1. 20 May



    'If you ever want to find out just how uninteresting you really are, get a job where the quality and frequency of your thoughts determine your livelihood.'

    Maria Popova, writing for Brain Pickings:

    Watterson stresses the importance of refueling the drained creative tank not by indulging in mindless entertainment but by nourishing stimulation — because, after all, “garbage in, garbage out”:

    We’re not really taught how to recreate constructively. We need to do more than find diversions; we need to restore and expand ourselves. Our idea of relaxing is all too often to plop down in front of the television set and let its pandering idiocy liquefy our brains. Shutting off the thought process is not rejuvenating; the mind is like a car battery — it recharges by running.

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ is some of the most important reading I’ve done in my life thus far.

     

  2. 17 May



    10 Things My Yoga Instructor Said That Almost Made Me Quit Yoga

    Rebecca Jane Stokes, writing for The Hairpin:

    8. “Throw your spine to the other side of the room.”

    Can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to go retrieve my spine.

     

  3. 16 May


    Daft Punk Medley by Pigeon

    Incredible.

    /via Devour

     

  4. 16 May



    Fonts In Use: Modern Vampires of the City – Vampire Weekend

    Futura and Edwardian Script.

     

  5. 16 May



    They're Just Like Us—As Long As 'They' Fit the Narrative

    Bret Easton Ellis, writing for Out:

    Within the tyrannical homophobia of the sports world, that any man would come out as gay (let alone a black man) is not only an LGBT triumph but also a triumph for pranksters everywhere who thrilled to the idea that what should be considered just another neutral fact that is nobody’s business was instead a shock heard around the world, one that added another jolt of transparency to an increasingly transparent planet. It was an undeniable moment and also extremely cool. Jason Collins is the future. But the subsequent fawning over Collins simply stating he is gay still seemed to me, as another gay man, like a new kind of victimization. (George Stephanopoulos interviewed him so tenderly, it was as if he was talking to a six-year-old boy.) In another five years hopefully this won’t matter, but for now we’re trapped in the times we live in. The reign of The Gay Man as Magical Elf, who whenever he comes out appears before us as some kind of saintly E.T. whose sole purpose is to be put in the position of reminding us only about Tolerance and Our Own Prejudices and To Feel Good About Ourselves and to be a symbol instead of just being a gay dude, is—lamentably—still in media play.

    A remarkable, if not a bit meander-y, piece by Ellis, who nails what has to be the next step in realizing that They’re Just Like Us if we are to truly become a society that is accepting of homosexuality.

    With that in mind, I’d like to think that Ellis will get a big kick out of seeing the shirt that Jarron Collins, Jason Collins’ twin brother, wore recently.

     

  6. 16 May



    Disney Decides Against Sexy Makeover of 'Brave' Heroine After Public Backlash

    Tracie Egan Morrissey, writing for Jezebel:

    Filmmaker Brenda Chapman, who won an Oscar for writing and co-directing Brave, called Merida’s redesign “a blatantly sexist marketing move based on money.”

    I argue with my friends on a semi-regular basis about the role that Disney will play, or not play, in my home now that I have a daughter, and this is just another piece of evidence at my disposal. Oh, and don’t miss this bit, or the accompanying graphic:

    And while it’s good news that integrity of the Merida character has been saved, the same can’t be said for the other 10 ladies in the Disney Princess lineup, who have all been victims of the same kind of redesign involving lots of makeup, hair extensions, plumped-up lips, breast implants, Restylane cheek injections, and an inordinate amount of glitter.

    The Disney Princess lineup. That’s really all I have to say about that.

     

  7. 15 May



    Feed Wrangler, Google Reader, and the Phantom Limb of RSS

    In preparation for the Google Reader shutdown on 7/1, on Saturday, 5/11, I purchased a $19, one year membership to David Smith’s new RSS service Feed Wrangler. This morning, I felt like I was ready to write down some initial thoughts.

    So let’s get this out of the way first—I’m not ready to tell someone to spend $19 on Feed Wrangler. Well, sort of. I purchased my F.W. membership because I happen to have a massive iTunes credit right now (stowed away for Apple TV movie purchases since my wife and I can’t take the newborn to the movies. Turns out she’s not really a film fan in general, but that’s another post) and as you’ll see, my overall impression of F.W. is positive, but I think I might feel differently if I had spent actual money, rather than having taken the plunge while wearing the credit life jacket.

    F.W. (note: the service launched on 4/30, just two weeks ago) feels like it’s an app/service being run by one person, and not by Google. Which is fine—because it is. The money that I paid Google for Reader ($0) meant that I had the same amount of say (none) in what they did, or didn’t do, with the service. I already like the sensation that, when I’m done with this post, I can email it to David and feel confident that he’ll at least consider my opinions/thoughts. But you will notice the difference in the two services. You’ll notice it in terms of the overall speed of the service, the refresh rate of feeds, and the occasional downtime. Also hurting David is the fact that, app-wise, most people (if not all) used already polished RSS apps to access G.R. Overall though, I can’t help but think that F.W. will only get better with time, as more people plunk down their $19, so I’m looking at this period as an investment in the future of F.W.

