Perfect video for site called Monkey Time, eh?

Oh my, it feels like a brand new day. I just moved this site to Media Temple on one of their Grid server (gs) accounts. I couldn’t be happier. A couple of snafus on my part getting the account set up, but christ on fire, this site seems so much snappier now. Or maybe that’s my concurrent move to WordPress, away from Movable Type

Been using WordPress as a CMS for a couple clients, and I’m thrilled with how easy it is to set and run. Just seems natural and intuitive to me — which is a far cry from most content systems I’ve played with and been forced to swallow over the last couple of years.

OK, so I really like Beck’s new album, The Information. I especially like that it comes with a blank CD booklet, witth only gridlines on it, plus a packet of stickers, so you can create your own, personalized, customized booklet.

I bought the album at Best Buy last night, and ooh, cool, there’s a bonus song that you can download. “This Girl That I Know” by Beck. But shit, it’s in WMA format with DRM, so I can’t use it on my Mac.

But that’s cool. You can strip off the DRM, and then convert it to MP3. Here’s how:

1. Download the song from Beck.com
2. Download FairUse4WM. It’s free! (Yeah, I’m sorry. It’s a Windows only program. Couldn’t find anything to do this on my Mac.)
3. Use FairUse4WM to strip out the DRM.
4. OK, good so far, but it’s still in WMA (asf) format. Need to convert it to MP3.
5. Download FFMpegX and follow their installation instructions. It’s free!
6. Use FFMpegX to convert the WMA file to MP3 format.
7. Drag your shiny new MP3 file into iTunes, and re-enter the meta info.

Et voila! You’re done.

OK, this fits my impression of designers and the graphic design industry perfectly. It’s a story from Michael Bierut’s first job internship.

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There’s a great interview with Michael Bierut over at Adaptive Path. Michael’s the former president of AIGA, and a frequent critic of business as usual in the design world.

It’s a dirty secret that much of what we admire in the design world is a byproduct not of “strategy” but of common sense, taste and luck. Some clients are too unnerved by ambiguity to accept this, and create garganuan superstructures of bullshit to provide a sense of security.

I love it when designers at least talk about holding themselves accountable, rather than having “an almost allergic reaction to demonstrating explicit business value”.