Bob Dylan's interactive music video for Like A Rolling Stone boggles the mind

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Bob Dylan's interactive music video for Like A Rolling Stone boggles the mind

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View the original article here

Charm Your Socks Off: You Can't Resist the Music and Romance of "She Loves Me" at Beck Center

It's a show that's so adorable you want to pinch its cheeks. It's so charming you want to take it out to the movies and then buy it a big dinner. And its music is so inventive and lyrical you just want to lay back in it like an audio hammock.

Yes, it is none other than She Loves Me, the simply titled but deceivingly complex musical that is now gracing the Beck Center main stage. Performed by an exceptional cast and featuring superb work by director Scott Spence and choreographer Martin Cespedes, this is an old-fashioned musical that scores on almost all counts.

Set in Budapest in the 1930s, the book by Joe Masteroff is a familiar one involving mistaken and hidden identities. Based on the play Parfumerie by Miklos Laszlo, Georg Nowack and Amalia Balash are clerks in a shop where they stock shelves with toilet water (no, not that. It's what they used to call eau de cologne) and cold cream.

Trouble is, Georg can't stand Amalia, and vice versa. So they spend their off hours sending anonymous love notes to pen pals who turn out to be, well, you know who. You don't have to be clairvoyant to suss out this plot, since this story has been adapted into three movies (The Shop Around the Corner, In the Good Old Summertime, and You've Got Mail), in addition to this musical.

What makes this tried and true story stand apart is the music by Jerry Bock and the lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. Swinging smoothly from one European style to another, Bock's score is a constant delight. A reflective waltz gives way to a music box-inspired ditty followed by a zesty tango and then many other forms, all of which are perfectly suited to their content.

And Harnick's lyrics continually surprise, with the amusing split lyrics in "Sounds While Selling" being a prime example. Hearing only snatches of three different customers talking to three different salespeople we hear oddly combined sentences such as, "I would like...an eyebrow...under my chin..."

The humor is always gentle but the wit is sharp, so one never tires of this predictable romantic yarn with the inevitable happy ending.

A huge reason for that success is the cast, led by Rebecca Pitcher as Amalia and Jamie Koeth as Georg. Pitcher prettily pours out the anger towards Georg and she has a crystal clear soprano voice that turns the plain song, "Vanilla Ice Cream," into a showstopper. She is strong throughout, even though she misses some of the acting beat changes in "Will He Like Me?"

Koeth doesn't have half the pipes Pitcher does, with his rendition of the title song going flat a bit too often, but he acts his socks off and keeps pace. He is especially affecting in his dialogue scenes with Pitcher as the two characters dance around their love-hate relationship.

They are supported in fine fashion by the rest of the principal cast who play the other store workers. And each of them have standout moments. Jonathan Kronenberger is sweet as the dutiful employee Sipos, expressing his small dreams (he just wants to stay employed) in "Perspective." As the unlucky-in-love Ilona Ritter, Amiee Collier soars in "A Trip to the Library."

The boss with a heart of gold Mr. Maraczek is played by Matthew Wright with admirable restraint, and Brian Altman gives the hot-to-trot Steven Kodaly a slick yet oddly appealing turn. Even the delivery boy Arpad, played by the eager Brett Harmon Castro, lights up the proceedings with his Act 2 opener "Try Me."

Director Spence makes all this work fluidly in every instance except for an awkward transition into the nightclub scene. But choreographer Cespedes rescues it with the super sexy tango twirls in "A Romantic Atmosphere," which immediately follows.

In short, it's a team effort that turns this She Loves Me into a lovely show that will win your heart without bypassing your brain.

View the original article here

Classical Gas: Beethoven's Music is Overwhelmed by a Bloated Script in Variations at the Beck Center

If you had only a relatively short time to live, what would you want to do in your remaining time? Complete that Elvis paint-by-numbers portrait? Binge-watch The Sopranos one more time?

Perhaps, but none of those are the choices the two principals make in 33 Variations, now at the Beck Center. Written by Moises Kaufman, this play jumps centuries as it tracks two dying people: Ludwig van Beethoven and the fictional American musicologist, Dr. Katherine Brandt.

