010-04-11T11:24:00.003-04:00

So this week I was told that I don't "look" like a graphic designer. I found this comment hysterical as I was not aware graphic designers had a certain look. So when I inquired why - what about me said "not designer"?

1) First of all I guess I'm not a Mac user. And we all know macs are the computers for designers even though as someone who uses the computer EVERY DAY for design work I HATE macs and selescted a PC for the things it lets me do in a straightforward way. I know macs are shiney, and really pretty, and look all high tech and intuitive because the windows fly all over the place when you scroll to a corner whatever. Personally, call me boring, but I like menus, I like right clicks, I like excessive keyboard shrotcuts (with the buttons placed where they ought to be) and all of this enhances my design expereince more than a sleek interface.

2) Secondly, I do not "dress like a designer." Typically I like simple, cheap, durable clothes - I like function, I like a limited color palette, I like easily matching. I have been known to rock more "clothes for the sake of fashion" when the situation calls for it - I can throw on a blazer for a nice evening or a nice shirt for a meeting - but I don't see my clothing as part of my PR toolkit. I don't need to wear glasses and I have not compelled to purchase fake ones to up my visual IQ. I wear black dickies instead of button ups and slacks. I wear regular loose jeans instead of colorful skinny ones. I like black adidas, not checkered vans or canvas shoes of some funky hue. I guess you could call my wardrobe plain or boring - but I like the my friend describes it - Basic. I wear clothes I like that do what they need to. I am not someone who will wear anything, like as long is it covers my back it does the trick - in fact I am rather picky when it comes to what I buy to wear. But my choosy-ness manifests itself in shades of black white and grey usually.

3) I'm not a coffe drinker. I like tea but if I drink it I typically make it at home since I know how much it costs to boil water and insert a teabag. Now - I love a warm beverage on cold days, or a nice extravagant treat - but I don't walk around with a Starbucks cup glued to my hand. (I equate people with starbucks cups - especially as a fashion acessory - to the fake ballers fake rappers criticize for walking around with a bottle in hand just for show.)

4) I believe in good personal hygiene - cleanliness, brushing teeth, showers - etc. But I don't really primp. I don't spike or gel or ski-jump my hair. I don't go to supercuts every two weeks. I shave to clean up, not style my face.

Now when I thought about all this - it at first cracked me up. I never considered that choosing to wear a tee or not buying crazy kicks made me NOT look like a graphic designer. I always thought graphic designers designed posters, publications, promotional materials etc - not themselves. That's the same approach I take to present myself as a credible graphic designer. I work on making my websites, my promotional materials, my projects and my clients' projects refelct my skills as a designer. I put my energy and efforts into that. I mean don't take this as some grouchy - these people think I look like a slump instead of a web designer - I don't much care if people write off my abilities because of my superficial appereance. What I am more intrigued by is the way our society, our culture has established "looks" for professions or paths of life. And living up to that look is more important than actually doing what you do.

In my high school, we took a class that tried to prepare us for the professional world, for dealing with interviews and presentations and all that nonsense. One of the things I hated most about this class was the fact that you had to dress up to get a good grade. Never mind what you said, how you participated, how much you listened, if you helped your peers, if you understood the material. If you did not dress up - you were not getting as good of a grade as someone who did. Now for me and my friends, who are far more concerned with what we are doing than how we look doing it - especially when the how we look judgments are coming from people whose values are quite different - this kind of criteria is insulting. Now I wore a tie, and nice shoes, and a suit, and a shirt. I did what I had to. But I knew, that the reason my groups project went well, that my presentation was on point, my ability to answer questions or explain my ideas had NOTHING to do with what I had on. That I had on the costuming so people could pay attention to what I was saying, not the factthat I wore jeans.

But here's my problem. I shouldn't have to play pretend to remind people of what is important. My freind shouldn't have to look like someone else in order for people to listen to him. I shouldn't have to fit your perception of graphic designer in order to earn your business. I know this is all that old - don't judge a book by its cover, judge me by my merits talk that many people have encountered and expressed. And its not like anyone is doing me any tremendous injustice by telling me I don't have the graphic designer look. But it goes back to that thing about being from here - appeances are everything - more important than reality or substance.

