on my way to absence
that’s the title of the new Damien Jurado album. I got it and the new Magnolia Electric Co. at Amoeba yesterday. I haven’t listened yet, so I have no review as of yet.
I mentioned previously that I went to the Design Museum while in London. One of the exhibits had a couple things creditted to “fakeisthenewreal.org” so I decided to check it out. It turns out it’s quite interesting. Subway routes, comparitively, at scale; the US reproportioned for equal population electoral states, and the symbollic alphabet are some of the more interesting.
April 11th, 2005 at 8:56 am
this is a shot at objectivity.
what is fakeisthenewreal.org? as far as I can tell it doesn’t say what it is. the page first has a few links to random unrelated things. then there is a cafe press shop link followed by a donations link.
what is interesting about the symbolic alphabet? it seems like they just answered some sort of question. how is their answer significantly different from the answer any randomly selected person would give? is it interesting simply because they implicity asked the question? (subjective: I don’t personally think that part is interesting…)
similar types of reasoning can be applied (to varying extent) to all of the links of the site.
on the other hand, had I followed the link from MeFi I probably would’ve just closed it and not thought about it. maybe what’s actually interesting is simply the fact that you posted it.
April 11th, 2005 at 8:58 am
(ps. your clock is wrong again)
April 11th, 2005 at 9:37 am
Fakeisthenewreal.org is what we call a “website.” This “website” seems to have various things to do with new ways to look at collections of information.
Symbollic alphabet? It’s a look at all (well some) of the things that each letter stands for or represents in various situations.
April 11th, 2005 at 10:05 am
that site is rad. a couple of comments on the map for reformed states, if you look at the new york detail:
Staten island is put into ‘Jersey’
I believe all of Queens and most of Brooklyn is in ‘Long Island’
I think its great.
April 11th, 2005 at 10:05 am
it seems objectivity is no longer pc.
is fakeisthenewreal.org really a “website”? I would never have guessed. I originally wanted to ask “what is fakeisthenewreal.org about?” but then I decided it wasn’t supposed to be about anything so rather than dwell on that I’d ask what it is … (which segues nicely to)
oh, I see, this “website” provides new ways to look at collections of information. it’s funny how they don’t say that on the “website” itself.
*double-take*
what collection of information is in these very low quality jpegs?
April 11th, 2005 at 10:16 am
(ps. I understand what the symbolic alphabet is taking a look at … I believe I asked what made it interesting. I would love to hear specifically what you find interesting about it.
when in doubt, deflect.)
April 11th, 2005 at 12:15 pm
I think most of the site is pretty cool
April 11th, 2005 at 12:18 pm
What’s any website about? What’s this website about? I never say what this website is about, do I?
What’s homestarrunner about? what makes it funny? how about the onion? why is it funny?
I don’t often think about what C stands for in various situations. The speed of light, but also one hundred, but also celcius.
There are always going to be outliers in classifications of what something is. The parts of the website I like are the ones that are collections of information.
If you don’t like a link, close it and move on. If you think I link to a bunch of crap, don’t follow any of my links.
April 11th, 2005 at 12:32 pm
this website is about random things that my friend Adrian finds interesting. it doesn’t explicitly say so, but some of that comes along with the fact that it’s a blog. flaminglips.com is about the flaming lips. but none of this matters. it’s ok for that page not to say what it’s about. but if it doesn’t say what it’s about then I also think it’s quite fitting to debate what it’s about. I was trying to think about the site critically as opposed to just closing the link. I never said I didn’t like it. I am interested in understanding what you find interesting (yes, partly because I don’t find it all that interesting myself) and I don’t understand why trying to discuss that means I don’t like it.