Mostly Twittering
October 14, 2008 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce | Products & Opportunites | Technology
Thoughts are shorter-form these days. Twitter is a good place to follow me. Example:
New Macbook video: http://bit.ly/1xNvDH Awesome emo marketing, utter techporn, richly deserves to be parodied.
So there's that....
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Here Is What Is
September 12, 2008 | Arts & Culture
It's a beautiful work of art, expressing a unique vision of music-making and the creative process. It is officially 93 minutes long, but there's another hour or more of extra footage, just as good as the main event. It is Daniel Lanois's movie, Here Is What Is, and I recommend it without hesitation. (Previously)
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Byrne/Eno Return!
August 18, 2008 | Arts & Culture
Big news in music! The Website The NY Times story. And, the tour!
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The Death of Postmodernism And Beyond
June 23, 2008 | Arts & Culture
This is the first philosophy article that ever seemed relevant to me.
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Desiderata
June 19, 2008 | Arts & Culture
It's worth reading Desiderata once in a while:
Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
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Loop and chill
May 19, 2008 | Arts & Culture | Nature & Environment
One-hour hand-recorded 54MB mp3 of Ocean Beach waves, San Francisco, 2008-05-14. Loop and chill. A gift, via Jessamyn.
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The day there was no news
May 14, 2008 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce | People & Society
At least I can dream...
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All you need to know about fashion photos
May 13, 2008 | Arts & Culture
Pascal Dangin is the premier retoucher of fashion photographs. Art directors and admen call him when they want someone who looks less than great to look great, someone who looks great to look amazing, or someone who looks amazing already—whether by dint of DNA or M·A·C—to look, as is the mode, superhuman. (Christy Turlington, for the record, needs the least help.) In the March issue of Vogue Dangin tweaked a hundred and forty-four images: a hundred and seven advertisements (Estée Lauder, Gucci, Dior, etc.), thirty-six fashion pictures, and the cover, featuring Drew Barrymore.Emphasis added.
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Spirograph
May 9, 2008 | Arts & Culture | People & Society | Products & Opportunites
Gwad, I loved the Spirograph.
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Letter to JG
May 2, 2008 | Arts & Culture
And, completing the morning's blogging, a beautiful 1996 letter from lyricist Robert Hunter to his friend and primary writing partner Jerry Garcia, one year after Garcia's death.
Your funeral service was one hell of a scene. Maureen and I took Barbara and Sara in and sat with them. MG waited over at our place. Manasha and Keelan were also absent. None by choice. Everybody from the band said some words and Steve, especially, did you proud, speaking with great love and candor. Annabelle got up and said you were a genius, a great guy, a wonderful friend, and a shitty father - which shocked part of the contingent and amused the rest. After awhile the minister said that that was enough talking, but I called out, from the back of the church, "Wait, I've got something!" and charged up the aisle and read this piece I wrote for you, my voice and hands shaking like a leaf. Man, it was weird looking over and seeing you dead!
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One consequence of specialization is extinction
May 2, 2008 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce
Sobering reflections from Robert Rich, on making a living as a musical artist in the long tail, based on his life data from the past 30 years.
In reality the life of a "microcelebrity" resembles more the fate of Sisyphus, whose boulder rolls back down the mountain every time he reaches the summit. After every tour I feel exhausted but empowered by the thought that a few people really care a lot about this music. Yet, a few months later all is quiet again and CD/downoad sales slow down again. If I take the time to concentrate for a year on what I hope to be a breakthrough album, that time of silence widens out into a gaping hole and interest seems to fade. When I finally do release something that I feel to be a bold new direction, I manage only to sell it to the same 1,000 True Fans. The boulder sits back at the bottom of the mountain and it's time to start rolling it up again.
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Synchronizing Five Metronomes
May 2, 2008 | Arts & Culture
via Kottke.
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RIP Albert Hofmann
April 30, 2008 | Arts & Culture | People & Society
At 102.
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Quote of the Day
April 15, 2008 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce | People & Society
Scott Heriferman: "Sadly, no time to really get into Twitter. For me, to stay healthy AND lead a needed meme (meetup to go from 5M to 500M people, ~$10M to $100M+ rev, and 20K to 200K successful meetup groups), can't get sucked in."
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Revolution Fashion Show 2008
April 14, 2008 | Arts & Culture
Saturday we went to the Revolution Fashion show in White River Junction (VT). I brought the new camera, and I learned a lot about using it. Witness the top 30. I made 300 photos, culled 100 that were junk, and tried to select the top 30 to tell a story through the titles.
Tech details: Nikon D300 w/Sigma 30mm/1.4 lens, @ ISO 3,200 without flash. For the runway show, I used Aperture mode, set at f1.4. For the dancing I used Shutter mode at 1/60. On the runway I was a lot happier once I figured out center-weighted metering. The matrix metering was blowing out the highlights, and the spot meter was hit or miss on the moving target. Auto-focus was set to dynamic AF (21 points) continuous, and that worked really well. Active D-Lighting was set to 'normal,' which is supposed to bring the highlights down and the shadows up at the sensor, prior to recording.
I should say I'm not entirely pleased with the quality, especially of the skin tones. But, it was dark in there, and the stage lights were bright, and I was the only person shooting without a flash. And, I'm learning!
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Thriving Office
April 12, 2008 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce | People & Society
Home businesses know they must seem successful to become successful. So they play Thriving Office while on the phone. This valuable CD, which is filled with the sounds people expect to hear from an established company, provides instant credibility.
It's amazing what the world has come to.
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Shine A Light
April 4, 2008 | Arts & Culture | People & Society
Martin Scorsese has a new film opening tonight, a musical documentary on the Rolling Stones, filmed in 2006, called Shine A Light. It's big news in the Intertubes Classic Rock spaces. Here's the trailer (2:44):
And here's Jumpin' Jack Flash, the (complete) first song from the movie (4:10):
What strikes me most is how healthy they look. Even Keith. Well, he's a little worse for the wear, but judged by his own standards even Keith is lookin' good.
To gain some perspective on all that, check out this version of Honky Tonk Woman from 1969 in Hyde Park (3:09):
Now, that is some classic rock, eh? Meanwhile backstage, here's an amusing outtake from an MTV television ad from the 1980s (1:48):
Kids, don't try this at home.
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You Can't Be Serious
March 18, 2008 | Arts & Culture | Governance | People & Society
From the middle section of a longer interview with the rapper DMX:
Are you following the presidential race?
Not at all.You’re not? You know there’s a Black guy running, Barack Obama and then there’s Hillary Clinton.
His name is Barack?!
Barack Obama, yeah.
Barack?!Barack.
What the fuck is a Barack?! Barack Obama. Where he from, Africa?Yeah, his dad is from Kenya.
Barack Obama?Yeah.
What the fuck?! That ain’t no fuckin’ name, yo. That ain’t that nigga’s name. You can’t be serious. Barack Obama. Get the fuck outta here.You’re telling me you haven’t heard about him before.
I ain’t really paying much attention.I mean, it’s pretty big if a Black…
Wow, Barack! The nigga’s name is Barack. Barack? Nigga named Barack Obama. What the fuck, man?! Is he serious? That ain’t his fuckin’ name. Ima tell this nigga when I see him, “Stop that bullshit. Stop that bullshit” [laughs] “That ain’t your fuckin’ name.” Your momma ain’t name you no damn Barack.So you’re not following the race. You can’t vote right?
