Minor Acclaim

"sometimes success is not the victory itself; but the discovery that you can, in fact, endure."

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:39:17 -0500

““sometimes success is not the victory itself; but the discovery that you can, in fact, endure.””

- minor_acclaim

I was shopping at the flag ship Macy’s today, and I...

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 22:49:00 -0400

I was shopping at the flag ship Macy’s today, and I realized there were dramatic parallels to modern politics. In my shopping experience, spanning 9 floors and 2 buildings across approximately 4 square city blocks, there are thousands of options and endless variety of clothes, shoes, and price ranges upon which to make value judgements.

Now value judgments are subjective things. What’s important to you, when is it important, and what’s not important or more important by comparison. Sure I can get that leather jacket and skirt for 75% off, but it’s still over $100 and i’m not that crazy about it! Do I need a leather jacket, or do I need to look good for bosses or colleagues? Am I just putting on a show for other people who are typically more concerned with how they look and not at all how I look? Is what is impressive to me the same thing as what’s impressive to them, and does it really matter in the long run?

Now all these questions may have intrinsic validity, but they lack a certain… perspective, rendering them somewhat… irrelevant. It occurred to me as I wandered the endless racks; the same can be said for the recent Republican Presidential debates. I recalled Al Madrigal’s comments on the Daily show regarding the Tea Party’s seemingly unattainable expectations. “No candidate, living, dead, or fictional could ever or would ever satisfy these people.” The Tea Party in general does not seem to be able to be pleased. In my opinion, they know too much. Or at least, they have TONS and TONS of information. TONS of background data, countless news hours telling them what they think is good or bad, endless feeds of relevant and irrelevant data to parse, and I gotta say - most Tea Partiers are not members of the computing generation.

But just like me, we have too many choices and too many things are important; in my case, the issues are style (which is subjective!!), utility (can i wear it everyday/ dress it up/down), and price (can I afford it?). In the Tea Party’s case, they have also have a lot of really subjective concerns, such as; concern about how many children a candidate has, and not so concerned about how the country is going to give a meaningful, quality education deserved by everyone’s kids.

The problem is that both the Tea Party and I are being told what’s good for us, and not making a thorough examination of what really is important to us. Looking at our own values and why these things are important to us means we might have to change our minds or adjust to something new. The Tea Party and I are both being manipulated to conform and not to challenge the status quo through our fears of the future and of the unknown. Fear of judgment, accountability, and of change.

I have a problem with ruffles; I think they look silly and don’t serve any kind of purpose other than to make my neck look like it’s drooling fabric. The Tea Party has a problem with gays; they think the very existence of gay people will threaten the things that are important to them, like their families and the proliferation of the species. Anyone with any kind of experience with actual gay people and not televised stereotypes, would find that gay people are just people. I’m not sure how I’m going to get over my fear of ruffles, but I do agree that it is just as trivially maladaptive as disliking gays. I don’t, however, object to the existence of ruffles. You work it, girl.

My point is this; we have too damn much knowledge and not enough of knowing-what-to-do-with-it. Now I can only enact change in my own microcosm. I hope to do this by being true to what is important to me on a very sincere and basic level. I have to allow myself to question my own motives and change them to reflect my values. Believing in my own resolve I hope would become easier, because I will know that I don’t just do as I’m told, I trust that i’ve evaluated myself and my values, they will be stronger to me . So I don’t shop hot pink Jessica Simpson tops or Karl Lagerfeld for various reasons, but I hope that the Tea Party will start making inroads to their own psyches before Rick Perry has us wearing straight-jackets on the streets.

danger

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 22:00:00 -0400

when you open yourself up, you open yourself up to ridicule.

when you step out, you’re not stepping out on to concrete, you’re stepping out onto a limb. and not a sturdy one at that.

taking chances is not easy, i’d like to say it was fun, but it does not always tend to be so.

i find little alternative. if you stay inside, you definitely won’t get a sunburn, but neither will your body produce vitamin d, something that keeps you upright and forward-bent.

maybe when you go tumbling down - while the branch is twinging back and forth way up there - you hit the ground, bury yourself, spend some time in the dark, find your own north, and grow something new.

i do wish i caught less shit for the bright blue parasol though.
mom.

articulated much better by Seth Godin

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/07/the-overwhelming-fear-of-being-wrong.html

My Business card SUX!! Check it out!

