censor yourself because it’s just too hard to look
lose your shit completely (5.8mb mp3)
lick any available politician’s boot
deny you had any possible idea it might have happened
even though you’ve been told several times
turn your wagging lapdog tail around to the left as quickly as possibly to lick the press’ boot
ignore the horrifying truth on any official level
and finally, realize what’s gone
i’ve had a bad motherfucking week.
originally published in 2002. please read with tongue in cheek, kind of.
i’m not sure if i think this is a good idea happening at the right time, or if it’s too soon to start finding resources specifically for designers. but whatever, anything’s worth a shot. this is a particularly ingenious notion. displaced designer matches designers suddenly without equipment or offices with those who have extra. it’s not a job posting board by any means, but a resource board specifically for designers whose livelihood has been cut off.
itunes 5 sports a completely new interface (which i actually like a lot better than previously). but you know what’s really fun? sitting back and waiting for gruber to write, like, ten pages, single spaced, front and back.
i kinda think apple actually does this just to watch him freak out every couple of months. them’s good times!
the bbc compiles a series of reactions from papers around the globe of the bush administration’s handling of the destruction of the gulf coast. on one level, yeah, it’s fairly shameful press for the bush administration. but part of me wonders just how much of this reportage is hearsay. the media can get fairly shrill and me-too in the face of a crisis. not that bush doesn’t completely deserve it—isn’t there, like, some sort of pr charm school you have to graduate from to before you’re allowed in the public arena? jeez, people. smack him with a rolled newspaper or something.
friend and client joel johnson (and former editor at gizmodo), god love his soul, is helping to orchestrate some badass networking for relief efforts in the gulf coast. updates are at his site. some reporting goes to wired news, and he’ll point those out.
i said “god love his soul.” lord, i’m turning into my tennesseean mother.
good morning. note how kind i am to make images work-safe, kind of. via jockohomo, who has been rocking this for about as long as me.
so i had a conversation with mike davidson re: the post i griped about (see below). he emailed me to say that my bitching was mistargeted; he felt the city was worth rebuilding—which was completely the opposite reading i had. clearly, more conversation needed to happen.
we continued the conversation, which i’m going to post here. his thoughts, when clarified, make a lot more sense. apologies to mike for going off.
mike is in italics. this is the entire conversation, unedited.
Just wanted to clarify: I’m not against rebuilding New Orleans. I just want some of the tougher questions asked and then answered. I think there are very good reasons to rebuild it, but not as it was before. If it cannot be rebuilt to be much MUCH more resistant to the imminent and increasing hurricane threats, then perhaps it’s not worth the $200-$300 billion. If it can, great… I’d probably vote for that.
you never say what you think at all. it sounds a lot like you don’t think it’s worth the trouble.
more than anything, i thought it tactless to even bring up the question. it’s just none of your business right now.
new orleans is an indigenous population (about 70% of orleanians have lived there since birth and most say they wouldn’t leave) who just had generations of family history wiped out (there’s the injury), and then completely ignored by the government (there’s the insult). and now there’s outsiders saying the place isn’t worth rebuilding.
sorry, you don’t get a vote. the natives have to go back to their homes and relieve the psychological pressure of simply not knowing. i have friends whose homes may or may not still be there, and they’re going nuts trying to see rooflines from NOAA images. then after that, they have to mourn, then they decide what they want to do, and then they turn to their community – the rest of the country – if there’s assistance to be asked for. until then, emotionally, new orleans is complete off limits to anyone except those who lived inside her.
Hey, I can totally appreciate that sentiment. I can’t disagree with any of it. I just have questions though. I don’t take at face value our government making a decision to spend $200 billion rebuilding New Orleans when I see companies who are “in good” with the president begin to talk about government contracts. Already saw that in Iraq. Already decided that I don’t like blank checks from our government.
So… the hurricane comes and we hear $20 billion as the first number. Then we hear $100 billion. Now $200 billion with the possibility of $300 billion. It is irresponsible, and even dangerous to the country, not to place a discriminating eye on what exactly we’re signing up for. I’m up for helping all the residents. I’m *probably* up for rebuilding. I’m not up for rebuilding at $100 trillion though and neither are you. There are just so many different ways this thing can go, especially considering who is pulling the strings, that I just can’t put my head down and say “rebuild it at all costs” at this point.
I also agree with your general sentiment that is not really my business, but New Orleans’ fate is in the country’s hands right now and everyone is part of that.
i totally agree. but your post said exactly none of what you just said in that email.
your post said, “i’m not sure new orleans is worth rebuilding,” and then a whole bunch of support for that idea, and then one minor statement vaguely addressing bush’s war – which circumnavigates your point in a gigantic way. you come off sounding like, “meh, party town, daytona’s way better,” which just doesn’t make sense from you. that’s why i was so peeved.
I apologize for coming off that way then. Really, I do. The situation just seemed to be getting worse *so* quickly towards the end of last week though, from a rebuilding standpoint… at least that’s what the press would have you believe. I went to sleep on Thursday and the last number I heard was $50 billion. Then, as I was walking to work on Friday and passed a newsstand, I see the $100 billion number. Then, no sooner do I check MSNBC.com at work do I see the $200/$300 billion number!
Not that everything is about money, but looking back, I think it was the scary-quick progression of bill which kind of set me off. I probably could have worded my post to stay on that topic a little better.
and there you go.
armin and bryony, along with programming from hot boyfriend, have launched the design encyclopedia.
it’s a user-grown encyclopedia of design, very possibly the first of its kind. here’s the official explanation, which i think explains things much better.
linotype has just released a final candidate for fontexplorer x, which is a magnificent type management tool for Mac OS X. the utility is a blend of ATM’s functionality (from the OS 9 days) and iTunes’ simplicity (and shopping).
even though this is clearly labelled as a beta, i’ve had no luck in breaking the damned thing over the past few days—and my computing habits are fairly destructive.
remember the new orleans season of real world? crazy little thing named melissa? yeah, she’s still as hilarious as she was on the show. hit her archives; i spent a good three hours pasting quotes back and forth to a friend via IM waaaaaay too late on a school night.
“When art critics get together they talk about Form and Structure and Meaning. When artists get together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine.”
—Pablo Picasso
(thanks, niall, for adding perspective.)
su and i were kind of discussing this over dinner last night. specifically, “if you guys are wondering where the design critics are, what happened to the first things first manifesto of five years ago? did it pick up any steam? is it void, and are your own proclamations of responsibility for designerly purpose and critique void?” no answer.
that question’s not accusatory; i just want to know where these folks stand on issues they bring up. it’s a little odd that they’re taking responsibility for critical thinking, then five years later asking where it is. it looks a little petulant from the outside.
the quote from picasso fits this situation. most of the designers i know are still too busy surviving to put ideology before practice.
