Chris

Hipstamatic

I’m totally digging the Hipstamatic app for the iPhone. It’s a recreation of a camera developed in the great wilderness of Wisconsin in the early 80s by two brothers. The whole story is being kept alive by the older brother of the two Hipstamatic creators.

The app is very slick and plays a great homage to the cheap all-plastic cameras of yore. With the tiny viewfinder, different films and lenses and the always different results it’s a blast to watch your photos ‘develop’.

The best thing about the app for me is the high-pitched whirring of the flash when you turn it on. Perfect.

Top 10 Songs For 2009

As I did last year, here’s the top 10 songs added to my iTunes library for 2009.

1. White Winter Hymnal – Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

2. Sun It Rises – Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

3. Horchata – Vampire Weekend – Contra

4. Little Secrets – Passion Pit – Manners

5. Blue Ridge Mountians – Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

6. Oliver James – Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

7. Skinny Love – Bon Iver – Fore Emma, Forever Ago

8. Meadowlarks – Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes (Damn, this is a good album!)

9. The Beastie Boys Vs Matt And Kim – Good Ol’ Fashion Rump Shaker – The Hood Internet – The Mixtape Volume Four (download here)

10. Vultures – John Mayer – Continuum

Here’s the top 10 list of songs released in 2009.

1. Little Secrets – Passion Pit – Manners

2. The Beastie Boys Vs Matt And Kim – Good Ol’ Fashion Rump Shaker – The Hood Internet – The Mixtape Volume Four

3. Zero – Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!

4. Brother Sport – Animal collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion

5. Hysteric – Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!

6. Passion Pit vs. Juvenile – Back That Sleepyhead Up – The Hood Internet – The Mixtape Volume Four

7. 1901 – Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

8. Evident Utensl – Chairlift – Does You Inspire You (I dug the music video before the song)

9. Bead Prez vs. Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks of Hip Hop – The Hood Internet – The Mixtape Volume Four (orginal version of Two Weeks came in at #16)

10. Happy Up Here – Royksopp – Junior

Here’s a list from 2006 as well. Apparently I skipped 2007!

A Post in Which I Claim to Have Predicted the Future

Nearly a year ago I wrote a blathering rant about how the common aspect ratios of video is largely irrelevant on the web. To quote myself:

Television has set the standard of common resolutions and aspect ratios for years, but not everything seems as smooth as it should. For one as we are becoming increasingly more web-centric in our distribution models why are we sticking by these ancient limitations of size and shape. Isn’t there something inherently more flexible with the web? Let’s challenge those norms and create something new with video.

And then today I saw these:

Interesting, no?

Update: I clicked around a littler further and found the blog of the creator of the second video. On Jesse Rosten’s blog he shares very similar thoughts regarding nontraditional video.

Axe Cop

I’m not usually one to enjoy bizarre nonsensical comedy, but the Axe Cop series is freaking hilarious.

The story is written by the 5 year old brother of the 29 year-old artist, Ethan Nicolle. Their collaboration is pure win and is only rivaled the series of reader submitted questions answered by Malachai in “Ask Axe Cop“!

Oh, and I totally want a shirt that says:

CHOP!
PUNT!
PSHEW!

The Courier That Never Arrived.

Microsofts Courier digital journal: exclusive pictures and details

Gruber:

It’s a demo of a concept. I’d wager money that we’ll never see an actual product from Microsoft that works like this.

I think the Courier demo is really, really neat. Watching that video makes me want one, now. Unfortunately it will never be as cool as what we’re seeing in these videos.

That’s a big difference between Apple and other tech companies. They demo a product a few months before it ships, in it’s near final form. Microsoft announces products years beforehand and by the time it arrives it’s behind the curve.