I’ve heard great things about this guy. Wow, I’m impressed. Just when I start questioning what I am doing, I’m gonna watch this video.

I know.  A link to a video in a blog post instead of an actual embeded video is cheesy.  But if you are a regular reader of the Multimedia Misfit, you know that sometimes that’s how I roll, dog.

This week the Open Source convention OSCON 2008 is in town and together with the recent release of the iPhone 3G, mainstream media is taking notice of technology and business.  In a report titled “Your Money, Your Business: Old iPhones Selling For New Prices Online”, KGW Newschannel 8 reporter Joe Smith interviews @ravenzachary, @jabancroft, and @turoczy about iPhones old and new.

Link to Video

Why would any self-proclaimed website designer like myself use a WordPress blog template? The answer is easy. Because they do a pretty darn good job of designing their blog sites and that frees me up to concentrate on content. Besides, the type of website “design” I do is not really pure. By that I mean that I don’t usually start with a blank page, lay it all out, write the code and attach a CSS file, etc. I usually start with a template in Adobe Dreamweaver , choose a color scheme (COLURlovers monitors and influences color trends), choose an appropriate font and start plugging in content. Choosing fonts for web use is easy. There are only about seven fonts that really work in all browsers, so I use one of them (Arial, Comic Sans MS, Georgia, Courier New, Tahoma, Times New Roman and Verdana). This is hotly debated among font nerds but trust me, these are best if you want everybody to be able to view your pages in all browsers. Remember, computers can only display the fonts that are installed on that computer. The average internet user does not have all of your fancy fonts installed on their computer.

Once I find appropriate places to put content, I go to town. Making graphics, finding and linking pages, writing, taking and optimizing photos, making animations, video editing and music are the fun things I like to do. It is usually pretty easy to insert these things into an html page.

When I run into any trouble with the inner workings of a page (often), I call upon my trusty sidekick, Robin (after all, I am Batman). She tidys up my mess and makes it all work. If my design isn’t working then it is easy to plug the content into a new design. This is also what having a WordPress blog site does for me. I can concentrate on content and leave the real design to the pros. I have designed a couple of pretty cool looking websites by slicing up a Photoshop document and importing it into Dreamweaver. There are many perils accociated with this method, so I warn against it. I will write about that in a future post.

Until I can get my hands on a copy of Adobe Thermo, or until someone throws a big pile of money my way, that’s how I roll, dog.

Hill Pig was the band I was in the last couple of years. Hill Pig was the greatest band that nobody every really saw or heard. The song is in this video is called “Carnivor” and was written by Jon Reinemann and the late Dave ‘Death’ Bjorkland. Jon Reinemann is on the drums and vocals, Kelly Brown on rhythm guitar, Lance Denny on lead guitar and myself on bass. I have some footage of a few live shows but not much good live audio. What you hear is camera sound recorded at Outlaws Bar and Grill. What you see is footage from about three shows there plus some ripped-off footage of a Slipknot crowd at the beginning. Outlaws was on East Burnside in Portland, next door to Doug Fir Lounge. Not too bad of a place to play. Three stories tall, the top story was a strip club. They had a pretty decent stage, decent sound and great lights. The building is still there but is some other dive bar or something. We played a couple of mostly forgettable shows there, playing with Dirty Little Fingers,  AK47, Crazy Train and some others I can’t remember. Come to think of it, I’m not sure we got paid for the last gig we did there.

Someday I will render the footage of Hill Pig (then called Mean Visage) at SummerSlam 2006 and post it.  Read the Crave Magazine review and see our name on the cover of the mag, right below Zack Wylde (get out your magnifying glass!).  The video tape is Hi-8 and I don’t have a machine (or the camera) that I can render it with. SummerSlam was our first real gig together and it was a crazy outdoor festival with free camping, food and yes, free beer!! The footage of that is particularily cool because the background of the huge stage were the mountains of the Pacific Coast Range. Other video footage froma show at the Roseland is still missing, which sucks because it was probably our best live show, our best venue and our best crowd.  Brian Harrison from Dirty Little Fingers and who manages Clackamas Guitar Center asked us to play his wife’s 40th birthy bash at the Roseland.

Jono and I are still jamming together. This time I am playing drums and he is playing guitar and singing. I will keep you posted on that because it might yield some cool songs. We are recording some things now. I might also post some of the long-lost Hill Pig studio recordings. There is some really great stuff there. I may not have full permission yet, so we’ll see.