I figure given my current employment I at least owe the concept of research something. If you have a blog and 10 minutes click the sticker below to fill out the MIT survey. Bigger sample means better results, Knowledge In General thanks you.
The U.S. Government + graphic design + drugs
Is it just me, or does the U.S. DEA have the cheeziest site you’ve ever seen? Whoever thought that using a Shiny Three-Dee font for their logo was a good idea should be sent back to 1996 and have their copy of Photoshop 4 taken away.
At least sites like Erowid (representing a diametrically opposed viewpoint) are so inconsistent and oldschool that they develop a kind of telnet chic, cute and approachable as well as being appropriate given the collectively organized and grassroots nature of the content presented.
Really, The War On Drugs, you’re embarrassing yourself.
Better films involving ukuleles.
It may seem like I have a one-track mind here, but Psychedelic Play-Along Ukulele Films About Coney Island and Mermaids are very, very cool.
Also, while we’re at it, Jake Shimabukuro(link goes to another Midnight Ukulele Disco video) does insane things with only four strings and two octaves. He’s huge in Japan.
(thanks, Big T.)
Because I like it when people find me in Google
Noticing that I’ve been getting significant traffic from individuals seeking information concerning my new instrument, I’d like to share some of the good offerings I’ve come across on my journey towards Hawaiian enlightenment (and not just ironically adorable engrish sites). If you’re not interested in the ukulele just skip the rest.
Continue reading “Because I like it when people find me in Google”
Engrish: 99$ Electric Scooter
The Mountain Goats – Why aren’t you listening yet?
I recently had my mind blown when learning that The Mountain Goats would be performing in Montreal (on the very day I learned it in fact). I then saw the most amazing show of my life. An artist deeply in love with every single chord and word emmanating from his mind. Songs about people you’d never want to meet or be, people you already love.
There’s a kind of stigma that exists around man+guitar acts, I guess it’s a combination of all the cheezy folk stuff out of the sixties and the mildly-retarded emo stuff that hit MTV recently. It’s like you have to be pretentious to think that you don’t need backup or something, maybe there’s some of that here, but there’s also a crushing humility. When he thanks the crowd, he means it, when he tells a story, it’s for the story’s sake, not his own.
Some great stuff is available on their mp3 page (I especially recommend Jam Eater Blues and Going to Bridlington). They are all very lo-fi, audio cassette has a flavor.
Further, they have the good sense to make recordings of their live performances sharable, and thus available at Archive.org. The Village Tavern recording is particularly good and fun, and could easily be said to include “the hits” (it’s available free and in all kinds of formats at that link, banter included).
life is too short to let it go to waste like this,
but i never tasted jam before that tastes like this.
and life is too short to refrain from eating jam out of the jar.
-The Mountain Goats, Jam Eater Blues
because I am a whore for the kittens
Kittenwar presents you with two kitten photos and asks which is cuter. BoingBoing likened it to a HotOrNot(note: I am NOT) for cats. It is addictive, stupid and everything the internet was ever meant to be.
[edit]
Mira points out the losingest kittens section of the site, which I originally failed to notice.
…could it be over?
Officially finished my schooling for this year I am exactly 1 hour ahead of schedule. One delivery trip downtown and I will be ready for a summer composed entirely of listening to fools screwing up basic commands in surveyland.
Appologies for the radio silence lately. The business.
TyndaleKidz.org is one thing I’ve been working on. It’s a groupblog/community where the bloggers are a bunch of kids from a downtown community center me and my class partner were working with. The content isn’t always engrossing but I like to think it has it’s niche market (the audience is supposed to be the community itself).
(Skip this next bit if you have never played Dungeons & Dragons or don’t know what a PHP is.)
Continue reading “…could it be over?”
Uke ‘Till You Puke
I figured there must be something like this out in the world, but sweet rotting pope, these guys are intense.
Uke ‘Till You Puke was the world’s first and only speedmetal ukulele band, breaking hearts and smashing uke’s all through the 90’s.
LINK to their songs page. Note especially their amazing cover of Tiptoe Through the Tulips by Tiny Tim, likely the biggest “pop” ukulele song around (so punk rock!).
(found through Ukulele Players Worldwide a great little flash app/community that maps out players through the world and gives photos and audio samples.)
So many coding projects lately…
Just finished a somewhat insulting overhaul of our class website for Information Design class. Teacher asked us to “imagineer” some kind of project and hand it in, so I imagineered his unsemantic, innefficient, ugly and useless site into a lean, mean information serving machine.
Link to original site. Note the intermittent navigation and random hierarchy (if you know anything about HTML take a look at the code, it’s terrifying).
Link to sexy new standards compliant creative commons licensed version. (note that the use of all the disney properties is for uh… educational purposes… )