ThingsAmongMany

Music has never played a large enough role in my life for DJ’ing to have much draw. Technology, however, does play a pretty significant role, and the thought of exploring VJ’ing has indeed crossed my mind (though the equipment prices have kept me from doing much with the thought). Next drool-worthy piece of technology? Check out this new VJ hardware from Cue:

Phenomenal mix of touchscreen, tactile instrumentation, and the sliding function of the single knob puts it over the edge. it’s still in the conceptual phase at the moment, but if I ever comes to light, I’m sure we’ll see more VJ’s cropping up at the clubs around NYC.

Yup, most of us are fans on some level or another of Sofia Coppola’s 2003 hit Lost in Translation. Of course, as much as I enjoyed the movie (which I admittedly haven’t seen in a few years), I’m not sure that I could sit down and explain the plot too easily. I can, however, explain the plot of the new mashup by Charles Gallant (fellow POKEr and co-creator of RD4T) that he recently posted on Vimeo.

To demonstrate the reality of those “lost in translation” moments, Charles took the lyrics of NIN’s Closer and translated them from English to Japanese using Babelfish. He then retranslated the resulting Japanese rendition back into English (also via Babelfish) and set the newly interpreted translation in time to the original song.

The result is a humorous, intriguing look at why we don’t always understand one another, no matter how simply we believe we’re speaking. Give it a watch:

NIN & Babelfish from Charles Gallant on Vimeo.

Single serving web experiences are becoming increasingly popular; in a world “do everything” sites that offer an overwhelming experience, there’s something refreshing about landing on a page that does one thing and does it well. Case in point, check out the little POKE project we talked about a while ago called UPL8.tv.

Another great example is the newly formed Postcard.fm. A great way to send a smile to a friend (or a really sappy love song to your significant other), Postcard.fm has what can only be described as a stupid-simple interface. Pick a photo (the postcard part), pick a song (you can either upload your own, or enter a title and let them help you find it), and enter your friend’s email address.

The site launched on September 1 and managed to send over 3,000 audio postcards in the first week! Have a look, send a song, make someone’s day!

I’ve extolled the goodness of Billykirk a couple of times now (here and here), but these guys just continue to impress! First off, I want to apologize and correct a mistake. I knew that Chris and William were brothers, but I still had some confusion around their names that caused me to list them incorrectly. Chris and William are indeed brothers, and their last name is Bray (not Kirkland, as I previously listed). William’s middle name is Kirkland – which led to his knickname “Billykirk” and eventually to the moniker of the business – though he goes by Kirk (as you can see on the flier below.

I think, by now, you can tell that I’m a fan of most anything that’s made with care and by hand – Billykirk’s goods being no exception, of course. On top of making incredible pieces, these two have continually gone out of their way to accomodate my need as a customer as well. You might remember the belt that I received as a gift (along with the cuff that Chris so graciously sent with it). Well, in my pickiness, I opted to send it back for a different color and size. When I received the new one, which I LOVE, I was surprised to find a flier offering custom leather guitars!

Now, I’m musically inept, so I know little about instruments. But this thing is pretty impressive. And Chris’ note on the back read simply…

Let us know if you may have any friends who would like a custom leather covered guitar.

So, friends, anyone interested in a custom, leather covered guitar? I guarantee it’ll be made with love, and you sure as heck won’t find one of these guys at your local music store! Check out the guitar, my new belt, and everything else I’ve laid my hands on from these guys here.

I remember the first day I walked to work in New York with my iPod (yeah, yeah, I was a late adopter on that one). The feeling that I had my own personal soundtrack was awesome. Of course, so was the lack of incessant honking and shouting…

Well, for all you iPhone owners, the next evolution of your personal soundtrack has arrived…almost. It’s called synchstep. Designed by Greg Elliott (a fellow POKER), synchstep is an iPhone app that analyzes the music in your library and matches the beat rate to your current walking pace.

What does that mean in simple terms? Well, it means that as you strut down the street feelin’ like the bees knees, every foot strike lands with the beat of whatever song is playing. You walk to the music.

Synchstep is currently in beta testing, but from all the chatter around the office, it’s nothing short of awesome. And if you think the iPhone app is impressive, you should check out the earlier iterations of synchstep. Greg hand built the original mp3 players used for the experiment, which started as a grad school project, and finished them out in wood and brushed metal.

Keep an eye out for synchstep in the near future.

Some impressive stop motion work in this music video.

Some interesting tonal work and graffiti art in the video for Jon Mayer’s Waiting for the World to Change.