Also, I don’t really smoke. Just thought it was cool for me to hold a cigarette.
Graphic illustrated in Adobe Illustrator.

Man, I would LOVE to mess with this. The UI looks amazing! Perfect for live shows.

A lesson I learned: Never opt for in-store pick up. The week before the launch of the iPhone 4, I went ahead a pre-ordered the phone online on Apple’s site. Needless to say, it was the pain in the ass to actually get a reserve to go through because their site was being hammered by everyone and their mom. I timed out a couple of times but I managed to reserve one for myself.

I get an email a few days prior to launch, stating that I can pick up the phone at the local Apple store at 7:00 AM. I knew people will be camping out there but I underestimated on how many. On launch day, I left at around 8:00AM. I assumed it wouldn’t be that bad because I reserved mine and was guaranteed to get a phone that day. So, I get there and saw a loooong line… for reserves! The line stretched at least 6-7 stores down in addition to a typical walkway in between 2 stores. The walkway itself can accommodate 2 stores on its own. There was also the “walk-in” line for those who don’t have a reserve. That line was also long. I go to the end of the reserve line and waited… and waited… and waited. I found out they were letting in around 7 reserved to 1 walk-in. It took forever. The whole time I waited, I didn’t eat or drink anything. It wasn’t until I was fairly close to the front that the Apple employees gave out some chips and water.

At around 2:00 PM, I got my phone.

Oh yeah, I’m gonna drop some graphic design knowledge bombs here: “dpi” stands for “dots per inch”. It can also be referred to as “ppi” or “pixels per inch”. The more pixels you have packed in a certain area, the sharper and more filled out it looks. What you view on your computer is typically at 72dpi. Stuff that are printed are typically around 300dpi or otherwise, it will look blurry and pixelated. So when I set up something to be printed (for example, flyers or magazine ads), I usually set the file at 300dpi (along with the color mode set to CMYK). When I heard the iPhone 4 will have a resolution of 640×960 at 326dpi, my head exploded. Print quality on a phone? That’s just nuts. The industrial design is also amazing. Didn’t expect anything less from Apple.

Oh right, I don’t really have any issues with the phone even with all the hoopla about the antenna. It’s been working fairly good to me. I haven’t had any dropped calls… yet. I’m also not using any sort of case either. I don’t really need one but if Apple is giving away those bumpers for free, I’ll take them. Also, I loaded up the phone from a back up and it still shows “Donkey” as my carrier haha. Not sure why it didn’t wipe that out.

The Great Oil Leak Poster Project

A few months ago, there was a call for entries for a poster project involving the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Before I heard about that, however, I already made an illustration relating to the oil spill (You can view the original artwork in my DeviantArt page). To my surprise, the artwork made its rounds around the internet. Namely, io9 and The Huffington Post. The message got a little skewed (come on… Transformer? Really?) but it’s still a bit unusual to see my artwork on other outlets. Even more surprising was when I was walking to a client’s office, I saw it attached to a door of a small local shop. Check it out below:

Hey, this looks familiar!

At first, I just glanced at it and didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. I went to get a closer look at it during lunch time and noticed a few things different. Firstly, any text I had on there was stamped out. The copyright info was cropped out and my logo was edited out. If you look closely, they tried to redraw some of the elements of the robot’s left arm. “BP” was also edited into the robot’s chest. I talked to one of the employees there and told them that they couldn’t do this. I wasn’t too forceful about it and offered them an official print of it when I come back around (which I did).  The employee said he saw it on io9. Go figure. Weird to see this at a local level.

Anyway, there was a call for entries for a poster project, and I submitted my illustration. 140+ entries were submitted and among the 40+ that were chosen, mine was picked =) You can view the other entries and details on shows at The Great Oil Leak‘s site.

Electronic soul at its best

Samantha James’ new album, Subconscious,  came out last month and its awesome. I sent her a reply on twitter that her new album was “electronic soul at its best” and she actually replied back! Sometimes its hard to top your first album but damn, she pulled through on her second album. Great tracks and definitely sets the mood. Production is top notch. Definitely check it out.

I think I rambled on enough. Love, peace, and grease.

New Shinichi Osawa track. Totally awesome.
“If you see me around, you gotta let me know.”

Anyway, my resume has been updated and I will update my portfolio soon with some new stuff.

Shameless plug: Calvin & Hobbes is good reading material. I suggest picking up the compilation books.

Hit the jump to read the rest of this post.

Hey, I got a Facebook fan page now
If you visit the front page often, you’ll notice that I have a Facebook link up now. It’s going to be mainly for graphic stuff rather than music. I love music and I love to DJ but I think my artistic abilities are far more important to me. I mean, it’s going to be my career from now on. I’m not really sure what to do with the page. Facebook hassled me one day and told me to make a page for my freelancing business. And so I did. Feel free to “like” the page. I may add some of my portfolio to the page.

