Eli Markstrom is an old high school friend turned SF-drinking-buddy. Moreover, Eli is a master Tetris player, who has competed with some of the world’s best players in international tournaments. That’s right. Tetris. For the Nintendo. A 30-year-old game for a (nearly) 30-year-old gaming system has international tournaments. And to a micro-culture of literally dozens, it’s apparently a big deal. Over the weekend, I happened across an FB post of Eli’s, where he linked to the livestream of a World Championship of Tetris competition in Portland, Oregon that he was competing in. And I’ll say, as I watched the quarterfinals, it was pretty intense. Sadly, Eli, got knocked out in the semis. I wanted to ask Eli about Tetris, the competition, and having a hobby that is a little bit weird. So I did.
Category Archives: Role Models
Why Tetris? A q&a with Tetris master Eli Markstrom
15 awesome bald dudes to make you feel better about losing your hair
At the moment when a twenty-something man realizes that he will not live the rest of his life with his full head of hair, he will generally go into an immediate state of mourning for his hair before it is even gone. At least, that’s what happened to me, when, at 24, I noticed that my hairline was receding, slowly depleting the dense mass of my glorious jewfro. Young men have lots of time-tested responses to going bald. Some shave their heads clean as if they were some sort of professional athlete. Others adopt a trademark piece of headgear, say a ballcap or a fedora, which they don at all occasions. Many allow themselves to be bullied by self-esteem-assaulting commercials for dubious “medical” treatments for their condition. Some join weird online communities about coping with hair loss. And plenty just feel shitty all the time about their follicle-challenged crowns.
If you find yourself a present or future bald guy, you can take any of these approaches, if you’re so inclined. But you can also just keep on living your life and being who you are, without worrying about your loss of hair. Which is the recommended approach. To that end, we present this list of awesome bald guys who OWNED their baldness, whose lives would have been no less awesome had they had kept their hair for the duration, to provide inspiration on how you should be living your life.
Bill Murray In the late 70s, as Murray was beginning his ascent into the upper echelons of America’s collective heart, his hairline was already receding. Go back and watch Stripes or Ghostbusters or Groundhog Day – Murray always gets the girl, not because he has a perfect head of hair, but because he’s charming, funny and awesome. Even in middle age, when he played the aging Casanova character in Broken Flowers, it was believable – what he lacked in looks he made up for in sweet Fred Perry jumpsuits.… KEEP READING!
Why can’t you be more like this lady? Bianca Kosoy, creative director of Equinox
Bianca Kosoy is a badass. No other way to say it. The NY Times has a brief but enlightening article about Ms. Kosoy, the creative director for Equinox, that high-class, high-style brand of luxury gyms. Now, usually I find stories about cooler-than-everybody ad execs to be obnoxiously overblown. But. after reading about Kosoy’s work and life, I’m convinced she might actually be cooler than everybody.What makes Kosoy so cool? Well, the number one thing that caught my eye was the fact that, while she may be in charge of the image for the country’s highest-profile luxury gym brand she doesn’t work out. In the article she states, “I never work out. I think fitness is a fraud. That’s why I try to make it look like fashion.”
!!!!
Just because she’s a high-powered executive at Equinox, she’s proud of the fact that she’s not into the product. We should all be so bold. Though, it probably helps that she’s good at her job.
A few other awesome things about Kosoy:
People with jobs I want: DJ Khaled, curator of rap radio bangers
“This shit special!!!!!!!!” DJ Khaled bellows in his reverb-twisted voice on the intro to “Hip Hop”, a track off his sixth album. After several verses, when the track is winding down, Khaled says it again. If, somehow, the listener had forgotten that the shit was special, Khaled is there to remind us that this shit, indeed, special. Between contributing this grammatically incorrect but still somehow appropriate line, Khaled’s contributions to the track are hard to pin down. He doesn’t rap on the track; that’s handled by hall-of-famers Nas and Scarface, each doing a somber take on Common’s hip-hop-as-a-woman motif. Nor does Khaled produce the beat for the song; the beat was produced by young fruity-loops virtuoso Lex Lugar. There’s even some token old-school scratching. Was that Khaled on the Serato? Nope. That’s DJ Premier, also a hall of famer. Khaled’s only clearly manifest contribution to the song is saying “This shit special,” twice. And that’s what makes him kind of awesome (emphasis on the “kind of”).
