Packing for Costa Rica at the moment! We’re spending two weeks in the Land of Three-Toed Sloths, with half a week in the jungles near Tenorio Volcano, and the remainder on the Nicoya Peninsula… ¡ándale!

To wrap things up, here’s a few images from the happiest day of my life, our August wedding in Napa:

I’ve spent much of my time in the financial district, but I’m staying on the South Bank, which means I cross London Bridge every morning on the way to work. Amazing. This past weekend I took in as much as possible: the cobblestone streets to eat fish & chips, near Borough Market, an entire room of immersive Rothko paintings at the Tate Modern, stood face to face with Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait and Van Gogh’s Still Life: Vase with 12 Sunflowers at the National Gallery, stood over Charles Darwin and King Edward Longshanks at Westminster Abbey, hunkered down in innumerable pubs along the way with my coworkers, and of course paid a visit to Abbey Road:

Heading back to the states tomorrow, to wrap up my finals for this semester and put a few finishing touches on wedding stuff (we finally found an amazing caterer that can handle dishes from both Southern France and Southern Louisiana).

The other bit of news is that I’ve switched gears a bit from the agency world, and moved over to a London-based shop called Monitise. We’re working on some really brilliant mobile banking stuff for very large banks. If you’ve seen any rumblings in the news about the new NFC-enabled phones coming soon, you’ll understand how busy I am

What else… Oh, in June I’m presenting my thesis research findings & concepts to the midpoint review board. Fingers crossed!

The biggest news first, I am getting married this August to my lovely lady Sabrina! We’re hustling to put together a backyard wedding in Napa, with French & Louisianian influences. Its already shaping up to be quite a party – we just lined up Magnolia Photobooth Company to set up camp for our guests.

As for work, I’ve been having a blast doing interaction design for an array of iPhone and iPad apps for the medical field, including some apps that help patients keep track of their injection schedules and doctors appointments. This experience has been inspirational, with lots of information challenges to solve!

What else? The band has been in the studio since February, working on our full length record. We successfully raised funds for the recording process using Kickstarter, which was an invigorating experience. Recording on a vintage analog 24 track has been challenging, but warm tones we’ve captured are worth the sweat. We’ve started to mix 12 beautiful songs (augmented with Howie’s mandolin & violin plus guest vocals by two of my favorite local singers, Brianna Lea Pruett & Quinn DeVeaux), and we’re chomping at the bit to release them. Here’s a photo from Rec Center Studio, of their Baldwin FunMachine organ in front of a mural-sized 1950s aerial photo of Oakland, taken with Instagram:

School has been equally as fun this semester, with a javascript/PHP class on Thursday nights and an online digital photography for web design class. I’ve made some headway in putting together a simple HTML prototype for my thesis app, but I just need to optimize it for mobile web. I’d like to get that done before I present my midpoint presentation to the committee this summer, but we’ll see how it goes.

On deck for the next few months: more wedding planning, mastering The Shants record, a trip to Palm Springs, a little more Lomography, and maybe a prototype music/events site that uses lots of mobile jQuery.

Spent most of our time in Brooklyn, but also spent the night at the Gild in Manhattan, just around the corner from Wall Street. Saw Lady Liberty from the shore. Walked over the Brooklyn Bridge to have some damn fine NY-style pizza at John‘s on Bleecker Street. Caught the Wafels & Dinges Truck for a Nutella fix.

The other Big Thing that happened… I’m leaving my job! After almost 3 years with a digital agency known at various times as Molecular & Isobar, I’m moving on to other opportunities. I am looking forward to a challenging new project, and to working on really cool stuff! My last day is Nov. 30.

After a day of resting and beach combing, we drove up to the tiny country of Monaco to scope out the casinos, then visited the palace of the Prince of Monaco. In front of the castle is the statue of Francesco Girabaldi, the Genovese rapscallion who established the current line of royalty with his sneaky conquest of Monaco – he snuck into the city dressed as a monk.

Chapelle Notre Dame de Vie

The following day, we took a day trip to explore St Paul de Vence, a medieval town near the foothills of the alps, again following the footsteps of Picasso. We wandered the narrow streets and walked up the ramparts of the citadel, still holding strong. We also drove out to find the hidden chapel, Notre Dame de Vie, which is next door to Picasso’s villa and has been the subject of many impressionist paintings itself. One of the arches is supported with a base of stones taken from a Roman villa that previously occupied the site, and it still had the owner’s name stamped into it.

The next day trip was taken to Antibes, which was once a fortress on the sea. I got my first taste of real Italian pizza – with prosciutto and mushrooms. Yum. During a walk around the city to watch the waves crash against the city walls, I was adopted by a chipper French bulldog named Absolut.

