12 December 2007

Vinyl LP storage



It's time to move my 800+ record collection to the basement.  I've spent days of my life looking for decent storage and  finally found something that looks pretty good.  I'll reclaim a lot of shelf space for items that I really never use - like books.

UPDATE
So it turned out that these plastic-enforced boxes  are pretty awesome.  I can fit ~50 records per box and while they're not water-proof, they seem water-resistant.  The vendor is in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, so if I need more - and I did not buy enough - next time I can drive over and save the UPS fees.

27 July 2007

Celsius and Fahrenheit

I've changed my weather preferences on the web sites and apps that I check the weather on (my.yahoo.com, weather.com and my iphone) to show the temperature in Celsius. My original idea was to learn what Celsius really means, and it basically worked.

The exact conversion formula is to multiply the Celsius temperature by 9, divide the answer by 5, and add 32 to get the exact Fahrenheit measure.
An easier way to get an approximation is to double the Celsius reading and add 30, however that's still too complicated.
The easiest way is to follow my simple rule of thumb:
30's = Hot
20's = Warm
Teens = Cool
Below 10 = Cold

There are plenty of online tools, however I think it's easiest to Google "Convert 30 degrees Celsius to Fahrenheit" to get "30 degrees Celsius = 86 degrees Fahrenheit, which is where hot starts in my book.

UPDATE: A friend turned me on to this easy rhyme which I think would have been based on my simple rule, had it not been invented decades ago to teach British schoolchildren. It's even on a T-shirt from Go Metric:
100 is boiling
30 is HOT
20 is NICE
10 is COOL
0 is ICE

10 June 2007

Sweet Smell of Success


One of my top 10 movies, if only for the classic lines, great New York cinematography and wonderful acting by Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster. But what the hell does 'my right hand hasn't seen my left hand in 30 years' mean, anyway?

There's a great long article in Time Magazine of that details the events and people that ultimate inspired the movie.

MEMORABLE QUOTES from SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS
HUNSECKER (Burt Lancaster): "I'd hate to take a bite out of you. You're a cookie full of arsenic."
HUNSECKER (holding an unlit cigarette): "Match me, Sydney."
FALCO (Tony Curtis): "Watch me run a 50-yard dash with my legs cut off."
HUNSECKER: "You see that grin? It's part of his helpless act. He throws himself upon your mercy."
FALCO: "In brief, from now on the best of everything is good enough for me."
HUNSECKER: "What's this boy got that Susie likes?"
FALCO: "Integrity - acute, like indigestion."
STEVE (Martin Milner): "The next time you want information, don't scratch for it like a dog, ask for it like a man."
HUNSECKER: "You're dead, son, get yourself buried."
FALCO: "A press agent eats a columnist's dirt and is expected to call it manna."
HUNSECKER: "Sidney lives in moral twilight."
HUNSECKER: "President? My big toe would make a better president."
HUNSECKER: "My right hand hasn't seen my left hand in 30 years."
RITA (Barbara Nichols): "What am I, a bowl of fruit? A tangerine that peels in an instant?"
RITA: "Here's mud in your column."

FALCO: "You were interviewed?"
RITA: "In his apartment."
FALCO: "Where was his wife?"
RITA: "I don't know; it's a big apartment."

HUNSECKER: "With the simple flick of a switch, I could shut out the greedy murmur of little men."
FALCO: "Starting today, you can play marbles with his eyeballs."
STEVE: "Mr. Hunsecker, you've got more twists than a barrel of pretzels."
HUNSECKER: "I don't relish shooting a mosquito with an elephant gun."
FALCO: "Maybe I left my sense of humor in my other suit."
HUNSECKER: "Here's your head, what's your hurry?"
FALCO: "The cat's in the bag and the bag's in the river."
HUNSECKER: "I love this dirty town."
Compiled by Rob Nixon

01 June 2007

Richard Lloyd Redux


A few Richard Lloyd updates. He just played at Knitting Factory - you can download the show viat bittorrent from Dime. There's a wacky interview with him as well (here's the abbreviated version). Not sure if this is on the level but Richard guarantees that his will be 'a household name in a year.'

There's another crazy interview with him that's almost disturbing. It's worth the read all the way through; I think these are from the effect of staying invisible too long, to quote one of its comments.

31 May 2007

Google Street View...

Google posted a neat change to Google Maps that shows street level views of some city maps (Brooklyn included). The actual technology behind it is described briefly in this blog. Here are some example shots. Microsoft Maps offers a similar technology but I haven't used it yet.

24 May 2007

DVD packaging

DVD packaging really annoys me. It's unnecessarily large considering the CD-sized disc it contains. So I learned today (on a slashdot post) that 2 DVD cases take up exactly the same size as 1 VHS tape. This way retailers can use old displays and containers to hold DVDs. This makes perfect sense but is still wasteful.

Incredibly, there are apparently no places to recycle CD and DVD packaging - at least on an individual level. The discs themselves can be recycled (US and UK).

18 May 2007

Artwork by musicians


Brian Eno published his work 77 Million Paintings. It's a hardcover book plus DVD plus Flash web-site. Supposedly Mac and PC compatible and could be an interesting way to burn kilowatts on your fancy flatpanel TV. He's showing at a gallery in SFCA.

David Byrne
also published his Microsoft Powerpoint-based artworkMicrosoft Powerpoint artwork (though not online). He actually also does presentations in Powerpoint describing his artistic process. He's a big proponent of Internet radio and, in a presentation at SWSX last year, said that he tended to download pirated music due to DRM content restrictions. Some of his other artwork is displayed here.

Richard Lloyd is in town...

Television is playing a free, final (with this lineup) show in June, as Richard Lloyd is going to tour with his new band the Sufi Monkeys to promote Radiant Monkey, which he compares to Patti Smith's seminal Horses.

The final show conflicts with my favorite band Heartless Bastards (not current but they have been and will again) that same night. What do to?

16 May 2007

Gold record


The Voyager spacecraft carry a gold plated phonograph that's intended to be and audio and visual time capsule for extraterrestrials to enjoy. This was in the age before audio copy protection however they'll need an old turntable to play the 16RPM record.

Someone's even done a mash-up. Listen to more interesting, NASA-free mash-ups are here.

15 May 2007

Paintings by Art Frahm


Fans of classic pin-ups and ladies in distress should check out the work of Art Frahm. He helped popularize this particular take on women in trouble during the late-40's-50's. Bill Medcalf is amongst his less fetishist contemporaries. Without a room full of leering on-lookers and the bad dream, near-possibility of the situations, modern interpretations are much less charming.

You can view larger versions of Frahm's work or purchase prints.

14 May 2007

Illogical

UCLA has published their photography archives online. Goes back to 1920 and has tons of cool stuff. I love browsing old negatives even the half-faded ones with writing all over the edges. Here's a protest of the pending cancellation of Star Trek.

Anyway, there's awesome stuff here. Thanks UCLA librarians!

Current favorite band: Dan Deacon


One man bands always impress me. There's no one to really play off of and find motivation in besides the voices in your own head. For a while I really enjoyed Phillip Roebuck who performed one possessed show opening for Clem Snide and then sort of disappeared from NY.
Dan Deacon plays like a guy with no other options. Allison and I pogoed like 30 year olds at his show last week. Check out his web site or buy his latest disc.

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Brooklyn, New York, United States