The San Francisco Chronicle has photos (oh, and an article too, of course) of the transformation of a section of Castro Street into how it looked in the 1970s. The movie "Milk" began filming there last week. Sean Penn portrays Harvey Milk in the early 1970s. Gus Van Sant is directing.
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An interesting idea for potted plants and cats: a wider drain plate underneath the plant allows you to provide water for cats (and maybe fun for birds too). I'm not sure about having a cat drink water that ran through plant dirt, especially if there were fertilizers used, but it's a cute idea.
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Once I made fun of a friend with a degree in electrical engineering when I noticed he was reading the book "How Computers Work." He replied in an effective defense that he was reading it to learn how people unfamiliar with computers thought about them and to improve his ability to describe technical details. I was reminded of that conversation when I read this article about Bay Area luthiers. It was frustrating for me to get through the analogies and reasons for why handmade instruments are better for professional musicians "who can perceive tiny differences in sound that hands-on construction can draw forth." Tiny differences they are not and it's usually not like buying a custom suit, but more like finding a perfect gown in a vintage shop. But overall the article does a great job of describing the importance of the craft of violin and guitar making to those who aren't familiar with it.
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Comcast is shuttering AZN Television, a channel designed to capture Asian American viewers. This article on the history of Comcast's ownership of the network reveals the machinations of how Comcast came to own AZN. In a tax-avoidance technique known as a "cash-rich split off," Comcast gave Liberty Media $1 billion of Liberty Media stock in exchange for the International Channel (the precursor to AZN) and 10% of the E! network. But first, Liberty Media put $545 million into the International Channel's holding subsidiary. So long as Comcast "engaged in the active conduct of a trade or commerce" for a year after the deal, it had that $545 million tax free in exchange for the stock. Coincidently or not, AZN TV was effectively pared back a few months after that year was up. Liberty Media also used the cash-rich split off to its advantage when it purchased the Atlanta Braves from Time-Warner.
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Monday, January 28, 2008

'Tis the season for skiing, so I shouldn't be surprised that I came across two related "lost ski trail" mentions. The N.Y. Times ran an article on Vermont's forgotten trails and lifts and it mentions the New England Lost Ski Area Project which I had learned about recently. There was a simpler time before the large ski resorts and snow-making. Downhill ski areas were mom & pop operations with a T-bar, maybe a simple lodge. Then there was a boom of places to ski, plenty to choose from and interstate highways to get you to them. Eventually skiers focused on the big fancy resorts and the smaller places closed down. But there are still folks who remember the old places or even just the local hill. In the NELSAP site, I found one entry from my hometown for "The Ski Hill." And at Silvermine golf course in Norwalk, CT, they used to run a rope tow on their largest hill, cost: $1.
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It's challenging enough making a living as a musician in one orchestra, but the members of the so-called "Freeway Philharmonic" cobble together a living by picking up freelance jobs with multiple groups whenever and wherever they can around the S.F. Bay Area. One of the musicians plays in 8 orchestras. They also teach privately and at universities, and do educational outreach to build the next generation of performers and audience members. And in between paying gigs, most of them go to auditions seeking that coveted spot in a full-time orchestra that will give them a respite from their whirlwind schedule and long commutes. Filmmaker Tal Skloot found their nomadic lives and passion for their vocations fascinating enough to create a documentary that aired yesterday on KQED.
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Friday, January 25, 2008

Martha Stewart has a blog. (I have no further comment at this time.)
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Karl Lagerfeld made a grand statement at Chanel's haute couture show in the Grand Palais with a 75-foot tall Chanel jacket. This gigantic jacket, with the iconic Chanel braid, was made out of wood and painted to look like concrete. Models made their entrance out of an opening at the bottom.
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Thursday, January 24, 2008

