Somebody said we were allowed to think out loud. Pardon the mess.

Saturday, June 26, 2004

Washington Monthly
How is it that the same economy that gives us bland fodder like Vin Diesel, Evanescence, and "According To Jim" can sometimes suddenly produce the sort of wonderful, bizarre material that we see on Adult Swim? It's because the good stuff tends to come when nobody's looking--created by those on the fringes of the studio system, occupying marginal creative real estate with minimal supervision. In the natural world, punctuated evolution occurs when small groups find themselves geographically isolated and free from natural predators, allowing creatures with rare mutations to thrive and develop into entirely new species. So it is in entertainment: The best material has often come from the back alleys of the studio system.
Yes. It's precisely because "the good stuff tends to come when nobody's looking--created by those on the fringes of the studio system, occupying marginal creative real estate with minimal supervision."

Ever seen Space Ghost, Coast-to-Coast? Do you have Brak's Greatest Hits on CD and mp3? If you have and do, then this Washington Monthly article is not for you. It may make you cry. It may even be a sign of Armageddon, or at least a jump-the-shark moment for Adult Swim, Cartoon Network's post-modern, post-primetime adult cartoon slot. Nah. If you don't know Adult Swim, go read it. For a comparative, Adult Swim is to Sponge Bob, what Jon Stewart is to Larry King. The fact that it comes out of Time-Warner is reason to belive there's a God.

(A politcal mag doing a piece on edgy cartoons? Maybe we can presume the writer, Justin Peters, is the son of founder Charlie Peters. Helps to have pull, I guess. Or maybe they're just tired of giving wedgies to neocons.)

Anyway, it's yet another fine example of when the cat's away the mice will play. Hoorah! Gee, yet more synchronicity: In the post previous to this one, I'd scribbled some on the growing realization that design and sensibility are replacing the old corporatized feature-advantage-benefit formulation comfortable to Spreadsheet Cowboys in nice pressed suits. Well, using Adult Swim's sardonic superhero fast food entrees and a winged avenger attorney as their anti-mush, Washington Monthly shows how corporate-induced mush syndrome applies to entertainment just like any other category.

[Other category? Go here and scroll down a few posts to "Climb ev'ry mountain" for how the off-the-suit's-radar model aided Chrysler's reemergence from the dead-pool.]

Posted by: fouro / 8:14 PM |
Saturday rambling. Or: Gamma Girls. Beta Testers. Alpha Consumers.
MSN MobileTech:

These so-called "alpha consumers" are like alpha wolves; they lead the pack. What they wear, use, listen to, watch, eat, drink and think today sets the pattern for what the rest of us will be doing and consuming tomorrow....

So it's no surprise that [American] geography informs cool hunting's core principle: Cool begins at the edges and moves to the middle. No matter. The inhabitants of the middle won't know that; it's their fate always to be a few beats behind.

Or at least it was.... [Thanks to the internet,] these days, the migration of cool from alpha to follower can happen almost instantaneously, and it's the cool hunter who risks being a few beats behind.

Hence the profession's latest axiom: The edges are the middle.
Of course. It wouldn't be a trend without an axiom. The writer notes something resulting that to me seems a stretch because it's already occurring... like yesterday, dude.
Tyranny of Cool

If it's conceded that technology — in this case the Internet — has fundamentally altered cool's equation, the question arises: Can technology be similarly affected by the tyranny of cool? In other words, can a utility and the way it develops be driven by an esthetic?
Well, yea-uhh. From here, the article devolves into platitudes about brave new paradigmatic seachanging breakthroughs. Fine, we're done with this guy. On to...



Emotional Design: Why We Love (Or Hate) Everyday Things.
by Don Norman
From Publishers Weekly
Techno author Norman, a professor of computer science and cofounder of a consulting firm that promotes human-centered products, extends the range of his earlier work, The Design of Everyday Things, to include the role emotion plays in consumer purchases. According to Norman, human decision making is dependent on both conscious cognition and affect (conscious or subconscious emotion). This combination is why, for example, a beautiful set of old mechanical drawing instruments greatly appealed to Norman and a colleague: they evoked nostalgia (emotion), even though they both knew the tools were not practical to use (cognition). Human reaction to design exists on three levels: visceral (appearance), behavioral (how the item performs) and reflective. The reflective dimension is what the product evokes in the user in terms of self-image or individual satisfaction. Norman's analysis of the design elements in products such as automobiles, watches and computers will pique the interest of many readers, not just those in the design or technology fields. He explores how music and sound both contribute negatively or positively to the design of electronic equipment, like the ring of a cell phone or beeps ("Engineers wanted to signal that some operation had been done.... The result is that all of our equipment beeps at us")....
I don't have this, but have spent 30-minutes with a friend's copy. To me, as a business guy who wears a creative hat as well, many of the precepts Norman talks about are no-brainers. Since I have very little brain, maybe that's as it should be. But the reason Coke's original bottle or Gibson's Les Paul remain in the pantheon is because of their complementary style and substance adding up to a sum more than their parts--their design gives the feelings they evoke uniquely memorable "handles." But speaking of such things? Uggh. "I design for Me," goes the saying.