Nope.Is that why you’re not following it?
No, because it’s just—it doesn’t matter. They’re gonna do what they’re gonna do. It doesn’t really make a difference. These are the last years.But it would be pretty big if we had a first Black president. That would be huge.
I mean, I guess…. What, they gon’ give a dog a bone? There you go. Ooh, we have a Black president now. They should’ve done that shit a long time ago, we wouldn’t be in the fuckin’ position we in now. With world war coming up right now. They done fucked this shit up then give it to the Black people, “Here you take it. Take my mess.”Right, exactly.
It’s all a fuckin’ setup. It’s all a setup. All fuckin’ bullshit. All bullshit. I don’t give a fuck about none of that.We could have a female president also, Hillary Clinton.
I mean, either way it doesn’t matter. I don’t care. No one person is directly affected by which president, you know, so what does it matter.Yeah, but the country is.
I guess. The president is a puppet anyway. The president don’t make no damn decisions.The president…they don’t have that much authority basically?
Nah, never.But Bush pretty much…
You think Bush is making fuckin’ decisions?He did, yeah, he fucked up the country.
He act like he making decisions. He could barely speak! He could barely fuckin’ speak! Can’t be serious. He ain’t making no damn decisions.Well Barack has a good chance of winning so that might be something.
Good for him, good for him.
Then come the comments!
crocker says: fucking wow. DMX has lost his fucking mind.
sooch says: why didn’t he just bark through the interview?
DirtDogggy says: Only naive young fucks wouldn’t understand what hes talking about, the wiser you get the tougher life is, he’s far from dumb, he knows who Obama is retards, he was trying to make a point, that it doesn’t mean fuck all no matter who wins the election. I’ve bin saying the presidents a puppet on a string for years, finally someone said it, it doesn’t even matter who wins it’s just a matter of timing whether people like them or not, presidents just push the button they make no decisions on their own or have any origional ideas. I have a feeling X is right, the black mans going to take the heat for fucking up the US/world but it’s really a big chain reaction of recent years of fuckery by all the politicians and presidents put together.
Diz says: Man, what the fuck kind of interview is this. I know the interviewer was ready to get the hell out of there. DMX has lost his fucking mind. But you know what they say, some of the best artists are fucked up anyway. Hopefully good music is on the way.
Real Talk says: X is on drugs, it’s no secret. He’s got a drug problem. It’s sad but that’s rock n roll man. If a normal person is on drugs, they can’t eat. If a musician is on drugs, they still got money coming in. He’s like Ozzie Osborn wit it. Hopefully he’s not completely gone, you know? I hate to see people become just a shell of what they used to be.
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U23D at IMAX
March 13, 2008 | Arts & Culture | People & Society | Technology
One good thing about living in the society of the spectacle is that every once in a while it produces something truly mind-blowing. In this case, a U2 concert movie filmed in a new 3D technology, playing on the huge IMAX screens. Unbelievably good.
The experience is nothing like previous 3D movies. This is absolutely convincing, beautiful and glorious, with presence and immediacy. Band members exist in 3-space, walking around, moving toward and away from you. The drum kit looked especially impressive, with a depth and lighting that you just have never seen on screen before.
The technology is produced by 3ality Digital. Here's a semi-technical article on the production from Film & Video magazine's January issue. Even better, this companion article on software post-production has a lot of interesting details:
The toolset also allows for multiple convergence points. “This is something that doesn’t make sense at all in 2D,” says Postley. “You can have not only multiple 3D layers, but each one of the layers has a different focal plane or convergence point. If I took a shot of Bono, a shot of Edge and so on into editing, I can cut up the images and layer them to make them look like they’re standing in the same depth in the screen. It’s a 3D effect for which there is no 2D corollary.”
Here's a page written by a guy hired to do the Stereoscopic Depth Balancing:
Because so much of the project was edited in fast paced, "MTV" type cuts, and almost every scene involved multiple layers and special effect composites, we were faced with continuous alignment and dynamic artistic placement issues. This gave us opportunities to experiment with and learn from freely floating objects, people and backgrounds in a "dream-like" visual montage. We learned to "hand off" changes of depth from near to far and back again, smoothly guiding the eyes from scene to scene. The result is comfortable viewing through disolves and quick cuts, and an 84 minute movie that doesn't strain the eyes or induce headaches.
The sound also rocks hard. The clarity and auditory spatial focus seem to follow the visual focus. And the lighting is very dramatic. Crisp everywhere, with lots of variation and shading, as well as the usual knockout punches that concert light can deliver.
It's simply a tour de force of concert movie immersion. I certainly want to see it again and get the perfect seat, half-way up in the center. Kathryn and I saw this in Baltimore and sat low, in the 3rd or 4th row, far off to the side – pretty bad seats, and it was still impressive.
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Copying Makes Evolution Possible
March 4, 2008 | Arts & Culture | Nature & Environment | People & Society
Susan Blackmore in Wired:
The whole idea of a meme is that it's information that is copied with variation and selection. So any idea that is copied from person to person is a meme. But an idea that you think up for yourself and is not expressed is not a meme. The emphasis has to be on copying, because that's what makes evolution possible.
[Some memes] succeed because they're good for us or they're true or beautiful or useful and we select them for those reasons. Some other memes succeed, in spite of not being beautiful or true or useful, by using tricks. So religions, for example, have some value, but by and large they're false ideas that use tricks to get into people's heads -- threats of hell, promises of heaven, the allure of being a good person or of God loving you. There are also memes that trick you into thinking that you're going to get popular or that you're going to get rich or that you're going to get a bigger penis, whatever it is. [Ed: ambiguous 'it.']
Wired asks, What will [the future] look like?
Well, it will look like humans are just a minor thing on this planet with masses (of) silicon-based machinery using us to drag stuff out of the ground to build more machines.
As Kottke said of this quote, Good times.
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And Then Came New Hampshire...
February 25, 2008 | Arts & Culture | People & Society
The maker of that video has a new project alive. You can add your own photo to the montage of video. Very innovative. And beautiful heartfelt text on the Creators page. Bravo.
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The Point and Pixish
February 12, 2008 | Arts & Culture | People & Society | Software
The Point looks really interesting.
The Point is a social platform for people to solve problems they can’t solve alone. Start an ultimatum, fundraiser, or social contract. Whatever the cause, use a campaign to bring it to the tipping point.
Also, beautiful minimalist design.
Bonus link: Pixish, Visual Assignments For Creative People. Less beautiful design, but still very nicely done. It was this week's favorite new website design, until I saw The Point. Not a bad week for web design, when you've got two solid choices in the first two days.
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Fully Immersed in Something
February 1, 2008 | Arts & Culture | People & Society | Products & Opportunites | Technology
For when you truly have money to burn, Ultra Geeky Home Cinemas.
Instead, perhaps consider this? (All 4:21 are worth it, lyrics and images.)
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A Way To Live
January 25, 2008 | Arts & Culture | People & Society
A life. Some projects. A very thoughtful five-minute "game." (Read the creator's statement.) If you want, you can support this life.
Update: I didn't know it at the time I wrote this, but the Wall Street Journal covered the game in today's issue.
