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- March 11, 2005
Magical Adventures in Space
March 11, 2005Read more
One of my favorite online reads is Jeffrey Rowland’s strip Magical Adventures in Space. Humbly drawn, the draw of the strip for me is in the characters and the way they talk. Topato Potato is a Space Potato made of poison and has incredible bludgeoning power, which he uses indiscriminately accompanied with high-toned language. Sheriff Pony is his nominal boss, and enjoys being polite. They’re Princess Awesomelope Dongle’s Royal Warriors, and they go around having…magical adventures in space!
Magical Adventures in Space actually picks up, sorta, from Rowland’s previous effort Wigu, which was the story of this boy Wigu, his goth sister Paisley, and their parents. Mom is a stockbroker. Dad makes a living composing music for pornographic films. They’re all good guys. Magical Adventures in Space is the cartoon that Wigu likes, except of course it’s actually real. The drawing is cruder, but the dialog is pure multisyllabic bliss; If you’re a fan of Tony Millioniare and Steve Purcell, you know what I mean. The writing, man, the writing!
Rowland has some internal logic at work that just works for me: the 7 year-old adventuring spirit as interepreted by a still-kickin’ sardonic adult brain. It’s also, surprisingly, somehow emotionally true to itself. Great stuff, if you’re a demented kid at heart like me :-)
- March 10, 2005
Reason 3.0 Released Redux!
March 10, 2005Read moreI forgot to mention that the whole reason (heh) for my earlier post was that new version 3.0 is officially released today! Woo hoo! The new features seem to be related to mastering and performance, and of course there is a new soundbank. Cool! I may have to run to the Apple Store or Guitar Center and grab a small keyboard in celebration.
- March 10, 2005
Reason 3.0 Release!
March 10, 2005Read more
One of these days I plan on actually trying to noodle with music, but I’ve finally accepted that it’s one of those things that I need to take lessons for to get started. However, as this realization occured just last week, it hadn’t prevented me from already acquring a number of musical instruments already. In the electronic category is a piece of software from a company that I just like: Swedish software developer Propellerheads. They released a software-only synth studio called Reason back in 2001 that, unlike a lot of music software, was rock solid stable. It came in a cool box with cool packaging, ran on both Mac and PC without apology, and was packed with cool samples. It easily replaces ten thousand dollars worth of studio gear, for about 300 bucks, and it’s all virtual.
Since then, virtual instruments have become pretty mainstream, but I’m excited to see the Propellerhead is still pushing out their product. I have a copy of Reason that I’ve never really used, music n00b that I am. The GUI is very pretty, too, filled with exciting simulated LCDs, brushed metal, and knobs.
- March 9, 2005
Alotsa Saltsa
March 9, 2005Read moreA couple years ago my sister introduced me to the books of Jeffrey Steingarten, food writer for Vogue magazine. A former lawyer with a insatiable taste for research, Steingarten pursues all forms of good food with the reckless determination of Indiana Jones. He embraces cuisines high and low, writing with incredible pomp and energy. He’s one of my heroes.
In addition to trying to chemically recreate the tastes of expensive imported spring waters in his kitchen, he’s also written about the variety of gourmet salts available. For one, do they really taste any different? Though my memory is dim, I believe his article was somewhat inconclusive on this regard (texture may play a part), but nevertheless it is nice to know where to buy those salts on the Internet. Here we find that black salts taste of sulfer, and are used in authentic Indian cooking, and that celtic salts are “naturally moist salts harvested from the pristine Atlantic seawater off the coast of Brittany, France.” Did you know you can buy smoked salts too? I didn’t.
The rest of the Saltworks site is filled with all kinds of applications of salt. It’s fun. Check it out! My gut tells me there’s at least three or four elementary school science projects here, parents!
- March 8, 2005
Wisdom from a Master Designer
March 8, 2005Read moreSaw this on BoingBoing today: the transcript of an address by Milton Glaser regarding 10 things he’s learned as a designer. The transcript itself is thoughtful and filled with insight, so you should read it, but here’s the list:
- YOU CAN ONLY WORK FOR PEOPLE THAT YOU LIKE.
- IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE NEVER HAVE A JOB.
- SOME PEOPLE ARE TOXIC AVOID THEM.
- PROFESSIONALISM IS NOT ENOUGH or THE GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF THE GREAT.
- LESS IS NOT NECESSARILY MORE.
- STYLE IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED.
- HOW YOU LIVE CHANGES YOUR BRAIN.
- DOUBT IS BETTER THAN CERTAINTY.
- SOLVING THE PROBLEM IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN BEING RIGHT.
- TELL THE TRUTH.
I’ve felt a lot of these thing, but have not seen them expressed so clearly before. I particularly liked his toxicity test for people:
[…] the important thing that I can tell you is that there is a test to determine whether someone is toxic or nourishing in your relationship with them. Here is the test: You have spent some time with this person, either you have a drink or go for dinner or you go to a ball game. It doesn’t matter very much but at the end of that time you observe whether you are more energised or less energised. Whether you are tired or whether you are exhilarated. If you are more tired then you have been poisoned. If you have more energy you have been nourished. The test is almost infallible.
Yes.
