Quoted: Truth

"GRADUATE education is the Detroit of higher learning. Most graduate programs in American universities produce a product for which there is no market."

--Mark C. Taylor, the chairman of the religion department at Columbia, in " End the University as We Know It", Op-Ed for the NY Times

Quoted: Vintage Views about the Internet

"All the geniuses with computers love to tell you you can talk to people all over the world if you're on line. Who wants to? You want to talk to people all over the world? People don't talk to the guy next door. . . . People are standing in an elevator -- do you talk to anybody? A guy calls you up and he's got the wrong number -- do you start a conversation? Do you ever say, "Sure glad you got the wrong number!" You're gonna holler, "You got the wrong number!" And God forbid he calls you again: you think he's a stalker, you call the police.

"People are nuts, you know that? . . . They're crazy about computers. . . . Last week a guy calls me: 'I spoke to a guy from Siberia, a mountain climber from Siberia." . . . If a mountain climber from Siberia came over to your house and said, 'Hello, I'm a mountain climber!' Would you say, 'Come in, I'm dying to talk to you! All my life I wanted to talk to a mountain climber from Siberia! It's my greatest dream!'"

Jackie Mason in the NY Times, 1996, "Taking a P.C. to the Toilet"

Lisztomania, meet the 80s brat pack montage

Unbelievable (and very often, heartbreaking) images honoured By the Pulitzer Prizes and Overseas Press Club this weekend for photographic reportage (at the Daily Beast).

Sean Connery in Zardoz (1974)

What it's like to fly Southwest

Under Construction

Please ignore "read more" under all my posts. Thank you.

The Return of Eden... kind of

What if humans suddenly died off? Author Alan Wiseman imagines what would happen in the book The World Without Us (2007). A video from Wiseman's website shows what would happen to your house and how long it would take for it to completely disappear.

A New Look for Granville Island Brewery

Granville Island Brewery and Cap College* got some nice international attention today. The Dieline.com ("the world's #1 package design website") featured the work of Felicia Hildebrandt, a 2009 grad of the IDEA program at Cap.

What do you think? Should the brewery adopt Felicia's designs?





* Thanks to Gordon Campbell, it's officially Capilano University but Premier Campbell can take his insta-universities and shove it.

BC Votes. May 12.

INTERNET-AGE WRITING SYLLABUS AND COURSE OVERVIEW

ENG 371WR:
Writing for Nonreaders in the Postprint Era
M-W-F: 11:00 a.m.–12:15 p.m.
Instructor: Robert Lanham

Prerequisites

Students must have completed at least two of the following.

ENG: 232WR—Advanced Tweeting: The Elements of Droll
LIT: 223—Early-21st-Century Literature: 140 Characters or Less
ENG: 102—Staring Blankly at Handheld Devices While Others Are Talking
ENG: 301—Advanced Blog and Book Skimming
ENG: 231WR—Facebook Wall Alliteration and Assonance
LIT: 202—The Literary Merits of Lolcats
LIT: 209—Internet-Age Surrealistic Narcissism and Self-Absorption

Course Description

What an awful thing to say: The Earth Day Edition

The Sun (UK): Fatties Cause Global Warming

CNN: Thinner is better to curb global warming, study says

Vanity Fair (Dee Dee Myers, columnist): Thin Is the New Green

Anyway you write it, this is disastrous, irresponsible, ridiculously skewed reporting and "scientific research."
("spbrown" calls Myers and "Orwellian lemming". I couldn't have said it any better).

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

L.A. Cool

A Los Angeles Trend Worth Following for Earth Day

"The City of Los Angeles set a goal to get 20% of its power from renewable sources by 2010. The program the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) put in place gives people the choice of whether the money they pay in electrical bills will go to fund coal power, or renewable energy.

"The program is administered through the LADWP, and it allows consumers to sign up to get part or all of their power from renewable sources for an extra three cents per kilowatt-hour. So, if your electricity bill is $50 per month, you could get 20% renewable power for another three dollars, or 100% renewable power for $15 more per month.

"...What is interesting about LADWP's program is the way it allows the individual to take direct action to support renewable power. Rather than calling congress, or using less energy (I'm not knocking those things), people can actually choose where their money goes when they pay their electricity bill. If they care about renewable energy, and can afford a couple dollars more a month, they can directly support the renewable energy infrastructure."

