Category: Uncategorized

Weekendly clickables XVI

Weekendly Clickables XV

I know it’s not the weekend. But I made this over the weekend, more or less, so here goes:

  • Some of Golan Levin’s interactive sculptures are really interesting.
  • Yesterday I got triple retweeted when I said “Ask Metafilter — better than Wikipedia,” and this is what I was referring to — it’s almost impossible to think of a subject and not have AMF come up with the exact bit of advice you need.
  • I do believe I’ve just been challenged to a bet. (Relevant: this is how much of a pita it is to fix the cover art in your mp3s.)
  • Something I didn’t know — you can use AddThis to put obnoxious social bookmarking widgets on every page of your website. (Also: How to make an iPhone version of your site.)
  • Five key reasons why newspapers are failing.
  • I love the beach photo that accompanies this article (about Iraquis saying “fuck the war, let’s go swimming”).
  • Wow, with The Pirate Bay down and MiniNova increasingly blocking copyrighted content, Torrentz is the current How We Do It.
  • 50-minute Bruce Sterling talk. I haven’t watched it yet, but should be good.
  • Speaking of how we’ll be listening to music in 10 years, here’s how I’m listening to music today: my own personal cloud.
  • Dave Ramsey explains how to get out of the car payment trap. (Car? Oh yeah, that’d be a good thing to have.)
  • I’m still trying to figure out the best place to make a one-off photo book. Maybe this?
  • “Put your tongue behind your teeth and smile, which will relax your face.” Huh?.
  • Now go look at some music videos.

Weekendly clickables XIV

  • Vintage Stand-Up Comedy. Let’s be clear on what this is: a catalog of over 200 full albums of spoken-word performances by the likes of Rodney Dangerfield, Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, and Woody Allen, with links to downloadable audio. (BTW, how do you open a rar file? Easy, 7-Zip.)
  • WTF Taxidermy. (via)
  • “A few reviews of Antichrist, Lars Von Trier’s new movie starring starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, which has people up in arms.
  • Wallets with a baby picture are 90% likely to be returned if lost (vs. 30% for no picture).
  • Persnickety photographing article of the week: Shot discipline.
  • Happy 40th. Did you know that the geniuses at NASA accidentally recorded over the high-resolution video tapes of the first ever moon walk? The best we can do is take the downsampled broadcast TV footage and restore it. You can watch it here.
  • First there was a building, then there was no building, then there was.
  • So, right, James Wolcott is bugged about the Kindle because people on the subway can’t see the cool book he’s reading. And no, he isn’t the only impoverished soul with these types of concerns. (Although not everyone agrees.) Well, fear no more James Wolcott, because digital signaling is here.
  • Supplies of Knob Creek whiskey are running low for this year. Try being in a business where you have to estimate demand a decade in advance!

Weekendly clickables XII

Eight fallacies about contemporary art

Eight fallacies about contemporary art, of which the two that I run into most often from non-art people are:

Value is completely subjective.
No it’s not. There are methods of evaluating art, and just because viewers respond differently doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Unresolved aesthetic choices and lazy conceptual practice won’t receive a pass from me.

Anyone could do that.
A sentiment typically refuted with the argument, “But you didn’t.” A more common version of the myth circulating art circles, “It’s too easy” completes itself with “to take a compelling photograph,” or “to make a good collage.” In each case, the viewer’s actually complaining that it’s too hard to separate the good from the bad. There’s no easy answer to this dilemma, except to look at enough art to develop a mature eye.

 

Weekendly clickables X