a few years ago i was extremely fortunate enough to be asked to create a portfolio site for irena komadinic, an amazing artist who i am in constant awe of.  at the time, what i created fit the needs she had for the site and i was really proud of it.  you can see the results of that site here.

well times change, people change, sites need to change as well.  i have been really looking forward to redesigning irena’s website, and over the last few weeks have tortured myself with endless layout ideas, tweaks, redos, trashing everything, starting over, blah blah blah…

what i’ve ended up with is really what i believe to be some of my best work yet.  even better, irena seems to be really happy with it which is what really matters.  creating a site that is fresh and new is daunting enough but creating one that accurately captures the calibre of art that irena creates was the most nerve-wracking.

in the end i’ve done away with the old flash based site, and moved into a completely custom site propped up by wordpress and hand-coded from scratch with html, css, & jQuery amongst others.

please take a moment to check it out.  trust me, after seeing irena’s work you’ll thank me.

link : www.theirenashow.com

RavenEyeVintage.com is the future home of Lisa Terry and her custom clothing.  now i’ll be the first to admit i know nothing about fashion, but i do know talent when i see it and trust me, she’s got it.

i’m not going to give anything away about what to expect, but i will say i’m very excited to be given the chance to create a site for her.  hopefully there will be more to update you on in the next week or two, but for now, go bookmark the site and stay tuned!

Link : www.raveneyevintage.com

i’ve loved these guys since 2002-ish when a whopping 2 copies of their self-titled debut were shipped to the record store i worked at during that time.  i loved the cover and gave it a listen on my break.  by the end of my 15 minute break, i had purchased the cd and it still remains one of my favourite music purchases to date.  i also got in some crap by my boss because i put their cd on the stereo in the store, when we were only allowed to play a certain group of cds as outlined by head office.  definitely nothing like Empire Records! (damn the man, save the Empire!!) i ended up selling the 2nd copy of ok go by the time the cd had finished, so i was off the sh!t-list.

for nearly a decade these guys have not only created some great music but their videos have been perfect examples of how to still be creative in an era where the closest kids get to seeing a music video is a commercial for the Hills.  not one of their videos are ‘phoned in’, not one looks half-assed.  in fact, each one looks like it’s taken weeks, if not months of thought, planning, rehearsing, reworking, editing, blah blah blah blah.

i spent an hour this evening going through all their videos and i actually said ‘WHOA’ out loud at least 3 or 4 times.  and i don’t say ‘WHOA’ out loud when i’m alone ever.

if you wanna see their videos…and you DO…check out http://www.okgo.net

i leave you now with proof of the brilliance of ok go.  if you don’t like this video, you are not alive.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2fpgpanZAw

a sneak peak of the new irena show

i’m nearing completion of what i think is my best work yet…

a few years ago i was extremely fortunate enough to be asked to create a portfolio site for irena komadinic, an amazing artist who i am in constant awe of.  at the time, what i created fit the needs she had for the site and i was really proud of it.  you can see the results of that site here.

well times change, people change, sites need to change as well.  i have been really looking forward to redesigning irena’s website, and over the last few weeks have tortured myself with endless layout ideas, tweaks, redos, trashing everything, starting over, blah blah blah…

what i’ve ended up with is really what i believe to be some of my best work yet.  even better, irena seems to be really happy with it which is what really matters.  creating a site that is fresh and new is daunting enough but creating one that accurately captures the calibre of art that irena creates was the most nerve-wracking.

in the end i’ve done away with the old flash based site, and moved into a completely custom site propped up by wordpress and hand-coded from scratch with html, css, & jQuery amongst others.

if all goes to plan, you should be able to see the finished product in around a week from now.  i’ll post a follow-up when it’s completed, and i really hope you enjoy it as much as i’ve enjoyed creating it.

update : ok we’ve been a bit delayed in getting the site launched.  don’t worry, things are still looking very very good so far, it’s just finding the time for the last touches.  we’ll be launching very soon though, i promise.  in order to keep you all in eager anticipation, here’s another teaser shot of the website.

