µBlogging

For about two years now the concept of micro-blogging has been a serious idea in the internet world. Let me explain what it comes down to first.

There's a variety of websites that offer you the so called ability to 'micro-blog'. When you create an account you can send messages consisting of 140 characters to the service. A few examples are of those services are twitter, pownce and jaiku. So registration at one of those websites gets you a user page displaying your recent status updates. This way you can share what you're up to with the world. Say I'm listening to Maria Mena and totally enjoying it; I can visit twitter, log on and type:

Listening to Maria Mena and totally enjoying it!

Then twitter will make sure it appears on my page. When you encourage your friends to register too they can also share their statuses with the world (including you). In this way you and your friends can stay informed about each others' lives.
Micro-blogging can also be used as a communication service, like a chatbox. For example my friend who is on twitter too reads that I'm listening to Maria Mena and replies:

@julius haha you like girly music!!

Twitter makes sure I get to see the reply and, if I wish I can reply again. Like that it becomes a communication service.
What bugs me about this new trend of micro-blogging is that everyone with an internet connection can see what you're up to. (You have to make your updates public indeed, but that's done by default) so there are thousands of people out there everyone can check up on. It seems a little strange to me why there are a lot of people complaining about the level of privacy on the internet when, meanwhile, micro-blogging services are popping out of the ground like mushrooms.

But I'm not a privacy fanatic so let's take a look at the other end of the story.
What is the use of blogging, actually? Blogging enables people to share their thoughts, opinions, experiences, stories and photos with the world. Logically micro-blogging enables people to share the same things only on a different level. The micro level.
Imagine you really feel like sharing your opinion on something that is mainstream in the world today. Ah, presidential elections in the United States. You're a huge fan of Obama and want to convince the rest of the globe to become a fan too.
On a normal macro-blog you could write an entire analysis on Obama's spearpoints and give reasons why they're the best. But if you're a microblogger the result would probably be:

Yeahhhhhh! Obama FTW!mccain=nubc4k3!

Okay that post would've been 36 characters so for the win could have been written fully. Still, this very sentence doesn't convince me of one's intellectual capacities, whereas a structured analysis would.
I'm not saying that the trend of micro-blogging is causing a social degeneration but it's certainly limiting the ability to give arguments for a statement.

But how useful is microblogging, really? Part of the user-base consists out of big media sources such as The Times. Those sources post summarized versions of their news in 140 characters to twitter (for example) and include a link to the original posting (consisting of more then 140 characters). So microblogging services can offer a way to stay up with the latest. Unfortunately for the microblogs this has been created years ago, with the realization of RSS (short for Really Simple Syndication). Using a so-called RSS-reader you can stay synchronized with all the blogs you follow.

In the end micro-blogging services seem an excuse not to talk to each other anymore. I mean, if my one of my friends did something cool in the weekend they will tell me on Monday morning, right?

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The Weeping Weepies

Last weekend the music well ran dry. It's just something that occurs every now and then when I personally think I've seen all good music (the verb 'hear' is probably more appropriate here though). You know, the usual favorite artists start to get a tad boring and you want something new and fresh. There are various good ways to deal with such a situation. You can ask a friend, score the iTunes Music Store until you weigh an ounce or click "play my recommendations" in the fabulous last.fm.

I did the latter.

Firstly the free online radio service provided me with a bung load of nobody-English-indie rock (in other words: music that has been prototyped on The Libertines, or for those born after 1995 and without any interest in the history of the popular music scene: The Arctic Monkeys). What I'm generally trying to say is that indie rock 'n roll often isn't indie at all and that it all sounds entirely the same. There is no innovation at all in this particular part of contemporary music, which is not what global culture needs after, say twenty years of disgusting disco/techno/trance music. (It must be stated that this does not include electronic music at all. Electronic music is a genre wherein musicians use the appliances of modern technologies in innovative ways. A mere example: The C64 Orchestra, an orchestra translating Commodore 64 music into classical/ambient music.)

But that discussion is one not to be fought here. After half an hour of rumbling guitars and arithmic drums the player played me World Spins Madly On performed by the Weepies from the album 'Say I Am You'. The track is probably best described as pure beauty in 2 minutes 47 seconds. Enough reason for me to search for more.
At this moment my music collection offers a sweet home to 'Say I Am You' and 'Hideaway', the two newest gems by The Weepies. I was almost compelled after a few tracks to keep on listening. It's not often that an artist finds the ultimate mix between vocals and music, but The Weepies come dangerously close.

