Matt Katz - More Light! More Light!

Ah Venice!

MattK — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:16:25 +0000

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Free Kiera Wilmot

MattK — Fri, 03 May 2013 15:51:04 +0000

A young woman conducted an unauthorized science experiment with an unfortunate result. At school early, before morning bell, she was in the lab and mixed some common household chemicals in a bottle. There was a small explosion that injured no one.

She has been expelled and is being charged with a felony.

I am Kiera Wilmot. I was enthusiastic and bored in high school. I did unauthorized experiments, some of them very very stupid. I was well known as a smart person who did very very stupid things in high school.

I was not expelled or arrested, I was given guidance and understanding and was often yelled at for doing stupid dangerous things. The authorities at my school did not screw up my life by putting a felony on my record or kicking me out of school. I stand with Kiera and other troublemakers.

As a former troublemaker and soon to be parent of a future troublemaker I am very worried about the zero tolerance policies at our schools. They are crazy and would leave me a drain on society instead of a productive taxpayer.

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Adrian Younge’s time traveling music

MattK — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:32:17 +0000

People say “They don’t make ‘em like that anymore.” They are wrong.

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New up on the wall

MattK — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 20:17:48 +0000

Just got two new things framed. When Sam was little, her mom made her a cross stitch pillow with a scene of animals calmly gathered around a lion. We’ve put it in a deep shadowbox so it can go up on the wall for Secret Project Baby‘s room.

We also have a memento from Japan that we’ve never figured out how to properly display. We loved the idea of Furoshiki – little cloth wrappings that you can reuse. We bought a really nice one and, after trying some other approaches, found a way to really show it off.

I also just got some new panoramas from friends for above the dining table and I’m excited to try them out!

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Secret Project B – We’re having a baby!

MattK — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:50:54 +0000

Sam and I are having a baby boy! We are due August 2, and we are so excited!

This was our first introduction to him – but he’s big enough to kick now. Feeling that kick was a magical moment – I’m going to work so hard on being a good dad, and I’m thinking a lot about what that means. Sage advice is very welcome.

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Aesop Rock’s new adventure: The Uncluded

MattK — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:35:35 +0000

This is a good mix of soft singing from Kimya Dawson and the rhyme tornado of Aesop.

Also, catchy as hell.

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Do Not Touch – celebrating the death of the pointer

MattK — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:48:50 +0000

I like music videos that can’t be on MTV. The new web enables new art, and that’s what I’m interested in.

You should go listen and participate in this crowd-sourced video for Light Light’s new song Do Not Touch.

You will interact, you will be part of it. Go now – and I’ll be part of the video with you. We’ll play a game, we’ll be a mask, we’ll fight a boxer, together we will make a smile. One of those pointers is mine!

See you on the internet…

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Daler Mehndi – TUNAK TUNAK TUN

MattK — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 12:00:16 +0000

Oh, I laughed at it the first time I saw this video.

Some sort of captain-planet style arrangement of Daler Mehndi meteorite brothers dancing in a CGI hellscape?

Years later, I’m still listening to the damn thing. It was my first Pandora station.
Not just me. Here’s a metal version.

And here’s your soundtrack for your lunch hour: 1 hour and 30 minutes of Tunak Tunak Tun.

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Google’s “Blink” fork of Webkit is a good thing

MattK — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 12:20:19 +0000

Browser diversity is something web developers and designers moan about.

“Too many browsers! Too many differences! No one interprets css the same way!”

Everyone remembers the IE6 Pain, but IE was the first browser to do AJAX. Diviersity is good – that’s how evolution moves fastest. It’s also messy, but that’s evolution for you as well.

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Lunch Plans

MattK — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 12:00:02 +0000

This is what happens when you tell me I look like Charlie Day.

I’m fine, he’s fine, but I need help moving this stack of rolled up carpets to the dump. Quickly.

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Just kidding, nothing’s related to this.

A fire underground

MattK — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 12:00:26 +0000

A fire is burning deep underground where you can’t put it out.

Pockets in earth whistle and moan with the fires exhalations. Everywhere your land whispers to you that change is happening where you can’t see. The earth is churning and bucking like there is a beast trapped deep beneath, struggling to escape and walk free over all you love.

Your house is unsettled.

Cracks spider out from the foundations of your living. The pictures fall. Everywhere, the scent of ash, the fear of the beast loosed.

