The Bad Tour

JUNE 26, 2009

In April 1988, I went to my first, honest-to-goodness rock show. Yes, I'd seen some other live music, but never anything like this. For my birthday, my Uncle Steve took me to see Michael Jackson perform on his Bad tour at Rosemont Horizon (now Allstate Arena) in Chicago. I remember my dad dropping me off with him during dinner at a restaurant that let you throw peanuts on the floor. I also remember being phenomenally excited.

We were sitting in our seats, waiting patiently for the show to start. The crowd was already chanting and I was getting giddy. If you've been to Rosemont, you know it can get incredibly loud. It wasn't as loud as Chicago Stadium, but it was loud. So when Michael took the stage and every single person screamed at the top of their lungs, it was deafening.

Being just barely 8 years old, unable to hear anything and having a huge LED display flashing 'BAD' at me over and over, I immediately started to cry. My uncle noticed relatively quickly and tried to smooth it over as Michael started to moonwalk. Seeing I was completely freaked, he took me outside and got me a 7-Up. The hallway was completely desolate as the world was inside watching Michael and I managed to calm down. We went back in.

The rest of the show was mostly a blur, but I distinctly remember him being in a human-sized, backlit tent doing 30-second costume changes. I'm also positive that the show was life-altering.

The photo above is from the string of Rosemont shows and the video is from the a stop in Japan

Posted in Music\TV\Film\Media, My Life at 11:27 am.
1 Comment |

But is it Better Than Swine Flu?

JUNE 23, 2009

I saw this on the street today.

It says, "More refreshing than open fire hydrants to the face." That's quite a high bar to set there, McDonald's. I'd like to pitch some of my own slogan ideas to you.

"More fun than a day in the cancer ward."
"Less chunky than raw sewage."
"Fewer calories than some of our extra value meals."
"Not (very) poisonous."

I'm sure I could come up with ideas for some of your other products, if these get you jazzed.

See also: Now you're eating

Posted in Culture\Politics\Law at 1:34 am.
1 Comment |

Fan-Made, 8-Bit Video of Kanye's "Robocop"

JUNE 18, 2009

Robocop is my favorite song off the latest album and this video with all-original artwork, created by myk31, makes me happy. There are Double Dragon, Mega-Man and Punch Out! references, to name a few. I encourage you to watch it big, in HD. I also encourage you to check out the artist's site. He's got plenty of cool illustrations.

(via Buzzfeed)

Posted in Music\TV\Film\Media, Video Games at 11:02 pm.
0 Comments |

The Cleveland Indians Alternate Home Jersey is Beautiful

JUNE 15, 2009

This is the second season they're wearing them, but I'm just noticing them now. Baseball uniforms are usually pretty classy, but these fauxbacks are really nice. In fact, I'm tempted to buy one of those hats, just because they look great. The only downside is the continued use of Chief Wahoo. Racism isn't cool.

If you want to see some more views, you can see the official announcement. And while they didn't really cover this explicitly, Uni Watch should satisfy any uniform curiosity you've got.

Posted in Design, Sports at 12:21 am.
0 Comments |

Poetry

JUNE 12, 2009

Today, this may seem like gibberish, but our children will consider this the moment in which language changed course and a new breed of linguists was born.

If others can smell you, u gotta be able to smell yourself
Pfffffffffffff
I farted
Aggggh
Can u smell dat
Lol

THE_REAL_SHAQ, 12 minutes ago from TwitterBerry

Posted in Art, Technology\Web at 5:17 pm.
0 Comments |

Ceci N'est Pas un Tablet

JUNE 8, 2009

Apple's developers conference begins today and we're all fairly confident they'll be a new iPhone and a release date for Snow Leopard. They'll probably be some speed bumps to hardware and some exciting new iPhone apps, but I'm not expecting a "One more thing..." Still, I think there's a "One more thing..." right around the corner — I'm convinced Apple's building a tablet.

There have been rumors floating around for a while, but I think everyone's got it a little wrong. Instead of a tablet, I'm envisioning a tablet-sized iPod. Something with a 5-7" screen that's focused on playing video and games. Instead of bringing your laptop on planes to watch movies, you'll bring the tablet. And despite Apple's insistence that people don't want to read books on their computer, it'll be the perfect size to compete with the Kindle. I also imagine they'll be a fancy dock that will charge and service as a USB hub.

