Tag Archives: blogging

Bookmarks for May 17th

By Ed Fladung | May 16, 2009
  • Photography bloggers panel at New York Photo Festival
    hot off the press, video of the blogger's panel at New York Photo Festival with photo blogger heavyweights Jeorg Colberg, Cara Phillips, Andrew Hethrington, Laurel Ptak, Brian Ulrich. great panel and very informative on the current state of blogging, photo blogs, photography and blogging photos and photography. got that?
  • We Love You So
    Spike Jonze has a blog and surprise surprise it's quite good. well, actually, it's not just Spike's. It's a collective blog form a bunch of artists involved in the making of Where The Wild Things Are. It's supposed to be a peak into the influences and inspirations that helped make the movie. So far some great posts! very tender.
  • Pitchfork: The Shins news
    tiny tidbit in this wonderfully weird spat of news about new Shins music: James Mercer worked with Modest Mouse on the 180 Degrees South soundtrack (the new Malloy Brothers film). I'm really feeling the two songs featured in the trailer. can't wait for the soundtrack. In other news, James Mercer picks band mates for The Shins albums based on how he wants the records to sound (sonically speaking). Interesting way to go about a band, but sucks to be the guys who got booted.
  • White House Czar Calls for End to 'War on Drugs'
    "In his first interview since being confirmed to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske said Wednesday the bellicose analogy [of the drug policy to a war] was a barrier to dealing with the nation's drug issues." – I just had a "halleluja" moment, are the Reagan years finally over?! [via gancho]
  • The Specials 30th Anniversary
    The Specials are reuniting for their 30th Anniversary and going on tour! minus Jerry Dammers. also Fred Perry issues three special edition shirts to celebrate. awesome. I'll take the middle jammie.
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Bookmarks for April 1st

By Ed Fladung | April 1, 2009
  • How to Write a Professional Biography – Mahalo
    pretty useful article with good, concrete step by step advice. everyone could use a bio refresh!
  • grain edit · House Industries interview
    Great Interview with Andy Cruz, the art-director behind the Alexander Girard series released by House Industries. House Ind. is releasing a Girard type family and in addition to the fonts, they have released new tshirts, a nativity set, alphabet blocks, a children's puzzle, lettering and Marliyn Neuhart designed Casa dolls. Basically, a bunch of cool toys for modernist loving grown-ups.
  • how 2 shoot a water shot and line up shot | on surf photography
    this blog post is schizophrenic. the first part is total crap. i dislike posts like this. there's been a few, recently. instead of giving helpful, clear advice, the synopsis of part 1 is basically: don't ask questions and get a pair of balls and a camera housing and get out into the line-up and don't get in anyone's way. The author's writing style isn't cool in that old-school curmudgeon vibe that you expect from Brewer/Grannis/Servais etc… Part 2 is way better and (gulp!) actually helpful. Alex Laurel's part 2 is down to earth and to the point.
  • Labuat | soy tu aire
    sometimes the internet can show you beautiful things. this is one of those. takes a minute to load but worth every second. delightful.
  • okayplayer – Video: Documentary on Big Daddy Kane
    One of my favorite MCs growing up. this a 17 minute doc following a true legend of hip-hop. worth a look. incidentally: why does he look like Ghostface's older brother?
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Bookmarks for March 27th

