We got a big dose this year of how the fine art community has been affected by what sells with “Exit Through The Gift Shop”. Add to that the flow of art dealers being appointed curators that started with Jeffrey Deitch and MOCA, and we see the community finely embracing the idea that “great” art is only great because someone wants it on their wall. Commercialism was always in fine art, no one ever wanted to admit it. You want proof? Every single one of “The Masters” made a very nice living painting commissioned pieces. They weren’t the ultimate “artisans” creating only from passion and for their own release. They created for purpose, for money, as a job.

It’s an interesting debate when you move the same discussion over to music. People who write music to be commercially successful rarely seem to be commercially successful, and if they admit such things would be labeled “sell-outs’. Musicians are somehow supposed to be “artists” who only make music to express their emotions. It’s one of the most popular defenses towards why people think they should be able to steal music.

Art however, IS commercial. Art has always BEEN commercial, and that is what has made it brilliant and gorgeous and life-affecting. Yes, life-affecting, exactly the same way a brilliant marketing campaign can be.

So how do we start accepting that music made for a specific commercially marketable purpose is okay? How do we even know it can turn out palatable? Easy. Cudi, Rostam (Vampire Weekend), and Bethany (Best Coast) went out and proved it can. “All Summer” only happened because of Converse.

Converse challenged these artists to make something that would make Converse seem cool across 3 fan-bases, and these artists gladly did so, and did so with so much dedication and focus that they turned it into one of the best Summer songs ever written. They could have half-assed the job, they could have taken some crappy throw away ideas and done just enough, but they did their job as creators with excellence and wound up adding even more buzz to their already peaking levels. Is Converse selling more shoes for footing the bill? I hope so, because it means more potentially spectacular marketing driven music.

Good for Converse. Good for music. Well done.

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Singles usually stand out from an album in a way in which a truly spectacular single (or two) can carry a mediocre album and make it good, or in some cases can make a great album seem mediocre by not living up to the best song. Either way there really can only be one pure ranking and that’s the single of this album of singles. See what I did there?

1. Jay-Z – Empire State Of Mind

In No Particular Order:
The Fray – You Found Me
Weezer – I Want You To
The Avett Brothers – I And Love And You
Lily Allen – The Fear
All Time Low – Weightless
Miley Cyrus – Party In The U.S.A
Good Girls Go Bad – Cobra Starship Feat. Leighton Meister
La Roux – Bulletproof
Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling
Matt & Kim – Daylight

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Sherwood – Qu – iTunes
I’ve know the Sherwood guys for years, dating back to working on their first full length when they were on Sidecho. They write some ridiculously catchy songs with gorgeous harmonies (and even some gang vocals), and they are even better people than they are musicians.

The Summer Set – Love Like This – iTunes
The Summer Set was on The Militia Group for the release of their EP, and the potential of the band was immediately noticed. I’ve had the song Chelsea off “Love Like This” stuck in my head for like months, and finally I can try to get myself sick of it by listening to it on repeat all day. This album shows a realization of all that potential they showed on the EP, and gives you a promise for a pretty strong career in this whole thing.

What? You don’t like Summer? Or Pop music? Okay, I’ve got some wonderfully Americana feeling, fall enjoying, music for you also.
Andy Zipf – Our Voice Is A Weapon – iTunes
Another wonderfully simple, beautifully layered batch of songs from an artist on P is for Panda. Who knew Panda’s liked Americana so much? One of the best people in the world runs this label, so I think you can do your part to support good people/music by dropping 3 bucks on this.

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Some of the things you can actually go out and see right now (that at some point only lived on my computer) are MySpace layouts for Boys Like Girls and My Favorite Highway. Both these bands are amazing, and BLG have a new record out, that I’m sure you’ve heard a few songs on your radio from. MFH has a new video out, which you can see on said MySpace.

I’ve also been working on quite a few logos, print work and layouts that aren’t quite out in the public eye yet, and MySpace layouts for Andrew W.K. and The Bleach Works should be up next week. Recently I launched a website design I did for a film called The Road Less Traveled, it’s a pretty interesting concept and gives a whole new view of a part of the world we don’t all get to see.

I’d also like to bring back what may have been a feature of my blog and recommend some things, mainly because I think everyone could stand to hear some good music:
fun. – Aim & Ignite – This band has one of The Format guys in it, along with a cast of other talented musicians who all played in a few other bands and came together to create fun. I happen to think The Format’s debut was one of the most perfect complete albums ever, so at first I HATED fun., then I let it play and found that I couldn’t stop. I had to apologize to a couple good friends for ever trying to say that this record isn’t absolutely phenomenal, and even the songs I hated I now love. Lesson learned.

Third Eye Blind – Ursa Major – I never expected to be this addicted to a new 3eb record. Sure their catalogue is one that is constantly playing in my life, but did anyone really expect this resurgence? I wanted to feel this way about this record, for months now, but I knew I wouldn’t, yet here I am. I think my favourite track has to be Summer Town, it just gives you that feeling where you want to be inside, is full of classic 3eb lines, techniques, phrasing, etc that just make it the classic non-single 3eb fave. The pseudo ending is spectacular as well. If you have somehow missed everyone talking about 3eb again, you need to drive a few laps around town playing this album.

Ryan Adams – The other day I realised I haven’t listened to Ryan Adams in months, and then I proceeded to listen to it for 3 days straight. Perhaps it got me back to being a little too jaded, but I think it was exactly what my days needed. Next month will be filled with lots of Elliott Smith as well.

Hope everyone out there who still checks in on this nonsense of a website is well, I’d name you by name, but that would just get awkward.

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I am not a huge fan of the NAACP. I understand why it was created, I understand all the good it has done, but in todays world I have seen them too quick to call anything racist and not really helping to advance anything. I recently saw an interview that got me excited about the NAACP again. Their President, one Benjamin Jealous (hello, awesome name), is multi racial, grew up on two coasts, was a Rhodes Scholar, his Grandfather was born a slave and died a Senator, and he is the youngest ever President of the NAACP.

So what did I like so much about this guy? What made me feel like he truly wants to better this world? For one, his multiple uses of the words ‘for everyone”. The lack of the NAACP getting behind other minorities and even majorities has always been my main criticism of it. A group like this was founded at a time where the need to focus on equality for “blacks” was the strongest, but this group could have evolved as they won battles towards civil rights for “blacks” and taken up more causes for all the other minorities. The NAACP is the iconic civil rights organization in this country, sure they don’t need to expand and change, but I feel like so much potential is wasted focusing mainly on only one “colour” of person.

Additionally Benjamin Jealous just seems real, I know this is naive on my part, but I feel like this guy gets “it”. It may be all political positioning, but this man is not just talking about all the injustices in the world, instead speaking on what more we can do to get the world where he hoped it would be. He is looking towards the future, while understanding his organizations past, and even acknowledges that the time has come for them to shift and adapt. It’s a refreshing stance to see.

I will not go as far to say that in todays world there is no discrimination towards minorities left, but I will also point out that there are people of all colour being discriminated against in this nation. I would love to see the NAACP formally become the National Association for the Advancement of People, and finally fulfill their potential to be fighting every civil rights injustice and helping making all of us better people in the process. Perhaps Mr. Jealous may be the one to begin that evolution.

Check out the first few minutes of the interview:

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I said I’m quiet about racism, that’s kind of a lie, I’m super against racism being made an excuse for everything. I think it perpetuates racism to always be playing that “card” and I think the NAACP is not actually “advancing” anything and is only focused on one colour. For examples of things I think are stupid cases of racism being inserted into a topic just to gain publicity, read how I felt about the Duke LAX case.

Back on track, so this article listed this racism connection:

Globe Campus

He had heard his white classmate throw an angry racial slur in his direction after an argument during a gym class game of speedball, and now the student was shoving him backward, refusing to retract the smear.

The white student swung first, hitting the 15-year-old with a punch to the mouth.

The 15-year-old heard his father’s voice running through his head: Fight only as a last resort, only in self-defence, only if given no choice, and only with the left hand.

His swing was short and compact, a left-handed dart that hit the white student square on the nose.

The nose broke under his fist, igniting a sequence of events – from arrest to suspension to possible expulsion – that has left the Asian student and his family wondering whether they are welcome in this small, rural and mostly white community north of Toronto, one that has been touched by anti-Asian attacks in the past.

Sounds horrible right? Not only did this kid do the right thing by finally sticking up for himself after probably months of torment, but he’s the only one being punished for a fight where both kids threw punches. Pretty tragic case, and I have this kids back, good for him for breaking this jerk’s nose.

So what was that racial slur?

Globe Campus

He said the boy called him a “fucking Chinese,” a comment he instantly knew was far from a joke.

Far from a joke? Yes. Hateful and mean spirited? Yes. Racist? I’m not sure. Granted I’m no form of asian, so I don’t know how offensive it really might feel to be called from the wrong country/region. I have one Korean friend who I bet has a great opinion on this, so maybe I’ll get that soon, but I do have some thoughts on this alleged racism.

First of all, were talking about essentially attacking this kid’s nationality. Yes that still falls under the broad scope of racism, but really what was racist here? Is anytime a nationality, ethnicity or race (yours or otherwise) attached to an insult racism? Is it the fact he was called an incorrect nationality that makes this racism? I don’t think so, but I’ll cover that in a bit. Would this kid have felt just as insulted if he had been called “fucking Korean”? I’m not sure of the answer to that last one, but if so then I have to disagree with this being racism.

Korean versus Chinese, again I’m an U.S. American with northern European decent, so maybe I can’t ever “get this”. However, I know Korea is right next to China, I know the people are probably, technically very much alike, perhaps even the same ethnicity. I know the Korean language (although origins debated) does have ties to the ancient Chinese languages (as does Japanese). We are talking about the differences of two nations that have more modern similarities than the U.S. and Mexico. I just don’t think calling someone an incorrect nationality that borders one’s actual nationality, while insulting them has to be a racist comment.

Was the supposedly “racist” kid ignorant? Hateful? Stupid for not knowing the difference between Korea and China? Probably yes on all accounts, but I didn’t read anything in that story that made it seem like he even knew he wasn’t calling him by his correct nationality, let alone making a comment to oppress based on that nationality. He was just a kid, a dumb kid, wanting to be mean and call the other kid a “fucking ANYTHING” and he got his nose broken for it.

The only things I can sort of (and by sort of I mean, not at all) relate to this is growing up “white” in America. I had to always check that “white” box, had no other identity, yet no one ever seemed to mind. Yeah, yeah, rough life I had, but I’m not “white” thank you, and I know I’m the majority here but it is a little insensitive to call me that. Is it a tolerance thing because I’ve been “white” for years? Is me being called white offensive? Should it be? Was it once? Could it be? Is it okay because someone “white” was the one who decided on describing us that way? All those things above are pretty much a ridiculous statement, even though I really should be able to express my ethnicity and family origins (Welsh-Irish, amongst other things) just as much as any non-white person.

Here is the only thing that can really hit close to home for me; Would I be offended if someone called me Scottish, or even a “fucking Scot”? Absolutely not, I’d just correct them, and then take up the battle of why this person just called me “fucking ANYTHING”.

I must say I’m really glad that these people at this school are speaking up about this incident, I just wish they were speaking up because a kid who fought back was expelled while the bully lives on, not because of some link to “racism”. I think it sort of cheapens what this is really about. It does seem like there are other real issues with racism towards asiatic people in this region, and I think they should address it and surely this will help those issues as well, but let’s allow kids to stand up for themselves and not be punished.

Just to lighten the mood as I finish up this way too long post, I’ll leave you with my favourite quote of the article.

The Korean Boy’s Father

“Personally, for my kid, I should move. But as a Canadian I cannot move.”

Who knew that Canada didn’t allow you to move? Ha. J, slash, K, Canada.

I’m really curious to hear what others think about this topic, and this is one of those things where I wish my blog actually got larger readership than it does, but I think this will stir a few minds a bit.

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I know this will not be received well by many.

I’m not trying to say the guy isn’t a talented musician or songwriter, he surely is, and he surely captured a generation with his political stance and his unique mindset, but how did he wind up that way for multiple generations? To me, Dylan is the guy who wrote 4 songs that have a lasting power, the guy whose son wrote an entire album I like better than any of his fathers, the guy who has made continued his career by being the guy the “cool” people like “because he’s Dylan”.

How is this guys career so much more notable than a guy like Tom Petty or James Taylor?

Now let’s clear up a couple of facts here, it’s well known that I like “hits”. I don’t mean Top 40 songs necessarily, I mean songs with an epic hook, songs that as you walk down the street you curse having them stuck in your head (but give it another spin the second you can), HITS. Secondly, I was born in the seventies, raised in the eighties, and am living in the zeroes, Dylan hasn’t had a hit since I’ve been alive.

So why is Dylan so revered? Elvis has the same sort of fanatics, different in lots of ways, but still same kind of experience. Elvis sold records, had hit songs, was in films and was one of the first real celebrities of modern times. So Dylan is the anti-Elvis maybe? Out of the lime-light, political and all about the music and the art? Eh, I don’t think so, it might be his angle, and maybe part of why he appeals to people, but I don’t buy it, he needs to do something, not just not do something. It seems lately he does more of the not doing something, while still just writing/recording away.

Dylan was truly relevent when he wrote “The Times They Are a-Changin’” and it captured an entire aspect of the population who found a voice and mouth for all the things running through their head, but four decades later is he still? I recently “tweeted” in reply about Dylan, that Valens had 4 truly great songs on one record in an 8 month career, doing so not to compare the two, but to bring up this nugget: Is Dylan renowned because he’s simply alive and still cranking out records?

