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I just got a spam promoting Apple’s Black Friday specials. I was surprised that the creative wasn’t Apple’s usual black-and-chrome motif; this one looks more like a target ad. Cool nonetheless:

Apple:

Target:

I don’t know where I came up with this idea, but I thought of making a trucker hat with the foam material in front, covered in little mirror tiles, like a disco ball. Although I already debuted the hat, I officially made it for a Vegas trip I’m making in October.

This picture was taken in my room, but believe me, it will look more P-I-M-P up in da club when all the lights is shining on it.

While waiting for the Yeah yeah yeahs to take the stage at the Fillmore last night, Verizon wireless had a screen projected on the side of the auditorium displaying text messages sent by people in the venue to a special address. “I love this band!!!!!!,” “I love their sound :),” “Hi mom!” and other inane, boring texts scrolled up the screen.

Rather pissed off by the blatant marketing scheme and curious to see if they did their QA, I decided to send the text, “Fuck Verizon,” to the number and see if it would make its way to the screen. The band came on, I forgot about the text, and never noticed if it showed or not.

This morning I got a text:

Congrats! You won for texting to the screen at the Fillmore, courtesy of Verizon Wireless. Contact Chris at 415-555-5555 to claim your prize!

I called Chris and he told me I won two tickets to any show of my choice at the Filmore. “You’re eating your words now,” he told me. But I wasn’t; I still have the same opinion of Verizon, despite the free tickets. Curious to see if he had the same opinion, I asked, “Did I win randomly or because of what I wrote?” It was random.

So I’m going to see Bebel Gilberto on September 9th courtesy of Verizon Wireless.

I made this logo and it turns out it’s an interesting juxtaposition of the minor pagan? holidays of St. Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s day. After making it, I realized it would make for a good color blind test since people who can’t distinguish between red and green would be confused here. If you’re color blind, you’ll only see St. Paddy’s day; if you’re not, you’ll see both.

Someecards.com offers amusingly sarcastic e-cards to either email to your friends or simply read yourself for a good laugh. With topics like, “confessions,” “cry for help” and “workplace,” you know they’re going to be good.

Some highlights:

• Good luck finding shameful entry level employment
• This past month has been the best long term relationship of my life
• It’s going to be a great first marriage
• Sorry my web browser history scared you
• The good news is that she was a cunt

This neato magnifying glass widget (loupe.js) lets webmasters add some interactivity to an otherwise static image. Pictured here is a profile of Homer Simpson. Peering through the magnifying glass into his brain, Dr. Hibburt (or you) can see the thickness of Homer’s skull and the scarcity of his gray matter.

Loupe.js also lets you use the magnifying glass to zoom.

Note: only works in Firefox.

Check out my animated gif skillz. I made the Star of David rotate and the letters sparkle. It’s pretty big so click on the thumbnail for the full effect.

Madeleine Peyroux performed last night at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa. I know, weird location, right? It’s a drive but I wanted to be sure I saw her since I missed her when she was in Oakland a few months ago.

She and her band put on an excellent show. At the medium-sized venue almost any seat is a good seat.

To me, she has always been somewhat of an enigmatic figure. I heard Careless Love one morning on KFOG while I was still half asleep and immediately fell in love. That day I searched online for “Madeline Peru” to find out more about her. Last night marked the first time I’ve ever actually seen her perform, since she’s not a pop diva and all over the media.

A big part of a show’s enjoyment is as much the spectators as it is the performers, and last night, the spectators put on a poor performance. It was all middle-aged north bay dandies continuing their Valentine’s day mushiness. At one point somebody yelled to turn the bass down because they couldn’t hear her, to which she responded, “Really? I was being loud.” My roommate and I played a game to see who could find a non-white person first; it took at least 5 minutes.

Madeleine has no say in who her audience is, so she held up her end of the bargain and put on a stellar show.

Below is an incomplete set list of the songs I remember her singing:

• Blue Alert
• Dance Me to the End of Love
• Don’t Wait Too Long
• Carless Love
• Everybody’s Talkin’
• (Looking for) the Heart of a Saturday Night
• Weary Blues
• You’re Going to Make Me Lonesome When You Go
• Half the Perfect World
• I’m Alright
• Smile
• J’ai Deux Amours

From: http://www.aharef.info/static/htmlgraph/

Last night I checked out three bluegrass bands at 12 galaxies as part of the San Francisco Bluegrasss and Old Time Music Festival. I saw the Spillit Quikkers, Belle Monroe & her Brewglass Boys, and Poor Man’s Whiskey. The show was early; 7:00 and by 8:30 they were clearing everybody out for a metal band.

I saw Peter Rowen, the star of the festival, last year, and he’s playing again this year.