Beginning of New Epoch

Alright, We shall begin with this once again. So I didn't write in a while do to lack of interest of my blog for some reason not many people were reading however, at this point I don't mind since its recreational/inspirational tool for me, I don't need comments its good outlet for me to let out my feelings. Beginning of New Epoch

So the Updates in my life Since September this year are; I've started going to New Jersey City University to finish up my B.F.A in Graphic Design I've quit my job my last day is November 7Th and that's when new rejuvenation will kick in with me freelancing. I am also trying to boost up my productivity as much as i can for some reason lately I've been having hard time focusing not particularly with my work and school but with my personal goals and It shall change i promise ASAP.

Ive still got couple of art pieces to post I might as well just wait till week or two until i develop them further and than I can really post some of my production and creative pieces. So this was just follow up to few things that I am working on right I shall keep you updated as time progresses.

~Effigies Show in NYC~

Alright Punk rock Legends from Chicago played in Brooklyn last night. I only own one album by them; " Ink. It really got me exited and, blew my mind away so, I had to go see them. I didn't expect much from the show; today's youth barely bothers to check out real muscly talented punk bands. They just want to hear whats current and In Style yet it has no cultural value. Show was held at Southpaw Brooklyn,NY on 5th Ave in Park Slope.

I didn't expect it to be a big crowd at the show. It was mostly people in their late twenties, mid thirties and bunch of people in their forties, which I am glad to see that someone that age still goes back to their roots and listens to good music. Of course they started their set of with song called;"Below the Drop" and crowd kicked in right away it was great. They played several new songs which weren't so bad, I am about to buy their new album as soon as I get my next paycheck. Set lasted around forty five to fifty minutes, nobody I knew was there but I didn't mind. None of my friends bothered to come with me which doesn't really stop me from having a good time.

Ohhh PS:
Speaking of Lonelyness; When I first got at the venue around 9:00 pm Eastern NOBODY WAS THERE doors didnt even open up. I decided to play it Nick's style, I went to a super market and got three beers and called up my friend Jon Dahl. I figured he lived close by since neighbourhood looked familiar so it was worth a shot. He was glad to hear from me and let me drank at his place which i apricated since that saved me bunch of $$ which I saved instead of blowing fifty dollars on beer at the bar where I had noone to talk to.

Conclusion is here, Nick has seen: The Effigies, Got to hang out with his friends, and got WASTED .
HaHa the rest you know!
Have a great weekend people and Live your Life!

Nietzches Piece :)

Here ya go folks New work . Pretty much its self explanatory i don't feel like explaining my self right now. Enjoy!

Photographs Because I like it

So I haven't used my camera much.
Its a poor excuses for me as an graphic designer i should use it as much as possible. I am very picky about electronics and things, yet i shouldn't be. Having great equipment does make a difference but as an amateur photographer its always good to start off from the beginners lever and work your way up. I took these just to practice my manual settings and to really see how focal points look like without using flash or any auto selections.

I took these just to practice my manual settings and to really see how focal points look like without using flash or any auto selections. This was taken from a bus, on my way to work i really like this one. JFK Blvd in north Bergen has some real interesting buildings and Mausoleums perfect for taking Griddy and Historical images.










This Photo wasn't edited I left it just as it was taken. Usually i take my images through Camera Raw and Photoshop but i think this one is just perfect. I used a tip that I heard from a photographer before; "If you spot a interesting scene, Try to look at it with one of your eyes closed and then try to mimic your sight and take a photograph simular to your own view"







And the last of my images is people .As you can see I have hard time takeing photographs of people looking at me I always feel as if they will say something if I just snape a photo of them. So I usually take pictures of people from behind of from their side when they are talking to somebody. I have my own experiences as a years of being into punk rock of people takeng photos of me rudely without asking.I dont want to be that guy that ruins someones day just because of a single photo.

So yes thats it for today kids i hope i bored ya.

I against I

I am so outside of society I crisis got a hold of me!

This weekend..

Didn't work out as planned, at least I didn't end up blowing all of my paycheck like i usually do. Blahh.

Tape Culture and Mix Tapes shall never Die!

