Twins
Archive for June, 2007
New Manu Chao!
New Manu Chao video Rainin in Paradize! go to ManuChao.net to get the track for free and new album in September!
Surf Drama
The story goes something like this: Rip Curl hosts an ASP tour contest in a formally off-the-map killer mexican surf break and fails to have any charitable component to the event that helps the town. People associated with the event manage to consume massive amounts of local tacos and beer, but little more is given back to the community. Surfline steps in, a year later, to host another contest at the same spot with the idea of raising 20k to build a local hospital facility. All seems to be honkydorey. Unfortunately things go awry when visiting surfers try to enter the water for dawn surf sessions (not within contest hours) and local security guards get a little over zealous and start chucking rocks. Conflicting reports say that confrontations lead to violence. Surfline contest organizers respond a tad late with a white-washed description of events that fails to address the overly hostile security and surfermag.com and surfline pulls threads where first-handers have posted their stories. tisk tisk. Rob turned me on to the discussion and I added my two cents here. I’m reposting it here, because I think it speaks to good intentions of the organizers while bringing up the illegality of barring people from walking on a beach and entering the water in Mexico:
Hey guys, Rob emailed me to ask my opinion so i thought I’d jump on and reply here instead, for discourse. I’ve been living/surfing, full time, in the Puerto Vallarta/Punta Mita area for 3 years now.
Personally, if someone had ace forecasting skills and came down here and blocked off access at Burros (my local spot) for a two week chunk of time during an insane swell window, goodwill or no goodwill, there’d be a lot of pissed off locals. There’s no way they could even attempt something like that in Sayulita. Contests are ok (contests that raise money for good causes are great), but they usually have a window of like 5 or 6 hours/day, there’s no reason why Anthony Brown should have been stopped and harassed like that. I woulda gone straight to the state troopers for sure.
And now for my “gringo’s understanding of the mexican legal system” ramble: Mexico is different from the US, Mexicans have a strong association with beach access, it’s a part of their constitution and beaches are called the “patrimonia of the people”. From the highest tide mark to 20 meters back, legally no one can stop you from walking on the beach, entering the water etc.. it’s called the Federal Zone, and even if a contest organizer has local or state permits to hold the contest, they do not have the power to stop admittance by anyone, at any time. I’m not exactly sure if there is some kind of legal, federal permit that organizers can apply for, but I highly doubt that Surfline had one. This is my understanding of Mexican law, it’s a hot topic down here because of all the development going on, just off some really great formally accessible-by-land surf spots.
Surfline’s intentions are good, but the devil is in the details and somehow things just went fubar. Surfline should definitely make amends and publicly address the Anthony Brown story, fast, and on the front page. I’m sure they are upright guys and this was a charitable event, so to see it trashed would be a bad thing. Yes they got some things wrong, but the event concept is good and it attracts attention to a good cause (you don’t even know how badly small mexican towns need hospitals, schools and sewage treatment plants). My hope is that Surfline can tweak the concept a bit, work more closely with local authorities, get the details right and make this an annual event that forces larger surf events to think about having charitable components of their contests or risk looking outdated, insensitive and overly capitalistic.
just my 2 cents…
My response was originally regarding the contest and it’s merits, bringing a charitable component to surf events, which is an excellent idea and one whose time has come, but that the details kinda got fubarred. It was before Surfline put out any kind of official response and before threads started getting pulled. In order to have effective online communities, you can’t just start pulling threads. you have to nurture the community, ask people to not say inflammatory things and address concerns promptly and directly. Flickr has been excellent at this and both surfermag.com and surfline could both use a lesson from the Flickr folks.
There was a commenter on the 70% blog thread that said: “no good deed goes unpunished eh?”, I’m not trying to lay blame on any one. It was an event with excellent intentions. I hope that Surfline isn’t deterred and in fact learn from the mistakes that were made to create an even better event next year, in some little podunk town, might I suggest La Ticla, Nexpa, Pascuales or Rio Seco? I also hope they learn that deleting forum threads is the easiest way to justify the haters. Online forums are hard places to manage, but if you want to be host to a healthy online discourse, you need to nip things like this in the bud by being active and visible on the threads, as soon as trouble arises. Pulling threads just adds to the deafening silence.
Guanajuato
This past weekend, Marcia and I had some family business to attend to in Leon, in the state of Guanajuato, about two hours east of Guadalajara. Leon is kinda like Tucson’s mexican cousin. It’s not very pretty, but it’s got a lot of heart. Sunday we ventured over to Guanjuato, the capitol of the state.
Guanajuato is spanish-colonial era city built on top of large tunnels that once held run-off waters, but are now used for traffic. Allowing large parts of the downtown area to be pedestrian-only. This makes it thoroughly confusing as you enter the city by car, as you literally have no idea where you’re going, cuz, well, in your in a series of maze-like tunnels, you find a parking spot and a stairway up to street level, orient yourself and hope you’re not too far from where it is you’re going.