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On Twitter
January 23, 2008 | Arts & Culture | People & Society | Software | Technology
rentzsch: yay morphed a client meeting into client work-time. "Nothing new to talk about, how about I just keep working?" "Sure." I love sane clients
I never understood Twitter. I checked it out way back when, probably around when it first started, readin' the blogs and all, and I just didn't get it. "Okay, you're supposed to answer the question, 'What are you doing?' – I guess you post from mobile phones or something – SMS, I think that's a phone thing – because posts are limited to 140 characters! What can be said in 140 chars? Well, maybe someone will probably use it."
I signed up for an account though, mostly to landgrab the esteemed and coveted notio member name. I'm not sure I ever went back, even after I read about Twitter taking off and getting popular. I just figured, "I don't really have a modern phone, pretty sure it doesn't do SMS, and gosh ain't the kids just crazy these days with their Internets??"
Then in early January a friend was flying out to Iowa, and he said, "I'm on Twitter BTW. I usually post when I travel." And I said, "What is the deal with Twitter? I just don't get it." He said, "You have to get a desktop client, like Twitterific. Then subscribe to a few people, look at my friends and then look at their friends and subscribe to the interesting ones. You can't use the website this way, you need the integrated view. They're calling my flight, gotta go."
So I downloaded Twitterific, and did what he said, and it only took about half a day, before, suddenly – bing! – the bell rang inside my head. It turns out that keeping Twitterific on the the background is like sitting in a cafe where everyone there is a friend. The 140 char "restriction" drove behavior toward a new style of online banter, sort of a synthetic conversation made up of everyone announcing presence to each other. It's not really better or worse, it's just really different.
I "followed" my friend over two days, as he made his way through his business trip. Here are some examples to give you a sense of the flow:
It's Jan 2nd, can we stop the Christmas music playing at the airport yet?Delayed twice already. Looks like I'm missing my connection.
Can someone at Gate 36 in Cincinatti please tell the woman cutting her nails in public that it is disgusting.
Next to Mike Wallace while checking in at the Marriott.
Shorter than I expected.
DSL line just went down... to the backup we go.
Up and running on the backup DSL. That was a little stressful... but better now than 8:00
Romney has conceded Iowa
They are calling it for Obama here.
Adam Nagourney is an intense typist.
The live band at the Ron Paul party next door is playing "When will I be loved"
Teardown time.
Done. I'm outta here.
Happy to see and hard to beleive but the airport is totally mellow.
It's got its own vibe, doesn't it? Poetic, in a way. I had a real sense of what was going on in his life. A tight connection, over two days. And each of those "tweets" was read in-line with several other folks on-going comments and announcements. When people subscribe to each other's tweets you often see people reply to each other, in public, using the "@" to cue the recipient, as in, "@notio are you making a point?"
All this just goes to say that Twitter is an interesting place to play, and I missed it the first time because I tried to box it into existing mental models. On its own terms it's radical and super-interesting. For instance, back to that quote from the beginning:
rentzsch: yay morphed a client meeting into client work-time. "Nothing new to talk about, how about I just keep working?" "Sure." I love sane clients
Anyone who has ever worked in a professional services capacity will recognize several nuggets of humorized truth in rentzsch's tweet. It conveyed to me a complete emotional state. I laughed out loud, smiled, and when I happened to see Twitterific ask, "What are you doing?" I wrote, "Writing about twitterific"
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On Brazil
January 20, 2008 | Arts & Culture
When I was at the Unbroken Chain conference someone brought up the movie Brazil and when they learned I hadn't seen it the whole room became animated with encouragement: "Oh man! You have to check it out! Wow, never seen Brazil... Dude, it's awesome, you won't believe it."
Well, okay then. We watched it last night. What struck me was the similarity to the Bush administration. Even Wikipedia alludes to it:
Brazil's bureaucratic, totalitarian government is reminiscent of the British government depicted in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, except that it has a buffoonish, slap-stick quality totally lacking in that particular novel.
Certainly the most unusual movie I've seen in a good long time. A more engaging plot – in fact, discernible – than Eraserhead. For cinematographic scope, Prosper's Books was probably stronger. If those two didn't throw you off, you'll enjoy Brazil.
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Running Out of Ideas?
January 17, 2008 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce | Life | Software
Amusing one-line review of Handmeon, pointing to the Boston Globe article:
Handmeon.com is a cool idea, perhaps showing that Web 2.0 entrepreneurs may be running out of ideas.
Well, I laughed out loud. He goes on to say, "Actually, I do think it's a pretty interesting social experiment." Thanks Pito, for taking a look.
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In Praise of Melancholy
January 17, 2008 | Arts & Culture | People & Society
Ours are ominous times. We are on the verge of eroding away our ozone layer. Within decades we could face major oceanic flooding. We are close to annihilating hundreds of exquisite animal species. Soon our forests will be as bland as pavement. Moreover, we now find ourselves on the verge of a new cold war.
But there is another threat, perhaps as dangerous: We are eradicating a major cultural force, the muse behind much art and poetry and music. We are annihilating melancholia.
My favorite line: "One would think that Keats's life would have fostered bitterness in him, but he remained generous in the face of his difficulties. He didn't flee to the usual 19th-century escapes: Christianity or opium..."
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The Game Was Completely Up
January 14, 2008 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce
In 2006 EMI, the world's fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free. “That was the moment we realised the game was completely up,” says a person who was there.
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The 50 Most Loathsome People In America, 2007
December 28, 2007 | Arts & Culture | People & Society
Possibly the most sarcastic link ever posted at Notio. Also probably the funniest; an instant classic. Via Kottke, with whom I post the following excerpt:
9. You
Charges: You believe in freedom of speech, until someone says something that offends you. You suddenly give a damn about border integrity, because the automated voice system at your pharmacy asked you to press 9 for Spanish. You cling to every scrap of bullshit you can find to support your ludicrous belief system, and reject all empirical evidence to the contrary. You know the difference between patriotism and nationalism -- it's nationalism when foreigners do it. You hate anyone who seems smarter than you. You care more about zygotes than actual people. You love to blame people for their misfortunes, even if it means screwing yourself over. You still think Republicans favor limited government. Your knowledge of politics and government are dwarfed by your concern for Britney Spears' children. You think buying Chinese goods stimulates our economy. You think you're going to get universal health care. You tolerate the phrase "enhanced interrogation techniques." You think the government is actually trying to improve education. You think watching CNN makes you smarter. You think two parties is enough. You can't spell. You think $9 trillion in debt is manageable. You believe in an afterlife for the sole reason that you don't want to die. You think lowering taxes raises revenue. You think the economy's doing well. You're an idiot.
(Told you it was nasty. The other 49 are much funnier. Totally NSFW, language-wise.)
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The Spectacle Has Not Quite Yet Been Supplanted
December 26, 2007 | Arts & Culture | People & Society
Based on my suppertime family viewing, I like Jeopardy better than Wheel of Fortune. I also note, based on a one-hour television ad review, that nobody can sleep, everyone has stomach upset, most people have aches and pains, and many people are depressed. You probably couldn't give away a Buick Lucerne to anyone I know, much less get them excited about a Red Tag Sale. The public seem to prefer fake gratuitous violence over authentic honest sexuality –nipple-slips, coochie displays, and butt flashes aside; celebrities are people who have nothing to offer but their appearance (c.f. above), and when you reduce complex interdependent issues down to 10-30 second "news" summaries, everything is banal, and frequently, simply, wrong. Thus, as has been my practice since 1980, I continue to have little need for television.
