All posts in thinking

749 Words / 4,405 Characters / 00:03:44 Reading Time

If I had to sum up 2013 in a word, it would be grateful. For the labels who released my music, for the professional opportunities that presented themselves, for the life-changing time I spent living in Europe, for the support throughout by my family, friends and colleagues – I am incredibly grateful. Thank you.

Here are some highlights from the past year.

Life

• Got Hitched – On March 30th I married my love, Michelle. In the words of Humphrey Bogart, here’s looking at you kid.
• Moved to Europe – Took a job with Soundcloud and moved to Berlin, Germany to lead their Product Design team. While there, did loads of travel – Amsterdam, Munich, Prague, Paris, and London. You should definitely read about our time on Michelle’s travel blog, Funny Duchess.
• Offline Connections – Had a wonderful time meeting and deepening friendships with online friends Christoph Berg, Heine Christensen, Brendan Codey and his lovely wife, Julie (oh, and their gray tabby Nico, though, I never knew him online).
• New Friends – Met incredible people during my time abroad. To name but a few: Roman & Laurel of Shakespeare & Sons; Christine, Ralph, and Jen of the “Raumerstrasse Writers”; Mike, Kasper, Marcus, Luis, Sarah, James, Eileen, Monal, Tiffany, Gerrit, and Luise of my design team at Soundcloud; Amir, Jami, Matas, Jean, Diana, Sophie, Leona, and countless others throughout Soundcloud, Berlin, and the places I visited while in Europe.
• Published Interview – The wonderful Smashing Magazine published an interview with me, entitled Be Humble, Be Honest, Don’t Be Afraid To Fail. If you’re interested in listening to me wax poetic about life, design, inspiration, and more, then please have a read. Special thanks to Leona Hu for speaking with me and making this possible.
• Moved (Back) to America – A confluence of events led to a bittersweet early departure from Europe and back to the states. Let it be said that moving internationally twice in a year is no joke.

Work

• NPR Music iPad App – I am still on cloud nine because my design work for this app was recognized as a 2013 Communication Arts Interactive Annual Winner as well as a Webby Award Nominee and a People’s Voice Award Nominee. Incredibly honored!
• Soundcloud – A bunch of work I started while in Berlin will be shipping very soon. I cannot wait to see it all in the wild and to share more with you once it is live.
• Caffè Lena History Project – Worked closely with folklorist and dear friend, Jocelyn Arem, on some print design and layout work for her newly published book, “Caffè Lena: Inside America’s Legendary Folk Music Coffeehouse”. Out now on Powerhouse Books.
• NPR Digital Listening – NPR is pushing forward into the digital frontier and we need your help to guide us along the way. Become a part of our mobile beta testing group to preview new listening options we are working on.

Music

• The Pace of Which – My third solo album was released exactly a year ago (on my birthday) on the wonderful Twice Remembered, Twice Removed record label. The limited edition CD-r copies sold out quickly (thanks!) but you can still grab yourself a digital copy.
• Twenty Three and Twenty Six – My short EP of improvisations using my Teenage Engineering OP-1 mini-synthesizer was released free as part of the “Places” series over at A Strangely Isolated Place.
• The Dwindlers – Continued recording towards our third album. Big plans are in the works. Stay tuned!

Looking Ahead

• Travel – I am planning trips out West to visit family, to New England for respite and fresh seafood, to Ireland for paper-making and traditional cheesy pancakes, and to Umbria with friends because, well, it’s Italy!
• Work / Life Balance – Continuing to learn how to say “no” and nourishing side projects. My job, as much as I love it, is but one facet of how I define myself.
• Health – Work harder at bringing exercise into my daily routine. I am older now and I need to take this seriously.
• Reading – Continue to work my way through some of the “classics” I’ve never read before.
• Music – In addition to my work on The Dwindlers, I have a couple of exciting collaborations in the works, as well as new solo material that will all see the light of day this year.

In conclusion, I’d like to thank you all for your continued support – online and off, in reading or listening, in friendship or collaboration – I am grateful for it.

Until next time, I hope everyone has a creative new year!