Nathan Havey, ResponsAbilityX Team member, the Huffington Post

happy earth day!

things to do on earth day

Take care of your mom today- MOTHER NATURE, that is.

I'm probably going to spend most of my day sleeping, reading (the article below--it looks important-ish), and then getting free coffee. Ah yes, life outside of school is fantastic.



NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: The Green Issue
Why Isn’t the Brain Green?

By JON GERTNER
April 16, 2009

Two days after Barack Obama was sworn in as president of the United States, the Pew Research Center released a poll ranking the issues that Americans said were the most important priorities for this year. At the top of the list were several concerns — jobs and the economy — related to the current recession. Farther down, well after terrorism, deficit reduction and en­ergy (and even something the pollsters characterized as “moral decline”) was climate change. It was priority No. 20. That was last place.

Read more

Nutty

WIRED is one of the most exciting print magazines out there*
The design is consistently creative and engaging. But what really gets me to buy their magazines is that they are fantastical at packaging their issues.

For instance, take the May issue of the magazine, guest edited by J.J. Abrams. The entire magazine is devoted to the theme mystery; running throughout the pages is a series of puzzles which direct the reader to a secret website.

The NYT reports that Steven Bevacqua, a postproduction supervisor for the TV series Life, was the first reader to solve the puzzle, earning him a prize from Abrams. But other readers that can crack the codes (let alone figure out which ones are the puzzles... some are found in illustrations and photos: "you might ask why are there so many typographical errors in the text of Poe’s short story “The Purloined Letter” that appears on the screen of the Amazon Kindle on Page 46.") might win big as well.

So take that, Internet. Print is alive (and sort of) well.

“Blog posts can effectively summarize a story and give you the takeaway idea,” said Thomas Goetz, the deputy editor of Wired. But print publications, he said, are still better suited to conveying “the nuance and effort of understanding the complexity of an idea and why it matters — what the riddles and wrinkles are within an idea.”

via NYT, "A Magazine With a Puzzle Buried Inside"

* and though I'd like to say that it's ironic, WIRED is about more than the web, it's also about technology in the real world, so it's doesn't really qualify as being completely contrary

Here's another puzzle for you, albeit it works online (click to enlarge):

The Collection of Michael Jackson

So, the Michael Jackson auction was called off but at least we got to see the sort of things MJ owns--like this truly unique painting.

Item 1100:
Paul Bedard (American, 20th century)
Portrait of famous figures wearing Michael Jackson sunglasses and sequined gloves, including Mona Lisa, George Washington, and Albert Einstein.
Acrylic on canvas, signed, and dated 85.
Unframed.

48 by 54 inches

$1,000-2,000

The auction catalogs detailing his effects can be found on the auctioneer's website.

More SNEEZE

More synchronicity... a day after I found Sneeze magazine in Gastown, Vancouver is Awesome started V.I.A. Imprint, "an ongoing feature concerning book and magazine publishers, book stores, and all things print in this city of ours."

The first magazine profiled was Sneeze. See the interview with Busy guy and Vancouver based photographer (and magazine publisher), Nic Fensom, here.

Nic Fensom Portfolio

I'm going to learn how to cook

The wonderful folks at Harbour Publishing gave me The Joy of Cooking when I left a year ago. I've tried some cookie recipes, a risotto, and a lamb dish so far but I'm really going to give cooking a good try in these next few months (you are invited to the dinner party).

I got a bit of encouragement this weekend reading the Bitten Blog post on TV cooking vs. Real Life cooking.

Hey. Things catch fire sometimes, even in “real” kitchens. Things overcook, they undercook, they look like something the cat dragged in, they’re oversalted, underspiced, soggy when they should be crisp, dry when they should be moist . . . in restaurants, good restaurants, chefs do these over. On TV, chefs gloss these over. Rarely are you given a sense of what really goes on.

The home cook, especially the aspiring home cook, needs encouragement — not befuddlement. Show people what actually happens in the kitchen, show people that mistakes are made (”The grand thing about cooking is you can eat your mistakes” — Julia Child), show people that, just as you need not be Rafael Nadal to play tennis, you need not be Gordon Ramsay to cook a decent meal.

