Does this spell the death of the blue-haired docent?!?!?

With Irreverence and an iPod, Recreating the Museum Tour. The rise of podcasting is now enabling museumgoers to concoct their own unofficial audio guides and tours. By By RANDY KENNEDY. [NYT > Arts]

10:18:52 PM    

Bent, Not Broken, THE DEBUT CD BY MAGGIE OSTERBERG.
(click to order your copy)

Back cover:

Booklet:

Booklet back cover:


4:26:37 PM     leave/read comments []

Continuing the stroll through my archives:

Click Scooter to make her BiG.

Same goes for Bob here.

3:18:46 PM     leave/read comments []

You can click on the bottom one and make it BiG.

3:03:03 PM     leave/read comments []

Which Bob Dylan song are you? Like a Rolling Stone

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

10:52:02 PM     leave/read comments []

Cat and Girl comic on modern art. David Pescovitz: Cat and Girl saddle up to the bar for a comic send-up of contemporary/avant-garde art called "Where is the Little Andres Serranos Room?" Link (Thanks, Professor Cupcake!)

[Boing Boing]

4:17:29 PM    

R.I.P. Smiley the Jumping Spider.

Smiley, a black, silver and white jumping spider was found dead in his Lincoln, Nebraska home this morning, next to the red wastebasket that sat under the desk he called his own. A friendly and outgoing spider, he would often stop and wave at his neighbors while going about his daily rounds of hunting and resting. Smiley, so named for the face-like pattern on his abdomen, is survived by his human, Margaret Osterberg and his two cats, Bob and Scooter, all of Lincoln, Nebraska.

Private services were held this afternoon in his backyard, where he was laid to rest among a stand of sunflowers. May the black heart of their blossoms always remind us of him and his unflagging arachnid good cheer.

Goodbye, Smiley. I'll miss you, but won't forget you.

3:48:25 PM     leave/read comments []

I dreamed that I was walking down a Minneapolis sidewalk and ran into Steve Bransteg, the other guitar player in my guitar teacher's band, Figures. He somehow recognized me, despite my transition and twenty years, and I followed him back to his house where we hung out and got drunk. I was being slightly flirty with him and he got angry with me, telling me:

"Look, you're a fat chick. A big gross fat chick who used to be a guy. You're the mothfucking world series of gross and Jeff (my guitar teacher back when I was in art school) still thinks you're a shitty wannabe guitar player who should just put the damn thing down. Now get the fuck out of my house before I call the police, you disgusting fat fuck!"

Then I woke up.

7:49:04 PM     leave/read comments []

Yes, from the fine folks who brought you the "Man Date," comes, surprise, surprise, a new trend! Too bad it only took 'em a year to catch on and that they got a bunch of stuff wrong. (Like how lots of folks, like yours truly, use "real instruments" with GarageBand all the time.) But hey, better late than never, even if they neglected to mention the best GarageBand site on the web, MacIdol!

So Long, Garage Jammers. Nowadays Laptops Rock.. Millions of people [~] trained musicians and amateurs alike [~] are using powerful laptop tools to produce music that once might have wailed out of a garage. By By DAVID CARR. [NYT > Arts]

Here's a real hog of a mistake:

The revolution is still in its nascent stage and has its limits. It is, for instance, much easier to make a synth-based dance track than an off-the-hook rock song, perhaps because there is still no great digital substitute for the bent string of a Fender Stratocaster.

Dude, you want to hear a Fender Stratocaster? Check out my built-with-GarageBand-and-guitars song:

"Mystery Turtle"

The critics rave!

"Maggie's unique vocal styling and sweltering guitarwork make this an eye-closing, head bouncer i cannot resist. it may be weird, but it's infectious!"- Mark, independent Mac musician and main member of Me & Boris The Bull

"Mystery Turtle kicks so much ass, its feet must smell like donkeybutt!"- Austin Swinburn

Guitars, Laptops, Networks. Yeah, baby.

9:39:19 PM     leave/read comments []

The newest resident of Scooter Sound Studio, a jumping spider:

It was cool how when I went to look at the little guy, he actually looked back at me and waved a front leg in my direction. Jumping spiders are visual hunters, with color vision that rivals humans' and birds' of prey and they've got a pair of big eyes right out in front.

My spider is about as big as my thumbnail and is hanging out on my windowsill.

Jumping spider info.

These are my favorite spiders. When you have attracted their attention, they follow you with their big eyes. They are friendly little creatures that always like to jump on your camera or your fingers.

Their large eyes give them excellent eyesight. As most spiders they also have four pairs of eyes. Two large ones in de middle and two small ones are looking forward. Above the front row is a second row of two tiny eyes and behind these there is a set of two large eyes looking upward. All these eyes give them a 360-degree eyesight. Spiders have singular eyes like mammals, unlike the insects that have compound eyes. The eyes can move out or inwards for focusing and they can turn up and down and left and right. The spider can also turn its carapace (breast) more than 45 degrees to look around.

Prey can be noticed from a distance of about 30 - 40 cm. At a distance of 20 cm the spider turns its body so that the two front eyes points to the insect. The muscles in the eye focus the eye on the prey and the eye moves around their optical axis. In this way the spiders scans the object like a modern scanner. The effect is extraordinary. The eyesight is enhanced like a zoom lens and it is capable to adjust its looking angle from 10 to 60 degrees. In experiments it was shown that the spider is capable to distinct dangerous insects and prey. The eyes are also capable to see color. After the object is recognized as eatable the spider carefully moves towards its victim.

I like how its abdomen looks like a smiling human face. It reminds me of the "samurai face" crabs of Japan that have a shell that looks like the face of a man.

2:05:53 PM     leave/read comments []