ialas.net

My online notebook. I also have an essay blog and music blog.
“We’re nothing but kids with grown-up faces, enjoying the time of our life, baby. … I’m honored. I’m appreciative. But I was as honored when I did Soul Plane and it got the buzz. I was as honored when I did Showtime. I’m as honored when they say “The Mo’Nique Show” on BET. I’m honored for the whole process of what this fantasy land is.”
— Mo’Nique, when asked how she felt about the buzz behind her Precious performance

“Incidentally, am I alone in finding the expression ‘it turns out’ to be incredibly useful? It allows you to make swift, succinct, and authoritative connections between otherwise randomly unconnected statements without the trouble of explaining what your source or authority actually is. It’s great. It’s hugely better than its predecessors ‘I read somewhere that…’ or the craven ‘they say that…’ because it suggests not only that whatever flimsy bit of urban mythology you are passing on is actually based on brand new, ground breaking research, but that it’s research in which you yourself were intimately involved. But again, with no actual authority anywhere in sight. … Readers are simply more willing to tolerate a lightspeed jump from belief X to belief Y if the writer himself (a) seems taken aback by it and (b) acts as if they had no say in the matter—as though the situation simply unfolded that way. Which is precisely what the phrase “it turns out” accomplishes, and why it’s so useful in circumstances where you don’t have any substantive path from X to Y.”
— Ben Casnocha’s Blog: The Power of the Phrase “It Turns Out…”

Their pre-song conversation is pretty funny.

Tegan & Sara - “Alligator” - Exclusive Acoustic from the PEAK Lounge (via ThePeakVancouver)

Majid (1st guy) has sick musicality.

I have to admit Majid & P-Dog made me think of me and RJ.

Majid & P Dog/OG & Anna @ Express Your Style 2009 (Hip Hop Preselection) (hat tip: David Yi)

“One group needs to be there for the other to come. That’s a big problem. Without one group there in force, the other never arrives. Most people make the mistake of trying to appeal to both groups. That’s not the solution. The solution is the ladies night approach. Treat one group like royalty and make the other group wait in line.”
— Mastering Chicken And The Egg Communities - FeverBee

“The moral is that emotions influence how we process and pay attention to information, and that different kinds of cognitive tasks benefit from different moods. When we’re editing our prose, or playing chess, or working through a math problem, we probably benefit from a little melancholy, since that makes us more attentive to details and mistakes. In contrast, when we’re trying to come up with an idea for a novel, or have a hit a dead end with our analytical approach to a problem, then maybe we should take a warm shower and relax. The answer is more likely to arrive when we stop thinking about our problem.”
— Jonah Lehrer, The Frontal Cortex

“I refuse to burden another person with the obligation of completing me. That doesn’t mean my partner is off the hook; it doesn’t mean he has no obligations. It means I own my incompletions.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert, paraphrased (source: Wehr in the World: Squibs)

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - RGM version

Daniel Kahneman: The riddle of experience vs. memory | Video on TED.com

“Experiencing selves” vs “remembering selves”

Wash Your Bowl

A monk told Joshu, “I have just entered the monastery. Please teach me.”

Joshu asked, “Have you eaten your rice porridge?

The monk replied, “I have eaten.”

Joshu said, “Then you had better wash your bowl.”

At that moment the monk was enlightened.

Wash your bowl

“Trying to explain why we mix coffee and cream together but don’t unmix them is ultimately dependent on what happened at the Big Bang.”
— Sean Carroll, theoretical cosmologist

“Art reflects, expresses, invokes and describes the ambiguity of humanity. Whatever the form of art, however realistic or however fantastical, it offers up a commentary on being alive, on the infinite messiness of humanity. Art doesn’t improve our behaviour or civilise us. Art is useless. It doesn’t clothe the poor or feed the hungry. It’s as useless as, well … life, but it’s precisely our awareness of the uselessness of life that makes us want to struggle to give it purpose, and to give that purpose meaning through art. The philosopher Simone Weil wrote this: “The love of our neighbour means being able to say to him: What are you going through? It is a recognition that the sufferer exists, not as a specimen from a social category labelled ‘unfortunate’ but as a man exactly as we are. To forget oneself briefly, to identify with a stranger to the point of fully recognising him or her, is to defy necessity.” Art is a way of “defying necessity”, drawing us into a heightened awareness of other people’s feelings and other people’s lives. It enables us to put ourselves in the minds, eyes, ears and hearts of other human beings.”
— What Do We Mean by ‘Art’? | Standpoint

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"What I Learned from Anna Wintour"

Lesson 1: Keep Meetings Short

Lesson 2: Trust Your Instincts

Lesson 3: Surround Yourself with Great Talent

Lesson 4: Don’t Look Back

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  • Goal: Have more fans tomorrow than you had yesterday.
  • Measure: Grow fan connections as well as dollars. Every day should mean more email address, Twitter followers, Facebook fans, and MySpace friends (and whatever other way comes along tomorrow that fans can connect with artists and say “please talk to me”) and of course dollars (via direct sales, iTunes, Amazon, etc).
  • Action: Do something small weekly, something big monthly.

Dan Buettner: How to live to be 100+ | Video on TED.com

1) move naturally (tend to walk, have a garden)
2) right outlook (downshift, purpose now)
3) eat wisely (wine@5, plant slant - beans & nuts, 80% rule)
4) connect (loved ones first, belong, right tribe)