Photolog
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Simplify, man! Simplify!
2007 March 30
My friend Dave told me last night about a rather brilliant online organizer named Scrybe. The video overview is fascinating to watch – love that guitar transition – but the application seems to rely heavily on accessing options with a right-click of the mouse. Since Scrybe is still beta, at the time this post was published, I would ask why right-click anything at all? Don’t click it, Daddy-o.
The eighth involves an airbrush
2007 March 25
Sometimes a person means well, like when Jesus died on the cross for, like, sins and stuff, or when Anna Wintour must have taken her holiday early to allow possible former employees of National Enquirer to take a stab at the April 2007 cover of Vogue because God only knows what the hell went through the minds of the magazine otherwise. Seriously, have you seen what was done to Scarlett Johansson via airbrush? I almost put down my grocery purchases and ran from the store with tears in my eyes. Almost. I had pears to poach in spiced wine, and I certainly couldn’t do that without fresh ginger. But if someone would be so kind as to tap Ms. Wintour on the shoulder and ask just what was she thinking when she blessed the cover of the April 2007 issue, I would greatly appreciate it.
In the meantime, feel free to brush up on your seven deadly sins of interviewing. God knows many a staff member at Vogue will soon be reading these very same rules of successful interviewing on their way out the door.
Mikawaves
2007 March 15
When spending time in Amsterdam, one should procure a copy of Gay & Night to catch up on what’s new and exciting in the world of music, culture and politics. On the cover of the March 2007 issue is an up-and-coming chanteur named Mika. “…because everyone was calling me ‘Maika’, or ‘Mischa’. So I was saying ‘noooo, my name’s fucking Mika!’” Really, always with the language from a pop star. A quick look on Google brings one to Mika’s official web site. The artwork featured on his site and album is a result of Mika’s collaborative efforts with his sister Yasmine, a somewhat derivative redux of Peter Max.
And his music? Think falsetto in that terribly British pop kind of way. Most everyone will love his sound and equate it to Scissor Sisters. Others will equate his voice to new technologies developed by the military to cause hemmoraging in the ear canal. Such is the cosmic dance called life.
Rethink different.
2007 March 12
Waiting in my mailbox was the April issue of Macworld. The cover didn’t feel particularly inspired with its yellow background, nonetheless I flipped to the back page to read “Hot Stuff” for fun tips and items of interest. Instead of finding my fun tips and items of interest, I was greeted with a mug of the magazine’s featured columnist du mois and a layout design that reeks of the 1990s.
I smelled me a magazine design, the scent quite pungent.
From the editor’s column, Jason Snell elaborated:
Yes, we’ve redesigned Macworld. But if you didn’t notice at first [are you kidding me?], don’t feel bad: We’ve tried to be subtle about it. [Subtle? Three words: Tammy Faye Bakker] Our art director Rob Schultz has been with Macworld for more than two years now [and did a great job up until the April issue], and so he knows what worked–and what didn’t–in our previous design [what, not enough ad space?]. Our goal was to maximize those strengths [read: create new ad space] and minimize the weaknesses [read: throw up all over design that was more solid than this]. Also, over the past couple of years, we’ve made a bunch of tweaks and additions [read: ad space] here and there to the content of Macworld. The previous design was straining under those incremental changes, so we wanted to bring them all together as a coherent whole [by throwing rounded corners all over photos from high school yearbooks].
“Hot Stuff” is now at the end of “Mac Beat”, which of course means having to flip through the magazine to find the fun gems instead of turning to the last page and getting exactly what you want. The choice to make users look for what they want—isn’t this what Apple works so hard to avoid in its user experience?
It’s enough to make you want to gang up on a carrot. Or something.
Have Mercy
2007 March 06
The new album “The Third Hand” by Rjd2 is out today! Sign up with emusic.com and download the album for free. Yes, I am plugging the site so I can get free downloads added to my account, but it’s not as if the situation isn’t win-win for everyone. Why are you still reading this? “You don’t want to be a laughing stock, do you? You don’t want to cry yourself to sleep each and every night?” Cliquez!
You really should check out Rjd2’s web site whilst you download, it’s a rather nice design by Sean Clauretie.
Walking In The Dark
2007 March 04
If you’re anything like me, you like to move to a city without doing any research. Sure, your hotel room was nice and within close proximity to everything located downtown, and the weather was particularly pleasant, but what about the city itself?
Enter Mercedes Yaeger, a storyteller extraordinaire who knows her history. She brings the city of Seattle to life with vibrant descriptions, colorful characters and graceful gestures. March through October is the season to embark upon her Ghost Market Tour, an hour-long stroll that presents the paranormal patrons in Pike Place Market and separates fact from fiction. For instance, it is a fact that many a ghost is known to wander the 7 acres of land that comprise Pike Market. Ghosts that will communicate with the living and correctly predict the exact date Prada’s mobile phone to arrive in the states? Fiction.