Never Let Me Go

Formspring?

Anyone else heard of this site: http://www.formspring.me/

I stumbled on it a few times over the past week while killing boredom with stumbleupon.com. I had never heard of it prior but apparently it's a big deal for some people. It's kind of like a modified Twitter in the sense that it has the social networking qualities but instead of tweets it focuses on questions and answers. A few of the random profiles I stumbled on were pretty entertaining to read through. The way it works is this; you make a page (although not required) and randoms (or friends who follow you) ask you questions about anything from personal inquiries about the yourself to requesting input and opinions regarding everyday things. I figured I would just wing it and give it a try. It's free and very easy and straightforward so what the heck. I always like answering questions and having to think and now I can cure boredom at the same time! I'm sure I will give up on this site in about a week but I'm curious to see what the appeal is. If there is anyone reading this who knows, feel free to share opinions. Oh... and don't forget to ask me your deep life questions http://www.formspring.me/RobertZarske

Movin' on up

I just landed an internship with AD2 as a brand ambassador for the Student Advertising Summit.  Pretty excited about it since it is directly related to my field and will offer some amazing networking opportunities. I find out more info soon. Our first meeting is Saturday morning over at Periscope in Minneapolis.

Issues

For some reason I have not been able to stream my mixes from the embedded players I posted here or from the file hosting site directly. As far as I know the download still works so feel free to save yourself a copy of the September edition or the other ones if you missed them. Hopefully the streaming issue will go away. If you know of a better file hosting site let me know (one that is free and also gives the option of embedding a player like zippyshare). Thanks.

Septembre Sombre

Here's the latest installment in my mix series. Went for a more mellowed out and smooth approach with a nice climax this time around. I also threw together two versions of artwork for you to choose from to add to iTunes. It looks like the hosting site is having some issues so streaming may be hit or miss. Download for original high quality. Hope you enjoy.

"So gifted at finding what I don't like the most"

It seems that everyone is obsessing over this song following the VMAs on Sunday. I have always had a problem with Kanye West as a person but I definitely love some of his music. This song has been stuck in my head all day and I'm not even a huge rap fan anymore. The beat is simple but extremely effective and the lyrics need no explanation.

Spare time design: self promotion

V. 1

V. 2

"Our Day Will Come"

Notre Jour Viendra, meaning "our day will come", is a film being released Sept. 15 by French filmmaker Romain Gavras. From what I have read and seen it looks like it's going to be almost uncomfortably intense but there are two reasons to be excited. 

1.) It's a film by Romain Gavras so chances are it will be good and it will be artful.

2.) The official soundtrack is composed by SebastiAn. It will rock.

For those who don't know, Romain Gavras is responsible for music videos such as "Signatune" by Dj Mehdi (Ed Banger), "Stress" by Justice (Ed Banger), and more recently, the controversial video for the M.I.A. single "Born Free". Gavras also collaborated with Justice to film their tour documentary "A Cross The Universe", a must see. Ed Banger Records' very own, SebastiAn, was tasked with creating the soundtrack to this upcoming film and I cannot wait to hear what he has done. The LP is slated for a September release as well but you can already find some snippets of music from the film online. Being that it is entirely in French, the synopsis is hard to decipher but judging by the trailer it seems to be a pretty graphic and gritty story. That aside, I will definitely give it a try if English subtitles become available, if for nothing else, to at least experience Romain's cinematography and SebastiAn's music working together. See the trailer below (NSFW).

Here's a rough translation: "My hair bothered you, I let it grow. My actions, my attitudes disturb you. And nonetheless I will amplify them. And finally, taking in your sarcasm, I rest indifferent. So that I may finally become he which I must be. And despite this disgust, this shame... you will love me, for that which I am."

Type.

I Thought I would share a little bit of what I have been doing in class these first few weeks... Here is some typography work I did using Illustrator. The quality isn't the greatest after converting to jpeg format but you get the idea.

Here are some monograms I made using my initials in Helvetica manipulated in Illustrator:

Next I did some tinkering with the words "disruption" and "expansion" to show literal meaning, some more successful than others:

Lastly, some more word form work using the word "Typography". We needed to choose a word pertaining to the class and typography seemed like an obvious choice but proved to be quite difficult to execute. The word itself is already literal in regard to its definition but I think I managed to come up with some fun variations:

I Love You So

I am so excited for the proper full quality release of this song that I need to share it with all of you.  It's a new single off the new EP from Cassius called The Rawkers. If you're not familiar with these guys, get familiar. They are friend's of Busy P and Ed Banger Records (who will be releasing this EP) and a part of their collaboration, Club 75. This song is so mellow yet so heavy and you may recognize the vocal sample from Gladys Knight & The Pips - "I Feel A Song". Enjoy.

OH.

