TravelPost has a fairly comprehensive guide to US airport wireless connections and free airport wifi. I still refuse to pay for internet access. That probably makes me a communist, but hey, I just think it should be free.

McSweeney’s has three new Mac ad ideas. “With that, he lights himself on fire and dies screaming.” I love McSweeney’s so.

(In case you missed Part 1 or Part 2.)

I moved to Dallas, Tx on July 31, to be welcomed by one of the hottest months ever recorded by man in a long time (shut up, I like the cold and I’m a pansy in hot weather.) I’ve been here for right at six weeks, had something like 15 interviews with various individuals, companies, firms, and studios, explored opportunities, met some gracious, talented folks, eaten a lot of free lunches, collaborated with good people on contract web work, been on the recieving end of amazing amounts of hospitality and goodwill from wonderful people who barely know me, moved into a very tiny, very affordable, very awesome 50′s-style apartment, got broke, got paid, carpooled, got lost, learned more, started drawing/creating and generally falling in love with the artistic process all over again, and I finally feel like I’m starting to catch my breath and “get settled.”

We got roots and we be layin’ ‘em down like naptime. This has been one of the most dense and action-packed month-and-a-halfs of my life. I’m not sure I ever knew that so much could be contained in such a short amount of time, but I am far from complaining. It’s been awesome.

So, The Great Dallas Job Hunt™ is what we’re talking about here. I have a lot of data and things to ponder, but I’ll be making a final decision this weekend. Tune in Monday or Tuesday.

Thanks for playing along.

The Leica M8 is the famous film-camera maker’s new foray into the digital world, featuring 10.3 megapixel resolution, ISO 160-2500, 1/8000 exposure, and will work with “virtually all” Leica M series lenses produced since 1954. Wow.

Hasbro has redesigned Monopoly’s boards and pieces with a Here & Now version. Say goodbye to all the memorable NY/NJ street names and say hello to building properties on… The Mall of America? Texas Stadium? How do I build a hotel on a stadium? Does it go on top? And forget playing as the shoe or the little dog… now you’re McDonald’s french fries. I’m not making this up. AMERICA HAS VOTED! And America is apparently full of idiots. (via Veer)

I’ve got to admit, the new iPod Shuffle is snazzy. My kind of non-intrusive music player.

Soap on a Roll is dissolving soap in a dispenser. I love the simple fact that something like this exists.

How to back up your music using iTunes 7. Nice added feature, though it isn’t not of much use to me (15168 songs, 54.8 days, 90.36 GB) it might be handy for the average user who isn’t already doing regular back-ups (shame on you.)

Enjoyable Grasscast interview with Chris Thile on The Bluegrass Blog discussing his new album How To Grow A Woman From The Ground, the impending dissolution of Nickel Creek, being unique in NYC, and the highly (unfortunately) closed system of the greater bluegrass community.

• Massively annoying girl in front of me: OH. MY. GOD. This is like what, like, heaven is like. I’m not [unintelligible gibberish] kidding you. It’s like… ephemeral.
• Massively’s slightly disinterested friend: Ethereal. You mean “it’s like… ethereal.”

• Fanboy Stage Left: I love your band. [pause] All of them.
• Fratboy Stage Right: I love your body. [pause] All of it.

YouTube changed their player AGAIN, it’s still hideous, the embedded version is even worse, and, in the words of the always-on-point Kenny Ferguson, “Why say it in 40 pixels when you can say it in 10?” (The YouTube player controls are actually 63 pixels tall… for a freaking PLAY/PAUSE button and status bar. Do you guys employ a graphic designer? Honest question.)

Braniff Airways commercials featuring the odd couples of Andy Warhol/Sonny Liston and Whitey Ford/Salvador Dali (not to mention the retro-futuristic spot with the line “a friendly computer already knows more about you than you do.”) Brilliance!

“If there is anything worse than a pervert, it’s a self-righteous druggie pervert, dressed as a chipmunk, offering unsolicited fashion tips. If you want catty advice on how to dress from a crowd of Rocky Horror Picture Show rejects, Burning Man is for you.” An equally catty review from someone who obviously didn’t like his experience at the festival.

I love the splashpage for Ratatat right now.

Pictopia produces high-quality, oversized digital prints (like 16×20 inches, 2×3 feet or 4×8 feet) on archive paper. They have some sort of “up-res software” which supposedly allows you to enlarge an image beyond the original resolution without typical loss. No clue if it works well, but for the relatively cheap pricing, I want to give it a shot. (via Kevin Kelly)

When I stumbled onto High Fidelity: The Musical, I immediately said (in my inner-monologue voice) “I can’t think of too many worse ideas than translating that film into a Broadway show.”

OR MAYBE I CAN:

• Terminator 4: The Musical – picture this: a chorus of DANCING ROBOT ENDOSKELETONS singing SHOW TUNES surrounded by pyrotechnics. A spectacle for the ages.
• I’m Gonna Get You Sucka: The Musical – “Good Lord, that’s a lot of money.”
• Requiem for a Dream: The Musical – who doesn’t love the thought of combining heroin, downward spirals, and SHOW TUNES? And with Jared Leto trying to be a hysterically horrible rockstar lately, he could transition right into reprising his role.

Hey, kids… a new temporary minisite for Tubatomic Studio, my boys in Chattanooga, Tennessee. They’re hiring right now, so go get yourself hired if you have Flash or web development skills.

Our final standard will have to be the demands of art, which are a good deal more exacting than the demands of the Church. There are novels a writer might write, and remain a good Catholic, which his conscience as an artist would not allow him to perpetuate.
— Flannery O’Connor, American writer

Conversation point: as artists, what should be our standard of excellence/competency in our craft?

“What I’m talking about here is the full-frontal objectification of the library itself. Oh yeah.” Hot library smut for your voyeuristic enjoyment.

Nigel Evan Dennis updates Electric Heat with illustration and art direction work. He’s been slowly sliding into a fantastic style of dense, typically monochromatic palettes in collage-esque layouts over the past two years that just plain works. (He started up a blog, too.)

Creative Behavior article on how to manage the monster client and project management for the freelance designer. It’s more “this is the way I do it, it might work for you” than a complete end-all statement, but hey, it might work for you.