My attempts at photographing the falling snow not been a great success. The world has that first snow beauty to it, that by next week will have faded into a hatred of snow, ice and cold for the next 4 months or so.
Anyways, here’s the shots:
Design, Music, UX
Archives for category: Life in general
I’m a person who tends to reject most brands.
Not because I’m dicky, I either tend to not care enough to have a preference, or have decided to let one inside.
I’m a Brand Acceptor. Someone who moves beyond awareness or affinity and only has room for a small amount of brands in my world. But the ones that are accepted are part of my life in the way that advertisers probly don’t understand, and couldn’t make happen in their wildest wet dreams.
All of this has led me to a single, and very important, conclusion : The majority of my brand acceptance happens in the bathroom.
Apparently Smarshy had it right all those years ago.. I’m nothing but a big fluffy boy.
A very long time ago, about 23 years I believe, I had just started college. A young lad of 17 set loose in a small college town at a mid-sized school.
One drunken night, I got in an argument with someone over turning in our design projects on time (which I always did) and turning in something that resembled what the instructor asked for (which I rarely did).
I believe the conversation contained the words “Don’t you worry about your career?!?” (it was college, we used multiple ? and ! points all the time).
Every loser bastard I had ever met was concerned about their career, how to cover their ass and make sure they never rocked the boat enough to get in trouble… and here I was at the spawning of such behaviour. A routine established early on by petty authority to be meek, uninspired and routine. The onset of a lifetime toeing the line, drinking the kool aid and being a good little monkey for spineless assholes who thought that was how the world worked. (I was drunk and I liked to ramble).
So, I scoffed at his mundane and tepid concerns, and on the spot came up with my version, the Life Plan.
The Life Plan
My 20s : Do whatever came my way. Basically fuck off and figure out the world.
My 30s : Decide what I was going to do, and become the best at it.
My 40s : Become famous to some degree.
My 50s : Start my own Justice League, assemble the best people I knew and so something amazing
My 60s : Travel the world
My 70s : Write
That’s it. No, millionaire before 45, no married with kids before 35, nothing. Some things don’t need to be timed, the universe has a way of putting me where it needs me, and I’m good with that.
What’s your plan?
(FYI, watching Mad Men makes me want to swap the 40s for the 50s.)
Went out to dinner last night with some friends at Moonshine’s in Austin, which is highly recommended : Link
Somehow got into a long conversation concerning the following :
- Carnies
- Hot redheads in rural trailerparks
- Huffing ether
- C.H.U.D.
Something is nagging me in the back of my brains that they are all somehow related.
More on this as I work it out.
“Maria came from Nashville with a suitcase in her hand, I always kinda sorta wished I looked like Elvis…”
True believers rejoice, the spirit of rock has not left us. The ‘59 Sound by The Gaslight Anthem will be released on August 19 by Side One Dummy, in the meantime, listen to the title track here.
The math on their first album was easy… add ’90s era Social Distortion to ’70s era Bruce Springsteen, a dash of early Tom Waits and a slice of old-school rockabilly. It was a great album that made my top ten list for 2007. Not bad for a debut album from a young band staggering out of Jersey.
But this new one… it’s something else entirely. Yes, it’s definitely (and defiantly) still them, and although it doesn’t contain the expanded lyrical and songwriting sense of the EP that showed up between the 2 LPs, it’s an amazing LP of great rock songs that make me believe a little sliver of Joe Strummer’s spirit found a new home.
Lyrically, they know how to turn a phrase, such that any dreamers in the world will see their life spelled out in each line. They play fast and loose with some archetypes, and occasionally stray into lyrics that any other band would fail trying to sing, but they pull it off with authenticity and style.
There are few honest bands around, this is one of them… perk up your ears, your life is calling.
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Discography
Sink or Swim, 2007 : iTunes | Amazon
Señor and the Queen EP, 2008 : iTunes | Amazon
The ‘59 Sound, 2008 : iTunes | Amazon
Every release I tend to download the new version to see if they managed to balance the amount of content and combine it with a browser.
I think they came pretty close this last time, oddly it’s still a bit poky as a browser, and adding in all your social presences seems to slow it down even more.
This inline blog posting is pretty cool tho.
check it : http://www.flock.com
Blogged with the Flock Browser
I’m pretty sure most designers are depressed, bitter assholes because the business of design is one based on compromise of one’s vision. That, and everyone in the world thinks creativity comes so fucking easily.
Apparently it makes kids cry.
With a Dave Eggers’ penned first half detailing a lousy family life for Max, and a Spike Jonze 2nd half with Max becoming King of the Wild Things, this looked like the movie of the year.
I remember the book being a bit scary. I remember Max being a bit dicky and mean as kids tend to be. I remember monsters wanting to eat him if he dared leave.
It’s not really a “kiddie” book, but it’s doomed to be a “kiddie” movie.
The studio (you know, the guys who give us crap like Norbit and Bee Movie) have decided to send it back and have it re-written and re-shot. Link Here
If you’ve not heard about the recent Maxim / Black Crowes feud, I’ll attempt to summarize.
Our players :
The Black Crowes, a southern rock band who are famous for 2 amazing records and a slew that followed of diminishing quality.
Maxim, the tits and ass magazine you look at in the airport magazine rack that’s full of instructional articles on how to maintain your lifestyle as a douchebag.
The Crowes have a new LP coming out, which is heralded as “a return to form.” Maxim ran a review of the album, giving it 2.5 stars.
The reason for the hubbub is that no one from Maxim has heard the album.
Here’s my .02….
If you are in the business of hype… fabricating emotion from ether, don’t be surprised when it backfires.
There is a lot of hype about the new Crowes album. I’ve heard all about a “return to form,” comparisons to The Southern Harmony and “the sonic majesty” or some other shit. I like the Crowes, I find their first 2 albums the be amazingly good… their second to be one of the better albums of the 90s, but like anything, I’m leery when I see so much bullshit built up over something that’s doesn’t exist yet.
Maxim wrote a review based on a combination of a few things : Response to massive hype, the Crowes reputation, and the quality of their last 3-5 albums which were also surrounded by the same type of hype.
Fair? Not at all, but if the Crowes PR can tell me it’s the best album they’ve ever released, why can’t a rag like Maxim tell me it’s just not that good with the same amount of credibility?
“Without Brains, you are a fiasco. Without Means, you are an amateur. Without Heart, you are a machine… It has dangers, this occupation.”
- Vladimir Horowitz on playing piano.