Hi, I’m Matthew Lettini. Welcome to my personal online home. This is where I keep my blog, design portfolio, and anything else you’d like to know about me. So read up, check out my work, or follow me on Twitter!
Favtape: my new favfriend. This summer a website named Muxtape emerged onto the scene that let you upload music tracks and create your own “internet mixtape” any user could listen to. It (very) quickly become uber popular. A search function appeared and within a few days you were able to find almost any song you wanted to listen to online quickly and easily. And mind you, you DON’T download the track, and there were options for where to buy the track.
However, recently the music industry caught up to its creator and put a stop to the wonderful free service that so many people used and relied on. People kinda felt lost, not wanting to revert back to their old, harder ways of finding music.
Enter Favtape. Favtape picks up where Muxtape left off. It has pretty much all the functionality and a similar look as Muxtape, but it adds more functionality. Now you can create a favtape from your last.fm or pandora loved tracks. Or create a favtape around a specific artist search. Amazing! There is also links now to lyrics and twittering and adding to your tape and much more.
Favtape still needs a good way to search others favtapes, as a big part of Muxtape was seeing other peoples’ music tastes and learning new music through their muxtapes. But what I really love is seeing other developers stepping in for a fallen ally. I hope this becomes a trend…if favtape falls lets see another, and another. As Justin says in his last Muxtape post:
The industry will catch up some day, it pretty much has to. – Justin
The screenshot you see above is actually a styling I did of Favtape. As awesome as it is, the look of the site was slightly off-the-wall and too much pink, so if you’d like my cleaned up version using Stylish if you have Firefox, load it here.
This is my first mp3 post, but it won’t be my last. As a musician (drummer/guitarist) music is pretty much my life, and learning about new bands is a small hobby of mine. Luckily I have (cute) ties to my local college Radio Station and get plenty of new stuff.
Here’s whats been in my jukebox lately…
Tim Fite - Fair Ain’t Fair
Folk with attitude, this album boils up some funky rhythms, folk, blues and some hiphop, and serves it cold and in your face.
Port O’Brien - All We Could Do Was Sing
Now this is the type of music I can get behind. Joyous rock with great riffs, and totally dance-able (even while sober).
The Mae Shi - HillyH
Its a little late to jump on the Mae Shi bandwagon, but this track reminds me of Port O’Brien’s and I wanted to keep a pattern going. More electronic but just as fun.
MP3: The Mae Shi - Run To Your Grave
I’m a sucker for new technologies, and The Fitbit looks like a new favorite toy. It’s similar to the Nike+Ipod in that it tracks how far you go, how many calories you burn, etc…except this goes further and tracks it ALL DAY, EVERY DAY. You just keep it on you, and when you get near your computer it wirelessly transmits all the data it has collected since the last wireless transmit. This data is then uploaded to your Fitbit website, where you can track everything. So it will tell you that you lost 0 calories sitting in your cubicle at work, but don’t feel bad because you lost a few when you walked to your car!
But seriously, this thing might actually be the motivation some of us have been wanting for awhile. It seems unobtrusive to me to throw in your pocket or clip it to yourself all day long. Then while your tracking yourself, you’ll start to realize the exercise your missing out on and hopefully that will motivate you. Oh, and it also tracks how long you sleep and your sleep movements/patterns. Pretty neat.
Website says these should be available by the end of the year…hopefully they will roll out before the holidays so I can ask for it as a present.
I just posted an entry on Robert Hodgin’s Magnetosphere, which I’ve known of for I believe over a year now, but I never followed up and checked out his other stuff. But making that post today reminded me to check his blog, and I found this video. It’s his submission for a Radiohead contest making another video in Processing. It’s an energy ball falling to the bottom (like lyrics) of the sea which dynamically reacts to the song. It’s beautiful work; watch the whole thing.
Follow the link to read up on how he did it and what he had to go through, and see more of his mind-exploding work.
This is Magnetosphere, an effect created using Processing. It reacts to sound volume and speed. Trentemoller audio is pretty much the perfect medium to send into this effect, with the slow melody and build up. It’s pretty captivating and I invite all to watch.
Here’s some good news: They created an itunes visualizer out of it! Download it hereEdit: Looks like this is the new visualizer added in iTunes 8. Comes built in. I feel like I was ahead of the curve =P
Pas Encore is a semi-new medium dubbed a “Videosong.” The two rules for a videosong are:
1. What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice).
2. If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds).
Pomplamoose is a collaboration between artist Jack Conte and artist/girlfriend Natalie Dawn. It means grapefruit in French. But names and rules aside, they make beautiful music together. The chemistry and musical styles blend smoothly for something that is both unique and satisfying. I hope they find the time to write many new songs, get bigger, and stick with this project for a long time.
New (first?) video for former-Jurassic5’s Cut Chemist. I was playing this track on my radio show about 2 years ago when it first came out. Shot entirely with a 360 camera. Trippy video to go along with some sick beats. Awesome. Check it.
Before seeing, or better yet, making a decision to see Tropic Thunder, I’ve gotten multiple and mixed reviews on the film. Opie & Anthony on morning radio claimed it was some of the best cinema they’ve seen in awhile. Jon Stewart of the Daily Show claimed the movie was so great, that with added Tom Cruise it almost made him convert to Scientology. Now mind you, both these comedians are friends of Stiller’s, but there were also a few more film reviews around the net giving this movie somewhere in the vicinity of ‘ok’ to ‘pretty good.’ With that said, there have also been a number of reviews claiming it’s a crock of shit. Throw ‘em in a pot and out comes the notion “don’t hype this movie to be great like the marketing, but you might think it’s good.”
Not exactly a great review of the film, but that’s how I went into it when my friend asked to see it and I had nothing better to do…and it was great because I did that. Full review after the jump.
I had a few ideas for starting my own clothing company (like everybody else). I would also like to venture it into some industrial design. For now, here’s a logo I mocked up to get me started. More info on that to come. Game - take a guess where the name comes from.
Tim Fite - Fair Ain’t Fair
Port O’Brien - All We Could Do Was Sing
The Mae Shi - HillyH