They are like the opposite of The Shins. The Shins music is jaw-dropping but don't mention their lyrics. They are as cheesy as a chunk of Camembert.
The Weepies manage, in their lyrics, to touch the classic theme of love and keep it fresh. Though it's not always light stuff they sing about. The earlier mentioned World Spins Madly On is about someone who is put aside by his (or her) lover, the world doesn't care and just goes on. No light stuff in particular. The song opens with those lines:

Woke up and wished that I was dead
With an aching in my head
I lay motionless in bed

Not light. But give it a try, The Weepies really manage to get through; and that's something that should be noted. The song is probably excellent for people who just got passed by by their loved one but it will also do in case your love live is all stable.

This goes for the biggest part of The Weepies' songs. Not a very high pace, good (guitar) music and intelligent and touching lyrics.

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Television, Television

Television still is on the list of most important forms of media. The internet has been in a huge sprint for the past couple of years but yet research tells it didn’t exceed the telly. This in retrospect of entertainment of course, the internet is number one when it comes to (factual) information.

It will just be a matter of time until television drops a few places on the list of entertainment media. Recently I began to wonder why this didn’t happen years ago.
Take the Dutch television landscape for example. Every Saturday night a commercial broadcasting station hosts a show that goes by the name of The Moment Of Truth. It’s a quiz-like format wherein the candidate has to answer questions. Odd, weird, intruding and often intimidating questions about things you’d rather keep for yourself.

Let me illustrate this with an example. The profile of last weeks candidate was a man in his mid 30s who had his own small business. The lad just got out of a relationship but he was still on speaking terms with his ex-girlfriend, as a matter of fact they were still friends. Furthermore he was close with his sister (not the incestum kind of closeness but just family-closeness).

The idea of the show is that the candidate comes in some time before the game is played and answers questions (the intruding and intimidating questions) while a lie detector is used. The show-hosts get to know the true answers to the questions while the candidate remains guessing about the results of the lie-detection tests. Stage two takes place in the studio. With an audience and all the close relatives of the candidate in question. The relatives get to sit on a cosy couch so they can give each other nasty faces when the ‘ultimate truth’ is revealed. Then the candidate gets seated in front of the show’s host and has to answer all the questions again, but now in presence of all the relatives. Who’s feelings are about to get hurt.

The host asks the questions again, if the candidate answers them with the truth (the truth according to the lie detection test) he climbs up the money ladder. And the higher he gets, the more money he can win.

So what are the questions then? Because what’s the big deal about revealing some of your secrets? Here’s a selection of what was asked last Saturday.
∼    Did you ever lie to get someone in bed?
∼    Did you hide secrets when you were in the relationship with your ex?
∼    Is lying part of your day-to-day life?
∼    Is your ex more important to you then your sister?
∼    Did you ever commit insider trading?
∼    In your business, have you ever billed services you didn’t deliver?
∼    Did you ever feel the desire to kiss a male friend intimately?

The candidate answered all questions with a yes and a huge smile on his face because oh boy he was going to win a jaw-dropping amount of cash. It needs to be said that this wasn’t the case with the last question. All the relatives can slam a button, and when they slam the button the candidate has to skip on the current question and gets another one to answer. Curiously enough among the relatives there was a male friend, and that very man slammed the button when the question about the intimate kissing was asked.

What did the candidate get in return for the reveal of all his secrets? Funny enough he didn’t earn a dime. When the question “Do you have a secret which, if it would be revealed, would turn around your world?” was asked the candidate replied with a blunt no. But according to the lie detector he did have a secret that could do that. He lied, and since the show’s name contains the word ‘truth’ liars aren’t very welcome.

Poor, poor man. But that’s the risk of the game.

The fact that this is one of the most watched shows on Saturday night bothers me. Why on Earth do people enjoy seeing relationships get torn apart right in front of them? I’m not saying that every single show has to be intellectual but please, can it be a little civilized? In the US Larry King attracts a huge public and makes jokes that can be a bit blunt from time to time. But at least the man has the decency to wear a suit.

