If you’re looking for a clean, no-fuss way to post a Flickr-based photo gallery to your website, take Diego Bauducco’s PictoBrowser for a spin. After a quick and painless 2-step process, it generates an html script to embed straight into your code or a blog post, resulting in a super-sexy (and resizable) flash gallery based on either your Flickr sets, tags or groups. Links at the bottom of each of the photos allows quick access back to the original Flickr page, but it’s a stunning way to display your latest photos online without the need for extensive backend coding. You can have a play with the Abandoned Couches group gallery, after the jump.

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We’re going to give our Boulder readers heart attacks from all of this local action, but Denver punk music at the Downer is only the top of a killer list of upcoming events. Barely 48 hours after The Swayback heats up Boulder’s favorite dive-bar (seriously, that’s gonna be one sweaty party), Installation Shoe Gallery will open doors on it’s latest show, This Is How We Roll, featuring the work of Jeremy Fish, Lance Mountain, and a magnetic list of other talented artists. The featured pieces will be offered at silent auction to benefit Jeremiah Brooks, an integral member of the Boulder skate scene who was hit by a car earlier this year. Installation has quite a tradition of knocking people’s socks off at every new show, so head over next Saturday (5/5) between 7 and 10 p.m. to take a peek and help Jeremiah recover from his bummer of an accident. I’ll certainly be stopping by, but then I’m off to the Ogden in Denver to catch the mighty Kings of Leon. It looks like there are still tickets available, so if you’ve been missing out on KOL’s dirty glory it may be your time to rock out. The Rapture, Aqualung, and Shiny Toy Guns will be flitting around Colorado that weekend too, so no whining this time, Boulder; get out and play!

On May 10th, the new and invigorating Quicksilver Innovation Contest will kick off, and I’m excited to see the outcome. The aim of the competition is to encourage outdoor athletes, designers, fans, and every possible intersection of those types of people to dig deep to imagine what outdoor sports and its products will be like and look like in the future. Those interested will have four months to dream up the most user-friendly, innovative, and striking concepts they can, and at the end all submissions will be judged by a panel of professionals in the fields of design, sports, and innovation (never thought I’d see Kelly Slater and Josh Rubin on the same judging panel– good stuff). The winner will get 5,000 Euros and have their submission showcased at the 2008 ISPO show in Munich. There are cash prizes for 2nd and 3rd places as well. If you’re interested in participating, there are more details on the website.

One of the biggest trends we’re seeing emerge after the Milan Furniture Fair last week is the mimicry of nature and the environment in all aspects of interior design. It seems with the more we learn about the fragility of our surroundings, the more designers are finding ways to bring the outdoors in. This is definitely the case with Drift’s Fragile Future II lighting installation: a modular lighting system designed to look like a field of dandelions. A commentary on survival tactic, it essentially “protects” itself by turning out sections of the lights when it senses movement nearby. While I’m not sure what they mean when claiming the original version (made from actual dandelion seeds, phosphorusbronze and LEDs) is an “exclusive”, they do have a version that’s less fragile and “easy to install” yourself. And if commiting to such a large-scale installation doesn’t float your boat, their Dandelight is a smaller, more portable version of Fragile Future. Delicately crafted from dandelions and powered by their individual 9V batteries, they’re a perfect reminder we should all tread gently on the world around us.
Via Dezeen

Boulder people: mark your calendars! Our Denver-based rocker pals The Swayback are going to be playing at the crown jewel of Boulder on Thursday, May 3rd. That’s right folks, they’ll be playing both a live set and a DJ set at the Sundown Saloon (The Downer) this time around alongside all of the $6 PBR pitchers you can handle. Bring your friends and get ready for some great rock & roll. The Swayback rule the stage in any setting, but for god sakes, they’re playing at the Downer! This is not a show you can miss (although as I just wrote that sentence, I thought about how I’m going to be crawling through a sea of you people to get to the bar for a beverage). And also newsworthy, the following evening at 4 p.m. they’ll be playing some of their new songs live on Boulder’s Radio 1190.

The word “Amaznode” doesn’t drip with fun, does it? In fact, it sounds a lot like a little bug that eats up your garden, or maybe even a wierd growth that ruins the careers of opera singers. It certainly doesn’t sound like what it actually is: an “Amazon related product search” (okay, also dreary, but hold on), that lets you type in any word, then creates a web of Amazon products that are in some way related to that word. The process is similar to what Amazon does when it recommends products for its users, except instead of basing the search on prior purchases (which could have been gifts for very boring people, thereby throwing off the whole system), Amaznode bases the search off of any one keyword. Say, for instance, that you’ve suddenly developed an unquenchable interest in cupcakes. Type that word into Amaznode, and soon you’ll get an entire web of cupcake offshoots from cookbooks to cupcake-themed murder-mysteries (juicy!). The coolest thing about this method of searching is that absolutely everything is right in front of you in picture form; if you swipe your mouse over any of the little boxes, the picture grows, and if you click it, the picture gets even bigger– and provides a click through to buy it from Amazon. What an easy new way to do research (or feed obsessions). Amazing– I’m sold.

Related Post: Amaztype

I’ll say it out loud: the days of mangled html, annoying embedded media, and gawky community sites are numbered. Audience participation is most definitely Web Two-Point-Oh and any site that can deliver what consumers want in clean fashion will stand out. Nothing embodies that more than OurStage. Founded late last year and opened to the public April 9, 2007, OurStage aims to bring artists (music, film/video, and even talks of photography) and audiences together. The availability of ‘prosumer’ quality equipment and accessible software editing has helped level the playing field for independent media producers. However, the final stage of that process, content delivery and matchmaking, is not so trivial. OurStage is a destination for both artists and fans, allowing a mutual exchange of feedback. LOTS more after the jump…

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This year is the 50th birthday of Helvetica, and this isn’t at all lost on the design world. The birthday font is being celebrated everywhere from being immortalized on wallpaper to being featured in a year-long exhibit at MoMA. It even scored the title role in a documentary about the impact of font usage around the globe. If you’re a typophile like me and bummed about missing out on Khoi Vinh’s limited edition HelFuckingVetica tee, you can still score the pin as part of the web designer’s collection over at El Boton. Or, if you’re the indecisive, pencil-and-paper type, Veer’s Pick-A-Side notebook not so subtly points out how perfect Helvetica is for relaying messages of both love and hate. Have you seen anyone else joining the party? Feel free to point us in their direction.

Related Post: Helvetica: The Documentary

Although the Seattle indie rock band Say Hi To Your Mom is not necessarily new news, and don’t have a new album on the near horizon (at least that I know about), I just got their 2006 album “Impeccable Blahs,” and I’m really liking what I’m hearing. I won’t go so far as to say, as they sarcastically do, that they sound like “the moment just before orgasm,” but I will give them a hearty recommendation to those of you who haven’t heard them yet. The band is comprised of Eric, Chris, and Jeff (the super serious guys you see above), although many refer to Eric as “the guy” because he started the project by himself – and with the help of “super advanced recording technology” – back in 2002. I’m going to warn you – and hopefully this will come as a relief – this isn’t exactly mainstream music; but if you enjoy heavily electro influenced indie rock, you should definitely give them a listen. You can stream all of the songs off of “Impeccable Blahs” here.