All of the songs are on Youtube, though they vary in quality and style immensely. To view them in chronological order, view them from Bow-Ty’s Year of Songs.

The site automatically gathers movie trailers from various sites for your viewing pleasure. The design reflects an idea that we’d attached to early on – watching movie trailers on a beach. Sounds so damn lazy it just might be awesome… on to the domain hunt. Trailer Beach? Trailer Bay? Everything is taken. Until we struck gold with Trailer Toucan.

Business ensued: set up domain, install WordPress, setup theme and aggregation plugin, gather RSS feeds etc.

Two things I learned about toucans that day: 1) they live in trees and the rain forests, not on beaches, and 2) Toucan’s do not talk. But neither Davey and I were prepared to face those realities so we braved on and designed a header and some voiceover. (Click the bird).

It’s hard to say what exactly I learned over the course of those 24 hours. Davey and I had some giddy fun hatching the idea and making the website. It actually turned out pretty well – it’s far less of a piece of shit than I imagined it would be. Hell, some of it is even good, or at the very least convenient. So I guess what I’m trying to say is go watch some trailers.

Our “Age of Anxiety” is, in great part, the result of trying to do today’s job with yesterday’s tools – with yesterday’s concepts. Youth instinctively understands the present environment – the electric drama.

- Marshall McLuhan

- from the book The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects by Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore

I was estate-saling recently on a Saturday morning and jumped at the chance to pick up this copy of “The Medium is the Massage” a paperback book by famed media theorist Marshall McLuhan – created in collaboration with graphic designer Quentin Fiore. It has a gleeful pace and design style to it. More than anything it made me realize that I need to read more by McLuhan. While I know a fair amount about him but it’s all secondhand, and he is a pleasure to read. Read more about this cultural gem over on Wikipedia.

Grove is a Portland-based company…it’s owned and operated by my friends Joe and Ken. I’ve watched Grove grow at impressive speeds over the last year, they’ve hired more staff, expanded their product line and have generally just been kicking ass in the entrepreneurial realm.

Just a couple years ago when Joe was building his engraving business out of our living room and Ken was our friendly next door neighbor. Once they teamed up and combined their engraving and woodworking skills, things got double-exciting.

The cases are available in 2 wood colors, and are customizable – you can go for a blank case, choose from their artist series, or provide your own artwork. I’ve seen the crew meticulously working and their commitment to quality is amazing. And not only is the product quality top notch but their customer service is just as impressive.

My case is from their artist series, “Merman” by Michael Hsiung.

the world’s largest aquarium // ATL.GA from stillmotion on Vimeo.

Check out this great video made by the folks at Stillmotion. The song is by a great Portland band called the Dimes. We did a Penny Jam episode with the Dimes at St. Cupcake and I like to keep up with them. Check out the video, it’s a beauty.

I went down to my grandparents house in Monmouth for Easter on Sunday to spend some time with the family. In my grandparents living room there is a window that points to lovely field with a hummingbird feeder in the foreground. You can see the bird zipping around the frame, I slowed it down in the key points to accentuate it’s movement. Its edited over Herb Alpert record playing in the background. Don’t get me started on that, but I’ve been on a Herb Alpert kick lately.

This was shot entirely on a Kodak Zi8 camera on April 4th 2010

I recently attended and filmed the second installment of You Who, a Portland concert series for kids and their hip, music loving parents. It’s the type of event that makes you appreciate the creativity and breadth of Portland’s music and art scene. The lineup has been as impressive as any concert series in recent memory with Quasi, Explode into Colors, the Builders and the Butchers gracing the stage. You Who is a variety show of eccentric proportions, a mix of music, theater and custom-made animation. Plus it pulls in a crowd of 600 parents and kids on a Sunday afternoon, which is an impressive feat. The show is curated by a couple of creative folks including Chris Funk of the Decemberists, who always seems to be breaking new ground in rolling out new projects. Mr. Funk was also involved in curating the Burn to Shine series, which had a formative affect in our conception of the Penny Jam.

We filmed most of the show, and I’ll likely roll out more in the near future but here is the first installment. It features a band called the Cardboard Songsters, who perform with a cast of large painted cardboard creations.

This video is featured on the You Who website under “videos.”