It’s finally 2008, and we all know what that means: Dub-ya is on his way out of the White House. Most of us are thrilled about that; some of us are not so thrilled about that (ahem, some), but the fact remains that change is coming, and we’re as much a part of it as the presidential hopefuls stepping up their campaigns for the final push. One thing about this election season that has been refreshing to me is the slew of interesting candidates that we’ve had to choose from. So many different religions; the first woman; the first African American — our next president might represent something truly historical, and I find that, in itself, incredibly exciting.

Aside from environmental issues, this site has generally kept it’s distance from Washington, D.C. On the other hand, nothing stirs up a good debate like politics — and 2008’s elections are shaping up to be something impossible not to talk about. So, at the risk of getting risque, we want to know your current stance on the elections. Who’s your candidate? Why do think they have what it takes to clean up America’s current messiness? Is there one candidate that will send you to a cave should they take office? Also, if you happen to be reading from somewhere other than the US, feel free to jump in — we want to know how you think we can turn our country around, too!

I’m having trouble processing the fact that this time next week, a new year will be upon us. I’ve never really been one for New Year’s resolutions — I’m more of a “change it right now” kind of person — but there’s some things I’ve decided to do starting now, through the next year and beyond. Some things are ongoing projects (like training the best-behaved pitbull you’ll ever meet), some are typical (more walking, less cab-taking) some have a definitive ending point (finding the perfect couch) and some are mental adjustments I’m making (refusing to ever put up with crap from anyone, ever again), and I feel like the new year and a clean calendar will only benefit them and me in sticking to them.

That being said, here’s the inevitable question: What are your New Year’s Resolutions? Saying it out loud (or, in this case, typing it out) has proven to keep you accountable for your decisions and actions, so get sharing! We promise to help in any way we can.

On this side of the blogosphere, we find a lot of awesome things to share by a simple method of “friend stealing.” What this means is; should a day come around in which the world seems dismal (ie, sneaker collabs suck; the day’s tees look tired; a talented designer’s site is frustratingly written in Mandarin) we head to a site we know well and click on every single link we can find. In this way, we find friends of friends; people who deserve all the love that “hype” has yet to hand them. This shows us a few things; firstly, that there is a lot of incredible stuff in this world, but secondly that real relationships might be the best way through which we can find real talent. Here’s where you come in: If you know of someone (with a webpage, please) who’s doing something great/making something great, tell us about her/him/it. If you leave us a link to their work, we’ll check it out, and do what we can to help you give your talented buddy the respect they deserve. An explanation would be excellent, but a link would be sufficient, so go ahead — tell us who to love.

There is a Starbucks in Boulder, CO that is open 24 hours. At inopportune moments, and generally those containing some degree of panic, this Starbucks offers a degree of convenience that independent coffee shops typically can’t– which is to say, the ability to find an internet connection when your own decides to die at 3 a.m. (which only seems to happen when the consequences of having no internet also mandate your own death). I would be grateful for this but for one thing: Darling Starbucks still charges for internet. The responsibility for this disservice is actually shared with T-Mobile, a partnership communicated as groundbreaking yet realized as a classic example of corporate ignorance. Every time I have to pay for a 24-hour internet pass, I’m reminded of why Pumpkin Spice Lattes will never measure up to locally brewed americanos, and for some reason, this makes me hate both of the companies behind the $9.99 charge (…and in a weird, aggressive way that manifests itself in away messages involving Catherine Zeta Jones and scalding cappuccinos).

The Starbucks/T-Mobile alliance is only one of several corporate partnerships that make little sense to the people supposedly benefiting from them. Today, in a totally opposite approach to that situation, we want to ask you: If you could meld the power of any two companies together in order to do something good, what would it look like? Who would the companies be, what would their alliance do, and how would it help? Because the truth is, there’s power in collaboration, and even though Starbucks and T-Mobile don’t get that, we do.

Bonus reading: How I’d Communicate My Feelings About Starbucks’ Wi-Fi if I were a Soap Opera Writer, a Hollywood Screenwriter, A Sci-Fi Writer, A Playwright, or an Email Writer @ McSweeney’s

I — for the most part — adore working at home. I am lucky to have a big space, by New York city standards anyhow, all to myself, but I still lack a dedicated office space. My dining room does double duty as my office around eighty percent of the time, but I’m okay with that; I get a decent amount of light, I rarely feel stifled and everything I need is within reach. A life of freelancing took some getting used to, and while I found distractions (like television, noisy kids off school during the summer, the desire to bake instead of work) a bit rough at first to zone out, once I dedicated a space to work in, things were a million times easier for me, and my productivity and ability to multitask grew exponentially. I’ve included a full list of my workplace staples after the jump, but tell me this: what kind of environment do you need to work in to be the most productive you can be?

