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Spent the last week executing an idea I had...
Mondrian's Toothpicks Spent the last week executing an idea I had earlier this month: a stained glass piece based on the Toothpick Sequence, a simple mathematical ruleset about line-drawing that generates complicated results. I ended up going with four color scheme for the collection of rectangles and squares, and so: Mondrian's Toothpicks.
A few years ago my parents gave me my Grandpa...
Finishing my grandfather's work: stained glass menorah A few years ago my parents gave me my Grandpa Milt's old stained glass stuff, including a large unfinished menorah piece. I've spent the last two weeks finally tackling the logistically and emotionally complicated job of repairing and elaborating on his piece to create a finished work. This is a summary with photos of that process. I also created an exhaustive step-by-step process thread on the fly as I worked through the whole thing.
I've been making a lot of art over the last four...
Art by Josh Millard I've been making a lot of art over the last four years—oil painting, watercolor, stained glass, linocut blockprints, recently plotter drawings as well—and I've updated and revamped my art site to collect and organize the bulk of that existing work to be a central depot for ongoing work.
I spent the last half of January fixated on a...
Fogleworms: a series of modular linocut prints I spent the last half of January fixated on a simple mathematical proposition about arranging short twisting lines on a square grid, which I nicknamed "Fogleworms"; the terminus (so far) of that particular obsession is this series of 96 modular linocut prints and their four derived "ghost" prints, each mathematically unique.
I took snapshots and wrote up some process notes...
linocut print: A Powerful Culture I took snapshots and wrote up some process notes and overall motivations for one of my most recent linocut blockprint works, "A Powerful Culture", which is based around the 1993 Sandia Labs report on long-term nuclear storage messaging (warning, beefy PDF).
I spent the last six weeks taking a stained glass...
Making a Menger sponge in stained glass I spent the last six weeks taking a stained glass course from a local artist (Vavroch Glass Studio) and the culmination of that is a 15"x15" stained glass Menger sponge rendering that I'm absolutely delighted with. This is a writeup with pictures of the whole process from conception to completion.
This is a collection of 46 watercolor paintings,...
Red Square, watercolor and pencil on paper, 6"x6" 12/15/18 This is a collection of 46 watercolor paintings, all different, made in sequence on the days of December 16th and 17th, 2018, as an exploration of some ideas about both serial art and the authority and reliability of an artist's description of their own work and working processes.
I've been painting a lot lately, exploring in...
Art by Josh Millard I've been painting a lot lately, exploring in particular mathematical themes and especially variations on the Menger sponge. I'm proud of the progress I've made, and have built a simple site to show off my finished work: Art by Josh Millard.
I've also been writing about art process stuff on my blog, e.g. a step-by-step document of the execution of yesterday's new painting, Five Concentric Wireframe Cubes.
I've also been writing about art process stuff on my blog, e.g. a step-by-step document of the execution of yesterday's new painting, Five Concentric Wireframe Cubes.
I felt like I should build a little web resource...
Inauguration Livestream I felt like I should build a little web resource for the big day, and so: inaugurationlivestream.com.
I spent the last few days hand-painting a couple...
Painting math on the wall I spent the last few days hand-painting a couple of fractal images—a Menger sponge and a Cantor set—on the wall of my home office. This is a writeup of how and why I did it, with some bonus thoughts on the weird nature of the fractal series behind the images.
Calvin and Markov digests Calvin and Hobbes strips...
Calvin and Markov Calvin and Markov digests Calvin and Hobbes strips and generates endless new comics with random, semi-coherent dialogue using Markov chains. Here's some details about how I built it.
You got your football simulator in my evolutionary...
Genetic Football You got your football simulator in my evolutionary model! No, YOU got your genetic algorithms in MY incredibly realistic football simulator! Which is to say: Genetic Football applies the ideas of natural selection to some very, very dumb simulated football players and lets you try and evolve the league over time.
I cut all of the dialogue out of an episode (S1E11,...
House minus dialogue I cut all of the dialogue out of an episode (S1E11, "Detox") of House M.D. just to see what would be left. Answer: only about 14 minutes of running time, a reasonably coherent storyline thanks to some good blocking and visual direction, a lot of exasperated reaction shots, and a few long uncut segments where wordlessness was the point of the originally-aired sequence.
Endless Jingling: an elf singing randomly...
Endless Jingling Endless Jingling: an elf singing randomly generated holiday music, forever and ever. Reload for a new combination of carols. Spiff up and/or ruin holiday parties as needed.
Do you enjoy amiable bullshitting? How convenient!...
