This video—RMB City Opera—highlights RMB City’s virtual cityscape. It includes many emblematic sites such as Tiananmen Square and the Beijing Olympic Stadium. During the video, the viewer enters the city, soaring through and amongst its architectural wonders.

In RMB City Opera a man and a woman interact as actors on a stage and as avatars in the virtual world. Inspired by propaganda operas from the Chinese Cultural Revolution, RMB City Opera includes characters in Red Army uniforms. Batman and Batwoman, Superman and Superwoman are also among the cast.

RMB City Opera is rich in content. It explores the idea of play, romance, identity, utopia/dystopia, communication/isolation, the nature of reality and the global, interconnected world in which we live. This is its American debut.

It’s a fascinating work and I highly recommend checking it out. And thanks to my good friend Tim O’Neill, I had the opportunity to develop a simple “virtual guestbook” for the exhibit that also features an interview between the artist Cao Fei and NAMA curator Leesa Fanning.

With regard to the setup, nothing fancy here, really…just a simple adaption of WordPress. But I think the end result hangs together nicely with the rest of the environment. I have to admit — getting the chance to have my work in the museum in support of the exhibit has been quite a thrill. Not to mention having a great time working with the Nelson-Atkins staff. We’re already in the process of working on more digital features for the upcoming Monet exhibit in April!

EZ Art is a Kansas City company helping one and all enjoy craft therapy at its finest. Whether you’re with your bunko group, a bachelorette/birthday/retirement party, a date night with your significant other, a team outing with co-workers or by yourself, EZ Art allows you the chance to spend two hours focusing on only on a 16’ X 20’ canvas…and maybe a bottle of wine. This site build required a number of different functional components, including a calendar system, content management system as well as an online ecommerce component to manage class registrations. The site’s graphic design was concepted and executed by Tim O’Neill of Round Tree Design/RGB Tree Web Design.

From the muddy banks of the mighty Mississippi comes the sheer energy and wild acoustic abandon that is The Monads. By combining elements of Americana, bluegrass, outlaw country and rockabilly with the aggressive delivery of punk, the Monads craft a unique style of music that has been dubbed “Black and Bluegrass.” This site was designed to be the information nerve center for the fans of the band, incorporating info about the band and their music, an email list subscription and messaging system, mobile photo uploads and blogging access, a gig calendar, as well as Flickr and Twitter feeds…all built on a content management system backbone that can easily be updated by members of the band no matter where they are on the road. From start to finish, I was responsible for all aspects of the site design and build.

For more info on some of my prior freelance projects, check out my consulting page.

You can check out the results here.

Performances include Bacon Shoe, It’s Over, Nomathmathics, Barclay Martin, the Beautiful Bodies and the Pink Socks (with super-secret special guest). For more coverage, check out the links below.

2008 Pitch Music Showcase in Photos, Part 1
2008 Pitch Music Showcase in Photos, Part 2

Still haven’t voted yet? Then get with the clicking.

However, that doesn’t mean I can’t bring you some other kinds of fun.  A few weeks ago I sat and watched Pirates of Silicon Valley for the first time.  Though it’s been out since 1999, it’s a flick that I highly recommend if you have the least bit of interest in the early history of the PC wars.  When I saw this post over at Crawlspace the other day, it brought the topic back to mind.  Check the YouTubage Jharr posted over there…

Click here to view the embedded video.

…and then check out this great little parody ad that I caught out in San Fran at the closing keynote, which was a live recording of the online series “Internet Superstar.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

On a sidenote, my dad was in a unique position at Hallmark when a lot of the original PC wars stuff was really heating up in the early 1980s and believes that he has the distinction of writing the first equipment requisition for a Macintosh at Hallmark back around 1984.  (That same year he also got one for use at home, which was no small investment.)  Some of the stories he tells of gathering together artists and creative heads and informing them that their process of creation would forever change in a few short years and that their pen or paintbrush would soon be augmented with and, in some mediums, maybe even replaced by a mouse are a riot.  Needless to say, he was laughed out of a lot of meetings at the time.

Whenever he thinks back on those days, he always busts out with a huge grin.  That probably explains a lot when it comes to why I like working in the realm of emerging technology and communication.

I sat down with my editor a week ago and came up with some plans to expand my work with the Pitch.  Don’t want to reveal too much at this time, but I’m totally stoked for the opportunity.  Stay tuned.

It’s a small blurb, but summoning up the energy to get back to writing has taken me some time given how crazy busy work has been over the past year or so.  For the sake of my mental health — writing has always been a great release and being in print doesn’t hurt in feeding the old ego — I’m thrilled to be back at it.

The plan is to get back into the swing of things in this next month or two and then ramp up to some larger assignments again.  All in good time, though.

Tomorrow morning I’m off to Chi-town for a long weekend of debauchery with some old friends.  The missus is graciously giving me the solo time to decompress and catch my breath.  It ought to be a blast.  Pics and other assorted shenanigans are sure to be posted here along the way, so stay tuned.