tom moody

yesterday's bad art theory is today's great gift shop

The small cylindrical building in the lower left was a subway entrance that stood alone in a vacant lot for years. Then, this awkward parabuilding was added, using the cylinder as a support for a multi-story hotel. "Parabuilding" was NY Times architecture critic's Herbert Muschamp's euphemism for what could also be called "the architecture of greed," where squeezing every last nickel of rent takes precedence over style. Note how the sleek futuristic columns attempt to distract from the silliness of the design.

The building maximizes rentable area on the opposite side, too. Note how the wraparound floors push into the body space of the building next door, a la George Bush trying to squeeze past Bill Clinton.

Here's a shot that a tourist bureau might like, where everything appears neat and symmetrical. Photos can lie.

I made these images as cover photos for my newest music release, Generic PC (Vols. 1-5) on Bandcamp. 50 songs from 2016 -- please buy some, for the music, or, if you prefer, to support the efforts of the last blogger on earth.

These aren't old PCs but rather, a form of personal rebellion against the "design award" aesthetic for computer hardware, popularized by the late, unlamented Steve Jobs.

Just stick some wires in them and they work; they don't have to look "cool."

The back side of the Qu-Bit Nebulae module, showing the Raspberry Pi it uses for an operating system (for cv-controlled granular sample manipulation).
Although still functioning perfectly, this is a five year old relic, like the bone of a saint ensconced in an ornamental cabinet. Qu-Bit is no longer making the Nebulae because Raspberry Pi changed its design and/or specs. So I have a dedicated general purpose computer humming away inside an obsolete musical instrument. There is something kind of poignant about that. Or perhaps not.

hat tip Sbarro Chica

"Small business chic" design for audio cassette cover.
Cassette is available on request to digital purchasers of "Home Electo for Fun and Profit," my last bandcamp release for 2014.

scan of black and white photograph

This is not in the boonies, it's in the NY metropolitan area.

2003:

2006:

2013 (yawn):

Some of my favorite Gawker gripes about how much the Weather Channel magnified this storm in the NY area:

Max Read:

Yes: last year The Weather Channel—which owns Weather.com, Weather Underground, and a host of other weather-related sites—announced it would begin naming winter storms...

The truth is there is very little attempt being made to hide the fact that this is a money play. In case the inclusion of "Draco" and "Nemo" (just some Greek and Roman names, nothing to do with any recent children's movies, don't worry) and "Gandolf" (the "Bert Sampson" of fantasy names) didn't tip you off, the announcement itself makes it clear that this is about punching up the weather story: "A storm with a name takes on a personality all its own," writes Tom Niziol. Such "personality," he claims "adds to awareness."

As in awareness of the Weather Channel, Read notes. As in, Google awareness (and Twitter hashtags).

Caity Weaver:

Yesterday afternoon, The Weather Channel whipped itself up into such a frenzy over the East Coast's upcoming snowstorm that its website exploded from the inside, vomiting maps, janky mountain graphics, and CAPSLOCKED WEATHER WARNINGS all over its homepage.