Ready To Friday: Mommy And Daddy Edition

Thanks for joining me again for yet another Friday. I assume you're Ready. Have a seat this way, the weekend is about to start.

The Edit

The Essential

• I keep getting reminded that I should be excited for Conan's new show "Conan." I wasn't that into his work when he was on network television. But that's mostly because I never watched any network shows. But really, every time I see something from his mind cross my browser, a fire is lit and I'm suddenly very interested again.
• No one watched the Simpsons any more. Rather, it would be more accurate to say that I don't know anyone who does. But some people were watching when they featured an opening "Couch Gag" directed by Banksy. The gloomy, depressing themes were bad enough, but how critical it was of the Fox Network was what really surprised me. A lot of people asked, "How did this get aired?" The answer was revealed in a brief interview on the New York Times - it was surprisingly easy, actually.

The Politic

• While the kind of political shenanigans that this really amounts to isn't that impressive, it's an interesting effort on the part of a federal judge who recently enacted an injunction on the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. Though even as interesting as it is, it's bound to be short lived upon appeal (which has me cautious while writing this that is has already been overturned).

The Style

• This guy's voice should narrate my morning routine, so that maybe I would get one. (Holy crap, there's a series of these!)

The Culture

• Designers couldn't shut up over the last  couple of weeks when Gap revealed their new logo to the public. Now after the internet had their way with the admittedly poor rebranding, the company is backpedaling and has decided to change back to their old design. To commemorate, Logo Design Love went into the lessons to be gleaned from a move like this. 
• I'm not actually sure what I think about all of Seasame Street's parodies. While I enjoy a lot of them for what they are, I'm not actually sure if they're funny on enough levels that kids would understand why he said horse.

Hearing Things

For my own reasons, I've decided to process the music appreciation of my weekly culture bomb into its own section. Hopefully this means you won't miss out on whatever I feel like highlighting here. But it also means it will be much more obvious when I don't have any musical suggestions.

If you like live performances of music you like and you're not sick of me talking up Fitz & the Tantrums, then I'm going to suggest you check out the most recent episode of Live From Daryl's House where they feature three members of that very band for a handful of their songs done live (and a lot of little bits in-between, if you're interested in that stuff too (like applesauce)). 
Personally, I like the experience of watching music performed live, more-so than the enjoyment I derive from even the best music videos. It's not something I've always felt, but it's shown up more and more since I became interested in artistic craftsmanship of all kinds.
Actually, just listen to this band perform the opening theme to Mad Men mixed with Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy".

Blog of Our Lives

The blogs are the blood stream of my daily internet experience. They're the bread and butter of my clicks and links. Everything I know* I learned from the sources those bloggers provide. So here, I'll provide you with those sources that I have chosen to wrangle up for your benefit. Quality may rise and fall without warning. (*What do I know?)

• As mentioned above in The Edit, Logo Design Love is a website dedicated to quality discussion about branding and design. It's neither about pure aesthetics or rote rule following. It strikes a fascinating balance between the two that seems to reward what works. 

English Language of the Week:

This segment is based around my personal love of the modern english language, where, each week, I'll nominate my favorite phrase, sentence or paragraph that I have personally heard spoken in that time.

And then I saw forty penises rollerskating up 6th Avenue.

What then?

Guest submission by Teryn Loebs.

On Your Way Out

This week I learned that the the majority of people don't care about large mistakes that others make. I also learned that I'm fascinated by strangers who indistinctly insult me to my face. I don't get enough of that, it seems.

-stg