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Main page May 30, 2008Interesting reads #2: Angola bikers, Fermi Lab, Victoriana, spiked watermelon
Real thrillseeking: Angola, it's not like they said. Posted last September by one of them, the story of five middle-aged Americans' motorcycle trip to Angola; at ADVrider, with many photos.
For once, staff at the United States's only remaining particle physics laboratory have received some good news. An anonymous donor has given cash-strapped Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois, a gift of $5 million. With the money, lab officials will be able to stop a rolling furlough program that since February has forced employees to take periodic unpaid leave and slashed their pay by 12.5%. The lab will still lay off roughly 140 workers, but officials also announced that those cuts would be restructured to give employees a chance to take voluntary layoffs before the involuntary ones begin. Since the gift leaves the lab still $17 million short of its 2007 appropriation, it just postpones the disaster. Do we need it? What is Fermilab? Scientists at Fermilab carry out research in high-energy physics to answer the questions: What is the universe made of? How does it work? Where did it come from? Oh, is that all?
Victorian spat by mail: Emma Spaulding Bryant Letters at the Duke University Special Collections Library. Letters -- only Emma's side -- from 1873 in which her husband John, in Georgia, accuses her of adultery because she visits a gynecologist while visiting relatives in Cleveland. Emma is suitably indignant. Interestingly, a lot is known about the Bryants, including how their relationship turned out. The link on the photo caption leads to a much larger selection, but the samples at Duke may be as long a glimpse as you need.
Posted by Sheila Lennon May 29, 2008Interesting reads #1: Telectroscope, Dell, Miracle Fruit, Firefox 3All over the lot:
There you are: The Telectroscope, London's window on New York at the Telegraph: It looks like something from the Victorian era, and its name sounds like a device from 1950s science fiction. The Telectroscope is an extraordinary new device that allows people in London to see across the Atlantic. Here's the official site this bit of conceptual art, an optical hookup.
The Telectroscope is a charming piece of artwork by Paul St. George. The installation that could have been part of a fantastic Jules Verne or H.G. Wells novel visually connects the cities of London and New York. Simulating a massive tunnel, people on both sides of the Atlantic gather in front of the device to wave at each other. St. George even developed a fun little story explaining how the tunnel had originally been conceived of by his great grandfather... In London, you'll find it on the south side of the Thames river near Tower Bridge. The American end of the Telectroscope is in Brooklyn, at Fulton Ferry Landing near Brooklyn Bridge, below. You can visit and wave 24 hours a day until June 15. It has a blog. Here are more of Paul St. George's works.
"Dell has engaged in repeated misleading, deceptive and unlawful business conduct, including false and deceptive advertising of financing promotions and the terms of warranties, fraudulent, misleading and deceptive practices in credit financing and failure to provide warranty service and rebates."
A Tiny Fruit That Tricks the Tongue. NYT. Queens foodies eat berries that put their taste buds into an altered state. Nearby, Yuka Yoneda tilted her head back as her boyfriend, Albert Yuen, drizzled Tabasco sauce onto her tongue. She swallowed and considered the flavor: “Doughnut glaze, hot doughnut glaze!” As sensation-seeking goes, it seems a bit underwhelming to me. But if this is the workaround you've been waiting for, you can grow your own: The plant, "Synsepalum dulcificum "Miracle Fruit" AS SEEN ON MARTHA LIVE" is $29.95 from Logee's Greenhouses in Danielson, Conn., or for $34.95 from Top Tropicals in Punta Gorda, Fla. These prices may not be for plants of the same size.
The Firefox community is always up to some cool, collaborative way to declare their passion for Firefox. What better way to do this than band together to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours?! "We downloaded a browser, we downloaded!" Move over, Churchill.
Posted by Sheila Lennon May 28, 2008235 mpg VW: Your own private bubble
It looks like "the people's car" is about to be back, but only for small people. The L1 is a two-seater with the passenger in the back. It's almost 12 feet long, 4 feet wide and 3.6 feet tall. Oneighturbo recently published the specs -- "all the details from exterior design/engineering to engine, lighting and cockpit details." The car's moniker comes from its using one liter of gasoline to go 100 km. (.26 gallon or 33.792 oz to go 62.137 miles). ...The 1L is a lightweight two person vehicle made out of a magnesium frame covered by an unpainted carbon fiber skin. Every component of the vehicle is intended to reduce the vehicles weight. Aluminum brakes, carbon fiber wheels, titanium hubs, and ceramic bearings all contribute to the vehicle’s light weight of a mere 290 kg. To reduce the weight even further, and to increase the aerodynamics of the vehicle, there are no rear view mirrors. Instead, the car is equipped with cameras that display visual information to the driver via the internal LCD screen. From Motor Authority, back in October ( VW boss confirms 1-Liter car for 2010), VW CEO Martin Winterkorn stressed that the 1-Liter “would not be a best seller” and thus will only be produced in limited numbers. Its body will be constructed from plastic and magnesium and its power source will be a one-cylinder engine displacing just 0.3L. Top speed will be 120km/h and consumption will fall around the 1L/100km mark (235mpg), reports AFX. The roof is all glass, which should give the L1 that warm greenhouse feel. (?) No price was mentioned. If you disagree that it won't be a best seller, you must be a commuter. Maybe the L1s should have their own narrow lanes on the interstates. Still... can't we just skip all these workarounds and leap straight to the Star Trek transporter? Posted by Sheila Lennon Try your hand at baseball haiku
Blame it on the book: Baseball Haiku: American and Japanese Haiku and Senryu on Baseball, edited with translations by Cor van den Heuvel and Nanae Tamura. Samples: Intentional walk -- Okay, despite the haiku in the title, if you've been counting you know these are not haiku. They're all senryu: Senryū (川柳, literally 'river willow') is a Japanese form of short poetry similar to haiku in construction: three lines with 17 or fewer "on" (not syllables) in total. However, senryū tend to be about human foibles while haiku tend to be about nature, and senryū are often cynical or darkly humorous while haiku are serious. Senryū do not need to include a kigo, or season word, like haiku. I can imagine the argument at the publisher's -- "We have to call them haiku, nobody in America knows what senryu means." You'll notice that word doesn't even appear on the cover image, despite the "official title." But since a real haiku is 17 syllables, 5-7-5, here's mine: Long ball approaches Now there's a haiku in the bunch. I figure Carlton Fisk is the telltale kigo. Go ahead, write your own in the comments section. To get you warmed up, here's another baseball haiku page. There's a kicker: Jack Kerouac wrote a baseball senryu: Empty baseball field Posted by Sheila Lennon May 27, 2008Frozen pizza with Doc Searls
Linux Journal editor and California proto-blogger Doc Searls and I met in comments on a blog almost six years ago, and since then we've emailed and blogged each other's posts but had never met. Until yesterday, when Doc came by for a casual meal and a few hours of conversation on our Providence porch. The co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto is spending a few years as a Berkman Fellow at Harvard Law, and was passing through on his way back to Cambridge after a day in Newport. We just skimmed the surface of all the things we wanted to talk about -- from online news to his Vendor Relationship Management project to "the bubble" to what will happen when TV goes digital, as well as who we are and where we've been -- but the groundwork has been laid for an unending conversation, now that we've finally sat down together in person and opened the spigot. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 26, 2008The 10 best beer names ever
In honor of the three-day weekend --made for sleeping, planting and barbecuing -- a column in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times touting McQuire's I'll Have What The Gentleman On The Floor Is Having Barley Wine and other classics from the poets laureate of the beer brands. Thanks to Stephen Knudde for the tip. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 25, 2008Folksinger, anarchist, presidential candidate Utah Phillips dies in sleepThe video is of Utah singing, telling stories and cracking political jokes at California's Strawberry Music Festival in 2007. More video here. Utah Phillips died in his sleep Friday night at 73. Mp3s: Hearing Voices from NPR offers these in a tribute: Talking NPR Blues itself. From an obit in the Sacramento Bee (Singer Utah Phillips left a colorful legacy): He ran for president but never voted. Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, Joan Baez, Tom Waits and his friend Arlo Guthrie all sing Utah Phillips songs, but he refused to let Johnny Cash make an album of his standards, his eldest son said, because he didn't trust the record industry.
From his obit at his site, written by his family: Born Bruce Duncan Phillips on May 15, 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio, he was the son of labor organizers. Whether through this early influence or an early life that was not always tranquil or easy, by his twenties Phillips demonstrated a lifelong concern with the living conditions of working people. He was a proud member of the Industrial Workers of the World, popularly known as "the Wobblies," an organizational artifact of early twentieth-century labor struggles that has seen renewed interest and growth in membership in the last decade, not in small part due to his efforts to popularize it. Tributes: at the blog his son maintained for him. Phillips' 1974 album Good Though! at CD Baby, with clips.
Posted by Sheila Lennon May 22, 2008Rousseau toy, cult books, Cat Stevens (Hollywood '73)Just as the weight of passing facts and information (glioma, Celona, Madonna) threatens to dry us up, the holiday weekend that kicks off summer is just ahead. Barbecue! Plant tomatoes! Parade! Drink beer! Beaches! Oldies! Visit graves! Geraniums! Indiana Jones...! To kickstart the feeling, a shift to vacation brain:
To accompany a 2006 exhibit titled Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris, the National Gallery of Art created a cool Shockwave toy: NGAkids JUNGLE. Starting with elements cast in the artist's instantly recognizable style, it's hard to make a bad "painting" here. The instructions are clear and useful, sizes and positions of its elements can all be changed. A screenshot of my test drive is pictured above.
What is a cult book? We tried and failed to arrive at a definition: books often found in the pockets of murderers; books that you take very seriously when you are 17; books whose readers can be identified to all with the formula " Since the Telegraph published this list a few weeks ago, commenters have at least doubled it. Some are in high dudgeon over omissions, others immediately grasp that the list has found a spot in which to grow and simply list more titles. I have read an embarrassing number of them, cultist that I am... When I was 15 I cut out such a list from a guest column in Glamour magazine that sneered "read these or stay a bimbo" and carried it in my billfold for two years of library visits until I had read every one of them. Colin Wilson's The Outsider, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Ayn Rand are on the Telegraph's list, too. Miss Lonelyhearts and The Education of Hyman Kaplan are not.
Posted by Sheila Lennon May 21, 20086-foot-6 cowI've been really busy, up much of the night coding, and I'm identifying with the lady in this photo. Have a cow...
Chilli the bull | Friesian is 6ft 6ins tall | Weighs 1.25 tonnes | Britain's biggest bull. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 20, 2008Fresh strawberry frozen yogurt -- and how to make ice cream without a machine
Strawberry Frozen Yogurt Recipe at Elise Bauer's lovely Simply Recipes. Strawberries are next up in the markets, and I want some of this. There's a grown-up version, too: Best to eat it on the same day as you make it, as it will get icy if it stays in the freezer for more than 8 hours. If you want it to last longer and not get icy, add 2 tablespoons of vodka or kirsch to the mixture right before churning. But I don't have an ice cream maker, and don't want to pop $50 on the one she recommends. Chapter 5: Thermodynamics at Sci-Toys uses a baggie, a bag of ice and some salt. Copiously illustrated, it's more science project than culinary art. And the resulting ice cream is photgraphed slumping into a pool of unfrozen liquid which can't pretend it's custard sauce. Now have each person squish the little bag around in the salt and ice, making sure that the ice contacts the little bag as much as possible, and that the little bag gets lots of kneading, to keep the ice crystals tiny, so the ice cream is very smooth. This recipe at Cooks.com substitutes a can, and seems to involve vigorous exercise, the better to help you burn off the ice cream: Put all ingredients in a 1-pound coffee can with a tight-fitting plastic lid. Place lid on can. Place can with ingredients inside of #10 can with a tight- fitting plastic lid. Pack large can with crushed ice around smaller can. Pour at least 3/4 cup rock salt evenly over ice. Place lid on #10 can. Elise links to Paris-dweller David Lebovitz's Making Ice Cream Without A Machine, which uses a brownie pan, and involves frequent visits to the freezer with a kitchen mixer (or whisk or spatula):
You can easily make Stracciatella ice cream with Italian-style chocolate chips: Drizzle pure melted dark or milk chocolate (about 5 ounces, 140 g) over the almost-frozen mixture, then stir, breaking up the ribbons of chocolate as they start to freeze, to create little 'chips'. Transfer the ice cream to a covered storage container until ready to serve. At, another post in which he coincidentally blogs yet another Strawberry Frozen Yogurt Recipe, David admits to having bought a $299 ice cream maker. Yet another recipe from Cooks.com may be more my speed. It reads like real cooking instructions (yes, there was ice cream before machines devoted to the task). I remember my mother doing something like this when I was small, using metal ice trays without the dividers:
I remember splintery shards of flavored ice, like a fudgsicle. After reading the thermodynamics post, I now know she didn't beat it often enough in the freezer to break up those crystals. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 19, 2008How satellites have altered that famous 'whole earth' imageThe big blue marble is looking a little odd these days. If ETs were looking for planets with signs of life, how could they miss us now? From the European Space Agency, what the whole earth looks like now, surrounded by satellites:
This view is from the equator:
Very high-rez photos at the link. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 18, 2008Before emailWhen I was in college, a new boyfriend sent flowers by telegram, and I thanked him by telegram. He replied, and a flurry of telegrams went back and forth over a couple of hours, each witty message delivered voice by Western Union operators. Several days later, the yellow hard copies arrived. Several weeks later, the bills came. We had no idea. We were young English majors flirting and just having fun. When that old memory floated to mind today, I immediately realized we were trying to email each other, back in 1966. The core concept of this art project was solid, but telegrams were a clunky technology. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 17, 2008Watch classic drive-in movies at the Internet ArchiveThe Psychotronic Guide to Archive.org (Archive.org collects moving images, recordings, live music and texts; its Wayback Machine preserves old Web pages from long-gone sites as well.) Wikipedia defines Psychotronic: Psychotronic is a film genre made up of horror films, spaghetti westerns, low-budget independent features, exploitation films) that was coined by author Michael J. Weldon, best known for his books, Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film and Psychotronic Video Guide.... Eye of the Goof hunted down "every film in the archive that also makes an appearance in Michael Weldon's essential guide to midnight movies." Lots of free weekend fun there, going through the links list from The Amazing Mr. X to White Zombie Posted by Sheila Lennon Cape Cod Times photo: Ted Kennedy's evacuationThere was some scrambling about video, but it amounted to nothing more than you can see now by turning on your TV.
The Boston Globe reports (Ted Kennedy said to suffer seizure), Doctors believe that Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts suffered a seizure at his home in Hyannis Port this morning, then a second seizure as he was being transported by helicopter from Cape Cod Hospital to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, according to an official briefed on the situation. Here's AP, ongoing. The Kennedys' hometown paper also has a brief story with early details. The senator is 76. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 16, 2008An Irish wake for Providence musician's mom
Photo / Sheila Lennon Providence musician Phil Edmonds' mom died Monday. From Maura Edmonds obituary,
After Maura Edmonds' wake at Gallogly Funeral Home, an Irish wake followed at Patrick's Pub on Smith Street.
The Gnomes -- one of several bands Phil makes music with -- played, joined by other musicians. That's Peter Breen and Cathy Clasper-Torch under the Guinness sign at Patrick's. A bit about Phil, from bandmate Otis Read's site: PHIL EDMONDS As a native of Killaloe, Co. Clare, Ireland, Phil learned to play the tin whistle in a place where he says, "The backyard was the fields." When he was 14 years old, Phil, along with his family, emigrated to America and settled in South Providence, where he still lives. Phil presently plays whistles and button accordion in several Rhode Island ensembles including: The Lucky Band, The Katz' Meow, Killaloe, and The Providence Wholebellies. He also performs with Triple-Decker which is a narrative by Marc Levitt accompanied by musicians from six different countries. Phil is listed as a traditional folk artist with the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. To children he is known as "The Leprechaun". Phil Edmonds and Otis Read play at the Providence Athenaeum, on YouTube. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 15, 2008A survey of working women, with a transparent hitchAsk a Working Woman Survey 2008: Once upon a time,not very long ago, our mothers (sisters, aunts, cousins and ourselves) brought forth on this continent, a new notion, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that when it comes to earning a paycheck, all women were created equal to men... The idea is great. I'd like to report my experience. This may be a hitch for you, or may not: P.S. If you are not one already, by taking this survey you become a member of Working America, a powerful voice for working people. As a member, you will receive updates and information about how you can make a difference for working families. This is sponsored by Working America & AFL-CIO. (I think, as a member of The Newspaper Guild, I'm already on an AFL-CIO list.) So the choice is yours. Posted by Sheila Lennon Free iced coffee at Dunkin' todayBetween 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. today only, Dunkin' Donuts stores nationwide are giving away free 16-oz iced coffees. I live on iced coffee year-round, so this is a public service announcement. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 14, 2008Rauschenberg's goat; $10 'surprises'; 100 essential jazz CDs; 'Bonnie & Cyde' snared by hair extensions
Robert Rauschenberg: Man at work. A goat story -- a stuffed angora goat story. The artist discusses his 1959 work Monogram as video of its installation rolls:
White elephants online: I imagine two guys with a warehouse full of Job Lot stuff, wondering how to get rid of it. The lightbulb goes on over one's head: SomethingStore is a fun new website that operates simply: We will send you something, an item selected randomly among many things from our inventory, for $10 (free shipping) and you will find out what your something is when you receive it. What will yours be? Duct-tape wallet, red sand hourglass, Norelco shaver... Your something will most likely be brand new, though it may also be refurbished or antique.Uh-oh. These will not be your something: "Adult goods and services, Alcohol, Body parts... " Think it will fly? Musical education: Online Only: 100 Essential Jazz Albums: Online Only: The New Yorker. Classics at The New Yorker, with links that go to Amazon where you can sometimes listen to clips.