In related news, the first pictures of the Meryl as Julia Child in Julie & Julia were released today. See more:

I applaud any article that can cleverly involve Tipper Gore, Bon Iver, the Beatles, Nine Inch Nails and the cover art for Ginuwine’s "Pony."

See: Emily Gould's Social A's at Awl.com (This week: how to deal with gross, disgusting body parts of a potential partner (which are not enclosed by the pants).)

Talk about songs that are way too obscene to potentially be playing on the radio when one is in the car with one’s mom: “I want to what you like an animal?” We were in the parking lot of the White Oak Library when this happened, I remember it very vividly. In that moment I wished that Tipper Gore had won, so that I wouldn’t have to defend the free speech rights of someone who thinks it’s ok/original to rhyme “penetrate” and “desecrate” (and “complicate”!).

WIRED: Teach your iPhone/iPod touch how to swear

Sasha Frere Jones recommends...

Starfucker - Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second

"If there are too many hooks (and men) in your Phoenix, then Starfucker is for you."

SFJ @Twitter

Currently listening to...

Jenny Lewis - Black Sand

Even before Freaks and Geeks

And that would be terrible...

BOAO, China — Action star Jackie Chan said Saturday he's not sure if a free society is a good thing for China and that he's starting to think "we Chinese need to be controlled."

Chan's comments drew applause from a predominantly Chinese audience of business leaders in China's southern island province of Hainan.

The 55-year-old Hong Kong actor was participating in a panel at the annual Boao Forum when he was asked to discuss censorship and restrictions on filmmakers in China. He expanded his comments to include society.

"I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not," Chan said. "I'm really confused now. If you're too free, you're like the way Hong Kong is now. It's very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic."

Chan added: "I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want."--Via HuffPo (and AP)

Stars in their Pies

This week, Harvey Nichols Foodmarket issues these smart looking postcards, proving not all puns are created equal.

Featuring the likes of Cake Winslet, Banana Mouskouri, Wayne Pruney and Pea Diddy, the postcards will be sold for £4.95 a pack in both a Boys and Girls version

Thanks to Matt via CR blog

Twitter: Officially over capacity

All I'm getting from Twitter in the past few days is the fail whale. There's been a huge surge of new this week due to the AplusK vs. CNN showdown and new members Oprah and Gayle King.

Here's a rundown of the events at Maria Write Now

And the illustrated version

SNEEZE mag

Vancouver gained big in the street cred department with my newest discovery: SNEEZE magazine. There are only three cities in the world where you can buy this broadsheet-style (read: BIG) skate magazine from a coin box: Honolulu, New York City, and Vancouver.

SNEEZE includes big, loud photos and artwork, and is written in English and Japanese.

I found it at Abbott and Water. Only $2.

The goal is to create a destination for the reader by having one box per city in a select location -- like a flagship store. We want to grow with you city by city, issue by issue. Having a box on the street not only differentiates us from the rest, but just makes Sneeze more carefree since nowadays magazines are all about over production. The newspaper format is raw and it complements our coverage since underneath Sneeze is ultimately a skateboard mag. And obviously because the box is on the street, our publication can be accessed 24-7 by anyone at any time.

Bees always remind me Irving Penn's "Bee on Lips" (1995). There was one buzzing in my room for five days or so, struggling to get out of the space between my blinds and the windows. Today, I captured it in a cup with the help of a wooden sculpture of the Empire State building (as a plank and a nudge in the right direction) and released it outside, where it took flight like the fresh air was a magic tonic.

Wallflower

"Vogue Patterns" by Steven Meisel for Vogue Italia, 2007
via booooooom
see the entire editorial at foto_decadent

Accidents Happen (sorry, little guy)

"The Accident" (2008) -- Jeremy Hatch is a ceramicist and sculptor who holds a BFA from Emily Carr Institute and an MFA at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. He has attended residencies and exhibited his work throughout Canada and the United States. Jeremy currently employs a ceramic process of slip-casting porcelain to produce large unglazed sculptural installations. He has expanded his material investigations to incorporate rubber, plastic and fiberglass into his ceramic work. Hatch was the recipient of British Columbia’s 2005 Visual Arts Development Awards.

