Child’s Play

I am fortunate enough to know some extremely talented people. Right now these folks have put their best feet forward for a good cause, a charity called Child’s Play created and sponsored by the guys behind Penny Arcade.

This year I was honored to be asked to create some photographs for the legendary Harrison Krix of Volpin Props as well as a new friend who’s talent is equally unparalleled, Catherine Jones of God Save the Queen Fashions.

Half Life 2: Gravity Gun

Street Fighter: Chun-Li Corset Top

These two photos are just a sneak peek, I will have the more images from each shoot with a brief writeup on how you can possibly own these items very soon!

Top 10 Albums of 2010

Aloha – Home Acres
Stars – The Five Ghosts
How to Destroy Angels – How To Destroy Angels
Fang Island – Fang Island
The Joy Formidable – A Balloon Called Moaning
God Is An Astronaut – Age Of The Fifth Sun
Sleigh Bells – Treats
Maserati – Pyramid Of The Sun
The Naked & Famous – Passive Me, Aggressive You
Autolux – Transit Transit

I’m not anywhere near clever or knowledgable enough to round out my music picks for 2010 with any sort of insightful commentary, but I just wanted to post up the stuff that really stood out to me this year. Aloha was a band I stumbled upon back in 2005 or so and though I liked the album (That’s Your Fire) I never really followed anything after that. Fast-forward to 2010; I heard a few tracks of Home Acres and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Aloha manages to cram so many influences and sounds into one album without it sounding like a discombobulated mess, every song is different from the last but fits into the overall mood.

Stars is a band I’ve loved for a few years but to be honest, they never really put out an album that I wanted to listen to start-to-finish… that is until The Five Ghosts. This album is definitely a concept album but the songs are so well crafted you’d never know it. Each song’s lyrics are subtly haunting fitting with the overall theme but they still maintain that pop element that makes Stars such a pleasure to listen to.

How to Destroy Angels is the brainchild of Trent Reznor and his new wife Mariqueen Maandig. The album carries all of the Nine Inch Nails trappings one would expect but the addition of the soft, sultry voice of Mariqueen really adds a totally different dynamic to the music. The video for ‘The Space Between’ is haunting and beautiful as well.

I discovered Fang Island’s self-titled album and I still don’t quite know how to describe it. It’s sort of a bizarre mashup of harmonized-choir-vocals and driving-guitar-riff-jams. The songs range from punk to progressive-rock but really don’t spend much time in any particular genre. The album is very upbeat and uptempo, definitely worth a listen if you like guitar heavy tunes.

I am dying to hear a full-length album from The Joy Formidable, which isn’t due til March 15th in the US, but for now A Balloon Called Moaning will suffice. This trio from the UK just really hammers every song home with purpose. The melodies are catchy and very well thought out and though there are only 3 members you really get a wide range of sounds on this album, extremely well crafted.

Top 10 Games of 2010

Mass Effect 2 (XBOX 360)
Alan Wake (XBOX 360)
Costume Quest (XBOX 360)
Limbo (XBOX 360)
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Darksiders (XBOX 360)
Halo: Reach(XBOX 360)
Metroid: Other M (Nintendo Wii)
Might & Magic Clash of Heroes (Nintendo DS)
Just Cause 2 (XBOX 360)

What an incredible year for games! So many great experiences. New leaps in hardware with Kinect and Playstation Move, it’s going to interesting to see what the future holds. In any case, Mass Effect 2 won for me hands down. This is simply the best written, best acted and best developed video game I’ve ever played. The gameplay was fun, the story was compelling and the characters were so rich that it made you care about what was happening at every turn. I’m salivating for Mass Effect 3!

Alan Wake was a bit of a surprise. Take a Stephen King novel and infuse a sort of Twilight Zone atmosphere and you have something close to Alan Wake. I really enjoyed the episodic nature of the game and the subsequent DLC that continued the story. If you want to ‘experience’ a dark fiction tale with fun gameplay and a solid story, this is right up your alley.

Costume Quest! This is the most adorable game ever created, it could definitely be suitable for young kids but I completely fell in love with this game. A quick downloadable from Double-Fine (the folks behind Brütal Legend and Psychonauts) this game oozes personality and fun, it really transported me back to my childhood and the days of dressing up for Halloween and pretending to go on adventures.

Limbo is one of those rare games that challenges what a video game can be. Beautiful to watch in stunning black & white, fun to play due to it’s puzzle-based level scheme. Such risk-taking with this game but it really pays off.

Lastly, Words with Friends snuck into my top 5 simply due to how much time I spend in this game. What a genius idea, a non-stop running Scrabble game with your friends. Great work.

Top 10 TV of 2010

Breaking Bad
Friday Night Lights
Mad Men
Lost
30 Rock
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Dexter
True Blood
Louie
Archer

Wow, TV is getting good. Really good. Never before have we had such high-caliber programs on television but I’m glad we do now. Through all of it I have to say that Breaking Bad stands out to me as the clear favorite. I’m amazed at how many risks this show takes and deep the characters seem. Bryan Cranston is lost in his role as Walter White and it’s incredible to watch. Brilliant show.

Friday Night Lights is still near and dear to my heart, the show carries on what I love while re-inventing itself a bit. I’m sad that season 5 is the last.

Mad Men was a surprise for me, I didn’t expect to love this show as much as I did. I feel like I traveled back to the 60s and I’m right there with these characters. The show is exceptionally well shot and lit, maybe the best shot show on television right now.

Lost is over. We started and finished it this year and it was very bittersweet. The show took some weird turns but overall it’s such a great piece of pop-culture and I’m glad we have it.