Instead, you might want to read this report (and followup discussion) by Howard Rheingold about the philosopher Jurgen Habermas' lack of thoughts "about the state of the public sphere, now that the broadcast era has been supplanted by the many-to-many media that enable so many people to use the Internet as a means of political expression." It takes half as long as a 30-minute tee-vee show, and has at least a million times more intellectual nutrients.
Also, untrained Shi Tzsu puppies are frequently annoying, though exceptionally cute.
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State of the Music
December 24, 2007 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce
Wired Magazine has done us a public service by hiring David Byrne to report on the current state of the music industry. It results in two feature articles: David Byrne and Thom Yorke on the Real Value of Music (with a striking photo!), and David Byrne's Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists — and Megastars. Both articles include long audio clips of the conversations, with Thom Yorke, Brian Eno, and others. It's what modern online journalism should be.
In other music news, Daniel Lanois has started a grand experiment, with Red Floor Records. Hi entire back catalog is available for download, with mp3 and high-res wav versions each available for the same $10 price. He has a new movie arriving in March, with the soundtrack available now.
Our first new project available on the site is 'Here is What is'. This music is a direct soundtrack representation of the music that exists in our feature length documentary film also titled 'Here is What is'. For those of you who might not know, the film is a camera following me around over the course of a year, in and out of recording studios documenting once and for all the way it really happens.
I'm very excited by his Omni Series:
For every song of mine that gets released there is an abundance of material that does not. These pieces, often favorites of mine remain unheard, so Red Floor and I have decided to release this body of work as The Omni Series. At the moment we are planning six cds. Each will be thematically assembled to represent a certain part of my work.
The SSEYO guys, makers of the generative music software Koan (no longer available) have launched two new products via Intermorphic: noatikl furthers the generative music cause, and liptikl does the same for lyrics.
And finally, every year or two I tune into the Brian Eno wavelength, which is best done at the news page of Enoweb. There are dozens of interesting links there for your deep-fringe avant-garde reading pleasure. Good diversions from the family dynamics this time of year. ;)
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Chocolade Haas
December 2, 2007 | Arts & Culture
Poignant, funny, weird, sad: Chocolade Haas (2:35)
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Quote for the Day
November 18, 2007 | Arts & Culture | Life
"It is by deferring mediocre actions and by being utterly intent on foreseeing the unforeseeable that we prepare ourselves for being thoroughly contradicted by happiness." —Gaston Bachelard, The Dialectic of Duration, pg 63.
The Unbroken Chain blogging fiesta didn't materialize (deferring mediocre actions), but it was a rilly rilly great weekend. I met some fine people who are sure to be long-term friends, and got some positive reaction to the ideas and potentials I put forth. The level of discourse, the warmth of the folk, the awesome power of the music, the fun times – one of the best social weekends in many years. There will be followup.
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Free Guitar, But You Gotta Pass It On
November 15, 2007 | Arts & Culture
While I'm attending the UMass Dead conference (warning, possible blogging fiesta), I hope to give away a virtually new Ovation Legend acoustic guitar. It's a Handmeon, so whoever receives it has to promise to also give it away. If you'd like to own it for a while, register at Handmeon and bookmark the object, requesting to host it. We'll see if there's any uptake.
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Handmeon in the Local Media
November 10, 2007 | Arts & Culture | People & Society
The Valley News published a great story about Handmeon today:
"In tiny offices in Hanover, three men are trying to use the Internet to infuse with spirituality an activity that's become increasingly fraught and expensive: gift giving. Their company's quiet launch, built up over the past few months, coincides with the gift-giving season.
"Handmeon will favor people who have much to give. A person with a lot of gifts to offer is likely to get a lot in return. But as much as Handmeon is about giving, it's also about building connections. It's a social networking site, a sort of Facebook or MySpace for adults." —Alex Hanson, Valley NewsI was so happy I wrote a blog post about it over on the company blog. Thanks to Alex and James for a super job.
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Arrau's Chopin
November 6, 2007 | Arts & Culture
I am giving away a 7-disc set of Chopin's piano works ($55) over at Handmeon, and in the process did some writing about the collection and how I've related to the work. I'm going to continue to post for a week or two, ruminating on the compositions, before I send it on its journey.
If you register (free), you can not only comment on posts, but you can bookmark and request the Handmeon for yourself. As it travels from person to person, collecting the impressions of its hosts, you can either read along, or join the conversation, or, if the stars align, receive it as a gift from someone. Take a look and see what you think.
About the process: I started thinking about making this a Handmeon about a week ago, after listening to all seven discs on a single Sunday. I knew that I wanted to talk about my reaction to the music, and how much of an impression it had made on me. Tonight, when I sat down to create the online presence, I first wrote the inscription, which introduces the idea of why it's a Handmeon. Then I created a series of posts – but just wrote the titles and saved them. Now I had, essentially, an outline of what I was going to write about to start. I wrote the first five posts in rough form, then activated the object so it was visible online. The I started this blog post, and then pointed to it from the Handmeon blog. [Yes, I am now writing about this in three places, in three different contexts.] All this took about an hour, or maybe an hour and a half. It was an enjoyable was to spend the evening, having some fun with words, creating some meaning around some beautiful music, preparing to pass it along to someone else – someone I may not even know. But that someone, if they listen to the music, will be moved. And hopefully if they also read the sojourn(s) they will be moved to write about it as well.
There's a "share this page" link on the Arrau's Chopin home page. If you know someone who might appreciate all this, please send the page to them, or point them here to learn more. Thanks.
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Except You
November 5, 2007 | Arts & Culture | Governance | People & Society
Bravo. Probably the most important factor in the next US Presidential election is getting young people to vote, no matter what. Maybe this campaign will help.
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Halloween Costumes Based on Bob Dylan Lyrics
October 31, 2007 | Arts & Culture
Brilliant. My favorites are "Einstein disguised as Robin Hood," and the "Preacher with 20 lbs of headlines stapled to his chest." Though I suppose "Man in the long black coat" has some appeal for lazy simplicity...
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Handmeon RSS
October 26, 2007 | Arts & Culture | Life
Handmeon now has an RSS feed. It's a pretty interesting view into the site. Have a look and check out the diverse topics our early users are engaging.
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Unbroken Chain Conference
September 27, 2007 | Arts & Culture | People & Society
I am so registered for this.
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Dailylit
September 20, 2007 | Arts & Culture
What an interesting idea: Read books in small daily chunks by email or RSS. I've subscribed to Pride and Prejudice, and scheduled the 149 parts to be delivered at 7:30 pm each weekday day. Free!
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Apple's .plan
September 11, 2007 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce | Products & Opportunites
In Unix culture there is the idea of the ".plan" (dot-plan) file. It lives in the user's home directory, and is a place to write updates about your life or work. It pre-dates blogging and Twitter by nearly a hundred years, but was typically updated much less frequently than either. The id software founder and programmer John Carmack had a somewhat famous .plan file for a while, blending both hardware-level graphics programming explorations with high-speed car racing on airport runways.
I think of Steve Jobs' live presentations as Apple's .plan file. What's new, what's up, what they are thinking about. The mainstream press focuses on the "literal" facts of the show – price cuts, happy customers, annoyed customers, new partners, projected earnings, impact on margins, etc. – while the Mac digerati focus on interpretations from the Mac/iPod/iTunes/iPhone ecosystem.
