Schadenfreude (pronounced /ˈʃɑːdənfrɔɪdə/, German pronunciation: [ˈʃaːdənˌfʁɔʏdə]) is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.
Via Hypsterism.
Via MetaFilter. (Sup Cotton Duck?)
A clever wallpaper by Effektive Design.
A useful technique I’ve utilized, for a few years now, is bundle wrapping.
This is a huge late pass, but I just stumbled upon the Chrono Trigger Mixtape, Vol. 1 that was produced in 2005. It’s set to some random hip-hop songs, but the beats are pretty seamless and most people unfamiliar with the Chrono Trigger OST probably wouldn’t have guessed that the samples in this mixtape were sourced from a video game made in 1995.
[audio:http://skidknee.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/02-Disco-Inferno.mp3]
Yasunori Mitsuda - Gato’s Song (set to 50 Cent’s Disco Inferno) (3:16)
[audio:http://skidknee.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/08-Get-em-High.mp3]
Yasunori Mitsuda - At the Bottom of the Night (set to Kanye West and Talib Kweli’s Get ‘Em High) (5:16)
Download the rest of the mixtape here.
I’m completely mesmerized by Mayer Hawthorne‘s new album, A Strange Arrangement.
The “retro” tag is added to almost any contemporary work that sounds like it was originally recorded between 1966 and 1974, and Hawthorne, among the newest contributors to the genre, is aware of how trends come and go. After being introduced to Stones Throw label head Peanut Butter Wolf by mutual friend Noelle Scaggs of the Rebirth, even his current boss was skeptical. “He showed me two songs and I didn’t understand what I was listening to,” Wolf recalls. “I asked him if they were old songs that he did re-edits of – I couldn’t believe they were new songs and that he played all the instruments.”
For more youtube-ness, watch his new video for Maybe So, Maybe No.
[audio:http://skidknee.net/music/mayerhawthorne_justaint.mp3]
Mayer Hawthorne – Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out (2:28)
[audio:http://skidknee.net/music/mayerhawthorne_whenisaidgoodbye.mp3]
Mayer Hawthorne – When I Said Goodbye (4:11)
Annie Leibovitz is in a lot of debt.
The Art Capital loan effectively consolidated all of Leibovitz’s major outstanding obligations, including her mortgages. The interest rate is unknown, but the term is just one year. That means Leibovitz has to come up with $24 million, plus interest, by this September. Under the terms of the agreement, says a person familiar with the loan, Art Capital could be entitled to up to 22.5 percent of all the proceeds from the sale of any of Leibovitz’s work—even for two years after she’s paid off the loan. And that percentage could increase to close to 50 percent if she were to default. Potentially, Art Capital may be entitled to her homes and even her catalogue of past and future copyrights. “They got everything,” veteran New York real-estate attorney Howard Brickner says, shaking his head as he wades through the public records associated with the loan.
Her purported debt is exponentially more massive than any debts I’ve incurred through NYU, but this article makes me appreciate what my professors taught me about financing and keeping the books, as a photographer, in the black. Even as one of the most well-known photographers in this era, she’s made some bad decisions and has become broke. For now, I’m appreciating the little money I have in my bank accounts — I have very little to my name, but it also means I don’t owe much besides my student loans.
Via @mlproject.
I was at Trad’r Sams a few weeks ago when a sullen blonde-haired lady was throwing ice cubes at my friends and I from across the bar. She looked completely hammered and had an evil sneer every time we made eye contact. She reminded me of Jennifer Coolidge from Best in Show.
Sufjan Stevens has dominated my iTunes for the past month, so I thought I would share a few of my favorite tracks from Greetings from Michigan, The Great Lake State, Illinois, and Seven Swans.
[audio:http://skidknee.net/blog/music/sufjan_romulus.mp3]
Sufjan Stevens – Romulus (4:42)
[audio:http://skidknee.net/blog/music/sufjan_casimir_pulaski_day.mp3]
Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day (5:54)
[audio:http://skidknee.net/blog/music/sufjan_to_be_alone_with_you.mp3]
Sufjan Stevens – To Be Alone With You (2:48)
My friends at Yoyonation made it onto a WSJ feature about yo-yos.
Pat Cuartero, 28, of New York, left a six-figure gig as a technology programmer at Merrill Lynch in 2006 to pursue yo-yoing full time. Before he got out of Wall Street, Mr. Cuartero regularly toted his favorite yo-yos in his suit pockets and in briefcases. He regularly spun two-handed while on conference calls.
Now, he runs a company called YoYoNation that sells yo-yos, organizes competitions and plays host to online discussion forums. Mr. Cuartero, who specializes in two-handed play, boasts palms white with calluses and middle fingers with permanent string indentations. He says that though his wrists ache sometimes, “I’ve never been happier.”
They’ve also got some video coverage of Pat and the Yoyonation crew.
Via ThisIsIndexed. Thanks for the link that helped me find this, Shimone.
On a day-to-day basis, I find it hard to get anything done of significant value. It seems unlikely, though, since I’m always preoccupied with the mundane multitasking of multiple stimuli. Since closing down my Facebook a year ago, my attention has turned to googling random things. That sidebar google search on my browser has been used and utterly abused. There’s the constant updating of Twitter, random e-mail checks with, as usual, no important messages, and the monotony of ‘instant message received’ coming through my chat client. And then there’s this blog here that I’ve so casually neglected. NY Mag’s piece on our attention spans in the 21st Century, The Benefits of Distraction and Overstimulation, reminds me of how little I accomplish with so much at my disposal.
“Your mind is not getting the dopamine or the hugs that it needs to keep you focused on what you’re doing. And any time your work gets a little bit too hard or a little bit too boring, you allow it to catch on to something that’s more interesting to you.”
Isolation seems to be a natural bi-product of the Internet age despite the growing trend toward social networking. Cursory communication has numbed our sense and do not nearly replace the full experience of leaving the web. The brief bursts of stimulation seems to have conditioned me to be very spacey, and all the bummin’ around I’ve been doing lately has reached a critical mass.
“Where you allow your attention to go ultimately says more about you as a human being than anything that you put in your mission statement,” he continues. “It’s an indisputable receipt for your existence. And if you allow that to be squandered by other people who are as bored as you are, it’s gonna say a lot about who you are as a person.”
Internet, I can’t quit you.
Underboob and gap teeth
For Billy.