Hotty Kooterauty
Not quite sure why I find these so funny. Maybe it’s the confidence in the delivery.
One of my favourite albums of the year. Underneath the mellow, distorted vocals lies an underlying current of impetuosity. It’s a grower, so give it a fair shake. Worth it.
The Hippocratic oath of a photographer - M. F. Agha
More and more explorations into the Gathering of the Juggalo’s have been surfacing over the last year or so as awareness of the event increases, but this one is my favourite so far. Great interviews and it’s wonderfully shot: American Juggalo
I’m back! Check this out. Oldie but a goodie.
It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished. But if innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, perhaps to die, then the citizen will say, “whether I do good or whether I do evil is immaterial, for innocence itself is no protection,” and if such an idea as that were to take hold in the mind of the citizen that would be the end of security whatsoever.
—A John Adams quote via Andy Ihnatko. It’s for everyone complaining about the Casey Anthony case.
There might be some other trickery at work here, but I found this fascinating. If it went down how Derren Brown says it did, it shows remarkable intelligence and foresight. I also think it proves that being smart isn’t just being smart — it’s not linear. Obviously, these chess grandmasters and fide masters are intelligent (the processing is remarkable, those interested should watch the newish Bobby Fischer documentary) but Derren uses deceit and misdirection to deceive them. It’s intelligence of another kind; the whole pairing them up to do battle idea is pretty fucking brilliant.
Morissey expounds on the Internet
Obviously, it’s much worse because the entire “industry”— as it must be called— has been destroyed in a thousand ways. The Internet has obviously wiped music off the human map— killed the record shop, and killed the patience of labels who consider debut sales of 300,000 to not be good enough. People no longer know the top 75 charts, and what they do know of them they don’t trust because chart-placings are so fixed— everyone on the planet mysteriously flies in at number one now. The music press has died because of Internet People Power— everyone is now their own expert critic. As a consequence there are no risks taken with music anymore— no social commentary songs, no individualism. This is because everyone is deemed instantly replaceable.
via pf
Morrissey advances several strange arguments in this excerpt, but his stance on the internet really left me befuddled. No one takes risks anymore? There’s no individualism? I would argue exactly the opposite. Recording and publishing music is so accessible now. That’s not to say it’s all good, but there are definitely people taking risks and putting themselves out there.
I also thought that his stance on the Top 75 chart was curious and off base as well. Regardless, the interview is quite interesting and worth a few minutes.
via YY
I love the idea of this book. I just picture someone buying it to interpret what the few unkempt dandelions on a suburban neighbor’s lawn really signified.
The Antlers - Putting the Dog to Sleep
I loved the Antlers’ first release, Hospice. It was just so intensely personal and so meticulously crafted. When their new album, Burst Apart, was released a few weeks ago, I ignored it. Not because I don’t think they are a great band, but because I was worried the intensely personality that marked Hospice would be lost on this new release. How would they transition? How can you capture that energy, that magic, twice?
I can’t answer that question, but The Antlers probably could if you asked them. Burst Apart is everything I wanted and the song above is my favourite. It’s so sad and so perfect.
Wonderful panorama of Paris.
These mega-megapixel panoramas are nothing new, but this one struck me as wonderful for two reasons. First, the elegant execution doesn’t interfere with the experience at all, like some other panos in the same vein. Second, the vantage is amazing. Not sure how it was accomplished, but looking down and seeing the Eiffel Tower blew me away.
The Etsy/UrbanOutfitters Debacle
Last week, the internet was awash with the story about Urbanoutfitters, a corporation that has a reputation of repurposing (or, put more simply, stealing) smaller/independent artists, had struck again. This time they had stolen the premise of work by Etsy jewelry designer Truche and were were selling it online [original story]. The internet, in typical fashion, went mental, disparaging UrbanOutfitters for their flagrant thievery. The thing was, the outrage seemed justified—until I read a piece on the blog Regretsy. The blog makes several interesting points, including this:
But what part of the design is proprietary? The shape of a state or country isn’t really something anyone can lay claim to. So you’d have to conclude that it’s the addition of the heart that makes it her design.
The Regretsy goes on to point out another Etsy designer posted a very similar piece in 2008, before Truche was in the heart/state game, and jewelry designer James Avery was making very similar pendents in 2009. (You can find the visual proof on the Regretsy blog linked above)
The blog post concludes with the following statement:
Are all of these independent designers on Etsy stealing from each other? Or this is such a simple and generic idea that many people can come up with it at once? Certainly the idea of a charm in the shape of a state is nothing new; they’ve been selling those to tourists for years. Is it such a leap to put a heart in one? That seems like a logical progression from the I heart NY design, which I first remember seeing in the late 70′s.
The author gets to the crux of the issue—the concept just isn’t that original, and if you want to give someone credit, maybe it should be Milton Glaser, whom originally designed the iconic “I Love New York” logo in the 70s.
I guess the morale of this sordid tale is that we, as internet citizens, should take a second before we e-lynch the supposed perpetrators of these crimes.
My favourite Eastbound and Down clip, especially since I spent the last year working with InDesign.
Ra Ra Riot - Manner to Act (RAC remix).
Kind of old, but been jamming this for the last few weeks.