The premise of the play is intriguing, as these two very different people pursue compulsions that defy logic and upset their respective friends and contemporaries. But a frequently limp and bloated script and some off-kilter performances undermine what could have been an involving intellectual exercise.

Katherine has been diagnosed with ALS, the horrifying degenerative disease. Beset with relationship troubles with her twenty-something daughter Clara, Katherine chooses to spend her waning days looking for an answer to an obscure question: Why did Beethoven devote his own final years to writing 33 variations of a mediocre waltz penned by the music publisher Anton Diabelli?

Her present-day investigation, much of which happens in Bonn, Germany, is intercut with moments from Beethoven's waning life in the early 19th century. The composer, who is going blind and has many ailments, blusters and bellows while he obsesses over these curious compositions.

The script by Kaufman is at once too clever for its own good and not clever enough. Composed of 33 scenes (get it?), the play spends more time than necessary tracing the rather mundane mother-daughter conflicts in the Brandt family. (Mom thinks Clara changes jobs too frequently! Gasp!)

Add to that a mutual attraction shared by Clara and Mike, a hospital nurse she meets when accompanying mom to her ALS check-ups. Trouble is, neither Clara nor Mike is all that interesting and their hesitant, halting romance seems lifted from a 1950s' "what to do on a date" instructional video.

The Beethoven scenes have more bite and benefit from the fact that they're talking about things that matter, such as Beethoven's compositions and work process. As Beethoven, a bloviating Dana Hart bullies his friend and assistant played with amusing forbearance by Trey Gilpin. And a nicely modulated Brian Pedaci adds some grace notes as Diabelli.

The other performances, however, are not entirely on key. In the demanding role of Katherine, Maryann Nagel conveys her character's ever-worsening physical plight with apparent accuracy and compassion.

But we never quite feel the depth of Katherine's monomania for unearthing the answer to the Diabelli Variations conundrum. Indeed, as she plows through documents in the German museum, aided by a German musicologist (played ably by Mary Alice Beck), it often seems like Katherine is dutifully completing a mundane research assignment, not pursuing her Holy Grail.

Kaufman brings out some interesting factoids about Beethoven's composing style, including how researchers use ultraviolet light to detect various drafts of a particular piece. But these pinpoints of insight are few and far between.

Meanwhile, more time is wasted with the subplot involving Clara and Mike. While he has some nice flashes of endearing awkwardness, Matt O'Shea's Mike is not nearly endearing enough. And Debbie Keppler, as Clara, delivers her lines with a tone-deaf hollowness that sounds more like a cold reading than a performance.

Director Sarah May, a pro with immense theatrical talents, here seems flummoxed by the material. Many of the present-day scenes play too slowly, perhaps trying to achieve a spot-on enactment of how ALS actually affects its victims. But this verisimilitude is obtained at the cost of making the show more ponderous than it need be.

Fortunately, there are many snatches of Beethoven's work, played by pianist Stuart Raleigh. These brief bursts of music, short as they are, capture the elusive magic that this 2½ hour (with intermission) production is unfortunately unable to fully grasp.

View the original article here

She Was Only showcases the future of online music site design

London-based studio She Was Only has designed a new online magazine that aims to give readers a user experience that feels as close to print as possible.

The website, designed for music magazine Middle 8, features big images and subtle animations within a linear navigation system that imitates real-life page-turning in a smooth and satisfying style.

It's responsive, and works with gestures on iPad, too, enabling readers to swipe back and forth through the pages of the magazine.

We caught up with She Was Only's Cai Griffith to find out how the studio landed the project, and how they went about designing the experience, both for the reader and the content producer.

DA: Tell us a bit about She Was Only

CG: She Was Only is a small design studio based in East London, specialising in Graphic Design & Art Direction. I've been working with my two partners, Chris Vickers and Craig Scott, since graduating and we have been an official studio since we set up the company in October 2012.

