• New (to me) podcast (rathole radio) and music (8in8)

    New (to me) podcast (rathole radio) and music (8in8)

    I’ve long been a subscriber to Floss Weekly, a video/audio podcast in the TWiT network focused on Free/Libre/Open Source Software. One of the occasional co-hosts of that show, Dan Lynch, also does an audio podcast (weekly) called Rathole Radio. I’ve just started listening but so far I’m loving it: he mixes genres (french instrumental hip-hop,…

  • Veggie Galaxy – Vegetarian Diner and Vegan Bakery

    Veggie Galaxy – Vegetarian Diner and Vegan Bakery

    This weekend during PodCamp Boston I took a trip down the red line to Central square and checked out Veggie Galaxy, the new Vegetarian Diner and Vegan Bakery from the folks who run Veggie Planet. The place looks fantastic – hip, modern but retro, clean, and inviting: I love seeing vegan restaurants get the ambiance…

  • Veganism and Attention Science: Seeing the Gorilla

    Veganism and Attention Science: Seeing the Gorilla

    Cathy N. Davidson’s new book, Now You See it: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform thw Way We Live, Work, and Learn (see my review on Open Parenthesis), takes one of its core inspirations from an experiment by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris, which you may have seen.

  • Vegan Montreal

    Vegan Montreal

    Spent last weekend in Montreal – had a great time at DrupalCamp, and visited a number of great restaurants. The Green Panther / La Panther Verte (Yelp) The Green Panther was just down the street from my hotel, near Concordia, at 2153 Mackay Street. I got there close to closing, so they were already starting…

  • Other Lives

    Other Lives

    So I’m sometimes convinced I should just turn this blog into an auto-re-posting feed of everything that comes into my podcast client: between KEXP‘s Music That Matters, Live Performances, and Video of the Week; KCRW‘s Morning Becomes Eclectic; and NPR Music‘s All Songs Considered, Tiny Desk Concerts, and Live in Concert, I’m never going to…

  • The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow

    The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow

    Discovered this wonderful new duo via Morning Becomes Eclectic. Imagine The Swell Season if Glen Hansard was from Alabama rather than Ireland, Marketa Irglova from LA rather than the Czech Republic, and they’d met in Nashville rather than in Dublin. (They even have a song called “Falling” which reminded me a bit of the Swell…

  • Tiny Desk Concert – The Decemberists

    Tiny Desk Concert – The Decemberists

    Great quick video from the Decemberists’ Tiny Desk Concert at NPR: “I was sort of always under the impression that these things were done while everybody was just trying to work,” The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy says a little ways into this Tiny Desk Concert in the NPR Music offices. “I kind of like the romance…

  • Fourth of July Music – Gil Scott-Heron Live at the Bottom Line

    Fourth of July Music – Gil Scott-Heron Live at the Bottom Line

    Gil Scott-Heron (1949-2011) is most well known for “The Revolution Will Not be Televised” but this 1977 live gig with Brian Jackson will expose you to more of what Scott-Heron was about. You’ll find the original posting with much more info (from which I took this cover) on Never Enough Rhodes but it was also…

  • Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three

    Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three

    Loving Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three, who I discovered via this Tiny Desk Concert from NPR (above).

  • Think I can take Watson?

    Think I can take Watson?

    Screen shown just before taking the Jeopardy online test a few weeks back. I thought about trying to screen-shot some of the actual test questions but then that would interfere with my taking the test itself. 15 seconds sounds like enough time to enter an answer but it turns out you’re really running against the…

  • More Moby: Be the One EP

    More Moby: Be the One EP

    (via Vegan.com) Moby has released a free EP in advance of his next album.

  • Mary Gauthier and Tania Elizabeth at Me & Thee Coffeehouse

    Mary Gauthier and Tania Elizabeth at Me & Thee Coffeehouse

    Friday Jo and I had the chance to see one of our favorite songwriters, Mary Gauthier, at the Me & Thee Coffeehouse in Marblehead (blurry iPhone foto above). The Me & Thee has been holding shows in the Unitarian Universalist Church on Mugford Street for 41 years, and is really a wonderful venue for seeing…

  • Vegan French Bistro Comfort Mats

    Vegan French Bistro Comfort Mats

    So I’m browsing the Ballard Designs catalog the other day and I stumbled upon these “French Bistro Comfort Mats,” which are described thusly: The fun design is based on a chalkboard menu we saw outside a Paris bistro Since I can’t resist an excuse to try out my French reading comprehension (which was never great…

  • Songs for living

    Songs for living

    From the always masterful Ze Frank, a TED talk highlighting a number of his recent projects, starting with Ray (I’m about to whip somebody’s ass) and culminating in the Chillout Song. Somewhere between “I’m about to whip somebody’s ass” and “Hey, You’re Ok” is my new personal theme song. If I were a multi-millionaire I’d…

  • Cee Lo Green’s F&#* You in French Sign Language

    Cee Lo Green’s F&#* You in French Sign Language

    (via Stereogum and other places) comes this French Sign Language reading of Cee Lo Green’s recent hit. Love the enthusiasm and attitude throughout.

  • Nuf Said?

    Nuf Said?

    in a symbolic move today, House members from both parties read the Constitution aloud on the House floor (NPR) Otto West: Apes don’t read philosophy. Wanda: Yes they do, Otto. They just don’t understand it. Further: NewSouth Books’ upcoming edition of Mark Twain’s seminal novel “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” will remove all instances of the…

  • Strange Powers

    Strange Powers

    (via NPR Music) Stephin Merritt of the Magentic Fields is the subject and star of a new documentary: Strange Powers. Apparently it was released on 10/27/10 and screened in Boston last April – but it won’t be available for the Netflix queue for a while.

  • The Great Income Shift

    The Great Income Shift

    (via Economist’s View) Some very interesting data from the Congressional Budget Office and analysis by Chuck Marr the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities describing the shift in income since 1979. The bars represent the difference between what actually happened (the real income distribution in 2007) against what would have happened had the income distribution…