Today, our pastor, Perry, returned to speak at New Spring. He's been out for the past month due to some sudden and serious medical complications.
We created a special message "series" (can you call it a series if it's just one?) called Life for his return. It was awesome. I'll post the rest of the visuals tomorrow, and you can listen to the sermon here.
The total attendance was 4,387. This was a New Spring record, (other than this past Easter, which was a special event with two Saturday night services, etc.). Awesome. Perry came onstage to a standing ovation for each of our four services.
We in production land had an especially great time. "Delay the service 15 minutes? What? The traffic is circling and there are so many people you can't move in the hallways? What?" That was us talking to people from downstairs. We pretty much decided to stay in the Production booth where the coffee was free flowing and we transcended the crowds. When the moments before church carry the same excitement as before a sporting event (what's THAT, exactly?), that's good stuff.
It feels like we've entered into a new era of New Spring, a pivotal point in our church's life. It's exciting to see God grow and shape the people in this ministry.
I know he's been shaping me, and I can see his work in the lives of those I serve with, too.
AVed at 7/31/2005 10:55:00 PM | LINK |
I was watching the Stash DVD today, and saw some great work by Stardust. They're my new motion graphics crush. Explore their site. I know, I know... I'm a Mac guy now and Stardust DID do the new Windows ads... still... good stuff. Hm... wonder what kind of computers they built those Windows ads on? Food for thought.
AVed at 7/30/2005 12:24:00 PM | LINK |
If you're a fan of industrial music and you're a computer music creator, why not try your hand at a remix yourself? Acid Planet, which offers great loops (and a free 8 pack each week) is sponsering a Nine Inch Nails remix contest. They give you the loops used on a popular NIN song, and you get to try your hand and recreating it.
I'm not a huge fan of Trent Reznor's lyrics, but he's quite the pioneer in quality industrial music. Maybe you'll see my remix up on the AV Club soon (or later, I'm pretty busy at the moment).
AVed at 7/30/2005 10:31:00 AM | LINK |
Not MY life, per se, but the completion of New Spring's Sunday series, LIFE. Four animated pieces + 2 click tracks (from previous services) + slides and all the trimmings... in 1.5 weeks. Not too shabby. Like to see the opener? Here you go:
Life Opener (Quicktime, 2.1 Mb)
(note, the heartbeat is very deep, and you may have to turn your speakers up a bit)
AVed at 7/28/2005 05:22:00 PM | LINK |
This phone belongs to the wonderful Ben Thomas. This poor item finds itself abandoned in many strange locations as Ben is prone to setting it free so it may see the world.
Here's the contest: the first person who can prove to me they are Ben Thomas gets this wonderful prize, complete with several preinstalled voicemails (that have been delivered over the past two days). Let the games begin.
AVed at 7/28/2005 01:23:00 PM | LINK |
There's a great article on the Church Marketing Sucks site right now called The Christian Imitation. It's worthy of a read. I prize creativity, originality; and I think God does, too. I know audiences do. How many times have I rolled my eyes at FOX or NBC for creating "yet another reality show, just like the last one, but with a few minor variations."
God gave us a mind, let's use the creativity to the full potential he's inspired.
(Addendum):
This is not to say that I don't enjoy a cleverly executed spoof as much as the next guy. Sometimes they can be fun and serve a purpose. Just don't let your creativity stop at "hey, can I duplicate that ad campaign word-for-word."
AVed at 7/28/2005 09:30:00 AM | LINK |
Here's the skinny on the new Mac.
(1) I haven't tweaked out the Kona capture card yet. It's fairly tricky to get your head around. Not a bad thing, it'll just take time.
(2) After Effects works wonderfully well. I just burned through the opener's render in a few minutes. It's really, really quick.
(3) The "Apple" key is confusing me. There's Alt, Shift, Control, AND Apple. The "Apple" acts like a PC's "Control," which is doubly confusing since there's already another Control. My head may explode.
(4) The dual 23" monitors are absolutely beautiful and easy on the eyes. I've been working on the opener all day long with just a lunch break and my eyes aren't watering or hurting in the least. With the previous PC's CRT monitor, I would start going cross-eyed after a few hours. This is much, much better.
(5) I haven't spent much time in Final Cut Pro yet. No opinion at this point.
(6) I'm getting close to putting that Apple sticker on my car. Not there yet, but closer.
And for the last time, it's a TOOL, not a TOY.
AVed at 7/27/2005 05:14:00 PM | LINK |
Please enjoy this.
