Some wonderfully worn shoes I had to good sense to toss before moving:

Some wonderful chairs I shipped across the country at great expense for some inconceivably stupid reason:

Especially when ou make products as cool as Cold Steel. By now, you’ve all seen the Great Sword videos where a host of strangely methodical professionals cut through shockingly preposterous quantities of meat.

The videos are humorous, a little awkward, and let’s be honest here, over the top. But they’re also totally awesome, and as the Cold Steel test below shows, there’s a serious subculture of knife nerds who take design very seriously.

Please note: This video is a half-hour long and worth every second of the time.

Michael Janich Doesn’t Know from Cold Steel on Vimeo.

I’m joking of course, but, Rosin’s piece has been the target of considerable frothy vitriol. To be honest, I haven’t actually heard any of the criticism, but I’ve got no trouble imagining where it’s coming from. Writing in the Nation, Katha Pollitt offered what should be, for all my whimpering/threatened bros out there, a little consolation: “The End of Men” isn’t about how men will suddenly cease to exist or be relevant. it’s about how men will cease to economically and socially dominate women.

Is that so bad?

The point isn’t so much that women are better suited to the post-industrial world—Though Rosin does spend a lot of her piece treading in the snow around this claim. The lesson for the would-be threatened is that the traditional male-dominated spheres are disappearing, and men won’t adapt. Women on the other hand are willing to focus, adapt, study, and work hard to get ahead. Isn’t that what our idea of meritocracy is all about anyway?

To my bros: Quit icing each other and get to work.

Am I cheering for Argentina even though the USA (where I’m from) and Chile (where my Dad’s from) are both in the World Cup? Yes. Why? 1) I studied abroad there when Messi was still coming up as a player so I feel a vague connection. 2) They speak Spanish. 3) They have a chance of winning. So there. But In certain games, Spain, Chile, and Team USA get my support.

In this video, Argentine Maradona and Messi run make the same spectacular run 20 years a part. Seriously, it’s the same play. Who besides chauvinist American ass clowns isn’t loving the World Cup right now?

Japandroids “Younger Us”
“Do you remember when you were in already bed got up said fuck it got up and drank with me instead.”

I got interested in Young Prisms a few months ago when Michelle Broder Van Dyke wrote about them in the Chronicle, but I just got around to seeing them last weekend. Their Daytrotter session is worth checking out.

Liars “Scissor” is probably my favorite song of the year so far. It also has an haunting video. Liars also played the song on Tunnelvision.

Man I love Black Mountain. Well really I love anything Steven McBean touches. I wrote about his other project Pink Mountaintops about a year ago. “Old Fangs” from Black Mountain’s forthcoming record is a polished, organ and guitar psych jam.

Speaking of black things, the new Black Keys record Brothers is awesome.

And of course:

Keepaway

MGMT

These headphones woke up today on the wrong side of history—For this year at least.

But that’s not what’s important. I’ve been using these lamentably tacky cans in the office for a few weeks since my usual pair is tied up at the studio. Let’s put it this way: I’m not sure why Skullcandy exists. To help people look like clowns? I understand coveting branded apparel to a certain extent so long as the product is solid.

This is not case. This happy-meal looking hunks of plastic are heavy, uncomfortable, and look ridiculous—Nevermind that you can definitely get a better sounding pair of headphones for $50 bucks. In fact, if it weren’t for the headphones’ solid isolation, they’d sound no better than the complimentary American Airlines crap that’s been at the bottom of my desk drawer for two years.

Not that I ever expected these cans to be anything other than a fashion statement.

By the way, Skullcandy is sold out of NBA Mixmasters, which means there’s a legion of basketball super-fans walking around the streets of this fine country sporting jazzy headphones that sound like crap.

A sound well-honed is hard to come by and joyous on its own, but it’s especially gratifying when friends evolve and rejigger until the evidence of hard work is lost in the music altogether. That’s when you know you got it.

Above: a song-themed laser-cut plastic accessory from Keepaway.

There were a lot of inspiring projects at Maker Faire. More than I’d even be able to break into categories or outline into the specific zones of motivation they stimulate. But as I rode home on the freeway one project stuck in my brain. Beatseqr wasn’t at all the most impressive example of innovation. The 16-step beat sequencer wasn’t even the most impressive music exhibit, but it attacks a very difficult problem with a simple if somewhat limited solution. it is definitely the most intuitive sequencer/controller I’ve ever used. I’m a huge audio nerd who makes music mostly by myself and incorporating sequenced beats on-the-fly can be prohibitively complicated especially since a lot of the time both of my hands are on a guitar leaving me very little time for button pushing. I suspect Beatseqr would solve a lot of the problems music producers like me have by streamlining beat production to it’s most basic functions. I haven’t decided if I’m going to buy one yet, but it definitely rekindled my motivation solve the sequencer problems I’ve encountered in the past.