By Ed Fladung | March 27, 2009
  • The Making of a Narco State: Rolling Stone
    powerful article: "As Mexico descends into brutality and lawlessness, the government itself has become a tool of the drug lords" – Short synopsis: frightengly underpaid police and politicians beg and steal money from narcos. And when the gov't steps up the drug war, things get wild. A lot of people have their hands in the drug pie. If Mexico weren't located next to a country filled with gun-crazy drug addicts, Mexico wouldn't be having this problem.
  • Global currency flies with push from Russia and slip from Timothy Geithner | Business | guardian.co.uk
    China (who is basically single-handedly propping up the dollar by buying our bonds) has signaled that since we are creating so much new currency – which causes inflation, which makes our dollars worth less and their investments worth less – has proposed that an IMF alternative be used as a new alternative to the dollar. This spells the literal end of any American empire that may have been and scares the hell out of me, personally, as a person who deeply believes that the IMF is a shadow world government – as described in Confessions of an Economic Hitman.
  • 43f Podcast: John Gruber & Merlin Mann's Blogging Panel at SxSW | 43 Folders
    if you're in to blogging, writing, or creating anything that deals with the internet, you should listen to this talk from SxSW. amazing and inspirational – "We talked about building a blog you can be proud of, trying to improve the quality of your work, reaching the people you admire, and maybe even making a buck (in a way that doesn’t blow your deal)"
  • The Big Takeover : Rolling Stone
    "The global economic crisis isn't about money – it's about power. How Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution" – great article.
  • PostSurf » Unfiltered Thoughts on Surf Culture:
    PostSurf is possibly one of thee most entertaining and well written surf blogs I've read in awhile. I usually go for the kinda blogs that post sentimental surfing schmata, out of focus trips to the beach photos and shots of newly minted retro kooky surfboards, but I have a soft spot for curmudgeons who like to air dirty laundry. Lewis Samuels can chew up some pixels and despite his irreverent, snarky tone his shit is interesting. Definitely not for everyone, though. He was just fired from Surfline for saying his employer "licks advertisers' balls" among other things. Interesting read. And dude gets like 75 comment per post. damn?!
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Four Years Remembered

By Ed Fladung | August 23, 2008

the surfboard quiver
the surfboard quiver1

Today marks four years since I’ve been living here in Mexico. If it weren’t my own life, I wouldn’t believe it. Has it been so long? Where has the time gone? Why isn’t my spanish better than it is?

A curious thing has happened along my four-year journey. I am no longer the person I was, when I packed up my stuff at the advice of my parents, put my life on hold and moved to Mexico. What started out as a “surfing sabbatical” of sorts became so much more – and more permanent. Mexico has changed me, probably in more ways than I am consciously aware of. If for some reason I where to move back to the United States, I’m sure I could fit back in to that existence with relative ease. But without noticing, the US has changed just as much as I have. It is no longer the place I left it.

I love Mexico – but in many ways I’m living in a country that is still not my own. I spend each day trying to immerse myself more fully into its magical culture but to say that I am fully immersed or somehow ‘mexicoified’ is not being truthful. I am still very foreign, which is not to say that I’ve failed at ‘becoming Mexican’ on any level – that was never my goal. It’s to say that I’m not quite American and not quite Mexican. The borders between countries are now slightly more arbitrary things, except in the hassle it takes when crossing them, the pleasant differences in language and culture, and the changes in infrastructure upkeep. I’m a citizen of both and neither, simultaneously.

Marcia and I are coming up on our two-year anniversary in December. In January we will welcome our son into the world. These are not indications of a temporary journey; these are milestones of the adventure of a lifetime. And so in some ways, the four-year mark is a fitting time to acknowledge that the “sabbatical”, as a temporary time and place, is over and the adventure is just beginning.
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On another note, this is my 2096th post on ‘Quality Peoples’. I crossed the 2000 mark some time in June, I think. I arrived in Mexico, in late August 2004 and started the blog proper in October. So, anniversary and celebrations all ’round.

  1. Clockwise:
    - Al Merrick CSI Flyer 2 6′2″
    - ATL 6′0″
    - San Miguel 9′0″
    - Roberts 7′6″ Funboard
    - Zippi Fish Twin Keel 5′7″
    - Michel Junod 6′0″ Singlefin Egg ↩
Posted in life in mexico | Also tagged | 16 Comments

Expat Bloggers

By Ed Fladung | January 18, 2008

Well, the secret is out. Yes, I’m an expat blogger with a keanu-style surf lingo writing style. This pretty interesting article comes by way of one of Mexico’s english-based rags The Guadalajara Reporter*. I was wondering why my hits had gone up two-fold this past tuesday, thank you cutnpaste…

Forget Lonely Planet and Fodors. Because at this moment, hundreds of English-speaking expatriates are not only enjoying new lives south of the border, but recording their ups and downs, travels and home life, good eats and unusual finds through digital journaling and photography posted on web logs for the world to browse. After a bit of web sifting, I’ve caught on to a few that really shine: the chosen expatriate blogs are easy on the eye, informative, and fun to read.

www.qualitypeoples.com
Ed Fladung lives and breathes surfing in Bucerias (just North of Vallarta) where he’s been, as his web/photoblog’s heading announces, on a “perpetual Mexican surf sabbatical” for the last four years. Fladung is about as güero as they come, with a shoulder length head of sun-bleached hair and a healthy beach glow. He occasionally appears in the vibrant, Technicolored shots of candid small-town Mexican life he posts — a click on the photography link in the upper right hand corner will send you to an online Flickr gallery which is like peering into a candy shop, sun-saturated rainbow colored pictures you could sort through for hours.

