Happy Holidays - From Artgig Studio

Yet another fun holiday game to keep you from doing whatever it is you should be doing right now.

Play Now!
(Hint - you can duck)

Hopefully, I'll actually get to the Lake Trout concert report sometime before next year.

Here's a bite to hold you over - LAKE TROUT KICKED ASS.

Ghosts of Artgig's Christmas Past...

Time to dust off the old blog and give something back to you, our friends and clients, for the holidays are upon us.

How do I know?

Well, it's bitter cold and we've been hard at work on our 2009 Christmas card.

We're just about ready to rip of the wrappers in a frenzy of anticipation and let you have some fun with it.

But you'll have to wait (yes, you too, Mr. Tarry) because it must be properly tested by our team of Australian elves and graded for interactive goodness before it can be yours.

In the meanwhile, let's take a trip back...to the gifts we've left in Christmas past...

Who can forget this classic - a typical day at Artgig and yes, the kid can act:

Holiday Card 2005

And this heartfelt, bundle of warm wishes and fun:

Holiday Card 2007

And this - when in doubt, blow something up:

Holiday Card 2008

I try to forget the handwritten holiday cards of 2006 - still getting over the cramps.

Enjoy.

Artgig Launches 6 Flags "Wild About Reading" Website

When our client, Weekly Reader, showed the Wild About Reading website to their client, Six Flags, the first comment we got back was “The site looks amazing.”

“Amazing” – that’s pretty good.

The companion website to the Six Flags Read to Succeed program (also produced by Artgig), Wild About Reading is designed to get kids excited about reading and writing while providing valuable resources to teachers and parents.

We were paired with Illustrator Sam Ward (samwardart.com) for this project and his style and natural artistic pop is really a perfect fit for the “wild” jungle theme. Add a dash (okay, more than a dash) of Artgig animation and you’ve got a website that practically leaps off the screen.

Lis took the reigns as the lead designer and animator for this project and she came up with the dynamic site navigation – why not make it like a ride?

So we did.

As the user navigates, they “ride” the vertically constructed Flash site up and down.

So the site looks cool, it’s got an inventive navigation and valuable resources. What else, you say?

The website focal point is the Theater in the Wild, featuring three original animated shorts–each in a different style:

Captain Tallnuff – Little Jenny wants to ride the Log Flume at the theme park but she’s not tall enough – as seen through the eyes of the height inspector, a wooden Pirate named Captain Tallnuff.

Incredible Critters – A game show in search of the most amazing animals.

Out of the Box – Cleaning the garage turns into a mysterious adventure for 12-year-old Max.

Artgig did everything for the shorts - complete design, animation and sound production.

The animations are designed to get kids thinking about writing and prompt them to write more about the stories.

Go ahead–check it out. Be wild:

Wild About Reading

Cue Sinatra - The New York Yankees are World Series Champs!

The Yankees are World Series Champions again!

The Yanks beat the scrappy Phillies last night 7-3 on the strength of a giant performance from Godzilla himself, Hideki Matsui, to end the east coast slug fest at six games.
It's good to bring the title back to the Bronx.
Too bad we won't be at the victory parade tomorrow.

I'm only a casual fan, and to be honest, it's been a while since I've cared much about the Yankees but this Postseason at the new stadium has brought all the good times and good memories rushing back.

What New Yorker could forget the magical Yankees of the late 90's, led by their fearless manager and Harrison resident Joe Torre, winning four World Series titles in five years?

The fourth title was actually in 2000 against the Mets.
I was in the bleachers at the infamous Clemens bat-throwing game but I always forget that was a World Series game because it felt more like another Subway Series to me.

And I was there for the start of it all, in 1996 at the center of another controversy - the Jeffery Maier game. The Yankees were down in the bottom of the eighth against the Orioles when Rookie of the Year, Derek Jeter, hit a ball that made it into the stands with a little help from a 12-yr-old fan. The Yankees went on to beat the Orioles and win the World Series against the Braves. Their current manager, Joe Girardi, was the catcher back then.

I remember my first Yankees victory parade that same year.
The experience of walking up the stairs from the subway to the street above into a giant New York street party with people and confetti everywhere was fantastic!

I remember watching the '99 Yanks, at an apartment with my roommate and friends - glued to the television for three weeks in October as the Yankees steam-rolled to another title against the Braves. We had these individual player posters ripped from the Daily News and when a player wasn't hitting - we put them out in the hall until they started hitting again.

And I vaguely remember the Randy Johnson/Giambi/A-Bust years when I could care less.

But this one, the inaugural year in the new stadium, is special - again.
Rivera, Posada, Pettite, Jeter, Damon, Matsui - this one's for the old guys and old times.
Rivera at 39 is older than me!

I've grown up with these Yankees.
And along the way, we've learned some valuable lessons:

Money is no guarantee of success.
A team is built on chemistry - not individual accomplishment.
It's not easy to get to the finish line and it's even harder to win.
And if you get there, if you do reach your ultimate goal...savor it - it's not something to take for granted.

These are the lessons.

And yes, A-Rod is forgiven.

Thanks for the memories.
I get to share this one with my son.

Let's Go Yankees!

Miza.com Adds to Trophy Collection...

Make room in the trophy case!

Found out today Miza.com won a W3 Best in Show Award, honoring outstanding websites in the category of Environmental Awareness.

Best in Show is the highest mark of distinction, awarded only to the top 1% of all work entered.

The W3 Awards are sanctioned by the Academy of Visual Arts.

Nice!

miza.com

Introducing...

Mr. and Mrs. Bail.

Quite possibly, the best wedding photo ever taken.

Congratulations Jim and Nicole!

Artgig - Swimming With the Dolphins

Little known fact – when I was a kid growing up in the 70’s, I was a huge Miami Dolphins fan. This is when I was living Albany and there was no clear hometown team (Bills? I don’t think so) so I naturally went with Csonka and Griese all the way down in Miami.

Shortly after moving to Westchester my dad took me (in full Dolphins uniform) to see their hated rivals, the New York Jets, at Shea. I think I blocked the abuse from that day out of mind. All I can say is it’s a good thing I was wearing a helmet.