AVed at 7/27/2005 02:23:00 PM | LINK |
Thanks to all who wrote in on Monday's post about the AV Club. I appreciate the suggestions (from giveaways, to album reviews, to "just keep it like it is"). Whether you commented, or e-mailed, I appreciate your feedback. We'll do this from time to time, OK? Keeps us locked in.
For today, nothing profound. However, if your office is getting dull, maybe you should build an office gun and start a revolution.
Music news: Benz released it's 8th Mixed Tape yesterday. Download away. I wasn't as impressed with version 7 that came out a few weeks ago. Hopefully version 8 will be much better.
As for AV Club news, I'm currently working on a special one-week message (as opposed to a full series) for Perry's return to preaching. The message is called "Life." For those unaware, our pastor was hospitilized about a month ago following complications from an elective surgery. He nearly died. The resulting impact on his life has been incredible, and I believe it will be one of those monumental moments in our church's history. If you live anywhere near Anderson, SC, you need to be here this Sunday. If not, you can download the mp3 from our site.
I'll post the opener as soon as it's done rendering (and I'm done building it). I think you'll like. I like.
AVed at 7/27/2005 10:46:00 AM | LINK |
I'm trying out a new Mac dashboard widget that allows me to post to the AV Club directly from the dashboard. We'll see how this works.
By the way, while I'm here, I'll tell you some interesting stats about by blog. I'm averaging 70 unique visitors each day. Who ARE you people?
Of you guys, 35% are browsing with Internet Explorer. About 5% are using Safari (hello, Mac friends), and the remaining 60% are using some form of Firefox. Good for you.
11% of you are using an 800x600 monitor, and the rest of you are using a much larger size.
My thought is this... who are you and why do you visit the AV Club? What about the AV Club keeps you coming back, and what do you want to see more of? Comment and let me know.
Speaking of that, I'd like to stir more discussion in the comment section (doesn't every blogger?). What can I offer you to get you to share, discuss, and generally make this place a fun place?
If you'd rather, email me.
AVed at 7/25/2005 10:03:00 AM | LINK |
Home Groups should not be boring. Keep it fun. Last Tuesday, we celebrated Christmas in July, complete with Christmas food, music, "White Elephant" gift party (I got a video tape called "So, you're thinking of having a prostate exam"), and the communal Santa hat.
AVed at 7/24/2005 10:21:00 PM | LINK |
I know I just said it last week, but Firefox has updated again (two updates in a week, top that Internet Explorer). Download Firefox 1.0.6 NOW!
Read the release notes, too.
AVed at 7/23/2005 09:41:00 AM | LINK |
If you're a coffee lover, read this.
AVed at 7/21/2005 06:11:00 PM | LINK |
Today is Shane's birthday. If you don't know Shane, you should. He's the best boss I've ever had. A Godly man with a great attitude who's goal is to enable our team to reach its full potential. Amazing.
Anyway, we in the Production Group (that's what I'm calling us) of New Spring have started a tradition of making very, very big deals out of birthdays. Why not? Birthdays are awesome, and a great opportunity to share with someone you love them.
We love Shane so much that Lee, Gizz, and I set up a three piece band in Shane's office early this morning, before he arrived to work. As he walked into his pink and green streamer frenzied room (with balloons abounding), we launched into a full rendition of "Happy Birthday," Beatle's style.
Then we had cake.
It's been a good day.
You can view the entire photoset here.
AVed at 7/21/2005 02:19:00 PM | LINK |
Be sure to check Google Maps before your next trip to the moon.
AVed at 7/20/2005 09:20:00 AM | LINK |
Motion Graphics: animated, artistic expression. Embodies creatively telling a story, or conveying a mood or idea, in a visual manner; typically done in a brief time.
Here are some recently updated motion graphics artists I admire:
gmunk
Giant Killer Robots
One Size
MK12
Enjoy.
AVed at 7/19/2005 11:57:00 AM | LINK |
It's been a good day. Knocked off several chores from my Hipster PDA list. Spent some quality time with Little G (that's my son, Gardner, for those not in-the-know). Watch a few episodes of The Family Guy from the DVD that my friends Mike-the-ninja-Farkas and Judith left over. And I completed Computer Repair Fest 2005 for Brian and Becky. Quite a day.
But what's in it for you?
First, there's the design site for Also Design. It's great. Nice transitions. I have to find a place to use this idea... too good not to steal, er, borrow.
