Drop Where You Shop

Saw on Consumerist today that shopdropping is experiencing a spike in popularity. Fun!

SHOPDROP: To covertly place merchandise on display in a store. A form of "culture jamming" s. reverse shoplift, droplift.

Brings to mind The Droplift Project, who've been droplifting for years. Doesn't quite top Bansky's museum-hack, but it's the same idea. The Center for Tactical Magic demonstrates a lot of the ideas I first heard articulated in Hakim Bey's Temporary Autonomous Zone. Not that I've read all that, I recommend you absorb it the same way I did - listen to it*.

[* If anyone knows of an acapella version of this recording, please share. (I think the mid-90's "world/ambient" music bed might prevent some listeners from getting the most of Bey's reading, plus I'd like to mash-up some bits of it myself.)]

For those who want to skip the strategy and go straight to the rush of shopdropping, there's PeopleProducts123, an endeavor of the Anti-Advertising Agency.

Throughout Through Death*

Pioneering avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen died Wednesday, according to a press release posted yesterday by the Stockhausen Foundation. While neither a household name nor always the easiest to listen to, his work still was a profound influence. From Aphex Twin to Frank Zappa, The Beatles and Pink Floyd to Sonic Youth and Björk, musicians of all disciplines cite Stockhausen as a critical reference point.

Let's all tip a sip for Karlheinz tonight.

* Post title taken from a Stockhausen quote, listed in his Memorial Booklet [PDF].

Wait For It

I just read on the Captivate network (elevator news at work, piped in by Gannett) that scientists are trying desperately to develop an anti-aging pill. A pill that fights the affects of aging.

A pill that fights the affects of aging? We've had that for years already. It's called birth control. From the moment each of us is born, the one thing we all do is age. The only way to stop that is to not be born. Fact is, we're already living longer than we were biologically meant to. Let's not forget that living longer doesn't mean living better - we still fall apart as we get up in years. Think of how much of your life is spent just making a living. Now imagine that going on longer than you ever imagined. And with silly elevator news snippets that remind you of your inevitable mortality.

To be fair, despite Captivate's sensationalized paraphrasing of some actual news, the true development appears to be related to longevity and life expectancy, judging from this recent Wired article. But living longer is not the same thing as not aging, is it? We all have to wait at least another ten years to see if these pills even do anything.

Meanwhile, maybe contemplate your life in terms of quantity versus quality.

[Photo from AmazingAbilities.com]

The secrets that you keep, when you're meeting in your sleep.

Went to some management training for two and a half days this past week. It was a lot to take in, but most of that should prove useful. I've already noticed some changes taking effect. My fiancee tells me for the past few nights I've been talking a lot in my sleep.

Not just talking, though. She says it sounds like I'm giving a presentation. Or maybe speaking in a meeting. I just wake up tired. Can't remember any meetings, but it sounds as though they may have been productive. I'm told that it sounded as though I was doing a convincing job of it - whatever it was.

[Video via Kottke]