The Sport Utility Paradigm

Pardon me do you have any grey poupon?

I wrote this a while ago, but still seems relevant as people start to spend money on their loved ones where do they put it? what is purchased is a good sign of the gap between those still rebounding always in peril economically and people investing in ostentatious means remains wide. Read the article, but there is still a drive for status symbols on the high end(return of fur, bright colored and high end "casual" shirts) and utility on the low end(levi's ad campaign, productivity aps, emigration to detroit).

After WWII the jeep exploded as homage to the dedication of the troops and can do attitude of America. The jeep evolved till the 70’s at witch time they had the Jeep Cherokee and Grand Cherokee that were unchanged for 30+ years, nothing lasts that long in cars. These were cars tested in the extreme off road courses of southern California, built to take you anywhere. The era of Jeep has faded and morphed in to the luxury of capability. You could drive up a 14ner or pick up the kids from soccer. Did the utility of the Jeep die or did we grow out of it? Hit shows like survivor man and man vs. wild are tell-tales of the rebirth of capability. Whether luxury or utility, it’s about the ease of getting things done. The stories and tricks in survivor man may be fascinating, but when was the last time anyone was trapped on a desert island. Filling a sand pit with hot rocks and food is useful tool to anyone living on the coast with a taste for cooking. Do people dream of doing or actually want the things they purchase to take them somewhere? Or is the story to tell here is the balance of overly complex with the ease of capability. Camping the desert would have been a death sentence without military training in the 50’s, now it’s a weekend trip. Printing a book was the job of an entire company of professionals from layout to printing, now its done in someone’s den.

PS. lots of fun photohunting for this. sometimes its nice to have a little decadence, otherwise the basics will do. Time travel,

Democracy leaking through our fingers

The flash conference put on by Personal Democracy Forum(PDF) was stirred by a “hinge moment for numerous issues,” raised by Wikileaks. Experts and luminaries in diplomacy, academia, and journalism sparked a dialogue, breaking into the top twitter trending topics and 2,000 viewers in its first hour of streaming. Panelists were asked to discuss four topics as varied as their backgrounds, from valuating the Internet, to the importance of trust and transparency in different private and public institutions. The talks were aimed to review the importance of how media evolves in a digital age, inclusive of free speech. The spark point of Wikileaks gave way to questions examining the new landscape of the digital age and how the innovation of the Internet applies to the world of media. Jeff Jarvis called to action a review of rights in a new age. “We need a point of reference, a bill of rights . . . Assange is part of it but we need to go beyond leaks and talk about the structure of peer to peer exchange.” Web 2.0 has lasted well beyond its fledgling expiration date. More people turn to mobile and online sources than radio and newspaper combined (Pew, 2010).



Trust has been instilled in the flow of information from new outlets. Carne Ross commented, “If government didn’t lie, Wikileaks wouldn’t be as potent.” News outlets, that model themselves after Wikileaks, will gain the lost trust that was garnered by the watchdog media. “You’ve heard of voting with your feet? The sources are voting with their leaks. If they trusted the newspapers more, they would be going to the newspapers,” said Jay Rosen, NYU professor and media critic. Mark Pesce talked about how the record companies had to struggle with the flow of information and restructuring their business as consumers bridled the flow of information away from institutions. “These are birthing pains,” Gideon Litchfield, Deputy editor for The Economist, commented on the pendulum swinging of a radically new for of media. “Is there black and white answer here, (no) it’s a red hearing. Other organization will spring up and learn from Wikileaks failure.” During the open forum panelist and audience members raised questions about the legitimacy of hacktivism and groups like Anonymous in support of free speech. Panelist and audience member called the DDoS attack the digital age equivalent of a sit-in. Dave Winer, NYU scholar, critiqued the stability of 1st amendment speech under private service providers, where site hosting services from Amazon.com can no longer be trusted to ensure freedom of speech to journalist or bloggers.

Although each speaker had more than 140 characters to say, the flurry of information was only a “byte” of larger conversations everyone was alluding to. Many great questions were raised, which ultimately left an unfulfilling laissez faire feeling that already clings to the Internet. PDF promoted their upcoming conference, but with so much discussion of public forum and peer information exchange we will have to see how the Internet citizenry will adopt to this restructuring of media and journalism.