In this way, with this admission, comes a similar challenge to right-brain sensitivities that left-brainers feel when "touchy-feely" gets invoked in conversations about, I dunno, 960 nanometer fiber optic light pumps and their implications for the future of knowledge: Don't go there. This is "science," idiot.

Design (okay, the mysterious "they" really think Art here) is supposed to be removed from something as crass as convincing others to pry open their wallets. Ick! Money! Put it away! Alright, maybe designers don't mind money. But, gee, couldn't it be accompanied by the appropriate moment of silence for the craft and toil that went into the work? (Gotta amortize the pain and anguish of all those lectures on the Baroque Period and Dada.) Anyway, this mental/emotional tug of war makes me remember a huge fuss back in 1989, when I was just a salesman with a Communication Arts magazine subscription: Leading lights Joe Duffy and Michael Peters had merged their shops. They decided to take out an ad--GASP--in the Wall Street Journal. The headline, if I remember right, was:
Here's why two guys with design degrees can do more for your company than a conference room full of MBAs.
Outrage ensued, probably similar to when the first Breast Augmentation surgeons decided to advertise because no woman understood what a Boob Job meant for them. Now we have Pamela Anderson. Michael Beirut, on the group blog Design Observer recalls 1989's AIGA conference and a mock fight, partly prompted by the ad, between Duffy and Tibor Kalman over the meaning of design: Should art meet commerce? Are they allowed to get along? Can we say it out loud?

Beirut, in his post has a beauty recollection of the conundrum in those early schism years of Good design's burgeoning embrace of "the machine"--he directed it to Kalman and Duffy:
“It seems to me that both of you do the same thing, except Tibor feels guilty about it.”
Pariah! Burn the witch! It's a very good post, go read it. Just remember, if you count numbers for a living, or pride yourself on reigning in all the "fuzzy" thinkers in your shop: You may think it's all about business and process; they think you wouldn't have anything to count if it weren't for Good design and the mighty struggle. You're both right. And you're both probably just a little too righteous in your certitude and fencebuilding. But hey, that's part of the art. Of the deal.

Hmmm. I seem to recall some ads from long ago, similar dynamic--INSERT WAVY FLASHBACK LINES HERE....



Phew. I am old, not even a www yet.
Posted by: fouro / 3:54 PM |
Where somebody wants to work:
• A place that's home to exploration and belief in the possibility of a different, better way.

• Permission to ask honest informed questions to yield answers beyond the trite, the casual, the ineffective.

• An explicit agreement to commit as passionately to the aspirations of a client as you do to your own dreams.

• A promise to provide great minds with opportunities and challenges that are the conduit to realizing those dreams.

• An understanding that work is only work if you don't believe in what you're doing; and that life is too short to work with those who don't share your excitement at the opportunity before you.

• The courage of the organization to exert these beliefs inside and outside these walls, come what may.
Some notes, food for thought, from a re-organization white paper we're scribbling.

Posted by: fouro / 3:33 PM |

Friday, June 25, 2004



Ooohh, Snap!


Aaahmm, I'm tellin' Mom. The Washington Post just published the "F"-word, no asterisks, no hyphensWaPo
A brief argument between Vice President Cheney and a senior Democratic senator led Cheney to utter a big-time obscenity on the Senate floor this week....

"[Go] Fuck yourself," said the man who is a heartbeat from the presidency.

Leahy's spokesman, David Carle, yesterday confirmed the brief but fierce exchange. "The vice president seemed to be taking personally the criticism that Senator Leahy and others have leveled against Halliburton's sole-source contracts in Iraq," Carle said.

As it happens, the exchange occurred on the same day the Senate passed legislation described as the "Defense of Decency Act" by 99 to 1...
Mommmmm!!


Posted by: fouro / 3:01 PM |
Clear and Present, soon to be past, Danger. The Sum of all Fears? $30 million down a failed campaign rathole.

AP
GOP Sources: Ryan to Abandon Senate Bid

... Ryan conducted an overnight poll to gauge his support in the wake of the allegations made by his ex-wife in divorce records unsealed earlier this week. Aides said in advance his only options were to withdraw or to redouble his campaign efforts with a massive infusion of money from his personal wealth.
Smart move to protect your capital, Jack. You don't make a bazillion dollars at Goldman by betting on dog stocks, do ya? Of course not. You make a bazillion dollars by getting other people to bet on dog stocks.

Posted by: fouro / 1:00 PM |

Thursday, June 24, 2004

VPOTUS has a POTTY MOUTHUS and a HISSY FITUS

CNN:
Cheney curses senator over Halliburton criticism.

...Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who was on the receiving end of Cheney's ire, confirmed that the Vice President used profanity during Tuesday's [Senate] class photo.

A spokesman for Cheney confirmed there was a "frank exchange of views."More
It starts with "F" but he didn't tell Leahy to "Go Frank yourself." A simple "I know you are but what am I?" would have worked just as well--easier on the pacemaker.
Posted by: fouro / 10:32 PM |

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Cargo Cult

Orion Online:
Cargo Karma - We got what we asked for.
James Howard Kunstler

In 1973, when the first shopping mall opened on the outskirts of my town, Saratoga Springs, the local paper ran a special Sunday supplement touting its wonders and marvels. The advertisers who paid for it were all downtown merchants; and within ten years virtually all of them were out of business...

