February 8, 2010
David Byrne's Journal: 12.12.09: Art Funding or Arts Funding

Funding future creativity is a real investment — there’s a chance these kids will build, write, draw or play something that will fill theaters, clubs, stadiums, web pages, whatever. The dead guys won’t write more symphonies.

So many wonderful thoughts a points here. David Byrne remains one of my all time heroes. Now that JD is gone, he is at the top of my list of someone I would love to spend a few hours with.

February 5, 2010
Caustic Cover Critic: The 3,988,393,210,272nd Salinger Blog Post

“Before his death, JD Salinger’s publisher, Hamish Hamilton, worked with him to produce jackets for reissues of his books (originally planned for June, they are now due out next month) … [said]Simon Prosser, publishing director, Hamish Hamilton: “There are strict rules about JD Salinger’s covers. The only copy allowed on the books, back or front, is the author name and the title. Nothing else at all: no quotes, no cover blurb, no biography. […] We commissioned Seb Lester, the highly regarded type designer, to hand-draw a font; that font, on the cover of these re-issues, is a one-off and is known in-house here at Hamish Hamilton as the ‘Salinger’.”

Love, Love, Love, Love, Love.

Also, fascinating.

February 2, 2010
How to Survive a 35,000-Foot Fall

givemesomethingtoread:

You’re six miles up, alone and falling without a parachute. Though the odds are long, a small number of people have found themselves in similar situations—and lived to tell the tale. Here’s PM’s 120-mph, 35,000-ft, 3-minutes-to-impact survival guide.

February 1, 2010
Mark Pilgrim on The Setup

Writing will make you a better writer. Writing, and editing, and publishing, and listening — really listening — to what people say about your writing. This is the golden age for aspiring writers. We have a worldwide communications and distribution network where you can publish anything you want and — if you can manage to get anybody’s attention — get near-instant feedback. Writers just 20 years ago would have killed for that kind of feedback loop. Killed! And you’re asking me what word processor I use? Just fucking write, then publish, then write some more. One day your writing will get featured on a site like Reddit and you’ll go from 5 readers to 5000 in a matter of hours, and they’ll all tell you how much your writing sucks. And most of them will be right! Learn how to respond to constructive criticism and filter out the trolls, and you can write the next great American novel in edlin.

A-maze-ing. Every word here is gold, gold, gold.

January 29, 2010
Front Pages | “All the News That’s Fit without Print”

It’s the Tumblr version of Newseum. Except without having to go to DC in January and stand out in the cold looking at LCD screens in the sun.

When you’re dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you’re dead? Nobody.

J.D. Salinger (The Catcher in the Rye)

Rest in flowerless peace.

January 16, 2010
Think Like A Writer

Randy is at his best when he is writing about writing. This is no exception.

January 14, 2010
RockYou Hacker: 30% of Sites Store Plain Text Passwords

“That’s nothing against 32 million emails with passwords. Count how many of them have PayPal. If I check every one, and only 10 percent of them have it, and I take only $10, it’s a pretty nice amount, don’t you think?”

As someone who has a good friend who recently got hacked pretty badly, I can’t stress the importance of using different, secure, random passwords for every single place that requires one.

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January 13, 2010
Polaroid Resurrects Instant Film Cameras | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

PIC-1000

I know who will be getting some of my money this year. Anyone want to guess who?

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The new Doane Paper Flap Jotter

doanepaperfeed:

http://doanepaper.com/tumblrpics/fjtumblr.jpg

Rotate 50 pages of the Doane Paper Grid + Lines Stationery Design a full 360 degrees with the new Flap Jotter. The Wire-o-bound reporter styled Flap Jotter features 100% recycled craft covers and 100% recycled content paper stock. These quality pocket notebooks were constructed by the fine folks at Portland’s Pinball Publishing. A high res 6 picture photo set of the Flap Jotter can be viewed here.

Very nice new product from a very cool company with an exceptional idea.