Friend and Co-worker James VanOsdol has an extensive background in radio. His general love of music and his years on-air at Chicago’s own Q101 are some of the driving elements behind his new quest to self publish his book tentatively titled “Chicago Rocked”. He has decided to put all his heart and soul into this book and needs help funding it! A bit more from James:

It’s official. I’ve decided to self-publish my book, and am turning to the generosity of strangers, enthusiasts, and friends to help make it happen. Welcome to Day One of an 89-day pledge drive.

After working on the idea (and working up the nerve) for the past week, I launched Chicago Rocked’s fundraising initiative minutes ago on kickstarter.com, a website that’s equal parts venture capital and social networking.

Consider this a pitch. Maybe even a plea. Funds are only collected if and when the goal is hit. As things move forward, I’ll provide regular updates on this site, as well as on kickstarter.

I want to tell you about a new venture I’ve started called RIPT Apparel. RIPT is a new online retailer that sells one of a kind t-shirts for a limited time of 24 hours, then they “rest in peace” forever.

Over the past few months, 2 good friends of mine and I have been meeting weekly, discussing the necessary things to tackle in order to get RIPT off the ground. We’ve collectively built the business using our unique skills and talents and surged forward to produce what lives now at riptapparel.com!

We launched the site Monday, June 8th and have heard such wonderful praises and responses from people all over the globe!

One of our main missions at RIPT is to provide a unique outlet for up and coming artists to promote and sell their art. We feel we’ve provided just the place for this!

One of the ways we’ve done this is we built a community right through the website. Anyone can sign up and join in on the conversations happening everyday! Since Monday’s launch, we’ve had over 400 people join so far, and the number keeps on climbing!

We have also been running a promotion all week, giving away a free shirt for a random new member of the RIPT community as well as a twitter promotion for 50% off their next purchase.

Some of the wonderful artists and their shirts that we’ve collaborated with this week include

• Melostar’s “More trees for birds”
• Dave Perillo’s “A bull by the horns”
• Maxime Francout’s “Green Haven”
• Ryan Clark’s “Queen of Hearts”
• Tang Yau Hoong’s “Fly Away”
• heinrichz’s “Queen of the dammed”
• C86′s “Summer Madness”

I just want to thank everyone for the support and for going to the site and even more for the people who picked up shirts in the first week! You are all absolutely amazing! There will be many more updates on the on-goings of RIPT so check back soon.

And don’t forget to stop by the website and say hi in the comments! Also feel free to follow us on Twitter too!

New Apartment from TJ Mapes on Vimeo.

Here is what the new apartment looks like. Sorry for the random jabberings, but I tried explaining it well. I think i failed… anyways… just look more than listen I guess.