William Deresiewicz on heroes

William Deresiewicz on the word heroes and what he calls “the cult of the uniform”:

Perhaps no word in public life of late has been more thoroughly debased by overuse. Soldiers are “heroes”; firefighters are “heroes”; police officers are “heroes” — all of them, not the special few who undoubtedly deserve the term. . . .

The irony is that our soldiers are the last people who are likely to call themselves heroes and are apparently very uncomfortable with this kind of talk.

An Empty Regard (New York Times)

Brian Wilson’s Disney album

From The Playlist, some details of Brian Wilson’s forthcoming In the Key of Disney. The song choices are sometimes spot on (“You’ve Got a Friend in Me”), sometimes cringe-inducing (“Can You Feel the Love Tonight”). The cover art looks to my eyes less like a sunset and more like a Disneyfied nuclear event. Yikes.

A true fact: Disney music has a prominent place in the Brian Wilson story: “When You Wish Upon a Star” inspired “Surfer Girl.” Another true fact: Wilson’s collaborator Van Dyke Parks arranged “The Bare Necessities” for Disney’s The Jungle Book (1967). That song is to appear on the forthcoming album: I wonder if VDP will be lending a hand.

Alphabetizing Safari bookmarks

I’ve been using Safari more often and am surprised to find no option for alphabetizing bookmarks. But James Howard’s free utility Sortosaurus does the trick. Sortosaurus works with various versions of Safari and OS X. Thank you, James!

(Found via MacRumors)

The F word (Find)

According to Dan Russell, a “search anthropologist” at Google, ninety percent of people don’t know how to use Control+F or Command+F to find text in a document or on a webpage. Read all about it:

Alexis Madrigal, Crazy: 90 Percent of People Don’t Know How to Use CTRL+F (Atlantic, via Boing Boing)

I’ve observed that many digital naïfs don’t know that Find makes it much easier to make one’s way through a piece of writing. Digital naïfs: my name for digital natives who are “in the dark, or at least in dimly-lit rooms, when it comes to digital technology.” More in this post.

[In a document, on a webpage: that’s an interesting distinction, no? The document being a repository, and the page being a visual field, even when it’s scrolling out of view.]

∞

[Parking lot with hairband. Photograph by Michael Leddy.]

Dangling appostives of the Times

In today’s New York Times:

A critic of conventional wisdom and an amateur musician, Dr. Schipper’s work focused on improving efficiency in energy use and transportation.

Do you see what’s wrong? Claire Cook’s Line by Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing (1985) has a good explanation.

Photographer David Plowden

Photographer David Plowden, on riding the last regular-service steam engine in New England:

“When I watched the gauge drop to zero, I realized that the era was over, and I realized very quickly that I had not only been photographing the end of the locomotive but I’d been photographing the profound change that was occurring in America. And I thought to myself, Plowden, you better get out there and photograph the other things that you remember so well as a young person, because they’re not gonna be here. And that’s what I’ve spent my life doing.”

Plowden and his photographs are the focus of an episode of The Story, Disappearing America (American Public Media). There’s a website devoted to his work.

*

October 16, 2013: I just discovered that this episode of The Story is no longer available.

[Thanks, Elaine, for pointing me to this podcast.]

The Grapes of Wrath, 2011

BBC economics editor Paul Mason rented a car and retraced the Joad family’s journey. He tells the story in words and a short film.

Pi Recordings

Nate Chinen on the story of Pi Recordings:

Avant-garde jazz is notoriously marginalized music, and the afflictions now plaguing the recording industry are well known. But through a selective release schedule, a careful eye on the budget, a thoughtful approach to promotion and, crucially, a sense of cultivation and commitment to its artists, Pi has not only survived but has also managed to thrive.

Despite the Odds, a Jazz Label Finds a Way to Thrive (New York Times)

I have a half-dozen Pi albums, every one terrific. Small labels are the only future for almost all the music I care about.

A related post
Abrams, Lewis, Mitchell: The Trio (Pi recording artists)

Dream jobs

It’s a truism of blogging that no one cares what you had for lunch. I agree: that’s why the photograph is so small. I took the photograph as a reminder that in another lifetime, I might have been a capable short-order cook. (Just look at that small plate.) Other dream jobs: soda jerk, stationer, traffic cop. Elaine is skeptical about soda jerk, though she does concede that I’d make a good sous-jerk.

[Lunch was a tuna-salad sandwich, fries, and lettuce and tomato. Fries made in the oven, with a small amount of oil. Margaret Mason wrote No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog (2006).]