I'm kind of into the internet, especially the parts about music and shoes. I am an interaction designer for Ancestry.com and currently live in San Francisco.
You can find me on other web sites such as Last.fm, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Del.icio.us, Flickr, my old blog and a bunch of other places I'm probably forgetting.
Here's an iPhone app I made:
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Beulah — Emma Blowgun’s Last Stand
Easily my most favorite Beulah song ever, for three reasons.
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Neon Indian — Deadbeat Summer
Despite the fact that Psychic Chasms came out last October, I think there is a good chance Neon Indian is going to end up being my spring soundtrack. Which, based on early results, is going to shape up to be a pretty decent season.
I know I just posted an Emma McNally print a few weeks ago, but this one also deserves a nice long ogle.
Want.
Futurama is returning on June 24th. If you don’t love Futurama, I don’t know if we can be friends.
Reason #10,416 I want to be Panic when I grow up.
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Otis Redding — Try a Little Tenderness (Live in London)
I never heard Redding’s Live in London And Paris until yesterday, and it is just beyond amazing.
Take a nice long look at this sex machine from Signal Cycles. Then look at a bunch more photos from NAHBS 2010.
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Poison — SexyBack
Some things, once heard, can never be unheard.
Progress report: My workation, hour 1
This week I’m using vacation time from my day job to work on a couple of personal projects. I’m doing this because I want to see if I actually have the focus required to work on my own stuff full time (in the future, I’m not quitting my job tomorrow or anything) without managers and other people depending on me getting things done. So far, disaster.
9:00 Sit down at my desk, thinking I’m off to a good start. I’ve showered, had breakfast, I’m ready to go.
9:01 Notice that my chair’s recline setting is still broken. It’s been broken for about 6 months, but Herman Miller wanted $150 to replace the special (and plastic!) bolt that snapped. The chair is constantly in full-recline mode, and if I’m going to be sitting here 8+ hours a day all week, I should maybe try and fix this.
9:02 Google “How to fix an Aeron”
9:30 My chair is now completely disassembled. I use twine to block the tilting mechanism from engaging. It’s the kludgiest kludge hack ever, but once the cover is back on you won’t even see it. I gloat in outsmarting those capitalist pigs who wanted $150.
9:35 Look for a missing screw. It’s in my pocket.
9:40 Chair is back together, I’m ready to get started.
9:41 Oh shoot, I forgot that my Farmville crops need to be harvested. I should get to work, but this will only take a second.
9:42 Notice a bird outside my window I’ve never seen before, try and identify it online. Disappointed to learn that it’s only a Western Scrub Jay, which does not sound very impressive.
9:45 Ok, I really need to get busy here. But first, we’ve got to put some tunes on. Can’t work without music, right? Spend 15 minutes trying to decide what the most “productive” music would be.
Luckily, hour two went much better. But maybe just to be safe I should start googling for SF doctors who are loose with the Adderall prescriptions.
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Mötley Crüe — Ten Seconds to Love
Ok, look. I know what you’re thinking. “Mark, enough already with the hair metal. We get it.” But. Shout at the Devil? Maybe I’m overcompensating for not listening to it when the rest of the world was, but it’s kind of an amazing record*. I mean, take Ten Seconds to Love. Ignoring (or taking into consideration, whatever works for you) the completely over the top sexism of the lyrics, this song is just nasty. And this is 1984. You know what America was listening to in 1984? Kenny Loggins and Lionel Richie. I can see why Tipper Gore was all worked up over this, why rock critics didn’t know what to make of it, and why kids thought this was the greatest thing ever.
* Amazing, with the exception of an embarrassingly weak cover of Helter Skelter. Tip: If you are a metal band, and you cover a song written by the guy that wrote Silly Love Songs, you have to bring it harder than this. Although to be fair, the Beatles version is tough to top.
