SXSW Interactive is known as the platform for pitching new ideas and exploring innovative technologies. Despite the heavy emphasis on privacy and security at this year’s conference, the developers and tech startups were out in force. Secret is a new… (READ MORE)
In my review of last year’s SXSW themes (“Restraint”) I raised the question as to whether the party that has been our experience of the Internet since its beginnings is over. Based on what I heard on Day 2 of… (READ MORE)
I was so bitter about Arcade Fire being overlooked (snubbed?) by the Grammys (and, truth be told, life got crazy busy) that I never completely finished my series on Reflektor. I will get back to that last, important word on… (READ MORE)
And, Love One Another Whereas the first two songs on Reflektor that engage ethics dealt with issues of social alienation, the final two tackle objectification. The shortest song on the album and, aside from “Supersymmetry” the most musically divergent, “Flashbulb… (READ MORE)
Then, Love Your Neighbor as Yourself Four tracks on Reflektor propose an approach to social ethics for a reflective age by way of critique. “We Exist” confronts us with our capacity to alienate people. Whether the categories are rich-poor, gay-straight,… (READ MORE)
The Orphean and Kierkegaardian threads that hold Reflektor together suggest positive trajectories toward a particular way of being, or an ethics. The Orpheus myth’s exploration of a love that endures beyond the grave implies a calling to pursue such depth… (READ MORE)
“Afterlife, Oh my God, what an awful word.” Indeed. This claim echoes a question at play throughout Reflektor. On the lead track, Butler’s Orpheus passes into the realm between the living and the dead and declares: “If this is heaven,… (READ MORE)
The release of a new Arcade Fire album means that it is time to blow the dust off the blog for some reflections – so to speak. Any band who wins a Grammy for Album of the Year immediately raises… (READ MORE)
Inspiration. Disruption. Restraint. These were three key themes at SXSW 2013, but there were two others on the air as well… Theme #4: The Value of Sharing Shareable content is the currency of the social web. This has been true… (READ MORE)
You read that right…restraint. A shocking word to the tech-savvy, bleeding edge SXSW Interactive crowd. At its heart, the question of restraint is: Just because we can do something, should we do it? In other words, should we show restraint… (READ MORE)