I was driving home last night listening to Sirius Radio (which will probably collapse under its debts in the next year or 2, darn it) and was tuned to NPR. Speaking of Faith just happened to be on at the time with an interview with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and it was so fascinating that I had to just finish listening via the NPR podcast when I got home. Also on the podcast site was a link to an interview with Archbishop Tutu by Craig Ferguson on Late Night.
Have a look at it:
(NOTE: It’s in 3 parts. Continue with the other 2 parts from the thumbnails that appear after this section is finished.)
Amazingly deft interview from Craig, the comedian.
As the initial dust and smoke of the Apple iPad release is settling down, more thoughtful and articulate articles are being published about the new iPad and the problems that lurk beneath its shiny surface. The following links are the best I’ve seen at explaining what evil lurks in TechnoLand and that the iPad is just the most prominent example of what’s in store for us.
Disclaimer: I own an iPod Touch and an almost functional MacBook, both of which I enjoy regardless of their restrictions (which are many.)
First, is a great article by Jack Shafer in Slate Magazine and I’ll link to 3 pivotal articles mentioned in Shafer’s article that need reading because they provide the in-depth explanation of the problems.
This is one of the fall-outs of working with the W2 Group in the Downtown East Side. Donna Chen sent me info on a thing called: Pecha Kucha (pronounced “P’ chakcha” in Japanese). It looks like a Speed-TED and an interesting forum for quick presentation of good ideas… I might even pick up my banjo and get motivated to design a talk.
Here’s links: Pecha Kucha: Another interesting way to send out information, brought to you by those Japanese folks…. Hmmm. Here’s the WIKI for more background info
and Here’s the Facebook page for the next Vancouver BC Pecha Kucha on April 8th at the Vogue Theatre.
I arrived back to Vancouver after the fun Bluegrass weekend in Seattle with the tail-end of a head cold and the last hurrah of the ‘effing Olympics in full gear. Nice to hear that Canada won the hockey final, but people really have to get a life! Now I know how Hitler took over a country. Give (sorry, sell) people a pair of little plastic flags to strap to their cars, and their minds belong to you.
Today was bizarre. The streets that were jammed with all the 20-something party animals in the region 12 hours ago are quiet and smooth, returned back to their normal function. Almost all of the barricades are gone and holes are being torn in the covered fences so you can now see the sham behind the event as the big trucks move in to haul away the canvas and aluminum struts and wire that held the “circus” together. The bus stop ads and billboards that yesterday looked SO current, already look like Xmas ads on January 15th and all of the moving coloured lights are dark. I’ll have to go out tomorrow on my bike and take some serious pictures of the sagebrush blowing down the streets. Meanwhile the Big City slickers have now departed on their buses for the next town of suckers. The most pitiful sights were those few 20-somethings that were walking around this afternoon in their Canada hockey shirts trying to generate the buzz from last night but looking instantly out of place and laughably late to the party. I’ve been so cynical about the whole affair that I’ve snapped at friends who gave me any boosterish sloganning this morning and it was like a dousing of their party with frozen water to the face. Sorry, but it was involuntary- kind of like a belch after a huge gulp of beer.
The infuriating part about it is that as the bills slowly start to melt their way into our budget, most folks will never tie the lack of cultural facilities, expensive education and inadequate social facilities/transport etc. to the money wasted on this party. If I’ve got any brains, I’d better start planning to find another place to settle over the next few years. Vancouver made its decision on how it wanted the next 20 years to look and it’s not going to be a very enlightened place – but hey, the party was sooooooooo much fun for a week or 2.
This article and the comments following partially summarize my feelings about the 2010 Games that have invaded the City. Not only has VANOC and the IOC run roughshod over the local businesses and artisans, it’s frozen out most of the musicians that I know who all play in local bars or are in the local Roots music scene. This may be a minor example, but after watching some of the extravagance in the Opening Ceremonies, I wondered what the local music scene could have done with a pittance of the cost of 10 minutes of that display.
It took the Australian contingent to finally tell VANOC to behave themselves, something no one here seemed to have the cohones to do.
Where I’m working these days. No, I didn’t cause the fire! This is an art installation done for the Cultural Olympiad by Isabelle Hayeur entitled “Fire with Fire”. It is authentic looking enough to cause the fire department to have come out 3 times to check it out.
The building is the home of W2 Media, a plucky bunch of young videographers who are operating an Alternative Media gallery and gathering point for Alternative Media sources around the world during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. I wasn’t busy, so thought I’d come over with my soldering gun and give a hand assembling the A/V and computer resources and, at the same time learn more about live streaming and on-the-fly videography. It’s been hectic but fun.
My friend, Forrest always evoked my sense of awe in his ability to drink massive amounts of coffee. Little did we know that he could have put the beverage to better use by developing his film in it. This just in from Lifehacker – If you’re having trouble finding Kodak Microdol or D-76 developer these days, just blend up some coffee and Vitamin C! Now I wonder whether Starbucks will give better shadow detail than Second Cup Arabica blend.
