Most enlightened sentence I read today comes from Nobel laureate and a favorite NY Times columnist, Paul Krugman:
"Comments here are moderated; the Times doesn’t have anyone to moderate them on weekends, and I can only do so much myself."
Methinks he's not just talking 'comments' here.
Read more here.
Tip of the hat to MR for the pointer.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
NPR Offers Exclusive First Listen: Lightning Dust
Very, very good album from Vancouver-based act Lightning Dust. The album is called Infinite Light and it's the band's sophomore project.
You can hear it here courtesy of NPR.
or here:
From Two Days Ago in Seattle: Got Gossip?
If you don't know who Gossip is, get with the plan. If you like indie rock generally and the music of Le Tigre specifically, then you're bound to like this trio too.
This footage of Gossip live was taken just a couple of days ago up in Seattle.
This footage of Gossip live was taken just a couple of days ago up in Seattle.
Steve Jobs on "Stop-Doing" Strategy
I was talking to one of my best friends last night and I noted that Steve Jobs had been a high-frequency item in a lot of the books I've been reading the past few months. Then I specifically referred to a quote from him as featured in Matthew E. May's very well-written new title In Pursuit of Elegance.
In this context, Jobs was referring to what is called a stop-doing strategy. He observes:
"People think focus means saying yes to the things you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things we have done." (81)
In this context, Jobs was referring to what is called a stop-doing strategy. He observes:
"People think focus means saying yes to the things you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things we have done." (81)
Monday, July 27, 2009
Assorted Links
1) A linguist's efforts to preserve a language.
2) On HBO's phenomenal Allan Ball-created show True Blood. I was glad to find out that Ball has been asked to create a third season. My personal favorite, Alexander Skarsgård, is the true gem of the second season, I find. Read the Rolling Stone bit on this new show here.
3) A review of Heath Ledger's last film.
4) Amy Adams of the new new film Julie/Julia talks food and butter.
5) A very good piece on Juliette Lewis. A bit of the featured interview says:
"What does the idea of rebellion mean to you?
Rebellion, to me, is about finding out where you feel safe, and then stepping outside of that space. I never got into acting to be safe. I get the most out of myself right before I start a project, when I’m scared to death. That’s the revolt, that’s the rebellion."
Read it all here.
2) On HBO's phenomenal Allan Ball-created show True Blood. I was glad to find out that Ball has been asked to create a third season. My personal favorite, Alexander Skarsgård, is the true gem of the second season, I find. Read the Rolling Stone bit on this new show here.
3) A review of Heath Ledger's last film.
4) Amy Adams of the new new film Julie/Julia talks food and butter.
5) A very good piece on Juliette Lewis. A bit of the featured interview says:
"What does the idea of rebellion mean to you?
Rebellion, to me, is about finding out where you feel safe, and then stepping outside of that space. I never got into acting to be safe. I get the most out of myself right before I start a project, when I’m scared to death. That’s the revolt, that’s the rebellion."
Read it all here.
Sam Mendes' "Away We Go": Do Stay There, Please!
Away We Go, the new film by Sam Mendes annoyed me as much as a Judd Apatow concoction. Let me amend this a bit by way of being a tad kinder to Apatow. At least, with the latter I know what kind of merchandise he's moving. Ergo, I'm prepared.
In the case of Away We Go, Mendes tells the story of a young couple who finds out they're about to have a child. They live in a rural area and in a run-down shack-like domicile which happens to be in close proximity to the man's parents. Incidentally, they don't seem to have the resources to fix one of their windows as cardboard is what is covering it but that might just be a temporary fluke I'm willing to ignore.
While the man's parents seem to swim in a sea of expendable income and bizarro art pieces costing anywhere around fourteen thousand American dollars, the son is living in nigh squalid conditions clearly rejecting to enter the 'regular' work force. Yes, he's a college dropout but he does have great promise and is very intelligent. At least, that's what we're told and if you can't trust the storyteller who the heck can you trust, right?
However, Burt's one redeeming quality is that he loves his girlfriend, Verona, who refuses to become his wife even though she loves him with utmost sincerity and is in the relationship for the long haul. Upon finding out that the parents had decided to move to another country, Antwerp, Belgium to be more specific, the expecting couple needs to consider a new place/area as a potential home for the upcoming baby.
