For the last few days I have been listening to a round up of music found and appreciated at this last year’s SXSW Music Festival, which I unfortunately did not attend. As I expected, the compilation had a little bit for everyone, and so I spent my those design hours either deleting tracks, or rating them for future listening.
And then Basia Bulat came on with her track In the Night, and I immediately visited a desire to go take a nighttime run through some summer field.
I rarely get extremely excited about music, but when I do, I tend to go overboard, as I did when Ms. Bulat started signing. Especially regarding music which I work to, I need it to be something I can pair with one of the following activities:
- Design something to, in my head
- Direct (film, stage or dance) something to, in my head
- Put a piece of my life to, likely highly romanticized, in my head
That is part of the reason that music resonates so much with me, when it does, is because it tends to kick my brain into overdrive, and especially when designing or photographing, it can land me in a place I was hardly expecting.
Probably somewhere closer to this place:
Of course, Basia Bulat is really only appropriate - like much music - for specific moments and moods. If you are looking for something with a little more voltage than Ms. Bulat, I would recommend another SXSW find to any designer: Anamanaguchi. Entertaining, to say the least. I think I would enjoy the live show.
Free Coffee From New York
A few weeks ago I won a contest on Café Eclectica Music, and today I got my prize: a free copy of Landon Pigg’s Coffee Shop, and accompanying whole bean coffee.
I’m not super familiar with Landon Pigg, but between his CD and the coffee, I know what I’ll be doing this Saturday morning. Plus, it is the 2nd time in two days I have gotten physical mail from a web site or blog, and it’s already apparent to me why more companies and web sites should be breaking that “wall” of the internet.
Kyle runs a great little blog over at Café Eclectica (despite using words like “obvs”), and very occasionally, he’ll send you free music and coffee.
