January 2012
15 posts
Today’s best song in the world courtesy...
The TSA of Retail
On Sunday I went into Best Buy to buy a camera. I walked directly to the camera section and told a clerk that I wanted to purchase a specific model. The saleswoman unlocked the case, removed the camera, and walked me to a register nearby.
After scanning the camera, the saleswoman turned to me:
“Would you be interested in a Best Buy protection pla-“
“No thanks,” I...
“In Silicon Valley, the conspicuous consumption norm is already relatively weak...”
– Tyler Cowen, “Will the Era of Conspicuous Consumption Wind Down”
“You often here that for one reason or another the United States...”
– Matthew Yglesias
The Baptist Generals, “Going Back...
“The ball came out of Daniels’ hands well after he hit the ground, but...”
– Grantland’s Bill Barnwell has been my favorite NFL writer this year
“Kickstarter is really good. I’m so glad it exists. It’s a very...”
– Stuart Murdoch talks about his Kickstarter project
An incredible Blue Orchids song called...
“Mekeyershin Salawq” by Alemayehu...
December 2011
23 posts
Heading south to Virginia today. No song evokes...
“Art lets people imagine other ways of seeing the world, and other ways of being....”
– “Why are Britain’s great art houses in bed with Big Oil?” (Guardian)
“The core of Kickstarter is the difference between someone saying “I want to make...”
– whitneymcn in response to the Kickstarted Verge post
“The success brought about by the Kickstarter-funded Popa shutter button has very...”
– “Kickstarted: How one company is revolutionizing product development” (The Verge)
I’ve been listening to a lot of Blue Orchids...
“I never fail to be astonished at how much I am at the mercy of television...”
– Vaclav Havel
“A conscience slumbers in every human being, something divine. And that is what...”
– Vaclav Havel, 1995
WatchNever a big fan of Devo’s cover of “(Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” but this SNL performance from 1978 is insane.
“In experiments where a minority of fish was trained to swim toward a yellow...”
– “Why a Democracy Needs Uninformed People” (Miller-McCune)
“He fell in with a literary clique that included Martin Amis, Julian Barnes,...”
– “Christopher Hitchens is Dead at 62” (New York Times)
“When we designed the Internet the first time, our priorities were reliability,...”
– An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the U.S. Congress
Let the first eight words of this paragraph wash over your brain for a little bit…
(via brycedotvc)
“[I]f the appropriations bills pass, and the government is funded through...”
– — “House GOP Pushes Envelope in Showdown” (Talking Points Memo)
This is insane.
“I learned that money can be a lot of things. It can be something that is...”
– Louis C.K. sold over 100k copies of his special, making more than $500k. (via meaghano)
Defeat the Stop Online Piracy Act
Right now I, along with many of my peers in the tech community, am a single-issue voter: the defeat of the Stop Online Piracy Act. There is no legislative action more important to the future of the web and our society than its defeat.
SOPA will cut off at the knees the innovations in technology, commerce, communication, and free expression that we have seen via the web. It will throttle the most...
“Q: Did you ever think you weren’t going to make it?
Joel Cohen: Oh...”
– Joel Coen on how the Coen Brothers funded Blood Simple (taken from My First Movie: 20 Directors Talk About Their First Film)
The Girl Walk Premiere
On Thursday night Kickstarter had the honor of hosting the world premiere of the film Girl Walk // All Day. The premiere wasn’t held in a seated theater for a polite audience. It was held in front of 1,200 dancing and cheering people at a music venue, the Brooklyn Masonic Temple. Many in the audience were backers of the project.
Kickstarter has been intertwined with Girl Walk from its...
November 2011
16 posts
“You have somebody who knows what he believes in, he can effectively communicate...”
– “Gingrich Gave Money to Clients, Not Just Ideas” — NY Times
The Taxonomy of the Top Ten
Back in 2005 when I was working full-time as a music critic I wrote a piece critiquing the form of the Top Ten list. I’ve shared this before but it’s always good to dust off around this time of year…
01 The Consensus Pick The first choice sets the tone for the entire list. A critic can either go for the consensus top pick, which earns the trust of a reader, or make a grand...
“It was not so long ago that Texas governor Bush denounced attempts to cut the...”
– David Frum, “When Did the GOP Lose Touch with Reality?” New York Magazine
WatchGirls playing in a Brooklyn church for a Pitchfork session. One of my proudest achievements was putting together Girls’ first SXSW show three years ago at a church in Austin. Grizzly Bear headlined, with Girls (yet to release anything but a 7”) and Rural Alberta Advantage opening. Almost as magical as this performance.
“some great printing, some ok printing, but i’ll be damned if this book...”
– Zak Sally, bassist for the band Low, updates backers on the comic he self-published through Kickstarter
“The first is a shift in the nature of power and influence. It goes by many names...”
– Is It a Crisis? Maybe So, if You’re a King - NYTimes.com
(via fred-wilson)