Okey so I said it many times and I'll say it again .
Mp3s can never match the charm and memories that old tapes have: Every pop, every noise, every mess up you make while making that mix is noticeable and engraved into your memory that every time you listen to that old tape you said
to your self;" Oh Thats the Summer my I bought my first car or Thats the summer Laura broke my heart".
You get the point I am not saying anyone shall change their ways I am just expressing my feelings if you have old tapes laying around your house pop them into your stereo ( If you still have one ) and you will see what i mean.

My Newest Creation Vector Poster done in Illustrator CS3

Alright So I've noticed that my Illustrator skills are rusty. I've decided to redesign Ill Giallo poster (Italian 20th century genre of literature and film. It is closely related to the French fantastique genre, crime fiction, horror fiction and eroticism.) and use; Swatches , Patterns and Nice warm color palette. This was real fun thing to work i really like the end up look and all the colors I managed to use. My instructors always use to mention to try to use two programs instead of one to give a project more depth but, I've figured this looks just fine designed in illustrator plus it was a good practice.

NYC Max Photoshop CS3 Seminar with Dave Cross

I feel really productive today, and motivated to work on more interesting digital media; raster and vector images. So i took day off from work just so i can attend this I had to do it at least once since so many people are talking about it and it was mentioned through out Layers and Photoshop magazines. I figured that it was way cheaper then past seminars some of them ware about 200 to 300 a pop which is alot if you
don't have a steady income.

Seminar was split into 5 sessions ; there was one , one hour break and four fifteen minute breaks which was good timing . ( looking at those big screens after a while gets real tiring )
This is Javic center on 600 something... W 34th street In NYC were all the fun was at.

Really nice structure sorta reminds me of Sava Centar in Belgrade, Serbia. Interior was spectacular even better then the interior. (I apologize for noisy images i didn't bother setting right options) Great see through sealing this building needs very little lighting Its made to capture the most out of the daylight its great.Alright enough of sight seeing, So the Ground level floor was were magic happened. This is the first picture i took as i was coming down the escalator. This sounds geeky but i was very exited ed for this session to start. Back in a day i use to look at all the punk rocker bands and have them as a role models but, for the first time in my life Dave Cross was my role model.


So as I stepped down i received my package with handbook and a cd and there was some other freebies laying around such as photoshop magazines and layer magazine. So people slowly got seated there was plenty of space for everybody.As I looked up in front of me there was 4 huge Projection Canvases , which was neat since it gave everybody chances to see the program from all around the room.


The tips I learned very very helpful it might sound like ludacris but , I actually knew more of advanced level photos hop skilled yet i always skipped on basics . I always created good Image Manipulated photographs, and graphics, yet my process was very primitive instead of using automation tools and all these helpful gadgets that new CS3 Includes. I really liked the way Bridge works in this new Creative Suite It lets you do so much to the photo and change more the one photo at the time with batch options. Camera Raw is great it does everything that photo shop adjustments yet it just seems like that it comes out with better results.

Most of the lesions are very easy to understand I took plenty of notes so i can review it later. One thing i really gotta look back was Variables it lets you edit create graphics poster in a great way. So lets say if you wonna change the photos and content in stead of opening , or making each individual poster. It use to take me forever but i know the way now which lets me automatically change each selection and change its name so from one poster all It takes is little bit of patience and typing and Variables kick in. It really works might sound tedious but saves you plenty of times instead of manually changing each individual poster. I really enjoyed the simplicity of this tour. No complicated measures were used it was all about speeding process and shortcuts of course. It wasn't really necessary to explain any crazy way of making a light pop out and shoot rocks that comes with the time. What really mattered is that these simples selections lassos and Automation tools is what will make us do things 10x more faster so we have plenty of times to design those nice burning asteroids that rip through the purple sky. It was great i am defiantly going to the next Photoshop and Hopefully Illustrator tour.
And here is the rest of the Photos.

Our Instructor : Dave Cross
Aiightt!











Oh I 've forgot to mention B&H was there too with great offers i wish i had my tax return ...


PS : Until next time try to attend to as many NYC free festivals as possible , Summer is going by real quick.

