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30 Aug 2010 20:38

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About: New writer at ShortFormBlog: Everybody welcome Seth Millstein

  • Hello, readers! My name is Seth, and I’m very excited to announce that I’ve joined the writing team here at ShortFormBlog. So … there it is! I’ve announced it! In keeping with the site’s theme, I’ll keep my introduction short. My previous writings can be found at The Daily Californian and my own blog, Shermanesque. I enjoy politics, cities, workplace shenanigans and 1940’s film-noir aesthetic. I hope you enjoy my presence here, and I’ll now return you to your regularly-scheduled program.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 1 Comment • Permalink

08 May 2010 12:31

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About, Music: Sad news: The Saturday Mixtape’s taking a break

  • why? Blame it partly on Lala’s closing,
    but we also think it’s  a good
    chance to reconsider our
    short-form musical approach.
  • next We plan on trying different music features in the future. Our first was “Non-Expert Opinion.” We’ll keep you posted, guys. source
  • » Will the mixtape return eventually? Probably, but its form might change. We might also move it to Monday. Who knows? We might get lucky and iTunes will have a similar embed feature that uses HTML5 (hint, hint).
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 May 2010 10:03

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About: Taking the weekend off: Something about a birthday or something

  • Here’s the problem. Ernie wanted to take the weekend off because he was turning 29 on Sunday and wanted a break, and asked Julius to cover for him. Unfortunately, Julius assumed that since Ernie was taking the weekend off, he could too. He’s a pretty lazy robot. Anyway, so we’re taking a break for the weekend. We’re going to use this time to think for alternatives to Lala, now that Apple has left us high and dry. Back Monday. Peace.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Mar 2010 18:12

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About: We’re taking a break for a couple of days. Be back soon.

  • We love you guys, but we need a break. We’ve been posting on ShortFormBlog for over a year straight. The last day we missed was Feb. 2, 2009. And well, we have a good flow. But for purposes of our own mental health, we’re taking a break starting tonight, lasting until tomorrow, likely to be broken Sunday morning (something about a health care vote) and unbroken until Monday. We love you guys, but we think our posting quality will go up after a day or two off. (thanks Columbusneon for the image) source
  • Edit: We plan on posting today (Sunday, March 21) about nothing BUT health care. Everything else (including Ben Folds doing Chatroulette, which is hilarious) is off-limits today.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 3 Comments • Permalink

13 Mar 2010 14:00

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Music: Saturday Mixtape: Is Titus Andronicus the best of 2010 so far?

  • 1. It’s big, it’s messy, and it’s not really about the Civil War. But man, is it a lot of fun. “Four Score and Seven,” an eight minute track off Titus Andronicus‘ excellent second album, “The Monitor,” has a lot of everything, but doesn’t feel like a dirge. That says a lot.
  • 2. It’s pretty awesome to see Lou Reed used this well this late in his career. This Gorillaz tune, “Some Kind of Nature,” is one of the Velvet Underground singer’s best performances – guest or otherwise – in years. It’s a credit to Damon Albarn that he fits in so well.
  • 3. Man, we missed Ted Leo. Leo isn’t at the height of his “Ballad of the Sin Eater” powers, but he feels a lot closer to that point on “Even Heroes Have to Die” than he has in a while.
  • 4. And now for something different. We stumbled upon German pianist Nils Frahm earlier this week, and while his neo-classical solo piano improvisations aren’t exactly the kind of thing that will burn up the charts, they’re always interesting.
  • 5. Both James Mercer and Danger Mouse sounded like they were in dire need of a side project, and Broken Bells has proven to be the exact tone both were looking for. “The Mall & Misery” has a little of everything in modest servings – pretty pensive synths, calming strings, a little slide guitar, a little more surf guitar, and a few riffs that cut through the middle like a New Order song. It’s full of ideas, but none that scream at you.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Mar 2010 11:42

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Tech: A hat tip to our friends at Apture, and their latest upgrade