We started out pitching ourselves as a traditional print designers, which is still the work we enjoy the most, but now purposefully call ourselves a general 'design studio' as we have enjoyed the variety of work we've done for magazine and book design, web design, apps, packaging and exhibitions.

No matter the format or medium, the work we produce is fuelled by a collective obsession with the practices of modernism. We strive to deliver concise and bespoke responses to client briefs, filtering out distraction to do more with less.

DA: How did you get the gig on Middle 8?

CG: Middle 8 is the sister company of soundhalo, a new live music platform which is a client of Boat Studio, run by Davey and Erin Spens. We collaborate regularly with Boat on web projects.

Erin is the editor of Middle 8 and we jumped at the opportunity to be the guys to put it together. The relationship we already had with Erin played a big role in how the back end of the website was developed. We were able to work with her from early on in the process to make sure that the adding and publishing content was as smooth as possible.

The design of Middle 8 magazine allows readers to click left or right to change page. Each page features a scrollable article, a gallery or a video.

DA: What's the ethos behind the online magazine?

CG: We are still big believers in print, because somehow online magazines don't have that certain feel and continuous flow of content you get from printed magazines.

This was what we were trying to achieve with Middle 8, presenting great content on the subject of live music, whilst maintaining an experience as close as possible to the printed magazine.

DA: Tell us about how you've designed the UX and user journey for the site

CG: First, we thought about the journey of the, turning pages right to explore through the content, left to go back etc. It is this linear journey, navigating from page one through to the end, that we tried to maintain and develop in to the online reading experience, whilst keeping it aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate.

We didn't want the site to feel too 'gimmicky', with unnecessary page turn animations etc., just simple left/right navigation and clean transitions.

This was also carried through to the iPad, allowing users to ditch tedious tapping and enjoy the magazine with easy swipes and gestures to navigate.

The goal was to not over crowd the site with fiddly menus and unneeded elements, but to really let the content speak for itself and allow users to put as little thought as possible in to exploring the stories.

DA: There are some really nice touches to the design, such as the word count and reading time. What was the thinking behind these?

CG: These little flourishes are mainly down to our developer Jonny Thaw, who we gave some freedom to explore the site after we had nailed the general build and layout of the magazine. He tested the site and added any extra touches that he thought might be helpful.

This process of testing and meant that Jonny could really get his head into the site from a users point of view, removing any unnecessary hang-overs from the build and adding in little tricks that would dramatically reduce loading times.

The reading time is a neat little feature that uses the average adult word-per-minute reading speed to calculate a time based on the article's content. We've had some great feedback to say that this small feature was a welcome addition to people reading on iPad on the tube, for example.

DA: How do you design a CMS that allows editors to create stories like these? How do you give them the freedom to design without letting them break away from the overall design of the site?

CG: Magazines are all about the content. So giving the editors the freedom to layout the articles themselves was an essential feature, although breaking the design was a worry.

She Was Only designed the website's CMS to give editors the freedom to lay out articles without breaking the design.

We have put certain limitations in to place to try and minimise this as much as possible, including  'safe zones' and minimum/maximum text sizes.

We wanted to make the overall experience of putting together an article like starting with a blank canvas, then getting a suite of tools that can be used to construct an article based on the content of the story.

I suppose instead of providing templates for the users to populate, we are giving them the freedom to create their own, enabling the editors to lay out and build an article whilst viewing it as if it were live.

This way of building the content also forces each user to actively consider the visual side of the website and how the content will look to the consumer, in real time as the article is put together.

DA: What are you working on next?

CG: We are currently working on the launch of Intern Magazine, issue one of which will be available in the coming months, along with a couple of branding projects for start-ups and an existing architectural/interior design company. We're also working on an exciting project for UAL. Check the site soon!

And of course, we're working on the next issue of Middle8, which has some great stories lined up and a few new features that we will be launching to make the reading experience even better.

View the original article here

She Was Only showcases the future of music website design

London-based studio She Was Only has designed a new online magazine that aims to give readers a user experience that feels as close to print as possible.

The website, designed for music magazine Middle 8, features big images and subtle animations within a linear navigation system that imitates real-life page-turning in a smooth and satisfying style.