Editorial Spreads , Graphic Arts and Typography

Alright We all had an issue of Failed Hard drives. So that has happened to me last November and me being foolish and trusting in Mac computers way too much i felt comfortable without backing up any of my data haha. Yea I learned it hard way I lost bunch of my school projects as well as freelance work that I've done and out of my laziness once I got my computer back i didn't feel like redesigning them .


However I manged to reestablish two of my favorite layouts. This one I've done in my advanced Typography class we had to watch out for Orphans and Widows and all that good stuff on top of that it had to look real classy and edgy in a same time.

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2

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And this little front page layout was done at my Internship at the USA Today.
Its not really my style but, As a Graphic Designer you need to interpret clients wishes,and make them happy. And of course at the end you will feel full of Joy, once you receive that Pay check.
This is quickly Re designed but it looks very similar to an original.

Thank you for watching and enjoy your folks.

Conclusion of the weekend ... wait a sec it aint over yet.

Alright.
Where do I start first , ahhh Friday night rainy day off from work! So i got in touch with Jon and Dasha they always know whats going on in the city so i hung out with them that day. We went to some party house at park slope which was pretty decent but it wasn't extraordinary or anything . While me Jon and Dasha got there around 8 o clock Will got there around 11 and stuff.There was bands playing in a living room which was legit, not really my kind of music but interesting vibe worth check out , First band was this all female instrumental band they where good. Band after I wasn't really feeling. I got pretty tipsy around 1 am as party died out I started passing out Willy was the only one as usually who was mingling with ladies all night long. I only talked to few people yet they had nothing to say.

So as weekend went along last morning i woke up my head was REALLY BIG at least it felt that way. I stepped out of my room walked up on my roof top got some fresh air and as soon as i had some coffee and food i started dialing digits and figuring what to do. Of course its Tri state so all the best things are happening at once so it took me and Will real long time to figure out what to do .Finally we decided to go to New Brunswick so we did . First we checked out Mc Cormacks on Hamilton then afterward we rolled up to Nikkis old House on Louis street , oh yea shes actually going to be living there once again which is Nice. We just hung around her front porch and drank a few beers, in mean time familiar faces showed up and we all hung out like its 1999 and stuff .ehhe.

Eventually we ran out of things to do so Me Nikki and Will went out and picked up our friend Lisa she brought us to this CRAZY Dive bar! It was raw as all hell second i walked in there. This big biker guy came up to me and said : "Dude No offense but I shouldn't wear that bandanna if I was in a fight". I was like woah dang so i didn't wanna drag more attention so I took it off. Bar was JUST about to close down so bartender took us in storage where we could still all hang out and drink. Twenty minutes into it he came back and said 911 everybody gotta leave as we walked out this crazy dude was arguing with this biker guy that confronted me earlier, at this point i knew this was a time where things had to come to a close.Will and I walked into his car and drove to a new Location which is Nikkie's and Lisa's friends house . We hung around there for few hours listened to some tunes.Me and Simon had a blast talking about the old days and funny uncomfortable circumstances.

Time was for us to leave it was already light out and we were hungry so we stopped by quick check. As we are waiting in line the same guy that was starting a fight at the bar earlier was at quick check.Me and Will start laughing out we didn't know he was with somebody else I dont know if he noticed us talking about him. As will walked out this other from outside was like; "Hey Do you think that's funny?" and Will was like; "Funny What" and I knew the whole deal so guy said "OHHH not so funny anymore walk away ". This guy was in his late 30s he could of taken us easy, especially if his friend joined in we would of been done for good.

Me and Will got in a car and drove away laughing hysterically, if we stayed few seconds longer we could of been seriously injured. On the whole way to my house I passed out in car and somehow managed to direct Will to my home. Ahh These were some interesting times.

Heavy Metal Animated Film (1981)

For some reason I was bored two days ago, and decided to put on Heavy Metal. Its surprising how great effect this movie has on me, as an artist. And just whole aspect of people making this film before advanced computer animation techniques. And all together plot of 6 different stories put together and connected with this main focal point of a film which is Lock nar
" Son of all evil "

I would usually put this movie in around this time of year I have to watch it at least once a year. And till this tail i always find something new just the whole effort of this movie is amazing how well it was Directed by Ivan Reitman and the struggle they had to put to get this baby out on time in a about a year was astonishing.