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 00:38:00 -0400

Think quick! I was between identities and I didn’t have a business card ready to hand out at this great networking event I was about to be off to in mere hours! What to do, what to do!?

My solution: Customize. Make it fit. Make it one-off. Make it memorable.

Normally customization means more time and high production value. At the time, I had just moved to New York and I had acquired a habit of keeping the itemized receipts of places I’d been to as what I called “organic souvenirs” - naturally occurring and (most importantly) free memorabilia. I channelled the two ideas together to quickly pool into the useful application of “FRESH MEAT” series cards.

I styled them “Fresh Meat” to capitalize on my willingness to be shredded to bits just to show that I could have a useful contribution to potential employers and freelance clients; the idea was to remind you where you met me, what we talked about, how clever I was, and where you could find me. I encoded my contact information into receipt form, a moment glancing over the card and you’d note that the purchased items and the “prices” were weird looking and the “Total” was a web address.

I liked the evanescent nature of receipts, and I wanted to use some interesting paper stock, so I pulled out some translucent vellum to print the receipt cards on. I finished the effect off by first using some pinking shears, then on later versions I found some Fiskars fancy shears to put a torn edge on each edge of the receipts. In the end, I just ended up employing the fine art of the torn-edge, or deckling if you want a 25-cent word, to put the finishing touch on the initial line of cards.

I handed them out at an AIGA event appropriately enough about “Branding Yourself”, where the speaker emphasized the value of keeping an authentic message. It was fairly well-received and I was honored to get a listing on the uber-cool site YourBusinessCardSucks.com (http://www.yourbusinesscardsucks.com/2010/09/28/fresh-meat/)

I continued this series, adapting as the events changed, but keeping the same basic idea - state the place, the time, hide my info just to be clever, try to be interesting and useful, say thank you.

I adapted the kind of receipt based on the event, a ticket-stub for the AIGA viewing of the Milton Glaser film To Inform and Delight. You can see all the event info and my contact information, as well as the mono-font and perforation on the edge to mimic ticket stub-iness.

This was a fun exercise in thinking on my feet and finding a cool application as a solution for a stressful problem. I liked having something different to hand out. It was whispered to me that the NY Director of the AIGA had been seen with my first-edition card on his desk. I ended up doing a custom event card for a client who liked the relevance of the idea so much she wanted one of her own for a conference in Melbourne, Australia.

This is the kind of off-center idea I like to cultivate in my design work, and while it might not always work out, one must not be afraid to color outside the lines on occasion. We must not be afraid to try things that might not work, sometimes they actually do. =)

"Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has..."

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 21:18:38 -0500

“Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilightseries.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.”

- (via themonicabird)

"I like to pretend the wind can feel me as much as I can feel the wind"

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:23:37 -0500

“I like to pretend the wind can feel me as much as I can feel the wind”

not spelled "f-e-a-r-d-o-m"

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 19:50:00 -0500

»This is a forward of a forward and the following response.

NONE of this is mine, i wanted to repost because I, as my friend put it

—felt the need to respond to because of its fear mongering… I felt it was too important to just leave it with the people in the email list—

» First the Letter:

“This American Airlines pilot ‘hit the nail’ right on the head in his open letter.

The paper stated that some Muslim doctor is saying we are profiling him because he has been checked three times while getting on an airplane

The following is a letter from a pilot. This well spoken man, who is a pilot with American Airlines, says what is in his heart, beautifully….

Read, absorb and pass this on.

‘YOU WORRY ME!’ By American Airlines Pilot - Captain John Maniscalco

I’ve been trying to say this since 911, but you worry me. I wish you didn’t. I wish when I walked down the streets of this country that I love, that your color and culture still blended with the beautiful human landscape we enjoy in this country. But you don’t blend in anymore. I notice you, and it worries me.

