Archive for the ‘Weekly Inspiration’ Category

Detroit Lives via. Palladium on Vimeo

Saturday, May 14th, 2011

Palladium presents: Detroit Lives featuring Johnny Knoxville from Palladium on Vimeo.

Really cool to see one of America’s iconic city’s having a renaissance.. This video could have read like a commercial for Palladium, but manages to be all about Detroit, and some really creative people seeing an opportunity for making in impact and grabbing it.

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The Automatypewriter, and other goodness

Saturday, November 6th, 2010

Zork, a wonderful text-based game from the 1980s

It’s been a while I know.. Been working like crazy, getting ready to move. All kinds of good stuff. Seems like this time of year just goes by so fast, and around January time just slows to a crawl while we all wait for the sun to come back around.

Discovered recently an awesome DIY project, the details of which were posted by its creator here at Up, not North. Some of you might recall an illustration I did recently of an old Corona typewriter. I’d been hoping to transform this into a sweet jQuery driven web app, a simple thing that would animate typing into a text field, but in a really visually rich kind of way. Seeing this just makes me want make that happen that much more.

Growing up  in the Eighties there was the advent of so many geek cultural icons. There were the early personal computers, like the Commodore 64, Amiga, and early Apple Computers, which cost a fortune and promised to do so so much to revolutionize our lives.

During this time games were all over the map, and there was a lot of innovation going on trying to take advantage of the baby-steps taken in early graphics, actual writable memory, and processing speeds. Some might recall the legendary text-based games of the time, Zork and the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

THIS wondrous creation is an ode to those halcyon days, providing an interactive, beautiful and tactile interface (although slightly weighty) for Zork fans of all ages. Peep the video and be amazed!


The Automatypwriter from Jonathan M. Gruberman via “Up, not North”

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This Week in Inspiration..

Sunday, August 1st, 2010

This week in inspiration is a little random… We have a really complete article on Jquery best practices from TVI Design. For those who don’t know jQuery is a very popular javascript framework, very lightweight and feature-rich. You will only like this if you are a little nerdy of course… So in news for other kinds of people… :)

Video of one of the most genius DIY recreations I’ve seen in a long time, from Volpin Props in Atlanta. Who was also kind enough to share tips on how he achieved his final product. The detail in this is amazing, and he goes into everything from building circuitry to getting parts cast, chromed, and molded.

I thought I’d also share a link to Rebel 8, interjet home of Cali-Creative Mike Giant, and purveyor of fine and stylish goods. People bite this style like there is no tomorrow, but none compare. Giant is a technician.

Giant sighting on Melrose in LA, via LATaco.com

Giant sighting on Melrose in LA, via LATaco.com

And speaking of things California, a friend of mine is traveling to Long Beach in August and it got me to thinking. Having been born there (full disclosure, I didn’t actually grow up there, mostly spent summers there visiting family), I felt the need to share what little I know about spending quality time in the LBC.

  • Fingerprints Records : A sweet record store… lots of hard to find music and local goodness… This area is called the Belmont Shores and is on the edge of Long Beach along the shoreline going South towards Seal Beach. A few little shops that are aight.. a little touristy other than Fingerprints.
  • MOLAA : The Museum of Latin American Art is pretty dope, and there is an arts district that was just coming up last time I was around. On the edge of downtown Long Beach. A few Black barber shops, bodegas, Rasta shops and a couple of cool bookstores featuring local literature.
  • Proper : This little section of East Broadway has a couple of boutique type shops on it and some independent coffee shops. Community garden too… within walking distance of downtown. Downtown Long Beach is a good place to park and walk around, lots of restaurants, a few small cafes, a movie theater. A little pricey, but there are some old shops with character tucked away on the side streets.
  • Bixby Park, sometimes know as Cherry Park (but not actually Cherry Park): A good spot to chill, a family park with only the occasional sketchy characters. It is on the outskirts of this Gay-centric strip of bars and shops (Broadway and East 4th), which includes some cool antique stores and the East 4th skateshop that’s been around forever. People used to skate this park up like crazy (it used to have a huge stage on it), it’s been in some historic skate videos. Across the street is Ocean Boulevard and the beach, which is behind breakwaters. I met a someone recently that said that the beach has been cleaned up in recent years. Miles of walking along the shore here, and you can walk up to the Long Beach Museum of Art, which is alright sometimes depending what you’re into.
  • VIP records: incubator to Snoop, Doctor Dre and many other LBC locals. Haven’t been there but they are still going strong after 31 years.

What’s missing on this list? Locals have got to know more about the city than me, and I know that LA has a lot to offer too… Holla at me,  or comment on this post, I’d love to learn more about the city I’m from!

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