1. The new issue of Cabinet arrived in my mailbox. Subject: friendship
2. The Blazers won.

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The image above (RSS readers, go to the site to see it) comes from the de-commissioned image-archive of the Portland State University library through which I’ve been sifting. This is my favorite image thus far, two of seven boxes into it (there’s a pile of boxes five feet high at our place full of these images). I’d like it even if it didn’t remind me of Pet Sounds but it does and so I like it all the more.

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Different subject altogether: ChatRoulette

It’s been pretty fascinating as reasonable people around the internet have begun to process the phenomenon that has become ChatRoulette, the at-random webcam connection website launched by a seventeen year-old kid in December. Alex Vadukul posted an interesting piece about going to a ChatRoulette party last night at Union Hall bar in Brooklyn.

“Audience members took turns, often in pairs, using the ChatRoulette station on the stage. The conversations with strangers began as they normally seem to, with sarcastic banter getting tossed back and forth. But the interactions began to change as soon as the stranger became aware of the larger audience.”

“Am I on some big fucking screen right now?” asked one very red-eyed, mop-haired boy staring into his screen after a few minutes of quiet conversation.”

And that Eugene Merman is now pulling up ChatRoulette while he’s on stage? haha that guy is funny.

We Went to a ChatRoulette Party Last Night – nymag.com

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Lastly today, for anybody who’s a Sam Shepard fan (and you all should be by the way, he was a Holy Modal Rounder!), the newest episode of the Moth podcast is Shepard narrating a story that happened to him while filming the Right Stuff. Without giving too much away, the story is about the stunt required for that horse-chase scene near the beginning of the movie. I’m not sure where I would link directly to that episode, but hey it’s free just subscribe to the podcast.

Thanks to ever-awesome Amy Ruppel for the high-fives for my new blog Folk Object. I love me some Amy Ruppel.

Thanks to Grace at Design*Sponge for the fantastic write-up this morning. What a great way to start the week. http://www.designspongeonline.com/2010/01/folk-object.html

and something I’ve not said nearly enough: Thank you to all of you who read, respond, tweet, click, and tumble the things I do. Really. Multiple high-fives for you. And lots of fist-bumps, the kind where we make the explodey-motion after we bump.

Thanks. For real y’all.

Another favorite was Parachutes! And the best was Parades! When I get these scanned in I’ll post ‘em up.

folkobject.tumblr.com

Kottke pointed out this flickr set of photos taken in the cafes of Paris in 1962. Been on my mind all day. They look as though they’re scenes from a movie but these were real people living their lives and doing their thing in Paris.

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David Hyuck pointed out this amazing video of What English Sound Like to Foreigners. The original title is Prisencolinensinainciusol. It’s a song produced for Italian television which was written in gibberish meant to sound as much like English as possible.

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The images posted up by A Journey Round My Skull from the 1971 Kiyoshi Awazu book knocked my socks off. Dang.

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Two more thoughts today:

1. The BingamanBurt household is obsessed with Jersey Shore right now.

2. I’m looking for a break in this drizzly weather for sunshine and snowshoeing. If you’re in my hood and want to go, drop me a line, really.  We’ve been cooped up too much lately. Let’s go!

1. The episodes get listened to by us with regularity.

2. The podcast consistently publishes new episodes. A brilliant podcast that hasn’t had a new episode since spring won’t be included on this list.

my list:

The Minimalist (video) – New York Times food writer Mark Bittman’s podcast about preparing food. The focus is shifted to quality ingredients, personal preferences, and guestimating measurements rather than strict adherence to recipes.

FRONTLINE/World | PBS – Incredibly well-produced documentaries seen for years on PBS. I haven’t missed an episode since Frontline first made its appearance on my iPhone.

CNN In Case You Missed It – In these brief daily podcasts, CNN simply uploads raw camera footage of the day’s news events. No host and no analysts and certainly no Lou Dobbs. Just raw footage. If only the rest of CNN’s programming were like this I might actually want to watch it.

BBC Documentaries – These episodes are outstanding, period. I highly recommend the two-part series reporting on Rwanda blood diamonds and Oana Lungescu’s account of returning to her native Romania to read, for the first time, the State’s files that were kept about her.

BBC From Our Own Correspondent - These vary from the lighthearted to the serious and everywhere in between. The episodes feature the Beeb’s reporters discussing their personal experiences of being stationed around the world and the humor and sentiment that goes with that.

APM: Robert Reich Commentaries from Marketplace – I’ve been a fan of Robert Reich’s perspectives since he was the Labor Secretary in the Clinton Administration. That probably makes me a socialist. Anyway, at Marketplace, he pops up each week to deliver a brief, concise, and focused viewpoint on a topic of economic importance. In each, he quickly identifies the problem at hand, the choices to be made, and which solution he recommends.

Best of YouTube- This podcast is actually produced rather poorly, but the videos they find are, well, you can imagine.

The Moth – Modern storytelling in front of a live studio audience.

