J A S O N o l i v e r

The Gong Show: Disruption From Left Field

Sun, 05 May 2013 04:41:43 -0700

The Gong Show: Disruption From Left Field:

Apple is running a new ad in which there is one simple line of dialog:

Every day, more photos are taken with the iPhone than any other camera.

Simple, tight, concise message. And the ad is beautiful.

When I saw this ad, my first reaction was a simple, emotional response to the raw,…

The Blueprint - Justice

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 23:47:00 -0700

The Blueprint - Justice:

light + sound

Downtown Miami

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 08:39:46 -0700

Downtown Miami

Red Square, Moscow

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 08:23:18 -0700

Red Square, Moscow

Interesting May 2012 Economist article about russian internet/media landscape

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 00:46:06 -0700

Interesting May 2012 Economist article about russian internet/media landscape:

Very similar to china in that successful companies can grow hugely successful by focusing on Russia alone, but similar to China will be difficult for these companies to be successful abroad imo.

all about the noodles

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 20:49:54 -0700

all about the noodles:

Need to procure noodles for my 2013 homemade tsukemen experiments. They seem to supply every amazing ramen shop in the US. Also interesting to read about their Ramen Lab that just opened up in NYC - a reason to head back east for sure. Chef Shigetoshi Nakamura, in addition to being friends with Ferran Adria, opened 2 of the most innovative ramen shops in LA - Ramen California and Ikemen. Must visit his NY shop/school!

more designer water!

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:30:23 -0800

more designer water!:

marky mark & diddy get into the designer water business with AQUAhydrate, and pats DT vince wilfork is an endorser. just wow.

Bernie Madoff + Bobby Bonilla + pro athlete financial planning

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 22:24:45 -0800

Bernie Madoff + Bobby Bonilla + pro athlete financial planning:

Just found this story courtesy of a fb update by my hs buddy evangelos. This has to be one of the most absurd stories in sports. The 2nd highest paid Met’s outfielder in the 2013 season is Bobby Bonilla. You can’t make this stuff up. I wouldn’t have taken him for a shrewd financial planner but that is exactly what he is. He is literally the antithesis of the hip hop generation of pro ballers ala The Answer trying to make an NBA comeback at age 40 to climb out of debt. Very fascinating story about how one pro athlete made a brilliant move and how professional sports organization just can’t catch a break. Amazing Mets indeed.

msg: diy: This Biotechnology Company Run By High Schooler is...

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 21:56:31 -0800

msg:

diy:

This Biotechnology Company Run By High Schooler is Developing a “Flying Syringe”

Provita, a company staffed entirely by kids under 18, is working on a project (with funding from the Gates Foundation) to use mosquitoes to help carry important vaccines. The first goal: to genetically engineer mosquitoes so that they can produce and deliver a vaccine (via their saliva) for West Nile Virus. The mosquitoes will be sterilized to prevent any out-of-control problems. It’s a new twist on research being done elsewhere to breed sterile mosquitoes in malaria-infested areas.

(Read more)

THIS IS SCARY + AWESOME

amazing

Awesome read on the birth and growth of Tough Mudder

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 23:07:50 -0800

Awesome read on the birth and growth of Tough Mudder:

This past weekend I had the opportunity to compete in the Winter Socal Tough Mudder race in Temecula. More than being a test of personal fitness and skill, it was a true test of endurance and teamwork. Fortunately, I had the pleasure of competing with some awesome teammates who together made up Team Ramen, dressed as Pamplona Bull Runners (confusing? Of course, wouldn’t have it any other way): Big shout out to Ann Le, Kien Lam, Ian Magladry and Morgan Lizop for working together to complete every obstacle over 12 grueling and soaking wet and freezing miles of the course. I don’t see myself competing in any future Tough Mudders, but one big suggestion to those who are considering it: choose your location and time wisely – I highly recommend picking a summer race in a warm climate.

At the end of the day, this was an event where thousands of people paid between $100 and $200 in groups to experience physical torture in the name of teamwork and collaboration for 3-5 hours. Taking a step back and repeating that sentence, you come to realize how incredible and how much of a phenomena this has become. They are competing against Warrior Dash and Spartan Race in this newfound ultra-competitive space of what amounts to obstacle courses. Much like the Rave/Massive sub-genre in the music festival space has taken off the past few years; this one has seemingly grown even faster. I hear much more often about friends signing up to participate in these than I ever heard sign up for marathons and half marathons previously.

In all seriousness I will never forget the Arctic Enema and the Dark Lightening. If you are a sadistic bastard and have a bunch of sadistic bastard friends, I suggest you sign up for next February’s Socal Tough Mudder.

League of Legends Season 3: Taking the ‘e’ out of e-sports | VentureBeat

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 00:34:00 -0800

League of Legends Season 3: Taking the ‘e’ out of e-sports | VentureBeat:

Major LoL events have more viewers than major professional baseball and hockey games. Not to mention the fact that as of this year we will have professional leagues in 5 major regions around the world. This is just the beginning!

The Best Wagyu Beef from Japan

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 22:19:02 -0800

The Best Wagyu Beef from Japan:

A great read on the differences in the regional varieties of japanese wagyu beef. Really looking forward to trying the scotch whiskey marinated Kagoshima beef at Yamakase sometime this year.

david: “richpigsofinstagram.tumblr.com” — glowmagnetic

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:41:11 -0800

david:

“richpigsofinstagram.tumblr.com” — glowmagnetic

the pain of being a pats fan (a short history and 3 plays that killed us yesterday)

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 11:18:00 -0800

Crash landing for sure. As the Hoodie said, there is only one team each season in the NFL or any other professional sports league that avoids a crash landing, and the closer you get to winning it all, the harder the crash landing hits when you fail. Objectively speaking this is much less painful than reaching another Super Bowl and coming up short, especially because Brady & co are on the verge of being a .500 Super Bowl team.