Here's all you need to know about the recent show, though it's still worth spending the 90 minutes watching the online stream if you are a student of design, marketing, or product and business development.
- Ringtones: Apple is making it fun to make ringtones. Customers are not just buying them, they're making them. You can select any segment of the song, up to 30 seconds long, choose the looping, and it automatically adds the fades and syncs with the iPhone. Oh, and, by the way, the price of the song plus the ringtone is $1.98, less than the current phone carrier offerings. Sell to the prosumers, and ignore the legacy carrier approach. [Update: Gruber says there's room for improvement.]
- iPod Nano: Revising the best-selling mp3 player in the world. New shape, and thinner. More memory for same price. The real news in this is that there are some major product design changes are under the hood. Pitched repeatedly as the "enhanced user interface," the new iPods are driven by OS X, the same foundation as the iPhone, and today's Mac OS. This is a very big deal, as an entirely new (and very rich) software platform is will be running on several million devices, offering new features like coverflow, along with potential bugs and the following requisite updates. [Update: Yup.]
- iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store: The fundamental change that iTunes brought to the market, from the consumers point of view, was the 30-second preview of every song, prior to buying. Instead of buying something based on a recommendation, you now buy based on what you hear. IOW, a measurement of the industry's product merit was put in place. Prior to that the industry was measured on their ability to market product – now they are judged by whether the product is worth buying. Big diff. Is anyone surprised their sales are off? It's not piracy, gents, its your product. Nuf' said. [Update: Oh, the iTunes wi-fi music store? Accelerates the changes. More below.]
- Partnership with Starbucks: This extends the music preview and buying experience away from the computer and into the retail environment. Moves offline buying experience from music as store, to music as environment. Music stores tried selling coffee, didn't work too well. Coffee stores selling music, this will be a blockbuster. Shows what's playing now and the last ten songs played in the store. Because the physical roll-out will go through 2009, both companies will have incremental yet cumulative increases, and will have another dimension of progress to announce for the next two years. Expect more deals at other retail stores. [Major update: see below.]
- Everything you need to know about Howard Schultz's presentation on the Apple stage: If you sell an addictive product, customers will buy it very frequently, and you'll need to open a lot of stores to keep up with the demand. As the business progresses, you'll make so much money that you'll need to invent brand extensions to consume the cash. Steve and Howard are both old hippies, and they both thank their sweet lucky stars that they get to do all this for the love of music. Thank you very much.
Update: There's one other thing worth noting here. Twice now, this year, Apple has done deals with another very large company, and convinced them to make fundamental changes to their "business operating system" – that is, the software that runs their customer-facing operations – to get the partnership deal. The first was AT&T, who had to modify their cellular telephone network software to create "visual voicemail." Visual voicemail is a fundamental change in how the customer interacts with their device, their carrier, their messages, and therefore their whole cell phone communications world.
The second instance is with Starbucks, who will be installing the capacity to upload to iTunes HQ, in real-time, what song is playing at this moment is each and every Starbucks cafe around the world. This will become an international real-time cultural baraometer, par excellence. It becomes possible to imagine a "flash" hit single, that spreads around the world and could sell a million copies in an hour. In effect, Apple has announced Phase III completion of their re-engineereing effort on the music business. Phase I was the iPod. Phase II was iTunes. Phase III is persistent purchasing, buying whatever music you want, wherever you are.
Much bigger news than the iPhone price cut is this idea of Apple entering the enterprise software ecosystem. Instead of typical enterprise deals where the vendor supplies software or hardware to re-engineer, say, the purchasing department, Apple is doing customer-facing enterprise deals, where they build or specify the software customers use. This is huge. Major huge.
Even better, there's a Sarbanes-Oxley rule where companies have to spread the revenue accounting of a product over two years if the company provides free updates that add features. Apple is doing this with the iPhone, AppleTV, and maybe some other products. This means that the revenue growth will show up slowly, over time, without much notice. Until say, in 2009, when they're still recognizing revenue from your iPhone purchase last month, and you've already bought another one, maybe two.
You can safely go very long on Apple stock.
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Introducing Handmeon
August 31, 2007 | Arts & Culture | Life | Products & Opportunites
Okay, enough with the hints. In January I started a new company with two co-founders, and today we released the second major revision to our first product, Handmeon. To quote some draft marketing material:
Handmeon turns giving into a shared creative experience. Inspired by ancient circles of exchange, Handmeon lets people create renewable resources of expression through gifts endowed with history and trajectory, humor and thought. Rejecting material consumption and accumulation, Handmeon seeks a return to giving as a vehicle for human connection.
The basic idea is to take an objet, perhaps something small, perhaps something beautiful, perhaps something with an interesting background, and create an online presence for it. You upload a photo, write an inscription, and make blog posts regarding the object. Eventually you give it away, and the new keeper can write posts and enjoy the objet's sojourn with them. As the object moves between people, you can see the travels with integrated Google maps. After 4 hops, or 20, or 40, the object develops a rich history, accumulating stories online.
In other words, we're playing with the integration and separation of the real-world and the Internet. These objects are passed from one friend to another – when you hold an object you received it from a friend, and you'll give it to a friend, perhaps in person, perhaps by mail. And they'll give it to a friend, perhaps one you haven't yet met. The object becomes a connecting thread between a line of people, all connected one friend to another. I'm hopeful that it will expose the connections and therefore the interdependencies between people who haven't ever met.
You can take a tour, or explore the site to get a sense of what the early adopters are doing. For instance, Kathryn wants to learn more about meditation. Trippy the Frog wants to travel. The Roller just completed a sojourn with Jer. John wrote a post about a brush with celebrity. Jeff went meta, right out of the gate. And so on. You can create public, private, and secret objects.
To make money, we'll sell the permanent tags that turn objects into Handmeons and give them a URL. So the creator buys a tag, and everyone else can claim, post, and release the object for free. Speaking of free, right now the tags are free – so go register and order some! Make some Handmeons! See what it feels like to imbue something with meaning online, and then give it away. Experience the gratitude that this act of generosity engenders. You can create the online Handmeon before your tags arrive, so you can get started right away.
Eventually we'll charge money for the tags. Pricing is not set, but we want it to be affordable, maybe three tags for $12.95 or something. We have to model the object's long-term pageview cost and whatnot, and we haven't finished that yet. Three tags for $19.95 is probably the highest price we can imagine right now.
Of course, there's a blog, newly minted. We're going to try for one solid software release each week for a few weeks. Comments are on over there, and we are actively looking for feedback and enthusiastic participants. Come over and play in this new interaction space!
Oh, and, as a self-funded startup, we're looking for links! Tell your friends. ;) Thanks.
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Idiomatic Learning
August 28, 2007 | Arts & Culture
Link for the day: Learn English Today. Example: Like a dog with two tails.
[N.B. Highly irritating javascript window resizing on that site. Very 1994.]