30 Rock might seem like a strange pick for the top 5, but what can I say, this show just makes me happy. It’s consistent and smart and funny. It’s really the most TV you can get for your 24 viewing minutes per episode.

I have to at least mention Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I used to be a big anime fan, but grew out of it in some ways because the new stuff is so silly. FMA is really my favorite anime series ever. The storytelling is so rich and the adventure is palpable. If you’re a fan of anime or cartoons this is a MUST watch.

Top 10 Films of 2010

How To Train Your Dragon
The Social Network
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
True Grit
Black Swan
Kick Ass
Inception
Let Me In
Exit Through The Gift Shop
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

I didn’t get to see quite as many films as I wanted this year, but what I did see I really loved for the most part. How To Train Your Dragon simply blew me away. I didn’t expect such high quality from Dreamworks but they have caught up with Pixar with this film. Social Network was so well done and compelling and I was elated to finally hear a Trent Reznor scored film. Scott Pilgrim embodies every important aspect of geek culture and does it with blistering eye-candy and effects that you have never experienced before. True Grit does for westerns what Batman Begins did for superhero movies, bravo. Black Swan is dark and beautiful, excellent filmmaking by Aronofsky.

Step Into Photoshop

What is it?
My 2-day bootcamp on Photoshop!

Why Photoshop?
From page layouts to 3D rendering, Photoshop is the Swiss Army knife of the creative world. There is almost nothing you can’t do with this amazing tool!

What will I learn?
By the end of the class, you’ll be comfortable with Layers, Text tools, Brushes, Actions… all the basics that you need to work in Photoshop. You’ll be able to design a clean, quality logo, and lay out business cards and other designed materials. You’ll experiment with templates and gain an understanding of color space and printing processes. Then we’ll delve into photo retouching and image manipulation.

Bonus!
On day two, my wife Anne will end the class with a couple hours of Lightroom training.

What do I need to participate?
You will need your own computer (either a laptop or desktop), along with Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5. You can download FREE 30-day trials of both. Click HERE for the Lightroom 3 trial, and HERE for the Photoshop CS5 trial.

What’s the schedule?
Friday, February 25 – 8pm: We’ll have a little mixer with all the class participants. What’s the point of a bunch of cool people coming together if we don’t hang out?
Saturday, February 26 – 10am: Up ‘n’ at ’em! We’ll get started after breakfast on Friday morning, break for a late lunch, then come back for a few more hours of computer time.
Sunday, February 27 – 10am: Much the same as Day 1, but with the added bonus of some Lightroom training after the lunch break.

What does it cost?
The class is $499 per person. If you register in November, it’s only $425!
Beverages and snacks will be provided throughout the day. (Lunch is on you, so feel free to brown-bag it, or we’ll find some sweet local spot to chow down at.)

Where is this awesomeness happening?
Right here in Atlanta, GA! Once we have a full class roster, we’ll finalize the exact location.

How do I register?
E-mail us at hello@danandanne.com, and we’ll send you the registration link. We’re keeping the class size small, so register early!

Captivating

These are a series of mockups that I did for an attendee of our workshop (and mother of a former wedding client) Leisa DeThomas. Leisa and her daughter Kristen are starting their very own wedding photography company called “Captivating, Inc.” and they’re trying to come up with a logo.

These designs were mostly an exercise, showing Leisa how to use Photoshop to design logos and vary the concepts to show off different aspects of your taste and personality. I liked them a lot so I posted them here.

Leisa is on her way to making her own logo, so these will likely be “concepts” forever. In any case check out Leisa’s Flick page and show her some comment love for all of her stellar photos!

Life Sandwich

I’ve been working behind the scenes with my good friend Dan Wilburn, who’s developing a new “animated” comedy series called “Life Sandwich”.

This piece is just a promo for the show, but we wanted to come up with an art style that blended some South Park style paper cut-outs with photographs. I really liked the idea of using crumpled newspaper as the medium and I think it suits the overall feel of the show.

Right now the show is stuck in development limbo, so no official word on when it’s going to be released, but I’ll be sure to post about it as soon as it does!

The Best Shows You’ve Never Seen – Part 2

If you are remotely in my age group then you are a Terminator fan on some level. I was such a huge Arnold Schwarzenegger fan growing up in the eighties that all you had to do was make him a killer cyborg and I was indefinitely enamored with him. I did not however expect the epic grandeur that was James Cameron’s T2: Judgement Day, and it was my favorite movie/story for many years following.

So… without further hesitation, the other TV show I want to talk about is Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (FOX – Fridays 8PM)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (or TSCC from here on out) is not a James Cameron creation, however it stays true to the story of T:2 and picks several years after the film left off in 1999. TSCC follows a teenage John Connor (Thomas Dekker) and his mother Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) as they focus on stopping Skynet from ever happening while trying to stay out of the path of any machines sent back to kill John.

The Best Shows You’ve Never Seen – Part 1

Network television is in a sad state right now. In the aftermath of the popularity of Tivo, and now streaming sites like Hulu, there just isn’t as big of a push for live viewership as there was when television was in it’s golden-age. Ad revenue for these conglomerates is dropping like flies and that translates into punishment for writers and viewers of great television shows.

Nowadays, a show that gets 3 million viewers might scrape by and make it 2 seasons before getting cancelled, and such is the case with the two shows I want to bring to your attention, the first show is called Life.

Life (NBC – Wednesdays 9PM)

I don’t know how else to put this except to say Life is a great show. The premise of Life is really original. A cop named Charlie Crews goes to jail for a murder he didn’t commit. He is cleared 12 years later by DNA evidence and goes back to the LAPD as a detective… and oh, he’s been given $50 million dollars for his troubles.