antinomian.com

It occurs to me that every time a “link” is sent via email or IM or whatever, the “value” of the transaction is largely dependent on whether the receiving party has seen the “link” before… And so I’m curious what would happen if you ran a simulation of a traditional economy, wherein every time an individual encountered a “bill” bearing a particular serial number, that one unique piece of currency was immediately devalued, but only for that person? How would you go about building and maintaining wealth in a system like this? Also worth considering, I suppose, is the reputational currency earned by sending “fresh” links & debased by sending too many “old” ones. And what happens as media evolve and the viral spread of “links” becomes more perfect? Won’t that lead to a collapse of the “link” economy?

Related Topics: Social Objects, Artificial Scarcity

FYI San Francisco, New York’s favorite afro-pop/indie-rock revivalists Vampire Weekend are playing 2 shows here (at The Independent & Rickshaw Stop) in March and tickets are on sale this weekend… Get some!

N.B. They are also playing this Thursday at Popscene/330 Ritch, but there are no advance tickets for this show so interested parties are advised to get there early and wait out in the cold and rain the same way this blog’s author did when he wanted to see Arctic Monkeys at this venue several years ago. Having thus redeemed his bad decision to pass up seeing Franz Ferdinand at the Empty Bottle in 2004, he is no longer as strongly motivated to endure such discomforts in the name of “liking bands better before they sell out.” (And besides, if he was so concerned about that, then wouldn’t he have seen Vampire Weekend when they played The Independent in December and before their album was AVAILABLE AT TARGET® FOR $8.99?) All of which is not to say that he’d turn down free tickets or anything, but at this point pretty much the only bands he would willingly line up for are Prince, The Wrens or The Flaming Lips.

But seriously though… these guys are great! Just check out these sweet MP3s if you don’t believe it:

Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
Vampire Weekend - One

Wherein I dump without comment all the Chuck Klosterman related articles that I’ve been bookmarking over the past few months, having realized that no matter what clever remarks I might make about them they will remain irreversibly shitty:

• “Me, On Shuffle” - Chuck is sick of people asking him what music he likes, so he goes on at great length about what music he likes.
• “All Too Perfect” - Chuck thinks the Patriots should lose the Superbowl, because it would make them more interesting.
• “Chuck Klosterman: A Manboy Who Must Be Stopped” - Somebody else hates on Chuck.
• Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs Review - Best review ever, man…
• Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story Review - Also quite good

OK, I feel much better now that I can delete these damn things from my Favorites bar and no longer shudder each time i accidentally click on them!

[UPDATE] Tangentially, please consider this essay on The Fountainhead, particularly in light of that last Klosterman link:

Don’t set out to raze all shrines – you’ll frighten men. Enshrine mediocrity, and the shrines are razed.

I see you let people design & buy their own custom sets now. Dios mio, man… So let me ask you this: Why in the MOTHERFUNK are you not selling custom printed mini-figs as well?!?! Do you not WANT to make money, or do you already have too much?!??!? Have the last 12 months not shown us that people are absolutely bat-shit crazy about building & customizing their own lo-rez doppelgängers? Are you just going to let the fanboy masses continue to infringe your copyright indefinitely or what!?? In my opinion, I think you need to hire me as a consultant to get this cash cow up and running because you can apparently not figure it out by your own damn selves. So… LMK, OkTHX!!!

Yours in making lots of Kronor,
Eric

ps. This goes for you too, Nintendo! Get your shit straightened out or people are going to straighten it for you!