Friday, December 19, 2008

Snowfall Earth

Any Sunrise Earth fans out there? Here's a little Snowfall Earth from North Haven today.

Albums x 5

Every day at 1:30 (like clockwork) I hear the UPS truck coming around the parking lot here. There are days he delivers to my door and days like today he beeps and pulls up to my garage. Besides the last minute deliveries for Christmas orders, he had 6 albums for me! One of them I'm keeping for a studio demo.

I use a little known album company called Album ML, formally known as Memory Link. There's a lot of album companies out there, and I do use a few others, but Album ML has been so consistent, puts out such a great product, and they are so easy to deal with. I thought I would take a few shots of what came in today.



These are the 3 main album covers that my clients like to order. The middle one is a clear acrylic with a designed image under it. It really makes the colors pop and gives me a lot of freedom to do what we want with the cover. The back left is all black leather with a custom cut out. The back right is a piece of metal with a color image printed down the side.


Here's a close up of the acrylic.


Another acrylic with a different design.


Yet another acrylic with another different design


It's a good thick piece of really clear acrylic.


A nice smooth piece of metal. I like it better than the brushed look.


Here's the black leather with a custom sized cutout and the clients names and date imprinted into the leather.


Their bindings are really nice and lay flat. The pages are three layers each. The white, black, and white is a single thick page. I think it looks nice when you're looking at the album sitting out. I've only had one person gild the edges so they are completely black.


Here's a close up of the binding. It's just a bump across the seam.


Album ML just released a new presentation box that's so much better than they used to have. It's a good sturdy black leather-like box with stitching.




The stitching around the box.


The magnetic flap.


The inside is lined with a velvet like material.


To my clients seeing their album here, they will be mailed out on Saturday! You should have them by Christmas.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

O Holy Night

This year Kelley and I handed out a few mix CD's of our favorite Christmas music to friends at a party we went to. One track in particular I'm sure not many people have heard before, but it's the one track I can play over and over. It's a rendition of O Holy Night by an insane jazz musician known as Trombone Shorty. I'm not an emotional person per say, but this one song just makes you feel how fortunate you are. When this song goes on I usually have to stop what I'm doing and stop thinking about whatever is going on in my head.

There is one reason why this song brings so much emotion to me. There was a show on NBC not too long ago called Studio 60 (On The Sunset Strip). I honestly thought it was by far one of the best shows on television. Maybe it's because I used to work in tv studios and it reminded me of that. But, apparently, 30 Rock was doing better for NBC and Studio 60 got cancelled. Before it was canned, there was the Christmas episode where Trombone Shorty played O Holy Night with a jazz group from New Orleans. They played in front of images of the destruction in New Orleans. You may have to know the show to understand parts of this clip, but the song and the images were amazing. The part that gets me is this one sign that says what someone wants for Christmas, so heart breaking. For me it was one of the most amazing moments in television that I've ever seen and I just can't forget.

So with that said, Here's the only clip I could find on YouTube that has the dialogue in it which makes the clip complete. It also has some guys info on it since he has it posted, just ignor that. Oh, and if anyone can't figure out what to get me for Christmas, the complete series of Studio 60 on DVD would be awesome. Enjoy the clip:

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Skittles Texas Holdem



This is what happens when you have a deck of cards and the poker chips aren't around. You find an alternative. A bag of Skittles. I ate about $50 while we played.