I may not root for the Dolphins anymore but it’s with special pleasure that I announce two games we recently wrapped for the brand new Miami Dolphins website, produced by our friends over at Crossborders in Manhattan:

Field Goal Frenzy - challenges players to kick field goals through the moving goal posts as they race the clock. There are five levels of play and the goal posts get faster with each round. Hot streaks are awarded with bonus points.

Red Zone Photo Hunt – users pick a category and race the clock, comparing two similar photos in an attempt to identify the differences. There are five rounds per game, and the clock gets faster as the user advances. Players can request a hint in a pinch.

With these games and the launch of Winter’s Tail, I think we’ve met our September marine mammal quota.

Now let’s go play some football!

Play Field Goal Frenzy

Artgig Launches Turtle Pond Website Portal

When we first sat down with Craig Hatkoff and ESI Design at the Turtle Pond Tribeca offices over a year ago to discuss the Turtle Pond family of websites, miza.com, owenandmzee.com, knute.com and now winterstail.com, one thing became abundantly clear – they needed a central web location to link the family together and a general hub to broadcast news, provide resources and sell their products.

And, in keeping with Craig’s dynamic personality, it needed to be flexible so Turtle Pond could update news and events on the fly in a number of categories.

And it had to be modular and ready to expand, as the ever-growing Turtle Pond family continues to branch out in new areas of story and product development.

We think we’ve accomplished all of the above in the new Turtle Pond Website Portal.

The Classroom is awaiting some final adjustments before we open it up but the News categories are live and the Store is open for business.

Read all about it:

Turtlepond.com

Chris Tarry Includes Artgig In His Plans For World Domination!

He's at it again.

Our musician-slash-author friend, Chris Tarry has gone and written a book, "The Wedding King of Vermont," and we've created a companion website to go with it.

There's no limit to the madness of Tarry–he's even gone and recorded original music in the voices of fictional characters from the book. Crazy.

Unfortunately, we can't show you the website just yet because you need a special decoder ring to get in and he's only giving the ring to hand-picked prospective publishers. So, you'll have to take my word for it, the "Wedding King of Vermont" Drupal site is dope. Or better yet, take Jim's word for it, because he's the guy laughing his ass off with Chris in the trenches.

And if you don't believe Jim, well, there's always the man himself...

"When I needed a company to invent a hilarious, easy to navigate, functional, and fictional world for my novel "The Wedding King of Vermont", I called the Website Kings of New York—Artgig. No one does it better."

–Chris Tarry

A quote that good deserves to be big.

Thanks, Chris–now go sell that book!

Mars Attacks!...Australia

Lis sent these pics of the dust storm in Sydney - she says it's red all the way to Canberra.

Artgig Launches Psynergy.org Website Redesign

It's always nice when our hard work finally gets to see the light of day–I'm sure the good folks at Psynergy, a California-based community living solution for individuals with psychiatric problems, will agree.

And I'm sure you'll agree this isn't your typical bare bones institutional website.

We designed the new site front to back, so Psynergy can showcase their different options for community living at three unique locations–each with specific content detailing the services offered.

This site is deep!

We made a real effort to balance all of the information in design with the generous use of images from the actual programs and properties. Believe me, Psynergy has been working hard to make sure there is no shortage of information for people seeking out community living options in the San Francisco Bay Area and California's Central Coast.

The entire site is backed by our custom CMS so Psynergy can manage their own content and update their website as needed.

Check it out:

Psynergy.org

Winterstail.com Joins Turtle Pond Family

Miza.com, OwenandMzee.com and Knute.com have a new aquatic cousin–Winterstail.com, the latest website to join the Turtle Pond family.

After working on webby award winner, Miza.com with our good friends at ESI Design and Turtle Pond Publications last year, it was only natural that we dive in again when Turtle Pond laid out their plans for the companion website to the children’s book, “Winter’s Tail.”

“Winter’s Tail” is the true story of a baby dolphin who, after being seriously injured in a crab trap, learned to swim again with the help of some dedicated folks at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium and a custom-made prosthetic tail. That’s right – Winter is practically a bionic dolphin.

The book and website are designed to educate and inspire adults and children alike, especially children who are amputees themselves. Interestingly, the same technology used in Winter’s Tail is also being used to develop prosthetics for Iraq war veterans.

The interactive Flash website features activities and games that include:

• Interactive video maker that lets kids make audio/video mash-ups of their favorite dolphin clips
• Fish pattern matching game
• Ocean Jammer activity where kids combine music and elements to create underwater scenes
• A live Winter webcam, videos, resources, sing-along activities and much, much more...

Of course, no Turtle Pond site launch would be complete without a big game reveal:

The Winter’s Tail game is a multi-level horizontal-scrolling game where users compete for high scores by helping Winter to navigate an ocean maze, avoiding obstacles and racing the clock to get to the whirlpool finish line.

The website is live but we’ll be updating and adding features as we go.

Check out Winter’s website here:

Winterstail.com

Tune in for a live Winter Webcast on October 7th at 1PM EST with partner, Scholastic:

Live Winter Webcast

Artgig History Lesson - The Constitution

When we met with the Weekly Reader News team back in June to discuss their idea for an educational website to teach the Constitution to kids all we had was a basic concept and high expectations, this being the first in a planned series of digital e-issues for a business traditionally rooted in print.

Today, just 12 weeks after our first brainstorming session, I’m happy to announce the release of the Constitution e-issues for Weekly Reader–and they got not one, but three different websites for three different age groups.

The look of each site is essentially the same but the content changes specifically for each audience.

Our animated host, the Town Crier, leads users into five primary activities: the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Framers, Time Line and the “Constitutional Challenge” Game. Each section offers a different interactive activity to engage learners and helpful tools like a hot glossary reinforce learning as kids discover embedded terms and definitions while they explore the content. Each of the five activities also includes an assessment component relevant to each section.

The activities are designed for maximum fun, like the Framers, where one can’t help but pick up interesting facts about each of the Constitution’s creators as their portraits come to life, or the Constitutional Challenge game where users earn points as they test their knowledge of the Constitution in a Jeopardy-style game show format.

Artgig created the general UI design, produced the Flash animation from supplied art, created all of the functionality to specs we developed, and we took care of all audio production & VO.

