Tue
Feb
9
10
Barbotian Ocean 2.0
Some kind of a collection of random crap, "curated" by Bill Barbot
This are my tagz:
TV Pics
This are my frenz:
For Callum
Untitled (Melissa Robison)
Insurmountable Opportunities
Zach Barocas Blogs Here
The Population
Very Most Good
All Ages
This are my tagz:
TV Pics
This are my frenz:
For Callum
Untitled (Melissa Robison)
Insurmountable Opportunities
Zach Barocas Blogs Here
The Population
Very Most Good
All Ages
www.flickr.com
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Thu
Feb
4
10
Engadget shuts down comments: any comments?
Mashable reports: “Popular gadget site Engadget has recently shut down comments. It’s a temporary measure, it says, but the blog took it because the ‘tone in comments has really gotten out of hand.’”
Engadget post on the matter.
The rationale, in a nutshell, is that comments on Engadget have become so inflammatory and off-topic as to detract from the point of allowing comments in the first place. Which of course raises the broader question of, “Is a blog primarily a publishing platform, or a social media forum?” Or more succinctly, “What IS the point of allowing comments in the first place?”
The answer is, depending on circumstances and context, to both facilitate publishing and to build a community. (And to stroke one’s own ego, but that’s a separate issue). But when a blog becomes popular – and I have seen this in blogs of all stripes, be they focused on gadgets, Macs, music, politics, gaming – the commenters quickly begin to compete with the post creator for headliner status. Many would argue that that is the point of community and social media. Develop audience, add reagent, and watch the reaction become greater than the sum of its components.
But when blog publishers, like Engadget, sense the point of diminishing returns, they are faced with a choice: watch the value of their blog deteriorate because of the comments, or watch the value of their blog deteriorate by eliminating comments. Is there any action a blogger can take to avoid becoming a victim of their own success?
Tue
Jan
26
10
CNN’s 360-degree video technology is utterly cool, even if the content is devastatingly sad.
Thu
Jan
21
10
Music by lonely weirdos.
Or maybe just music for lonely weirdos.
At any rate, bring the French horn. I said, bring it.
It’s probably tacky to do a double-reblog, but Merlin and RoyalBacon have already done the work to dig this up, so a-re-blogging we will go.
I miss the Long Winters, but this John Roderick solo tune captures all of the stuff that makes LW so great.
Three and a half years is entirely too long for a band to go without a new record. In the mean time, enjoy this John Roderick video from the excellent giveseattle.org compilation. /via MBV
Wed
Jan
20
10
But thou, my babe! shalt wander like a breeze
Coleridge, Frost at Midnight
Nick with frosty hair and a thousand-yard stare (via bbarbot)
Sat
Jan
16
10
José González delivers a gorgeous rendering of Massive Attack’s classic, “Teardrop.” Gonzalez tones down the more Kate Bush-y approach Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins) took to the lyric (and mercifully, the video has nothing to do with the creepy singing fetus of the original). But his Chilean-by-way-of-Stockholm accent adds an otherworldly chill to the tune much as Fraser’s “voice of God” did to the first recording.
Sat
Jan
9
10
It was Friday when I was watching this last night; then the pizza man arrived and parked on my lawn, and all bets were off for me to finish reminiscing about how mind-blowing Devo was in 1980 on the appropriate day of the week. These things happen.
It was a bold trick for me to figure out how to stay up late enough to watch Fridays, but with two older sisters out on dates with ne’er-do-well boyfriends (cigarettes, Camaros, and Kansas) I managed to pull a fast one now and again and catch whatever zaniness ensued on ABC’s poor-man’s answer to SNL while my parents were otherwise distracted. It was never all that funny, but it was counter-culture, in a network kind of way, and that was enough to tickle my twelve-year-old fancy, which didn’t require much to tickle it.
But Devo … ah, Devo. Much like Rush, who preceded them on my fanboy wall of fame, they married rock and science fiction, but these guys actually lived the fiction in a way Rush only wrote about. No offense to Rush, but Geddy, Neil, and Alex in matching yellow jumpsuits jamming on “Bastille Day” just wouldn’t have worked the way it did so well with the plastic-haired boys from Akron. Classic rock’s theatrics came off as contrived and ridiculous by 1980, in a way that Devo’s were hypnotic, surreal, and nose-thumbing.
As a matter of fact, I came into possession of the Columbia House Record Club edition of Freedom of Choice by trading my sister my copy of Grand Illusion. I think I came out the better.
DEVO - Fridays 1980 Whip It + Uncontrollable Urge (Complete) (via sanspoint)
Wed
Dec
30
09
Richard Swift has been stuck in my craw for the better part of 2009, since I first heard him on Daytrotter, maybe in March. He hits Randy Newman, Paul Williams, and the creepier pages of the Smokey Robinson songbook with soul, chops, falsetto, and an army of apparently female look-alikes. And I like.
