I really enjoy liking things. Nothing makes me happier than seeing good work except for seeing people get excited when their good work is appreciated. Sometimes I do this by paying for it, but the best thing about the information age is that you can feel like a mini patron of the arts just by talking about things you like and hoping that somebody else spends money on it for/in addition to you.

I was really excited to start using my Sean-Me-Down coffee grinder last night so I started looking for some “perfect one cup system” guides. I managed to sign up for a free trial of Tonx’s bean subscription service before I somehow ended up on this Yelle video, which led me to a number of awesome discoveries.

For one thing, I finally put a name to T.J. Miller’s face. I think he tends to go a little too big, but he nailed it as the cult member Gabriel in The League this season. After deciding I was jealous of Europeans because everyone there seems unafraid to dance, I continued down the rabbit hole of Nathan Barnatt videos until I got to “Pop Culture”.

And this is why I click everything. Jenny Fine’s site turned out to be full of fantastic comics. The type of comedy is varied, and she seems equally skilled at using punch lines and visual gags. I’m also impressed by how often she mixes up the format instead of sticking with the linear three panel webcomic I’m used to seeing.

Tell me this isn’t great.

I really enjoy liking things. Nothing makes me happier than seeing good work except for seeing people get excited when their good work is appreciated. Sometimes I do this by paying for it, but the best thing about the information age is that you can feel like a mini patron of the arts just ...

I really enjoy liking things. Nothing makes me happier than seeing good work except for seeing people get excited when their good work is appreciated. Sometimes I do this by paying for it, but the best thing about the information age is that you can feel like a mini patron of the arts just by talking about things you like and hoping that somebody else spends money on it for/in addition to you.

Things I Like

• Ramona Emerson writing for HuffPo – What I said about liking good work is doubly true for writers. Even moreso for writers who are not yet famous. It means that while I may not have their natural talent, dedication to craft, or many of the other prerequisite traits necessary to thrive in that competitive marketplace, I do have taste. It’s the equivalent of what Aziz Ansari’s character in Parks & Rec does when he says, “Game recognizes game.” I should really start saying that more often. And you should read some of Ramona’s work.
• Speed Notes – My friend Daniel made a Notational Velocity inspired ios app that works great with Dropbox. It was even on the frontpage of Hacker News the other day.
• Braids – Beautiful. Short listed for the Polaris Music Prize.
• Ian Rogers’ A Step-By-Step Guide to Building an Online Marketing Plan That Works – A great presenation on building relationships with fans and giving them a reason to buy from you. The specific tips are really good, but the general philosophy behind it is even more important to internalize. I’m rarely excited by marketing related presentations, but Topspin is consistently showing me the future of online marketing I’d like to see. I don’t mind living within their system at all.

I really enjoy liking things. Nothing makes me happier than seeing good work except for seeing people get excited when their good work is appreciated. Sometimes I do this by paying for it, but the best thing about the information age is that you can feel like a mini patron of the arts just ...

via Nerdy Girl Love

Friends and Music

Someone posted Sumerian Axe’s record By This Axe I Rule for download.

I know I keep posting about Grill ‘Em All but the dudes got interviewed by Tony from Municipal Waste and it’s way better than any of the other interviews they’ve done.

Spencer Owen has a mind for music that I will always envy; here’s his list of the top 45 records from 2000-2009. I’ve also been listening to him play “Letter Dance” and you probably should too.

As you may know, Carmichael Gallery is my favorite gallery in L.A. and they’re moving. For their last show in the La Brea space they’re showing the works of Mark Jenkins and Aakash Nihalani

Grant Purdum is one of my (very) understanding editors at TMT and does work for a host of other music publications which allows him to do some pretty cool stuff. For instance, he gets to participate in the Village Voice’s Pazz and Jop poll.

Assorted Good Feeling Makers

Nerdy Girl Love

Look At This Frakking Geekster It’s like that other blog except actually good.

Nic Cage as Everyone Exactly what it sounds like.

While I wait for new Venture Bros. I’ve been reading Todd Alcott’s analyses of episodes past.

Friends and Music Someone posted Sumerian Axe's record By This Axe I Rule for download. I know I keep posting about Grill 'Em All but the dudes got interviewed by Tony from Municipal Waste and it's way better than any of the other interviews they've done. Spencer Owen has a mind for music that I will ...

I’ve told people I was going to start looking into cyclocross. If you can’t laugh at yourself you shouldn’t have internet access. (video via BSNYC)

Kevin Marks gave a really interesting talk about the social theory and social media. If you have any interest in language you should check it out too because he pulls out some new terms to help describe what’s happening. New words are always fun.

Conversationalist is the next step for Twitter lists. The list updates itself daily to reflect who you’re talking to and about, providing your followers with more context for your own tweets.

Pranav Mistry’s TED talk is indeed thrilling. It’s also an incredible testament to hard work and vision. Would the phrase “paper computer” get you to click?