The city is a Unesco world heritage site and it shows. Guanajuato is one of the cleanest and most beautiful places I’ve been in Mexico. Small narrow streets and narrow angles lead to plazas in every direction. Expertly trimmed trees and park benches in everywhere, it reminded me of Florence or Venice. There is a strong artist vibe, we encountered painters, photography, breakdancers, musicians and the most bitter/sweet mime I have ever seen.
We packed as much as we possibly could into the 24 hours we spent in this amazing city. I can’t wait to go back…
read the fine print
so what’s the real cost of owning an iphone? including the phone, the cheapest plan (2 year contract) and activation fees: $1976 plus taxes. ouch! [via OM]
Nike Skateboarding
Nike Skateboarding v3. this flash site is doing things I’ve never seen flash do. and sweet design too. pretty amazing. [via the K]
Truth, Poets and Money
Don’t sleep on Ill Doctrine. Today’s episode: Truth, Poets and Money about Russell Simmons’ ridiculous Oprah appearances. Speak on it, Jay.
Stat check-in
Over the past month or so, I’ve been noticing something pretty funky in my site stats that’s actually gotten me the slightest bit excited. The percentage of mac users a month ago was around 21%, each week it’s been raising a point or two. I checked the percent two days ago and it was 27, now it’s at 28. If/when it breaks the 30 mark, I’m gonna take a silent moment to smile and be thankful for listening to sage advice and buying those shares of Apple, back when it was in the low 40s, all those many years ago.
Update: It just hit 30% as of this morning, July 4th ‘07. how high is it going to go?
iphone jackassery
John Gruber is diligently covering with hilarious affect, all the “jackassery” (i.e. negative spin, subterfuge) being put out by “journalists” whose stories are being fed to them by corporate weenies who have a bone to pick with Apple and the iPhone.
iPhone in Mexico?
I’ve posted a follow up article, that takes in to account everything we’ve learned about Apple, the iPhone and Mexico since this post was published last June (’07). I’m asking iPhone in Mexico users to give us a little feedback about their experience. The new article: iPhone in Mexico: A Follow Up. I’ve turned off commenting on this post.
Ok, so I’ve been doing some noodling into whether the iphone will ever make it to Mexico. My apprehensions start with the iTunes Store, which is currently not available in Mexico. I’m not gonna conjecture on why iTunes still isn’t available here. What is important is that you need an iTunes account to use most of the data features on the iPhone. No account, no dice. My next thought was that Telcel is a GSM network, but it turns out this thought isn’t entirely correct. Telcel actually has dual GSM/Edge systems in place. Hence, if you’re vacationing in Mexico, you can get international voice/data plans from Cingular/AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile that work on Telcel’s network.
The knife in the iphone-in-mexico coffin is most likely Apple’s deal with AT&T Wireless. Telcel, having a total monopoly on the cellular market in Mexico*, will never bend to Apple getting a slice of subscription fees, conversely Telcel would most likely demand a slice of iTunes booty, for songs downloaded over the phone and it’s network (if/when it’s added as a feature). Mexico is a huge and growing economy, but 99% of the country is still buying the subsidized $40 bottom-of-the-line Nokias. I rarely ever see Blackberrys here, they aren’t even marketed or displayed within Telcel’s stores and the Hip-Top/Sidekick is nowhere to be seen.
If there is a silver lining it’s this: iPods may be a total luxury item here, but I still see them everywhere. They are the ultimate in status symbol for mexican teenagers. The Motorola RAZR was also a huge hit (although it was subsidized), it was responsible for everyone and their mother’s mother re-upping their 2 year contract with Telcel. Telcel’s monopoly (and robust network) make people sign that contract without even blinking. Who ya gonna go to, if there’s only one player in town? I learned this the hard way: when I bought my first phone, down here, I payed full price without a contract and then found out that there is no other provider I could switch to even if I wanted.
So, to sum it up: the tech is here, iTunes Store is not, Telcel is a huge obstacle and I’m not quite sure if the market is ready for the iPhone. It may make one helluva splash with the fresas and the business community, but I don’t know if there is a large enough market to interest Apple. If I had a Magic 8 Ball, I’m sure it would say something like: “Dude, you’re SOL. Keep dreaming.”
Until the iPhone gets here I’ll keep dreaming, in the meantime, I’m going to NYC next week and I can’t wait to get my grubby mits all over one at the 5th Ave Apple store.
Update: I stumbled upon this post at mobilmag.com, in the comments someone writes, in spanish, that he hears from a reliable source, that the iPhone is coming to Mexico in September and Telcel will carry it. I am dubious, but I hold out a child-like hope that it’s true. I believe everything I read on the internets.
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* There are a few scrappy cellular upstarts including Movistar, iUsacel and Nextel, but all of them use some portion of Telcel’s network, so in essence they are MVNO networks and their coverage is dismal in most areas outside of the major cities (including mine).
Switch to iPhone
My friend Tim just started a killer new blog I Switched to iPhone, a place for iphone switchers to talk about all things iphoneified: likes, dislikes, loves, infatuations, features tweaks for iphone 2.0 etc… pretty cool.
