Chissà cosa spinge qualcuno ad approfondire una propria curiosità intellettuale e forse anche esistenziale sino al punto di cambiare radicalmente la propria vita e farne il proprio centro? E se questa attenzione è rivolta a un'altra cultura e a un'altra lingua, per di più molto lontana come sono lontani gli americani e i giapponesi, come fa a ricostruire il suo essere attorno a una nuova identità senza lacerare se stesso e chi è? Perché un discorso è il viaggio, un altro è l'emigrazione.

Negli anni, leggendolo, ho sviluppato una grande stima per Craig Mod. E questo articolo sui "pizza toast" è una finestra che apre su un panorama enorme, a più livelli.

Money quote: "When I first arrived in Japan as an undergraduate 19 years ago, I could hardly eat anything. Sushi and soba and natto (a breakfast staple of fermented soybeans) and eel were unthinkable. I didn’t even really like ramen. I had grown up on fried bologna and Spaghetti-Os, Fruit Roll-Ups and Twix. Japan’s culinary landscape of nuance and texture and procession was lost on my palate. And so I took solace and sanctuary in a small old-style Japanese cafe — a kissaten— near my university in Tokyo. It was there that I first encountered “pizza toast.” The name intrigued, and what was presented seemed like food you might serve a child. Perfect. For me, it became a bridge between where I had been and where I was to go. I didn’t think much of it then; it was just a food I knew I could reliably eat, and the kissa itself acted as a kind of buffer zone, a beacon of comfort, where I could drink black coffee and smoke and read novels.

Years later, in an effort to deepen my connection with the country, I began to embark on a number of exploratory, anthropological walks throughout Japan. I’ve traced the paths of old Japanese haiku poets into the north, and documented some of the pilgrimage paths of central Japan. I’ve partaken in rituals with “mountain ascetics” and walked their secret mountain routes. I speak the language, converse easily with the locals, and have found the combination of language, walking alone, and chatting up strangers to be a kind of skeleton key into the minds and lives of the people of Japan."

https://www.eater.com/2019/12/16/21003452/japan-kissaten-traditional-cafes-pizza-toast-travel

Le bandiere sono una invenzione relativamente recente e poterle incendiare o abusare in altro modo (nel senso che gli diamo adesso) è un'idea altrettanto recente

Money quote: "Flags have several advantages over effigies. They’re cheaper and easier to acquire than a reasonable likeness of a human—and fairly flammable, depending on material. Flag burning really became a go-to tactic in the United States in the 1960s, during the Vietnam War, but around the world, burning a flag has long been a simple, effective means of protesting a federal government.

Governments have some stake in this, as flag burning is most obviously a form of protest against them, often conducted by persecuted minority groups as a means to raise awareness (or by irate people in another nation). Governments don’t generally want negative publicity, or people angrily pointing out their shortcomings. In that sense, banning the action is not so different from actively breaking up a protest march with tear gas or worse. “If it’s a crime to burn the flag because it’s the flag, the only reason the government is doing that is because it disagrees with the message the protester is trying to convey,” says Brian Hauss, a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union who focuses on free speech issues."

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/flag-desecration-laws

Per quelli di noi che passano parte del loro tempo dentro Slack, nel tempo è cambiata l'interfaccia (un po' di volte). Qui il responsabile un po' di tempo fa spiegava come mai si decidono i cambiamenti e come fanno a farli. Più o meno ha senso.

Money quote: "There are emoji for showing your feelings, hashtags for channels and @ symbols for mentions — the kind of visual lexicon that has existed on various social platforms for more than a decade. A text box at the bottom of the interface almost begs to be typed in. For anyone with a half-working FOMO detector, there’s little chance of not jumping into the fray.

Capitalization, and the rules of English grammar, are clearly not Slack’s priority. In style and tone, it reminds one, above all, of an amusing text thread with some college buddies. Office conversations in a channel can quickly morph from the merits of the Oxford comma to weekly goals, to sourdough starters. And when somebody sends something important, a search bar at the top of the interface makes it easy to find later."

https://builtin.com/design-ux/slack-user-testing-redesign

È uscita Tilde ~ 22, la terza puntata della seconda stagione!

Titolo: Allenare la creatività; Twitter e identità online; sceneggiare fumetti, raccontare storie.