I already put out an August mix which you can find a few posts back, so consider this one to be the awkward middle child until I put out a September edition. Being that it's awkward, I have affectionately titled this 50 minute piece, "OH" (to be effective you need to say the word in a very dry and monotone fashion to constitute judgement or lack of approval). The track selection is random yet effective and includes some odd moments, some bangers, some classics, and more. Enjoy.

About my mixes:

After posting my August mix some people asked why it has to be one long track instead of cutting it down to individual parts. That's a valid question but these are mixes not albums. I make them by recording myself while I DJ in real-time so the end result is one file of everything I have done for however long I choose to DJ. If you're new to DJ mixes and have a hard time following the whole thing in one sitting I recommend playing them while working out, partying, relaxing, going on a long drive, etc.

All moved in with training under way

It's back to school season again and my final year of college is about to begin. I moved into my house back at school yesterday and aside from general adjusting among a few other things, it's turning out pretty descent.  This is my first time living in a house on my own rather than a dorm or apartment so it's going to be a pretty different year in that regard. My room is the smallest one in the house but I am totally fine with that since my rent is cheaper than what I was paying for my lackluster apartment last year.

My room is in the basement and already my allergies are running rampent because of it. Hopefully it's just a result of moving in and kicking up dust but I wouldn't be surprised if there is mold in the walls... My bathroom/shower area is awkward down here because it shares the laundry room so I spent a few hours deep cleaning/bleaching it all. I have a few other things in mind to make it more comfortable but overall the house is really not bad at all and I actually have cable and internet in my room unlike in my apartment.

The reason I moved in this week is because I have internship training until Thursday, but classes don't start until next Monday. I talked about my internship a bit in this post if you want to take a look. Training began bright an early at 8am this morning with some general welcoming chats followed by the Fall 2010 Convocation presented by the President of SCSU and other staff. This was my first time attending Convocation, although it is open to everyone. It was actually really interesting to hear what has been and will be going on behind the scenes with SCSU.

After Convocation, we (the interns, graduate assistants, and CSOLD leadership) went over some more logistics and specifics of the department and ended the day with plenty of team building activities. For it being a 9 hour day with minimal sleep the night before and tons of ice breakers/team builders that I have played time and time again while working for parks and recreation and SCSU residential life, it was actually pretty fun. The other interns and the rest of the CSOLD team seem very nice and I see myself really enjoying this internship. One day of training down, two to go. I plan on posting various updates throughout the semester regarding my progress and experiences with this internship so stay tuned.

In other life news: Heading to my first Twins game at the new field on Friday night!

August Mixtape: Freaknik

I just finished fine tuning a mix I put together a few weeks ago and it's ready for download. It's a short one, only about 25 minutes, but it packs enough noise to freak out to/get freaky to/act like a freak to or just enjoy while having a picnic... thus, FREAKNIK. The tracks range from new and old so I hope you all enjoy, I had a lot of fun making it. You can stream and download below or use this link directly. Don't worry, it's a safe download so ignore any awkward ads on the site. Also, since it is a longer file, buffering may take a moment or two if you're trying to stream it first.

"Who To Follow": Will it lead Twitter down the same dark and failed path as Facebook?

I logged into Twitter a few minutes ago and noticed a new feature called "who to follow" and I found myself asking "why?!".  For those who don't know, I have been less and less interested in Facebook for quite some time and I have been debating deleting my account over the past few months. I am a huge believer that Twitter, when used correctly, can be an amazing tool for networking, learning, and finding a plethora of valuable information you may have otherwise overlooked. On the contrary, I think Facebook is a medium for college students (and now, people much younger and much older) to take part in social "networking" activities that don't hold much value at all. Yes, of course it is a great way to keep in contact with people, which is the reason I continue to keep my account, but a majority of the rest of Facebook just seems pointless to me ("Likeing" everything, fan groups for absolutely everything, status rants, having 500+ "friends") it's just too much.

Two specific things I have never liked about Facebook are the "people you may know" and "recommended pages" features. I have always thought it was a joke to have hundreds and hundreds of friends on a friends list when a fraction of them are actually valuable relationships.  To be recommended more people and things to add just because they are a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend who likes the same thing as another friend who knows you is just annoying. If you don't know someone well enough or like them enough to add them in the first place then why add them at all? This brings me to my point with Twitter's new addition. It does the exact same thing as mentioned above. It pulls information from the people you already follow, checks into who else follows them and suggests you follow the third party because you might get along.  I don't know... maybe this posting makes no sense and has no people who agree. I just think it's an unnecessary feature.  Twitter has been fine from the start; simple, clean, easy to use, etc. The "find people" feature on Twitter worked and still works for looking up new people to follow, and it actually means you have to know a name to search for in the first place. I don't have an urge to follow these suggestions whether I recognize them or not. There's likely a reason why I haven't searched them out on my own. Long story short, I see what Twitter is trying to do but I hope they know what they are really doing. We don't need another Facebook. I welcome any thoughts anyone has, I am really interested to see where this takes the brand and who knows, maybe my opinion will change.