Tuesday September 27, 2005
WATERCOOLER Austin, my kind of city

With Rita being a tropical storm and off to the east, we were in the clear to enjoy the Austin City Limits without any worries.

I’ve gone to my fair share of festivals (jazz fest, warped tour, field day…) and I have to say the Austin City Limits had to be one of the most pleasant festivals I’ve experienced. An estimated 65,000 people came down for it and despite all the people, everyone was generally friendly, and didn’t overcrowd one another.

As for the music, I’m now a fan of the Arcade Fire after seeing them put on two amazingly enthusiatic shows over the weekend. Wilco put on one of the most enjoyable performances while a media helicopter flew by in weird angles capturing the show throughout their set. The Decemberists were excruciatingly charasmatic while Built to Spill’s aftershow performance left much to be desired in the form of crowd interaction and less artsy jams.

Everywhere we went we heard live music. Out of coffee shops, bars, backyards. And over the weekend, I saw no shortage of cyclists in town either, as Lance is a resident of this fine city. So put those things together and that’d be a place I’d live in, if I lived in Texas.

LINK American Masters . Bob Dylan | PBS
directed by martin scorsese

Monday September 26, 2005

corporate recycle art

corporate recycle art

corporate recycle art

DSCN4496

inside chuy's

ambulance ltd

ambulance ltd

super gluing our free, but broken fans

super gluing our free, but broken fans

a blurry and unfortunately boring built to spill

Thursday September 22, 2005
WATERCOOLER To Austin

Perhaps against all logic or just better judgement, my friends and I are headed to Texas for the Austin City Limits. It’s not the greatest of ideas given the potential of Hurricane Rita, but we are the curious type. Aside from the storm itself, Austin will be a logistical challenge with the influx of people for the festival and those seeking better grounds to weather the storm. Let’s do hope the storm dissipates.

LINK JCB video
cameos by the transformers and the a-team in this really well made animation

LINK dosh.mov (video/quicktime Object)
i am amazed by this

Wednesday September 21, 2005
Tuesday September 20, 2005

LINK Jed's Other Poem (Beautiful Ground)
a slightly geeky, amazing video for grandaddy

Monday September 19, 2005
WATERCOOLER Dining Notes: Max's

Max’s – New York City

Very good Italian restaurant. Reasonable prices. Excellent garden seating. Indoor seating may be too loud. Friendly staff. Does not rush you out despite a busy Saturday night.

This is the first entry in an attempt to keep short notes of favorable restaurants & other establishments I visit in the hope that I’ll have an easy list to look through when I want to re-visit any particular place in the future.

WATERCOOLER Oscar Wilde said...

There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.

LINK Who Makes How Much - New York's Salary Guide 2005
“George M. – $16,800 – Street musician, Astor Place subway station”

Friday September 16, 2005

LINK Global warming is beyond the point of no return
“Sea ice naturally melts in summer and reforms in winter but for the first time on record this annual rebound did not occur last winter when the ice of the Arctic failed to recover significantly.”

LINK mapping census information
interesting visualization of census data w/ google maps

LINK NYPD - podcast
is every organization so desperate to get a podcast going to seem like they are with it? instead of talking about street closings, how about discussing the arrest of cyclists who participate in the monthly critical mass bike rides in nyc and the cost of

Thursday September 15, 2005
WATERCOOLER The Future of Food

I just saw The Future of Food over at Film Forum tonight. I was disappointed I didn’t catch an earlier showing so that we can chat with a guest from the food sector after the movie.

The movie is worth watching simply to get a perspective on what is going on behind the scenes of the food production chain. A few examples: sadly, genetically engineered corn, cotton, canola, and soy beans are already pervasive in the American marketplace WITHOUT most Americans’ knowledge thanks to our government’s loose legislation and its many fingers in the farming money pie. Genetically engineered food are not subject to special labelling, as they are in many other countries. The movie also brings to light more abuse on U.S.’s broken patent laws, which we have no shortage of examples.

One of my favorite lines from the movie goes something like this (very paraphrased): “Consumers have the right to choose. However, the consumers can’t adequately choose unless they can get the information they need to make the proper decisions.” How true indeed, so watch the movie and bring a friend. And while on the topic of corporate and government cynicism, The Corporation is also worth watching and sharing.

WATERCOOLER John Lennon said

“Would those of you in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewelry.”

LINK Reuters Photog Appears to Capture Bush at U.N. Writing Note About 'Bathroom Break'
i have nothing further to add

LINK Vanishing Point: How to disappear in America without a trace
certainly not by having a blog

Wednesday September 14, 2005
WATERCOOLER The sound of Hoboken

My late morning slumber (after a late night of work) was interrupted by the unmistakable sound of Hoboken. That is, the sound of jackhammers and heavy machinery developing what is sure to be another new set of condos of uninspired architecture.

Tuesday September 13, 2005

LINK TIME.com: Stevie's Little Wonder
Innovating in the face of success.

Monday September 12, 2005

LINK Wired 12.10: The Long Tail
an old article on the long tail theory.

Sunday September 11, 2005

scenes from an automotive high school

Friday September 9, 2005
WATERCOOLER Adsense nonsense

Wow, I think I’ll go with the 25 billion songs site instead of these other two, despite all three ranking equally lame on account of their domain names. So these are the “highly relevant” Adsense ads I should be seeing in my Gmail, Google?

LINK The Village Voice: Status Ain't Hood
Most importantly, [Clap Your Hands Say Yeah] don’t have the Dismemberment Plan’s sense that something is at stake, that they’ll explode if they don’t play these songs and get these things off their collective chest. They’re just a band playing, which I gu

Thursday September 8, 2005

LINK WNYC - Soundcheck: Selling the Symphony (September 08, 2005)
“New York Times arts reporter Daniel Wakin looks at the tactics orchestras are using – some very shrewd and some very silly – to attract a younger crowd. As we’ll hear, more and more orchestras are trying to lure them with pre-concert cocktail hours, spee

LINK Maeda's SIMPLICITY: Yahoogle!
evolution of yahoo and google homepages through the years

Wednesday September 7, 2005

LINK macosxhints - Import Address Book records into to Thunderbird
export your mac address book to a CSV file so you import it to your gmai!