The Boulder Digital Works 12/10 Project

Why would someone drop everything for more than a year to enroll in a completely untested program that vowed to teach the world of digital and interactive in a way never done before? The first class of 12 students in Boulder Digital Works’ (BDW) first 60 Weeks program answer that question in their new short film called The 1210 Project.

The 1210 Project is named after what will be the students’ final day of BDW 60 Weeks, December 10, 2010. The video explores the twelve students’ motivation for jumping onboard Boulder Digital Works’ 60 Weeks program inaugural voyage. Some of the students enrolled after hearing about the program with only weeks before its start. The film looks at what the students have learned, considers their hopes and plans for the program’s remaining 50 weeks and focuses on their dreams, goals and predictions.

These 12 students, who range in age from 22 to 48, have been exposed to some of the best of the best in digital and interactive over the past 10 weeks. Their brains are buzzing and the walls of BDW are bulging with possibility.

There is much work to do leading up to 12/10/10 and years of work after that, but there is no doubt there will never be a year quite like the one that lies directly ahead. Follow my fellow Boulder Digital Works students over the next year at http://bdw.colorado.edu/blogs/60weeks

Sufjan Stevens rocks Madison

Here's a long overdue update from the Sufjan Steven's concert last month.

Since Sufjan hasn't toured much lately, a few friends and I decided to make the trek up to Madison, WI to see him play, the closest he would come to Denver. When it was all said and done we had a great time and the concert totally rocked our socks off. Here's a sampling of what we saw: some old songs, some new, all awesome.




I have a few general criteria for what makes a concert awesome to me and Sufjan hit almost all of them:

1- Be interesting - Sufjan made some great banter between songs. I hate it when the only thing a musician says is "thanks" and then keeps on playing.

2-Give me something unique - I've already bought the album, so mix it up a little bit and give me something I can't get anywhere else. Sufjan certainly did by not only playing brand new songs but also re-arranging older ones to fit the band he was touring with.

3-Show some energy - Sufjan did a pretty good job of looking like he was into the music and enjoying himself up there. I like that.

4-Smash something - OK, maybe it's a stretch, but I really want to see a musician smash an instrument after - or even during - a show. Sufjan didn't smash anything but I guess I can forgive him.

Cursive Rocks Letterman

You might remember my post about my recent order of Cursive's latest album, Mama I'm Swollen and how their record label, Saddle Creek totally exceeded my expectations. Well, now we have Cursive going on David Letterman and totally rocking socks.


(via Stereogum)

You'd better believe my ass will be at their show when they come to Denver. Wait, their current show schedule doesn't show a Denver date. Hey! Saddle Creek! Cursive! Come to Denver!

Government Spoofs Freecreditreport.com

The FTC has decided to spoof the already spoofy (and scammy) freecreditreport.com commercials with their own (and actually free) annualcreditreport.com.

I love this. Not because the commercial is amazing or anything, although it is amusing. I just love that the government has actually decided to fight fire with fire and stick it to the douchebags that try to scam people into buying their credit reports when they can, by law, get them for free.

Now if only we can get the government to spoof the snuggie....



(via RedTape Chronicles where you can see another gov't commercial)

America is restoring... Please wait...

This makes my day. Get one here.

(via iliketotallyloveit)

Concerts that rocked my socks

Excuse me for being a little behind, but I saw two amazing concerts last month at Red Rocks and I wanted to share a little video with you.

First up was the Foo Fighters who rocked long and hard to make up for the concert they had to postpone in July.


Next was Sigur Ros. If you haven't heard Sigur Ros, you haven't lived. Seriously.


Sorry for the shitty quality, but you get the point. Was anyone else at these concerts or have another concert that rocked their socks over the summer? Let's hear it in the comments.

Honda's Singing Road

Whoever thought of this gets a gold star.

A road in Lancaster, CA was grooved such that when a Honda Civic drives over it at 55mph it plays the William Tell Overture (The Lone Ranger Theme part.) As you can tell from the video below, it's not perfect. Also, apparently residents in nearby houses are upset with the amount of noise being created. Still, a damn good idea if I ever heard one.



