Perhaps another time I could elaborate further on the profound nature of Twitter’s interaction model. There are flaws, but it’s wired us together in as many ways as there are participants. Today, by way of illustration, here is a screenshot view into a couple of minutes of my Twitter stream: The stream actually starts on [...]
January 8, 2009
Introduction to Grateful Dead
So, you have a new friend, and one day she says, “You should burn me a Grateful Dead CD because I’m really not familiar with anything they’ve done.” You say, “Sure,” and a few minutes later your head explodes as you reel from the possibilities. It takes a week of full-time leisure-thought to sort it [...]
October 14, 2008
Mostly Twittering
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….
September 12, 2008
Here Is What Is
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)
June 23, 2008
The Death of Postmodernism And Beyond
This is the first philosophy article that ever seemed relevant to me.
June 19, 2008
Desiderata
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; [...]
May 19, 2008
Loop and chill
One-hour hand-recorded 54MB mp3 of Ocean Beach waves, San Francisco, 2008-05-14. Loop and chill. A gift, via Jessamyn.
May 13, 2008
All you need to know about fashion photos
New Yorker: 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 [...]
May 2, 2008
Letter to JG
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 [...]
May 2, 2008
One consequence of specialization is extinction
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 [...]
April 15, 2008
Quote of the Day
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.”
April 14, 2008
Revolution Fashion Show 2008
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: [...]
April 12, 2008
Thriving Office
The Sounds of Success: 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.
April 4, 2008
Shine A Light
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 [...]
March 18, 2008
You Can’t Be Serious
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 [...]
March 13, 2008
U23D at IMAX
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 [...]
March 4, 2008
Copying Makes Evolution Possible
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 [...]
February 25, 2008
And Then Came New Hampshire…
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.
February 12, 2008
The Point and Pixish
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, [...]
February 1, 2008
Fully Immersed in Something
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.)
January 25, 2008
A Way To Live
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.
January 23, 2008
On Twitter
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 [...]
January 20, 2008
On Brazil
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 [...]
January 17, 2008
Running Out of Ideas?
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.
January 17, 2008
In Praise of Melancholy
The Chronicle: 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 [...]
January 14, 2008
The Game Was Completely Up
The Economist: 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 [...]
December 28, 2007
The 50 Most Loathsome People In America, 2007
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 [...]
December 26, 2007
The Spectacle Has Not Quite Yet Been Supplanted
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, [...]
December 24, 2007
State of the Music
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 [...]
November 18, 2007
Quote for the Day
“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 [...]
November 15, 2007
Free Guitar, But You Gotta Pass It On
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 [...]
November 10, 2007
Handmeon in the Local Media
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 [...]
November 6, 2007
Arrau’s Chopin
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 [...]
November 5, 2007
Except You
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.
October 31, 2007
Halloween Costumes Based on Bob Dylan Lyrics
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…
October 26, 2007
Handmeon RSS
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.
September 20, 2007
Dailylit
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!
September 11, 2007
Apple’s .plan
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 [...]
August 31, 2007
Introducing Handmeon
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 [...]
August 28, 2007
Idiomatic Learning
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.]
August 2, 2007
Raising Frame at Faerie Camp Destiny
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)
July 31, 2007
The Dashed Line In Use
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.