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After Wednesday’s drastic iPhone price reduction, it came as no surprise when the phone’s early adopters collectively responded with a succinctly stated “WTF.” After all, the iPhone’s success — and subsequent price reduction — was partially in thanks to the loyal Apple consumers that jumped on board barely two months ago, making the premature and dramatic price change feel suspiciously similar to a punch to the babymaker. In typical Apple fashion, Mr. Steve Jobs quickly responded to the clamor with the promise of $100 Mac Store credits to all initial buyers of the iPhone. This efficient reaction somewhat quelled the disdain, but still left an important question lingering: What the hell was that about? It seems ridiculous to think Apple could have expected anything less than an uproar; sure, we’re all well-meaning people who want to share the magic of an affordable touchscreen, but quite honestly, the way the price reduction was initially introduced (i.e., no acknowledgment of potential offense) went against basic human instinct. And ethics. And the thing is, we know how smart the crew at Apple is, so we just don’t get it. Thank heaven we also know how smart the crew that reads JS is, because we need you to help us make sense of this mess. Extra points if you have an iPhone; extra extra points if your theory turns out to be correct. Also, if you just need to vent, feel free — this is a safe space.

A certain someone just told me he couldn’t help me come up with a TSF topic because he’s too busy watching Domo-Kun on YouTube. That got me thinking — there are times that I tell people I’m “too busy right now,” when really I’m just watching the same five episodes of Planet Unicorn over and over again or participating in drinking games based on SoCal-based MTV reality shows (it’s a shot for every “like,” “bro,” and “Daaaaaaaddy!” if you have to ask) via AIM. So, I’m wondering what everyone else is watching when they’re allegedly swamped, because if you ask me, procrastination is always better when it’s a collaborative effort. It’s Talk Shop Friday…go ahead and share your viewing habits it the comments — after all, sharing is caring, etc.

A couple of months ago, the Balmuda Design Floater for notebook computers made a rampant run across the design blogs. Undoubtedly, it’s a beautifully designed, functional piece that’s been well thought out. But at $305 for a notebook stand, who’s really in a rush to buy one?

A company called Power Support makes its own cooling stand of similar design, made to hold a notebook upright and out of the way. While it lacks some of the finer touches such as the cable cutouts and the curved edges, it also costs considerably less than Balmuda’s piece, at $40.

Now I appreciate well-designed stuff (yes, that is a technical term) as much as the next guy. I’ll gladly spend a little extra for good design when I can afford to, even if it means saving for a while longer. In this case though, can anyone really justify paying seven times more for the extra thought that went into Balmuda’s piece rather than Power Support’s stand? Where does “good design” shoot itself in the foot by pricing itself beyond the competition? And just how far are you willing to stretch yourself to bring high-end design into your life? Tell us in the comments, because it’s Talk Shop Friday.

A little over a week ago, JS introduced you to Ptry, one of Mimoco’s latest Mimobots. Now that we’ve got three to hand out, we need to hurry up and get rid of them (or I will rip them out of their packaging myself; vicious beasts shouldn’t be caged up like that). So for today’s TSF, we’re going to hold a little competition. The deal is, Heather moved into a new apartment (with a backyard! And a walk-in closet!) this past week, and — being that it is *slightly* roomier than her last perch — she’s got some space to fill. Okay, she basically has a bed and nothing else. However, she’s also got two sites to edit/freelance pitches to write/hearts to break, and with such a tight schedule, she needs help from some design-savvy friends. We know a lot of our readers fit that bill, so we thought this could be a great opportunity to hand out some free Mimobots, discover some new stuff, and give Heather a quasi-internets-homecoming of sorts (except she’ll have to pay for everything. Unless, of course, you’re feeling generous. BWHAHAHA).

For a chance to win one of three Ptry mimobots, leave us a comment advising Heather of three things her apartment should not be without. Everything’s fair game; feel free to recommend furniture, appliances, puggle/hamster hybrid housepets, your favorite online sources for household goods; anything goes, as long as it fits into 1000 square feet. Points go out for function, creativity, affordibility and pretty much anything else we want, so leave us a comment (include your email, please!) before Monday, and we’ll see who’s worthy of some monster-protected storage space.

This morning, on the way to the coffee shop where I write, I passed a young lady with headphones in her ears. A normal enough occurrence for a rainy Friday morning, but the feeling that something was terribly out of place plagued me until we finally passed at the walk light, when I saw that her headphones were attached to… a CD player. Also normal enough, right? Right? On paper, I think I could have taken that in without too much mental distress; why, then, should my brain subconsciously register a product (that still occupies a very valid amount of Target shelf space) as alien, or at the very least, unusual?

The success of the iPod is something we are all well aware of. However, how a product actually revolutionizes its category (or creates a completely new one), is something slightly less comprehensible. In today’s icky world of convergence vs. divergence, we are daily bombarded with poorly-contrived, “breakthrough” products that serve to complicate, not simplify, our lives. The ones that lose send us running back to our old standbys; the ones that win force us to move along.

