Take An Online Adventure

My good friend Sigmadog (see Almost Daily in the "links" over in the right column) regularly posts links on his blog to online games that never fail to cause me to immediately quit working and start goofing off. I think he does it because he gets addicted to them himself, so he figures that he'll cause the rest of the world to experience a similar detour in the middle of their work day. Well now its my turn. I found this great, free, online adventure scenario, I guess you could call it a game. Its called Samorost 2. Its really well done, and has several levels or "chapters" before the game is finished. It took me a long time to get through it, but it was a fun journey. It requires you to think about your cyber-surroundings and use deductive reasoning. If you enjoy this one, it looks like they have several others.

Album Of The Year

My good friend Willy and I have a tradition. Most years, we will discuss which recorded music album was the best of the previous year. Some years we agree and some we don't. Occasionally, the choice is obvious. Other times the choice is tougher. This year, we've come to separate opinions.

2005 was a weak year for the music business. The good vines weren't producing in abundance. I did not come across that collective presentation of songs that "knocked me out". I've tried to find a way out of picking a winner this year, but I feel that I have a responsibility to uphold. The Grammy Awards Committee can't just abdicate, now can they? There were some albums that I liked... or at least they had several songs that I liked. I've considered the lot of them and offer these opinions. You can click on any of the following titles to link to these recordings on iTunes.

And my winner is...

"Plans" - Death Cab For Cutie
Most of the songs on this record are great. DCFC is an interesting band that started out as college friends in Bellingham, Washington. They have since relocated to Seattle. Lead singer Ben Gibbard's vocal stylings help create their distinctive sound. Its hard to categorize... a little bit folky, for sure, but its too eclectic to fall neatly into any single genre. Their music shows up frequently on TV and movie soundtracks. If you like this album, listen to their previous one, "Transatlanticism", from 2003. It might be even better.

The other nominees, in no particular order...

"Love, Angel, Music, Baby" - Gwen Stefani
"Illinois" - Sufjan Stevens
"How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" - U2
"Speak For Yourself" - Imogen Heap
"Devils & Dust" - Bruce Springsteen

As for my friend Willy, his award goes to...

"Righteous Love" - Joan Osborne
In his words... "My winner caught me way off guard... and late in the game. In many ways, similarly to the way that Lisa Loeb got me a few years back. Joan Osborne "Righteous Love". Can't stop listening to it."

Willy's runner-up is...

"American Idiot" - Green Day

In conclusion, let me say that I think 2005 was the Year Of The Single. The Year Of The Mixed CD. Maybe thats because it was the way I bought my own music. I've become an iTunes junky. I don't, by the way, see that changing anytime soon.

So now its your turn. Who was the best? What music did you like this past year? Post your opinion to the blog comments if you wish.

Remembering Joni Mitchell

I often wonder which artists of my generation will be remembered for their creative contribution centuries from now. Who will be the Picasso, Mozart, Van Gogh, or Beethoven of the past fifty years? One who certainly deserves that sort of remembrance is Joni Mitchell. As a musician, she followed no one, and set the creative course for countless artists that have followed. As a songwriter and lyricist, she was without peer. Never driven by commercial success, she followed her creative muse wherever it took her, and that was quite often further than the record companies were willing to follow. She also is an incredible painter. I expect a Joni Mitchell painting a hundred years from now will reach the highest price levels.

Why am I remembering Joni? Well, for a few reasons. I just watched two incredible DVDs about her. The first was called "Joni Mitchell, Painting With Words and Music". It features Joni's "final" concert, which was actually an orchestrated event put together simply for the DVD. It marks Joni's final performance before a live audience. And she is simply incredible. The set list covers the breadth of her career. Her mature voice is near perfect and her jazz-oriented backing band follows her every turn with great skill. I never got to see Joni in concert, but this video helps make up for that in at least a small way. The second DVD I watched was called "Joni Mitchell: Woman Of Heart And Mind". Through interviews and recordings, it is a biography of Joni's artistic career. I learned a lot. Joni began in the early sixties, hoping to follow in the folk-footsteps of Joan Baez and Judy Collins. It was not long before she had eclipsed all other female performers and was defining the role of singer-songwriter by the early seventies. Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Graham Nash, David Crosby and Jimi Hendrix were all under her spell. Her original use of non-traditional guitar tunings set her apart as a guitarist. She had the voice of a goddess and her lyric writing was quite simply at another level... only Dylan might be in her league. Her discovery of jazz in the mid-seventies took her to a whole deeper level of musicianship. It didn't always work well, but she was always on the cutting-edge of musical inventiveness. And when it did work, like on her 1976 album "Hejira", it was literally a masterpiece.

