February 2010
18 posts
Doonsbury on the impact of the iPad. All I want from Apple is for a way that their products to get along with Google. It is absurd iTunes won’t connect to the Google Phone.
January 2010
28 posts
“We Are the World” performed by German...
“Puzzles fret me, puzzles annoy me, puzzles exasperate me; and always, for a...”
– Mark Twain
from the creators of a movie you really liked,...
The best part of watching football is that it’s excusable to become drunk and belligerent in a bar. The Jets exceeded my expectations, but their defense was no match for the Colts.
After Tuesday’s Massachusetts election, I thought a good saying might be “Republicans cannot run a government, Democrats a campaign.” It feels like this is true, even if it is easy to think of counter examples where Republicans have governed well (George H. Bush, Dwight Eisenhower) and Democrats have run excellent campaigns (Bill Clinton, Barack Obama). Still, it seems to be the...
A commercial-grade roasting pan is worth every over-priced penny. This thing I bought could practically roast a cow’s head.
“Gordon orders more things online than his girlfriend would like, but he makes...”
– Actual photo caption in Times article about “green disputes.”
people > computers
A short take on Jaron Lanier’s You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto: As a humanist technologist, Lanier makes a compelling case for why computers should remain tools for humans and not ends in themselves. He rightly points out that a horrible movement exists to reify computers such that when a computer doesn’t live up to our expectations we adjust ourselves instead of demanding the...
then i realized my plaid shirt matched the pbr can...
Team B, the most-Brooklyn band, played Union Pool last night. All of the lyrics from their new EP are Theodore Roethke poems. Members of Beirut and Arcade Fire play in the band. There are numerous instruments (bass clarinet, accordion, etc). No matter (or maybe because), I thought they were pretty good. The opening band, Wild Yaks, was a horrific mess of noise.
“I’ve seen these Twitter postings saying, “We’re all Haitains.” And the thing is,...”
– Kathleen Tierney, director of the Natural Hazard Center at the University of Colorado.
As newspapers and wire services embrace alternative electronic publishing methods other than their own websites, i.e. Twitter, Facebook, TypePad, YouTube, Kindle etc, I wonder if this leaves them exposed to manipulation by the owners of the technology.
A technology company could easily modify or ban content it dislikes and there’d be little a news service could do if it becomes too reliant...
“It now costs more to insure Californian municipal debt against default than it...”
– Wall Street Journal
much of the time, i agree
Barista at the coffee shop in Williamsburg: Why are you dressed up? Me: Work Barista: What do you do? Me: Financial journalism. Barista: That sounds boring.
For many years, eMusic.com’s most popular new albums chart was a good barometer of what indie music you should be listening to. (eMusic defines “new” as meaning recent addition to the website.) In the wake of a recent decision to bring major label’s music, at the top of pops now is Jimi Hendrix and “Kidz Bop Kids”.
It’s funny how economically irrational the human brain is. Consider this: my mom’s trying to convince me to come for Florida the same week this spring my brother is visiting. Because of the bizarre logic of American air travel, the flight and drive adds up to about 10 hours one way. For about the same time, I can fly to Europe. (Either way credit card miles are paying for the flight.)...
nonpareilofjulia:
There She Goes by The La’s
I...
“If my writers knew how to appeal to girls, they wouldn’t be writers”
– Krusty the Clown provides the one of the few good lines on the Simpson special
Love Machine performed by Arctic Moneys,...
wow
Thanks to the latest in Tumblr technology now you the reader can ask this blog a question anonymously and perhaps and the answer will be published.
This evening I went to N+1 magazine’s thoughtful and nuanced panel discussion on gentrification, held in response to an article on the issue in the fall edition. One of the best points made by a panelist is that gentrification is too often discussed on aesthetic grounds when it should be addressed from an egalitarian standpoint. Complaints about ugly condo buildings and yuppie-filled wine...
i must get the google phone
The Trumpets Blared by The Teeth
Nothing says 2010 quite like drunks singing Christian songs and Empire State of Mind on a stalled L train at 3 a.m. (They concluded with Journey.)