It's responsive, and works with gestures on iPad, too, enabling readers to swipe back and forth through the pages of the magazine.

We caught up with She Was Only's Cai Griffith to find out how the studio landed the project, and how they went about designing the experience, both for the reader and the content producer.

DA: Tell us a bit about She Was Only

CG: She Was Only is a small design studio based in East London, specialising in Graphic Design & Art Direction. I've been working with my two partners, Chris Vickers and Craig Scott, since graduating and we have been an official studio since we set up the company in October 2012.

We started out pitching ourselves as a traditional print designers, which is still the work we enjoy the most, but now purposefully call ourselves a general 'design studio' as we have enjoyed the variety of work we've done for magazine and book design, web design, apps, packaging and exhibitions.

No matter the format or medium, the work we produce is fuelled by a collective obsession with the practices of modernism. We strive to deliver concise and bespoke responses to client briefs, filtering out distraction to do more with less.

DA: How did you get the gig on Middle 8?

CG: Middle 8 is the sister company of soundhalo, a new live music platform which is a client of Boat Studio, run by Davey and Erin Spens. We collaborate regularly with Boat on web projects.

Erin is the editor of Middle 8 and we jumped at the opportunity to be the guys to put it together. The relationship we already had with Erin played a big role in how the back end of the website was developed. We were able to work with her from early on in the process to make sure that the adding and publishing content was as smooth as possible.

The design of Middle 8 magazine allows readers to click left or right to change page. Each page features a scrollable article, a gallery or a video.

DA: What's the ethos behind the online magazine?

CG: We are still big believers in print, because somehow online magazines don't have that certain feel and continuous flow of content you get from printed magazines.

This was what we were trying to achieve with Middle 8, presenting great content on the subject of live music, whilst maintaining an experience as close as possible to the printed magazine.

DA: Tell us about how you've designed the UX and user journey for the site

CG: First, we thought about the journey of the, turning pages right to explore through the content, left to go back etc. It is this linear journey, navigating from page one through to the end, that we tried to maintain and develop in to the online reading experience, whilst keeping it aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate.

We didn't want the site to feel too 'gimmicky', with unnecessary page turn animations etc., just simple left/right navigation and clean transitions.

This was also carried through to the iPad, allowing users to ditch tedious tapping and enjoy the magazine with easy swipes and gestures to navigate.

The goal was to not over crowd the site with fiddly menus and unneeded elements, but to really let the content speak for itself and allow users to put as little thought as possible in to exploring the stories.

DA: There are some really nice touches to the design, such as the word count and reading time. What was the thinking behind these?

CG: These little flourishes are mainly down to our developer Jonny Thaw, who we gave some freedom to explore the site after we had nailed the general build and layout of the magazine. He tested the site and added any extra touches that he thought might be helpful.

This process of testing and meant that Jonny could really get his head into the site from a users point of view, removing any unnecessary hang-overs from the build and adding in little tricks that would dramatically reduce loading times.

The reading time is a neat little feature that uses the average adult word-per-minute reading speed to calculate a time based on the article's content. We've had some great feedback to say that this small feature was a welcome addition to people reading on iPad on the tube, for example.

DA: How do you design a CMS that allows editors to create stories like these? How do you give them the freedom to design without letting them break away from the overall design of the site?

CG: Magazines are all about the content. So giving the editors the freedom to layout the articles themselves was an essential feature, although breaking the design was a worry.

She Was Only designed the website's CMS to give editors the freedom to lay out articles without breaking the design.

We have put certain limitations in to place to try and minimise this as much as possible, including  'safe zones' and minimum/maximum text sizes.

We wanted to make the overall experience of putting together an article like starting with a blank canvas, then getting a suite of tools that can be used to construct an article based on the content of the story.

I suppose instead of providing templates for the users to populate, we are giving them the freedom to create their own, enabling the editors to lay out and build an article whilst viewing it as if it were live.

This way of building the content also forces each user to actively consider the visual side of the website and how the content will look to the consumer, in real time as the article is put together.

