Knowing important from unimportant tasks
glasgow school of arts by steven holl: http://ping.fm/xqcgE
Business quote of the day
“Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is interesting. But what they hide is vital.”
–Aaron Levenstein, former Baruch College business professor
Link: Brand Autopsy http://ping.fm/Lh6cr
Knowing important from unimportant tasks
If instead I see my value as separating the important from the unimportant and making good decisions on the important, then I can go home at a reasonable hour, spend time with my family, ignore my email and phone messages all weekend long…
–Peter Norvig
Link: Knowing important from unimportant tasks
* * *
For those about to sip their caffeine elixir… Java-Inspired Jazz: http://ping.fm/wVldP
For those about to sip their caffeine elixir… Java-Inspired Jazz: http://ping.fm/wVldP
(via motherearthfathersky)
(via nevadamoonrise)
* * *
[scene one]
Asheville may be the only place I know that can turn a hula hoops event into something slightly tamer than pole dancing. Walking to the Transit Center earlier this week, I observed quite a large crowd of people with hula hoops at Pritchard Park. A deejay whipped up some trance vibes and the crowd responded with hips and hoops. For the most part, the event seemed quite family friendly with the exception of a few women whose performance with hula hoops approached the idea of *ahem* public art.
[scene two]
The next evening I walked along Patton Avenue — again heading toward the Transit Center. A guy leaning on the rail outside the Asheville Yacht Club with a Pabst Blue Ribbon can in his right hand stared across the street as if watching a tired rerun of That 70s Show. I didn’t think much of it. Maybe he had a lousy day and was trying to unwind. Maybe he was waiting for someone to join him and was just killing time. When the signal lamp changed I crossed the street and realized that the guy outside the Asheville Yacht Club was watching two young women making out at one of the tables on the street outside Thirsty Monk’s Pub. Who needs a television? or an iPhone? Just grab a seat at the rail outside the Asheville Yacht Club, order a PBR, and watch the wildlife at Thirsty Monk’s Pub. The whole scene made me feel oddly lugubrious.
[scene three]
Thursday morning the sunrise bruised the sky with purple and red clouds. The air echoed its coolness and as I walked from the bus stop to Starbucks. After purchasing a pumpkin muffin and a tall bold coffee, I walked across the parking lot toward the office. I noticed a car with all its windows open about an inch or so. It seemed trashed. Piles of plastic bags with clothes, stuffed toys, fast food restaurant bags, and shoes cluttered the interior of the car and seemed to reach the window. As I bit off a morsel of muffin I realized, at second glance, that a woman, man and child were sleeping in the car. What appeared to be plastic bags were black sleeping bags that were unzipped and pulled up to their necks like quilts. The woman was in the driver’s seat with the seat reclined back as fast is it will go. The man was sleeping on his right side facing the woman. His seat was also reclined, but not as much as the woman’s. The child slept in an a car seat with a dark blanket pulled up to the neck. I paused, but thought a third glance would be wrong and might wake them.
The sun still hid behind the mountains to the east as I finished eating the muffin while standing in the parking lot. They’re story must be interesting, I thought to myself as I stuffed the paper muffin wrapping in my pocket. It was still early. No one was in the office yet. I hesitated for a few seconds, looked back at the car in the parking lot with a sleeping family, took a sip of coffee and walked up the steps to the office.
The symbol for recycling
Gary Anderson (right), creator of the recycling symbol, 1970.
Anderson was a 23-year-old USC Architecture graduate when he entered the Container Corporation of America’s design contest to create what would become the universal symbol for recycling.
(via waxandmilk) 1
( via noonebelongsheremorethanyou) 2
(via brocatus) 3
NOTE:
1) Mark Malazarte, waxinandmilkin, accessed September 17, 2010, https://waxinandmilkin.com/post/963308730/gary-anderson-right-creator-of-the-recycling Tumblr account deactivated.
2) noonebelongsheremorethanyou, September 17, 2010, https://noonebelongsheremorethanyou.tumblr.com/post/964604837/anneyhall-gary-anderson-right-creator-of-the Tumblr account deactivated.
3) André Brocatus, André Brocatus was here…, September 17, 2010, https://brocatus.tumblr.com/post/964633674/noonebelongsheremorethanyou-gary-anderson
everybodyknowsthisisnowhere: shedarkedthesun: Tom Waits by Marina Chavez
* * *
Dear twitchy-guy riding the bus and wearing an Iron Maiden hoodie,
Please don’t hit on the young lady in the Slipknot T-shirt. It’s the musical equivalence of incest. Besides, she doesn’t like you and the bus driver is ready to throw you off the bus.
Further, having consumed moderate amounts of Iron Maiden during the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son and No Prayer for the Dying era, your ear-bud induced convulsions are a poor imitation of Nicko McBrain’s thunderous drum work.
Sincerely,
Annoyed-undercaffeinated bus rider
Krista Tippett, host
The crescent-topped dome of Masjid An-Nasr peeks through trees of a residential neighborhood in Oklahoma City. (photo: Andrew Shockley/Flickr)
My grandfather was the Reverend Calvin Titus Perkins, known by all as C.T. He was a Southern Baptist evangelist — a…
Comic strip artist Michael Jantze and Julie Negron in #AVL this weekend
National Cartoonists Society members Michael Jantze, artist of the comic strip The NORM, and Julie Negron, artist of the comic strip Jenny the Military Spouse, to be featured at the Southeast Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society present a “Shop Talk” this Saturday, September 11, 2010.
