shellen.com / grant

Happy New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 20:17:00 +0000

In lieu of a holiday card, please enjoy this slideshow of 2009 in the life of myself and my lovely wife, Heather.

Our 2009, in photos from Grant Shellen on Vimeo.

Things I consumed this weekend for which my body is angry at me

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:27:00 +0000

Chicken & waffles (at the same time)

Fried gizzards (well, one fried gizzard)

Dark rum

Part of the film "The Animal"

All-you-can-drink champagne

Corned beef & hash

Belgian beer

potentially unhealthy habits I've started/resumed/increased since working at Thing Labs (formerly Plinky)

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 22:44:00 +0000

1. Drinking coffee (decaf, but still)
2. Drinking soda
3. Drinking booze
4. Eating a lot of meat and pork (specifically bacon)
5. Eating a lot in general
6. Twittering

Oakland to Nashville: The Superdrag pilgrimage

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:49:00 +0000

It was July of 2007. One day, I'd been listening to one of my all-time favorite bands, Superdrag, thinking, "I wonder if they'll ever reunite. I sure hope so." Not a week later, I got an email from the band's mailing list saying, "The rumors you may have seen online are absolutely true. The original Superdrag line-up are reuniting to play 6 limited tour dates in October and November!"

Of course, none of the tour dates were near me, but the band was going to play in their hometown of Knoxville, Tenn. and in nearby Nashville. Jokingly, I sent Heather an email saying, "Wanna fly to Nashville for our anniversary? You can nap during the set." (See her answer for the explanation of that one.) After going back and forth and me finding $445 round-trip airfare for both of us, we decided to book it. So we flew 2,000 miles to see one of my favorite bands reunite.

And then I drove 40 miles to see them when they came to San Francisco 9 months later.

Saying what everyone's thinking

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:50:00 +0000

Jimmy Kimmel was either really drunk or has really big (metaphorical) balls. Either way, this is a victory for brutal honesty. Kimmel to ABC's advertisers:

"Every year we lie to you and every year you come back for more."

Read the full story here.

I'm not here to make friends

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:40:00 +0000

(Thanks, Zack.)

The things I carry

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:47:00 +0000

I've recently been thinking about getting a business card holder to carry around, because I now have both Plinky and Farewell Typewriter business cards I could hand out. The only trouble is that I'm out of room in my pockets. See below.

Key ring
Keys are necessary to access my car, house, office, studio, etc. There's also a Swiss Army knife in case I get into a Swiss battle.

Rental car keys
Funny story! So I was in San Francisco in a parking garage, and all of a sudden WHAM! this giant concrete support beam sneaks up on me and runs into the side of my car door, scratching it and taking off the driver's-side mirror. At least that's what I told the insurance company.

Jimi wallet
This thing is the best wallet I've ever owned. It's $15, slim and hip.

ChapStick
Dry lips don't get the ladies.

Extra peppermint gum
I've written about my love for Extra peppermint gum before, but I've chewed this same gum for at least 10 years. Hope it doesn't have anything awful in it.

Hipster PDA (& Pilot G-2 pen)
Merlin's simple little invention has been a godsend for me. I've found it invaluable to have something on hand to catch all the little ideas that pop into my brain or are put there by other people.

Guitar picks
Because you never know when there's a guitar to be played.

iPhone
Duh.

Coming of age in the Internet age

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 22:49:00 +0000

I think one of the first Internet experiences I had was using Prodigy at my friend Scott's house in about 1992. It was slow, clunky and I don't even know if I knew what the point was at the time, but hey, fancy computer thing!

It wasn't until a couple of years later that I believe Jason, home from college and hip to this whole "Interwebz," had a computer with dial-up internet access in our parents' house. I would occasionally log on to check out news from bands I liked, and specifically remember learning of Soundgarden's breakup from their website in 1997. It was also around this time that I would go over to my friend Tony's house and go into AOL chat rooms trying to convince dudes that we were a hot woman. Lest ye judge, keep in mind that we were not setting anything on fire or stealing liquor.

I got my first computer in 2000 or so, which is when I started blogging. Having my own little portal to the outside world (thankfully we had a second phone line) was an amazing experience, especially at the time (Napster was hot, blogging was still a smallish community, and Facebook didn't exist yet). Since then, I've been thankful to have my brain slowly replaced by such a huge database of information and videos of celebrity rants.