Caught by the hair: Feds say hair extensions led to arrest of 'Bonnie and Clyde' | Philadelphia Daily News | 05/13/2008 IN THE END, it was the hair that snagged them. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 13, 2008Squirrel for dinner?
The ultimate ethical meal: a grey squirrel The Guardian (U.K.) coos, It tastes sweet, like a cross between lamb and duck. And it's selling as fast as butchers can get it. That's in England, where the North American Eastern grey squirrel is overrunning their beloved red squirrels. So it's almost patriotic to eat them to help cull the species, at about $6.82 per cleaned squirrel at the butcher shops. I'm thinking depression-era protein, if things get bad here. Lord knows we have enough grey squirrels eating our tulip bulbs and all the pears from our tree every year. Texas A&M offers instructions for harvesting acorns, squirrel, opossum and raccoon "(for traditional community coon suppers)", "dressing" and cooking them,: Squirrel is one of the most tender of all wild game meats. The rosy pink to red flesh of young squirrel is tender and has a pleasing flavor. The flesh of older animals is darker red in color and may require marinating or long cooking for tenderness. There are recipes for squirrel, although I wouldn't expect much meat from these scrawny city critters. Here's a recipe for Braised acorn-fed grey squirrel with roasted loin and squirrel pie, garlic mash by Craig James, head chef, at Butlers Wharf Chop House, near Tower Bridge, London. There's even a review of Butler's squirrel specials in the Evening Standard by restaurant blogger Charles Campion: During May there is a “squirrel and rook” season. When I visited only the squirrel element had kicked in - and the menu listed “Grey squirrel and rabbit terrine with piccalilli” – the terrine had a good texture, the sweet close-textured squirrel meat ends up pretty much indistinguishable from the rabbit – this would be a great dish for nervous squirrel sensation seekers. On the main course list there is “braised Grey squirrel and Guinness stew with carrots and horseradish dumplings” – very rich and discernibly squirrel, the meat falling from the bones of those long back legs – the dumplings need work, they are a little solid (which need not be a bad quality in a dumpling but can be taken too far) and they also need a bit more of the promised horseradish bite.
There are reports of prion disease -- Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease -- in five people from Kentucky who all ate the brains of diseased squirrels. (Hard to know how the squirrels might have acquired it on their diet of nuts and berries, though, so the link may be tentative.) Don't eat the brains if you're being fastidious. (Of course, if you're being fastidious you wouldn't be anywhere near a dead squirrel.) Rabies is rare among squirrels. How to: Squirrel hunts are great ways to enjoy fall days and teach new hunters field skills. - Wisconson Natural Resources magazine Posted by Sheila Lennon May 12, 2008Dylan art show; Donnie Darko sequel; Lessing: Nobel a disasterA few links noted along the way:
"The Drawn Blank Series" is based on drawings and sketches made by Dylan while on the road from 1989 through 1992.
Without a Wall Street Journal paid subscription, this is all we can read: Rapid increases in high-fructose corn syrup prices will encourage a return to sugar usage in U.S. soft drinks and foods -- a move that is already gathering steam among consumers -- sugar industry members predict. Maybe Coke will taste like it used to again, like kosher or Mexican Coke, made with sugar. Donnie Darko sequel S. Darko starts shooting May 18, according to ScreenDaily.