The Cartoonist and Illustrator Shop Talk schedule is as follows:
10am – 11am Shane “Shane Hai” Harris and James E. Lyle (comic book artists) present an inking demonstration combined with a brief history of American comic books.
11am – 12 noon Michael Jantze (syndicated cartoonist and instructor at SCAD) speaking on his career as a cartoonist.
Noon – 1pm Portfolio review for the attendees.
1pm – 2:00 pm Julie Negron speaks about “Jenny and 9/11”.
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Matt Mulder (New Media) moderates a round-table discussion on web-media, featuring the scheduled speakers.
3:00pm – 4:00 pm Kaysha Siemens (Illustrator) demonstrates digital painting techniques.
Hope to see you all at the Skyland/South Buncombe Library this weekend!
Southeast Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society presents Michael Jantze and Julie Negron
Yes, you did read Monday’s Citizen-times correctly. I am scheduled to moderate a round table on new media as it relates to cartoonists, comic book artists and illustrators. Some of the topics I hope to cover during the round table include: Is it a good business model to create cartoons/comic books for iPads (and other digital devices)? Does online cartoons/comic devalue the art form? Is it possible to protect your cartoons/comics from online piracy? What is the future of collecting traditional print comics vs. downloading digital comics?
This Saturday, September 11th, the Southeast Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society presents a “Shop Talk” at the Skyland/South Buncombe Library (260 Overlook Road, Asheville, NC). The program will run from 10 am until 4 pm.
Also, if you’re interested, the Southeast Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society meets monthly at Frank’s Roman Pizza. The meet up is open to all interested parties and all ages. Regulars include teens, twenty-somethings, thirty-sometings and older-somethings. If you’re interested in hang out with local artists feel free to contact me.
Saturday’s event features two members of the National Cartoonists Society: Michael Jantze (artist of the comic strip The NORM, and instructor at Savannah College of Art and Design), and Julie Negron (artist of the comic strip Jenny the Military Spouse for Stars and Stripes magazine).
More ShopTalk details and schedule to be presented soon.
Link: The Western North Carolina cartoonists group presents ‘Shop Talk II’
Quote
Be slow to fall into friendship, but when thou art in continue firm and constant.
– Socrates
Have you ever had one of those mornings where you wish you could hit reset and start over?
Red Green says, “Men need to replace the phrase ‘Hey, watch this’, with ‘Where are my glasses?’ and ‘Where are my other glasses?’…”
Somehow I managed to make it all the way to the office before I realized I left my glasses at home. Usually I’m more organized than this. My book bag is packed the night before. Bus pass, office keys, glasses, etc. are placed next to the book bag. Shoes are placed at the front door. So, the futility of waking up early this morning to get to the office before anyone else only to have to return home, retrieve my glasses and go back to the office was rewarded by a barista who says, “You want a bold coffee, right?”
I’m sure David Allen would have something appropriate to say about the inefficiency of this mornings events. Maybe there was an open loop somewhere I didn’t close. Maybe it has something to do with time or energy availability. Or maybe it has to do with stumbling around the house in the dark while trying not to wake anyone.
All this to say, I can do stupid things just as fast without coffee as I can with coffee.
Are you more interested in coffee or books?
Last night I enjoyed a conversation around the kitchen table with friends from out-of-town. At one point in the conversation a parent told a story about a neighborhood child joining their family for an evening meal. As mastication commenced the mother noticed all her children had a book they were reading while the neighborhood child looked about awkwardly. The mother told her eldest not to ignore their friend, maybe offer the friend a book. Her eldest puts the book down and asked the friend, “Do you like reading?” The friend replied, “Not much.”
This story reminded me of something I read recently regarding “aliteracy” — being able to read and write, but choosing not to — and the decline of reading whole books — in other words, reading a book cover to cover versus reading world literature condensed to 140 characters or less (see Twitterature for an example). In a recent article published in The Chronicle, Carlin Romano writes:
Destructive cultural trends lurk behind the decline of readerly ambition and student stamina. One is the expanding cultural bias in all writerly media toward clipped, hit-friendly brevity—no longer the soul of wit, but metric-driven pith in lieu of wit.
Link: Will the Book Survive Generation Text?
This isn’t a new trend. I recall Socrates faced similar “cultural trends” in his age. When a culture has the immense wealth of knowledge and wisdom but choses to vapid soundbites and emotionalism, the “destructive… trends” are established like a rut society finds difficult to escape. Almost twenty years ago, The New York Times published an educational article with the following lead paragraph:
Illiteracy is primarily a problem of the third world. But it is the United States that appears to be leading the way in aliteracy — the rejection of books by children and young adults who know how to read but choose not to.
Link: The Lost Book Generation
This past weekend I attended a local poetry reading. An Irish poet lamented that a second-hand bookstore closed and now he has to go to Barnes & Noble to purchase books. He commented that Barnes & Noble is a place where people seem more interested in coffee drinks than books.
Best I can tell, The New York Times story may be the first mainstream publication to cover aliteracy (if you find others, please share them in the comments section or email me). George Orwell published an essay in the 1940s on a similar theme (Books v. Cigarettes) and in the 1930s Aldous Huxley presented a society without books in Brave New World. Toward the end of Brave New World, World Controller Mustapha Mond tells John the Savage:
Our world is not the same as Othello’s world… The world’s stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can’t get… But that’s the price we have to pay for stability. You’ve got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art.
I can’t help but wonder what we as a culture trade for happiness?
Coffeehouse Junkie 