DA: What are you working on next?

CG: We are currently working on the launch of Intern Magazine, issue one of which will be available in the coming months, along with a couple of branding projects for start-ups and an existing architectural/interior design company. We're also working on an exciting project for UAL. Check the site soon!

And of course, we're working on the next issue of Middle8, which has some great stories lined up and a few new features that we will be launching to make the reading experience even better.

View the original article here

She Was Only showcases the future of online music site design

London-based studio She Was Only has designed a new online magazine that aims to give readers a user experience that feels as close to print as possible.

The website, designed for music magazine Middle 8, features big images and subtle animations within a linear navigation system that imitates real-life page-turning in a smooth and satisfying style.

It's responsive, and works with gestures on iPad, too, enabling readers to swipe back and forth through the pages of the magazine.

We caught up with She Was Only's Cai Griffith to find out how the studio landed the project, and how they went about designing the experience, both for the reader and the content producer.

DA: Tell us a bit about She Was Only

CG: She Was Only is a small design studio based in East London, specialising in Graphic Design & Art Direction. I've been working with my two partners, Chris Vickers and Craig Scott, since graduating and we have been an official studio since we set up the company in October 2012.

We started out pitching ourselves as a traditional print designers, which is still the work we enjoy the most, but now purposefully call ourselves a general 'design studio' as we have enjoyed the variety of work we've done for magazine and book design, web design, apps, packaging and exhibitions.

No matter the format or medium, the work we produce is fuelled by a collective obsession with the practices of modernism. We strive to deliver concise and bespoke responses to client briefs, filtering out distraction to do more with less.

DA: How did you get the gig on Middle 8?

CG: Middle 8 is the sister company of soundhalo, a new live music platform which is a client of Boat Studio, run by Davey and Erin Spens. We collaborate regularly with Boat on web projects.

Erin is the editor of Middle 8 and we jumped at the opportunity to be the guys to put it together. The relationship we already had with Erin played a big role in how the back end of the website was developed. We were able to work with her from early on in the process to make sure that the adding and publishing content was as smooth as possible.

The design of Middle 8 magazine allows readers to click left or right to change page. Each page features a scrollable article, a gallery or a video.

DA: What's the ethos behind the online magazine?

CG: We are still big believers in print, because somehow online magazines don't have that certain feel and continuous flow of content you get from printed magazines.

This was what we were trying to achieve with Middle 8, presenting great content on the subject of live music, whilst maintaining an experience as close as possible to the printed magazine.

DA: Tell us about how you've designed the UX and user journey for the site

CG: First, we thought about the journey of the, turning pages right to explore through the content, left to go back etc. It is this linear journey, navigating from page one through to the end, that we tried to maintain and develop in to the online reading experience, whilst keeping it aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate.

We didn't want the site to feel too 'gimmicky', with unnecessary page turn animations etc., just simple left/right navigation and clean transitions.

This was also carried through to the iPad, allowing users to ditch tedious tapping and enjoy the magazine with easy swipes and gestures to navigate.

The goal was to not over crowd the site with fiddly menus and unneeded elements, but to really let the content speak for itself and allow users to put as little thought as possible in to exploring the stories.

DA: There are some really nice touches to the design, such as the word count and reading time. What was the thinking behind these?

CG: These little flourishes are mainly down to our developer Jonny Thaw, who we gave some freedom to explore the site after we had nailed the general build and layout of the magazine. He tested the site and added any extra touches that he thought might be helpful.

This process of testing and meant that Jonny could really get his head into the site from a users point of view, removing any unnecessary hang-overs from the build and adding in little tricks that would dramatically reduce loading times.

The reading time is a neat little feature that uses the average adult word-per-minute reading speed to calculate a time based on the article's content. We've had some great feedback to say that this small feature was a welcome addition to people reading on iPad on the tube, for example.

DA: How do you design a CMS that allows editors to create stories like these? How do you give them the freedom to design without letting them break away from the overall design of the site?

CG: Magazines are all about the content. So giving the editors the freedom to layout the articles themselves was an essential feature, although breaking the design was a worry.

