Chirru Birru

What's with your links and why the F should I care?

On the right side of this prefab template that encases my blog you will see my links. I present to you Team Linked Up:

First up is Frantic Mantis, a Data Punk band based out of Göteborg, Sweden. They're a fantastic and refreshingly raw mix of members of Division of Laura Lee, my good friend Shelby Cinca (of Frodus and Cassettes fame), and the potent vocal stylings of up and coming rapper Remy Stanton (based out of Manchester, England). I'm biased because I love these guys, they love me, and I created artwork for the last album. I'm stoked to be contributing, but I'm also frustrated that they have all the musical talent in the world and I can't express myself with noises in nearly the same way. Unless you count atonal flatulence. Which I don't.

Next we have Passkontroll Design, a collective started by Shelby Cinca (see above) and Håkan Johannson (Division of Laura Lee, Frantic Mantis) and joined by yours truly. Shelby and I collaborated on a lot of projects together as Passkontroll while he was in DC. I loved working with him, but I can't say I miss the client "interaction". There's little point in my busting my ass to create a carefully plotted interface design, complete with detailed explanations of my decisions affecting the most important people (you know, the users), only to have the recipient arbitrarily dismiss it due to, I suspect, internal politics. Eventually, my interactions felt a lot more like this: "Here's my latest revision, Mr. Client!" | "Thanks, Li'l Designer. Here's a metal rasp. Scrape this along your nether regions." Design and illustration is more personal to me than I had ever suspected. Now I don't design for pay. It's for the best. Maybe one day I'll be ready to try again, when my nether regions have fully recovered.

12th Gear is/was a lot of things. At one point it was my freelance presence. Later it became nothing. Later still, it stayed nothing. A web installation piece; a commentary about physical and temporal negative space amidst an ever changing sea of data designed to appeal to our ADHD lifestyle? Um, no. Lately it's been a repository for anything that hasn't completely bored me at the moment. For now it features sketches and character designs. I haven't touched it in a while, but if I can get my hands on a slide scanner I'll publish some of my older works. Expect this site to always change as I experiment, get about halfway through, get disgusted, and start over. Most people call this stuttering insanity. We artists call it "process".

Gimcrackery is all about stuff. My dear, mustachioed friend Stephen Guidry invited me to contribute, and I do on occasion. Poorly, I might add. But mercifully, infrequently. It's worse being a contributor, when you realize that in fact you are the worst player on the team and you really should just stay on the bench before you hurt or embarrass yourself. Or get hurt while embarrassing yourself. Despite my best attempts to lower the curve, you really should check it out. Everyone has too much stuff and must atone. Yes, even you.

Back when I had significant amounts of free time I created some artwork for the Blue Arizona game project, working with the aforementioned Stephen and his talented programmer friend Jon Toups. Exray Factory is the blog. Jon frequently posts code, and it's all over my head because he's excellent at math and I breathe through my mouth. When I wasn't mouth breathing, I was painstakingly crafting retro 16-bit artwork, pixel by pixel. I started creating artwork on computer back with an Atari 800 and a Koala Pad. Everything was done pixel by pixel. "Back then we didn't have Wacom technology built into newfangled LCD displays connected to Quad Power Mac G5s running Adobe Photoshop CS2. We had 8-bit Ataris hooked up to hand-me-down TVs via poorly shielded coaxial cables and our art programs came on cartridges, and we liked it, dammit! We liked it! Bea! That Cugini kid's on our lawn again!"

Nothing but Noise is my friend Ben's recording, mastering, and duplication business. He's disarming and approachable, so his passion and genius can sneak up on you. I'm proud to say I created Snodgrass the monkey and a bitchin' logo for him. I have him to thank for my love of audio finery. I've spent many evenings in his sound insulated basement hearing my albums again for the first time on his lovely studio monitors. If you ever see me in public rocking the jankiest looking (but sweetest sounding) pair of retro styled headphones, you'll know why.

Drawn! is a blog that combs the web for illustrators who are far more talented than I and presents them all in a concise, convenient, easy to digest form that fills me with self doubt in less time than it takes for Mr. Owl to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop.

Before Lazy Sunday put The Dudes on the map, before Mr. Pibb + Red Vines = Crazy Delicious was screen printed across the first hipster's t-shirt, there was The Lonely Island. Music, music videos, episodic satire of The OC, it doesn't matter. These guys are inspired. Stephen first exposed me to The Dudes when we worked construction together. He had his little Korean iRiver music player cued to Zanzabar.mp3 and the rest is history. I'll never look at clouds the same way again. Curious? Go. View. Listen. Laugh.

Time for a two-for-one: Do you rip your CDs to your iPod? That's illegal. Well, maybe. We're not sure. Neither is the RIAA for that matter. They're still trigger happy and itchin' for a lawsuit. Did you know that about one fifth of the human genome has been patented by various private firms and universities? With every technological evolution our humanity is being stripped. As the corporate/government hegemony continues to steamroll with startling efficiency, it's at least a teensy bit comforting to know the Intellectual Property Action Committee and Electronic Frontier Foundation are paying attention.

George is my good friend Marina's boyfriend. But he's so much more than that. He's also a voracious devourer of every form of sophisticated media known to man and somehow finds time to be a decent human being, host his own radio show, and post his blog.

We've gotten to the first (and only!) redhead on the list, and one of the newest additions, the beautiful and talented Courtney, and her first blog, Commentique. That's a new word. It belongs to her. Ask her what it means. It's Hybridiction™. Ask her what that means too! I'm sure she'll be more than happy to tell you. She's just starting out, but it's clear from talking to her that she's turgid with sublime ideas and no doubt commentique.blogspot.com will be quite the happening URL. She's also, to quote my wife, "the coolest Republican I've ever met." She's a reminder that good people are everywhere. There's hope for this town yet.

Last, but certainly not least, we have my lovely sister Sara's blog. Actually, she's my sister in law, but that phrase is disgusting. Like I need to describe her with some sort of qualifier because she's not my real sister. F that. She's VERY real. One of the great things about getting married is you don't just get a wife; you get all her cool family members too. I love her blog because it, like her, is full of surprises. Also she, like Courtney above, is a seriously talented writer. Any time I'm deluded into thinking I have a way with words, I visit Commentique or obtuse vita to redden my cheek with another reality slap.

This was an interesting post. Initially I thought I'd have very little to say, but that's clearly not the case. It's also clear I'm blessed with some damn cool friends and family.

posted by birru @ 10:16 PM