Wormhole

If you don’t get why people are excited about hockey and why they think the Stanley Cup Playoffs is the most exciting tournament in all of sports, watch this video. I got goosebumps just watching it.

When one thinks of superhero movies, the first thought should be how movie studios constantly screw them up. They go for star power, they change plot details and origins, they meddle instead of staying true to the source material that proved so popular in the first place. One of the worst made movies based on a comic book was Daredevil. It fell so flat and lacked so much that it’s become one of the prime examples of how bad an adaptation can be (along with the later Batman movies directed by Joel Schumacher).

Apparently writer/director Joe Carnahan has been trying to get the Fox studios to make an adaptation of Daredevil that is gritty and full of 1970s crime-ridden New York City. He put together this absolutely beautiful sizzle reel that could have been.

This is a great short talk by Kathleen Edwards on her creative process and the places where her songs come from. It’s really honest and open. For me it serves as a good reminder that an artist who doesn’t put something at stake in their creation isn’t going to ultimately be successful.

I’ve been lucky enough to see her play twice in small venues and her shows are powerful because she’s really sharing a bit of herself. This is totally worth 10 minutes.

I love this quick video from the New York Times. It reminds us how stupid and random things can be. Louie Steven Witt, the Umbrella Man himself said while testifying to Congress: “I think if the Guinness Book of World Records had a category for people who were at the wrong place at the wrong time, doing the wrong thing, I would be No. 1 in that position, without even a close runner-up.”

This blog is moving, not out of choice but out of necessity. Posterous, the service I was using was acquired by Twitter and is shutting down. A lot of people would say that we shouldn’t be surprised. Posterous was a free service after all, what do they owe the user? I’d like to make an argument that they owe their users quite a lot.

When I started using Posterous it was a relatively new unknown entity. I liked the ease of posting via e-mail and the clean layouts. It made blogging really easy. Over time the blog I set up there (this one) became my primary blog. I’m sure there were (many) other users just like me. So, in essence, the users built the service and made it attractive to Twitter. The content these users generated made Twitter WANT to buy Posterous. Users created the value.

So they sell to Twitter and the new owners decide to change direction. I can even understand that. I may not like it, but good for them, they made a little coin and are moving on to their next project. The problem I have is that they didn’t take the time to contact us and let us know what was happening, how we could pull our content out. Nothing. They posted a tweet that is easily missed and essentially told us that we’re on our own.

This is why consumers get upset by brands, even the ones they use for free. We’re taken for granted. Never thanked for our business or loyalty. A little bit of customer service in the guise of a mass e-mail with the news and some tips for next steps would have been better than the nothing we got.

It’s amazing the amount of happiness and joy that jumps off Bob Dylan’s record Nashville Skyline. So the songs aren’t all about happy topics, but the musicians love playing them anyway. Apparently Dylan and his studio band (which included Charlie Daniels) would just start playing and follow each other. Not too much in the way of rehearsal or preparation. It all makes for great music, even if it is different than almost everything else Dylan does. Hell, even Johnny Cash makes an appearance. So does Kris Kristofferson who was working at Columbia Recording as a janitor. He helped the drummer hold the bongos and cowbells that are the lead drum track on Lay Lady Lay. 

The people closest to me would likely agree that I have a streak of cynicism in me. While I’ve tried to temper it over the years, I’m not sure it will ever go away. Overall, I’m very skeptical (or disdainful as some might say) of other people. Somehow, in spite of that, I’ve discovered that I enjoy yoga. It’s not that I’ve gulped down the Kool-Aid and given up my cynicism, but I’ve found that it is one of the few forms of exercise that doesn’t bore me to tears while simultaneously clearing my mind. I particularly enjoy the meditative aspect of yoga, though I’m not sure its changed my opinion of other people.

A quick rant on what is turning out to be a stressful morning…??

It's been forever since I've posted here. I guess the summer has been busier than I thought it would be. As the season winds down, I find myself a little sad. I go into every summer with anticipation and excitement of the fun times ahead. This summer was no different, with several family trips, a big birthday, etc. While I like fall, it just seems that summer is full of so much optimism and possibility, even more so than spring.

I was poking around the internet today looking for apps for the new Android tab I bought a few weeks ago. One of the search terms I used was "Coleco," a company that made handheld video games when I was a kid in the early 1980s. A look at Wikipedia enlightened me to a few random and interesting facts: