I won’t bother to post links to all the great discussions on the topic since Apple introduced the iPad with what seems to be a lack of support for the Flash plug-in. I’m personally on the fence as Flash developer myself, but that’s not the topic of this post.

The sad truth is that we as developers don’t have much say at all in the tools that are chosen for web projects. I don’t know how many meetings I’ve been in where I’ve suggested minimizing flash elements and replacing them with CSS/Javascript but the end result is always the same. Compressed timelines and client expectations for pixel-perfect representations of the presented designs always lead to Flash.

“Flash will stick around because it’s the tool of choice for multimedia artists, illustrators, animators, and graphic designers. Not everyone is a coder.”

This is the comment by Carlos Nazareno from a great discussion on the topic that really got me thinking about why Flash has stuck around for so long.

The huge advertising agencies of the world have and will continue to keep flash alive in rich media advertising and promotional microsites. This is not a statement about the capabilities of HTML5/JS/CSS versus Flash, it’s more a comment on the fact that the technology decisions in these agencies are dictated by creatives not developers.

Big advertising is married to Flash because of browser consistency and motion graphics-style capabilities. Creatives are dictating how this work is being produced and the vast majority of them don’t even know what HTML5 is. If developers were making these decisions it would be a different story and the sites winning awards would be actually utilizing bleeding-edge technology.

And it’s not just the decisions of creatives, Apple, Adobe or Google that will choose the fate of Flash. Think about every corporation that has invested millions into their flash-based projects such as Club Penguin, McWorld, ClubBK or Farmville. Or the enormous market for rich media banner advertising. Does anyone really think these folks are going to change what they’re doing because it doesn’t show up on an iPad? For many of these multi-player gaming sites there actually is no alternative to Flash available. Will Disney shut down Club Penguin because it’s not supported on an iPad? I don’t think so.

Apple is playing a bit of a dangerous game of chicken here. Consumers will blame the hardware first for any shortcomings. An average user who visits their favorite Flash-based website will sooner blame the iPad for “not working”. But I that’s a topic for another blog post…

For me, as a Flash developer myself I actually would love to see this turn of events make a major change in Adobe’s strategy for interactive web technologies. Maybe Adobe will make a push to support a standards-based platform that doesn’t require a browser plug-in to replace Flash. I would love to see it. But as long as “Big Advertising” continues to buy volume licenses of the Flash IDE en masse and their employees continue to push it on the large corporations of the world, Adobe has little motivation to do anything of the sort and Flash will continue to live on whether we (as developers) like it or not.

The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
There’s been a lot a talk about this one. It’s definitely a pleasant surprise from a band that really seemed to have run out of fresh ideas.

Jim O’Rourke – The Visitor
I read in an interview with Jim O’Rourke that he no longer owns a stereo. This seems to be one of the most pretentious statements from a guy with a history of being pretentious. It seems like this may have been good thing though. He’s picked up right where is last pop-oriented albums left off.

Karl Blau – 96
I didn’t know anything about Karl Blau until I heard this record. Apparently he’s been putting out records for a while in several different styles. This one is kind of a lo-fi, bedroom R&B jam.

Bowerbirds – Upper Air
Simple, earnest folk tunes backed up with minimal rhythm section. They basically created a 2nd, better version of their first record for their sophomore.

Blues Control - Local Flavor
I don’t think I can really sum this one up in a few sentences. Somehow kind of has the vibe of Robert Wyatt’s Rock Bottom without really sounding anything like it at all.

Tortoise – Beacons Of Ancestorship
This seems to be the year for fresh new stuff from bands that either broke up or had gone stale (i.e. Dinosour Jr., Polvo, Flaming Lips). Tortoise comes back doing what they do well and keeping it engaging throughout the entire listen.

William Fowler Collins – Perdition Hill Radio
Very organic sounding noise collages. Some if the most accessible ambient noise I’ve heard in a while.

Circulatory System – Signal Morning
This is a pretty concise album compared to other Circulatory System stuff or even going back to Olivia Tremor Control. The outcome is a pretty darn listenable album that’s short enough to digest without becoming overwhelming.

Jon Hassell – Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street
The best example of carrying the torch of 70s electric Miles I’ve probably ever heard, stylistically and in spirit.

Oneida – Rated O
This is not a ranked list, but I could safely say this is my favorite record of 2009. Onieida did not hold back on this one with a triple album’s worth of relentless droning riffs–part metal, psych, garage and even some dancehall thrown in. This album has not left my iPhone all year and “Ghost in the Room” was practically on repeat the whole time.