The Crapshoot Podcast, with cortex and churl Do you enjoy amiable bullshitting? How convenient! Me and churl enjoy bullshitting amiably, and we're doing just that for about an hour every week on The Crapshoot, our brand new podcast. We'll be bringing on interesting local PDX people (and out-of-towners when we can snag them while they're in Portland) and talking about everything and nothing. Our first episode features local comedian and mefite Mark msalt Saltveit, with whom we chatter about palindromes and taoism and football and a bunch of other things.
So griphus was all "omg there's nine...
We Have Such Films To Show You So griphus was all "omg there's nine Hellraiser movies?" and I was like "I know, let's do a podcast about 'em!" and that's the story of We Have Such Films To Show You, our new podcast miniseries where we tackle every film in the increasingly-troubled Hellraiser franchise in loving, rambling detail. The first episode is now up; the podcast feed is here.
I am drawing all of the US presidents as birds, or...
Bird Presidents I am drawing all of the US presidents as birds, or maybe vice versa? Bird Presidents, in any case. I'm doing about one a day and drawing them in order.
Mapstalgia is a new blog collecting people's...
Mapstalgia - video game maps drawn from memory Mapstalgia is a new blog collecting people's drawn-from-memory maps of video game worlds and levels. Zeldas and Marios; detailed Final Fantasy cartography and sketched Contra recollections; crayon Kings Quest and graph paper Castlevania. Submissions are open, draw something yourself and send it in!
A new photoblog documenting Portland one square...
the square foot A new photoblog documenting Portland one square foot at a time. Flora, fauna, graffiti, food, art, &c. A few new pictures each day.
An incoherent savior for an incoherent age....
Jesus Markoving Christ An incoherent savior for an incoherent age.
I'm teaching myself the blitting-centric Flash...
FaveRunner: The Video Game Of Missing The Point Of Metafilter I'm teaching myself the blitting-centric Flash games library Flixel, and my Hello World program sort of got carried away and turned into this silly little platformer in which you try to collect favorites while avoiding the menacing flags. Fifteen levels in three worlds (blue, green, and grey), random fave and flag placement, and, in fine oldschool platformer fashion, compensating for it's shortness by being unfairly hard in spots. Features chiptune snippets of matthewchen is Spamming and Doing the Churlish Pule!
Sometimes you just need Lloyd Dobler to stand with...
Lloydtube: Lloyd Dobler's boombox meets youtube Sometimes you just need Lloyd Dobler to stand with a boombox held over his head as he stubbornly, earnestly yearns, with Peter Gabriel playing. Or maybe Lady Gaga. Or Black Eyed Peas. Or like Wagner or whatever, I dunno. Lloyd loves you no matter what you feel like listening to.
Website for the tactical revisionism consulting...
RetCon Artists: Improving the Future by Improving the Past Website for the tactical revisionism consulting firm I made up for a recent comedy presentation thing at SXSW. Be sure to take a look at the PDF presentation for more detail, or watch a recorded slideshow + audio presentation on youtube.
Markov meets Mulder! Previously, On The X-Files......
Previously, On The X-Files... Markov meets Mulder! Previously, On The X-Files... is a random image generator that uses markov chains to generate random conversations between major characters from The X-Files. The text is all drawn from post-processed transcripts of the show's nine-season run; the code is perl, the images are created using the ImageMagick library.
A new tumblr that recognizes the long-ignored...
Baseball Card Hall of Fame A new tumblr that recognizes the long-ignored achievements of baseball cards. Fewest Last Names! Deadliest Mindrays! Best Zach Galifianakis Impersonation! And so forth.
I got an idea a while back to try and...
Monotoning Music with Echo Nest Remix I got an idea a while back to try and automatically "monotonize" music using the Echo Nest Remix library. This is a presentation and explanation of my initial process and some of the more interesting examples I've produced using the script I wrote. See for example Comfortably Numb as a one-chord song or Suzanne Vega's favorite note.
A bizarre auto-mashup album I made today using...
Nine Inch Niles - The Seattleward Spiral A bizarre auto-mashup album I made today using Echo Nest Remix: it's a frankensteinien reconstruction of The Downward Spiral using only a few minutes of audio from the show Frasier.
I have a lot of ideas. Most of them are pretty...
ThinkStank: Josh Millard's Bad Ideas I have a lot of ideas. Most of them are pretty questionable, underdeveloped, or poorly-thought-out. ThinkStank is a blog where my ideas go to hang out. I even put some of them in action, like the WTF LOL OMFG flier and Always Be (Snow-)Cloning.
I spent the month of February writing and...
Inchoatery, an album by Josh Millard I spent the month of February writing and recording a rock album, as part of the RPM Challenge. It's done and I'm pretty proud of what I pulled off. It's available for streaming and download on my new music site, music.joshmillard.com, and there's a bunch of album notes available on the site as well.
