. "It's just like when you walk out after it rained," Parker says, "and you say, 'Oh, my God, that smells vibrant.' "

Sexy Pilgrim

Muscle Milk is an awesome client.

acts demolish their alternatives.

Defined: Brain Sparklers

Shameless..

- proud to be named Advertising Age's West Coast Small Agency of the Year! - http://bit.ly/2eQ3Gy #adage #pereiraodell

Nerd Extrovert

An obsession with magic requires a particular personality type: the nerd extrovert. “When you go to a magic conference, and you spend time with 500 magician people, you start to realize … trends,” he says with an arched eyebrow. “It’s the coolest hobby in the world, but people tend to get into magic because no one would talk to them.”

Excerpt from an article on Neil Patrick Harris.

Seems like a fascinating sub-genre (selfishly), that I'd like to explore. I'd also argue that most of you are nerd extroverts....

http://nymag.com/arts/tv/profiles/59002/

The first rule...

To your health

Droppin Knowledge

awesommmmeee

Uncomfortable plot summaries

Some plot summaries of movies and TV shows that might make you feel uncomfortable. Among my favorites:

THE GOONIES: Physically abused, retarded man finds love with overweight preteen.
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST: Mel Gibson fulfills fantasy of showing a Jew beaten to a bloody pulp and killed on-screen.
TITANIC: Crazy old widow disregards lifelong memories of husband, children, and grandchildren in favor of that one time she fucked a bum.
STAR WARS: Religious extremist terrorists destroy government installation, killing thousands.
LORD OF THE RINGS: Midget destroys stolen property.
DOCTOR WHO: Elderly man serially abducts young women.
BOOGIE NIGHTS: Deformed boy goaded into life of crime.

Beck covering Velvet Underground

He can be so spot on.

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico "Run Run Run" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Weekends in SF

Can't. Get. Out. Of. Head.

found in my pocket

"Reptiles have a tremendous amount of patience," Snow says. "They can wait out harsh environmental conditions. They can go without eating for a long time. Then, all of a sudden, there's a phase shift, a trigger point.

The population starts to function as as population rather than a lone inoculation."

-pretty sure this is from a new yorker article. also pretty sure this describes the word Zeitgeist, it seems to tap into the same general sociological cloud consciousness.

The most interesting bit to me about this is its describing pattern behavior in reptiles. Ancient brains. This makes me think that pop psychology, intrinsic drivers towards trends ans fads, have some sort of genetic correlation- they are our way of recombining, of acting a community of one species to satisfy some trigger within our code that was laid to waste long before we were recognizable as humans.

Nice Pop for a short week.

Man Made Objects Abandoned to Nature

Or, maybe returned to nature in a different state (but that's just the hippie in me).
http://www.artificialowl.net/2008/12/abandoned-shipyard-covered-with.html

This site becomes more interesting as you click around and see the arresting photographs coupled with the stories of decayed societal progress, abandoned coastal plains and never-to-be countries.
The collective creative output of so many brought back down to the barriers of vegetation.
Reminds me of Ikiru. Actually, from the human perspective, this IS Ikiru.

Holy Shit. Wing Suits.

Calm and wonderful.

a lot can happen in a month

Take this last thirty days, for example.
I've moved from fallon and minneapolis to pereira o'dell and san francisco.

Pretty sure y'all knew, but I just couldn't stand tom any longer.

This time it was personal.
Promise to post more in a bit, when the dust settles.

At least you now know your random clicks to this site, while intermittent, are not in vain.

All the best.

band name of the day

sacrificed for sleep

Wolf Pig

It starts off really cool. Then, at about 135, i was like....I get it. Done. Stop. Geez. Then, at 2:55, it takes on a turn that is very cool through the rest of the film.

What i'm saying is, for 80 or so seconds, wave high at someone, or send the link to this.
Trust.

I'm going here this weekend

http://www.mnstf.org/minicon44/
steampunk and panel discussions on the nature of superheroes, and Yuri's Night, and this guy (really)

today's band name:
Intelligent Balloons

from a poem by david baker

        Yet here’s
one more, curled
       like a tan seashell not a foot from my blade, just-

come-to-the-
world fawn, speckled,
       wet as a trout, which I didn’t see, hacking back

brush beneath my tulip
poplar—it’s not afraid,
       mews like a kitten, can’t walk—there are so many, too

many of us,
the world keeps saying,
       and the world keeps making—this makes no sense—
       more.

tis good: Miles Benjamin Anthony Robertson

Banana Snot Rocket

is my latest band name.

