Sean Klassen

The newest rendition of the Factory Design Labs website I designed finally went live yesterday (including separate iPhone and Careers components). There was a lot of effort by a number of people to create this site on top of all the client work we have right now at the agency, so it feels good to see it up. Overall, the site has been scaled way back compared to previous versions to focus on what’s important for a portfolio: the work. I’ve been wanting to create a scaling/full screen video site for a while now and am glad I finally got the opportunity to do so. This was the right project for that type of execution. There were some pretty cool ideas that didn’t end up making it in to the final version for a variety of reasons, but I’m still pretty happy with the end result.

That being said, I have only 4 more days left with Factory. Since I started about 2.5 years ago, I’ve seen the company about triple in size, completely change it’s clientelle to huge international brands and move to a fancy new office… all of which has been pretty unreal to experience. The company has grown and learned a lot and so have I. What I’m most thankful for, though, is all the great people I’ve been able to work and hang out with. I’ve made some great friends. It’s become time for me to make a change though.  I’ve got some great projects and opportunities in the works and look forward to talking about them more soon… but not… just yet.

The fact that Arial is a redneck was enough to sell this for me. Awesome. Wow, I’m a nerd.

I just uploaded a new mix entitled Kite Flying Society. There is a rough theme of nostalgia, which more or less means there’s a bunch of old punk songs and some new stuff that has that vibe to me. Anyway, it is broken in to two parts and you can stream the first part over at http://seanklassen.muxtape.com.

You can also download the entire thing. Anyway, I hope you enjoy some of these songs. The tracklisting is below if you’re curious.

Part I

1. I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times (Vocal Track) / The Beach Boys
2. Angeline / The Howlies
3. Nightmares / Jay Reatard
4. About To Walk / Throw Me The Statue
5. Perfect Weapon / Communiqué
6. Easy Eats Or Dirty Doctor Galapagos / Man Man
7. Bikeage / The Descendents
8. In The Grass / LaGrecia
9. New Regulations / Downfall
10. Show Up Raising Hell / Fubar

Part II

1. Hamburgers
2. Simon Courage Flees the Coop / Kay Kay And His Weathered Underground
3. Rest In The Dew / Eureka Gold
4. Strangled By The Thought / The New Amsterdams
5. Josephine St. / I Love Math
6. Holland, 1945 / Neutral Milk Hotel
7. The Sprinkler / Sicko
8. Hands Up! / Walking Concert
9. Quick Check Girl / The Bouncing Souls
10. How To Escape / The Gamits
11. Barcelona (Early Mix) / The Rentals
12. Seldom Not Heard / Still Left Standing

Feel free to check out some other mixes I’ve posted here and here. Also check out the ridiculous amount of awesome summer mixes at the aptly named Summer Mix Series. Some of my favorites include Season Opener, Summer Politics and Beach Songs.

I got back from the roadtrip I went on a few days ago and have been trying to catch up with living since. The trip was a lot of driving (I put 4,000 miles on my car) but a lot of fun too. The journey included floods in Iowa, a trip to Ikea in Toronto, an amazing Bed and Breakfast in London, Ontario, quality family time, being hassled at the border upon returning to the states for no good reason, creepy Jesus shrines, lots of bbq and soul food, Graceland, great dj’ing by Darcie, a glimpse into the local music scene of Nashville and lots more.

So, with all of the driving we had to do, Darcie and I played a number of games to pass the time. One of my favorites though, involved simply spotting cars (American manufacturers seem to be best usually) and replacing the maker name with the word anal. So, instead of a Ford Explorer you get an Anal Explorer. Stupid, maybe. Hilarious, yes. Some of our favorites included the Town and Country, Venture, Dynasty and Avenger.

Anyway, if you’re curious about the trip at all I’ve posted some photos on my Flickr Account.

Over the weekend, my friends’ Kyle and Jaimie got married up in Estes Park. The whole event was beautiful and it was so much fun to hang out with everyone (and eat pizza rolls out of bucket at 1 in the morning). I learned an important lesson though… I’m old. I bought a suit about 2 years ago. I went through the whole fitting process and everything. That might say enough in and of itself, but it gets worse. I’ve only worn it once since I got it and didn’t really consider the idea of trying it on before the ceremony. When I was putting on the pants right before the wedding I very quickly realized they don’t fit anymore. I basically had to go through the whole night with my pants unbuttoned. Luckily the jacket covered up this fact, so hopefully I didn’t look completely ridiculous.

Anyway, I’m headed out on a road trip up to Canada this week, but when I get back I’m buying a bicycle and a gym membership.

The rumors and lies being egregiously spread during the election this year have been truly despicable. I would like to think any sane person would be appalled by so many recent comments motivated by racism, sexism and a lot of other ‘isms.’ I’ll openly admit I’m an Obama supporter, but I’d be just as offended by some of the stuff I’ve seen directed towards him the last few weeks regardless. From reading about “Terrorist Fist Jabs” to a Texas GOP Pin Saying: “If Obama Is President, Will We Still Call It The White House?” to Anti-christ claims, it makes me truly fearful of what ends people will go to so their candidate of choice will win.

God forbid people base their vote on a candidate’s actual stances on the myriad of issues in our country right now.

iConcertCal is a free iTunes plug-in that monitors your music library and generates a personalized calendar of upcoming concerts in your city. It is available for both Windows and Mac OS X and supports worldwide searches.

I just installed it and it is awesome. It runs within iTunes and its search is pretty expansive with shows ranging from Poison to my friend’s bands showing up for me. It also provides a calendar of upcoming releases from bands in your library. Anyway, I just found out Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick are playing in Denver on July 9th. I’ve got to go buy some tickets!

Go download iConcertCal

Update: Some people were asking about this, so I thought I’d clarify… Yes, you can sync this data with iCal.

My friend Matt sent me this yesterday. It might be old news, but I’ve never seent it. Pretty unbelievable though. This must have come out right before the name became unbelievably taboo.