And away they go.
They come up with an itinerary to visit various family members and friends who live in places like Phoenix, AZ, Madison, WI, Miami, FL, ah, and Montreal, Quebec.
Let me intimate again that the couple is struggling financially. The woman is an artist apparently but she doesn't seem to be affiliated with anything. They tell us she is talented and we take their word for it. However, we don't quite know how she goes about getting cash for her supposed talent. The man sells some kind of insurance over the phone and apparently all he needs is phone access.
Ok.
The sentiment is indeed noble here. They want to make sure they have a good support system in place for the new addition to the family and they realize that the presence of a healthy network of people is not a luxury, it's a necessity. However, none of people/couples they visit have their kind of special love and strong commitment. You see, I'm willing to overlook the condescension here in hopes that the story redeems itself towards the end.
It doesn't.
Sam Mendes seems to come from a good place. He seems to know that in the face of new economic and social hardships a strong support system might just be the ticket to survival. There's nothing wrong with his vision here. It's the execution of said vision that leaves much to be desired.
What is primarily wrong with this film is that it reeks of a kind of self-indulgence that would make Liberace first blush and then weep of public embarrassment.
The couple seems to have this self-righteous air about them, something that says 'we're so much better than all of friends and family members. Our kind of love is so much better. It's better because we're authentic.'
And away go the viewers who leave the theater after having been subjected to yet another nonsensical story about the guilts and complexes of yuppihood.
As a traveler I know a thing or two about the cost of trips, be they small or not so small. My main question at the end of the film was this: Just where do Burt and Verona find all the cash to finance their many trips?
I'm thinking they're hurting for cash since they live in pretty bad conditions. And yet, these thirty-somethings with no clear careers to support them, have enough cash and/or plastic limit to go from AZ to Montreal, rent cars, stay in hotels, buy gifts for people and so forth.
Do movies not hire consultants any more? You know, people who actually know what it's like to live in the real world where bills need to get paid, income needs to get generated, and children cost a whole lot of shekels?
I felt like I was listening to Peggy Noonan's commentary about the economy and life where all of the analogies and metaphors come from the Upper East Side and dinners that Wall Street types frequent. I mean, I respect much of Noonan's writing but sometimes when she speaks I feel like she's coming from a planet alternative to ours. Maybe it's the same place where Sam Mendes resides. I realize this is not a logical digression but I thought I'd go with it.
You see, the story simply doesn't add up. Not in real life, at least.
I don't know in which world Sam Mendes thought this was plausible but it sure isn't the tune we hear in a world circa 2009 where financial consciousness and an overall "editing of one's life" has become the current modus vivendi.
Away We Go is a big bowl of wrong as Jeff Greene would say.
And I had hopes for it. The guy made American Beauty after all. Is he washed up already?
So, should you watch this film?
If your entertainment budget allows for it, then do so by all means. If I were you, I'd spend the money on something far less extravagant and much more useful like, oh, I don't know, iPhone apps.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Picks of the Day
A list of misc. links read today.
1) When should you stop reading a book?
2) A story of a man who's been living without money since 2000.
3) Two different reviews of the new Sam Mendes film Away We Go. One here. Another one here.
4) Tall people are apparently happier according to this new study.
5) A portrait of a favorite actor, Hugh Dancy.
1) When should you stop reading a book?
2) A story of a man who's been living without money since 2000.
3) Two different reviews of the new Sam Mendes film Away We Go. One here. Another one here.
4) Tall people are apparently happier according to this new study.
5) A portrait of a favorite actor, Hugh Dancy.
What I've been Reading
In Pursuit of Elegance by Matthew E. May has been quite a find for me. If you're interested in the science/art dynamic, aesthetics, and symmetry this is a book I highly recommend.
The narrative style of May features a dose of classical philosophy and enough Americana references to make the reading experience most pleasant. If you liked the HBO series the Sopranos and are a fan of aesthetics, get to the nearest bookstore and check May's book out. You'll get into it after the first few pages. It's the kind of book that begs for constant attention, hence you'll be done reading it in a very short time.
