Thursday Tap

Posted by Dallas
Categorized Under: Thursday Tap
Comments: 0

Sublime

Little District

Click the arrow to listen. Right click the text and “Save as…” to download.

Pretty much everyone is a Sublime fan.  Seriously, have you ever heard someone say they don’t like Sublime?  What separates Sublime fans from real Sublime fans, is the fact that real fans have listened to more than just the self titled album that blew up after Bradley Nowells death.  Take me for example.  I have 205 Sublime songs, which add up to 10.5 hours of music.  I could probably tell you the name of every single song within the first 4 bars.  I’m kinda weird like that.

Anyway, this song is off the Acoustic album which is pretty much just Bradley and his friends, not even so much Sublime.  I really like these acoustic songs that feature no one but Bradley.  You get a much better feel for the talent and emotion he put into everything he did.  Take a listen and feel free to download it!

Thursday Tap

Posted by Dallas
Categorized Under: Thursday Tap
Comment: 1

If this is your first Thursday Tap with me, let me explain how it works. First off, I open either iTunes or my iPod and pick one of my favorite songs.  It might be a classic, it might be a current radio hit, or it might be something completely off the wall.  You never know what you might get!  So here we go…

Mason Jennings

Ballad of Paul and Sheila

Click the arrow to listen. Right click the text and “Save as…” to download.

This song is such a emotionally charged song, I’ll let someone else explain it better than I can…

“The most poignant moment on Use Your Voice is a song called “Ballad of Paul and Sheila,” which Jennings wrote after he turned on the TV in his hotel room in late October 2002 and learned about the plane crash that killed Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone, his wife Sheila, their daughter Marcia and five others. It is difficult to write songs about political topics that retain enough universal qualities to appeal to anyone–especially an emotionally charged topic involving a populist senator, earmarked by the Bush administration as an enemy, whose plane went down a week before the mid-term elections under what some call suspicious circumstances. But Jennings pulled it off, mainly by keeping it simple and articulating how the tragedy affected his own heart.” – Source

Thursday Tap

Posted by Dallas
Categorized Under: Thursday Tap
Comments: 0

I’m back for another Thursday Tap, let’s find out what I’m bringing you this week!

Ray Charles

Yesterday

Click the arrow to listen. Right click the text and “Save as…” to download.

Everyone’s heard Yesterday by The Beatles, not everyone’s heard Ray Charles’ version.  The Beatles are The Beatles, you can’t touch that.  Covering a Beatles song is like redoing the Mona Lisa, most people just can’t pull it off.  Ray Charles is one of those musicians who has asserted himself over time as someone who, infact, CAN do The Beatles justice.  This track is an example of just that.

Holy Japanese Beat Box

Posted by Dallas
Categorized Under: Music
Comments: 0

I’m a man of many talents, atleast, I like to think I am.  However, beat boxing is not one of them.  I bet I could do some fancy Pro Tools hyper edits and make you think I am, but then I wouldn’t have a viral YouTube video.  This is one of the most amazing beat boxers I have ever seen.

Listen to the synthesizer sound around 1:30, that’s completely crazy!

Thursday Tap

Posted by Dallas
Categorized Under: Thursday Tap
Comments: 2

It’s Thursday on the first week of my return, so that means it’s time for another new weekly feature announcement!  Every Thursday I’ll be bringing you the Thursday Tap!  The Thursday Tap will grant everyone a peek inside my iPod at a random MP3.  Not only will you be able to hear this MP3, I’ll offer it up for a free download!  So let’s get at it!

Amon Tobin

4 Ton Mantis

Click the arrow to listen. Right click the text and “Save as…” to download.

4 Ton Mantis is an awesome song to listen to for inspiration.  It’s written and recorded by a Brazilian electronic musician named Amon Tobin.  In this song he makes heavy use of samples, stop edits, hyper edits, reverse audio, and many many layers of different sounds.  I don’t know if everyone will “get” this song, but from a mixing/recording engineer perspective, the type of editing on this song is so intense, there’s very few people in the world who can probably pull this off.  It might sounds like noise to some people, but to others this is the stuff of genius.

My Extravagantly Self Accumulated Design Link Roundup

Posted by Dallas
Categorized Under: Business, Graphics, Link Roundup, Web Design, Work
Comments: 21

Over the past couple years I have been accumulating and stock piling as many random links about Web Design, Graphic Design, CSS, HTML, Business, Marketing, and whatever else I came across.  I’ve been collecting them with the mentality of “I’ll read these someday…”.  I’ve been neglecting quite a few of them, simply because I had them scattered all over.  Finally I took a few hours out of my day and organized them all into one centrally located list.  I figured while I was doing so, I might as well make it public and share my collection with as many people as I think might be interested in it.  So without further ado….

Oh yeah, any Stumbles, Diggs, Floats, Tweets, or anything else out there are all greatly appreciated!

Marketing

The Facebook Marketing Bible

5 Ways To Promote Your Business on Facebook

Monetizing Twitter

50 Guerrilla Marketing Tactics You Should Be Using

17 Guerrilla Marketing Ideas For Your Web Site

60+ Unique Ideas for Marketing Your Business Offline and Locally

Total Traffic Domination?