If early testing and feedback is any gauge of success, we’ve got another hit on our hands.

Check out one of the three versions here:

The Constitution

Artgig Launches Bilingual Business Website - Quetubuscas.com

Que Tu Buscas? – In Spanish it means, “What are you looking for?”

When we were approached by Fannie Lanch, a New York entrepreneur and President of the Westchester Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, with her idea to build a bilingual community website portal to service the skyrocketing Hispanic marketplace, well it sounded like a no-brainer to me.

First and foremost, the website is designed to connect Employers and independent contractors, “Experts,” using a custom secure communication system. Employers may register to post jobs and Experts may register to respond to jobs. Employers may also rate and comment on Experts.

The website also features a Classified Ads section where users may register to post ads in a variety of categories and interested buyers may contact sellers using the secure communication system we designed.

The Expert’s Gallery and the Classified Ads are linked with a secure e-commerce system and there are a variety of subscription and pay-per-ad options for use of the website.

Additionally, there are a variety of business resources available on the site via live feeds from across the globe for breaking news and travel deals.

The entire system is built on our custom CMS platform and Fannie has all of the content and system management control at her fingertips in the website Administrator Dashboard. The site is integrated with Google Analytics and AdSense and we’ve also given her a custom advertising feature to target users with category-specific ads and even target users in specific countries by IP address, if she wants to.

We rolled out the soft launch today.

I think she’s offering some special pricing (translation – FREE) for new users to get people registered and using the site.

Check it out here:

Quetubuscas.com

Anvil! Live! Pleasantville!

My buddies went to see a screening of "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" at Jacob Burns last night and all I got was this t-shirt (that's Steve talking).

Me and Jim caught the special engagement of this rockumentary which was followed by a Q&A session with the two stars of the film, front man Steve "Lips" Kudlow and drummer Rob Reiner ("the original") of 80's metal blink-and-you-missed-them sensation–Anvil.

It's a great film.

I've seen it referred to as "the ultimate metal bromance" and the "real life Spinal Tap" - both are accurate. Anvil! is also a "Rocky" movie - the tale of two friends who met at fifteen and refuse to give up their dream of making it big as Anvil–despite the fact that they're now fifty. These shaggy lovable Canadian underdogs are up against incredible odds and you just can't help rooting for them.

As the guys themselves said last night, there aren't too many bands that stick together over 30 years - there's The Rolling Stones, The Who, and...Anvil.


The Anvil story is remarkable enough but the story of the film is also pretty incredible.

The Director, Sacha Gervasi, was a roadie for the band when he was only fifteen years old himself. After a few tours, they split but Steve and Sacha reunited twenty years later. It just so happens that Sacha has gone on to become a successful screenwriter (among other things) since they last saw each other, and Steve has just been offered an opportunity for a European Anvil tour that looks slightly shady from the start to say the least. Sacha knows there's a movie in this and he drops everything to make it.

I'm happy to report:
The film is getting rave reviews.
Anvil is playing with AC/DC at Giants Stadium tomorrow night.
Things are looking up.

Just see it when you get the chance.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil

Artgig -Psycho

Lis sent me this video by Miles Fisher last night and it really made my day. Miles nails the "American Psycho" movie and gets Christian Bale, who is fast becoming one of my favorite working actors, smirk perfect.
Fisher is so good and talented (it's his music too)–it's scary.
For the first seven or eight seconds I thought it was Bale and someone had cut scenes from the movie into the video.
Then, I saw a close-up & I thought "that's not Bale", it didn't look like him–more like Tom Cruise.
Fisher also does a drop dead Tom Cruise.

Getting back to "American Psycho"...

Have you read the book by Bret Easton Ellis?

When "Psycho" hit shelves in 1991, critics recoiled in horror.

There was controversy before the book even saw daylight– Simon & Schuster had dropped it due to graphic content before Vintage picked it up.

It was pretty much banned in Germany.

In Australia, it's only sold shrink-wrapped and selling the book to anyone under 18 is a criminal offense.

 

It's not an easy read for a lot of reasons including extreme violence and mind-numbing detail - but that's the point.
The 80's were mind-numbing and violent.
At least it was for me.
And I think that's why I liked the book so much.
I read it for a college literature term project.
There was an older retired woman in my little book group, who was taking the class for fun.
She dropped out after a few weeks because she was so appalled by my project.

I didn't love the movie when it came out nearly 10 years later but it's probably because I was too loyal to the book.
But watching this video makes me want to see it again - now.

I also happen to know the writer of the sequel - "American Psycho 2: all American Girl."
We met in a Gotham Writers Workshop screenplay writing class - her specialty was horror and mine was crime so there was some natural overlap.

She already had some buzz going in LA.
She sold one of her screenplays and rewrote it–banging it into the American Psycho sequel.

They basically just slapped the name on it.

It didn't seem to matter that it had nothing to do with the original.

She ended up moving to LA and I started Artgig.

Karen, wherever you are, I hope you're doing well.

It was good writing with you.

Artgig - Gotcha!

Just finished a new game, "Gotcha!," for our friends at Weekly Reader. The game is designed as a payoff to a lesson and quiz on Mark Twain's short story, "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calvares County."

Based on our standard shooter engine, "Gotcha!" is essentially a better looking "Bug Assassin." We created a custom skin to match the swampy theme and made the shooter a frog (who happens to be a Mark Twain lookalike) who's after any bug fool enough to fly into range of his quick-draw tongue.

You can tell by the look in their eyes, these bugs know this frog ain't playing games.

But that shouldn't stop you:

Play Gotcha!

Website Launch Into the Stratosphere...

Just launched this slick little brochure site, for local Westchester marketing biz–Stratosphere Research. Daryl Bressler, the owner, has worked with some impressive brands, including SeaWorld, Budweiser, and Hasbro.

In discussing her work in market analysis and evaluation, Daryl shared a story about how a research project for SeaWorld led to the creation of sister park, Discovery Cove–the first park in Orlando to allow park visitors to swim with the dolphins. Discovery Cove has since gone on to become one of Orlando's most successful park destinations. The idea to open a dolphin experience park interestingly came as a direct result from Daryl's careful analysis of market data in response to a simple question - "What new attractions would you like to see most at Sea World?"

