I first encountered Chris Stevens when I saw him crashing to Earth in a giant egg during the intro of his CNET video series Space Bubble. He seemed highly intelligent, effortlessly witty, and just a little unhinged. I thought that if I ever met him in person I would either find him supremely annoying or totally enchanting. As I discovered in London about a year later, it was the latter. Phew.
I’ve long admired Chris’s writing skills, but he has many other talents — one of which was brought to the world’s attention when the gorgeous iPad app he designed, Alice for the iPad, went bananas. Oprah raved about it on her show. Broadsheet newspapers around the globe called it the future of publishing. It was all rather amazing. Even more amazing was that Chris remained his usual bohemian, “let’s-pack-a-knapsack-and-go-on-a-train-ride” self rather than affixing diamond grills to his teeth and filling a garage with Tesla Roadsters.
In this episode of Ellipsis, Chris talks about living his life as though it were a movie, the time he killed a man in Amsterdam, and how being a writer is like being a heroin addict.
Press play to listen now:
Writer and Alice for the iPad app designer Chris Stevens [ 34:31 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadRight-click to download: Episode 2: Chris Stevens
Subscribe to Ellipsis: RSS / iTunes Store
Another thoroughly enjoyable, informative episode, Ella. I appreciate your thoughtfulness, your sense of humor, your pop knowledge and your great voice. Thanks again!
Another great episode filled with intelligence, knowledge of the subject at hand, wit and I love that Ella has the ability to laugh at herself.
She has a talent and poise that I wish I had on air.
I think what they mean by high pass is that you are missing the high frequencies. You need to save the file in a higher bit rate. Try 96-128 kbps when you save the file as opposed to 64 because that is quite a low quality and it makes your S’s and T’s and the music sort of “watery” sounding.
Well…. you don’t NEED to do that, you can do what you want to do but you know what i meeaaaannn nfdnfrgr fhdsf.b sdgd.’ blahf adbvfsdhbfdhgvfbsdjk :words words words.f mfd. gf dj89ui4′:fjmnkgr9io.kgf:n”’ 9′.ugtr9 jg jj j j j j j j h h h yu yy :tr jfi094u5′ jei4o:r gnkg’njl gsnrg hg”tg GH gfh du9:th erui uiA aAeE.r RtEQw .ErT’yYU’u:iI oPa.SdFgHj KLz’ cVbNmAD’::FJKLAD’ FSJK;LA DFJK;LADFbeepbeepbeepbeepw poor ididn’tmeantotypethewordpoor poopoo ..PeopleOrderOurPatties fhn.sdjkfb..sdjkf sbkj ::.typingtypingtypLLign i spent alongtime typingthisnonsense. fsdnbuif sdbfdh
Another thing similar to the writing thing you two were talking about is is is: MMUUUSSSIC. . . .., making it is a nightmare sometimes . i hate myself i hate myself. i love this song i love myaself. this song is awful this song is so bad. this song is so good. back and forth. back and forth. back and forth. fourth. froth. frothy. frosty. the snowman. have you seen imogen heaps dvd id recommend it. a look into the musicians mind. f djsf098nfsdjgbfdifweghui yeah yeah eyah i dont feel like typing anymore/ but i enhjoy yourrr podcasststs.sas4h… { ^ .,6
Ella,
Just confirming that I “know you exist, and I’m only too willing to validate the wonderful work that you do”. I find it very surprising that you say that you are not very disciplined and that you have moments of self doubt, because watching your past work I got the impression that you were the exact opposite. Your podcasts are great keep up the good work.
Bill
I loved this podcast too. Just wanted to point out that “Ella’s Escrow” is very similar to the “commitment devices” discussed in Freakonomics, See for instance:
http://www.economistsdoitwithmodels.com/2009/06/17/be-careful-with-those-commitment-devices/
I also thought that the intellectual property escrow was a quite interesting idea. Classic positive reward system that our parents used to get us to eat our dinner with the reward of dessert. Do chores… get xbox back. Do homework… get to borrow the car. It’s almost a reverse-ransom.
I truly like your podcasts. I had to come back after hearing the 5th one, because this one sounds like an interesting girl is hardcore flirting with some other interesting guy.
But maybe its just the insomnia speaking. I sometimes hear things. Even when the loudspeaker is off.