Monday, October 27, 2014

Another good video from XOXO. John Gruber tells the story of how Daring Fireball became his job.

It's about 45 minutes long. This is the kind of video I add to the watch later list on YouTube and pull it up on my AppleTV to watch.




I'd like to highlight a couple points that I really agree with:

  • CPM based advertising is a corrupting agent on the web.
  • He shouldn't be the exception with his way of doing business, he should be the rule. 
  • We need more singular voices like his. (Personally I wish we had more interesting dialogs/monologues in areas outside of tech.)
Some other thoughts:
  • I think his kind of thoughtful writing about a subject he cares about, and is knowledgable in, is a very much a kind of American Revolution idea. Example A, Example B
  • Because he answers to no one but his readers, he can have an unpopular opinion or two and doesn't need to bend to fit a majority opinion. He can be spiky when he feels the need to be.
  • He controls his own destiny in a way not many other writers can claim to.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Ethan Diamond of (musician friendly) Bandcamp at the XOXO Festival in Portland 2014

Bandcamp is a site I've always liked. It is geared towards the musicians first, audience second and technology third. Many other sites that sell music have put tech first and it shows.

The attached video is one of the Co-Founders telling the story of the site at the XOXO fest 2014.




I found several things to like in this talk:

  • The story of how and why they never became a VC heavy company.
  • What they did to keep costs under control.
  • His outlook on why streaming services might be good for the audience and discovery while still being bad for music longterm and the creation of art. (Which is exactly how I feel.)

Go here to find Marqui Adora's music on Bandcamp.



Monday, October 13, 2014

A new Aphex Twin record!

Yup, he finally released an Aphex Twin, not a side project, record. While I've enjoyed some individual songs from the not Aphex Twin releases, it's nice to have a solid body of work that doesn't make me skip a few tracks.  He's clearly learned in the off time and does explore areas he never has before but in the end he still gives the songs a clear artistic style that makes them his.

Unpredictable, unpleasant at times, interesting and sometimes astoundingly beautiful.  In a world full of music that tries to be everyones non-threatening best friend, it's nice to hear music that says "this may not be for you".

Here's one of the tracks Warp posted to YouTube.

Monday, October 06, 2014

A podcast to checkout if you are a comic book or X-Men fan. Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men

Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is a nice way to learn (or in my case be reminded) about what makes the X-Men such a popular multi-format success. While they mostly are talking about the X-Men comics (and many related titles) they do touch on the TV Shows and Movies.

It's one of the podcasts that moves to the front of the queue when a new episode is release.

Get it here on iTunes.

Or here if you use other Pod-catchers