Sharing the wealth

I found a few cool links and things online today to which I thought I'd direct your attention.

First, Google has an "In-House Philosopher." I want that job. I found this out by listening to a TedTalk by Damon Horowitz. I like to listen to them during the job search-cover letter-resume writing process. You can find the talk here and find out more here.

Next, I found this amazing artist whose work you should check out. He makes art using data, digital technology, and crowdsourcing. Wikipedia says crowdsourcing is "the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to an undefined, large group of people or community (a 'crowd'), through an open call." The artist's name is Aaron Koblin.
His work is seriously amazing on both visual and conceptual aesthetic levels. Really. His bio says:

Aaron Koblin is an artist specializing in data and digital technologies. Aaron's work takes real-world and community generated data and uses it to reflect on cultural trends and the changing relationship between humans and technology. He received the National Science foundation's first place award for science visualization and is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. He made Radiohead's "House of Cards" video and two of his other music video collaborations have been Grammy-nominated. In 2010 Aaron was the Abramowitz Artist in Residence at MIT and currently leads the Data Arts Team in Google’s Creative Lab.

To find out why this post has a "sheep" tag, check out his TedTalk and website.

Beauty

Oh my gosh, this is just the most mesmerizing, calming piece of art --

Thought of You.

Music: The Weepies, The World Spins Madly On

Hurried tidbits

I've been wanting to post about a few things. Rather than individual posts, I suppose I'll put them all here. Rushing off for the afternoon to Boulder, so this has to be quick.

RTD Scramble
I saw the best thing when I was riding light rail this week. As I mentioned, I've committed to taking the light rail and bus (public transit and/or walking) as much as possible. It takes more time, but I really want to support and use public transit. Better for me, my community, the environment, etc. Anyway, picture this: three tracks, A - B - C. I'm on train B. Train C is waiting next to me with doors open. Train A pulls up and people rush off to get onto train C. However, my train, B is smack in the way. So, all of a sudden, tons of people scramble up the steps on the left side of B run through my train, scramble down then steps on the right side of B and run straight into train C. The B train shortcut? Tee hee hee. Everyone sort of raised an eyebrow when the stampede passed through our train. The doors closed and we went on our way.

Squeak Carnwath
My new favorite artist. I keep picking up boxes of cards and then realize they are the same artist, Squeak Carnwath. Besides the uber-cool name, she is an America artist (1947), still living, and teaching art in California. Check her out here.



Weather
Crazy Denver -- highs in the 60s today! Are you jealous east coast cold & snow people?

A few other topics that I can't tackle right now... what on earth is going on in the middle east with quasi-soon-to-be-revolution? It's amazing. Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon? Another topic: State of the Union Address. Nerdy me listened to the whole thing. And Paul Ryan's response (baaaaad).

Shabbat Shalom!

Hogar, dulce, hogar

Back in Boston! Yay! It feels good to be home. :) I got hugged and dropped off at the Bolt bus by wombmate #3 ... and picked up and hugged at South Station by wombmate #2. Lucky me!

Boston is beautiful, as always. Nothing -- nothing -- beats a night run in winter across the Mass. Ave. bridge, the skyline fading behind the snow falling around me. Exhilarating!

Tomorrow we head to the art museum with the 'rents. So excited! It's such a lovely museum, compared to a certain, shall we say, diorama-esque art museum back in Denver.

My Saturday of nothing

Okay, the bread recipe was just okay. I mean, it tasted good and all, but it wasn't what I expected. A little dry. Not too much texture. I'm going to try a few things differently next time (probably when I'm back in Denver because now I have so much bread to eat!). Changes include:

Dates instead of raisins.
Whole wheat flour and 7-grain mix instead of white flour.

...

Just got back into D.C. from Baltimore. Baltimore is cool! Why didn't anyone ever tell me that before? It's weird to think how my grandparents grew up there, my mom grew up there for awhile and went to college there. Even with such a strong family connection, I've only been there twice in my life, and both times were this summer.

There's something real about Baltimore. Everyone's got their own style thing going on. People wear what they want to wear, not the style that's shown in the window. I talked for an hour with a Baltimore native on the train from D.C. after I commented on his beautiful flowers. He was bringing them to his fiance. He was a huge black guy, probably about my age, who worked as a policeman and was beyond excited to tell me about how he had proposed to his girlfriend of four years last weekend. I was touched by how much it seemed like he loved her.

