Cafe Bucky

I just noticed that Thomas Dolby is a bloggin’. Science! It’s good to get the look into the creative process. Check out his video clip from the TED Conference.

Over on the video and digital media side, check out What Alex Lindsay is doing. He’s leading up to a 1080p videocast called MacBreak. The first few episodes are wonderfully video geeked out, and I can’t claim to understand it all. It’s a subject that I wish I could take a year off and dive into. Alex is also doing a podcast called “This Week In Media”.

Two Pioneers!

What some numbers mean to me. One of those silly lists.

• 1 - Pacific Coast Highway, The Beach, West Coast. I may leave, but I’ll always visit.
• 2 - cats
• 3 - Nikons
• 4 - airport wireless base stations at home
• 6 - World Cup Soccer games (’94)
• 11 - countries visited
• 19 - states visited
• 26 - years of coffee
• 27 - years of programming
• 110 - mph on the track
• 130 - on a nice open stretch, uh, somewhere
• 155 - target weight
• 170 - current weight
• 185 - glutton weight
• 212 - favorite area code
• 250 - paid for a noisy, slow, clunky dot matrix printer in 1982
• 300 - my tech book review fee
• 400 - Atari 400, my first computer
• 501 - levis (when I lose more weight)
• 550 - levis (sick of them)
• 1999 - best year
• 3900 - miles driven in one cross country trip
• 5600 - songs on iPod
• 58000 - E36 M3 miles driven

This is post #404. Really. For a quick refresher on the term “404″, go check the Wikipedia Entry. btw, you should never confuse 404 and 420, and that’s the 411.

Rather than dwelling on things “not found”, I’ll look forward. I’m planning to have quite a bit of creative stuff posted by the time #500 rolls around.

I just noticed that the Google Maps API has added an overlay control: GOverviewMapControl() — thanks Digg’ers for the heads up!

I’ve updated the iframe file referenced by the post Fave Station. If the map doesn’t do the right thing, let me know.

See the Google Maps API Blog for more info.

Here’s a deliberately exaggerated example — I plan on heading to Amoeba Music sometime in the next week, which is near Golden Gate Park:

My niece Jilly / BiL Bob have an electric guitar, and they rock. I’ve got my Strat with me. It’s going to be a jammin’ Family Reunion Easter. Turn it up.

And if there are any wish-filling Easter Rabbits out there (esp a Red Furred one that likes my playing .. that ought to narrow it down :-), I’m pining for Guitar Rig 2:

To say that GR2 is an awesome bit of kit is an understatement. It’s every amp and effect I could wish for. You can split the signal, run each through a different set of cabinets and effects, and mix them back together. Loops? Yes. Recording? Yes. Foot Pedal Control? Oh yeah! It’s deep. Immersive. The demo lets one play for 30 minutes, which is long enough to “get into it”, and then be jarred when time runs out. Enjoy the Tech, Love the Sound.

My daughter Sophia and I just went to see Take the Lead - there are a couple of minor spoilers. We decided it would be fast just to have an in-house IM. The basic idea is: NYC kids that are having trouble in high school are taught ballroom dancing by Pierre Dulaine (played by Antonio Banderas). It’s based on a true story.

daniel: Ok Sophia, so we just saw Take the Lead
sophia: yes we did
sophia: I liked it
daniel: I liked it too, though some parts were just a bit corny
sophia: well, it is a movie
sophia: I think most of it was pretty realistuc
sophia: *realistic
daniel: yeah, I just wonder about a guy like Antonio Banderas wandering into an NYC high school and getting cooperation that easily
sophia: well, I think most high school kids have at least enough maturity where they can tell when an authority figure means business
daniel: true
sophia: and he did know how to get them to cooperate
sophia: i.e. the scene where he turns up the music they hate until they all take their positions
daniel: yeah
daniel: who was your favorite character?
sophia: I liked Lahrette a lot, but I also liked Caitlin, because I could relate to her
daniel: I liked Lahrette and Ramos
sophia: yea, Ramos was good
daniel: I liked all of the attitudes
sophia: the characters were well-defined
daniel: did you know of any really good dancers in your school in NYC?
sophia: of course
sophia: I dont think anybody was that good, but some were pretty talented
sophia: about 30% is from music videos, 50% is from watching others in the club/school dance, and 20% is just originality
sophia: that is, where people get moves from
daniel: yeah - I liked the blended music (ballroom / spanish harlem hip hop) the most
sophia: I don’t think that style of music is concentrated in Spanish Harlem
daniel: the dancing in those scenes was the most exciting bit
sophia: it’s all over New York, I think
sophia: but I agree, the dancing scenes were most exciting
daniel: so would you recommend this film to your friends?
sophia: Yep, it’s a lot of fun!
sophia: and when it comes to getting the personalities of NYC-inner-city-youth-kids down, the writers of Taking The Lead hit the nail on the head
daniel: I liked the reference to “Stand And Deliver” - instead of a tricked out car, it’s a bike
sophia: yea, it was a nice gesture on the student’s part, but a little bit unbelievable
daniel: of course
sophia: I did think it was realistic that his bike got stolen, though
daniel: yeah, that’s NYC
sophia: also, the metal detectors at the high school reminded me of Brandies(sp?) High
daniel: the one place where Kryptonite locks don’t have a guarantee
daniel: well I think we’re done here
sophia: yep
daniel: Go see it folks!
sophia: P.S. Dad, you might want to put a spoiler alert on this (we tell people that the bike gets stolen… little things like that)

Oh yes, this takes me back. I hadn’t seen this performance before, so it was a treat that someone posted it. Devo had the nerd hipster aesthetic going 15 years before they glommed onto it in Billyburg (that would be part of Brooklyn …) They were so dorky they were cool. One of the best things to ever come out of Akron, Ohio!

Photo: Mark Seliger

My wife and I were heartbroken a bit when Kurt died on April 5th, 12 years ago. We were big Nirvana fans. I always wonder how Kurt would have evolved, had he made it to his 30’s. He was someone we gave a shit about - someone worth mentioning in the same conversation as John Lennon. The big difference is that he didn’t live long enough to leave us with the same wealth of material (and let’s face it, they both did some songs that suck, but made up for it with sheer brilliance elsewhere, such as “You Know You’re Right” or “Jealous Guy”, to name a couple of their not as well known tunes).

Sure, the Beatles changed the world, and they’ll always be my faves. Nirvana came along and shook things up when rock had turned into a parody of itself (see the VHS or DVD of Nirvana “Live ! Tonight ! Sold Out !” for a honest look at the band)

A film worth catching (but not a rainy depressing day, because it’ll just make it worse) is Gus Van Sant’s Last Days, which is somewhat based on Kurt’s experience.