What can you do but lie in your bed, afraid, wake, hang the pictures, patch the walls?

Could you dig down to it? Would you put it out or fall in, letting the flames run through you?

Lie in your bed as it all burns.

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Just kidding, nothing’s related to this.

We walk behind you

MattK — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:00:45 +0000

We went to the Nick Cave concert Friday night with Rob and Sleep Goblin. You know how good he is, how much I like the Mercy Seat. This is his new jam.

The video really reminds me Clayton Cubitt‘s trailer for Warren Ellis’s Gun Machine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG_C8j_zQMI

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What if they tweet the whole book?

MattK — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 16:24:09 +0000

I’ve been sharing tidbits from You Will Die straight from my nook. It can share straight to twitter. That’s cool!

Just now, it told me that I had reached the “Sharing Limit“. That’s amazing!

You know what that means? In a conference call, someone said “But what if they tweet out the whole book?”

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Book Review: Packing for Mars by Mary Roach

MattK — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 11:08:05 +0000

Mary Roach’s books are just like her TED talk. They’re smart, funny and charm you with a total affection for her subject matter.

I’ve read all her books and so far Packing for Mars is the best. She is writing about the insane goal of shipping a few bubbling meat bags through an irradiated vacuum for 500 days so that we can visit a lifeless planet.

She covers it all from a people perspective, looking at the glorious business of being a person. How do we handle the boredom, the food, the farting? She covers the serious problems with poop, pee, vomit and also sex. The book is worth reading for the chapter on Space Hygiene alone. It’s called “Houston We Have a Fungus”.

Near the end, a final quote from Ben Franklin, on someone who sees the Montgolfiers’ maiden balloon flight and calls it frivolous:

What use is a newborn baby?

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MattK — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 22:24:35 +0000

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Just kidding, nothing’s related to this.

You can keep on calling me Al forever

MattK — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 11:10:55 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oNvd4J9KR4

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Broken Road is an SEO optimized music video by Numbers and Letters

MattK — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 13:19:07 +0000

I’m gonna brag a little and say I knew Katie Hasty when. She’s rolled with the Old Dirty Barristers and she’s good peeps. I had to share her latest video because it has stepped hard on all my buttons. My buttons might be a little cracked, so hard has she stepped.

This upbeat banger from Numbers and Letters is all about Kittens, Sex, Fail – the most popular search terms on the internet.

From their description:

This lyric video was designed to make use of the three of the most popular SEO-friendly terms: “kitten,” “sex” and “fail.” They are among the internet collective’s favorite things to search for. At times, they are interchangeable, full of meaning and without meaning. Congratulations, us.

This video was made possible through Creative Commons-licensed content and the contributions of Numbers And Letters fans. Cats cats cats

BTW – she does the right thing and cites her sources in the youtube page. GO KATIE! Buy the album when it comes out in APRIL.. WTF?

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Your art on my wall!

MattK — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 03:14:16 +0000

Dr. Mallin sent me this panorama from the top of Mount Grandeur in Utah. Now it’s up in the cloud gallery.

I’ve gotten some great submissions from friends – but many are too short! Please send me your highest resolution longest panoramas. Or don’t worry about it and send me whatevs. I’ll edit it to make it work if I can.

Here is what it looks like in the room. That’s Robin with River on his lap.

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Meat robots talk to horse robot

MattK — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 23:52:53 +0000

On OK Cupid, someone has introduced a special twitter spam bot to the pickup artist folks.

Big thanks to Sheep Robby for the heads up!

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Just kidding, nothing’s related to this.

Saying Goodbye to Wookie

MattK — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 00:55:38 +0000

This is difficult to write. Lil’ Wookie Katz is dying of lung cancer. It is not going well, he’s a sweetheart but he’s gone from 15 pounds to 7.

He’s such a good boy that it’s hard to think about taking him to be put down. But that is coming soon. We didn’t do the right thing by Magic, and he died in pain. We aren’t going to leave Wooks to that.

He’s going to go soon. One of the special things about him is that he’s a charmer. Everyone who meets him falls for him.

The vets have been writing notes to each other about him in their medical reports about how sweet and handsome he is. They gather to watch him eat. I get it. This is a very good boy.

If you’ve been charmed by him and want to see him before he goes, please come by soon and bring your best cuddles. He loves you back, unconditionally.

I’m going to send this out to people and put him where he belongs.

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Just kidding, nothing’s related to this.