June 2009
1 post
March 2009
1 post
I honestly can’t believe I just genuinely said out loud ”I wish I had some rice cakes.”
January 2009
2 posts
This is one of those times I wish I had comments.
I’m just two mp3s away from 10,000 total tracks (56.86 GB) — excludes podcasts, audiobooks, tv shows and movies.
How many do you have?
How many should you have?
And most importantly, what should my next two be?
Suggestions are welcome. Shoot over an e-mail. I’ll post tomorrow or the next day with what broke the 10,000 track mark.
December 2008
1 post
November 2008
1 post
I think I need psychological treatment for my 90s sitcom addiction.
I literally just cursed Netflix for not having Brotherly Love for rent. Those Lawrence brothers.
October 2008
8 posts
1 tag
I have a suspicious feeling that my DVR is judging me.
“I wasn’t alive then, but from everything I’ve heard, Babe Ruth only...”
– This is how Steve Jobs answered a question about the rumored tablet-sized Apple product during Tuesday’s fourth quarter conference call. [AppleInsider]
It’s amazing to see a company so well known for its form (beautiful products and near perfect overall identity) reiterate the simple...
4 tags
“2. Sleep
Very underrated.”
– Last week when news was just developing about the suspension-worthy incident of Dallas Cowboys’ token troublemaker Adam “Pacman” Jones, Uwe Blog suggested 10 very funny and helpful hints that Jones might consider to occupy his time.
My guess is Jean-Luc Godard isn’t up...
2 tags
Tags: archeology, found, games, pets
Clusterflocker Sheila Ryan offered a post last week that pretty much summarizes what I love about online writing: quirky, short posts that encourage specific mental images and half smiles.
Found Today. In the cat’s litter box. A chess piece. A white knight.
3 tags
Over the last month, I’ve started watching a handful of new shows, including a few that have become significantly inspiring to me. One that stands out is PBS’s Spain… On The Road Again, the new travel/cooking show of chef Mario Batali.
With New York Times’ Mark Bittman, Gwyneth Paltrow and Spanish actress Claudia Bassols along for the ride, Batali treks through the...
2 tags
Graphic designer and type designer Mark Simonson recently detailed many the typeface accuracies and inaccuracies in AMC’s Mad Men. [Kottke]
From obvious type errors in the series’ title design and set designs to the small details of the yellowed plastic shields on prop typewriters, Simonson points out many of the flaws you might see if you’re looking for them.
I agree with...
Gary V. on ROI and creating a successful videocast
After a few very busy months of my life, things are starting to fall into place and hopefully over the next month I’ll have time to blog here more. I’ll use this post and a few to follow to share a handful of recent interesting web findings.
The last couple weeks of video blogs from Gary Vay-ner-chuk have been fascinating, informative and inspiring. On the 8th, Gary V. shared some...
August 2008
7 posts
My dearest RSS reader,
Oh poor, poor little Google Reader. I never meant to treat you so badly. As I saw you reach the 1000+ mark, it was as clear to me as the day is long that I had mistreated and neglected you and, in turn, all the nice internetmakers out there.
I sincerely apologize to you. I have seen the err of my ways and will work to make it up to you.
May we “Mark all as read” before too long. I...
I’ve come to the conclusion that I am the exact opposite of Dara Torres. Her abs scare me.
Using the Common Lisp programming language and data from Box Office Mojo, Zach Beane has created some beautiful infographics, which detail the rise and fall of specific movies during their time at the box office. [Kottke]
Each page displays trends in the top 25 movies at the box office for each weekend in a year. The color is based on the movie’s debut week. Because of that, long-running...
July 2008
27 posts
Each and every time I hear the PS3 start up sound, I expect it to be Arcade Fire’s “Keep The Car Running” and ponder how I could change it to be so.
After a quick Google search, it looks like I’m not alone.
“Of course the very first step, as you can imagine, was a giant first step.”
– Gothamist posted a great interview with Philippe Petit, the subject of the upcoming film Man on Wire, about his famous walk between the Twin Towers in 1974.
The movie begins playing across the nation August 8.
The Other Lonely Sandwich
This past weekend in the Dallas suburb of Flower Mound three teenagers beat up a 14-year old Subway employee working in a “giant sandwich” costume. They then stole his costume and fled the scene only to be caught a short time later.
Police caught the trio after a witness took down the license plate of the Nissan fleeing the shop around lunchtime in the 2200 block of Justin Road in...
Rex Sorgatz of Fimoculous initiated a fascinating discussion regarding the legal differences between pornography and prostitution.
It seems an obvious paradox that both acts are essentially the same: sex in exchange for money. However, there is of course one key difference: a camera.
Culturally speaking, this appears to be an extremely revealing detail of the modern psychology. Sex for money is...
“Arrogant,” after all, is the new “uppity.”
Obama’s expert design team recently designed a poster for his Berlin visit, which shows a heavy influence of 1920s-era German “industrial design.” [Quipsologies]
Republicians call it “arrogant” and say it reinforces a “messiah complex.” I call it awesome and extremely smart.
Nathan Myhrvold continues his tales of travelling through the Nordic countries with a stop in Greenland. Myhrvold talks about the nation’s efforts for independence from Denmark, how ice — which covers 84% of the country — prevents economical development and what it’s like to eat… polar bear. [WhatILearnedToday]
However, this case was a bit different. Polar bears...
3 tags
Los Angeles photographer Jen Gotch created an interesting project called “Defaced”. [DigitalCrushes]
Using a permanent marker she captions her polaroids, adding her thoughts to remember that moment by.
Keeping the comma
Dear TV on the Radio,
Let me preface this by saying I’m really looking forward to your new record. I’ve enjoyed your past releases and believe the band members are smart and effective musicians.
