DesignVerb! » music

EG Conference 2012

_tango! — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 07:43:59 +0000

My favorite conference (which is from a list of many) is coming up again April 12-14 2012. This breath-taking conference is the EG Conference (Entertainment Gathering) that gathers in beautiful Monterey CA. I’d be able to write a entire book about why this is the most fascinating gathering I have been to in 10 years, but in simple words, come experience an eclectic gathering filled with mystery, surprise, emotion, connections, and entertainment for a few days in beautiful Monterey…. you will leave imagining the entire world differently, with a different perspective, and a twinkle in your eye again for curiosity, to perhaps create magic.
Come join, this year will be my 4th in a row. Let me know if you can make it and I’ll be sure to connect. Tickets are almost sold out.

SOPA: Stop Online Piracy Act

_tango! — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:04:12 +0000

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

For those unfamiliar with SOPAÂ (Stop Online Piracy Act), you must read and dig into this crazy Act that can and will pretty much screw up any freedom and innovation like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Reddit, etc if it happens. Please sign up to petition against it HERE.Â Learn more about it from the video above from Chris Hayes.

Evolution of Games – Making Of

_tango! — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 02:04:56 +0000

awesome!
“This making of the “Evolution of Games” is an impressive, coordinated and directed masterpiece, and proof that not everything is done inside of a computer.
It’s fun to see the piece come to life while watching the finished piece in the same window. Hooray for handiwork. ”

via brandflakeforbreakfast

FooCamp 2011

_tango! — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 00:23:09 +0000

I’m heading out to SF towards Sebastopol for a new unconference that I have never been to but was incredibly excited to be invited to FooCamp (Friends of O’Reiley) which is an invitational camp, where 250 awesome people, hackers, designers, creators, makers, and questioners gather to come up with whatever is on their mind and have great discussions with people from all over the world from different fields to boggle your mind! I’ve had quite a few friends attend and everyone seems to be energized full of ideas and disruptive ones when they return from this 3 day backyard camp gathering. There is not much online about it, but here is a write up from our friends Andrew on his experience a few years ago! I’ll be back next week with lots to write up about, and keep secret at times. Let me know if your in SF. I’m out there right before Foocamp this week.

(picture from laughingsquid)

Jay Walker’s library of human imagination

_tango! — Sun, 22 May 2011 04:33:28 +0000

I’ve been waiting to visit Jay Walkers incredible “Library of Imagination” for several years now and in about 12 hours I’ll be inside pondering, wondering, imagining, and wishing I could take everyone along. I’d write more about it, but the 2008 TED video above or the Wired article will explain it best until after I return, though I’ll have no photos as this is not allowed during my visit. I’ll have to thank TEDmed for arranging this visit, which is also a must go to conference I highly recommend.

EG conference 2011: Jake Shimabukuro and Charles Yang

_tango! — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 04:00:42 +0000

One of the amazing highlights at this years Entertainment Gathering was the duo Jake Shimabukuro and Charles Yang who met the day before and magically performed this amazing composition of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. Anyhow, if you have 5 minutes, turn up your speakers and be ready to be wowed! Charles played several more impromptu times at the Aquarium party and in the hotel lobby.

youtube

Handspring Puppet Co.: The genius puppetry behind War Horse

_tango! — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 04:10:37 +0000

One of my favorite talks and demonstrations from this years TED2011 conference came Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler, of Handspring Puppet Company

“Puppets always have to try to be alive,” says Adrian Kohler of the Handspring Puppet Company, a gloriously ambitious troupe of human and wooden actors. Beginning with the tale of a hyena’s subtle paw, puppeteers Kohler and Basil Jones build to the story of their latest astonishment: the wonderfully life-like Joey, the War Horse, who trots (and gallops) convincingly onto the TED stage.

Deb Roy: The birth of a word

_tango! — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 07:00:21 +0000

MIT researcher Deb Roy wanted to understand how his infant son learned language — so he wired up his house with videocameras to catch every moment (with exceptions) of his son’s life, then parsed 90,000 hours of home video to watch “gaaaa” slowly turn into “water.” Astonishing, data-rich research with deep implications for how we learn.

Heather Russell

_tango! — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 01:12:21 +0000

I don’t usually post on young Youtube singing sensations but this one had my eyes open for some time. Young singer, writer, and musician Heather Russell has been writing and singing since she was 8 years old (now 10) with the help of her parents who are also musicians. 2 years later her Youtube video finds itself in front of famed American Idol Judge Simon Cowell, who decides to sign here a contract with the help of Rob Fusan who was Lady Gaga’s former producer. Watch all of her videos on Youtube as it’s quite impressive, and her written songs stick in your head.

via gather

DLD Conference 2011 Livestream

_tango! — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 18:02:20 +0000

For those of you that could not make it to the DLD conference in Munich this year like myself, there is a livestream of their lectures all 3 days. Take a peek at their schedule then grab some food and watch the all day series of talks. Keep in mind the schedule is in Munich time, so I think about 5-6 hours ahead of EST.

*they also have a great archive of each video in that livestream url. Watch these anytime.