Check it out:

stratosphereresearch.com

Media Activate! How Video is Giving a Voice to the Poor

A family member turned me on to the VideoVolunteers project. The concept is simple and quite brilliant–empower poor, illiterate people living in slums in places like India, by teaching them to become their own community producers.

Armed with a relatively cheap video kit, each producer goes out into their neighborhood and talks about the issues their neighbors are up against. It's much easier to teach someone to use a video camera than to teach them to read and write and the results are igniting the sparks for real change.

videovolunteers.org

The Man in the Red Shoes

Just catching my breath and dusting off the blog after a fantastic Fourth of July weekend in Montauk at my dad's beach house rental.

We drove out late Thursday and got there just after midnight.

My wife and son crashed almost immediately but I stayed up with my dad, sipping a tasty Honey Moon Summer Ale, and we watched most of the PBS American Masters episode featuring Garrison Keillor - The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes.

If you don't know Garrison Keillor, he's been around since the 70's and he's most famous for his "Prairie Home Companion" live radio show - a quirky program that mixes humor, storytelling and music–aimed squarely at America's heartland.

Now if you know me, I'm not exactly a Chevy and apple pie kind of guy, but I was hanging with my dad and he's a fan of Keillor and I also happen to know one of Keillor's crew, having worked with Fred Newman on a kids home safety video for Weekly Reader, so I went with it.

The show is an absolutely fascinating portrait of Keillor. The man is a natural storyteller and he's got the kind of voice that makes you want to listen. Before I knew it, I was pulled right in to his world. I was talking to Steve about this and his parents are also Keillor fans and he says whenever he's visiting he gets sucked in to the radio show. Such is the universal appeal of Keillor–he manages to draw you in, whether you like apple pie or not.

As we were watching, I explained to my dad that I'd worked with Fred Newman and next thing you know I hear Fred's voice and he's being interviewed on-screen.

Good stuff.

Check it out:

Garrison Keillor on PBS

Awesome Time-Lapse Photography

Bathtub V from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

So here I am thinking I gotta lay down a fresh blog post but we're so busy I just don't have any time to collect my thoughts.

Enter Jim who drops a sweet score right in my lap.

Theme is tilt shift lens time-lapse photography, created by Keith Loutit, an artist based in Sydney, Australia.

The style makes the real world like little surreal models.

Presto - instant post.

And from an Aussie, no less.

Steve is already planning to rent the lens...

Enjoy!

Miza.com a Technology Day Hit!

Last week Steve made a special guest appearance at his daughter's third grade class in support of "Technology Day."

His goal was to wow them with Flash by leading the class through an actual game we're working on.

He showed them how the functional game looks with and without the final art to demonstrate the difference between appearance and functionality in development.

Afterwards, they spent some time looking at Miza.com to illustrate how it all comes together in a completed website.

Later that same day, Steve returned with his daughter for the afternoon presentations–this time it was the kids turn to show off what they've been cooking in the computer lab.

And now for the payoff - as Steve took a seat in a row of Macs, he says he couldn't help but notice all of the machines had Miza open in the browser.

The kids had been exploring the site and playing the games during the break.

I think it's safe to say Steve (and Miza) was a hit.

The kids have already started lobbying to have him back next year.

Artgig - Stop! And enjoy a short (or three)...

A laughingsquid tweet on the old Twitter yesterday lead to a fantastic stop action short, "Sorry I'm late", and reminded me of a Oren Lavie video that Lis sent a while back, and then Jim chipped in with another that looks like it translates to "Stop Motion With Wolf and Pig" that is truly the work of a madman.

Before CGI, the only way to do a proper monster movie, like the 1933 classic, "King Kong," was using scale model miniatures and sometimes not so miniature animatronics and/or guys in costumes, along with painstaking stop action photography to bring the world to life.

It's an art form that exists only for those with incredible vision, dedication and endless patience. As a kid, I remember shooting really cheap stop motion shorts with my dads Super 8 camera and the principles are the same as they are for any animation - move everything in your frame a little bit. Shoot a frame. Repeat. When you're done, string the frames together and watch it all come to life.

When done properly, it's really quite magical.

See for yourself–and be sure to check out the links behind the videos to see how they were made:

An Arsenal Fan Salutes Barcelona...

As an Arsenal fan, it's been an exhausting season that felt like a drunk behind the wheel of a Ferrari–accelerate! Slam on the brakes! Accelerate! Run over something and lose a tire! Accelerate! Hit the brakes! Run over something sharp that punctures another tire! Accelerate...Crash! Accelerate! Crash again!

Of course our European dream ended with a Manchester United bodyslam.
And that was immediately followed by a Chelski piledriver in the league to put the razor sharp exclamation point on the end of our season.

So forgive me if I wasn't exactly fired up for the Champion's League Final.
In fact, I almost forgot to set the DVR to record the match as I was leaving for work yesterday morning.

Still, the choice of who to root for was a no brainer.
I got behind Barca without hesitation.
It comes down to three reasons:

First, I've spent time in Barcelona and it's a great city loaded with personality.
I went on a whirlwind tour of Amsterdam, Spain and Portugal with my wife in 1997, before we were married and it was a fantastic adventure.
Somewhere along the way, I remember waking up in a Sevilla hotel to the sound of car horns blaring and general excitement on the streets below.
My wife asked around and found out it was a celebration–a Spanish side, probably Real Madrid, had won some important soccer match.
That's all I knew.
Mind you, this is just before I took my leap back into the world of football as a full-fledged Arsenal fan.
The idea that anyone would celebrate soccer with such gusto was so completely foreign to me.
And I loved it.

Second, as an Arsenal fan, you have to admire Barca's commitment to attacking football and that's exactly what tempted Arsenal's all time greatest weapon, Thierry Henry, to join the Spanish side two years ago.
Henry realized his playing days were winding down and he wanted one last grab at glory.
Unfortunately, he found himself surrounded by a gang of kids at Arsenal, who despite their talent, were clearly not quite ready for prime time.
The fact that Henry had come within touching distance of the CL trophy with Arsenal in 2006, only to lose it cruelly to Barcelona, made for a juicy backstory.
So, I thought, let's win one for Henry.

