video
Japan - The Strange Country
Japan-The Strange Country (English translated ver.) from Kenichi Tanaka on Vimeo.
This Is Informative, You Should Watch It of the Day: Graphic designer Kenichi Tanaka’s animated infographic “Japan — The Strange Country” covers everything you wanted to know about Japan, but were too busy warbling along to the Cowboy Bebop closing credits song to ask.
[discovered via thedailywhat who found it via feingut.]
Update 2: Looks like the video has been taken down. I found it (here)[www.youtube.com/watch though. Update: For some reason, Kenichi had to take down the English version of the video. It’s still available on YouTube here.
BumpTop for Mac
I wish the “piles” feature in BumpTop Mac would work for my real world desk. I’m not sure I’d use this application a lot since I try to keep my computer desktop clean. It would probably work best for someone like my wife, who seems to place every item on her desktop.
There’s also a Windows version available.
Paolo Nutini at the Fox Theater in Oakland
Paolo Nutini - Candy from Nikke Osterback on Vimeo.
This past weekend, we attended our first concert at the Fox Theater in Oakland. The theater opened earlier this year. It’s located down the street from The Paramount, a theater we have been to too often. There is no dedicated parking for the show, but there are several parking lots listed on their website. We easily parked in a lot just down the street.
We passed by The Den at the Fox, a lounge connected to the theater. They offer drinks and some food, but we didn’t have time to look into it there. When we entered the theater, an usher promptly greeted us. Our tickets were for loge seating. But the usher told us we could also access the standing general admissions area on the floor. If we had a Visa Signature card, we could be seated in the limited seating area on the first floor. We opted to take our seats in the lodge. The lodge seating is unusual. The seats are grouped in pairs, with ample space between the next coupled seats. We were in the first row of the lodge, our view partially blocked by the railing, but still a decent view of the performers. The layout of the Fox is very similar to the Warfield in San Francisco, but the Fox is quite larger.
We were seated during the middle of the opening act, Anya Marina. She was roaring through her set, rocking with her electric guitar. She was very crowd friendly, talking and often interacting with the crowd between songs. At one point she asked if the crowd was an “all ages” crowd because she wanted to explain the origin of a song she wrote. The actual meaning of the song could only be described with profanity, which she chose not to utter. Later in her performance, she noticed a Brazilian flag in the standing audience. She asked the pair of Brazilian girls who were holding the flag if it’s true they like anal sex - meaning if Brazilian girls do. (I guess she never got the answer to the “all ages” question.) One of the most interesting songs she did was a cover of T.I.’s “You Can Have Whatever You Like”.
Paolo Nutini came out next. His set was a good mixture of songs from his first album, These Streets, and his latest album, Sunny Side Up. We were very familiar with songs from These Streets and were happy to hear them live. We haven’t listened to his latest album, so they rang as new to our ears and were harder to get into. But Paolo performs with such enthusiasm and passion. It would be difficult not to enjoy his performance.
The big letdown at the Fox was the sound. I don’t have golden ears, and rarely notice the bad sound at a concert, but from where we were sitting the vocals sounded muddled for both performers. At times it is hard to make out any lyrics at all, let alone the blend of instruments. I’m not sure if the sound sitting in the center lodge or on the floor would be better. I’ll need to go to another concert to find that out.
Overall it was a good first-time experience at The Fox. It looks as if several performances are coming up that we’d be interested in attending.
Getting Ready for HE
I’m watching videos and reading information on HE (High Efficiency) detergents. We just purchased a new HE washer - waiting for it to be delivered soon. You can watch two more videos on HE information here and here. We were hoping to get a front-loading washer, but space limitations forced us to get a top-loading HE washer. I think it’ll work out great.
Cal Academy of Sciences - My iMovie Clip
We visited the California Academy of Sciences last week. I cobbled all the videos we took, and a few photos, and edited them in iMovie 09. I then added a track using YouTube’s AudioSwap. You can also watch the video on Vimeo, but the soundtrack is different. Watch it in HD for best picture.
Latte Zoo - Or How To Make Cool Designs in a Latte
I remember individual baristas at Yahoo!’s coffee bars being able to make simple designs, such as a heart. But this is ridiculous! (discovered via rocketboom)
Oh Happy Day
However long you live, you will remember where you were when you heard that Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States.
Did you get to watch his acceptance speech? If you haven’t, it’s worth listening to the whole speech.
Losing Your Vision
The man speaks the truth - in 2000. He must have lost his vision (of the future) or his ability to articulate his stance on the issue. I’m guessing it’s both.
Cartman Eats His Shorts - A South Park Clip
NSFW due to language. Listen at your own risk.
I haven’t watched South Park for some time now. But it seems that they are still as funny as ever.
Clip no longer available
At about 5:30 PM yesterday Farrah heard a large crashing sound in our backyard. It seems the old lemon tree we have there decided to partially crash.
The other half of the tree is up and seems to be holding well. We trimmed a few branches from its side just in case.
Anyone need any lemons?