People love to play the card that Dylan isn’t Top 40, or that Top 40 hits don’t make a song or an artist “great”, and it’s all true. We all have those artists who will make 10 albums and never get radio play. I happen to love Sigur Ros and surely they will never be Top 40, but I’ll buy every record ever. Maybe that’s the key to it all, and that Dylan just clicks with some people and doesn’t with me. Maybe, but I have this vague feeling that to many, especially in my generation, liking Dylan is a lot like reading Kerouac; It’s a statement move towards the non-today, the counter culture, aimed at being a part of a generation you missed or trying to stand apart from your current one. Such as with any counter culture movement, it winds up as trendy and actually the majority, and perhaps that’s what I see today.

The truly interesting part of what I mention above is that Dylan wasn’t non-Top 40, he actually formed his career off hit songs, and at various points decided he didn’t want his records promoted certain ways or proper singles released by his label amongst other things, but his career was not consistently that. It was kind of a lot like Radiohead’s “release the music straight to the fans” move, where a band that already built up to a very successful level goes about a shift to be more “artistic”, strictly about the music, and through all of it bucking the system/process that created them. Dylan after being a mainstay “rock” act who was revered for his political and social commentary which brought him to a certain level, went country and stopped talking politics, and then even went Christian (and I have theories about all the hipster Christians I know who love Dylan too, don’t get me started).

I don’t understand how this guy managed to keep such a stable fan base through all of those changes, through very few (if any) recent songs a majority of the population can even name, to put out an album, that in the year 2009, charts at number one.

The only thing I can even come close to an explanation with is that Dylan is still there doing it. Elvis is dead, The Beatles broke up, Zeppelin disbanded, Michael Jackson went pedo, Garth Brooks retired, every other voice of a generation and/or successful career artist has either died or become too controversial or alienated themselves some other way. Dylan got less controversial, stayed alive, and over time had more and more people spreading the Dylan gospel, giving them no reason to dislike them and it being “counter”, then “different”, then “forgotten”, and at many times throughout those popular to like him. It really is quite a remarkable and impressive career.

All that to say, I’m still just waiting for someone to explain what makes Dylan so great. I’m ready for it to hit me, I’m ready to be wowed, I’m willing to listen to a record or three (but no more) with open ears and have my life changed… because after all… so many of you have been telling me, for years, that is who this man is.

P.S. I realise someone is going to tell me that just the fact he has been able to affect so many people over such a long period of time is the simple answer to the question I ask in this title, but that still doesn’t make me want to listen to him… go deeper.

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I’m not sure if Aillaud is considered as a post-structuralist, but to me I see that in his work and his inspirations for it. I’m not sure his motivations were purely post-structuralist, as I think he wasn’t so much rejecting structuralism as he was tired of the systematic approach that was architecture post war. I see much of the same motivations, ideas, and form that lead us into the LA/Santa Monica school and architects like Frank Gehry.

You can see some more photos of the Tours and some other Emile Aillaud designed buildings in this Flickr pool.

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Take it all in:

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So I’ve been busy, again. I got my tax extension turned in on time, so I’m doing better than some people, but it’s just an extension, so I’m doing worse than most. If you don’t appreciate the greatness of Twitter, and/or realise I don’t really say anything about what’s going on there anyway, and want to know what’s going on, this is your Huckleberry (I’mmm yuh Huhklebehhy).

I wrapped up a few MySpace re-designs for some great bands: My Favorite Highway (record was released yesterday, and you should own it), Green River Ordinance (FFO: The Fray, etc), The Urgency, and Young Love. I got up the website for a ska band from Boston called Westbound Train up, I’m not really into ska, and if you aren’t either realise these guys have much more of an old R&B sound to them. I also finally finished up the layout for a band I used to do a lot of work with called Parker Theory. I’ll get the cover up somewhere, sometime soon. I was also working a lot of sleepless nights on a secret logo project that I can’t really discuss yet, and don’t really know the outcome of, so you may never hear about it, but hey at least me writing this makes me appear “mysterious” right?

Other non-design things I have been up to include: Building an HD antenna with Kyle so we are one step closer to canceling cable, Finally fixing my Mail so that my Junk Mail will stay on the server (tip: don’t put periods in your account name), Got out to see the Ducks knock off the Sharks and fully reinvigorate my love for NHL playoff hockey, Bought more vinyl (still no turntable), and successfully got an external HD once deemed dead, back in the world of the living.

I’m off to get back into the work, nice seeing you again.

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It’s all very ironic to me when I see a band bringing these concerns. I understand why, I understand that even the supposed rebels making rock music feel threatened that people create successful songs and even sell out a room doing something “easier” than they do. Artists are supposed to be the ones pushing envelopes, artists are supposed to welcome change and innovation; so why are so many upset that people are finding new ways to make music that people like? In the end it’s all relative, sure you may not like a band like 3oh3! (not the band listed in the blog, but I see a lot of this type of response geared towards them from artists and fans), but people think they created (that’s the key word) a pretty catchy and fun couple of tunes. It doesn’t matter how, or the tools used, none of that crap actually makes any artist “cooler” than another (but some sure think it does).

It’s about creation, creating something, being far more unique than the boring old ways of a guitar and amp. Let me announce something, not everyone can program a hit song in a computer, just as not everyone can play the guitar like Hendrix. Sure, a lot of people try both, but a lot of people fail. The ones trying and failing doing it using a guitar are no more (or less) important than the ones trying and failing at programming a song in a computer. They are expressing themselves, they are creating, they are pushing boundaries. Maybe they are creating for commercial success you say? So what, so are plenty of bands.

What I really wonder, I wonder if these were the same things happening: when photography was invented, when they took classical instruments and created jazz, bluegrass, etc, when moving pictures were invented, when a broken amplifier accidentally invented the now standard distortion. You get it right? It’s innovation, and sometimes Rock N’ Roll seems a little old and dated with their mentality about the auditory realm.

Not all music is for everyone, but criticizing ANYONE trying, especially if the critic is a fellow creator, is a bit hypocritical (and can come off as jealousy). Just say it’s not for you and let the masses decide their final place in the scheme of things.

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So Gene spoke, and it was like a commercial, and this guy Lefsetz didn’t like it. Bob Lefsetz is this guy who writes this letter (it’s a blog, let’s be honest) on the music industry. Somehow the entire industry thinks the guy is genius, but I don’t get it. He constantly thinks he has the solutions to save the music industry, criticizes others who actually act and try to do something different, and as far as I can find has never actually done anything to help save the industry. All that said, his RSS feed (which sucks by the way; who makes RSS feeds that you can only read 2 lines of? People who won’t be saving any industry, that’s who) is subscribed to and once in a while (when I find those 2 lines interesting enough) I read a full post.

You can go find the post on Gene if you want, but what you should do is give Gene your visit and see it and his answers over at Simmons Records website. They are amazing and great, and entertaining… everything we should be getting, and Gene wants to give us. My favourite exchange, because it’s absolutely more valid than 90% of the things Lefsetz says is as follows:

Bob Lefsetz

Just because you’re a big musical act, that doesn’t mean you’re a decent executive, that you can run a record company.

Gene Simmons

SAYS WHO. YOU? AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MAKE THESE ASSESSMENTS. WHAT’S YOUR QUALIFICATION, IN FACT, FOR SAYING ANYTHING…

I’d like to remind people who run the music industry of a few things that Gene seems to also feel; Just because you have been around the old music industry, doesn’t mean you can be succesful in the new music industry. Just because you ran a label or run a label or had success with an artist, doesn’t mean you will ever be successful again. Just because something worked once, doesn’t mean it is the pattern.

Artists should have people who believe in them as much as Gene believes in himself (and surely any band/artist he gets behind), and should also have people who are as brutally honest as Gene is and don’t give people ridiculous manipulative sells every time they have a conversation.

Gene Simmons is kind of refreshing.

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For those of you who don’t know, I’m out on tour with William Tell and Jimmy Robbins. I have to tell you guys Jimmy is one of the best new things in my life, and William is one of the best old. We are a pretty great band of travelers.

So we started out in Boston, Cambridge proper for 2 days (including a great stop at Drink), and then Greyhound’d down to NYC. We crashed in Williamsburg the first night, then mid-town at the Pod Hotel (bunkbeds, with Eames patterned bedspreads). The show in NYC was at the Highline, and it had a great turnout. From there we went to Hoboken, NJ. Now let me tell you, I have said a lot of bad things about NJ, and quite a few about Hoboken (I mean it does start with Hobo, and Eli Manning lives there), but I take it all back. After 2 days I’m a fan. It’s a great town where you can still grab a slice at random hours of the night, but escapes the complete craziness over the river.

Sometime after that we finally got a car, drove to Baltimore, stalked the “Ace Of Cakes” place, and wandered Fell’s Point. I wound up buying hat’s and old screens (screen printing screens), and we even cheered for the Buffalo Sabers (I can’t really explain). The next day I headed to the airport for a flight to Newark and then Orange County, only to be greeted by a delayed flight which would have made me miss my connection. So then I was on a Delta flight to Atlanta, then Orange County. Yeah, so then a ground stop in Atlanta kept me at BWI another 2 hours (I had already waited 3). Did iI mention I was flying back for my Father’s wedding the next day?

So I was a bit concerned I would be stuck forever in Maryland or Georgia, but eventually I made it back to California. The wedding was great, very musical oriented, and out in the Angeles National Forest. That evening I got on a plane for here, JFK. I promptly passed out, and that flight is now known as the Best Redeye Ever. Soon I will be heading to North Carolina to meet up with William and Jimmy, who played Philly and Raleigh while I was gone.

If you want to be involved in my insane travels, I will soon be in Charlotte, Wilmington, Delray Beach (Ft. Lauderdale), Orlando and Tampa. If you have ways to get me and 2 others into Disneyworld for free, you are especially encouraged to reach out. I really recommend you come out to a show if you are around one of these cities, it’s a great chance to see wonderful music in it’s barest form performed at levels the likes you may never see. At least stop by and familiarize yourself with William Tell and Jimmy Robbins. I’ll see you all soon.

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So I have been ridiculously busy in the last few weeks, and there are good reasons for that. I have a ton of work, and I will be over on the East Coast for a couple weeks. Why? Why not! I will be headed out to such cities as Boston, New York, Hoboken, New York, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Charlotte, Wilmington, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, Tampa, and Orlando. It’s quite a journey, and I will be on the road with my good friend William Tell and Jimmy Robbins. They will be playing perfect pop music, and I will be helping them in a multitude of ways, while still carrying on my normal load of design fun (though the past few weeks have made it so it will be a little lighter).

If you are on the lesser coast, and we are friends, we need to hang out. I’m really bad at calling people or writing them in advance, so just track me down and let’s get a drink. If you are one of my wonderful clients, fear not, I will have all the regular normal operations up and running, and you shouldn’t notice a thing.

See you soon. Miss your face.

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I ordered the Deluxe Edition of “Med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust”, I got my download, I even got my physical, and then months went by. You sent me emails to let me know the LP was going out soon. I sent you an email to let you know my shipping info had changed, and if you could amend it, you replied that my order had been amended (I still have the email). I still am waiting, I still am wondering if I will ever get it, I still am a little bit annoyed that I have to be typing this.

Please contact me and let’s get this sorted out. I will invade Iceland if need be (mostly because it’s absolutely gorgeous, but if it helps this cause too, bonus).

Thank you.

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Currently the Associated Press is upset that an image that they hold the rights to was the basis for Shep’s illustration. They want license fees, and profit, and credit, and probably one of his children. The issue is actually pretty interesting in terms of copyright law. However frankly this case has no legs, and I’m surprised the AP is this hard up for cash (though no one in the newspaper world is exactly thriving).

The AP owns the image, they don’t own the moment in time the image was taken.

Fairey started with their image, and then he applied his now famous illustrative style. He didn’t simply threshold the thing in Photoshop, he didn’t auto-trace something in Illustrator. His work is no different than someone painting the image in a cubsim styling. Copyright simply doesn’t protect deviations in such things. Someone at AP has to know such things. If anyone should be able to claim rights to deviations based on photographs, it should be the person in the imagery. Kind of funny how they get no share of the AP’s licensing fees.

Anyway, that is my take on this whole thing, and I really hope Shep doesn’t back down or make a settlement. He deserves to stand alone as the source of such iconic imagery, and he is just the right person to stick it to the old media.

Also if I may rant…
I find it hilarious how the old media has talked about him as this “L.A. street artist”, like he is some ruffian who slums through streets stealing bread and spreading wheat paste wherever he goes. Do they not understand the guy went to THE premiere design school in America (RISD), do they not understand the guy owns his own clothing line, do they not understand the guy’s first studio he formed is responsible for such things as the Mt. Dew logo and the Mozilla logo, do they not understand his current studio is responsible for the “Walk The Line” poster and the cover art for The Smashing Pumpkins comeback album? This is no “street artist”, this is one of our generations most heralded graphic designers, this guy will be included along names like Bass, Lubalin, Rand, Glaser, Carson and Sagmeister.

