Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten Backs Brexit, Farage, Trump

Jason Tate Mar 27, 2017

Cynthia Kroet, writing for Politico:

Sex Pistols singer Johnny Rotten backed Brexit and called former UKIP leader Nigel Farage “fantastic” in a TV interview Monday. […]
He said that after Farage’s encounter with Bob Geldof before the Brexit vote — when the two led opposing flotillas along the Thames, shouting insults at each other — “I wanted to shake his hand because it was silly beyond belief.”
The “Pretty Vacant” singer was also asked about U.S. President Donald Trump and said he was a “complicated fellow” but blamed the “left-wing media” for dubbing Trump racist.

Sellout.

Nathan Fielder to Open Summit Ice Pop-Up Shop

Jason Tate Mar 24, 2017

Nathan Fielder will be opening a Summit Ice pop-up shop in Vancouver:

As part of his trip, Mr. Fielder will be opening Summit Ice’s first retail pop-up store at 138 East Broadway, in Vancouver’s historic outdoor apparel district. Greater Vancouver residents are encouraged to come down and trade in any Taiga jacket they have in exchange for a free Summit Ice soft-shell jacket and “Deny Nothing” pin. Donations will also be accepted in exchange for other Summit Ice clothing while supplies last. (Please note: any Taiga jackets collected will be disposed of in a manner deemed appropriate by Mr. Fielder.) The pop-up store will only be open for this one-day event, which will take place on Sunday March 26 from 11am-5pm.

If you haven’t been watching this show, you really should be. The Summit Ice episode is as good a place as any to start.

Senate Republications Vote to Lift Internet Privacy Protections

Jason Tate Mar 24, 2017

Hamza Shaban, writing for Buzzfeed:

The Senate voted Thursday to make it easier for internet service providers to share sensitive information about their customers, a first step in overturning landmark privacy rules that consumer advocates and Democratic lawmakers view as crucial protections in the digital age. The vote was passed along party lines, 50-48, with all but two Republicans voting in favor of the repeal and every Democrat voting against it. Two Republican Senators did not vote.
Passed by the Federal Communications Commission in the final months of the Obama presidency, the privacy rules prohibited internet providers like Comcast and Verizon from selling customer information, including browsing history and location data, without first getting consent. The rules also compelled providers to tell customers about the data they collect, the purpose of that data collection, and to identify the types of third party companies that might be given access to that information.

Who is asking for this? Is there literally anyone that’s like, “fuck yes, sell my data, please!”

New Interview With Bob Dylan

Jason Tate Mar 23, 2017

Bob Dylan did a wide spanning interview with Bill Flanagan for his website:

My voice cracking here and there wouldn’t bother me, bum notes or wrong chords would bother me more. On “September of My Years,” I didn’t fix anything. That would be impossible to pull off anyway because we were all in the same room playing together at the same time and there was a lot of leakage into other mics. You only fix things if you overdub the vocals separately and we didn’t do that here. If you mangle a lyric on records like this, you have to go back and start over. It’s a live recording. My voice cracking here or there just might mean it was recorded too early in the day, but it doesn’t hurt the overall effect, it wouldn’t bother me.

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Medium Launches Memberships

Jason Tate Mar 23, 2017

Medium has launched a new membership program. It’s $5 and I feel like Ev Williams and I would get along really well:

We invite you to join us as a paid member and to help support an ad-free platform that delivers the right type of content: the type that can only be created when independent writers and publishers are rewarded based on value rather than clicks. Medium will remain free and open for anyone who wants to share ideas with the world.

Like the idea but for an awesome music website you may be reading right now? We’ve got a similar plan and motto.

John Mayer Knows He Messed Up. He Wants Another Chance.

Jason Tate Mar 23, 2017

Joe Coscarelli talked with John Mayer for The New York Times:

Across four hectic days this month, as Mr. Mayer, lucid and optimistic, finished his big-budget new album, “The Search for Everything,” and filmed a music video for what he hopes will be his next hit single, he seemed to especially relish reflecting on his 2010 undoing. Recalling the consequences of those infamous magazine articles — in which he used the phrase “sexual napalm,” chronicled his onanism in horrific detail, referred to his male anatomy as David Duke and somehow separately used a racial epithet — Mr. Mayer was vivid and virtuosic in his self-laceration.

Apple Purchases Workflow App

Jason Tate Mar 23, 2017

Apple has acquired one of my favorite apps: Workflow. Matthew Panzarino of TechCrunch got the scoop:

Apple has finalized a deal to acquire Workflow today — a tool that lets you hook together apps and functions within apps in strings of commands to automate tasks. We’ve been tracking this one for a while but were able to confirm just now that the ink on the deal is drying as we speak.

I hope this means we’ll see even more integration and automation advances in iOS in the near future.

Heinz Running Ads Created by Don Draper

Jason Tate Mar 23, 2017

Heinz Ketchup is running a bunch of ads based on Don Draper’s pitch from Mad Men:

Partly a PR stunt, partly just solid on-brand communications, the campaign is sure to delight fans of the AMC show, which in July will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its premiere. And in a nice touch, the ads are officially being credited to Heinz’s current agency, David Miami, and to Don’s fictional 1960s firm, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. (Draper and Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, who approved the idea, are both listed in the credits.)
Heinz tells AdFreak that each one will get its own billboard in NYC. All three ads will also run in the New York Post, and the fries execution will run in Variety too. The ads will get support across Heinz’s social media channels as well.