Papercuts – You Can Have What You Want
I got kinda hooked on these guys after seeing them open for Vetiver at the Chopin Theater. Very intimate show. This isn’t my favorite album of theirs but it still stayed in pretty heavy rotation this year.

Double Dagger – More
Kind of a mix between Shellac and Fugazi with a bit of Steve Reich thrown in. Great record, but I miss the songs about typography.

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion
We all know it’s a great record, so probably best to just read one of the other thousand year-end top lists for a more eloquent review.

Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
Here’s another that made quite a few lists this year. I was really hoping this would be as good as it turned out to be. I played Rise Above to death a couple years back and had a hunch their next record was going to expand and perfect that sound. Indeed it did.

What’s interesting to me is that this seems to be a very concious marketing decision. Take for example a film like Year One. Is there really any reason why the typography should be set in a modern sans serif font in bright red? Wouldn’t some sort of ancient-looking script font or at least something inspired by the time period be more appropriate? It really seems to cheapen a movie when they go for this type of eye-grabbing effect. It’s no wonder most of the films that get this treatment end up being stinkers: the filmakers don’t have much faith in the film to start with. I can imagine some film executive saying, “You know what it needs? Big red type. That’s what sells a movie.”

If you have any doubt, here’s some examples to illustrate the point:

Most of the tracks started out as processed samples using Klaus Filip’s lloop which runs on MAX/MSP. Each idea was processed and remixed several times in different softwares over the course of 5 years.

The music was originally inspired by ‘glitch’ music of the early 2000’s such as Christian Fennesz and Bernhard Günter. I can’t say whether it’s aged terribly well, but I still enjoy listening to these tunes on occasion.

Here they are for your listening pleasure:

Usability:

Cat:

All Rain:

Fugi:

Thomas:

Complete:

Goodbye:

Good advice.

Sunset on Roosevelt.

Hard to make out from the glare, but this is a great mural on the wall of a salon in the west loop.

I eat graphics for breakfast and right now I’m very hungry.

Clean minimal design on a rusted out train car.

It’s my party.

Blago running. These started popping all over the city. There was another one of him building a camp fire.

This was the change machine at Brunswick Zone. It must be at least 25 years old. I love the ambiguous president portrait.

Maya’s dog drawing.

]]> http://www.andrewrench.com/?feed=rss2&p=125 2 http://www.andrewrench.com/?p=120 http://www.andrewrench.com/?p=120#comments Fri, 05 Jun 2009 03:42:36 +0000 Andrew http://www.andrewrench.com/?p=120 Congratulations to Occidental Brothers Dance Band Internation for scoring a 7.6 on Pitchfork!

As cool as that is alone, I gotta say it was extra cool to see the album cover on the home page which was designed by yours truly…

Here’s a couple shots of it “in action”:

The Papercuts set felt a bit short, but that’s really my only complaint. They were really the highlight of the evening in many ways. Here’s their set:

Vetiver was a real treat to see live. Andy Cabic’s backing band was really tight and had a great overall vibe. Andy Cabic is a great performer and really shines in a live setting. Here’s their set:

Well, I don’t have time to write that app. Maybe someday I will, but for now I can use MyFonts Surprise Me. Following this link will open a random font’s page on myfonts.com:

Surprise Me

It’s pretty fun and has the added bonus that my dream app doesn’t have: introducing you to fonts you don’t have. So to make it even more fun and give me more opportunies to be distracted from work I’ve set the Surprise Me link as my Firefox default home page. Now every time I fire up my browser or open a new browser window I get introduced to a random font. Sometimes an old friend, other times someone new.

I spent the whole ride home trying to get close enough to get a decent shot of the side of the trailer. Here’s the best one I could get:

UPDATE:
I guess I’m not the only one who’s into truck graphics…

I gotta say, they are a great band to see live. I like their record, but I feel like it doesn’t really do them justice. They come across kind of lazy and laid back on record which isn’t bad, but live they are super tight and cohesive and have this great raw emotional energy that comes across much more aggressive feel.

Also, I got the chance to try out my new toy that Jessica got me for my birthday: the Zoom H2 handheld digital recorder. The H2 is really awesome. It’s about the size of a large cell phone and it has 2 built-in stereo mics (that’s right, it could record surround sound if you wanted to). It records digitally to an SD card in WAV and MP3 format. And it’s super easy to use. I literally opened the box and used it that night without direction.

I did run out of batteries about 3/4 into the set, but I was able to grab the first 45min. Here it is for your listening pleasure, enjoy:

* more like several