Andrew K Kirk

Icona Pop are pure fun, electronic-pop duo from Stockholm. The Swedish duo consists of Caroline Hjelt & Aino Jawo. The two form a striking duo, known for incorporating visual and fashion elements into their delivery. Take a listen to “I Love It” by Icona Pop. Warning: A Party may break out spontaneously. 

Icona Pop has released an EP and their forthcoming full length album is due later this fall. As of late, the girls are staying very busy. They were recently profiled in the ‘Rising’ section of Pitchfork. They also recently spent some time across the pond, performing at the Rolling Stone parties happening in Palm Springs during Coachella. 

Her’s a shot I took of Caroline as we ride the Rolling Stone school bus towards the Coachella festival. These girls appear to have a bright future creating pop music. 

Media Monday is back and today’s treat comes to us courtesy of UK’s Hot Chip.  The clip shows Hot Chip playing “How Do You Do” from their forthcoming album, In Our Heads, out June 12 in the U.S. Watch video of the new performance below.

I first started blogging because of the business benefits, in particular, the improved SEO and inbound marketing opportunities which exist with creating great content within a blog. I’m a big believer in businesses creating blogs. Until very recently, I had never blogged for personal reasons. I was never compelled to have a personal online journal to document the details and events of my personal life. Even now, I don’t use this platform as chronological documentation of my life. Instead, I started this blog to share my thoughts on technology, business, and other topics.

I also started this blog to improve my writing. I most hoped to improve my ability to convey complex thoughts and concepts within my writing. I also hoped to improve my writing mechanics and grammar.

I know what you’re thinking. E-mail, online chats, texting - our written communication isn’t as dependent on traditional written skills. But I would argue you can’t express yourself intelligently and with great depth without a sound use of the language. Grammatical and other compositional errors prevent your readers from diving into your writing. The errors create a mental block of sorts; a block that most readers won’t attempt to overcome.

This outcome is true for many things, not just writing. Without a sound foundation, it’s very tough to convey meaning. Imagine a grand concerto that’s improperly documented onto sheet music or an incredible web app that’s coded without comments. In both examples, the ideas may be extraordinary, but with poor execution and delivery, it’s unlikely that the end user will ever get to fully experience nor appreciate that end objective. 

A grammatical error (no apostrophe) in a building near the border of Canada (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Having made these points, I must admit that I’m guilty of making grammatical errors on this site. In my post ‘5 Reasons I’m Attending SXSW’, I committed several errors. Thankfully, my mom, who has a masterful understanding of English language and composition, discovered my errors. She kindly sent me the following email message:

“I was just looking at {your site} and I enjoyed it.  I did notice that there were several spelling and grammatical errors in the entry about the conference in Texas.  I hope you won’t be mad at me for pointing them out, but I am sure you don’t want those to go uncorrected in your blog.  If you are going to market yourself through these messages, it is important to make sure your thoughts are conveyed correctly.”

I couldn’t have summed it any better. And so why I’m always trying to improve, it’s nice to know that Mom is here to help. Happy Mother’s Day! 

Television has become the American pastime. We gather our families around television, we cheer and scream for our favorite teams through the tube, and we digest the moments that shape humanity via television. 

As a result of decreasing costs and Americans love with television, televisions are popping up nearly everywhere. In California, newly built charging stations for electric vehicles have televisions. Increasingly, hotels are installing televisions in elevators. And of course, more and more of us carry around smart devices which can access video content. 

Has this the rapid proliferation of televisions taken over our lives? 

Historically, televisions have not always been a major facet of all aspects our lives. I see three phases of television proliferation:

3 Phases of TV Proliferation 

1. Introduction: similar to the radio, the television was a social tool, a place for us to gather around as a family or group of friends. In the early days, programming was scarce, but the offering was leaps and bounds above what was previously available. In addition, the innovation of this new medium opened up an entirely new art form of creative expression, which influenced filmmakers. 
2. Home Invasion: As the cost of the devices dropped, it became common for homes to have multiple television sets. Televisions no longer were restricted to the living room; we could have a TV in the bedrooms, basements, game rooms, in the dining and kitchen areas, and for those well off, the bathroom. As result of this TV boom, cable and satellite offerings blossomed. No longer, were we “forced” to gather as a group nor reach consensus on what to watch. The avg number of televisions increased to XXX by DATE or avg number of TVs exceeded number of US citizens. 
3. Environmental Invasion: I believe we’re now entering this third phase. Every nook of our environment is being taken over by televisions. You pump your gas and a television automatically turns on. You ride an elevator and a screen glow to life. The decisions we make in our home is a personal and familial choice. What’s so disturbing about this final phase, is that you can’t turn off these devices. We’re bombarded by these environmental televisions. Our brains are hardwired to react to sound and light. We can’t ignore it and we can’t shut it off. It’s an attack on environment. We’re handcuffed to these screens. 

Typically when a disruptive technology is introduced, the cost of production prohibits complete proliferation. Eventually the cost drops to a point of mass proliferation and this spread can be beneficial to both the individual and society. But, at certain point we become saturated and we experience too much of a “good thing”. Televisions have reached a detrimental level of expansion. 

Are you alarmed by TVs taking over our environment?