May 2012
58 posts
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Vinyl Remarks
Vinyl Remarks is a collection of messages found on records between the run-out groove and the label (the so called “dead wax”).
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/Kn7Lrc
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Popular Music Love TS Eliot
Songwriters love lifting lyrics from TS Eliot.
But why Eliot, above all other poets? One simple reason is that he is widely taught in British and American schools and he impacts on the adolescent imagination with peculiar force. The Waste Land may be unfathomably complex but it is easy to love regardless of whether you understand it. The language is juicy and pungent, full of fire and rain,...
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Rdio/Facebook Shared Listening
Rdio and Facebook have a shared listening feature I didn’t know about before. Very cool.
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/JH9fKb
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Jennifer Egan’s “Black Box”
Jennifer Egan is writing a spy-thriller featuring a character from her Pulitzer-winning novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad. The short story “Black Box” will first appear as a series of tweets from @nyerfiction (starting tonight), then in its entirety in the New Yorker‘s upcoming science fiction issue.
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/LsYtrx
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Colonization Has Very Little Slavery
Play the Past‘s latest entry in a series of posts exploring Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Colonization talks about the game’s use (and non-use) of slavery, and how modders responded by adding slave-trade mechanics.
Slavery and racial inequality are still sensitive issues for people living in the United States, and as comedian Louis C.K. has pointed out, we like to mentally distance ourselves from...
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Indie Game
Trailer for Indie Game: The Movie.
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/JVeMDo
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40 Years of 7 Dirty Words
It’s the 40th anniversary of George Carlin’s seven dirty words.
Forty years and a landmark Supreme Court decision have passed since Carlin first spoke out about the seven words you cannot say on television. But we’re still wrestling with the issues that Carlin raised with his monologue. How should the government define acceptable language? What can we learn from the 40th anniversary of the most...
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Simpsons at the Movies
Tumblr of note: Movie Simpsons, which posts movie-spoof screenshots from The Simpsons next to the original movie shot being spoofed. [via]
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/JIW9Sd
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The Kardashian
The “Kardashian” as a unit of measurement.
Conceptually, the Kardashian is the amount of global attention Kim Kardashian commands across all media over the space of a day. In an ideal, frictionless universe, we’d determine a Kardashian by measuring the percentage of all broadcast media, conversations and thoughts dedicated to Kim Kardashian. In practical terms, we can approximate a Kardashian by...
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DJ Prince Charles
DJ Prince Charles live in Toronto. This video has brought a lot of joy to my morning.
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/L88HS3
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Ad Rock and Mike D on MCA
Rolling Stone has posted some short interviews with Ad Rock and Mike D.
How did you deal with the change in his writing, after he became a Buddhist?
His lyrics became simple ideas about love and non-violence. It was a struggle for Adam to write those things. Basic feelings come off as very Hallmark. But we went through that change together. I wrote the lyrics for the song “Gratitude” [on Check...
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Gatsby Trailer
Trailer for The Great Gatsby. Certainly looks pretty (except for two bizarrely cheap-looking CGI car shots; also, 3D?!?), but I just don’t see how this book translates into a good movie. God knows the last attempt was a total disaster.
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/L7F9nq
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XOXO
If we weren’t about to have a baby, I’d be all over the XOXO Festival in Portland this September. I did kick in $25 for early video access though. (It may not raise $10 gabillion, but this is an important project for Kickstarter.)
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/JRKG1D
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Chrome
Chrome is now the web’s most used browser.
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/JOdRVb
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Shakespeare’s Battleship
Excerpts from William Shakespeare’s Battleship.
CAPTAIN
How now, Rihanna? What ho, guy from True Blood?
What news dost thou bring from the radar thingie?
RIHANNA
Ay me, dear captain! Most grievous fortune!
For we are invaded by space robots!
The CAPTAIN is confused.
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/KbU7ri
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John Lennon vs. Miles Davis
John Lennon and Miles Davis playing basketball. [via]
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/JIJCPq
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I Am an Article on the Internet
I am an article on the internet that you repost on the internet.
Interesting article—I’m referring to myself—about the death of bookstores and print media you just posted. Way to stave off the inevitable end in a gesture whose irony you seem to be only vaguely aware of. Put it on the “I Know the Difference Between Irony and Sarcasm” fan page! Related: “Stop Using the Word ‘Random’ Incorrectly”...
