christmasgorilla - { chris muscarella }

"The assumption driving these kinds of design speculations [Google Glass] is that if you embed the..."

Fri, 03 May 2013 08:03:00 -0400

“The assumption driving these kinds of design speculations [Google Glass] is that if you embed the interface–the control surface for a technology–into our own bodily envelope, that interface will “disappear”: the technology will cease to be a separate “thing” and simply become part of that envelope. The trouble is that unlike technology, your body isn’t something you “interface” with in the first place. You’re not a little homunculus “in” your body, “driving” it around, looking out Terminator-style “through” your eyes. Your body isn’t a tool for delivering your experience: it is your experience. Merging the body with a technological control surface doesn’t magically transform the act of manipulating that surface into bodily experience. I’m not a cyborg (yet) so I can’t be sure, but I suspect the effect is more the opposite: alienating you from the direct bodily experiences you already have by turning them into technological interfaces to be manipulated.”

- Your Body Does Not Want to Be an Interface, John Pavius

"The poor are not the raw material for your salvation."

Fri, 03 May 2013 07:59:00 -0400

“The poor are not the raw material for your salvation.”

- Helder Camara, discovered in this lovely post by Liam Black.

More from Liam Black:
Each year the socially entrepreneurial Cirque de Soleil sets up its big tent at the World Economic Forum at Davos. Champagne is sipped whilst corporate CEOs, Russian oligarchs and Arab potentates ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ at the miracles being performed by the social entrepreneurs. The Occupy movement activisits on the other hand are kept a long distance away and canapés are not put out for them. Their diet is tear gas and police truncheon.

Power, class – especially class – and entitlement are three subjects nowhere near high enough up the agenda of Skoll and Davos. It is very fashionable at such gatherings to hear mainstream politics trashed as unable to compete with the whizzy, sexy, genius social entrepreneurs. Yawn, party politics. How boring. How last century.

But ask yourself this: without political backing where will your idea get? What has had the biggest impact on well-being in this country in the last ten years? Eden Project? Big Issue? Jamie Oliver? Divine Chocolate? Or the government’s decision to ban smoking in all public places?

@benleventhal goes Norman Rockwell in Chefhampton.

Thu, 02 May 2013 08:30:00 -0400

@benleventhal goes Norman Rockwell in Chefhampton.

Orangutan in Borneo Photographed Using a Spear Tool to Fish

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 07:55:05 -0400

Orangutan in Borneo Photographed Using a Spear Tool to Fish

“Among the wiry Brooklyn hipsters, Cointre stands out as a...

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:30:00 -0400

“Among the wiry Brooklyn hipsters, Cointre stands out as a pompous, medieval butcher type, and is the one you want beside you when your house burns down and there is not a chair to sit on. Hidden behind an awe-inducing lion’s mane of wheat locks and a French accordion of a smile is his generous spirit and infinitely expressive mimicry and jest.

His cooking:
Simple, but misleading in its suggested modesty.
It isn’t ‘French cuisine’, it isn’t ethnic cooking and it certainly isn’t fusion. Antony does what he feels is best, borrowing ideas from around the globe in creating his own dishes rooted in a natural balance of flavors. His instincts are collaborative, allowing room for a lot of spontaneity and improvisation. He fetishizes on good quality products, which are seasonal, local and organic.

On wine:
A seeker of truth through wine-related enlightenment, Antony is a devotee to artisanal winemaking. Favoring the small producers who harvest and treat the fruit as has been done for centuries with minimal intervention. A truly amazing meal is always paired with a few of his personal selections.”

- Chef Antony Cointre

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - So Good at Being in Trouble.

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:12:02 -0400

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - So Good at Being in Trouble.

From Tyler Surfboards, courtesy of Lane Wood.

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 20:02:56 -0400

From Tyler Surfboards, courtesy of Lane Wood.

