Taylor Swift

The song is set to appear on the Love To Love You Donna remix album.

The partnership between Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder produced disco classics like ‘Love To Love You Baby’ and ‘I Feel Love’, tracks that were remixed for the forthcoming Love To Love You Donna remix album (due out October 22). Alongside remixes by Jacques Greene, Benga, Frankie Knuckles, and Duke Dumont is ‘La Dolce Vita’, a previously unreleased collaboration between the pair that Moroder has reworked for the compilation.

“The song was begun a few years ago in Nashville with Nathan DiGesare and then tweaked over time when we went back to Nashville to visit,” says Summer’s husband, Bruce Sudano. “I wanted a new song on the CD but couldn’t get approval of the demo until Giorgio came on and reworked the track and added his touch. The vocal used is actually one from early on in the writing process.”

It certainly sounds like Moroder’s new work (like his outsized ‘Love To Love You Baby’ remix), but there are enough signatures touches (e.g. the talk box) to make this one worthwhile. Head over to Spin to stream the track.

No New Friends.

We all know how seriously Drake takes his art (he likes to remind us quite regularly after all), and now this has caused the artist to make more awkward last minute changes to the upcoming “Would You Like A Tour?” spectacular. In an interview with Billboard’s Erika Ramirez concerning upcoming album Honest, Future, who was due to support Drake along with Miguel, made some less than positive comments concerning Drake’s latest full-length Nothing Was The Same, and Drake predictably was not pleased.

It was one particular quote from Future that was responsible for the trouble: “Drake made an album that is full of hits but it doesn’t grab you. They’re not possessive; they don’t make you feel the way I do.” His managers were quick to point out that the quote was taken out of context, but it seems the damage was already done.

Page Six report that Drake demanded that Future be booted from the tour immediately, with a source explaining “He told his agent either Future gets fired, or he’ll fire him.” It gets even more complicated too – after negotiations for Future to resume his spot on the tour, the Atlanta rapper wasn’t happy with a proposed pay drop, and pulled out for good. However, as he was initially set to pull in a massive $40,000 from each show, he’s allegedly set to file a lawsuit against Drake this week for $1.5 million.

We’re guessing that whatever the outcome of this one, the situation probably isn’t going to end well. [via Complex]

This article is about two important four-letter words that start with “F”: “flat” and “form.”

Though some decry flat user interfaces as pure fashion, or the obvious response to skeuomorphic trends, many designers have embraced the flat approach because the reduction in visual styling (such as gradients, drop shadows, and borders) creates interfaces that seem simpler and cleaner. 

The problem is that most flat UIs are built with a focus on the provision of content, with transactional components (i.e., forms) receiving very little attention. What happens when flat and forms collide? User experiences can, and often do, suffer.

Forms matter

When I say forms, I mean any interaction in which information is exchanged to receive a product or a service. This includes everything from internet banking to mobile commerce, from signing up to use a new tablet app to running a web search.

User needs for the design of forms can differ greatly from user needs for the design of content, as summarized in the table below.

Foremost, forms are about task completion. I’m sure I’m one of only a handful of people in the world who actually check out forms for fun; every other (reasonable) person just wants to fill out the form to get their car registered or buy those shiny new shoes. With content, however, finishing a task isn’t always a priority. Sometimes, we just want to browse without a specific end point in mind. (Wikipedia, I’m looking at you.)

People approach task completion in ways that differ from such exploration. Observe a person filling out a form, and you’ll see they “zoom in” on the fields, referring to instructions, tips, and even the field labels or questions only as a need arises. There’s an order: a place to start and a place to finish, and at the finish point they (usually) know whether they have succeeded or failed.

Content, on the other hand, can often be accessed via any range of paths and sources, and people move around and focus on that content in various ways. The idea of success is still relevant, but it shifts because of the diversity of use cases.

A focus on task completion also means that a user is likely to fill out your form only once, whereas the related content may be visited many times. Consequently, there is scant opportunity for a user to learn a form’s visual language (e.g., that there are no buttons, only links).

Flat equals less information

So forms and content are distinct. What does that have to do with flat UIs?

The problem is that in the push for simplicity, flat UIs may have gone too far. With content, things like drop shadows, gradients, and borders may well be no more than useless “embellishments.” When we read a multi-page news article, it doesn’t matter much whether the mechanism to move to the next page is a button or a link. With forms, however, distinguishing between a button and a link matters far more.

Take the example of a form’s “submit” and “cancel” actions. Clearly these two actions have very different results, and we want users to quickly and easily use the one that meets their needs. This is why I and others—including respected designer Luke Wroblewski—recommend presenting the primary action (submit) as a button and secondary actions (cancel) as links. The visual design doesn’t just provide aesthetics, it communicates the difference in functionality and relative priority.

The Klout form below, on the other hand, demonstrates the loss of information that often happens with flat UIs. Placing “cancel” before “submit” is a pretty nasty dark pattern, but let’s put that aside for now. The flat UI approach styles both the primary and secondary actions as links—with the same text color and background—which slows users down, as they have to pay more attention before acting.

Imagine how much more usable this form would be if the difference in actions was communicated through the visual design (again, putting aside the dark pattern):

The three biggest ways flat forms fail

The Klout example above nicely demonstrates the three largest ways in which flat UI forms often fail to deliver user-friendly experiences:

1. Lack of affordance (affordance is how much the design of an object—physical or digital—suggests use, like a chair inviting you to sit)
2. Insufficient distinction between form elements (e.g., fields versus labels versus instructions versus buttons)
3. Insufficient hierarchy within categories of form elements (e.g., primary versus secondary buttons)

The Klout “cancel” and “submit” actions lack affordance because their designs don’t invite the appropriate interaction. They would look clickable if they had the shape of a button (they are actions, after all) or were at least underlined (the conventional affordance for links on the web).