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Format Shifting and the Canadian Government
Your government at work. Ug.
As TechDirt notes:
It’s scary that people so clueless about the basics of what they’re discussing not only get elected, but then presume to make new laws based on their gleefully on-display cluelessness.
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/JctOmT
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MCA and the New York State Senate
The New York State Senate passed a motion to remember MCA.
WHEREAS, The music and message of the Beastie Boys evolved over the years, but they can’t, they don’t, they won’t stop changing the face of hip-hop, of music, and of our culture;
[…]
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to mourn the death of famed rapper and activist Adam “MCA” Yauch
Cross posted...
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Everyone Should Learn to Code
Jeff Atwood counters the growing sentiment that everyone should learn how to code.
To those who argue programming is an essential skill we should be teaching our children, right up there with reading, writing, and arithmetic: can you explain to me how Michael Bloomberg would be better at his day to day job of leading the largest city in the USA if he woke up one morning as a crack Java coder? It...
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The Trouble with Scientism
The trouble with scientism.
It is so easy to underrate the impact of the humanities and of the arts. Too many people, some of whom should know better, do it all the time. But understanding why the natural sciences are regarded as the gold standard for human knowledge is not hard.
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/L31E9S
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TED and Income Inequality
A TED talk you won’t find online: Nick Hanauer’s presentation on income inequality that attacks the idea that rich people create jobs. “Ideas worth spreading” indeed. [via]
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/Mo9iAx
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12-Year-Old Girl vs. Banking System
A 12-year-old girl’s scathing critique of the Canadian banking system is going viral.
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/JeCSrA
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Straight White Male
If life were an RPG, “Straight White Male” would be the lowest difficulty setting. [via]
This means that the default behaviors for almost all the non-player characters in the game are easier on you than they would be otherwise. The default barriers for completions of quests are lower. Your leveling-up thresholds come more quickly. You automatically gain entry to some parts of the map that others...
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Hard Core Logo II
Trailer for Hard Core Logo II. Not sure how to feel about this.
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/LNFevt
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Just Right of Crazy
This piece from the latest issue of Esquire is an amusing assessment of the state of right-wing politics in the US. (And I say “amusing” because to not be amused by it is to be completely terrified by it. Seriously, shit is getting crazy.)
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Republican party, root and branch, from its deepest grass roots to its highest levels, has become completely...
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Page Flipping
Here’s an article called “Why flipping through paper-like pages endures in the digital world” that unfortunately doesn’t look at the answers in any kind of interesting way. Especially since it hasn’t “endured” so much as it’s making a comeback.
Whether developers recognize it or not, users still subconsciously desire some kind of visual feedback when flipping through multiple pages of content....
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Klout is a Terrible, Horrible, Awful Thing
I don’t like the idea of bigger media outlets covering Klout because I think it legitimizes something that’s really, really stupid and bad (I’m not even sure I linked to the Wired story when it came out, though I did reference it on Twitter), but the New Yorker does a nice job calling out Klout for what it really is.
But clever ideas are not necessarily good ones, and Klout is designed in a way...
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Chris Poole at ROFLCon
Chris Poole saying interesting things about web culture at ROFLCon. (Part 2 and part 3.)
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/L2FYAm
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Globe Paywall
The Globe & Mail is adding a New York Timesesque paywall.
We used to be a Globe subscribers and they call monthly asking us to come back. I remind them that we canceled once because they ran a full-page ad from an anti-gay marriage religious organization, then we came back for awhile and had to cancel again when they endorsed a Harper majority in last year’s federal election. Generally they...
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Depressed Copywriter
Not unrelated to the last post, Tumblr of note: Depressed Copywriter. [via]
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/K22GG7
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Advertising and “Creativity”
For several years it’s bugged me that the ad industry seems to taken ownership of the word “creative.” This is mostly because I associate the ad industry (which, it seems worth noting, I often work in) with the words “asshole” and “moron” and “assfacefuckwitcuntwhore.” It’s a horrible industry rife with stupid, awful human beings. And Gawker, of all places, fucking nails it by sending Hamilton...
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The Importance of Fiction
Why fiction is important (or at least influential).
This research consistently shows that fiction does mold us. The more deeply we are cast under a story’s spell, the more potent its influence. In fact, fiction seems to be more effective at changing beliefs than nonfiction, which is designed to persuade through argument and evidence. Studies show that when we read nonfiction, we read with our...