I smile in my sleep. by david

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 08:16:26 -0400

I smile in my sleep.

by david

Tupperwolf: Wealth, risk, and stuff

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 09:33:00 -0400

Tupperwolf: Wealth, risk, and stuff:

vruba:

I run into some version of this essay by some moneybags twig-bishop about once a year, and it bugs me every time.

Here’s the thing. Wealth is not a number of dollars. It is not a number of material possessions. It’s having options and the ability to take on risk.

As with carrying, so with owning in general. Poor people don’t have clutter because they’re too dumb to see the virtue of living simply; they have it to reduce risk.

When rich people present the idea that they’ve learned to live lightly as a paradoxical insight, they have the idea of wealth backwards. You can only have that kind of lightness through wealth.

"My prosthetic legs were off. We were deeply in love and I could not be happier. I know she felt the..."

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 06:21:36 -0500

“My prosthetic legs were off. We were deeply in love and I could not be happier. I know she felt the same way. After Reeva finished her yoga exercises she got into bed and we both fell asleep.”

- Oscar Pistorius, beginning what may be the strangest official statement I’ve ever read.

Continuing:
“I put on my prosthetic legs, ran back to the bathroom and tried to kick the toilet door open. I think I must then have turned on the lights. I went back into the bedroom and grabbed my cricket bat to bash open the toilet door. A panel or panels broke off and I found the key on the floor and unlocked and opened the door. Reeva was slumped over but alive.”

"Chris Muscarella would like to dispense with the preciousness around food and let people who dine..."

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:53:00 -0500

“Chris Muscarella would like to dispense with the preciousness around food and let people who dine together do what they want to do. For most of us, that is not golf clapping at the chef’s subtly magnificent use of kohlrabi foam, or arranging our whimsical wine glasses for the best Instagram angle. We’re there to enjoy each others’ company. The food, he says, should be a backdrop to the communal dining experience.

As Ricky Roma says in Glenngarry Glen Ross, “Great meals fade in reflection. Everything else gains.””

- Like Airbnb + Uber… for Chefs - PandoDaily

A lovely story about Herb and Dorothy Vogel, How a Working-Class...

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 11:35:00 -0500

A lovely story about Herb and Dorothy Vogel, How a Working-Class Couple Amassed a Priceless Art Collection:

At the time, Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism were in vogue and too expensive for the Vogels. Minimal and conceptual art, on the other hand, had yet to be embraced by the art world establishment. The Vogels made a pact: Her salary would go toward living expenses, his toward art. Under these new terms, they visited the SoHo studio of an obscure artist named Sol LeWitt and walked out with the first piece LeWitt ever sold: an untitled, golden, T-shaped structure. “He had more than average potential, and I felt it,” Herb said. LeWitt would later become a titan of contemporary American art.

It wasn’t just the masterpieces that were crammed into the space; the Vogels shared their storehouse with 20 turtles, eight cats and an aquarium filled with exotic fish. To protect the artwork from kitten claws and rogue turtles, the couple boxed and wrapped the pieces not hung on the walls, further diminishing the available living space. “Art is Herby’s only interest, except for animals,” Dorothy once said. (Fittingly, they named their cats after artists, like Matisse, Renoir, and Manet.) When National Gallery curator Jack Cowart first saw their apartment, he was stunned. “It upset all of my alarm systems as a curator,” he said. “I began to think: What if there’s a fire? What if one of the mega-gallon fish tanks that Herb keeps his fish in springs a leak?”

They were equally passionate about unknown talents, often helping them to develop. David Reed, now a famous conceptual artist, said the couple encouraged him to make more drawings, which later became a central part of his practice. “The Vogels made you aware of what you were doing as an artist,” he said. “They had artist sensibilities.” When they spotted something beyond their means, they’d find a way to make the purchase: They’d buy on credit; they’d forgo a vacation; they’d even throw in cat-sitting to sweeten a deal. And the artists loved them for it.

Pozzi offered an alternate explanation. “To ask them to sell a piece of their collection would be like asking me to cut off a square yard of one of my paintings,” he said. “They were artists, and the collection was their work of art.”

Thought: can an effort at online curation ever reach the same level of humanity that the Vogel’s achieved?

