Marlene Marino Dot Com
New York City-based photographer, Marlene Marino and I just pushed her new site live. Marlene’s straightforward portfolio is another site powered by Backlight—our eminently customizable hosted content management application.
Have a look @marlenemarino.com
Introducing Backlight
Nearly every web project I Am Still Alive has produced for clients in the last year has required some content management system. In all of those cases, I’ve provided a Rails-built custom-designed backend app to manage the various sites.
Over the last few months, I have organized the diverse functions (blog, photo gallery, tagging, drag-drop sorting, user authentication, contact management, geolocation, e-commerce, event management, ...) into one stable, flexible system that I can redeploy fairly effortlessly. It’s been working out well and clients have really taken to the system.
I have taken to calling the app ‘Backlight’ as it largely started coming together while working on sites for a pair of photographers (launching shortly).
In any case, it’s my plan to repurpose and then release Backlight as a hosted service (websites with custom domains hosted/powered by one app) in the next few weeks. I am going to post updates every now and again about the process of refining it further in the run up to launch. The app is actually quite similar to the hosted artist portfolio management system we have in the works over at Artlog.
Dujj is a bench, stool, low table
Dujj is a multi-functional piece of furniture. It is a rectangular prism. Its depth, height and width are different lengths. Three of its six faces are paneled. It can be used as a stool, a low table or a two-person bench depending on which plane it sits (I guess it can also be three different & rather useless objects if you sit it on the wrong planes). The frame is made of soft maple and the panels are walnut-veneered ply.
Its massing and uncommon joinery stand in contrast to its otherwise rational and utilitarian structure. It is heavy and a bit awkward to handle. Though the joinery is uncommon and interesting, its complexity assures a time-consuming and (somewhat) expensive fabrication.
We made 9 of them in 2005. They were all sold (I kept one).
A Crime So Monstrous
I just launched a clean little site for A Crime So Monstrous, a book by Ben Skinner, publishing (I believe) this coming spring. I’ll let Samantha Power explain Ben’s book:
Ben Skinner has taken us deep into an underworld few of us have dared to access, never mind to confront. What he finds is heartbreaking—men, women and children stripped of their identities, their freedom, and their dignity. Reported relentlessly and told grippingly, A Crime So Monstrous is the rare book that doesn’t simply expose these harms; it also explains how and why decent people inside and outside the U.S. government have averted their gaze, and it showcases those who have devoted their lives to curtailing a shockingly prevalent crime against humanity. Skinner has written an anguishing book, but also an inspiring call to action.
25% of author royalties go to Free the Slaves, so go ahead and pre-order it.
The site is the first to be powered by a hosted rails content management application I am finishing up (but more on that soon). Oh and I also shot the author photo [which you can see after the jump].
