http://www.nicolecifani.com musings at the intersection of music, culture, and technology Sat, 29 Nov 2008 16:50:30 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Is it just me or does Christmas feel like sort of a sham this year? I walked into Starbucks yesterday, the day after Thanksgiving, when the holiday decorations usually begin to appear. The boards were etched with white snowflakes offering hot gingerbread lattes, stacks of attractively packaged coffee-related gifts were ... http://www.nicolecifani.com/2008/11/changing-the-way-we-think-about-christmas/ 5 years ago when I was in grad school, my media theory professor proclaimed that "years from now you're going to remember me as the old lady yakking on about something called convergence". I was intrigued. Then and there I decided to work this into my career somehow. Although ... http://www.nicolecifani.com/2008/11/a-shift-across-the-narrative-continuum-part-1/ I spent the past weekend with 3 girlfriends in Palm Springs and was amazed at how empty the town appeared to be. We stayed at the Viceroy (or the Niceroy as dubbed by some), and arrived to be informed that we were upgraded to the largest private villa on the ... http://www.nicolecifani.com/2008/11/upgrades-at-the-niceroy/ Wired Magazine is having another photo contest - and this time the subject is music. Submit your photos here or check them out and submit your vote. Note: my pictures are towards the end! Wired Magazine photo contest http://www.nicolecifani.com/2008/11/vote-for-my-photos-at-wiredcom/ Taking in the presidential election results on Tuesday happened in different places in various ways.  Beginning at 4pm at work we tuned the TV to CNN.  NPR was on the radio. and I had npr.org and the NY Times both open on my computer. Later on I went home to twitter ... http://www.nicolecifani.com/2008/11/twitter-facebook-and-fox-news-oh-my-or-how-i-was-seduced-by-the-internet-on-election-night/ I like the clean interface. It's easy to use and not too flashy (I guess we'll see how long that lasts). Check it out http://www.nicolecifani.com/2008/10/mtv-launches-music-video-site/ Oftentimes people are interested to hear that I don't have cable or basic television channels at home. I own an hdtv for viewing films and videocasts - and that's about it. Admittedly, this wasn't a renegade decision. I moved earlier in the year from Miracle Mile to Santa Monica ... http://www.nicolecifani.com/2008/10/pulling-the-plug/ Frances Anderton of KCRW's Design and Architecture interviews Robbie Conal and Separd Fairey in a segment entitled The Graphics of Political Protest. Stream or download the show here.  For more: DNA blog http://www.nicolecifani.com/2008/10/la-is-deeply-superficial/ If you did a Google search for Swedish singer-songwriter Fredrik a month ago, all you'd find is a lone blog post on The Music Slut entitled "who the hell is *fredrik*?" A month later he's way more visible - a website is up and he's got prominent placement on sites like ... http://www.nicolecifani.com/2008/10/hes-a-guy-from-sweden/ Yesterday Bobby from Kitsune Noir tipped me off to a new (to me) artist, Christopher David Ryan from Portland, Maine. Ryan is featured in yesterday's Desktop Wallpaper Project and has several sites where you can view and purchase his work. On his personal website he offers up a daily design with ... http://www.nicolecifani.com/2008/10/artist-spotlight-christopher-david-ryan/