My favorite episode is First one Its about this cab driver that gets involved in a dramatic situation with a girl who's about to sell Lock Nar for alot of money.

Best part about it is that it take place in city of New York in distant future yet, New York is just as dirty as it was back in late 1970s. Ps; Well now its now its all gentrified but that's another story.It has great ending but i don't really want to ruin for you.

And of course Second best Story is right after the first one, which is about this Scrawny Science student who gets transferred into different dimension and turns into this guy with Super Human strength called;" DEN " isn't that every teenagers dream?

So Overall this movie really motivates and inspires me immediately once it was done I went to my drawing table and started drawing again. For all you artists and just anybody who appreciates great animation adult films and few laughs this movie is great To rent or own. Check it out !

Two Flys Down in One Day I scheduled PS CS3 seminar, And I got my classes got scheduled for Fall semester at the NJCU

Alright guys .
So I really been happy lately recently i been taking care of my backed up education something just has to give. I could of continued struggling but why not struggle and in mean time work towards higher degree. So yesterday I had an appointment with my Design Professor at the NJCU thinking ; " Dang I am probably going to be freshmen all over" Incredible! They took 90 Of my old credits from AI which got me stunned i didnt know what to say. Most schools put new students int BA program i got put into B.F.A . Everything worked out well all i need now to do is work things with financial aid and i am back in Collage. Waaa wuuuut.

Photoshop CS3 Seminar with Scott Kelby.

Alright some people might say , Yea you can learn things online which is true but I am more of a person that actually likes doing stuff in actual working environment where people exchange ideas not just me, being alone stuck in my room with my day dreaming and all. So usually these seminars cost up to $ 400 dollars but this time this seminar is only $99 I didn't think twice before ordering it . Few Books are included with package and i get $ 15 bucks back as a rebate at the door. I think this is a big step for me everyone persuades their education differently some people like researching on their own i like working in groups. This is my first one so I cant wait to see how it goes, I am very curious to check it out and see if its any worth it. I never did any study outside of my school curriculum but from what i know my friend Adnan from Bosnia Is an IT tech and does all these side gigs and was sent to some big Seminar of some sort to Edinburgh Scotland. His real talented person and from what ive been reading from his posts he keeps him self active in every activity considering CSS , LINUX and Coding stuff in general. I know I've been lazy but i really need to follow up on this and really take a stand into my shoes and show this city who's the boss.

PEACE!

It's 11: 23 AM Eastern and I've gotten Evaluated

Noice.
My transcript finally got evaluated and all I got to do is set up an appointment with an art department at the NJCU so all I have to do is have 2 more interviews with art Counselor and financial aid and I shall be in collage by this Fall .

I am exited!

First Weekend of May... Wa Wuuut

Smooth should be a right word for it.
So this weekend worked out real well Decent weather and alot of things happening.
It started off with Friday . I met up with George and the rest of the pack down on St marks, from there we headed to Brooklyn to this photo gallery where we view pretty cool picture exhibit. Since it was an open bar it was right place to loosen up and just talk to few people . I haven't networked in while it was a first opportunity for me to get to socialize with people in my field and other fields surrounding mine.I got few business cards that could get me some gigs or even perm jobs hopefully.

Friday.
So anyway, After the gallery we went to this hip hop after party it was something else. It was literally in back yard of this bar so we had to walk through the bar in order to get to it. There we saw this big backyard filled with scrap metal and hardware it almost seemed like an auto shop yet there was not a single garage door or car around. weird! So as we walked through backyard we went through this door and there it was .This huge long room with 2 DJ's at the end of it. The scene was terrific ; there was wide variety of people from punks hipsters hippies artzy kids hood kids and so on. No one minded it was real cool .As you can tell i was observing more then actually being part of picture. I felt crappy i was dressed up all ehhh since I went to the city straight from work so I didn't really feel comfy talking to people so i just stuck to my friends and acquaintances. Anyhow it worked out well i ended up getting home at around 5 am, getting anytime before 5 am home is just a sign that night didn't work out well.