    It’s also worth noting that, come 7/1, the biggest comparison service will no longer exist.

    Some random points:

    -The F.W. app has better functionality than the website, which is important for me because I use(d) reader.google.com at work a lot. And by a lot, I mean Monday-Friday, 9am to 5pm. This is another area that is not good for me in the short term. But long term, I feel like it’s actually a good sign. Information/media in the future will, for the most part, take the form of an app, not a website (and if you need proof of this, check out recent slick web designs by the New York Times and Pitchfork and Pitchfork. What do those remind you of?). And David just released the F.W. API, so I have a feeling Reeder (my RSS app of choice) will support F.W. soon.

    -If you use Instapaper (or Pocket), you’ll definitely appreciate how it’s incorporated across the ‘top level’ of the service, one of those so-simple-that-no-one-thought-of-it ideas.

    -As I said, the speed of F.W. is different from Google. Not necessarily slower—just different. With Google, I’d get updates seemingly instantly, or at least as fast as I could refresh the page, so I’d wind up with one new item at a time if I was refreshing a lot (don’t tell my job). With F.W., there’s almost always either a few items (and almost always in bunches from the same feed), or nothing at all. Understand that there is zero technical understanding behind the following statement, but I feel like this has to do with the polling limits of one man vs. Google. Strangely, I’ve almost come to enjoy this difference though, as I haven’t felt like I need to check F.W. constantly to stay on top of it. The articles get there when they get there, and no amount of refreshing can change that.

    -That being said, I’ve definitely encountered the palpable sensation that F.W. is missing stuff. I haven’t had the time, nor the inclination, to check it against G.R., but the feeling is there. I can’t decide if it’s just a Phantom Limb-like sensation, since I’ve never used anything but G.R. and F.W. is different in its feed refresh patterns, or if there are actual articles being missed. For what it’s worth, in the past four days, I haven’t come across any articles after the fact and been surprised that I didn’t notice it in my RSS feed.

    I’m also keeping a running list of things to submit to the David after using F.W. for a couple of weeks. Here’s what I have so far (please note that by ’needs’ I realize that this is all frivolous bullshit when compared to the world at large, and that my needs may not represent any other, never mind a large portion of, RSS user(s)):

    -Apps and Site: Needs the ability to group feeds by feed within the ‘Unread’ stream and user-created streams, not just in chronological order.

    -Site: Needs more horizontal real estate for the article list. Too many titles are cut off and they are not cut off in the app.

    -Site: Needs the ability/option to see a short synopsis/piece of the article without clicking.

    -Site: Needs the ability to ‘mark as read while scrolling.’

    -Apps and Site: Needs a number/badge indicating an unread items count, at least as an option.

    -Site: Video frames are consistently outside of the article column, always on the right side.

    -Apps: Some feeds don’t obey the screen limits and require a swipe (or several) to the left to see the article and/or images, which in turn, screws up swiping right to go back to the article list.

    -iPad App: Needs the ability to clear the article pane once all articles have been read.

    -Apps: The ‘wrangle’ concept is cool, since it gives you four options for several articles with just one tap, but ‘mark all read’ should automatically refresh the article list and remove the ‘mark all read’ button. And the writing teacher in me hates the grammar of that option.

    -Service: Needs the ability to edit individual feed info. E.g., Grantland’s ‘Hollywood Prospectus’ blog, for whatever reason, works as a feed, but doesn’t supply good info (it didn’t for G.R., either.). Rather than being able to edit it to reflect what it is (as you were able to in G.R.), it just sits in the feed list as ‘ESPN.com - null.’

    -Apps: It isn’t clear what the ‘search’ function is for. It appears to be for finding a feed (which would be useful), but is actually for searching articles.

    And so, four days in, that’s it. I didn’t even touch on the nice, minimalist design (although another blue app icon was—disappointing) or the good font choice. Importing my Google Reader info was simple, although it did require messing around with about 5-7 feeds before it was perfect. David has already released an update to the app, and he appears to be very quick on Twitter in responding to customers, which is part of the satisfaction one gets from paying for a service.

    Final word: If you’ve got an iTunes credit and/or $19 to spare, Feed Wrangler is worth your money. If you’ve got an app budget, I’d say wait and give the service a bit more time to mature, while also keeping in mind that the maturation process will most likely be expedited with each payment.

     

  8. 15 May


    Vampire Weekend, “Ya Hey”

    MVotC is finally out and without a doubt worth your money. “Ya Hey” is my favorite track right now, but I’ve had three favorite tracks in the past 12 hours so what do I know.

    It’s also worth noting that this is the third video they’ve released for MVotC and, my goodness, am I in love with all three of them.