communicatrix

Too short, weird, funny, sad, mean or geeky for the mothership.
Oct 13 ’09
“…much of the joy of using Birdfeed is its use of a design principle called progressive disclosure, an elusive but powerful property whereby an application presents only what is needed as it’s needed, gracefully exposing more features and complexity only when the user seeks them out. In other words, the power is there, but it sticks to doing its job, not getting in your way.”
— David Adams on what makes pretty much all design that works its ass off, actually work. (via gruber)

1 note

Oct 12 ’09
This is the stretch of Rush Street that spelled “forbidden glamor” to me as a kid growing up in 1960s Chicago. Cool seemed just a little out of reach: by day, I could join my dad and the crazy cast of characters at McConnell’s coffee shop across the street, or walk to Solomon-Cooper for a pack of Black Jack, or if I was really lucky, hit the Singapore Hut across the street and just behind Jack’s back for an early and exotic dinner with my grandparents. But the really cool stuff happened at night, when I was safely tucked away in bed. I knew it. And somehow, I knew it was eternally just out of reach: I was too young for this world when it existed, and couldn’t reach back in time for it once I was old enough to be admitted to the club. Bonne nuit, tristesse. [If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger,There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats: The Art of Pop #47]

This is the stretch of Rush Street that spelled “forbidden glamor” to me as a kid growing up in 1960s Chicago. Cool seemed just a little out of reach: by day, I could join my dad and the crazy cast of characters at McConnell’s coffee shop across the street, or walk to Solomon-Cooper for a pack of Black Jack, or if I was really lucky, hit the Singapore Hut across the street and just behind Jack’s back for an early and exotic dinner with my grandparents.

But the really cool stuff happened at night, when I was safely tucked away in bed. I knew it. And somehow, I knew it was eternally just out of reach: I was too young for this world when it existed, and couldn’t reach back in time for it once I was old enough to be admitted to the club.

Bonne nuit, tristesse.

[If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger,There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats: The Art of Pop #47]

1 note

Oct 12 ’09
Monkey See - Monkey Do (TW Collins)

Monkey See - Monkey Do (TW Collins)

2 notes

Oct 10 ’09

Fairhaven

magicmolly:

We pass a doublewide trailer on the interstate and an acquisitive urge flares and then fades inside me. Then I’m thinking about children and their property: the cardboard boxes my dad carved into playhouses and the storage crate we called our clubhouse in the backyard. Later, the novelty of my own room and a door I could close. Even sleeping in a closet on an eggshell foam bed (1998-2000) felt fine.

There’s a long span of time in which it is unusual to have this sense of personal property. Roommates arrive, and then lovers and eventually a spouse. If you are very rich you can have a room or a pied-à-terre to yourself, but for most the return of private (really private) property comes closer to the end of the line, by which time it is no longer a choice and therefore no longer a consolation.

13 notes (via magicmolly)

Oct 8 ’09
“Must be the new CS4 PS “skeletize” filter.” —jimh, in the comments [Boing Boing]

“Must be the new CS4 PS “skeletize” filter.”

—jimh, in the comments

[Boing Boing]

2 notes

Oct 3 ’09
Where Colleen Would Drop In If She Could Travel Back in Time, #47 in a continuing series [If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger,There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats: They Were Collaborators #597]

Where Colleen Would Drop In If She Could Travel Back in Time, #47 in a continuing series

[If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger,There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats: They Were Collaborators #597]

1 note

Oct 3 ’09

This reminds me of why I fell in love with Monty Python as a young girl. It also reminds me that I have more than a touch of the OCD. Especially after the 17th viewing.  (Liam Lynch’s take on A Proper Copper Coffee Pot, via The BF)

Sep 26 ’09
“Small helpings No seconds. No snacking. A little bit of everything and have a good time.”
—

The motto of the American Institute of Wine and Food, co-founded by the eminently sensible (if somewhat gruff about it) Julia Child, Robert Mondavi and Richard Graff.

[from a piece about the slight tendency towards histrionics of our other beloved national treasure, Meryl Streep]

Sep 26 ’09
merlin: Am I obsessed with the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition? I am. Do I see it everywhere now? I do.

merlin:

Am I obsessed with the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition? I am. Do I see it everywhere now? I do.

23 notes (via merlin)

Sep 25 ’09
“It rarely takes more than a page to recognize that you’re in the presence of someone who can write, but it only takes a sentence to know you’re dealing with someone who can’t.”
—

—screenwriter Josh Olson, in his very funny, very sad, very awesome rant, “I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script.”

[via Scott Berkun]

2 notes