Art/Design: Better Wall

This is a great idea - Better Wall - recycle vinyl banners from museums all over the world and sell it to grace your home.

Technology: Collaboration for the masses

The democratizing power of the web - Web Content by and for the Masses - an article from today's New York Times.

Books/Poetry: What I am reading

Just bought C.K. Williams' - The Singing and My Alexandria by Mark Doty
Next on the list is Marie Howe's - The Thief
Recently finished Naomi Shihab Nye's - Red Suitcase and Atlantis by Mark Doty
Also finally finished Derek Walcott's - Omeros

Books: Going Going

Naomi Shihab Nye was at Book People today to read from her new novel for teens - Going Going. It is about Florrie who starts a movement in her family and high school to support local stores. I hope many teens read it and absorb the message. Enough Big Box stores - the local, independent, unique stores need our support. Or each city in the US will look like other cities - nothing distinctive - just a bunch of similar looking stip malls and bix box stores. Yuk!!
By the way - Book People won the Publishers Weekly's Best U.S. Bookseller award for 2005. Book People rocks - Austin is so lucky.

Movies: Howl's Moving Castle

Amazing Japanense animation - Howl's Moving Castle - by Miyazaki. He also did Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away.

Art: Public art in Austin

An article in today's Austin American Statesman - Catch the Green Wave - about public art in Austin. It mentions Heather's Cracks in the Pavement project.

IMG_0329, originally uploaded by Shrez.

Street art on boarded up Texaco on MLK and Guad. Austin, March 2005.

Music: New CD - Grand National

Grand National: Kicking the National Habit - Brit band; read about them on pitchfork last year, but have not been released in the US yet. Great catchy melodies and 80s sounding stuff.

Music: Festival Hill opening concert

Diane and I went to Festival Hill for the opening orchestral concert. The concert hall is beautiful; the sound is great. I don't know enough about classical music to understand and appreciate it, so my attention flagged at the concert. It was an enjoyable evening nonetheless. I will return.
W.A. Mozart, Symphony No. 41 in C, K.551 (Jupiter)
Robert Schumann, Symphony No. 3 in E-flat, Op. 97 (Rhenish)
Texas Festival Orchestra conducted by Heiichiro Ohyama

Music: New CDs - Coldplay and Secret Machines

Coldplay - X&Y: To borrow from a recent Pitchfork review - there is some art that you enjoy and some that you admire, but it is rare when you both enjoy and admire a work of art. I both enjoyed and admired Colplay's first album. This album is good - not great. Nothing significant acheived, but a good listen nonetheless.
Secret Machines - The Road Leads Where It's Led: New EP. Still have not given it the requisite three listens - so the jury is still out on this one. Funny that they have Led in the album title. Some of the songs are very Lep Zeppish.

IMG_0351, originally uploaded by Shrez.

Downtown Austin. April 2005.

Technology: Google Map Hacks

Report in the Statesman on how some are using Google maps to illustrate information. Ed Tufte would be pleased.

Quotes: Freedom and prudence

I went to San Antonio yesterday to get fingerprints taken for my citizenship application. In another 6 to 9 months, I will be an amairikun. I am very excited about it.

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence to practice neither. -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)

Art: Renga: regeneration

Peter is working on this project - Renga: regeneration - with Chris Taylor and others.

Technology: Essential Tools for Web Designers

Essential bookmarks for web designers and developers.
Found this here along with two recommended books that I might get: Web Design on a Shoestring and The Art of Looking Sideways

Design: North Sydney Olympic Pool

This is where Theresa will be swimming etc. when Tim and her are in Sydney. What a gorgeous place!

Technology: Barks Are Local; Meows Are Global

Bzzzspeek is site devoted to onomatopoeia. To quote from today's NY Times article:
Bzzzpeek is brilliantly and simply designed. There is virtually no text. Most of the sounds come from children. Once you enter the site, you will see a light-blue frame decorated with 29 silhouettes, mostly of animals and vehicles: a bee, a horseback rider, a duck, an owl, a cuckoo clock, a train, a police car, a car horn, a frog and so on.
Click on one of those icons, say, the duck, and you'll see nine of them lined up, each one bearing a flag representing a country. (You get to a second page of ducks by clicking on the arrow.) Choose the duck of a certain nation, say the one with the British flag, and you'll hear how children there say "quack." Then it's on to the next duck.

Technology: Jakob Neilsen's Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design

Jakob Neilsen's Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design. This guru and pioneer of web usability has been sending out his Alertbox newsletter for 10 years now. This page is the most visited on his site.

Quotes: Running from yourself

You can out-distance that which is running after you, but not what is running inside you. -Rwandan Proverb

Art: PostSecret

PostSecret "is a piece of collaborative art." These postcard confessions are amazing!
Article in yesterday's NY Times.