Most people I know won't appreciate the nuances of different types of tofu, but the San Francisco Chronicle knows its readers well enough to consider it worthwhile to conduct a tofu tasting. They tasted 15 firm tofus. House tofu came out on top, with its organic tofu placing first.
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In a 440 square-foot shop in Seattle, Melinda and Louis Whisler practice the dying art of custom shoemaking. Customers with foot problems and special requests come to them for shoes made to order. Then there are the customers who are just willing to pay the premium to have their feet shod in custom footwear. The Whislers do it all by hand, with the help of an Italian sewing machine and other tools of the trade. Prices start at $345 and go way up from there.
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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Want a green thumb? You can hire one in the form of a gardening coach.
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With the Atlantic Monthly opening up its archives to all readers, I immediately went to over to catch up with food writer Corby Kummer. Very recently, he discovered that former Coffee Connection owner George Howell, who sold the chain to Starbucks in 1994, is no longer bound by a non-compete agreement and has opened up Terroir Coffee.
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Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Blue nail polish is back in style, which means that my 3 bottle investment 10 years ago is paying off again.
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Coming to a theater near me, Shrek the Musical will have its "out of town tryout" in Seattle at the end of this summer before opening on Broadway. Disney has been opening Broadway musicals from its movie archives at a rapid clip and this is Dreamworks' first foray into the field. Director Sam Mendes pitched the idea in 2003 and is a consultant to the production which is actually being directed by Jason Moore of "Avenue Q." Thus, the question of course is: will there be puppets? This 2006 article on Moore says Shrek will be "with puppets of course." But, it's sure to be more family-friendly than the raunchy "Avenue Q."
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Monday, January 21, 2008

Parents can view their childrens' WASL test booklets and this AP writer decided to do so. The Washington Assessment of Student Learning is a standardized assessment test given to Washington State public school students in grades 3-8 and 10. Very few parents take the state up on the opportunity to see their child's tests. In 2007 only 746 out of 1.5 million WASL test booklets were shown to parents. This parent found one scoring error, though that wasn't her purpose in taking a look at the test. She learned more about how the test is structured and the kind of mistakes her daughter was making. The article's sidebar has instructions on how to request to see your child's test.
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When pet owners go on vacation they can hire a pet sitter. Dairy farmers have a tougher time when they have to be away from their herd, but where there's a need there's a business model. Brian Herr is a professional relief milker in Wisconsin, hired to tend to dairy farms when the owners are on holiday or at conventions. Milking is of course only part of the duties. Herr feeds the cows, makes sure they are healthy, and performs other chores around the farm. Sometimes he'll stay at the farm, but more often he commutes. Regular customers plan vacations around his availability.
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Friday, January 18, 2008

Many of us have forgotten things on public transportation. Some people leave behind important items like eyeglasses and irreplaceable documents. In Seattle, in 2007, 863 people left their bicycles on the bus. That's over 2 people a day leaving behind a pretty significant object! This has been going on since bike racks were added to the Metro buses in 1994, Metro didn't have enough room in their lost & found so nowadays the bikes, tagged with date and bus number, are kept in a commuter bike storage location waiting to be reunited with owners. Unclaimed bicycles are given to charity.
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There are now actual details, not rumors, from Jerry Traunfeld (previously chef at the Herbfarm) on his new restaurant: an undisclosed North Capitol Hill location, 100 seats opening late summer if all goes well, and a dinner concept (based on the Indian thali) where each diner is presented with a large platter of 10-11 small dishes for ~$30. And it will be called Poppy, after his mom (awwww). Back to the rumor mill, the grapevine is placing Poppy's at the closed Jade Pagoda on Broadway.
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Thursday, January 17, 2008

Home decor magazines ("shelter" mags) are shutting down and evolving with the changes in homeowner fortunes, do-it-yourself initiatives, and sustainable living. House & Garden has shuttered after 106 years (with a 3 year break in the mid '90s). Dwell has been overhauled with soy-based inks and recycled-content paper and matching sustainable content inside. Old standby Better Homes and Gardens also redesigned with an emphasis on do-it-yourself project details and energy saving tips. Meanwhile, the queen of them all, Architectural Digest is chugging along dandily, serving and revealing the homes of the affluent.
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The N.Y. Times sent Krishnendu Ray, professor of food studies at NYU, to seven local Indian restaurants. His reactions reveal snippets of immigrant expectations and cravings for tastes of home. The place I was most interested in hearing about had the shortest report, Indowok with its Indian-style Chinese cuisine. Ray's comment: "Why don’t they just go to Chinatown? For one, it’s not sure to be vegetarian. For another, it’s just too Chinese." (Where I live now, that niche is filled by Inchin's Bamboo Garden.)
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Wednesday, January 16, 2008