"All I do is give interviews and spend time being photographed."
Carpet of stone: medieval mosaic pavement revealed. The Guardian. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 10, 2008Movies worth watching: 'A Simple Curve,' 'Mantis Parable'Friday night we watched a couple of good movies on the Cox Free Zone. A Simple Curve A Simple Curve has gorgeous scenery of the Kootenay Mountains of British Columbia and a good story. An American woodworker who went to Canada rather than be drafted remains a dogged perfectionist. But it's really the story of his son and business partner Caleb, raised on carob and late to rebel. The arrival of an ecotourism entrepreneur who once vied with Caleb's father for his late mother's affections, and Caleb's own budding love life, change all that.
The Mantis Parable
The second is the eight-minute, beautifully animated The Mantis Parable, winner of 17 festival awards, including Best Children's Film at the Rhode Island Film Festival. It's stunning on the Free Zone big screen, or you can watch all eight minutes of it below. Created by veteran computer game designer Josh Staub (the Myst series), now a Disney artist, in his spare time, it's a totally charming and visually beautiful story of a a caterpillar and a praying mantis in a bug collector's home.
Background: 2003 Interview With Josh Staub and 2005 story about him. Posted by Sheila Lennon YouTube tourist safari video gets an hour on National Geographic TV Sunday night
On safari in South Africa's Kruger National Park in 2004, tourist David Budzinski captures eight minutes of lions and an alligator attacking a baby cape buffalo, and its rescue by its tribe. A fellow traveler asks for a copy, urging him to sell it. Animal TV won't buy tourist video. David had never heard of YouTube until fellow traveler shared the video there, eventually with 30 million people. Last summer, National Geographic Channel relents, buys the video and prepares a one-hour documentary about it. A version professionally processed for TV ends "Caught on Safari: Battle at Kruger" (Sunday night, 9 p.m.), which includes taking the Texas tourist back to the scene where his wife's Canon ZR50MC video camera seized the moment. The link goes to "Battle at Kruger" on YouTube -- the original low-rez, fuzzy version, a high-quality one uploaded three days ago, a trailer for the show, remixes, and all sorts of video responses. Bottom up, its momentum built by buzz. Background: Canon Mini DV Camcorder Review ZR50MC at Videomaker, 2002. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 9, 2008These Mother's Day cards are just... wrongMother's Day e-cards at WrongCards, a free, noncommercial site with the best shopping link on the Web. Not for traditionalists. But there's a card for the Mom who shows up at 2 a.m. at Twin River or Newport Grand this weekend for the start of 24-hour gambling:
Posted by Sheila Lennon May 8, 2008Beach sand magnified; Raped reporter tells tale; RIP jazzman Jimmy Giuffre
Each Grain of Sand a Tiny Work of Art: A photo gallery at Discover Magazine of beach sand from various parts of the world. Artist/scientist Gary Greenberg examined sand under a microscope. The images are from his book A Grain of Sand.
We'll never know for certain how many women were raped in 1984, but one of them was Plain Dealer reporter Joanna Connors, who was then our theater critic. She was attacked on a deserted stage at Eldred Theater, on the campus of Case Western Reserve University. With comments, sidebars and photos, including the mug shop of her rapist, who was arrested the next day, this one is headed for prize committees.