Meet Plinky

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:08:00 +0000

After months of toiling in obscurity, responding to friends' inquiries about what I do with, "You'll see," I'm proud to say that the company I've been working for has launched Plinky.

My brother Jason founded the startup last year. It's been really interesting to see the idea come to light at first from a spectator's standpoint, and then join the team responsible for building it halfway through the process.

When I joined, I already had a pretty good idea of what Jason was trying to achieve, and had some thoughts of my own about what Plinky could do for people. Jason was trying to solve the "white space" problem of opening up a blank blog entry field and not knowing what to type. He saw value in providing people not only inspiration for what to write, but rich media enhancements to make resulting posts look interesting (maps for a question about location, album art for questions about songs, etc.)

As a writer, I loved the idea of giving people this kind of helpful shove. I was hired as Plinky's community manager, and I'm also the writer/editor of the prompts that are the backbone of the service. It hasn't been an easy task, but I've tried to write prompts that will inspire people to either tell a story about something they've experienced or reveal a bit about their personality through sharing their preferences for songs, travel spots, posse members and a lot more that's yet to come.

--

When I started blogging more than eight years ago, not everyone knew what a blog was, and there were few forms of social media through which one could express themselves online. For the first few years I blogged, people were often surprised to learn I had my own website. Due to Jason's high profile, I was a quasi-pseudo-hemi-celebrity online and felt somehow obligated to continue posting regularly.

Fast forward just a few years to the Facebook/Twitter age, where many more people have established an online presence and post frequent (if brief) updates about themselves to various services. When Twitter came along in 2006, I had already shifted to a style of writing on my blog where I wrote very brief posts, partly for stylistic reasons and partly because I was lazy. Once I started using Twitter more regularly, I had almost no reason to post to my blog any longer, but found myself missing it.

With Plinky, I now have a reason to write something a little longer, a little more interesting, and often more revealing about myself than my often-goofy toots. (You can see my Plinky profile here, and I'll probably post updates through to this blog once in a while.)

I hope you try out Plinky (or already have) and let us know if you have any feedback. As community manager, I see it as my job to keep my eyes and ears on the users (and even potential users) of Plinky and stay engaged in conversations with them about what they like, what they don't, what they want to see, and anything else they want to talk to us about.

My next band will be called Rhino Takedown

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:12:00 +0000

(via MAKE: Blog.)

Don't you hate that?

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:28:00 +0000

Ever have that moment where you think you're about to lock your keys in your car? But it's too late to do anything about it? And so there you go, just like a dope, closing the door all the while thinking, "Oh crap?" But then you check and it turns out you actually have your keys so it's fine? And then you're so overjoyed that you grab the next stranger you see and kiss them full on the lips, even if it's someone of the same gender and you're straight and happily married? And then you have that awkward moment where you've kissed this stranger and you then have to ask his name? And you offer to walk him to his car? And then the two of you go out to dinner, and you have a really good time? And you agree to go on a two-week Mexican cruise with him? And when you return, your marriage is destroyed, you lose all your money and wind up living in a friend's basement, working nights at a convenience store and crying yourself to sleep?

No, me neither. I was just asking.

The rambler

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:40:00 +0000

I was about to write a post called "Seven albums I couldn't do without" or something like that, and I decided to postpone it because instead of seven, I came up with 35.

You might say I have somewhat of a problem � an addiction, nearly. I own at least 1,000 CDs. My iTunes library says I have 14,651 items. I could press "play" at the top of my music collection and I wouldn't run out of listening material until the 40th straight day. That doesn't account for the LP collection (300ish?) in my closet.

You'd think that with that much music, I'd have "enough." And by "you," I mean my mother. When I lived at home and had to keep buying increasingly larger CD shelves, Mom used to tell me that in college, she had one little crate with a few records, and that was enough. She eventually gave up on telling me the story.

I couldn't possibly listen to everything in my collection with any regularity, right? So why buy new stuff? Well, it's because I'm hungry. Sounds corny, but it's the only comparison I can use. You know those fit guys you knew in school who never seemed to get full? (In some cases, these "guys" were tiny girls, which was even more perplexing.) These guys would eat a burger as an appetizer before chowing down a steak, and still have room for a baked potato and ice cream.

