Floor 97 please...

Oh those wacky Japanese. According to the BBC Japan's Mitsubishi Electric Corp has just opened what it says is "the world's tallest elevator testing tower." Who knew there were such things? You live and learn.

2008: The Year of Pictures
Thanks to Husband, I now have a spiffy new camera to indulge my shutterbuggery. Thanks to flickr, now have a page to show things off. I'll get more interesting (and better) as I become more familiar with the equipment (both camera and modern technology) but I invite you to check out our life in the coming year.

Happy new year!

Won't you blog about this song?
At the risk of parodying a parody, check out this spot-on video by the Richter Scales an a capella group who obviously know the Silicon Valley score.

CD Pick of the Week: Kitka
Kitka, 9-member female choral ensemble from the San Francisco Bay Area turn to Slavic folksangs in the Rusalka Cycle; based on “restless spirts, thought to be women who had died unjust or untimely deaths.” As you’d expect it’s dark, disturbing, and haunting. Amazingly beautiful vocal harmonies combine with unpredictable rhythms and dissonant counterpoints to produce gorgeous sounds; lightly backed by cellos & percussion. It is powerful, mystical and truly scary at times with an other-worldly evocation of ghosts. Wonderful and chill-inducing. One of my favorite CDs of the year.

The School of Brutalism
Of all the ridiculous (and yet somehow fitting) names for architectural styles, the School of Brutalism has to take the prize. And I bet I don't even need to describe it, do I? Check out this article from The American Spectator about a crappy "Brutal" building and why it won't (or can't) go away.

Knit one, purl death
Death by knitting? Check out Sock Wars "the bloodiest extreme knitting tournament."

According to the rules of Sock Wars, participants must knit a pair of socks for another player and then mail them to the "target." Players are "killed" when they receive their socks in the mail. There's more to it, but I'm just amused at the concept.

You know, the can walk....
Now in the people are WAY to freaky about their pets department

Check out Just Pet Strollers. The "Burley Tail Wagon Stroller w/optional ski attachment" is only $400.
.

That baby ain't black enough...
From the Sunday London Times. "James Watson, the DNA pioneer who claimed Africans are less intelligent than whites, has been found to have 16 times more genes of black origin than the average white European."

After he published his own genome, researchers found a level, "you would expect in someone who had a great-grandparent who was African." So, Jimmy, what say you now?

No wonder people don't read any more...

Have you seen the New York Times list of the 100 notable books of 2007? No? Here's my advice....if you like interesting books, an old-fashioned "thumping good read", and an enjoyable way to spend a rainy evening....don't read this list!

I swear the descriptions of the plots in these books reads like some parody of modern literature. Who would want to read this stuff? Here are a few samples:

- "A tale of two sisters, one awake all night, one asleep for months." Gosh, bet that's a page-turner.
- "A first novel about an Ethiopian exile in Washington, D.C., evokes loss, hope, memory and the solace of friendship." I'm a sucker for any book that evokes loss. Especially when it also evokes the solace of friendship!
- "A young woman searches for the truth about her parentage amid the snow and ice of Lapland in this bleakly comic yet sad tale of a child’s futile struggle to be loved." Oh God, not another "growing up lonely in Lapland" book. Haven't we had enough?
- "A Russian World War II veteran posthumously acquaints his stepdaughter with his grim past of rape and violence." Prozac not included.
- "The small-town regulars at Lucy’s Tavern carry their loneliness in “rough and beautiful” ways." Silly me, I carry my loneliness in a lovely quilted bag.
- "In this short yet spacious Norwegian novel, an Oslo professional hopes to cure his loneliness with a plunge into solitude." Hmmm....someone should introduce him to that lonely Lapp kid.

People, remember books that were fun to read? Full of interesting, lively characters doing fascinating things? Not "searching for the truth behind the brutal injustice of growing up left-handed in Zambia" fascinating but "hunting the bad guys, falling in love, searching for treasure, laughing with friends, living a real, normal life" fascinating.

I have absolutely NO desire to read any of these books. I long for the day when writers realize that "important" doesn't have to equal "dreary". It IS possible to write literate, poetic books with plots that make you want to stay up late -- rather than make you want to throw the book across the room.

I knew it!
For years I've said modern art looks like crap. Like paint thrown randomly on a canvas with no purpose other than to give art critics a chance to pretend they're esoteric geniuses by conning sheep into believing they too know art. And finally, I have proof.

A UK art critic, as a joke, wrote typically over-the-top reviews of a "modern artist" who is, in reality, the critic's 2-year old son. With lines such as "A bold use of colour. Inspired by the 'plein air' habit of painting by Monet, drawing on the natural world that surrounds us all," and "It seems that one stroke is being repeated - the same stroke or one very close to it, hence the possibility of the infinite opening up of the structure of time," writer Estelle Lovatt managed to fool people into thinking he was a real artist. Someone event bought one of his works (albeit for only 20 pounds -- but still...).