It'd be great if Steve Jobs rode in on a unicorn holding this new iProduct above his head, screaming "Kneel before me, peons!" but I think this will get its own event. Anyway, if this comes to pass today or if any tablet is ever released by Apple from this point forward, be sure to credit Matt Jacobs, creator and proprietor of Capn Design.

Posted in Technology\Web at 9:51 am.
0 Comments |

The Photography of Geovanny Verdezoto

JUNE 2, 2009

Last month, Jori and I went to see the work on display at this year's NY Photo Festival. Like the previous event, there was only one artist who really stood out. Last year was Jeffrey Milstein and this year I was enamored with the work of Geovanny Verdezoto.

Geovanny is a 25 year-old photographer from Ecuador, but that's about all I could find about him. I do know that his photographs on display were expansive, panoramic shots. They look like 360°ree; shots, but I wonder if they're stitched togther at all. The one above was on display and is my favorite, but there are few more on his site.

Finally, here's a Google-translated interview with the photographer. I wanted to hear about how he created the photos, but I'll take some insight into his inspiration instead.

Posted in Art at 10:46 pm.
1 Comment |

Encouraging Useful Reviews

MAY 4, 2009

Flipping through ma tweets, I found this one from Jeffrey Zeldman (which I presume came from Jared Spool at An Event Apart Seattle):

1 in 1,300 purchasers writes a review. With a standard 2 percent conversion rate, you need 3 million visitors a day to get useful reviews.

Reading that made me think about how I almost never write reviews, especially for products. The only times I do write reviews is when I have something to gain.

For others, respect provides enough motivation, which is why Amazon implemented badges. Having 'Real Name' and 'Top 500 Reviewer' beside your username commands some respect and ensures authenticity. This is really helpful for those seeking reviews, but not for most who should be writing them.

Currently, there is not much for me to gain by writing reviews on Amazon. My friends run in other circles and there's just not enough time in the day. Now, if there was a financial motivation, this would be another story.

Amazon Reviewing Associates

Amazon runs a successful referral program that allows you to generate money when people buy products from your links. I don't have any numbers to back this up, but it's safe to assume that the money Amazon loses in referral fees are made up in a reduced advertising and marketing budget. My dad, a car dealer, used to say it takes $250 just to get someone in the door. Amazon's number is probably significantly less, but they also have significantly more customers.

If driving traffic to content is this valuable, shouldn't accurate reviews of a product be rewarded as well? Getting a customer in the door is an important step, but closing the sale is just as crucial.

I propose that Amazon rewards users whose reviews are deemed most helpful and the people who find those reviews first. Mr. Spool, the man who inspired the tweet above, made the case that helpful reviews account for $2.7 billion in revenue. Even if this is high, it's obviously in Amazon's best interest to encourage these.

If I could make $5-10 a month writing reviews for Amazon products, I'd be writing a whole lot more of them. Even if that number petered out after a while, I'd likely still continue once I got in the swing of things. In fact, it seems that an outside company could make money with their own recommendation engine using this system. If they were to share the referral rewards and place some subtle ads, there'd probably be a pretty good business.

The thing I like best about this idea is that everybody wins. Amazon sells more products, active community members get rewarded and I'm more likely to buy the best beard trimmer.

Posted in Technology\Web at 9:57 pm.
1 Comment |

Shut Up, Old People: In Defense of Jay Cutler

APRIL 22, 2009

I've talked before about my favorite sports blog, Da' Bears Blog, but I wanted to quote a slightly longer passage from his recent missive about middle-aged writers complaining about Jay Cutler's nights out:

It's not just sports, of course. We live in a "you must have a wife and kids" culture. Happiness need not apply. And since I'm about to spend an entire year apologizing for every mistake Jay Cutler makes, I think this is the right time to point out that being young and having fun is not a mistake. Not at 26. Not in April.

Like Jeff (the author of the blog), I've long disliked reading into a public figure's private life. If Cutler shows up on day 1 and throws 5 touchdowns and 400 yards, everyone will be sending him jello shots and Long Island Iced Teas.

Posted in Sports at 6:23 pm.
0 Comments |

1-900-OKFACE

MARCH 28, 2009

Seriously, this nearly made me jack and liz at the same time (see the full episode for definitions).

Posted in Tidbits at 7:59 pm.
0 Comments |