I notice you because I can’t help it anymore. People from your homelands, professing to be Muslims, have been attacking and killing my fellow citizens and our friends for more than 20 years now. I don’t fully understand their grievances and hate, but I know that nothing can justify the inhumanity of their attacks.On September 11, ARAB-MUSLIMS hijacked four jetliners in my country. They cut the throats of women in front of children and brutally stabbed to dea…th others. They took control of those planes and crashed them into buildings killing thousands of proud fathers, loving sons, wise grandparents, elegant daughters, best friends, favorite coaches, fearless public servants, and children’s mothers.

The Palestinians celebrated, the Iraqis were overjoyed as was most of the Arab world. So, I notice you now.

I don’t want to be worried. I don’t want to be consumed by the same rage and hate and prejudice that has destroyed the soul of these terrorists But I need your help. As a rational American, trying to protect my country and family in an irrational and unsafe world, I must know how to tell the difference between you, and the Arab/Muslim terrorist.

How do I differentiate between the true Arab/Muslim Americans and the Arab/Muslim terrorists in our communities who are attending our schools, enjoying our parks, and living in OUR communities under the protection of OUR constitution, while they plot the next attack that will slaughter these same good neighbors and children?

The events of September 11th changed the answer. It is not my responsibility to determine which of you embraces our great country, with ALL of its religions, with ALL of its different citizens, with all of its faults. It is time for every Arab/Muslim in this country to determine it for me.

I want to know, I demand to know, and I have a right to know, whether or not you love America . Do you pledge allegiance to its flag? Do you proudly display it in front of your house, or on your car? Do you pray in your many daily prayers that Allah will bless this nation, that He will protect and prosper it? Or do you pray that Allah with destroy it in one of your Jihad’s? Are you thankful for the freedom that only this nation affords? A freedom that was paid for by the blood of hundreds of thousands of patriots who gave their lives for this country? Are you willing to preserve this freedom by also paying the ultimate sacrifice? Do you love America ? If this is your commitment, then I need YOU to start letting ME know about it.

Your Muslim leaders in this nation should be flooding the media at this time with hard facts on your faith, and what hard actions you are taking as a community and as a religion to protect the United States of America . Please, no more benign overtures of regret for the death of the innocent because I worry about who you regard as innocent. No more benign overtures of condemnation for the unprovoked attacks because I worry about what is unprovoked to you. I am not interested in any more sympathy. I am only interested in action. What will you do for America - our great country - at this time of crisis, at this time of war?

I want to see Arab-Muslims waving the AMERICAN flag in the streets. I want to hear you chanting ‘Allah Bless America ’ I want to see young Arab/Muslim men enlisting in the military. I want to see a commitment of money, time, and emotion to the victims of this butchering and to this nation as a whole.

The FBI has a list of over 400 people they want to talk to regarding the WTC attack. Many of these people live and socialize right now in Muslim communities. You know them. You know where they are. Hand them over to us, now! But I have seen little even approaching this sort of action. Instead I have seen an already closed and secretive community close even tighter. You have disappeared from the streets. You have posted armed security guards at your facilities. You have threatened lawsuits. You have screamed for protection from reprisals.

The very few Arab/Muslim representatives that HAVE appeared in the media were defensive and equivocating. They seemed more concerned with making sure that the United States proves who was responsible before taking action. They seemed more concerned with protecting their fellow Muslims from violence directed towards them in the United States and abroad than they did with supporting our country and denouncing ‘leaders’ like Khadafi, Hussein, Farrakhan, and Arafat.

If the true teachings of Islam proclaim tolerance and peace and love for all people, then I want chapter and verse from the Koran and statements from popular Muslim leaders to back it up. What good is it if the teachings in the Koran are good, and pure, and true, when your ‘leaders’ are teaching fanatical interpretations, terrorism, and intolerance? It matters little how good Islam SHOULD BE if huge numbers of the world’s Muslims interpret the teachings of Mohammed incorrectly and adhere to a degenerative form of the religion. A form that has been demonstrated to us over and over again. A form whose structure is built upon a foundation of violence, death, and suicide. A form whose members are recruited from the prisons around the world. A form whose members (some as young as five years old) are seen day after day, week in and week out, year after year, marching in the streets around the world, burning effigies of our presidents, burning the American flag, shooting weapons into the air. A form whose members convert from a peaceful religion, only to take up arms against the great United States of America, the country of their birth. A form whose rules are so twisted, that their traveling members refuse to show their faces at airport security checkpoints, in the name of Islam.

