January 2012

Left the studio just in time to catch a marching band on Jay Street playing something that sounded an awful lot like the Terminator theme.

Dear Cosmos,
May I have my dad back, please?
Best,
Rob

My Top 3 #lastfm Artists: Meshuggah (41), Rodrigo y Gabriela (29) & Pharaoh (20) tweekly.fm/twitter/robweycher…

Home alone on a Saturday night. Scowling at the OS X Lion Character Viewer’s inclusion of Emoji. These are not unrelated happenings.

Your apartment door has a spring hinge. Do you let it slam loudly or close it quietly? Is there not an obviously correct answer?

Designers who work in direct mail are mercenaries, but I’ll give them credit for choosing paper stock that is very easily shredded by hand.

Is it still too early for me to go back to building web sites with tables for layout and call them “artisanal”?

Despite all our justified griping about its bloat and various issues, Photoshop is still a lot of fun to use for certain tasks.

Shocking exposé on this new “tattoo” trend of applying permanent ink to one’s skin. Also, apparently the sky is blue. philly.com/philly/news/201201…

At the behest of @fchimero and @kissane, here is my favorite hour of Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs: rd.io/x/QFyuL0tIpw

Dude’s fried chicken on the train smelled so good so I got as close as my kitchen could and had eggs and this is not the life I wanted.

Achievement Unlocked: @AndrewWk tickets for Webster Hall on April 2nd!

Much less skeptical of musicians’ motives than I used to be. Much more skeptical of visual artists’ motives than I used to be.

“We need to think about products over posters and people over page views.” That @FictiveCameron is a gem. alistapart.com/articles/an-im…

The whole of communication technology is merely an extension of pigment on surface, the fundamental technique of indirect language transmission. Radio and television and computers do more work for us, sure. They parse ideas into shapes and colors and sounds. But there is nothing they can do that can’t be recreated with a lump of mud and a fertile imagination, a method as viable today as it was five thousand years ago.

The only thing… See more →

Any obsession with this video would be unhealthy, and mine is that. youtube.com/watch?v=ozoTzk…

My first contribution to @thepastrybox: the-pastry-box-project.net/rob-weychert/2…

My Top 3 #lastfm Artists: The Knife (74), Van Halen (56) & Don Caballero (49) tweekly.fm/twitter/robweycher…

My instincts need to work faster. It’s always too late by the time I realize the subway car is empty for a good reason.

Alternating song-by-song between Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street and Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville response.

Pretty sure I just passed @stephenfry on the sidewalk!

The Swedish hardcore band Refused took a few years to get great, and shortly after it did, it imploded. Given its incendiary legacy, fans might expect fireworks from this “documentary” about the band’s final days and rather abrupt end, and sporadic live footage does offer a taste of what all the fuss was about. But for all Refused’s unique energy, its breakup story is pretty standard – the tour’s not going well, somebody has a… See more →

If you want to share your amazing CSS trick, and the underlying markup is junk, please don’t bother.

Eight of the top ten results for an App Store search of “Words With Friends” are five-star apps that help you cheat at said game. Great.

My interest in math and desire to use it more effectively is on the rise. I’ve never been much of a mathlete. Where to begin? /cc @paul_mar

Most surprising of all, none of the cover songs respondents have claimed are better than the originals have been blasphemous (to me).

Surprisingly, no one has mentioned Sinéad O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U”, vastly superior to and better known than The Family’s original.

Runner-up popular responses for both a and b: Johnny Cash’s “Hurt” and Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah”.

Most popular answer so far for a cover both better and better known than the original is Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower.” (I agree.)

Name a cover song that is a) better than the original, or b) better known than the original. Specify if the song is a, b, or both. Go.

When @Rdio is missing music, I can always find something else, but the absence of Touch and Go’s entire catalog is getting to be a problem.

“…results from 8 of 1,774 precincts could not be located for certification.” Iowa’s pretend election runs a tight ship. nyti.ms/yHqWRw

Making preliminary plans to see @AndrewWk in Philly (3/30) and NYC (4/2) for the eleventh and twelfth times, respectively.

“I love that he refuses to… not be him.” – @ChapManBoom, on Axl Rose.

The New Jersey Turnpike really must be the least scenic, most depressing roadway in these United States.

Online services that don’t let you delete your account make baby Jesus cry.

Ah, so Paterno’s only failing was his ignorance of the very concept of child abuse. Sandusky should try that defense. washingtonpost.com/sports/col…

My Top 3 #lastfm Artists: The Notorious B.I.G. (43), Massive Attack (39) & Refused (28) tweekly.fm/twitter/robweycher…

You don’t need to know anything about chess to enjoy Bobby Fischer Against the World, but you may well want to learn more about the game after you’ve seen the film – if you don’t take it as a cautionary tale.

Bobby Fischer’s story is a true American tragedy, and possibly the twentieth century’s most fascinating example of the tenuous divide between genius and madness, as this film makes abundantly clear. The pacing is a… See more →

We are at that point in the day where I wish I had a snack but I don’t have a snack but I do have some moonshine and that could be a snack.

Today’s example of how recommendation engines are bullshit:

The h1 succinctly describes the page’s content. The logo says where it came from. Unless the page is about the logo, the logo is not the h1.

Why does this article about using Skype for music lessons make no mention of latency, the concept’s chief impediment? nytimes.com/2012/01/11/us/mus…

Growing more and more convinced that above all, the social web exists to remind me how little I have in common with my friends.

Whoever you are, it is highly unlikely that your album needs to exceed forty-five minutes.

My Top 3 #lastfm Artists: Stiff Little Fingers (32), Thin Lizzy (31) & Suicide (17) tweekly.fm/twitter/robweycher…

It is 6:21 AM and I am defending the live action G.I. Joe movie on the internet.

It is 3:38 AM and I can’t sleep and there will never be a better time to watch the live action G.I. Joe movie.

Much of Life During Wartime initially led me to believe it was a postmodern prank whose genesis took this form: “What if I made a sequel to Happiness? God, what a pointless, stupid idea. I’ll do it!”

As Michael Haneke’s Funny Games charges audiences with being complicit in the real-life violence they flock to see fictionalized on screen, Todd Solondz’s Life During Wartime seems to make a mockery of the compulsion to drag new and… See more →

Considering buying into Van Halen’s latest cash cow tour (bucket list), but assuming it’ll sell out before I can get tickets.

“I think things are going to be different from now on!” – Me, on the rare occasion that I accomplish a meaningful task

Devo said it best: “Freedom of choice is what you got. Freedom from choice is what you want.” nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazi…

An album that I listened to once four months ago is still in my @Rdio profile’s Heavy Rotation list, and it’s driving me crazy.

Holy shit holy shit holy shit: “Recently uncovered ‘lost’ Thin Lizzy tapes contain up to 700 unreleased songs” avc.lu/wU9yaJ

My Top 3 #lastfm Artists: Fucked Up (18), Low (15) & Wolves in the Throne Room (14) tweekly.fm/twitter/robweycher…

Just stumbled on something very strange. Who can tell me what’s wrong with this picture? (Hint provided.)

The extraordinary devotion Bill Cunningham has for his work means that any film about him is worth a look, but it’s a shame this one is not a more illuminating portrait. Amiable though he may be, Cunningham has made a career out of being an observer rather than a participant, and his years behind the lens have trained him well in the art of evasion. No one interviewed in this documentary seems to know anything… See more →