After a few days of Nicois relaxation and ever amazing home cooked meals, we decided to take a mini-vacation just over the Italian border, in the tiny fishing village of Camogli. The town was named for the mogee – fishermen’s wives who ran the town so their husbands could focus on harvesting the sea.

We dined on tons of local specialties: foccacia, a cornucopia of seafood, handmade pastas, and of course lots of sinful desserts. We decided to stay another day there, so we could swim in the clear blue bay and explore the town, especially the remnants of the 14th century castle, which sheltered Camogli from invaders.

Camogli was once a haven for pirates, but was more well known for deft sailors who could turn large vessels on a dime. We loved Camogli so much, we decided to stay an extra day!

Our last days in Nice were spent visiting with family, shopping, and lots of eating of course. Then, we flew back to Paris to prep for our flight home, but not before scoring a reservation at the tiny Je The’… Me (as seen on the season finale of No Reservations – click here for a guide) for probably the best meal of my life: creme of pumpkin soup with seared foie gras, broiled monkfish with zucchini in butter & hazelnut jous, and a bar of chocolate ganache topped with pistachio ice cream. I never thought of myself as being a Franco-foodie, but the amazing meals I’ve enjoyed this trip (especially in Paris) has converted me. After dinner, we got a long last look of the City of Light by walking to the Alexandre III Bridge, where we could see the Eiffel Tower & Grand Palais bathed in light. Very romantic, to say the least… as you can clearly see

This trip has been a life changing experience, and I look forward to returning to France and Italy soon to whet my newfound appetite for ancient cities, breathtaking vistas, complex world history, indescribably good food, and millions of little adventures. You can view the rest of the digital photos (3 galleries so far). I will post a few prints from my Lubitel this week hopefully… if the film made it past the x ray machine at customs that is. Au revoir for now!

Pont Neuf

(I wrote this in Charles de Gaulle airport, as we bid adieu with heavy hearts to Paris. We’re just halfway through our visit, but I wanted to capture all the things we did before I forget! Next up is a full week in the South of France, as we rest our feet in the Mediterranean at Nice.)

rue Seguier

The last week has been a whirlwind of gazing at the ceilings of ancient cathedrals, strolling pastoral gardens, navigating bustling markets, and sipping espresso in innumerable cafes. The narrow streets of our neighborhood (Saint Germain de Pres: our apartment was just around the corner from the studio where Picasso painted Guernica) have been a bit wet from the October rain, but beautiful nonetheless.

Our first night in Paris happened to be Nuit Blanche, when the museums, galleries and other venues open their doors free to the public until 4 or 5 in the morning. After an amazing dinner at Le Fin Gourmand, we walked the streets of the city, gazing at  light installations and impromptu dance performances everywhere. We took the opportunity to view the light performance at Notre Dame. It was truly breathtaking. There is a nest of songbirds somewhere in the arches, as we could hear them chirping along with the piano accompaniment. We also stopped by our neighborhood’s cathedral of Saint Germain des Pres (final resting place of Descartes) where they had filled the audience with white balloons. We capped off the night with gelato from the famous Glacier Berthillion.

On Sunday, we walked along the Seine to the Concorde plaza, near the end of the Champs Elysees. We marveled at the Luxor obelisk, which was given to France as a gift from Egypt. It once marked the entrance to the Temple of Luxor, and bears hieroglyphs that celebrate Ramses II. After snacking on the first of MANY crepes, we walked along the Jardin des Tulieries (built by Queen Marie de Medicis in the 1500s, and opened to the public in 1667) and had espresso in a cafe there, watched families play among the chestnut trees.

Jardin du Luxembourg

Monday was a bit lazier, although we did wander the Jardin du Luxembourg (also built by Marie de Medicis, in the 1600s), and the Pompidou museum of modern art, where we took in works from Matisse, Picasso and Dali alongside more contemporary artists.

Eiffel Tower

Despite the vague “terror warnings” we saw on the BBC (and probably at the expense of our mothers’ nerves) we visited the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe on Tuesday. We took the lift up to the top of the tower (1000 feet!), and took in the dizzying views of the city around us. Next up was the Arc deTriomphe, with its high arches and impressive reliefs. After a brief walk on the Champs Elysees, we called it an early night, as I had a slight cold.

Montparnasse Cemetery

Wednesday was our last day in Paris, we started with a walk from our apartment to Montparnesse Cemetery, where we saw the final resting places of Sartre, Baudelaire, Samuel Beckett, and Serge Gainsbourg. Then we walked down the 80-step spiral staircase to the Catacombs! This was a gruesome display, with rooms and rooms of neatly stacked femurs and scales. It was truly eerie to look into the faces of 17th Century Parisians. Afterwards, we took the Metro out to Montmarte, to walk up the hill to take in the view of the city from the steps of the cathedral Sacra Coeur. As the rain set it, we made it back to Saint Germain De Pres just in time for a little romantic dinner at L’ Epigramme.