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Raising Frame at Faerie Camp Destiny
August 2, 2007 | Arts & Culture | People & Society
I am in awe of this side project Matt is doing. It's all there, design discussions, preliminary renderings of the frame, photos from logging and clearing, and today, this fantastic human-powered frame-raising movie. (4:00)
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Bunny Emoticons
August 1, 2007 | Arts & Culture
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The Dashed Line In Use
July 31, 2007 | Arts & Culture
Nearfield: I’ve had trouble justifying my excitement about this intricate visual detail, so I thought it would be good to collect a bunch of examples from over fifty years of information design history, to show it as a powerful visual element in ubicomp situations.
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FontBook
July 28, 2007 | Arts & Culture | Products & Opportunites
I'm trying to hold back, as a nod to the budget, but I'm not sure I'll be able to resist much longer. (FontBook)
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Katie Hutchison Studio
July 28, 2007 | Arts & Culture | Nature & Environment
An architect in Salem MA blogs:
Inspired by the simplicity of New England vernacular buildings and landscapes, Katie Hutchison Studio composes and promotes meaningful architecture and design.
Some great stuff there.
Primer: A Recipe for Architectural Charm
Design snapshot: Vineyard elemental outdoor fireplace
Current project: West Tisbury House.
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Sticker Bumpkins
July 12, 2007 | Arts & Culture | Life | People & Society
About three months ago, I saw that Don had an Obama bumper sticker on his car, and I said, "I want one of those." So I went to the website, and much to my surprise, there was no way to buy a bumper sticker. No swag at all. Crazy.
I decided to send them a comment, but to do so I had to register on the site. Sigh. So I registered, and sent a message to the effect of, "I want to buy a bumper sticker; what the heck, eh??" Then I went back to work.
About a month later, I got a phone call at home. "Hi this is Dave from the NH Obama '08 campaign. I just wanted to check in and see how you thought the campaign was going so far." I said, "Seems great to me, except I want a bumper sticker, and I can't figure out how to buy one online. You should sell them for $20 or something." Dave said, "Yeah, they're really hard to get. You know, we're going to be opening an office in downtown Hanover, I'm sure we'll have them there once we open." "Cool," I replied, "just let me know." "Okay, thanks," he said. And that was that.
Then about a month after that, I was walking down Main Street and saw Tom, who, as it turns out, is doing some volunteering for the Obama campaign. He was with Graham, who is with the political desk of the campaign, visiting from Manchester NH and talking to people. Tom introduced me as an entrepreneur (simply because I can spell it quickly) and Graham said they were going to be starting a business for Obama group, and he'd love to have me attend some of those events. "Cool," I said. "Will I be able to buy a bumper sticker there?" Told him about the website, and the phone call, and said, would love to advertise for you guys; what's with the sticker shortage? He said, "Yeah, they're really hard to get." We exchanged cards, and I went to the post office.
The next day I got an email from Graham that began, "I was lucky to meet you yesterday..." And I thought, what a great way to get someone's attention. "Lucky to meet me," – maybe I'll get a bumper sticker!
About a week ago I got an email from the Obama campaign, saying, hey, we heard your pleas and cries and wailing in the night, and finally got around to opening an online store so you can buy all that swag you've been asking for. Cool, I thought, I'll check that out someday. It's about time.
Then today I was finishing a sandwich at the office and someone knocked on the door. "Yo," I said. In walks this tall lanky young friendly kinda-goofy guy, who says, "Are you Michael J.?" "Yup," I said.
"I heard you wanted an Obama bumper sticker," he said, as he handed me the goods. I nearly fell over. "Wow! This is like a precious commodity!," I exclaimed. "Yeah, they're really hard to get," he said. I said, "I went on the website, and I couldn't believe they weren't selling them." Then Dave said, "Yeah, I was talking with Graham, and he said you wanted one." I laughed out loud. "You were talking with Graham?!?!?" Like, this is the modern political campaign. Including intrastate backchannel discussion about getting Michael J. his Obama bumper sticker? My mind reeled. "Yeah," he said, "I came a couple of times last week, but you weren't here." Three words: O. M. G. I'm thinking, here's this guy, walking the streets of Hanover, searching for Michael J., with a single Obama bumpersticker in his hand! It's like they invented some weird, inefficient, but personal, and effective, distribution mechanism.
I guess you can just order them online now, but this one is more special than that, because they made me beg for the bumper sticker – they're so hard to get no one has ever hardly seen one – and then in the end they send a guy dedicated with a singular focus to this one task, not even carrying a backpack with literature or other swag, or anything, and it makes me feel like they'd do anything to deliver this to me. How odd is that?
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Fake Steve on the iPhone Launch
June 29, 2007 | Arts & Culture | Products & Opportunites
I'm just going to post the whole thing, to save you the effort of the click.
Today we make history. Today we change the world. Today we put a dent in the universe. Today -- June 29, 2007 -- we release iPhone. It has taken years of work from all parts of Apple. First advertising, of course. Then feng shui consultants, and design and engineering and manufacturing. Countless emergent designs, countless meetings, countless all-nighters to make every part of the iPhone, from its custom-made integrated circuits to its sleek glass screen and metal case, absolutely perfect. To those of you who serve under me at Apple, I say this: Yes, I have berated you, and insulted you, and exasperated you. Yes, I've fired your friends for no reason, and made you work harder than you ever thought you could work. Yes, I've taken you away from your spouses, your children, your transgendered domestic partners. In some cases your devotion to me has cost you your marriages. You've sacrificed a great deal for this. But has it not been worth it? For the rest of your life, you'll be able to say that you were working at Apple when the iPhone was introduced. You were here on the day when the course of human history was changed forever. Plus, you'll get a free 4-gigabyte iPhone, a $500 value. Not bad, right?
Already, around the United States, thousands of Apple faithful are lining up outside our retail shrines, waiting for iPhone. Some will approach on their bare knees, like pilgrims approaching the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Peru. Just a few minutes ago we received a report that Apple faithful are also lining up outside retail shrines around the globe, even though those stores do not have iPhones and will not have them for months, maybe years. The response is, in a word, stunning. We are saving the satellite photos showing the clusters and will use them as part of our promotional material. Apple employees, view these photos and see what you have done, and then go home and tell your children -- those smallish people who live in your house, the ones you haven't seen in a couple of years -- tell them, You see those people suffering outdoors, enduring the heat and rain and monsoons just so they can get a cell phone? I did this. This was my work.
To those Apple customers who are already congregating in thousands outside our retail shrines, I say: Thank you, much love, and namaste. You have endured taunts and jeers and the incessant attention of a media starved for material in the midst of a slow summer news cycle; you've been spat upon, abused, attacked by police with firehoses and nightsticks and guard dogs; you've peed into bottles and lived on junk food. But you stuck to your principles. You remained true to your beliefs, the core one being that yes, you are special, and you deserve to be among the first in the world to obtain a device that combines telephony, Web browsing and music playing. Yes, we'll still be selling these devices a week from now, and the week after that. But you want yours now. You're making a statement. The world is hearing you.
Let's be honest about why this is happening. This is not a fad. This is not some phony hyped-up astroturfing Microsoft campaign. This is a genuine outpouring of love and enthusiasm and excitement from people whose souls have been stirred by the wonder of technology and the ability to communicate with other human beings in ways that have never before been possible. That's what this is about. It's about communicating. It's about connecting. It's about bringing the world together in common cause. It's about saying, Look, I realize there's something bad happening in Darfur, and there's some kind of AIDS epidemic in Africa, and there's some crazies who want to blow us all up, and there's a war in Iraq where thousands of people are dying for no reason -- and yes, those things are important, and someday we may take to the streets to say something about them, if we can think of anything to say about them, but for now we Americans take to the streets for this cause. Right here, right now, we take a stand. This is our moment. From pole to pole, from north to south, from east to west, let the message go out. We are Americans, and we have values. Hear us, world. Hear us and say, Wow.
