joe lazarus

Placefav I meant to post this the other day, but was busy at...

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:17:49 -0700

Placefav

I meant to post this the other day, but was busy at work. Kyle Bragger launched Placefav this week, a super simple way to share a list of your favorite places with friends: restaurants, bars, music venues, museums, parks, or any other place you like. He already added some new features including Google maps & nearby Flickr photos, so check back for improvements or subscribe to the Placefav blog.

You can find a few of my favs at joelaz.placefav.com

Last.fm Tumblr Top 5 Artists Delays

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:38:19 -0700

Tumblr users may have noticed that the weekly automated Last.fm Top 5 Artist lists have experienced some delays lately. Since Last.fm relaunched their site, they haven’t posted people’s data on a regular schedule and that caused some issues for the feed I set up. I fixed the issue today (I hope!), which is why the updates went out on Friday this week instead of Sunday. From now on, the lists should post to your tumblelog as soon as Last.fm makes the information available.

Thanks for adding the top 5 lists to your site. I’ve discovered a ton of new bands from you all. Rock on.

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-8-24)

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:01:26 -0700

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-8-24):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

The Walkmen - Yellow Kid (Royal Trux cover) Photo by Bryan...

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 09:41:00 -0700

The Walkmen - Yellow Kid (Royal Trux cover)

Photo by Bryan Bruchman

Beck - Modern Guilt My afternoon yesterday: 3:05pm: I receive an...

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:24:00 -0700

Beck - Modern Guilt

My afternoon yesterday:

3:05pm: I receive an email from The Independent, a small-ish venue here in San Francisco, announcing a last minute Beck show this Sunday.

5:00pm: Tickets go on sale through Ticketweb.

5:01pm: The Ticketweb site crashes as thousands of fans rush the site.

5:30pm: After refreshing the page every few minutes for a half hour, I get a message that says tickets are no longer available. Depression sets in.

5:35pm: Determined, I press on. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh.

6:00pm: Ticketweb is back up and 2 tickets suddenly appear in my shopping cart.

6:06pm: I receive an order confirmation email from Ticketweb.

Excited!

Zing! (via Rob Williams on Twitter)

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:56:00 -0700

Zing! (via Rob Williams on Twitter)

Camouflage, by Liu Bolin See more photos from this young...

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:53:35 -0700

Camouflage, by Liu Bolin

See more photos from this young Beijing-based artist’s Camouflage series.

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson - Who’s Laughing Photo by Bryan...

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:39:53 -0700

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson - Who’s Laughing

Photo by Bryan Bruchman

SMS Business Cards On Monday, I was out for drinks and met a guy...

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:01:00 -0700

SMS Business Cards

On Monday, I was out for drinks and met a guy who’s working on some similar stuff. He handed me his business card and asked for mine. I told him I didn’t have one on me (truth is, I haven’t had a card since I left Yahoo! and I never carried them with me then anyway). Instead, I said, “Just text joelaz to 41411”. A second later he received a text message on his phone like the one above with my name, address, email, website URL and any other contact info I wanted to share.

It took just a few seconds to create this using a simple, free service that I recently heard about from Russell Beattie called Textmarks. After learning about Textmarks in the comments of a post on Fred Wilson’s blog, it occurred to me that you could use the service for text message business cards. Here’s how to make your own:

Go to the “create” page on Textmarks.com
Pick a unique keyword for yourself (I used “joelaz”)
Enter up to 120 characters of contact info in the “Respond to keyword with text message:” field
Click the “Create” button
If you haven’t already done so, create an account on Textmarks (if you skip this step, your keyword will expire in 24 hours)
Click the “Manage” tab and then click the “Edit” button next to the keyword you created
Click “Edit” Configuration and uncheck all the boxes under “Messaging Options” and uncheck “Subscribable Textmark” (those options are for more advanced uses of Textmarks, but not needed for your SMS business cards)
Tell new friends and business contacts to “text your_keyword to 41411” (replace your_keyword, duh)

That’s it. It’s free, simple to use, environmentally friendly, and you’ll be the envy of geeks everywhere.

