Do banks lose more money to robbery or to stolen pens?
While making a deposit at the bank the other day and realizing I didn’t have a pen in my pocket, I thought about stealing the pen on the deposit counter. This kind of little theft happens all the time, and we all do it. It’s like doing 51 in a 45 mph zone — we don’t really consider it wrong. So I thought, how much do banks spend in a year in replacing all the pens that all of us miscreants blithely walk away with? Is it more than banks lose to robberies?
Silent Sundays
A few months ago my roommate Jon Ammons and I were deep in conversation about something modern and forgettable and droll when we had the novel idea to resurrect a dead art. Namely, that of the silent film with piano accompaniment. We were not unprepared. Jon has a serious and longstanding interesting in films from the silent era and I have a serious interest in music of the same. Realizing that we were strangely well-suited to the task and coupled with our life of the idle passions of bachelor creatives, we set upon making this dream a reality.
I designed the posters, we booked a venue, arranged for a piano, projector and popcorn, promoted and procured press and pulled it off like pros. It was one of the most fun and successful events that I’ve ever been a part of without the aid of a well-established band. It’s a hell of a lot of work compared to the money I make, but it’s a passion project. Passion matters a lot in my world.
Thanks to all the people who came out for the shows and especially those who came out for both. We’re doing another Silent Sunday on March 18. The film is yet to be determined.
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Anti-SOPA Solidarity
In solidarity with Wikipedia, Reddit and other sites my blog will be joining the anti-SOPA blackout on Wednesday, January 18. Though I don’t receive a lot of traffic and my lack of presence on the internet will likely go unnoticed, I feel that this is an important gesture that I can make. The reasons that SOPA damages freedom of speech have been well publicized, but if you would like to learn more please read this Techdirt article if you’re a little tech savvy, or this New York Times article for those of you who don’t know what DNS is.
If you have a blog or a website, I encourage you to join me and Wikipedia. If you use WordPress.org, you can install a plugin that makes this very simple to setup. You can find that plugin here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sopa-blackout-plugin/
Style Advice for Men
Ricardo Montalbán is unimpressed with your efforts.
At risk of sounding like a pompous ass, I have style. I believe this because I get a lot of compliments on my choices in dress. Walking down the street I get asked for my advice a lot, or asked where I buy things, and do I always look this way? I’ve been caught on the street a handful of times by Asheville Street Style, interviewed by the Urban News, and regularly advise my friends on what to wear to meet Fortune 500 executives in China or on a first date. Fine, I surrender already — I have style.
And I’m into that, I’m into what is stylish. But — I’m not into fashion. I don’t have a well thumbed copy of the September Vogue on my night stand, and though I subscribe to the Sunday edition of the New York times, I don’t luridly gaze at the latest offerings of the major designers in the Style Magazine. I don’t care what’s in or what’s out, if it’s past Labor Day or if it was recently seen being worn by Lady Gaga at Occupy Wall Street. Those are useless ways to think about what will make you look awesome.
What’s the difference between style and fashion? Style is forever, fashion is for today. Style is accessible for everyone, fashion is passé by the time everyone identifies it. Style belongs to you, fashion belongs to wealthy hairless eccentrics in Milan that feed caviar to tiny inbred dogs.
