June 15, 2010
Intel × Vice’s recently-launched Creators Project feels a bit contrived on premise—i.e., a tech titan’s attempt to co-opt the cool—but the production value and content is really quite good. In fact, it’s just as well that Vice/VBS.tv gets a shit-ton money from a corpulent corporation with cash to spare; hence, the (free) star-studded NYC launch party. (It’s already sold out, but I’m going out of town that weekend anyway… speaking of which, I’m going to be out of town this weekend as well, so let’s just say that June’s editorial calendar will be a little leaner than usual.)
James Powderly (above) may be an engineering whiz, but Brock Davis is pure pop fun:
June 10, 2010
*If you can’t tell, the images are mostly unrelated to the text
Ridiculously amazing photos of WC2010 buildup on Boston.com's Big Picture
- Slate has the scoop on the secret history of American soccer in the first quarter of the last century (i.e.,the Roaring Twenties), featuring the Boston Wonder Workers, the Brooklyn Wanderers, and, of course, the infamous Fall River Marksmen.
I hope I encounter this in real life at some point in the next month...
May 28, 2010
It’s no secret that I love maps, though my ambivalence about the MTA applies to their newly revised NYC subway map—the first major update since 1998—set to launch in the next month. In any case, the New York Times has an interactive feature on old vs. new (only the new map is pictured above).
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Chinese Globe
The Daily Mail has a feature on ““Ten of the greatest: Maps that changed the world,” in conjunction with an eponymous exhibition at the British Library. (via Freakonomics Blog)
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In other geography-related news, GOOD has posted the submissions to their open call for ‘Neighborhood Flags‘; unsurprisingly, the majority of them represent the likes of Portland, New York, boroughs in the Golden State (Nor- and So-)… and Minneapolis? (via FreeWilliamsburg)
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Be On Guard! - also via Daily Mail
May 23, 2010
Amy Davidson of the New Yorker responds to Conor Friedersdorf’s critique of NYC narcissism for Atlantic. It’s a fairly accurate assessment all around to mark my upcoming two-year anniversary here.
Photos (click for full-size):
May 17, 2010
or, The Death of Book Philosophers?
What Is a Philosopher?
Critchley's Book of Dead Philosophers boasted one of my favorite book covers of 2009, though I have yet to read it... (via Amazon)
Many former (and some current) philosophy students sound off in the 600 750+ comments to moderator Simon Critchley’s introduction to the new column, the Stone. Let’s hope that Critchley and his colleagues can draw blood from it.
See also: (Highly) critical distance from Brian Leiter, also looking to draw blood (to completely butcher the metaphor).
May 14, 2010
Look at this Fucking Hipster Edition
What Does Hipster Mean to Meme?
I appreciate the Sartre call-out (1:17); however, to her point(s), I just happened upon the latest installment of Nitsuh Abebe’s monthly column for Pitchfork, in which he addresses the concept of irony as the guiding tenet of indie (read: hipster) culture, citing LCD Soundsystem and Hipster Runoff (both of which I’ve written about in a similar context).
You can’t possibly navigate the Internet without being able to understand both arch, knowing irony and all-out earnestness– but no matter how good your ability to figure out which is which, you will eventually run into items where you have no earthly idea how serious the author is.
–Nitsuh Abebe, Why We Fight #3: A Brief History of Knowingness and Irony,
Pitchfork, May 7 2010
In Abebe’s inaugural essay, he draws parallels between Joanna Newsom and Lady Gaga; the former recently spoke about the latter in an interview with the Guardian. (I was less impressed with the extended analogy of musical evolution that marked his second effort, though I’d like to read the Calvino story he mentions.)
More to come soon…
May 12, 2010
Another quick one to mark the six-month anniversary. More to come shortly…
May 5, 2010
This is possibly the most beautiful thing I’ve ever created:
Click image for larger, more mouth-watering version.
After procuring a nice chunk of pork belly from (you guessed it) the Meat Hook over the weekend, I was perusing the internet for a recipe when I came across David Chang‘s no-frills pork belly recipe for Momofuku. (As always, a hefty body of related literature is appropriate here, but you can find plenty of documentation of Chang’s unlikely rise to gastrostardom with a [newly redesigned] Google search. For some quick background info, check out his profile in the TIME 100 this year.)
Obnoxious food nerd stuff after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »
May 3, 2010
“That is an impressive thought pattern for a human.” –Sam Calagione Robot
Will Oldham plays a human being opposite a robot brewmaster—more Conchords than Daft Punk—in this chuckle-worthy 11-minute promotional video for Dogfish Head Brewery’s “glee-increasing product.”
Sample interaction:
Robot: Knock knock.
Jonathan Smart: Who’s there?
Robot: A robot… Oh shit.
–Robot Brewery Tour, (5:45)
Not-really-a-spoiler-at-all: brewmaster Sam Calagione plays the robot, who nonchalantly skims over profound issues such as whether it is possible for robots to believe in anything (2:09).
The Awl via the Daily Swarm
While the Delaware-based craft brewery doesn’t spend any money on advertising, this marks their first foray into digital/viral territory: as per Burkhard Bilger’s brilliant 10,000-word, borderline-hagiographical 2008 profile of the ever-charismatic Calagione for the New Yorker: “He designs many of Dogfish’s labels and cites Andy Warhol and Coco Chanel as inspirations—’that fusion of commercialism and art.’” Truly fascinating stuff.
Also: Calagione in his own words (Inc., July 2009)
Related: “The more intelligent, who scored high on a vocabulary test, would drink more than the dumb…” –Razib Khan, People of Class Drink Alcohol, Discover Magazine, May 2 2010
Coincidentally, I’m looking forward to enjoying Dogfish Head’s Red & White, which I picked up at Brooklyn Beer & Soda yesterday.
