I just heard that Oscar Peterson died.  He is one of my favorite musicians of all time and that really makes me sad.  Time to find that Oscar Peterson Christmas album. 

Tags: jazz, music

Chairs in Spot
Originally uploaded by nollenbe

They are already doing it. We had our first real snow last week and my fellow Chicagoans have already broke out their lawn chairs to save their spots. If you are not familiar with this practice, my fellow citizens shove out their spots and then claim the public space for themselves. It is totally crazy. I do give them props for multi-use of the chairs though.

I stole this clip form Boing Boing gadgets. You really have to see this amazing Amazon item:

Fresh Whole Rabbit

Rabbit meat is one of nature’s secret power sources, made entirely from rabbits. These whole carcasses from Cloverdale keep for weeks at room temperature, suffer no documented cases Tularemia (rabbit fever), and can even be cooked.

(Don’t neglect to view the “Customers Who Bought Items Like This Also Bought” selections.)

$39

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/12/07/home-is-where-their.html

Blogged with Flock

I really love jazz as it is today but after seeing this video I am quite confident that jazz was way cooler in years past.  These dancers are amazing.  I feel bad admitting this but I usually hate watching people dance to jazz.  I have had a lot of bad experiences with people trying to dance to my small groups and usually these people are off the charts annoying.  Dancing and jazz have always been conflicted but after watching this it doesn’t seem to matter at all.

Embedded Video

Tags: jazz, music, dance

Check out these cool videos that Philip Glass made for Sesame Street back in the  “Golden Age of Sesame Street.”  I have been listening to a lot of Glass recently and it is really fun.  If you listen to this stuff while you walk around the city you feel like you are on an epic quest to stop the kingdom of Mordor.  Love it.

Embedded Video

This is a cool diagram that shows what it takes to move around the President of the United States. It is a good thing that Bush spends most of his time at the Ranch. Wow!
President Bush’s travel entourage

This is a cool design idea for a bench made out of pencils that harks back to the whole bed of nails thing. I think it is pretty awesome. The question is , “Is ti comfortable?” Maybe the fact that I am asking these questions means that I don’t belong in design.

Bench with seat made from pencils

This seems to have come out of left field.  Victor Goines, the current head of Jazz at Juliard and member of  the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra is going to be the new head of Jazz at Northwestern University.  I remember talking to a member of the jazz faculty this summer and he had basically been let go along with the rest of the jazz faculty.  It seemed to be a dark time with jazz ending at Northwestern and the Showcase and Hothouse, two of Chicago’s best known jazz venues closed.  Now Jazz is back at NU and the showcase is suppose to be reopening sometime soon in the Loop somewhere.  It will be really interesting to see what happens with the new program.  Goines is suppose to continue playing and touring with Lincoln Center so we will see what effect it has on the local scene and I have no guess as to what the faculty is going to look like now that he is running the show.
Press Release Nov 27 2007, General News, News, School of Music …

Tags: jazz, education, music

elzr: Infodesign challenge

Check out this really cool design for an entire years calender on one card. I have always been really intrigued by design and any art that truly follows function. There are a lot of other entries but this one is my favorite by far. And of a completely different type:

The Lovely Mistresses of George W. Bush, 2008 Pin-Up Calendar

This is a cool old-timey pinup calender that shows the largest special interest groups that have benefited from Bush’s policies in the form of good-looking woman. Oh so witty.

Tags: design, calender