I love this guy's poetry. And his artwork ain't bad either.
I was very excited to find out that Josh Davis's cyphen color palette tool has not disappeared after all. It's been absorbed into the portfolio on his web site (look under 'web' --> 1998)... and the rest of his site is definitely worth another look as well.
It's also entirely possible that I need to just get over it.
Lately I've been spending too much time around people who need to be cool. Wait, that's not right. They need to be perceived as cool, as impressive, as having the inside scoop. I associate this attitude with youth, and I remember feeling the urge myself, in my teens and twenties. I like to think I'm over it, but I still feel it when I linger too long in conversations with these people, and I end up kicking myself for participating, for too easily entering into their small-minded olympics of cool.
Dave Eggers wrote a pretty eloquent rant on this, which was reprinted by Harpers a couple of summers ago, but what Eggers misses (and which he is somewhat guilty of himself) is the need to feel one is the curator and dispensor of knowledge, the pop culture guru. This person is the name dropper, the person who needs to prove he has had contact with the artists themselves. This is the person who needs to tell you she was at that show, the one before they were famous. This is the person who always knows somebody who knows somebody. This is the person who, when you mention a band, always needs to casually drop the names of members of the band.
Of course the need to feel in-the-know extends beyond the realm of pop culture. I see it at work all the time. It's the whole reason gossip exists at all.
Anyway, I'm guilty myself. I've worked for years to get over it, but I'm not
there yet. I'm really trying hard to just guilelessly like things.
Quick quote of the day... "I am just taking orders. I take orders from whoever [sic] frightens me the most." - Stephen Dobyns
While this relaunch is in its nascency, I'm trying to decide whether to include a links category (in the middle column) for some of my favorite online shopping destinations... mostly books, music, gadgets and cooking paraphernalia. Places like Powells Books, the ABAA and Penzey's Spices. I've included a link to my all time favorite music store (stinkweeds) because Kimber, the owner, is a friend.
I've just relaunched metapede.com... It's a work in progress, which hardly distinguishes it from the rest of the www, but I hope to be adding some picture galleries in the succeeding weeks, along with some microfictions, random lists, a site o' the week (a.k.a. 'props') and the mojo archive. My wife asked me today, "does anyone visit your web site, other than you?" Well, if you're out there, and you're not me, then... well, then 'hey'... keep comin' back.
Welcome to metapede.com - home of the daily mojo!