Oh, Sir. (a tumblelog by Gian Cruz)

Sufjan Stevens - I Walked I came across Sufjan’s new...

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 12:55:00 -0400

Sufjan Stevens - I Walked

I came across Sufjan’s new material on All Songs Considered. After the first play, it’s officially on repeat. He’s foregone most of the folk instruments in favor of electronics, and I gotta say, I’m really feeling it. Some may be opposed to the new direction he’s going, but I’m not one of them. Do yourself a favor and download this track (and his more offbeat “Too Much”) from Sufjan Steven’s Bandcamp page.

Also, that cover art is gorgeous. I want to find out who the artist is.

"Spend money on what you need. Spend nothing on what you hate. Spend time on what you love. Spend..."

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:14:00 -0400

“Spend money on what you need.
Spend nothing on what you hate.
Spend time on what you love.
Spend everything to know who you are.”

- Paul Lovine

Janelle Monáe sings “Smile” live Just found her live...

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 16:33:54 -0400

Janelle Monáe sings “Smile” live

Just found her live performance of the song I posted previously, and I have to share this too. I think I just fell in love. Just her and a jazz guitar. It’s more raw, a little different, but so so so good. I might listen to this on repeat all day.

P.S. The unabashed advertising on Billboard’s videos makes me gag. “Mashup Mondays presented by Starbust”? Christ. I’ll deal with it so I can listen to her.

Janelle Monáe - Smile I’m mesmerized every time I listen...

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:36:00 -0400

Janelle Monáe - Smile

I’m mesmerized every time I listen to this song. Haunting, beautiful. I wish I could be the kind of artist this woman is. And my god, that voice… effortless. She uses her voice like a jazz instrument. I haven’t picked up her latest “ArchAndroid” album yet, but believe me when I say I’m looking forward to diving into it.

"Failure is not disgrace. It’s just a pitch that you missed, and you’d better get ready..."

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 23:15:09 -0400

“Failure is not disgrace. It’s just a pitch that you missed, and you’d better get ready for the next one.”

- Craig Ferguson

Damn, I want a boat. This is how all Mondays should be spent. ...

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:55:00 -0400

Damn, I want a boat.

This is how all Mondays should be spent. Relaxing on the water, having a couple drinks with the boys, basking in the not-too-hot-and-just-bright-enough sun. We spent the majority our time trying to convince Vee not to sell his baby, but alas, I think he’ll be parting ways with it once the season is over. I’d consider buying it off of him, but the boat sits strictly in my “When I’m old and rich” list.

Pictured here is our good friend Rob, who we’re bidding farewell to in a few days. He’s packing up and heading west — family in tow — to my favorite city in the world, San Francisco. Obviously I’m a little jealous (he’s going where I want to be), but I couldn’t be happier for him. All the best to you, buddy.

Tamia, “Officially Missing You” This was one of the...

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:41:15 -0400

Tamia, “Officially Missing You”

This was one of the first songs I learned back in college. I’ve been playing guitar again like crazy since last weekend, and I had to do this one. Takes me back… :)

Oh, Hello!

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 22:16:06 -0400

It has certainly been a while since I’ve been here. I’m never the type to keep up with a blog anyway (which I regret at times), but believe me when I say it’s been an interesting six months since. Here are some notes:

We released our first iPhone game! It’s called Bongo Blitz, and I couldn’t be more proud, of our company and of Kris, my friend and co-founder.

I went to GDC! (which stole my heart), and I also went to E3 (which kind of broke my heart). But I’m being overdramatic.

I got to meet a lot of amazing people in the gaming and app industry, which I am truly humbled and grateful for. I’ve already learned a lot from them.

We started work on our second iPhone game, all the while trying our damnedest to update our first game with good content. Even though it doesn’t look like it.

I was lying about E3 (mostly), I really did have fun. I got to play a bunch of new video games before anyone else! Do I really have the right to complain?

I’ve been freelancing again, and hopefully you’ll get to see some of this work soon.

I’ve been able to travel, and work, and see friends, and work, and travel, and see friends. I would do that forever if I could.

Working for myself has been a real blessing, but unfortunately it doesn’t pay all the bills just yet. Okay, it doesn’t pay a lot of the bills yet. Hence things like freelancing. But I still love what I do every day, and I’m not stopping any time soon.

In the meantime, I’ll be here, doing my best to write something coherent (or at least post a funny video or two). Mostly for me, to keep myself in check, but also to keep you (my two readers) in the loop. So… hello! How’s life?

“Say It To Me Now” Cover, originally by Glen...

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:06:00 -0500

“Say It To Me Now” Cover, originally by Glen Hansard

It’s been a long time… but I’m recording again :) This is my favorite song from the movie “Once”.

I have new recording equipment, new sound absorbers, the whole nine. Hopefully the videos will sound much better from this point on. I tried my best to remove the noise and lower the peaks in the loud parts of this vid. I hope it doesn’t sound too overprocessed because of it. I’m still learning how to use this stuff, so bear with me.

I’m going to GDC! What began as a random weekend flight...

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:28:00 -0500

I’m going to GDC!

What began as a random weekend flight to San Francisco has now turned into a “work-from-anywhere” trip to Texas, LA, Oakland, and SF. And during the last week of my trip, I’ll be attending Game Developers Conference 2010!

This wasn’t something I had ever dreamed of going to. (Me? A game developer? C’mon now…) But since this is the first year that GDC is holding an iPhone Games Summit, Kris and I decided that it would be best if we shared in the fun. So I will be there representing Feel Every Yummy, and hopefully we’ll be able to make some connections and learn lots of new things for our platform.

I’m looking forward to hear the lectures from some of the ngmoco:) guys, and I’m especially excited to listen to Eric Johnson’s postmortem on Canabalt. On top of that, I’ll be exploring the Independent Games Festival to check out the crazy new games people have been cooking up.

