Community (ethics, politics, design)

Wow, what a space. Please can my next apartment come to resemble...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:46:41 -0500

Wow, what a space. Please can my next apartment come to resemble this?

# Best Brunch - Best of New York Food 2010

Edward Tufte Presidential Appointment

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:07:00 -0500

Un-effing-believable. Edward Tufte is the high priest of information graphics, and this is just a kick in the pants – talk about the intersection of politics and design! Congrats.

President Obama announced his intent to appoint several individuals to serve on the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel.

[via Gruber]

"Answering the call of tradeswomen who are sick of gloves that don’t fit, reflective vests that sag,..."

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:11:00 -0500

“Answering the call of tradeswomen who are sick of gloves that don’t fit, reflective vests that sag, and the abject lack of work boots designed for the feminine physique, longtime construction worker Deidre Douglas opened Woman Up, a work-wear store on Washington Avenue in Prospect Heights.”

- Awesome awesome awesome awesome. From the Brooklyn Paper (wince past the headline):

# Here’s how to look good on a girder 30 stories up

I think this warrants a “wow.”

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:00:00 -0500

I think this warrants a “wow.”

My old view makes an appearance on the new post at Christopher...

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:47:11 -0500

My old view makes an appearance on the new post at Christopher Niemann’s always-delightful but rarely-updated Times blog.

# Come Rain or Come Shine - Abstract City Blog

"When whites fantasize about becoming other races, it’s only fun if they can blithely ignore..."

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:12:00 -0500

“When whites fantasize about becoming other races, it’s only fun if they can blithely ignore the fundamental experience of being an oppressed racial group. Which is that you are oppressed, and nobody will let you be a leader of anything.”

- It feels good to know that Analee Newitz, who I loved to read as a teenager, really is effing awesome.

# When Will White People Stop Making Movies Like “Avatar”?

(via an article in today’s Times about the many critical responses to the movie.)

The 2008 election was long and tumultuous, but one clear winner...

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:46:00 -0500

The 2008 election was long and tumultuous, but one clear winner emerged from the rumpus: typography. An immeasurable amount of ink was spilled on the Obama campaign’s slick identity work, particularly on the thoughtful use of Gotham, the HFJ font.

John McCain famously used Optima in that election cycle. Today, I clicked over to McCain’s site to listen to him curry favor with the teabaggers in the first radio ads for his 2010 Senate reelection campaign, and guess what! Gotham.

Not a bad move – it certainly has accomplished more than Sarah Palin in the last couple years.

"I’m not saying there is anything wrong with liking The Notebook, but there’s kind of..."

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:33:21 -0500

“I’m not saying there is anything wrong with liking The Notebook, but there’s kind of something wrong with liking The Notebook, you know? I mean, this movie is actual garbage. It doesn’t pluck at your heartstrings so much as it barfs on your diarrhea-strings.”

- I laughed hysterically through the entire synopsis.

#The Notebook - The Hunt For The Worst Movie Of All Time

Harold E. Ford Jr. Discusses Potential Run Against Gillibrand

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:50:00 -0500

Harold E. Ford Jr. Discusses Potential Run Against Gillibrand:

I’m a newcomer to New York State politics, too, but personally can’t imagine a less appealing Democratic candidate. I didn’t even include the part about pedicures:

He called for a major reduction in the corporate tax rate and a payroll tax holiday to encourage hiring.

He blasted [Gillibrand’s] support for the proposed health care overhaul, which is expected to cost New York an extra $1 billion a year, and for opposing the taxpayer bailout of the financial industry.

On many days, he is driven to an NBC television studio in a chauffeured car. He and his wife, Emily, a 29-year-old fashion executive, live a few blocks from the Lexington Avenue subway line in the Flatiron district. But Mr. Ford said he takes the subway only occasionally in the winter, to avoid the cold when he cannot hail a cab.

Asked whether he had visited all five boroughs, he mentioned taking a helicopter ride across the city with fellow executives, at the invitation of Raymond W. Kelly, New York City’s police commissioner. “The only place I have not spent considerable time is Staten Island,” he said, adding that “I landed there in the helicopter, so I can say yes.”

He has breakfast most mornings at the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue, and he receives regular pedicures. (He described them as treatment for a foot condition.)

Mr. Ford twice voted for legislation in the House that would make same-sex marriage illegal. In 2006, when Tennessee voters considered a ballot initiative to outlaw the practice, he vowed to support it. “I oppose gay marriage,” he said at the time.

Mr. Ford has repeatedly described himself as “pro-life,” and has voted to ban a procedure opponents call partial-birth abortions and to require that minors receive parental consent before receiving an abortion.

In the interview, however, he said: “To describe me as pro-life is just wrong. I am personally pro-choice and legislatively pro-choice.”

Mr. Ford, a member of the National Rifle Association, also voted for legislation to limit lawsuits against gun makers, and he cast one of the few Democratic votes for a bill to repeal the District of Columbia’s restrictions on guns.