Jimmy Giuffre, the adventurous clarinetist, composer and arranger whose 50-year journey through jazz led him from writing the Woody Herman anthem “Four Brothers” through minimalist, drummerless trios to striking experimental orchestral works, died on Thursday in Pittsfield, Mass. He was 86 and lived in West Stockbridge, Mass. Blogger Darcy James Argue offers an elegy (Emphasis), links to other bloggers' appreciations and a sweet tune I'm listening to as I type this: "In The Mornings Out There," Jimmy Giuffre (mp3). Jimmy Giuffre: Cry Freedom at All About Jazz, 2003. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 7, 2008Weekend gig: Ken Lyon & Tombstone unplugged Saturday
Here are some tunes recorded live at Chan's in Woonsocket last fall, part of an acoustic set devised to keep down the volume for the neighbors: Mp3s: Sugarbones | Baby I Love You So The long-playing Tombstone Blues Band, formed in 1967, owns a special niche in Rhode Island rock and roll history I blogged a long piece about Ken Lyon and the band in April 2007, in advance of their retrospective concert at the Stadium Theater in Woonsocket. The Unplugged show starts at 8 p.m. at 549 Broad Street, Cumberland. Tickets: www.riverfolk.org; $12 in advance, $15 on Saturday. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 6, 2008$1,000 house for do-it-yourselfers: The Art of Natural Building
$1000 house. How to build yourself one. Lots more photos at that link, as well as the budget: $175 Home made tools (compass, stands, pounders, etc.) Background: In June 1997, more than one hundred natural building apostles and acolytes — professional builders, architects, academicians, and budding owner-builders — gathered at the Black Range Lodge in the tiny New Mexican hamlet of Kingston for the third annual "Natural Building Colloquium - Southwest." For one intense week, they traded ideas, learned new skills and fueled a nascent natural building movement. Links on the left include other projects -- this one is the Honey House. If this interests you, you might start under "The Art" with An Overview of Natural Building Techniques; This site feels like a part of the Whole Earth Catalog distributed to the Web -- that more informative subtitle was "Access to Tools. " The Honey House looks like a nice place in which to live simply. Although the story mentions options for a variety of climates, they might not include a New England winter in the range. You might have to move to someplace warm and beautiful. Posted by Sheila Lennon How we became 'consumers'; Free mp3s: U2 '87; New groceries review siteThe Gospel of Consumption: And the better future we left behind A readable, smart essay at Orion Magazine about how we came to have so much stuff, and so little time. Worth a read. In a 1927 interview with the magazine Nation’s Business, Secretary of Labor James J. Davis provided some numbers to illustrate a problem that the New York Times called “need saturation.” Davis noted that “the textile mills of this country can produce all the cloth needed in six months’ operation each year” and that 14 percent of the American shoe factories could produce a year’s supply of footwear. The magazine went on to suggest, “It may be that the world’s needs ultimately will be produced by three days’ work a week.” It also explores a wonderful experiment at Kellogg in 1930 -- a six-hour workday: Not only did Kellogg prosper, but journalists from magazines such as Forbes and BusinessWeek reported that the great majority of company employees embraced the shorter workday. One reporter described “a lot of gardening and community beautification, athletics and hobbies . . . libraries well patronized and the mental background of these fortunate workers . . . becoming richer.” Dress rehearsal? U2: Mountains And Deserts: Live at McNichols Arena, Denver, Colorado, November 7, 1987. High quality stereo MP3s from the soundboard of the entire concert the day before the one that was recorded as the soundtrack for Rattle And Hum
Now it needs members to write reviews that will make it more than an inventory list. pf groceries available in the early 21st century. The toolbox is ready: Members can rate and review, love, hate or want a product.
According to TechCrunch (Food Review Site Zeer Launches), it "is targeted at women between 20 and 32." From an editorial viewpoint, that's weird. Wouldn't people who've been buying and eating longer be able to contribute more reviews? Also from TC, "...each member’s profile page shows what products she loves and hates the most." I'm all for review sites, but that last part does seem a little silly. And would you think less of me if I admit I love Cheez Waffies? (I haven't had one in years, but still love them.) (The photo is from she treads softly, usually a books blog. But one day last November, Cheez Waffies.) Posted by Sheila Lennon May 5, 2008Reviving a rainforest to give orangutans a home
Six years ago the area around Samboja in Borneo was like much of the world's tropical rainforest: denuded. The trees had been cut for timber, the land burnt, and in place of what should be some of the richest biodiversity on the planet were thousands of acres of grass. The goal is to re-introduce orangutans into the wild. Jungle Diary: Herbert Ullmann’s research trip to Borneo for the orangutan project. The book's publisher visited Borneo to check it out. Samboja Lestari : Creative reforestation has satellite views. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 3, 2008Eccentric roadside attractions make for a funky travel blog
One thing you notice after a lot of cross-country driving is how much there is out there that's mundane. We've grown to love the mundane in America — the beautifully melancholy, unnoticed, unloved landscapes across this great land of ours. Gunnar has designed features section fronts for a couple of decades. His "attractions" are not commercial tourist traps. He has a fine eye for detail, and seems not to miss a single sign, shoe-shaped building or bit of local whimsy while tooling down the road:
This oasis is near Carhenge -- yup, what it sounds like -- in Alliance, Nebraska.
