I’ve been a fan of Douglas Rushkoff for quite some time (and I consider him a friend). Am eager to check out his new book, Life Inc.
Following is a video of his recent appearance on the Colbert Report:
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Douglas Rushkoff | ||||
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The BBC outfitted a 13-year-old Scottish boy with a Walkman for a week — an antique — and had him write his observations on portable music technology. The best paragraph (for old folks):
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.
Via MamaPop.
Little known fact about me: I’m kind of interested in emerging infectious diseases. This isn’t something I mention a lot at parties, but it’s been an enduring interest for many years. I did some reporting on it a while back, including in my science reporting class at journalism school. (LOVED that class!)
From Shauna:
“…I loved it and it was very useful. I will miss my Mr Plow ringtone and how a photo of Gareth flipping the bird popped up when he called…”
A sad tale of loss and love for an electronic device. Shauna, I feel for you.
From one of my favorite blogs, SweetJuniper.com:
I do see this economic climate as an opportunity for change. It is a chance for us all to step back and think about where the things we buy are made, and all of what that means. It is a chance to accept that much of what we consider wealth isn’t even real. If we’re going to spend $700 billion to bail out those greedy firms who successfully used chicanery for years to manufacture an economy built of lies, shouldn’t we also spend $25 billion to save one of the few remaining industries that actually design, engineer, and manufacture something real and necessary in this country?
Jim/Dutch has such a gift for expressing even complicated things in such a passionate way that always resonates with me. He talks about the satisfaction of making things yourself, which is sort of what I was getting at in my “skills to collect” post a little while back. It’s hard to say where we, as a country, should be focusing our efforts. When it comes down to it, it’s probably more satisfying to put your hand on the hood and admire a car you’ve produced than it is to look back on an ephemeral financial transaction. But which really has greater value in the current global economy? On an individual level I’m all about growing food, baking bread, knitting and making preserves, but do we as a nation, sell ourselves short by sticking to pursuits that seem to be undervalued? Then again, is giving up a manufacturing capability — the capacity to make something that we’re still consuming — something we’d end up regretting?
This is a photo of the front door of our building this morning. I think our neighbors are excited, for some reason. We stayed up to watch the big speech, in part because it was too hard to sleep with the excitement and the honking, shouting and other loud expressions of joy outside our apartment. Michael wandered outside at one point to take a look and caught a black woman estatically greeting those exiting the subway with the words, “You’ve got a black president!” Indeed.
This is video taken in Harlem by a co-worker’s significant other. (Thx, Apostolia!)
Making sugar from sugar cane. Rounding up hogs. Making clothes out of flour sacks. These are some of the skills that helped my father’s family through the Great Depression on their ranch in TX. One of my favorite things to do is ask him about those days, and hear about how self-reliant the family was, back in the day. Not to be a gloom-and-doomer, but it’s struck me that there are a few skills I’d like to polish (or pick up) so I can feel more confident in advance of the coming depression/end of oil/global food crisis, etc.
Any other ideas?
Update: Another thing to keep in mind… “Cooking on a Budget” suggestions from Simply Recipes.
UPDATE: To add to the list — butchery!
UPDATE: More on keeping old skills alive from Simple Mom.
Robert Rosenthal, the former president of TBWA/Chiat Day, in an AdAge column, writes on the virtues of getting tipsy and setting aside responsibility for a little while….
“Drink responsibly.” Talk about an oxymoron.Haven’t we already got enough responsibility in our lives?
Kids. Job. Clients. Decisions. Paying bills. Making deadlines. Watching your weight. Mowing the lawn. Filling the tank. Initiating foreplay. Then there’s moral responsibility, civic responsibility, fiduciary responsibility. Don’t you just want to say “Screw responsibility” sometimes? Those times were made for drinking.
I love the three specific prescriptions for what ails us. And, in the comments: “Sounds like someone is looking for a liquor account. ”
via Chasnote.
It’s a cliche, I know, to say family, friends and great experiences with them are the most important things in life. But in these frightening financial times, it’s calming to focus on something other than the stock market and politics for a few minutes. To that end, Abi Southerland has started a thread on Making Light in which people are sharing memories. Very thought-provoking and well-written discussion.
