Macworld Ho: what’s next? where’s the party?
There’s really too much going on at Macworld to take it all in. It’s kinda like Burning Man for Mac users but out there on the playa people wear little and what they do wear is outrageous and wild. Here just about everyone is wearing a black jacket, jeans and tennis shoes (and testosterone). Really. It’s a Black Sea. It’s like the black suit coat is the new white labcoat for mad computer scientists! (The women, if they are working a booth, show cleavage and leg. The “Delicious” women wear white blouses unbuttoned almost to the navel with black bras with white lace, tight black short skirts, fishnets, and black high heels…librarians they are not!)
Just the people watching could keep me occupied–that is, the folks not in the uniform…for example, I just watched a 40 something man absentmindedly blow a bubble (using gum) while riding down the escalator…and I’ve seen literally hundreds of people ride UP the escalator wearing white satin and pink bunny ears (gotta get me some!!) Read more…
Macworld Ho: Keynote address
I have to admit that the Art Predator missed out on the big talk this morning at Macworld 2009 by Keynote, Phil Shiller, Apple Sr. VP, Worldwide Product Marketing–but I won’t miss out on much more I promise! (OK, it was a long drive and negotiating SF parking is not easy!)
There’s no shortage of coverage about it all over the web: if you’re interested, this is a blow by blow account by crunchgear. Highlights:
9:05 – This keynote is going to blow. I guarantee it!
9:07 – Entire new version of iLife ‘09. Two more things to talk about.
9:07 – Macs grew twice as fast as the PC market.
9:06 – Mac will be the focus. 9.7 million Macs were sold in FY 2008.
9:19-There’s a travel book photo album theme that includes maps of where your images are taken based on getoagging info.
You get the idea…I overheard someone say “Phil did a great job. He didn’t skip a beat.” Yep, don’t you wish you were here?
I saw the new iLife in action–it really is cool!! (But the travel book photo album theme will get overused I bet and become common place…just like certain WordPress themes!)
The new iLife with lots of cool bells and whistles is free w/new and $80 upgrade (guess who’s getting an upgrade for her birthday…yep!)
They announced a new MacBook Pro–fancy schmancy for just under $3,000. I bet prices on ones like mine will plummet–which explains why they were on sale around Christmas!
Next post: where will I go? what will I do? or will I just sit here and keep blogging?
Weds. December 31, 2008
Travelers spill out of Westfalias to scramble rocks for nature’s embrace.
J Tree’s Indian Cove Camp sports climber mohawks, smells of tri-tip, beer.
Mirrored ball spins, music, desert sky diamonds inspires groove on dancers.
Snores to the left, snores to the right, snores below, coyotes sing, I wake.
Thurs. January 1, 2009
Lit incense and aromatic candles alters pit toilets for good.
Mid-afternoon sun disappears behind J Tree’s ragged dark plutons.
Venus winks and moon smiles as hungry campers inhale hot ham, cold night.
When propane lantern goes out, climbers rise by headlamp, sticky toe trust.
Fri. January 2, 2009
Mom explains plate tectonics to curious boy over hot cocoa.
Pumpkin pancakes purple eyed with blueberries vanish into bellies.
Morning crescent eastern moon high fives Rattlesnake Canyon adventures.
Warm rock, cold wind, on belay, climbing, climb on, trust, try, take, lower, off.
Sat. January 3, 2009
J Tree’s Saturday farmers market brings honey, olives, greens, folks here.
No place like my bus for the best coffee with wifi thanks to linksys.
Children on belay scramble in monkey shoes up sparkly rough granites.
Charcoal grey sky spits, wind digs, spaghetti dinner warms puffy campers.
Sun. January 4, 2009
Eat oatmeal, drink tea, gather scattered belongings, time to pack, head home.
Note: American sentences are 17 syllables long, a Ginsbergian version of haiku.
Here’s a post about how I make various versions of pancakes. For the ones above, I used a whole 15 oz can of pumpkin, almost 3 cups of mix, 3 eggs, 3 T of melted butter, and about a cup of milk; once the batter was poured in the pan, I dotted them with blueberries. The blueberries really kick them up a notch!! We ate them plain and with jam and honey; this amount served four adults and two children.
For more poetry, ride the Poetry Train or head to Read Write Poem!
