February 2011
1 post
The Weekly Obsession, 2/2/2011
Precision Coffee Instrument: Burr grinder
Unexpectedly Beautiful Rendition: PS22 Chorus Sings Ariel Pink’s “Round and Round”
Browser Tune-Up: sharkZapper Extension for Chrome
Leafy Green: Spinach
Proto-Beatboxing Moment: Jimmie Riddle & Jackie Phelps Eefing and Hambone Act
Intake Control: Lose It!
January 2011
3 posts
The Weekly Obsession, 1/27/2011
Interactive Lovefest: SXSW Interactive
Coin-Operated Curiosities: Musée Mechanique
Musical Genius: Frank Zappa
Literary Genius (Who Was Even Smarter than Everyone Thought): Vladimir Nabokov
Cartoon Re-Imagining: The Monkeys You Ordered
Hauntological Soundtrack Source: Ghost Box
The Weekly Obsession, 1/12/2011
Excuse to Go Back to the Future: iCADE
Whoopie Pie: Society Bakery
Tool for Reading It Later: Instapaper
Brain Cartography: MindMeister
Celestial Jukebox: Grooveshark
Way to Keep Up with the iJoneses: Mac App Store
The Weekly Obsession, 1/5/2011
Excuse to Buy a Bigger Hard Drive: Thousands of free Netlabel albums, curated by Phlow Magazine, Free Music Archive and Archive.org
Chance to Discover Your Inner George Martin: Propellerhead Record 1.5
Book to Read Before Seeing the Movie: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (UK Edition)
Where to Find a Book to Read Next: Project Gutenberg
Fully Customized E-Magazine: Flipboard
Device to...
December 2010
0 posts
October 2010
4 posts
The Weekly Obsession, 10/27/2010
Pocket-Sized Ubiquitous Capture Device: Moleskine Volant X-Small Plain Notebook
Reimagining: Sherlock
8-bit Musical Massacre: Flying Lotus – Kill Your Co-Workers
Digital Brain: OmniFocus
Unexpectedly Delicious Diet Food: Alton Brown’s Sardine-Avocado Sandwich
Cool Internet Trick: Easy Bit.ly QR Codes
Note: This will likely be my last Weekly Obsession entry until December, as I will be...
The Weekly Obsession, 10/20/2010
Pocket Pen: Zebra F-301 Compact
Lust Object: The new MacBook Air
Fashion Statement: Playbutton
Musical Evolution: Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz
Burger Topping: ¡Jalapeños!
Mind-Eff: When does a dream become a nightmare?
The Weekly Obsession, 10/13/2010
Cheap-Ass Lunch: Gourmet Ramen noodles
Music Groop: Stereolab
Controversial Cartoon Show Opening: The Simpsons by Banksy
Mac App for Writers: Scrivener
Productivity Podcast: David Allen Getting Things Done Podcast
Brew: Guinness Draught
The Weekly Obsession, 10/6/2010
Author, Dream-Weaver, Visionary (Plus Actor): Garth Marenghi
Spice: Rosemary
Netflix Queue-Enlarger: instantwatcher.com
Vintage Adventure Novel: At the Earth’s Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Source for Random Asian Goodies: 99 Ranch Market
Album: Deadringer by RJD2
September 2010
5 posts
The Weekly Obsession, 9/29/2010
Concert: Field Music, 9/30/10 at The Loft, Dallas
Store-Bought Salsa: Herdez Salsa Verde
Restaurant Salsa: Chuy’s Salsa Fresca
Non-Paper-Based Mobile Reading Experience: iBooks
Online Diversion: Website Asteroids
Offline Diversion: Chess
The Weekly Obsession, 9/22/2010
Geographical Source for Televised Entertainment: Great Britain
Starbucks Order: Grande Caffè Americano
Publisher of Random Awesomeness: Dover Publications
Mommy Blog: Mother Is Not Concerned / LitLad (Tied)
Personal Challenge: NaNoWriMo
Free Music Download: Jim Noir – Melody Junction EP
The Weekly Obsession, 9/15/2010
Britcom: Green Wing
Pen: Pilot Varsity
Season: Autumn
Vintage Keyboard: Clavinet / Mellotron (Tied)
Lust Object: The Boxee Box
Wow App: Epic Citadel
The Weekly Obsession, 9/9/2010
Video Series: Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis
Coffee: Zabar’s Dark Espresso Roast
Dessert: Ridiculously Easy Peach Crunch Cake
Browser: Google Chrome
Bookstore: The public library
Birdcall: Mourning dove
The Weekly Obsession, 9/1/2010
Comic: Mouse Guard
Video Series: Put This On
Music: The Clientele – “Bookshop Casanova”
Color Scheme: Silver & orange
Paper Innovation: PocketMod
Booze: Talisker 18
April 2010
2 posts
10 Random Thoughts on the iPad
1. Incredible design (as always w/ Apple). Amazing fit & finish, and a true pleasure to hold and behold. Also super-fluid, breathtakingly fast, uber-responsive feel. That new A4 chip must be magic.
2. Heavier than I expected. Hard to hold for any length of time one-handed.
3. Gets smudgy as all hell, and harder to wipe on a t-shirt sleeve than the iPhone b/c of the much larger screen.
4....
This is for the haters.
The ones who said we were too white, “alarmingly unathletic” and lacking in NBA-caliber talent. The ones who complained that we got all the calls, that we cheated, faked and flopped. Those who claimed the NCAA gave us an easy ride.
This is for the ones who called us arrogant, smug and elitist, who derided our Hall of Fame coach and called our players...