We will NEVER allow the attacks of September 11, or any others for that matter, to take away that which is so precious to us: Our rights under the greatest constitution in the world. I want to know where every Arab Muslim in this country stands and I think it is my right and the right of every true citizen of this country to demand it. A right paid for by the blood of thousands of my brothers and sisters who died protecting the very constitution that is protecting you and your family.

I am pleading with you to let me know. I want you here as my brother, my neighbor, my friend, as a fellow American. But there can be no gray areas or ambivalence regarding your allegiance, and it is up to YOU, to show ME, where YOU stand. Until then.
‘YOU WORRY ME!’

CANADIAN COMMENTS:

Canadians should agree with this sentiment and forget all about the ‘political correctness’ mandate we’ve had rammed down our throats, and see if this doesn’t ring true in your heart and mind.

For Canada , with all the multiculturism we’ve been told is so important….why should we not, as Canadians, expect that the millions of new people immigrating to our country will show their love for our country, their allegiance to our country, their willingness to obey the laws of our country, and acceptance that we are a Christian country? Just because they are able to enjoy exercising their own religion, they should not expect us to be ashamed of ours. They knew Canada was a Christian country when they came here. Why are we erasing Christianity because immigrants who are unwilling to adopt our way of life expect us to? There is just too much insanity in the world, and we have to start taking a stand.

I hope you will forward, so others will feel they are not alone if they are starting to feel the same.

»And now the Response

First off I would like to say that I disagree completely with the message presented in this article.

…

Have we already forgotten World War 2? Just a quick reminder in case you’ve forgotten: After Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Americans were rounded up and placed in internment camps. They did nothing wrong yet they were singled out, forced away from their lives, businesses, friends - just because they “worried” the other American people. And just why did these American citizens get singled out? Because they looked different. They were an easily identified group. Were there any Germans or Italians rounded up? Did the general American people “worry” about German insurgents infiltrating the country as citizens? Whats worse is that even non-Japanese Asians were persecuted because they looked “Japanese.”

By singling out an easily identified group of people and forcing them to “prove their allegiance”, either by requiring them to do arbitrary tasks that :Don’t prove anything and The majority of American citizens would be offended at if they were required to do in order to prove their allegiance to their country. This didn’t help the Japanese Americans. They did all they could to prove how much they loved America. Many of them did denounce their homeland, even going so far as destroying their Japanese flags and other cultural paraphernalia.

This is called racial profiling and there are many reasons it’s bad.

Now I know you may be afraid and confused. But one thing to keep in mind - when humans get scared and confused they tend to make irrational decisions. We tend to rely on prejudice and stereotypes and fall for logical fallacies.

Here’s a short excerpt from an article about racial profiling:

—But even if stereotypes reflect some “kernel of truth,” it is a dicey strategy to try to make judgments about individuals based on what we think we know about some group to which they belong. When we make stereotype-based judgments, even if our stereotypes are “accurate,” we are likely to commit the logical error of “affirming the consequent.”

—For example, if we know that all pregnant people are women, we can conclude that someone pregnant is therefore a woman. But it would be “affirming the consequent” to conclude that someone who is a woman is therefore pregnant. Likewise, if criminal justice statistics suggest that criminals are likely to be black or Latino, it would be affirming the consequent to conclude that blacks and Latinos are likely to be criminals. In fact, only a very small fraction are.

Falling into that trap is dangerous. We are a country built on freedom, freedom of religion, freedom of race… And another quick history reminder - One of the main reasons we have this country was because of people wanting to get away from religious persecution.

I hear the complaints about hiding behind churches, women and children… don’t forget that during our American revolution we did much the same. We won that war, not because we had superior strength or numbers. We didn’t have the training or the technology of our enemies. We won that war through sheer determination and being sneaky bastards.

Remember the Delaware? The sneak attack that George Washington led on Christmas day? We used guerrilla warfare tactics - shooting from the cover of trees.

Such methods of winning a war have proven successful. Remember Vietnam? If you’re facing a far superior force, that has really been the only effective method of fighting. We pioneered it, and now you’re complaining when someone uses it against us.