In Baltimore, people set up tables and with handmade signs on the steps outside their homes to make a quick buck: "Mini Chicken Box $1.99" or "Ice cold water $2." There are flashing blue lights to indicate bad drug corners and broken bottles on the sidewalks. There are stunning old buildings that have been renovated. There are stunning old buildings that have been left to their demise. I saw a bumper sticker in the window that said, "B-more against war." I loved that. It's a pun-y, bold statement and shows people care. There are farmers markets abound. Some streets sparkle from the broken blue and green glass that has been melted into the pavement and smoothed down over the years. Baltimore's gritty and lots of work needs to be done. But people seem to love the city even more for it. I'm pretty impressed.

I was visiting a friend who, incidentally, was house sitting a beautiful house with a pool and ridiculous kitchen. We hit up Artscape. Artscape is America's largest free arts festival. Lots of crafts, graphic tee-shirts, art, music, bad-for-you-but-tastes-good food. It was really nice vibe there (buena onda, como se dice) but so, so very hot. I bought a pretty mug. It's big, has a nice handle, lots of blues and greens in the glaze and a nice non-smooth texture to the touch. It looks just like the one in the middle of the first picture on the artists' website. I've been looking for a new perfect-coffee-mug for months now, so I hope this one lives up to the potential I saw in it.

I'm pooped. It's not dark yet and it's only 8:00 p.m., but I'm in bed. I plan to do some work on my paper and then crash. Hard.

Photo updates

I saw this sign a few weeks back and had to take a picture. I think it's hilarious.















Like many cities, Denver has a First Friday where galleries are open late with new exhibits for the month, free wine and snacks and live music. There's mostly bad art, but some of it is decent. I went on Friday and one of the galleries had a ribbon dancer (or whatever you call it) like those Cirque-du-Soleil people. Pretty cool. I love the contrast of the blue ribbon and the yellow/orange bright painting on the wall in the background.

Monday Musings

So, had a surprisingly somewhat-relaxing day working on my paper (though it's still not done and due in 11 hours), hanging out with Melanie and then taking a break to get a 4:00 p.m. mojito at the place that play really good salsa music. I also decided that I needed more than just the 2 pairs of running shorts I've been wearing for the past 2 years. And, I committed to the idea that I think it's okay to run in a skirt by buying my first official running skirt. I had reservations and it's way shorter than my running shorts (grr) but I ran in it tonight and love it!

I took Melanie to the airport, always sad, and now am having alone-time for the first time in awhile. Went for a run when I got back and it was good tonight. Felt quick and pretty light. I had a good mix on my iShuffle and it felt nice to run in the evening for once. I've been running morning (eeaaaarly) before the heat and before the craziness of the day. Tuesdays and Thursday I've been getting home at 10 p.m., so I obviously can't really run then. Anyway, time to finish writing my paper. Here's a parting picture I took in San Francisco and a poem I love.

Seeker Of Truth
e.e. cummings

seeker of truth

follow no path
all paths lead where

truth is here

a Photo a Day

I am sure there is a lot of hidden beauty here in Denver, so I want to be ready for it when I see it. To help, I'm trying to bring my camera around with my more often. I like how it puts me on watch, always looking around with a creative eye. It makes me pause and think for a second, "Huh, would that make a good photo?" or "Wow, that's so absurd." I'm training myself to look take another look, and then to look even closer. Here are some photos so far - nothing spectacular, but it's a start.

A full rainbow:



A summer thunderstorm leaving me in its wake:



This just struck me as ironic, simple, and profound all at once:



And, today, I saw a flutterbye - it even stayed in place while I took some photos. Look!:

How much is that baby cello in the window?

I went to Denver's First Friday last week at the Santa Fe art district. The galleries are open late with free wine and nibbles. Pretty decent people watching and as close to "culture" as I've found in Denver so far. I saw this cool cello mosaic in one of the galleries. Wow! It was so pretty, but I couldn't help feeling a little badly for the cello (it being all mosaic-ified, stuck with tiles and everything). I mean, the poor baby cello's career is over at just a half-size.

Naturally, I e-mailed my Diana-the-cellist to tell her all about it and she asked for a picture. So, the next day I biked back there and took a photo. The photo is a bit surreal and unintentionally "creative" because the sunny day made the background behind me reflect in the window almost as strongly as the actual schtuff in front of me.

Oh, and Diana said not to feel badly for baby cello because it probably likes getting all dressed up. And, sure, that makes sense because who doesn't like getting all snazzied up?



P.S. Price tag? $2,500 smacks. Sigh.