I found Paris to be entirely as advertised… enchanting, maddening, mystifying, and intoxicating. Many times we joked about quitting our jobs to set up shop here. In another life maybe? Now, back to Nice and the blue sea.

The Shants‘ tour was certainly the most fun, most profitable, most productive tour I’ve been on. For some reason, it seemed less like work this time around, and more like a vacation. Portland, Medford, LA and SF were the definite high points of the trip. I was even able to make some real headway in user research and requirements gathering for my thesis. One thing’s for sure – any app conceived for musicians should bear in mind how little sleep the user operates on. You can read all the updates we posted from the road here, but here’s a selection of photos:

You can view all the photos from the tour on this Flickr set.

Last month I moved in with my lovely lady, Sabrina, in a sleepy neighborhood of San Francisco known as Noe Valley. Tons of dogs & baby strollers, of course… but not much different from the nicest parts of Oakland. It is sad to bid farewell to my adopted home, but I have a feeling we’ll be back before the end of the decade. We’ve been spending a lot of time nesting, grocery shopping, storage-organizing and generally getting comfortable.

Otherwise, I’ve been swamped at work with building low fidelity prototypes for a large health care provider. At school I’ve got an Actionscript class on Thursday nights, which is proving to be quite manageable thanks to our excellent instructor, who is teaching us to code with efficiency and solve problems methodically. As for my thesis work, I’ll be presenting my thesis proposal for the midpoint review committee soon, and hopefully they’ll give me the green light to continue my work. For now, you can read updates on the new blog I’ve started for the project: Road Case.

In a few days, Sabrina and I are heading to France for 2 weeks to explore Paris and visit family in Nice. I’m beyond excited for my first Europe trip, and I’ve been trying to pick up some key French phrases here and there. I downloaded a highly suspect free French Phrasebook app… suspect in that the home screen features a photo of a “sexy French maid”, and the phrases include things like “Those drugs aren’t mine!”. Sacrebleu!

What I don’t love is the Lomography community website. Sure, it’s pretty and simple at first glance, but it’s a usability nightmare when you start using it: vague task flows, confusing directional copy, tiny & often illegible text (gray text on purple background? really?). Note self: do a case study heuristic evaluation/conceptual redesign of Lomography.com.

Excerpt from my moodboard, drawing inspiration from my Epiphone archtop guitar, condenser mics, cases, etc.

My head’s been buried in research and exploratory design for my thesis project.  I’ve taken to collecting inspirations and generally good examples of innovative interactions over here on PUX. I think I’ve really got something that has a niche in the cloud/mobile app space, in particular for musicians. The hardest part so far is coming up with a name for it! Stay tuned… Hopefully I’ll get to road-test a prototype of the application on The Shants‘ West Coast tour this August!

We’ve been rehearsing a bunch, and working on new songs, but we did step out of the practice space briefly to open for Canadian folk superstar Basia Bulat in San Francisco. It was a lovely evening, and gave us a chance to try out some new songs to a sold-out room. She is one of my favorite new songwriters, so it was an honor to hang out with her & her crew for an evening.

Here’s a few photos from various places (Port Costa, LA, and Napa):

2010 is off to a pleasant and eventful (if not rainy) start.

Crazy busy at work… which I’ll go into more detail at a later time. Also I’ve narrowed down what my graduate thesis is going to be. All I can say now is that it relates to both mobile devices and music, and unites some of my passions: technology, DIY music, and intuitive organization.

The Shants have been quite busy as well: the little EP that we recorded in November ’09 has been released on High Scores And Records and has been getting lots of warm reviews, we played a handful of shows in Northern California (recap can be found here), and we were named FILTER Magazine’s Undiscovered Artist of the Month. Since school starts for me next week, things will likely quiet down… but I expect we’ll go on a West Coast tour this summer. Stay tuned.

Here’s a few pictures & video from my holiday visit to Louisiana, as well as some shots from the road:

With that, here are my top 10 albums of 2009, and a mix of a few songs from these artists. Hope you enjoy them as much I enjoyed them this year.

In no particular order:

• Lisa Hannigan – Sea Sew
• J. Tillman -Vacilando Territory Blues
• Devendra Banhart -What Will We Be
• Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
• Girls – Album
• Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
• Grizzly Bear -Veckatimest
• Thao with the Get Down Stay Down -Know Better Learn Faster
• Papercuts – You Can Have What You Want
• Karen O & The Kids – Where The Wild Things Are sndtrk

You can download the mix here.