Permanent Temporary

Now that building and repairs have been delayed, the scaffolding in NYC may never go away!!!    Permanent Temporary is an understament.

From the article:  “….More charitable giving! Fewer designer handbags! Free hugs everywhere! Welcome to the post-recession America. Or so says the cover story from New York magazine, a buoyant ode to the bright side of NYC’s financial doom. Green shoots of human compassion abound, it seems, from booming volunteerism, increased enrollments in divinity school, and plunging crime stats (murders are down 21% in New York). So should we all stop worrying and learn to love a world with much less money?”

http://business.theatlantic.com/2009/05/is_the_recession_making_you_a_nicer_person.php

Louis C.K. on HBO

If you have not seen this clip yet, get ready to laugh.  Now I’m not necessarily happy about everything that capitalism has produced, but once and a while we need to step back and realize that how much we take for granted when it comes to technology.

http://biggeekdaddy.com/miscvideos/everythingsamazing.html

With this in mind, we must consider that as technology makes more things possible and faster, we are expected to do these tasks better and faster (maybe our boss, or friends, our partners) and therefore we are prone to get frustrated when they don’t function properly.  That’s the sad spin.  If our bosses assume that we have the ability to send an email from our phone “through space” to satellites and back in less than a minute, then we are expected to work and produce at that pace.  Maybe one solution is to show your boss this clip, maybe for the simple purpose of making him or her relax.  It’s worth a shot.

Anvil: Metal on Metal

Anvil: The Story of Anvil  is a new film that lives in the essence of Permanent Temporary.  Too much for words.  You can make something from that might be seen as nothing, and make it happen purely on it NOT happening.  Plus a little twitter twatter twitter twatter….

See the trailer here…

Check out the AdAge article too…  This is where you’ll see the real twitter twatter twitter twatter….  and why twitter is changing more games.

http://adage.com/madisonandvine/article?article_id=136660

Metal on Metal, what a great album title.

The music of the ages that never made it big enough, or so they thought…

“It’s so unprofessional what we are going through…”  Classic FIRST words.

The World Poker Tour - "Project Delivery" (A view from the office of Calvin Klein)

This picture was taken by my wife Farrah from her office at Calvin Klein.  I’m all about multitasking and enjoying your job, but this takes it to the next level.  I assume (or hope) they aren’t paid by the hour!   And glad to see they are being safe with the orange cone.   It might be dangerous playing cards in the street in Manhattan otherwise.  Thanks for the material boys!

Office Park?

This is a bit different than my approach, but certainly worth a mention.  People have put quite a bit of work into this article so I’ll encourage you to take a look.  I personally like having a home and ESPECIALLY like taking showers.  But for those who don’t need such pampering, this is for you!!   I made a small contribution to the article, suggesting the idea that one might consider joining a national health club or fitness club for the purpose of using their showers.  This coincides with my distaste for fitness clubs as I feel more people would help to protect the environment if they actually LIVED IN IT, or at least visited once in a while.  It also coincides with my distaste for stinky people.

In any case, check it out here…

http://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Hobo-with-a-Web-Based-Income

MMMMM. Sugarcane...

Just jumped off an online meeting with BBC.com, helping them secure their footing in the American market, and keeping us up to date with actual WORLD news.  Then on to help a client with her new business with GreenDuck, helping to eliminate land-filling Styrofoam to-go packaging!  All before breakfast.  Don’t ask me what I was wearing

A worker with pride in Damietta Egypt.

Watching the BBC news yesterday, I saw a great story about a small town in Egypt that has been defying gravity in the current economic downturn.  The town is full of skilled furniture craftsman who take pride in their work and, according the the BBC report, consider their work something of a spiritual endeavor.  The shops and factories cannot find new employees to fill open positions.  They have too much work.

Their secret?  From what it appears, a real work ethic, and QUALITY goods!!  Imagine that!!

I’m not going to say that there was no option for me growing up to become a fine craftsman, but jobs like that didn’t seem readily available.  The closest thing I can remember would be auto-mechanics who restored classic cars.  Thins seems to ring a sad bell…  The only craftsman left were fixing what we made in former generations.  (If you can think of others, please comment below…I hope I’m wrong!)

Advocates for a society with a strong work ethic might find some of my writing upsetting.  Make no mistake, I want just the same as you.  American society has suffered from a spell of laziness and defeatist mentalities.    My choices could sometimes be considered defeatist or a cop-out, since I didn’t put a ton of effort to seek out these types of positions, but I needed to put food in my mouth, and all I ever seemed to find was assembly line positions making junk.  So I decided to play instead.  But I worked damn hard (or at least smart) as I played.

In any case, we could all learn something from Damietta Egypt.  I’ve got a hunch the story could have swapped out the word “Amish” a few times to create a very similar article.

The whole story can be found here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7936004.stm