Asked about his own experience with guns, he said he was an occasional bird hunter. “I shoot at things that can’t shoot back,” he said with a smile, “and will continue to do that.”

Mr. Ford has officially been a resident of the state only since 2009, and did not vote in November’s mayoral election.

"But behind the scenes, it is now clear, the deaths had already generated thousands of pages of..."

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:51:38 -0500

“But behind the scenes, it is now clear, the deaths had already generated thousands of pages of government documents, including scathing investigative reports that were kept under wraps, and a trail of confidential memos and BlackBerry messages that show officials working to stymie outside inquiry.”

- # Officials Obscured Truth of Migrant Deaths in Jail

Gripping – and appaling – from start to finish. Try to read this and still deny the need for comprehensive immigration reform.

I think about this graph a lot. At the moment, it’s...

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:05:00 -0500

I think about this graph a lot. At the moment, it’s because I’m rereading Clay Shirkey’s magnum opus from last spring, on the future of the industry. Click-through for a readably-large version.

# A Graphic History of Newspaper Circulation Over the Last Two Decades

Rilo Kiley’s Incidental Pop Album

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:04:59 -0500

Rilo Kiley’s Incidental Pop Album:

A rather old article, whose content no longer really interests me, but which nonetheless answers all the sorts of questions I wondered a year and a half ago, and so I feel I should link for my former self’s sake: Was Under the Blacklight a shameless money grab? Are they proud of it? Is there still a Rilo Kiley anymore?

Rosie: Song and Video by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. ...

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 02:16:00 -0500

Rosie:

Song and Video by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes.

[after a whirlwind trip through my life stateside i am taking the redeye back tonight and feeling reflective and happy, happy like a stoned dog]

from a spoken interlude 2/3 through the song:

Him: Do you remember that day you fell out of my window?
Her: I sure do, you came jumping out after me.
Him: Well you fell on the concrete, nearly broke your ass, you were bleeding all over the place and I rushed you off to the hospital, you remember that?
Her: Yes I do
Him: Well there’s something I never told you about that night
Her: What didn’t you tell me
Him: While you were sitting in the backseat smoking a cigarette you thought was gonna be your last, I was falling deep, deeply in love with you, and I never told you till just now.

Sometimes all of life feels this way. No one can strum the chord the way Rosie can, either. It makes me glad that she found this song for herself.

"A lot of the people who read a bestselling novel, for example, do not read much other fiction. By..."

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:24:28 -0500

“A lot of the people who read a bestselling novel, for example, do not read much other fiction. By contrast, the audience for an obscure novel is largely composed of people who read a lot. That means the least popular books are judged by people who have the highest standards, while the most popular are judged by people who literally do not know any better. An American who read just one book this year was disproportionately likely to have read ‘The Lost Symbol’, by Dan Brown. He almost certainly liked it.”

- The Economist (via mudd up, peterwknox, solipsism)

Group That Shaped Death Penalty Gives Up on Its Own Work

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:09:34 -0500

Group That Shaped Death Penalty Gives Up on Its Own Work:

“Capital punishment is going to be around for a while,” Professor Clark said. “What this does is pull the plug on the whole intellectual underpinnings for it.”

Fascinating: ‘Negro’ will make an appearance on the...

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:38:00 -0500

Fascinating: ‘Negro’ will make an appearance on the 2010 census form because there were large numbers of write-ins for the term in 2000, predominately among older Blacks.

Times to Remember, Places to Forget

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:41:09 -0500

Times to Remember, Places to Forget:

A wonderfully pithy Times Op-Ed from the New Year, on the homogenization of place. It grazes vapidity, but I think ultimately makes makes a smart point smartly. Give it a quick read.

When the industrial smoothing of our nation’s once-variegated edges has been fully accomplished, Americans may no longer need to gather at midnight on the last day of the year to yearn for their yesterdays, because wherever they are they will see the landscapes of their youths.

Two thousand nine was a big year: it brought both a renewed...

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 19:51:00 -0500

Two thousand nine was a big year: it brought both a renewed sense of stability and a whole slew of adventure. As the calendar ticks over to a new decade, I reprise the venerable tradition – inherited from Jason Kottke – of cataloguing the year by its places. One or more nights spent in each city, asterisks denote places to which I returned. Links to the relevant flickr photos where available.

Previously: 2007, 2006 – there wasn’t a lot going on in 2008.

Stereogum's Indie Rock Crushes 2009

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:57:00 -0500

Stereogum's Indie Rock Crushes 2009:

Any last shred of a claim on my part to think apart from the herd appears to be swept away in Zooey’s eyelashes:

1. Zooey Deschanel
2. Annie Clark
5. Angel Deradoorian (below)
9. Jenny Lewis

[via Rosie]

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:48:16 -0500

[via Rosie]