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THE 20.5:

1. I get Deja Vu… a lot. Usually about feeling like I’m getting Deja Vu. (If you follow me on Twitter, you now have Deja Vu!)
2. The best Death Cab For Cutie album is “The Photo Album” end of discussion, this fact also known as “Lindsay lies”.
3. My first concert ever was The Beach Boys, 4th of July, 1984, National Mall, District of Columbia.
4. The only computer I have ever had in my home (from a child on) has been made by Apple.
5. I recently hung up artwork on the walls of my place after living here 4 years.
6. I have had this strange quest to be “mysterious” for years (less is more, right?), the best response was from the girl I was dating (at the onset of said quest) which was… laughter.
7. My wallet is bigger than yours.
8. Some people have magazine subscriptions, I have a Quarterly subscription, a DVD subscription, and a book clup subscription. I heart MCSWNYS.
9. I have a long standing addiction to WB/CW shows I should have no part loving. It started with “The Creek”, and has included “Smallville”, “Veronica Mars”, and “Gossip Girl”.
10. There isn’t much that is better than a fresh loaf of Boudin’s sourdough bread.
11. I played Lacrosse and Ice Hockey in High School, in San Diego, CA. I was a New Englander at heart I guess.
12. Speaking of New England: I have always had a fascination with JFK, I love the Red Sox, I hate the Patriots, I love Boston.
13. I unabashedly love pop music, of all types, that other people try to pretend isn’t pure hits.
14. As a kid (11-15ish), I couldn’t fall asleep to anything but the radio. Not a CD even. I had to hear a talking voice at some point or else my mind would spin into a labyrinth of thoughts on life and death.
15. I firmly believe I could save entire companies if they would just consult me on everything they do.
16. I tend to get infatuated with girls from far away cities, okay infatuated might be putting it lightly.
17. I’m horrible at filing, but quite organised.
18. I should mention, I use the Queen’s English whenever possible.
19. Almost all of my family teach, at one point I was going to fall in line as well, but wound up a designer. Lately I have the desire to be the jaded professor at Art School who: tells everyone their projects are horrible, everyone hates but realises years later was vital to their succes (i.e. Winter Sorbeck).
20. I’m great at buying old cameras, I’m horrible at buying new film.
20 1/2. I hate committing to making plans, except… (How else am I supposed to make a half fact?)

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Or go catch them on tour with some band nobody has ever heard of… Fall Out Boy.

Speaking of bands you should listen to, MySpace, me name dropping friends of mine in NYC, and what I’m listening to right now: Another wonderful friend Frank got me hooked on this band More Amor. Their track “Young Hollywood” will be stuck in my head for 3 weeks, at the least. I recommend buying the album off iTunes, because I did, and it would do you some good to be more like me.

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Here is a brilliant interactive look at how the Zip Code system works.

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The man has musical performers on his show and doesn’t hold up the CD, he holds up vinyl. Gorgeous, circles of black, grooves of uncompressed, vinyl.
And it’s not just once in a while

It’s always.

It must be show policy. I wonder if a band is allowed to play if they can’t get the vinyl there? I wonder if he loves Squeeze’s “Singles” on vinyl as much as I do. Scotch & Squeeze, that’s all you need.

In related news, will someone sell me a record player. I’m sick of losing bids on ebay.

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That there is the cover of The Guardian’s G2 section that ran earlier in the week. One of my favourite people on earth David Carson did the design, and inside is a multitude of other designers takes on POTUS Obama’s speeches. Nice little feature for the design geek and/or political dork.

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My good friend Brandon Chamberlain works with an artist named Jeremy Larson who makes some pretty spectacular music himself, and will be sitting in with MuteMath on the keys tonight as they play Leno. If their other late night performances were a sign, this will be another can’t miss.

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Sidenote: I once told a girl who I was dating, or had dated, or was going to date (I’m really not sure the time period in it all) that I was working on being mysterious, she laughed at me. She was right.

So if you are up to be a part of something that may require a few minutes of your time now and again, possibly a postage stamp, and will make 2009 better (or at the least more interesting) shoot me an email (you should have it) and include your postal address.

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1. Queen Latifah.
2. The whole, “high five the people as you go to the mic” thing.
3. Kid Rock over Coldplay.
4. The constant “Obama won the election” references. Like the actors did anything.
5. Ellen over Letterman.
6. Robin Williams.
7. Two And A Half Men.
8. Everything else, except The Dark Knight.

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So anyway, in May I returned a 5 month old email to John and he only waited 6 months to reply to me. Way to out do me, John. I’m really horrible at getting back to those kind of emails, because I feel like I can’t just fire off 3 sentences like I can with family and friends I see all the time, so I hold no ill will. John let me know about a project he had recently compelted after teaching himself how to screenprint. The concept was a series of art prints that represent each state as a plate of food. I think it came out pretty spectacular, of course it will be 6 months until I let John know that, but for now check out his work. The United Plates.

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I enjoyed a lovely holiday back “home” (Long Beach is home to me, but San Diego gets jealous when I say that) in San Diego, five-ish full days of family, friends and homemade cookies. My last few weeks of work had been slammed full of work (thanks all), and the time away was a great recharge. New Years was approaching and instead of being lame and doing nothing, we threw a last minute party. The flyer was probably the best part, but we had a pretty epic time all the same. I invented a new drink that night, and drank far too much of it, leaving me a little hurting New Years Day down in the OC. I hate people who say “the OC”, slash myself. Watched some football, played some poker, drank to cure the hangover and had some of the best chili ever made, then we ended the night with “Frost Nixon”:, great film.

The holidays, as they are known, were great, and I am endlessly thankful to have the amazing people in my life that I do. I don’t say it enough, but I appreciate you all.

Somehow in the middle of all that craziness above the Chargers made the playoffs, so this past weekend I trekked back down (stopping in HB to play some football myself) for what was one of the best games I have ever seen. I was so fortunate to see that game in person, what a start to the New Year. Sunday I went and saw “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” with my Mother, I was a little nervous of how this would be adapted. I had heard some things that essentially made it sound like “The Notebook” and “Forrest Gump” were starring in a “Brad Pitt is rebuilding the ninth ward” infomercial, then I saw it and cried like a little old man baby. They nailed the potential this story has, and Pitt once again impresses. Everyone should see this and love it, but then again I do love “The Notebook”.

In the middle of all those things I also made a server switch (still MT, just a new version of the DV along with PHP5, finally), put up a few new websites (splash pages) for various friends and a few of my various projects and hung up a ton of art around the place.

I hope everyone else enjoyed some time with friends and family (or locked up avoiding them), whatever you needed the past weeks, and is looking forward to where 2009 can take us.

Oh, did you hear?
Yes we did.

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Best Songs of 2008
1. Third Eye Blind – Red Star
2. Mike Dunn And The Kings Of New England – The Edge Of America*
3. The Jealous Sound – Got Friends
4. The Summer Set – …In Color
5. Coldplay – Prospekt’s March

My only real commentary on this is that people should put out more EP’s. Start an EP label, something.

*This may have not come out in 2008, I may not care about silly facts like that.

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Best Songs of 2008
1. Augustana – Sweet And Low
2. Gavin Rossdale – Love Remains The Same
3. Mates Of State – The Re-Arranger
4. My Favorite Highway – Getaway Car
5. Jack’s Mannequin – The Resolution
6. Estelle (ft. Kanye West) – American Boy
7. Katy Perry – Hot N’ Cold
8. Kanye West – Heartless
9. Coldplay – Viva La Vida
10. All-American Rejects – Another Heart Calls

Running Commentary (with no care in the world for grammar) follows:
I still stand by the statement I made after my second listen of “Sweet And Low”, which was something along the lines of it being the best song the band has ever written, and for those of you that know me know how Augustana’s “Boston” affects me, so that is really saying something. Gavin Rossdale renewed my faith in him in one single, single. You probably haven’t heard the My Favorite Highway song, but you should, it should be huge if that album ever gets a proper push. I’m not sure how many times this year I was standing in a booth at a club singing “American Boy”, but it was a lot. The late pushes this year were made by Kanye’s second single, and a song that probably won’t be a single by AAR, but it’s gorgeous.

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Best Albums of 2008
1. Coldplay – Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends
2. The New Frontiers – Mending
3. Katy Perry – One Of The Boys
4. My Favorite Highway – How To Call A Bluff
5. Augustana – Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt
6. Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak
7. Denison Witmer – Carry The Weight
8. Girl Talk – Feed The Animals
9. Death Cab For Cutie – Narrow Stairs
10. We The Kings – We The Kings

I know my list is full of lame pop albums, I know it’s not as cool as your list with Vampire Weekend, Kings of Leon and Bon Iver. I realise my lameness in full, it’s who I am, I love pop music. All those great indie bands write some brilliant songs, but rarely do I ever find myself with a hook stuck in the head that can only be cured by singing along to hits like I do these artists listed above. Forgive me, all the indie hits blend together into an un-craved mass of great music that lies un-played in my iTunes.

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Two Pacific Northwest film makers decided to start experiencing the life their cat lives. It’s becoming an ongoing project tht has garnered a bunch of press, and more importantly has returned some absolutely gorgeous photographs.

You can check out the Flickr of the Cat Cam here.

Sadly I may have to contend that anyone with a camera really is a photographer.

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Here is the wrap-up:
I was sick for a good solid 2 weeks, most of it came from breathing pure ash from some of the lovely fires in Southern California, I finally recovered the week of Thanksgiving, but was way behind on work (thank you to everyone whose project was delayed, your grace is wonderful).

I got back on the ball and wrapped a ton of stuff up the past 2 weeks, including a 3 day trek to San Diego to see family/friends whom I love, and a 2 day trek to AZ to ride along with Tell as he played ASU. It was all great, and we officially decided AZ may be the best food state ever. Think about it, they get the west coast (In-N-Out, Del Taco, etc) and the Middle America (Waffle House, Chick-Fil-A, Sonic) along with other random things from states far off. Put a White Castle out there and my vote is in.

I just wrapped up William Tell’s MySpace the other day, if you haven’t been by lately he has quite a few new songs up that you should listen to. This little project was a fun nightmare. Lots of work overwriting MySpace and figuring out stupid little one line code issues, but it’s only the first time that this will kill me.

Also not too long back I finally got up a semblance of a website for Department Three. I have been promising this for years, and now finally some of my recent work is up to view at the studios site.

I’m working on a ton of other things, filing away files, getting caught up on emails, do if you are wondering why I haven’t replied to something, be patient. In the works are a few websites, some branding work, and a few more MySpace re-designs.

In other news, my friends at Hozell are having a warehouse sale this weekend. It’s today and tomorrow, and it also includes WeSC another great brand I’m a huge fan of. Info is on the MySpace linked there (because they didn’t want to put it on their MySpace?), and i’ll be there in a few minutes. If you are in LA/OC you should head down and hang.

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Because of such celebratory events I am bringing you free music. From two different places.

Firstly, a lot of my time has been spent working on a few projects for William Tell, and part of that pile is up on the internet today. Right here, if you sign up you get a free song, and lot’s more to come. It’s a new marketing device that we have dubbed, “bribery”. The song is called “Gone Gone Gone” and it has some great Paul Simon moments in it.

Secondly, a lot of the rest of my time is spent talking to the one and only Chad Pearson. He has a record label, and they give you free music. He is currently living in a red state, but let’s look past that for a moment. FREE MUSIC! Okay, so yeah, his label sampler is now up for free on Amazon MP3. It features some great artists whom I truly love, and is just the right kind of mood for Fall days (Not that I know what Fall is like). A little more mature sound blasting from your windows, a little more proof you are cooler than people think.

So enjoy the music, and the new President, and if I could give away this for free I would.

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That’s right, 7-11 did their own polls, and they predict a huge sweep for Obama. The greatest part of this map is how they just leave out a bunch of states no one cares about. Ha. If he actually won that large of the popular vote, he could beat out the all time record of the popular vote, held by… you guessed it… Warren G. Harding. I must add for truthiness, that there are ZERO 7-11′s to be found in Arizona, I tried one summer, drove into like 7 towns, it’s Circle K’s only.

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It’s hard to really write out my formula for Obama, I don’t necessarily think it’s about his stance on this small issue or that small issue, I think it’s more powerful than that. Some people like to call basing decisions on feeling or emotion and not the issues ignorant, but I am not voting issues. I’m voting for the person that has changed this country already, just through their campaign, I’m voting for the guy whose platform is “Hope”, is “Change”.

Anyway, on the internets I found this great article explaining the Obama “effect” on another personal level. This echoes so many thoughts that I have I had to share it. It may not make sense to everyone to vote for someone “on a hunch”, but I think it’s just about as good as basing it off propaganda and lies.

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After my moment of jubilation, and my pestering Tell about his Obama 08 BlackBerry application (or lack there of), came the most perfect reply ever.

Tell

“I hear John McCain is coming out with one for a NEXTEL.”

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To wrap up my thoughts on the baseball season, I thought we would go to Ralph Nader for a comment.

Ralph Nader, after he’d been told by Washington Post editors that the lack of coverage of his presidential campaign was because he had no chance of winning:

“Then why are you covering the Nationals?”

Best thing ever, thank you Ralph, thank you Nationals for losing 3 more games than the Padres.

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Earlier today on the news I was watching a local report on WaMu and a reporter was getting the “word on the street” from the customers. Multiple customers had no idea WaMu failed yesterday, one even decided not to go in and deposit a cheque in his account. Pretty surprising how uninformed someone can be about what is happening in the country right now, and even more shocking that they don’t know their financial protections.

The greatest moment of this piece came when the reporter had talked to one customer who had gone into the branch last week and met with the Manager. He demanded to know “what was going on with all of this and what he should know”. The Manager replied with the following, “Everything is fine, don’t believe all that stuff that is out there, WaMu is as solid as a rock”.