Entertainment Gathering 2011

_tango! — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 06:07:11 +0000

One of my favorite conferences to attend in the best location in Monterey CA is the EG conference happening April 7-9. It’s a very intimate gathering with 300 attendees and speakers for 3 days over lectures, conversations, and an assortment of entertainment ranging from discovery, music, technology, the mind, and amazing stories… or at Matt Groening of the Simpsons who also attends says “It’s like being a fish and analyzing your water…it’s too hard to describe the EG experience.”

I’d highly recommend anyone that can come to attend since I’ll be attending this year as well. it’ll be my 3rd year. Also, for those of you that might need a bit of help, if I can get 4 other readers to attend, I can get a pretty good discount off for each of you. If you are interested, throw me an email and I can send you more details.

TEDMED 2010: Charity Tillemann

_tango! — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 05:49:06 +0000

Charity Tillemann was the opening act at TEDmed 2010 back in October. Watch the video, and don’t miss out on the amazing talk after her singing. It’s an unbelievable story and I don’t want to ruin anything so if you have 20 minutes, watch the video and be prepared to be amazed with her story. I got to have dinner with Charity later that night and she is quite a firecracker of a personality!

TEDmed

PopTech 2010: Sound and science with Jad Abumrad

_tango! — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 03:52:22 +0000

One of my favorite talks from his years poptech 2010:

“From crayfish hairs to monkey neurons, Radiolab host and producer Jad Abumrad shares examples of how sound has been used to make scientific strides. Along the way, he explains how audio can convey failure or express error.”

via vimeo poptech

Poptech2010: OK GO, Return, with hand bells

_tango! — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 22:17:56 +0000

One of the fun session at Poptech2010 was OK GO playing Return with Hand Bells. Watch it above.

James Patten: lcd project

_tango! — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 20:09:00 +0000

A good friend of mine James Patten (MIT Medialab alumn) was visiting this week and showed me a new project of his, or at least it was new to me. He took a bunch of translucent lcd films, tiled them, and made one huge transparent screen which can make the grid translucent, black, or even gray tones for some pretty sweet effects. Watch the video above and watch out for the final project via his website pattenstudio.com.

“A prototype transparent LCD screen for an upcoming installation. 16×16 = 256 tiles. Eventual installation will be roughly 6000 tiles and 150′ in length. Project details private at the moment.”

youtube video

Service Entertainment

_tango! — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 06:33:04 +0000

First came dancing down the wedding aisle, and now comes dancing down the airline aisle giving instructions. Along with some rapping on the intercom on an airline, our service world is becoming a musical. Imagine an airline ride being as entertaining as a Broadway show. I love it!

All those video after the jump!

TEDxCambridge: How do you eat? May 16th

_tango! — Sat, 08 May 2010 20:08:00 +0000

I’ve been incredibly busy helping organize the TEDxCambridge event occurring May 16th at the MIT Stata Center. The theme “How do you eat” is based off of this year TED prize winner Jamie Oliver in regards to Food and education. If you are in Boston May 16th, apply to get an invite and let me know. We can only invite 300 attendees and registration will close soon. You can learn more on tedxcambridge.com

Also, if you are in a position to sponsor any food, funding, or gifts for the event, please contact me asap. (now! =) ).
We will have 2 break sessions followed by an evening event in eating, drinking, and idea sharing!

Lots of awesome speakers in the line up!
- Wylie Dufresne: WD 50
- Chandler Burr: Times Scent critic
- Dan Ariely: Behavioral Economist
- Richard Chisolm: Filmmaker
- John Gertsen: Mixologist
- many more!

update: Photos on flickr, via eddric(350),Tino(40), JB (60), millie(16)

2010 GEL conference

_tango! — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 07:35:05 +0000

I’m off to nyc for the rest of the week for the wonderful GEL (Good experience Live) conference. Let me know if your there.

Right after that I’ll be scurrying off back to Boston for ROFLcon II for a rather fun 2nd day of the web in a room!
Several posts to follow, otherwise, lots of extra mini links on the facebook fanpage.

How Much Do Music Artists Earn Online?

_tango! — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:23:30 +0000

Great comparative infographic for how much do musicians make in different platforms. Click thumbnail to see full poster.

via coolinfographics

Happy Holiday!

_tango! — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:29:41 +0000

Happy Holiday to everyone. I’ll be out in Hong Kong for the break and will be back with some goodies to post most likely dealing with food, shopping, and culture.

If you have not already, please join the Facebook Fan page here which I post to often but write less and it’s open for fans to post to as well. I’ll post a few goodies I shared on the fan page below recently for the holiday break:

- Tadpole like sleeping bag (pictured above) Reminds me of Selk bag.
- Newspaper laptop sleeve holder. I’ve gotta get this!
- TED launches Best of Web.
- Cool jacket..I like asymmetric clothing which is hard to come by for guys.
- LED lights save energy, but don’t melt snow
- Ping Pong office convertible table
- Awesome silloutte clock!
- xylophone table

JOIN THE DESIGNVERB FACEBOOK FAN PAGE HERE!