Take a look at Canadian Design past and present at The Canadian Design Resource

That's right, I just saw Adventureland

Here's some music to set the mood... Velvet Underground - Pale Blue Eyes

Kudos, Geist

With issue 72, Geist switches to vegetable-based inks and eco-friendly paper: 40 percent post-consumer fibre inside and 100 percent post-consumer fibre for the cover.

They’re marking the occasion with a new logo and cover design by Steffen Quong, with art created by Rebecca Dolen, featuring several styles and weights of the Bodoni and Nobel font families and the issue number set in Blender. Steffen Quong is a freelance designer in Vancouver, and Rebecca Dolen is an artist and co-proprietor of the Regional Assembly of Text.

The most beautiful set of books I have ever had the pleasure of researching from

Thoughts on Bill O'Reilly and Squeaky the Chicago Mouse

"Did you [Bill O'Reilly] really say you are more powerful than any politician?

"That reminds me of the famous story about Squeaky the Chicago Mouse. It seems that Squeaky was floating on his back along the Chicago River one day. Approaching the Michigan Avenue lift bridge, he called out: Raise the bridge! I have an erection!" "

--Roger Ebert

Ol' Fashioned Innovation at Esquire

Take a look at the May 2009 cover of Esquire US



via MagCulture

Goodbye Maxim

Lads' mag sales have been plummeting for a while now, and it's hard to mourn the losses. The mistake would be to think that the decline of these magazines reflects a decline in misogyny. It's likely readers are migrating online, where they can find much more hardcore material, much more cheaply.

--Kira Cochrane, The Guardian

In related news from The Guardian:
* Maxim closes UK print edition: Dennis Publishing title to go online only from next month, putting 12 jobs at risk
* Maxim is dead. Have men stopped reading magazines?
* Men's monthly magazine Arena to cease printing after 22 years

"It is very rude to take close-ups and, except
when enraged, we don't:
lovers apporaching to kiss,
instictively shut their eyes before their faces
can be reduced to
anatomical data."

WH AUDEN, 'I AM NOT A CAMERA'

Dirty Secrets: TIMES Online

The Times Online reads like a sociological freak show. Indulge your voyeuristic curiosity by reading the sensational life and style section. Today's headlines include:

* Family secrets: I hoped bulimia would make me beautiful
* I had sex with my brother but I don't feel guilty
* Why happy couples are moving to separate beds
* I'm not too young to say 'I do'

"One thing that Vancouver has been particularly adept at doing is obliterating it's own history."

--Reid Shier, director of Presentation House Gallery, in "Nostalgic poster exhibit revisits Expo 86," Vancouver Courier

The global financial crisis pushes the environment off the front cover of Vanity Fair. Say goodbye to the "Green issue."

20-Year High School Reunion

REUNITE! REUNITE!

Can you believe it?

The CBC Radio 3 Podcast is four years old! Today, Grant Lawrence released the 200TH PODCAST with new tracks from Metric, Arcade Fire, Joel Plaskett, MSTRKRFT, Handsome Furs, plus Super 90 Second Egg, Canadian Dictionary, and Failed Features.

Right click and save this. Happy listening !

Waxin' and Milkin'

So long as I have fingers, I will keep scrolling Waxin' & Milkin', a "visual mixtape" (the most ingenious and successful idea I have seen in a while).

*Now with never ending pages! Keep scrolling until infinity!

Just Sayin'

Can the press please stop talking about Michelle Obama's fashion and beauty?
As Lexington puts it, "It would be good to hear a bit more about what Mrs Obama thinks and a lot less about what she wears."[from "The Other Obama: Let Michelle be Michelle", The Economist]

There's also an interesting story behind the blog post image above. Read more about it here.

Another Magazine goes digital

The fantastically creative and original Another Magazine has appeared in many forms on the newsstands. It's consistently hard to find because it seems to be redesigned every few months. But now you can read it online for free; yes, that's all 300+ pages of art-y, fashion-y glory — ads included. Just enter your email address here for access.

Also available are AnotherMan and the AnotherMan Style Guide.