Jun 27 2003
It’s the twenty-first century, and even though most people don’t have flying cars, robot maids, or their own evil clone yet, at least science is steadily moving towards creating a Star Trek phaser. One can only assume that it will come in both regular and groovy 70s styles. (Thanks, John!)
Jun 27 2003
Fellow Paradise Hotel viewers (all three of you): here’s a 1997 article about new doofus Dave and his incredible ability to sell popcorn. No, seriously.
Jun 27 2003
“This is a great chicken, a friendly chicken, a chicken that is ready for a relationship.” This story about a chap tying helium balloons to his chicken is somewhat amusing, but I’m more interested in the fact that people adopt poultry.
Jun 27 2003
Strom Thurmond, 1903-2003. My momma taught me not to speak ill of the dead, and therefore I have nothing to say.
Jun 25 2003
So, yeah, communication and synergy and business transactions and blah blah blah, but this is what the Internet is really all about: Disco Squirrels (Flash animation).
(If you do a search on Google for “discosquirrels” it will check if you actually meant “dead sea squirrels” — which I didn’t, but I love that it asked.)
Jun 24 2003
Silophone: sonic inhabitation of Silo No.5: upload your own sound clips, or simply play others.. through speakers set up in a giant landmark silo in Montreal. Not near a computer and need a crazy silo music fix? Canadians can play by phone toll-free (1-877-511-SILO).
Jun 24 2003
Dear Medical Professional,
For the last week, I have not been able to get that stupid Tatu song out of my head. Am I going to die?
Jun 24 2003
This is neat — try out Google’s new AdSense technology and see which ads it would place on your website. (My selections appear to be a strange array of indie documentaries and Christian movies.) Now all I need is something like 19.995 million more pageviews a month, and then the .com money will come rolling in, baby! (from Anil Dash)
Jun 23 2003
A mildly self-serving link, but saved for my own records: one of the Vancouver newspapers wrote an article about the company I work for, which appears to have been based entirely on a two minute phone conversation I had with the author. (My company is small enough that people tend to create job titles as best suits the situation. I made up “media manager” on the spot, but in retrospect “Director of Communications” would have sounded more dangerous.)
Jun 23 2003
This last week I have been a big tool of the Swedish Man. Actually, whenever I make a purchase at IKEA I always think of Fight Club‘s disdain for the store, give a little sigh over my lost punk rock youth, and proceed with buying a birch winerack or whatever. Anyway, after “Can I own this and still be cool?”, my big question about IKEA was “How did they manage to become a ‘lifestyle’ furniture store for students, yuppies, and everyone inbetween?” While the first question is still eternally in doubt, the second one can be nicely addressed by this old Business 2.0 article on the company’s designs, marketing, and pricing strategies.
(My third question, by the way, is “Why is this named [some fake Swedish word]?”, and while I couldn’t find a definitive answer on the naming process I did have fun playing the IKEA name game and reading a few true translations of the product labels.)
Jun 23 2003
Okay, so after a few viewings of David Lynch’s Wild at Heart I got the Wizard of Oz symbolism and the fact that Nic Cage and Laura Dern’s characters are archetypes of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe, but according to this collection of essays on Authorship and the Films of David Lynch, Willem Dafoe’s character is supposed to be a twisted Clark Gable. So, fellow Lynch fans: am I missing any other non-Oz metaphors in one of my favourite movies? Help a film geek out!
Actually, while we’re kickin’ it geek style, I should recommend the site 24 Frames Per Second which is full of crunchy good essays on film (like this one on David Lynch’s old muse, Jack Nance).
Jun 22 2003
Why Harry Potter doesn’t cast a spell over me: “[Harry Potter's publishers] hide behind such worthy, apparently unassailable slogans as ‘Anything that gets children reading has to be A Good Thing’. Call me a super-Muggle, but I beg to differ. As a workout for the brain, reading Harry Potter is an activity marginally less testing than watching Neighbours.”
The Guardian article was written for the launch of the fourth Potter book in 2000, but seems equally applicable today. (And yes, I am a big grouch.)