Linking Crosswords and Poetry: Read a poem in the subway the other day. It was a poem put there by the MTA. As well as rhythm, and the ‘sound in the mouth’ kinesthetic sense of what it was to say them, this poem depended on rich associations of a some key words and symbols. To … Read more
This is an extremely ‘meta’ post about life and happiness. But with that said, perhaps a hard won truth. Without being too ‘abstract’ about it: Above the basics needed, the expression of courage is what brings happiness to life. It is why having kids, or giving to charity, climbing everest or making something beautiful is … Read more
Between 2001-2005, It was common for a technista to be carrying around a palm pilot, an iPod and a cell phone. 3 devices in the same form factor. It was obvious to those who saw it then that these functionalities would merge eventually to create the smart phone as we know it today (given enough … Read more
-Card games are interesting versions of Wolfram’s cellular automata. Creating complexity from simple rules. -Watching a nova doc about the monarch butterfly / (also reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of Einstein)…. Metamixer. It could be that the observed ‘break’ between quantum and relativistic worlds is similar to the insect versus larger species world. The insects don’t … Read more
Hi, I’ve made this for the band based on Brad Mehldau’s lyrical Resignaton from the Elegiac Cycle. Notable differences: This is in 6/4 time, whereas the original is in 7/8 (it appears my band cannot count in 7/8). This is a lead sheet meant for improvisation. Just the first round through the A section (the actual … Read more
Here is the Leadsheet for this great song by Elliott Smith. Feel free to share. Enjoy Responsibly (PDF) Between the Bars – Elliott Smith (Leadsheet) – Arr. Alwinian
Cleaning out the harddrives. A spot test and absolutely the first file created on the beloved macbook 15′ – 2011 model. Improvised a simple march and drew the poor soldier at work on the weekend. It’s just fun and admit – there is a soft spot for this wacky guy. Enjoy.
Hi – I wanted to create a project, where: 1. Creatives in NY can collaborate together towards open-source projects. Actors Reading, Writers Writing and Illustrators drawing. Namely creating audio/multimedia children’s books for the public. It will be under the Creative Commons license – attribution, no commercial, no derivative. This ensures that the participants are … Read more
My answers are usually quite – shall we say realistic – when people ask me what it is like to live in NY. It’s tough here, but the quality which I realize and now appreciate more. True of all big cities and all wide open places, is the ability to create your own reality and … Read more
Isn’t it strange that we need to consume life in order to live…. Even the strictest vegans will need to eat things once alive to gain their energy. The simplest grains, beans and vegatables were all once alive. You can survive only for so long with eating rocks, mineral salts and solar power (like trees … Read more
For improvising to. Enjoy.
Here is my loan repayment history so far on Kiva. This has all been from a $100 loan. 13/16 loans already 100% paid back, 3 loan’s in the process of being paid back. I am choosing the loans and try to lend to institutions who have a great repayment history / low risk for housing, … Read more
In February – I took a trip to Mountain View as a ‘3rd Rounder’ for their recruitment process. Although I didn’t get the position, it was certainly interesting to see the Internet Giant up close (and to a limited extent – to view its day to day operations from within). In preparation for my interview, … Read more
It seems very clear to me that the origins of human intelligence was selective pressure, especially at the group level. That unwritten history is likely bloodier than written history seems almost certain. Inter-species warfare created the ever larger brain, much like deer’s antlers or any other tool in a virtuous feedback loop. That is what … Read more
Blast from the Past!! http://murmurtoronto.ca/place.php?277649 Circa 2003.. Interactive Cell Phone Audio Tours. Was recently contacted by a tourism dot com and reminded about what people like Gabe Sawhney were up to in 2003. Ahh… I recorded one for Future’s Bakery, a hang out of hangouts where my roommates used to work. A ton of chess … Read more
Another Great One from Michel Gondry. Metronomy – Love Letters from Partizan on Vimeo.
Paradigm shifts, Creative destruction, call it what you will. The end of store in America, how can an employee hourly model compete with an online no-rent/no-brick model. Commercial landlords in malls must be scratching their heads as my beloved Barnes & Noble is. What survives will likely be a hybrid -> commission sales based / … Read more
The French own the great terms of love….the Germans seem to own all the good terms for longing: Fernweh Schadenfreude Sturm und Drang
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/17/nyregion/17hustlers.html In my opinion, they missed Rebecca, The Professor, GM William Lombardy, Red, Nate and a few others…..though none – except for Red were full time Hustlers. This is the world down at the Chess Shop (when it was there) and less fun imho… ==>Union Square. The talkative world and world of cigarettes, 2$ blitz … Read more
Congrats Janet Yellen on your appointment to the Fed as Chairwoman. Akerlof and Schiller are your inner-circle, pretty sweet. That’s a lot of Nobel laureates over for dinner at one time. I am very glad the most qualified candidate is female – that is you! Less joyous regarding the dovish stance on rates however. Being … Read more
I went to France recently and visited Arles. Will write more but thought to post these photos.
Finance ‘storming’ here… Is living on the top of a 10 story building exactly as safe as the 2nd floor? Can you say that 100 oranges are equal to 200 christmas cards. Is paramount pictures worth as much as a mining company? Is there true fungibility. Is one slightly riskier than the other and is … Read more
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/nyregion/eight-charged-in-45-million-global-cyber-bank-thefts.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 This was an interesting article, there is a certain meritocracy in people using information more adeptly and cleverly than others, likely in this case the others being gulf banks, with laggard security systems and high networth Emirati accounts. Brainstorm time:: Reading about quantum computing stuff right now ::: we are close but still far … Read more
Well… natural scientists smash together particles to discover how things are fundamentally made… Perhaps there is a bit of that in this cooking show by Anthony Bourdain while in a conflict zone – not sure what else to say, but it is an interesting episode of great range. … Read more
Have been working on this tune… Thinking about the ‘essence’ of circles versus triangles, in the geometric sense. Related to each other too in some stranger, fundamental way. A circle can be inside a triangle and vice versa, there are trigonometric relationships, Conic Sections,, etc etc… Hope you enjoy.
Luckily the world is mostly full of ‘white hats’ as the term is used. In a day to day / data form driven world. The sweet spot of rigorous authentication while allowing people to forget passwords doesn’t really take into account the ‘systemic’ risk of standardizing authentication questions and other unique ways to identify you … Read more
After several years in Music/Media, I finally made it to the big annual show! South by SouthWest A photo from our Spinner Showcase concert (3.13.2013) at Austin City Limits.
Some recommended Design and Media docs if you are looking to check out. Press Play Pause – Quite the anthem for possibilities of New Media. Indie Game – One or two people (which is a very small number) join forces to create a video game. Specifically for the XBox. Given the amount of … Read more
Found an old pic from Montreal Barcamp… Sneaksend was a steganography app which embedded images by appropriating the least significant bits in an octet of an image. For eg. 11110101 and using the last digits (0101) to encode information. Ran on Django+Chery.py — will have to recreate one day. Sneaksend from guest779445
Our CEO quoted Andy Warhol today. That is awesome “Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art” -Andy Warhol