Pinterest

Does my Pinterest reveal more about me than my Tweets or Facebook updates do?

Probably not, but it illuminates a nuance: desire.

Even the infographics douches can't resist the siren's call of personal pinning, and what I find fascinating about Pinterest is its inherently aspirational quality. People pin wedding dresses, interior design ideas, branded goods, exotic destinations, and photo after photo after photo of Audrey Hepburn. (Including this creepy baby Holly Golightly.) It isn't all projection, though: you'll also find a menagerie of recipes, hair and makeup how-tos, and home crafts -- tying the site to the everyday lives of some.

Barriers to entry are low -- you can get to Pinning in a minute -- and once you start Repinning, you may never stop, creating a long and ever-evolving psychographic footprint. One infographic (aptly Pinned) claims that Pinterest hit the 10 million US user mark in record time.

Then there's the question of how brands are using it beyond mundane product packshot archiving. If you're attending SXSW, especially for the first time, check out GSD&M's SXSurvival page. And I recently discovered Gary Vaynerchuk's Wine Board, which is delicious to skim and to read and made me thirsty for Pomerol. (I also find it hilarious how often he uses the description "citrus candy".)

Sony: Wireless Electricity, Instant IDs + Energy Tracking.

Congested narrator voice aside, there's plenty to be excited about in this video about Sony's ambitions for the future. (I'm really glad there's no 3D TV punting ... that shit was stupid.)

Use of cords and disposable batteries are among the few things this century that frustrate me about our exponentially improving technological landscape. Why are we still using them? Thankfully, viable alternatives are beginning to crop up, like solar- and wind-powered charging stations that you can keep in your pocket.

The ability to measure and track one's own energy use at a glance is also a growing trend in modern tech-savvy architecture. It isn't unreasonable to imagine that in the next handful of years, residences will come equipped with such devices in the same way most cars now come stock with GPS.

But while screens and other wifi-ready affordances proliferate (consider the piece of paper in this video that was apparently also a mobile device), it's important to remember that software must increasingly divorce itself from reliance on hardware -- that is, software must be increasingly hardware-agnostic. Most of your data -- like personal energy use -- will be kept in the Cloud, accessible wherever you are and through whichever device you wish to see it. It's a tough line to walk when the software still needs to be a little bit hardware sensitive (for example, showing information in a different format depending on the device being used).

In any event, it's a brave new world we're walking into. And I can't wait to get rid of all these bloody cables.

Source: Numerama.

Not So Clear.

Downloaded this for the fancyface interface but don't use it because iPhone already has a native to-do feature filled to bursting with my unexportable hopes and dreams. What to do? This is currently my most nagging Cornelian dilemma.

Memes of Perception

It's a tribute to what reality TV and transparency-obsessed culture have done to us that we've now got memes like this: tongue-in-cheek productions that let you see all sides of what we do. Our perception is pitted against others', and however successful any perception is at proliferating, the reality remains, fixed, stark, and laughable from the outside. You know it, everyone else knows it; it would be embarrassing to pretend like it's not there.

All great dramas are about this but the context has never been more perfect to pare it down to bare essentials and consume it raw.

Finally, in trademark self-deprecating style, the meme more or less begins to die when people start mocking the format. This last is by Len Kendall:

Her One Friend, Boy.

For Boy, a line of Chanel bags designed as an homage to Coco's lover Boy Capel, Karl Lagerfeld gives us "My New Friend Boy", a mini silent film featuring Alice Dellal.

The style is blurred and alternates from grayscale to colour. The backdrops are lush but Dellal moves through them with troubled impatience, and great shots of the bag seem only incidental. We agree with Blog en Bois when he says the loneliness is palpable. It's strange to see that, for once, the heroine toting the merch of choice doesn't win the man or look the prettiest. She's disheveled, anxious and sad. She gets stood up.

Hanksy does Bill Cosby and Ted Danson.

What's cool about Hanksy is that he's able to bring that element of hip, slightly awkward and nostalgic irony to the otherwise serious work of provocative street art. Via.

Storytelling Advice from The Economist

Worth remembering, ESPECIALLY if you’re doing cross-media stuff.

What we share with our dogs ... compressed in one little ad.

This certified tearjerker, by Leo Burnett for Purina, talks to dog owners the same way Blédina first did moms. It acknowledges that love -- and that being responsible for something besides yourself -- is complicated. But that's part of what makes it worth experiencing.

"Promise me we'll never end up like our parents."

I love this ad that begins and ends with the same fated line.

Angela's Superfast Super Bowl Ad Rundown

Ads that were reasonably okay: Fiat "Seduction" (above), Audi's Twilight jab, Samsung's controversial stylus revolution, H&M/Beckham's tribute to the classic CK/Wahlberg ad, and FirstBank's pee break (only in Colorado).

Chevy Sonic gets an honourable mention for its OK Go alliance; it would've been great if Chevy hadn't soured the water with the Ford rip in First Half.

And don't even talk to me about that Clint Eastwood Halftime in America crap. W+K are masterful storytellers but that piece reeks of politics and promises utterly hollowed by the fact those wankers took bailout money. That your enterprise exists is a privilege, not a right, and if you think otherwise you don't get to push the "bootstraps" button. We didn't get bailouts.

Otherwise, lots of Americana, cars and dogs this year. When I finally have Prohibition nostalgia maybe I'll like the Budweiser ads, too.

Awkward Gift Time

Kito, who is paying Europe a visit: So Angela. Do you have any feelings about Ghirardelli chocolate?

Me: I guess I like the peppermint kind.

Kito: Do you ever have overwhelming urges to eat it? Are you ever like, "God, I could kill for some Ghiradelli chocolate right now"?

Me: Not really. Why?

Kito: Oh. Because here is a pack of Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate that I brought as a present for you. Don't worry though, they were on sale and I got some for my ex-girlfriend too.

Thanks again, Keet. Image credit: Hungeree.

Recipe for Defeating the Mean Reds

1. Kusmi almond green tea.
2. Jean-Luc Godard's Une Femme est Une Femme. Anna Karina is magic in it, and it's probably the one Godard film where he doesn't kill her. Also, in the film her name is Angela, which makes me feel extra nice.