As a graphic designer I make my cleints work look good. That's my job. To make it appear in such a way as to invite attention to the substance, the content. I do the same thing for myself in terms of presenting my work, my projects. I guess I never turned the same attention to my phyisical person. Honestly though - I thought that's what stylists were for. And if i ever make it big enough that it matters what other people think I look like - I should probably let some professional handle it for me. But they better damn well dress like a stylist.

Sticker Madness

2010-04-10T18:01:00.005-04:00

I used to design lots of free stickers that people could print out and use for their own purposes. It has been hard for me to keep up with it though, and often I make a design, print a bunch and move on to the next one. But with the creation of the Pen and Sword Blog, I have found a home where I can easily upload stickers for public consumption. While there are many series I work on simultaneously, most stickers feature revolutionaries, activists, civil rights movement leaders, artists and musicians, authors and poets, Scholars and educators, political prisoners, popular movements, fallen comrades and victims of tragedy, of police brutality etc.

Recently I have been getting back into the swing of things uploading downloadable high resolution stickers to ps-politicalpirates.blogspot.com/.So, look for more new stuff there.

And We're Back...

2010-04-10T10:56:00.001-04:00

After a marathon night of switching nameservers, chatting up tech support people, re-pointing IP addresses and so forth - almost all of our 20+ sites are live again on the new servers. Sorry for any inconveniences users may have experienced during the transition. Also, look out for a few new sites we have in the works including a site for the Young Gifted and Black Movement - a local youth artists collective and bi-annual show, B's and 3's - your source for real Boston hip-hop and the Conscious Artist Database - originally a feature on hip-hop4blackunity.org it is now becoming its own site.

Server Switching

2010-04-09T18:00:00.001-04:00

Please be patient with me while I am transferring to new servers. jacobleidolf.com, ps-design.net, politicalpirates.com, catchwreckmusic.com, and voicesofliberation.org will be down for the time being. In the meantime stay tuned to ps-politicalpirates.blogspot.com, twitter.com/PSpirates, divine-design.net, twitter.com/catchwreck, catchwreck.bandcamp.com and voicesofliberation.blogspot.com.

On To the Next One

2010-04-09T15:52:00.002-04:00

On to the next s***.

Panther Art Books

2010-04-04T23:00:00.000-04:00

For my Graphic Design studios class we are designing artist books for a photographer, fine artist or architect of our choosing. I decided to do Emory Douglas, who was the Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party and designed tons of posters, newspapers, wheatpaste signs and prints. His drawings, collages, design work and printmaking work all contributed to and promoted the Panther programs for community control of police, the survival programs designed to provide basic necessities to the community, the education programs etc.

Douglas is one of my biggest inspirations as an artist, both in terms of what he contributed to the visual language of revolution and how he dedicated his "career" to making art and design pieces that addressed social problems and community organizing efforts aimed at solving them. Anything but Art for Art's sake, Douglas's work has a utilitarian power that conveyed messages strongly - not pulling any punches.

In making these books we had to track down some high quality images or scan them in from other books. This gave me the excuse to buy two big art books of Douglas's work - Black Panther: the Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas and The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service 1967-1980. While the first focuses exclusively on Emory and his drawings collages, lithographs and posters - the newspaper book also contains inside spreads of the paper as well as the striking covers. Both of these books are amazing resources for political information, history, artistic and design -even layout inspiration.

I have enjoyed this project so far mostly because I have been able to learn about an artist whose work and values I admire. I try to use my art and design to support community organizing work in my home town of Boston as well as national and global efforts. One of the things I finds so inspirational about The Panthers and Emory's work is the way they addressed local needs of the community, national issues and the global political situation.

Style Appropriation

2010-03-27T14:41:00.012-04:00

So I am a huge Frank Miller fan - from what he did with Batman to the Sin City books, one of his other movie adapted projects - the 300 (the original book is amazing) - I typically think you can't go wrong when it comes to Frank Miller. He developed an amazing style where positive and negative space, variation in just black and white and gorgeous textures and patterns are crisply and cleanly pulled out to create stunningly dramatic panels. I have seen a lot of people try to imitate or emulate or most importantly, be inspired from and study his work - as well they should, but I can't always get behind everything with that look - no matter how much it is a style I love.

I was with my boy who is far more aware of the mainstream music scene than I am and he showed me the newest Young Money video Roger That. I'm not sure how I feel about the way they just gave some nonsense the trappings of one of the most distinctive comic asthetics - seems kind of cheap. Although judging from the behind the scenes video - this video was anything but. I guess everything DOES just take a certain amount of money and people you can hire to be creative. (Or make something that looks kind of like what someone creative made). Don't get me wrong - the video LOOKS great and is really well done - but I wonder how much it even matters whose video it was. The Sin City look works for the music video format but I feel like this video could have been for any song and I seriously question why it had to be this one.

