Nineteen-Eight Records is Live!

The website is live and the store is open for business.

Working with Anthony and Henry has really elevated the record label website form and features. It’s exciting to see these guys really pound the CMS and put every little bell and whistle to good use. We think they’ve made some excellent choices with their custom banners as well – they can set a different banner for each page and each artist.

Really looking good and we wish them all the best.

nineteeneight.com

Thinc Design Website Launch

The new Thinc Design website is live.

Thinc is an exhibition design firm who works on all facets of project development, from planning to implementation.
To put it in other terms, they specialize in designing interactive spaces to engage people.

So of course, they need a cool website.

We built the site in Flash with a custom CMS to manage the content.
You’ll notice some light animation, including programmatically-generated dynamic menus.

The website offers lots of information without ever feeling heavy.
Check out “About Our Work” to see examples of projects, like the National September 11 Museum at the World Trade Center.

thincdesign.com

Dave Binney in Portugal...

In Portugal tonight and tomorrow, then jets back to New York for a couple of nights at the 55 Bar, then back to Portugal, Ireland, Italy, France, Amsterdam and Norway...

I've always wondered if there's a way to parlay our relationships with musicians into a gig where we get to take the show on the road.

Dave paved the way for all of the musician websites we're doing today. Hope you're enjoying yourself as we slave away...

davidbinney.com

Bad Mother...board

So the motherboard is shot in my G5.

It's been over a month after my computer troubles started and my worst initial fears are finally confirmed.

It only took me one trip to the Apple store, two trips to Computer Super Center, my own trouble-shooting efforts, my wife's trouble-shooting efforts, some phone calls, $170 in labor and a $60 restocking fee for the new video card (useless now) to get the bad news.

Between me & Lis that's two five-year-old G5's we've lost recently.

AAPL - 147.78

Glorious Failure

If you spent any time at all hunting for precious last-minute news bites ahead of the Arsenal Manchester United clash today at Old Trafford, you'd be heading into the match convinced that Arsenal is a team divided and that all United had to do was stomp out the embers.

What you got was an all-out assault that had Manchester United on the back heel for nearly the entire first half. Really, if it were not for the harmless softballs that Adebayor so pleasantly handed to the United goalie, we could've easily been ahead 3-0 at the break. We took Ronaldo right out of the game and Rooney barely registered a threat, as Hleb and Fabregas repeatedly carved Ferdinand and Brown up. I'm suddenly reminded why everyone was so crazy for Hleb earlier in the season, it was such a unified, team effort, even mad Jens Lehmenn, in a shock start in the Arsenal goal, rose to the occasion.

We scored right after the half on a nice scramble and cross from Van Persie, that connected with either Adebayor's head or his hand to snatch the lead. I have no problem accepting a call our way and it really felt like we were dominating United at this point. Ferdinand looked so rattled he nearly scored an own goal moments later. It was glorious, and a Man U own goal would've been the icing on the cake. But, as we know, the icing doesn't come easy. Sure enough, we gave the lead away, on a defensive handball and subsequent free kick, only moments after taking the lead.

After that, Ferguson made some changes, bringing on Anderson and Tevez, who played like two pitbulls, and unfortunately, we had our hands full from then on. Man U took the lead on another penalty and Bendtner almost leveled again in the last minutes but it was not to be.

2-1
Game over.

I have to say, I was really worried about this match and the possibility of Man U rolling over us and what that would do to a fragile Arsenal team psyche, but after this performance, we can hold our heads up and look forward to next year, knowing we were lacking in luck more than anything this season. Following the match, I was surprised to see in the papers and blogs that Ferguson and some of the Man U players and supporters were very respectful and complimentary of Arsenal and their style of play. I still think we need to do some weeding and bring in some fresh talent and attitude but we can build on this season and there's no reason to think we won't be better and more mature next year.

Relflection:

Crazy season

We started with guns blazing, taking out opponents early, but through the middle we seemed to be the team always fighting back, needing the final minutes to grab a tie or a win. In the end, when all looked lost, we played some brilliant football - really inspired stuff but were simply unlucky.