17 Sources of Website Traffic

Getting More Google Search Traffic

Business and Design Ideas

50 Critical Questions About Your Web Site

45 Rules to Creating a Great Logo

Kick Ass Web Tools To Launch Your Business

270+ Tools For Running a Business Online

The Evolution of a Lifestyle Brand

“The Dip” Theory

The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist, Ever.

100 Blog Topics I Hope You Write

10 Incredibly Awesome Documents To Help You Start A Company

Color Theory

Check Browser Compatiablity

HTML/CSS

Introduction to CSS

Create a Parallax Website Header (Demo Here)

Sticky Footer in CSS

CSS Tricks and Downloads

Free CSS Templates

CSS Menu Builder

Why Using Tables For a Layout Is Stupid

CSS Templates From Tinderbox

101 CSS Techniques of All Time

8 Examples of Logos Using Only CSS

Practical CSS Layout Tips

10 Useful CSS Tricks To Conquer The World

40+ Tutorials, Tips, Demos, and Practices

Ajax Examples In Actions

CSS Layout Generator

Open Design Free CSS Templates

CSS Cheat Sheet

More Free CSS Templates

Resources

The Ultimate Collection of Custom Photoshop Shapes

60 Impressive High Resolution Textures

60 More Textures

Some High Resolution PSD And Vector Files

Huge Pattern Library

100 Legal Sources of Stock Images

30 Free Paper Backgrounds

Free Vector Graphics

35+ Free Brushes from DeviantArt

Stripe Generator

99 Canvas, Paper, Print, and Metal Textures

300+ Vintage Style Textures and Brushes

Thousands of Free Icons

Background Pattern Generator

Lists

45 Photoshop Tutorials to Design Amazing Posters.

15 Tutorials For Creating Authentic Photo Effects.

10 Steps to The Perfect Portfolio Site.

60+ Vintage, Retro, Pop Art Tutorials.

60 Photoshop Effects for Photo Touch-ups and Manipulations

80 of The Best Illustrator Brushes

30 Top Photoshop Text Effects of 2008

21 Best Photoshop Text Effects

23 Unforgettable Resources of 2008

100 Most Popular Tutorials of 2008

25 Tutorials For Advanced Freelance Web Design

50 Great Photoshop Text Effects

100 Photoshop Effects and Tutorials

12 Ways to Photoshop Your Face Through History

60 Best Photoshop Tutorials To Design Your Own Site

40+ Greatest Web Interface Tutorials

60+ Vector Illustrations, Tutorials, Tips, and Practices

40 Photoshop Tutorials For Lighting and Abstract Effects

15 Great Tutorials For Grunge Designs

The Ultimate Link List

The Best Photoshop Tips and Tutorials

WordPress

11 Non-Traditional Uses of WordPress

WordPress Resources: The Ultimate Collection.

50 Best WordPress Plugins for Power Blogging

WordPress Theme News

Some Free WordPress Themes

Free WordPress Themes from Skinpress

35 Free Premium WordPress Themes

WordPress Theme Generator

21 Mind Blowing Free WordPress Themes

Photoshop Tutorials

Pop Art Inspired by Lichtenstein

3D Pixel Stretch Effect

Create a Gang of Vector Ninjas

Mirror Trick

Old World Wax Seal

How To Turn a Ordinary Photo, Into An Extraordinary Photo

5 Essential Photoshop Reflections

Improve Your Photography With Classical Art

Design a Print Ad For a Beverage

Mix Cool Retro Curves In Your Photography

Inspiration

45 Really Fantastic Wallpapers

50 of The Most Creative Blog Designs

Coolest Blogs Powered by WordPress

Designers For Obama

Great Movie Posters

50 Amazing Gig Posters

30+ Retro/Vintage Style Wallpapers

50 Inspiring Vintage Advertisements

Tons of Wallpapers

63 Web Designs based off Vector Landscapes

LogoSnob – Design Inspiration

Stunning Illustrated Typography

Some Cool Vector Posters

Some Real Nice Pieces

63 Impressive Website Background Images

2008 Design Trends

50 Logos For Inspiration

Typography

Periodic Table of Typefaces

i love typography

TypeTester

Social Media Tools

50 Twitter Tools For Designers and Developers

jQuery Plugin To Add Your Twitter Feed To Your Site

Misc

8 Best Open Source Shopping Cart Solutions

An Open Letter to You Web Master

Single Page Portfolio Sites

Collections of All Kinds of Web Stuff

21 Cool Web Master Resources

How To Make The Worst Web Site Ever

Design Sites

NETTUTS

woork

Web Designer Wall

Smashing Magazine

Design Float

PSDTUTS

Spoon Graphics

Fuel Your Creativity

Abduzeedo

Wrap Up

I left out a few because I felt I was getting a lot of duplicate lists and tutorials.  You can only have so many “#+ Best Ever Text Effects!”.  I would like to keep this list updated now that I finally pieced it all together.  It seems like a good idea to have all of this stuff centrally located.  If you have anything you think would make a great addition to this list, leave me a comment and I will definitely add it!

