This is awesome news. Folks, you need to support this. If EMI makes a killing this will transform the music industry. If this fails, you’ll piss away a prime opportunity to correct what’s severely broken about contemporary music distribution. Just a thought.
No, I don’t own any shares of AAPL anymore. I’m speaking as a consumer, not a shareholder.
I subscribe to a quarterly (?) an occasional publication produced by Winterhouse, Jessica Helfand and William Drenttel’s design company/group/whatever in Connecticut. It’s an interesting, large magazine-ish publication, printed on newsprint and inked in one color two colors.
However, every time I look at it I wonder what would happen if I was the one that produced it. I don’t have to think very long to find the answer: other designers would thrash it. The fact that JF and WD are producing it makes it acceptable because they’re huge in the design industry. Sure, the work is good, but it’s made better because of the names BEHIND the work.
The same goes for work of other big name designers. I don’t particularly care for most of Paul Rand’s work (heresy, I know), nor do I think everything David Carson has done is all that wondrous, nor do I think Pentagram consistently produces mind blowing designs. These people/companies produce good work, but because I’m a student if I did the same work it would not be seen in the same glowing light. In fact, similar designs produced by Yours Truly would more likely than not inspire a pat on the head, a “nice try little boy,” and another return to the drawing board.
Last night I participated in an AIGA student portfolio review. The things prospective employers were looking for from students did not necessarily mesh with the work of JF, WD, PR, or DC (okay, maybe the DCs had some representation). In other words, the expectations employers have of students seem out of whack with the industry from which we’ve derived much of our inspiration. Students at the portfolio review who clearly deviated from what their design programs expected of them seemed to be the ones who were offered jobs on the spot; the folks who employed modernism and the Zen that so many professors (and the JFs, and the WDs, etc.) use as its wrapping were often passed by.
I fall into the latter category. Everyone that reviewed my portfolio liked the work I displayed, but it was clear that many of them were looking for folks who could design snowboards. With each passing, I thought to myself “what if Michael Beirut showed my work as if it was his?” Something tells me the folks who walked by would not have walked by.
I do good work, I know I do. The people who reviewed my work confirmed it. It just seems odd to me that college design programs could be so out of whack with the realities of the design field. Design changes so much it’s not realistic to expect curriculums to adapt, but there is such a HUGE disconnect with some programs that I have to wonder what the folks who administer them are thinking. I’m not talking about any school in particular; I’m talking about MANY schools, as quite a few were represented at the portfolio review.
Anyway, I’m graduating in just over a month. That’s when the real fun begins.
Last week I attended a lecture/discussion about networking, presented by a local graphic design/advertising magazine publisher. During the chat, the subject of creative visualization popped up. Creative visualization is simple: imagine yourself being successful at something and eventually success will begin to happen. It’s not new age hocus pocus, the universe has nothing to do with it (as far as I’m concerned), it’s just a confidence-building thing. And it does actually work, within reason. Who’s ever successful when they go into a situation imagining their failure? If anyone has any doubts, read Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Blink.” That’ll clear things up.
At one point during the chat, a DVD called “The Secret” was mentioned. Not by the presenter, but by one of the students. It DID sound like new age hocus pocus, so I decided to read up on it. I went to Amazon.com and checked out some reviews and read some of the discussions.
Holy crap… Holy HOLY crap… Have people lost their minds? You can’t just picture getting something and then get it, that doesn’t actually work. Some of these idiots, though, are convinced this is the case. One wingnut had the gall to state that people in poor countries earning less than $2/day CHOSE to be born into that life and CHOOSE to remain.
Oh, rilly?
Luckily a person who has a firm grasp of reality pointed out how these people who supposedly CHOOSE to stay die fighting their tyrannical governments, are shot when crossing borders, are publicly executed when they rebel, etc. No amount of “The Secret” would help these people because they don’t have the resources (weapons, planes, cars, etc.) to gain freedom.
Sounds like classic Manifest Destiny to me. I mean, why not look at the entire planet in an America-centric manner? If it can work here, it can work anywhere, right? Folks that aren’t rich us MUST be lazy or something.
Pfft… Secret of the universe, my ass.
My opinion? While there is confidence-building merit to simple creative visualization, “The Secret” is BS. Without the resources to get what you want, good luck creating your future through visualization.
This post has been translated from English to German and back to English. This post is so bad, it’s good. Don’t try to understand it. It’ll only hurt you.
On applicable Maddox I explain way for the whole mass, which is this Mark Pilgrim ASS.
First away, Mark increased the Blödsinn of the text publisher wars to a complete new level, by persisting that all publishers everyone must have been at all already manufactured. O.k., fine. As over this is, Mark, Mr. dip in Pythonschlange: all operating systems, which are at all necessary, were already written. Or, all books on Pythonschlange, accesibility, XML and Greasemonkey even improve were already written. As, FAIR final letter IT, MARKING, o.k.? Cuz its it RÜBER, captain, and you is fair, wasting your time, by writing more.
Secondly he believes that everyone, that gives the donkey to a rat over letters everything has already a favourite text publisher, everything I estimates on the suggestion selected that the remainder of us over letter nothing is not serious. Over, rilly? I am that Mark selected its favourite publisher (emacs), but shoot me lucky, sometimes come somewhat better along and push out the office holder. Typical case: I still use VIM occasionally, but I find now BBEdit, in order to be more to my liking.
