col’s blog

steve’s birthday isn’t until tomorrow but he prefers to think of it as a week-long celebration (if not longer), and has encouraged his pals (myself among them) to focus our celebration on different days.

STEVE – to commemorate the day before your 33^rd birthday, here are a few of my favorites steve moments from over the years:

1) when you posed as my film professor and busted adam t. for falsely claiming to be ill with Scarlatina.

2) Your stellar performance in The Unicorn Prank and the Elite in general.

3) London trip − Class A lasers, non-sensical answers, Glenn 3000, your ceaseless singing of “Shine Sweet Freedom” by Michael McDonald and propensity to call everyone around us “foreigners.”

4) The stakes you put on a game of catch in Minneapolis … if someone dropped the ball their plane would crash. Also the determination that the entire trip would be wiped from our memories if the US Women’s Olympics soccer team didn’t triumph against Brazil (they did – shwoo).

5) When you got rid of a chick in Key West by sending her home on the back of a stranger’s bike at the wee hours after we refused to clear the room to facilitate your hook up. And of course the festival of song that ensued.

6) When you wore a tank top and wrap skirt (was it a skort?) and played the bongos in John & my apartment in Brooklyn.

7) All your stories from the Special Liabilities Group in Farmington. Used condom in Yogurt (fruit on the bottom … thank you very little).

8 ) When we had the brilliant idea to bet on GO SHAMMY at the Kentucky Derby solely based on the name GO SHAMMY (and about half a dozen mint juleps).

9) Your classiness in always taking me to Subway (or at least offering). The fact that upscale means Chile’s or TGI Friday’s.

HAPPY PRE-BIRTHDAY DEANER!!! CONgrats ON 33!

Patterns: Melanoma Rises Sharply in Young Women

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
The New York Times
Published: July 22, 2008

Over the past three decades, the incidence of melanoma, the most deadly type of skin cancer, has increased much more sharply in young women than in young men.

Melanoma incidence in people 15 to 39 has risen and fallen over the years since data collection began, increasing among white men to 7.7 per 100,000 in 2004 from 4.7 in 1973. But at the same time among white women, cases rose to 13.9 per 100,000 from 5.5. The trend was also evident for later-stage tumors less likely to be misdiagnosed, suggesting this is a real increase rather than simply a result of more accurate surveillance.

make an appt. to have a skin scan. stay the hell away from tanning beds. SPF up! skin cancer kills.

HIPSTERS IN SPACE.

i love this cartoon movie, not as much as hipster olympics, but quite a bit. and note: the hipsters all say TOTES!

“Tijuana Taxi” by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. H/T to John!

here’s the dress i wore the other night:

and while i’m at it here’s my new bike!

I was mortified that my Canadian pal told you my blog URL. I am too shy and too much of a dork and not a good flirt at all so if you’re here, bless you. I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you:

1) thank you for all the free Riesling.

2) you are adorable. You look like Jason Schwartzman but cuter.

3) thank you for the napkins to ease my tears.

4) you have a very impressive iPod.

I love NYC and my pals. We’re all in it together. That’s the beauty of it, and of this time in my life. No matter what happens I know these gals are here for me offering unconditional love. I hope we’re old bags together some day.

Cin cin!

Don’t send ‘em. Unless you’re a publicly traded corporate behemoth like Live Nation or you’re an old wave band, owned by the media, that has no idea who its fans are.

If everybody was reading the newspaper, why has circulation dropped? Ditto with “Time” and “Newsweek”. And network TV has abysmal ratings, certainly compared to the days before cable. Why do you keep sending a zillion arrows into this abyss?

I know why, it makes you feel good, it makes you feel like you’re doing something. But you’re not. You’re just wasting time.

Read the full tome …

bob’s on to something, and i think you can apply his ideas to all consumer sectors, not just music. i don’t agree with all of what he says, though.

people are actually watching MORE television than ever

they are reading MORE content (newspaper/mag/online) than ever

aggregate circulation, ratings are going UP across the board, but down among individual outlets.

the attention’s all spreading out.

the ubiquity of content makes all messages less impactful.

that’s why NEW brands struggle — whether they’re bands, TV shows, soft drinks. there’s no central place to force people to pay attention and take note.

ATTENTION, not content, is a scarce resource.

All communications must become all the more deft, targeted and un-templated.

cousin jack brought this hilarious quiz in the current issue of details magazine to my attention. some of my favorite questions to test whether you’re THAT GUY …

You say the name of the town where your Ivy League alma mater is located instead of the name of the school.

You put your kid in a Che Guevara T-shirt.
You refer to anything as “small-batch” or “artisanal.”
You own a wine Rabbit.

You proselytize about carbon footprints.

You name your kid after a character in To Kill a Mockingbird.

reminds me of andy benard. and/or 85% of straight men in san francisco.

full disclosure: my THAT guy rating was “Hot”. Am definitely guilty of some of those infractions, like wearing flip flops and board shorts in the city.

THX!

we exist to the extent that we anticipate, not only react.

the cartesian idea — cause & effect — that humans are machinelike … is limiting and dangerous.

inventions take place in anticipation and not in reaction to reality.

science is always anticipatory.