Writings

Gosh how I love Adam Lisagor and I really love Sandwich Video.

With Marco Arment’s piece on Apple losing the functional high ground gaining widespread visibility this week I find the timing of a recent fiasco with my iPad to be a perfect opportunity to throw in my two cents.

At the beginning of December Spotify released its Year in Music 2014 feature which sums up the top music and trends on Spotify for 2014. The feature also allows users to view this information based on their own Spotify usage. This is the second year I’ve used this feature and while others find it provides a surprising retrospective of their taste in music, it’s something I find compelling about using Spotify. Personally this kind of data is why I love Spotify and have adopted it as my primary music application/service. My 2014 Year in Music doesn’t conform to all aspects of what I would’ve expected for myself but it is an accurate representation of how I’ve used the service this year. The weeks and months following Riley’s birth were full of late night sessions of Rockabye Baby’s many lullaby covers of popular artists that was a much needed break from traditional lullaby songs which is why the winter months were dominated by the group. The spring brought about a renaissance of my interest in The City Harmonic when my grandmother surprised us in coming to town to meet Riley. Summer months allow me to open the windows in my car which requires the bass and lyrical thrust of Lecrae’s fantastic new album [Anomaly](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anomaly_(Lecrae_album). Over the last few months of the year with the Fall came a lot of changes for my family and a newfound inspiration to participate and enjoy life and not live to work but rather to take a step back and realize that I want to work to live. I couldn’t think of another artist that sums this up for me other than the polarizing Owl City. I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve debated sharing my Year in Music for fear of what it opinions may be formed about my own taste in music but over the last few weeks I’ve come to find that I’m confident in my taste in music and find it to be one of my favorite things to discover and write about.

I’ve always seen Project 365 as a daunting thing to try. There are a few people I follow online that have participated in years past and I’ve never been willing to challenge myself to give it a try. Stephen Hackett provides a good description of what I’ve always assumed as an observer:

Casey Liss posted a few of his favorite Christmas albums last week. Two of them have been getting plenty of play this year on the Sonos at Carole’s1 house the last few weeks and all three are in my Christmas playlist on Spotify. You won’t find many of the typical artists in this playlist as I find that they get a ton of radio, film and public play when you’re out and about for the holidays. If you’re looking for a couple hundred new Christmas songs to enjoy this holiday season you should give my playlist a listen.

Marco Arment on his approach to requesting app reviews from his customers in apps he’s developed. My strategy to get good App Store reviews is simple: Make an app good enough for some people to love it. By nature, you’ll lose some people along the way, but that’s OK: an app that strives to satisfy as many people as possible will usually only get people to kinda like it, not love it. Accumulate a huge surplus of goodwill from those customers with a combination of step 1, usefulness, delight, and adding more functionality over time. Make it easy to rate the app with a button that’s never annoying or in the way, like the Settings screen. This is one facet of why I love Marco’s apps and will choose to use them over others. The passive aggressive “Do you like our app?” which leads to two different options for providing feedback is one of the things that grates on my nerves1 the most in an app. Oftentimes it causes me to leave the app altogether to avoid having to make the right decision to get back to what I was doing in the first place. That’s a terrible experience for a customer to have and Marco’s advice is solid wisdom to other developers.

Joey Roth first came onto my radar in 2010 when I was really into tea. Kevin Rose sat down to talk with Joey about his beautifully minimal tea kettle, the Sorapot. While I really wanted one I didn’t succumb to my desire primarily due to the $300 price tag. Since the Sorapot, Joey has designed and released letterpress prints, self-watering planters, lust worthy ceramic speakers, and version 2 of the Sorapot. I’ve followed Joey’s career as he continually brings a fresh perspective on existing products and marries form and function at a level comparable to Jony Ive’s design aptitude. Earlier this week Joey unveiled his newest creation and it’s all about crafting the perfect cup of coffee directly on the stove. Joey has been working for nearly two years to refine the design and improve the functionality of the moka pot in a way that only he can. He’s partnered with California based Blue Bottle Coffee as the exclusive distributor for the moka pot. I look forward to reviewing this new take on making a great cup of coffee when my moka pot arrives in the next week or two.

I first found Bear’s Den through their Agape EP last year which was followed up by this year’s Without/Within EP. I was smitten from the first track of Agape which is the title track of the EP and the first song of their debut album Islands. Every year there are a handful of artists that hit the scene with a truly solid debut album. This year, I would wager that Bear’s Den falls into this elite group. While “Agape”, “Isaac” and “When You Break” were present on Agape, they’ve been re-recorded on Islands with a larger soundstage that incorporates the full band in a wider capacity and broadens the tone and pacing from what was present on the EP. Typically I like to see songs go the other way when it comes to stripping the production down to the metal and wood of an acoustic set but Islands isn’t over produced. It carries the authenticity of the London based trio’s talents into the mix of some amazing new songs to flush out what may be my favorite album of 2014.

Earlier this year HBO announced that The Wire was being remastered in HD. I had just started watching the show and was about 4 episodes in. I decided that I’d already prolonged my viewing of the one constant that came up in almost every conversation I’d ever had when discussing my admiration for Breaking Bad and so I kept watching The Wire in it’s gritty1 4:3 standard definition. I’d done the same thing with The Sopranos and thought that it probably didn’t make that big of a difference. The thing is that The Wire gains something from the way it was filmed and the quality contributes to the aura of the show in a way that it doesn’t with The Sopranos. Fans of the show are aware of this and the idea that HBO would be touching what is widely considered to be one of the best shows ever created brings pause to it’s admirers. This makes David Simon’s exquisite elaboration2 on his involvement in the remastering process calm many nerves and generate excitement from the scrupulous afficionados of the show.

It’s 75 degrees outside and pain runs through my body. This is emotional pain like I’ve never felt in my life. I’m driving up I-10 in Florida from what was my grandparent’s house. I’ve been with my uncle for the last week on an unexpected trip to help my grandmother brace for the impact of divorce.