Form elements are also not well-differentiated: the only thing visually separating clickable links from non-clickable text is the text color.

When it comes to hierarchy within links, the Klout example is particularly interesting. Appearing first, “cancel” has some prominence over “submit” (hence the dark pattern—there’s an established convention and inherent psychological association that people expect what comes first to be the most common option). But other than this subtle distinction, the two links have exactly the same style. Yet they are not equivalent (regardless of whether you view the form from Klout’s or the user’s side).

So how do you avoid these pitfalls while maintaining a flat UI? The trick is to add just enough visual treatment to convey affordance, form elements, and hierarchy. You can do this by focusing on the most important elements on your form: fields and buttons, which are the core of form interactivity.

Tweaking the design of your fields and buttons

You’ll go a long way to making your flat form usable if you make your fields look hollow and make your buttons look raised. Such design provides affordance and differentiates form elements.

The screenshot below, of the Lowdi speaker purchase process, shows what happens if you fail to do this. The design of both the quantity field and the buy button are so flat, they don’t invite the appropriate interactions. Without careful inspection, users won’t realize that they can change the quantity, and will struggle to find what to click to proceed to the next step. 

Here’s how to distinguish and give affordance to fields and buttons:

Fixing fields

Let’s look at a before and after, focusing first on fields. The mobile sign-up form for Hipstamatic’s Oggl starts with the first screen below. Finding the place to tap in your email address is like an Easter egg hunt (but not as fun). Compare this to the alternative designs I mocked up, shown second and third. The second design simply adds a border around the field, setting it as a distinct element. The third design includes the border and removes the page background from the field. Using the form is now seamless. Both alternatives have a flat UI, but significantly better affordance—especially the third version.

When Facebook released graph search, it discovered the hard way how important it is to have fields that appear hollow. Originally, the search field had no background color (i.e., it was the same blue as the header bar). The result? Rafts of users unable to find the feature. After testing four different versions of the graph search field, Facebook found that a white background and a slight inset shadow—i.e., a field that looked hollow—was the most effective approach.

Balancing buttons

Here’s another before and after, now with buttons.

In the real estate mobile search example below, we have the original version on the left and an alternative—and I suspect, more usable—version on the right.

In the original design, the button was so flat it could easily be confused with a heading, footer, or other content block. Reducing the button’s width from full screen and adding rounded corners gives it greater affordance (while still having plenty of area for touch).

Primary versus secondary actions

Finally, don’t forget to style primary actions differently from secondary actions. There are two ways to do this:

• Use buttons for the primary action and links for secondary actions
• Use more prominent styling on the primary action button, relative to secondary action buttons

As an example of best practices, Fiverr uses links for secondary actions on its sign-up form.

And for further improvement, Riki Tanone demonstrates how to distinguish primary and secondary buttons in his blog UI template on Dribbble.

More information equals better accessibility

You may have noticed that a more usable, intuitive flat UI form involves some degree of redundancy. It’s often not just one visual design component (e.g., color) that communicates difference. Instead, it might be color and shape, or color and size.

This redundancy makes the interface accessible to a wider range of users, as the design doesn’t rely on the user being able to perceive or understand the one visual distinction that informs the type of interactivity.

Color is a great example. Approximately 12 percent of the population has vision with some color deficiency. If color is the only thing distinguishing non-clickable text from clickable links, as the Klout example showed, you’re immediately making things difficult for approximately 12 percent of your users.

Compare this with the recommendation that I, Luke Wroblewski, and many others make, that required questions should be marked with a red asterisk (as shown on the left). Here, both color and shape communicate to the user, so that the form is still usable by those with color-deficient vision (who might see it as shown on right).

Best of all worlds

As designers, we want to create great user experiences through simplicity and clarity.

What is simplicity and clarity? It’s the user knowing exactly what to do, and how to do it, with a minimum of effort. Achieving this kind of user experience means finding the right balance—not just going flat for flatness’s sake.

When it comes to forms—frustrating experiences even at the best of times—it means knowing that less isn’t always simpler.

Your time is gonna come.

Empire is billed as a Civilization-style 4X game, but that’s a bit misleading. Civ is a big arena-filling pyrotechnics-and-smoke-machines show that’s grown more decadent with each passing year. Empire, by contrast, a stripped-down, just-the-essentials experience of a 4X game. Civilization Unplugged.

A lot of people — myself included — go in for the flashy stuff. We play Civ for the thrill of unlocking new units and buildings. We download mods to add more units and more buildings. We build huge cities and terrifying armies, and then after we crush the world under their weight, we lean back and watch the aggrandising replay of our glorious victory.

Empire throws all of that right out the window. Hundreds of different units? No: three. Giant terrifying armies? No: only one army, never comprising of more than six units. Huge sprawling nations brimming over with giant cities? Empire gives you a cap of three cities, max. Conquering the world? Never going to happen — the world conquers you. Every time.

Empire is the anti-Civilization. And it is brilliant.

As the land is used up, it the world is more and more anxious to be rid of you — it’s slightly reminiscent of Alpha Centauri.

To really understand Empire, you have to understand its designer, Keith Burgun. Burgun has some very clear ideas on what a game should be. He looks at modern 4X games and he sees lots of cruft that has accumulated around the core mechanics. The most interesting part of Civilization to him is the first few turns where you are doing everything you can just to eke out an existence, fighting to survive in a largely unknown and hostile world. If you can get a strong start, Civ becomes a bit of a push-over, a game designed to lose gracefully.