My third reason for choosing Barcelona over United should be obvious–for Barca to win, Manchester United would have to lose.

Still, like most, I thought United would simply overpower the smaller Barcelona and exploit their patchwork defense the same way they so easily discarded Arsenal.

I saw the result while at work but I didn't get to watch the match until I got home last night.

United started in the same formation they did against Arsenal and again dominated the first nine minutes of play.

It was all going according to plan until BANG! Barcelona punched United right in the mouth. To be exact, Samuel Eto'o punched United in the mouth after undressing Vidic.

And just like that, Barcelona was in control.

Ten minutes later, the mighty United already looked panicked and out of sorts.

And they would never recover.

Barcelona attacked and attacked and attacked.

In the second half, Henry turned Rio Ferdinand inside out on a move that nearly made the score 2-0.

So close.

The kill shot would come at seventy minutes from Barca's creative wizard, Lionel Messi, who launched his tiny five feet seven inch body into the air, twisting to direct a perfect header over the United goalie, Van Der Sar, and into history.

This Barcelona team, with their first year coach, Pep Guardiola, has achieved what no other Spanish side has done before–they've won the trifecta of the Spanish League, the Spanish Cup and the European Champion's League.

And in the process, they made United look positively ordinary.

Congratulations to Barcelona.

Now keep your hands off our Fabregas.

More Summer Fun...

Tim sent me this ill 360 degree inside-the-tube surfing video, made possible by a special 25 lb camera and lens kit.

Yes, someone had to actually surf Teahupoo, one of the gnarliest waves in the world, while carrying the camera.

Mahalo.

Summertime!

It's been a long week at Artgig and I know we're all welcoming the holiday weekend with open arms.

What better way to celebrate the unofficial kick-off of summer than a return to one of last summer's major highlights–Thievery Corporation at Central Park's Summerstage.

It was a perfect summer day and night of good friends, good vibes and great music.
I've recently stumbled upon a YouTube treasure chest of live shows I've attended over the years and I'm happy to say, this was one of the best.

The video doesn't do it justice, of course.
The frame is simply too small and the technology too primitive to capture and share the overall experience.

But here goes anyway.
Go fire up the grill and crack a cold one–this one's on me.

Best Job in the World...

Artgig is a pretty good gig but I'm afraid Ben Southall's got me beat.

The 34 year-old Brit was recently appointed the caretaker on an Australian tropical island for the next six months.

Lucky Ben was chosen from over 34,000 applicants, competing for the job in a reality TV-style promotion by Tourism Queensland.

The job responsibilities include: feeding the fish, cleaning the pool and collecting the mail...
oh, and blogging about it.

And he'll pocket $110,000 for his trouble.

Lis sent me the application a while back but sadly, it got lost in the pile of work on my desk.

I checked out the official website, and it's a big flashy thing that takes a bit to load.

It also looks like they concentrated most of their efforts on the contest and have very little to say right now.

But there should be more to come on July 1 when Ben reports for duty.

Don't work too hard, Ben...

My Favorite Bitch

Today is a beautiful day.

As I near my one year anniversary with my iPhone (may I remind you, this is iPhone number two) I'm happy to say today is one of our best days together. Sure there have been some rocky patches, but every relationship takes effort and patience and it's navigating the rough stuff together that truly strengthens the bond. I feel like today is one of those breakthroughs–a milestone in our history. And yes, we came dangerously close to the edge before we stepped into this lush green pasture of appreciation.

I was going to title today's post "iPhone Bitch" because all I've been doing for the last few weeks is bitch about my iPhone spam problem. Sure, I've got spam filtering set-up at the Artgig server and the usual Junk filtering in my Mail client at work but I was still getting completely inundated with crap on my iPhone, which has no filtering, so much so that using mail on my phone was becoming a dreaded chore. Every morning, I'd begin my day, tapping away in edit mode, deleting all of the junk destined for non-existent @artgig email accounts, that accumulated overnight and somehow made it into my Artgig mail account. I was beginning to question the very sanity of Apple - how could the reigning champions of super friendly user design make something so unusable?

I scoured the internet for iPhone spam solutions and the best option I could find was a slight-of-hand trick that required a ghost Gmail account pass-through for junk filtering. It worked for most people but all I could see down that path was more darkness and quite possibly, my breaking point.

I bitched to Steve.
I bitched to Jim.
I bitched to our hosting company.
I bitched to everyone on Twitter.

They all said the same thing–anyone can spoof your email and make it look like it's coming from you/your domain. But of course, if a reply or bounce is sent it will only get to the actual domain holder (me). From the server's perspective, the emails are legit. Server-side spam filters won't work for the same reason.

I was at the end of my rope. "That's it," I said, "I'm taking this to the blog!" And as I entered that dedicated space of crafting words and thoughts for the page, in what was going to be yet another long bitching rant about the glaring obvious shortcomings of the iPhone, it hit me. The emails weren't bounces at all. They were going straight to the server to some phantom catch-all account.

So I rolled up my sleeves and opened up our hosting Control Panel, and what did I find? A little mandatory catch-all mail forwarder set to grab all @artgig emails, and guess who was designated to receive those emails?

In my haste to judge, I'd missed the obvious.

A single moment of clarity and one small adjustment later, and my spam problem was solved.

Me and my iPhone are just fine.

Now, if only it supported Flash...

AAPL - 122.42

Arsenal: Three to Go...

It sure would be nice to sweep up the season with three victories in three matches.

Let's take a look at what lies ahead, shall we?

Sunday - Chelsea @ Home:

Arsenal meets the other Champion's League loser, Chelsea, this weekend.

As Wenger himself pointed out, Chelsea may be the only team feeling worse than us right now after seeing their dream of a historic Champion's League Final rematch against United absolutely blind-sided by a late Barcelona goal, crushing all hope with only 120 seconds to play.

I'm all for kicking a team who's already down and this Chelsea team is perfectly ripe.

I imagine it will take everything they've got to simply drag themselves out of bed to face us.

I mean, what do they have to look forward to?