The thing I found out after about sixteen years of television watching is that TV contributes in a way to ones personal growth. The things you see often stimulate thinking about various subjects and therefore challenges your moral outlook.
I’ve seen and enjoyed every episode of the American drama Nip/Tuck. The show continuously offers dilemmas, which aren’t always dealt with in the best possible way. But the results of the characters’ actions are depicted brilliantly, and therefore Nip/Tuck offers you a slice of life.

In a show such as The Moment Of Truth there isn’t even a trace of morality.
No that’s actually not true; if you’d look at the show from a moral point of view the message would be something like “Money is more important than anything. If you have a chance to get a load of it and the consequence would be that you have to lie, cheat and harm relatives, you should absolutely do it.”

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We Live In A Beautiful World

At least, that's how the Coldplay song goes. But it's confirmed by this photograph, which I took on a casual Friday night.

Have a great weekend.

Click the photo for astonishing resolutions.

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The Tragedy of the Leucocyte

leukocyte |ˈloōkəˌsīt| ( Brit. also leucocyte)
noun Physiology
a colorless cell that circulates in the blood and body fluids and is involved in counteracting foreign substances and disease; a white (blood) cell. There are several types, all ameboid cells with a nucleus, including lymphocytes, granulocytes, monocytes, and macrophages.

As a matter of fact I like music. Especially singer-songwriter pop/rock (e.g. Jason Mraz, Josh Pyke, David Gray, Jack Johnson), chillout (e.g. Zero 7, Air, Royksöpp, and some of Moby) and jazz. Piano jazz to be specific. Maybe it's a weird part of a teenagers music spectrum but still. I admire The Bad Plus, Brad Mehldau and The Esbjörn Svensson Trio. And now you may be thinking: "what on Earth has music got to do with white blood cells?" but read on and discover.

This summer the very sad news that Esbjörn Svensson died, reached me. This is sad because the man was a genius, a real artist who had passion for what he did. How I know this? Just give Goldwrap from Tuesday Wonderland a listen and you'll agree with me. Seriously, how this man mastered the piano, it's almost extra-terrestrial.

Some time ago I was reading the music section in the paper. And there it was, Leucocyte, a brand new album performed by no one less then the real Esbjörn Svensson Trio. Recorded some time earlier this year.
E.S.T. (how they're often abbreviated) had a reputation for bringing jazz music to a rather unconventional public. Critics often described (and still describe) them as a jazz band playing rock music. (But in my humble opinion they are really, really, really a jazz and not a rock band). According to the paper this alternative jazz atmosphere would be more present on Leucocyte then it had ever been before. Exciting.

My first impression was filled with surprise and excitement. On their new album E.S.T. present the 21st century definition of jazz. A joint-venture between conventional jazz and Icelandic alternative such as Sigur Ròs.
The entire album comes to a climax in the four-part title track, and peaks in the thirteen minute long Leucocyte III: Ad Mortem. With strange sound samples and great voice-edits.

I'm curious to know what the future of the Esbjörn Svensson Trio would have looked like if their frontman didn't went diving that Saturday afternoon in June. On the other hand this leaves an open space in the jazz scene. Let's hope a fabulous musician picks up the alternative jazz trend.

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Fresh, excited.

As some may have noticed I recently pushed through some subtle design changes here. After I accidentally erased my entire blog I had to come up with some emergency design. Which became the oh-so precious blogger standard 'minima'.

After a few posts it all stopped. I had other stuff on my mind such as re-examinations at school. But lately I found some time to stuff a new design into this space on the web. And here it is, made by the people at Our Blogger Templates and tweaked a little by me. It's pretty good typography though the colours may need some change. Anyway, it's plain, and that's good.

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The Awesome Blightster Lamp

Some time ago I blogged at SuperForest about the Paper Pulp Lamp. A lamp with a very bright design, created with the motto that packaging is the product so we dispose less. I'm not sure but it could be that graduate student David Gardener, who designed the previously named lamp, sparked a trend.

If that is so then Chilean graphic designer Rodrigo Alonso would be the first to follow. With the Blightster Lamp. The packaging again, is the final product. But Alonso used a very classic type of packaging as inspiration. It may not sound familiar but he took a look at blister packages. It's the plastic stuff they often use to put headphones, cables and calculators in - a very classic example.

This is it, the Blightster lamp. By packaging means it's pretty sturdy and will protect the insides. As a lamp it looks pretty awesome. Alonso didn't try to burry the fact that it's packaging too, since there are very packaging-like edges around the lamp. And that looks rough, industrial, modern and above all; cool.

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