That opening struggle is what Empire is all about — Burgun has made a whole game about it. A guy that looks at one of the world’s most beloved game franchises and says, “I can do better” is either nuts or has huge stones, or both. I’m going with both, but I am seriously impressed by Empire, nonetheless.

You start on a mysterious, fog-shrouded (randomly generated) continent with one settlement, which is drawing resources from the tiles around it. When your city has accumulated enough food, it grows and you can build an improvement, or settle a new city, explore your surroundings a bit, or pull down a few quick victory points. The world is green and pleasant — but it won’t be for long.

Every turn you take, your cities draw resources out of the land, but the land will eventually grow barren. You are your own enemy, because eventually your city will have to be abandoned, having leeched everything it can from the area around it. You’re also not alone in this world: there are dens of monsters that corrupt the land around them and send armies to destroy your settlements, though you can proactively send your armies to attempt to destroy them instead.

Battles start out evenly matched but the monsters come with greater numbers if you leave their hives to grow.

This uneasy relationship with the earth is Empire’s crowning achievement. You are going to lose. The question is, how long can you stave that off for? Every turn has a meaningful decision — you know that you can’t focus on any one city for very much time, but when you do you jump? How long do you keep your eggs in that basket? How soon until the monsters overcome your defense?

Fighting the monsters is equally interesting. Your armies can be composed of three different units (infantry, cavalry, and archers), each with different health and attack ratings, as well as different attack patterns on the 2D combat grid: infantry attack in a cross shape in the cardinal directions around them, archers have a ranged attack that hits certain distant squares, and so on. The monsters have three different units with roughly the same setup.

Your units are randomly placed on the left side of the combat grid at the start of every battle, and the monsters opposite. Each turn, units take a step forward and attack if possible. Your objective is to destroy all of the enemy units or bypass them entirely, destroying their camp on the far right side of the grid. A bit of randomness is injected by cards, which you draw four at a time from a deck a la Ascension or Dominion.

Cards are the only edge you have over the monsters, so keeping your deck free of bad cards is priority number one.

These cards let you break the rules a bit: swapping units’ positions, granting health bonuses, allowing you to redraw other cards, etc. Proper management of your cards is essential, as you will eventually be outnumbered by the monsters no matter what you do, leaving clever employment of your deck as the only way to victory. If you lose a unit in combat, it becomes a useless strife card that takes up valuable space in your deck and that you must go out of your way to purge.

If you lose a unit, it’s because you knowingly sacrificed it or because you were foolish. There is no other answer. There are absolutely no mysteries in Empire’s design: the combat units, like chess pieces, behave in a predictable way every single turn — there’s no “AI” to speak of.  It’s a glass engine where you can see all of the parts, and its complexity emerges from the interleaving of all of those simple parts.

Empire is so tight it squeaks, and I suspect it’s the best game I’ve played this year. Every system in the game makes immediate sense, and interoperates with other systems elegantly — and there’s no extra bits, no systems sitting around just adding color or atmosphere. Keith Burgun could never make a Saints Row game, or a God of Blades, where style and fluff count for as much as the mechanics. But then again, I didn’t think he could make a 4X either.

Owen Faraday
Review: Empire
Pocket Tactics
Pocket Tactics -

Some nights you just need something warm, comforting, and easy to help melt off the stresses of the day, like a big bowl of chili. And maybe some cornbread, too, for good measure. This easy Chili Cornbread Skillet has all the comfort of a pot of chili, with homemade cornbread baked right on top to avoid excess dishes. Oh, and I hid a layer of gooey cheddar cheese between the chili and cornbread, too. Because cheese makes everything better!🧀

Originally posted 10-5-2013, updated 12-12-2019.

Cozy Chili Cornbread Skillet

What Kind of Skillet Should I Use?

You’ll want a deep, 4-quart skillet for this recipe. I used my 10″ 4-quart Oxo stainless steel skillet for this recipe. If needed, you could also use a smaller wide soup pot or Dutch oven. Using an oven safe skillet or pot is the best option, but read on if you do not own an oven safe skillet or pot.

What if I Don’t Have an Oven Safe Skillet?

If you only own teflon skillets, skillets with plastic handles, or skillets that have other non-safe parts, you can still make this recipe. Simply let the chili simmer in your skillet or pot while you make the cornbread, and then transfer to a 4-quart casserole dish before topping with the cornbread batter and baking.

Can I Add Meat to the Chili Cornbread Skillet?

Absolutely! I made a vegetarian version this time around because it’s quite cost effective and it makes the meal more pantry-staple friendly, but you can always add meat if you have it on hand or prefer your chili con carne. Simply replace one can of beans with one pound ground beef or turkey. Brown the meat in the skillet before adding the onion, garlic, and jalapeño in the beginning. 

Meal Prep and Freezer Friendly

This Chili Cornbread Skillet holds up extremely well in the refrigerator, and is also freezer friendly. As with any meal prep recipe, make sure to divide the dish into single serving portions right after cooking and get it into the refrigerator as soon as possible, so it cools quickly. Once cooled, the chili cornbread will keep in the refrigerator for about four days, or can be transferred to the refrigerator and kept frozen for about 3 months. You can see some of my favorite meal prep containers here.

Love chili? Check out my Simple Homemade Chili recipe with tons of ways to customize the flavors to make it your own! 

