My Favorite Week of the Year: Annual Gorge Trip

It has been nearly 365 days since I last enjoyed the breathtaking views, comfortable climate, great company, camping and musical experience that is my annual trip to the Gorge Amphitheater in George, WA.  After months of anticipation, the time has finally arrived.  My fiance and many of our good friends from all over the country--Connecticut, Pennsylvania, California, Texas and even Calgary, Canada--will be flying out to Seattle, WA this Wednesday evening.  Thursday morning we will wake up nice and early from our favorite hostel so that we can grab a cup of coffee at the original Starbucks and head over to Pike's Place to pick up fresh veggies and seafood before hitting the road to drive the 2.5 hour trek to the Gorge Amphitheater and Campground.  After setting up camp we will begin 4 incredible days of attending the Dave Matthews Caravan concerts.  On Monday we'll hit the road back to Seattle to enjoy one more night there before going our separate ways back to reality.  Good times are ahead!

Possible Threat to Florida: Hurricane Irene

The most recent projections have Hurricane Irene picking up intensity to a Category 4 by Thursday which is coincidentally right around the time it should be passing by southeastern Florida.  As of right now, the hurricane is not expected to make landfall in Florida but the next 48 hours will determine if those projections remain.  The timing of this storm is quite unfortunate as I have plans to fly cross country next Wednesday to attend a music festival on Labor Day weekend in Washington state.  This is an annual trip that I make with friends from all over the country (and even a few from Canada) so needless to say hurricane or not I am making it to Washington.  If it requires me to drive across country then so be it!

Apple's Proposed Campus: Reboot

Plans have been unveiled for the next big Apple endeavor, and no it is not the iPad 3.  Apple plans to build a massive campus in Cupertino, CA and the current blueprints show that Apple's "Reboot" will be larger than the Pentagon and right up their with the Empire State Building.  The building will be approximately 1,615 ft in diameter, have four floors and two additional sub-level floors for parking.  Reboot is expected to house about 12,000 of Apple's employees and feature their state of the art technology throughout the campus.  While the proposed building still needs to pass environmental impact studies and a few other review processes, the campus is slated to be completed by 2015.

Will Google+ be the next "Facebook"?

Google+ is the newest concept from the internet powerhouse known as Google.  The have been at the forefront of internet technology and innovation for years but never had a product that directly competed with Facebook, one of the internet's other big players... until now.  Google+ is Google's attempt to redefine the way we share and communicate through social media.  The platform is still in it's infant stages and is currently not open to the public, but is rather easy to get an invitation to join.  The biggest advantage I see over Facebook is that Google+ is a much more robust platform with programs like Gmail and Picasa fully integrated.  Secondly, Google+ will eventually be able to offer a tailored web browsing experience by utilizing the ratings (+1) of your "circles" aka your friends, family and colleagues.  Google+ has a long way to go before they can even think about becoming the new "Facebook" but they certainly have the resources to do so and as long as they continue to improve the platform based upon user feedback I think they have a legitimate chance to take over the social media marketplace.

Local Artist Inspiration: Kendrick Kidd

A few months ago I was scrolling through my favorite site for design inspiration, dribbble.com, when I stumbled across Kendrick Kidd.  His work was awesome and it turns out he lives and works in good old Jacksonville, FL.  If you are a craft beer drinker then you have probably seen his work because he does all the packaging artwork for Bold City Brewery.  His style is very versatile, covering everything from beer labels to skateboard decks and of course the more traditional logo and print work.  Kendrick has become a major source of design inspiration for me and I chose him as one of my two artists to draw aesthetic influence from this semester in Illustration and Rapid Visualization.  You can check our his portfolio here.

Too Much Booze: Kings of Leon Cancels Rest of Summer Tour

Kings of Leon, one of my favorite bands to come around in the past 10 years, is on a slippery slope of self destruction.  This summer's tour has been troubled from the beginning with reports of backstage fights, tour buses being burnt to the ground and at a recent show, the lead singer Caleb walking off stage because he was too drunk and needed to vomit.  They have decided to cancel the remaining tour stops which unfortunately includes the show my fiance planned to attend in Virginia this Saturday.  As of right now the band is stating they will be back on tour in September but the rumors around the blog-o-sphere are saying that they will be taking the rest of the year off, or breaking up indefinitely.