Kids n' Cats

2010-03-24T00:48:00.004-04:00

Calvin & Hobbes, the best kid / cat dynamic duo ever...

Man's Best Friends

2010-03-24T00:42:00.000-04:00

About 10 years ago our friends (now neighbors) called us up frantically asking us to take in two kittens they had found dumped out of a car in front of their house. They were headed out of town but had found two abandoned, weeks-old kittens the morning they were supposed to leave. We were supposed to watch these kittens for a week, while they were out of town. Well, by the time we got to their house one of the kittens had gotten loose. The other, a palm-sized grey ball of fuzz covered in chewing gum went back with us - in theory just until they came back from their trip.

This is how we got Maestro - my cat. Of course once kid and kitten met all notions of giving this cat back when our friends returned sort of vanished - I claimed - and named Maestro and he became part of our family - the NORMAL part. Our other cat at the time, Licorice, was a totally anti-social, neurotic creature who hated human contact. But Maestro was our cat who, if you came over enough, could pet, and would come over and bang his head against your leg looking for food. With the people he knew he could be quite affectionate. But he's also a cats cat - loves to play hard to get. If you try to get him to come in the house he'll sit on the back stoop, running away every time you open the door and running back every time you close it. Even my mother who HATES cats likes Maestro (although for the longest time she would only do so by saying he wasn't a cat).

This weekend we brought him into the vets because his stomach blown up like he was full of something. We had them do a test revealing it was some sort of mass that had ruptured and fluid had drained out, filling his belly. The tests they ran on a sample of the fluid came back positive for malignant cancer which is inoperable. Today he had the first of possible many procedures to drain 300cc's of fluid from inside him - in order to make him more comfortable and take some pressure off of his insides. They also gave him a shot of steroids. They say that we can drain the fluid every so often to keep him comfortable and the steroids will help but at this point they are saying days or weeks. I was never one to believe life could be calculated like that, especially when he doesn't even seem to be in any sort of pain for the moment. But it's a sad truth that this otherwise healthy and happy cat is on his way.

When I was a kid he would sleep at the foot of my bed, staring at the fish tank that I used for a night light. And the first summer we had him I went away on a road-trip and was worried about him going out by himself, so my mom used a leash in the backyard. I feel like he has a good life - roaming the neighborhood and being king of our hill. I hope we can keep him happy as long as he's healthy and am grateful for the joy, humor and comforts he brought into our home - animals offer love without complication. Maybe its because they depend on us for food - but at least they don't have a problem letting us know that. Maestro is the first cat (or animal) that I've ever said is mine - and its sad to think he might not be with us much longer but I'm glad he fell into our lives.

Best of Both Worlds

2010-03-21T15:22:00.004-04:00

Lego + Video Games = :)

All Over the T

2010-03-21T12:05:00.001-04:00

Yesterday my travels took me from my neck of the woods (the forest hills end of the orange line) all the way to both ends of the red line and back again. As is seeming to become tradition I went back to the studio to get something left from Wednesday's session which meant getting to Somerville. From there tho, we went to fields corner - almost the opposite end of the red line - to go to a friends son's birthday second birthday party - which was great. It's crazy when people who you've known since you were kid start having children of their own - it kinda makes you realize how fast time moves and reflect on where you are in your own life. Then from that we went back to the orange line to check out this party at Spontaneous Celebrations - about a 20 minute walk from home. There was some kind of party action going on - featuring this dope live band Opposite People who were doing live Afrobeat / Funk / Dub music - which is awesome live...getting to hear such a strong brass section - so close up. We stayed until the band left and people were just dancing and eating and mingling downstairs - and I walked back home since the last train had long since passed.

It was fun going so far in one day - I used to go to Cambridge a lot when I had more people living out - same things with fields corner. But yesterday I was reminded "just because you're not seeing that girl doesn't mean you can't come through and visit." I love the variety of the neighborhoods of Boston, (and not on some corny Metro paper shit) and the different sights from the subway - the skylines from the Longfellow bridge, the graffiti from the Ashmont line or the southwest corridor. Sometimes I forget how much I love my city. One of the things we were talking about with our ample time spent on the T was how - in this day in age, in this country, for our generation, we fail to appreciate the simple good things in life - like a beautiful day in the place that you're from - or the effortless trust between good friends. We obsess far too much over the shit we want and not the shit we have - what we didn't do or what we plan to do instead of what we are doing - So it seems like a crime for me to spend any more of this beautiful day rambling about the last one or what I'm going to do with the next one - so I'm going to find the sunshine.