Rocks do sink to the bottom.

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Computerworld

Several digital images that Microsoft Corp. has posted on its Web site to trumpet its new “I’m a PC” advertising campaign were actually created on Macs, according to the files’ originating-software stamp.

Four of the images that Microsoft made available on its PressPass site today display the designation “Adobe Photoshop C3 Macintosh” when their file properties are examined. The images appear to be frames from the television ads that Microsoft will launch later today.

This one just makes me giggle over and over and over.

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The Huffington Post

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan offered a woeful outlook of America’s economic situation on Sunday, saying the crisis with the country’s financial institutions was as dire as he had ever seen in his long career, and predicting that one or more of those institutions would likely collapse in the near future.

“Oh, by far,” Greenspan said, when asked if the situation was the worst he had seen in his career. “There’s no question that this is in the process of outstripping anything I’ve seen and it still is not resolved and still has a way to go and, indeed, it will continue to be a corrosive force until the price of homes in the United States stabilizes. That will induce a series of events around the globe which will stabilize the system.”

Alan Greenspan covered all the topics, except the fact that he is pretty much single handedly responsible for what is happening to our economy currently, but hey that isn’t really important right?

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P.S. Go to hell Pacey.

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As a bonus to all of you who like good music. A new song, from the genius that is Gasoline Heart. You are all welcome.

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Just head over to Joel’s blog to see the video.

I have a newsflash “peaceful protestors” of Denver, the moment you left the park (where coincidentally the law enforcement had no issue with you) and started marching down roads made, not for people to march down, but for automobiles to drive down; the moment you started moving at law enforcement; the moment you were yelling aggressively; the moment you were running to find a new street to clog; you were no longer peaceful. You assembled, it was fine, and you could have stayed their with your signs and nonsense, but you chose marching. It’s funny, in California, I’m not allowed to cross a street in a downtown city unless I use a cross walk, but these people believe they should be able to randomly march down the entire street?

I wish people in this country would realise they don’t have the right to “march down the fucking street”. I wish people would not try to spin the fact that they declined to use the approved protest areas that were set up so a city could function while people would still be able to protest. I wish people would not spin the fact that due to their selfish act of marching down a street wherever they wanted with 2000 of their closest friends they are making other peoples lives miserable and delaying them from getting to/from work and going about their lives. I wish people protesting aggressively and yelling at law enforcement would stop acting like they weren’t hoping to be maced.

Protests are so futile, it’s one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen. Protesting is about the same to me as wearing an American flag pin on your lapel. Up front, you made this big show, and you can talk to your friends about how involved you are in changing politics, but in the end you have done nothing. Get out and do something, call people, write letters, run for office, find us a better option and help get them elected; don’t just wave a sign and act like you are making any sort of impact besides trying to get your so-called movement a little press. The press who feeds off drama and has probably pushed more people towards this sort of thing with it’s choice of what gets covered, and it will get covered for that day, yet protestors think the press will suddenly stop ignoring the issues that they help our government perpetuate in the days that follow. There are so many countless ways better to bring change to the world.

I have seen firsthand for 2 years the kind of recklessness these protests bring with them, and those were formally organised city approved protests through Downtown Los Angeles. On one of these occassions I couldn’t even go into work because the traffic re-routing simply couldn’t get me to my office.

I’m pretty sure at some point people need to use some common sense and realise there are other tax paying citizens who might have issue with their lives being disrupted by a street full of people marching.

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I love Heroes, it’s probably my favourite show on television (though HIMYM is pretty even), but this whole thing really is ridiculous. I guess it’s what happens when you can’t use union actors and union directors and union writers and union key grips and union catering.

Go ahead, watch the webisodes of Heroes.

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When I was watching the first episode and saw the typography they used I was pretty taken. It does a brilliant job of capturing what the mood of the show is. It’s rough around the edges, but has a certain order to it’s madness. I thought it was great how they created something with a very solid familiarity without going the route of some played out font we have seen too many times.

Then today I was listening to K-Rock NY on my iPhone (through AOL Radio) and I noticed something interesting…

No longer did we have an original and unique font. Now did someone rip off the other someone in this case? Probably not. It’s probably the case of 2 entities finding a font that actually fits their “brand” quite well, it’s just a shame they both come to light in a similar moment. Now you might be thinking, “Aren’t you being a little too harsh on people for using the same font? Don’t people do that all the time?” And you are right, it happens, but it usually is avoided by most designers when it is such a kitschy type font. If I had seen these both without seeing the other, I probably would think both were wonderful choices and original type creations, but I can’t change the facts, and I think the designers working on those projects should have spent a little more time on the font choice/execution.

Anyone else remember a case of a very memorable, kitschy, stock font was used for two brands around the same time? The last one I can think of was the Spiderman/Playstation 3 font, which at least both were Sony properties.

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Sounds like all is well out around the epicenter, and there is no damage reported.

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Just thought I would fill you all in on some places my photos are appearing lately. Thanks to all the people who let me capture their souls on electronics.

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He will be reading from his book “What It Is: What It Is” and Filter Magazine is presenting the events, so it should be quite a wonderful literary event. Check out Flavorpill if you are in LA or NYC for all the event info.

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Well I decided to go ahead and fill everyone in on what I would be contributing to the show. I take a lot of pictures, it’s a big part of my life. However I’m not one of those people who shows up everywhere with my Canon and looking kind of weird trying to take pictures of everything I see in my life. I miss more good picture opportunities than I take good pictures, but for the first time I will be showing a few of these pictures. 5 images, 30″ x 20″, taken in Boston, MA, Los Angeles, CA and CBGB’s in NYC, NY.

Here they are:

I hope this event is a marvelous success, not for myself, but because the people involved in this, and the other artists contributing are some of the most amazing people I know on this planet. They constantly inspire me, challenge me, and humble me. I am so thrilled to be involved in anything they do.

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So how did I wrap up an utterly amazing week? Well, first I went down to San Diego and saw my family and celebrated my birthday early. It was a lovely time, and I got in some seriously needed pool time, because being on a river all week is way different angles of sunlight and the tan takes a serious toll.

Heading back home to Long Beach, I was ready to get back to reality. Well that was all thrown afoot on Sunday when we headed out to a little party that wound up being the biggest thing in LA County on Sunday. There were Lions, Tigers, Monkeys, Waterfalls, Margaritas, Old Friends, Amazing New Friends, Long Walks Back To The Car (Or For The Entrepreneurial Sorts Domino’s Car Rides), and Telling People Our Names Were 80′s Band Names (Which Worked Out Well For Todo). It was an absolute amazing time, and did I mention BI happened to have left his bayou home (and was visiting the place that misses him way too much, or maybe just the people do) and made the whole day that much better.

Thanks to everyone who invited us/threw the party, let us not wait in line, poured us beverages, gave me chips, made us smile, and all the rest involved, especially one graceful pizza delivery driver. I am thankful to have the friends I do, and the ridiculous times we get into. Life is good.

As if that run of days couldn’t get any better, early today I purchased a replica, orange, Chad Johnson jersey for far too ridiculously little. Ocho Cinco, check; Man Ram, up next.

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All the prints of my photographs will be 30×20, and I will post the day of the event the pieces that are there, maybe. I’m really excited for everything Chad is doing with Panda, I’m absolutely in love with the musicians he is working with, I’m thrilled to be a part of an art show where my work will be completely showed up by some of the most amazing artists out there today who I am also honoured to call my friends (therefore, such as.

If you are in the Atlanta area, you should make it out to this. I was trying to work out an appearance myself, but I think I will wait until the fall to fully experience the ATL.

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Do you ever get those messages out of the blue on MySpace or Facebook from an old HS (or earlier, or later) friend, whom you truly have some good memories of, and have once over the past 10 years wondered how they are? Yeah, me too.

Here are how they go:

Catching Up

Subject:
Long Time (Or some other vague title about how you haven’t talked in years)
Body:
Hey _________, wow it’s been like __ years since we have _______. How have you been? Are you still __________________? It’s crazy finding all our old __________ on __________________. Did you hear ________________ is ___________________?

I have been _____________, just _____________ and living in __________________. I am really glad I found you, we HAVE to ___________ soon. You have to catch me all up on _________.

And sometimes in there they slide in some guilt trip, like it’s your fault you forgot to get info about the 10 year reunion, or that it’s your fault you never come see them when you go home.

I get these, all the time, and even though a lot of people would assume I would treat then with attitude I am presenting here, I don’t. I love these messages, well used to, I love these people, well used to. I have noticed a strange pattern, and it goes a little something like this (hit me). I will write back, and I write back a well thought out response that I take a portion out of my day to sit down without distractions and write. A couple paragraphs, not much I know, but I do my best to truly try to re-connect with these people.

Then you know what happens? I never get a reply back. Maybe I don’t prod them enough to warrant one, maybe I don’t ask enough questions about _______ being _________, I really don’t know.

I have always been the kind of person who was accepting that there are certain times in your life where people you are close with are meant to leave, and new ones will soon be around; moments like these remind me why those people had their time in my life years ago.

So in conclusion, thanks, but no thanks. If you really care about me, we probably found a way to connect before the MySpaces, Facebooks and LinkedIns of the world were around. I’ve had the same phone number for 6 years, the same email address for 6 years (though be on the lookout, that is changing) and I’ve lived in Los Angeles County for 4 years, if you wanted to catch up or missed those old times, it isn’t hard to find a way. If you are just gonna message me to feel like you fulfilled a good deed by reconnecting with an old friend, and then just not even have the urge to reply even 3 words to a conversation you started, just read my blog and pretend like we are still friends.

Optional Bonus Activity:
Pretend above “Catching Up” conversation is a mad lib, post your most creative version as a comment, and the winner will get a special gift. Oh, and let’s keep it clean, it’s takes zero creativity to turn that thing sexual, it takes genius to come up with clean humour. Remember, this blog is a class act.

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Happy Hour, The Summer Gin, Superbad Scrabble, Ice Cream Sandwiches, Honey Wheat Pancakes, Realising Every Better Than Ezra Song Is Trying To Be Another Band, PBR, 21-1 Pool Volleyball Games, Beach Boys, Burgers, Fireworks, Cool Runnings, Betting On Olympic Trials, Falling Asleep On Couches, Gin & Tonics, Breakfast Burritos, Red Sox v. Yankees, Poolside Days, Some Of The Best iPod Playlists Ever, Mai Tai’s, Fajitas, Jacuzzi, More Olympic Trials, Falling Asleep On Couches, Being Horrible At Video Games, Leftovers, F1 Races That Look More Like Rally Racing, Falling Asleep On Couches.

Bryan Adams – Summer Of ’69

“Those were the best days of our lives.”

It’s pretty true, even in ’08.

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A large movement in support of this law came from a Harvard Center study that everyone and their brother quotes as proof that this law will save lives. I decided to steal a pull from Wired, who ran an article about this law, and feel similarly to myself.

Wired

Studies by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis (.pdf) suggest 2,600 people are killed and as many as 330,000 people are injured each year in the United States in cellphone-related driving accidents.

The part I really wish Wired would have brought up is as follows; How many of those 2600 people killed and 330,000 injured were in accidents involving bad drivers, speeding drivers, etc.? People don’t like to think about those sorts of things, they like to try to solve problems by eliminating things coincidentally involved. I’m not saying this is a horrible idea, and that it won’t help people to focus on the road, I’m just saying the real problem is the people who don’t focus on the road, not 1 of multiple things they could do that could distract them.

This is much like the logic that if you don’t allow kids to wear certain clothes, they will behave better and be more focused. People should start looking at the cause, to be able to solve the problem they have with the effect. It’s simple physics.

Things still legal to do in the car; put on makeup, shave, make out, wind your watch, read, type, write, search your iPod for “99 Problems” by Jay-Z, hit and/or yell at your kids, search through papers in the backseat, watch DVD’s, etc., etc.

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Now that we have all the title possibilities out of the way.

Just the other night Kyle and I were discussing the ridiculousness of the V-neck. It’s pretty much a plague the likes of Von Dutch hats. Sure the V is comfortable, and shows off all that cool chest hair we have worked years to have, but it doesn’t mean it’s applicable for all moments of life. If you think wearing a Deep V out to social events is a good idea, you should probably just take it to new levels and rock a tank top next time you are heading over to Les Deux (Les Deun’t? Hahaha).

The fine folks at Radar apparently listen to our conversations and decided to write an article about the “Deep V”, I have provided the below image and my favourite pull quote to make your life better.

Radar

So, at least for a little while longer, the question isn’t crewneck versus V-neck, it’s V-neck versus aggressive V-neck. Just be careful how low you go. “It’s getting pretty close to being a vest as it is,” Polk points out. “It’s, like, another three inches and that’s a vest, motherfucker.”

“Aggressive V-neck” may be the best description ever, well that is until you look at this image:

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Now you might be wondering what this has to do with the homeless. Well, last night I decided to go try this Angus burger and get one for free. You might think I got the wonderful idea to give my free one to a homeless person. Well you are half right, I decided to eat half of each of my 2 burgers, and throw the other half away. I know, I am a horrible, wasteful, American. However, afterward I came up with the brilliant idea to feed the homeless on McDonald’s dime.

Basically I am encouraging you, if you are the type to eat burgers (that are nowhere near as good as the ones we cook over at 333) from fast food places, to print out the coupons, eat the McD’s and find someone hungry to toss a burger to. Think of the effect if every person did this once a week until July 31, literally we would have some very gracious and full homeless people (and on there way to clogged arteries, but different story there).