Arsenal lost only three Premiership matches the entire campaign.

Now, I like Adebayor and I think his laid-back attitude is a good balance to all of the world-is-against-us talk that can poison a team, but we've desperately lacked a killer instinct up front since Eduardo went down and we've paid the price in missed chances again. I don't know if Eduardo will make it all the way back or if Van Persie will ever be entirely healthy again so we need another option. Good Adebayor interview here - apparently, he counts voodoo among his religions.

Imagine having to go to work everyday with crazy Jens breathing down your neck?
Hats off to Alumnia for putting up with it and let's show Lehmann the door.

Tough Guy

This is the face of a real tough hombre.
We like real tough hombres.
Great Tommy Lee Jones interview here.

Thanks to one of my longtime favorites, Jeffery Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere for calling attention to the piece.

PLUNGE RECORDS...

The site is live and the store is open for business - check it out here.

We ran into a snag with the e-commerce due to a bug in Nova's code but luckily, they found a work-around so everyone is happy.
Another cool Canadian, Simon Fisk has quite a few tricks up his sleeve, including some live streaming events on the horizon so keep an eye out.
We'll wrap in a few days, once we get him his custom MySpace and FaceBook plugins so he can feed right from his site.

Can always count on Simon for a choice quote:

"Once again Artgig rules the website world! And I am not buttering you guys up, you are truly a godsend to the world of websites and ecommerce!"

plungerecords.com

Chris Tarry Group Wins Juno Award!

Some good news, our friend Chris Tarry won a Juno for Almost Certainly Dreaming - Best Contemporary Jazz Album of the Year! The Juno is the Canadian Grammy and a big honor. I'm sure his website was the deciding factor. Chris is one of the good guys - not too many I can think of who are nicer to work with & we dig his music too - Congrats!

Postmortem

Liverpool 4, Arsenal 2

"Gutted."
I believe that's the proper English expression.

"Tired" is all I could think through the entire middle of the match.

The turning point was the Flamini injury.
When Mathieu Flamini, our pitbull of the midfield, went down late in the first half with an ankle injury, it was as if our heart stopped beating.
Up until then, it was brilliant football with Liverpool looking absolutely frightened.
Sure, Walcott would throw us a lifeline later in the match with another gravity-defying run that cleared 70 yards of pitch, and another perfect pass to set-up Adebayor for the score, but we were done before that.
We were done before Liverpool came back again to win it in the final six minutes.
Six minutes...I was certain of it.
Sure, I felt like we'd stolen it, but we deserved it after all we've been through.
Six minutes.
It's over.
Just don't do anything stupid.

Where did it all go so wrong?
Who do we blame for this cruel turn of the knife?
Someone needs to stand up and be counted.

Wenger should have known we'd need reinforcements by this stage of the season.

He should have known we'd lose our two brilliant summer signings, Eduardo and Sagna, along with playmaker, Tomas Rosicky, to injury over the last two months of the campaign.

He should have known Robin Van Persie would sit out most of the season with a bum leg.

He should've played a full-strength squad way back in the FA Cup against United to avoid a devastating psychological blow to the entire team.

He should've played a full-strength squad against Liverpool over the weekend - then we'd at least have the Premiership to dream about now that the Champion's League is a shattered fantasy.

I've got it - he should've put Walcott on sooner.

Maybe even put on Bendtner for Adebayor.

He should've bought more players with all of our riches.
A bonafide star is what we're lacking.

We deserved a penalty when Hleb was clearly dragged down in the box at the Emirates.

Liverpool did not deserve a penalty for Toure's tug on Babel in the box at Anfield.

My wife should have stayed in the basement, because the moment she passed through the room they scored.
It's not the first time she's done that either.

The injustice.

So cruel.

They deserve better than this but winning tonight would've only prolonged the inevitable. This team is beaten, broken, and drained. The stronger team goes on. We leave it all on the field and it all just fades...

We get healthy.
We strengthen.
Build a team designed for the distance.
We're almost there.
Just not this year.