Victory

2010-03-19T17:32:00.003-04:00

This week I finally got Jay Electronica's new Victory Mixtape. I had heard a few songs off of it here and there but when my most trusted sources on music happenings told me it was "the best mixtape" they had heard in a looong time or that Jay is their "new favorite rapper" or on track to be "the next Rakim" I got pretty excited. Having listened to it (non-stop) all the way through several times now - I can say there is a good reason these are my most trusted music people and that Victory lives up to what I thought was going to be unachievable hype.

The Album

Go get it from wherever you get your music from. I know that some blogs have links to get it. Definitely worth copping - this is one of those solid albums - so good you don't have to skip tracks type of thing.

Cover

After looking at the cover art I was curious who put it together as it did not have that over the top mixtapey look that has become almost blandly generic in the industry so I checked out the Blog of the designer - I was impressed that he was a young cat doing his own thing under the flag of Rebel Pixel - As someone who got into graphic and web design doing album covers and posters for my friends and my own projects I love to see other people who are making their own way - like when Jay Z said "but the hustlers they love it just to see one of us make it..." If this youngin is doing the mixtape covers for Jay Electronica it gives me hope for the inifinite possibilities my future may hold.

Tracklist

While the back cover offers us this information - "This mixtape is only about music, track names are irrelevant in this musical journey that Jay Electronica has provided for us. Support Real Hip Hop. We define real Hip Hop as Hip-Hop that YOU can identify with. Whatever type of Hip-Hop that is support it!. TRACK LISTING UPON REQUEST." - Some people have attempted to create a tracklist with titles and featurings - which I have here for reference purposes. As someone who used to get clowned on for never putting in the track names when I ripped CD's, I can say that Jay Electronica made this album for people like me - who care more about the music than the ID3 tags.

Intro
Exhibit B Feat Mos Def
Suckas
Walking J. Period Remix Feat Nneka
Dealing
So What Cha Sayin
Scenario 2004
Something To Hold Onto
Poetry Interlude
Departure
Cool Relax feat Naledge
Trolley Stop
Hagler
My World
Hard to Get feat Mr Porter
Extra Extra
Victory in my clutches
Swagger Jackson’s Revenge
Just Begun – feat J. Cole,Talib Kweli & Mos Def
Uzi weighs a ton
Love czars feat Taraach
Posers Feat The New Royales
Billy Stewart – Cross My Heart
Exhibit C
Googly Eyes (LIVE)
Holiday feat Mos Def
***Bonus Track*** T.H.E. W.E.A.K. – Stick Up

100 Strong

2010-03-18T12:07:00.003-04:00

When I first started blogging in September of 2008 I was just a graphic design student looking for some clever way to update my website without having to update my website. At that point in time my genius solution was to create a blog where I could post new content, and have that be displayed in a frame on my homepage. While I now see how poor a utilization of a blog this was it is what got me to start writing one. Now of course I have scienced it out a lot more, with feeds to display my latest blog posts in a nice styled way (not a freaking frame) and how to make a blog and a website work together, not cobbled into one web page.

100 posts later I am happy with my development both as an artists and graphic / web designer AND as a blogger. While I used to sneer at the notion of spending time capturing my thoughts and random goings ons for the world's enjoyment I have since realized the satisfaction and enjoyment I get from keeping track of the significant or small moments of my life. From high points to heartbreaks, this has become a place I can vent, celebrate my successes and plan the next moves. It's been a lot of fun simply working my passion for and interest in music, food, politics and art into what started as a very cut and dry log of my work projects.

Back on the Grind

2010-03-15T19:45:00.003-04:00

After a far-too-short spring break, school has been added back into my juggling routine. I, like so many other people am waiting for these apocalyptic rains to stop but I made my way out of the house to go to Young Gifted and Black 7 - which was as always great. That show always feels like close family sharing their old classics and airing out their brand new shit - which it essentially is. I feel lucky to be a part of that community and to have been able to see YGB from when it first started. I remember the first YGB flyer was one of the first flyers I ever designed (I did this one to the right too). It was dope to see everyone go out and do their thing - I feel blessed to know so many talented people. That was a nice lil' boost to start my week off in the right frame of mind. I have a lot of work coming up soon so right now I'm just trying to keep on top of things.