The best part of this whole concept is that it doesn’t end at July 31, or McDonald’s. We get coupons every day from fast food. If you are gonna eat the death that is fast food, look over the coupons, find the buy one get one free, stop worrying about saving yourself money, buy whatever they are offering 2 for 1, and give the free one to someone who is in a less fortunate position. It’s no pay it forward, but it could make a difference, and it costs you nothing.

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This is a very interesting map, created by Maurice Gomberg in 1941 (published 1942). Interesting the concepts written along with the map. It’s a shame a 3 branched “world police” couldn’t be established to help the betterment of mankind everywhere. Even if it could have, would it have helped?

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EDIT: Answer, because Mozilla decided to direct me to the Firefox 2 download. Because their servers were probably on fire or something? That was awesome. Step your game up!

So since I am ranting about Firefox 3, you probably either already knew, or just realised, that it officially launched today. So go download it, if you are into helping set stupid download records, or just won’t admit how great Safari is.

I will admit, Mozilla has made some great strides, and I can actually stand to look at Firefox now and not think I was suddenly moved to a PC. It’s now my official, backup, testing browser. I lessthanthree Safari.

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I was able to spend Father’s Day with my very own Father at the U.S. Open. It was a great day of golf, on a gorgeous course. We followed “Lefty” around for a while, and it seemed to do him good as he finished with 68. We hung out at the gorgeous 13 for a few hours and saw some incredible approach shots to a tight pin placement on an elevated green behind 3 bunkers. We almost got hit by Tiger’s drive on 1. We were there on 18 for Tiger’s put that sent the whole thing off to 18 more holes.

Professional golf is one of those things that should be experienced in person to truly grasp the energy, and the U.S. Open is no different. It’s great to watch on television as your favourite golfers walk up the fairway to a roar of the crowd, but the chill you will get from being the roar is even better.

Special thanks to Kyle Davidson for being important; No Special thanks to the sun block that failed me.

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What happened to all the faith being in young people? What happened to giving everything to the future generations so that they could better the world far more than we imagined? What happened to teaching good decision making and ethics, as opposed to just giving up and blaming the failures on things like the clothes people wear? Why are scare tactics and propaganda existing in out educational system?

The final straw to me came when I read this. Seriously? I cannot even fathom a situation that I can somehow try to draw a parallel to for this one. It’s just unheard of, it’s just shocking that someone thought this was a good idea, it’s just utterly disrespectful.

MSNBC

On a Monday morning last month, highway patrol officers visited 20 classrooms at El Camino High School to announce some horrible news: Several students had been killed in car wrecks over the weekend.

… Many who heard the news of the 26 deaths between classes, were left in the dark until the missing students reappeared hours later.

The most tragic part about this whole story is that everyone seems to still think it was a good idea and that it will save lives. Are you kidding me? You people are a joke.

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JM Takeover Of Gizmodo Liveblog

Hey guys, John Mayer here. Are you guys excited? I’ve just commandeered the computer of my good friend, Jason Chen, who is also very very handsome. That means a lot coming from a guy like me. My other friend, Moby, is also here. Have you guys seen him? He’s really into technology. I love that guy. OK back to Jason.

For those of you not in the know; Jason Chen was liveblogging the Apple WWDC08 Keynote speech Steve Jobs made this morning. Anyone else find it funny that John Mayer (whose tour is presented by Blackberry, and got the “Bold” early) was once again at a Keynote that was entirely about the iPhone? I never had an issue like all the people giving JM flack for entering into a business arrangement with RIM/Blackberry, I am sure Apple was given a chance to and passed, as JM was never a paid endorser of Apple (he just knows what is good for him). However the RIM folk have to be a bit upset that he is still showing up around iPhone announcements.

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I also have an iPhone gallery set up where I will upload pictures straight from the iPhone. I guess that means I will no longer be utilising the Flickr account, but we shall see how that goes and if adding the iPhone gallery RSS to the live section actually works. I’m just not committed to Flickr, Apple and I have far too strong of a relationship for some floozy to come in and pull us apart.

I also, also have a selected gallery of Live Noise. It is, what you thought it was.

Special thanks to; Lindsay Strannigan and Kyle Davidson who each helped me whittle down the Portfolio, and a certain lady friend who used the word “floozy” so much that it is forever attached to her in my mind, for better or worse.

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Chip Kidd – The Learners
I finally finished this on my trip up North. It’s a powerful book, anyone who went to art school or designs will probably enjoy it, though I think you should read “The Cheese Monkeys” first.

Price Club (Costco)
We like to call it by it’s old name, but regardless, you need more Costco in your life.

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Let’s examine that. How fun would it be to see 30 people randomly pop up on your Bonjour list in iChat and randomly IM you. Aside from the fact that it could be that creepy dude in the “Foreigner” t-shirt, rather than the adorable girl from the crew team of Western Washington University, I think the whole thing would be amazing. Isn’t the internet supposed to bring us together? Isn’t the future of social networking, networking us when we are being social?

I digress, I think I have lost my mind due to words I have yet to write. They will come, they will flow with the surge of the American River.

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So the blog has been a little lacking in interesting things lately, that is mostly because my non-blogosphere life has been a little too interesting and/or busy lately. Because of such events, I share with you two things. Two things I was presented with today that grabbed me a little bit, two things that some people may find interesting.

The first is a blog post by a Gypster. Lindsay Strannigan is her Christian name, I don’t know what kind of names Gypsters have, so make one up.

The second is a bulletin one Rory Felton sent out on MySpace. I am not too sure if that link to the bulletin will even work for everyone, nor if Rory wants the world (you know the 5 people who read my blog who are all probably already friends with him on the space anyway) reading his words, but he did put them on MySpace, and it is, at the least, a thought provoking essay.

I’m closing down the blog for the weekend, but you can find me on twitter, I’m sure.

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We never knew how that CD-R found it’s way to us that day, or why, but we never questioned that it was pure destiny. Y2Khai has since never left my iTunes, and after today it should never leave yours. I think I once even burned a copy for Dan Crittenden’s 21st birthday present, which I am sure was the best gift he ever got.

Recently I decided to see what “Y” was up to, and well it’s the same “sweet asian flow” on a seemingly recently made over website. If you haven’t, then you should. MP3′s can be downloaded at his site. Listen now, thank me later.

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I accrue books at a rate equal to the exports of small countries. Setting aside the time to spend with a book is to many a luxury, I suppose. A moment to focus on words actually printed on white pages bound together without any connection to the internet. I still find myself battling to enjoy this time, this disconnection.

I realised while making a sarcastic remark today, that I am a book snob. I made the comment that I only buy First Edition Hardcover copies, and I was sort of kidding, except I wasn’t at all. I really do. I have a book subscription, a subscription not just to magazines, not just to a quarterly, but to books. And I love it.

Why do I do all this? Why do I revel in this addiction? Simple. I am the type of person who one day does not want to be able so simply utilise bookcases, or even an entire wall of bookshelf, I want to require an entire room full of books. Shelves on every wall, a library, with a reading chair to sit down and read Catcher In The Rye for the 5782th time.

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I support Obama, I hope every day for him to be our next President, and when someone asks me why I do so, I reply with the following, “He is different”. Now sure this is a cop out (and to many jumping on the trend), there are much deeper reasons, but it doesn’t need to go deeper than that. Politics has always been skin deep, look at the system. Politics is inherently a system where we vote down party lines, we ignore the actual person, and we assume they will just put their parties agenda into practice entirely. It’s a pretty terrible way to do things, and assuming Obama will do the bidding of the Democratic Party once he is elected is just as naive as only supporting Obama because he will be a change of pace.

I hate giving away my money to support the “immobile lifestyles of those who choose not to contribute to society”. I hate the concept of healthcare for everyone. I think these things are not guaranteed, but privilege. As horrible as it sounds, yes, I think living a life free of dying young to pneumonia is a privilege. Until these treatments and cures don’t cost money, they should be for those who are in a position to afford to pay for them. The solution is not having me pay for other peoples standard of living to go up, the solution is having these treatments and cures affordable for everyone to pay for on their own (not subsidized either). That is where we should be trying to take society, that is how we should be trying to help all of humanity. Yet, I support Obama, a Democrat.

I wish we could be left to allowing the non-profits of the world to pick up those less fortunate, I wish it would work that way, but some of us in the world are far too selfish to extend a hand to someone. I have far greater issue with the tax dollars we spend abroad and overseas than what we spend on our own citizens, at least those in our country have the chance that they will become tax paying, productive members of society, it’s more of an investment. I am all for investing in people, all for investing in developing countries, but lets make sure we have a system where we can at least possibly gain financially from that overseas spending of my tax dollars (such an idea, here). I would realistically be more happy with this country if we were entirely practicing either Isolationism or Imperialism, anything with an “I” really.

I believe in people, I believe that our Government actually has 3 branches that all direct and lead our nation. I don’t believe the current President is to blame for all our troubles, just as I don’t believe the next one will magically right this sinking ship. So why do I think we need Obama? Simple, he is open to new ideas, he doesn’t pretend to have everything figured out, he openly states sometimes that his idea currently may not be the final solution to the issue, he is young and passionate. Sometimes experience is not what we need, sometimes we need a leader, doing things for the right reasons.

Michael Bloomberg makes a dollar a year as Mayor of NYC, he is doing it for the right reasons (I personally believe all high ranking politicians should be willing to take no salary for their “service”, but that’s a different rant). Bloomberg has been a Democrat, a Republican and an Independent, Bloomberg supports Obama’s economic plan, at least aspects of it, and I happen of trust the guys judgement on economics. There are certain people out there who are change agents, it’s a trendy term sure, but it’s the best way I can put this. Certain people simply know how to allow for positive change, not to stand in the way or be more important than the change (something I believe Hillary would do constantly), but to guide, to listen, to react and to have interests above their own personal gain. Hillary Clinton has now “invested” 11 million of her own money into her campaign, do you really think she isn’t doing this for the future “benefits”?

I was a huge proponent of John McCain, I think he is one of these people who have the better good above their own personal gain, I was fully behind him a few years ago… and then he went crazy. He started to make statements based on making his party happy, he latched on to ideas just to get their support, he lost a little of his identity. Sure it was probably necessary, but he lost a lot of respect in my book, he pulled a John Kerry. I did not vote for Kerry, so you know who I voted for, it wasn’t very easy. The real thing that killed Kerry in my eyes was seeing how passionate and ready to lead he was in old film footage from Vietnam. He was absolutely inspiring, then somewhere along the line he became a puppet.

Am I contradicting myself a lot? Probably. Didn’t I just talk about how Obama isn’t set on his decisions and is willing to listen? There is a difference between a puppet, a rational, listening leader and an egomaniac. The two extremes are what we keep having to chose between, and frankly I’m tired of it.

Where am I even going with this? Well, here is the thing. Sometimes the best judgement we can make on a person is the first judgement, it’s instincts. Sometimes I meet people for the first time and get this bad feeling about them, every time it has been accurate. Voting for someone because their movement moves us isn’t wrong. Yes we should be careful not to be misled, yes we should educate ourselves with what we are getting excited about (thankfully Obama has a handy little blueprint on the matter), yes it can be a fine line whether we are being ignorant or just believe in a person… these things have been at issue for Politics since the Roman Empire.

An amazing person said something to me about morality recently. I think it really sums up the approach we should take on politics as well…

Amazing Anonymous Person

Morality… it’s all crap because different things are good and bad to different people.

There is no defined right way, there is no solution that will please everyone. The way to lead this country is to understand that, to be able to have all these different, unique persons trust and to lead in good faith. The kind of person that can prove they can do that, shouldn’t need much more than the first impression and it shouldn’t matter what party they associate themselves with.

We are tired of the typical Democrat, we are tired of the typical Republican, we are tired of typical Politics. People don’t simply like Obama because he is different, people need Obama because he is different.

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There will be bands, Paul, other people, stuff and things. See you there, more info here.

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27 year-old Mike Phillips lives with his Mother, and deals with all the same issues a child living under the parents roof go through. Rebellion, Dependency, Disagreements, Control all play a part in Mike’s story. The one factor we never had to go through is Spinal Muscular Atrophy, which has slowed the normal move into Independency to a crawl. SMA keeps Mike confined to a wheelchair, keeps him from communicating normally, keeps him from truly being his own person.

This whole thing sounds incredibly depressing, but it isn’t, at all, it is one hundred percent inspirational, is is hilarious, it is motivating. A few years ago Mike wouldn’t have had much of a future, but technology has advanced faster than the disease can take him, and even though he has numerous near death experiences a year he lives a (sort of) normal life. Just the way Mike speaks of these near death experiences is what truly makes you realise how different his life is. He is so accepting of them, he has thrown in the towel to the fact they are always there. Literally this man could die at any instant and yet he finds the time to enjoy his life, to rebel, to love, to do so many things we don’t.

I said something there about Mike speaking, I should have been more clear, Mike cannot speak. Mike has to click words into a computer (Apple, of course) to communicate with people, the words are then spoken by a computerized voice. The host, Ira Glass, realises how impersonal this whole computer voice is and and asks whom he would like to sound like, if he could pick any person in the world. Mike suggests either Edward Norton or Johnny Depp, “Because they’re both badasses”. A few minutes later, Glass narrates, “Ladies and gentlemen, Johnny Depp”.

