Derek PowazekThey may not be deep thoughts, but they're the only thoughts I've got.2007 with Bugsley Dante- (Found July 2, 2008 ) I almost didn't make one this year, but I'm afraid that after the last couple years of Bug calendars, he's developed a small following - especially one particularly excellent little boy I know. So if you're a little boy, don't buy it, because you'll be getting one in the mail. For the rest of you, here's a link....http://www.powazek.com/2006/12/000619.html Booma- (Found July 2, 2008 ) When I was 16, I became a vegetarian. Years later, I spent the summer in Alaska. When my friends and I went fishing, I decided that if I could catch one, I'd totally eat it. So that's what I did. I figured, once you take a fish's life with your own two hands, you're allowed to eat it. Last night I fired a gun for the first time. My friend Ford grew up around guns in Nevada, so they were always a normal thing. Me, growing up outside Los Angeles with semi-hippy parents, I wasn't even allowed a...http://www.powazek.com/2006/08/000606.html Love and Penguins- (Found July 2, 2008 ) There's an old story. I don't know if it's true, but it goes like this. Penguins mate for life. And there's a moment when some boy penguin is looking over that infinite expanse of black and white when one female penguin stands out. And he stands out to her. And then, well, that's it. Of all the penguins, these two are now together for life. A couple months ago, Heather and I went camping with some friends. One morning, we emerged from our tent, bleary eyed. There were a number of dogs camping...http://www.powazek.com/2006/08/000607.html The Kid Always Gets the Last Word- (Found July 2, 2008 ) My nephew Hugh is two years old. And, as the husband of the sister of his mother, it is my duty to impress him. I am determined to be the Cool Uncle. Heather and I are in Chicago for a family visit. We're all gathered at a nice restaurant for dinner - Heather's sister Claire, Claire's husband Owen, and their two boys: Eamon, 6, and Hugh, 2. Dinner is lovely, and the paper tablecloth is gradually covered in spent tic-tac-toe grids, doodles, and food scraps. I've noticed, in the short time I've...http://www.powazek.com/2006/09/000608.html JPG 2.0- (Found July 2, 2008 ) Exactly two years ago today, JPG Magazine began with a simple mission to honor the amazing work coming out of the online photographic community. Today, after six issues, on JPG's 2nd birthday, JPG has been reborn. Everything is new. You can now create a membership and upload your photos. Members can directly create the magazine by submitting their work, and voting for other members' submissions. And then there's the magazine itself: bigger, fatter, less expensive, more often, and, soon,...http://www.powazek.com/2006/09/000609.html Come with me to Denmark- (Found July 2, 2008 ) I'm going to be in Denmark for the next few days. I'm speaking at the ubercool Knock Knock conference all about community-powered media and what we're up to at 8020 Publishing and JPG Magazine. Wanna follow along I'm going to try to post updates to Twitter and photos to Flickr in a kind of realtime travelogue experiment....http://www.powazek.com/2006/09/000610.html Will Post for Money- (Found July 2, 2008 ) Or: Consumer-Made Media and the Almighty Buck Jason Calacanis is the P.T. Barnum of the weblog world. Barnum took a hirsute woman and turned her into The Bearded Lady. Calacanis took something as banal as paying writers to write and turned it into An Issue That Must Be Discussed. And I'm glad, because it is. If you don't know the story, here's a recap. Calacanis sold Weblogs Inc, a network of topical blogs, to AOL for a staggering amount of money. Then he was put in charge of netscape.com,...http://www.powazek.com/2006/09/000611.html Vote for JPG Issue 7 Now- (Found July 2, 2008 ) The submission period for Issue 7 of JPG Magazine has just ended, but you can still vote for another week. Get your vote on in Big, Self-portraiture, and Hometown! Here are my submissions. And submissions are now open for the first theme in Issue 8: Tourist. Let's see your best travel shot!...http://www.powazek.com/2006/10/000612.html I can't complain.- (Found July 2, 2008 ) I talk to my grandma most weekends. She's an amazing woman. She lived through the horrors of the Holocaust, and yet, every time I call her and ask how she's doing, her answer is, "I can't complain." She probably said the same thing when she was homeless in Siberia. In winter. I think, for her, to complain is to invite disaster. The same goes for happy, too. Never brag, or consider yourself lucky, because then it'll go away. It's superstitious, sure, but grandma Powazek has been right more than..http://www.powazek.com/2006/10/000613.html Magazine Thinking: A Tale of Three Communities- (Found July 2, 2008 ) One of the many gifts of our increasingly networked world is the diminishing boundaries between communities. And the magazine business is about to get hit by a boundary-blurring tidal wave. It's already started. What's the difference between NBC and Joe Everynerd on MySpace or YouTube They're all just usernames - each with an equal chance of getting seen. The traditional roles of content creator and consumer have been irrevocably blurred. Magazines, on the other hand, still have very high walls.http://www.powazek.com/2006/10/000614.html |