Joe Mills

USB Cell

Now THIS is a great idea! I want to try and buy a few of these things, but the price is a little scary right now. ($19.50 for 2) On the other hand, you don’t need a charger and you can charge them as long as you are near a computer. I guess that might not be very comforting on vacation, but they’ve got me sold.

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The Culture of Fear

I recently just plowed through a book that was excellent. The Culture of Fear is slightly outdated, (It was made before September 11th) but I think the problems Barry Glassner discusses are even more relevant today. As it says on the front cover, “Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things.” He talks about how the media, corporations, and politicians feed our anxieties by over-hyping and over-sensationalizing issues like plane crashes, road rage, Internet predators, strange diseases, and killer kids to the point that people think they are happening more than they really are. Statistics are misused and victims of these issues are mad to look like experts when these issues are splashed across the television and newspaper. Scientific data is thrown right out the window. In turn, we as Americans begin to fear things that we should not be scared of.

As Glassner points out, we are fed these fears because it makes money. Why else do we have life insurance, multiple air bags, warranties for every little gadget at Best Buy, ridiculous lawsuits, and unnecessary security guards? Fear sells. I can’t believe I’m going to quote Richard Nixon, but Glassner used a good quote from him.

People react to fear, not love. They don’t teach that in Sunday school, but it’s true.

I’m not tryin to be all “free love” with that quote, but it proves that if you tap into the anxieties of people, you are more likely to get them to listen. And then, you can make them buy.

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All-Out Graphics

I should post more things like this, but I was recently looking for a printer that printed Presto Magix Rub Down Transfers because I thought it would be a cool way to create a piece of artwork. I thought finding one would be difficult. And, if I did find one, it would be massively expensive. Well, I found one. All-Out Graphics makes them and the price is relatively reasonable for a small timer like me. This is not an advertisement…it is more like a “need to find an idea so I can use this place” post. That is inspiring…

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A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again…Again

I felt the need to quote David Foster Wallace from A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again for a completely different reason today. For one of his essays, Wallace talks about television. I’m not going to go into detail about his exact position, but I did want to highlight one part of it since it references what I have talked about before concerning The Rebel Sell.

How can even the idea of rebellion against corporate culture stay meaningful when Chrysler Inc. advertises trucks by invoking “The Dodge Rebellion”? How is one to be a bona fide iconoclast when Burger King sells onion rings with “Sometimes You Gotta Break the Rules”?

In some ways, I think this quote is kind of scary. Since corporate America is able to freely take up this idea of rebellion, will we ever feel the need to rebel? If we are done wrong by corporations or the government, will we even notice? Just something I wanted to mention…

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A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again

I don’t often find writers inspirational. Or for that matter, I don’t often find something that a writer writes to be particularly funny. Except for maybe Bill Simmons, but I digress. I recently purchased A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace, and I really loved his description of what happened after he “mistakenly” tried to carry his own bag to his room on a cruise ship instead of asking a porter. Read and enjoy…

Only later did I understand what I’d done. Only later did I learn that that little Lebanese Deck 10 porter had his head just about chewed off by the (also Lebanese) Deck 10 Head Porter, who’d had his own head chewed off by the Austrian Chief Steward, who’d received confirmed reports that a Deck 10 passenger had been seen carrying his own luggage up the Port hallway of Deck 10 and now demanded rolling Lebanese heads for this clear indication of porterly dereliction, and had reported (the Austrian Chief Steward did) the incident (as is apparently SOP) to an officer in the Guest Relations Dept., a Greek officer with Revo shades and a walkie-talkie and officerial epaulets so complex I never did figure out what his rank was; and this high-ranking Greek guy actually came around to 1009 after Saturday’s supper to apologize on behalf of practically the entire Chandris shipping line and to assure me that ragged-necked Lebanese heads were even at that moment rolling down various corridors in piacular recompense for my having had to carry my own bag. And even though this Greek officer’s English was in lots of ways better than mine, it took me no less than ten minutes to express my own horror and to claim responsibility and to detail the double-bind I’d put the porter in – brandishing at relevant moments the actual tube of ZnO that had caused the whole snafu – ten or more minutes before I could get enough of a promise from the Greek officer that various chewed-off heads would be reattached and employee records unbesmirched to feel comfortable enough to allow the officer to leave; and the whole incident was incredibly frazzling and angst-fraught and filled almost a whole Mead notebook and is here recounted in only its barest psychoskeletal outline.

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Antoine Revoy

Image courtesy of Antoine Revoy

I guess I’ve always been a little jealous of people who can draw like Antoine Revoy. I even have a student in my 5th grade class who draws like this. The ability to draw these intricate little worlds with immense detail and funky doodles…it almost seems too perfect. Everything is placed in a specific place. And, everything is drawn in a certain way. Alright, I admit it…I am downright jealous.

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Tristan Still

Image courtesy of Tristan Still

Some of the images that Tristan Still photographs do not really interest me, but I was impressed by these fish eye lens skateboard pictures. I could care less about the subject matter, although it does give the technique a dynamic quality. I was more interested in the distorted perspective and attention the subject matter. When done right, I think a distorted perspectice adds a great element to an action shot. And, the main skateboarder is oddly highlighted while the background figures are completely in shadow. Great images…

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Tomby

Image courtesy of Tomby

I’m going to throw out some artists this week since I have not done that in awhile. I’m always a sucker for pixel artwork, so I particularly like this work from Tomby. It is not heavily pixelized like some work, but it certainly based on that concept. It is more Atari 5200 pixel artwork which gives it an old feel without feeling dated. I also like his choice of subject matter. It seems to be different from what you might see from this type of work. Check out the example above.

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Miwa Kozumi

Image courtesy of Miwa Koizumi

I came across Miwa Koizumi through Treehugger. A lot of her sculpture is very mesmerizing and dream-like. I specifically wanted to highlight the piece from above since it is made from recycled plastic bottles. I guess it is cliche that “she takes garbage and turns into beautiful artwork”, so I will avoid that trap. I guess I’m more interested in how the plastic was formed to create such a dynamic and intoxicating shape. It really captures the essence of a sea critter and the reflection of light off the piece only heightens my interest in it. Once again…check it out…

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Full Scale Mousetrap

Image courtesy of Make

Seriously, how cool is this…

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