She Was Only designed the website's CMS to give editors the freedom to lay out articles without breaking the design.

We have put certain limitations in to place to try and minimise this as much as possible, including  'safe zones' and minimum/maximum text sizes.

We wanted to make the overall experience of putting together an article like starting with a blank canvas, then getting a suite of tools that can be used to construct an article based on the content of the story.

I suppose instead of providing templates for the users to populate, we are giving them the freedom to create their own, enabling the editors to lay out and build an article whilst viewing it as if it were live.

This way of building the content also forces each user to actively consider the visual side of the website and how the content will look to the consumer, in real time as the article is put together.

DA: What are you working on next?

CG: We are currently working on the launch of Intern Magazine, issue one of which will be available in the coming months, along with a couple of branding projects for start-ups and an existing architectural/interior design company. We're also working on an exciting project for UAL. Check the site soon!

And of course, we're working on the next issue of Middle8, which has some great stories lined up and a few new features that we will be launching to make the reading experience even better.

View the original article here

She Was Only showcases the future of music website design

London-based studio She Was Only has designed a new online magazine that aims to give readers a user experience that feels as close to print as possible.

The website, designed for music magazine Middle 8, features big images and subtle animations within a linear navigation system that imitates real-life page-turning in a smooth and satisfying style.

It's responsive, and works with gestures on iPad, too, enabling readers to swipe back and forth through the pages of the magazine.

We caught up with She Was Only's Cai Griffith to find out how the studio landed the project, and how they went about designing the experience, both for the reader and the content producer.

DA: Tell us a bit about She Was Only

CG: She Was Only is a small design studio based in East London, specialising in Graphic Design & Art Direction. I've been working with my two partners, Chris Vickers and Craig Scott, since graduating and we have been an official studio since we set up the company in October 2012.

We started out pitching ourselves as a traditional print designers, which is still the work we enjoy the most, but now purposefully call ourselves a general 'design studio' as we have enjoyed the variety of work we've done for magazine and book design, web design, apps, packaging and exhibitions.

No matter the format or medium, the work we produce is fuelled by a collective obsession with the practices of modernism. We strive to deliver concise and bespoke responses to client briefs, filtering out distraction to do more with less.

DA: How did you get the gig on Middle 8?

CG: Middle 8 is the sister company of soundhalo, a new live music platform which is a client of Boat Studio, run by Davey and Erin Spens. We collaborate regularly with Boat on web projects.

Erin is the editor of Middle 8 and we jumped at the opportunity to be the guys to put it together. The relationship we already had with Erin played a big role in how the back end of the website was developed. We were able to work with her from early on in the process to make sure that the adding and publishing content was as smooth as possible.

The design of Middle 8 magazine allows readers to click left or right to change page. Each page features a scrollable article, a gallery or a video.

DA: What's the ethos behind the online magazine?

CG: We are still big believers in print, because somehow online magazines don't have that certain feel and continuous flow of content you get from printed magazines.

This was what we were trying to achieve with Middle 8, presenting great content on the subject of live music, whilst maintaining an experience as close as possible to the printed magazine.

DA: Tell us about how you've designed the UX and user journey for the site

CG: First, we thought about the journey of the, turning pages right to explore through the content, left to go back etc. It is this linear journey, navigating from page one through to the end, that we tried to maintain and develop in to the online reading experience, whilst keeping it aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate.

We didn't want the site to feel too 'gimmicky', with unnecessary page turn animations etc., just simple left/right navigation and clean transitions.

This was also carried through to the iPad, allowing users to ditch tedious tapping and enjoy the magazine with easy swipes and gestures to navigate.

The goal was to not over crowd the site with fiddly menus and unneeded elements, but to really let the content speak for itself and allow users to put as little thought as possible in to exploring the stories.

DA: There are some really nice touches to the design, such as the word count and reading time. What was the thinking behind these?

CG: These little flourishes are mainly down to our developer Jonny Thaw, who we gave some freedom to explore the site after we had nailed the general build and layout of the magazine. He tested the site and added any extra touches that he thought might be helpful.

