if there was a prize given out for “most dairy products consumed in a single day” then i’m pretty sure i wouldn’t even come close to it. but if there was, today was a day that might make me quietly wonder in 30 or 40 years, hey, with some training, i wonder if i could have been a contender.
i also figured out a way to stream my sound card to my guitar. i haven’t found a use for this yet but i’m pretty that when i do it’ll be brilliant.
one of the people interviewed for the Helvetica movie mentions that he thinks that the democratization of design is going to end the concept of “eras”, concepts like 60s being the era of modernism, 70s were a backlash, 90s were the grunge, etc. the idea of designers as a closed culture, one that shares influences, and all know what the others are doing, is going to be made obsolete as millions of people start teaching themselves the processes, going into it with no knowledge of the past, and very willing to simply trial+error until they get something that appeals to them
i want agree and disagree. on one hand we do still see trends, things like the rounded corners of the first wave of web2.0, which implies that simple hivemindedness can duplicate the effects of single points of distribution and design monoculturalism. on the other hand, how long did that trend last? one, maybe two years? and what percentage of the world was affected? it seems relevant to me, but a disproportionate amount of my design exposure comes from websites. that whole fad was probably not even a blip in the actual design world
i talked about the same phenomenon showing up in audio and music culture. i’m not sure if it will be possible for a genre, a culture, to start and grow into an actual world phenomenon starting from now. there simply might be too many people speaking at the same time for anyone to be heard.
counter-example: dubstep. counter-counter-example: dubstep. yes it’s a genre that is clearly different and clearly new, but on the other hand it hasn’t grown a visual culture, it isn’t growing very quickly, and i don’t think it has lasting power in the sense that the things it came from (jungle, dub) have, did, and do.
not that it really matters much to the average person. we will have helvetica corporate brands and 4 person guitar rock on radio, and the average person will be perfectly ok with that, because really, why shouldn’t they. you can’t worry about every damn detail of your life 24/7.
an attempt to make sense from the song “only for the weak”, by In Flames
lyrics:
I can’t tolerate your sadness
Cause it’s me you are drowning (You’re drowning me)
I won’t allow (allow) any happiness
Cause everytime you laugh, I feel so (so weak)… guilty (guilty)
I feel so guilty
Am I forced to have any regret
I’ve become the lie, beautiful and free
In my righteous own mind
I adore and preach the insanity you gave to me
Oh, sell me the infection, it is only for the weak
No need for a sympathy, the misery that is me
I’ve lost the ability to paint the clouds
Cause it’s me you’re draining (You’re draining me)
I’m stuck in this slow-motion dark tale
Cause everytime you run, I fall (fall).. behind (behind)
I fall behind
And so I hear my voice again
The tale of the bitter man there I am
Shake the silence and hear what it says
The tranquil pride that become the lie
Oh, sell me the infection, it is only for the weak
No need for a sympathy, the misery that is me
ok, here we go:
you know guys… you, children of bodom, and everyone else in the scene: it’s perfectly ok to sing in a language where you’re not just stringing random strings emotionally charged phrases culled from a 14-year-old’s diary
CoB almost got their own analysis post, but what can you really add to:
You can alter your look
And diversify your image
But the truth seems like
A bitch slap in your face
don’t diversify your image, bitches.