Avatar

2010-03-13T12:48:00.002-05:00

So yesterday I saw Avatar in 3D IMAX. I've heard a lot of great things about this movie from reviews to people who've seen it. While it is undeniable a visually stunning film I was most excited by the political and environmental messages of the film - themes typically absent in any meaningful form in American cinema. So I had expectations and for the most part I was not disappointed.

First of all the main character is named Jake - about time they made a protagonist with such a great name... The graphics, character design, concept art, landscape - all were magnificent. From the plant and animal life, to the technology and weapons, ships, interfaces, costumes, tools - I am fascinated by how much had to be designed, adapted from inspirations in our history to create this future. I'd love it if they published a book of the concept art.

The problem with Avatar was that it was a movie. For me it suffered from the constraints and expectations of what a good film has to have. While I loved they touched on issues like colonialism, the exploitation of indigenous land and resources by greedy foreigners with no concern for anything but the plunder they intend to carry out - I was disappointed that it fell into the same old Pocahontas shit where the white man comes, learns the culture, falls in love with a native and then gallantly saves them all from the massacre he was formerly shamelessly a part of. I understand that this was considered necessary to make it a good story - the main character saves the day - duh. Granted he needs their help, and rallies all the people to defend themselves, musters the forces of nature herself, but he is undeniably cast as a savior and that type of character undermines some of the potency of messages about respecting the earth and other peoples. Lines like "If people live on shit we want, we call them our enemies" are something I was glad to see being used - but sometimes they were almost the costuming of the cowboy and Indians type of movie style that was used to carry the story along.

So was it a good movie - Yes. Go see it. As you may have surmised I have a pretty low view of the substance of our movie culture and Avatar doesn't stand out in my mind as say a Spook Who Sat by The Door or a Dr. Strangelove. I'd put it in the ranks of the new Manchurian Candidate or what they did to V for Vendetta - movies I love by the way - in terms of substance, political themes and ways to address them in a film. While that is something I like in a flick, I still love movies for what they are and what they conventionally do - and Avatar is a good movie.

Goofy is good

2010-03-11T10:48:00.001-05:00

After another 5 Hour studio session used for Illiam Savant, Catch Wreck and Rey Leon's respective upcoming projects we got (almost) everyone to squeeze in for a group photo - after a dozen failed attempts at looking serious I think we all like the silly picture the most - gotta mix it up...

From Left Blizz Cartel (Top), Me (Front), Illiam Savant, Rey Leon, Archetype (Hiding in the Back), Deema Faisal, Catch Wreck, Tyrone Soulman (Front)

Spring Cleaning

2010-03-08T18:41:00.001-05:00

Every now and then I get this weird urge to rearrange everything in my room and get rid of massive piles of crap in the process. Last night at around 1 AM I had such an urge and stayed up all night moving my bed, getting rid of broken electronics, sorting through and pairing down my book collection (an excrciating moral challenge) and organizing, straigtening, dusting, vaccuming my entire space to loudly blasted upbeat tunes. (My mother long ago taught me the incredible power of music to speed up any physical tedious process when we used to rock out to Parliment Funkadellic pulling up the rugs and opening up the storm windows and getting the house ready for summer.)

I'm not a messy person but like many people I let my day to day routine get so filled as to not include regular cleaning and especially when school and work starts catching up with me I tend to neglect putting things back and picking them up. This, however, was no mere damage control operation - I basically swapped the contents of two small rooms - like one of those games where you can only move one piece at a time to get the tiles to form a picture - moving everything around and around until I made a space for it.

Well, like at the end of one of those games I feel a deserved sense of accomplishment - maybe I'm too easy to please - but I've always enjoyed those little odd things in life - like a new arrangement of the same old junk, or the release of clutter both mentally and literally - there are many things I got rid of I probably should have never held on to and there's some sort of peace in not having to think about it anymore. So, my spring break is off to a strangely productive start - I hope this is not a sign of things to come! As much as I love to feel like I did something with myself - I forget how nice it is to do nothing in particular...