  • As might be clear to the people who regularly use ShortFormBlog, we’re big fans of the Apture contextualization technology, and we’ve actually been testing out the newest version on the site for months. However, and this is big news, they’ve launched a public beta, with some significant(ly awesome) changes. You might notice that the bar on the bottom of the site has been replaced with a branded pop-up bar on the top with really cool social functions at your fingertips. They’re really excited about it (and have some awesome ideas about context), and so are we.
  • » Want to see something cool? Select this text: “Elvis bananas.” Then hit Control-C/Command-C to copy it. You should see something really awesome happen. Just sayin’. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Jan 2010 11:48

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About, U.S.: Our plans for world domination, State of the Union editon

  • Over the last few weeks, we’ve been hanging out with AOL News/Sphere. Cool guys. Anyway, this morning we posted a breakdown of the State of the Union. We’ll be working on more stuff like this in the future – we’ll keep you posted. Thanks for taking a stray kitten in, guys. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink
 

23 Jan 2010 23:57

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Music: Saturday Mixtape: Are the sad-sap Eels not made for these times?

  • 1. Most bands who aren’t Spoon would take a mainstream-rock-touching victory lap like 2007’s “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” and push even further towards success. But Spoon is Spoon, and Spoon makes songs like “The Mystery Zone” (and albums like the freaking awesome “Transference“) which are challenging (and avoid verse/chorus/verse boredom) but by no means inaccessible. And that’s why Spoon rules.
  • 2. Pitchfork hated the latest Eels album, and we think we know why. The level of directness Mark Oliver Everett touches upon in the songs on “End Times,” especially “In My Younger Days,” is super-high. It ditches the wry humor and straight up goes for the sad sap music. And at 46, the dude’s quickly looking like an elder statesman of the sad sap set. Throughout the late ’90s, music this direct dominated indie rock (see Elliott Smith, Sparklehorse, and well, Eels). And nowadays, it feels out of place. In our opinion, though, that’s why we like it. Even if Pitchfork hates it.
  • 3. Speaking of sad sap music, alt-country guy Ryan Bingham is gunning for Ryan Adams’ mantle and might just win it, thanks to “Crazy Heart.” Bingham – who’s halfway between Adams and Bruce Springsteen – wrote the movie’s theme song, “The Weary Kind,” which is destined to get nominated for an Oscar thanks to the longstanding buzz the movie has.
  • 4. With a frenetic attack reminiscent of Dan Deacon (with way more guitars thrown in for good measure), Fang Island’s “Daisy” is the kind of everywhere-at-once tune we can get behind on its good looks alone. It makes us look forward to their full album, out next month.
  • 5. Are The Avett Brothers as powerful when it’s just Avett Brother? Seth Avett released a handful of albums as Timothy Seth Avett As Darling back in the day, and the band’s old label, Ramseur, re-released them late last year. “Some Bad Dream” shows where The Avett Brothers were headed even if it wasn’t all the way there.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Jan 2010 11:12

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About: ShortFormBlog turns one! Anybody want some cake or something?

  • Julius can now eat solid food! Today, ShortFormBlog celebrates its first birthday, and boy are we excited. A lot has happened in the last year, and boy, we’d love to tell you about it. Our crazy idea of making a blog focused on numbers, quotes and other short stuff has been nothing if a lot of statistics. So here’s a few:
  • 6,098 posts, including this one have been put on the site in the last year
  • 268k people have found their way onto the SFB site in the last year; neat
  • this is our most popular post of all time. People love Transformers, kids!
  • So, what’s next? Well, we’re gonna keep doing what we do best. Blogging and keeping you jerks informed. After a year of doing this, we’ve gotten pretty good, and are always trying new things. That’s our plan for 2010.
  • Any ideas? As you might know, we’re totally open to cool ideas, so send us some! We’re all ears, especially if the ideas are good and can extend our mission of giving the news in as short of a space as possible. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 8 Comments • Permalink

26 Dec 2009 17:02

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Music: Saturday Mixtape: The best singles of 2009, in no particular order

  • Lots of great singles came out this year – pieces of memorable mind candy worthy of (more than) a few minutes of your time. Here are a few of our faves.
  • one Instant euphoria, in just a few words. What else could you want?
  • two Crocodiles hit our Jesus & Mary Chain soft spot; they get in easily.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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