callan \ blog
february 28, 2016
I'm thinking it might be fun to do a quasi-regular roundup of some recently consumed content that stood out for me, for one reason or another. Whether or not I can hold myself to this remains to be seen, but for now, let's give it a go.
- Labor and Looking "Professional"
Autumn Whitefield-Madrano writes about beauty and style shaping assumptions about class and occupation, and how telling your stylist you want to look "more professional" is unhelpful because it's so ambiguous and relative. (It's kind of like telling designers to make edgy websites that pop.)
- Reply All #56: Zardulu
One of the craziest stories yet on this fabulous "show about the Internet." Could the Upright Citizens Brigade be training an army of highly charismatic food-carrying meme rats?
(Source: noirlac)
- Hearts of Space
This subscription ambient/space music service has been pay-to-play since long before Spotify and Apple Music were even inklings of ideas. I heard about it on the latest episode of Mindful Cyborgs, also worth highlighting this week. It's very much up my alley, but I'm still on the fence about whether I want to pay for it.
(Why, though? I can afford to pay a few bucks a month for it, but the pricing structure is kind of complicated and it bothers me. On this Mindful Cyborgs episode, there's a good discussion about the inherent cruftiness of paying for a multitude of streaming services, yet that seems to be exactly where we're going.)
- Daze of Heaven's "Kaoss Edge MIDI HD Version" of Oneohtrix Point Never's Garden of Delete (music)
I have no clue what's going on here, per se, but I really love it, and appreciate that one of the perks of the effed-up musical landscape we exist in currently is that I can listen to synth composers make insane off-the-cuff reinterpretations of one another's work. The video itself is far out enough to justify a few glimpses here and there, if you're using this as background music.
Also, Garden of Delete in its original form is description-defyingly masterful, and I'm very excited to see Mr. Lopatin (with Jason Lescaleet!) at the Sinclair in two weeks from tomorrow.
Oneohtrix Point Never - Sticky Drama. Delicious.
- Really understanding Apple's legal brief in the FBI case
Over on The Verge, Nilay Patel does a deep read of Apple's motion to vacate a court order to bypass the "San Bernadino iPhone." It's an interesting way to frame the legal context, or lack thereof, impacting the case; ultimately, looking below the PR-coated surface of the counterarguments at play, "you [do] get the feeling Congress should maybe pass a law that actually deals with this."
This week's On the Media also tackles the issue, pointing out that it's unusual Apple has chosen to get its heckles up over this particular instance when it could be a political bloodbath both for Tim Cook and tech companies (and their consumers) as a whole.
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Hey Cal, why is there no comments section? Comments sections have a tendency to devolve into nasty little spaces, teeming with spam & ad hominem attacks. I also have a fondness for the 1.0 Web (props to Neocities, powerer of this site). If you'd like to share your thoughts, find me on Twitter or fire off an email. Thanks!