The article states: I don’t want to be consumed by the same rage and hate and prejudice that has destroyed the soul of these terrorists But I need your help.

Here it suggests that unless the prejudiced group can prove their innocence that the writer will be “consumed by the same rage and hate and prejudice”… now I’m no psychiatrist, but the last time I checked, the only person that has control of your emotions is you. Not some general easily identified group.

It’s times like this that we as a country have to prove that we’re up to the task that our founding fathers have set forth. It’s times like these, where instead of giving in to fear, hatred and intolerance we must prove that we will rise above base human instincts and be better then those that would instill fear and hatred.

I am not afraid of Arab Americans, Palestinian Americans, Iranian Americans, Saudi Arabian Americans, or any other Middle eastern ethnic group that has made their home in America.

What I’m afraid of is people that agree with this article and then send it off to spread the fear and hatred.

Those people worry me because they are giving into fear and anger.

They are singling out innocent people and requiring them to “prove” their love of the country.

They are advocating taking the rights away from American Citizens just to make themselves feel more secure… and what’s worse is that it doesn’t help at all.

If we start letting these people to take the rights away of a group of citizens just because they’re uncomfortable with them, where does it stop? At what point do we say its enough? When we have everyone in a in ethnic group in concentration camps? We tried that once before… it wasn’t right then and its not right now.

If we give into the fear and hate, are we any better then those that attack us? If we give into terror, don’t the terrorists win a moral victory? They may not win the war, but they do validate (at least in their minds) their war against us. If we strike back in fear and anger against the only visible target we see… an innocent target no less… what do we accomplish? We show the terrorists that we persecute Muslims and Middle Easterners. Is that how we’ll win this war? By showing them that we’re as bad as they think we are?

Or do we rise above the challenge and don’t give in to fear and anger and show them one of the reasons why America was founded: To be tolerant of different elasticities, and religions. To have freedom be paramount.

It’s not the innocent that I fear, it’s the people spreading fear and terror in the guise of “reason” that I fear.

Go in Peace.

words & phrases 04082010

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 23:31:36 -0400

a minimalist, a nihilist, and ever so gently… fatalistic.

the truth... in only four words | gapingvoid - in all its hilarity

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 22:14:19 -0400

the truth... in only four words | gapingvoid - in all its hilarity

Amazon.com: When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man (9780446548151): Jerry Weintraub, Rich Cohen: Books

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 23:46:57 -0400

Amazon.com: When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man (9780446548151): Jerry Weintraub, Rich Cohen: Books:

a kick in the pants and a slap on the head.

we don't share anymore.

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 22:09:00 -0400

In reading about the latest wonder widget, the writer reminisces about comic book swamping and how all the fun of comic books was sharing, seeing what other kids had found, and setting their own definitions about what they were worth.

This article found a radio piece, filed deep under the clutter of the desktop of my mind, about how we experience music. By “we” I mean “the kids these days”, though extension to anyone over the target demographic is unconsciously implied. Also by “we”, I mean one, individual person, because “we” don’t do anything together.

We used to wait for an album to come out, anticipated maybe a week in advance. We used to pile in a friends car and drive to the record shop and buy (for what seems a pittance today) a - vinyl. record. album. The cover art was as much the experience sealed beneath the cellophane as the music. Music, which, we would then go over to another friend’s house where there was a hi-fi stereo, gently crack and peel back the plastic, and listen. Together. We would listen to the album, from beginning to end, just the way it was arranged and ordered by the original artist. Then we would talk about the music, trying to express an ineffably incredible but shared feeling that welled up and made us connected, and hopeful. We found ourselves in each other, gained footing and took off; making our own music, our own art. We shared, we connected, we created.

Now we drive our four-passenger cars alone, listening to a customized playlist, a personally tailored internet radio station, or a genre-specific airwave transmission. iListen to iMusic with our iPhones while iIgnore and/or complacently iDismiss and iDistance ourselves moodily from the casual connections around music. We don’t listen together, we don’t have to. We all have cars and our own stereos and our own living rooms. There’s too much going on to hang out and listen together, but we’ve got them! We don’t even have to buy music from a slightly self-superior music aficionado, who, with a raised eyebrow, may nod or non-nonchalantly smile as he rung up your latest collection piece. {In my mind, music guy has a goatee.}

The connections still happen. They do. Sometimes it seems a little sterile, a bit less personal, smoke-like and intangible; we’ll always find new and fascinating way to connect.