Marathon

2010-03-03T23:12:00.005-05:00

Today Catch, (far right) Illiam Savant (second from right) and Rey Leon (center) booked a marathon 5 hour studio session to work on their respective projects. As usual, myself (far left) and Blizz Cartel (second left) rolled as well. Behind us you can catch a glimpse of the beautiful setup at the Bridge Sound and Stage. Look out for The Young the Restless Mixtape from Catch Wreck, TBA Project from Illiam and The Pledge EP from Rey Leon.

Just messing around with my new webcam and documenting the hours spent working on everything from songs to logos, mixes to typography...

Plastic Beach

2010-03-02T19:59:00.000-05:00

Plastic Beach, The latest Gorillaz Album and first in five years hits shelves on March 8th but it can be found to stream and download. I gave it a listen to all the way through for the first time today and was thoroughly satisfied by the combination of the classic Gorillaz elements that made me like their music in the first place and some new things they do with this album. They bring in an array of featured artists from Snoop Dogg, De La Soul and Mos Def on the hip-hop side, to Lou Reed of Velvet Underground Fame, or the Swedish vocalist Yukimi Nagano.

The musically eclectic album is well composed and arranged with a good mix of songs, great transitions and a cohesive sound that is recognizably Gorillaz but fresh for a new decade - definitely not a disappointment despite the long time it took to come out and the hype surrounding its release. This was also one of the Gorillaz best marketed projects utilizing the web, and social/viral media to get people talking about it. From the album cover to the web-based game that accompanies it, Plastic Beach has immersive qualities that make it a world unto itself - although the Gorillaz have proven to be one of the most innovative groups conceptually from their initial creation as a fictional animated band.

3 and 0

2010-02-27T15:51:00.006-05:00

Yesterday I went to see one of my oldest friends Kin "Kong" Moy win his third MMA march in a row. Ever since I've known Kin he's been into martial arts but in recent years he has gotten quite serious with his training. Some buddies and myself piled into the car and rode out to Randolph for his fight which was third on the card. After watching a seemingly endless number of bouts, we crept up to the front for a better view of Kin's match. As I knew he would, Kin utterly devastated his opponent - this time with a knock out kick in the very first round. There's nothing better than seeing the people you came up with doing their own thing - and excelling at it.

For more coverage of the night check out the Blackstonian Blog.

For better video: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1397389217758&ref=nf.

When things go wrong

2010-02-25T12:35:00.006-05:00

I'm somewhat accustomed to dealing with loss when it comes to my work. I have lost sketchbooks, half full of drawings I spent hours on, broken every external hard drive I have had because I believe them when they say portable, had two computers stolen, had backups fail and servers crash.

Still its one of those things that sucks no matter how many times you go through it.

So I had been having intermittent start-up issues when my Gateway Tablet finally decided to go. Although it is still under warranty, the process for cleaning off my files and returning it to god knows where for service will take several weeks. In the middle of a semester, several freelance projects and creative streak of working on my own projects, being computer-less is not an option for me right now so I broke down and got a replacement machine to get me through.

I'm a pretty frugal when it comes to what I call entertainment and other non-essential items - more like I know how to have fun without spending a whole lot to do so. When my house was robbed and I lost most of my video games, I contemplated replacing them with a NEW system - upgrading. In the end I bought another controller and a few of my old favorites - and that was more than enough to fulfill my gaming needs. Primarily I attribute this to my upbringing, in a household where you bought and cooked food in bulk, ate out or did take-out as a treat, bought new shoes when the old ones developed holes - not so much a stinginess on the part of my folks but a recognition that you don't need to buy shit to be happy - that buying shit doesn't make you happy.

I suppose this makes me a terribly bad American - I may be the cause of the recession, I may be accused of having Scroogely qualities, but when random technology problems arise I'm grateful I learned how to save up for a rainy day.

Yesterday was all cats and dogs. Literally. After reaching the limits of patience and insanity (by the definition of trying the same again thing expecting different results) I gave up on my computer magically working on its own and brought it in to get the data retrieved from the hard drive. Then in the POURING rain I walked over to Micro Center and picked myself up a refurbished Gateway - no tablet feature but it is new (to me) and has Windows 7 which I have to say is WAYYYYYY better than Vista. So - when disaster strikes, I guess I'm prepared to do what is necessary to keep my business, work and projects from taking the hit... and at the end of the day I get a shiny new computer out of it too.

