Smoke
Soundcheck at the Sofia in Sacramento. Photo by our engineer Stephen.
Bug in the letter
Robin Sloan on transparent tracking pixels, the invisible images that can show the sender precisely when an email was opened.
In the marketing context, I think this kind of data collection is okay — barely — but only in the aggregate, i.e. to judge the overall performance of a newsletter.
In the personal context, it’s shockingly presumptuous. An email isn’t a letter, but even so: imagine unsealing a letter, and a winking electronic transponder slips out. You would have questions for your correspondent!
and here is my favorite part:
Anyway, I wish Gmail offered an option less passive than simply declining to display the tracking pixel — maybe some way to send a fart sound streaming back into the sender’s inbox…
Gulf
Ah, Metheny’s hair fits perfectly!! Via Cord Jefferson – Tumblr + Wikipedia
Also, Mapquest lets you name the Gulf however you want. I dedicated it to my father – LINK.
Beauty of Distraction
In English, we pay attention. In French, we make it. In German, we gift it. In Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian, we lend it, as though attention is something that can be used and then duly returned. In Finnish, attention is gathered or added, like a spice that seasons perception. It’s a broad linguistic trend that begs a couple of questions: Are we using this resource efficiently? Are we paying attention to what we should be?
On the Beauty of Distraction | House of Beautiful Business
I like this part:
When performing our lives trumps the actual living of them, attention becomes a commodity. The market vies for our time and focus, knowing there’s a direct correlation between what we pay attention to and what we, quite literally, pay for. This commodification feeds into a larger societal pressure to constantly do more, achieve more, and be more. We live in an era of relentless ambition, where success is often measured by how much we produce and how little we rest. The hustle culture further fragments our attention, as we’re constantly pushed to divide our focus among numerous goals and tasks.
Art School
I wonder whether politicians who think a liberal art education is a waste of time, or that art needn’t be taught in school ever thought of this… that sooooo many of the musicians they listen to went to art school. Here is a partial list of musicians that went to art school in England:
- Ray Davies
- Eric Clapton
- Ron Wood
- Keith Richards
- Jeff Beck
- John Lennon
- Farrokh Bulsara aka Freddie Mercury
- Christine McVie
- Ian Dury
- Pete Townshend
- Joe Strummer
- Cat Stevens
- Bryan Ferry
- Brian Eno
- David Bowie
Interesting to note that Bowie attended the Bromley Technical High School, where he studied art under the instruction of Owen Frampton, father of guitarist Peter Frampton.
