kanner.com

Google Maps Street View meets Brooklyn

I’m as impressed with Google’s new Street View map feature as anyone. But one wonders how thorough the street troll will eventually be. Who makes it into the party exactly?

In a little game being played around the web, I checked to see how much of my ‘hood was represented. Since I live Bushwick, the answer seems to be “not much”. Streets with blue borders have Street View photos.

The main bulk of blue lies in Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens - the so-called “brownstone belt”.

Peter Duke finally on flickr

Fashion photog and interactive design mavin Peter Duke has finally opened the vaults of his photos from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s and put them up on flickr. What a treat.

Back when Peter and I worked together at Newscorp / Fox, I’d hear him talk about his days as a professional photographer… always hoping I’d get to see his craft. Payday!

Check out Peter’s photographs here.

Bob Lefsetz on the EMI / Terra Firma deal

Bob’s note this afternoon was among his best. Reminds me of one of those creepy post-apocalyptic psychedelic sci-fi movies from the early 1970’s… the world he describes is compelling and not as far out as you’d think. His time frame may be a bit off, but not by much I suspect. Regardless, we are just now entering act three of the drama. The denouement is on its way:

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2007/05/21/emiterra-firma/

Note from 2008-05: Having re-read the piece a year later, I can say much of it still seems to hold true. But one thing I can counter from personal experience is the manner in which Terra Firma have approached the problem of reinventing EMI. It’s fashionable right now to bash them as naive incompetents, but from what I’ve seen they really are trying to roll in the right fixes. So far their key hires and promotions have largely been spot on and inspirational to the troops. This re-org is unprecedented and much harder than anyone not involved with it can really appreciate.

I’ll let you know how it all came out a year from now…

Placebo - “Running Up That Hill” video

Wow - take a look at the video for Placebo’s cover of the Kate Bush classic “Running Up That Hill”. It’s made up of user supplied video clips of fans singing along. The contest was run using MotionBox’s mashup platform.

[myspace]vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2029442826[/myspace]

Kevin Rose - Standing Ground

This is a real meme:

“You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you,” said Rose. “And effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be. If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.”

http://www.electronista.com/articles/07/05/02/hd.dvd.key.rebellion/

Digg has retained their independence for a long time now - with many lurkers waiting to buy them up. Is this their moment to cash in that indie equity and put it all on the line? Will they come out the other side of this better positioned in the market? Or is this a sucker’s bet made by kids that don’t have a legal leg to stand on?

Fahrenheit Studio - Spring 07 newsletter

The branding and design gurus at Fahrenheit Studio have just sent out their quaterly newsletter. Their reports are definately worth a gander.

Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip

“Thou Shalt Always Kill”

title=" target="_blank">youtube.com/watch?v=yoN6XfyQsr4

I know I know, it’s a Dylan rip. But it’s not really. If anything, it’s an homage. The guy’s good.. he’s fresh. Don’t be so jaded.

Steven Criqui - Rest In Peace

I’m devistated this evening to report that my friend Steven Criqui died last month. Steven was a personal mentor to me and an inspiration to all those who met him. We was also a terrific artist. The L.A. Times published a brief obituary about Steven. Short, pleasant, factual - but not accurrate. It doesn’t convey his humanity and sharp talent.

Stay tuned. I’ll publish more thoughts on Steven soon. I loved him. You would have too had you met him. In the meantime, here are some photos I took of him in 2000 in his Echo Park studio.

I also invite you to  look at Steven’s  flickr  photos. You can see the love that surrounded him in the face of the protraits he took.

Say Anything

Did you happen to catch the piece in New York magazine ?

Say Anything: Kids, the Internet, and the End of Privacy: The Greatest Generation Gap Since Rock and Roll.The premise here is that kids who are coming of age in the post-Netscape era are somehow compelled towards sharing every aspect of their lives online. There’s a lot to this observation - it does feel generational.

But is it of the same scope as Rock n’ Roll? Hard to say. Rock has endured for fifty years now - online social sharing feels more short term and reactive. Privacy is out of fashion to be sure. I think it’s the natural outcome of decades of celebrity worship - and perhaps the real reason the web continues its growth. See, I got into online media to help fashion a platform for unconstrained creative and political expression. But for others, it simply may be a means to be better and more widely known.

hello dann

…so I stumbled across my friend dann’s blog, and it made me feel enthusiastic about keeping a journal.