I’ll tell you one thing I like about New Jersey Governor Chris Christie
Dude LOVES Bruce Springsteen. Even though the Boss, an avid blue collar democrat, has repeatedly snubbed him, Christie can’t get enough. According to a new article in The Atlantic, According to the article, Christie seen Springsteen in concert 129 times, and despite being 100 pounds overweight, Christie dances his face off every time he sees him. To quote the article:
“He is, as is well known, a very large man — twice the width of Mitt Romney — but he is a very large man who dances at Springsteen concerts in front of many thousands of people without giving a damn what they think.”
Maybe it’s just a Jersey thing that gives Christie his good taste, but I’ll say, I like any politician, hell, I like ANYONE, that unapologetically dances their face off to music they love. It’s a sign of fucking maturity.
(h/t Political Wire)
Steve Kerr editorial of the day
In a piece for Grantland, awesome white-person Steve Kerr convincingly breaks down why teenagers shouldn’t be allowed to play in the NBA. Best pull-quote:
True story: I once had an extremely young teammate ask me when our Christmas break was. He then became visibly shocked and saddened after learning that we didn’t get to go home for a week or so. Another time, a different young player asked me how the NBA’s playoff format worked. We entered the first round of the postseason and he had no idea what “best of 5″ meant. These were players who were ready to be professional athletes?
Also, all Kerr (a former GM, current TNT analyst and 15-year NBA veteran) has in his ‘author description’ is “Steve Kerr is a five-time NBA champion.” Baller.
Adam Yauch is my role model
I don’t usually get too upset when celebrities pass away. But hearing just now that Adam Yauch, aka, MCA has died at 47, of salivary cancer hurts in a way that I wouldn’t have imagined. Like, my whole body went cold. Since I was 13 or so, the Beastie Boys have been one of my favorite bands. But more than always liking their music, their public personas set an example for me. Respectively, the Beastie Boys taught me to not take yourself to seriously (like every music video they ever did), to work hard (the perfectionism in their albums), to dig below the surface to find culture that speaks to you (their old label, Grand Royal magazine, the samples they used, etc…), to work towards causes that you believe in (Tibetan freedom, et. al), to appreciate the culture that formed you (the way they promoted hip hop for the last 25 years) and to not be afraid to grow (the transitions they made in their music helped me grow up).
Rest in peace, MCA.
Letter of the day: Hilary Clinton wants to be in a Muppet movie
….but she’s a little busy right now, as she told Jason Segel in this letter making the rounds on the internet.
(via Politico)
Why can’t you be more like this guy: David Simon, American writer
I found out this morning that one of the most exemplary writers and journalists of our time has decided to open up his laptop and produce a thoughtful (though infrequently updated) weblog, titled “The Audacity of Despair.” The writer I’m referring to is, of course, David Simon, who is best known as the creator and show-runner of The Wire, a show that has already entered the cultural canon as one of the best American works of fiction (in any medium) of the last 100 years. That’s not hyperbole or opinion. That is fact.
However, there are handful of other things you may not know about David Simon, which, I think, make him a phenomenal role model for us aspiring grown-ups. They are as follows.
- He’s OVER The Wire, or at least people who obsess over it now. He recently told the NY Times that he views people who obsess about it “with contempt.” He made the best show ever, but has moved.… KEEP READING!
Andrew Brown invites people to his birthday, like a boss
In our older age, nothing is more demoralizing than not having people show up to help you celebrate your birthday. What. That was hyperbole. There’s a whole ton of things that are more demoralizing; vaving your less talented peers make way more money than you, clearly not being good at the thing you most want to do, the 40% chance (according to Nate Silver) that Mitt Romney might be the next president of america. But celebrating your birthday with only two other people, after you invited thirty, that’s pretty bad. That’s why I wanted to dive into the archives of my gmail to share contributing editor, Andrew Brown’s, past two birthday invitations, to demonstrate how it’s done in this day and age.
Anthony Shadid is my role model
I don’t have too many heroes, and in fact most of the ones I do have either died of drug overdoses, self inflicted gunshots or, in one case, assassination by the CIA.
Spread the word: I need a new mentor
If you couldn’t guess, I started this blog because I’m at a bit of a crossroads in my life. I’m close enough to 30 that I’m just trying to think of myself as already there, so I won’t be really down when it happens in 9 months. I’ve had a couple really cool jobs and worked with a ton of awesome people, but I don’t really have a career path right now. I’ve been picking up small gigs here and there while I get my proverbial shit together, and I’m realizing I don’t have anyone beside my peers who I can ask for advice. They’re often in the same situation as me. Or they’re completely irresponsible. Or, they’re like doctors, so how are they gonna help me?
So, I’m putting out an open call for a mentor, or mentors. I might even put it on craigslist, like: “Young(ish) Creative Hustler Seeks Older, Successful, Networked New Media Millionaires to School Me on Career and Life in General” .