How to Make Chili Cornbread Skillet – Step by Step Photos

Dice one yellow onion and mince two cloves of garlic. Slice the jalapeño lengthwise, scrape out the seeds with a spoon, then dice the remaining pepper. Add the onion, garlic, and jalapeño to a skillet with 1 Tbsp cooking oil. Sauté over medium heat until the onion is soft and translucent (about 5 minutes).

Drain three 15 oz. cans of beans (any combo of kidney, black bean, or pinto—I used two black beans, one kidney). Add the beans to the skillet along with one 15 oz. can of fire roasted diced tomatoes, one 6 oz. can of tomato paste, 1 Tbsp chili powder, 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp oregano, 1 tsp salt, and 1 cup water. Stir to combine. Allow the chili to come up to a simmer over medium heat. Continue to simmer the chili, stirring occasionally, as you prepare the cornbread batter.

Begin preheating the oven to 425ºF. Combine 1 cup cornmeal, 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 4 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt in a large bowl. Stir until they are very well combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together 1 cup milk, 1 large egg, and 1/4 cup cooking oil. Pour the bowl of whisked wet ingredients into the bowl with the cornmeal mixture and stir just until the batter is combined (don’t over stir).

Before adding the cornbread batter to the chili, sprinkle 1 cup of shredded cheddar over the surface of the chili.

Carefully spread the cornbread batter over the surface of the hot chili, making sure to spread from edge to edge.

Bake the Chili Cornbread Skillet in the fully preheated 425ºF oven for about 25 minutes, or until the top of the cornbread is golden brown.

To serve, simply scoop the cornbread and chili beneath out of the skillet and onto a plate or bowl.

COMFORT FOOD.

The post Chili Cornbread Skillet appeared first on Budget Bytes.

This is Pi-chi, a Harajuku girl who works in apparel. She styled her hair cutely with twin tails, with bangs.

Pi-chi’s sleeveless customized ZZ Top tank is Nadia Harajuku resale, and she paired it with a Kawi Jamele plaid suspender skirt. Her heart-shaped necklace is Forever21, the watch is Kitson, her bracelet and ring are by Justin Davis, and her sunglasses come from Spinns. She is also wearing a resale backpack and Nadia creepers, paired with fishnet socks.

Pi-chi told us that she likes shopping from Bubbles Harajuku and Romantic Standard, and that she’s a fan of J-Pop singer Utada Hikaru. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram for more updates.

Click on any photo to enlarge it.

Ghost (GitHub: TryGhost / Ghost, License: MIT) is a blogging platform built with Node and Express. It uses CasperJS for testing, and Bookshelf.js for the ORM layer.

Ghost started out as a Kickstarter project, with the aim of bettering WordPress. Ghost is run by a non-profit organisation, and released the source code today under the MIT license. Ghost is also run as a service, so you can create an account at ghost.org and try it out without having to install it.

However, fortunately it is pretty easy to install: npm install --production and npm start should get it running. It’s easy because Bookshelf.js is database agnostic, so if your system has SQLite then it should be able to use it to store posts and users.

Event better, the fact Bookshelf.js is based around Backbone.js means you should be able to start hacking Ghost without much trouble. If you’ve done any work with Express and Backbone.js then Ghost’s source will be eminently hackable.

The project is split into client and server code, and it uses popular patterns like promises, Express route separation, and Express middleware.

The architecture of the project has been shaped by the need to allow people to easily install and theme Ghost blogs, which means it deviates from the typical Express applications I write which are bespoke services. The focus on theming came from the need to create a similar designer-friendly ecosystem that WordPress has, and already on launch themes and services that sell themes are available. You can read more about this in Ghost Launches to The Public.

The fact the project started off as a Kickstarter project with hundreds of eager alpha testers means it already feels mature. And unlike many open source projects it has a dedicated team and a business model behind it, so it’s definitely off to a promising start. I recommend giving it a look over if you’re an Express developer or just tired of your own blogging platform.

Devil/DVL (Yusuke Hida) is a stylish 18-year-old guy who has risen to the status of Harajuku style icon over the last year. We see him around the streets often, and he’s always super nice! Devil works at the Faline Tokyo boutique in Harajuku, which is also his favorite shop.

Devil is wearing a G.V.G.V. sweatshirt with a pair of high-waisted American Apparel jeans. His backpack and shoes are also from American Apparel. He accessorized with rings, a cross choker, and earrings – which are from Alice Black, Vivienne Westwood, and Ambush.

You can find DVL on Twitter or Instagram for regular updates.

Click on any photo to enlarge it.

This month, The Roots’ Questlove will release a new book chronicling US television show Soul Train.

From 1971 until its final broadcast in 2006, Soul Train welcomed the top soul, R&B and hip-hop stars from each generation onto its stage, including Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, LL Cool J and Mariah Carey. In this feature, Tayo – former Fabric mixer, Arsenal podcast presenter and nailed-on Soul Train fanatic – picks his favourite moments from the greatest show on earth.

Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 1/11)

The Titan’s Goblet by Thomas Cole (1833, oil on canvas)

The culmination of Cole’s romantic fantasies, this work echoes the artist’s other works of the period in its Italian derived scenery and its attempt to illustrate themes dealing with the grandeur of the past, the passage of time, and the encroachment of nature. Rejected by Cole’s patron, Luman Reed, and subsequently owned by the artist John M. Falconer, the work defies full explanation. The massive, vegetation encrusted goblet around whose rim are found classical ruins, and on whose glassy surface boats sail, has been linked to Norse legend and Greek mythology. Theophilus Stringfellow, Jr. described it as a self-contained, microcosmic human world in the midst of vast nature, while Falconer linked the monumental stem of the goblet to the trunk of the Norse world-tree; he likened the cup to “the ramifying branches … which spread out and hold between them an ocean dotted with sails, surrounded by dense forests and plains.” Other theories tie the fantastic forms to J. M. W. Turner’s “Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus” (National Gallery, London), to Italian architecture and geological formations, or to the golden goblet of the sun-god Helios. The elevation and remove of the cup, rimmed with classical remnants, suggests the disassociation of the present, embodied in the surrounding landscape, from the pinnacle of creation which nourished its culture. Cole serves as intermediary, a role open only to the artist or poet, transcending the strictues of the immediate world to unite past and present.