This was the point it hit me like a load of bricks, where I realised the breadth of this story. Hearing Johnny “freaking” Depp voice the words of Mike Phillips completely broke me, in the most amazing way. Everything clicked, the whole story was twisted in a way that you needed to see it, that this was the kind of story that needed a character the likes of Depp for you to understand. It’s what This American Life does best, it tells a story you might normally block out or brush off after a few moments, and it tells that it in such a way that it will never leave your mind.

I strongly recommend everyone watch this episode, I know it is replaying on Showtime most of this week, and probably on Showtime OnDemand shortly.

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Video by Tom Guilmette.

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A list of AT&T’s 71,000 hotspots can be found on AT&T’s site, including Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, Airports, and McDonald’s locations.

P.S. T-Mobile is for suckers.

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Tell just made all his new demos on his MySpace available for download, so you can drive down the 405 singing “Let’s Go To Bed” like the rest of us. Do it.

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The absolute jewel of this concept is the letter to the bulk mailer for you to insert in your package.

Insert Letter

Dear Bulk Mailer,

Please find attached to your no-postage-necessary envelope, this brick. I figured with all these great junk mails you send me every month, you’d like something in return! I know it costs twenty cents for every ounce I mail to you, so I hope it doesn’t weigh too much more than an ounce.

-Resident or Homeowner

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Next up, the decision on the Democratic nomination, live from Gladiator Arena.

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1) Get out in 60 days (or as quick as humanly possible without the troops being bottlenecked like the Persians) plan. This plan has actually been discussed, and a lot of people think it’s quitting on Iraq, it is. It’s the swallow our pride plan, it’s the realise this issue goes deeper than what we can force plan, it’s the let them fight it out themselves plan. Let’s face it Iraq maybe shouldn’t be 1 country, it has 3 very diverse groups who are all at various times against us and each other. If we left, they can decide where they want to control, how they want to live with their neighbors, and what relations they want to have with them. If they have a desire for one united Iraq, then they will work towards it; If they desire for their own government that can best represent their ethnic group, then they can go that route. We should have learned by now that forcing people to live together under one rule will only lead to one group trying to have control over the others. This whole idea acknowledges that maybe it’s a terrible idea for them to try to govern together. Of course we lose a lot of money, there will certainly be fighting and dying of these different peoples and we lose our foothold in the Middle East. It’s obvious what we gain, but just in case; we stop the loss of American lives, we stop the drain this war has taken on our tax dollars.

2) The “free” gas plan. I used to always joke around and say that “the American public would be okay with this war if we at least got free gas”. It’s terrible to say, and sadly true. Wars used to be fought for resources and gain. Yes there were some fought for chivalry and freedom, but really they still had underlying motives going beyond that. I know we have motives beyond the freedom of these people, I no longer get how those motives benefit us as a country, therefore at least come up with some gains for all these losses. Gasoline and energy costs are one of the biggest issues facing the United States as a country, and individuals living here, alleviating some of that pressure would benefit our economy and growth immensely. Let’s face it, the Government is essentially the biggest corporation, so it’s time they start balancing this whole thing out. Free gas, however, would be violating the people of Iraq, but a discounted gas would be a pretty fair shake. We essentially get oil discounted to cost plus 15%, the Iraq economy still has some positive benefit from this, and isn’t completely stripped of income. We are allowed this deal only to the point that the discounts equal the amount of tax payer dollars being spent on Iraq. This oil is then sold to the US gasoline syndicate at normal rates and the income offsets the tax dollars being spent. Of course the Iraqi government would get a say on this deal after every 6 months, if they feel the cost of income they are losing outweighs the benefits we provide, they let us know and we leave. This gives the whole situation economic balance, motivation for Iraq to stand on it’s own legs, as well as a means for Iraq to say “Thanks for the help, it’s been enough”. This plan should be utilised in any situation in which we are providing extended relief (beyond 9 months) to other countries.

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I have 2 allegiances in baseball, Padres and Red Sox, and I had already found my way to Dodger Stadium to support the BoSox in their exhibition game, so last Friday we decided to see Peavy v. Penny and support the Pads. Left field bleachers, no Padres hats present, Kyle, Liz and myself. There we were minding our own business, cheering for our team, witnessing countless Padres fans heckled, assaulted with peanuts, popcorn, seeds, soaked with beer, etc. Granted these fans were a little more outspoken, and finally each one at some point had enough and started throwing things back or yelling back, and every one of them was kicked out. What about the 30-40 Dodger fans who started the whole ordeal? Oh, they were fine, no need to stop that kind of behaviour in the stands.

I really was shocked, I had dealt with some obnoxious Dodger fans at moments in the old days of The Murph, I guess I just expected that to be the exception, not the rule. It is definitely the rule. The Dodger organization apparently supports this kind of behaviour and does not care about the fans of opposing teams and their right to enjoy a ballgame. The Dodger organization is a classless lot, which is probably why their fans like them.

We sat in the front of a section, Dodger fans behind us, it started out quite friendly and the guy directly behind me realised we knew baseball and we had some good fun talking a little trash with a known and vocalized respect that it was all in the fun of the game. I love trash talking, it’s encouraged, but at the end of the day, when the game is over, let’s go have a beer and laugh about whichever of our teams sucked the worse, it’s just a game. So this guy had a couple friends with him, they were apparently die hard fans (whom later told me they didn’t even like the Dodgers, and only came because of a free ticket) who refused to let any sort of friendliness exist with Padres fans. They decided the best way to act was to constantly talk trash and heckle while their team was losing.

Soon they realised we didn’t really care about what they had to say, and if they were gonna annoy us they had to step it up, so they did. Next thing you know I have a guy pulling up my hood. Is this 4th grade? Is this really happening? I shrug it off, whatever, we have style and grace they lack. The Padres continue with the monster 4th inning which seems to seriously upset said Dodger fans. Now they have moved on to poking us in the back, now mind you the main offender was already warned to stop causing trouble earlier when he was throwing seeds at people, so I turn around and tell the guy that if he touches me again, I’ll tell security he is back to throwing seeds at people and there happens to be a huge pile right behind me that will dispute his surefire response to not having anymore seeds, of course since it’s 4th grade he pokes me in the back once I turn around.

So then I turn and glare, and this guy thinks it’s a good idea to touch my face, now I know how this stuff works, he wants me to hit him, but I’d rather introduce him to the full face wipe, and then it gets a little heated and out of precaution Kyle restrains me. So I walk over to security, let them know the guys behind us are “poking and touching us the whole game” (yes, definitely the creepiest thing I have said in a while) and that I want them thrown out. So security takes them out, for 10 minutes, and then lets them back in. Wait, what? Yeah, apparently they just needed a time out. Well knowing these guys behaviour and track record you can bet they didn’t just calm down after almost being kicked out. Instead they tried to plot what they would do to us once they got their chance.

The main flaw in trying to plan an attack on people sitting right in front of you, is that they are right in front of you. I heard every word, and was planning my counter attack. My counter attack was brilliant and mostly involved ducking and shoving him down the stairs. I spent the rest of the game waiting for these guys to jump out of their seat and try to hit me, it was a really great way to enjoy a Padres victory. They stayed seated because a couple of LAPD had posted up near our section, joining the security a few feet away from us. I was even more excited for the assault now, knowing I would get to press charges, but eventually the officers decided to walk across to the opposite end of the bleacher, and conveniently the security guard left too.

The chatter of their plans grew more intense, and I kept an eye turned towards the main offender. Kyle and I exchanged some glances that ensured we were on the same page. During one of my looks back, the third rabble-rouser who was very intoxicated decided to show me the knife he had. He pulled it out of his pocket, and gave me a look that wasn’t very welcoming. I’ve never been in a knife fight, and I imagine they aren’t like the ones in Westside Story, I imagine this guy is the sort to let his friends start a commotion and slip in and stab somebody in the middle of it all.

So to make sure we are all up to speed, the Dodger fans behind us, who were only there because of free tickets, who had already been kicked out for their behaviour, but then were allowed back in, who were also allowed in with a knife, were behind us plotting their attack. After 2 outs in the ninth, we left, I turned around to the 2 sober ones and said “guys, it’s only a game”, extended my hand to them and left.

Thanks for the great night of baseball Los Angeles.

Interested in the Dodger Stadium code of conduct? I wonder if anyone who works there has ever read that?

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I personally believe that U.S. Americans are clicking on the idiot test do so because, uhmmm, some people out there in our nation don’t know it’s “an” and uh, I believe that our, I, grammar like such as uh, South Africa, and uh, the Iraq, everywhere like, such as, and I believe that they should, uhhh, our idiot test over here in the US should help the US, uh, should help South Africa, it should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future, for us.

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A lot of people find iPhone versions of websites to be odd, dividing and others think it’s just the trendy version of a mobile site. I agree that it’s strange the fact that a device with the best (and most compatible) mobile browser available is responsible for a boom in optimising for specific devices, it’s ironic of course. However what a lot of people miss in this whole iPhone optimized craze, is that these versions enable the end user to do more (and spend more time on the site) through increased functionality and cross-tasking with the iPhone OS.

Thus, I bring my list of my favourite iPhone optimised websites (I left out the so-called “webapps” because they aren’t an iPhone version of an existing site):
1. Facebook – This borders between “webapp” and optimised site, but it blows away everything else and was one of the first. I am sure come June this will transform into a Facebook App on the iPhone, but for now, this takes the cake.
2. Google Grand Prix – This started out as a Google employee’s own personal project, and once the people at “The G” saw how brilliantly it ties together all the Google App Suite (Search, GMail, Reader, Calendar, et al) it was quickly green-lit for release.
3. Media Temple – Add email addresses on the go, Reboot the server upon a random crash at 11PM on a Friday night, et al. Probably not things very many of you need in your life, but for me this is a must.
4. Digg – Every few weeks I run into someone who JUST heard about Digg. It’s never ceases to amaze me. For all those who don’t know Digg, you should, and you should also know I’m addicted to it.
5. CBS News – CBS News recently became my favourite source for news, because of this really well done iPhone version. All the news that’s fit to touch.

Honorable Mention:
Trustkill Records – I recently got an email about this from a friend of mine at a label, along with asking my thoughts on it. I summed it up by saying it’s brilliantly well done, but I just don’t feel a record label website has the kind of readership to necessitate an iPhone version. They do a great job tying it into all the iPhone can do (iTMS, YouTube, etc.). Personally, I wouldn’t find myself on this site multiple times on my iPhone, but for those that would, you get quite the experience.

If I were to include websites who have a mobile version, and said mobile version includes an iPhone icon (for saving to your home screen), this list would also include The New York Times, and The LA Times. However these sites are just general mobile versions that look stellar on the iPhone and take advantage of only some of the iPhone technology. My criteria for a full iPhone optimization was basically that links were not just text, but utilize the entire graphical area (yes I’m aware of how little sense this makes to anyone that doesn’t use an iPhone, deal).

Have any to add, think I made bad choices? “Talk to me Goose”.

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A little excerpt for your enjoyment:

Daily Kos

Obama, and his campaign, are committed to bringing about change. They are doing this in both large and small steps. Refusing my money is a small step, but it spoke volumes to me. It showed me Obama means what he says and backs it up with action. It shows me that no detail is to small and that his organization is top notch. It strengthened my commitment to see him elected President.

I guess I just can’t use my money to do it:).

p.s.: As a side note, last year my spouse had set up automatic monthly payments to Hillary (nothing big $10/month) but after switching to Obama, had to battle with the Clinton campaign to cancel the automatic payment. I find it ironic that one campaign won’t take my money, the other won’t give it back!

Things like this remind me why we need someone who doesn’t have the “experience” (read: isn’t corrupt, jaded and biased; isn’t loyal to the old ways, run by big business, only worried about their legacy) to be President. Things like this make me soooo prObama.

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Recently (read: last year, cause I’m apparently not on the VAST mailing list) Jon and VAST recorded “One More Day” for their latest album “April”.

I’m still partial to the “demo” version with Chauntelle singing, but both of them are absolute treasures. I tend to think this song would be the most romantic thing ever, if it weren’t so depressing.

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MSNBC

The nearly 2,000 professionals and students who voted named Apple overwhelming winner. The creator of the iPod and Mac computer triumphed in six categories including most inspiring brand and the one readers cannot live without.

Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, was also a winner, but it received the dubious honor of the brand most readers wanted to argue with, and the one they most wanted to revamp. Voted into second place in the category was brand USA.

“brand” USA? Yep, the country you live in. Maybe we can put The Steve in charge of that brand too? Did I just say Steve Jobs for President? Yes, and Apple board of director Al Gore can be his VP I suppose… though I’d rather Jonny Ive (however, he is not eligible seeing as he is a Commander of the British Empire).

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Wikipedia

The tapes are described as having come from Sweden as an excuse for higher rental fees and longer wait times.

In light of the theme of swedeing, director Michel Gondry swedes a version of the trailer of the film, starring Gondry himself. On the official website, users can engage in swedeing, which puts their faces on the VHS cover of a movie. The Be Kind Rewind YouTube minisite also encourages filmmakers to swede their own versions of popular movies.

With that out of the way you are all ready to see the most amazing thing ever. Sweded Tron, Sweded-freaking-lightcycle-scene-from-Tron. I should probably admit right now that I love Tron, it’s the best film Jeff Bridges was in that isn’t called “The Big Lebowski”, and I cannot wait for the anniversary release.

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Brandon drove separately because they had to stop in Van Nuys (read: he doesn’t know Dodger Stadium isn’t south of Van Nuys), and once they finally got there a lovely time of heckling Yankee fans (seriously why do they show up to Dodger v. Red Sox and Angels v. Red Sox games?) and trying to convince Planet Man Ram that he didn’t need to worry about the game. Manny was focused though, and played a solid outfield for 4 innings (read: he didn’t have one ball hit to him).