Posted by Sheila Lennon May 2, 2008Greenville photo blogger is there when volunteers repair vandalized cemetery
Greenville photo blogger Linda Hawkins has posted some photographs of those volunteers repairing Greenvile Cemetery -- historical cemetery Number 49, the Smith Lot, last Saturday. Linda had photographed the cemetery April 12, just before its stones were attacked. Linda's a photographer, so she doesn't shoot this the way a news photographer would -- details interest her, and forms; her images have giant watermarks on them, and she doesn't identify the volunteers in the photos, but it's a nice follow-up to a story that begs for one: They were seeking volunteers, they got them, here's what they did. Posted by Sheila Lennon Recall of heart drug Digitek hits patients in the wallet
International pharmaceutical firm Avatis, based in Iceland, recalled Digitek, its generic form of heart drug digoxin, April 25 "due to the possibility that tablets with double the appropriate thickness may have been commercially released. These tablets may contain twice the approved level of active ingredient than is appropriate. The existence of double strength tablets poses a risk of digitalis toxicity in patients with renal failure. Digitalis toxicity can cause nausea, vomiting, dizziness, low blood pressure, cardiac instability, bradycardia, and possible fatality. Several reports of illness and injuries have been received... Longtime radio and space blogger Lou Josephs is one of those affected by the recall (Drug Recall), and he's frosted: I called MEDCO who sold me a ninety day supply under the Federal Blue Cross Health Plan. I asked them what to do. I had already called my internal medicine doctor to get a 30 day prescription for lanoxin which is the brand drug. It will cost more at the checkout but the only pain will be in my wallet not my heart. Actavis's China factory is in Guangdong.
Posted by Sheila Lennon May 1, 2008May Day; Nestcams; Local bloggers; Historic '78s as podcastsMay Day: May breakfasts seem to be the last fossilized vestige of a bawdy spring tradition. Maypoles and Mayhem - The Traditions of Mayday at Dark Dorset, "The Official Blog to Dorset's premier website devoted to local folklore,customs, mysteries and the unexplained." Dorset is in Olde Englande, of course. The sexual symbolism of the maypole and all the immoral revelry that went along with it led the Puritans to out-law the maypole custom in 1644. However, this prohibition was soon repealed after the restoration of Charles II in 1660.
It's baby bird season: Nestcams, via the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Current streaming broods include barn owls, Eastern blueblrds, a chimney swift and more.
Politics gets the bulk of it, but Providence Geeks founder Jack Templin (R.I. Nexus) chimes in on the community aspect of it all. The bottom line (literally) about blogging, from Marc Comtois at the conservative group blog Anchor Rising: “You have to do it because you love doing it for its own sake. Lots of blogs flame out. People get bored or realize how hard it is. But I think that so long as you are passionate about something — whether politics, music, food or whatever — you will be able to keep it going. Just don’t ever look at it as a way to make money or gain power.” If you start a blog, don't expect to sleep as much as you used to. I feed this blog in my jammies at 3 a.m., when the world is finally quiet. Feeding the monster never stops.
A monthly podcast featuring 78rpm records from my collection, including music-hall comedians, operatic vocals, spoken word, jazz, dance bands and unusual recordings: available both in a plain audio (MP3) version, and an enhanced (MP4) version with illustrations.
Dallas lawmakers originally estimated gross revenue of $15 million from their 62 cameras this fiscal year, which ends June 30. But City Manager Mary Suhm estimated last week that the city would fall short by more than $4 million. Because they'd rather get rear-ended than get a ticket. Posted by Sheila Lennon |
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EDMONDS, MAURA M. (LARKIN), 88, passed away Monday at the Elmhurst Extended Care Facility. She was the wife of the late Edward J. Edmonds.
An exhibition of Bob Dylan's artwork, first seen in November. in Germany at the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz (museum), is to open at the Halcyon Gallery in London's Mayfair June 14. 
my passport photo blogging since 2002 garden blogs archived headlines  Sheila Lennon is features & interactive producer of projo.com, the Web site of The Providence (R.I.) Journal Rhode Island |
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