(via AdAge)

Kodak: Make Me Super

Kodak just did something cool.
I've been waiting a long time to say that.

The company that has provided me a means to live the last six years has also had it's head up it's ass most of that time about anything digital, advertising related or remotely 21st century. But now they've hitched their star to the same agency that did that "Elf Yourself" thing for OfficeMax last year and come up with "Make Me Super". You upload your photo, and WHAM! Before you know it you're a full-fledged super hero complete with theme song (see mine here). I started passing this around the office this afternoon and I fully expect 50 super videos in my inbox tomorrow (wouldn't it be great if Kodak had planted the seeds of this viral site by informing it's 25,000 US employees about it so they wouldn't have to read about it somewhere else? or does that violate the "rule of viral-ness"?) Of course, you can buy customized mugs, mouse pads, etc., as well as upload your super picture to your Kodak Gallery account. What? You don't have a Kodak Gallery account? Well now would be a good time to start one, wouldn't it?

Great Videos

Two great new videos that are totally unrelated. And you've probably already seen them somewhere else. But in case you haven't...

Rage Against the Machine live and acapella in Minneapolis


New Nike Commercial "Here I am"

More Manifest Hope

Christopher over at ChangetheThought has a great collection of images from the Manifest Hope Gallery. If you weren't there, go take a look. If you were there, see it again.

Evolve Devolve

Due to some mechanical difficulties I won't be able to make it down to Denver to see the craziness that is the DNC. The part that bums me out the most is missing out on the Manifest Hope gallery. The best I can do is visit Obey Giant and check out some work from Shepard Fairey, who I am apparently way behind in totally adoring. The image above is called Evolve Devolve and it's my new favorite. I think it's great how such a simple image can say so much.

UPDATE: View the Manifest Hope Gallery Online Here

Change The Thought Posters

Looking for something awesome to hang on the wall? Look no further than Change the Thought's poster collection, now for sale. Each print is hand signed and numbered, so you're getting a personal piece of greatness. So quit reading this and go buy one now. (also check out the t-shirts, at the time of this post there was a sale on that made select shirts $10 if you bought 2)

Radiohead's House of Card will blow your mind with frickin' laser beams

Radiohead decided to shoot their new video without cameras. They used a new technology that maps 3D images using lasers. This is what it looks like:




I have no idea what the hell I'm talking about with lasers and such, but these guys do in the behind the scenes footage:

I met the Walrus

You're 14.
It's 1969.
You sneak into John Lennon's room.
You have a tape recorder.
He answers your questions.
38 years later you produce a movie about it.
It's nominated for an Oscar.

It looks like this:


I met the Walrus official site

(via The Denver Egotist)

BMW's got balls

This is from the BMW museum in Munich. These 714 steel balls take the shape of BMW cars and sort of fly through the air. It's sort of mesmerizing. (via Changethethought)

Lego Digital Designer: Dreams do come true

I'd say a solid 60% of my time between the ages of 5 and 15 was spent playing with legos. Well, not just playing, but building the most bad-ass castles and airplanes and super off-road trucks the world has ever seen. Oh, and boats and cannons and spaceships and racecars. So when I say that my wildest dreams have come true, you will likely agree.

Legos Digital Designer lets you choose from 763 different brick types to build to your hearts content. And there's even kits too! While it's not quite the same as the real thing, it's still pretty amazing.

Download it here: Lego Digital Designer
(via Lifehacker)

Free Obama 2008 Posters

Looking to show your support for Obama with some unique and well made posters? Look no further than Changethethought's collections of free (to download and print-not sell) Obama posters he created himself. There's a number of different styles and various slogans available and even buttons too! So go find your favorite, print a few out, and help be a part of Change we can believe in!

Changethethought's Obama Posters

On a side note...

Because you needed a break anyway:

A man is given a DUI for driving his "cruzin' cooler" while drunk. To clarify, a "cruzin' cooler" is a cooler and a scooter combined to make the sort of vehicle that will some day save mankind. See pictures and read the full deal at Gizmodo.

Legos make everything better

Just when you thought you'd seen everything... Someone goes and redoes iconic photos using legos. The result: awesome. See the rest of the series here. (click the pics for a bigger look)