Don’t Go Back to Rockville

Fri 4 Oct 200207:24 PM

There were five apparently random killings between Wed evening and Thu morning in Montgomery County, Maryland. Police suspect the shootings were all perpetrated by the same person, a skilled gunman using a high-powered rifle. This is some crazy shit — the killings took place just a few miles away from where I grew up, in Gaithersburg, MD. Heck, I was even technically a Gaithersburg High Trojan. Believe me, it’s not the kind of town that is accustomed to finding itself in the national news. On the other hand, if the killer(s) turn out to be insane, right-wing and redneck Montgomery County residents, I would somehow not be very surprised.

Street Feast

Sun 22 Sep 200212:56 AM

A moment from the Feast of San Gennaro, in its 75th year in New York’s Little Italy.

Vocabulary Builder

Wed 18 Sep 200204:10 PM

There are one hundred words that every high school graduate should know. Presumably, everything else can be communicated via hand gestures and grunting.

Out Box

Wed 7 Aug 200211:25 AM

Miscellaneous links: Get your fill of Kid 606 and plenty other beeps’n’blips artists at Tigerbeat6 Records, whose site is an oddly charming mix of DIY and Web design savvy. Marcus Ericsson has a notably elegant portfolio at Subdisc.com, which is a rare case of an overbearing visual metaphor that doesn’t veer into the obnoxious. The much-anticipated, massively multiplayer video game “Star Wars Galaxies” looks amazing and beautifully rendered, judging from this hand-shot demo footage. It could be the video game that makes me buy a video game.

Road Rage

Tue 6 Aug 200201:41 AM

My cable modem was out from Saturday morning through Monday morning. After spending a few hours on the phone with the very polite tech support folks at Time Warner Cable New York’s Road Runner division, I am more convinced than ever that it’s impossible for people at huge organizations to know anything beyond the slim parameters of their own specific job descriptions. It’s depressing.

Reported in the New Yorker

Fri 26 Jul 200212:57 PM

Two notable entertainments at The New Yorker: First, from this week’s ‘Talk of the Town,’ Herb Allen’s “Brooklyn Tobacco Party,” a recounting of a citizens’ group trying to fight society’s anti-smoking trends, is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read in a magazine.On a more serious note, an article in last week’s issue called “The Talent Myth” debunks the belief of American businesses that star employees should be prioritized at all costs — and how Enron was a notable practitioner of this fallacy. More than another instance of bashing everyone’s favorite corporate kicking boys, author Malcolm Gladwell takes a closer look at what motivates groups of people within business organizations, and offers the alternative of emphasizing soundly-realized operational frameworks.

Lee Way

Mon 22 Apr 200211:46 PM

Skop has an entertaining Flash toy that lets you play deejay with Bruce Lee.

Game Face

Sat 16 Mar 200210:23 AM

Macromedia Flash-based applications are the next wave, the closest realization of Java’s “write once, run anywhere” promise we’ll see before George W. Bush finishes his one-term presidency. Ultimate Flash Face, a playful toolkit of facial parts, is an impressive feat and it bowled me over, but it’s still just the tip of the iceberg of what we’ll soon see with the release of Flash MX.