I tried to convince the concession lady to put duct tape (or scribble with a Sharpie) over the Dodger’s logo on the Souvenir cup, she wouldn’t so I went with a small beverage and a Red Sox dog (there are somethings you will never do, and I won’t support the Dodgers even in my ordering habits). Cocoa Crisp made 2 terrible plays out of routine flies in center, to show us all why he lost the starting job to Ellsbury, and later showed us all why he is great trade bait as he caught one while diving into the wall.

Buchholz drove his pre-season ERA to >9, while I refused to make eye contact with, while berating, the Silverlake girls in front of us.

Dialogue With Silverlake Girl

Her: Why is every Boston fan so grumpy?
Me: I’ll throw ice at you.
Her: I think you need a beer.
Me: I think you need a shower.

It was an absolutely lovely day at the game, and even though the Sox failed to score a run, we left the day happy, because, after all, the Sox are in first place.

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$71,540.00

No that’s not in Roubles, Pesos, or some other weird other foreign currency, that is USD my friends. So let’s be straight about this, someone just pre-paid 2008 rates for 132.5 years of internet service? Now that might be cool if he is like supplying free internet to his entire town or something, but I’m sure it’s just for some huge Georgia mansion in the country. How brilliant of a scheme was this by Charter? 70 grand of capital straight into the bank.

One of my professors once told me in 1998 that if you save $50 a month starting at age 18, you will be a millionaire by 40. In a related note, I would like to tell the winning bidder of the “Charter For Life” promotion, that by my calculations, if he/she would have put the money in savings, in merely half of those 132.5 years he/she could have owned Canada*.

*Figure is estimated off 1998 “become a millionaire” numbers, average inflation versus interest rate figures and the estimated 2008 worth of Canada being 2.3 million dollars.

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London Map Table

Steel Coffee Table

Exploded Coffee Table

London Street Sign Table

In conclusion, what is Etsy? I dunno, but it has some great tables.

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Kyle, my flatmate, had the brilliant idea of a little drunken Rock Band’ing on a Tuesday night. He got this idea at Yard House Happy Hour, I obliged. I had a lot of catching up to do, so upon my arrival it was pretty much beer in hand for the rest of the night, on one occasion it was 2 beers in hand and being thankful for mic stands. So we began the rock, I believe the first song I sang I got a 67% on. Basically that means it was horrible, I have no recollection of what song it was. By 9PM we were both good and buzzed, and performing at a level unknown to most. 199% on Blink (it’s possible, when your guitarist fails at the outro of the first 100% run through of the song), 100% on Wonderwall, even >90% runs on Black Sabbath. We were legends, we were being considered for Hall of Fame status, and then it happened.

Kyle Davidson

“How cool would it be if James Van Der Beek just came over?”

There you have it Ladies and Gentleman, the strangest words ever uttered.

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You tell me, if this isn’t the Cloverfield monster, what is it?

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Brilliant.

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Recently in the village of Los Angeles the FSM marketing has started up. It’s absolutely brilliant, and I have heard quite a few people talking about how they had no idea what it was until they saw one of the ads and checked it out. That’s what marketing is supposed to do right, expand the potential target market? Anyway, the transit marketing consists of signs that say things like, “My Mom always hated you Sarah Marshall”, “I’m so over you Sarah Marshall”, and my personal favourite “You do look fat in those jeans Sarah Marshall” (Ed. Note: Kristen Bell is perfect, so this one is a little hard bit unrealistic).

Thursday as I was driving over to work from the home of one “Young Beverly Hills Adjacent”, after another amazing evening night at the Stone Rose where the game of “Beezerays” was invented, I snapped a pic of another one of the transit ads. Remind me to tell you about “Beezerays”, it’s a fun game, and strangely fun for Men AND Women, which is weird once you find out the game. I have been told that this game may only work in the greater metropolitan ares, so you may have to adapt it for your own use, and remember be polite.

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So the Daily Mail, decided to run this.

I’m sort of speechless about the whole thing. Speechless that they decided that was a good article, and even more speechless that those were the best images they could have created for them.

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Basketball Coach Billy Donovan locked his players out of their practice facility, only a few days after he said that his team wasn’t committed and doubts they ever will be.

ESPN

Coach Billy Donovan, feeling like his players had settled into a state of complacency and entitlement, banned them from Florida’s $12 million facility. He also told them they couldn’t wear any Florida attire.

This is absolutely the most amazing thing a coach has ever done. It’s absolutely fantastic to see a Coach react to his teams lack of effort by taking away the comforts that they have grown so accustomed to (some Pro Coaches should probably take this approach, starting with the Knickerbockers). ESPN went on to discuss how bad the Gators are this year, how awesome Donovan is, and how they are going to lose to my Alma Mater SDSU in the opening round of the NIT*.

If you are wondering why the title of this brings up Urban Meyer, the UF Football coach, he is the one who originally sprung this move on his Gators team in 2005.

* I made this up, probably.

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Damion Suomi – Ghost

You might also want to consider that my Saturday night hijinks involved some Jameson on the rocks (along with a few Glenfiddich’s on the rocks to start things off) and way too much musical reflection and geek-ing out over Squeeze, photo poses of the modeling varietal and the “weird things you do at a bar” assortment, Ivy leagues, way too much use of the word “pensive” and some other amazing moments I don’t yet fully remember so drinking songs are definitely rocking the playlist right now. I will leave you with an amazing quote from Saturday.

Tell

“I just had the drunkest moment of my life. I just looked over at that shamrock sign on the wall, and it started talking to me.”

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I dream for success, for a certain level of fame so I can ignore it all with humility, for some plaque somewhere to loosely honour something I was vaguely affiliated with. They dream of the pasts they never had, the futures they never hope come, and the now, which most certainly cannot be their reality. So they slouch it off as they drive on sidewalks, with reckless abandon. Their cars are electric wheelchairs, their every day is some quartered version of the Long Beach Grand Prix.

Sometimes they yell at you from the sidewalks, the sidewalks which you cannot dare co-exist on. This is their town, they saw it broken, and it’s phoenix like rise will on day push them out, and only their stories told to switched off ears will remember how they went out kicking and screaming. They are there buying scratchers with change, every day buying scratchers with change. They have to play to win, and they need a few more addictions.

I have spent time with a few, the shoeless one, who always sprinted into my vicinity to ask for money after I foolishly handed out twenties one day. He used to live around here, his shoes are probably still there, his ex-girlfriend is still there, she is the one who got him thrown in jail. He grew to recognize my truck, I sold my truck, after several rebuttals of lies that I had no cash our friendship was renewed. He was moving on, he had found a job, he was finally getting back to where he had been on the edge of this place. He was never one of them at all.

They, being them, are a friendly lot mind you. They often wander up to use your shower, which is perfectly acceptable in what this town once was. Now it’s gates that actually lock half of the month, and intercom systems legible to all but without any connection to my name. Sometimes they even interact with you in an attempt to embrace the new, as I scouted out the location of the rest of us one of them saw me, and he answered back. I never asked him anything, but he answered “I’m doing good my man, keep on”. And you wonder if he felt like I was intimidated by him, like the new was scared the old would somehow violate the reality that he exists in. I never said a word.

I saw a man walking down the sidewalk at 4 AM, plain as can be, like he belonged there, like it was his normal stroll into the office, like it wasn’t 4 AM at all. It was, and it was bright as day at 4 AM, and I have no idea why this man was out, but I have no idea why I was awake to watch this through the window. They dream of things I was disappointed by, of things I forgot about, of things I wasted. They dream about things that I would never desire, they should never dream to be me.

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British philosophy journal Time and Mind

Benny Shanon of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University said two plants in the Sinai desert contain the same psychoactive molecules as those found in plants from which the powerful Amazonian hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca is prepared.

I’m not defending the idea that maybe everything in the Bible isn’t exactly how it seems. I am a huge supporter of painting with a broader brush, when it comes to religious texts, and I think there are a lot of writings and unknowns out there that can enhance and strengthen the foundation the Bible says. However, this little theory is just a little too speculative and fact-less for my liking (and I love conspiracy theories).

The story gets better when you find out that Benny Shanon is an expert. An expert of what exactly?

MSNBC

Shanon wrote that he was very familiar with the affects of the ayahuasca plant, having “partaken of the … brew about 160 times in various locales and contexts.”

So now the whole thing just becomes funny, would we listen to an addict tell us how Washington’s crossing of the Delaware was really a fabrication they came up with while high in an opium den? The most glaringly odd part of this article is the title “Was Moses high on Mount Sinai?”, because from everything presented in the article itself the only thing the theory even discusses is that the people who witnessed the event may have had hallucinations, not Moses himself.

Kudos, MSNBC, your journalistic integrity is at an all time low. I actually had to check several times upon reading this article that I hadn’t accidentally wound up on The Onion’s website.

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David Letterman

“What if those snakes over there in New Jersey decide to attack us?”

It’s nice to finally have New York’s Governor a bigger joke than (not) my Governor.

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The Interstate system was developed by Eisenhower, and this lovely illustration of the system that I recently came across was put together by Chris Yates.

To clarify one thing, the 15 doesn’t really go into Los Angeles, not sure where this dude gets his info, but it goes all the way to San Diego, and never really comes close to it’s downtown either. Moral of this lesson, the 15 isn’t fun.

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However, I had never seen someone claim to be able to move you away from the top results, let along move only certain results related to you down the line. That all changed today with Complaint Remover, which claims to “stop defamation by positioning links on the Search Engines and by appeals to law to remove negative information”.

If that isn’t the most hilarious thing in and of itself, The Consumerist decided to have some fun with Complaint Remover and defend the freedom of the internets, and cat breeders.

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If you peruse these archives, you will find; early morning drives, Cheetah conservation, vague reminiscing, 11 o’clock news play-by-play, a reminisce vaguely worded, run-on sentences, moments, earlier morning drives (at the end of a roadtrip), and surely a lot of poor grammar.

If you are interested in my more literary type endeavours, this would be your gin.

* I totally made this up, I am quite capable of wiki’ing “blog” and “knowing” it was created earlier, but that would be boring and predictable.

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The LAist recently ran a story about the renovation of the “Elliot Smith Wall”, which was of course the mural which is forever attached to Elliott due to it’s iconic presence alongside him on the cover of “Figure 8″. This mural is on Sunset, I drive by it now and again, and it was really in a sad state for a while. Solutions owner Stephon Lew even discusses some plans he has to further tribute Elliott.

Stephon Lew

These are my dreams: I plan to place an electronic object of importance….a 5 foot 7 inch tall monument (of Elliott’s size–with two loudspeakers at the base of the monument to represent his two big shoes) formed from crushed electronics parts —to play and to identify Elliott’s musical influences (Elliott’s hobby, I hear, was to experiment with electronics to make music tone)—to have the monument –emanate new energy and the many solutions that music can provide.

I am thrilled to know in future times as we all pass by we will see a familiar friend once again. It’s all kinda like a Figure 8.

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You can find a full write up about Google’s move over at msnbc.com, but here is a brief pull:

MSNBC

“How do you communicate as a homeless individual? ” Newsom asked. “How do you expect your life to turn around if you can’t even get information or if someone can’t even get in touch with you?”

“It just seems exactly like any other voice mail,” said Craig Walker, senior project manager of Google. “There’s no stigma attached to it that ‘hey this is a temporary thing’ or ‘this is an 800 number.’ It’s really just a local number owned by the user.”

One man who used to be homeless said the right message can raise the spirit.

“Having your family, friends and loved ones being able to say ‘here I’m thinking about you, I love you, I want you to know you’re mine, and I miss you,’ can have a monumental change in one’s behavior.”

Well done Google, Well done Mayor Newsom.

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The Daily Mail

They may look like pin-sharp photographs – but these amazing pictures are actually drawings created with the humble ballpoint pen.
The stunning pictures, measuring up to 10ft high, were drawn by a rising star of the art world, Juan Francisco Casas.

Casas, 31, can use up to four 14p ballpoint pens for a canvas and his works are already a sell-out at exhibitions.

Formerly a traditional painter, Juan began the drawings three years ago based on photographs of nights out with his friends.

He seems a little obsessed with the blonde he keeps drawing, but these are none the less impressive.

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Paul G. Maziar

“Banning AIM is like so ’01.”

That however is a different story, for a different day. Paul wrote a book of words called What It Is: What It Is, and the best way to describe it is to write down your train of thought while your mind is reflecting upon a million things at once, while reveling in a few thousand other things, all while processing your immediate surroundings far too intricately, only more intelligent than all of that.

The following is either an excerpt from his new book, something he randomly emailed me because I sent him a picture I took of him in Mexico, or all of the above:

Mexico City Blues

Half-sunken steamboat with barking, oofing sea lions—all rusted, green and dirty-white
in the trash-workman haze off the coast of Mexico. While panicking in the midst of
crowds of average Americans and foreign stewards, quieted the too-fast breathing and
thought of my timing-life from well-knowing intent—I became momentarily comforted in
my own decisions. We can kick our bodies to the curb and wonder why later—in any
clothes upon any soil—or wash our faces with humble hands, then paint the fences of all
the blasphemous buildings—or souls really never are confined. – December 17th.

December 18th and Lindsay feels drunk on herself in our rooms on the ship—with T-Rex
on the speakers—lulling through the hours with others—other consciousnesses spilling
into her head, but she’s sweeter than she is dirty, and thirty minutes in the shower keeps
her spinning on the slow-side.

