11.4
State of Mind
New York Times’ wall of expression
9.28
The Class
Filmed over the period of one entire academic year and utilizing students playing fictionalized versions of themselves, “The Class” examines the development of a group of modern, multicultural French youth in the 20th arrondissement of Paris as they transition from children to young adulthood. The film is currently showing at the New York Film Festival and was a winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. I’m excited for this one to come out in wide release.
9.11
Fabled Northern Routes
From the United States National Ice Center, run by the Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in an article in the New York Times:
This is the first recorded occurrence of the Northwest Passage and Northern Sea Route both being open at the same time
9.8
Ambient Awareness
At first the utility of these kinds of services are not immediately apparent but as time goes on, they become deliciously addictive.
In “I’m So Totally, Digitally Close to You” Clive Thompson pens an interesting piece for New York Times Magazine examining both the pitfalls and positive aspects of our Twittering, Facebooking, “always on” behavior.
7.26
Steve Jobs Has a Bit of a Potty Mouth
You think I’m an arrogant [expletive] who thinks he’s above the law, and I think you’re a slime bucket who gets most of his facts wrong
– Steve Jobs
I’ve been consciously attempting to curtail my gratuitous and overabundant siphoning of John Gruber’s Daring Fireball content but this one was too good to pass up.
This little gem of a quote was the opening line (I dare not call it a “greeting”) of a phone call from Steve Jobs to a New York Times reporter in response to said reporters coverage of the nagging question of Mr. Job’s health.
That Steve Jobs, he really does have a bit of a potty mouth, no?
6.24
The New Music Equation
In “Live Music Thrives as CDs Fade” David Carr, of the New York Times, gives us some coverage on the continuing metamorphosis of the music industry and suggests, through interviews with a few members of various bands playing at the Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee, that there is an increasing amount of creative, as well, as financial, possibility in creating music for a small audience.
12.27
Authoring @ the Apple Store
John Gruber of Daring Fireball links to a piece in the New York Times, by Katie Hafner, on Apple’s chain of retail outlets. In his post he focuses on the use of the pat descriptor “The Apple Faithful” as being a tired, overused and inaccurate way of describing both the past and present Apple consumer. I couldn’t agree more.
In a portion of the NYT piece that focuses on Apple’s liberal policy on using it’s in-store computers, though, lies what has to be the best part of the article by far:
Unable to afford a computer, Ms. Jade, 25, began cadging time on a laptop at the Apple store in the SoHo section of Manhattan. Ms. Jade spent hours at a stretch standing in a discreet corner of the store, typing. Within a few months, she had written nearly 300 pages.
Not only did store employees not mind, but at closing time they often made certain to shut Ms. Jade’s computer down last, to give her a little extra time. A few months later, the store invited her to give an in-store reading from her manuscript.
Those 300 pages became Almost 5′ 4″: Confessions of an Unconventional Model a self-published memoir. How cool is that?
There is of course, a blog and a podcast by Ms. Jade as well.
10.17
The Presidential Candidates on Climate Change
In The New York Times’ election guide to the 2008 presidential candidates’ stances on the issue of global warming, the differences between the Democrats’ stances contain merely subtle shades of grey but their practical solutions are quite varied. The Republicans? All over the map.
One Republican candidate seems to want to blame illegal immigration. Another seems to think that there is a solar system wide warming going on. So folksy, that Fred Thompson.
9.20
President Lincoln Shot by an Assassin…
President Lincoln Shot by an Assassin The archives are open…way open.