Luc Arnold over at SWD interviewed me over the weekend and just recently posted it on his site. It’s basically a wrap up of how I first got into design, who has inspired me and what challenges I’ve come across during my career. It was super fun!

Thanks again for the opportunity Luc! It was a pleasure!

Read the Full Interview Here

The first week of launch has been a total success!

Since the initial launch I’ve had an average of 1000 - 1300 unique visitors per day. I’m not sure how this compares to everyone else’s traffic, but I’ll take it! Hopefully everyone continues to stop by to check out the daily updates. I’ve also been flooded with super positive emails and have made a ton of new buds. The majority of emails consist of questions regarding how the site was made and what elements were customized in Wordpress. So with that being said, I decided to make a list of plugins/resources that I used during the process. I’ve also added a list of all the CSS award, gallery and community sites that have directed a lot of traffic to my site. I thought this would be helpful as well.

Plugins/Resources

www.5thirtyone.com/grid-focus
This was the original Wordpress template I used.

www.wordpressmax.com/customize-wordpress/custom-page
The basic PHP code/tutorial on how to make a custom Wordpress page.

www.appelsiini.net/projects/lazyload
The javascript load animation effect for each image. It looks really great in Firefox for mac.

www.nickstakenburg.com/projects/lightview/
I used this for the images in the about section. Nick is the man!

www.1pixelout.net/code/audio-player-wordpress-plugin/
Badass audio player that you can customize with the WYSIWYG editor in Wordpress. Zero code.

www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-pagenavi
The best pagination plugin I could find.

www.akismet.com/
Spam plugin. A must have.

www.google.com/analytics
Keep an eye on your stats after all your hard work.

www.haveamint.com
Analytics in real time. iphone app available too! Thanks for the hook up on the one Garrett!

www.hab.la/habla
In the process of adding this. Looks super fun!

CSS/Industry Sites

www.thefwa.com
If you have won an FWA award, submit to the news section. Rob Ford is a crazy nice guy and the odds are he’ll help ya out.
www.cssmania.com
Apparently this is a super popular site. Gabriel Segura runs the show there and seems like a really nice dude. I was shocked to see the analytics traffic.
www.xhilarate.com
www.faveup.com
www.bestwebgallery.com/
www.qbn.com
www.main.68design.net/cool/
Ok this one is Chinese, but if you can get on here get ready for some hitage.
www.mostinspired.com/
www.csselite.com/
www.cssloggia.com/
www.cssbeauty.com/
www.designsnack.com/
www.e-creative.net
www.newwebpick.com

Ok so that should get you started! Good luck and let me know if there’s any other worthy CSS sites out there to submit to.

The three songs posted here are from a few years past and are extremely hard to find. All three of these artists were on the label Observatory Online years ago. I just recently dug around to see what the label was up to but, it looks like they haven’t updated in about 2 years. I assume they’re done. It’s a shame because they had some great artists. If anyone knows what the deal is with that please let me know.

Tree Wave is still around and will be releasing something new soon as well as playin at SXSW for the Graveface records show. Experimental Aircraft is on that label as well, how cool would it be to see Tree Wave and them play!

As far as for Kris et Julie, I haven’t been able to pull up any information at all on the web. It’s bummer because it’s such an amazing tune. Text Adventure is another artist I’d hope to hear more from but, was left with old material. The track posted is a great little synth-pop tune that picks up speed at the end.

Enjoy!

Kris et Julie - Dan

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Tree Wave - Sleep

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Text Adventure - Kill Meow

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Ok I don’t ever remember AM’s being this good back in the day. It’s amazing the progression of talent these days. Anyhow, there are two amazing things going on in this video, one being Helsinki skatepark and the other, Grant Taylor. Grant’s style is untouchable and completely effortless. I’d love to see a video with just him and Chris Senn. Those two skate as if they are in a dream. Also, if you never heard of Helsinki skatepark take a peek. It’s like no other skatepark on earth. It was designed by Janne Sarrio, but looks like it was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It’s totally in harmony with nature as well as the construction materials used. Pure Modernism.

Element in Helsinki, Finland

These are some choice tracks that require a “no distractions listen”. All of them are beautiful, each with a unique mood. The sample used in the Daedelus Remix is addictively haunting. Benoit Pioulard’s “sunol” reminds me of the lo-fi recordings of Mice Parade. Airy layered guitars and warm lush melodies make for an emotional and rich sound. I’d love to hear a remix of this track. Victor Bermon’s music is simply beautiful and I fine myself getting lost in it no matter what mood I’m. It reminds me of an unappreciated Savath & Savala or Christopher Willits. Textual’s “In Echo Park” was released back in 2005, but somehow never gets old and always finds itself in my current playlists; quality stuff. Enjoy!

Textual - In Echo Park

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Victor Bermon - Photographs Are Not Memories

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Ernest Gonzales - While On Saturn’s Rings (Daedelus Remix)

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Benoit Pioulard - Sunol

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It’s finally here. My site that is! I’ve been trying to find the time to launch a site for nearly 4 years now. After all the different concepts and designs I had scrapped, I ultimately ended up with customized Wordpress. This solution was great because it really forced me to strengthen my CSS, javascript and simple PHP skills. By no means would I ever think of myself as a developer, but it was fun to pretend during this process. Anyhow, I’ll be updating the blog daily with music, design, skate and all types of other material as well as some last minute projects, but enough is enough, I forced myself to launch this sucker, so enjoy and thank you for stopping by. Don’t be a stranger and feel free to say hello if you like, it’s nice to make new friends.

Email: [email protected]
AIM: Jeffdoe

I don’t know how the hell I missed this release!? It came out last May and features both Moodgadget and Ghostly International artists. Does it get better than that? Here’s a sampling of what I feel are the stand out tracks. Enjoy!


Wisp - Across the Pale Blue Sea

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Matters & Dunaway - Memorial

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D.Gookin - Glad I met you

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Praveen - Buddy

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As most of us I’m a huge fan of adult swim. Whenever I watch it I always hope to catch one of their bumps which seemingly always features amazing music. Here is just a small handful of my favs! The bump above is from hip hop legend; J Dilla - Airworks.


Milosh - Then it Happened

Flying Lotus - Massage Situation

Tycho - Cascade