Author Archives: Karl

“Perfect”

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“Perfect”, by Pink is a kind of cousin to Radiohead’s “Creep”. I’m sure I lost a few folks there who suddenly clicked away. Good, this post isn’t for them. “Creep” is one of those songs that, if you ever felt like an outsider, like you were not where you belonged, and the people around you seemed so much greater than you, and that feeling led to your own self loathing, it spoke to you. Catch this great cover of it:

YouTube: Homeless Mustard Sings “Creep” GREATEST Cover EVER:

Pink’s “Perfect” confronts the very same scenario, except instead of the passive-aggressive shrug that “Creep” leaves you with, kicks you in your ass to “chase out your demons” and stick around. Where “Creep” is sung from you, “Perfect” is sung to you from someone who has walked in similar shoes.

I love “Creep”, the song will be around forever. But I think “Perfect” will stand the same test of time right along with it. Songs for the bullied. For those who never quite feel like the fit in. For those that need to know they aren’t alone.

Here are some fantastic covers of “Perfect”:

YouTube: PERFECT – Pink (Cover) by Keiko and Mimi acoustic:

YouTube: Pink – Perfect (Boyce Avenue acoustic cover) on iTunes:

YouTube: Pink – Perfect (AHMIR cover) – Anti-Bullying video:

YouTube: Pink – Perfect (cover) Brothers Dalton,12 and Dylan,11:

YouTube: Perfect (Pink) – Jason Chen & Cathy Nguyen Cover:

YouTube: Perfect by Pink Cover by Megan Dettrey :

Princess Power

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Debra Levin Gelman wrote a terrific post about the princess paradox on Wednesday that I’ve been meaning to comment on here. Toys, clothes, media, just about any kind of consumer good marketed for young girls uses ‘the Princess’ as a hook to get your child to ask you to buy it. Disney and others are using this powerful imagery to reach every younger children in pursuit of purchases and life-long relationships with their brands. Some, like Peggy Orenstein (Newsweek), think these things can actually harm children.

We are pretty much in the same boat as Debra and many other parents – it is almost impossible to avoid the onslaught – so we are forced to find ways to provide our daughter with imagery, stories, media, and other toys and material that can expand and widen her horizons. For us that means a house filled with story books, musical instruments, arts and crafts, Lego Duplo blocks and lots and lots of creative play. It’s fun and I think we’d be doing this whether we were reacting to gender-stereotyped consumerism or not. But I gotta admit – I get mad at times at the marketing of goods aimed at her whose goal seems to be to encourage her to be passive and wait for someone to save her (and yes, I realize there are exceptions).

Related links:

Boing Boing: Gender stereotypes woven into toy ads

The Achilles Effect: Word Cloud: How Toy Ad Vocabulary Reinforces Gender Stereotypes

Smithsonian Magazine: When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink (the Pink/Blue thing is *recent*).

Elisabeth Sladen, “Sarah Jane Smith”, Rest In Peace

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Elisabeth Sladen, the actress who was Sarah Jane Smith on “Doctor Who” and the spin off children’s show, “The Sarah Jane Adventures”, passed away on Wednesday the 20th, at 63 from cancer.

I could probably write quite a bit about the effect that Doctor Who had on me as a kid, on late night public television, and her role in that was substantial. Back then, and growing up into my twenties, other than my brother and a few friends, it seemed like such a cult thing. You either knew about Doctor Who, and Sarah Jane Smith, or you didn’t. And the numbers of those who knew were few and far between.

These days, with the debut of the latest series happening same day with London, well, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The news of her passing was talked about from many corners of the web, resulting in tributes, shared stories, and more. Here are some that caught my eye.

BBC: original announcement

Metafilter conversation

Twitter: search: Elisabeth Sladen

Reddit conversation

Slashdot.org: conversation

Tom Baker’s tribute to her

Talis Kimberley wrote a great song, from her perspective talking to her daughter, about her passing, named Goodnight, Sarah-Jane

NPR.org: story about her

Boing Boing: Doctor Who actress Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith) dies

BBC: Tributes paid to Elisabeth Sladen

BBC: Children share their thoughts and memories

Tor.com: My Sarah Jane: Remembering Elisabeth Sladen

Leanne Hannah:Elisabeth Sladen

YouTube: Doctor Who – The Time Warrior – Meet Sarah Jane

YouTube: The Third Doctor regenerates

YouTube: Doctor Who Farewells – Sarah Jane

YouTube: Best of School Reunion

YouTube: The return of Sarah Jane – Dr Who Confidential – BBC sci-fi

YouTube: Sarah Jane and Davros in “Journey’s End”

YouTube: Say goodbye

YouTube: Sarah Jane Says Goodbye to The Doctor on Sarah Jane’s Adventures

“‎The universe has to move forward. Pain and loss, they define us as much as happiness or love. Whether it’s a world, or a relationship… Everything has its time. And everything ends.” – Sarah Jane Smith

I’m not sure anything ends Sarah Jane. In many ways, you’re going to live forever.

11 Years of Experience Growing Metafilter

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Metafilter has been running for over 11 years now and it remains one of the greatest online communities. Matt Haughey’s SXSW talk, “Real World Moderation: Lessons from 11 Years of Community”, was videoed, it’s 40 minutes well spent, covering the technology, techniques, and practices that keep it a favorite corner of the web for me and thousands of others. It’s about the people. (via kottke)

An open data challenge from Anil Dash

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Anil Dash: “The Health Graph: Mortal Threats & Signs of Life”:

As a community of developers and technologists, we have to build powerful, indispensable apps and services on top of this data. Killer apps that save lives. If we can make ourselves invaluable, they won’t have the chance to try to cut off our oxygen.