This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 759 of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I didn’t find out about National Kale Day until after the fact, but seeing pictures of delicious kale recipes all day made me really crave kale bad. What’s the fastest, easiest fix? Kale & pasta!

I chose to use whole wheat pasta for this dish because I felt like the nutty whole wheat flavor would go really great with kale’s earthiness. Whole wheat pasta with kale may sound like the most boring, torturous diet meal of all time, but when you lace them with garlic, parmesan, and a little butter, they take on a whole new personality. Add a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes if you’re feeling sassy and it’s like pasta heaven.

This recipe makes four side dish sized servings, but you can bulk it up and make it a meal by adding a chopped hard boiled egg (or topping with a fried egg, like I did), adding some chopped fresh tomatoes (or sun dried), or even crumbling some bacon over top. This is just a starting point and it can go in about a million different directions. Have fun with it!

Garlic Parmesan Kale Pasta

Step by Step Photos

I was lucky enough to get this HUGE bag of pre cut kale for $2.50. It’s equal to about two large bunches of kale. If yours is not pre-cut, simply tear the leaves from the stems, give them a good rinse, then cut them into small pieces or strips.

You’ll want to get the pasta going first because the rest of the dish will be finished cooking in the time that it takes the pasta to boil. I like to break the pasta in half before boiling it so that you still have the illusion of long strands, but it is MUCH easier to mix in with other ingredients. Long pasta is really tough to stir together with other things. You usually end up with a blob of pasta in the center and all of the “add-ins” around the outside of the bowl or pot. Breaking it in half helps prevent this considerably. 

Add your butter, oil, and minced garlic to a large pot or skillet. I like to us a pot with tall-ish sides so that the kale doesn’t spill out as I try to stir it. 

Sauté the garlic over medium heat for a few minutes, or just until it becomes soft and really fragrant (it should smell like the best garlic bread you’ve ever laid your nostrils on).

Add the kale and continue to sauté until the kale wilts down and is a really beautiful deep jade green. When I first put the kale in the pot it pretty much filled it up to the top, but it wilts down pretty quickly. This was after about 5 minutes. Turn the heat off after it’s wilted.

By now your pasta has finished cooking and you can let it drain in a colander. Let it cool for just a minute…

Then add it to the pot with the kale and toss them together. Also let it rest a few minutes here until it cools to the point where no steam is coming off of the pasta. You want the pasta to be warm, but not so hot that the Parmesan melts into it and disappears. Use this time to season the pasta and kale with salt and pepper. I just sprinkle some on as if it was my dinner plate, give it a toss, taste, then add more if needed.

Finally, add the grated parmesan and toss to coat. You can add a pinch of red pepper flakes if you want a little kick, too.

I went ahead and made it a meal by topping it with a fried egg because that’s how I roll. A diced hard boiled egg would also be awesome. 

And maybe some sriracha.

When vegetables taste good it’s like…

http://www.singsnap.com/karaoke/forum/topic/b9258e5

The post Garlic Parmesan Kale Pasta appeared first on Budget Bytes.

The Canadian FACT favorite reworks the soul duo’s throwback single.

Keying in on the song’s non-stop motor, Ryan Hemsworth turns Quadron’s ‘Hey Love’ into a surging, smoke monster of a tune that still focuses on Coco’s unmistakeable vocals. A touch of club break jangle and laser-tag synths punctuate an otherwise restrained remix.

Stream his take on ‘Hey Love’ below; the dancing-through-the-years video for the original is below. Last year, FACT interviewed Coco about the move from Copenhagen to Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Hemsworth’s Guilt Trips LP is due out October 22.

Photo by Ryan Essmaker.

Today we’re excited to announce the Typekit pop-up library, which is making its debut this week at Brooklyn Beta. If you’re here at the conference and need a break from the bustling crowd, we’ve designed this library to be a unique space to relax a bit and get inspired.

Books are a timeless source of inspiration, education, and influence for the work we do—not only do we respect their content, but also the craftsmanship behind the physical objects. Typekit’s pop-up library is a growing collection of design-centric books—currently numbering around 65 titles—carefully selected by members of the Typekit team. We recommended these because they continue to be useful in our work, and in many cases have even earned a spot on our shelves at home.

Photo by Ryan Essmaker.

Conferences are great for meeting people in person. Meet some of your favorite books in person, too! The library is set up on the mezzanine level at Brooklyn Beta all day, along with some treats from Ovenly Bakery and Bedford Cheese Shop. Stop by to look through a book, enjoy a snack, and say hello to Typekit team members.

Photo by Ryan Essmaker.

For those of you who can not be with us at Brooklyn Beta today and would like to check out the books we brought, here’s the complete list. We picked out 16 of our favorites and wrote a note about what we like most about it. Maybe you’ll find some titles here that can help you in your work too.

Photo by Ryan Essmaker.

