Song of the Day

Theo Martins rapping over a Wakey!Wakey! track. Check out the Theo Martin version and the original version below.

- Joel

Theo Martins - "Twenty-Two"
Wakey!Wakey! - "Twenty-Two"

Words

Check out this clever video released in conjunction with a Radiolab/NPR radio production.

- Joel

SUFJAN!

The man the myth the legend dropped an EP today. Listen below or follow the links to purchase it for yourself.

- Joel

Glasser

Check out the song "Home" from Cameron Mesirow, aka Glasser. I hear a hint of Feist in her vocals; lovely pipes if I do say so myself. Glasser's debut album, Ring, drops in September. I think you'll really enjoy this track. Ms. Mesirow also hit the cover of Fader Magazine, as you can see above.

- Joel

Glasser - "Home"

Photographer of the Day

© Esteban Pastorino Diaz

Esteban Pastorino Diaz. Tilt shift is just one of many types of photography Diaz employs. He actually mounts his camera to a kite in to get these unique aerial takes. My friends Jeff and Nicole have a few of his pieces on the walls of their kitchen. Very cool.

- Joel

© Esteban Pastorino Diaz

© Esteban Pastorino Diaz

Song of the Day

The well has run dry in terms of good new music lately. I haven't heard anything brand new that I've enjoyed. However, I have been jamming to Sleigh Bells a lot lately. I posted about them a few months ago, but now feel even more confident about recommending them. Check out the song "Run the Heart" below. When the weather cools, theirs will be an album to crank up with the windows down.

- Joel

Sleigh Bells - "Run the Heart"

National Park Posters

In the midst of the Great Depression, the National Park Service commissioned artists to create posters encouraging Americans to get out and see our national parks. Growing up, it seems like our family took most summer vacations to Colorado. We became intimately acquainted with the wonders of Rocky Mountain National Park. I can still remember getting out of the car along Trail Ridge Road, in the middle of July mind you, and being fascinated with the amount of snow on the ground. These posters conjure up a certain nostalgia and remind me of the mystique of our country's national parks. Too bad they don't make posters like this anymore.

- Joel

Edward Sharpe Take Away Show

A bunch of crazy hippies playing to a bunch of crazy French kids. See more shows like this at La Blogotheque.

- Joel

Tallest Man On Earth

I've posted about The Tallest Man on Earth before. If you are partial to Bob Dylan's growl or Weezy's croak then you'll enjoy this guy as well. Watch a performance of Sister Rosetta Tharpe's "My Journey To The Sky" below.

- Joel

On My Reading List

I've heard good things about this book from a number of different places. I'm in the midst of a Cormac McCarthy novel, Blood Meridian, but The Big Short by Michael Lewis will probably be my next read. As boring as the subprime mortgage crisis sounds, I hear this book is fascinating.

- Joel

Photographer of the Day

© Vincent Laforet

Vincent Laforet. Laforet uses tilt-shift photography to make the subjects of his photographs look like toy miniatures. He also offers an intriguing take on aerial photography. Browse through his website and you won't be disappointed.

- Joel

© Vincent Laforet

© Vincent Laforet

A Working Library

If you are like me, you are always looking for new books to read. It can often be hard to filter through the millions of books to find those that are worth my time. I think I'll be using the site A Working Library quite often in the future. Mandy Brown offers insightful summaries and connects books to other books to aid in the filtering process. Check it out.

- Joel

Song of the Day

Besides the crisp, intelligent writing on Mad Men, one of my favorite parts of the show is the music. For us they are golden oldies, but for the characters on the show they are the current hits. For some reason that fact constantly intrigues me. Below is one of the hits played on this week's episode, a hit from 1957 by Patti Page. It plays on the jukebox while Don is dancing in the restaurant in California.

- Joel

Patti Page - "Old Cape Cod"

Photographer of the Day

Longmont, Colorado, 1979 © Robert Adams

Robert Adams. A Colorado photographer often remembered for his night photography.

- Joel

Burning Oil Sludge North of Denver, Colorado, 1973 © Robert Adams

Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1968–1970 © Robert Adams

Song of the Day

I've been in a bit of a music funk lately. I haven't found anything new/exciting that's actually cool. It seems the "cool" music popping up over the last few weeks has all been too strange to deserve a post. The funk continues today. But I have been enjoying this track by Paramore. I guess I have something in common with the legion of middle schoolers who love Paramore. Listen/download the track below or watch the music video.

- Joel

Paramore - "The Only Exception"

Letterhead

I had a conversation with Cassie yesterday about bringing back the handwritten letter. (She actually wrote me one which came in the mail yesterday as well). Letters carry much more meaning than the unlimited number of other ways we have to communicate these days. You don't just write a letter on the fly. A letter implies thought and purpose and time. With that in mind, I decided to create my own custom letterhead. Unfortunately I don't have the skills to convert the vision in my head to a form transferrable to paper. Thus I commissioned my brother Cory to make it happen, and he did a splendid job. The "logo" above is the end result.

- Joel

Songs of the Day

© Stanley Marcus

These could legitimately be modern day indie tunes. Add some fuzzy guitars (and remove the dialogue from the Shangri-Las track) and you've got another version of Best Coast. Also, listen to the opening drum beat in The Ronettes tune. I read an interesting bit arguing that it's the most iconic drum beat, because of its instant recognizability and frequent use by other artists, in all of pop music.

- Joel

The Ronettes - "Be My Baby"
The Shangri-Las - "Leader of the Pack"

So You Need A Type Face?

Click on the image to enlarge if you want to get the true effect. This project was created by Julian Hansen.

- Joel

Quote of the Day

"I'm not sure there's a great leader in my life who didn't spend a season of their life making someone else look great."
- John Bryson, Memphis, Tennessee

I read this quote today. Actually, someone retweeted it, so the original author of the quote is no one famous. That fact doesn't make the words any less profound to me. They may not strike you the way they struck me, a young guy with leadership aspirations who is learning the ropes by watching and serving under others.

- Joel

Photographer of the Day

© Noah Wilson

Noah Wilson. Obviously I'm a sucker for landscape photography. The photograph above was taken at Monument Valley in Utah where many a Western has been filmed.

- Joel

© Noah Wilson