826 Words / 4,952 Characters / 00:04:07 Reading Time

As I turn another year older today (yesterday) I wanted to share some highlights from the past year which, upon reflection, was busier than I’d initially remembered.

Work

• NPR Music iPad App – After 7+ months of intense design & development, we released! To celebrate the launch, NPR Music held a live concert in NYC featuring The Shins.
• NPR Infinite Player – Affectionately dubbed “the Pandora of News”, we launched the next rev of our smarter listening experience, tailored to your personal interests.
• NPR for Android – Made significant revisions to our app and pushed into the tablet market, including the new line of Amazon Kindles.
• NPR for Connected Cars – Still in progress but look forward to making some announcements this year.
• NPR for Connected Televisions – Also still in progress but look forward to making some announcements this year.
• Caffé Lena History Project – Worked closely with folklorist, Jocelyn Arem, on some print design and layout work. Lots of exciting news to announce on this front very soon.
• Smithsonian Institution – Designed a mobile app for visually-impaired individuals in conjunction with one of their ongoing exhibitions.

Music

• Disquiet Junto – Contributed to this phenomenal project as often as I could. While there weren’t as many submissions as I’d have liked, I am proud of every one I managed to make.
• The Dwindlers – We released our 2nd album, “Allegories”, began performing out as a duo, and started recording our 3rd album which we hope to press to vinyl later this year.
• Save the Pollinators – Sadly, this project has not been as successful as we’d hoped. For us this is such an important cause and we really want to put artistic energy toward raising awareness and improving the situation. We’re not giving up and in the coming year we have plans for new ways to draw attention to this project.
• SoundClouder of the Day and SoundCloud Hero, Washington, DC – My contributions to the Disquiet Junto and my work with Save the Pollinators led to some pretty exciting recognition from SoundCloud. Looking forward to what this next year brings.
• The Pace of Which – I completed work on my third solo album that, through serendipitous timing, was released on my birthday and is now available in digital and limited edition CD-r varieties.
• Twenty Three and Twenty Six – I completed a short EP of improvisations using my Teenage Engineering OP-1 mini-synthesizer and am happy to announce it will be released soon as part of the “Places” series over at A Strangely Isolated Place.

Life

• Milestone Anniversary – Celebrated 10 yrs w/Michelle whom I still adore to this day.
• NH Vacation – As part of that celebration, we spent some time running around New England. We’re smitten and plan to return to the area more often.
• FL Vacation – Got to watch my niece graduate high school with honors. Super proud of her.
• NC Vacation – Got to watch a dear friend return to dancing after years of not being able to move, suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome.
• Offline Connections – Got to meet online friends, Team Parris, in person for the first time and bring them to that aforementioned awesome party in NYC with The Shins.
• Online Connections – Too many to mention, but this past year was really great in terms of making new friends and collaborative partnerships. You know who you are – thank you.
• Rdio and Buying Music – Since joining in 2011, I’ve had a return to my audiophile roots. As a result, I have bought more music in 2012 (on vinyl) than in the previous 5 years.
• Photography – While I thoroughly enjoy shooting with my iPhone, I have been wanting to take photographs of the world more closely akin to how I see it – single point of focus. So, I’ve bought a new camera (Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1 + Pancake Lens) and am just getting started.
• Health – A short while ago I began experiencing a heart murmur that was causing shortness of breath. After doctor/cardiologist appointments I am pleased to say it was benign and I am in great health (low blood pressure, normal heart in sound/structure). We think it was caused by an extended period of insomnia.

Looking Ahead

• Travel – I’d like to do more, a lot more, and maybe even jumping the pond.
• Time Management / Life Balance – Learning to say ‘no’.
• Biking – I’d like to do more, a lot more.
• Photography – I’d like to continue capturing the world around me and learning the language/rules so I can more purposefully bend and break them.
• Writing – I’d like to do more, both personal journaling and blog posts (many of these bullets are blog-posts-in-waiting).
• Sleep – I need to continue to nourish a healthy sleeping habit so my body can heal itself naturally.

Lastly, I’d like to just say thank you all for your continued support – online and off, in reading or listening, in friendship or collaboration – I truly appreciate it.

I hope everyone has a creative new year!