Month: April 2008

Earlier today I saw a few posts over at Friend Feed where people were asking where you find new music.

I responded that I find most of my new music with Hype Machine these days. I also use Pandora every now and again. I like the fact though with Hype Machine that I can usually download the songs that I hear and like directly from the blogs where they are posted vs. Pandora where I have to go out and hunt for a song once I hear something I like.

Anyways, right after I responded that I use Hype Machine to find new music I headed out to pick up a sandwich at Mastrelli’s deli in the Ferry Building. And I have to say, that deli always has the best damn music on. In fact, most of the time I don’t even mind the wait if I get to sit there and listen to some great music.

And while I was there today there was this amazing and beautiful song being played. I jotted down some of the lyrics and then found it on the internet latter. It’s called Aftermath and it’s by Jesse Malin. Something about the song really spoke to me. I’m going to pick up his CD the next time I hit Amoeba.

“standing on the corner
watching people walk on
thinking about a photograph
how so many people choose the lesser evil
living in the aftermath”

And so I was reminded that even in these modern years with all that the internet has to offer every so often music is still found the old fashioned way — you hear a song in a deli, or on the radio, or over at friend’s house, or wherever else the air might hit your ears. It’s a beautiful thing.

Anyways, check out the song below and enjoy.

Aftermath.mp3

Fine Art

Graffiti

Yesterday I posted two images to my blog. One was of a painting taken from San Francisco’s de Young Museum and the other was some graffiti that I found on Market Street. My questions posed were which one was fine art vs. graffiti and which one would you rather have hanging in your home.

Most people had no trouble picking out the fine art vs. the graffiti. This might partly be my fault because you could partially see a sticker that was painted over in the graffiti photo.

Of those who responded 90% were able to correctly identify the painting on the top as fine art. 10% got it wrong and thought that the graffiti was the fine art.

Also interesting though, people seemed to prefer the graffiti over the fine art when it came to hanging it in their home. Of those who responded 56% said that they’d prefer the graffiti panel over the fine art painting if they were going to hang it in their home. Only 13% actually said that they’d prefer the fine art painting over the graffiti and 31% liked neither.

I’m thinking of redoing the challenge again a bit later with two paintings that I feel would be harder to tell apart. We’ll see.

Congrats to everyone who correctly guessed. And remember don’t let anyone else tell you what art is good and what art is bad. That decision is for you and you alone. Unless, of course, you’re actually an art investor, in which case you’d better make damn sure that you pay attention to what the art elite say is art vs. what is not art.

BART in talks for systemwide Wi-Fi service

Hot Donkey! It looks like we might actually get wifi on the BART public transit system in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Chronicle is reporting on a plan to add high-speed wifi to the entire BART system, including the Transbay Tube!

As someone who rides BART most days this is GREAT news. Right now I can use my EVDO card on BART, but only on above ground areas or in Downtown San Francisco.

I have been one of the early BART wifi users testing out their current pilot program and I have to say when you can get a signal it works really well. I’ve only ever been able to get a signal in the Powell Street Station, but when I’ve gotten one there it’s been super fast.

I do think it’s a bummer that the current pilot wifi makes you relog in every time you access it, but hey, who can complain about free wifi right?

It would be really great to see wifi on the entire BART system and I’m sure would encourage even more people to commute on BART rather than drive polluting cars into the city.

OAKLAND / Woman dies after being shot in bed

Shanice Davis died Wednesday night.

One more person on a long list of people who will quickly be forgotten. Shanice Davis does not deserve to be forgotten though.

Shanice Davis was shot in the head by a stray bullet in Oakland on Monday night. She was sleeping when the bullet went through her bedroom wall and hit her in the head.

Shanice had a daughter — a one year old baby girl. This baby girl will now grow up without her mother. Imagine the cries of this baby as she wakes up in the middle of the night wanting the familiar comfort of her mom’s touch. That gets me mad. It gets me mad that we allow criminals to roam the streets with illegal guns and then watch as they get a slap on the wrist when caught.

It’s tragic. And all the while “Do Nothing” “Soft on Crime” Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums sits idly by doing nothing about the continued problem of guns and violent crime in Oakland.

Why won’t Mayor Dellums call for stiffer penalties for illegal guns in Oakland? Why does he allow week after week more innocent people to die? Maybe Mayor Dellums should spend more time caring about the people dying every week in his city than he does spending time campaigning for Hillarious Clinton as her special urban city advisor or whatever his title is with her campaign.

Speaking of Hillarious Clinton’s campaign. Is this really the Mayor you want advising her on how to hand inner city issues? A mayor who watches the bloodshed in his city and person after person die and does absolutely nothing about it?

The laws need to change. Those caught with illegal guns need to spend 10, 20, 30 years in jail. The slap on the wrist approach is not working. Dellums could be the perfect spokesman to push for tougher illegal gun laws. But do you know where Dellums was on Tuesday night instead of Oakland. He was in San Francisco meeting with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. A camera made PR event for a career politician.

Do you know what Mayor Dellums? While you were out there pressing the flesh and smiling for the camera with Archbishiop Tutu in San Francisco, Shanice Davis was dying in a hospital bed in Oakland.

Lightroom Journal

Adobe has released an update to their Lightroom and Camera Raw software. More details from Lightroom Journal at the link above.

[via, TWIP Photo]