A camera review with soul

The excellent Craigmod blog has the most in-depth, well illustrated and soulful review of a piece of equipment I've ever read. and I've read alot of them.

photo Craig Mod
Panasonic Lumix GF1 Field Test — 16 Days in the Himalayas

from the library of...


Great photoset of the NYPL

The Digital Music Experience Sucks Ass, and This is Why






I spent the evening loading music into my computer from CDs. I was amazed at the favorites that had not yet made it into the box.
It didn't take long before I was listening to Mingus and engrossed in the liner notes detailing his career and the sessions and players that went into Mingus Ah Um.

Once the computer hissed and cried and ejected the disk, I realized that I won't be hearing this music from this CD anymore. I won't pick up this case and catch sight the studio jumble of cables and stands under the disk, or the thick fingers of Mingus fretting some freak chord on the verso.
And it's not just the written notes. Laurie Anderson's slipcase/trifold triptych with booklet, Prefuse 73's chipboard colorsplash, and a Fat Possum sampler's unreadable neon pink and forest green all have a character that supports and augments the music inside.

Now I've got "album art". A 1" x 1" square that's not event the same art as the damn disk I hold.
Some artists have made great album minisites, but the chances of these surviving internet technology's relentless forward lurch is nill. Best of luck.

I love radio, so it's not like I need ownership, in fact I listen to static. Often. Even other people's recordings of static. But if I do care to own the music, I want the full experience, and I want the security that the independent storage format offers (as limited as that may be with a CD - I do like the "buy the vinyl, download the album" that some artists are doing).

So feel your music. The future is in your hands.

Books completed 2009





photo by Ember Rilleau

1. Learned Optimism-Martin Seligman
2. Everything is Illuminated-Jonathan Safran Foer
3. Song Man-Will Hodgkinson
4. The Optimistic Child- Martin Seligman
5. The Art of Possibility- Rosamund Stone Zander, Benjamin Zander
6. Getting things done (reread)- David Allen
7. So long, See you tomorrow (reread)-William Maxwell
8. Down at the Docks-Rory Gallagher
9. Not Just Anywhere-Marsha McCabe
10. Happiness-Mathieu Ricard
11. Wind, sand and stars-St. Exupery
12. Peace is Every Step-Thich Nhat Hanh
13. Finding Flow-Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
14. The money book for the Young Fabulous and Broke-Suze Orman
15. The Sweet LIfe in Paris-David Lebovitz
16. Siddhartha-Herman Hesse
17. Never eat alone-Keith Ferrazzi
18. 4 Hour Work Week (reread)-Tim Ferriss

My reviews in brief:
completely worth your time: 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16
eh: 3, 4, 15
nah: 13, 17
grain of salt/open mind+eyes: 5, 18

There were 3 or 4 books I started and did not finish. A couple sucked and a couple I recognize as good, but not currently appropriate.

Fiction/Literature-5
NonFiction-13
Ratio 2.6/1

2010 is the year of Fiction.

Fairhaven Mills Exhibit, Oct 3-4, New Bedford


As part of New Bedford Open Studios, October 3-4, EM lettepress is showing photos by 4 artists on the final days of Fairhaven Mills An historic building recently demolished. I am one of those artists.

The Health Care "Debate"

Thanks to Toby Everett, who is not so much against it, as bemused by it.

Showtime


Nice.
but jugglers hate that guy.
So they do things like this: