Good Things to Hear, See and Try

I've been busy at work this week launching some new online concert initiatives and polishing up my upcoming single, Places We Can't Live (which you'll get soon). Even so, I've made some time to pay attention. Here's what I found for you this week.

Thing To Hear - Stuck In The House With Audrey Ochoa

I love the sound of brass in a recording, whether it's blasting on an old school R & B track or softly crooning on a moody Sufjan Steven's folk outing. Audrey Ochoa is one of the best players in my city and I hope we get to work together one day.

This week I got to add some trombone to Places We Can't Live with my friend Linda who has worked with Audrey. Linda pointed me to Audrey's awesome "Stuck In the House" video, where she performs multiple instruments and then adds her silky-smooth voice on top. Don't miss this fantastic five minutes of local live music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhTSpb833Js

Thing To See - The Landmark 68 Olympics

Designer Lance Wyman pulled off an incredible feat of graphic design for the 1968 Olympics in Mexico, designing an entire system of branding and wayfinding for the games that still looks fresh.

Take a minute to browse the project online, from the logo's concentric circles to the way those curves are echoed in everything from stadium seating to fashion.

You may already know what a mid-century design nerd I am, so for me this is total eye candy.

http://www.lancewyman.com/projects.php?id=81

Thing To Try - Use Your Phone As a Webcam

We've all had to show our faces online a LOT more often than we imagined we would. From FaceTime with family and friends to online work meetings to Zoom concerts, we're spending more and more time in front of a camera.

The bad news is that most of our webcams are pretty terrible. Bad performance in low light. Bad resolution. Bad position (I don't know about you but my neck is not the feature I want to highlight on screen).

If you haven't already bought a high quality web cam to solve this problems, let me save you some money. Camo is an app that turns your iPhone or iPad's excellent camera into a live webcam to use in Zoom or just about anywhere else.

Camo will let you use your phone's killer camera and adjust it from your computer. Improve your lighting, colour and more.

I am eager to give this a try as a second camera for my own live show set up.

Upgrade your next video call with Camo.

Note - Camo is Mac-only so far, though a Windows version is on the roadmap.