To keep up with what’s happening in Art Predator’s world, please subscribe! And if you already have subscribed, thank you!!
Sorry about the screwy orientation on some of the photos–am working on it!
Birthday Wishes: 50 subscribers & 50,000 page views!
My birthday is next Sunday, 1/11… and I am hoping by that time to have 51 subscribers to this blog and 51,000 page views!
No, I’m not 50–it’s just a nice round number! So please subscribe! And please visit and throw links! I’m getting close–help me make 51,000 page views by January 11! (or close to it…! maybe for my birthday month?)
Coming soon: a trip report from Joshua Tree National Park! a poem on Monday! And then I’m off to Macworld–with lots of words to share I’m sure!
upsides of the downturn?
Yes, there is an upside to the economic downturn and record unemployment. Lots of us unemployed or underemployed and using our “free” time to explore creative options and ideas we didn’t have time to when we were working…
Kevin Kelleher writes at Gigaom:art predator › Edit Post — WordPress
I wonder what kind of creativity could be unleashed by workers who, though deprived of a steady paycheck, are freed from such tedious tasks. Some could come up with new ideas that help vault the web to a more advanced stage. Others may make micro-contributions that are equally powerful in aggregate. Such creativity could then foster an entirely new generation of startups, which would eventually lure away some of those who had remained at steady jobs all along.
Of course, money will be hard to come by for such labors of love. Some of the best ideas since the last downturn have failed to find a viable business model. A gift economy would be an especially profitless form of innovation. But that notion lies at the heart of the hacking ethic.
Or as Shirky put it, in distilling his notion of cognitive surplus into a general principle: “It’s better to do something than to do nothing.”
Here’s the rest on this subject.
Jason Calaconis talked about the future of start-ups Nov. 5 on his supposedly defunct blog. Here are some of the highlights for me: Read more…
book publishing: falling off a cliff or heading to new heights?
I wish I had more time to discuss this site here and now, including commenting on this article on publishing which I first read in the LA Times, or this one on Rebecca Solnit’s ”
The Grinning Skull
The Homicides You Didn’t Hear About in Hurricane Katrina
which includes an interview with Rebecca Solnit but I’m just going to make due with sending you to tomdispatch.com–and let you do the commenting in the comments section please!
This is a great site and I look forward to reading it more often in 2009!
Art Predator Heads to SF for Macworld 2009!
Indeed, the Art Predator starts the new year off by prowling the halls, and searching the corridors, and tracking down what’s of interest here, there and everywhere during Macworld 2009–rumoured to be the last! I am sooooo excited! The only thing that could make this more perfect is if I had my new iPhone in hand–the one the Big Monkey is getting me for Christmas…
I’ll arrive Monday night, Jan. 5 and stay with Burner Mom Toni (thanks Toni!!), and will do all of Macworld that can be done all day and all night Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday!
Thursday night late my dear Burner Mom friend Holly is flying in from Flagstaff and we will hang out together until I drive home Friday morning…
So if you have any tips about what I should do and see at Macworld next week, or if you have any party invites, please send this newbie a bone! I’d love to hook up with some other Mac WordPress types too! Or wine drinking Mac types!
And for those of you stuck at home and wishing you could be there, know that I will be live blogging away for you, just like I did at SF WordCamp 2008!
Hmmn, I wonder if Macworld has cool tattoos like WordCamp did…
Last Day of 2008: Saturn Retrograde until May 2009–what does it mean?
If you look out into the sky at sunset during the last night of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, Venus shines bright in the west as the evening star, and the new crescent moon smiles.
But it is unseen Saturn retrograde in Virgo that’s setting off fireworks, making us plan ahead for wide-ranging changes.
According to Astrology.com, Saturn goes retrograde Dec.31, the last day of 2008 (which means it appears to go in reverse from our perspective–if you were on Saturn, of course, it would continue forward on its 28 or so year cycle around the sun.)
It seems a bit ominous, yes, after the year we’ve had? Almost like we’re gonna have to do it again. But no–this is to PREVENT us from having to.
While most astrologers will say it’s NOT a good time to go forward with new plans while lesson-teaching Saturn is retrograde in dutiful, organized Virgo, it is a great time to reflect on what you have been up to, to finish what you’ve begun, and to set plans for the future in place.
Now isn’t that what New Years is about anyway? Setting aside some time to reflect on the past year, to and lay goals for the coming year? Is this perfect timing or what?
