Month: May 2007

by jenks

eewwww… GROSS!

i am actually blogging about blogging. i really didn’t want to be, but it’s come to this. at the moment i find myself with three different urls–which is 2 more than i want–and, of course, none function properly.

first there’s this one. which won’t allow anyone who doesn’t have a blogger account to comment. which is laaame. this was the problem that started it all.

then came #2, which is way cooler looking (at least on the top. thanks, kris). i kind of have a bone to pick with how uselessly narrow the actual BLOG part of the blog is. especially once you start scrolling down, it’s kind of got the feeling of long trail of snot running down a large white napkin.

which is, you know….. the kind of imagery you want to be conjuring with your self expression, obviously.

but i was told this is something that can be fixed in post. post being an upgrade. i was also told that post would be where i could get it to play all that video content that worked just fine with the po’ html blog #1, but which apparently css won’t deign to chill with unless it gets all blinged out with plugins or some shit.

so i figured, if i’m gonna have to get an upgrade, i may as well just get some kind of respectable domain to go along with it. this is how i ended up with social-creature.com, and that’s right about the point at which all hell broke loose, as is evidenced by the catastrophe happening at #3.

(that, there, may yet be grosser than snot AND blogging about blogging put together).

oh, and i might mention that in the meantime, #1 decided to just up and have some kind of anxiety attack where it can’t figure out whether it’s supposed to put the current post first, or instead maybe one from sometime before may 24, so it does this psychotic thing where tries to sort of smash them together in this nonsensically horrifying coding breakdown that i swear, i SWEAR, i didn’t do! (and can’t figure out how to fix :(. )

now…. this would not even be worth mentioning normally, because i’ve got a couple friend who, under normal circumstances, would take care of it for me. however, when i say a couple, i actually DO mean only two, and one of them is off being a monk at a 1o-day silent meditation retreat (aka LIB detox) which started a few hours ago, and the other one is off being a rockstar on a mini-tour with his band somewhere between l.a., vegas, and austin for the next two weeks.

in the meantime, i have no idea WHERE i’m supposed to write anything anymore. i know i’ve been with #1 for a few months now, and things were going ok, but it was kind of boring. then i met #2 which does all that kind of stuff for me that #1 wouldn’t. ultimately tho, you can’t tell your friends that you’re with a skanky hoodrat url like that. #3’s the one that’s gonna be in it for the long haul, but it’s all, like, got SERIOUS issues to work out before i can commit.

all i know is i can’t handle two more weeks like this. i’m just not cut out for having blogs on the side. i need some stability. i need some answers. i need some tech geeks to tell the internet to stop picking on me.

i’m allowed to have a blog even if i do start to zone out when people start speaking in consonants. why do i gotta know shit about css or html to be able to write, goddamnit?? they don’t make programmers know how to wield alliteration or analogies or allusions to do what they do.

side note:

our LIB street team leader in portland just turned our poster into a blunt!

how cute is that!?

ok, seriously. i need help getting my wordpress blog over onto the social-creature domain–i can trade you either in prophecies or literary devices–your pick. anyone know how to get this done?

    



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by jenks

oh SNAP!

skin.graft just unleashed their crazy revamped, holsters 2.0.

makes my plain ones feel all inadequate and stuff.

    



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by jenks

circus career security (courtesy of wired mag.)

i’d be lying if i said we at the Do don’t look to the godfather of nouveau cirque as an example of where we’re aiming to get to. (lucent dossier’s most recent show, debuted at coachella this year, is the “water show,” in fact, complete with water-spewing costumes that actually involve plumbing!)

from wired article:

“Today in Las Vegas, you can see Céline Dion or Prince, David Copperfield or Penn & Teller, Blue Man Group or The Producers. But no single creative organization has come to dominate the Strip like Cirque du Soleil….

…They battle over spectacle, and in the Vegas theatrical world that means gigantic, multimillion dollar theaters packed with astonishing technology. The war for tourist dollars is waged behind the scenery….

…Those shows map to classic archetypes. ‘Start with Mystere. It’s essentially the circus,’ says Erik Walstead, the technical director of Cirque’s Kà. ‘O is basically the ballet. Zumanity is cabaret, the smallest of the shows. I view Kà as opera, and Love is our tribute show.’ ”

– – –

** special bonus track **

my ride from burningman 05:

designed by keith greco (dude with the dredz) for the vegas premiere after-party for Kà, to shuttle performers accross the party. aptly named: the Kà2.

    



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by jenks

socially ever after

remember that hans christian anderson story about the social networking site that came first?

oh come on, yeah you do…. the social networking app that came first, but it didn’t listen to what people wanted, and it wouldn’t let them keep profiles for anything other than people? like that insanely wittty “san francisco” profile that you added because it was a hilarious motherfucker, that then one day mysteriously disappeared, and no more witty san francisco for you.

then there’s the part of the story where the other social networking app comes next. the one that’s kinda ugly and dumb, but it knows well enough to let profiles like “san francisco” stay up, and in fact, encourages bands to create profiles and develop communication and community with their fans that way.

and the story tells of how it was bands that turned the tide from friendster to myspace.

well, i’m barely even on facebook, and i have no idea if san francisco has a profile there or if it’s anywhere near as clever as it was on friendster, but i couldn’t help but notice a very similar story taking place once again where what one social network app won’t tolerate in its clique becomes something that another wholly embraces.

the Facebook Platform, which goes live today, doesn’t just mean that users now have acess to lots of cool new applications within Facebook, but belies a strategy that’s essentially “anti-myspace“:

“While MySpace frets over third party widgets, alternatively shutting them down or acquiring them, Facebook is now opening up its core functions to all outside developers.”

who knows if that will actually be enough to turn the tide again, but either way, the oversight of a dominating sns going about systematically excluding something from its network has been shown before to open up the opportunity for another one to come along and best it by the sheer act of inclusion.

and most of hans christian anderson’s stories do end pretty much the same.

    



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