SKAGGS

As some you probably heard, Radiohead released there last album, In Rainbows, for donations only a week ago. Most people, especially those in the record industry, probably thought they were crazy. Well, the results are in - in one week, Radiohead sold 1.2 million albums at an average donation price of grossing roughly million! No middleman, no promotion and they exceeded their launch week sales of their last three albums combined. Brilliant!

There is a bit of buzz on the web about all of this. Seth Godin points out:

The thing to keep in mind is this: the value of the permission. The fact that the group now has more than a million people they can go make music for is worth many times over what these people already paid. If they’re smart, they’ll continue to change the way they work. Paying for their mp3s should get you into a club, a club with continuing benefits.

It will be interesting to see how sales continue over the next couple of weeks and more importantly what Radiohead does next.

BTW, the album is great.

Awesome design rap….. check it.

I’m a foodie at heart. Imagine my surprise when I found out that one of my favorite chefs had collaborated with one of my favorite companies to create the upcoming film Ratatouille about an aspiring rat, Remy, who wants to save an established French restaurant. A couple of days ago, the New York Times printed a great article about the collaboration between Thomas Keller and Pixar on the film.

Thomas Keller is a god in my book. No one comes close to creating the food that he does. The French Laundry, Bouchon, and Per Se are all top notch with both the French Laundry and Per Se being 3 star Michelin Guide rated.

I have this theory that Pixar’s movies are always about taking technology and applying it to one thing in order to make it as realistic as possible. In Monsters, it was about rendering hair. In Finding Nemo, it was about rendering water, with Cars, about rendering speed and motion and finally, with Ratatouille it is all about rendering food.

Thomas sums up more than just food when he says:

“It’s about somebody who is willing to take the risk, to take the gamble on doing something regardless of what the critic is going to say about it,” Mr. Keller said.

And he suggests people focus on the message, not the rodent.

“It’s not so much about a rat. It’s about ideals.”

This applies to design as much as any other creative field.

I look forward to seeing the film and to more of Thomas Keller’s food.

BTW, iTunes has a video podcast about the making of the film. It’s great and actually, sort of proves my theory.

I came across this article and can’t believe what I’m reading. Apparently, David Hockney has a problem with the iPod and believes the ubiquitous music player is contributing to a decline in visual awareness and even making people dress badly. What?

“We are not in a very visual age,” Hockney said. “I think it’s all about sound. People plug in their ears and don’t look much, whereas for me my eyes are the biggest pleasure.

“You notice that on buses. People don’t look out of the window; they are plugged in and listening to something.

“I think we are not in a very visual age and it’s producing badly dressed people. They have no interest in mass or line or things like that.”

I, for one, plug in my iPod nearly every morning on the A Train to Manhattan and still find myself peering out the windows of the train into complete blackness (very inspiring) or standing there looking at everyone else who’s staring into the black abyss. So what if I’m on a bus and decide to read the newspaper? People have doing this since the day that buses and newspapers were invented. Last I knew, listening to something didn’t require the eyes, however, reading certainly does.

Perhaps the real problem is with the television.

You can read the full article here. I have to agree with Ben Quilty and think somebody needs to give Mr. Hockney an iPod. Just don’t let him know you can look at pictures and video on it…

This is one of the cooler things I’ve seen in a while. Its not only is it a good concept, but its also a tasty treat.

Why can’t more ads be this clever…and this delicious-looking?

Stock Exchange Of Visions is a website which invites visitors to become aware of the future of the planet.

Through Stock Exchange of Visions the public can see and hear a series of interviews with artists, scientists, sociologists and futurologists - people who have a vision of the future and discuss culture, environment, resources, economy and society. It’s a little confusing at first - but actually quite cool.

Former President Bill Clinton is a 2007 TED Prize winner for the efforts of the Clinton Foundation. The video of his speech and his TED Wish, can be seen below. It’s well worth watching.

For more information the the TED Conference and more videos of past talks, see www.ted.com. You can also subscribe to the TED podcast in iTunes and you’ll get each new video as they are released. Great stuff!

A friend of mine found this on the consumerist. Pretty Hilarious.

Consumerist Flickr Pool member brylyn says, “Saw this while shopping for ceiling lights in Home Depot.”

For those of you not familiar with “lorem ipsum,” it’s commonly used placeholder text dating from the 1500’s. The text was created by scrambling words from a passage of “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Marcus Tullius Cicero. ‚ÄîMEGHANN MARCO

Whilst the PSFK Conference was an eye opener and inspirational, I couldn’t help but notice the severe lack of women on the panels, and I mean severe. Out of 30 speakers, 7 were women. Where are all the ladies at??!??!!?

I know I’m not imagining it and I know there’s lots of women doing amazing things, I was just a little surprised when two consecutive panels went up and it was all men. Last years Tokion conference had similar issues and there was a big hoo-haa about it all.

I’m not here to rant or burn my bra and I don’t want to focus on the negatives. I came across this list at Worship Worthy of Downtown New York Ladies doing their thing and I wanted to share, because I think alot of them really are admirable.

Google intends to scan every book ever published, and to make the full texts searchable, in the same way that Web sites can be searched on the company’s engine at google.com.

An incredible concept. Read the New Yorker article here, or search for yourself.

Update: Google even shows every place mentioned in a book on a map.