That's how I feel about music: I can never get enough. I've been trying to figure out why, and here's what I came up with: I'm a thrill-seeker. Not in the traditional sense of jumping out of airplanes or other stupidly dangerous shit, but in the sense of the thrill and excitement of a new experience. When I hear a record for the first time, it will evoke something different in me than anything else I've heard. It might remind me of another record or song or artist, but in a slightly different way. I'd rather have that feeling a thousand times than hear the same crate of records over and over again.

I then realized that this is how I live my life in almost every area. I have my favorite beers, sure, but I'm more likely to order something I've never tried, just to see if my taste buds are delighted in a different way. When Heather and I make travel plans, we seek out someplace we've never been, so we can see buildings our eyes never imagined (or have only seen in two dimensions), smell air that might be a little unfamiliar and meet people who have been raised in a different environment. And Netflix is a cinematic Godsend for a thrill-seeker.

Why am I telling you this? I'm not. I'm telling myself. Because any time I'm tempted to stick with what I know just because it's easier, I could use a reminder that what makes me happy isn't necessarily the comfort of familiarity � it's the thrill of discovery.

A friendly (a.k.a. passive-aggressive) reminder

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:20:00 +0000

Lessons I learned while making dinner by myself last night

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:05:00 +0000

Knives are sharp!

Related: It's difficult to prep food with your thumb wrapped up in a napkin.

If one dish takes 6 minutes to cook and another one takes 20 minutes, start the 20-minute one first.

If you ever think, "Hey, this could use more garlic," you should probably increase the amount slowly and keep tasting rather than just doubling what you've already put in.

For fellow obsessive-compulsive types: Being diligent about cleaning surfaces that have been touched by raw meat is important. Being diligent about cleaning surfaces that have been touched by dried herbs & washed vegetables is less important and just as time-consuming.

It was described as "mild," I suppose

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:57:00 +0000

And here I thought I was a trooper for switching guitars quickly after breaking a string mid-song. I'm pretty sure that a heart attack would slow me down a bit more. Not Buddy Rich (see Rich's face @ 3:00):

(via Death Cab for Cutie's Jason McGerr on Stereogum)

Things the iPhone has eliminated from my life

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:27:00 +0000

1. The need to slap my phone against my knee in order to get the screen to show up at full brightness
2. A previous lack of self-righeoustness
3. The "oh crap" moment when I realize I don't know the time and place of my first meeting/event of the day
4. The possibility of buying something in a retail store only to get home and find out that the internet has deemed that product unworthy or overpriced
5. That horrible feeling of being completely disconnected from the outside world while in the bathroom

When the internet works

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:57:00 +0000

I don't think I need to tell you ways in which the internet has failed us. We've all got stories, whether it's the crappy medical advice that made your boil worse, or the YouTube comment thread on a 4-year-old's birthday party video that has somehow degraded into a back-and-forth about Hitler.

But for all its hoo-ha and whatnot, the internet occasionally provides something of such great value that it makes me smile (only momentarily, though � you don't want people in the office thinking you're enjoying yourself). Case in point:

I have these pants. Dress pants. The hem had come undone on the right leg (perhaps the left, but that really doesn't matter). While they were not expensive pants, they were neither cheap, and I felt I had not obtained maximum value from them. So I thought I'd take them to a tailor. Trouble is, it's not 1950 and I have no idea where to find a respectable tailor.

So I hop on yelp.com and lo and behold, there's a tailor in Palo Alto who's received rave reviews.

When I made my way there, I was surprised by the nondescript business, one of a million that I would otherwise never have wandered into of my own volition. I went in, presented the pants, expecting a "This'll be a week," but instead the tailor asked, "Can you wait five minutes?" Sure.

Four minutes and $5 later, I hopped in my car with a pair of nicely hemmed pants and an honest-to-goodness smile on my face. This, friends, is when the internet gets it done.

Oh, to have roadies

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 07:21:00 +0000

What happens when a string breaks right at the beginning of a song? You GIT-R-DONE!

Five years wasted

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:13:00 +0000

For at least five years, I hung onto a two-foot strip of Velcro that I'd somehow acquired. I have no idea where it came from, but I figured, "Hey, free Velcro," and kept it in my life. The strip survived at least one move. It's a fighter.

At points, it seemed like I came in contact with this particular segment of Velcro so regularly that it became part of my day-to-day life.

"Why, hello, friend," you could occasionally hear me remark to the Velcro. "How are you this fine day?"

I had no real need for it, and knew that Velcro was readily available for purchase should such a real need arise, but still I kept it � just in case.

