I am Rafael Torres, originally from Puerto Rico and now living in Miami, Florida. I design and code. You can find me on Twitter and other places.
Gustavo Cerati, one of my favorite artists—I described him some time ago as Rock en Español’s John Lennon—died today at 55 years of age. He had been in a coma since 2010. Here he is with his band Soda Stereo performing the awesome and very Beatles-like “Ella Usó mi Cabeza como un Revólver” (She Used my Head like a Revolver) in 1996. Rest in Peace, Gustavo.
Motion capture shots from the original Mortal Kombat video game.
– EH
‘Singing Of The Bonesaws’ by Future of the Left
Best lyrics ever:
“I cannot identify the bloodied bodies of my loved ones
They were killed whilst watching a new television show on the MTV network
One were Kim Kardashian is chased through woodlands by a giant bear wearing a mask which carries the visage of recently deceased film director Michael Winner
The bear has apparently not qualified for a workplace pension and is angry with Daniel Day Lewis for what he perceives is a relative lack of action in There Will Be Blood (which he otherwise enjoyed but found a little precious for its tastes)”
On every bookstall, in every magazine, you may find works telling people how to succeed. They are books showing men how to succeed in everything; they are written by men who cannot even succeed in writing books.
This piece was written in 1909 and perfectly explains the bullshit that is the self-help book industry, evidently as alive and well then as it is now.
Interestingly, I found this on a tech startup-related site. Thanks to a gold rush of capital, the tech startup scene has its own pesky breed of self-help gurus and empty “JUST SHIP IT” and “DON’T BE AFRAID” mantras. (Check for instance http://www.startupvitamins.com/ to see what I mean.)
The Fable of the Three Brothers
(or, a story without a moral)
Of three brothers the oldest one left
through the road to discover and create,
and to never make mistakes or err
he traveled wide awake and very focused
on the ground on which he tread.
He walked like this for so long
that his neck was never straight again
and he became a slave to caution,
and grew old, wanting to go far
with his shortsightedness.
Hey, hey, hey… the eye that doesn’t look far does not help the feet.
Hey, hey, hey… listen to this and tell me, what do you think?
–
Of three brothers the middle one left
through the road to discover and create,
and to never make mistakes or err
he traveled wide awake and very focused
on the horizon at all times.
But this smart boy couldn’t see
the stone, the hole that trampled his feet
and he wallowed in the ground
and grew old, wanting to go far
to where he never got.
Hey, hey, hey… the eye that doesn’t look down also can’t see.
Hey, hey, hey… listen to this and tell me, what do you think?
–
Of three brothers the youngest one left
through the road to discover and create,
and to never make mistakes or err
he kept one pupil up
and another on his feet.
And he made it down the road the farthest,
an eye on the road and one on what was to come
but when it came time to summarize
his mind was forever lost
between the here and the there.
Hey, hey, hey… an eye on everything doesn’t even know what it sees.
Hey, hey, hey… listen to this and tell me, what do you think?
Watch Pearl Jam’s full 2-hour set at Lollapalooza Brasil on April 7, 2013.
And then there’s this empty pretense that these innovations make the world ‘better.’ This is a dangerous word. Like: 'If we’re not making the world better, then why are we doing this at all?’
Now, I don’t want to claim that this attitude is hypocritical. Because when you say a thing like that at South By: 'Oh, we’re here to make the world better’ — you haven’t even reached the level of hypocrisy. You’re stuck at the level of childish naivete.