"They say hypocrisy is the respect vice pays to virtue. Well, kitsch is the tribute vulgarity pays to..."

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 12:14:28 -0500

“They say hypocrisy is the respect vice pays to virtue. Well, kitsch is the tribute vulgarity pays to beauty, which is why bowlderizations, popularized settings of great music, sentimental visions of sublime scenery, are so touching: They show that we all long for the same archetypes.”

- Eva Brann, Open Secrets

Taken from forthcoming album ‘Muchacho’ This is...

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 12:16:50 -0500

Taken from forthcoming album ‘Muchacho’

This is like that scene from Crocodile Dundee where he’s going across the Australian Dessert looking for Sue. Plus a pretty great Johnny Cash reference.

Playing with my brother and goats in Vermont. photo: cwinner

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 09:58:22 -0500

Playing with my brother and goats in Vermont. photo: cwinner

"One of the firmest conclusions of academic research into the behavior of Congress is that what..."

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 09:56:28 -0500

“One of the firmest conclusions of academic research into the behavior of Congress is that what motivates members first and foremost is winning elections. If individual members of Congress have little chance of losing their seats if they fail to compromise, there should be little reason to expect them to do so. Republican leaders like House Speaker John A. Boehner may conclude that there are risks to their party if they fail to reach a compromise, as during the current fiscal negotiations. But as David Frum points out, the individual members of his caucus may bear few of those costs directly.”

- Nate Silver, As Swing Districts Dwindle, Can a Divided House Stand?

New York Times: At Kitchensurfing, Booking a Chef and a...

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 09:18:42 -0500

New York Times: At Kitchensurfing, Booking a Chef and a Story

Been a little quiet on the new project—there’s been a lot to figure out (which has been tremendous fun). But now we’re opening up a bit more:

“This spontaneous cultural and culinary encounter was brought about by Kitchensurfing, a start-up business trying to make it as easy to find a private chef online as it is to book a room or order a book. The dinner’s host arranged the meal by browsing Kitchensurfing’s database of profiled chefs, who range from slick, credentialed professionals with years of restaurant experience to self-taught cooks like Ms. Phlong.

"We used Treehouse as a private group communication tool. Instead of taking photos to maintain..."

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 18:07:36 -0500

“We used Treehouse as a private group communication tool. Instead of taking photos to maintain memories, we used them for instantaneous communication. And the resolution of information in a photo, it turns out, is huge when compared to text or even to voice. A photo can tell you where someone is, what time it is, who they are with, and much more. When you focus heavily on artistry, which Instagram does, it becomes much harder to take photos that truly represent the moment you’re sharing.

Because Treehouse didn’t have comments or liking, if you wanted to respond to someone, you had to respond with a photo. After a few days, someone figured out that he could write a comment on a piece of paper, take a photo of it, and share it with the group. Suddenly, all of the necessary pieces for a successful social app were there: the communication system and the feedback mechanism. It was an awesome experience, and I loved the app.

That is, until liking, comments, and titles were added. Everyone wanted and begged for those features, of course, but adding them had an unforeseeable negative side effect: they removed the expectation that photos should be used for communication, and instead gave the impression that communication should happen around the photos. The centuries-old expectation that photos should be artistic crept in, and the fun photo chats we had suddenly stopped.”

- Dustin Curtis, Photos for Communication

And again: “Until Snapchat, which has captured the essence of using photos as communication. Because it is completely ephemeral – and because the photos are deleted after 1-10 seconds – it’s impossible to use the photos for anything but communication. It’s an amazing app, and its popularity is just a hint of how I think we’ll use photos in the future.”

kitchensurfing: Most of my favorite moments with good company...

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 10:07:08 -0500

kitchensurfing:

Most of my favorite moments with good company involve sharing a meal in a home. Going out is for strangers.

The secret to “going viral?” Help people validate...

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 12:09:16 -0500

The secret to “going viral?” Help people validate their impressions of themselves. - Jesse Farmer