The iPhone stands for something very simple -- freedom. Apple faithful, you march today in the tradition of the marchers at Selma, in the tradition of Gandhi at the Salt March to Dandi. You have made your point. There are some things, you said, that are worth suffering for. I am proud to have given meaning to your life. I am proud to have invented iPhone and designed iPhone and brought iPhone to the world. I feel, in a way, humbled by your adoration. But in another way not humbled. Anyway. My whole life has built up to this moment. I believe that this is what I was put on the earth to achieve. I thank you all for sharing this historic day with me.
Namaste. Much love. Peace out.
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Making Happy
June 22, 2007 | Arts & Culture | Life
via Chris Glass:
From Stefan Sagmeister's presentation at TED:
Complaining is silly. Either act or forget.
Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid. I have to live now.
Being not truthful works against me.
Helping other people helps me.
Organizing a charity group is surprisingly easy.
Everything I do always comes back to me.
Drugs feel great in the beginning and become a drag later on.
Over time I get used to everything and start taking if for granted.
Money does not make me happy.
Traveling alone is helpful for a new perspective on life.
Assuming is stifling.
Keeping a diary supports my personal development.
Trying to look good limits my life.
Worrying solves nothing.
Material luxuries are best enjoyed in small doses.
Having guts always works out for me.
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Women In Art
June 6, 2007 | Arts & Culture
Video of the day: Women In Art (2:52). 500 years of female portraits in western art. Beautiful and amazing.
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Video of the Day
May 29, 2007 | Arts & Culture
Sixteen seconds: Try That Bike Stunt
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Both Sides Are Equally Human
May 14, 2007 | Arts & Culture | People & Society
The Storytellers: Why Are Most Artists Liberal?
Stories, by their nature, have some sort of conflict. Otherwise, they would be boring. Conflict, by its nature, has at least two sides. To be able to write these two sides well, the artist has to understand, deep inside, that both sides are equally human. The more he portrays the other side as human, the better the story. The less human the other side, the more flawed the story.
That puts artists on the humanistic side of most ideological battles throughout history: against racism (the other race is people, too), against slavery (slaves are people, too), for feminism (women are people, too), for the rights of children (children think and feel just like adults), against child labor, for gay rights (homosexuals are just as human), for the downtrodden, for the poor (they are just like us, only poor), against most wars (because the other side bleeds red, too, and mourns with the same pain), and against most religions (in particular, against the religions that claim its followers are ‘the chosen’ and those who are not will not get into heaven and/or are inferior in some way).
In conclusion, then, you don’t have to be a liberal to be a good storyteller. But the better your story is, the more of a liberal you are. (Unfortunately for aspiring writers, that does not work the other way round: you cannot aspire to be liberal and hope that will make you a better artist.)
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A Big Inside Joke on Several Levels
May 12, 2007 | Arts & Culture | People & Society
No, silly, not the Bush administration – LOL!!
Better, David McRaney's fantastic article on Internet communication culture and sub-cultures, called A Special In-Depth Analysis L337 Katz0rz:
Still, a fusion of sorts between learned, direct language and rapid, practical digital missives takes place with Leetspeak and macros. Both relay a great deal of information in a small burst of code. Each depends on the receiver of the information having working knowledge of the culture and its references. In a sense, these serve as argots, and help identify both sides of the information transfer as belonging to the subculture where they appear. The in-joke is part of the communication. The separation of ingroup and outgroup helps drive the rapid evolution of both leetspeak and macros.
Someone uses lol, which turns into the spoken “l-o-l,” which then becomes “lol” but sounds like “lawl,” and at some point someone in a forum thread, in response to something funny, puts up an image of Lal, the name of Data’s daughter from a single, obscure “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episode. It’s a big inside joke on several levels, and the creator gets golf claps for pulling together all these references into one simple understatement. Everyone who gets it belongs in the ingroup, and the behavioral cycle is encouraged and repeated.
That post is full of win. The comments are gr8, 2.
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Widespread Acknowledgment of the Magic
May 8, 2007 | Arts & Culture | People & Society
Via David Gans:
Proclamation from the Mayor of the City of Ithaca, NY
Whereas, the Grateful Dead have been recognized by many highly credible organizations, individuals and entities including the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as significantly important and integral to the musical and social fabric of our contemporary culture, and whereas, on May 8th, 1977 the Grateful Dead performed in Barton Hall on the campus of Cornell University in the city of Ithaca New York, a concert that is widely acknowledged and regarded as a defining and transcendent occasion and example of the art of contemporary musical improvisation, collaboration, musicianship, and performance, and whereas, many tens of thousands of individuals who were not in attendance that night in Barton Hall, have become knowledgeable & familiar with the extraordinary nature of the performance on May 8th 1977 through the trading and sharing of recordings of the show, and whereas, the cultural identity and perceptions of Ithaca as a community, have been informed and bolstered by the widespread acknowledgement of the magic of May 8th, 1977, and whereas, it has been said many times by many people that, “there is nothing like a Grateful Dead concert.”
Now therefore, be it resolved that as Mayor of the City of Ithaca, and in heartfelt recognition of the thirtieth anniversary of the May 8th 1977 concert performance, I declare May 8th 2007 as Grateful Dead Day in the City of Ithaca.
University Chancellors praising Lou Reed, and Mayors cheering the "transcendent occasion" of a memorable Grateful Dead concert—is there something in the water?
Have a listen.
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Turning Cosmic Litter Into Gold
May 7, 2007 | Arts & Culture
One good reason to be better connected with my alumni association (read: write big checks), is to get invited to events like this.
Lou Reed '64 Honored for Achievements in Music, Writing, and Artistic Expression
“We have an alchemist in our company tonight,” Bono announced to the crowd. “Lou Reed not only inhabits his chosen universe, but he also creates it. Lou has turned the cosmic litter of this city into gold.” Bono, U2's irrepressible front man, was among a parade of luminaries who had come to New York 's way-beyond-hip W hotel in Union Square on April 26 to fete the “Mad Monk of Rock” at Syracuse University 's Arents Award Celebration.
It was no stretch to call this party a star-studded bash. The presence of Reed, Bono, and David Bowie earned it that much. But the guest list did not quit: Marty Bandier '62, chair and CEO of Sony/ATV Music Publishing; hotelier Ian Schrager '68, who later hosted a rooftop after-party at his fabulous Gramercy Park Hotel; and photographer/filmmaker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, whose 1998 biodoc, Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart, provided screen clips for the celebration. Entertainment mogul Rick Dobbis '70 emceed the festivities, which took place just blocks from Max's Kansas City , where Reed played with the Velvet Underground in the group's glory days, including the final gig, some 35 years ago.
“As a social psychologist, I can't resist thinking a bit about why this community of Lou's friends, fellow artists, and fellow alumni has come together tonight,” observed SU Chancellor and President Nancy Cantor. She praised Reed's courage, compassion, engagement, and honesty, characterizing him as a “timeless poet” and “muse for us all.” “Our mission is to instill the value of meaningful engagement to make things better … and to understand that it may take a ‘walk on the wild side' to do it,” she continued, quoting Reed's 1972 solo breakout hit.