Another season of managerial uncertainty, that's for sure, as their lucky Dutch rabbits foot, Guus Hiddink, return to the task of prepping the Russian national team for World Cup action.

In a show of solidarity and a symbolic gesture of support for misunderstood party-boy Nicholas Bendtner, I expect the entire Arsenal squad to take the field with their shorts around their ankles.

There's no doubt in my mind Arsenal can beat Chelsea with or without shorts...

As long as Arshavin takes the field.

But he's a huge doubt as he struggles to recover from the flu.

But wait, so is Arsenal's blue boogyman, Drogba, as he struggles to recover from a complete mental breakdown in the wake of their devastating Champion's League defeat.

No Drogba is bigger than no Arshavin at the moment.

And we don't have to do any tricky away goals math, which is a big relief.

Arsenal wins.

2-0

May 16 - Manchester United @ Old Trafford:

This one isn't so easy.

We've already seen the difference in class illustrated on the field and off.

As Bendtner was being dragged away from a nightclub with his jeans around his knees, the United crew were spotted wearing impeccably tailored suits, looking all about business in their respectable victory celebration.

What's to stop United from spanking Arsenal again, you ask?

Two things:

Arshavin and Arshavin.

That's right, I'm counting him twice because he's that good.

Arsenal weren't allowed to use him in the Champion's League and honestly, we were so poor maybe he doesn't make a difference but if anyone can change the game, it's Honest Arsh.

The Arsenal defense won't be mended in time for this match but maybe United takes us just a hair too lightly as their eye wanders ahead to their showdown with Barcelona.

And we pounce, seizing opportunity in a momentary lapse in concentration, hopefully with Evra and Berbatov turned inside out in the process, by none other than a rampaging Nicklas Bendtner!

I really want Nick to learn how to shoot because, for a big guy, he's good on the ball and he's certainly got no shortage of confidence but most importantly, he's not afraid to go out by himself and get so drunk his pants fall down.

I said Arsenal 3-1 in the Champion's League but that was before I realized it was opposite day.

I'm going to give this one to Manchester United, 2-1.

(Don't worry–another opposite day)

May 24 Stoke City @ Home:

Certainly doesn't have the sex appeal of the two previous matches but it's the last match of the season and if that's not sexy, well, I don't know what is.

Stoke is one of those very average teams that gave us trouble earlier in the season.

Well, Arsenal's not had much trouble with the likes of them, or anyone else in the last 21 games, and I don't think they'll slip on this banana peel.

Arsenal  just needs to take a page from United (after beating them, of course) and go about our ruthless business with cold surgical precision.

Just keep an eye on the big Jamaican, Ricardo Fuller, and let the offense do the rest.

No contest.

Arsenal will be tasting blood after feasting on the remains of Berbatov and Evra in the previous match.

Victory Arsenal.

3-0

So that's it, nice and tidy.

Then we can get on with the business of constant speculation about who stays and who goes and the summer flirtation and courting of new players to fill the rather large gaps in our defense.

New Rudder Release and T-shirts at 19-8 Website!

The boys at 19-8 are making a fashion statement with fresh new t-shirts to go with the new critically acclaimed Rudder release, "Matorning."

Here's what the Boston Globe had to say about the music - "Rudder's second album, "Matorning," nearly detonated in my stereo; it's that powerful."

Get yours today - the tees and the music available on the 19-8 website in the Catalogue and Artists sections under Rudder!

nineteeneight.com

Arsenal - Defeated and Deflated

When Arsenal exited the Champion's League last year, it was the Quarterfinals and Liverpool had just stolen victory back from us in a wild match that dealt Arsenal a cruel blow in the final six minutes to leave me feeling gutted.

Last night's Champion's League Semifinal against Manchester United felt like it was over in the first six minutes.

It actually took seven for the first United goal.

Despite trailing United by one goal from the first leg, I believed we could summon the strength and character to give them a real fight.

Almunia's heroics at Old Trafford kept us alive and I was thinking there could be something really special and really big yet to come from Arsenal's "kids."

We started strong, with an unusually boisterous home crowd behind the team in full force.

For a moment, watching Arsenal zip the ball around in United's half, it all felt possible.

Then Anderson squeezed a ball upfield, a ball that Ronaldo chased down into our area.

And then, in what can only be described as a a tragic accident for poor Kieran Gibbs, our baby-faced deputy defender slipped and fell in what should have been a routine interception of Ronaldo's pass, gifting Park Ji-sung the ball right in front of our goal.

Almunia charged and Park timed his shot perfectly.

And just like that, we were trailing by two goals on aggregate–one of them a devastating away goal, which meant we needed three to win.

Really, a shame for Gibbs and for the entire team.

But all was not lost.

Not yet.

The game would go on for another two minutes before the fatal blow.
Ronaldo flopped, earning a penalty kick from forty yards.

He launched a screamer that unbelievably rocketed right past Almunia for goal number three on aggregate.

With eighty minutes still to play, the game was over.

Arsenal was done.

This morning I'm still feeling hollow–stunned from the fact that we never had a chance.

It can only be said that over the two legs, Manchester United was the better team - head and shoulders over Arsenal.

It stinks but it's the truth.

I read this morning that an Arsenal fan in Kenya hung himself after the match.
All I can say is I'm grateful my life doesn't hang on this team.
Over the last few years, we've been fragile, both physically and mentally.

I credit Arsene and the team for their remarkable comeback this season, orchestrating a 21 game unbeaten run to overtake Villa and secure fourth place in the EPL and another season of Champion's League football.

But surely, fourth place can't be good enough.

It's a broken record at this point–we need to buy some experienced players this summer and I wouldn't mind offloading Adebayor if we can get a decent coin for him. He's dead weight and he's dragging us down.

And yes, Arsene needs to rethink the overall composition–we're built for the sprint, not the long haul.

We play for pride now.
Pride and revenge.
Chelsea this weekend and Manchester United again next weekend.

And I can only hope that Barcelona goes through tonight and a healthy Henry stars in a Champions League Final blowout that wipes that cocky smirk right off Ronaldo's face.

Arsenal: It's a Bird, It's a Plane...

It's Super Manny!

He rescued us in Rome once already this season.

