communicatrix

The video from my little 5-minute talk, “My Bloody...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:23:42 -0800

The video from my little 5-minute talk, “My Bloody Epiphany,” at last week’s Ignite: Portland. Their 7th, my first. Thanks to AJ (@linuxaid) for the video.

"WSJ: But is there something compelling about the collaborative process compared to the solitary job..."

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:31:35 -0800

“

WSJ: But is there something compelling about the collaborative process compared to the solitary job of writing?

CM: Yes, it would compel you to avoid it at all costs.

”

- Author and lover of solitude Cormac McCarthy describing his feelings about the film-making process in a WSJ interview (via Ben Casnocha, via Roger Ebert)

"If there’s a target in our present society, it’s people not willing to change their minds. If you’re..."

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:45:53 -0800

“If there’s a target in our present society, it’s people not willing to change their minds. If you’re not willing to change your mind about anything, given how much is changing and how the sands are shifting underneath our feet, then that dishonesty is certainly worth a joke or too.”

- Stephen Colbert, from an interview in Rolling Stone (hard copy only) about the intent behind the satire in his show, The Colbert Report. (via Scott Berkun)

"All trends have friends in high places."

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:07:50 -0800

“All trends have friends in high places.”

- An especially pithy snippet from my favorite Chief Cultural Officer, Grant McCracken. Plucked from a piece on his suspicions of why the locavore movement—despite its noble intentions—may, like so many other noble trends of the past, nonetheless be doomed.

I can’t wait until I finally get to meet Grant in person. (Grant McCracken: Death of concept: beginning of the end of the local movement?)

The personification of impenetrable cool. Ladies and gents, Miss...

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:12:59 -0800

The personification of impenetrable cool. Ladies and gents, Miss Joan Didion. (via “charlie parker”)

"I’m not referring to a brand as a logo and a typeface. I’m referring to the new kind of..."

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:09:58 -0800

“I’m not referring to a brand as a logo and a typeface. I’m referring to the new kind of brand, the one is formed by the entire experience of a customer’s interaction. That experience gets branded into his or her memory and leaks into the buzz of modern culture. If you can’t make a good customer experience from start to finish, you’ve failed to generate brand value that will attract customers to come back for repeat business and tell their friends to come back, too. That’s how good customer experience directly affects the bottom line.”

- The days of slapping something shiny on the surface and calling it Tasty Pancakes! are long gone.

As this sad but oh-too-true tale of branding and UX misadventures at AA.com shows, Big Business still doesn’t get it. The prime directive of pretty much every service business should be to provide an extraordinary customer experience. And yet not only do they not—they’re structured to make that nearly impossible.

From an excellent email exchange and commentary between an AA.com UX employee and the author, a UX designer named Dustin Curtis. (on Curtis’ site, via gruber)

"Regarding those who challenge and hold you accountable, only one friend is needed for this job. He..."

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:30:19 -0800

“Regarding those who challenge and hold you accountable, only one friend is needed for this job. He must be a person with a lot of character. He is yourself. You may find him critical or cranky at times, but he means well. Leave your other friends to keep track of themselves. They’re probably too self-occupied to worry about you, anyway.”

- Damn, I love that Robert Genn.

Sweet mother of pearl. What an extraordinary beauty Bergman was....

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:30:58 -0800

Sweet mother of pearl.

What an extraordinary beauty Bergman was. And I’m pretty sure it’s at least partly because she was so kind and true, through and through. Knew what mattered. Did what mattered, and screw what the world thought about it.

Maybe the best testimonial is that she seems to have raised some pretty terrific children. Not too many women as beautiful as Isabella Rossellini who don’t seem to take themselves too seriously.

I’m pretty happy with the mom I got, but if I had to pick another, Ingrid would be tough to beat. I mean, for the cheekbone genes alone.

(If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger)

Feeling blue? NOT ANYMORE YOU’RE NOT. (Ladies & gents,...

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:21:06 -0700

Feeling blue? NOT ANYMORE YOU’RE NOT. (Ladies & gents, Sister Rosetta Tharpe.)

seoulbrother: Sometimes* @gruber is right. *Yankees?...

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:03:42 -0700

seoulbrother:

Sometimes* @gruber is right.

*Yankees? Cowboys?

But always, always, @seoulbrother is right ON.

Of course I am at the top of the poop chain. Of...

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:07:12 -0700

Of course I am at the top of the poop chain.

Of course…

merlin:

Welcome to the Social; Light a Match

Already finding many uses for Google Social Search.

Hive mind, right?

(n.b.: opt in then click the image above to find your friends’ poop.)

"I liked what a film school teacher told a friend of mine: “Everybody tells you that for every job..."

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:53:00 -0700

“I liked what a film school teacher told a friend of mine: “Everybody tells you that for every job that opens in the film industry, 500 people will apply for it. What they don’t tell you is that out of those 500, 490 will be idiots. The trick is not to be an idiot.””

- Professional writer Justine Musk in a post about what it takes to make it as a professional writer, from what has rapidly become one of my fave blogular reads. (thanks again, Ben)

“Abby is ADORABLE. But you know what would make her more...

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:34:24 -0700

“Abby is ADORABLE. But you know what would make her more adorable? If she was Nathan Lane at 3 a.m. on a Saturday night.”

—James Gunn on the Photoshopping of Mother’s Precious Pageant Pearl (via Spencer Cross, via BoingBoing)

)

"The lessons here: Do keep track of your money, try to live within your means, avoid debilitating..."

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:23:05 -0700

“The lessons here: Do keep track of your money, try to live within your means, avoid debilitating addictions if at all possible and, for the nonce at least, try to have decent health insurance. That’ll help you keep your cash as a writer, whether you’re making $24,000 a year from your writing, or $500,000.”

- John Scalzi, wise words for writers and other erratically paid artists from peeping at F. Scott Fitzgerald’s old tax returns (via Lisa Sonora Beam)

lonelysandwich: And when your sign Decides to rhyme, You’ll find...

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:45:58 -0700

lonelysandwich:

And when your sign
Decides to rhyme,
You’ll find its efficacy
To have been decreased
By a significant measure,
Please enjoy the poop!

"…much of the joy of using Birdfeed is its use of a design principle called progressive..."

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:14:14 -0700

“…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)

This is the stretch of Rush Street that spelled “forbidden...

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:41:55 -0700

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]

Monkey See - Monkey Do (TW Collins)

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:04:25 -0700

Monkey See - Monkey Do (TW Collins)

Fairhaven

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:16:17 -0700

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.

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

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:29:03 -0700

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

—jimh, in the comments

[Boing Boing]