Second, I was trudging through my PC and found quite a few (like, 40) songs I sequenced about 3-4 years ago. You could call these classics. They're not 100% wonderful, but you may enjoy them.
Targeted_01 (mp3, 0.9 Mb)
Targeted_02 (mp3, 0.5 Mb)
The Dark One (mp3, 2.6 Mb), (I may be responsible for the bad guitar playing on this one, but you can't prove it)
UPDATE: I'm adding this to this post, too. It's a break dancing transformer, which is all know is extremely awesome.
AVed at 7/16/2005 07:41:00 PM | LINK |
Go get the newest Firefox, 1.0.5 released today.
AVed at 7/14/2005 11:32:00 PM | LINK |
My friend Mike Farkas is a ninja. (he's the second one from the left, wearing the red belt). I wanna be like Mike.
AVed at 7/14/2005 07:54:00 PM | LINK |
I have been working feverishly on finishing up the opener for Foundations (link below). The finalized sound design may not come through on the compressed version, so you'll just have to hear the rumbling volume on Sunday morning. I've also uploaded the opener-type-piece from last weekend, too, in case you wanted to see it again. Nothing fancy, but I feel like it was effective. Enjoy!
Foundations Opener (v 1.2) (Quicktime, 2.4 Mb)
Foundations (ambient) Opener (Quicktime, 3.6 Mb)
AVed at 7/14/2005 10:03:00 AM | LINK |
I'd have to say, it's been a good day. I've finished up the Foundations opener, revised audio and all. Thanks to all for your suggestions and critique. It's helped me to refine it a bit.
I'll get it online later, however. Why? Because the Video Toaster is disconnected and cold for the time being. The MAC arrived today. I just got it powered up and running... tomorrow is the festival of Mac installation. Final Cut Pro (the entire 50 Gb suite), every Adobe product known to man... it's going to be a blast. Woohoo!
I just hope I don't become a Mac snob. You know, stickers, T-shirts, showing up at the store openings in cities across Amercia. C'mon, people... it's a COMPUTER. Of course, have you seen how pretty it is...
AVed at 7/13/2005 05:31:00 PM | LINK |
I've completed rendering of the Foundations opener. I'm about 95% set on the audio, but I'm going to let my ears rest tonight and make a final decision on it tomorrow. I may tweak a little and make it more musical. Thoughts? What does it need? I feel like there's just a little something missing, but can't place what it is.
Foundations Opener (Quicktime, 2.3 Mb)
AVed at 7/12/2005 05:14:00 PM | LINK |
This desktop is for Lee. It's listed in the "Desktops" section on the right, and was posted a few weeks ago, but somehow he missed it. Lee, this one is here for you.
AVed at 7/12/2005 12:08:00 PM | LINK |
The Monday rundown:
Opener for Foundations is quickly rendering. OK, it's not so quick... does 6 hours sound too long for 35 seconds of animation? It's cool... it's going to rock. I have had to babysit the computer most of the day, but the final result should be ready for me tomorrow. Can't wait.
Update on our pastor, Perry's, condition on his site.
Also, I like this site for kr?spe design.
Issue #1 of static magazine is now on the web.
I'm calling the Static Breaker blog done. (need to train Brent, now).
Lanna's blog is next... I have some new ideas for it.
That's it for Monday. Time to go home.
AVed at 7/11/2005 05:11:00 PM | LINK |
A few screenshots of the Foundations Opener for this weekend. Renders this week, and I'll get it up online soon.
AVed at 7/11/2005 10:13:00 AM | LINK |
You should go here and look at the great T-shirts. Some of them are very cool. This one is my favorite... and so very, very true.
AVed at 7/10/2005 08:36:00 PM | LINK |
It's been a weekend worthy of a redneck here in Anderson (and the outlying areas), SC. Saturday EARLY, Dad and I went to Abbeville, SC to tend to our sweet potato garden (and maybe catch a few fish, maybe).
And for fishing... The small pond.
Then in the afternoon, Brian, Becky, Meg, and I (plus the youngsters) went for ice cream at Callaham's Peach Orchard located in Cheddar, SC. View the photoset here.
AVed at 7/09/2005 07:16:00 PM | LINK |
In my spare time this weekend, I've been working on a site / blog for a good friend, Brent Sears. If you come to New Spring, you've seen his work as Camera #3. If you're in the upstate of South Carolina, you can hear him on various radio stations giving the traffic report, and performing some on-air antics.
