Music, Art, & Design

Altoids Speakers

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Ready Made's Altoid Speakers

Congratulations to Ken Kirkpatrick, winner of ReadyMade’s MacGyver Challenge with these mini-speakers he made out of a couple of tins of Altoids, some headphones, & some playing cards.

How to make Altoid speakers:

  1. Dismantle the headphones and remove the speakers.
  2. Use a pin to poke a small hole in each of two playing cards, then glue the speakers to the cards, lining up each speaker with the hole.
  3. Use an awl to poke a hole in the back of each tin, then thread the speaker wire through the holes.
  4. Reconnect the wires by twisting them together and burning the plastic coating off with a lighter. Then tape them off.
  5. Place the foam padding from the headphones inside the tins, open side up, to cushion the speakers.
  6. Trim the cards to fit inside the tins, place them inside (use glue if necessary), and crank it, dog. The sound’s a little tinny, but loud enough for making out.

adVIVUM

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adVIVUM: Poetic Elements

A friend of ours has launched his new web site. He is in the process of starting his own furniture company, called “adVIVUM”. anne marie and I went to see some of his work at his exibit this weekend at the San Francisco Furniture Market.

[ www.advivum.com ]

Apple Phone?

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Isamu Sawada's hiPhone

Is Apple in the phone business? Unfortunately, the answer is no, they are not. But that doesn’t stop Isamu Sawada from making his own. I don’t know what this guy does for a living, but in his spare time he likes making his own Apple products, and he has some nice ones. Unfortunately, they are just 3-D renderings, not the real thing. Check out his site to see more.

“My first personal computer was Macintosh LC . Thereafter I have been strongly
attracted to Macs. Macs have incredibly changed in the past. I believe Macs will
have great evolutions many times in the future. In this homepage, I display my
imaginary designs of future apple products. Please take a look at them.”

— Isamu Sawada

[ www.applele.com ]

Matt Bauer Music

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Last night anne marie and I went to ‘Brainwash’, a local cafe / laundromat… yes, laundromat. It’s kind of cool little place just down the street. We went to see our friend Matt (no pun intended) play. He does an acoustic (guitar / bango) show. He’s really good, we like going to see him play. His debut CD should be coming out this month. Visit his web site for more info, and free songs to download.

[ www.mattbauermusic.com ]

The Chronicles of Riddick-ulous

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The Chronicles of Riddick

2 Stars

Last night anne marie and I went to see ‘The Chronicles of Riddick‘. If you are looking for a movie with a story, or good dialogue… keep looking, this isn’t the movie for you. The ‘story’ is all over the place, never giving enough information about any given scenario, and the dialogue is comprised of a series of one-liners. I didn’t realize until the other day that this is actually a sequal to ‘Pitch Black‘ , the 2000 movie that introduced the character Riddick. I thought Pitch Black stunk, so I should have known that this one would be no great prize.

However, I will give The Chronicles of Riddick extremely high marks for its visuals. The computer animation, set & costume design, and attention to detail were all excellent. I especially like the look of the ‘Necromongers’. Everything about them was very ornate, and dark. When talking strictly about design, and attention to detail, I would compare this movie to ‘Dune’, and ‘The Matrix’. In all other aspects, The Chronicles of Riddick falls way short. I give this one a thumbs down, unless you’re a sci-fi design geek (like me).

I do quite like the web site though. They had nice attention to detail there too

[ www.thechroniclesofriddick.com ]

Adobe Creative Suite

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Adobe Creative Suite Quick Tour
[ Watch Movie ]

I have been awarded a new CD-ROM project that I had put a bid on. Yay! The only problem is it requires Adobe Acrobat Pro. I don’t actually own that, but instead of buying it as a stand-alone app, I decided to just upgrade to the full Creative Suite. I was one version behind on the Adobe apps. Getting A full version of InDesign, when I didn’t own that at all, makes it more than worth the price of the upgrade. Besides, I am a software whore ;)

While looking into the upgrade, I came across this great little animation for the Adobe Creative Suite. It made me drool.

Onngh Yanngh

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Watch Onngh Yanngh, A Dave Ross Film

[ Watch Movie ] – 5:08 / 15.5MB (see updated links below)

A friend of mine here in San Francisco, Dave Ross, was into stop-motion photography and film making when he was younger. This 8mm film was made in 1980 while he was at UC Berkeley (at Barrington Hall). It’s called ‘Onngh Yanngh’ (pronounced ong yang). I liked it so much that I decided to post it here, with Dave’s permission of course. Dave would like you to consider two things when watching / commenting on this movie…

1. “Those who know, don’t tell — those who tell, don’t know.”

2. “Time is a crutch; eat mandarin oranges. Time is a clutch; drive mandarin oranges.”

QuickTime is REQUIRED to view the movie

UPDATE: 11.23.06
Dave passed away on November 15th, 2006. He was a good friend, and will be missed. I originally posted the Onngh Yanngh movie back in 2004. I have several other movies of his that I’m now posting, as a memorial. They are available for viewing and download on Google Video by following the links below. I hope you enjoy them, and they bring back fond memories for all who knew dave.
– Onngh Yanngh
– Front Lawn Studios
– Bug Snack
– Slime
– Good Dip
– Kitty in the Hobart
– Mr. Bill
– School Daze
– Film at 11
– Last Animation

UPDATE (12.13.06):
These links, and more, have been moved to Dave’s blog, as a permanent archive.