"Fare lezione stanca, ma anche scrivere: eppure la creatività non si esaurisce mai. E poi un giro di tavolo sui social, tra quelli che ci piacciono e quelli che anche no."

→ tilde ~ su Spotify
→ tilde ~ su Apple Podcast
→ tilde ~ su Google Podcast

Potete ascoltare il podcast da Spotify, Google Podcast o Apple Podcast, oppure dal sito: tilde.show. Buon ascolto e buon venerdì!

P.S. Anche la copertina di questa puntata è stata generata da Dall-E. Descrizione "two old men in front of a microphone like a moebius paint".

A scuola di clickbait. Questa volta ci pensa la NPR, la radio pubblica americana. Che fa un articolo dall'intrigante titolo "Apple's Scary Buying Power And The Woman Who Named It". Perché se metti Apple nel titolo, la gente clicca. Peccato che poi sia un articolo di storia aneddotica dell'economia, che parla di una donna vissuta decenni prima e che con Apple non c'entra in reltà niente. Ma neanche c'entra niente Apple in quanto tale: ci sono altri diecimila esempi che si possono fare ben più pregnanti. Quella di Apple insomma è solo una scusa.

Money quote: "If the idea of monopoly were Beyoncé, then monopsony would be Solange. They're close sisters, yet their styles are pretty different. And while only one of them has been famous for a long time, the other one seems to be getting a lot of attention more recently.

What does this term actually mean? And where does it come from? The story is actually pretty fascinating."

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/06/18/733510647/apples-buying-power-and-the-woman-who-named-it

Ho combattuto e combatto, in modo molto light in effetti, battaglie personali contro la pubblicità che si appropria delle persone e delle informazioni, manipolando le prime e le seconde. Pur avendo fatto un po' di ricerca sul tema della pubblicità in esterna, non ci avevo riflettuto più da parecchi anni (e non avendo l'auto in effetti la vedo anche poco). A leggere qui, però, siamo messi molto male.

Money quote: "In 2014 Grenoble’s then newly-appointed Green mayor Éric Piolle cancelled a contract for 326 outdoor advertisements, including 64 large billboards. Trees and community noticeboards replaced them – or nothing at all. The lost revenue was recouped by reducing allowances, including official vehicles. Despite Piolle’s attempts to make Grenoble Europe’s first ad-free city, bus and tram stops still have adverts, as the contract is controlled by the regional authority."

https://www.equaltimes.org/the-growing-global-movement-to-end

Shining, tutte le ambientazioni ricreate con il Lego a un livello di dettagli epico

https://twitter.com/ATRightMovies/status/1596454438809399296?s=20&t=k75jwfDrWM7_rsQ5SMZUSQ

E poi: visto che ieri era il compleanno di Tina Turner, questa versione live semplicemente strepitosa di Come Together del 1971. Buona domenica!

https://twitter.com/Birmingham_81/status/1596429985098653696?s=20&t=k75jwfDrWM7_rsQ5SMZUSQ

Il futuro dei robot può essere molto diverso da quel che crediamo. Ad esempio, l'incrocio tra origami e robot può generare delle creature piccole e sacrificabili, come le formiche (ma poi cosa sarà questa ossessione con le formiche?)

Money quote: "I made my first origami robot, which I called a ‘robogami’, about 10 years ago. It was a simple being, a flat-sheeted robot, which could turn into a pyramid and back into a flat sheet, and then into a space shuttle."

https://aeon.co/ideas/robogamis-are-the-real-heirs-of-terminators-and-transformers

Interessante riflessione, sotto forma di consigli, su come gestire la transizione tra ruoli differenti: da quello di fornitore individuale a quello manageriale.

Money quote: "This in-between space is where I have spent almost all of my career—somewhere between individual contributor (abbreviated as IC here) and CEO. Many people (even if they aren't yet managers) might be interested in practical advice for managing these transitions, so I have compiled everything I possibly could on the topic for this article."

https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=3350548

Ok, è arrivato il momento. Volete comprarvi il vostro banco mixer. È un investimento, ma avete puntato quello giusto, dell'epoca elettronica, analogica, fatta di file e file di cursori e potenziometri. Un unico problema: non ci capite niente. State per comprare un bidone o fare l'affare del secolo (nella nicchia dei mixer)?. Qui trovate tutto quel che serve da un tecnico che ne ha visti, installati, riparati e poi decommissionati a centinaia. Io ho lavorato sulla Neve VR 36 (in Rai) e sulla Studer 900 (radio privata fiorentina) e concordo pienamente sul giudizio dato per quest'ultima.