yes, it’s not the greatest quality but did you really think i’d let the whole cat out of the bag just yet?!  enjoy!

update #2 : it’s monday, July 26.  what better way to cure a case of ‘the mondays’ than to release this bad boy!  stay tuned….

each year we raise as much money as we can for the cause, and this year we’re doing even more to support the cause.

with that in mind, i am offering my web skills in return for donations.  what i have in mind is a website creation/redesign package.  here’s the details of what i’m calling the “site for Ethan package” :

• up to 5 webpages
• custom built site design
• up to 10 images(gallery, static, etc)
• css/html coding
• full round of qa testing/browser compatibility

i’m asking for a minimum donation of $350 for this package.  Also, if you donate a minimum of $500 i’ll throw in a domain name and space for a full year.  other perks and features can be added at reasonable prices.

it’s a win-win situation really.   you get a great looking website at a great price(which is tax deductible) for a good cause!

please think about it, share this page with anyone you might think would be interested, and if you need more information, email me : kristian@kristiandavid.com

for more information on Autism and our Walk Now for Autism team, check this : http://tinyurl.com/teamEthanDavid

she’s an incredibly talented painter/make-up artist that i’ve had the utmost honour to know and create a site for.  hopefully i can do her work justice.

stay tuned…

www.kathyluscombe.com

to start off this new section, i feel compelled to respond to the trainwreck that was the 2010 olympic closing ceremonies.  they showcased only the lowest of the lowest common denominator bands.  the kind of shit you see on muchmusic 5000 times a day.  so, i give you a list of Canadian bands that i would have enjoyed more than the horrible horrible bands they featured tonight.(note: Neil Young is the exception.  i love the Neil!) (also note : i don’t necessarily like all these bands, but would have enjoyed them a heck of a lot more than what was presented)

here we go;

• arcade fire
• metric
• tegan and sara
• sloan
• the dears
• birthday boys
• the guess who
• rikers
• stars
• feist
• rufus wainwright
• broken social scene
• emm gryner
• coeur de pirate
• lights
• the racoon wedding
• glass tiger
• rush
• organized rhyme
• k’naan
• ash koley
• …more to come…seriously

i’ve decided to use the new site to maintain some level of creativity on a daily basis.  every day i will post some sort of creative thing from the brain of me.  photos, writings, audio, video, etc.

i just launched it today and have posted 2 items so far.  hopefully i can maintain this site and give y’all something to look at each day.

stay tuned…
http://kristiandavid.tumblr.com

i’ve been a long-time fan of the fire-haired host since the early days of Late Night (yep, i’m that old) and was thrilled to see that not only is Conan finally getting the show he rightfully deserves, but the Tonight Show would finally get back a good host who is smart, funny and respected by his peers.  not mention the fact that it spelled the end of Jay (i’m not funny) Leno…or so we all thought hoped.

instead we have the stupidest of all network moves that sees jay return to the tonight show and conan out on his ass.  i suppose though thanks to all this we’ve seen the best Conan yet in recent shows, ripping on the network ‘morons’, spending all their money and even a return of the masturbating bear!!!

i won’t go into all the details of the feud because enough has been written about it by much smarter folks than myself.  all i want to say is that Conan is The King of latenight in my mind and he will be sorely missed for however long it takes another network to snatch him up…which i predict, and hope, won’t take long.

In closing, i think you should all join the “I’m With Coco” movement online.  and if you’re a Leno fan, please leave.  thanks.

even though my life is definitely not newsworthy, i decided to make my own this year…with a twist.  as i said i’m not newsworthy so i made some stuff up to fill a whole newsletter.  enjoy…

garth is my friend, for real, i know him!  seriously, we high five all the time….and uh….hang out, like all the time.

he’s a visual artist, but not like any you’ve ever seen…and i know what you’ve seen!

in all seriousness, his innovation, talent and passion for all he does blows me away constantly and you need to check out his work.  you won’t be disappointed, i pinky swear.

http://www.thegarthshow.com

a friend of mine, garth, and i have been recruited by kevin on an upcoming mission of coolness.  i can’t say much more at the moment about who kevin is, where kevin is located, how i came to know kevin or what his masterful endgame is but trust me, kevin is awesome.  his goal is to make the internets better looking, if only one site at a time.  but after what we’ve heard from kevin so far, we have no doubts he will succeed.

keep an eye on www.kevindidit.com for more updates as kevin feels like revealing them.