This process of testing and meant that Jonny could really get his head into the site from a users point of view, removing any unnecessary hang-overs from the build and adding in little tricks that would dramatically reduce loading times.

The reading time is a neat little feature that uses the average adult word-per-minute reading speed to calculate a time based on the article's content. We've had some great feedback to say that this small feature was a welcome addition to people reading on iPad on the tube, for example.

DA: How do you design a CMS that allows editors to create stories like these? How do you give them the freedom to design without letting them break away from the overall design of the site?

CG: Magazines are all about the content. So giving the editors the freedom to layout the articles themselves was an essential feature, although breaking the design was a worry.

She Was Only designed the website's CMS to give editors the freedom to lay out articles without breaking the design.

We have put certain limitations in to place to try and minimise this as much as possible, including  'safe zones' and minimum/maximum text sizes.

We wanted to make the overall experience of putting together an article like starting with a blank canvas, then getting a suite of tools that can be used to construct an article based on the content of the story.

I suppose instead of providing templates for the users to populate, we are giving them the freedom to create their own, enabling the editors to lay out and build an article whilst viewing it as if it were live.

This way of building the content also forces each user to actively consider the visual side of the website and how the content will look to the consumer, in real time as the article is put together.

DA: What are you working on next?

CG: We are currently working on the launch of Intern Magazine, issue one of which will be available in the coming months, along with a couple of branding projects for start-ups and an existing architectural/interior design company. We're also working on an exciting project for UAL. Check the site soon!

And of course, we're working on the next issue of Middle8, which has some great stories lined up and a few new features that we will be launching to make the reading experience even better.

View the original article here

Pop lyrics encourage young to binge drink: Quarter of chart music lyrics over three-year period mentioned alcohol

Rap, hip hop and R&B were most likely to mention alcoholFour brands of spirits made up more than half of references to labels

By Liz Hull

PUBLISHED: 23:49 GMT, 29 August 2013 | UPDATED: 01:49 GMT, 30 August 2013

Pop songs which refer to alcohol brands could be encouraging young people to binge drink and have sex, experts have warned.

Almost a quarter of chart music lyrics over a three-year period mentioned booze, analysts said.

Four brands of spirits – Patron tequila, Hennessy cognac, Grey Goose vodka, and Jack Daniel’s whiskey – made up more than half of specific references to labels.

Songs by Rihanna (left) and Kanye West (right) feature specific references to brands of alcohol

The songs almost always showed alcohol as a good thing. More than one in ten, or 16 per cent, linked getting drunk with sex.

Rihanna’s song Cheers states: ‘I drink to that/ Oh let the Jameson sink in’.

In Bittersweet, Kanye West raps: ‘This relationship it even got me back to drinkin’/ Now this Hennessy it’s going to be the death of me’.

Rap, hip hop and R&B were most likely to mention booze, at 38 per cent, then country music at 22 per cent and pop at 15 per cent.

In How We Do, British pop star Rita Ora sings: ‘You look so sweet while you’re dreaming/ Holding your bottle of Tanqueray’, while in his song Jack Daniels, country idol Eric Church says: ‘I’ve thrown a punch or two .?.?. But Jack Daniel’s kicked my ass again last night.’

US experts analysed the 720 top songs of 2009, 2010 and 2011 as ranked by Billboard Magazine. In all, 167 mentioned alcohol and 46 songs mentioned brands.

Four brands of spirits, including Patron tequila (right) and Grey Goose vodka (left), made up more than half of specific references to labels

Professor Michael Siegel, of  Boston University, said: ‘Many songs glamorise underage drinking and excessive alcohol consumption and their association with sex and partying.’

He said: 'A small number of alcohol brands and beverages appear to make frequent appearances in popular music.

'If these exposures are found to influence youth drinking behavior, then further public health efforts must be focused on youth exposure to alcohol portrayals in popular music.'

The songs almost always showed alcohol as a good thing. More than one in ten, or 16 per cent, linked getting drunk with sex

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