We spent 30 minutes in our separate showers contemplating and both came out in
stripes.

A tiny white bird, anonymous and swooping finds the only thing to do—one thing to
suffice and that’s finding food.

Are we the only beasts on earth who poison ourselves mostly out of haphazard
circumstance?

You can find out more about Paul’s book, which is a collaboration with Matt Maust (of the Cold War Kids) supplying visuals, at the MySpace and you can order the book from Write Bloody directly. I also recommend heading over to the MySpace and grabbing the audio recording “Lost In Begginings” which is Paul reading over some music by one of the guys from Goddamn Electric Bill, it’s quite a great introduction.

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What really did it for me was one day after many conversations with many Windows users comprising of this automatic intense defense of their OS. It suddenly clicked with me, I was just that same way (only on the offensive), and it’s annoying. Anyone discussing anything who has to sell something that hard and make ravenous remarks has some serious insecurities. So I gave up, I would still always subtly slide in any pro Apple remark where I could, but it had to be applicable and rational, it would be only to educate and inform. I think this same “maturing” of the “Apple fan boy” has taken place on a wider scale with most others as well, and now you see a more confident Apple supporter, who doesn’t sink to kicking Windows users while they are down.

So can the same be said for Windows users? Did they give up on their hyper defensive stance? Have we all matured together to realise some people are okay with driving a minivan (is it at least a turbo charged minivan, with a cool number 18 decal on the side? No?), and the rest of us want something more sporty with a better design aesthetic and a functionality that is so simple, yet so forward? The answer lies on the internets friends, and it’s looking like the answer is “No”.

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Photo courtesy of Rob Sheridan, who did some amazing work on the NIN “With Teeth” photography.

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In psychology, emocentrism is defined as a) the incomplete attachment of the self to the emotions of songwriters, ignoring ones own actual emotions and thought and b) the tendency to perceive, understand and interpret the world through the emotional writings of others as they apply to the self. The term derives from the Greek emô, meaning “bangs over the eyes.” An emocentric person has no theory of emotional individuality, cannot help but “put himself in everybody else’s shoes,” and believes everyone feels what he and Chris Carrabba feels (or that what he understands about the music in some way exceeds what others understand.)

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You can check out the session over at Daytrotter and for those of you who are fans of Kevin Devine, his Daytrotter Session goes up friday and Andy returns the favour by joining him.

Now here is the part where you feel misled because I was talking about the Cloverfield monster again, you don’t think it’s fair (and it probably isn’t), but you should know I do this constantly in my real life as well. Just ask anyone who is taking pictures during our social outings for some photographic evidence, and you will see by the blurring that is me in the background that I am constantly bringing “Clover” into all aspects of my life. Do not fret fine blog reader, if you listen to the second song “Made Quite An Impressive Noise” and pay careful attention towards the end, this will all make a little more sense.

P.S. Who young or old enjoys having (the) desert?

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Mark Cuban

I’ve looked at the websites of current and previous candidates to get an understanding of their platforms. They all have positions, some of which I agree with , some of which I don’t. But there is one thing that is missing from each and everyone of them, any manner of implementation. Health care, spending cuts, retaining or repealing tax cuts, keeping or removing troops, the soundbites with pretty numbers never end. Not a single candidate provides details on how exactly they are going to accomplish anything. Don’t they realize that economists exists to make lottery ticket buyers look smart, not presidential candidates ?

It reminds me of business plans I get from kids who tell me about their vision and project all kinds of numbers leading to grand results. They can site historical facts and figures, but when it comes time to get into details of exactly how they are going to execute on their plans, the response is basically that they will figure it out as they go. I wouldn’t invest in a business that is winging it any more than I want to vote for a presidential candidate that is winging it.

Unfortunately , they are all winging it. i have no question that they have every detail about how to spend their campaign contributions on advertising planned out. I have yet to see details on how they plan to accomplish all their great promises they are making to voters. That scares me.

(And before all the comments start, Ron Paul is the worse of all the candidates when it comes to detailing how he would execute on his promises. Just saying you are going to cut and eliminate everything doesn’t mean you know how to do it and/or could get it done.)

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Photo courtesy of Stuck In Customs

High Dynamic Range

In computer graphics and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of exposures (the range of values between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows.

I am absolutely in love with the effect HDR gives to a scene. It’s so non-traditional that I know a lot of photographers don’t feel it is true to the art of photography, but I think it is a rare opportunity to evolve the artform. I think back through history when the invention of the photograph brought the practice of framing and perspective into use in finer arts, digital photography could leave a similar mark with HDR.

Interested in more on HDR? You can read up a bit more on the techniques of HDR at an amazingly informative article Stuck In Customs has. You can also check out this flickr page of a photographer who does some great HDR works as well as some very cool experimentations with HDR and Stereographic Projections (My favourite being here and here).

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President of the United States of America*:
Republican Nomination: Mitt Romney
Democratic Nomination: Barack Obama

California Propositions:
Proposition 91: Yes (For humours sake, for those not in the know: The proponents of Prop 91 urge you to vote No)
Proposition 92: Yes
Proposition 93: No
Proposition 94: Yes
Proposition 95: Yes
Proposition 96: Yes
Proposition 97: No (They have “Hot Water”, I don’t trust them… only kidding, it’s a Yes for me)

* I also like to call this country Uniteria, because we act like we are the only thing in America that matters, we aren’t, or are we. At least Canada (dot) com gives you free email, we just give people pure hits.

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I have had a general distaste for most of the newer logos, but must admit a few of them have grown on me (including this years).

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While you are getting ready, do yourself a favour and grab a pair of Stronger Shades (Okay they are sold out, you can find some on the bay though are back in stock).

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The Daily Mail

The 8in-long paper dart – shaped like the Space Shuttle and weighing 11oz – has been treated with a chemical so it can survive temperatures of 200c as it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere.

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Peter Wentz

Drew Goddard, who we’re a big fan of, from buffy the vampire slayer and lost wrote this movie and based much of it on infinity on high- which i didn’t learn until after i’d seen the movie. now in retrospect he pointed to some of the lines specifically, mostly on “the takeover”. its interesting to see someone else’s interpretation of your songs. anyway, if you get a chance check out the movie (and keey your eyes open at the end).

Well this only makes my love for Cloverfield and FOB greater, but it turns out it was a little less Wizard Of Oz, a little more “inspiration”. Did you catch that clever little reference? Drew Goddard cleared it up with MTV today.

Drew Goddard

“To clarify … I was playing their album the whole time while writing ‘Cloverfield.’ I don’t want to undercut [the idea that the movie was inspired by FOB's album], but it was just that the album came out at the same time as I was writing the script, and the way I work, I need music on in the background, and I was playing it, so it was inspiring in that sense, so I told them it was inspiring,” Goddard said. “There may have been confusion as far as the movie being inspired by it — and I did mention the whole Pink Floyd/ ‘Wizard of Oz’ thing, because I bet you would see some crazy sh– there — but it certainly was not a track-by-track plan.”

Either way it’s refreshing to know the minds behind such a wonderful film enjoy some pop hits mixed in with all the the indie they slid into the film.

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Notable about this film is that a large portion of the music is by El Ten Eleven (with some The Album Leaf thrown in for good measure). El Ten Eleven is a band Kyle discovered a few years ago at some random show that is comprised of two men who loop guitars on the fly in unbelievable ways, and were the rhythm section of The Incredible Moses Leroy, whom I was quite fond of, whom were last performing as The Soft Lighties. Did you get all that?

David Carson also did the movie poster for the film, and guess what font he didn’t use? Helvetica of course, gotta admit that whole unpredictable thing is getting rather predictable. Anyway, you can now view the entire film right here, in this post. Go grab some popcorn, we will wait for you.

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Engadget

There’s no doubt, Vista and Leopard are both extremely advanced, feature rich consumer operating systems. But way back in January when Vista launched knew we had little choice but pit the two in a head to head chartngraph Thunderdome competition. We know we’re not even going to be able to stop the epic fanboy arguments about break out over this one, so we just ask that you try to keep it fair. Leopard vs. Vista: it’s on.

Check out the comparing and contrasting. By the by, I’m not a fanboy, I’m an Apple Enthusiast.

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George Piro, FBI

“For him, it was critical that he was seen as still the strong, defiant Saddam. He thought that [faking having the weapons] would prevent the Iranians from reinvading Iraq.”

I think we can all agree this war should end, and we should continue to work towards a lasting peace (if that is even a possibility), but maybe things like this will show us that the real truth with everything that has gotten us here is in a grey in-between, where lies and errors co-exist with truths and getting it right. Just alone, it is interesting to hear how concerned Saddam was with the possibility of Iran invading, and maybe this will reinforce the idea that they are a country worthy of caution.

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Okay, okay, so Boys Town just has a horrible logo. I even blew it up a bit and blurred it to make it look a little more mysterious for your viewing pleasure. I saw this thing this morning and was so confused, but then I found out Boys Town is a Jester training academy, so it makes total sense now.

The other night I apparently lured Brandon into all the Cloverfield side stories, and realised quite a few people might be missing out on some of the Cloverfield “Universe”. For those of you who didn’t geek out for months over Cloverfield, this should catch you up on a fair amount, but if you haven’t seen it, there are spoilers over there.

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I think the best description of what to expect of this film was by Abrams himself:

JJ Abrams on Cloverfield

“A Cameron Crowe movie meets ‘Godzilla’ meets ‘Blair Witch Project’…”

I absolutely love a movie filled with characters whom you see parts of yourself in, even their darker moments, and this movie does that to me in a way I haven’t experienced since “The Rules Of Attraction”. It’s innovative in a myriad of ways (amazingly so), but it’s backed up by the solid foundational elements most big budget films miss. This is the sort of genre shifting film that shows Hollywood; there are more talented actors out there than the regular big name stars they shove down our throats, there are more talented thinkers, writers and producers out there who still want the art of cinema to evolve, CGI and effects don’t have to be the main focus of a shot and can seamlessly fit with the live footage.

If you haven’t yet seen it, you need to; if you have already seen it, geek out over Slusho, jamieandteddy.com, and Tagruato and call me up for Round 2.

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SkySails

By using the SkySails-System, a ship‘s fuel costs can be reduced by 10- 35% on annual average, depending on wind conditions. Under optimal wind conditions, fuel consumption can temporarily be reduced by up to 50%. Even on a small, 87 metre cargo ship, savings of up to 280,000 euros can be made annually.

Wouldn’t it be amazing how much oil could be saved just through cutting back 10-15% worldwide? The hows and sorts are wonderfully shows in this illustration.

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Two Wheels

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I believe Kyle will be picking up an MBA, and if he doesn’t get one of these as well I will be sorely disappointed. I’m sure that will really be a huge part of his decision making process.

AirMail

The AirMail laptop sleeve is handmade out of durable upholstery-grade vinyl, and lined with fuzzy, soft fleece. All AirMail sleeves have the same dimensions as standard interoffice manila envelopes, which will serve to remind you — and everyone around you — that your new MacBook Air really is the thinnest laptop in the world!

You can order your very own handmade AirMail here.

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I found the interview to be an enlightening look into how the viral-ness of Cloverfield snowballed so much that even the people closest to it were caught off guard. It’s amazing to see marketing change so much in front of our eyes that it becomes something that can literally grow past the scope of it’s intentions. Cloverfield’s marketing has done just that, something that could have been simply used to create an interesting backstory, has now created an entire universe that will surely be explored again.

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I remember not long ago when I was dating the last famous girl I dated (coincidentally also named Kristen Bell), and things just started to feel different. I knew it had to end, and I knew it had to end in a flurry of comedy and consoling (maybe from Mila Kunis, someone like that).

Of course, I broke up with her, so I guess I can’t really relate much to Judd Apatow’s next movie after all. Oh well, maybe you can…

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Phil Lu some time ago worked up some mock ups that show us perhaps where this technology could be used. His concept has Apple teaming with Starbucks once again, and it should be noted Phil did these before the patent information from Apple became public knowledge.

You can see the rest of the concept right here. This is the sort of example of how the iPhone is beyond revolutionary, it has the potential to create new functions we never knew we needed, and makes life that much more fun.

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Cue some dramatic music…
Inquisitor.

It’s pretty much like what happens when Spotlight gets drunk, calls up Safari, and that sultry little temptress invites Spotlight over for a night of passionate meshing of features. It’s been around for a while, but version 3 is it’s strongest showing yet. I’m relatively one not to go all plug in crazy on my OS/Apps, but I think this is definitely a worthy improver on Apple’s glorious OS.

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Well, recently I discovered a spectacular video Judd Apatow and friends put together to promote this lovely little non-profit. It’s quite hilarious and Jonah Hill delivers a stunning performance to say the least. Enjoy.

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Christopher Walken Mask By Brandon Bird

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His first two points are such utter genius I must reproduce them here:

Things you can learn from the music business (as it falls apart)

The first rule is so important, it’s rule 0:

0. The new thing is never as good as the old thing, at least right now.
Soon, the new thing will be better than the old thing will be. But if you wait until then, it’s going to be too late. Feel free to wax nostalgic about the old thing, but don’t fool yourself into believing it’s going to be here forever. It won’t.

1. Past performance is no guarantee of future success.
Every single industry changes and, eventually, fades. Just because you made money doing something a certain way yesterday, there’s no reason to believe you’ll succeed at it tomorrow.

Do yourself a favour and read the rest of the article, especially those of you in the music industry.</