The Paperclip Bookmark

2009 11/28

For years I’ve been dog-earring pages and using book receipts to mark my place, all the while fantasizing about some imaginary perfect bookmark.  Why the hell did I never think of this before?

Don’t have to just hold your page either, hold your line:


Time Travel Soul

2009 11/23

“The Way I See It” is what I’m calling “Time Travel Soul,” because Raphael Saadiq swings so hard trying to hit retro that he loses his balance and lands in 1967. The result is 12 tracks of pure soul commitment and then a Jay-Z remix that hits like a punchline.

And really, that’s the best way to drive home the game of the album. It’s as if no true soul classic could exist today without some opportunistic MC’s subversion. And let’s be honest, it couldn’t. Oh yeah, there are head nodders out there that didn’t know P-Funk before Dre, believe it. They didn’t know The Isleys before Biggie and Puff, didn’t know Chaka before Kanye. Fact is, these days hip hop producers use their samples as a bully pulpit almost as much as they take advantage of their success. And If you think more people didn’t listen to Toy Soldiers after Eminem dropped his version, you’re wrong. I sure I did. So Jay-Z’s barely different rendition of Saadiq’s “Oh Girl,” seems to make the song relevant again after all these years. It puts the final thump into the album’s classic stamp. The impression is left.

Great music is at once familiar and new. And this is the dance that Saadiq steps through with Temptation-like precision. You’re sure you’ve heard this before, but damn, you would remember THIS. You wold remember “The Way I See It.”


Clicker

2009 09/14

clicker_danToday the startup I work for officially launched at TechCrunch50. If you want, you can check out our CEO’s presentation here.  It’s not long, and god damn it, this site is pretty cool.

This ends months of secrecy and intrigue and marks the beginning of a new era of secrecy and intrigue. Sign up for super-exclusive private beta here.

The party continues tomorrow, as clicker looks like it has a decent chance at winning this thing.


Common Names

2009 08/17

Earlier in the week I was having a discussion about this exceptionally unexceptional name of mine. There were anecdotes about the other Daniel Cohen I went to camp with, and the Daniel Cohens I went to Emerson with, but in the end my friend Jessica, who likes to turn everything into a competition, shocked us all by turning it into a competition.

As one of many, many Dan Cohens, I am immune to being googled, but not Wolfram Alpha’d:

Daniel+Jessica

Smackdown.

Daniel+Jessica 2

Combined with the stats on Cohen (surname), there are very probably 75 people alive today in the United States named after or before me, and that number seems a little low. Thankfully, my parents blessed me with a weird and wonderful middle name: Oets.

Googling “Oets” nets you the subtle suggestion that you’ve made a typo attempting to spell “poets,” and after that you’re wading into my family lineage. Uncle Oets is there, and the great grandfather I’m named after. Meanwhile, Wolfram Alpha says:

Oets

Damn that feels good.


District 9

2009 08/15

District 9
Wow.


Lego Architecture Series

2009 08/08

Lego Guggenheim Set

Lego Falling Water Set

Frank Lloyd Wright makes a lot of sense to kick off the series, but I’m hoping Gehry is next in line.  Imagine a thousand of those pegged little rectangles attacking the curves of Fred & Ginger. Anyway, these are the first 2 of 6 planned FLW buildings. Want.


Sir William Drummond

2009 08/07
william drummond“He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave.”

Cheer Up California

2009 08/07

parkinglot_
field_
beach_
woods_

Found here.


Ambrose Bierce

2009 08/06
ambrose bierce“Painting: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic.”

Peter Blake

2009 08/05
peter blake“Great part of being a grownup, you never have to do anything.”