...endurablegoods...

The Best Sunset Photo You Will See Today

PostClick

Neat! Picked up by the Young Manhattanite.
Golly! Picked up by SF Internet Business Examiner.

Math Rock Is Hard

Seems that iTunes's Listeners Also Bought algorithm actually works. An accidental find on Blip.fm, Giraffes? Giraffes!, sent me to the iTunes Store to buy the full album. While there, it was recommended that I check out a band named Tera Melos - which I did.

A couple quick listens and I was sold. Off-kilter, oddly-timed, guitar-driven, noise-ish stuff, Tera Melos plays a messy brand of precision post-rock that'll either annoy the hell out of you or offer a compelling, enjoyable musical challenge. They'll be at Bottom of The Hill in San Francisco on March 11

Check out this batch of covers - Idioms, vol I. My new favorite longboarding music.

Hold This?

An Interview with SF Filmmaker Jon Bowden

I interviewed San Francisco filmmaker Jon Bowden last week for my Examiner.com column. He came down to the SFSDF studios and we chatted about his film, the San Francisco film community and a couple other things.

SFSDF alum Guillermo Tunon and current SFSDF student Khen Shomron did a fantastic job on lighting and sound and Guillermo's editing skillz (yes, with a "z", dammit) made the interview smooth and look super-slick.

Bliss

Our Bags Were Filled With Fruit We Were Smuggling

Our Bags Were Filled With Fruit We Were Smuggling from Christopher F. Smith on Vimeo.

Hey! Where Are You Going?

My posting rate had dropped a few notches, I've noticed. Well, I guess I've been busy, mostly. Too many shiny objects darting to and fro. Rattles, rings, raucous revelry and riotous retorts have replaced the respectful reverie that allowed for a more consistent posting schedule.

I've been online for, like, ever. I'm going to take a few minutes to catalog where it is that I am online. Where do I have a presence? Where do I write and contribute?

Twitter
Relatively recent to this one. I avoided it until I got an iPhone - now it makes tons of sense.

Facebook
Another one I waited on but now don't know how I'll live without it. Everyone in the world is here.

Blip.fm
One of the coolest music sites. Become a DJ, basically. I'm a new user but will adding content rapidly.

LinkedIn
While fun to occasionally see who knows who, I haven't really leveraged this profile. I do update it, however.

YouTube
Funny story: I sat down with Chad Hurley and Steve Chen in 2005 when they were looking for a good PR shop. Had I only known...

...endurablegoods...
I started "blogging" on August 6, 2005 from the roof of my North Beach apartment. I use it for music, film, photos, writing and for my online portfolio.

Tumblr
Brand new on this one. The iPhone app is amazing and I'm certain I'll using more often. I have a couple artsy-fartsy ideas that will work nicely.

BrightKite
Never really got into this one, but I'm including it because my username shows in a Google search.

Digg
I joined Digg in February of 2006 and have contributed sporadically. I'm a fan.

Pownce
I never really got in to it. Apparently, no one else did either. Pownce folded on December 15th.

SF Film Examiner
I started covering the San Francisco indie film scene and all thing movie/video back in October. I'm bummed that they changed my title to Movie Examiner from Film Examiner.

AlwaysOn
The guy I met on Craigslist when I was starting Motorcycles-OK ended up working here. I wish I had more time to spend talking about Big, Important Topics. These guys are playas.

Adium
I use this for all my IMs. ID: endurablegoods

Skype
It's funny - I keep finding myself wanting to use Skype more but can never make it happen. ID: endurablegoods. Heck, I even have a phone number. Call me? 415.830.3712

Piss On A Wall

18th and Texas, Potrero Hill, San Francisco.
Seems like a good time for this: J. Geils Band - Piss On A Wall

UPDATE: Picked up by SFist.com

Making It As A Web Celebrity (aka: User-Generated Content Is Mostly Crap)

There's a good post at Valleywag about the fading promise of big-time celebrity driven solely by the web. (Which, much to their credit, they never called a "web-lebrity.") Basically, the piece talks about how difficult it is for someone to make money purely as a web celebrity.

But it is also another small indication of the welcome move away from all things user-generated. Not so much because of the source, but because of the quality. 99% of user-generated content is garbage.

I couldn't help chiming in in the comments.

From the post:

Advertisers only value authenticity when it's carefully scripted; the actual surprise of live broadcasts — violence, profanity, and sheer weirdness — is not a value proposition for them.

To which I responded:

"You nailed it. I think that this is another step in the welcomed collapse of all things user-generated. The initial appeal of perceived authenticity is fading fast. We're over it - now that we've all done it. Creating and producing quality (consistently watchable) content is beyond most people's ability. Entertaining is hard work. And advertisers - and viewers - are done settling for sloppy, incoherent, self-referential fanboy dreck. We are all not nearly as cool as we think we are.

I couldn't resist commenting again a couple hours later:

User-gen is done.

Good music, art, film, landscaping, cooking...anything of VALUE takes time to create, nurture and produce. Current "content" suffers from a thin and shallow respect for the artistic process. Art takes time. This stuff ain't easy.

Advertisers were attracted to the commotion of it all - not the quality. And now that the hype is waning, advertisers will take their $ elsewhere.