It is a little known fact that Reed majored in English at SU, and less known still that he graduated with honors in 1964....
College presidents saluting hard-edge underground rock stars. Now that's my kind of party.
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Tulsa Oklahoma
March 19, 2007 | Arts & Culture | Travel
Kathryn and I went to Tulsa for a few days to visit her parents. Other than picking up the flu en route it was a great trip. Here are some links to photos of our activities.
Last of the Breed Concert featuring Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Ray Price. Great show. True country. The show was at Oral Roberts University. Huh? Willie Nelson at Oral Roberts?
Maple Ridge Neighborhood. It's amazing what a boatload of oil money can buy.
Downtown Art Deco Buildings. It's amazing what many boatloads of oil money can buy.
Philbrook Museum. Someone's summer house, turned into a museum. The visiting exhibit, Changing Hands, Art Without Reservation, was fantastic. Very bright, colorful, modern, dramatic pieces. Bought the catalog.
Tulsa is a very enjoyable city. The downtown was a little deserted, and there's the usual city issues, but they've mostly contained the sprawl to one district on the south side, and there are a few interesting cafe and boutique districts. The quality and quantity of art deco was astounding. If you like interior architecture, it's a great destination.
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Dylan Hears A Who!
March 8, 2007 | Arts & Culture
Unbelievable mash-up of Bob Dylan singing Dr. Seuss. The amount of editing involved melts my brain. via
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Hot Apple News
March 6, 2007 | Arts & Culture | Products & Opportunites
Apple Unveils New Product-Unveiling Product
The iLaunch, as the new product is called, was then raised up from below the stage, prompting the audience of technology journalists, developers, and self-professed "Apple fanatics" to burst into a five-minute standing ovation.
Microsoft announced they are working on a similar competitive product.
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Not Yet Within Range
February 28, 2007 | Arts & Culture | Life | Technology
For some reason, I am now craving a Leica M8 digital rangefinder camera, with the 16-18-21mm, the 28-35-50mm, and the 90mm lenses.
This is absurd, since that would be about $15,000 in camera equipment, well outside not only my budget, but also my socio-economic caste.
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Compare and Contrast
February 27, 2007 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce | People & Society
Today in links:
Brûlee’s "Brownie Extradordinaire with Saint Louis" is a chocolate brownie made with Italian hazelnuts, dusted with edible gold powder and served with a very rare port. After each bite, the dessert captain squirts a mist of the vintage port on your tongue with a $750 atomizer, which incidentally is yours to keep.
Stock markets around the world plummeted today
In percentage terms, it was the worst day for the market since March 2003. In terms of points, it was the steepest slide since the first day the market resumed trading after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
So it goes.
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Rapid Serial Visual Presentation
February 11, 2007 | Arts & Culture | Software | Technology
Reading this interview with Cory Doctorow (by RU Sirius, nonetheless), I discovered Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (of text).
The speed-read shows you one word at a time, and it shows them at a speed that’s determined by a little slider. And it pauses a little after a comma, and longer after a period, and longer after a paragraph break. And you can crank it way up and it just rockets past. And you’re getting every word. It’s kind of meant for very small screens, and it really feels like you’re doing something weird to your brain. It really feels like you’re tweaking your cognition in ways that it was not intended to be tweaked. It’s very transhuman.
Worth researching, methought. If you want to see a simple example without loading your own text, here is Cory's book Eastern Standard Tribe pre-loaded into SpeedReader online. Just go to that link and move the slider to the right and set the speed you want. Following are brief instructions to experience RSVP with any text you want.
Download this simple Java-based app that runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux. Then grab some text. I used the text file of Yochai Benkler's The Wealth of Networks, but you can use any plain text file you want. Dump the text into the "speederText.txt" file, add "START_SPEEDER" at the top of the file, save it, and open "textExample.html" in your web browser.
The first thing I notice, reading the Acknowledgments, is that, hehehe, the word "I" is all but invisible. I imagine people hear that invisibility too, when you write with a lot of "I's" in your sentences. So I think I should probably stop using "I" when I express myself.
After ten minutes of play, is there is a difference in perception between fiction and non-fiction? Cory's book seems easier to "read" than Yochai's, but the in addition to being non-fiction, Wealth is written from a legal perspective. It could simply be more dense, no matter slow or fast.
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Chopin Polonaise-fantaisie #7 by Claudio Arrau
February 8, 2007 | Arts & Culture
Yesterday morning, waking up at 5:00 but then drifting off to sleep again from 6:00 to 7:30, heard the most amazing piano concerto. Tracked it down via the VPR playlist (thank you!!), and finally tracked down the CD on Amazon. Welcome to my wishlist, oh Claudio Arrau.
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Notes on Arial
February 8, 2007 | Arts & Culture
If anyone ever recommends to you Arial for a primary typeface, these links will turn out handy.
LifeClever: There are two types of people in the world: those who can tell the difference between Helvetica and Arial, and those who can’t.
The Scourge of Arial: Despite its pervasiveness, a professional designer would rarely—at least for the moment—specify Arial. To professional designers, Arial is looked down on as a not-very-faithful imitation of a typeface that is no longer fashionable. It has what you might call a "low-end stigma." The few cases that I have heard of where a designer has intentionally used Arial were because the client insisted on it. Why? The client wanted to be able to produce materials in-house that matched their corporate look and they already had Arial, because it's included with Windows. True to its heritage, Arial gets chosen because it's cheap, not because it's a great typeface.
Amazon book review: The title page, the headings, the captions and the examples are all typeset using one of the the dullest, ugliest sanserif typefaces ever designed. Arial lacks character and individuality, as it was conceived by its makers (the Monotype company) as a substitute for Helvetica (made by Monotype's competitor, Linotype). Arial was drawn to match Helvetica's character width but to have slightly altered letter appearance. The result is a set of letterforms that, indeed, look like imitation of something else. Since nowadays, Arial is included on practically all personal computers, one cannot imagine a choice for a typeface that would be less original. But it's not necessarily the lack of originality that disqualitfies Arial as a typeface suitable for this sort of book. Arial simply has poorly drawn letterforms, and the Black variant (used on the title page, section titles and in the running headers of each page) is simply ugly. Practically any other grotesque (sanserif) typeface would have been a better choice for this book.
We know you have a choice in typefaces, and we thank you for flying with Notio Typography.
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Web 2.0 In Just Under 5 Minutes
February 7, 2007 | Arts & Culture | People & Society | Technology
Tour de force video explaining how Web 2.0 is changing the nature of online interaction.
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True Stories
January 11, 2007 | Arts & Culture | People & Society
Sometimes, you can't make this stuff up.
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Completely Redefining What You Can Do
January 9, 2007 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce | People & Society | Products & Opportunites
I will be one of approximately 143,215,697 people to mention this today or tomorrow, but this is as close as it gets to product-orgasm. Cell phones have sucked forever, and this is a whole new game.
iPhone combines three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching — into one small and lightweight handheld device. iPhone also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. So it ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what you can do on a mobile phone.
The picture is so good you are nearly drooling. [Note switch to second-person voice for a bit of self-revealing distance.] This product is far, far better than I expected, even with all the pre-hype. It's a big year for Apple. See also, no slouch either: AppleTV.