Weekend Update

On the run, so I'll make this quick:

• In a shock result, Arsenal tied Liverpool 1-1 yesterday at the Emirates. That makes 85 ties in a row for this Arsenal side. Seriously, I find a bit of relief in this, because now they can focus on Champion's League Tuesday and get on with life. Or at least that's how I was feeling, until Man U finally slipped this morning, tying Middlesbrough 2-2. It's just plain cruel. Chelsea has a real chance at stealing the whole thing...
  
• My G5 is back in the shop. Starting showing crazy artifacts, that follow my cursor and show up in the menus and dialog boxes - Lis says this is what her machine did right before the end. I should know Monday what the deal is. Really hoping I didn't just flush $400 down the toilet on the new video card.
• I've been watching "Long Way Around" this weekend. It's a documentary/mini-series about actor/buddies Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman on a motorcycle trip around the world. I left off with them stuck in Mongolia - good entertaining stuff.
• Took my two and-a-half-year-old son with me to the car wash yesterday to get a good, here-comes-spring, inside and out cleaning. Bad idea to celebrate post-wash with super crumbly cereal bar.
  

Artgig - The Black Album

Artgig Website Update

With all the music biz we've been doing lately, I've got it on my mind, so we're calling the latest website update the Black Album.

First, you'll notice we've given it a fresh coat of paint - black.

Then you'll notice other goodies have changed:

• Everything seems a little bigger
• All new product images and categories to show off our diverse body of work in custom websites, e-learning, games and interactive stuff
  
• Two primary navigation categories added:
1. Capabilities - so you can browse by project type
   
2. Portfolio - so you can check out individual projects, by client

Go ahead, take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

artgig.com

Never Easy

Fenerbahce (from Turkey) beat Chelsea - 2-1, in Turkey.

Okay, now on to Arsenal v Liverpool...
Was that the fastest CL match ever, or was it me?

1-1

That Liverpool away goal looks a little bigger than Arsenal's home goal.
And I thought our side looked physically small against Liverpool - especially when Van Persie left the match.

Quick thoughts:

Great pace to the game - Arsenal dominated for large stretches.

We were unlucky.

• Bendtner, Bendtner, Bendtner...
  
• Hleb had a clear penalty in the box - game over
• Van Persie - injured again?
  

Walcott looked scary for a good ten-minute stretch.
Adebayor got back to scoring, with a powerful header.
Toure, I thought looked surprisingly quick on his feet, but I think that was him eating Gerrard's dust on their goal.

Liverpool held tight and will be considered the favorite to advance now - all they have to do is shut Arsenal down when they visit Anfield, "the 12th Man," next week.

Looks like we'll just have to do it a man down...again.

High Noon (at 2:45)

Man U - 2, Roma - 0

Roma fought valiantly without their star player, Francesco Totti, but they wasted too many chances in front of the goal (sound familiar?) and in the end, United was just too strong. I talked to Danny briefly after the match and we think Ronaldo actually adam-appled that ball in for the first goal. He just came flying in from nowhere. Tough to beat.


Arsenal v Liverpool

Arsenal kicks-off a three-match series against Liverpool tonight (today, if you're here in the States).

If Adebayor comes out wearing a wig, I'd pick Arsenal in a flash.
I still say Champion's League is our best chance at glory this season but who knows?
After Bolton, I have to say anything is possible.
Today's match will give us a good idea of where this team is heading.
Liverpool have been on a run lately and they have all the CL experience, blah, blah, blah but I think Arsenal can take them.
If Adebayor and Van Persie can find the net again it will be lights out.
And we have a new not-so-secret weapon in Walcott.
That run down the flank and pass to Van Persie (who promptly flubbed the shot) near the end of the Bolton match was inspired.

Catch-you when the dust settles...

Spain Out - England In

Euro 2008 shocker...

Italian for a day

In bocca al lupo!

It means something like "inside the mouth of the wolf" - apparently, a common term in Italy when one is about to undertake a seemingly insurmountable task, like for example, taking on the juggernaut that is Manchester United in the Champion's League today at 2:45.

Good luck Roma and good luck Danny.

Tomorrow begins the Arsenal trilogy vs Liverpool...