Jeremy Livingston

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gregpuciato:

Check out this Van Halen rehearsal picture from the early eighties. Eddie’s got SEVEN CABS that each look like total dog shit and Mike has FIVE AMPEG HEADS. Dave is singing into the same mic as Mike with SUSPENDERS ON and Alex has a double kick drum and not just some double pedal on the same drum. Rock n roll should always be like this. I hate that people lose touch with the “WE NEED TO BE AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE” attitude that they had when they were like 15. You should plug everything you can find in and string it all together and your shit should sound like a planet sized garbage truck with a jet engine…if that sound was coming out of a colossal megaphone right next to your face. 

Edit: There are also a bunch of beer cans strewn around the room, and a half empty bottle of bourbon on the ground. Dave also only has one shoe on, and Mike is clearly wearing girl bellbottoms. This picture is like the back of one of those “Highlights” magazines where you gotta find random shit. 

EDIT NUMBER TWO! : It was also just pointed out that there is a fucking FIRE EXTINGUISHER attached to the kick drum. I love knowing that a fire was a real possibility that crossed their minds due either to the fact that:  A) they were smoking so many drugs, or B) behind that wall of amps Eddie has like 400 random wires and connectors, half of which are spliced together or held together with tape or chewed up gum, and that that rat nest of cables occasionally smells like a burning plastic bowl of hair, or C) both A and B are correct answers

THIRD AND FINAL EDIT: Is that a GAS MASK attached to the large rack tom? And there are what appears to be two oranges or tomatoes or something lying on the floor in front of one of the kick drums…this picture is a visual cornucopia of insanity. According to Steve Evetts(DEP producer/human rock and roll encyclopedia), this picture was from the “Van Halen II” recording sessions, which were in December 1978-January 1979. Roth’s right foot is broken from landing wrong from a jump split that he was photographed for for the back of the album cover. Also…according to Steve…this album was TRACKED/DONE FULLY LIVE and they used everything except the vocals in the recording. SICK.

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The Human Abstract’s “Digital Veil”

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Protest the Hero’s “C’est La Vie”

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balanon:

Please be true.

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porpoisepants:

Definitive proof that cats do not have X-ray vision.

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justinrampage:

Either  Shredder has given up or this is a trap for the Turtles. 

(via punkypeeps)

Tumblr vs. Wordpress: My experience so far

As I round the first week of maintaining my Tumblr blog, I feel obligated to illustrate my experience in hopes that it will help anyone choose their blogging platform.

Firstly, let me preface this post with a disclaimer: The two choices that I am comparing can appeal to vastly different audiences. I am writing this comparison from my perspective as a daily web user who is well-versed designing, creating, and maintaining web sites.

What are you comparing?

I will be comparing Wordpress and Tumblr, two incredibly different (albeit awesome) blogging solutions.

Wordpress, in my opinion, is more geared toward the serious blogger. It has a ton of configuration options, allows fully customizable posts and pages, and even has a full permissions interface with different access levels.

Tumblr, on the other hand, takes the get-it-done approach. It isn’t nearly as robust, but it does a wonderful job at simplifying the process of communicating your content.

So what’s the best solution for me?

“Best solution” is a relative term. I know, that’s not the answer that you wanted to hear, but it’s true: Both platforms offer such different experiences that it’s difficult to choose a victor without some background.

Let’s cover what each platform does better than its counterpart:

Wordpress:

1. Create complex interfaces with ease - Not only is Wordpress’s WYSIWYG editor superior, but the ease of uploading images, defining layout elements, and including custom styles is much less of a headache.
2. Allow your readers to comment - You heard correctly. Tumblr doesn’t include any native comment support in its interface. You won’t benefit from hearing what your readers think of your posts (at least not as effectively).
3. Host your own site - This is another major selling point for me. I can install Wordpress wherever the heck I’d like. This means that I can control any system issues (or work them out with my hosting provider) — I don’t have to hope that the shared servers stay online or stop lagging.

Tumblr:

1. Reach your audience with ease - As a result of Tumblr’s friend-feed interface, your readers are more apt to see your posts while simply signing into their accounts. Promoting your content isn’t as crucial in this case, though you can automatically create links on your favorite social networking sites when you post.
2. Post your stuff quickly - Tumblr’s interface is simple; there’s no debating that. After signing in, you’re greeted with 7 different post type links (text, quote, audio, video, etc.). Simply click your desired type, create your content (or link to it), and you’re done. This is a superb interface for quick thoughts or media.
3. Share what your friends are saying - Using Tumblr’s “reblog” feature, you can rave about that fantastic post that you saw with one click. There’s no need to copy content, link URLs, or anything else. This is also a wonderful way for your followers to talk about your content, though I’m not convinced it replaces a full-fledged commenting system.

And what about themes?

Wait, so you want to actually control how your site looks? Okay, I kid…this is pretty important. Both platforms, again, handle themes and interface design entirely differently.

With Wordpress, you’re able to access a crazy number of themes (so much that it can sometimes be overwhelming). That’s not to say that Tumblr’s theme library is lacking. There are a wide array of both free and paid choices in their arsenal too, just not as many as Wordpress.

My main qualm with Tumblr’s theme process is how difficult it can be to modify your look and feel. To add images, CSS, or JavaScript files, you’re required to use Tumblr’s static uploader, get the generated URL, then use that address in your code. This can be maddening if you are still in the development stages and are frequently making changes. Also, the textarea box for overriding CSS styles is laughably small, so maintenance can be a pain.

That being said, you’ll need to have a basic handle on PHP if you want to create or modify a Wordpress theme. I definitely am not the biggest fan of the Wordpress codebase structure (global functions everywhere…yikes!), but they’ve managed to make theme maintenance relatively simple for the non-programmer.

Have you reached a decision?

Kind of. I’ve only been using Tumblr for a week, so I feel that I need to ride it out for awhile longer to give it a fair chance. I’ve been frustrated with some downtime and slowness that I’ve experienced, but I knew that this may be a pitfall of not using my own hosting.

With that being said, I’ve really enjoyed how quickly my friends can view and share my posts. I’m also able to share what my friends are saying while giving them proper credit. I think that the community aspects of Tumblr beat out Wordpress, hands down, although I wish that I didn’t have to reblog a post in order to comment on it.

To conclude, I’ll continue using Tumblr in hopes that it satisfies everything that I’m looking for in a blogging solution. I’ll probably switch back to Wordpress if I find myself frequently unable to accomplish certain tasks. I’ll likely do a follow-up to this post a couple months down the road that talks about my decision.

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fugglehorn:

Best security hole ever: author publishes JavaScript exploit in his book. Amazon puts book text online without sanitizing the code. Web browsers then run the code, which is a Bad Thing. (via Les Orchard’s shared Google Reader thingy)

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Music Video for “Liar” by The Armed