KarthikRam^2.0h

Yesterday's NYT maganize was a Green living issue. Most notable was a piece by Michael Pollan - The way we live, why bother?

If you do bother, you will set an example for other people. If enough other people bother, each one influencing yet another in a chain reaction of behavioral change, markets for all manner of green products and alternative technologies will prosper and expand. (Just look at the market for hybrid cars.) Consciousness will be raised, perhaps even changed: new moral imperatives and new taboos might take root in the culture. Driving an S.U.V. or eating a 24-ounce steak or illuminating your McMansion like an airport runway at night might come to be regarded as outrages to human conscience. Not having things might become cooler than having them. And those who did change the way they live would acquire the moral standing to demand changes in behavior from others — from other people, other corporations, even other countries.

For the past several years, I have relied on Pitchfork’s reviews to keep me abreast of up and coming Indie music. But, I’ve always had a hard time doing the same thing with Indie movies. Netflix seems to carry a huge selection, maybe not as many as GreenCine, but their browsing scheme is so crappy that I have no way of telling what new Indie/Foreign flicks have been recently added to the collection. So after a quick poll with the hive mind, I now have some resources:

	1.  Film Movement: You've probably seen their trailers in Indie movie DVDs. Well, they have a catalog of newly released stuff. 2. Twitch:  If you want to get more obscure, this is the place to go.
	3. Film Threat: A little more mainstream than I'd like but still cool. 4. Film Comment: A print mag with what looks like a limited online version.
	5. Cahiers du Cinema:  Now in english   6. and finally, GreenCine's own blog (updated daily). I think this is great for me because Netflix will most likely get the DVDs the same time they do.

I should start out by saying that I hate bio pics.  I'm not known to be much of a Dylan fan either. So there's no way I'm watching I'm not there. But I have to say that the soundtrack is just incredible. A lot of my favorite artists (Sufjan Stevens, Calexico, Mason Jennings) are on this album doing really great Dylan covers. First song I downloaded was Mason's version of The Times They Are a-Changin'. As I repeatedly listened to the song in my cold office over the weeeknd, I couldn't help but think how the lyrics, originally mean't to echo the political sentiments in the 60s, could be an appropriate warning for global warming/sea level rise.

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'

Or, I just have a really twisted interpretation of what songs mean. PS: It was weird that the next song on my "shuffle" was Mason's Be here now

Yesterday I finally got around to seeing the much talked about typography documentary, Helvetica. It was a bit slow but I really enjoyed seeing how a typeface so common (it’s practically on every store sign, airline and automobile; Heck even your IRS tax forms) has so many political connotations (modernists love it and post-modernists equate it to the Vietnam War). I have to admit that I am bit of a font geek and I never (consciously) realized how much it’s a part of brand identity. In fact I spent all afternoon biking around town looking at the different fonts used on store signs. Typographers see inspiration everywhere. Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix is said to contain many cool typefaces (I haven't seen it yet) that the design observer ran a article on it  (here's a slide show featuring 23 typefaces from the movie).
One of the designers [interviewed in the documentary] brings about an interesting point. Agencies like the EPA and many evil corporation use Helvetica for its nice clean look to convey the “we’re not that evil” image. The Helvetica tag on flickr has many examples of it's widespread use.
Michael Beirut, also featured in the documentary, has some advice on how to choose a typeface. Also check out ilovetypography.com

PS: If you don't want to wait for the DVD, you can watch it instantly on Netflix (assuming you're a member of course).