Don’t You Know that I Can See

You have to click play before you can proceed.

Generally, I am a strong proponent of knocking down walls and tossing the gatekeepers out on their selective ears. Remember how much we used to care about who linked to whom? And sometime before that, I actually cared about the NBA and thought soccer was boring. That was all wrong.

Like much of what one reads in the so-called press these days. Now that the newspapers have been killed (generally good) and most content has been drug to free, anyone with a MacBook and an internet account can be a journalist. Or at least portray one of the internet. Sort of like I’m doing now.

That means more people competing for the same number of eyeballs, which results in more and more extreme stories, marketing and editing. This is math, inevitable. Which means you have some people who couldn’t write their way out of a wet paper bag hammering out half-baked and overly dramatic headlines. Link bait is the new journalism. Long live BuzzFeed.

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Add to the mix some extreme polarization between ideologies, and you have a constant stream of bullshit that either pisses you off or reinforces what your preferred plutocrat has told you you already believe. It’s a hot mess.

I was off the grid for WWDC this year. When I read some of the recaps, it seemed like a very underwhelming event. Macworld has a great recap of the rush to fail. I was disappointed.

Until I watched the video of the keynote. And realized that, while no new hardware was announced (it is, after all, a developer‘s conference), Apple announced some things that are not only awesome but destined to materially improve mobile computing. In other words, it was very impressive. Something I would never have known based on the news reports.

See for yourself.

Baby, No One’s Doing Fine

When I listen to a new song the first time, and without even listening to the words carefully, I find myself getting wistful or misty-eyed, I know I have found something special.

That happened a while ago, via The Loft on XM Radio.

Fire Mountain, the pride of Troy, Alabama. After listening to Doing Fine about 25 times, I went to Spotify, and listened to the rest of their excellent new record, All Dies Down. Music like this is why I have ears. Wonderful. Highly recommended.

Amazon link
iTunes link
Bandcamp link

Killing Elephants is for Losers

“What kind of a person looks upon the world’s largest land animal — a beast that mourns its dead and lives to retirement age and can distinguish the voice of its enemies—and instead of saying “Wow!”; says something like “Where’s my gun?”

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I dislike litterbugs and big game hunters with the power of a thousand suns. Nothing, and I mean nothing, can redeem someone who tosses their trash out of a car window- this happens all the time on the road in front of our farm- or goes to Africa to kill majestic, and often threatened or endangered, animals.

I haven’t read GQ since the 80’s, but I saw a link to what turned out to be a well-written and thought-provoking story about an elephant hunt.

Part of the reason I am so vehemently against big game hunting is because I am a gun person and a hunter. But much like religion, I have become hesitant to mention my affinity because I don’t want to be associated with the losers who kill lions and tigers and whatnot any more than I want to be associated with the haters who use religion to further their right-wing agendas.

I admit to being confused by the fact that countries that allow legal hunting have more elephants than those that don’t. And it’s interesting that the World Wildlife Fund at least tolerates regulated elephant hunting.

But here’s one thing I’m sure about. If you have enough money to hunt and kill an elephant, you have enough money not to.

GoodSongs: Feelin’ Alright?

No one covers a song like Joe Cocker.

Leon Russell on guitar. Yep, guitar.

Feelin’ alright?
Not feelin’ too good myself
Feelin’ alright?
Not feelin’ too good myself.

More.

New Chuck Brown Record

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Chuck Brown has released a new record, entitled A Flower in Winter. Chuck and I have cowritten numerous songs over the years, and two of them are on the new record.

Makris and Letter from Molly join 10 other songs on a record Chuck describes as “songs of yearning, love, devotion and loss. Melodic pop music tinged with country, jazz and blues influences.”

You can listen to the songs at NoiseTrade.

Hello Stranger

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While I’m talking about women I admire, let’s talk about Emmylou. I can’t think of another person who has put more great music into my music collection.

Yep, that’s Ricky Skaggs.

It doesn’t get much better than this.

Tonight, My Kids are Going to Learn About Carolyn Porco

Carolyn (at right) re-enacting the famous Beatles photograph at Abbey Road with the other members of the Cassini Imaging Team. — Carolyn Porco (at right) re-enacting the famous Beatles photograph at Abbey Road with the other members of the Cassini Imaging Team.

I have two daughters, both of them interested in science. I like to show them examples of how ordinary people can do amazing things, just by following their passion. Carolyn Porco is an amazing, brilliant and delightful example of that. I’m tempted to call her the embodiment of girl power, but that would be selling her short. She’s an ambassador for the power of finding and pursuing your passion. Ask yourself this. How many people talk about their job with this sort of excitement? How many people can hold your attention like this?

Not many.

Kids, I hope one day you can look back and tell a similar story of how you discovered your passion, chased it hard and made a positive difference.

At the end of the day, that’s all that matters.

(via io9)

Evening Reading: 4/22/14

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Here’s a great read on the life and abandonment of AIM. Here’s my take on instant messaging, from the day before Google Talk was released, in 2005.

Apple (or someone) really needs to come up with a reverse-lookup phone book. The majority of calls I get at home are from suspicious numbers. Google used to do it with a simple phone number search, but some Chicken Littles whined about privacy so Google removed most of the functionality. Maybe Truecaller is the answer. Maybe. The taking a screenshot thing seems burdensome.

The Atlantic (love it) is streaming the new Old 97’s record, which will be out at the end of this month. Here’s the title track.

Who Originally Said “I’m Not A Doctor, But I Play One on TV“? I watched the show back then, and still didn’t remember.

The reason people hate airlines, and especially United, is because the gate attendants simply aren’t always nice. I was on my way to Dallas last week and got to the airport early. I walked up to the departure gate as an earlier flight was leaving and asked if I could get on that fight. Not one of the three ladies behind the (not at all busy) desk looked at me or acknowledged my inquiry. I thought maybe they didn’t hear me, so in a minute or so I asked again, nicely. Nothing. Eventually, one of them started typing away on her computer. A few minutes later, she finally looked at me and said she’d put me on standby. All I needed was a glance and some sort of response (yes, no, maybe) to be satisfied. What I got was the sense that I was bothering them.

I was relatively late to the Oxford comma. But I generally follow that approach now.

Fortran, FTW. Fortran was the first programming language I (sort of) learned. I thought it was a lot of work for a small reward. Sort of like blogging.

This is exactly why I have never acted on my recurring urge to switch to a standing desk.

Yeah, I’m thinking Facebook’s Paper app is on the Google+ trajectory of use adoption. I tried it. I deleted it.

Not recommended: Three times I have tried to use an Eye-Fi card. Three times I have tossed them in the trashcan, irritated by the user-unfriendly, non-intuitive interface. There is no way I am going to go through that sort of hell again just to create more cloud space, when Google and Amazon( AWS) are almost giving it away.

They aren’t that hard to swat. If you have a fly swatter.

Harper Valley PTA-Fest

Harper Valley P.T.A., written by the great Tom T. Hall, is one of the best and most coverable songs ever.

First, the version by Jeannie C. Riley that made it famous. Yes, this is frickin’ awesome.

Up to now, my favorite covers have been this one by the wonderful Mary Jane Hooper.

And a mostly forgotten one by Syd Straw.

But there’s a new contender. Kelly Willis. Read about it at Twang Nation.

Sounds of Tech, Episode 3: All About the iPad

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Here’s Episode 3 of the Sounds of Tech (SOT) podcast. Tech talk for grownups, with some fantastic music thrown in for good measure. Let’s see how we can use tech to improve our lives, save us money and make us more productive.

Today’s show will help you figure out what apps to put front and center on your iPad and how to arrange them for maximum efficiency.