Staff Favorites:

Anatomy of a Typeface by Alexander Lawson

Another cherished overview of type, arranged as a kind of tour through styles and history. Chapter by chapter, it explores type from its beginning up to the 20th century. This is another book I read from beginning to end. It’s also carefully designed and a pleasure to look at and hold. — Christopher Slye

The Anatomy of Type by Stephen Coles

Drawing on his vast knowledge of typefaces and keen eye for subtle details, Stephen Coles coaches readers through a collection of simple, striking type samples—highlighting the features that make the typefaces noteworthy, and making suggestions about how each can best be used. — Tim Brown

An Atlas of Typeforms by James Sutton & Alan Bartram

This is an excellent visual overview of movable type as it has evolved over its history. The large format provides enough space to generously cover numerous examples from every significant typographic period. By presenting identical specimens for a variety of similar typefaces, you can easily see and compare their differences. — Christopher Slye

Creative Characters (The MyFonts interviews, vol. 1) by Jan Middendorp

A superb collection of the interviews conducted with type designers for the MyFonts email newsletter. The interviews are so thorough that they absolutely deserved a medium more permanent than email, and this book is that answer. — Elliot Jay Stocks

Hermann Zapf’s Manuale Typographicum by Hermann Zapf

The great type designer and typographer Hermann Zapf designed this book as a celebration of type and typography, as well as a nod to Giambattista Bodoni’s Manuale Tipografico. Each page shows a simple, elegant design, demonstrating the typeface and its function. And like most everything, most of the pages can now be found online. — Ben Trissel

Inside Paragraphs by Cyrus Highsmith

Cyrus Highsmith’s brief book about the basics of typography, with delightful illustrations and no wasted words. The parts about white space are especially great, with useful terms like “glyph space” and handy volumetric comparisons. Simple and enjoyable, yet weighty with wisdom. — Tim Brown

Lettering and Type by Bruce Willen & Nolen Strals

A great primer for the budding typography enthusiast and an excellent reference manual for the more discerning typographer, Post Typography’s book is both educational and visually stimulating—perfect for the coffee table. — Elliot Jay Stocks

Letters of Credit by Walter Tracy

When I was first learning about type, this book was an intelligent and readable resource which covered, all at once, the technology, craft, history of type—and some of its best designers. It’s the kind of book you can read cover-to-cover (and I did). Walter Tracy’s writing is always friendly and approachable. Very much a predecessor in spirit to the better-known Elements of Typographic Style, it was one of the first several books that got me hooked on type. — Christopher Slye

Stop Stealing Sheep by Erik Spiekermann

Something of a typography bible from the highly-regarded and highly-opinionated Erik Spiekermann, using real-world examples—human faces, physical spaces, music, etc.—as metaphors for a deeper understanding of type’s ability to elicit deeply emotional responses in the reader. — Elliot Jay Stocks

The Elements of Dynamic Symmetry by Jay Hambidge

Jay Hembidge spent years studying and analyzing classic art and architecture. From his research, he cataloged the types of proportional systems used in the creation of buildings, books and various artifacts. A fantastic resource for designers frustrated with the blank canvas or blank page. — Ben Trissel

The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst

From specimens, to symbols, to history and harmony, Robert Bringhurst explains the art and craft of typography like none other. If you buy one book about typography, make it this one. It was my own introduction to the field, and remains a reliable desk reference. — Tim Brown

The Ten Commandments of Typography by Paul Felton

This fun and informal book, divided into “good” and “bad” halves, takes an often-humorous look at the dos and don’ts of typography and presents them in an engaging style. — Elliot Jay Stocks

Typefaces for Books  by James Sutton & Alan Bartram

A straightforward book of text type specimens, with some interesting introductory notes. This is one of my favorite specimen books because of the quantity of typefaces shown and the extensive text specimens. The book’s British origin means some faces lesser-known to US readers are included. — Christopher Slye

Typographic Quest by West Virginia Pulp and Paper Co.

WestVaCo commissioned this “inspirational” series as a method of showcasing their papers. The math was simple: pair exciting design with WestVaCo papers, and give the results to customers, who will in turn buy more paper. Each issue is about 28 pages in length and covers a specific aspect of typography: size, weight, structure, form, texture, color, and direction. — Ben Trissel

Typography Sketchbooks by Steven Heller & Lita Talarico

Glimpse into the rarely-seen sketchbooks of the world’s most respected designers in this behind-the-scenes book that provides healthy doses of inspiration and celebrates the power of these hand-drawn ideas. — Elliot Jay Stocks

U&lc Influencing Design and Typography by John Berry

Because so much of modern design and production happened in this magazine. If you were a designer in the 70′s and 80′s, U&lc was a constant in your studio. A product of Herb Lubalin and International Type Corporation, every issue featured fantastic spec sheets and Herb Lubalin’s signature style. Fonts.com has made a lot of the U&lc archives available in low-res pdf. — Ben Trissel

A Tally of Types by Stanley Morison

Book Design by Andrew Haslam

Designing with the Mind in Mind by Jeff Johnson

Digital Typography by Donald E. Knuth

Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug

Dot-font – Talking About Fonts by John D. Berry

Envisioning Information by Edward R. Tufte

Finer Points in the Spacing and Arrangement of Type by Goeffrey Dowding

Frederic Goudy by D.J.R. Bruckner

Graphic Design, Referenced: A Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design by Bryony Gomez-Palacio & Armin Vit

Graphic Design: The New Basics by Ellen Lupton

Helvetica and the New York City Subway System by Paul Shaw

Jan Tschichold: Typographer by Ruari McLean

Language Culture Type: International Type Design in the Age of Unicode by John D. Berry (Ed.)

