Hmm.
Jun 20 2008
I spent a decade skating regularly with a good five years skating day in and day out. From the ages of 10-20, I devoted a lot of time to it, competing here and there and being part of a subculture that didn’t know the X-Games yet and before skateboarders like Tony Hawk became skateboarding’s Jordan.
May 27 2008
It has been said that I’ve got a bit of a shoe fetish or addiction or “worse than a girl.” I like footwear. I’m no sneakerhead — that term is reserved for those who are far more devoted to shoes and the culture around it than I am. I just like shoes in different varieties and types.
May 12 2008
While this may be Moustache May and ‘staches1 are de rigeur these days, I’ve often pondered how they look in the current revival. My reactions range from Selleck-ian genius to creeped-the-hell-out but here are a few reasons why growing a ‘stache may not be a good idea:
The plush moustache in the thumbnail above is sold by friend Shawn of Shawnimals. He makes good stuff.
1 And I applaud all of those in the name of great moustache wearers i.e. Tom Selleck. ↩
May 02 2008
Jim Coudal kindly asked if I’d like to be guest editor for Fresh Signals for the month of May over at Coudal. Who could say no to that? Expect the usual items of fancy, delight and wonder. And perhaps a WTF or two.
Apr 29 2008
When the Cable That Was Free™ went away1, we were left with a hole2. No longer did we have House Hunters and Designed to Sell to watch nor reruns of Project Runway or Top Chef during the times we ate, but instead were left to regular programming.
It was mildly harder for The Girl™ — having been used to some form of cable throughout her life, whereas I have only had cable sporadically throughout my lifetime and only then, the first time just before I exited my teenage years3. But, cable didn’t have such a hold on us that we’d actually pay for it. A quick rundown of shows we watched revealed that we could either watch them online if they weren’t on regular programming or we could download a show.
We eat at about 6pm — early. I generally start cooking shortly after 5pm. Being homebound helps in that regard and I generally have our dinner ready to go or 3/4 of the way there by the time The Girl™ arrives home. We’re generally sitting at the coffee table at 6pm and we skim the channels trying to find something to watch. Previously, this was the aforementioned House Hunters. Lacking cable, we looked for a replacement.
We found Two and a Half Men. I’d been intrigued by the show for a few years now — the combination of Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer and a kid sounded like some kind of weird Three Men and a Baby twist. However, it’s occurred to me that if a show has had some kind of staying power, then perhaps it does have some legs to it.
And who would have known? The comedy is far more riskier and clever than some of the sitcoms I’ve seen in the past — Friends really?
I’m officially addicted4.
—
1 Now that TV is going all digital (have you not seen the numerous February 2009 Doomsday-esque ads for your TV not working!), our cable company that provides the Internet has switched to converter boxes for their actual TV cable and so no more cable pipes in via the standard cable cables. ↩
2 Not gaping. ↩
3 I also was sans TV from the years 1998-2001, opting instead for a homemade solution of a big ass speaker, a tiny little audio receiver hooked up to a Discman as well as books, books, books. ↩
4 We watch the show twice daily — at 6PM and then again at 10:30PM. ↩
Mar 24 2008
A recent pondering on Twitter where I stated “Did our vision of the future ever involve so much advertising? Aside from Blade Runner, The Fifth Element, not much sci-fi reflects it.” lead to various replies disputing this fact citing such films as Minority Report (popular response), 2001, 1984 and Brazil. These films are all relatively iconic films in giving us a vision of the near future.
Mar 05 2008
Earlier this week, Trent Reznor released Ghosts I-IV, a 36 track (or a traditional split of 4 albums) collection of instrumental music. It forms a soundscape of moods, atmosphere, moments and volume. It’s a highly interesting experiment in regards to Reznor pulling a Radiohead but how good is the actual music? And how does this set the tone for distribution?
Sep 30 2007
I’m back from my excursion to Key West, Florida. A few days before I left, I made a photo containing items I use and carry on a daily basis — the essentials to function. I made the photo with the intention to use it for the redesign I’m working on for Weightshift but did use it as a splash page for the temporary studio closure.
I had an inkling that it might be a decent group but it wasn’t until my SF brethen Daniel Dent and Gareth Spor proposed the idea in public that I decided why not?
The Items We Carry was born.
Apr 05 2007
Around the time Christopher Nolan’s restart of the Batman franchise, Batman Begins was coming into theaters, I discussed with some friends the notion of opening weekends, DVD’s, film piracy and what the future of movie-going could be like.
I suggested then, the idea of having movies be released on DVD or on demand cable. Soderbergh did something very similar with Bubble in 2006.
Some background: I used to be an opening-night junkie.
I’m not anymore and as I grew weary of getting tickets and standing in line for an hour before the movie started so we could get good seats, I grew to like the idea of having a movie accessible on opening night right in your own home.