As Far As I Can Tell

Photos from Michigan Fest:

Alison, Dan, Eric and John - working the door.

Miles in the back room

Haymarket Riot

The Liars

Aaron O. with M. Sword

So this weekend was spent in Wayne/Romulus Michigan, listening to 10 hours of music per day at Michigan Fest. It was a good time, though tiring by the end. Highlights include The Owls, The Oxes, and The Liars. There must be something about those single noun band names I like.

I’ll get some photos up from the fest by tomorrow.

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The new TCUP launches tomorrow; or technically today I guess. Look for it, check it out, post some dreams.

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Meredith and I just looked at about 50 slides that I got when my Grandpa bought a church in Sturgis to rent out as commercial space. There’s tons of great photos too, all from the late 70’s and churchy.

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The bands are finally confirmed for the Moped Army benefit show this Friday at The Space. The lineup is: Nobodys Favorite, Barely Breathing, Fur, The Human Torch, and Green on the Inside. This will finally settle the debt from the belt buckle theft, and then some.

Tomorrow is Michigan Fest. I missed it last year, I’m glad that it’s happening again. Nobody has fests like the midwest.

Two news stories, out of the possible many, that point out how messed up things are:
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Apparently there was a riot in Kalamazoo on Friday night, for no reason. Here are some lovely quotes from the students:

Jim Cousineau, a business marketing major, said he thought the scene was great. �There should be more riots,� he said. �They bring out the best in Western.� Riots, he said, are �a great way to relieve stress.�

�It’s kind of like a way of having bragging rights, being able to say you were here.�, said Randy Mandaville, a sophomore studying art.

This wasn�t just some drunken party that got a little loud�they burnt a goddamn car. The full stories are here and here.

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Also, they are now trying to put advertisements on tombstones. I genuinely hate the person who thought of this.

So I just finished Fresh Dialogue 2, and I�ve learned something from each one of the interviews:

Kevin Lyons: Are you a vernacular designer? Are you challenging or adding to your (sub)culture or are you just be influenced by it and creating within it.

one9ine: Personal work pays off.

reVerb: Research plays a more important roll than it is often given. Throw out statistical research, and start learning by asking.
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I just installed Flash MX, and I�m loving it. The dockable panels and pre-configured panel sets are great. The new ActionScript objects are of course even better. I opened up the Flash 5 file I�ve been working on lately, and was instantly more productive. The ActionScript editor has an awesome code cleanup function and syntax checker. I can�t really list everything�trust me, it�s great.

The other exciting thing is the video capabilities. You can even integrate the users webcam or microphone, which is crazy. Flash is going to be quickly replacing Real Video soon; it actually uses a Sorenson codec inside of the player.

So go ahead: Get the Flash 6 Plugin.
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The new version of TCUP will be done this weekend, and online early next week. If you want to beta test it for me, let me know.

The side door of the Fourth Coast is open. Spring is here officially here.

On the sign for the Drake Party Center, they have all the appropriate listings below their name: Beer, Wine, and Liquor. Then, below that on the changeable part of the sign, they�re advertising: Hardcover Books: $4.99. It made me laugh really hard.
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I got the book in the mail today that mentioned a couple of days ago. There was a slight mix-up with the shipping prices, which I didn�t make a big deal out of, so the seller said she�d throw in another book. It turned out to be Adobe Master Class: Web Site Redesigns by Darcy Dinucci. Not only is this a free book of higher retail value then the one I was paying for, but it�s written by the same woman who is writing the book TCUP is going to have a chapter in. Considering she�s only written a few books, it�s highly coincidental.
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Good news with my truck: the alternator is just fine. The belt that it drives was loose had worn down because of it. It was slipping a lot and just generally not turning quick enough. We put a new belt on, tightened it up, and I�m back in business.
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A while ago Ivo and I finished up our second design exchange; where we toss a Photoshop file back and forth until the design is done. Here are the progressive steps, and the final piece. If you click on the last step you can view it in its original size.

The Whitney Museum opens it�s 2002 Biennial show tomorrow. I�d like to see it, but I�m not sure if I�ll be in New York again before it�s down. Luckily the net art work is available from their website�even now, before the show launches. Also, I hear that the work is more integrated into the show than it was in 2000, where it was all shoved onto one computer. It looks like net art (notice that I didn�t say digital art) is finally getting recognition. I make that distinction between net and digital art because net art is specific and unique in it�s exploration of multi-user environments, networked aesthetics, and user contributed systems.

Below are some screenshots of what Mark Napier�s Riot did with the Moped Army website. Riot is an alternative web browser that re-contextualizes the content of the site you�re viewing by mixing it with previously viewed pages and its own rendering madness.

Look what�s being done with our old computers. Is this what recycling means to the computer industry?
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Today the regular, public government announced the existence of a shadow government. This is crazy. Up to 150 political leaders living underground 24 hours a day, ready to spring into action if a bulk of the regular government is killed in a nuclear attack. Should we start building fall-out shelters again? If the government is this worried about nuclear attack, there must be something they aren�t telling us.
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Today I installed a program on my computer that caused it to not boot. I had to install another copy of Windows XP in a different directory, boot up with that, and fix my other installation. All in all, about 3 wasted hours. Tip: If XP every pops up a dialog box saying the driver you�re installing isn�t certified as compatible�listen to it; it knows what it�s talking about.
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I just got off the phone with Darcy DiNucci about a book she is writing on Flash based interface design. She�s including a chapter on TCUP, and needed to interview me. I�m a little nervous that I was rambling too much, and I�m anxious about how the site/I will come off in the book. Mostly, I�m just excited to be chosen. It�ll be on Macromedia Press and be in stores sometime this summer.

I don�t know all of the other sites featured, but it sounds like I�m in good company.
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I�ve never used Amazon zShops before, and never gave it much thought either. Turns out, it�s really useful�especially if you�re buying books. Basically it�s like Half.com, where a person has an item and is selling it for a set price. The nice part is that if you�re searching for a book on Amazon, they automatically tell you if there are any used copies for sale in the zShops, and how much they cost. This is perfect for me, because I�ll always take a used copy over a new one. Also, you can pay the person with your Amazon account, so you don�t have to type in your address or credit card. It�s a really nice setup.

Maybe I just like it because I got such a good deal on Fresh Dialogue 2: New Voices in Graphic Design. It features Warren Corbitt and Matt Owens from One9ine.

Today I took Meredith to get her car fixed at the transmission place. It was super cold this morning, so I wasn�t too surprised when my truck started up hard. It wouldn�t start at all though when we went to leave the repair place.

I got a jump start, but on the way home it totally died�shaking, radio turning off…dead battery. To think, I�ve been considering my truck a starting genius since it has a new alternator.

This is miserable weather to not have a car in.
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Macromedia officially announced Flash MX today. First of all, the name is dumb in my opinion. I�m a steadfast supporter of numerical version numbers, and think that this is a marketing ploy designed to trick people into thinking their getting something different. I�m guessing that it stands for �Macromedia eXperience�, following in the footsteps of Microsoft.

Fortunately, the name is the only thing I have a problem with. For the last hour I�ve been shrugging off car troubles and actual work to read all about the new Flash. It fixes nearly everything that was wrong with Flash 5, and adds all the little things I�ve been wanting. For god�s sake, you can script text fields and masks�what more could I ask for.

Check out the animated feature tour, and get the full lowdown with this Webmonkey article.