If not for his heroics Wednesday in Man U's "shock and awe" assault on our Champion's League dreams, we'd be dead and buried right now.

Come Tuesday, we'll need Manuel Almunia suited up again in his lime green tights and flowing cape, and at his super-human best if we've any hope of edging United for a return to Rome and a chance to play for all the European marbles.

You just know it's gonna come down to Manny again.

United will come out, guns blazing, same as last time because they can.

Wednesday was so bad, I was thinking last year's 4-0 FA Cup embarrassment all over again.

Silvestre said it felt "like the Alamo."

The shots will come.

Manny just better be ready.

Arsene has said we will see a different Arsenal at home on Tuesday.

With our team further ravaged by injuries to players, we don't have the depth to change the faces on the field.

There's a slim hope that we may see a special guest appearance by RVP, which would certainly be a boost, but his return won't patch our defense.

It will come down to tactics and sheer blood and guts to change our game.

Wenger will no doubt pull Fabregas back in midfield where he can use his vision and creativity to dictate play.

He'll also need a hair trigger in responding to the shape of the game because we simply can't let United gain and hold any further advantage.

Any player on the field who is not giving 100 percent, should be substituted.

That means you, Adebayor.

It's true, you had little help against Ferdinand and Vidic, but you just gotta lay it out there and stick your neck out and get your lazy ass to work.

Bendtner scored two goals yesterday against Portsmouth, and you know he's dying to play.

Vela also scored and he looks hungry.

Our best defense will be our attack.

I'm feeling like we really have to strike first to have a chance.

And then we leave it to Fabregas to pull the strings and Super Manny to cover our ass.

Even in Tuesday's defeat, we showed we can deal with Rooney and Ronaldo.

And credit's gotta go to the kid, Kieran Gibbs, who recovered in the second half, showing great composure for a 19 year-old, after being thrown to the lions.

Speaking of recovery, it must be said that this young team has orchestrated a remarkable comeback late in the season to assure a fourth place EPL finish and Champion's League football next year, and that alone is an accomplishment worthy of praise. Add to that the brilliance of Arshavin, and the prospect of a full strength Arsenal team, and it's enough to get the mouth watering for next year.

And we've still got a puncher's chance to reach the Champion's League Final now, this year.

And our secret weapon–Super Manny.

I'll call it now–3-1 to the Arsenal and I'll see you in Rome.

Artgig Case Study - Healthykids-now.com

Jim has some good news to share - we launched the healthykids-now.com website today.

Healthy Kids NOW (Healthy Kids in Northern Westchester) is a coalition of community, civic, educational, business, and healthcare leaders (including yours truly) who aim to make Northern Westchester the place to raise healthy kids by promoting good nutrition and a healthy environment.

Jim is especially proud because this website is his adopted Joomla baby.

"Why Joomla?" You ask.
And you don't stop there. "Aren't you a custom shop with your own CMS?"

Well, yes, we've got our own mature CMS and we love it. And more importantly, our clients love it. But there comes a time when you have to leave the comfort zone and see what's on the other side.

Enter Joomla, one of the most widely-used open source content management systems available.

As much as I love our CMS, I see the clear benefit of open source, which is primarily, you aren't tied to a single vendor because there's a broad community of developers and lots of documentation and support, should you decide to take your website elsewhere.

A common misconception of open source is that it's cheaper. It's not. In most cases, you still have to pay a developer(s) to do the work, just like any other job. Unless, of course, you're willing to donate your time (and blood and sweat and tears) out of the goodness of your heart for a worthwhile cause–like promoting health and well-being for our kids.

I got involved with the Coalition through a friend and agreed to take on an advisory role as they enlisted a team of local college students to build the website as part of a class project. Well, let's just say three months later, the website was barely a shell and the kids went home for the holidays. That's how we came to adopt the Joomla baby.

Now Jim has experience developing using open source platforms and they're generally good to get you 80% of the way, but it's always a wrestling match when you get down to the fine details of customization. It's the last 20% that gets you.

We got the website into shape and our friends at the Coaliton spent some time filling it with content. Along the way, we squeezed an extra 5% out of Joomla and decided it was time to go live.

Healthy Kids will live with it for a while, it looks good and it does everything they want it to do - there are regular columns and features they can manage and archive, a calendar of events, a newsletter and mailing list, and a search function.

Of course, I wish we had used our CMS because everything would look and feel more like one of our websites, but this was a good lesson for all of us and a necessary step. The folks we're working with at the Coalition have never built a website before and now they have. Next time around, it will be even better.

By the way, we’re looking for a sharp Drupal developer – anyone?

Check it out:

healthykids-now.com

Artgig Artist Series - Steve Featured in 59x59 Photographic Exhibit

Yes, that Steve.

Our very own code wizard, funk drummer, and lensman extraordinaire, Steve Grosmark, is a featured artist in The 59x59 Photographic Exhibition, kicking off this weekend at the GAGA Arts Center in Garnerville, NY, as part of the GAGA Arts Festival.

Steve's work has such an influence they've actually taken to calling it "The Steve Grosmark Show."

The 59x59 concept originally started as 59 photographers shooting on a single day along a 15 mile stretch of Route 59 in Rockland County, NY.
They ended up with 31 photographers but the name stuck.
It was almost a year ago when the photographers hit the road to get their shots and there were times along the way that it seemed the show might not happen at all.

On May 9, 2008 Steve got up at 3am and shot until 6pm - mostly in the rain.
Fortunately, the wet and dreary conditions really suit his shooting style and the results are quite powerful.
He came in one morning last week after hanging the large format prints in the space and I've honestly never seen him so excited.
Looking forward to the show...

The Exhibition runs through June 6th.

Note to the GAGA Arts Center - you should also talk to Steve about a new website because...well, it should be obvious.

You can check out Steve's pics here:

59x59 Photographs

American Flag of Faces Website Launches

We're very pleased to be a part of the new American Flag of Faces website, produced by Artgig and ESI Design for the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.

From the official release:

"This interactive website invites all Americans to submit photos of their families, their ancestors, even themselves to become a part of this living, ever-changing American mosaic.

