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I Love The Eisner

The Eisner American Museum of Advertising & Design is holding it’s “I Love The Eisner” event on February 20th, 2009 and it will be featuring the “250 Square Feet of Art” exhibit.

The description says: “250 Square Feet of Art” gathers the work of local artists who each received a square foot of plywood with which they could create a work of art.

I submitted a piece this year, it’s titled “Crayons” and it looks like this:

Crayons

I believe they auction them off to help raise funds for the Eisner, though I’m still not sure if there are more than 250, and only 250 get selected, or if they all get auctioned off, or what… Yes, I’m short on the details.

Anyway, if you happen to be there, keep an eye out for my piece, and let me know if you see it there… Thanks!

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RPM Challenge 2009 Update

We are half way there… and when I say “half way” I’m referring to the fact that the month is half over as well as the fact that I’ve got half of my material recorded.

Though “half done” may not exactly be the right thing to say. While I do have 22 minutes of music recorded and roughly mixed, I still have not added vocals, and I’m sick right now, so I can’t record vocals.

It’s been a challenge this year, that’s for sure, as it should be. Last year I didn’t really have a plan other than “record 10 songs” which I did, but this year I had larger ambitions, which included doing some of the drums (did a little of that) but also sequencing my own beats (didn’t do that yet) but I also had in mind a concept album, which tells a story… I’m still not sure how that will turn out. Overall, I’m happy with the sound I am getting, and learning a lot more about engineering using Logic, which was a major goal this time.

I still have two weeks, and in that time I need to produce another 13 minutes of music, as well as design and produce the album art. I have a few ideas for the artwork, but I haven’t nailed anything down yet. I am pretty excited to see what people think of this release, as it’s a departure from the other things I’ve recorded lately. I honestly don’t expect most of the people I know to like it, but that has much to do with the style and genre of the music I’m creating, and I’m fine with that.

All said and done, I’m glad I’m doing this again. It really is a good challenge to get your mind (and fingers) working towards creating music. I can’t wait for it to be done though…

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PhotoCampMilwaukee

PhotoCampMilwaukee 050209

It’s coming… PhotoCampMilwaukee is set for May 2, 2009 at Bucketworks in Milwaukee, Wisconsin…

So… what is PhotoCampMilwaukee?

PhotoCampMilwaukee is a BarCamp-like event fully focused on photography. It’s an ad-hoc “un-conference” where people who love photography can get together and teach what they know, and learn what they don’t. It’s about sharing in an open environment. Everyone has experience to share, and getting everyone together in one place, for a full day, seems like a great way to do it.

You don’t have to be a great photographer to attend, you just have to bring your passion for photography. The event will be free (thanks to our sponsors) and the only entrance fee is your participation.

You want more info? We got more info! Visit photocampmilwaukee.org for all the details. The sign-up will be coming soon, but for now we’ve got a PhotoCampMKE Google Group for discussion and planning, and a PhotoCampMilwaukee Flickr Group for photos and what-not…

(If you’re interested in sponsoring PhotoCampMilwaukee, please get in touch with me…)

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RPM Challenge 2009

Yup, I am all set to record another album… In the 28 days of February 2009 I will record an entire album consisting of either 10 songs or 35 minutes of material for the RPM Challenge 2009.

RPM Challenge 2009

I’ve been thinking about what I want to do, but I don’t think I’m going to reveal anything until the album is completely done. Perhaps some snippets of songs, but I don’t plan on doing what I did last year. I basically started the process of writing and recording all at once, and finished each song within a few hours, and then uploaded it, calling it “done!” which turned into a really weird collection of songs… which is, you know, an album, but this time I am more interested in a cohesive piece of work.

I’m going to borrow a guitar (most likely from Milton Zorro of Trademark fame) as mine is just too much a total piece of crap that can’t be tuned properly. My bass sounds good, so that’s fine… as for drums, I actually do have my drums set up in the recording booth at work, but they need some loving (new heads, tuning) and they aren’t mic’d so I might not use them at all. I may end up using existing drum loops again. (Drums are always the hardest part!) I’ll be trying a Firewire audio interface to see if it works well for guitar and bass input, where last year I used the cheap “USB Guitar Plug” so hopefully things will sound a bit cleaner.

Ultimately I want to produce an album that I really like. If no one else likes it, that’s cool… Oh, it will also be released under a Creative Commons license, like most of my music, photos, and video…

Check back in February for updates, or in March for the conclusion. Rock on…

(Oh yeah, Matt Gauger is the guy who told me about RPM last year, but he didn’t get to participate. I’m really hoping he can do it this year.)

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Self Portrait

Self Portrait for January 2009.

Self Portrait for January 2009