Disney Horror One Off

I was thinking about this movie, Disney's foray into the horror genre, and how it is so damn difficult for established companies to truly innovate outside of their traditional revenue stream without significant decrease in their net capital.
Sure, this gets to the same idea of a creative class and start ups as true generators of new ideas, but lately I've been thinking it might be something else that can be made culturally endemic.

Its my subjective theory of the moment that most companies gloam onto the idea that makes them successful, and by extension, their extensions of the brand follow the same thinking.

This does not mean that it has to be in the same vein, or even category as the original idea, but that it follows the same general pathway to ideation. People in the company think of the solution or creation in the same way as they did the original idea that made the company successful. This is usually reinforced as stemming from a strong brand identity-ex. the horror movie from Disney, while a failure, is a movie aimed at teens in which the protagonist is a teen who is smarter than the adults around her.

So, there are a few companies that have it easier, as they are built on the idea of ideas. That is to say, their corporate culture is one of innovation. Two compaines come quickly to mind as examples-3m has product development and Google has the internet. Even so, I imagine that they fixate on the creation of new ideas that share many of the same aspects as historic successes within the corporation. This, by and large, is probably a good thing. History is a great model for future success.

What I'm not aware of, and what may not exist, is a corporate structure that battles the cultural pathway to creation by applying principles to their brand model that ensure that these pathways can never be institutionalized. This is probably an overly complex sentence that says: freelancers- a company with a central hub of paper pushers and capital managers with a rotating axis of freelance professionals who solve each problem, and create each widget, as a one of a kind, once in a lifetime collaboration.

That model would certainly have many problems of its own, to be sure, starting with whether or not we can even truly call it a company, but at least it wouldn't get bogged down in the same predicable ways to come up with an unpredicatble solution.

haunt and boo and war and woo

touch me i'm going to scream...cause i'm obsessed with fireflies

http://www.passion-paris.com/flash.html#page=p2&video=v749

Depeche Mode. Yeah.

So. The new depeche mode song has been in my head all day but I had yet to see the video for it. Well. Hip Hip Horror. It's great. It's disturbing. Its why these guys still kick ass.

Sin Fang Bous: Good for this snowy April day

Our jobs can be so fun sometimes.

http://adage.com/brightcove/lineup.php?lineup=17988915001&title=17996146001

http://www.morenewmath.com/all/

it would be nice

if men kept falcons like they used to.

I am not in your kitchen...

ffffound

Made my day.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/wherethewildthingsare/

Sigh....really?

That says 5-7 days.

the future is...near

the applications of this are bonkers.
not sure if programmable matter differs from nanotechnology (or is a subset of the field) but as the post says, this is the stuff of nerdgasms. more than just nerds, this is the stuff that will allow us to articulate more precisely and speedily the mutations of our imaginations. this technology is like the guitar hero of design, it takes away all of the practical skills and leaves you with raw creativity.

gasp.

transience

You no longer purchase physical music. You download it.
You can now download movies in hi-def.
TV is on HULU.
You can download and play games on computers, X Box, PS3, and Wii.
Solid state computers cost 1/3 of the price by asking; who needs a hard drive?
google word, email, flickr, last.fm, pandora, etc.
Live in a city- Carshare, Zip Car, etc.
Want the latest luxury purse? Rent it.

We should be a post ownership society. We are in many regards.

According to Richard Florida in the latest Atlantic, the cities of the now and near future are no longer those that have the resource infrastructure, but those that appeal to lifestyle.
So, SF, Miami, LA, and NYC make the cut, but so do Portland, Austin, Minneapolis and Vancouver.

But while the 'creative class' is shifting and jumbling together in these regions, trading in the last vestiges of the 50's american dream- the dream of ownership- for the creative hive and sheer aesthetic value of the landscape around them- most of america is less transitory than it has been in decades.

this is over reported and under stood.

what it really comes down to is a nation of complacency. A nation that can be at war with two countries and feel no pangs, a nation that has every conceivable food option mere minutes away. really, a great nation, but one that has not needed to strive for more for too long. its lonely at the top, but its also unmotivating. and it has been this way for nearly two generations now.

all of it just makes me itch to see more of the world. to trade in physical roots for digital ones. its knee jerk certainly, but its also a throw back- nomadic- hunter gatherer and all that jazz- and its about time. about time we went back to taking care to imbibe experiences and share them with others, to see things from different angles and preconceived notions. to bump into other peoples ideas. to make a mess.

people are fully sustainable urban landscapes.

information technology is manifested in attire/personal devices.

it all means: direct path to influencing individual behavior on a mass scale.