Monocle – Although these can be trite, the production is second to none. Beautiful to observe on the surface level, just don’t go any deeper than that.

NBC Nightly News - Brian Williams is the man.

President Obama’s Weekly Address – These are a bit too scripted to truly enjoy, but the president gets a high-five from me for embracing all forms of media including the internet and iPhones.

TEDTalks (video) – Because it’s TED and it’s on my phone.

Today in the Past – John Hodgman’s daily dose of made up history. Never not funny, mostly.

Washington Post HD Video Podcast- Really well-produced documentary segments. Better-produced than the NYT’s. Only complaint is that they need to publish with more regularity. Skip the ‘Scene In’ fashion segments.

Wine Library TV – Best use of podcasting on the intertubes? Almost certainly.

New York Times US News (video) - The NYT videos are always interesting. Every single one.

and here are Kate’s:

KCRW Guest DJ Project

“because it’s not just entertainment people who come in to to pick their songs. From chefs to drag racers to actors to architects. And because the “five songs” is such a horrible question”

Radioloab

“i like Radiolab because it reminds me that I actually do like science. It’s exerising a part of my brain that’s not usually engaged on a daily basis.”

The Moth

“I like the moth because I like the restrictions. I like it that they’re in front of an audience and they can’t use any notes. It’s kind of carrying on the storytelling tradition. I like it that they’re not all smooth and polished and perfect.”

All Songs Considered

“I really like Bob Boilen and Carry Browstein and I feel like those shows are curated really well.”

Fresh Air

“Because Terry is awesome and I usually miss it when it airs live because I’m always busy at those times.”

Sound Opinions

“It’s great listening to people who are passionate about music. And they have great in-studio guests”

Savage Love

“Dan Savage is just so smart yet totally inappropriate and also he’s just really good at dealing with people that call in with totally fucked up sex stories.”

This American Life

“I’ve been listening to This American Life since before there were even podcasts, I listened to the stream from the website. For me at least it sets the standard for storytelling on the radio.”

Apartmento Issue 04
I’ve been wanting this issue primarily because I’ve wanted to check out the feature on Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon’s house.

Kate drew it.

Cabinet Magazine Issue No. 35- Dust
The newest issue of Cabinet is centered around the subject of “dust” which is why they’ve re-visited Cabinetlandia, an archive of every issue of Cabinet which is located in a desolate plot of arid scrubland in the middle of the New Mexican desert.

And there’s chess in this issue. I love chess.

Interestingly, online-access to Cabinet’s sold-out issues is now freely available to subscribers. Yet another reason I’m bummed that my subscription’s expired.

Ambit - The Jet Age Compendium
Kate picked up this a collection of reprinted articles and essays from Ambit Magazine

“From 1967, up until his death, Eduardo Paolozzi was involved with the innovative British literary magazine Ambit, using its pages as a space for some of his most experimental and innovative creations, pushing at the boundary between text and image. Collages, visual essays and fragments from novels, drawing on pop culture images from newspapers, magazines and advertisements.”

There are more publication-finds scattered around our house right now. I haven’t read them all, but if I come across anything particularly of interest I’ll post it up.

The Jet Age Compendium- Paolozzi at Ambit
Cabinet Magazine Issue No. 35
Apartmento Issue 04

“I asked him if he would come up with a few options and he said:

‘No. I will solve your problem for you, and you will pay me. And, you don’t have to use the solution. If you want options go talk to other people. But I’ll solve your problem for you the best way I know how and you use it or not, that’s up to you, you’re the client, but you pay me.’”

You can see in the following image what solution he arrived at and was indeed adopted by NeXT. This and more images from the identity presentation document are available at paul-rand.com

If you’re in Portland this weekend, please come to the Publication Fair this Sunday, 11am-6pm at The Cleaners at the Ace Hotel (SW Stark between 10th + 11th).  I’ll be there working the Pinball Publishing table and Kate will be there with her zines working at the Reading Frenzy Table. She’ll also have a handful of Food Journal Scout Books as well which she’s had a lot of requests for and we print at Pinball.

The participants include: Ace Hotel / Ampersand / Container Corps / Cooley Gallery / Dill Pickle Club / EM-SPACE / fourteen30 Contemporary / Hawthorne Books / IPRC / Mark Searcy / Marriage Publishing House / Publication Studio / Octopus Books / Official Manufacturing Co. / Ooligan Press / Peaches + Bats / PICA / Pinball Publishing / Reading Frenzy / Red 76 / Stand Up Comedy

I’ll be at the Pinball table from 4pm to 6pm, so stop by and say hi. You can either receive a fist-bump from me or a high-five. Your choice!

Update: Here’s a great write-up of the Publication Fair from the Portland Mercury.

Publication Fair | Sunday December 20, The Cleaners / Ace Hotel 1022 SW Stark St, Portland, OR

Jump over there and see the list. Grain Edit did a good job of pulling together a bunch of fun stuff. And also notice that they just launched a job board. Now that’s really cool. Post some jobs on there why don’t ya?

2009 Holiday Wish Lists | Grain Edit