Money quote: "Studer was the largest console manufacturer in the world in the 1980s, believe it or not, although most of their desks went into the broadcast market. Despite having no in-line monitors, they can be easily recycled for modern recording and are well worth considering, as they offer superb value.

Good quality components were used and most are still available (faders being the biggest issue). They run cool, meaning capacitors tend not to be a problem and air conditioning is not essential, power supplies are convection cooled so can be sited in the control room, and the EQ and facilities are flexible, comprehensive and musical. These desks will start to gain a reputation of affordable classics as the better known vintage desk rocket in value."

https://www.proaudioeurope.com/info/funky-junk-guides/guide-analogue-mixing-consoles

Se avete una qualsiasi scusa per comprarne una (e lo spazio, ovviamente), fatelo: io lo farei. Qui tutta la fila di articoli che parla delle console.

https://www.proaudioeurope.com/info/funky-junk-guides

Relazioni perfette. Sono duemila anni che cerchiamo di capire come fare, praticamente i quattro quinti della letteratura mondiale si occupano di questo, e la gente ancora brancola nel buio, infelice. Meno male che questo tizio, un altro raccattato su Medium, ha capito tutto. Del resto era semplice, scemi noi che non ci siamo arrivati prima.

Money quote: "According to Dr. John Gottman, relationship magic is a scientific calculation. His work with thousands of couples has gained him the ability to predict relationship success or failure with over 90% accuracy. So what do the successful couples have in common?
The study was simple. The research team asked each couple to solve one of their relationship problems in 15 minutes. And they watched what happened."

https://medium.com/mindful-muse/the-magic-of-the-perfect-relationship-scientifically-proven-b409223034be

Un Texone di Cavazzano? Bonelli ci sta provando - il mio articolo per Fumettologica

https://fumettologica.it/2022/11/texone-giorgio-cavazzano-bonelli/

Questo sì che è un pezzo grosso della mia adolescenza che se n'è andato per sempre. Ciao Christine.

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È morta Christine McVie, cantautrice e tastierista dei Fleetwood Mac - Il Post

https://www.ilpost.it/2022/11/30/morta-christine-mcvie-fleetwood-mac/

Un pezzo bello e ritmato nella storia degli anni Ottanta è Kid Creole and the Coconouts, una band di New York che ruotava attorno al suo frontman, il polistrumentista (preferibilmente un bassista) August Darnell (nato Thomas Darnell Browder), una specie di Prince del Calypso. Riascoltandoli adesso (ma si fa un po' fatica a trovare tutto) si scopre che è una delle influenze più potenti del sound di quell'epoca e non solo.

Money quote: "Kid Creole and the Coconuts began as an offshoot of the disco group Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, known primarily for its hit “Cherchez la Femme.” The group was nominated for a Grammy nominated in 1976. With its Jay Gatsby champagne attitude, that single also immortalized the band’s manager Tommy Mottola. “Hearing my name in ‘Cherchez la Femme’ five times a day on the radio was so strange — almost surreal,” Mottola explained in his autobiography Hitmaker. “At that age [27] and at that time it became very intoxicating, even dangerous, and I was only their manager.” Years before singer Michael Bublé could read Sinatra’s sheet music, Dr. Buzzard’s crew wasn’t simply reinterpreting the Great American Songbook, they were also contributing to the canon by combining disco with a brassy big band sound. The band also consisted of curvy chanteuse Cory Daye and Darnell’s older brother Stony Browder Jr., who was the group’s leader and main songwriter. Darnell played bass and penned the songs’ words. “The lyrics have bite, real wit,” critic Nik Cohn wrote in November 1976. However, three years later, as the group began to falter, various members mutinied and soon became sonic forces on their own musical merits."

https://longreads.com/2019/12/18/wonderful-things-the-kid-creole-and-the-coconuts-story

Come fu che, partendo dalle "quote giudaiche" della Società del mercoledì si arrivò alla clamorosa faida con Jung sull'idea del sesso rendendo insieme un pessimo servizio alla causa della psicoterapia e aprendo una ferita che non si sarebbe più sanata. L'innesto della piccineria quotidiana degli uomini è capace di sabotare qualsiasi avventura del loro spirito.