We are what we eat

For some, food isn’t quite green enough. In our recent excursion to San Francisco, we talked with some cutting edge eco-conscious foodies. San Francisco has long been a leader in conscious eating, from slow food, biodynamic wines to composting. Lately, California foodies have been pushing the envelope and adding a new way to eat locally.
Iso Rabin, founder of Forage SF San Francisco’s underground food market is taking eco-friendly food to the next level. Forage SF’s misson is:

Our goal is to push people out of the supermarket, to get them trying new foods harvested sustainably and fairly by their neighbors. As part of our community focused philosophy, 50% of the profit from the sale of any product we purchase from a forager goes straight to that individual . That is, to the person who collected it.

Foraging adds a new layer to eating local adding more sustainability and community. Where locavores, eat food with in a 100 mile radius, foraging happens right within your city. Local parks and trees become the shopping market. This might spur dialogue between consumers and their food sources.
Iso rabin’s created the underground market which features budding entrepreneurs that cant afford the costs of farmers markets or organic certifications, but strive to offer a sustainable food as well. This is a unique opportunity for those to take their passion and put them to the challenge before they quit their day jobs. The more people that are involved in creating their own food the more chance local eating can become a possibility. Foragers are pushing forward the frontier of greening food; we are what we eat, after all.

Developing an Old Art

The people at Impossible Project were gracious enough to let me have a sneak peak at the new space they have for an old art. Since Polaroid closed down its factory in 2008, a group of enthusiast and fans got behind fading technology and started the Impossible Project. Tomorrow the Impossible Project opens its doors in hopes of bringing back the lost art of Polaroid and the magic that happens before your eyes. The once lost film will back on the shelves for sale near you soon enough.

Check it out their Grand Opening tomorrow from 3pm-8pm at 425 Broadway NYC. Its an amazing space and should be an amazing event with plenty of goodies being raffled away (They are raffling away backpacks made out of recycled Polaroid delivery truck siding, pretty neat).

Is twitter’s new business model a disruptor for twitter

Twitter, among others, has begun talking bout how it will monetize its business. Twitter is talking about monetizing search words. Wait a gosh darn second, doesn’t that mean that a platform that has become notorious for its holding companies accountable and pushing transparency will be selling the literal words out from under its users?

its the small things

Now that I've been in New york city for just over 3 months, I've noticed how its the small things that make my day. Take the H&M building for example, as you walk along the block opposite, its the only place that you get sunshine on the block. its the small things.
Its like the subway platform walls at prince street that have the silhouettes of people. the ambiguous outline of a curious man in a wheel chair or a lazy drunk.

The out of myth for our times

A while ago I was struck by something that Joeseph Campbell said.

During an interview with Bill Moyers he was asked what he believed was a myth of our time. His response has stuck with me for quite some time. Although his frame of reference for societies that generated myths evolved over many many centuries, as did their myths. Our society seems to be evolving much more rapidly than their so why wouldn’t our myths. We may not generate the same class of myths, such as Gilgamesh or The Odessy, maybe more mini-myths.

MY CASE:
Lately there has been an eruption of the true value of technology. How much time does this really save? Is it environmental mining all these rare elements for technology? Is technology making us dumber? There has been no overarching senate committee assembled to answer these questions, no think tank and no religious pundits (really no pundits). These questions have been turned over to the arts, as they were in the times of Gilgamesh. Movies have begun to weave the stories of unknown. Starting with star wars, THX -1138, Star Trek . . but since these frame stories were filled with the classic stories of father/son connection, rebellious youth .. the frame became its own story. Movies that follow those of Iasic Asimov, like I am Robot. Enemy of the state is one that touches on the pervasiveness of technology, coincidentally both with Will Smith.

There is one riff that I wanted to peer into. Between Enemy of the state and D.J. Caruso’s new flick with Shia Lebouf, Eagle eye, there comes an issue with technology. Enemy of the state touches on the power of technology in the hands of the renegade few. Where eagle eye removes the human element and places the control in the hands of computers/technology. The frame story of technology taking control is interesting, is it the power of Google when we search for the capital of a small country in Europe and once we find the exact number we move on. Compare that information searching to that of a good old school library. You have to find the encyclopedia look up the country, possible get distracted along the way. But the fact that you have invested so much more time into the mission of fact-finding, you don’t mind picking up a couple other facts along the way. Cutting down on the time expenditure has also cut down on the information found. These nightmarish tales, some might even call them myths, of computer overpowering the control of information and using it to their own idea of “right,” have become more and more prevalent.