In an effort to organize and sort the many photos from our recent trip to the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica, I’m posting a daily photo — for the next 60 days or so — to my Flickr account. If you are so inclined, you can check out daily additions to this photo set: Costa Rica Photo-a-Day
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I can’t wait to see how this plays out with the evangelicals.
But seriously folks, make a coalition government happen (via cmkl.ca)
From the genius online comic strip, xkcd.com
So fitting on a morning like this. Feel free to substitute DRM with podcasting, iPhone, the Mets or John Coltrane’s classic quartet.
I’m making a public declaration that I intend to dust off the cobwebs from this blog now that a few family and work issues have been resolved (not to mention the crushing disappointment that was the ‘07 Mets), if anybody’s still listening , that is …
It’s been a while, so here’s a special entry … Yesterday NAC New Media had a hand in helping produce this year’s edition of Music Monday, a great national initiative spearheaded by the Coalition for Music Education.
One of the highlights of the hour-long show was a cameo performance by Ron Sexsmith. Here’s a QuickTime stream of Ron’s tune, “Former Glory” recorded live at the NAC’s Fourth Stage.
‘Back in Ottawa after a quick trip West, and I feel oddly compelled to to keep postings here going, so here’s a ‘content quickie’:
ArtsJournal.com maintains a page of arts and culture videos culled from YouTube. Clips rotate through the page over the course of a couple of weeks and you can find some really great stuff. And those videos will lead you to other videos in the same vein, and, can you say, “where did the afternoon go?”
Currently featured are a wide range of clips; from Donald Byrd and Stan Getz in 1957 to David Sedaris on Letterman. Check out the hilarious Rachmaninov Had Big Hands clip.
Link: artsJournalvideo
Don’t forget about TubeSock if you want to move some of this video to iTunes, your iPod, or simply save them to your computer.
I’m huge fan of Ira Glass. I could listen to This American Life for days on end, no problem. And now that TAL is available as a podcast, I’m planning to do just that this summer [rss]
Here are four short videos of Ira Glass on storytelling courtesy of Your Daily Awesome, awesome in its own right.
‘Back home after an absolutley wonderful trip to Costa Rica with family and friends.
On our way home we had a six hour layover in Atlanta. While Jacinthe was engrossed in her book, and Luca was busy with some rented DVDs, I was reminded what a great travel companion the iPod video can be. Time flew by as I caught up on episodes of 30 Rock, Rome, Studio 60 and the Henry Rollins Show ;-)
Recently, some friends and co-workers asked me about the best way of getting video on the iPod, especially given the Canadian version of the iTunes Store doesn’t sell TV shows or feature length films. So here are a few (Mac) applications I’ve come to depend on to get great looking video onto the iPod:
- Handbrake (freeware): Converts DVDs directly to iPod compatible MP4 video files.
- ViddyUp (US $9.95): Converts almost any video file format, such as AVI, to iPod compatible MP4 file format.
- TubeSock (US $15): Grabs video clips from YouTube and converts them to iPod compatible file formats.
- Also great for travel is MacTheRipper (freeware) which rips DVDs to your hard drive. Use it to move your movies to your laptop before a trip and leave the discs at home.
Mark tagged me in his post Tag! I’m it! which, in turn, is a response to CC Chapmans’ post If My Life Was a Movie, What Would the Soundtrack Be? (read his post for game instructions).
As Mark says, “The idea is to put your media player on shuffle and record the name of each song that comes up in sequence against a specific list of scenes in your life — also in sequence”.
Full disclosure: I used the shuffle feature in iTunes instead of a portable media player because my iPod is in vacation prep mode and is uncharacteristically laden with reggae at the moment. Also, I skipped any orchestral or obscure jazz tracks that came up.
Here’s what I came up with by pressing “shuffle”:
Opening credits
The Empty Page - Sonic Youth
First day of school
I’ll Be Your Mirror - Velvet Underground
Falling in love
Deluge - Dave Douglas
Prom/Grad
Whatever happened to? - Buzzcocks
Mental breakdown
What’s Going On? - Marvin Gaye
Flashbacks
Always Tomorrow - Bob Mould
Getting back together
Her Love Rubbed Off - The Cramps
Wedding scene
Less - Ben Harper
Final battle
Time Will Tell - Bob Marley & The Wailers
Death scene
Don’t Ask For The Water - Ryan Adams
Funeral scene
Blister In The Sun - Violent Femmes
End credits
Modal Mood - Dexter Gordon
Finale
Flying - Faces
My turn, my turn! I’m tagging Chris Lawson, Chris Dearlove, Evan Thornton, Jason Westerlund, and Hugh McGuire