Lizzy’s New Present

Posted by Dallas
Categorized Under: Family, Life, Music
Comment: 1

Okay, so I gotta tone down the spending a bit (I just bought a 32″ flat screen, $1300 Apple, and the new version of Pro Tools 8), but I just couldn’t resist.   I teased Lizzy last night by pretending I was buying her an Orange iPod Nano on our laptop.  Her little eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas morning.  So today I decided to surprise her and buy her one anyway!

I went with the iPod Nano 8GB 4th Generation.  I went 8GB because I figure I’ve lived with CD’s this long, I can handle having ONLY 2,000 songs at a time.  My digital music collection (trimmed down recently) sits at a modest 17GB, I figured I didn’t need ALL of it on there.

I’m actually pretty excited for it too, that’s another reason I bought it.  I’ve wanted one for a long time, and I decided a guy like me, involved in the music world, needs to have one.

I know there’s a lot of iPod bashers out there, and I also know you can get more for your money elsewhere, but how can you deny Apple?  You know what you’re getting.  You know it will have a sleek design, easy to use, COMPATABILITY, and no major bugs.  Apple is famous for the saying “It just works.”  I’ve never been disappointed in 5 years of Apple use, except one minor video card problem which was by my own doing.

I own two iMacs, a MacBook, and I’m trying to convince Lizzy to get a iPhone, so I the iPod is the no-brainer for the connectivity options I now have.  Shit, I can even hook it straight up to my deck in my car (not that others can’t).  I’m pumped, it just sucks we won’t get it for almost 2 weeks….

I also got some cheesey “11 in 1 accessory pack” for like $5.  I need to find a good dock and speakers now though….  Any thoughts?

thumb-1225181029_nano_orange_8gbb

Tyler W. Walters Portfolio Site

Posted by Dallas
Categorized Under: Business, Family, Friends, Networking, Web Design, Work
Comments: 0

tylerwalters

I just thought I would pass a long a little note to all my (three and a half) readers that Tyler W. Walters finished his portfolio site!  Be sure to check that out, especially if you’re in the Phoenix/Gilbert, Arizona area!

Alice In Wonderland – “Velvet Hand”

Posted by Dallas
Categorized Under: Graphics, Work
Comments: 5

I’m a big fan of the artwork style of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice In Wonderland”.  I was inspired to do a Alice in Wonderland poster once before, which I titled, “Who Are You?“  I really like the modern look of “Vector Art”, which I have been doing for years, but really started focusing on it about a year ago.  The idea, is to use as few colors as possible.  To use smooth solid, flowing lines, instead of typical shading and gradients.  “Who Are You?” was pretty detailed, but more so in the grassy area.  On “Velvet Hand”, I really wanted to focus on the lines, as you can notice in the Alice’s hair.

Overall, I really like the poster.  It took almost twice as many hours as “Who Are You?”.  I’m not 100% satisified, but I figured I better just settle and call it done or it might never see the light of day.  The areas I’m most concerned with are the tree leaves, and the Mushroom.  These were also the last two areas I did, which probably means I was getting a little burnt out on it.  Maybe I’ll revisit those someday.

Velvet Hand – Medium Definition

The poster is 11″ x 17″ and 300 dpi, which makes it 3300 pixels wide by 5100 pixels tall.  That’s pretty difficult to view on a monitor (since it’s designed to be printed) so I cut it in half so you could view it, yet maintain a bit of the quality.  Click on it to view the full size “Medium Definition”.

Alice In Wonderland Vector - Cheshire Cat

Velvet Hand – Low Definition

This one is as user friendly as it gets.  I cut it down to almost a quarter in size.  This one is only 800 pixels wide.

Alice In Wonderland Vector - Cheshire Cat

Velvet Hand – Texture 1

I was just playing with some stuff at this point.  I put a bit of a “weathered” texture on it to see how it looked.

Alice In Wonderland Vector - Cheshire Cat

Velvet Hand – Texture 2

This is more of the screwing around.  I was just bored and playing with some ideas.

Alice In Wonderland Vector - Cheshire Cat

Conclusion

And that’s it! I’m throwing around the possibility of doing a “collection” of Alice In Wonderland inspired posters.  I’ve already got one with her and Caterpillar, and one with her and Cheshire Cat.  I’m thinking of doing some more of her with each of the main characters – Mad Hatter, Twins, The Queen of Hearts, and a couple others.  I don’t know, we’ll see!  Let me know what you think!

I Will Cut You

Posted by Dallas
Categorized Under: Humor
Comments: 2

“I will cut you” translated into Morse Code:

Di-dit, Di-dah-dah Di-dit Di-dah-di-dit Di-dah-di-dit, Dah-di-dah-dit Di-di-dah Dah, Dah-di-dah-dah Dah-dah-dah Di-di-dah

Useful….

Try it yourself.

http://www.qbit.it/lab/morse.php