“It’s like Twitter. Except we charge people to use it.” This post made the rounds on Twitter a few days ago and would have had me rolling on the floor if I hadn’t already been lying in bed. I don’t want to give anything away but I’ll tell you that it has pie charts. Hilarious pie charts.

Gimme That Christian Side Hug: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Oj0-splZw via @nick

My friends Matt and Ryan are opening up what I think promises to be the best food truck in L.A. the history of music. It’s called the Grill Em All truck and this is what their art looks like.
This is my burger of choice. I think it’s street name will be the Dee Snider. Described as “smoked cheddar, marinated anaheim chilies, butter beer braised onions.”

They’ve been talking about doing this for a while and I know they’ve worked really hard on it. Congratulations on living the dream, and may the Eater LA mention be the first of many.

I've told people I was going to start looking into cyclocross. If you can't laugh at yourself you shouldn't have internet access. (video via BSNYC) Kevin Marks gave a really interesting talk about the social theory and social media. If you have any interest in language you should check it out too ...

I think I’m going to put the chain mail thing to bed. I feel like I’ve proven that there is a ton of material out there and I’m ready for a new theme. I wonder if people have done interesting stuff with sausage links…

“If we all started thinking a bit more like friends, and a bit less like attention whores, the privacy problem would be solved at a stroke.”

Empire Game Brought to you by some of the minds behind Pure Pwnage this turn based strategy game is bar none the most engrossing and fulfilling browser game I’ve played. It doesn’t require any major time investment (you can even let your turns accumulate for three days until you start missing out on them) but you find yourself really thinking about it when you are playing. I’m in three different rounds right now, trying three different strategies, and despite the claims that the system favors building up industry and buying mercenary troops I’m finding it possible to thrive regardless of my empire’s focus. Really well done. It’s in open beta now.

We Feel Fine – I got to talking with @fascinated the other day and he turned me on to this project by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar which collects and logs sentences from blogs containing the term “I feel” along with corollary data. “The result is a database of several million human feelings, increasing by 15,000 – 20,000 new feelings per day.” that “can be searched and sorted across a number of demographic slices, offering responses to specific questions…” It’s been going since 05 so it’s currently massive.

@shitmydadsays got a t.v. deal

Console Wars via my friend Ben. “Truly a poetic and forgotten piece of American history. Will the war ever end?”

Creativity Loves Blowing Constraints Out of the Water via @jpdef or, for those that don’t tweet

I think I'm going to put the chain mail thing to bed. I feel like I've proven that there is a ton of material out there and I'm ready for a new theme. I wonder if people have done interesting stuff with sausage links... "If we all started thinking a bit more like ...

I’ve been busy this month and had been filing things away with read it now but had to wipe my hard drive. This is a combination of some things I recently came across and things that I remembered from before. The greatest loss was my archive of link images.

Watching people crash and burn when it comes to dating can be painful, it can also be hilarious. Not that I’m a psychotic guy but this scenario is why I’m afraid to leave voicemails regardless of the subject at hand.

I’ve been spending some time at Pirate Cat Radio here in San Francisco and it’s a great outfit. The station has a pretty eclectic set of shows, the djs I’ve met have all been really cool and interesting folk, and the cafe carries treats so good that I’ve probably shaved a few years off my life expectancy already. Seriously, bacon fat in a latte? Check for in-stores and interviews (blog favorite Nobunny will be there Sept 1st at 6 PM.) It’s all volunteer operated and the cafe supports the station so go in and show some love.

I don’t have an iphone but I’m glad it exists because the parody ads are becoming their own art form. This new one from Adam Sacks blows the rest of his ads away. You should take a look at his Avatar commentary too.

People of Walmart is everything a Tumblr should be.

Stevil Kinevil of How To Avoid The Bummer Life has a new blog called All Hail the Black Market. If you ride a bike or like having fun you’re probably going to enjoy it. BSNYC approved.

I’ve been playing the new twitter game City of Blood which is similar to spymaster but there’s a kind of story line to it and different tasks to “do.” It’s still just clicked “do job” but for some reason I’m intrigued. I haven’t even explored the gang rivalry side of it yet. The fact that you can buy credits or get them from doing surveys for things that are probably rife with spyware is pretty lame though.

I've been busy this month and had been filing things away with read it now but had to wipe my hard drive. This is a combination of some things I recently came across and things that I remembered from before. The greatest loss was my archive of link images. ...

FFFFOUND: “FFFFOUND! is a web service that not only allows the users to post and share their favorite images found on the web, but also dynamically recommends each user’s tastes and interests for an inspirational image-bookmarking experience!!”
– FFFFOUND About page
“You can write that down and put a dash in front of it, and put my name at the bottom. Because all I want to be is dashed.”
– Mitch Hedberg

Early Windows Mobile Foursquare app I really have no problem with the mobile site but I guess apps sound cooler.