The Black Keys - Meet Me in the City I saw these guys at Outside...

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:18:13 -0700

The Black Keys - Meet Me in the City

I saw these guys at Outside Lands on Friday instead of dealing with the crowds at Beck, who I’ve seen a few times before. The Black Keys have such a big sound for such a small group. Straight up rock & roll never gets old.

Photo by 5500

Multimedia Music Slideshows I have this idea for a site that...

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:10:00 -0700

Multimedia Music Slideshows

I have this idea for a site that combines concert photos from Flickr with Seeqpod MP3 search to create multimedia music slideshows for a particular band or concert event. This is a crude, mini example of what the experience would be like using Radiohead as an example. The real site wouldn’t be a tiny widget like this… it’s just the easiest way I could communicate the concept. Click play on the music player at the top and then click play on the Flickr slideshow below the music player. For optimal viewing, hit the full-screen button in the bottom right corner of the Flickr player.

I’m thinking about trying to make a site that has a page like this for any band and / or live music event that was captured on Flickr. People could listen to a band they like while watching a large slideshow of interesting concert photos from other fans. The data is there… it’s just a matter of mashing it all up. What do you think about the general concept? Any developers what to help make it?

Radiohead, Friday, August 22, 2008. Outside Lands Festival San...

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 10:52:00 -0700

Radiohead, Friday, August 22, 2008.

Outside Lands Festival San Francisco.

Photo by Jeff Kravitz.

Beijing Olympics Stadium: 360° View

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 09:36:00 -0700

Beijing Olympics Stadium: 360° View: A full-screen, interactive 360 degree view from inside the Olympics stadium. Taken 30 minutes before the Men’s 100m Final.

Mis 50 fotos más interesantes, by javiekitela This set is a...

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:25:00 -0700

Mis 50 fotos más interesantes, by javiekitela

This set is a beautiful example of Flickr’s new & improved slideshow feature, which now supports video in addition to photos. After hitting play, click the full-screen icon in the bottom right corner of the player. Then sit back and watch this artist’s collection of amazing work scroll by. I wish I had one of those giant plasma TVs to watch this on.

Outside Lands Festival: Friday Line-up I’m headed to the...

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:59:00 -0700

Outside Lands Festival: Friday Line-up

I’m headed to the Outside Lands fest this afternoon to see Beck, Radiohead, and a bunch of other great music. So, instead of my usual Friday cover, I’m posting this playlist of artists performing today. The track selection comes from the Stranger Days music blog, which has a write-up and the MP3’s.

So psyched to be going to a big music festival right in my backyard here in San Francisco!

American Analog Set - These Days Photo by the real janelle

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:31:10 -0700

American Analog Set - These Days

Photo by the real janelle

Songbird 0.7 An iTunes replacement + music enhanced web...

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:43:45 -0700

Songbird 0.7

An iTunes replacement + music enhanced web browser. Get it.

Tallest Skyscraper in the World Almost Completed Burj Dubai...

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:30:00 -0700

Tallest Skyscraper in the World Almost Completed

Burj Dubai tower is almost complete. Check out the set of high-res photos. I’m glad someone in the world knows how to engineer stuff like this. If it were left up to me, we’d all be in caves rubbing sticks together trying to start a fire.

Carla Bruni - Tu Es Ma Came Carla Bruni is not only a talented,...

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:32:15 -0700

Carla Bruni - Tu Es Ma Came

Carla Bruni is not only a talented, sultry singer, but also a former super model (see photo below) and the first lady of France. That’s right, she’s married to Nicolas Sarkozy, president of France. Laura Bush has got nothing on Bruni.

Photo by guano

Bummer… Muxtape is down (hopefully not for the count). ...

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:10:45 -0700

Bummer… Muxtape is down (hopefully not for the count). You had to see this coming. It was fun while it lasted.