Blue Pond, Hokkaido, Japan (Kent Shiraishi via kateopolis)
Holy snap! Six million photos of Paris donated by Henri Roger-Viollet (via kateopolis)
North Korea Mass Games (@ design boom via josh spear)
Fun and Games, shot by the world-renowned Steve McCurry
Since Google Reader got rid of the ability to share as an RSS feed, I’ll probably be doing a few of these linkdumps every now and then. Doubt it’ll be as cool as thingsmagazine or pull off the eclectic amazingness of kottke but I’ll try.
And just to have it noted: I hate the new Google Reader. Fix any of the backend issues but why change something that has worked for a lot of people for so long? Before anyone rolls in with “can’t complain about free services”: Yes, you can, especially ones that become poorly designed and counteract or negate past beneficial user behavior.
Onward…
Big news: Tim and I posting at the new Sentient Cinema site. It’s a bit basic at the moment but we’re working on trying to get it spiffy. Add it to your bookmarks and RSS readers.
From my friends:
My good friend Timur, researching his PhD in Istanbul, is providing wonderful new blog posts frequently at his Tamerlane spot. I’ll do a separate photo post but he’s well worth following: http://tamerlane.blogspot.com
Also, another friend runs The Minimum Blues, a blog that is 2/3 great music reviews and 1/3 US soccer analysis and 100% great. Check it out: http://www.theminimumblues.com
The Best Thing I Read All Week:
Ok, who am I kidding, this is probably the best thing I read all year and I will probably devote a whole post to it in the future.
A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design
Choice quotes:
Take out your favorite Magical And Revolutionary Technology Device. Use it for a bit.
What did you feel? Did it feel glassy? Did it have no connection whatsoever with the task you were performing?
I call this technology Pictures Under Glass. Pictures Under Glass sacrifice all the tactile richness of working with our hands, offering instead a hokey visual facade.
Pictures Under Glass is an interaction paradigm of permanent numbness. It’s a Novocaine drip to the wrist. It denies our hands what they do best. And yet, it’s the star player in every Vision Of The Future.
What can you do with a Picture Under Glass? You can slide it.
That’s the fundamental gesture in this technology. Sliding a finger along a flat surface.
That’s that. Moving on to things that will probably cause more ire:
I’ve enjoyed living in LA for the past two years. It’s an interesting place – not some shiny skyscraper-filled futuristic city nor a completely erratic, Third World hovel but somewhere in between. That’s what makes it fun and always interesting. Unfortunately, Los Angeles, and California in general has major problems. One of my favorite journalists, and probably the best financial journalist out there today, Michael Lewis, explores this topic at Vanity Fair w/ his piece California or Bust.
Real quick:
Roma. The Millions has a long piece on de-romanticizing the Eternal City. / 10,000 TED Talks! / A Report on Corporate Tax Dodgers / Your Private Twitter Information Belong To US (that is the US Government) (link)/
The new Lost Generation:
(via cnn and kateopolis)
More.
It’s ok, it’s not just general young people facing rising debt and unemployment, our vets are too:
via John Robb @ Global Guerrillas
Pretty much all that will be posted here about the Penn State matter:
Omelas State University by John Scalzi
Moving onto happier topics, here are some bits worth reading/seeing from the world of architecture, urbanism, and design.
Community Driven Visions of Modernity in Mumbai / Kazys Varnelis on the Future of Network Culture / The Power of Public Space for Protest Movement by the Infrastructurist /
Kevin Bauman’s 100 Abandoned Houses
And of course some Scandinavian architecture cause I can’t get enough:
Culture Yard by AART Architects (dezeen)
Maritime Museum & Science Centre by COBE and Transform (dezeen)
In case anyone was curious, my favorite Scandinavian architecture firm is Bjarke Ingels Group. I have their archi-comic “Yes Is More” and it is an entertaining romp through the mind of an innovative group of people headed by a brilliant leader.
Real books, real art, real awesome:
By Isaac Salazar via swiss-miss
I’ll end with this little piece of amazing:
via kottke
Cross-posted from the newly created Sentient Cinema blog.