My new music blog and archive. I've spent the...
Josh Millard, Musician My new music blog and archive. I've spent the last several weeks collecting and organizing several hundred recordings I've made by myself and with others in the last fourteen years or so, and this is the result.
I'm teaching myself AS3/Flash, and this is my...
FLEE!, a simple flash game I'm teaching myself AS3/Flash, and this is my first attempt at a game. It's very simple, and has a combinatoric soundtrack based on nine improvised counterpoint-ish things I recorded yesterday.
I made Look At This Cat because I figured there...
Look At This Cat! I made Look At This Cat because I figured there are a lot of cats out there that people should look at. And I don't see why that has to involve like crazy Web 2.0 crap when all you really need is some pictures of cats and the ability to say to yourself "hey, look at that, that is one great cat right there".
Garkov is a comic strip generator that uses Markov...
Garkov -- Garfield + Markov chains Garkov is a comic strip generator that uses Markov chains to synthesize new Garfield strips based on transcripts of several hundred existing strips. The output varies nicely from plausible to surreal to downright incoherent.
I've spent the last few days conducting a...
HURF DURF METAFILTER ANALYZER I've spent the last few days conducting a comprehensive review, and constructing an annotated index, of the use of variations of the phrase "hurf durf" on Metafilter. The index covers 357 separate comments (and 10 posts) on various parts of the site, in chronological order.
Riffing on an old idea/joke that came up in...
Blues Name Generator Riffing on an old idea/joke that came up in Metatalk today, I've put together this little blues name generator. Because why should Leukemia Sweet Pepper Tyler have all the fun?
bunt cake is a new comic thing that I make out of...
bunt cake: a webcomic thing bunt cake is a new comic thing that I make out of baseball cards. It’s not about baseball, it's just literally made out of baseball cards. So if you like your childhood ephemera gone at with a pair of scissors and then recontextualized against random photographic backgrounds with dialogue juxtaposed there upon, this thing is right up your alley.
It's Metafilter 2.0. Hopefully to blossom as a...
Metafiltr It's Metafilter 2.0. Hopefully to blossom as a clearinghouse for absurdist mefi humor, including bizarre flash apps. This is brand-stinking new; if I'm omitting some good self-reflective mefi blogs or stunts or misc. content, please let me know!
I recorded an album in February (as did a few...
Manifests - an album from Josh Millard I recorded an album in February (as did a few other folks), and I've put together a site to house it. There are song pages with lyrics and background (e.g.); I've scanned my notebook for the month and provided some how-I-work commentary; and there are some drawings to accompany the whole thing as well. The album is available to for listening and download from the site. Please tell all of your powerful and influential music-industry friends.
Have tablet, will scribble. Daily sketches &...
Pen and Inklings - Josh Learns To Draw Have tablet, will scribble. Daily sketches & related autobiographical notes, as I try and figure out how to draw. Credit due my awesome mother-in-law for surprising me with a Wacom tablet for xmas.
With Matt's blessing, I'm pleased to announce the...
Metafilter Compilation Album released! With Matt's blessing, I'm pleased to announce the official, discs-are-in-the-mail, order-yours-today release of the Metafilter Compilation Album—a collection of original tracks by 24 different mefite music acts, put together over seven or so months, with all profits going to charity. We've got about 800 more of these discs, and there's not much time until Christmas/Hannukah/HappyGiftDay.
A new photoblog of people passing on the street,...
Pedestria A new photoblog of people passing on the street, with impressionist writeups. Intended as a five-days-a-week regular feature. (Sort of a people-watching spiritual companion laundryroom swapmeet.) Feedback, suggestions, criticism welcome.
I live in an apartment building. We have a...
laundryroom swapmeet I live in an apartment building. We have a laundry room. The laundry room has a table. People put things on the table, and other people take those things away later.
It's a laundry room swapmeet. I take pictures of the things and write about them. Hilarity more-or-less ensues.
It's a laundry room swapmeet. I take pictures of the things and write about them. Hilarity more-or-less ensues.
I spend too much time on Metafilter (and...
Refi: Metafilter in Review I spend too much time on Metafilter (and especially Metatalk). I've had I-don't-know-how-many conversations about the site—what it is, what it was, what has[n't] changed, and such—and so I've decided to go spelunking. I'm going to go back and read Metafilter, and blog it. I'm planning to read every n-hundredth or so post, starting from the beginning, and I'll be trying to note various observable trends—users, memes, tone, conversational structure, etc. It won't be rigorously scientific, but hopefully it'll be reasonably objective. Specific analytical notions welcome. Likeminded co-author proposals welcome. Cash welcome.
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