Didn't go to Podcamp NYC this year, but I hope to next year. Meanwhile, Podcamp Boston is this weekend. Organizer Chris Penn promises it will be awesome. If you can't be there, follow along on the Twitter feed.]]> http://www.macsite.org/weblog/2008/07/#000218 http://www.macsite.org/weblog/2008/07/#000218 tech Boston geek NYC Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:10:06 -0500 ]]> http://www.macsite.org/weblog/2008/07/#000387 http://www.macsite.org/weblog/2008/07/#000387 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:47:31 -0500

I've always been a reader, and in the last year or so, I've had more time to read than ever before. Mostly, it's almost a furtive thing. Sneaking in a few magazine pages while on the subway, reading a chapter while waiting for a restaurant meal.

Books are chosen based on size, and how heavy they'll be to lug around. The heaviest so far has been "The Tender Bar" by Pulitzer Prize-winner JR Moehringer.

The swiftest read in recent weeks was "More Tales of the City" by Armistead Maupin. It's easy to tell Maupin's a playwright. The chapters were very short and mostly in dialog.

Next up:

• It feels like time to revisit Orson Scott Card's masterpiece, "Ender's Game."
• An advance copy of "Simplexity" by Jeffrey Kluger just landed in my mailbox.
• Which reminds me, I have an advance copy of "Mistress of the Art of Death"by Ariana Franklin that I need to finish.
• And finally, as inspiration to get back out and explore, "City Secrets: New York City" and "The Historic Shops & Restaurants of New York" are coming back off the shelf.

Photo by Austin Tolin

On one avenue, fire engines scream at the gridlock, demanding to be let through to douse a burning building and snatch the people trapped in it.

Farther south, a battalion of taxi drivers slams their horns in frustration as police reroute all cars that dare approach with late evening revelers beginning a night out.

Everywhere people venture forth looking for the R&R the angry sun, the smothering humidity stole from them during the day.

The evening begins at Highline in the no longer fashionable but still-frequented Meatpacking District. Highline, with its ground and lower levels, is described as a "Cornell bar." (If you can't get into Harvard, Yale or Princeton, you go to Cornell.)

From there, it takes a detour to Alphabet City before going to "some place near the bridge" on the Lower East Side. The names no longer matter. What's important is the scene.

But the scene tonight is slightly off kilter. On the first night after the first day of what will be an extended heat wave, DJs are off their groove and the bartenders are off their mark. One drink served tastes like too-sweet cough syrup laced with the bitter kick of bile, warning of what's to come.

"You'll be sick if you finish that."

"No wounded soldiers."

Machismo and indifference at its finest.

By 3:30 in the morning, the river of traffic has reversed its flow, running uptown instead of down and having a much easier time of it.

The magic hour approaches...

Play "Don't Be Cruel"
by Elvis Presley

I watched a soundstage blaze devour nearly two city blocks worth of the Universal Studios backlot today. It was hard being so far away from the place where I'd spent my first significant gig in Los Angeles.

I found myself trying to identify the buildings, trying to remember every street and every highlight of the tour I used to give seven times a day, up to five days a week (it was a part-time job).

As the fire broke out, there was little information available online. I was tempted to call the fire station on the lot as I dug through my memory, trying desperately to recall the facts, routes and history I'd crammed into my head during tour guide training so many years ago.

Photos from the L.A. Fire Department Flickr feed.

It was no use. I helplessly watched the blaze take out facades I'd walked past and buildings I'd walked through. I worried that Stage 28, where Lon Chaney's "Phantom of the Opera" was filmed, and where my friends and I spent an evening as "atmosphere" for a Hollywood mogul's birthday party, might burn down too.

As futile as it might have been, and has maligned as the backlot might be, I couldn't help but think: I should have been there.

	Elvis Presley - Don't Be Cruel
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

A few weeks ago, 700 people gathered on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York to create an Improv Everywhere happening. The idea was to create a camera flash "wave" back and forth across the span. In theory, it should have worked. But the cold, rainy, noisy reality cause the project to morph just a bit.

Nevertheless, the edited version of the mission turned out pretty well. The full description of the project is on the website. As Improv Everywhere picks up notoriety — and as the weather gets better — these gigs are probably going to get bigger.

It's part of my procrastination strategy. Really, I should be writing, shooting, recording and studying, but hey, there's always Sunday.

There is a 6 o'clock deadline today for dinner with a dozen strangers, but give me two hours and there'll be no problems. Fortunately, I'm only responsible for appetizers.

So as has become my Saturday morning habit, I've been doing some computer reading. Which brings me back to "Iron Man" and this fantastic review by Mark Kermode from BBC Radio 5:

It's known informally as "The Last Lecture" — and in this case, it's almost literal. Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006. In August last year, his doctors told him his situation was terminal and estimated six more months of good health. Since then, he's been fighting a battle against time.

A devoted husband and father of three young children, he has said he wanted to focus on making the most of what's left of his life by focusing on his wife and his kids. Meanwhile, because of an outpouring of public interest and support, he has chronicled his progress.

I sometimes have to wonder how it is that fate often steals away the good while they have so much potential, and how it is that those people are able to burn more brightly when life slips away from them.

In any case, here's the video.

To banish the gloom, I went out for a walk and then sat down to read. A duo on guitar and muted trumpet were playing jazz at 'wichcraft near NYU. The location didn't seem right but the guys strung together standards that got my mind and ear wandering between sets.

Running through my head were some of my favorite versions of Tin Pan Alley hits and crooner classics: "Witchcraft" by Frank Sinatra, "Soon" by Sammy Davis Jr., and probably the hottest 90 seconds in a movie about down and out piano bar players, Michelle Pfeiffer singing "More Than You Know."

The New York that inspired so many of these songs is long gone now, but the music lives on.

Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald perform the complete piece, written by Vincent Youmans, with lyrics by Billy Rose and Edward Eliscu for the musical "Great Day!"

While it seems overblown, there's still some cool stuff surrounding it. Like this idea, from New York ad agency Johannes Leonardo: a choir from one country sings the national anthem of another.

There are four films, but a French choir singing the U.S. national anthem resonated most with me. It works on so many levels.

And check out the better-looking QuickTime version.

But why the sentiment? I spent many years in the enclave where the game took place. It was a little bit of suburban hell in paradise. The Goodyear Blimp that flew over the game once carried me and a friend on a private tour high over the South Bay — the "charter member" club card is faded now, but I still have it, complete with the pilot's signature; the memory of that golden afternoon remains vivid.

But most of all, the video reminds me of the immense volume of good intention among Angelenos that can make people happy when the doers don't flake out.

So here it is: the mission known as "Best Game Ever."