thoughts at 3AM

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grace weaver [via james cohan]

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Casey Reas , pioneer of software art [ via @johnmaeda ] . (Check that video tho...) See more of his work here.

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“About two years ago, I went with my parents to Ann Hamilton’sEvent of a Thread exhibit in New York. I had posted about it on Instagram the day before, and people saw that. When I went to the event the next day, people were stopping to talk to me, telling me they had found out about the event because of my photo on Instagram. That was a testament to the power of Instagram in its early stages. Also, my parents hadn’t ever seen people come up to me like that. I wasn’t weirded out by it, but my mom kept taking photos whenever someone came up to me! I tried whispering to her to stop, but she said, “It’s amazing that people know who you are!””

Paul Octavius on The Great Discontent

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nicole patel. [ via ]

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Artists Wayne White and Mimi Pond’s amazing “breakfast nook.” [ via ]

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Kemal Harris’ home. [ via billy reid]

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bower, [ via missmoss]

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But when the issue is whether one gender, sexual orientation, or race is inherently inferior to another, it's not an abstract question. Calling for an "argument" or a "conversation" means demanding that women or queer people or people of color defend their own humanity. Whether or not they do it successfully, it's a draining and demoralizing exercise, dragging a centuries-old struggle back to its starting point.

Racism is Not a Useful Viewpoint, Adi Robertson

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Maira Kalman’s Manhattan apartment. It’s so good. I love her miniature designer chair collection, the unworn junya shoes she keeps as art...and Slide 26.

[ via dreamsandjeans ] 

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in love with a f***in floor lamp. as per usual. [ via westelm ]

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I discovered Amy Winehouse’s music while I was sitting in the office at my first job.

I remember having this feeling quite clearly when I listened to Back to Black for the first time - that rare feeling you get when you start to realize that the one famous radio hit you’ve heard (in this case, Rehab), is not even close to being the best song on its album. By “Wake Up Alone,” Track 8, I was hooked. I would come into work, click play on the first or second song, play the entire album through, and then start again. I had just graduated college and still commuted back and forth from my parents’ house. When I returned home at night, I would play the album some more, to the point where my father, sitting in the next room, started to recognize the shape of some of the songs just from hearing it through the walls so much. Occasionally, he would pop his head through my doors, jokingly and good-naturedly hum his interpretation of the dramatic piano chords in Back to Black (the track I played the most), and ask me why I would literally not listen to anything else.

Today, I went to see Amy, the documentary about Amy Winehouse’s life, after reading thoughtful things about it from Jada Yuan. As someone who discovered her music long after she had already passed, I didn’t know much about the person behind the songs I enjoyed. 

When the documentary opened with clips a younger, healthier, and happier Amy, she looks so startlingly different from her more recognized appearance that it’s already clear that it’s going to be a very sad movie. Watching her hilariously sass Justin Timberlake and nervously meeting her idol Tony Bennett made me realize how much I really didn’t know about her actual personality, and how much about her I’d previously derived from static, printed paparazzi pictures.

If you enjoy Amy’s music, you should see this. If you don’t know her music, you should watch this, and get on the boat already.

I love the video I embedded above, but in my opinion, the true testament of her amazingness comes through best in her casual rendition of Valerie (on someone’s couch) here.

Last thoughts via director Asif Kapadia:

““I’m pretty sure the people in the U.S. have never seen those images of young Amy. That intelligent, funny, special girl. Bright-eyed, healthy-looking. Even in England, people haven’t seen her. She was great, she was a good kid, she was human.” But, says Kapadia, the heart of the film is about bullying and getting people to understand how picking on someone is dangerous. “The audience is partly to blame for me,” he says. “The paparazzi may have been hounding her and the media may have been making fun of her, but we laughed and we clicked on the videos, and we commented on it and shared it. It just became so easy to make fun of this kid. She was just a kid who was taking it all in, and the more pressure and the more nastiness, the more she self-medicated to numb the pain. There’s a point in the story where I think the mirror turns back to us and we think,We knew what was going on, and we all took part in it. We were all complicit. I just hope we think twice before we treat someone the way we treated Amy because it will happen again. It’s probably happening right now. I remember somebody saying to me at the beginning of this film, ‘Why do you want to make a film about a junkie?’ And I just said, ‘That’s exactly why I want to make this film, because you just said that, and I can’t believe you just said that.’””

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rafaël rozendaal [ via ]

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uta barth [ via ]

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5 Things, July 8th, 2014 Edition.

Reading so many things lately, so thought I should update.

-The Great Discontent. Just all of it. (The latest interview is with Liz Danzico, whose blog caught my eye 2+ years back because of its great typography.) I try to do it in doses: 1-2 interviews of designer idols a day. AND NO MORE.

-The Radio Drama episode of This American Life, live at BAM in Brooklyn. I was on the verge of buying tickets to this, as BAM is in my neighborhood and I still haven't been, but balked at the price (80+). I am listening to the episode and kicking myself.

-Probably the most enjoyable and entertaining essay I've read in some months. Comedy + neuroticism + technology: David Sedaris talks about getting a Fitbit.

-Got minorly obsessed with learning as much as possible about the latest SCOTUS ruling, which made me really appreciate vox.com for the first time. They do a thing where they break down questions about big, complex issues with cards such as this one. Super helpful.

-Intrigued by this new podcast with Anna Sale

-Lastly, a bonus. My current subway reads: One More Thing, by B.J. Novak; The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs; and A Field Guide to Getting Lost, by Rebecca Solnit.

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Essays about humans and technology

"Through their inventions, they alter the behavior of millions of people, yet very few of them realize that this is what they are doing, and even fewer consider the ethical implications of that kind of power."

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umbrella photos by zak bush

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Too many young women I think are harder on themselves than circumstances warrant. They are too often selling themselves short. They too often take criticism personally instead of seriously. You should take criticism seriously because you might learn something, but you can’t let it crush you. You have to be resilient enough to keep moving forward, whatever the personal setbacks and even insults that come your way might be. That takes a sense of humor about yourself and others. Believe me, this is hard-won advice I’m putting forth. It’s not like you wake up and understand this. It’s a process.

-Hillary Clinton