Guerilla Gardening goes further: Botanicalls

Botanicalls lets your plants twitter you when they need water.
Guerilla Gardening lets people hack the urban landscape.
The fundamental rewiring of environmental interaction with the advent of code/digital lives/digital landscapes is beginning to truly sprout in the physical world.
Architecture becomes information architecture; urban planning becomes psychogrpahic physical planning.
Enjoy the video:

Blind Pilot.

Might be the last to discover these guys, but when it snows for months and months and you look pale as a ghost thrown into a vat of milk, well then anything that makes you cheer slightly is a boon.

Fmylife.com

Much in the same vein as overheardin comes another site to make you feel, well, that your life isn't so bad.

sort of like people watching at the mall.

clipped from www.fmylife.com Today, I was at a bar with a friend. A guy came up to me, took my drink and drank it. I laughed and jokingly said "now, you have to buy me a drink." He said "I would rather buy your friend a drink." FML F*** My Life My life sucks but I don't give a fuck Today, I was at a bar with a friend. A guy came up to me, took my drink and drank it. I laughed and jokingly said "now, you have to buy me a drink." He said "I would rather buy your friend a drink." FML #87320 (17) - 02/20/2009 at 11:16am by darn it. - love - thx for agreeing! (2537) - you deserved that one (235) Today, I saw a elderly man fall in a crosswalk, so I jumped off my bike to help. As I helped him across, the light turned green. At that point I noticed my phone had fallen out of my pocket in the street and was run over by several cars. I then watched across a 6 lane street as someone stole my bike. FML #86179 (43) - 02/20/2009 at 3:29am by Mick - misc - thx for agreeing! (10202) - you deserved that one (379)

I can't shake this song out of my head.

Formula to be highest rated SuperBowl Spot Ever (TM)

1 part monkey (X)
1 part hand-held product (Y) (beer, chip, etc.)
1 mid-twenties to late thirties man (Z) (prefer dumpy looking, clueless stare)

Place all three elements in mundane place (office, food court, gas station parking lot)

Situation: Have X try to get Y from Z.

Key Variables:
crotch brutalization of Z (X or Y)
flatulence (X)

Make it rain, USA TODAY, make it rain.

Nerds be gettin feisty

Masked man sticks up convenience store with a Klingon sword

Posted by Cory Doctorow, February 4, 2009 10:43 AM | permalink

A masked man armed with a Klingon Batleth robbed a 7-11, then tried it again at another convenience store, where the clerks laughed him out of the room.

The first robbery was reported at 1:50 a.m., at 145 N Spruce St. The clerk told police a white man in his 20s, wearing a black mask, black jacket, and blue jeans, entered the store with a weapon the clerk recognized from the Star Trek TV series.

The robber demanded money and left with an undisclosed amount.

A half hour later, police received a call from a 7-Eleven at 2407 N. Union Blvd., where a man matching the previous description entered the store with a similar weapon. He also demanded money from the store clerk. The clerk refused and the robber "transported" himself out of the store on foot.

Both clerks described the weapon as a Star Trek Klingon-type sword, called a "Batleth."

Masked Man Robs Convenience Stores With Klingon Sword: Clerks Recognize Sword As Batleth

I want to read this

After The City, This (is how we live), gives an important insider view into the real world of real estate development in Southern California. Using the structure of a screenplay to tell the story, architect Tom Marble takes the reader inside the minds of the people on both sides of the development conflict – those seeing land as a commodity for profit, and those who see it as a valued resource for all to enjoy. Having spent time negotiating on both sides of the conference table, Marble goes beyond the usual debates over New Urbanism vs. Sprawl vs. Whatever-The-Next-Thing-Is to share his unique perspective, shedding light on the goals and motivations of all parties embroiled in defining how we live in a post-urban, consumer-driven economy.

thanks acb

my time at the helm is at hand.

Nazi Zombies

Happy Birthday Tom

Merkley Makes Me Miss SF

Iconoclastic- not sponsored by Grey Goose