Screw the experts...
Finally, some good news from my favorite African nation, Malawi.

According to the New York Times, Malawi has turned around its hunger status by ignoring the experts. By focusing on the importance of fertilizer they are now selling more corn to the World Food Program of the UN than any other country in southern Africa and exporting hundreds of thousands of tons of corn to Zimbabwe.

Both the US and Britian were skeptical about the need for fertilizer subsidies, a fact with which Malawi's new president, Bingu wa Mutharika disagreed. He saw the importance of regenerating his nation's soil -- crucial if they were ever going to make a true stand against hunger. And thanks to his forward-thinking, and his stand against the so-called experts, Malawi is succeeding.

Go Malawi!

That is one pissed fish!
Thanks to the wonderful Design Observerfor pointing out the 5 most unintentionally hilarious comic strips. You'll laugh, trust me.

Also, thanks to the same source, check out Rosa Loves, an online t-shirt company with a cause. Remember that some holiday gifts are more "giving" than others....

Surviving another Thanksgiving
Yes, it's true. Husband and I survived yet another Thanksgiving with my family. Regular readers might recall that soon after Thanksgiving last year I spent a week in the hospital with the first onset of the "mystery illness" which has plagued me periodically ever since. Stomach pains. Vomiting. Nausea. Having lived through years of hilarious tales of dinner with the folks, my friends (not surprisingly) asked if the symptoms were related to Thanksgiving at my mom's. And, strangely enough, the answer was "no."

This year wasn't too bad. True, the turkey did have a metallic aftertaste but other than that, nothing too awful. A shame, really, as it left me with no good stories to share with the next bookgroup. Poor souls, many of them live for my yearly post-Thanksgiving tales of microwaved instant mashed potatoes, sweet potatos with mini-marshmallows, canned cranberry sauce and the famous and patented "floating-bits-of-wonder gravy."

Perhaps Christmas will bring the requisite "my family tried to poison me" story for the holiday season.

CD Pick of the week: Trio Mediaeval
Glorious vocal harmonies mark "Folk Songs," a wonderful collection of hymns, lullabies, and ballads. It’s the 10th anniversary for this Norwegian - Swedish female trio. Joined by percussion but it’s the solo voices that carry it all. You can’t go wrong with any track, they’re all beautiful, mostly down/midtempo. In keeping w/their name, all tracks have a medieval/Renaissance air & are all too short.

Clockwise or counter?
An interesting "are you right brained or left brained" test.

Check out this dancer. Which way is she spinning? I saw her first going counter-clockwise and then she switched and went clockwise. Proving, once again, I'm just messed up.

CD Pick of the Week" Youssou N'Dour
A new release from this man is always cause for joy in the world music community. Rokku mi Rokka (Give and Take) is yet another delicious gift. Joyous, Senegalese mbalaz-inflused rhythms w/hints of the desert and touches of blues, reggae, even Cuba. Joined by his longtime band Super Etoile, it’s a total lovefest featuring his warm, engaging voice. Every track is a delight.

This week also check out Bamisphere by Gino Sitson:
Wonderfully versatile vocals from a Cameroon-born jazz singer. African rhythms pervade with touches of everything from bop to straight-up Afro-jazz. Fabulous musicians include bassist Ron Carter and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts. Vocal gymnastics reminiscent of Bobby McFerrin but with a stronger African flavor. The tracks that are just layers of his voice(s) are gorgeous.

I love eggs!
Actually I'm sort of ambivalent about the danged things. But this video is too good to resist. Crank up the sound and watch until the end. Oh those wacky Japanese cartoons!

Sure it's ugly, but hey...it leaks too!
OK, I admit it. I hate most contemporary architecture. I'm a classicist. I like beauty, not "statements." I'll take "asthetically pleasing" over "significant" any time. And I love beautiful details and materials -- why have concrete boxes when you can have Corinthian capitals?

So I was more than amused to find this story about how MIT is suing architect Frank Gehry "charging that flaws in his design of the $300 million Stata Center in Cambridge, one of the most celebrated works of architecture unveiled in years, caused leaks to spring, masonry to crack, mold to grow, and drainage to back up."

Guess the word - feed the hungry
For a fun, free way to help feed the hungry visit FreeRice.com. Sponsored by various corporations who actually provide the rice and through the auspices of the UN Hunger Project, FreeRice.com is an online word game where each correct answer puts rice in the bowl of one hungry person. The game has already raised 50,000 pounds of rice.

And lest ye think the game is a no-brainer, let me tell you that some of the words are pretty tough. Ophidian? Contemn? Annulate?

Come on folks, play the game. Feed the world.

Last Supper: The Musical
The art historian in me loves this.

An Italian musican believes he has discovered musical notes hidden in Leonardo's "Last Supper." How cool is that?