Money quote: "In Freud’s mind, the greatest obstacle faced by ‘the Cause’ was anti-Semitism. Freud himself was an atheistic Jew, and all of the analysts who huddled together in Freud’s living room to found the Wednesday Psychological Society (the world’s first psychoanalytic association) were Jews. Freud feared that psychoanalysis would become so associated with Judaism that it would never catch on in mainstream science. ‘Our Aryan comrades are,’ he wrote to a friend, ‘quite indispensable to us; otherwise, psychoanalysis would fall victim to anti-Semitism.’ So Jung was everything Freud could hope for: talented, public-minded, a scion of the scientific establishment – and, above all, born without a drop of Jewish blood in his Swiss Protestant veins. ‘Only his appearance,’ Freud confided, ‘has saved psychoanalysis from the danger of being a Jewish national concern.’"

https://aeon.co/ideas/freud-versus-jung-a-bitter-feud-over-the-meaning-of-sex

La signora delle criptovalute che è scappata con la cassa. Se pensate che le criptotruffe siano una cosa di oggi, pensateci meglio.

Money quote: "Dr Ruja's genius was to recognise that established MLM sellers with huge downlines were the perfect vehicle to market her fake coin - a plan the FBI says she privately referred to as "the bitch of Wall Street, meets MLM". This was the secret of OneCoin's success. It wasn't just a fake cryptocurrency, it was an old-fashioned pyramid scheme, with the fake coin as its "product". No wonder it spread like wildfire.

Fairly soon Igor Alberts was making more than €1m a month from OneCoin, which quickly became the biggest product in network marketing. "No other company even came close," Alberts says."

https://twitter.com/oslimoke/status/1198896825660583936?s=20&t=n6ewvnJed-wG1_9BW5gOFw

La forma delle lettere dell'alfabeto ne evoca il suono? Secondo me no, e il fatto che debbano menare il can per l'aia così a lungo mi fa pensare che non ho torto.

Money quote: "In the Cratylus Dialogue, written by Plato, Socrates confronted this same linguistic dilemma: do names belong to their objects “naturally” or “conventionally," he wondered? Why do we name things the way we do? In 1690, John Locke wrote that because there are many different languages, and different words for the same objects, there couldn’t be a “natural” relationship between words and their objects. Saussure agreed in his seminal text, A Course in General Linguistics from 1916: “Signs do not directly evoke things.” Later, the linguist Charles Hockett wrote this one of the “design features” of language. "

https://www.vice.com/en/article/4awqz3/why-are-letters-shaped-the-way-they-are

Quando l'industria del porno diventa un affare di famiglia: una inchiesta molto ben raccontata di Jezebel.

Money quote: "The two have proven formidable on their own, but increasingly so in collaboration. Kross and Ferrara—who have a child together and live next-door to Ferrara’s ex-wife, with whom he has three children—have been called porn’s “golden couple.” They even have a Fleshlight “Couple Goals” package, which includes a dildo molded off of Ferrara’s penis and a flashlight-like tube featuring silicone labia modeled after Kross. Now, though, they frequently come as a different kind of package deal: director and performer."

https://jezebel.com/the-mess-of-complexities-in-directing-your-porn-star-pa-1837406736

Il mondo di domani visto ieri l'altro. Video spettacolare.

‘Yes, life will be richer, easier, healthier as space-age dreams come true.’

https://aeon.co/videos/smart-homes-bountiful-oceans-and-casual-sexism-the-future-as-envisaged-from-1967

Si possono citare le neuroscienze, si possono citare analisi psicologiche e addirittura le nostre nonne. In ogni caso, la carta e la penna (o il lapis, dipende) è la cosa migliore in molti, moltissimi casi (anche se lo scrivo sul computer mentre lo penso).

Money quote: "It might sound impractical — archaic, even — but if you’re struggling with productivity or creativity, it might be time to grab a pen and paper, and let your brain flow out onto the page. I’ve been using the old-school tools, and sure, they can feel a little clunky. In my notebook, there are crossed-out words, lines, arrows, and mistakes everywhere. My hand cramps up every now and then."

https://forge.medium.com/to-do-better-work-use-pen-and-paper-26c4575ffcf3