A Book Apart: HTML5 For Web Designers

Jeff — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:35:27 +0000

Got my shiny new copy of HTML5 For Web Designers by Jeremy Keith this week. I’ve slammed through most of the book already, it’s a quick read and beautifully designed. Perfect size for reading on-the-go or at lunch time. Distills the new info into very readable chunks, and offers clarity and opinions on the confusing nerd-war that is the W3C’s Standards Process.

Ten Best Albums of 2010 (So Far)

Jeff — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:55:54 +0000

The new year is more than halfway over and we’ve been treated to a swarm of great new songs, styles, and new takes on old favorite genres. There are plenty more albums I’ve been listening to from 2010 along with a lot of great holdovers from 2009. But these ten are the albums on which I concentrate the bulk of my time.

Ben Frost, By The Throat

Building tension forms in waves over clean electronics that degrade through the life of each song, the soundtrack to the best imaginary horror movie ever made.

Broken Bells, Self-Titiled

The Shins’ James Mercer teams up with Danger Mouse. Repeat: The Shins plus Danger Mouse. You need to drop what you’re doing and run—run—to the nearest internet hotspot so you can get your sweaty mitts on this album. It’s just as dusty/jangly/funky as you think it’s gonna be, plus 10% more.

The Joy Formidable, A Balloon Called Moaning

Riotous girl power pop with enough balls-to-the-wall noise to fill stadiums. TJF made their name touring with Passion Pit and Editors (and seem louder than both). Their effervescent thunder will make them underground faves soon enough.

MIA, Maya

When you think she can’t blow up any bigger, MIA drops her most listenable yet aggressively guitar-sampled album to date. Sample awesome lyric: “iPhone connected to the internet connected to the Google connected to the government.”

LCD Soundsystem, This Is Happening

Back with a dancefloor vengance and slightly freakin’ out, LCD Soundsystem goes a bit more uptempo and straightforward on album three. Slightly more raw with simpler foundational structures than Sounds of Silver, the songs feature introspective lyrics about the victories in everyday drama.

Sleigh Bells, Treats

Teeth-rattling loud hardcore guitars, gunblast beats swiped from the grimiest turntables, and a silky-voiced female lead as a dynamic foil to the breakbeats-set-on-Repeat. Sure, hipsters love them—but anyone who likes it loud needs to respect this album.

Local Natives, Gorilla Manor

Rollin’ hard with that whispery folk style, Local Natives drop a fresh take on the flavor that incorporates shiny guitar lines, semi-shouting harmonies, and uptempo drums to become less navel-gazing than some of their peers.

Wolf Parade, Expo 86

Montreal continues to represent in the indie rock scene as the lifers manning Wolf Parade come crashing back through the door fully recovered from their sophomore slump. Uptempo jams, quirky keyboard lines, soaring guitar lines and syncopated beats are in plentiful supply.

Gorillaz, Plastic Beach

Damon Albarn continues to mine new artistic avenues as the vocal half of the cartoon supergroup Gorillaz. Plastic Beach has a the same genre meshing feel set to overdrive. In the first few tracks we jump from chamber music to disco to reggaetron to cereal commercials, banging beats tying it all together effortlessly.

The National, High Violet

You can’t front on how depressed Matt Berninger gets. And yet the man cranks out amazing jams nonstop in that gloomy state. “Bloodbuzz Ohio” is one of many instant classics in an album custom-built for pairing with biting whiskey and girlfriend breakups.

The Horrors of (Browser) War

Jeff — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 04:12:13 +0000

I was part of the Box Model Browser Wars, man. I was in the shit.

Now The 5-Star General of CSS wants to lead us to victory once again.

“We ought to praise vendors for using prefixes, and indeed encourage them to continue. Beyond that, I hold that prefixes should become a central part of the CSS standardization process. I do this not for the love of repetition, but out of a desire to see CSS evolve consistently. I believe that prefixes can actually accelerate the advancement and refinement of CSS.”

Click here to get your marching orders.

I Like The Leica X1 Box

Jeff — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 17:16:39 +0000

Superb package design.

Champagne Redesigns

Jeff — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 19:58:18 +0000

Everyone’s favorite zero-attitude beer has refreshed their packaging to clean up and accentuate their brand heritage. Looks really nice.

C76Blog :: Jeff Cenna