The best decision my production partner Tim and I made at the outset was to say that we would meet at least once a week. For once in my life, it has turned out that going to a meeting really got things moving. We’ve allowed for some volatility in our other lives but have kept to this plan since setting out on this first initiative. The meetings were so useful that we ended up having two a week, one on Wednesday nights and one midday on Saturdays.
Why so many?
Constant meeting and assessment has allowed for rapid iterative collaboration which has fueled motivation and kept the project moving forward in its infancy.
Our early sessions were spent shaping the script and digging into the business side of things. Neither one of us has done anything of this sort to this extent before but we not only wanted to craft the best story possible but also run a professional production. We may be low-budget now but that is no excuse for amateurism. The meetings compel us to keep pushing forward and lay the foundations of not only this film, but who we are and what we do as a production company. The discussions are open-minded and collaborative while still coming to conclusions on important decisions. It has been an extraordinary learning experience in a very short time and being able to check an item off our To Do list each meeting definitely helps keep us motivated. We are currently about a month and a half into pre-production and have gone quite far in getting this film, and our business, ready to launch.
As with any venture, it is built not only by having great ambitions but in breaking those goals down into their constituent parts and working steadily towards them. With many small wins, it brings us ever closer to the Big Victory. In our case, a productive, innovative film company which brings brilliant stories into the world.
What I’m Reading:
– Aaron Dignan. Nearly finished, review coming soon.
– Steven Johnson
– Steven Johnson
What I’m Listening To:
M83 – Midnight City
and
The Naked and Famous – Young Blood
The latter two songs mostly because of this:
What I’ve Watched:
The Art of Flight – Stunning cinematography. Watch in HD and have your mind blown.
Figure I might rattle this off while enjoying a brand new, Halloween-themed “Castle” (Hulu).
As part of a new pact with myself to reduce eating out at restaurants and cook more at home, I’m able to save a little more money. Unfortunately, this means a little more cash for my second indulgence: books.
What showed up last week?
by Aaron Dignan (twitter, site) by Steven Berlin Johnson (twitter, site) by Steven Berlin JohnsonI’ve started Game Frame. It’s essentially an examination and guide to using gamification in real life. I picked it up after watching this speech by Dignan on the99percent. What? Not reading the99percent. You should if you’re interested in a brief site with amazing insights into making things happen.
The latter two have been stirring around on my wish list for a while and I’ve seen enough quotes on blogs and elsewhere from them that I felt it really necessary to read them, especially in context of my current interest new marketing and media models.
On that note: PressPausePlay. Watch it. Beautifully shot and highly relevant to the current and future of media creators and technology. It runs about 80 minutes and is available in 720p and 1080p via torrent.
Further, if you’re in any way involved, or want to be, in tv or film entertainment, you’ll do well to subscribe The Nerdist podcast. It not only has hilarious interviews with talented, funny people but Hardwick and crew are able to pull out great insights into career development for those wanting to be involved in entertainment. Throughout most of the interviews, you’ll find that being a working actor/comic/writer essentially came from hard work, patience, and, in many cases, creating your own opportunities.
That’s it for updates for now. Have some writing to do and some locations to scout and the day got started a little late. I blame the murky weather outside. Clouds?! In LA?! Come on…
This is the first post on the new blog as well as in a continuing series I hope to maintain.
First off, what the hell does ‘startup producer’ mean?
As someone who has spent most of their life dabbling in the tech world, I’ve been enamored by startups and startup culture. I’ve tried to learn what I can from their business and mental models and apply the methods in my own life. I don’t limit this idea to only tech startups but to entrepreneurs and rogues of all sorts – people that strive to cut their own way through life and, most of the time, succeed at it.
Where does this fit in with being a producer? What exact kind of producer am I talking about?
Film, mostly. I could broaden that though and say ‘media’. I’m currently working with friends to begin a film production company and get a short film off the ground amongst other projects. My role as executive producer is to handle the nitty-gritty details of the production work such as budgets, location scouting, etc.
I’m hoping to bring some of the entrepreneurial spirit, creativity, and innovation into my pretty old school role and explore new options for creating exciting storytelling experiences. I like being a producer in the original sense of the word as well – one who produces. I hope to produce content through this series that will track my own progress as a newbie producer and inspire others with ideas as well forging connections with the film community at large.
Cheers
Jordan
