Archives for the month of: October, 2008

The Age Old Existential Blogger’s Dilemma

October 15, 2008 //

Am I even qualified to make such a statement? And, given the relatively short history of blogging, can there really be an “age-old” dilemma in the blogosphere? Well, preamble aside…

From time to time, blogs I read will ask the question, “Why do I blog?” or its close cousin, “Why should I blog if no one reads it?” — which itself might be a philosophical relative of “If a tree falls in the forest…”

In any case, I’m not questioning why I blog. Bruce Reyes-Chow and Eugene Cho have some great summaries about why they blog and, as for me, “Yes, what they said!” Seriously, I’m grateful that anyone reads at all and I have no pipe dreams of achieving blogospheric greatness.

I think my dilemma relates to the fact that every day — every day — the search term that lands the most people (by far!) here at headsparks is:

Read the rest of this entry »

Categories communication, community, faith

Is It Better to Burn Out Than to Fade Away?

October 14, 2008 //

I still haven’t shaken my bad habit of including snarky tracks in my mixtapes. For example, a killer Poison hit might provide a smirking counterpoint to a bone crushing Coalesce track, or the theme to the A-Team could lighten the mood after some Slint mathiness.

I was just thinking of updating my Muxtape page (finally) and how great it would be to include You’re the Best Around from the OG Karate Kid (by the way, check out this karate monkey — this song is such a versatile soundtrack!).

Unfortunately, when I tried to login to my Muxtape page, this is what I found.

Muxtape’s strengths were its simplicity — both in its aesthetics and its ease of use. However, what I enjoyed most was strolling through the diverse array of music its community hosted. Muxtape acted as a sort of cassette mixtape 2.0:

A physical cassette tape in your hands has such an insistent aesthetic; just holding one makes you want to find a tape player to fulfill its destiny. My goal with Muxtape’s design was to translate some of that tactility into the digital world, to build a context around the music that gave it a little extra spark of life and made the holder anxious to listen.

After lengthy talks with the RIAA and major record labels Muxtape — in its original incarnation — no longer exists. Apparently, they’re reorganizing with a focus on bands, but it kind of seems like this ship has sailed.

Sigh.

So long, Muxtape — we hardly got to know each other.

Tags mixtape

Categories indie, music

Even More Undignified Than This

October 13, 2008 //

I don’t make it through many of the viral video fads (too busy playing Word Challenge!), although some are pretty funny — “What are you sinking about?” or this literal take on the 80s Aha classic Take On Me.

However, the Where the hell is Matt? video series always makes me tear up a bit. There’s something so odd and wonderful about this gooner going around the world, dancing up a nerdy storm in beautiful locations and getting all kinds of people to dance with him.

I would gladly sacrifice some “professionalism” in church life for this kind of unhinged joy.

Categories faith, just grinning, travel, video

There’s a Freeze Up Coming

October 9, 2008 //

Even though I graduated with a degree in economics, I won’t pretend to know the ins and outs of our nation’s financial mess or, more importantly, how we might get out of it [EDIT: This American Life has a great episode, Another Frightening Show about the Economy, that helps explain things in ordinary human terms]. The list of scandals, bailouts and general madness never seems to end. Reading this article begs the question, how did we end up like this?

Days after it got a federal bailout, American International Group Inc. spent $440,000 on a posh California retreat for its executives, complete with spa treatments, banquets and golf outings, according to lawmakers investigating the company’s meltdown

Sure, we’re offended (even outraged) by the current political climate of mudslinging and finger-pointing and by the greed and corruption underlying the financial disaster we’re facing, but how do we change?

Read the rest of this entry »

Categories music, politics

Can A Shirt Change The World?

October 8, 2008 //

…So asks the Gap (Product) Red campaign.

While there has been plenty of skepticism about the effectiveness of such movements, I believe there is something positive about at least attempting to make a difference. I might be a little bit skeptical of massive corporations attempting to cash in on our better instincts, but here are a couple of smaller organizations who are raising funds for worthy causes through the sales of t-shirts.

Rosa Loves

The sales of each of their shirts goes to meet the specific needs of real people in local communities around the world. For example, they raised money to buy a new walker for Glenda in West Augustine and a boat for Made in Indonesia. Currently, you could provide scholarships for kids in Bangladesh or college students from the village of Yalalag in Mexico.

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Yellow Bird Project

The Yellow Bird Project embodies what I love about the indie rock ethos — a community coming together to give back. Artists like Stars, The National and Wolf Parade design shirts and direct proceeds to causes closes to their hearts, including well-known organizations like Amnesty International and Greenpeace, along with smaller groups such as Art for Change and Safe Space.

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JustOne

Charles Lee is a founding member of JustOne, a grassroots nonprofit raising awareness about extreme global poverty and “provoking compassionate ideas and intelligent giving in order to provide sustainable relief.” Support the cause by picking up one of these stylish One Voice to End Slavery shirts.

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Shirts for a Cure

Fans of the Warped Tour set can also support a worthy cause through shirts: “The Syrentha J. Savio endowment (SSE) was established by punk-rock photographer Mark Beemer in 2002. SSE provides financial assistanct to underprivileged women who cannot afford expensive breast cancer medicine and therapy.”

Categories indie, justice