Participants can upload digital photos at www.FlagOfFaces.org with a tax-deductible donation of $50 to become part of the American Flag of Faces™. This dynamic website, created and produced by ESI Design and Artgig Studio, opens with an animated red, white and blue flag populated with user-submitted images. Each image can be clicked on and enlarged. Users can also search by name to call up specific individual or family photos.

The American Flag of Faces™ will also become a central exhibit in the upcoming Peopling of America® Center, an exciting new expansion of the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. The Flag of Faces exhibit will consist of a large video installation providing a mosaic of all the portraits submitted by individuals and families who have made America their home throughout the generations."

Now a peek under the hood:

Constructed as a hybrid Flash/HTML website, flagoffaces.org opens with a waving flag of faces created in Actionscript which utilizes the Papervision 3D library to recreate realistic motion.

From the homepage, visitors are encouraged to add an image to the flag along with a donation. The image upload interface was built using an Ajax library which enables users to perform basic edits such as cropping, rotating, red eye reduction and contrast adjustments prior to submitting their photo.

The Flag of Faces itself is a Flash module that taps into a Microsoft SQL database to dynamically generate the flag and apply red, white and blue color overlays to the individual user submitted images.

The result is an American flag that is a virtual mosaic of individual user-generated portraits.

Pretty cool.

Check it out:

flagoffaces.org

Arsenal - Heading For an Upset or In Over Their Heads?

If there was any question about the quality of Arshavin before his four strikes and four goals against Liverpool on Tuesday, well, let's just say there's one tiny Russian sniper on this team who comes to play every day–end of story.

Of course, we were left scrambling at the office for a good pirate feed to watch the match but it seems at the height of the season, the pickings are suddenly slim to none. We ended up "watching" the epic battle and game of the season, via website text updates.

We're leaking goals at the moment and I'll be happy to see Almunia and Djourou back in the line-up against Middlesbrough this weekend. I'm willing to give Sagna a pass for his mistakes against Liverpool because he was still on jello legs from a bout with the flu. And we'll likely see Adebayor in a tune-up for the really big Champion's League match on Wednesday against heavily favored Man U.

I can't comment much on the Liverpool match because I've only seen Arshavin's fantastic highlight reel and it's difficult to judge a team performance from text updates but from what I've read it seems we're beginning to sag a bit, especially through the middle and back. We know Silvestre is crap, but Denilson and Song continue to play Jekyll and Hyde and we're never sure who will show up.

One thing's for certain, we'll have to be at our best when we face off against the league leaders next week. And we'll have to do it without RVP, Clichy and Arshavin.

The news today seems to indicate Fabregas will be suspended for a couple of matches over the "spitgate" incident. Fabregas is clearly a passionate guy, and I'm sure he'll be pissed–I can only hope he takes it out on Man U. I think he will.

Walcott will bring the speed, let's hope he also brings his guns.

We know Adebayor can change a game in an instant and he's done it to Man U before.

But the newest Man U slayer is Nasri and by all accounts he's one of the few who looked to be hitting top gear against Liverpool so we'll hope that continues.

We've got a few more wild cards up our sleeve in Eduardo, Diaby and the wildest of all, Bendtner.

And most importantly, we've already beaten Man U this season.

Hopefully, we've learned our lessons against Chelsea and Liverpool and we'll come hungry and prepared to secure victory this weekend against a Middlesborough team who is at the bottom of the league and clawing for survival like a rabid raccoon in a garbage can.

It's not a must-win for Arsenal on paper but I think we need all the steam we can muster ahead of next week.

A win against Middlesborough would be nice.

But a win against Man U at Old Trafford would be better than...(fill in the blank)

Bonnie and Clyde in Pleasantville

They're young...they're in love...and they kill people.

So goes the famous tagline for the film classic, "Bonnie and Clyde."

I caught a special screening last night at Jacob Burns, featuring a discussion with screenwriter, Robert Benton, after the show.

Unlike my scoop on Slumdog Millionaire before it broke out, this was an evening in retrospect.

After living through the Tarantino age of ultra-violent cinema, it's difficult to imagine the impact this film had on film culture when it hit American theaters in 1967.

Incredibly violent and heavily stylized for the day, Bonnie and Clyde was accused of glorifying violence and was largely panned by critics upon release.

But audiences loved it, and the critics eventually came around...

I'd seen Bonnie and Clyde previously some years ago, at home, on a not particularly big screen and I remembered liking it, but seeing a film in a real movie theater puts it in an entirely different light.

Two big things that jumped off the screen:

1. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were mucho caliente.
   
2. The film is violent.
   

Yes, the film romanticizes the story of two criminals, but as Benton commented, it's not about the violence, it's about the fame.

It was really fascinating to hear Benton's story about his big break–boy grows up wrestling dyslexia, finds film as a creative outlet, becomes a young hotshot art director at Esquire, hangs with other young creative types–all are passionate about French New Wave cinema, Benton decides to write a screenplay with pal, David Newman, who can actually write, they get some good momentum but the screenplay languishes for years until Warren Beatty comes knocking.

Benton recalled his big break–the call from Warren, and how it was also his first big mistake in his marriage, only six months young. Warren called Benton at his little apartment in New York and told him he'd heard about the script and he wanted to stop by and pick it up (remember, no email, no fax...) Benton was happy to oblige but he neglected to tell his young wife that WARREN BEATTY was dropping by, so she was just kind of bumming around with curlers in her hair and no make-up when Beatty came knocking. According to Benton, she didn't speak to him for some time after that...

Good stuff.

Chris Tarry - Taking Over the Universe!

Our favorite whirlwind of creative expression, Chris Tarry, has gone and done it again.
That's right, another website update.

You'll notice the christarry.com Home page now defaults to News and he's added a blog to keep the fans current with whatever spills out onto the page. The blog is a WordPress deal we installed on his server and he's basically doing the rest. You can get to it from his site via the blog call-out at the top of the page, or you can hit it directly:

Chris Tarry's Blog of Wondrous Nothings

I imagine Chris is the kind of guy who wakes suddenly in the middle of the night and fumbles about in the dark as he searches for a pad and pen to jot down his latest bit of inspiration.

Before I was a business owner (and married, and a dad...), I spent a considerable chunk of my life writing like a madman so I know the territory.

It's good to be mad.