This may not be news to you folks with cable, but to “cordcutters” like me (translation: people who watch tv on the internet), seeing this ad for the “new” 120 Minutes in a music periodical came as a half-shock. I was initially excited that anyone even remembered the only MTV show of my youth that showcased well-curated, independent and emerging bands. And super excited to see that in reviving the brand, Viacom also brought back the host of show we grew up with; un-photogenic music nerd Matt Pinfield, who, even in the 90s, seemed like he should have been the friendly clerk at Eugene’s House of Records, not the palest MTV personality this side of Tabitha Soren. However, seeing that theshow now airs on MTV2, at 6 am on Fridays, and that Pinfield came back because he clearly has nothing going (and is probably pushing 50), made me a bit sad about everything.
“When something considered secret and wonderful is revealed to the world, it becomes a little less wonderful. It’s time to find something new. That’s a legitimate and healthy cycle. But I think we’re still great, and I don’t have blinders on.”
- Michael Stipe, quoted by Spin in 1988, being both self aware and cocky, on the eve of REM signing an 8-figure deal with Warner Brothers Records, amidst cries that the band was selling out.
Found in part 1 of AV Club writer Steven Hyden’s excellent history of REM, based on his own personal history as a fan of the band.
They’re making beer in cans which you have to open with a church key, a la that episode of Mad Men when Don is drinking beer out in his shed.Why, you ask? Does the beer taste beer when the can doesn’t have a pop top? Is it more environmentally friendly?
The answer is no. The reason they are producing a beer that can only be opened with an old a can-opener because it is retro and therefore cool. There is no practicality for this fun little gimmick a set of home brewers, a hack actor and designer are employing for their new beer, aptly named Churchkey. It’s a gimmick for the sake of gimmick, which is the worst kind of gimmick. I have no doubt it will be successful with the has-a-typewriter-but-mostly-writes-on-their-ipad crowd, but I was annoyed by it. You know who else was annoyed by it? My mom, who lives in Portland and sent me the article about with an email that read “I think I want to move back to Eugene”.
Hey everybody. If you couldn’t tell, yr an adult is supposed to be a collective reflection of the experience of being an adult without feeling like an adult, which, as far as I can tell, is what most adults feel like. Problem is, I’m kinda pulling the whole cart by myself of late folks. I’d love to get more voices here, preferably some female ones, because, as I understand it, ladies can be adults too.
So, if you know me, you’ve probably said you wanted to write something for the blog and I probably told you, “YES, please do.” I know sometimes my enthusiasm sounds sarcastic, but I assure, I was being real.
If you don’t know me, well, nice to meet you. I’m Henry. I’d love it if you contributed something to yr an adult.
Either way, hit me up yranadult <a t> g mail <d o t> com, and we can talk about what you should write. Or if you’ve already written something you think would be good, just send it over.
I’m not being sarcastic. I swear.
-Henry Goldman, founder, yr an adult
(photo credit: Flickr user phooky, used under a CC license)
I have to book a check up at the doctor later this month, and for some reason, when I have to go to the doctor, it always makes me think of this old clip.
One of the things I’ve noticed since I took up blogging, years ago, for a little daily fiction site called the heartbroke daily (oh, you haven’t heard of it? booooo….) was that the best posts tended to come from a flash of inspiration and then almost wrote themselves. The ones where I had to bang my head against the desk, trying to force an idea out, were always the worst. But the ones that happened, seemingly out of nowhere, fusing a handful different influences I’d absorbed, and then poured easily out of my fingertip, we’re always the best. Well, apparently the scientific community has attempted to explain why this is generally the case for all the best, most creative ideas. According to the linked WP article, insights come in a flash, they’re not extracted by force. Also, the scientists quoted in the article make the case that you’ll have more insights when you’re drunk, which is great news for, well, drunks.
Don Draper also made the point explicit in a bit of advice to Peggy Olson, when he said, “Just think about it deeply, then forget it…then an idea will jump up in your face.” Then, he went and got super
(hat/tip, the creative peoples quorum, also the washington post, I guess)
It may seem like a pretty obvious thing, but some people didn’t get the common sense memo, and now some lady is dead.
According to the LA Times:
The incident, which is being investigated by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, took place when the woman’s husband and another man were working on a cannon shortly after midnight outside the couple’s mobile home and it exploded, according to a Cal-Fire spokesman.
