I’ve only seen Adam Lambert sing a handful of songs now on American Idol but I’m starting to hear a pattern. Starts low, jumps into jazzy broadway-esque musical theater only to push the upper register throughout the last third of the song until he unleashes that god-awful failed 80′s metal band screech. Too predictable and seriously, when he hits that high note where his tongue falls out of his head, I literally have to look away because my ears react like a dog to a dog whistle. I can’t stand the sound.
While David Cook is more audibly tolerable, he is quite similar in approach to Adam. Start quiet, belt it out in your own way and always ALWAYS end on a scream/”high note”. It’s so fucking boring I can’t take it.
I think Adam got the huge review last night because the judges know people actually don’t want to vote for him and they want to keep him in the competition.
Just heard last night that Dora might get redesigned to be more “feminine.” I hope they don’t do it. She’s perfectly fine and doesn’t need to age. The reason children grow out of Dora is because the show format is designed for children at early education levels. If they just gave Dora a bigger vocabulary and “missions” that weren’t so linear and repeatable, Dora could stay relevant. Maybe a new shirt color would help but that’s all they really need. Lipstick, nails and longer legs don’t matter.
This is for those people who want to follow me on Twitter.
First, I only signed up to see what it was all about. Second, I don’t fucking use it. That’s why I haven’t approved you. I only approved one or two people to see how it worked and then I instantly lost interest.
My life is not so fascinating that I a) need to update everyone on every little thing I think/eat/drink/visit/talk about/wish I could be doing/never will do.
I also think Twitter is a rip from Facebook’s Status Updates feature, and therefore, don’t really like to support rip off crap.
I’m sure the few people who tweet away and happen to read this blog, of which there are probably 3 of you, will be mad at me for those comments. Like Simon Cowell says, Sorry!
Hey Matt, how’s the job search going?
Great! I just found a job but I’m not sure if I can meet their high demands.
Really? What are they looking for in a candidate?
Well, funny you should ask. This is what they need:
Physical Demands: While performing the duties of this job, the colleague is regularly required to sit. The colleague frequently is required to talk or hear. The colleague is occasionally required to stand; walk; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; and reach with hands and arms. The colleague must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25-pounds. The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by a colleague to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Work Environment: In general, it will be a typical office environment. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate. The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those a colleague encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
I’ve been using the Safari 4 beta since the day it was released and I have a few comments to make.
1. The page loading UI device is just too hidden. The current spinner approach is worse than the previous aqua background animation in the address bar. Users look at the page itself to see if anything is happening, not the right end of the address bar. I suggest Apple consider either layering something on top of the center of the page (dimming it a little and showing the spinner).
2. The Top Sites feature is neat but not terribly useful. It’s basically a graphical bookmark folder. I’d suggest adding a tracking feature to the bookmarks menu that lets you identify URLs that you haven’t visited in X months/days so you can prune your list.
3. The history page just doesn’t need a cover flow UI. It’s totally useless because pages from the same site can look almost identical, therefore forcing the user to jack up the cover flow icon view to full size. I’d rather have the history break things down by hour if possible. I frequently try to recall pages in terms of time: “I saw that yesterday around 9am.
4. The new tab button in the top right corner is just not useful. It’s dimmed to a darker gray and makes the user think they will get a new window, not a new tab. If the new tab glyph must be there, why not add “New Tab” to it as well?
5. The tab bar at the top of a window was very jarring at first. I think it would be interesting for Apple to allow users the option to revert functionality and then track it (with the user’s consent) to better evaluate major changes like this.
Adam Lambert, male diva from AI season 8, is caught in a photo where he’s dressed as a tranny kissing another man.
Um is this really surprising to anyone? Oh yeah, and he sucks as a singer too. I cringe every time. Reminds me of the Palin video where she’s standing in front of the turkey slaughter area while one is getting shoved through a beheading machine.
Alton Towers, a UK theme park, is offering visitors the chance to be tracked around the park on video while wearing an RFID tag. Unfortunately what you get is CCTV quality footage of you on security cameras. So lame it’s depressing. What psycho is going to pay for this and try to spot himself in tree-cam shots except streakers and muggers?
And this is one more reason why my solution is infinitely better and far less creepy.
See my full portfolio.
I don’t normally post about my career but kinda feel compelled to. I was laid off last week and it’s weird. I’m shocked because I really thought Digital was a strategic advantage and direction for my company, especially in the Detroit market, where clients just refuse to pay for anything that could be misconstrued as an elaborate production. Digital is theoretically cheaper but that’s only true for so long. Once you get deeper into creative and integration with other platforms, costs typically go up.
Regardless, I’ve been away from the blog for a while now because I’m searching for a new job. My net is cast over the whole U.S. right now and while I prefer Silicon Valley, Chicago and the East Coast, I’m entertaining all offers that could lead to a bright and stable future.
I just spent hours rewriting my resume into the early morning last night and really think it paints a clear picture of who I am, what I’m interested in producing, and how I think. I hope an employer sees it the same way. 
In the meantime, I’ve put my house up for sale . It’s really bizarre to see it listed but I have to. The Detroit market is devastated and frankly, everyone here thinks they’re next to be laid off.
For now, I’m spending time with my family by taking Elise to ballet classes, rocking Miles to sleep and rubbing Melissa’s feet/letting her sleep in/keeping the house neat to help relieve her stress.
When Melissa and I decided to move back to Michigan in 2000, we knew it was a risk. There just aren’t that many places to work here and if you lost your job, it was a real bitch to shake the trees for that one opportunity.
We’ve had some fun in Michigan, met tons of great neighbors, and worked with some fabulous and some not-so-fabulous people along the way.
I will certainly post any updates to the search here when appropriate and wish everyone in Michigan and all connected to the auto industry all the best. It’s unnecessarily brutal out there due to circumstances that were really beyond any of our control.
Time to get back to making Miles smile.
I just read a so-so interview with Eddie Van Halen and he had one interesting response to a question that I think really sums up his entire approach to music:
“You only have 12 notes. Do what you want with them.”
I love that notion.
In my college band days, I never wrote the lyrics but loved writing music. One night in my apartment, I was trying to write some new stuff. I became annoyed after a little while because I kept starting with chords that I already knew so I grabbed a 20 sided die that I had laying around in a junk drawer.
I started to roll the die and write down each number in the order they were rolled and tried to make a song from it.
Looking back now, I think we were on the same wavelength.
Here’s the result of that night:
By the way, this track was recorded in a studio in one take, so don’t assume this was done in my apartment.
Driven