Facebook and Twitter DOS Apparently Focused on One Blogger – Cnet via Seanbonner, Laughing Squid

Why There Are No Girls In San Francisco: Now, I haven’t tried to go out with any yet, but I’ve got to say I’ve seen plenty here in the last week. via @scopitone

Jayson DeFellipo is selling domains. A lot of domains. The list is worth taking a list at just for a laugh. If things like adultzilla and asschannel make you laugh. I knew a kid in high school who wanted to get his driver’s license. He was eating lunch with his father and his dad squeezed a ketchup bottle so that it would make that sputtering fart noise. Childish laughter spilled out of the kid and his dad said, “You can drive when you don’t laugh at a ketchup bottle farting.” I have no idea where that kid is now. He might still be in some diner practicing with bottles and trying not to laugh. The moral of the story is: fucko.com will always be funny.

again via Sean Bonner and here are some tour dates for their reunion (I hope)

FFFFOUND: "FFFFOUND! is a web service that not only allows the users to post and share their favorite images found on the web, but also dynamically recommends each user's tastes and interests for an inspirational image-bookmarking experience!!" - FFFFOUND About page ...

Songkick is a social networking site simply based on what concerts you go to.  You can track upcoming shows and follow what your friends are going to.  I’m linking to @iancr’s because I saw his tweet about needing more people on there.

Invader: The Rubik’s Cube at its Best One of my favorite artists right now.  If you live in any major city in the world you’ve probably seen one of his pixelized pieces.

No Soul For Sale: A Festival of Independents “anti art fair of sorts”

my love for you is a stamped of horses is giving away a Carson Ellis pattern from Jenny Hart’s Sublime Stitching.  You have to enter by Monday morning though.

Jemina Pearl (of the now defunct Be Your Own Pet) blogs. She’s on Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace label, who has an interview about death metal on Decibel Magazine

Interviews from the Past: Kaws in 1995

Make a youtube round (aka cannon) Way too fun.  Definitely better than when we had to do them for Row Row Row Your Boat in elementary school.

Songkick is a social networking site simply based on what concerts you go to.  You can track upcoming shows and follow what your friends are going to.  I'm linking to @iancr's because I saw his tweet about needing more people on there. Invader: The Rubik's Cube at its Best One of my favorite artists right ...

with what people do with chainmail I should be able to keep this up indefinitely

Well, I seemed to have skipped the entire week and gone straight to Friday’s links.  Such is the toll blogger’s ennui takes.  My brain is slowly reconstructing itself from mush form though and I wrote two posts at Stereocache about upcoming art shows and made a rough calendar for the coming month.

Amazing Super Powers web comic

We Love You So

In the days of FML and Sorry-Mom people seem to have forgotten grouphug.us

SoCalCross

Field Tested Books

autonomo.us I have no real claim to geekdom but what I can understand here I find inspiring

App For That – anything you can think of, seriously. Don’t just make, scroll.

I’m on a couch

Well, I seemed to have skipped the entire week and gone straight to Friday's links.  Such is the toll blogger's ennui takes.  My brain is slowly reconstructing itself from mush form though and I wrote two posts at Stereocache about upcoming art shows and made a rough calendar for the coming month. Amazing Super Powers ...

links, get it...

One of the reasons I wanted to start this blog was that I found myself coming accross things online that I either didn’t want to devote a full post about or spoke for themselves and didn’t require a single word from me.  I always new that the term blog was derived from web log but I heard recently that the name came about because blogs were initally used as places to compile links to the owners favorite things online that week.  As of now I plan on ending every work week with a links post.  I think it’ll be nice to have some regularity and maybe it will imbue me and this blog with an air of discipline.

Chuck Norris Guards Croatian Bakery – Thanks to Hunzy

Foursquare – Game based on getting out in your city.  I’ve often said I’d live a lot better if there were unlockable achievements and leveling in life.

RFC 1925 The Twelve Networking Truths – Thanks @willsargent

Trash Talk Interview on The Trip Wire – Ridiculous live band and great guys.

Auto Tune the News (vid)

Cat Workout – Sean Bonner and Tara Brown project.  Alot of it’s lost on me because all I see is them creating a system that will encourage cat force feeding and cat obesity as cat workout participants get stronger and need more resistance from their fluffy weights.  It is worth posting for the way Sean says “push through it” on the bench press segment though.

Aardvark – for asking questions and giving answers.

Posters and Toys – Oh the money I’ll waste

I have seen so much great stuff online recently but I wasn’t diligently keeping track.  Next time will be better though since I started using Evernote – thanks @tara

One of the reasons I wanted to start this blog was that I found myself coming accross things online that I either didn't want to devote a full post about or spoke for themselves and didn't require a single word from me.  I always new that the term blog was derived from web log ...