Though, I will say, building a home-made cannon is a great idea for a hobby. Just, you know, take to a field or something.
….at a talk yesterday in Montreal, Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter was quoted as saying spending too much time on Twitter was “unhealthy.” Kind of obvious, that furiously checking other peoples statuses and updating your own isn’t the best thing for your mental health, but it’s somewhat striking to hear that Stone would admit as much. It’d be hard to imagine Steve Jobs saying you shouldn’t spend so much time on your iPhone or Mark Zuckerberg suggesting you get off FB once in a while. Hopefully, Stone doesn’t get blog-ecuted for keeping it real.
This morning, my friend Eric Slatkin tweeted a very nice article from the Atlantic, which acknowledges the impossibility of completely unplugging from you digital life and then offers some solution to stay plugged in better. The article condenses a lot of common sense ideas about how to effectively ration your time online (don’t multi-task with thousands of windows open at once – one focused task at a time), which looking at it all together, is actually kind of helpful.
I don’t have too many heroes, and in fact most of the ones I do have either died of drug overdoses, self inflicted gunshots or, in one case, assassination by the CIA.
Anthony Shadid may have been the only wholesome hero I ever had. He died last week in Syria, covering the ongoing unrest under the oppressive Bashar al-Assad regime. He is survived by his wife and two children. He was just 43.
I had breakfast with Anthony in Beirut about six years ago. He had spoke at one of my media courses at American University of Beirut and I ran after him when class ended to see if he would meet up for a drink or whatever. He said he had time the following morning, so I set two alarms and ran out the house, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
Earlier this week, the New York Times published an article about recent research into “novelty seeking” personality traits. They quote phenomenally well-named journalist Winifred Gallagher* (phenomenal name), from her new book, “New: Understanding Our Need for Neweness and Change”, where she contends that one of our healthiest traits as a species is our need for novelty. We have an evolutionary disposition to find that next shit, whether it’s seeing what’s on the other side of this ice-bridge to North America, or it’s getting really excited (for 3 months) about the newest trend in hip hop. The article makes the case that this is both healthy, because it can lead you to lead an active, adventurous life, and unhealthy, because it can make you compulsive.
That is, assuming you some day get married, then get divorced, already have TONS of money, and hire this interior decorator that specializes in divorced dudes to expensively decorate your bachelor/single-dad pad. Also, assumes that you will have made it through life without developing any taste or the ability to spend your own money or make your own choices. Let’s all decide not to be this guy when we grow up, ok? (except for the part about having TONS of money)
Over the weekend, the NY Times reported on an escalating bidding war between the big publishing houses for the rights to publish Amanda Knox’s memoirs. Publishing experts anticipate Ms. Knox, who has yet to share her story with any major news outlets, will receive a seven-figure advance and is likely to sell millions when her memoir comes out.
As we here at yr an adult know that many of our readers are currently working on, planning to work, or pretending to work on your own book, we thought it would be a good idea to extrapolate a few lessons from Ms. Knox’s situation to help you get your book deal:
This may not be news to you folks with cable, but to “cordcutters” like me (translation: people who watch tv on the internet), seeing this ad for the “new” 120 Minutes in a music periodical came as a half-shock. I was initially excited that anyone even remembered the only MTV show of my youth that showcased well-curated, independent and emerging bands. And super excited to see that in reviving the brand, Viacom also brought back the host of show we grew up with; un-photogenic music nerd Matt Pinfield, who, even in the 90s, seemed like he should have been the friendly clerk at Eugene’s House of Records, not the palest MTV personality this side of Tabitha Soren. However, seeing that theshow now airs on MTV2, at 6 am on Fridays, and that Pinfield came back because he clearly has nothing going (and is probably pushing 50), made me a bit sad about everything.
They’re making beer in cans which you have to open with a church key, a la that episode of Mad Men when Don is drinking beer out in his shed.Why, you ask? Does the beer taste beer when the can doesn’t have a pop top? Is it more environmentally friendly? 
One of the things I’ve noticed since I took up blogging, years ago, for a little daily fiction site called the 
My mom sent me an email today, about the homeless lady who sells the homeless newspaper in front of the neighborhood food co-op.
This morning, my friend 
by David Larson
Earlier this week, the New York Times published an 
That is, assuming you some day get married, then get divorced, already have TONS of money, and hire 