But last night, when I needed approximately two feet of Velcro for perhaps the first time in...ever, where was that old friend? NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. I fear I may have thrown it out in a fit of Clean Sweeping several months ago. Starting to feel that my quasi-hoarding tendencies are perhaps justified.

Post Script: It was devoured by ants two weeks later

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 07:00:00 +0000

When I was a kid, one of my favorite annual holiday traditions was the crafting of graham-cracker houses. Like gingerbread houses, only easier, they were a staple of the Shellen Christmas-time ritual, which also included listening to terrible Christmas records and my father losing interest in decorating the tree after about two ornaments.

The house making slipped by the wayside in recent years after a pretty good run. I was quite pleased when my mom said she wanted to give it a shot again this year, especially since it would be the first time my five nephews would partake.

I used to keep to a fairly traditional house, supplemented with the occasional luxury add-on (I believe my last house had a nice Froot Loop spa with candy-cane handles). Jason has been more adventurous, one year creating a graham-cracker car accident that left a gingerbread man severed in half, bleeding red sprinkle blood onto the foil road beneath him, still a smile on his lifeless face.

This year, though, I knew I'd have to step it up since the whole family would be creating works of Honey Maid art fueled by the kinetic energy of several graham-less years. Heather created her own modern take on the house, which ~~I'll let her post on her own~~ she's posted pictures of here, but I wanted to do something a little different. Naturally, a stage seemed appropriate.

I spent the most time on the lighting rig, and I had originally intended only to have one guitarist/singer, but at the last moment I assembled a drum kit that I think turned out pretty nice. Inspired, I then made a fairly faithful replica of Farewell Typewriter, except that none of us have played instruments made out of cereal for years.

I'm entering my creation in YumSugar's Gingerbread House Challenge, so hopefully it'll be included in their roundup. You can check that out after Dec. 21. Meanwhile, enjoy:

Could this get me on Letterman?

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 07:22:00 +0000

I haven't figured out if this is a marketable, or even remarkable, trait yet, but I've got some sort of musical ESP. I must pick up on some sort of ethereal music-related knowledge, mostly centered around album releases and band reunions, that is nearly uncanny. Recent examples:

One day in my car, I had the thought, Gee, I wonder if Superdrag will ever get back together. I received an email from the band's mailing list announcing a reunion tour THE NEXT DAY.

I was listening to No Knife, wondering what had become of the remaining members and thinking I should research where they've gone -- especially vocalists Ryan Ferguson and Mitch Wilson. I received Ferguson's new solo album from a publicist THAT DAY.

I had the Vanessa Carlton song "A Thousand Miles" in my head for several days without remembering what her name was (or knowing why I was humming a song I am not particularly fond of). I finally remembered her name in the shower one day. I read an email with a list of new releases, including her new album, TWO HOURS LATER.

This seems on the level with having premonition dreams about things that aren't all that surprising ("Darlene, didn't I tell you there would be a light breeze today?"), but still, it freaks me out from time to time.

I never thought I'd lust after a sequined item

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 02:45:00 +0000

But I never thought they'd make a sequined Chuck.

"TV�s gonna be there for you, baby."

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:53:00 +0000

It's this kind of writing that makes me glad there are words:

Screenwriter Josh A. Cagan's "Letter From Hollywood."

Flava for thought

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 21:18:00 +0000

Having only been 7 years old when Public Enemy's landmark album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back was released, I just recently procured this record and listened to it for the first time. Some questions now remain:

1. What possessed '80s and early '90s hip-hop producers to think that that repetitive high-pitched squeal sound effect was cool? (See also: Cypress Hill's "Insane in the Brain.")

2. I understand the role of the hype man in hip-hop, but would Public Enemy's records really have been that much worse off without Flavor Flav? Is "Yeah, boyee!" really complementary to Chuck D's politically-charged lyrics?

3. I'm very clear on the fact that your DJ is named Terminator X. There is no need to repeat it any further. Also, I understand your group is called Public Enemy. This isn't really a question I guess. Just a puzzled statement.

Can't we just eat them separately as Mother Nature intended?

noreply@blogger.com (Grant) — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 07:29:00 +0000

Now, I love the occasional Oreo cookie. And I'll partake in a slice of pizza from time to time. Even a dessert pizza, perhaps of the cinnamon variety. But there are limits to what a man will do to his own body, and putting an Oreo Dessert Pizza anywhere near my mouth is beyond those limits for me.