Written and directed by Chris Milk, The Wilderness Downtown is an stunning interactive collaboration between Google Maps, Chrome, HTML 5 and Arcade Fire. It’s the best example of a viral campaign I’ve ever seen. So, so stinking gorgeous. Crank up your speakers and prepare to be wowed as the internet does things you’ve never seen before.

Perfect way to start the week, which also coincidentally marks my 2yr freelance anniversary too.

See similar write-ups at Design Work Life, It’s Nice That, and ML4U.

Gorgeous album covers on Project Thirty Three, curated by Jive Time Records. Via AisleOne.

Side A

Side B

It’s always sad when a friend moves away, right? Recently my friend Ina had to move back to Germany after spending the last year in Chicago. But before she left, she made a mixtape. Not just any mixtape mind you, she typed the track listing on a typewriter, screenprinted 20 copies and then folded them into envelopes to house the burned CD. I just thought it was a really exceptional and sweet take on a goodbye present. And she’s posted the songs so now you can download them too.

1. The Bigger the Figure • Louis Prima
2. Horchata // Vampire Weekend
3. The Man Who Sold His Beard • a Hack and a Hacksaw
4. Your Rocky Spine • Great Lake Swimmers
5. Sounder • This Could Mean Blood
6. James’ 2nd Haircut • Cairbou
7. Little Secret • Passion Pit
8. Zebra • Beach House
9. Winning a Battle, Losing the War • Kings of Convenience
10. Unattainable • Little Joy
11. The Ills • Mayer Hawthorne
12. Let’s Get Out of this Country • Camera Obscura
13. Petey’s Song • Jarvis Cocker
14. You + I • Wilco + Feist
15. Kokomo • Ben Kweller & Adam Green
16. Too Much • Bonaparte
17. ONE • Yeaseayer
18. Ich Moechte Leben • Wolfgang Mueller
19. Furr • Blitzen Trapper
20. Home • Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

Read and see more about Ina’s projects and collaborations here, here and here. She’s also just opened her online store too.

Music-inspired books, prints, and apparel by Soundscreen Design. I especially like their unusual poster hanging solution, Reframe, which happens to be totally affordable as well.

Howdy Do It came from “how do you do It,” the question Ellie & Margot found themselves asking about their freelance lifestyles, and so Howdy Do It was born, a column about the things we do to keep ourselves organized, inspired and on track. Right now, Howdy is only making sporadic appearances here on Pitch, but you can read all of Ellie’s previous posts here and my previous posts here on Mint.

Of course, the floor is still open for discussion on our formspring, so feel free to ask us any related questions if you are inclined.
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Happy Friday friends! Here’s a special edition of Howdy for you in honor of my birthday today. It’s a mini mix! Why so small you ask? The idea is that the 28-minute mix gives you a short period of total concentration on one task. It’s loosely based off the Pomodoro Technique, which is all about breaking up your time with short bursts of intense focus. So far I’ve been finding it especially helpful at the end of the day when I’m running on fumes, or when I find myself procrastinating on a task, like email, that can suck a whole day away if I’m not careful. Plus I like that this system doesn’t expect you to be on task all day long so I am allowed to balance in my own time here and there.

Typically for Howdy mixes (previously posted here) I favor a more up-tempo feel, something that’s pretty energetic. I’ve been on a hip-hop/soul/electronic kick these days so this particular mix reflects that.

1. 1969 / Boards Of Canada
2. Walk In The Sky (Feat. Bajka) / Bonobo
3. Weapon Of Choice / Fatboy Slim
4. Kaili / Caribou
5. Cellphone’s Dead / Beck
6 . Don’t Gotta Work It Out / Fitz & The Tantrums

Download Directions:
It’s a .zip file (virus free, I promise) which contains a folder of the songs and an import playlist file. First drag the songs to your music library and then import the playlist (File>Library>Import Playlist). It will make you a nice little list in your iTunes and you should be good to go.

That’s it from me today, I’m going to go celebrate! Chad got me a super cute purse from this chick and it’s got convertible straps for biking so we’re going to test it out.

This song/video is a triple whammy; sick stop-motion & sexy hand-cut lettering slung between the sounds of two new-to-me musicians. The song itself is a collab by hip-hop artist Grieves and mult-instrumentalist/producer Budo, but with the surprising result that’s more sweet lyrical ballad. If you’re familiar with any other Rhymesayers artists like Atmosphere, Brother Ali, MF Doom etc, you’ll likely dig both Greives & Budo’s other work as well.

The video is by Jesse Brown & Christian Hansen. Thanks to Jesse for sending me this cause now I have some new beats to jam on too.