It's tricky to fit 3 large cruise ships into one photo, but here's a shot of the Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria, and Queen Elizabeth 2 (and their accompanying pilot boats) at their nighttime rendezvous in New York Harbor a few days ago.
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With cheap instruments now available at discounters and "big box" stores, local music shops are feeling the pinch. Jon Bentley of Bentley's String Instruments in Everett, WA cites prices of $150 and less at online shops, Walmart, Kmart and Costco for violins that are not as good quality as the $500 starter violin he carries. Cheap instruments use wood that isn't properly seasoned which makes for terrible sound. The sound post, a crucial component, is placed in a standard location instead of adjusted for the individual instrument. Most importantly for a parent who may think that they can't invest more until they know if their kid is going to be serious, these inferior instruments are usually more difficult to play and difficult to tune properly. Parents, if you can't or don't want to invest in a good instrument until you're sure it'll be worthwhile, rent a decent one first. Also ask around to see if someone's got one stashed away under a bed or in a closet.
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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

In Virginia, stealing a dog is considered a felony, but stealing a cat is a misdemeanor. Proposed law HB334 would make the two crimes equal, but some folks have brought up that cats are more independent and tend to wander off and get informally adopted by other families. The existing law also applies to the theft of a horse, pony, mules, cow, steer, bull or calf. Seems that farmers didn't mind their cats disappearing when this first came on the books.
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When a fashion article on the return of long gloves cites Audrey Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" as an example, that's lovely. But when the next sentence goes on to say "Think Madonna in her music video for 'Material Girl,'" the question arises: was the writer considering her audience's perspective of 1980s cultural reference points or did she actually forget or not know that the original wearer of those long pink gloves was Marilyn Monroe singing "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend?" Also, to get even more pedantic, their gloves were actual the longer opera length, not elbow. Ah well, no use nitpicking the lint off of a fluff piece.
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Monday, January 14, 2008

I've posted about industrial designer Russel Wright several times before. The Bellevue Arts Museum has been running an exhibit of his designs, titled "Living with Good Design," which closes on January 20th, then travels to St. Paul. The exhibit photo gallery gives you a taste of the displays at previous locations.
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The 360 Electrical outlet, with rotating sockets, is just the invention for our gadget charger laden times. But what I really need is a power strip that solves the same problem. Their "coming soon" menu hints that they are working on one. I found a "power strip space saver" on ThinkGeek that keeps adapters off the main strip. It's a messier solution and harder to unplug, but fine for plugs that stay put.
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Wednesday, January 09, 2008

The various Angel Flight organizations arrange for volunteer pilots to fly those in need of medical care to treatment locations. AngelFlight West serves the western U.S. states. Pilots pay their own costs. Last year 94 pilots flew 497 missions in Washington state, which means there's a flight happening every day just in this state alone.
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Buried in this article about a new condo development, Washington Square, in downtown Bellevue is the news that a Top Pot Doughnuts will be opening in the retail portion. Yummy doughnuts!
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Tuesday, January 08, 2008

To add to your list of things to do when you're out of things to do on the Internet (yes, it can happen): search yelp.com for reviews of U.S. post offices. I found a review of the tiny neighborhood post office I like to use, a murder location in Chicago, a happy encounter with a nice guy in NYC, and raves upon raves for a San Francisco USPS open until midnight. Who knows what else lurks in the other corners of the country?
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To be gephyrophobic (afraid of bridges) and live on Staten Island is to be virtually trapped at home. Jan Steers finally left the island after 13 years with the help of therapy and a mild tranquilizer. There are numerous bridges in the New York metropolitan area for the bridge phobic to avoid and the N.Y. Times discovered that you can actually call the New York Thruway Authority to request someone to drive your car over the Tappan Zee bridge. When I saw this article my thoughts went to the see-through walkway at the top of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. With my fear of heights it is impossible for me to walk across it with my eyes open, though I don't have trouble with other bridges. To my surprise, that same walkway is actually mentioned in the article.
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Monday, January 07, 2008

