Adrian’s Microblog

This is one of my favorite songs, and James Smith on Britain’s Got Talent in 2014 sang it in a fresh new way that’s captivating – check it out!

A humorous reminder that “design” can go too far - it’s not an end in itself. :)Or as Papa Francis said, “It is not enough to seek the beauty of design. More precious still is the service we offer to another kind of beauty: people’s quality of life, their adaptation to the environment, encounter and mutual assistance.” LS 150.

“Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do what we ought.” -Lord Acton

Markdown Primer

Pretty amazing to watch this SpaceX rocket land on such a small platform in the water – quite an engineering feat, and kudos for them sticking to it even through failures.

When tablets first came out, everyone was wondering if they could ditch their laptop, but it was a new category of device, not a replacement. Until now…Microsoft Surface Pro pulled ahead of the iPad in providing laptop functionality in a tablet form, and giving customers what they wanted. I think Apple awoke to this late, and is working to regain ground, but this latest release shows they’ve picked up the challenge. And from all appearances, are delivering magnificently. The keyboard design is better (closer to the screen), the screen is better (follows same color schema as movie industry), the Apple Pencil is unrivaled in degree of interaction, and it’s actually more powerful than most laptops on the market.I think this’ll definitely be my next upgrade, and maybe even sell my existing laptop to migrate to this form factor.In any event, check out the video describing the new experience, and what Apple is calling “an uncompromising vision of personal computing for the modern world”. I think I agree.

Finding a good series to watch on Amazon Prime is a great reward, Over the last couple years, here are ones I’ve enjoyed, and hope you might too:–Covert Affairs: CIA agent–Warehouse 13–Suits–Band of Brothers

austinkleon:

John Cage, Silence: Lectures and Writings A good deal of this book is nonsense, which I think Cage himself knew (“I don’t give these lectures to surprise people, but out of a need for poetry.”), but then again, I like nonsense, especially if it’s the right kind of nonsense. (Kay Ryan once said “nonsense is extremely close to poetry… nonsense operates by rules.”) And, in fact, like his music, a lot of these lectures were composed with rules, Cage using chance operations to compose them. (“I have nothing to say / and I am saying it / that is poetry.”) The book begins with this wonderful thought: Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating.   Those three sentences alone could change your life. (Read them again.) Or this one: It is not irritating to be where one is / only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else. This sentence, too: We have eyes as well as ears, and it is our business while we are alive to use them. Here’s his story of visiting a “sound-proof” chamber: There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot. For certain engineering purposes, it is desirable to have as silent a situation as possible. Such a room is called an anechoic chamber, its six walls made of special material, a room without echoes. I entered one at Harvard University several years ago and heard two sounds, one high and one low. When I described them to the engineer in charge, he informed me that the high one was my nervous system in operation, the low one my blood in circulation. Until I die there will be sounds. And they will continue following my death. One need not fear about the future of music. Cage sprinkled the book with little stories and Zen parables, “playing the function that odd bits of information play at the ends of columns in a small-town newspaper.” These are my favorite parts of the book. Here’s one: After a long and arduous journey a young Japanese man arrived deep in a forest where the teacher or his choice was living in a small house he had made. When the student arrived, the teacher was sweeping up fallen leaves. Greeting his master, the young man received no greeting in return. And to all his questions, there were no replies. Realizing there was nothing he could do to get the teacher’s attention, the student went to another part of the same forest and built himself a house. Years later, when he was sweeping up fallen leaves, he was enlightened. He then dropped everything, ran through the forest to his teacher, and said, “Thank you.” That’s another big lesson with Cage: if you want to hear something, you’ve gotta keep your mouth shut. If you keep your mouth shut, things will happen. Elsewhere, outside the book, he told a similar story about his own life: [O]ne day I got into [a cab] and the driver began talking a blue streak, accusing absolutely everyone of being wrong. You know he was full of irritation about everything, and I simply remained quiet. I did not answer his questions, I did not enter into a conversation, and very shortly the driver began changing his ideas and simply through my being silent he began, before I got out of the car, saying rather nice things about the world around him. Here’s another favorite of mine, about dumpster-diving: George Mantor had an iris garden, which he improved each year by throwing out the commoner varieties. One day his attention was called to another very fine iris garden. Jealously he made some inquiries. The garden, it turned out, belonged to the man who collected his garbage. A story about Arnold Schoenberg and his eraser: I was studying with Schoenberg one day as he was writing some counterpoint to show the way to do it, he used an eraser. And then while he was doing this he said, “This end of the pencil is just as important as the other end.” It’s a lot easier to “get” Cage when you know a little bit about Zen Buddhism. (A good book that explores this is Where The Heart Beats.) I like how much Cage talks about boredom: [T]he way to get ideas is to do something boring. For instance, composing in such a way that the process of composing is boring induces ideas. They fly into one’s head like birds. This is an idea he got straight from Zen: In Zen they say: If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, try it for eight, sixteen, thirty-two, and so on. Eventually one discovers that it’s not boring at all but very interesting. He said when your ears are “in connection with a mind that has nothing to do, that mind is free to enter into the act of listening, hearing each sound just as it is…” I like how he describes art as “a purposeful purposelessness or a purposeless play.”   This play, however, is an affirmation of life — not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we’re living, which is so excellent once one gets one’s mind and one’s desires out of its way and lets it act of its own accord. His fascination with the I Ching and chance operations led him to emphasize that not-knowing is one of the keys to making art.  when I am not working I sometimes think I know something, but when I am working, it is quite clear that I know nothing He quotes Robert Rauschenberg: I am trying to check my habits of seeing, to counter them for the sake of greater freshness. I am trying to be unfamiliar with what I’m doing. And: There is a reduction of the ego that is essential to doing the work: Some more parables. About freedom:

Artists talk a lot about freedom. So, recalling the expression “free as a bird,” Morton Feldman went to a park one day and spent some time watching our feathered friends. When he came back, he said, “You know? They’re not free: they’re fighting over bits of food.” On standing in line: Standing in line, Max Jacob said, gives one the opportunity to practice patience. Probably not for everyone, but a very interesting read. Filed under: my reading year 2016

I’ve thought about doing this before, but never actually did. I’m glad someone did though, and really enjoyed hearing his tale.James Veitch, sharing what happens, when you reply to spam. Enjoy. :)

I think I’ve linked to this show before, but recently returned to their site to watch more episodes – one of my favorites: Jerry’s meet up with Steve Martin. Steve is just so classic, and it’s obvious they enjoy their time together.There’s other good episodes too, like the one with Sebastian Maniscalco. And the one with President Barack Obama is interesting for its own reasons.Watching the Steve Martin episode also made me want to buy the autobiography he wrote about the period he was doing stand up comedy, called Born Standing Up. I imagine (and the reviews confirm), the wit, insight, and honesty would be worth the read. Perhaps for this summer - for now, there’s the video. ;)

Okay, so I’ve started something I’ve tried various attempts at, and so far really like how’s it working out – I purchased Day One v2 for iOS a week ago, and have used it for my nightly reflection, pinning memory photos, capturing impromptu thoughts, and others. As they say with cameras, the best journal is the one you have with you. :)Day One v2 has Markdown ability (which I’m starting to learn more), can show you entries by map location, can search text and/or filter by tags, and has a clean and pretty UI, among other features. There’s a separate companion Mac app too, for those who prefer a different interface.If you think you may like digital journaling, I highly encourage you to check it out.

austinkleon:

People often ask me to recommend books on drawing.  My favorite drawing book is Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book: Make a World:  It’s a collage-like approach to drawing: if you can draw simple shapes, you can use them to create pictures. Here’s an example of one of the spreads: The other classic book I might recommend is Betty Edwards’ Drawing On The Right Side of the Brain: The book features several gems, like her “upside-down” exercise, which recommends copying drawings upside-down: 

Familiar things do not look the same upside down. We automatically assign a top, bottom, and sides to the things we perceive, and we expect to see things oriented in the usual way - that is, the right side up. For, in upright orientation, we can recognize familiar things, name them, and categorize them by matching what we see with our stored memories and concepts. When an image is upside down, the visual cues don’t match. The message is strange, and the brain becomes confused.

These are, of course, not the ONLY books about drawing, but I think the two together will give you two complimentary approaches.  Feel free to share with me your favorites. Filed under: drawing

The Emberley’s book looks especially good.

Sara Bareilles covers Elton John’s, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.This is such a powerful performance.Part of many that were featured in American Voices with Renee Fleming.

Ben Rector performs ‘Brand New’ on TODAY

And now for one of my favorite Pebble apps: “Forecast Weather App” by Nate Bean.Aside from standard weather stuff, this one actually has some added features that I find really helpful, like:–”Feels like” temperature: Comes in handy for both summer and winter. (Indicated next to letter “F” on screen.)–Sunrise/sunset: Great for when you’re traveling. Also great for the photographer in me.–Temperature trend and precipitation trend. See when that temperature is going to start to turn, and at what point the rain may show up.–3-day trend, and 5-day forecast. Helpful look ahead.I really like this app when I want to answer more than the question of “what’s the temp and is it raining”? I can see what I should actually wear based on how it feels outside, and what my chances are of getting in an adventure before precipitation hits that day.Check it, and the Pebble, out! :)

Timeline for Classic Pebbles Arrived!Thanks Pebble for doing this – it breathes even newer life into my Pebble Steel, and I’m continually impressed with y’all for your design approach and spirit of fun! Happy Pebbling! :)

Bonavita 1-Liter Variable Temperature Digital Electric Gooseneck KettleApparently 205 degrees is the right temperature for coffee. And while boiling is good for black teas, other teas prefer 165 to 190.Might have to give a kettle like this a try.

Evernote and the Brain: Designing Creativity Workflows - Evernote Blog

I embrace the idea that there’s a new demystification process going on between the artist and the audience…. I’d like to see what the new construction is between artist and audience. There is a breakdown personified by the rave culture of the last few years, where the audience is at least as important as whoever is playing at the rave. It’s almost like the artist is to accompany the audience and what the audience are doing. And that feeling is very much permeating music. And permeating the internet…. I don’t think we’ve even seen the tip of the iceberg. I think the potential of what the internet is going to do to society, both good and bad, is unimaginable. I think we’re actually on the cusp of something exhilarating and terrifying…. It’s an alien life form. Is there Life on Mars? Yes, it’s just landed here…. It’s going to crush our idea of what mediums are all about. It’s happening in every form…. The breakthroughs of the early part of the century, with people like [Marcel] Duchamp, they were so prescient in what they were doing and putting down. The idea that the piece of work is not finished until the audience come to it and add their own interpretation and what the piece of art is about is the grey space in the middle. That grey space in the middle is what 21st century is gonna be about. —

David Bowie talking about the internet… in 1999 (via austinkleon)

These does seem important for understanding the Internet in general.

dannielle:

offbeatorbit:

“I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’ Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”

-Martin Luther King, Jr. | Letter from Birmingham Jail 

Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

A good reminder for us all. (And what a mastery of words.)