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yewknee
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An internet waystation.

it me - michael eades

👋 Hi, I'm Michael Eades; a long time Internet dweller, design dabbler, dangerously amateur developer, online social experimenter and frequent curator.

Currently working as VP of Product at Smarter Apps. I also keep the lights on at a boutique record label called yk records, a podcast network called We Own This Town and a t-shirt shop called Nashville Galaxy. Previously, I built things for Vimeo OTT, VHX, KNI and Spongebath Records.

This site is an archive of ephemera I find entertaining; tweets, videos, random links, galleries of images.

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find me elsewhere

 

contact

Reach out via threads or good ole email if you have anything to discuss. I do my best to reply in a timely manner.

for the record: "yewknee" is a nonsensical word with no literal meaning but a unsurprisingly nerdy etymology. It is pronounced, "yoo • knee."

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ongoing projects

yk Records →
started in 2009 as a conduit for music that friends had no plans on releasing. now it's a full fledged boutique label focused on releasing quality music from a variety of styles. you know, like a label does. Here's a sampler on Soundcloud and a different one on Spotify. Options.

We Own This Town →
Originally a Nashville area music blog, this site has grown into a full blown podcast network as of 2018. It's an attempt to bring together creative folks about a variety of interesting topics.

I host this show all about Nashville local music outside the expectations of the city. I'm biased but all the shows are good.

Nashville Galaxy →
An online t-shirt shop featuring beloved and defunct Nashville area businesses. Very niche audience on this one but I tend to think niche is good.

some noteworthy other things

Chris Gaines: The Podcast →
published along with co-host Ashley Spurgeon; a limited series podcast that takes an absurdly researched deep dive into the time that Garth Brooks took on a fictional personality named Chris Gaines.

Garth Brooks Chris Gaines Countdown →
to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the time Garth Brooks took on the fictional personality Chris Gaines and appeared on Saturday Night Live in character, I GIF'ed the entire episode. It's a lot of GIFs; please use them.

Whiskerino →
a social network built around communal beard growing for four months. yes, it was as weird as it sounds but equally fascinating and enjoyable.

Moustache May →
an offshoot of the beard growing contest mentioned above. equal amounts of oddball fun but only a month long.

Summer Mix Series →
before all music was streaming everywhere, Internet music fans would swap zip files of music. it was truly a strange and wonderful time.

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Unicorns, Show Ponies, And Gazelles

My pal Jed is Executive Director over at Radiant Earth now - it's an incubator looking to expand shared data across the planet. I love the Open Data Initiative and this seems to work well right alongside that idea. The more data we share, the better decisions we can make and better tools we can build. Something like that.

In a recent blog post, there's a breakdown of Unicorns, Show Ponies and Gazelles. The basic gist is that Unicorns in the startup world are great - they serve a purpose. Show Ponies are entities that look good on paper but may not provide much function - also great. The Gazelle is a small organization willing to work with others, be nimble, be financially self-sustaining and governed by a nonprofit or trust. Those last two points are especially interesting, imo. Imagine a nonprofit that actually paid employees a reasonable market wage and built a product that they owned. Sounds real good.

All told, it's a metaphor! A creative way to think about an ongoing problem. Others have tred this territory before but that doesn't make it any less valid. Unicorns seem to be what everyone strives for but, frankly, I'm way more interested in being a Gazelle.
Mon. February 5th, 2024, 9:15am

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