Of course these are all imaginings, hued with the rosy lenses of nostalgia. When I say “we” I mean my parents’, or almost even my parents’ parents generation. I had a walkman.

now this in interactivity!

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:16:08 -0400

now this in interactivity!

the creative process

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:44:00 -0400

the creative process:

Short Film: DemiUrge Emesis

Danny Elfman narrates a film by Voltaire and accompanied by Rasputina - an amazing cast of talent.

moving

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:55:29 -0400

if anyone asked (which no one has) if i missed the places i used to live, i would say no. No more than i miss the breath once it has gone out of me. No more than i anticipate tomorrow, knowing that the only realness… is now. I loved Seattle, with her rain and her high minded ideals. I loved Helena, my cradle. But nothing binds me to them, nothing keeps me in those places that were home once I’ve decided to go. I don’t regret that much at least, going forward and never fearing to look back.

but i do wish someone would ask.

Music Preference? pt1

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 20:49:00 -0400

It’s supposed to be a one or two word answer. Genre, Artist, Era… all appropriate categories of description. I don’t think anyone really has only one answer, but when asked it is usually a skimming over the top of preference. The answers to which may be as vague and as random as.. “Oh, anything by Danny Elfman”, or “the first 4 Pink Floyd albums.” These examples are oddly specific definitions, but when asked, we want to give an accurate impression. I don’t want anyone thinking i listen to Rachmaninoff on the weekends, oh the shame!

I was asked by someone close what kind of music do i like. To which I first had to respond by torturing myself with this, my own question: is it an indecision or a lack of creativity to bypass discretion; musically or otherwise?

i thought it was open-mindedness, but it could also be an ambivalent dispassion, lack of commitment. Though I doubt this very much. Choosing music, what i thought was a handle people could use to identify you with, is some reflection of cognitive process. If your iPod is filled with the top 40 singles of the last 5 years, that might indicate a lack of creativity, a sort of droning trail of breadcrumbs from the car stereo to the door. Or did you bail on anything popular out of rebellion and intentionally seek out the underground? Why? What did you find?

oh for art's sake!

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:35:27 -0400

i was thinking about the very subject when i found this article on Curved White. I went into design because i love art as expression, but i love design as a high-minded concept of combining utility, intent and elegant form to convey ideas to more than one capitalist philistine at a time. forgive me if this sounds communist, but imho design - marketing, branding - is [useful] art for the masses. a brand tells you something about what it is you are considering. okay, we’re using it to advance capitalism… i’ll explore that another day.

Whether its pet food or a Prius, you are not meeting a stranger in a brand when you have heard its name and been introduced to it before making transaction. The idea is that you are meeting a friend whom you may trust, and not a fly-by-night gypsy caravan of questions. (no offense to gypsies - creative industry is essential to the market)

The point is connection. In every interaction is a tentative “Hi… what’s your name..?”; design in all its forms - ads, logos, promotional booklets, web representation etc - introduces with manners and stylized cordiality the crowd of faces in a way that organizes and tailors the meetings to your tastes.

My big idea is that if you create something, anything, with intelligence and respect for the recipient, you’re not just adding to the pile of meaningless pablum frivolously presented to the world. You might, in some way significant if only to you, change it. Just a little.

words & phrases -01

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 13:31:19 -0400

Reality: the ultimate killjoy.

She had a thousand pieces in her; he was only interested in the most obvious ones.

I can sometimes feel the rain.

curvedwhite: “These Machines Kill Fascists” designed by You and...

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:53:43 -0500

curvedwhite:

“These Machines Kill Fascists” designed by You and Me, The Royal We

si je reve ce soir...

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:33:00 -0500

… permitte-moi reves de plien courage et forte pour ma couer le besoin dan ces jours de difficultés et des troubles.

My interim repose… note to self; you are not on vacation....

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:52:38 -0500

view out of my suite

see that thing in the distance? Seattle

and the bay...

My interim repose… note to self; you are not on vacation. Get back to work!