Made with FontFont by Jan Middendorp & Erik Spiekermann

Offscreen Series by Kai Brach

On Book Design by Richard Hendel

Revival of the Fittest – Digital Versions of Classic Typefaces by Philip B. Meggs (Ed.)

The Anatomy of Type by Stephen Coles

The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman

The Elements of User Experience by Jesse James Garrett

The Form of the Book by Jan Tschichold

The Fundamentals of Typography by Gavin Ambrose & Paul Harris

The Humane Interface by Jef Raskin

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper

The Thames and Hudson Manual of Typography by Ruari McLean

The Typographic Desk Reference by Theodore Rosendorf

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte

Twentieth Century Type Designers  by Sebastian Carter

Twenty-Two Tips on Typography by Enric Jardi

Typographers on Type by Ruari McLean (Ed.)

Universal Methods of Design by Bella Martin & Bruce Hanington

Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, & Jill Butler

Photo by Ryan Essmaker.

If you think Typekit’s pop-up library would be a good fit for your event, please get in touch with us through support@typekit.com.  We are also looking for more books to add to our library and would like to hear your suggestions.

12-volume, 2,450-page book with the name of every nuclear bomb detonation in the world, ever, by Andrea Pinheiro.

The study found that commercial satellite firms launch more satellites than is “socially desirable,” and they use launch technology that is more likely to create debris “because they only compare individual marginal benefits and costs of their technology choice and fail to take into account social benefits and costs.” That puts space debris squarely into the category of a “negative externality,” much like regular Earth-bound pollution, where the costs are unfairly borne by a third party—in this case just about everyone else on Earth.

Will compounding words lead to compounding interest? Check out my word/name generator, Upstart, and see what you think.

As always, you should feel free to develop a modified generator or name your company one of these terms.

The heroine of Crypt of the NecroDancer — Brace Yourself Games' tactical rhythm and action mashup that took this year's PAX Prime by storm — was chosen by accident. Or rather, she is who she is based on Ryan Clark's affinity for the works of Japanese director and animator Hayao Miyazaki.

That’s right! GOBLIN, is here in Cambridge TONIGHT. Legendary creators of Italian horror and exploitation film scores, the group has reunited and is on the road to bring their prog rock infused kaleidoscope of sounds to local ears. I couldn’t be more psyched, as I thought I might never get this chance again, having passed up the opportunity years ago when at the last minute I heard that they were playing @ some upstate NY Horror Convention. DAWN OF THE DEAD, SUSPIRIA, DEEP RED: GOBLIN scored each film. Check their 1976 album ROLLER to hear some great haunting rock from this group that doesn’t come from a film soundtrack. Expect lots of horror film t shirts tonight as the lights go down and GOBLIN takes their rightful place on the big Sinclair stage over in Harvard Square. w/ Secret Chiefs 3

$25 / 18+ / 9pm and apparently sold out

The post GOBLIN @ SINCLAIR appeared first on The Boston Hassle.

Miami rap meets London swagger.

South London DJ and Rinse FM stalwart Oneman releases the sequel to January’s ace Solitaire mixtape next week, and to whet your appetites here’s a preview of one of the exclusive tracks included in his new collection of rap and club cuts from both sides of the Atlantic.

‘South Of The River’ pairs Miami rapper Lofty305 of prolific rap oddballs Metro Zu with London production outfit BRTSH KNIGHTS on a booming, sci-fi-tinged track that’s significantly more clean and club-ready than Metro Zu’s spacey, weed-blurred aesthetic.

That track rubs shoulders on the mixtape with exclusive music from Le1f collaborator Eyedress, Swamp81 boss Loefah, Brainfeeder’s Jeremiah Jae and North London producer Fis-T plus a selection of fresh material from the likes of Denzel Curry, Bok Bok & Tom Trago and Danny Brown.

Solitaire Vol. 2 is out on October 14 via Oneman’s website. The DJ will celebrate the launch with a party at Fabric in London that Friday, October 18, hosting room one alongside JRocc, Lil Silva, Martelo, Brtsh Knights and a special live PA from Chicago’s Sasha Go Hard. A US launch event will be also broadcast live from New York via Boiler Room.

Hear ‘South Of The River’ by Lofty305 x BRTSH KNIGHTS, and check the mixtape artwork below:

Please don’t go. The drones need you.

Mix one part spontaneous generosity with one part cynical self-promotion. Finish with a dash of opportune satire, and what do you get? No, not Owen Faraday’s preferred mating ritual—it’s GOG’s midweek government shutdown promo.

If you were recently furloughed as a result of the US federal government shutdown, GOG would like to help take your mind off your nation’s ruinous political disfunction. Send in your picture with your furlough letter in hand, and GOG will give you free copies of The Guild, Capitalism, Capitalism 2, Tropico, Alpha Centauri, Theme Hospital, and Redneck Rampage. Each of these has some tenuous connection to the present political logjam, but more importantly they’re all well worth playing, and at least one is a canonical best-of-all-time classic. (That’d be the one with the nerve stapling.)

GOG expects the rest of us to buy those titles at a mere 50% discount. Lucky furloughed folk get all the breaks, I tell you.

Phil Scuderi
GOG offers free games to furloughed US workers
Red Door Blue Key
Red Door Blue Key -

Going after the massive Pendergrass fanbase now, JT?