Alton Brown has signed a 3-year deal with Food Network. He'll be building on all three of his existing shows with new Good Eats episodes, hosting duties on Iron Chef America, and "Feasting on Waves," a follow-up to his "Feasting on Asphalt" series with time in the Caribbean on a boat instead of a bike.
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"It looks like a cross between a barn and a ski chalet with a little Jetsons thrown in." A former Denny's restaurant in Ballard, originally a Manning's Cafeteria & Buffet, had distinctive enough 1960s architecture that the developer owners pre-emptively asked Seattle's Landmarks Preservation Board to take a look, expecting they would pass it over for landmark status. Instead the board voted to consider designating the distinct structure as a landmark, spurred on by those concerned with the loss of Seattle's roadside architecture. The developer was likely taken aback and the future of the building, regardless of the decision, is unclear.
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Friday, January 04, 2008

For anyone nostalgic for Cambridge, MA in the 1980s, especially Harvard Square, here's a set of photos of some long-gone Cambridge storefronts. Pizzeria Regina, Paperback Booksmith, the Wursthaus, all gone. Some places I used to frequent are still around: Border Cafe, Bertucci's, Grendel's Den. And the Uno's chain has managed to still hang on, though it's evolved. (photo set pulled from a lengthy unrelated Metafilter thread best left unlinked)
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A rather large butter sculpture is featured this year's Pennsylvania Farm Show. 1,000 pounds of butter donated by Land O' Lakes was carved into a depiction of three students and a cow boarding a school bus. After the show, the butter will be turned into biodiesel at Pennsylvania State University and State College High School.
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Mmmmm hot chocolate featured in the Seattle Times: either make it yourself or visit a local hot chocolate spot.
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Thursday, January 03, 2008

Cunard's newest ship, the Queen Victoria, christened in December, has finished its maiden voyage in Europe and is on its second in the Canary Islands. In a few days it will commence a transatlantic crossing along with the Queen Elizabeth 2 and both will meet up in New York with the Queen Mary 2. The January 13th gathering of the three ships in New York Harbor will be heralded with fireworks. The Queen Victoria will then depart on an around-the-world cruise, and the QE2, scheduled for retirement in 2008, will leave for its final world cruise (the QM2 only gets to go to the Caribbean, but as the biggest of the three it has enough to gloat about... even if it can't fit through the Panama Canal).
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The mute swans that grace ponds and shorelines are so lovely, so peaceful, so harmless. Really? Not according to some wildlife conservationists who are making some swan cons known. Connecticut now has 1,100 mute swans and critics call them an invasive species that is disrupting the shoreline habitats of native species. The N.Y. Times says they "devour eight pounds of aquatic vegetation per day and, in their daily feeding frenzy, uproot an additional 20 pounds of plants." Attempts to control the swan population have been met with lawsuits from their supporters. On the west coast, Oregon has the mute swan on its 100 Most Dangerous Invaders list.
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Wednesday, January 02, 2008

With little fanfare, and perhaps none warranted, Boston's Big Dig project reached its official end as 2007 came to a close. Despite tragedies, lawsuits and unimaginable cost overruns, the city is left with an elegant bridge, a mile-long greenway, and, the point of it all, improved traffic.
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It's been 100 years since Seattle first hired nurses for the public schools. Back then nurses would make house calls to check on ailing students, sometimes even tending to other family members. Scarlet fever and mumps are no longer on their list of concerns, but school nurses still deal with immunization pushback and everyday scrapes. State-mandated health screenings and emergency-care plans for life-threatening situations take up much of their time. The Seattle school district can't afford a full-time nurse for every school, but some schools hold fundraisers or set aside budget for more hours. The school nursing profession in the U.S. celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2002, 100 years after the successful placement of Lina Rogers Struthers, R.N. in a New York City public school.
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