Finally, I'm remembering Joni because she has decided that she is no longer a musician. That's right, she's all done. Mostly due to her frustration with the music industry of today, she has decided to quit once and for all. In a way, its sort of refreshing to see her go out when she still "has it". But it leaves me feeling very sad to know that's all we're going to get. So now she is Joni Mitchell, painter. If you have not seen her paintings, I encourage you to go find them somewhere on the internet. I wish she would put together a retrospective of her paintings and send them on tour, but that has yet to happen. And if you have not seen these two DVDs, I encourage you to see both of them. You'll be reminded just how important an artist Joni Mitchell was. There are few artists of her ability in today's music business. I expect her legend will outlive them all.

Following Hillman Curtis

One of my favorite design guys these days is Hillman Curtis. His area of speciality is motion graphics. I heard him speak at a design conference a while ago and he really inspired me. In addition to traditional flash animations, he specializes in making short films for the web. He continues to surprise me with his great ideas. What makes an artist great, in any medium, is when they present ideas that go beyond the expected boundaries. Hillman always leaves me thinking, "Why didn't I think of that?" At the same time, he inspires me to go further in my own visual thinking. Go look at his web site. I especially like the "photographs" he has displaying in a loop on his home page... give them a second to load.

John Reed's New Blog Is Up

I want you to know that John Reed has started a new weblog called "The Reed Report". John and I have been talking about creating a blog together for over a year, so we finally found the time to make it happen. I expect great things from his blog and I encourage you to bookmark it and make regular visits. John always has a lot to say about many subjects. Pay attention.

Ducks demolish Beavers at Autzen

Its Sunday night, and I'm only just now pulling out of my foul mood. I got mad when Ryan Gunderson threw a pick on OSU's first possession, and it only went downhill from there. There was a tiny smile on my face when the Beavers put together a long drive on the ground to make the score 14-7, but that optimism was quickly extinguished. My tail has been down ever since. Nothing worse than losing to the Ducks... in a blowout no less.

I had little expectation that the Beavers would win this game, but I really wanted the team that beat Cal in Strawberry Canyon to show up for this game. A little fire and passion and a good battle was all I asked for. No luck this year. The Beavers looked beaten from the start. The team that lost to Louisville showed up for this game. It was painful to watch, but I stuck it out to the last play and even listened to the post-game talk on the radio. Everybody's pretty discouraged by the poor effort. I went home and watched Fresno State give USC all they could handle. Way to go, Pat Hill. That effort is what I wanted from my ballclub on Saturday.

Beavers - Gunderson didn't look ready for prime-time. Maybe next year. I'm hoping that our redshirt freshman QB, Sean Canfield, might turn out to be the guy we're looking for. OSU simply did not have enough talent on the field this year. There were a handful of really good players out there (Hass, Bray, Ellison, Bernard), but not enough. I thought Oregon would go after our young corners, but that didn't really happen a lot. The whole defense was literally in a fog. Could not stop Oregon from doing anything they wanted. The offense showed moments of ability, but usually ended up blowing drives with turnovers and penalties... so what's new?

Ducks - They got payback for last year and then some. Two touchdowns every quarter. The offense, defense and special teams all scored points. It doesn't look to me that the Ducks are missing Kellen all that much. I thought both Dixon and Leaf looked great. As usual, games are won on the line of scrimmage and I thought the Ducks were dominant in that respect. Oregon played their best game of the year hands down. I'm not happy that Stewart is only a freshman. I'm guessing we've not seen the last of him.

We'll see if the Fiesta Boys were suitably impressed. Might have to get Phil involved with a little leverage on this one. Speaking of Phil, I'm guessing he was behind the new game-day jerseys. I didn't like them all that much (especially those funky numbers), but I'm guessing those young California boys wearing them thought they were fabulous, and that's what counts.

I couldn't see the game very well. The fog looked so thick that much of the game was barely visible on TV. Reminded me of last year's USC game. I thought the fog might help the underdog, but I guess not.

Mike Hass gets the Pac-10 single-season receiving record... that's all I've got, but at least I got something.

Mike Riley - 8 wins in 2003, 7 wins in 2004, 5 wins and no bowl in 2005. He's got one more year to reverse this trend. If he gets 5 wins or less next year, he'll be in trouble. He needs to go back to the drawing board, re-evaluate all of his coaches, and work his ass off on the recruiting front. He needs to teach his kids how not to get 15-yard penalties on a regular basis. It can't be this hard to do.

I know these things go in cycles. I know we were real young this year all over the field. This year's team underachieved... really should have beaten Arizona and Stanford. But it was the little things that made the difference this year. I'm hoping they learn how to get the little things right next year.

The beginning of all that follows

This begins a grand experiment... my own weblog. I am creating Ideapoint as a way to learn more about blog management for my design clients. In the meantime, I think I might have some fun with this. I will post my opinions from time-to-time on a variety of subjects. I'll probably write about graphic design, multimedia arts, character education, music, sports, and the way I see the world around me. All comments are welcome. Along the way, maybe I'll learn something.