Patrick St. Michel: Justin Timberlake is not conventionally cool in 2013, but he’s been making it work for him nonetheless. His best singles have been ritzy numbers about wearing suits and nights on the town, in direct opposition to the last-night-on-Earth oblivion fueling so many other pop songs over the last few years. He’s on some dad shit, but he’s mostly been the dad who you don’t mind drinking some with and talking about women with. “TKO” is Dad downing one too many Bud Light Plats and becoming worse than uncool — he becomes corny and insufferable and creepy as fuck. Using boxing as a metaphor for sex is goofy enough. That he does it for seven minutes is inexcusable. Timbaland sings “kill me with the coo-coochie-coochie-coo” without a hint of irony. Justin Timberlake says “rematch sex.” Seven minutes. Please just focus on the new MySpace, man.
[0]

Alfred Soto: I’m gonna outsource my blurb to Robert Christgau, writing about Daryl Hall in 1986. Like the rest of The 20/20 Experience Pt. Deux, “TKO” is “bloated by endless codas, superfluous instrumentation, hall upon hall of  vocal mirrors, and the artist’s unshakable confidence that his talent  makes him significant.”
[2]

David Turner: I never made it through the first song of the “20/20 Experience: The Story of Marriage of Sex and Passion, Part One of Too Many”, because it felt long at five minutes. *Checks Wikipedia* That song was 8 minutes. Fuck. I gave this one a full listen. Again. Fuck. 
[2]

Cédric Le Merrer: Why would you name a song “TKO,” aka the boring kind of KO? I could write some bull about how JT & Timbo knew this was a bad warmed over version of their old selves, but the lyrics clearly show they either don’t know or don’t care about the difference between a KO and a TKO. This T is just a lyrical filler in a song about wich the best I can say is that it indeed fills its 7 minutes running time.
[1]

Edward Okulicz: Behold, Internet, your “you’ve got to like him or at least fancy him” pop artist given free reign to show you the extent of his musical being! Multi-part albums and seven-minute singles! Ugly, isn’t it? It’s like an entire song made up of bits thrown out of hours of hypothetical early drafts of “Cry Me a River.” Very bad and very long, feeling overstuffed and yet containing in essence absolutely nothing, “TKO” is pure indulgence; his not ours. 
[1]

Jer Fairall: Seemingly incapable at concision these days, Timberlake’s latest nevertheless makes good use of a sleazy synth-funk riff, and a classically busy Timbaland production, engaging enough to sustain the bloated running time. The titular metaphor, on the other hand, is so ridiculousoly laboured that it wears itself out almost immediately.
[6]

Katherine St Asaph: Girl OTM.
[1]

Brad Shoup: I could deal with his custard yammer if he were 1) telling a story — like, a real story with details and quotes, not metaphors, or 2) going for pure nonsense. Timbaland and his cohorts work up a Toompish riff but forget to beef it up, but never fear, we have sound effects!
[3]

Anthony Easton: I have given 90 minutes of my life to this song, in an attempt to find something to say about it, all I have is that I miss when he knew how to make perfect 3 minute pop hooks. If Gravity teaches us anything, maybe it is a renewal in the idea of terseness and seriousness not being enemies. This is inflated and absurd. 
[2]

We met Nopi, a high school student wearing a layered outfit, on the street in Harajuku.

Her t-shirt is from the popular Harajuku resale shop Panama Boy. She’s paired it with Spinns pants and a suspenders skirt on top. Her accessories are from Paris Kids (a popular accessory shop on Takeshita Dori): bead hair ties, a plastic choker, and plastic bracelets. She is also wearing a colorful backpack, striped sneakers and heart shaped sunglasses.

Nopi told us that her favorite place to shop is Spinns, and that she has a Twitter account.

Click on any photo to enlarge it.

Search engine fields record number of anti-piracy requests.

Google was asked to take down 5.9 million allegedly copyright-infringing links in the last week of September, according to the search giant’s latest Transparency Report figures.

As The Guardian reports, this equates to more than eight ‘pirate’ links reported per second, with the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) responsible for 5.7 million of the takedown requests submitted throughout September.

The number of takedown requests Google receives from copyright holders has shot up over the last couple of years. In comparison, little more than year ago the search engine was receiving only 1.2 million requests per month.

Despite fielding a record number of takedown requests, Google was chastised in the very same week by a UK government report condemning Google’s anti-piracy efforts as “ineffective” and “flimsy”.

The jury is still out on whether takedown requests are the right way to combat piracy, with a recent report from the London School of Economics (LSE) suggesting that file sharing actually helps, rather than hinders the music industry. In contrast, countries like Japan and Korea actually seem to be benefiting from stricter punishments for music piracy.

ATTN EVERYONE THIS COP WANTS TO KNOW WHERE YOUR BASEMENT SHOWS ARE

…and there’s some days where a band like RATSTAB will do just nicely. Sometimes you don’t want to spend more than 60 seconds listening to a song. Sometimes you want total eardrum assault. Sometimes slow doesn’t cut it. Sometimes a really excellent band claws it’s way out of a dirty hole and arrives without warning, kicking screaming and spitting in your face. RATSTAB are exactly that.

Risen from the puddles of vomit outside of the warehouses of Olneyville, these guys have just released a demo that is as raw as the sores on a biker’s ass. It’s a good thing the whole thing is streaming on bandcamp because the physical copies are sold out after like two days, save for a few available at ARMAGEDDON and online at SOAP AND SPIKES.

This band is a shitshow, as proven by this 7 track demo. If I had to pick an absolutely ridiculous adjective to describe them it would be FEROCIOUS. I feel weird getting too wordy about music that sounds like this, so I’ll just say that if you’re into punk rock in short bursts that refuses to slow down, this is a band for you. Please let them play in your basement, ASAP.

The post RATSTAB – DEMO 2013 appeared first on The Boston Hassle.