Political Pirates 4.1

2010-02-21T19:41:00.007-05:00

After a lot of back and forth I decided to go ahead and launch politicalpirates.com version 4.1 - a cleaned up, slimmed down revamp of what we had up there. The old site suffered from cool, flashy yet useless elements on the intro and home page, unneeded ads and internal links in the top, a sidebar that in some browsers made the entire body content shift out of proper alignment (an issue previously resolved) and too many pages with not enough content. This revamp not only addressed these problems but updated several key parts of the website and reorganized information to be more easily found, with less clicks from the user. It also worked to incorporate the blog and twitter schemes. We are still in the process of fixing and cleaning things up but here are some things to look for:

Twitter and Blog feeds on the homepage, new work in the galleries which have been remade with the new Pirobox V1.2 behind it, a new contact form with customized captcha security image using a font matching the site graphics, a better structure where most of the information is broken into tabs on the 5 main pages.

As usual this site (and my others) serves as a testing ground for new ideas, new tricks, new layouts and is constantly going to be edited, updated, changed and tweaked. Be on the lookout for modifications to the gallery system, new pieces in the portfolio, a reprogrammed version of the project request form and much much more!

First time for everything: Chicken Parmesan

2010-02-20T11:29:00.019-05:00

I love to cook but it is one of those things I can't make myself do unless I'm cooking for someone else. It used to be my ex-girlfriend, who was the first person to make cooking meat something I considered doable and not totally disgusting. See I was raised in a household where the primary cook was a Vegetarian. Not super hard core, we can cook and have meat in the same containers for instance, but I never really learned how to prepare meat from scratch. I've always wanted to learn how to cook Chicken Parm, and I could think of no one more deserving than my mother Esther who loves good Italian food - so yesterday, we had a night to hang out (something incredibly rare with school and all my work) - We got the last season of the Sopranos on DVD, and cooked Chicken Parmesan from scratch!

So, since I like to cook AND since I like to learn how to cook new things, I am thinking of starting to dedicate a few of my Blog posts to my culinary exploits. So, for all you who never picked up a knife or never held a raw slimy chicken breast and cleaned it - this is the cooking blog for you - nothing too fancy or unachievable, just my favorite home-made meals that you can do for a special person in your life - friends, family, significant others etc.

Chicken Parmesan

1) The first step is to wash and clean your chicken breasts. Once you have rinsed all the slime off, cut all the fat and stringy parts out, it has to be pounded. I think the technical term is "tenderized." Basically I put it in a plastic bag and beat the hell out of it with the back of a pan - until the breast is about a half an inch thick all the way around.

2) Next is the seasoning and the Dredge. Rub the chicken with salt, pepper, some basil and some oregano on both sides. Get a saute pan of olive oil going over medium high heat on the stove. One at a time, take your seasoned breasts and dredge them in a wash of 1 egg mixed with 1/2 cup of milk. The next phase is to dredge it in seasoned bread crumbs - make sure to get a good coating on both sides and around the edges.

3) From there the breasts go into the pan. The oil should be hot enough that if you flick water in it bubbles and boils. Cook the chicken for about 3 or 4 minutes on each side. I found it easier to do this one breast at a time, but those who are more confident with their spatula skills can try to double up. Once they look nice and crispy on all sides, with a nice brown crust take em out of the pan and place into a baking dish.

4) With all the chicken breaded in your baking dish, place slices of mozzarella cheese over each breast. Then pour over tomato sauce (more than you think you'll need so there's enough extra for the pasta) to cover everything. Finally, top that with grated Parmesan cheese.

5) Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for approximately 25-35 minutes. While the chicken is baking you can cook your pasta, garlic bread and prep your salad or just drink a glass of wine. The biggest thing is don't rush it. The chicken won't dry out because all that lovely sauce is in there with it so you don't need to be so concerned with over baking it. Basically, when it is bubbling on its own, it should be ready to go. See comparison below:

Once it looks like the dish on the bottom, you are ready to pull it out.

6) That's basically it. Now just serve over your favorite pasta with a nice green salad and some good garlic bread and enjoy!

So I hope y'all found this to be helpful and inspiring. I know I feel a lot less intimidated about cooking and handling poultry. Making good food yourself is one of the most satisfying feelings so I encourage readers to find someone to cook for, take the time to learn something new, and get yourself a badass apron like mine:

Love Song

2010-02-15T14:44:00.002-05:00

Still too young and dumb to call it quits...