New Yorker: Sasha Frere-Jones on Mic In Tracks

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2 of 5 stars
What’s this?

“Back in the Victorian age of the Web, some people were sharing private moments with the world without knowing it.” The curious phenomenon of accidentally recorded audio tracks that migrated onto the Web via early file-sharing services, and their resurgence. The Internet still seems so young that it’s fascinating to consider that in a little more than a decade it’s already accreted hidden lore like this.

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Tapes & Tapes

MuxtapeVery belatedly, I want to offer a requiem for the old Muxtape. In its current incarnation, it’s become a showcase for new bands that shows some real promise, hewing to the artful, minimalist aesthetic that in part made Muxtape famous. But in its original form, as imagined and launched by its creator Justin Oullette last year, it provided an elegantly efficient social space where anyone could upload their own mix of songs — of all the social networks we’ve seen so far, it was for my money the least fussy and the most elegant.

The old Muxtape was a perfect example of going to great — one might say drastic — lengths to minimize distractions, yielding a wonderfully designed experience for the user, and coming as close as anyone has to achieving a truly, thoroughly modernist online environment. Not incidentally, its somewhat brazen flouting of copyright laws allowed scores of would-be deejays to have fun programming their own playlists. It was really, really fun.

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Sonogrammatically Correct

Sonogrammatically Correct

Given the overwhelming response to yesterday’s announcement, I admit being tempted to shift the focus of this blog exclusively to the subject of the little baby brewing in Laura’s belly. Take for example these sonograms, taken over the past two, weeks; endlessly fascinating to one and all, right?Not to worry. This won’t be the last post I write about the baby, but I do realize that the overlap of parenthood and the core interests of my readership is not necessarily infinite. I’ll keep it real.

For now though, I just want to extend a very sincere thank you to everyone for the many heartwarming congratulatory wishes — comments left here, added to Laura’s Flickr page, tweeted on Twitter, shot over via old-fashioned email, or posted through the plethora of additional channels of communication available — we’re deeply grateful for the enthusiasm and kind thoughts. You’re all the best.

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Bicycling Uphill Along the Rhône

Bicycling Uphill Along the Rhône

It took me a while to figure out what my photographic ‘style’ is, but in the past six months or so I think I’ve settled on a particular visual language that makes sense for me. In contrast to the wide-ranging and rather aimless fiddling that I did with my camera the first few years I had it, these days I find myself looking for some very specific qualities: elevation views, people in profile, perpendicular geometry, and flattened space. This picture, taken last month in Lyon, France, is a good example; its subject matter is mundane to be sure, but the powerfully straight line of that back wall, along with the iconically silhouetted bicyclist, gives me a serenely satisfying feeling. The world reduced to a layout.

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Design for Democracy Proposal: Clear Communications Design for Government

Ratings

4 of 5 stars
What’s this?

A submission from AIGA’s design and public policy group to the Change.gov Citizen’s Briefing Book, the goal of which is to compile the most popular idea submissions for the new administration. “Government must invest in quality graphic design and clear language for all its public communications. We need simple forms, easy-to-use Web sites, quality telephone support, and good signs and communications at public buildings.” It’s also worth browsing through the briefing book’s list of most popular ideas.

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Photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto for New U2 Album Cover

Ratings

2 of 5 stars
What’s this?

With only a few exceptions, the Irish band’s album covers have been aesthetically bereft, in spite of their now iconic statuses. And after their last album, they were definitely in a can’t-do-any-worse position. But the cover art for their forthcoming release “No Line on the Horizon” is more than just an improvement. It’s a genuinely artful image from the photographer Hiroshi Sugimi, apparently from his “Seascapes” series.

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Mark Hurst: How the Kindle Changes the Reading Experience

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4 of 5 stars
What’s this?

Canny observation about how a given medium can alter or even transform the experience of content. I similarly caution designers who assume that one day digital media will provide the same presentation fidelity as the printed page; even if we could create truly digital replica of say a newspaper, the experience would be substantially different from a printed newspaper.

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Google Quick Search Box for Mac

Ratings

2 of 5 stars
What’s this?

Woke up very early this morning to spot that Nicholas Jitkoff, the genius developer behind Quicksilver, and some colleagues at Google have released what is apparently a new incarnation of that indispensable search utility for the Mac. At first blush, Quick Search Box is not as aesthetically stunning as Quicksilver (some might argue that as a Google app it’s probably not allowed to be) nor in this developer preview does it seem as feature-complete. Still, it’s almost certainly going to get much, much better. Also see the blog post announcement.

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