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How Highbrows Killed Culture
How highbrows killed culture.
At the peak of the Great Books boom, Beam writes, 50,000 Americans a year were buying collections of the writings of Plato, Aristotle, the Founding Fathers, and Hegel at prices that “started at $298 and topped out at $1,175, the equivalent of $2,500 to $9,800 today.”
This was the danger against which critics of mass culture, inflamed with indignation, arrayed...
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DJ Bio Madlibs
DJ bio madlibs. Awesome. [via]
Cross posted from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/poploserdotorg/~3/TKAsHWF1dt4/
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Peel Collection B
The Peel collection has added 100 records from section B.
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/JbUpxL
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Life Advice from Twitter
Most of you probably already know that Ze Frank is making videos again. This most recent one is very amusing.
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/JQ5LEI
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Maurice Sendak
Maurice Sendak died.
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/JtBAFn
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Nintendo Power
Download old issues of Nintendo Power dating back to 1988.
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/JUFNUX
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The Beastie Boys and Copyright
The day before MCA passed away, the Beastie Boys were hit with a lawsuit over samples used on Licensed to Ill and Paul’s Boutique. Slate notes that Paul’s Boutique couldn’t be made today, which echoes the licensing math in the excellent book Creative License: The Law and Culture of Digital Sampling.
I like the idea that the most fitting tribute to the life of Adam Yaunch would be to fix the...
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Polamatic
Polaroid is trying their hand at vintage-looking iPhone photos again with Polamatic. Effects are okay, but the frames on very cool. And it exports to pretty much everywhere, including Instagram.
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/KJYnMh
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SFJ on MCA
Sasha Frere-Jones on MCA.
Rather than being perceived as the first draft of Ali G, the Beasties were taken at face value; many threads got tangled in one of hip-hop’s breakthrough moments. Rap is ridiculously profane and loopy and perfect and anybody can do it and you can use any music you want! Ok bye! And then, two years later, on “Paul’s Boutique,” they took the idea even further: maybe you...
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Vintage Beastie Boys
The Beastie Boys on New York public access in 1984. [via]
There used to be some great footage from the Paul’s Boutique release party on Vimeo, but it seems to have gone missing.
UPDATE: Found it!
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/JjR2nk
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Education in Ontario
How Ontario improved education.
Like many school systems, Ontario had too many “top” priorities. The Ministry of Education selected three—literacy, math, and high school graduation—with a commitment to raise the bar for all students and close achievement gaps between all groups. There are other goals, of course, but these three are non-negotiable and take precedence because they leverage so many...
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MCA
Adam Yauch, aka MCA, died. It’s rare that a celebrity death actually elicits a genuine emotional response from me, but this one really sucks.
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/ItJ9u6
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Kickstart a Bret Easton Ellis Movie
Bret Easton Ellis and Paul Schrader are raising funds for their next film, The Canyons, on Kickstarter. I’m in for $25, which gets me a DVD, some posters and I get to vote on casting choices! But there are some crazy incentives if you’ve got the cash.
$10,000 — Receive a moneyclip that was autographed by Robert De Niro and given to Paul on the set of Taxi Driver. http://bit.ly/IJWoMe — Paul...
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Text-Only Instagram
Text-only Instagram.
Cross posted from http://bit.ly/IItCw8
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Anil Dash on Addressing Racism
Something called Popchips (I really have no idea what Popchips are) made a pretty racist ad with Ashton Kutcher. People are understandably upset. Anil Dash offers some new ideas on how we should address issues like this.
Here’s where I want us to do something different. I don’t want to merely say “Indian people in the U.S. are going to boycott Popchips!” Or to just get the usual mumbled apology...
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The Sorkin Way
Vanity Fair profiles Aaron Sorkin and The Newsroom.
In the hands of a lesser creator, the gee-whiz set—not to mention the news itself—could dominate the show. But placing the series in the recent past makes the news a backdrop to the human story Sorkin wants to tell. “I like writing romantically and idealistically but still having one foot in the world we live in,” he said. “So a show that took...
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Giving Up
Paul Miller is giving up the internet for a year because, well, I don’t really know. I once gave up the internet for three days. It wasn’t all the enlightening and really just made it hard to find baseball scores.
Now I want to see the internet at a distance. By separating myself from the constant connectivity, I can see which aspects are truly valuable, which are distractions for me, and which...