Well, very soon, he is going to relaunch his radio show with renewed ferver. And with that relaunch, comes the all new Static Breaker. Relevant Music for Progressive Minds blog. We're going to do all the cool stuff, you know, podcasting, RSS feeding, and other web geek related madness. In the meantime, look at the site in your browsers and let me know what you think. It's working well in Firefox, but there are (as always) a few IE issues to smooth through.
Oh, and ignore the content. It's just filler for now.
AVed at 7/09/2005 02:05:00 PM | LINK |
At New Spring, not all of our ideas have always been good ones. This is a rare shot of 80s night, circa 2002, I believe. We're not proud of it (especially Jake, who's dressed in an afro on the right). For all who attended, I apologize.
AVed at 7/07/2005 02:08:00 PM | LINK |
Today, Terry Storch of Fellowship Church listed New Spring (my church) as one of the top 10 innovative churches in America. Read the post here.
AVed at 7/07/2005 12:09:00 PM | LINK |
Fun day. I started a render of this Sunday's countdown timer last night before I left work, and it's STILL RENDERING today. Time Elapsed: 15Hr, 37 Min. Est. Remain: 1 Hr, 52 Min. Geez, I'm really looking forward to that new computer, now. Speaking of which, it should arrive from Apple any day now.
In other web news, Joshua has redesigned his site and has moved over to the Word Press CMS platform for hosting his blog. I like his new design, and I'm sure there'll be more like it following soon.
AVed at 7/07/2005 09:16:00 AM | LINK |
Because everyone wants to be a Ninja Assassin. Go play the game. It's safer. You won't put your eye out with a kitana. I'm not even sure if I spelled kitana correctly.
AVed at 7/06/2005 10:26:00 PM | LINK |
Sometimes, creative people have to force themselves to be organized. I actually like organization, it makes me calm (everything's done, all my info's right here, I have somewhere to doodle, you get the idea). I've used many systems over the years, and here's but another new one. It's called the Hipster PDA. It was introduced to me by the guys at 43 Folders. A full description is located here.
Essentially, it's a stack of note cards. You can expand the set with custom templates. Build your own case. Decorate it. Develop a system. It just gets crazy.
If you're intrigued, if you'd like to see how for it's gone for me, I invite you to view my Hipster PDA photoset (on Flickr).
Now, I haven't completely abandoned my Sony Clie. It's still great for reading AvantGo webpages (especially at night), organizing my calendar and contacts, and viewing photos. But there's something great about tangible paper. It makes you feel more accomplished to physically check it off the list, you know? Try it. You may like it.
AVed at 7/05/2005 10:23:00 PM | LINK |
...continuing to make your desktop pretty. This is a nod to the rainbow master, hrtwrk. OK, so God actually pioneered the rainbow, but Shua makes them go well with Photoshop. Enjoy.
Desktop 10a (1280x1024 pixels)
Desktop 10b (1024x768 pixels)
AVed at 7/05/2005 03:13:00 PM | LINK |
Language Is A Virus is a "utility site" that compiles tools for mangling text files into new, creative expressions. Hey, you, too, can be a poet like Shua.
AVed at 7/05/2005 01:51:00 PM | LINK |
It's been a good weekend. I saw several good friends who came towards Anderson for the 4th of July. Gardner made a couple of strides, including learning how to fear water, bang on the air conditioner intake, drink from a cup by himself (seriously, people, he's 9 months old... is this normal?), and he got his first Marine camo outfit from my good friend Jason who came into town for an evening. All of this can be seen in Garder's photoset.
For the 4th, we gathered at Jake and Suzanne's for a Home Group party (photos available) and an evening of fun. Good times, good friends, lots of good-natured joking about my lack of meat for the grill (OK, so we ate veggie burgers, so sue me... I'll outlive you all).
AVed at 7/05/2005 12:41:00 AM | LINK |
I just downloaded Google Earth and it has consumed a precious hour of my Sunday afternoon. It's worth it. Amazing... simply amazing. This is the most fun I've EVER had looking at maps.
AVed at 7/03/2005 04:00:00 PM | LINK |
AVed at 7/02/2005 07:44:00 PM | LINK |
This video by MK12 is awesome. It gets a little repetitive after a while, but just watch a little to get the feel of the text animation.
AVed at 7/01/2005 12:14:00 PM | LINK |
About:
AV Club is Ken Wilson. I am the Visual Director of NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC. I am your humble servant, and if you would like, I can freelance for you.
E-mail me here.
Disclaimer:
Even though I am on staff at NewSpring, the opinions expressed on this site are entirely my own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of New Spring or my co-workers.
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