If you can’t tell already I cannot wait to go to this thing. It’s our first step (of many) in becoming real game developers. It feels like we’re our own company now, and I’m stoked about it.

Comic Books on the iPad? Yes, Please. → This would be the...

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:33:00 -0500

Comic Books on the iPad? Yes, Please. →

This would be the reason why I would get an iPad for myself. I don’t think iPads can replace netbooks (I use Photoshop on my own netbook to design on the go — yes, it can actually run Photoshop). But when you look at the iPad more as a ‘SuperKindle’, it becomes more compelling.

Sure, movies are cool, and web browsing is fine (if there’s no Flash, that HTML 5 stuff better come quick), but the killer feature in this thing is the way it can handle what is traditionally print media — the newspapers, magazines, comic books — all in glorious full color and on a large screen. Personally, I will always prefer a comic on the printed page over digital, but when you’re traveling, nothing can compare to having all those books without any of the extra weight.

Panelfly’s iPhone app is my favorite among all the comic book readers in the App Store. They still haven’t perfected page/panel navigation on the small screen (no one has), but with an iPad screen, it shouldn’t be a problem. If they can get the right content for it (none of this back issue nickel & diming — I want to see trade paperback collections and graphic novels), then it’s going be killer. Sign me up.

Melissa Polinar, “Overjoyed” by Stevie Wonder I...

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:19:00 -0500

Melissa Polinar, “Overjoyed” by Stevie Wonder

I can’t get enough of this cover. She gets better and better with every new video she puts on YouTube. I saw her play at Jammin Java back in October, and dare I say she’s even better live. Subscribe to her if you haven’t yet.

I miss doing covers. NEW GOAL: put up a new video on YouTube before I leave for my trip on the 11th.

Man, I better follow through on that…

I want to buy these books for my future kids I stumbled upon...

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:49:00 -0500

I want to buy these books for my future kids

I stumbled upon this collection of Octonauts books through Matt Smith’s blog. He calls them “quite possibly the most flawless children’s books,” and from what I can see I think he’s right. The artwork is stunningly beautiful; crisp, clean lines and great choice of colors. I’d love to have these lying on my coffee table (although that be weird since they’re books for kids).

If you’re a parent you should considering getting some of these. You’ll probably enjoy looking through this book as much as your kids will.

I have been obsessed with Words with Friends for the iPhone over...

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500

I have been obsessed with Words with Friends for the iPhone over the past few months, thanks to my friend Alisa. It’s one-on-one Scrabble on the iPhone, but the kicker is its asynchronous gameplay, which means the you don’t have to coordinate with friends when you want to play. You just take your turn at your convenience, and you get notified when the other player finishes their turn.

It’s pretty genius when you combine asynchronous gameplay with the iPhone interface, as I can have multiple games going on at once, and it provides me with a couple minutes of fun throughout my day. It’s there when I want it to be, and that’s what has me hooked. My only problem is that the home interface is a little sluggish, especially when there are a lot of games listed.

The guys over at NewToy are doing big things. I’m excited to see what they do next. If you have Words with Friends, start a game with me: username Gianorama.

Now I wonder if there are other games you can do asynchronous gameplay with… :)

The Village at Shirlington

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500

The Village at Shirlington:

This has quickly become my favorite place to hang out since being able to choose where I work everyday. It has a small but modern library with plenty of desk space, nice places to eat or grab a drink while I do work (Bear Rock Cafe, Busboys & Poets), a great movie theatre that showcases a lot of indie films, and free wi-fi everywhere. Even better, it has my FAVORITE cupcake place in the whole DC area, Cakelove.

It’s only a couple of minutes away from my apartment, so I’m there multiple times a week. If you find me there, come say hello.

La Roux - Bulletproof This has been my JAM over the past month....

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500

La Roux - Bulletproof

This has been my JAM over the past month. British, funky, Electropop. Just my style. She’s coming to 9:30 Club in February too, but I think I’ll be out of town when she’s here. I want to see her live one of these days, though.

A Year of Big Changes, New Experiences

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:55:00 -0500

Today marks a very important day for me.

As of the new year, I am no longer an employee of AOL. I decided to take the voluntary package that they were offering, so that I can take some time to try new things and pursue new ventures.

This was a very hard decision for me to make. I loved working with the AIM team, and it was a dream of mine to be able to work on such big projects for the web. But I realized that I had an even bigger dream than that — and that was to start my own company, and work on my own terms.

It sounds like a crazy thing to do given the times that we’re in, but sometimes crazy is what’s needed. It feels like the right time for me. I’m young, I have my whole life ahead of me. What better time than now to give it my shot? If it all goes bust, that’s okay, because I tried. It’s a decision I know I won’t regret.

So starting today, I will be working full-time in an iPhone venture I’ve started with my good friend Kris Zabala, Feel Every Yummy, LLC. (Quirky name, yes? Quirky is how we do.) I feel very lucky to be working with such a multi-talented guy like Kris, and I’m super excited about what we’ve been working on. We have a lot of fun iPhone games and apps in the works, and hopefully I can show them to you guys very soon.

Here’s to the new year. Let’s do it big in 2010.

Starting 2010 off right. Breakfast with the best men I know....

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 11:42:00 -0500

Starting 2010 off right. Breakfast with the best men I know. 2100 for life.

My desk when I first started working as a designer for...

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0500

My desk when I first started working as a designer for AIM.

It’s been a blast, AOL. I’ll see you around.

Holiday with the Sibs Another video for you all! My sisters and...

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Holiday with the Sibs

Another video for you all! My sisters and I decided to sing a song together over the holiday break. Here’s our version of “Falling For You” by Colbie Caillat.