Speaking of which, here are the links I’ve accumulated since last week.
I’m a great fan of Television Without Pity, a snarky website that recaps all of the best (and worst) serialized television shows, so imagine my delight to find their new feature “Ask An Agent.” Sure, you’ve seen talent agents in movies and teevee shows, but are they as heartless (and charming) as Entourage’s Ari Gold? TWP correspondent Wing Chun examines every angle with Canadian super-agent Bryan Misener, including perspectives on the differences between Hollywood and Toronto.
In a random hunt for some sort of Madonna content (god only knows what) I came across a Drowned World Tour recap on Troubled Diva, which I have since taken a bit of a liking to.
If you are a communications or graphic design nerd of any size, Communication Nation’s post on smart image resizing is absolutely required viewing. That’s the sort of thing I’ve always imagined computers would be able to do. Amazing.
What If No One’s Watching puts words to a sensation I’ve experienced but never been able to articulate: transitioning from working class roots to middle class adulthood. Now, I don’t fall so squarely into “working class,” but I (and my family) have definitely shifted upwards into the “middle class” category in my lifetime.
The transition has never been a threat or a disheartenment to me, but sometimes in my newfound yuppy life I am caught off guard when I realize that hardly anyone I know or work with has, say, been on food stamps before. At least Lindsay and I can reminisce about standing in line for government issued cheese.
Did you know that theversion of “Labor Day” in other countries such as Germany correlates not to their own nationalist labor movement, but to that of the United States? I sure didn’t, but Theatrical Milestones offers an explanation. Also, foodie blog Ethicurean draws a dotted line between unions and America’s agriculture.
Oh, and a link from Epi: Organic To Be.
Okay, I can admit I am not an automaton, and some things make me laugh. Such as this narrative eBay description linked by Writing Aspirations. The seller (a blogger) took an unusual approach to describing her product that, in this case, garnered something like a 3000% markup over what she originally paid.
Sometimes a link gets so memetacular that you can witness it sloughing through your RSS feed, as an illustrated coffee guide has been recently. Usually I ignore these sorts of things, but I cannot tell you how often I’ve explained the contents of this chart to family members and co-workers since my barrista days came to a close. I’m going to post it in my freaking cube for reference.
Longtime read Coolfer informs me that uber-producer Rick Rubin is now the co-head of Columbia records (via a great NYT article). And, yes, the idea of this one heavily bearded wise man saving the entirety of the music industry is a little hyperbolic, but clearly he comes down on the side of artist development, if only based on how many bands he’s produced where they’ve wound up sounding more like themselves than ever before.
And, while we’re on the topic of music, I must reiterate my addiction to my two recent mp3blog finds The Yellow Stereo and Philly-based Some Velvet Blog. Why? Because they like indie music, but they still have good taste – a trait critically missing from those who wet themselves over every yowling tuneless indie band that galumphs down the pitchfork pike.
Georgie-James is one of the rare bands that shares genre-space with our Arcati Crisis duo. Listen to “Cake Parade,” which is especially Gina-ish. I hope we get that catchy when we fill out to band size. The Magic Numbers seem to be in that category as well, except Gina can sing circles around their chick(s).
Säkert is cool, and all the more catchy for not being in English. I’m also inexplicably into “Summer In the City” by The Boys And Girls Club. Amos The Transparent seems to have some merit, but is not making my needle quiver, so to speak.
Closing out the music topic, Scott Andrew. He was half of the fabulous Pet Rock Stars, who wrote and recorded two songs from across the country during Blogathon 2003. In the intervening years he’s become the rocker/blogger than I’ve always aspired to be, seamlessly integrating his music into his page while keeping it a blog.
Scott has a new record coming out, the progress of which you can follow back to the cover shoot, or even the decision about whether it was going to be an album or not.
I would support Scott in concept, except for he’s an amazing singer and songwriter, so I can support him in reality instead. I’m looking forward to catching up to him a bit this year.
(Also, note to self: you have three days left to sponsor the new Mieka Pauley disc, which is going to be excellent. Check out her mindbendingly awesome “All The Same Mistakes” on Myspace.)
Finally, some quick hit links.
Ffffound is, in the words of Fresh Arrival: del.icio.us for cool photos you find online. Handy when you’re looking for a post topic in a pinch.
From the increasingly beloved MLarson: Indexed Blog, which is easier to see than to explain. Monome, an intriguing Philly-based design interface that frankly makes no sense to me but is still quite fascinating (note to self: maybe interview them?). You don’t need a plan, you need skills and a problem. A sentence truer than you think.
From the lengthily adored Make You Go Hmm: G.ho.st is a virtual desktop, useful if you work across several different computers each day. Aerogel is the lowest density product currently known to man, which I only halfway understand (decent explanation here) and will have Gina elaborately describe to me over the weekend. PriceProtectr tracks the things you’ve bought in case the price drops soon enough for you to get a rebate. Did you know that Amazon will refund the difference in price within 30-days of purchase? I bet you didn’t.