Some notable albums I’ve been listening to
The Depreciation Guild – Spirit Youth
Just as great as their first full album. Great sound mixed with a bit of 8-bit flavor. I’m kinda glad they’re moving farther away from actually being a chiptune band to something a bit more mature. Not saying they should ditch the 8-bit sounds though. I just like the moderation of it in this album. Not overused. Just a perfect amount. I can almost honestly say that this is better than the first album. November is my favorite track.

Kaskade – Dynasty
Not very much to say. Very awesome album. Some classic Kaskade sound with some twists! There’s a lot of variety in this album. There’s a track for everyone. I don’t think he needed to add “Empty Streets” to the album though. I understand that its a remix of sorts but it could’ve been released as a single for Late Night Alumni or something.

Jay-Z – The Blueprint 3
Kiiiinda old as of this post but it’s got some great beats and lyrics.

Minus The Bear – OMNI
Haven’t had much play time with this one but great so far.

Phantogram –  Eyelid Movies
A friend suggested this one. Great suggestion!

B.o.B. – The Adventures of Bobby Ray
Also a great album. Actually went to his concert when he was down here. If y’all get the chance, please check him out. He’s very good live and puts on a great live show.

Other music news
Next mix set will come as soon as I stop being lazy and/or occupied with other things. The same can also be said as before: Recent breakbeat tracks haven’t really caught my ear. There’s a handful but not enough for me to get up and make a mix. Oh right, I still need to get some new equipment and stop borrowing from others. Perhaps Serato?

Games that maybe you should check out
Unfortunately, the only game I bought in these past few months is Monster Hunter Tri for the Wii. I was a huge fan of the first one on the PS2. They shut down the PS2 servers a long time ago and I never got to play the PSP versions. Needless to say, I’ve been putting in some hours into this one already.

Oh yeah, Portal was free on Steam (deal ended May 24th) so I picked it up finally after all these years. I’m late to the game but I’m glad I picked it up. Simply Brilliant writing and direction. Oh yeah, gameplay is good too. It’s fairly short (I managed to finish the game in 3.5 hours) but it was a great ride to the fantastic & charming ending. Did I mention the writing is brilliant?

I also been meaning to pick up another PS3 (I sold my old one a long time ago) but I’ve been on a budget so I’m gonna hold off on that. I do really want to play some Uncharted 2.

And what’s up with this stupid oil “spill”? Come on, BP.
It’s been almost a month and they still haven’t plugged that pipe yet? This kinda sucks because I live in one of the gulf coast states and we love our seafood here. I can’t imagine a world without Louisiana shrimp, oysters, crabs, crawfish, and other various seafoods. Not only that, my dad’s business is taking a hit since he’s not getting any orders for trawl nets (Boats are docked, some zones are closed, etc.). I can’t remember the last time he’s been actually home on a Saturday morning, yet there he was. Anyway, I hope they resolve this soon. To see how bad it is, read this article. It’s really sad.

I think thats it for now. If you guys have any questions, please send ‘em to donkeybeatz@gmail.com. I’ll answer them in a future post. You can also follow me on twitter @donkeybeatz.

The Stanley Classic is still the top choice for breakfast plates for me. If you guys are ever in New Orleans, make sure you hit up Stanley around Jackson Square.

Anyway, hit the jump for a status report.

New Orleans Saints wins SuperBowl XLIV
Yeah, this is old news but man, that was a great game. Even greater was the celebration right after the win. It took us roughly 30 minutes to an hour to get to downtown. Along the way, people were blasting the radio, dancing outside their cars (while their car was still rolling), and shouting “WHO DAT!” to each other. When we got to downtown and found parking, we set off to Bourbon St. We were a couple of blocks down but really, every block felt like Bourbon St. so, there was really no need to actually go to Bourbon St. We walked around for a bit, high-fiving everyone that we could. One block of Canal St. had “(Halftime) Stand Up And Get Crunk” by Yin Yang Twins on constant repeat. Every time it repeated, people treated it like it just came on for the first time. It was a good experience and everyone was in good spirits. Oh yeah, we did make it to Bourbon but only went in for like 5 minutes.

Later in the week, the city threw a parade for the Saints. The parade was totally awesome. At one point, some of the players got off of their floats and walked over to the food stand. Awesome part about that was that we were standing right by the food stand. Saw some key players, like Jahri Evans and Jermon Bushrod, ordering some food right in front of our faces. It was exciting seeing them even when they weren’t really doing anything exciting. Probably the high point of the parade was when Sean Payton came through with the Lombardi Trophy. Needless to say, he wasn’t shy about showing off the trophy.

