In the low light I’m here to entertain

If you’ve read any blogs in the past 24 hours or so, you might have noticed some changes underfoot here on Daily Duranie. I finally got brave and started tinkering with the layout and design. Part of my continuing problem with Blogger is that when you’re changing things, you have to make the changes “live” in order to really see a lot of them. This is indeed a problem when you’ve got continuous, or nearly continuous, traffic to the website and you’re not really sure about the changes you’re making. I don’t know what it was about yesterday, but I finally threw caution to the wind and started working. Graphic and web design is not an area of expertise, and I am not the least bit artistic in a visual sense, so this was a new challenge.

What you see today if you’re on our website (as opposed to getting this in your inbox) is a nearly completed site. There are still a few things I’d like to change – the sidebar is way too long for my taste, I might change this into a 3-column deal instead, and…if I ever decide to move everything to WordPress (which would be preferred but it’s a lot of work to move nearly 3 years of archives as well as create a brand new design), I would like to look into doing more of a dynamic layout. I just need to find the right one.

I’m particularly proud of the new banner, not because of my own handiwork (the photography, banner design and effects are mine – and they aren’t quite finished yet), but because late last year, we had the distinct pleasure of working with fellow Duranie Dañiel Ardito on a new logo design. You can actually view work that he did for Duran Duran in the tour book for the reunion tour! His challenge was to take the original drawing that Amanda’s mom artfully designed for us and turn it into a real logo. We wanted something completely original, sleek and modern that channels a little bit of Duran Duran. We adore what he created for us, and we hope you like it too. Dañiel deserves extremely high praise, and if you ever need a logo designed, we highly recommend him! We also need to sincerely thank our dear friend Fabiana, because without her help in translating (that’s right, Dañiel does not speak English and my Spanish is inexcusably poor.), none of this would have ever happened. We thank the both of you so much!!

In the coming days you are likely to see a few little tweaks here and there – thank you for your patience, and please don’t hesitate to let me know if I broke something in the process! That seems to happen….

In other news, I am very excited to tell you that the hotel rooms for the Durandemonium 2013 room rate at The Amalfi in Chicago are almost sold out! So, if you’re planning to come to the convention and haven’t bought your ticket yet – I would strongly recommend getting your ticket and hotel room very soon! I know we’ve been a little short on convention planning news as of late – but that will pick up again in the coming summer months. Don’t miss out on your chance to have a weekend of partying and fun with friends in Chicago! Check out the Durandemonium 2013 website for details.

One question that we’ve gotten lately is whether or not we’ll do a convention in 2014. While I have to laugh because we haven’t even gotten through this one yet, I think I can semi-safely answer that question. The band’s plans, at least currently according to one-Roger Taylor (and I have not forgotten that we can hold him responsible should this not come to fruition) is that the band will finish the album this year, and then tour again next. With that in mind, we believe it would not be wise to attempt to plan a convention for 2014 and try to plan around the band in the process. We have enough trouble just trying to plan road trips for their tours as is!!  We can save the conventions for the years when the band is in the studio or not on the road. That said, I am sure there will be plenty of occasions for meet-ups and other types of Durandemonium while the band is touring, so please stay-tuned. Should the band not end up touring in 2014, after I am finished crying and having a nervous breakdown of sorts after the Durandemonium convention is over in October… and after I’m finished dealing with Roger….then we can talk.

With that, I’m off to teach (this is my son’s last week of homeschooling for the year – we made it and we both lived!!) and even do some more playing with Pixelmator!

-R