To quote Astrology.com:
Saturn turns retrograde on the last day of 2008 and all of us will feel the energy of Saturn retrograde in Virgo in one way or another. Saturn is charged with the duty of teaching us our lessons in life — giving us the ability to grow and persevere, granting us the will to succeed and the strength to accomplish the tasks at hand. As we learn, we are rewarded by Saturn when the lesson or job is done.
The energy of Saturn retrograde is a fairly powerful force. Read more…
New Year’s Eve: Fire & Ice & other delights
Looking for something unusual for New Year’s Eve instead of the same old same old run of the mill yada yada yada? Consider one of the following “Burning Man” esque adventures! These events are organized in large part by Burners and people who have been inspired by the Burning Man aesthetic.
If we weren’t heading for Joshua Tree to camp and climb and hike and star gaze and dance beside the fire and under the smiling moon and winking Venus, I’d be tempted to head to San Francisco to see one of my favorite bands, Thievery Corporation perform at Sea Change/Sea of Dreams.
In Santa Barbara, Fishbon presents “Fire & Ice.” Fellow Burning Mom and friend Jenessa has performed and starred in numerous Fishbon extravaganzas; this time she’s been feverishly constructing marvelous, sexy costumes galore using fabulous fabrics and will be a “Tray Girl.”
Since Dr. Megavolt decided to take a break from his bigBurning Manshow a couple of years ago, he’s been sighted often a thePescadrome and performed with his table top setup this year. But, it’s been several years since he’s done his major show for any audience. Well, hang on to your headgear, because he’ll be breaking out the big coil, an 8 foot mega tesla coil forFIRE + ICE, Fishbon’s New Year’s Eve event. Performing with his wfe Victoria for one show only, Dr. Megavolt will bring in the New Year with his own special brand of man-made lightning craziness.Be There!
Tickets for Fishbon New Year’s Eve are available on the Fishbon Ticket website: http://tickets.fishbon.com/ TICKETS ARE LIMITED AND THERE WILL BE NO TICKETS SOLD AT THE DOOR. BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW. This event always sells out, so don’t wait until the last minute on this one. TICKETS $50, such a deal.
In LA, the Do Lab and Lucent Dossier are organizing parties in two performance spaces: at the incredible Edison Hotel in downtown, and in Beverly Hills. See below.
Be sure to get tickets as soon as possible so you won’t be disappointed like we were last year when we left Montana de Oro State Beach for Santa Barbara–only to discover the event was completely sold out. (So figuring we were going to drop some dough on tickets, we bought $100 worth of Chandon champagne and crab legs and went back to the beach to join our friends!)
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Where ever you are, when ever you are, what ever you are–I toast to you!
3:15 Experiment Poem August 26, 2003: open to the sky
The fog is back.
I drove into it last night
coming home from work
coming down the Conejo grade.
I could see it blotting
the sun and anything coastal.
the air tonight is deep thick
the sounds outside more echoing
it makes it cooler the dampness
we get more sticky
our skin connected, touching
In Lima Peru it is foggy like this
almost every day and night of the year.
It never rains.
In summer in January they
may get a few days when
it burns off sooner.
The rest of the year this fog
their only moisture.
You don’t have to worry
about it raining on your parade
your picnic your construction site–
roofs all over town unfinished
buildings open to sky to potential
to move floors ceilings guests.
Why bother with a roof when a
ceiling is enough to keep out
bird droppings and air pollution?
Happy New Year, everyone! Who needs a roof over your head? Don’t block your chakras energy from connecting with the sky! Step out of the fog, keep your mind open to the stars–our ancestors– and the unexpected potential of the New Year!
I was in Lima Peru for my 39th birthday, a day which is rolling around again in two weeks. My secret wish is to have 50,000 page views on my blog and 50 subscribers (and no, I am NOT turning 50–it’s just a nice round number!) So if it’s crossed your mind, subscribe! Do it as a birthday gift to me! And send people to check out the site and subscribe also! You never know what will show up on this blog, and you don’t want to miss anything in 2009 do you?
Ride the Poetry Train! Check out what’s happening at Read Write Poem! Experience the world at 3:15 am via other 3:15 Experiment poems!
And have a great time this weekend ringing in the New Year with whatever rituals you enjoy and appreciate!
art predator 