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Trading an iPod for a Walkman

BBC Magazine gets 13-year-old kid Scott Campbell to swap his iPod for the original Sony Walkman for a week.

It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.

Another notable feature that the iPod has and the Walkman doesn't is "shuffle", where the player selects random tracks to play. Its a function that, on the face of it, the Walkman lacks. But I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down "rewind" and releasing it randomly - effective, if a little laboured.

I did always like Sony's yellow Sports walkman series. Those were baller.

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Rules of Writing

I break all of these every day.

1. Verbs HAS to agree with their subjects. 2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with. 3. And don’t start a sentence with a conjunction. 4. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive. 5. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They’re old hat) 6. Also, always avoid annoying alliteration. 7. Be more or less specific. 8. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary. 9. Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies. 10. No sentence fragments. 11. Contractions aren’t necessary and shouldn’t be used. 12. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos. 13. Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous. 14. One should NEVER generalize. 15. Comparisons are as bad as cliches. 16. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc. 17. One-word sentences? Eliminate. 18. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake. 19. The passive voice is to be ignored. 20. Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas. 21. Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice. 22. Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them. 23. Understatement is always the absolute best way to put forth earth-shaking ideas. 24. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.” 25. If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times: Resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly. 26. Puns are for children, not groan readers. 27. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms. 28. Even IF a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed. 29. Who needs rhetorical questions? 30. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

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A Portrait of Michael Jackson

Candice Breitz's video installation "King (A Portrait of Michael Jackson)."

In these works, Breitz gathered fans by posting advertisements in newspapers and fan websites, and then they were asked to sing their way through a key album. Shot in screen-test mode and presented as a choral grid over a wall of TV screens, these installations are both compelling and toe-curlingly difficult to watch, affectionate glimpses into the power structures inherent in mass media and its passionate consumers.

Here's a sample clip from Breitz's exhibit of fans singing and dancing to what I consider to be Michael Jackson's best song "Billie Jean."

[vimeo=http://www.vimeo.com/2109620]

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Anti-Smug Canvas Bags

The canvas tote has become a popular badge of a consumer's eco-consciousness in a "sharp" rebuke to the plastic shopping bag. In addition to its environmentally friendly quality, graphic artists and designers have also embraced it because "the canvas provides a beautiful off-white ground and the material is as wonderfully suited to silk-screen printing as primed canvas is to oil paint."

Aside from the question of whether the canvas tote's mainstream popularity, now often used as a "substrate for messaging, branding, promotion" has diminished its eco-friendly merits, what we can agree on is that the content on many of them are so goddamn smug. Creative Review highlights these subversive canvas bags from a decidedly unsubversive source, ad agency TBWA.

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Open Letter to Dwell Magazine

This "open letter" to one of the magazines I subscribe to made me chuckle. Kinda true...

Dear Dwell:

Love the magazine. As a favor, I have rewritten the Table of Contents of your July/August issue:

Cover House with Horizontal Wood Slats Page 43 House with Vertical Wood Slats Page 52 House with Horizontal Wood Slats Page 58 Ice Cream Makers Page 66 Pavilion with Horizontal Wood Slats Page 70 Philadelphia Page 80 House with Horizontal Wood Slats Page 88 House with Horizontal Wood Slats Page 96 House with Vertical Wood Slats

I hope you find this useful.

Fondly,

Jeff Speck, AICP Washington, DC

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Junghwan Chei's Desk Pillow

I could have used one of these ingenius pillows designed by Junghwan Chei when I was in school, especially during finals period. This pillow looks more comfortable than resting my head on a stack of books.

Relatedly, during one particular finals week at Columbia University, I documented into a comics format the napping habits of my fellow classmates at Butler Library. Enjoy.

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Farrah, Michael, and Hair

Along with being pop culture icons, Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, who also passed away today, shared another commonality which centered around the public's fascination with their hair.

Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson: Hair yesterday and gone today. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

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