Listen: Beautiful podcast about Zen & Art featuring John Daido Loori, Roshi.

Just not a fan of the new lululemon advertising.

Very fantatic envato productivity site workawesome.com just published a new post I wrote on why everyone needs a manifesto. Give it a read and then write yourself one.

Here is an excerpt:

One really awesome way to give your personal productivity a nice boost is to get your very own manifesto. Not to be confused with the mission statement, a manifesto is like the mission statement’s tougher, cooler older brother or sister. The awesome one that everyone likes, everyone respects and everyone emulates because they’re totally punk rock and better than you at everything.

Don’t let the most famous manifesto dissuade you either. Yes, I know Karl Marx wrote one. But so did Guy Kawasaki, career renegade Jonathan Fields and designer Bruce Mau. In fact, there is a whole website dedicated to people’s manifestos on various topics ranging from change and achievement to creativity and how to give a compelling presentation.

A manifesto is a bold statement, or extended mantra, that sets a tone for your day, your career, heck, even your life. It’s a road map to awesomeness that should induce a surge of adrenaline pulsing through your body with each reading.

Read the rest of the post here. And then get to work.

I love the way this song swings. Great writing music, too.

There is an elegant solution for everything.

I just published a piece over at the very cool productivity site, WorkAwsome. Here is an excerpt:

Imagine stopping in the middle of a busy work day, kicking up your feet on your desk, sitting back, arms cradling the back of the head in daydream mode. Now imagine that this is one of the best things you could do in the course of a busy work day.
It’s okay, let them stare. Because the truth is that your blank stare at the wall is just what the mind needs to slow down, clear out some of the clutter and give the creative brain the opportunity to open up to better thinking, greater creativity and maybe even the next big idea.

Stop by the site and give the post a read. Give the rest of the site a read, too. You’ll find Work Awesome to be full of great work productivity tips. Plus, it’s a fun read.

The Hipstamatic App for iPhone is amazingly cool.

Just a quick mention: Den of Maniacs is out. Dan Wallace’s newest CD is filled with more great songs, interesting arrangements and tremendous performances including more guitar shredding than Dan has shown on previous releases.

Also of note for Dan Wallace fans is the new arrangement for his popular song, Fell. It’s one of the highlights of a CD with lots of really good moments.

This release is a bit more bold and experimental. But, anyone familiar with Dan’s music will be acquainted with the style and dynamics of the overall vibe of the disc. One particular mention goes to Morceau, a fun and oddly infectious song that reminds one of earlier pre-Pindrops days.

If you haven’t listened to any of Dan’s music yet, do so. He is one of the most innovative indie artists currently making music. His influences are vast and if you pay attention you can tease some of them out of the various songs. He’s also an amazing guitar player. Look At Me, the discs first track, should demonstrate this quite clearly.

You can find this CD via Dan’s website.

I’ve always loved the way Marty Neumeier thinks. ZAG is still my favorite book on brands. Now, Marty has a DVD available with his famous Innovation Workshop on it. This should be fantastic.

Plus, the Tool Kit includes a copy of his most recent book, The Designful Company which is also a really good read.

I worked on this a few years ago with my friend Vic Donati. He was comissioned to create a gig poster for the Tapes N Tapes show and we were kicking around a couple of ideas. At some point, we began reminiscing about vintage rock and a few of its more iconic elements. One of the first things that came to mind was Eddie Van Halen’s classic red guitar. We both remarked how it looked like he had simply covered it with tape and more tape.