That being said, I feel the use of the comma in the album title, Dear Science,, is asking for unnecessary trouble.
Journalists need so very little to distract them from the substance of a...
Complimentary Coupling
I’d like to see someone use a tool like Idée’s Multicolr Search Lab to create diptychs or triptychs that also work to explain basic concepts of color theory. [MareenFischinger]
I assume it’s already out there. Photographers are pretty smart and this idea surely isn’t new or unique.
I think there should be something similar to Muphry’s Law for complexion or physical appearance.
Reid’s Law: Allowing yourself to fixate on the blemish(es) of another is asking for some of your own.
“You can guess all day as to what other people would like, but you know what you...”
– New York Times’ T Magazine has a great series of short interviews with actors Seth Rogen, James Franco and others. [Mark]
They are shot in black and white so you can tell they’re serious.
I also really love Rogen’s explanation of the root for all male actions.
There needs to be a word to define this: forgetting to update your Netflix queue before they ship you an unwanted movie.
"You can never learn enough."
Dr. Michael DeBakey, the man whose research and surgical efforts forever changed many processes related to heart surgery, passed away last Friday at the age of 99.
In March, Dr. DeBakey was interviewed by Esquire for their “State of the American Man” feature, in which they interviewed men born each decade.
In addition, he contruibuted to Esquire’s “What I’ve...
3 tags
Rock Port, Missouri has become the first 100 percent wind-powered community in America. [DesignInfo]
“We’re farming the wind, which is something that we have up here,” Crawford said. “The payback on a per-acre basis is generally quite good when compared to a lot of other crops, and it’s as simple as getting a cup of coffee and watching the blades spin.”
Muphry’s Law
After he corrected their already correct usage of the word ‘pasty’ last week, Stephen Dubner of the Freakonomics blog recieved a special and edible gift from The Economist in his mailbox. [WaxyLinks]
And news to him and me, this situation is defined as Muphry’s Law.
Muphry’s law states that “if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of...
1 tag
WatchErica Cho and Xana Kudrjavcev-DeMilner have been posting a beautiful series of “video poems” named “Are You Me?” to Vimeo. The above “03 Hangul” was done by Cho. [HeadingEast]
These experimental video poems explore that mysterious haze that separates people from one another. I make the odd videos; hers are the even.
Such a great idea and so beautifully...
Belgian-born photographer Branislav Kropilak snaps amazing photographs of billboards as seen from below. [Snarkmarket]
Their precise metal shapes, bright lighting and the space-like night sky make me see billboards a little differently.
BXVI
What I Learned Today posted about Pope Benedict XVI’s text messaging. Today he sent an additional text blast to thousands of Australian youth that looked like this:
Young friend, God and his people expect much from u because u have within you the Fathers supreme gift: the Spirit of Jesus - BXVI
At this time it’s required you be a Telstra subscriber to sign up for his daily...
3 tags
In addition to our energy and financial crises, the New York Times reports that America is current dealing with another crisis: a shortage of 4s. [H&FJ]
When prices passed $4, many stations ran out of 4s, and managers improvised by photocopying signs or stenciling numbers by hand. The makeshift digits are legal as long as they are similar to the neighboring numbers, said John Browne, the...
"Not to overwhelm the ear too much."
NPR’s All Songs Considered posted a live concert podcast of Fleet Foxes’ D.C. performance, which includes a pretty fascinating interview about the band’s development, their approach to live performance and the sharing of music within the band. [AustinKleon]
3 tags
Michael Bierut and a few designers in Pentagram’s NY office recently redesigned the logo of the joint venture MillerCoors. [BrandNew]
The logo, as is standard for Pentagram’s work, exhibits conceptual brilliance and visual crispness. They’ve posted a video that illustrates the idea clearly.
The idea of the beer glass came from a couple of remarks about the new company being...
4 tags
Merlin Mann wrote one of the most sincere and positive product reviews that I’ve ever read about the Flip Ultra camera.
After hearing and reading tons of other great reviews, I bought the Mino version about a month ago, and I’ve had a lot of fun playing with it too.
Though my videos don’t have nearly the same “memory value” as those of new parents and their child,...
Guardian’s Laura Barton reviewed the new self-titled Fleet Foxes record — which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite records this year — and explains how the music became “entangled” in her environment.
It came to me one week in May, at the end of seven curious days in which I had both sailed on an airboat through the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana, and walked from...
June 2008
54 posts
“Literature is what, I think, intelligent people have instead of dope.”
– On NPR’s Weekend Edition this past Saturday, Patrick Hemingway, son of author Ernest Hemingway, discussed his father’s work, its impact and the significance and sadness of reaching 80 years of age.
The Friendly Floatees
Back in early 1992, a container ship leaving Hong Kong accidentally spilled its contents in the Pacific Ocean: almost 29,000 plastic bath toys including many classic yellow rubber-duckies. [France]
Ten months after the incident the first Floatees began to wash up along the Alaskan coast. The first discovery consisted of ten toys found by a beachcomber near Sitka, Alaska on 16 November 1992, about...
3 tags
You don’t know if a building is any good until you walk inside it. — Philip Johnson
By posting this great Philip Johnson quote, Josh Blankenship reminded me of something I should have posted on over a month ago.
Architect Thom Mayne was on KERA’s Think with Krys Boyd on May 15. Mayne, the architect behind the Museum of Nature and Science expansion at Victory Park, talked about...
3 tags
Need something? Anything? A new study shows that just appending your request with “because ____” increases the likelihood you’ll get your way.
According to Marginal Revolution, behavioral scientist Ellen Langer released a study which shows adding “because” to requests — even if what follows the “because” is irrelevant or meaningless — makes...