Crazy Shizz
This is ridiculously crazycool: Theremin Cover Version of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy [via BB]
Krs-One serves Hannity
KRS-ONE serves up Hannity. Leftie politicians should be paying KRS to coach them on how to manipulate talking heads. [via hiphopmusic]
the biz and his sneakers
The Biz takes Bobbito through his sneaker collection. Hilarious! Someone should make a full-length documentary about Biz Markie. [via hiphopmusic]
ill doctrine
New hip-hop vlog entry on recent RIAA/FoxNews stupidness. Jay Smooth, the host, is like the Josh Marshall of hip-hop journalism. don’t schleep, foo!
You Must Learn
KRS-One explains the economics of being an emcee in NY hip-hop’s lean years 1996-2006. How he, Doug E Fresh, Big Daddy Kane, etc.. all survived, during the consolidation and movement from east coast to west coast by every major record label. and a whole lot more. interesting read. [via brooklyn vegan]
Dan Perjovschi
Question: if you live in a semi-tropical paradise year-round, where do you go for vacation? We’re going to NYC next week for a little big city r+r and to hang with my extended family. I was reading up on the current art shows and stumbled across MoMA’s exhibit of the work of Dan Perjovschi. Watch a video of him talking about his work, while he draws it, in the museum as people look on. His work is wonderful, can’t wait to see it in person.
5 Sec. Movie Review
Through default, we saw “Fantastic 4 Rise of Silver Surfer” today. lose the 4 and just get with the silver surfer guy. if they make another fantastic 4 movie, it’s gonna stop super hero movies dead in their tracks or at least relegate them to the post-new years holiday movie schedule when studios dump their bad stock. The surfer guy was pretty cool though. I can get with that. oh and jessica alba’s big, fake blue eyes were just too weird, again.
MS Surface Parody
Meet the Big-Ass Table. A great MS Surface parody video. [via waxy]
Aperture Light Table
For the past few days my sister and I have been knee deep, in Apple Aperture, editing down her hefty stack of photos for her website. Usually, I use ‘albums’ to order groups of images. Her vertical images need to appear two at once, on each screen of her portfolio slideshow (essentially combining two images to create one photo). Albums don’t have the flexibility to group two images together, in a sequence, so we turned to Aperture’s layout tool called ‘Light Table’. I was instantly impressed with how much more natural it seemed while ordering images, resizing images, pairing them up and laying them out into rows to represent different sequences. The unique idea behind the Light Table is that it gives me an environment, directly inside Aperture, to visually play with my images. A photoshop equivalent, would be to open a group of images into one new canvas and then to rearrange them based on their ‘layers’. Since their is no layer functionality, you just grab, drag and drop images into groups and order them. The Light Table gives me a sense of the visual flow a sequence of images will have and the functionality is 100% intuitive. The coolest thing about Light Table is that it exists next to my albums in my project file, it doesn’t take up any more space and there are no duplicate files to have to look after, it’s all just seamless within Aperture. Perfect, neat and tidy.
There is a small usability problem when using Light Table though,when dragging images to a portion of the Light Table that is off screen, the window scrolling is erratic and too sensitive. Before you know it, your photo is all the way at the far end of the grid and you have to drag it back towards your layout. As you scroll back towards the layout, you can just as easily over step it and reach the opposite side of the grid before you have a chance to drop the photo. This is even harder when using a mac book’s track pad.
I’m pretty sure the Light Table will have a serious overhaul in Aperture 2.0, it’s such an amazing part of the app, I can’t wait to see what Apple does with it. I’d love to see Light Table in use with a little multi-touch sensitive monitor (ala iphone), now that would be the jawn. Thinking about Aperture 2.0, my wish list for Light Table (for anyone who happens to be listening) would be the following:
- conformed heights or widths (being able to set a common height or width for a group of photos)
- snapping (when resizing images having the ability to snap the height or width to the underlying grid or to an image close by)
- creating new images from layouts (being able to lay out a group of images like two, three or four and then have Aperture create a new image based on the layout)
Quiet / Storm
So the clouds have moved in and the heat is on. The humidity is up around 85% and the northern swells have gone and we’re all waiting for the southern storms to kick in. The wave scene has been dead for at least 2 weeks now and anybody who’s smart has headed down to La Ticla or Nexpa, open ocean. I read one of the local vallarta mags this morning, that talked about storm systems on deck for this summer. They say that the eastern pacific is supposed to get 8 full fledged hurricanes and 7 tropical storm systems, dumping 55% more rain this year than last. It also talked about two dueling storm systems that are down off the coast of South American, at the moment. So I headed over to Storm Surf to check the 5 day outlook. Sure enough you can see the storm systems pushing north. And true to form, we’re heading out of town for the weekend. I have an inside joke, with Marcia, that every time we leave town, a swell hits.
Let’s hope this is the start of a very productive surfing summer.
Keyboardless iPhone
Great rumination, hilarious but true: The Keyboardless iPhone: Less poking, more stroking. on Core77 Design Blog. I agree fully.
