Month: June 2008

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These Are Those Things

The Other TED

Still ranking right below BLU as my favorite clip of the year, is the TED Talk by Jill Bolte Taylor “A Stroke Of Insight”.  Now TED has posted enough of their lectures to warrant a Top Ten (via BoingBoing).  

I still remain grateful that we don’t have to run out and have a stroke to gain this sort of insight, just like we don’t need to run out a practice the methods of others, like Timothy Leary, who had remarkably similar realizations as Taylor, albeit not quite as succinct.  To quote TED: “Neuroantomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientist would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened — as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding — she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.”

Maybe I am a few years behind, but 2008 feels like The Year That Lectures Broke on the Internet.  It’s pretty great that ideas have finally become a pop form.
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These Are Those Things

Transforming The Neighborhood



In my dreams, NYC transforms overnight.  Manhattan is no longer the island of the super-rich.  The ubiquitous advertising is gone.  Everything is art.  In fact it looks a lot like The Heidelberg Project outside of Detroit.  This alone is a reason for a trip to Michigan.

The Heidelberg Project was started in response to the homes left abandoned after the ’67 Detroit Riots.  Tyree Guyton (and his wife and father) got the kids together and went-a-decorating.  It’s truly inspiring.
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These Are Those Things

Psychedelia Redux


EncyclepdiaPictura seem to be part of a growing wave of mind-blowing filmmakers and artists hellbent on accessing the deep recesses of our lizard brain.  When Corbin slipped me the first taste of their work (knife) I time travelled back to my march through Utah’s Paria Canyon in my late teens when I was covered in mud and feeling akin to the Yeti as I scared the various more sane hikers who expected to commune with common nature.  Awww, fond memories.  Bjork since found them and they gave her a great 3D vid too.  

Others in this wave include the band MGMT (check out “Time To Pretend” — if you haven’t been already among the 2.5M who did on YouTube or their interactive video game) & Assume Vivid Astro Focus (featured above).  For a taste of the past, there is Hipgnosis.  Turn on the love light baby.  thanks Mr. Reynolds!
Categories
The Next Good Idea

Let’s End Credit Solicitations

We all have morning rituals.  And most of us probably have a few we’d like to opt out of.  My morning tear-up-the-credit-card-opportunity-into-little-bits-and-put-it-in-the-recycling ritual is one I would gladly abandon.

Richard Winkler recently told be about OptOutPreScreen.  This web service removes your name from the various Consumer Credit Reporting Companies that provide the solicitors with their targets.  You can do it forever, or for five years.  You can also opt back in.  They do ask you to provide your Social Security number, but, being a victim of identity theft, I opted out of that option.  I hope it works as the list will be down to 99 problems, but this won’t be one.
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These Are Those Things

A Truly Pleasurable Experience: "Love And War"

I got a link today to check out a short film at the YouTube Screening Room.  I did not yet know about this new feature at YouTube.  It’s High Definition.  You can watch full screen without the image getting fuzzy.  The sound was good.  And they have award winning films from around the world.  I felt like I was getting closer to that elusive promise of the internet…

Maybe it was because it was early in the morning and my brain hadn’t yet woken up.  Or maybe it’s because the film was good.  Check out Love And War, “probably the world’s first animated opera”.  The puppets are good, the shots great, the music absorbing.  It’s a great way to start your day.  
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These Are Those Things

Leave It To Banksy

Cannes has been too expensive for me to attend the last couple of years.  And it is really elitist, isn’t it? 

Leave it to Banksy to solve all those problems.  Welcome to The Cans Festival. Well, London is still pricey, but… YouTube is still free (tip from Bryan B.)
The Banksy book “Wall And Piece” has been a popular one in our house.  My son spotted some wild-posting for a recent show of Banksy’s on the day it opened and not only got us there ahead of the swarm but proceeded to pontificate to all attendees on the quality and political ramifications of his various pranks.  Not bad for someone barely over 4 feet tall.  Banksy’s done more to keep politics and resistance fun and accessible than anyone since The Clash.

Categories
The Next Good Idea

The War Against Omnivideo

Scott Macauley at the Filmmaker Magazine blog tipped me to a stock market blog, SeekingAlpha, and the post “How Video Is Going To Take Over The World”.  But the reality is that its not “going to”, it already has.

It feels pretty damn close to Bladerunner in NYC with video coming at you in all directions: in taxicabs, on subway station signs, and in corporate elevators.  Where’s the escape?  Scott pointed out a comment on SeekingAlpha where we will soon need to have anti-video glasses to squash the onslaught.

There needs to be a Citzens’ Bill Of Rights enacted that guarantees that the marketeers don’t have the right to invade our minds in the public space.  Turning On should be a matter of personal choice.  Soon we will have no escape from commercials others than our own home.  If I was backpacker, I wouldn’t be surprise to find a large flat screen at the top of the hike, selling me more cheese.
How are we going to stop Omnivideo World from materializing everywhere?  I like daydreaming.