The photography is bright and entries light; his Keanu Reeves-esque surf lingo is endearing and readable. “OK, I’m off to go pre-book our hotels,” he writes in preparation for a surf trip to Bali. “Bummer, I was hoping to just roll up …” And of a boat captain’s suspiciously high fees, “I told dude that’s the gringo rate, that I live in Bucerias and I’d be willing to pay 300 pesos total. Dude said no.” Recent entries include movie reviews of a dozen or so films that passed through his “two horse town,” as well as an anti-Adobe Acrobat rant and several single photograph posts. Check the March 26, 2007 entry to learn how Mr. Fladung ran into members of The Whitest Boy Alive and Broken Social Scene at a local restaurant and witnessed an impromptu acoustic concert (with Leslie Feist on spoons and glasses).

Apparently, the article will fall behind a pay wall, after the issue leaves news stands**, so here’s a link to the full article, posted by Jillian and Malcolm from Dropped In, two firebrand ex-new york hipsters in overly designed eyewear (like myself) who’ve set up shop in the Yucatan.

I gotta say and the author is dead-on about the interesting phenomenon of dialed-in expats dropping out of the american fast lane, especially the twenty and thirtysomethings. There are some really killer blogs I keep noticing, Jillian and Malcom’s being one of the hippest, if for nothing else for their liberal use of dirty words.

and you know i love dem dirty words.

Edit: It turns out Meredith Veto, the article author, is a young expat herself and she has a blog. Go check her out, she has the beginnings of very cool blog and obviously well written.
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* no links in the article text?! tsk tsk
** way to go for luddite business plans!

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Tumblr

By Ed Fladung | November 4, 2007

tumblr

A new version of Tumblr just surfaced. Tumblr is a no frills, stream-of-consciousness hosted blogging app. It’s so simple and easy to use I’d switch to Tumblr if I didn’t like tinkering around with WordPress so much. For no coding, no web design skills, normal folk looking for an alternative to Blogger, Tumblr is amazing. The interface is so simple, and the user experience so streamlined it makes keeping a weblog much more of a casual, fun thing, like updating your myspace/facebook profile rather then adding to and keeping a tomb of past entries. Posting becomes a throw away thing, kinda like Twitter with video, photos, chats, quotes and links.

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SimpleLog

By Ed Fladung | October 18, 2007

SimpleLog. A simple (and free!) Ruby on Rails weblog application. Gorgeously simple admin design. WordPress, I’m looking in your direction. [via Partially Blind]

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Testing NetNewsWire

By Ed Fladung | October 18, 2007

nnwAfter 3+ years of Bloglines, I’m finally getting fed up with its web based approach (images failing to load, repeated posts, no dedicated ‘clippings’ feature etc…). I’ve resisted NetNewsWire in the past, because of its inability to display several feeds at once, I think NNW refers to it as the ‘combined’ view (this is also why I don’t use NewsFire). Well, now that combined view is working, I’m testing NNW out to make the jump. There are a few nit picky things I can’t get past:

  • While in combined view, the name of the blog is smaller then the titles of the post. This seams trivial but I’m stuck on it.
  • It seems that the style sheet switching feature has no effect on combined view. but why?
  • Do I really have to press command-k (mark all as read) after reading a folder of feeds? NNW doesn’t just mark them as ‘read’ after I’ve hit the bottom of the feed scroll pane?
  • It seems the only way to delete a ‘clipping’ is by having to go to “News > Delete Clipping…” am I correct? and what’s up with the unnecessary “…”

Have any other tips for using NNW and integrating MarsEdit as well? drop it on me.

ps. For those of you using NNW in conjunction with MarsEdit (with WordPress), what do you do about wp tags, technorati tags and other custom fields?

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Gawker Media Newsroom Cam

By Ed Fladung | October 5, 2007

The Gawker Media newsroom has a webcam. If you ever wanted to be a blogger, this will most certainly turn you off the trade. and messy desks, tsk tsk. But I suppose that’s what I look like right about now, sitting in front of this computer. [via fimoculous]

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