Aside from the iPod, I can think of few products (in my lifetime, anyway) that have truly made their predecessors irrelevant. Excess is theme in the U.S. — no shock there — but what keeps the ball rolling is our pursuit of the next big thing. So, for today’s TSF, we’d like to know: is there any product at all, either currently in production or still undeveloped, that you see as potentially/realistically life-changing? Are you aching for a fridge/laptop combo? Hands-free Vespa? Are you sick of this crap?

At any given time I have between fifteen and forty playlists that I actively listen to, each of them slightly different and tailored to fit exactly what mood I’m in, and generally the only time I actually share these with other people is when I’m tending bar and playing the iPod-DJ. Every now and then, though, I get inspired and/or get in one of those sappy-generous moods and start making mixtapes (okay, more like mix-zips or mixcds, but you get my point) for people left and right — a lovely tradition originally started by my friends Angela and Eric. I shared a playlist with you earlier this summer, and it got such a great response that I thought I’d do it again. This one’s a mix of some artists I consider go-to’s (The Wrens, Cold War Kids, Built to Spill) and some amazingly terrific new stuff pilfered from the goodness that is Peel (Spoon, Pinback, John Vanderslice). My full playlist is after the jump; you know what to do in the comments*.

*Addendum: You’re supposed to go ahead and post a playlist of your own. Sorry for the confusion.
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Hi guys.

Here’s the deal: We’re on a mission to give you more of what you want. Things are evolving, as always, here at joshspear.com, and we’d love to hear your feedback. Your input is essential to helping us make sure we wind up with something useful, and not just, like, a third boob which at the beginning may seem like lots of fun, but really ends up being totally weird.

So today — if you don’t mind sparing a minute or two — tell us what we’re doing that you like. Or hate. Or wish we had, but don’t. Tell us anything you want, because we are going to hang on every word (because if not for you, we are not, etc, etc). Unless, of course, they are stupid suggestions wherein we’ll politely ignore them in public and laugh about them in private. Kidding!

Happy weekend.

With the much anticipated Live Earth concert rapidly approaching (14 hours, 36 minutes until launch), I thought it’d be interesting to poll you, the JoshSpear.com readership, about your thoughts surrounding the concert. It’s going to be happening simultaneously on 7 continents, includes over 100 musicians, will be webcasted on MSN, and will purportedly reach over 2 billion people. The aim of Live Earth is simple: it’s a call to arms to garner widespread awareness for our global climate crisis. Will Live Earth effectively convey the important message that citizens of the earth can make small individual commitments to curb climate change, and convince people to make those changes, or will the concert be, as one academic put it, “just another gig that will consume enough energy to power Arkansas for the next century and leave a carbon footprint that will validate the sasquatch?” It’s your earth; let’s talk shop…

Okay, let’s just put it out there; we could talk about the iPhone today, again. Over and over and over. Everyone else is doing it, and hundreds (or thousands, perhaps?) of people are hanging outside of Apple stores in all kinds of weather and in varying states of sanity just dying to get their twitchity little fingers on that scrumptious touchscreen. But, as it turns out, ABC, NBC, and every other media outlet in the world is already talking about the iPhone “phenomenon,” and we’re sort of…over it. A lot, actually. Besides, in the middle of a rather intense brainstorming session that took place after our obvious option for today’s TSF was viciously chucked out the window, Heather wisely said something along the lines of, “Well, I’m not waiting on line today. I’m picking the lint out of my bellybutton and de-worming [her new kitten] Ollie.” And that got us thinking, because if Heather’s managed to find such an interesting use of her time amidst her strenuous editorial and drinking obligations, Lord knows the rest of you have as well. So, dear readers, in an admittedly rebellious TSF, we just want to know what you’re up to today. Especially if it’s really, really unexciting. Of course, if you’re making out with Hillary Duff I guess we’d like to hear about it — but as far as we’re concerned, if 1,000 journalists are writing about waiting in line, pretty much anything you have to say will win our attention. Well, my attention, anyway; Heather’s seemingly occupied elsewhere.

Although the construction controversy at 123 W. 15th St. in Manhattan touches on so many property rights issues, I’m going to narrow the scope for this week’s Talk Shop Friday post. Valhalla, as the owners the Rath Family has dubbed the building, sits (or is slated to sit) 74 feet high at the intersection of Chelsea and Greenwich Village. The surrounding neighborhood is historic and mostly aesthetically uniform– we’re talking lots of ‘quaint’ Brownstones here. Valhalla at once extravagant and frugal in its design– “an avant-garde take on postmodern impressionist design” incorporating the newest and most efficient green building technologies (e.g. geothermal wells) that will make the building relatively self-sufficient and free to heat. Neighbors of Valhalla are in an uproar, boisterously evoking that “not in my front yard” mentality. Folks, this is a difficult issue. Where do we draw the line between maintaining the historical visual appeal of a neighborhood and innovating our way into the future with sometimes extravagant architectural designs that incorporate energy-efficient green building technologies? Is there a way to do both? All other issues aside (financial, prior tenant eviction, etc.), what do you think?

Background Reading: NYT Article