Highlights

What is Art? In <100 words

July 13th 2010

Another day away from law blogging. Recently I’ve been thinking on the differences between art, craft, and expression. Art takes thought. What is art without thought? Don’t know, but kids are great at it.  Maybe joy, or play. Remember play? Play is the work of childhood.  So is art the work of life? Perhaps on […]

UsefulArts is Back from July Vacation

July 12th 2010

I took about 10 days off from blogging, and I noticed a few things changed in my life.  First up was vacation, both for me and the fantastic copyeditor who is the first reader of most this blog’s posts.  This was also a chance to start work on some related web projects that I’ll share […]

Quark (Remember Them?) & Ray Kurzweil Take On Adobe InDesign For Making eBooks

June 30th 2010

In the mid-’90s, Quark was the leading tool for print publishing.  It was a generation ahead of Adobe’s PageMaker, which in those days I called the “publishing tool of Satan.” But Adobe launched the more economical InDesign, connected to Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Flash. Soon, Quark was in Adobe’s digital rear-view mirror. Last week, Quark announced […]

Twilight T-shirt Contest Requires Your Entry To Have Nothing to Do With Twilight

June 29th 2010

We’ve learned that vampires are apparently obsessed with copyright.  Now consider the official Twilight t-shirt contest.  Fans are invited to make a shirt to promote the new film.  Of course, entries must comply with a few rules. (In case you haven’t noticed, vampires are also rather controlling.) Here are some select rules to keep mortals […]

What is Your Life Vision For Work? A Time to Think About What We’re Doing.

June 28th 2010

Some days it feels like I work in a 90’s start-up. Its high growth, which is a polite way to say it often feels like a slow motion riot. I like it that way.  Really. There’s the free beverage machine, team building, even the occasional massage.  But by far the most interesting benefit, has been […]

Unicorn Meat Distributor Threatened by the Pork Board

June 25th 2010

How to Throw and Catch the Knife of Wit “Unicorns, as we all know, frolic all over the world, pooping rainbows and marshmallows wherever they go.”  So begins a send-up product pitch for Unicorn – the new white meat. The illustration on the right shows the parts of the unicorn can rendered into rainbows (or […]

Vampires Have Always Been a Bit Copyright Obsessed

June 24th 2010

What do the undead think about inside their coffins (or at Starbucks) during daylight hours?  Intellectual property,  apparently, as evidenced by an unlikely copyright lawsuit. The bloodsuckers at  Summit Entertainment, makers of the Twilight vampire movies, have filed a lawsuit against the makers of a jacket worn by a character in their film. The clothing […]

Digital Afterlife: Legacies, Digital Executors, and Visiting The Dead On Facebook

June 16th 2010

Who Will Update My Facebook Status When I Die? If you follow this blog’s Twitter feed you may have already seen me saying goodbye to people I’ve enjoyed in person and online.  MIT’s Bill Mitchell and Chuck Howes, formerly of the Christian Science Publishing Society, both good men, recently passed away.  In the case of […]

Corporations Want Tort Reform…So Only They Can Sue You

June 15th 2010

An oil release from BP imperils the seas, careless financial firms put economies and governments at risk, and a mine in West Virgina (run by a company with a despicable safety record) explodes. Cereal companies lie about their products’ ability to bolster immunity during an epidemic, cars accelerate for no apparent reason, and pharma companies […]

Boston Agencies Pursue Product Revenue with Mixed Results

June 9th 2010

This is the story of three talented, scrappy agencies who did great client work, and who each tried to transition to selling products instead of services and engagements. It represents one way that agencies are remaking their business models. Magic Hour In the 1990s when I met them, Magic Hour Communications was a group of […]