And the week after? Mardi Gras. Yeah, we partied for weeks. Heck, ever since we beat the Vikings during the NFC Championship game, we were partying.

Wicked
Just a few days ago, I went to check out the broadway musical, Wicked. Basically, it’s a story that deals with the struggles of the Wicked Witch of the West and it starts before the events in The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy does eventually show up but she’s not part of the main story. Music was great but I give more praise to the stage. It was amazing. Props seamlessly moved in and out of the stage. The lighting was used with great effect. The introduction of the Wizard stood out also. They used a combination of lighting, sound, and a bit of animatronics. It was great. My only gripe with the musical is that some of the scenes were stretched a bit long but that’s just me being a typical man. Overall, I loved it and recommend that people should check it out.

Nearing Graduation
This semester will be my last semester. I’m only taking 2 classes but combined with my freelancing business, it’s gotten pretty hectic. It’s taken me awhile to actually get to this point but what matters is that I’m making some progress in my life. I’m really glad that I straightened out my head and moved forward. I’m only getting an Associates but its a start. Only one more month until I finally graduate.

Games
I haven’t delved into many games this past year since I spent so much on books and supplies already. The only game that I bought, that was actually new when it came out, was Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Great game. Very tactical and team-based. Though, sometimes your team can be full of “snipers” and all they do is sit back and snipe instead of taking point. As for the single player experience, I thought the story was good. It wasn’t great but its not as bad as critics said it was. Anyway, other than that game, I’ve been regularly playing some Rock Band 2 since they just released a Lady Gaga pack for it. What? Lady Gaga is great.

Last.fm
I recently signed up on last.fm. Pandora’s nice but I prefer the interface of last.fm. Sure, it doesn’t really matter since you don’t look at music but I think it adds to the experience. So far, I’m liking it. I’m constantly discovering other artists. I’m only using the service for some deep house though since it’s still a relatively new genre for me. No, I don’t use it for breakbeats.

Hm this was a bit more long winded than I thought but hey, quality over quantity.
Until next time, seize the day.

Obviously, the first thing is the aesthetics of the site. I opted with black and white since it gives the most contrast of any color combination. I also opted with lots and lots of negative space.

If you’re a first time visitor, here’s what the site looked like before the update. Nothing really wrong with it. Nothing great about it either. Man, look at that navigation menu. What was I thinking? The color combination isn’t that exciting either. The blog looked like a separate site even though it shared the colors of the main page. Now the blog shares the same layout as the other pages of the site. Sense of unity? You bet.

Second would be my portfolio page. Before, I used a Flash-based slideshow to show off my work. For awhile, I thought it was pretty cool. It still is actually but it wasn’t what I was looking for in the end. I got an iPhone recently and I couldn’t view my portfolio because, unfortunately, you can’t view Flash content on an iPhone. Now, instead of a slideshow, it’s just a page with thumbnails that link to their respective images. But wait! There’s javascript involved! With a little help from FancyZoom, the images “pop out” when you click on the thumbnails. The effect also works on an iPhone. Really cool. I also organized everything into categories for easier browsing.

Third is the coding under the hood. For the old site, I let Dreamweaver do most of the work and I kept on piling on elements on top of each other. There were lines of code everywhere and I had to look really hard if I wanted to make a change. Now the CSS is separate from the HTML (which I wanted to do before but I didn’t). Making changes is totally easier now.

I hope y’all like they new design and hopefully I don’t have to change it again soon since I’m pretty sick of typing out codes. The site itself isn’t super fancy but it does what it needs to do.

1. DJ Heavygrinder feat. Precise – Bass Is My BF (Keith MacKenzie & DJ Fixx Remix)
2. KMFX vs Dustin Hulton feat. Whiskey Pete & D-Chi – Get With The Program
3. Tears of Technology – Make The Beat Drop (donkeybeatz Remix)
4. Malpractice – Run This Town
5. Dom Almond – Caught In Dub
6. Quadrat Beat – Trick
7. D-Ranged – Stars
8. Baymont Bross – Rock and Roll Mix Mash Potatoes (Kid Digital Remix)
9. Seth Vogt feat. Goldillox – Cellophane (Seth Vogt Breaks Mix)
10. Highland – No Way Out (George Thompson vs. Acid Rockers Remix)
11. Ilya Mosolov – Blinded By Love (Breaks Mix)
12. Brother Brown feat. Frank’ee – Under The Water (Starecase Mix)

UNTRACKED Version (1 mp3 file with cue sheet)
[download via mediafire]

TRACKED Version (12 mp3 files)
[download via mediafire]
[download via zshare]

That was beautiful.

While we’re still on the subject, the original song still gives me the chills whenever I hear it. The bassline is so awesome. In fact, I’ll post it here too.