February 2010
1 post
Itlaly
Here’s an original song I wrote...
November 2009
1 post
Why musicians should piss each other off more...
So. Matthew Friedberger of The Fiery Furnaces (a band I love) took a potshot at Radiohead (another band I love) and their tribute to the British airman Harry Patch. Only he mistakenly(?) thought it was actually a song about the avant-garde American composer Harry Partch.
Later, he explained the Patch/Partch mixup was a deliberate joke, and in the process managed to also insult Beck (yet another...
October 2009
1 post
Hulu to go to a paid model? [sigh] →
(Link via Gizmodo) Just when I started to think Hulu might be on to a successful model (stream major network shows for free, but embed impossible-to-skip streaming ads), they announce the service will be moving to for-pay. If this does come to pass, I predict a major slide back into TV torrenting, which will only hasten the demise of the major broadcast networks. Here’s hoping they wise up...
September 2009
2 posts
Kids say the most disturbing things
Me: What's black and white and red all over?
My 6-year-old: A nun in a blender?
August 2009
4 posts
Recent favorites from my Fake Band Name list
Monster Map of Lavaland
Lizzie Boredom
The Keytards
Dreadful Moisty
Beaver Rainbow
The Schaudenfriends
The Homosensuals
Sunshine Bubblewand
Balalycra
“Sovereign Scarlet”
In digging through my various...
Cutting the cord
Just as a quick follow-up to my previous post, I was thinking it might be fun (and perhaps educational) for me to document the steps I take along the way in replacing my cable TV service with a Mac mini-based entertainment setup.
Just curious what people would like to see—blog posts? Step-by-step videos? Both? If you have any ideas, please leave me a comment.
Cable TV, You've Been Put on Notice →
Due to various reasons, both economical and philosophical, I am giving serious thought to ditching my $60-a-month cable TV subscription and replacing it with a Mac Mini-based media center. That way, I can simply use free open-source software like Plex and Boxee to stream free video content on demand. In researching the possibilities, I discovered this blog, which takes you through one...
June 2009
1 post
Old folks review indie rock
Just discovered “Breakfast at Sulimay’s” this morning. It’s a funny Web series that features three senior citizens at a diner in Philadelphia, weighing in on the latest indie releases. Cute, raunchy, hysterical and definitely worth checking out.
May 2009
1 post
Danger Mouse flips EMI the bird →
Apparently Danger Mouse (acclaimed producer and one half of the excellent Gnarls Barkley) has run into some difficulty with getting his record label to release his new collaboration with Sparklehorse and auteur David Lynch, title “Dark Night of the Soul.” His solution? Release the album art with a blank CD-R, and encourage people to track down the music by whatever means necessary....
April 2009
1 post
Delicious Library 2
I recently picked up Delicious Library 2 as part of the MacHeist promotion, and have really been excited about all the OCD media cataloging potential.
It even lets you publish your library with one click, including an auto-sensing iPhone-optimized version (you can see mine here).
Me likey!
March 2009
9 posts
The Album Is Alive →
An important editorial by Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree on why the album format still matters in the digital age.
WatchDepartment of Eagles: “No One Does It Like You”
I’ve become a big Department of Eagles fan over the past few months, and this track is definitely one of their strongest. Now it’s got a beautiful/tragic new video, with contributions from Marcel Dzama (one of my favorite contemporary artists).
WatchBlack Moth Super Rainbow Mixtape
The Liondrome. →
Racing motorcycles at high speed on vertical walls with LIONS in the sidecars? What’s not to love?
(via Dark Roasted Blend).
WatchThis sure looks like the future.
A demo of a prototype “Sixth Sense” device from the TED conference. The potential seems mind-boggling. (Via Gizmodo.)
SXSW Interactive 2009 coverage
We’ll be tweeting and microblogging from SXSW this year. Check out The Launch Agency Tumblelog for more details:
http://launchagency.tumblr.com/
February 2009
19 posts
Tumblr audio posting via iPhone? Badass.
WatchMy brother Matt performs a world premiere with the Mallarmé Chamber Players. That’s some bitchin’ modern classical guitar work, dude.
Ugh, no more Hulu on Boxee →
In case you haven’t heard, Boxee. the free/open-source media center app that seemed like the best shot to bring Internet-based TV streaming to everyone’s living room, has suffered a body blow at the hands of the Evil Big Media Overlords (i.e. the content-providing broadcast networks). The popular and oftentimes awesome Hulu is being pulled from Boxee at the networks’ request.
If...
Dark Roasted Blend →
Weird and wonderful things to accompany your daily coffee ritual. The latest update includes movies of gigantic tumbleweeds attacking cars, bizarre farm tools, a squid with disturbingly human-looking teeth, steampunk fashion and more. A must-see.
MacHeist →
MacHeist is definitely worth checking out if you’re a Mac fan like me. Each year, they put together a bundle of dozens of shareware apps for about $50, which is a ridiculous discount off the cost of buying each separately. They haven’t announced this year’s bundle yet, but they already have some freebies up there (including a clips organizer called ShoveBox that’s been...
My 6-Year-Old: Daddy?
Me: Yeah?
My 6-Year-Old: Why did God make black holes?
Me: ...
PWN! YouTube →
Want to download that YouTube video you found to your desktop? Here’s a cool trick: just find the video you want, then change the first part of the URL in your address bar from “youtube.com” to “pwnyoutube.com.” It will then give you a screen with download links to both the standard-def and high-def files. Awesome.