Thirdly „the new “publisher, who requested Mark’s invective (see http://diveintomark.org), is real a jewel: Writeroom, more beautifully, in disorder, on the whole screen publisher. No menus, no keys, no navigation of trees, nothing (if you this Misten wish, success ESC and her everything are it. Success ESC again and you are back completely screen fame). It is you and somewhat glowing text on a black background fair. I can do hypnotisiert, by its use to become me present, if you are in a dark area. How can someone, which writes and not in VI or in of emacs the mode is clung not code, hate this publisher? For this affair as you can hate a publisher? It is not alive, knows you. If you are not interested in it, USING Newsflash, HIM NOT.
A reference point for you, Mark: EVERYONE IS A CODER, AS YOU ARE. You unusually.
(By the way, I wrote this above in Writeroom. In honours of the Mark I can leave this virtual desk with Writeroom for the following week. Pffffhthtththththhhhh.)
–
From a comment on DesignObserver:
“It’s easy to blame the decline on stock illustration, computer programs etc. they are easy whipping boys. But much of the blame has to be placed on artists that refuse to expand their own creative horizons and would rather insist on things remaining as they’ve always been which at best is unrealistic. A one trick pony use to cut it, but not anymore.”
Maybe I’ll print this on small cards and slip them under the doors of art department professors at the U of U. It’s tempting.
It’s slow, it’s ugly, it’s buggy, it’s a step backward from v.1.5. I could go on, but I won’t.
Firefox reminds me of today’s Democrats: no identity other than “we’re not the other guys.” It takes more to make a browser good than simply not being IE. And considering the timing of IE7’s release, I consider FF2.0’s utter and complete lameness puzzling. Is anyone paying attention at Mozilla?
If not for extensions like the web developer toolbar, I’d delete Firefox entirely. What a P.O.S.
Back to Camino, I guess.
Update: Of course, I speak from a Mac standpoint only. Perhaps FF2.0 rocks on Windows and Linux. Who knows. On Macs, it’s always been somewhat lacking.
It tastes like carbonated Pine Sol with just a hint of common house plant.
It’s…special.
As I’ve probably mentioned way too many times across my multiple blogs and friendly spams (forgive me), I now have a MacBook. Naturally, my old G3 iBook pales in comparison. However, I don’t want to get rid of it because it’s still a cool machine.
Soooo… For no particular reason I decided to do the unthinkable: remove MacOS X from my de-commissioned iBook and try to install a free, open source UNIX.
At this point, folks whose eyes are glazing over and folks who are rolling their eyes at yet another UNIX on Mac story, I’m going to be merciful and let you continue with your lives without suffering the details of my journey. The rest of you, click somewhere on this page to get the rest of the story. (more…)
When I moved to Utah in 1995 I was a Republican.
Those of you who just figured out that politics matter and who have chosen the Democrats, don’t get your panties in a knot over this. The Republican party of the early to mid 1990s was not the same Republican party that you see today. In fact, that era of the Republican party more closely resembles today’s Democratic party. Back then, Democrats were suing Dead Kennedys for the poster in their Frankenchrist album, banning non-PC books from schools, knocking gasses off of the Greenhouse Gas lists and defining marriage as being between a man and a woman.
The latter two, by the way, were brought to us by Bill Clinton. Don’t believe me? Look it up. The whole parental warning label and objectionable content hubbub a la Frankenchrist was Tipper Gore’s brain child. I’m not sure who started banning books, but it was definitely being spearheaded by the Dems.
So naturally, when there was a chance to change the guard I did what I felt at the time was the right thing to do: I voted for Bush in 2000.
The story goes downhill from here. I won’t bore you with it, don’t worry.
Love him or hate him, Bush is out of here in 2008 and I hope he will be the last of his kind to live in the White House. Knowing how lazy your average Democrat is, I’m sure this wish will only result in disappointment. (People, by taking the lazy way out and not voting in 2004 YOU VOTED FOR BUSH. NOW do you understand why people are so intent on getting you to vote?) Regardless, one can wish.
Barring the unlikely event that Democrats get off their lazy asses and elect a Democrat in 2008, the most effective action we can take against out of control neoCons is firing their poster-boys. This won’t be easy.
In Utah, Orrin Hatch is almost automatically elected to the Senate. No matter how much the guy sucks (and he DOES suck) he manages to be re-elected every time without breaking a sweat. However, in the mid-term elections later this year, if we’re lucky we can at least make him sweat a little.
Pete Ashdown, local Internet entrepreneur and funny looking guy, is running as a Democrat against Hatch in the 2006 mid-term election. He won’t win. I don’t say that because I don’t want him to win — I do — but he won’t. What he will do, hopefully, is send Hatch and the rest of Utah a message: nobody is so entrenched that they can’t be (eventually) toppled. The fact that Ashdown isn’t a career politician, rich lawyer, close relation to an existing entrenched politician, or any other kind of insider will be icing on the cake.
Not that anyone gives a rat’s ass, but I’m endorsing Pete Ashdown for the Senate. Take that however you want.
And for the record, I have no more love in my heart for today’s career Democrats than I do for Republicans. Don’t kid yourself, they all suck, they’re all too connected and entrenched to give a damn about you, and they all need to leave. I just feel a more urgent need to slap the neoCons at the moment.
Mark
Brian
Darlene
Denise
Susan (although Sue may work)
Matthew (although Matt may work)
David
Frank
Any others? I’ll keep thinking about it…
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