A bit says: [Elegance] is about finding the `aha' solution to a problem with the greatest parsimony of effort and expense. Creativity plays a part. Simplicity plays a part. Intelligence plays a part. Add in subtlety, economy, and quality, and you get elegance...Elegant solutions relieve creative tension by solving the problem in finito as it's been defined, in a way that avoids creating other problems that then need to be solved. Elegant solutions render only new possibilities to chase and exploit. Finally, elegant solutions aren't obvious, except, of course, in retrospect."
Grown up Digital has proven to be one of the most enlightening books of the year for me. Don Tapscott zeros in on how the new generation processes information and how conventional ideas regarding intelligence and skill sets have shifted. Tapscott explores different ways businesses can learn to apply young talent to the work place and how young people relate to new information and knowledge.
If you're a neophile, you will feel like you have found a functional home in Tapscott's book. Do read this.
Appetite for Self-Destruction by Steve Knopper will especially speak to neophiles with a strong flare for music and the music industry. The chapters about Steve Jobs' road to the 'invention' of the iPod are most exciting. Jobs, the man and the Jobs, the innovator are layered quite interestingly here.
This book explores the major shift that occurred in the music industry once music became digital. One of the albums Knopper mentions with loyal regularity is Michael Jackson's Thriller and why its success is unlikely to get replicated. When in the 80's, do as the 80's folks did.... In the digital age, users shop for tracks not albums, necessarily.
The digitization of music first and foremost means that a behavioral change has happened in the consumer. S/he can choose what to add to the library and what eventually makes it into the check-out basket. Granted, a lot of behavioral changes have had to happen in the merchandizers as well. Well, if they want to stay in the business, at least. Don't try to replicate Thriller, says Knopper, see if you can come up with a business model that can adapt to the new culture of music consumption.
Very good read, as well.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
The art of Mykola Syadristy
Mykola Syadristy is an amazing artist. He's also amazingly little known.
Check out his work here. Fabulous stuff!
Picture info:
The least size of the Coca – Cola bottle in the world. The hight of it is 1,65 mm. The lenght of the logo under the bottle is 0,7 mm. Made of gold.
The size is enlarged.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Travel Account, I: Eyeliner and the City
The word of the day today is vibe.
I used it as a verb a few nights ago while at an outing.
Blame it on extensive travel, I guess. I turn more colloquial during the summertime, apparently.
I remember the specific 'vibe' instance because I excused myself from my company, stepped into another area, and sent the following text, ‘I want you to know I just used 'heart' and 'vibe' as verbs.'
It’s rather bizarre to me how linguistic petpeeves get morphed into clichés but a good number of them have already.
Fastforward to a few days later. I found myself vibing very well again.
I was in a hypemodern store looking for an eyebrow pencil. It was a present for someone blonde. Very blonde. The blonde entity had a birthday hence the gesture.
The gentleman who came to my aid was very blonde himself and before you know it we were discussing Richard Florida’s book Who’s Your City? and got to cover such topics as urban living, the vibe of a city, travel, surfing, on the net and the ocean out in New Zealand, family, things of the realm of hobbies, eye color, personality traits, and of course, eye liners.
I’m a fan of eyeliners. It’s the one makeup item I find useful to my quotidian maintenance routine. Naturally, I’m inclined to finding most eyeliner-related info tidbits relevant.
Ergo, when he asked me how I was finding the city, I said, “Ah. Well, I dig its vibe, you know? I always have. Every time I find myself on a street I’ve already experienced, it somehow feels new and fresh. We vibe well, you know?
“OMG! Totally. Vibe. That’s it. That's the word.”
His eyes had a kind of sincerity I usually see in those I already know well. He oozed familiarity, the kind that genuine and sincere people do. That kind of familiarity is endemic to their natures, I think.
I usually get annoyed by unsolicited verbal attention when in a foreign land/city, but I rather enjoyed my repartee with the eyeliner specialist. How often does one come across an abroad-living Scott originally from Los Angeles with a flare for urban planning books, surfing, and, of course, eyeliners?
My iPhone tells me to rely on what the locals approve of and explore the new environs the way they do.
Like I’ll start ignoring my gadget of choice now while visiting a new land?
As if!
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