Scrubs, much like another favourite of mine Ed, has always been one of the best shows on tv.  it always seems to find a perfect balance between comedy and drama week after week, even through all the time slots moves, cancellation threats and overall lackluster ratings.  scrubs should be retired as one of the blockbuster sitcoms of all time but sadly critical acclaim and a cult following don’t equal $$ to tv networks.  abc has definitely done a much better job of promoting the show than nbc ever did, but still it never quite hit ‘Friends’ or ‘Cosby Show’ hype as i firmly believe it should have.

anyways, i could literally go on for pages and pages about scrubs…but i won’t.  i’ll just bid a very sad farewell to jd, turk, elliot, carla, dr cox, dr kelso, janitor, rowdy, the todd, jordan, jack, laverne, tasty coma wife, gift shop girl, ted, ted’s band(the worthless peons), gooch, doug, keith, lonnie, hooch(is crazy), lloyd the delivery guy, denise, dr beardfacé, dr mickhead, dr wen, snoop dogg attending (formerly snoop dogg resident and snoop dogg intern), colonel doctor, jimmy the overly touchy orderly, leonarad the security guard with the hook for the hand, randall the janitor, troy the cafeteria worker, laverneagain, jo, all of jd’s hot guest-starring girlfriends, dan, dr. zeltzer, cabbage, sasha the scooter, enid and all the others that have made me laugh and tonight will possibly make me shed a tear or two.

in the words of JD : “Goodbye trombone player I don’t know. Now I know why your music is so sad.”

Update : the finale was so good i had to watch it twice…and i’m man enough to admit i teared up both times!  so sad yet so great.

that’s just one of many brilliant quotes from what i truly believe to be one of the best(and horribly underrated) tv series in boob tube history.  for those unaware, i’m referring to a show that ran on nbc from 2000-2004… Ed.

in a nutshell, here’s the plot : “Tom Cavanagh plays Ed Stevens, a hot shot New York City lawyer, who, upon finding out that his wife is cheating on him, moves back to his hometown of Stuckyville where he buys the local bowling alley and sets up his new law practice. Ed tries to win back Carol Vessey, the woman of his dreams, only to find it is more difficult than it seems.”

there’s so many great things about this show i can’t even begin to list them all here…hmmm, i may have just inspired another blog topic for myself!

anyways, what does Ed has to do with my ‘twbnth’ list? well let me tell you, good people of the tundra.

we live in an age where literally every tv series gets a dvd set released seemingly within minutes of it’s season finale.  an age where even if a show is crap and gets canned after 6 episodes, that program’s mourning fans can still own the ‘entire series’ before their tears have even dried.  an age where nickelback is still popular for some reason despite making the same terrible record over and over again!! (ok that last point had nothing to do with the topic at hand, it just really erks me to no end)

the point of all this ranting? you ask, well let me tell you.  in the midst of all this garbage being put out by studios, no Ed dvds yet exist!!  4 seasons of dramedic brilliance just sits on the shelf somewhere at nbc just begging to be converted to dvd format and thrust into the marketplace.

and it’s not only the show itself that’s begging to be on dvd, we the fans have been dying, aching and pleading to the powers that be to realease the set for years now.  check out this petition .  over 12,000 people signed so far.  if they release the complete 4 season box set at around $70 each, let’s say….that’s like…..erm….well it’s at least $100 in nbc’s pocket!!(ok my math sucks, but come on nbc, with the poor state of your shows these days [cough cough Heroes cough Leno Show cough cough] i think you could use that pocket change)

the people demand Ed on dvd!  do what’s right nbc!  make it so!!!

