Some folks have wondered why we’re funding season two of Put This On through crowdsourcing. It’s a relatively new way to fund creative work, so a few people have been confused and a few people have even reacted strongly negatively. Many more have reacted strongly positively, of course. Still, I…
Great content deserves to be paid for.
Father and Son Recreate 30 Year-Old Space Shuttle Launch Photo
At left, the first space shuttle launch. At right, the last.
Now that’s cool!
—Horace Dedui
—Kourosh Dini
It makes me wonder if the whole notion of property ownership enables our lackadaisical attitude towards the commons? If I own my house, but I don’t own the river, the air, or the forest at the edge of the city, why the heck should I care about them? By encouraging people to own things (the genetic ethos of consumerism), do we not by consequence also teach how to not own things at the same time?
What is the outcome if nobody cares for the things that everybody needs?
—James Shelley
Required reading, this one. Remiel has a great head on his shoulders. And great hair on that head, but that’s besides the point.
I love “Friday”. Unabashedly. I hope Rebecca Black makes a million dollars from it, her debut album is a Gaga-caliber hit, and she marries her dreamboat, Justin Bieber.
When I first heard “Friday”
I thought “This is quite possibly the worst song ever!” Every pop musician who pays attention now has to contend with “Friday”. It’s a critical line in the sand. Pop is easy, yes, but say something, at least. Or risk ridicule. Weird Al himself couldn’t write something this hilarious and damning.
I imagined Black wrote the song herself; always a silly assumption to make about pop music. Purportedly, both Rebecca and her mother had doubts about the quality of the lyrics, but the 13-year old did what the vanity studio told her to do.
Whether any artists notice or not (pop is exceptionally poor at “noticing”), Rebecca Black and Ark Music Factory have given us something necessary. Finally, we have a pop song that is loudly, perfectly, about nothing.
On the other hand: who hasn’t fetishized Friday? It’s the beginning of the weekend! And goddammit if the song wasn’t stuck in my head after only one listen.
Yesterday was Thursday, today is Friday, tomorrow is Saturday, and Sunday comes afterwards
Rebecca Black is a privileged, teenage girl who probably wouldn’t know good music if it bit her on the ass. 13-year old Remiel made a mix tape for his girlfriend featuring Meat Loaf’s “I Would Do Anything For Love”.
Teenagers are idiots. That’s their job. They think having a dream is the same as deserving it, and eventually either give up, or make the enormous effort to make the vision real. But sometimes, they win the lottery, and have their goals delivered on a silver platter. And we hate that.
We we we so excited, we so excited
Celebrity hate is the lamest hate.
What’s the difference between a death threat against the pedophile next door, and one posted on a Paris Hilton YouTube video? The differences are vigor and intent. Despite her massive exposure, Hilton exists relatively free of the loathing we’d feel about an active sexual abuser in our own neighborhood.
But somehow, the rhetoric is the same. “Worthless piece of trash”. “Die you stupid fuck”.
Like a snot rubbed off on a public restroom wall, celebrity hate is fueled by anonymity, not malice. You wouldn’t leave a booger on your own wall any more than you’d actually take a swing at Chris Tucker if you met him in person.
George Carlin wrote:
I love and treasure individuals as I meet them. I loathe and despise the groups they identify with and belong to.What has Rebecca Black done to you? Why not celebrate the fact that it’s possible to become famous just by being a “professional socialite” like Paris Hilton?
Hate Monsanto, if you want. And if you’re willing to do a little legwork and figure out who’s truly responsible, you can hate those guys, too. Even though you’ve never met them, and they’ve probably never personally hurt you the way the guy who ran over your dog did.
Money is just money. Fame is just fame. They’re numbers. Metrics. Piles of stuff somebody got because they multiplied a talent by an opportunity.
If the opportunity seems undeserved relative to their talent, why not celebrate the success of a fellow human being and politely encourage them to use their influence benignly, instead of tearing down a stranger to impress your friends and whitewash your jealousy?
Its nice to finally see some common sense on the issue.
I use my iPhone and iPad everyday but I still love sitting down at my Mac and finding and learning about cool apps and utilities. It’s also the place where I immediatley go for when I need to get some serious work done (school essays, photo/movie editing and large brain dumps into Omnifocus) Here’s a list of Mac OS X programs I love and depend on:
Dropbox - seamless sync & backup that actually works….I still have no idea why Apple hasn’t bought these guys.
TextExpander - great little utility for expanding small text snippets into large ones.
1Password - the first thing I open up when I need to fill in or create a password somewhere. Also a great secure place to store other confidential information.
Chrome - my default webbrowser. I love the simple design, quick speed and the omni-bar as the one place for both searches and web addresses.
Omnifocus - I would be lost without this amazing task managment software.
Notional Velocity - quick and simple text editor for notes I want synced across all my devices.
Reeder *beta - my default RSS reader, very Mac/iOS like.
iTunes - yes its bloated and a little slow but it still runs pretty good for being the kitchen sink. I love how simple it is to use but has so many power features under the hood when you need them.
Scrivner - I’m not the best writer (as you can tell from this blog) but when I need to write a 10 page essay for school, this software makes the task tollerable.
Carbon Copy Cloner - my default backup app that I use to get my data off my iMac and on to my drobo.
Evernote - good program for keeping items that I might forget but want to buy at a later date. Example: I try a really good new beer at a friends house and want to remember the name of it for buying at a later date.
Aperture - iPhoto is good but I like the greater options I have for organizing photos in Aperture.
QuickSilver - keyboard launcher … that fortunetly is back from the dead.
My new iPhone home screen. Folders are great but they look terrible compared to most all app icons
From Appleinsider on the iPhone 5
“Cellular and Wi-Fi data will reportedly travel through the logo, just like Wi-Fi does on the iPad.”
Thats interesting, I had no idea that the Apple logo on the ipad was where the wifi signal travelled through. It does make sense for Apple to go this route.
This is really great.
