I’ve been coming across info lately about videoblogging. Cool! I’m going to try Ant as my program to subscribe to and download video:
And “mefeedia” allows you to tag video (just like Flickr). Cool!
Here’s my del.icio.us tag for videoblogs: http://del.icio.us/nic221/videoblogs
Check out Google maps combined with Craigslist for housing searches:
http://www.paulrademacher.com/housing/
This is really cool. You can see all the listings in Craigslist on the map and immediately get a visual idea of where they are as you are browsing through the listings. This is great!
I’m working with the NEASIST Program Committee on our spring program about various new technolgies that libraries are experimenting with. Just finished a bibliography for the event. And we have a blog. I just love all this stuff: rss, syndication, podcasting, social bookmarking, etc. I’ve been feeling so many “wows!” and “aha’s!” lately when I try all these new tools. It seems like we’re in a period of more intense and quick change (than usual) with Internet technologies these days. It’s fun!
Friday night David and I went to a free concert by the Boston Village Gamelan. If you’re not familiar with what a gamelan orchestra is, here’s the definition from “answers.com.”
gamelan: An Indonesian orchestra composed mainly of tuned percussion instruments such as bamboo xylophones, wooden or metal chimes, and gongs.
I heard them play once before at First Night a few years ago. This concert was more interesting than the one I remember because it included singing. What was really fun was watching a group of 4 men seated in the back who sang and clapped rhythms for certain sections and a young boy (maybe 6 years old) who sang and clapped with them. He was good and obviously having such a good time!
Also there were quite a few kids in the audience and since it was fairly informal, they laid on the floor in the front and drew pictures or stared at the musicians (who were also sitting on the floor). It was fun looking around at the audience and listening to the music.
Here is a sound sample (not of this concert, but of some gamelan somewhere on the Internet): http://alek.zipzap.ch/gamelan/s/jawa_sm.wav
Yesterday, Daria and I did our first kayak of the season. The weather was so perfect! It felt so warm (70!) after freezing in the 40s the day before. At Charles River Canoe and Kayak you can rent a double kayak for $15 per hour. So we did that for a couple of hours. It’s a really fun way to get out in nature and get a bit of exercise. What does this have to do with gadgets? Nothing… except that it’s good for a gadget freak (like me) to get out from behind the computer and get a bit of fresh air and exercise!
Last night I went with a group of friends to see a play written by Pat Gabridge (my friend and coworker’s husband) called Blinders. It’s a political satire about the “scientific” discovery of 2 supposedly identical human beings and the lone reporter who sees that they aren’t really identical. It’s sort of an Emporer’s New Clothes theme, and very timely, even though it was written a while back (1997 or 98?). I thought of the corporate media and how so many lies are portrayed as truth with everyone jumping on the bandwagon of what’s popular. When chatting with Pat after the play he mentioned that he thought at the time he wrote it that it would be less relevant in the future, but instead it’s become more relevant. (sadly) It touches upon everything from presidential debates, to the pope, to believing in your own vision in a time of mass brainwashing. I highly recommend it! It’s at the Boston Playwright’s Theatre…. Out of the Blue Theatre Company.
Tonight I went to a wonderful concert by the “radical vocal trio” called “Charming Hostess.” I was intrigued, because I love a capella singing, and I sometimes miss the old days when I used to do a lot of choral singing myself. They were excellent, combining rhythmic breathing, clapping, tapping, and sounds, with very tight harmonies from Eastern Europe and the Balkans, mostly. You can hear some samples on their web site…. but the songs they did tonight were actually much better than those samples.
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