I’m taking a time-out from my normal blogging routine of ridiculousness to talk about Walk Now for Autism.

Once again, my family and i will be participating in this year’s Walk Now for Autism in Toronto on Sunday, June 7 2009.

For those unaware, my nephew has autism and so this cause hits pretty close to home.
He’s the coolest, smartest, just all around greatest nephew anyone could ever ask for and so we want to do all we can to help with research and awareness of autism. last year’s event was a huge success and a really great day overall.

we have a team page set up, you can click here to view and/or make donations. to sponsor one of our team members(ie : me!), just click on the person’s name on our team page.  the direct link to my personal page is http://www.tinyurl.com/uncleForEthan

Our team goal is to raise $3000 and any support is appreciated.
Monetary, high fives, whatever.

And if anyone’s interested there’s always room on our team!
it costs nothing to join our team and you’ll get a nice walk around downtown TO out of the deal!

Thanks.

“Never doubt that a small group of dedicated people could change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead

what really gets my goat is trying to make great looking pdf’s while keeping the file size small.  it’s been a constant headache of mine for quite some time now…until today!

today i stumbled across an article by the good folks at hoboes.com showing how to compress the file size of pdfs while leaving the visual quality and clarity pretty much intact.  This solution only works on a Mac so for you PC users out there, too bad for you.  there’s just one more reason(in the long list of many) to make the switch.  now!

for those of you looking to rid yourselves of the pain of large pdf’s…enjoy the following link;
http://www.hoboes.com/Mimsy/?ART=360

you’re welcome.

check out the ‘CV’ link at the top of the site to take a look at it in all it’s resume glory!

————————-
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated,

‘If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.’

In response to Bill’s comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

• For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash……..  Twice a day.
• Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
• Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
• Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
• Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive – but would run on only five percent of the roads.
• The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single ‘This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation’ warning light.
• The airbag system would ask ‘Are you sure?’ before deploying.
• Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
• Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
• You’d have to press the ‘Start’ button to turn the engine off.

well played GM…well played indeed.

this one i think is a keeper, at least for a while longer than usual.

as you can see i’ve added a nifty new scroller for featured items as well as my portfolio pieces.  i’ll be working to update the information for each piece as soon as possible.

also, there’s a “Select a Portfolio” button at the top right.  click that to see my portfolio pieces sorted by content.  so far i have websites and a few print items i’ve done.  check them out and i’ll do my best to expand it as soon as i can.

lastly, the blog remains intact.  check it out for random musings from the brain of me.  i especially like the ‘twbnth’ items.

thanks for stopping by.
kristianDavid

today’s twbnth item #4 is a private box at Joe Louis Arena, home of the Stanley Cup champions, the Detroit Red Wings.

never in my life has one decision impacted me so greatly as did the decision to jump ship from Leaf nation at a very very early age to join the big red machine.  sure back then the Wings were still considered the ‘dead wings’ so it wasn’t a tough choice abandoning one sinking ship for another.  but oh how the Wings turned it around and became one of pro sports’ premiere clubs.

since up here in canada they frown on the Wings(yet for some reason seem to love teams like Washington, Tampa Bay or Phoenix), getting to see games is very difficult.  i believe this private box to be the perfect solution.

not only would my dad and i get to attend every game but we’d also get to have those s’awesome Detroit pretzels!  not to mention walking the halls of a real nhl arena loaded with history, class and more memorabilia than you could shake a stick at.
(note: i don’t get that saying but it still holds true)

really it’s a win-win for everyone involved.  and by ‘everyone involved’ i mean my dad and i.

for those not familiar with this amazing building;

1. shame on you
2. here’s some background info via Wikipedia…

The Joe, JLA
Location	600 Civic Center Drive Detroit, Michigan 48226
Broke ground	1977
Opened	December 12, 1979
Owner	City of Detroit
Operator	Olympia Entertainment
Construction cost	$57 million
Architect	Smith, Hinchmen and Grylls Associates
Capacity	Ice hockey: 20,066