laughingsquid:

Self-Referential Doritos Locos Tacos Chips, Based on Taco Bell Tacos

(Source: timefortoday)

David:

We’re afraid to look poor and stupid
but we’re all poor and stupid no matter what we do
because we’re narcissistic, weird looking monkeys that follow crazy, arbitrary rules

Walt Whitman, from “Song of the Open Road” 

Listen! I will be honest with you;
I do not offer the old smooth prizes, but offer rough new prizes;
These are the days that must happen to you:

You shall not heap up what is call’d riches,
You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve,
You but arrive at the city to which you were destin’d—you hardly settle yourself to satisfaction, before you are call’d by an irresistible call to depart,
You shall be treated to the ironical smiles and mockings of those who remain behind you;
What beckonings of love you receive, you shall only answer with passionate kisses of parting,
You shall not allow the hold of those who spread their reach’d hands toward you.

austinkleon:

Taking the animated .gif seriously

I was delighted when @EdwardTufte, the data visualization guru, posted on Twitter about the merits of animated GIFs over video when doing analytic work.

Jonah Weiner in his piece on the “glorious GIF renaissance,” wrote that while animated GIFs might seem like nostalgic, throwback, internet junk food, “they perform distinct functions that other formats can’t.”

One thing the GIF does well is “the money shot,” or “the payoff,” or the “Did you see that?” moment:

There is an appealing economy to these GIFs. They get to the point instantaneously, and at the exact moment when one feels the impulse to rewind and watch the climax again, the loop restarts right where it should. In the two minutes it might take me to load a viral video and watch it in full, I can watch the money shots of 15 different viral videos. Yes, we’re talking about decadent levels of impatience, inanity, and time-wasting here, but GIFs allow us to waste less time online—or, rather, to waste it more efficiently.

Weiner also writes that GIFs are great at “reliving and exulting in shared experiences, where zero setup is needed because a familiarity with context is assumed on the part of viewers.” 

Tufte pointed to this batch of amazing baseball pitches as a perfect use of the medium. (A baseball pitch also contains the two elements above that Weiner wrote about: “the money shot” and a “familiarity with context.”) It got me thinking about ways in which we could use animated GIFs as not just time-wasters, but as explanations or illuminations…

I was also reminded of this batch of James Brown dance moves where the .gif-maker sampled pieces of a youtube video, added annotations (“funky chicken,” and “The Boogaloo”), and put them into a photoset, providing a fabulous entertainment, yes, but also suddenly giving us a “Small multiples” information display that Tufte is so fond of:

“Small multiples resemble the frames of a movie: a series of graphics, showing the same combination of variables, indexed by changes in another variable.” (pg. 170, The Visual Display of Qualitative Information)

Tufte has said over and over: “To make comparisons, it’s better to have information adjacent in space than stacked in time.” You can stretch this a bit and fit it to the internet, and certainly the Tumblr dashboard. (Witness this animated GIF of a Clayton Cubitt video getting almost 3x as many likes as the original.) Seems like for maximum effect, it’s often better to have information in space period.

(via rosscott)

nevver:

Tokyo

laughingsquid:

Office Secret Santa Reaches New Levels of Awkward

gregmelander:

LET HER GO

Peer Kusiv delivers a very unique sound…”you only know you love her when you let her go.”

(via bat-tastic)

(Source: ballisticlight, via architectureblog)

wanderlustandsuch:

omg dead

(Source: juilan, via georgialobbe)

Why wasn’t I invited to grip the balustrade?
Am I not made to strut across the scene?

Hasn’t the sunset already entered the library?
And hasn’t it closed the door to anyone who was anxious to file me away?

White, oblong, upright - though not a book,
the thick-sided box is both a prison
and an immense stage,

which allows your fans to adore you
as you make your grand entrance,

then pirouette, like a clock in a wet railway station,
I am a humble example of something-

I’m not sure what-
the next civilization no longer appreciates.

Next door, a silent movie, its hypnotic subtitles
serenading the startled brow of the story’s heroine,

Paved Honey, best known for her inventive outbursts of wickedness.

Why doesn’t the audience see the ropes
hoisting me to my rightful place in the sky?

We were unable to leave town
before it was overrun

by a tumultuous outpouring
of brightly costumed insects,

some of which we barely manage to name.
Carnivorous birds remain our only consolation.

We keep them beside us, in hotel rooms.
Believe me when I say I wanted to write sooner,

but nothing eventful has transpired
since I sent the last postcard to show

you a photograph of The Bridge of Slobs
before it finally collapsed

beneath the crowds dancing on its neck.
If there is a small pleasure

to be found in any of this,
I have nearly an eternity to find it.

yourllbeanboyfriend:

“Guess what I just picked up at Target?” Owen asked as he entered the living room. “The Muppet Christmas Carol. Can we watch it right now?”