Make your mix

I really liked these. A nice visual idea with simple art direction.

Yes, they are probably fake.

Chicken wire celebs

Forget the wax museum. Ivan Lovatt has created sculpture of celebrities using chicken wire.

Someone should make a chicken wire sculpture of a chicken.

Lightwriting

Long before the Sprint campaign took use of this idea, artists like this guy were doing amazing things with the medium. Found on: The Denver Egotist.

In Rainbows experiment successful

Several weeks after Radiohead's digital release of its seventh studio album, "In Rainbows," aftershocks are still reverberating though the music industry.

While some perspective on the success of the experiment is possible, a full sense remains elusive since the band has been mum on how many copies of its album, and for what average price, were purchased from www.inrainbows.com. A spokesman for the British group decline to comment Wednesday.

Nevertheless, British Web site www.Gigwise.com has reported that Radiohead sold 1.2 million copies, a figure thought to be largely based on the pre-orders of the album placed in the 10 days between when Radiohead announced the release and the day it went on sale: Oct. 10.

That figure easily trumps the number of discs Radiohead's last album sold in a similar time frame. 2003's "Hail to the Thief" moved 300,000 copies in its first week, eventually selling about one million copies in the United States.

Unlike their previous records, all the revenues this time go to the band. Radiohead's long-term deal with music giant EMI Group has expired, allowing them to release "In Rainbows" themselves.

Forbes.com has reported that though the album could be legitimately purchased for free, it was still downloaded over 240,000 times from peer-to-peer BitTorrent networks on the first day of release. Such downloads have totaled more than 500,000.

Those are startling numbers that suggest regardless of what bands or record labels do, great numbers of people are still going to pirate music. It's part of the culture now — even Radiohead's radical experiment didn't change that.

Radiohead still intends a traditional, physical release of "In Rainbows." They've been recently reported to be nearing distribution deals with independent labels.

The majors have been increasingly left out, watching several big names find new ways of selling their music. Nine Inch Nails now plans to operate independently of a major label. Madonna signed a recording and touring deal believed to be worth up to $120 million with concert promoter Live Nation.

A leaked internal e-mail from EMI chairman Guy Hands called Radiohead's release "a wake-up call which we should all welcome and respond to with creativity and energy."

In a message on the band's Web site, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke wrote: "It's a relief to us that finally it's out there. It's been a mad couple of weeks ... as I'm sure you can imagine."

Radiohead unleashes Internet anarchy
Fans race to Web for Radiohead's new album
Pay what you want for new Radiohead album

But it's actually quite hard to imagine what it's been like for Radiohead recently. With their label-less freedom, they've largely shunned press interviews.

Guitarist and instrumental wizard Jonny Greenwood explained to Rolling Stone that the band opted for the unusual release "partly to get it out quickly, so everyone would hear it at the same time, and partly because it was an experiment that felt worth trying."

The lessons of that experiment would be even more valuable if Radiohead announced the results.

found on msnbc.com

God Rocks

Another awesome design from threadless.

Good news!

So as some of you may know, I've been on the job hunt for the last several months. So after a lot of interviews, agency contacts, and freelance work to keep me afloat, I'm happy to say I'll be joining Factory Design Labs in Denver as their latest copywriter. They are a great agency, doing some big things on national clients like Audi, Scarpa and Jump Mobile. Needless to say, I'm psyched. Now if I could only figure out the World Series ticket situation.

PC v. Mac circa 1996

This is hilarious. The guy on the right looks like Jerry Seinfeld. The 90s ruled.

"All I Need" Radiohead preview

Here's a live version of the song "All I Need" which will be included on Radiohead's upcoming album, In Rainbows which I hear will we released sometime around 4 PM today, since it will be midnight (Oct 10th) in Britain. Can't wait.

Hotel Chevalier

I know this is old news now, but I just discovered that Wes Anderson made a prequel to his latest feature, The Darjeeling Limited. The 13 minute short film is titled "Hotel Chevalier" and stars Schwartzman and Natalie Portman in a French hotel room. It's a nice idea (and a great teaser) to introduce one of the film's characters in this fashion. It's just too bad he didn't make two more films introducing the other characters. To watch you need to live in the U.S. and have iTunes. If you do, click here and enjoy.

Art direction

Some awesome art direction and illustration on these ads for MTV. It's always refreshing to see good copywriting coupled with innovative and inspiring design. I found these on advertising/design goodness.

Nice prints

I'm really digging this guy's artwork that I found on deviantart. Most of it is musical influenced. I love his characters and humor. Buy it while it's still cheap!

Chipotle challenge

Heat activated wallpaper

Wallpaper before heat. Wallpaper after heat.

Reminds me of a nice idea a team at tda had for Celestial Seasonings, using heat activated coffee/tea sleeves to show plants growing with messaging about cultivating herbs for their teas. Fake? Maybe. Overall? Pretty awesome.

found on thedenveregotist.com

More tears for the Phillies

I knew there would be more photos like this one. Way to go Rockies on taking a huge lead on the series. I predict we sweep when we play at Coors on Saturday night. Who would have thought I would be blogging about baseball so much?

Great start for the Rockies

The Rockies won today, 4-2. We now have a 1-0 led on the Phillies. Playing away, and seeing that it's only the second time the team has made the playoffs, this is a huge win. Let's keep it up and we'll keep seeing pictures like the one above.

Human Nature

I think this is a film that flew under a lot of people's radars, and I'm not quite sure why. Maybe its bizarre apes, lab mice and table manners related plot came off as too weird for the mainstream movie-goer, but that's what Charlie Kaufman is know for, right? Anyway, this film was Michel Gondry's mainstream debut and Kaufman was still riding on the success of Being John Malkovich. Spike Jonze was originally set to direct again, but felt Gondry would be a better fit. It's a great film, with a great cast and an odd-yet-hilarious love quadrangle plot. It's a film that any Gondry, Kaufman or Jonze fan for that matter should take another look at, and certainly captures the potential of Gondry's blossoming career. Check out its imdb page: click here.

Rocktober

I went to the Padres v. Rockies Tiebreaker game last night. Besides a few CU v. CSU games, this was one of the most exciting sporting events I've attended. The crowd stayed in it through all 13 innings. Denver actually felt like a legitimate baseball town for once. The whole team played great, especially Tulo, who definitely deserves the Rookie of the Year. It's going to be a fun October. Go Rockies!