Rick Webb dot net

That was awesome. Yay LJ!

Pictures from the wedding are here.

From one of my favorite blogs, NotHired.

The Best Resume I've Ever seen.

My comment on that horrible traffic-baiting hipster article from AdBusters:

Hipster is a meaningless term. It is, for every single person who has ever used it, the linguistic equivalent of eggplant. It takes the flavor of what's applied to it. It's solely reflective of the person who uses it. It is invariably negative. It shifts in definition. You've imprinted yours in this article. It's tantamount to trying to identify generation "lame."
This article might have been cathartic a few years ago. Now it's just passé. Hipster bashing is so over. This just reads like AdBusters is trying to be the Gartner of counterculture, lobbing out ill-conceived portraits of various "generations" for PR Fodder. Unless, of course, you're just trying to catalyze the impending defense of hipsters. Because it's coming.

It never ceases to amaze me how everyone of my generation (I assume you're an old fart like me) loves to rag on the next one, even though we didn't do JACK SHIT. I could go on and on about their greater political engagement, their better music, their better art, their better drugs, their racial harmony, their comfort with their sexuality. And I will one day (in three weeks when it becomes hip). But seriously. What did WE do? Invent hip hop? Sure. Our whole generation does seem to rush to take credit for that.

And, finally. I'm old, fat and use a car service to get around, but if you stop and think about it, a fixed gear bike with brakes on it is kind of awesome on like three different levels. Have you ever tried to stop one of those things?

Question: What song do you listen to these days when you're depressed?

Hey look - Thrillist came to Boston.

Thoughts? Anyone check it out yet?

I'm mass-emailing you because I love you. Please read on...

After several months of preparation and a long editor hunt, Thrillist Boston is finally live.
I know everyone is crazy busy, but this is a big deal for us. If you can spare a minute or two, any help in spreading the word to your Boston people would be hugely appreciated. I'd also love to have you on the list as well!

Thanks again for your support these past two and a half years and I hope you enjoy the new offerings as much (or as
little) as you do our NY, LA, SF, Chicago, Vegas and Nation emails.

To sign up, go here: http://www.thrillist.com/join-up.html?Sub_Bos
To send a Boston invite, use this form: http://www.thrillist.com/invite-friends-pop.html?bos
To read about Thrillist Boston, check this out: http://www.thrillist.com/archives/2008/06/boston_is_here_.html

Thanks again,

Ben

Hey does anyone know some good ethernet wiring people in boston?

Vote For Eva! She's in some funny date auction for charity, that apparently involves, um, voting on line? AWKWARD. Anyway, help her out, will ya?

Thank you!

Okay. I am turning 37.

Should you live in Boston, please come to Eastern Standard, Tuesday, May 6, 2008, at the 9 PM hour to wish me a happy birthday. It will be fun.

Should you live in New York, please come to Bar Lolita, on Broome and Allen, Wednesday, May 7, 2008, at the 9 PM hour to wish me a happy birthday. It will be fun.

Your fun will ease my depression at turning old.

Thank you. It will be lovely to see you.

Coachella 2008 photos!

And....

the new website is really, finally live.

Wow, that only took nine months.

Let me know what you think!

OMG totally check out our new website! Man, we worked hard on this one. Tell me what you think!

So I started using Mint.com and it is AWESOME. I don't really have any spending problems in life, but it's nice to see, in chart form, where it all goes.

I'm a bit saddened by the categories, though, since it's missing two that basically all my money goes to:

1) Booze
2) Un-reimbursed employee expenses

Does anyone know how to add a category? Is it possoible? I'm using "amusements" for booze, which is nifty, but the onlyr eal one for unreimbursed employee expenses is "car rental and taxi" which mixes up with my zipcar costs.

Still, though, it's so awesome. I got all my accounts into it in like 4 minutes. I can't recommend it strongly enough. Thanks to Justin for the tip.

I went to Heroes last night, Chris Ewen's DJ night that now makes its home at TT The Bears Place here in Cambridge, MA. Some friends and I got to be talkin' about Man Ray, as we are wont to do when we're feeling nostalgic, and then emmascully said "I wish I could have gone once." And then it hit me: someone needs to make a virtual Man Ray! How hilarious would that be?

Wow, um... this is awesome.

I think PItchfork just went a long way towards making this generation's MTV.

Now if only it had podcasts and I could get it on my iPhone.

Lightweight, but really well done. And beautiful video resolution.

For the love of god does anyone have a George Michael fan club presale for Boston???

I bought for Madison Square Garden! YES! artemis is my date! WOO!

Woah wait... what? Anthony Minghella died? What??

How did I not hear about this?

Man, you know how I heard? By my Alexa Hot Searches RSS feed. I thought he had a new movie coming out. I was excited.

Wow, that's sad.

And he's in Atonement??? Man... I skipped it, even though I loved the book, because of the bad reviews and the general suckiness of McEwen film adaptations (Enduring Love not withstanding). But now I think I'm going to have to see it.

And this is crazy: "When Anthony Minghella died March 18, more than a dozen projects -- in film, TV, theater and opera -- were left in limbo."

Busy guy. And jesus. He was only 54. Ooof. Sad.

Minghella's rise to film dominance perfectly overlapped my high cineaste phase. I'm not much of an art film lover anymore - or, rather, I've learned to love the blockbuster. And I agree that "The English Patient" and "Cold Mountain" were both flawed a little, though I was such a bit Michael Odaatje fan back then I missed it at the time. But i would submit that "The Talented Mr. Ripley" is nearly perfect, and I would also say that Anthony had a mastery of the craft of grand cinema: he knew how to make a beautiful film in the way almost no one else could touch. I think that article's reference to all the help he gave other directors is a testament to that.

As an aside, celebrity death posts are always so weird, aren't they? It's like you're simultaneously discovering something, wrestling with it, grieving, paying tribute, and spreading news. And sharing personal feelings or preferences. weird. Still, though, the feeling of sadness we have is real.

I buy a lot of concert tickets. I have a pile of like... 50 sitting on my desk. I just sort of go through upcoming, my friends blogs, tourfilter, ticketmaster, pollstar, and the clubs' websites once every couple of weeks and buy everything I see I want to go to. Then I send Judi a list and she chooses the ones she wants to go to, then I find people to go to the other ones.

What I don't do, however, is look at magazines or ads, and I don't really pay attention to seats. I just pick "best available." Imagine my surprise, then, when the other day I discovered that my tickets for Laurie Anderson tonight at the Boston Opera House - a beautiful restored building, are row AA. Wow. Unexpected bonus!

This will, however, make it pretty much impossible to sneak out for Thurston Moore's band that's opening for the Boredoms tonight. Ahh well. Giveth and taketh away.

Part 2 of my SXSW pictures, featuring the rest of SXSW interactive, esp. but not limited to the Big Digg Shindig, and the first two days of SXSW music, before some meanie at Stubb's told me I couldn't take my camera into the venue, so I started leaving it at my hotel, where it would be, ahem, safe.

I'm sure you've all heard about Arthur C. Clarke's passing, which is very sad for me, since he was my favorite author as a child - I've probably read 30 or 40 of his books (Childhood's End and Fountains of Paradise being my favorites).

One thing I found interesting today while reading his NYT Obit - he was born in Minehead, Somerset, England, where I've visited for the past two Decembers for All Tomorrow's Parties. I'll be sure to pour out a 40 of Carlsberg for him next time I'm there.