So Here comes Saturday.
I didn't plan of doing much i actually just wanted to stay home but I talked to Frank and i ended up going to Meatlocker( underground venue in Montclair NJ). Only for 2 hours blahhh, I had to pick up my mom from work. I didn't not expect night to be any good so more people showed up that i expected. I seen so many people I know and i met bunch of new people maybe because it was such a short period of time so i had to concentrate more. So I stayed for the first band and for Above all hope my friends band. I stayed in for 4 or 5 songs and i had to bounce it was weird that was a shortest night i have had in long time but it didn't not work out half as bad as i thought it would be.

And to Conclude it with Sunday.
So Its Sunday afternoon around 12 : 45 pm Easter Joe calls me and his says it with characteristic voice" Its NICE AND OUT S*IT " so i was like cool deal. I got into my dads car and drove to ridge wood. From there we listened to few tunes and headed out on the road. We had a little car trouble but that when away once we parked it in neutral and added some oil to it. We went to borders to check out some Comic books however i didn't find anything i wanted. We where there for a bit since it had to close down . Later on we met up with Steave and Felt we exchanged few laughs and storys i havent seen Felt in months , anyways weekend was winding to a close it was a great weekend.Nothing band escalated.I wrote way too much this time i guess i feel bad because i write these rarely.

Current Events and Tunes

Current events:
O key I really need to get back onto this!
So i Signed up for school once again i figure i need a better degree since i been struggling with associates degree for a long time. Originally i was looking into Montclair state but when I put all cards on a table i figure better choice would be New Jersey State University since its in city and only few miles away from mecca of NYC.

Music:
In mean time my musical taste has been changing dramatically . I don't listen to same old fast stuff that i did when i was a teenager. Right now i am listening to variety of stuff but, most important of all I cant spend at day without Husker Du mannn their lyrics cause " Chemical Reaction" in my brain. Its like good sense of reality that someone before me has been going through same problem that I am and just spills it all out in nice well put organized musical . Other than them I been listening to Chi town punk such as: Naked Raygun , Pegboy and i still need to Check out Effigies and Articles of Faith i love it all. Great vibe good lyrics and BIG city.

So For now that was a quick fill of stuff thats been going on Cheers.

I need to post more things.

I been out of it this past month so much things have happened all at once to the point where i couldn't even read a basic article in a news papers . Eh not many people are reading my blog anyways but i figure letting out frustrations and expressing my knowledge through this feels good.

Happy New Years of two thousand and eight!

To you all i hope you had a good one or at least tried to have a good one. Mine worked out pretty good i didn't expect much which is good usually when I 've got to many expectations New Year eves tend to suck so i just went out to see my friends band play and relaxed.

Spending New Years in subrubs it sounds like a horrible idea for New Years Even tho party might be half ok come on dude its freaking new years enjoy the city that is close by you, is what i would recoment do everyone that lives around me. So we went to see Blood Reds play at this bar that i for some reason forgot whats it call i guess its because of the fact that didn't even have name of a bar up front. Yea so because of this little issue it took us two circles around block to find it.

Me Garrett and Lauren got there around 9 pm eastern and first reaction was nobody was there yet . We didn't really count bearded fairy's that where flying around that venue but it was surpriceing for downtown Brooklyn usually bars are packed in that part of the city. As time went on bar filled up slowly and it was getting to the point of a good mood. It was very hard to talk to any girls tho since it was loud i managed to talk to few but without any major success. Me and Garrett figured once Blood reds play we would bounce right after to meet up with Geo which we did.

Oh i forgot to say that Steve and Will came out with us and yea there where at the show as well. So we followed Geo's directions and took L train deep into Brooklyn to check out rooftop party extravaganza. We got there and yeah it got shut down which didn't surprise me.So on way back to train we bumped into some familiar faces Soren ,Gabby and some other NYC kids. So we got invited to some other kids house down by financial district in New York which took us another hour to get to so pretty much after Joe's show all we did is take one big long trip riding MTA trains. Once we got to Fire Crotches place i think we just decided to get home we where so exhausted by that time it was like 4 30 in morning. I figured it would of been better idea if we just stayed at the same bar where we started but i guess we where curious about something else.

Thats what happens when you want to expand your entertainment you end up riding trains all night.

Happy New Years everyone i am looking forward to hearing your New Years Story.