“The Pop-Punk Coloring Book”

Jason Tate Mar 22, 2017

A second edition of “The Pop-Punk Coloring Book” is up for order on Etsy.

The book is 40 pages, 19 of coloring and activities, and 19 of information on the featured bands.
Featured bands include All Time Low, Blink-182, Sleeping With Sirens, The Story So Far, The Maine, State Champs, Patent Pending, Green Day, Waterparks, Twenty One Pilots, Pierce The Veil, The Summer Set, Taking Back Sunday, New Found Glory, We The Kings, Fall Out Boy, Simple Plan, Good Charlotte, and Bayside.

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Advertisers Seek More Control After Unintended Breitbart Spots

Jason Tate Mar 22, 2017

Jessica Toonkel, writing for Reuters:

Some advertisers are working overtime to scrub their spots from websites including Breitbart News, an unintended consequence of the automated ad buying systems that are meant to lower costs and allow for more targeted advertising.
Those trying to keep their ads off certain websites are finding they must take steps to verify the spots they bid for are where ads actually appear and that there are no third parties involved that can result in ads winding up in unintended places.

Another consequence of just throwing your ads up everywhere and praying for clicks: you don’t know where your brand ends up being shown, and what it’s next to.

iTunes Gets “Rent Once, Watch Anywhere” Feature

Jason Tate Mar 22, 2017

Apple have released a new version of iTunes which finally lets you watch your rental movies across multiple devices:

The new ‘watch anywhere’ feature for rentals appears to require iOS 10.3 and tvOS 10.2 however, although iOS is currently in developer and public beta and tvOS is only available in developer beta previews. Both software updates are likely coming soon for all users based on previous beta cycles as well as this iTunes release.

How Instagram Changed — Before It Had To

Jason Tate Mar 21, 2017

Harry McCracken, writing for Fast Company:

“A big change happened when we decided to go non-square,” says Systrom, who, with his close-cropped beard, chocolate-colored quilted blazer, and wooden water bottle, has a sense of style befitting the cocreator of a tool for sharing beautiful photography. The decision not only gave the company more confidence to change its app, but also inspired it to go much further in evolving the service. Systrom realized that if the company waited until there were signs that the app was in dire need of revamping, it would likely be too late.

Guetzli: A New JPEG Encoder From Google

Jason Tate Mar 21, 2017

Google Research Europe:

At Google, we care about giving users the best possible online experience, both through our own services and products and by contributing new tools and industry standards for use by the online community. That’s why we’re excited to announce Guetzli, a new open source algorithm that creates high quality JPEG images with file sizes 35% smaller than currently available methods, enabling webmasters to create webpages that can load faster and use even less data.
Guetzli [guɛtsli] — cookie in Swiss German — is a JPEG encoder for digital images and web graphics that can enable faster online experiences by producing smaller JPEG files while still maintaining compatibility with existing browsers, image processing applications and the JPEG standard. […]
And while Guetzli produces smaller image file sizes without sacrificing quality, we additionally found that in experiments where compressed image file sizes are kept constant that human raters consistently preferred the images Guetzli produced over libjpeg images, even when the libjpeg files were the same size or even slightly larger. We think this makes the slower compression a worthy tradeoff.

Impressive.

Opposition and a Shave: Former Obama Aides Counter Trump

Jason Tate Mar 21, 2017

The New York Times profiled the three guys behind Crooked Media and their wildly popular podcast, “Pod Save America:”

So they set out to mix jokes with insider descriptions of executive branch norms and interviews, often with people who can recommend political action — a protest, a phone-call campaign, an organizing drive — which is the sort of thing mainstream news media can’t do because, as Mr. Favreau said, “it would be picking a side.”
With episodes being downloaded up to 1.4 million times, according to data they shared from their hosting platform, ART19, they tapped into “a wave of interest about this president, a lot of it based on fear,” Mr. Favreau said.

A few thoughts:

Holy shit is that a huge number of downloads.
The podcast is one of the few I listen to almost immediately when it’s released. Jon Lovett kills me.

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Google to Revamp Ad Policies After Brands Boycott

Jason Tate Mar 20, 2017

Bloomberg:

The U.S. company said in a blog post Friday it would give clients more control over where their ads appear on both YouTube, the video-sharing service it owns, and the Google Display Network, which posts advertising to third-party websites.
The announcement came after the U.K. government and the Guardian newspaper pulled ads from the video site, stepping up pressure on YouTube to police content on its platform.
France’s Havas SA, the world’s sixth-largest advertising and marketing company, pulled its U.K. clients’ ads from Google and YouTube on Friday after failing to get assurances from Google that the ads wouldn’t appear next to offensive material. Those clients include wireless carrier O2, Royal Mail Plc, government-owned British Broadcasting Corp., Domino’s Pizza and Hyundai Kia, Havas said in a statement.