But for all the tears shed over the ruins of Main Street America, there is no question that we got exactly what we wanted. The local merchants who touted the new mall in Saratoga back in 1973 all believed in the righteousness of American business through and through, and they believed in land development as an unequivocal good -- no matter what form it took or where it was allowed to occur on the landscape. They were all members of the various local business booster clubs, sodalities for reinforcing the groupthink of the day...

Those local merchants were led into a very fundamental error in thinking that everybody in business -- mall builder and main street shop-owner alike -- wanted the same thing. "We mall builders are pro-business, and you Main Streeters are pro-business, so get behind this mall idea and there will be more business for everybody!" Plus, that thing they all wanted would be good for their country. What was that thing they wanted, anyway? A bright future, I suppose. The mall promised it in the way that a visit from an unusually benevolent UFO might signify shining gifts from on high, the perfect set-up for a "cargo cult."

The interesting sociological phenomenon of the cargo cult is best illustrated by the encounters between the tribal peoples of the South Pacific and European explorers, soldiers, and traders. The Europeans first arrived on the scene in the 1500s in sailing ships so big and strange they might as well have been UFOs. They brought with them wonders that had never been seen before, even on bountiful and idyllic South Pacific islands: guns, mirrors, iron cooking pots, bolts of cloth, crosscut saws, you name it. They left a lot of these goodies behind in exchange for food and other fresh necessities. The Europeans would then sail away and their ships would not return to a particular island for a long time -- years, decades, even generations. Their visits, therefore, entered into the mythology of the island peoples.

The wish to induce the return of the mythic ships led the islanders to such crypto-religious behavior as building big cane or rattan effigies of the ships, and placing them along the shore as sort of cosmic lures to attract real ships bearing goodie cargo. Well, sure enough, because exploration and trade were on the increase, sooner or later another ship would swing by and more goodies would be dispensed, reinforcing the cult behavior. Important in this whole dynamic is the fact that the islanders had no idea how the goods got made, or what kind of economy and society were necessary to enable the making of them. They just appeared.

...

Americans thought that discount shopping would make their lives better, that saving seven dollars on a hair dryer would make America a better country. They were quite wrong. The Wal-Marts, Targets, and Best Buys landed like the Martian mother ships from The War of the Worlds, and in thirty years they have transformed the American terrain into a desolate wilderness of free parking and sodium vapor lamps. The existing infrastructure of our towns was left to rot, and local networks of economic interdependence were systematically dismantled. The local businessmen forced to close up shop had made up much of the middle class across America, filling both economic and social roles. They were the caretakers of the local institutions. They sat on the hospital and library boards. They paid for the little league. They employed people they knew intimately, and were held accountable for their treatment of them...
A very coherent read on where we find ourselves today: last gasp, bubble-like economic and foreign policy scrambles and quick-fixes to secure the most of a rapidly peaking oil producing infrastructure. An infrasructure prodicing gasoline that is only going to get more costly and will inexorably do so as demand keeps rising. (Urban sprawl is defined by automobile-necessitating distances further and further away from city cores.) Add in a public and private decision-making few, willfully or naively watching the diversity of both economic- and tax bases Strangle and consolidate away to distant headquarters. (HQ's unconcerned with any one particular locality's continued viability beyond a few years.)

To many big-box retail businesses, the phrase "built to flip" now applies, but in a perverse new way. Built to flip once meant you ride and harvest a company to a point where you palm it off on someone else. In often was a sucker's deal, the proverbial used car wth it's unresolved and unhealthy problems. In the eyes of Walmart, Home Depot and others, built to flip now means their stores and our towns. Once the money's been squeezed out they move on, leaving a shell. The shell of their predominantly (83%) leased buildings and of the retail areas they've denuded of small business, cultural worth, memory and vitality.

In many ways, the country's path today tracks amazingly well with corporate America's flirtation in the 50s and 60s with Conglomeration. Conglomerates were command economies, mumbling the words of capitalism, much the way Sam's Walmart has to wear a Smiley Face today. And they are both symbolic of the centralization of finance, influence and decision-making in the hands of a vaguely knowledgeable few, unaware and unconcerned with the nuances and implications of what was happening in the hinterlands, but intensely focused on squeezing blood from the money-stone.

Then, as now, as worker, consumer and taxpayer, you are the money-stone. Even if you're not old enough to have lived through them, we know from Penn Central, Litton, LTV, Gulf & Western, ITT and others what a spectacular implosion that "smart-guy" boardroom brainchild was.

Boom!2 The pattern is the same this time round.

Buy a helmet. Or learn and speak up and fight from within. Or attend a zoning meeting about that new mall. Either way, it's your long-term survival, your 10-15 square mile personal daily living environment and future (or, your kids') that's being cargoed and embargoed.


Posted by: fouro / 3:15 PM |

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