Many people wonder why someone from NJ grew up being a Pats fan, but sure enough, there I was deciding back in 1993 after the Pats picked Drew Bledsoe #1 that they would be my NFL team to follow. For many years, they were an entertaining team to follow - put up a lot of yards and points on offense, but not be very good at defense. Just good enough to sniff the playoffs, never good enough to actually win a playoff game. I distinctly remember losing to the Belichick-led Browns early on in the Bledsoe era. I also remember living through the Tuna and Pete Carroll (pre USC buying Heismans and NCAA championships runs) years before the hoodie. There was that one year where we made the Super Bowl but lost to the Packers and Desmond Freaking Howard’s KO return TD after Curtis My Favorite Martin made it close in the 3rd.

But there we were early in 2001, Mo Lewis drilling Bledsoe and knocking him out of the Jets game, and skinny 6th rounder Tom Brady stepping in and changing the fate and expectations of Pats fans for the next decade. He was just a tad better than a “game manager” QB that first year ala Brad Johnson or Trent Dilfer, good enough to not lose but not good enough to cause a win, but that season changed the Pats and changed Brady. Fast forward a decade and change and there are legitimate discussions that he may be the greatest ever despite the fact that he doesn’t have the strongest arm (but wow is he accurate, sometimes) and that I have never seen a more un-athletic person attempt to run in my life. He prepares like no QB ever, and makes in-play adjustments as good as any QB ever. He also stars in UGG Men’s ads, so there really isn’t anything this man cannot do.

Two Super Bowls against the NY Giants 4 years apart shortened my life by a couple of years. Giants were so lucky in both games but at the end of the day luck plays a big part in who wins and Pats were on the other side of that coin during their first 3 SB runs.

Which leads us to yesterday. We really were done in by 3 plays:

End of 2nd quarter, after Brady tried to spear Ed Reed’s groin with quite possibly the ugliest slide ever executed in any sport (I honestly believe Brady had a greater chance of being injured than Reed, just like Boomer commented on telecast), the Pats choose not to call a TO which would have allowed them 1-2 shots into the end zone for the TD and 2 score lead going into the half that the Ravens would not have overcome
3rd quarter after forcing Ravens punt and after Welker just made a nice grab up the seam, Welker drops a ball he catches 99 times out of 100 on 3rd and 8 and the pats punt from inside the Ravens 40 for the second time in the game (both times I believe the Ravens drove for TDs on their ensuing drives). Conservative field position based play calling is not what Belichick is known for and it killed the Pats in this case.
With Pats down 21-13 with almost 13 minutes left in 4th quarter, Pats were driving and Pollard delivers a VICIOUS hit on Ridley, as the ball slowly trickled out of his tight grasp (which was caused by several benchings after Fumblitis bouts this season) as Ridley’s body fell limp on the field. Man was I hoping replays would show that he was already down (i mean he was lying on the field, some part of his body must’ve been down before the ball came out) but the replays proved that it was in fact a fumble. Game over.

Big congrats to the Ravens. I have a bunch of friends who are long-time Ravens fans and I know that last season was tough to stomach for them (they probably would’ve beaten the Giants for the 2nd time in a SB during Ray Lewis era, which is a better ending than Brady losing to the Giants for a 2nd time since the Pats last SB victory). In any case, I will be rooting for the Ravens to demolish the 49ers in 2 weeks to cap the Ray Lewis Retirement Tour.

random list of things i hope to do in 2013

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 22:22:44 -0800

random list of things i hope to do in 2013:

I will update the list and track progress here.

powder day

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 18:07:52 -0800

powder day

best new LA restaurants of 2012 (via Eater LA)

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 16:32:44 -0800

best new LA restaurants of 2012 (via Eater LA):

need to try out the hart + the hunter. so close to where we live AND they included Hunter in their name. double win.

mr porter paperback

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 14:25:28 -0800

mr porter paperback:

interesting to see ecommerce (sleeping) giant net-a-porter/mr porter stepping into the print media space. for both genders, they have built a strong brand and established themselves as an important partner for luxury brands worldwide, and especially brands from europe and japan. interesting to see websites like hypebeast, mr porter and other non traditional companies (think momofuku David Chang’s Lucky Peach) getting into the print media business to extend their non-print brands.

"I guarantee you Steve Jobs is telling God what to do right now."

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 08:48:19 -0800

“I guarantee you Steve Jobs is telling God what to do right now.”

- Guy Kawasaki (via david)

homeland sadness

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 08:45:00 -0800

homeland sadness:

I usually don’t agree with anything on SAI (you will always be SAI and not this Business Insider The Wire nonsense), but this is spot on. The show is cratering, fast and hard. What was once the most exciting show on television is now Allen Iverson playing pro ball in Turkey to make ends meet (did that REALLY happen???).

The critique on the Dana Brody storyline is especially true. I mean, we get it, you are sad that you participated in vehicular manslaughter, and that now a family that was once destined for a hard, poor life, now has a chance because of the shut-up money offered by the VP of the USA. Every time she appears onscreen means that they need to both fire and hire writers onto the show’s staff.

And Abu Nazir comes to the US after hiding in underground caves with his army of loyal followers, and he hangs out in an abandoned factory kidnapping crazy CIA agents??? And he calls Brody directly using the blackberry version of FaceTime really????

I am sad at the current state of Homeland but I will continue to watch. Hopefully a smoke monster will appear in the next episode and eat Brody’s wife and Mike because they really serve no purpose other than to inject some Skinimax flavor into this increasingly bland Showtime show.