commuting fun
May 21, 2003 by Eric Richardson
Often times if I hit traffic downtown on my commute from JPL to campus I'll drop down Hill St. and avoid the 110 deadlock. Today I realized one reason I like that route so much, even though I can't say that it necessarily saves time -- it's shady. You can never say too much about how nice it is to stop in the shade of a sky-scraper when the sun's beating down outside. Speaking of LA, when looking up some information on the Fort Moore memorial on Hill I found some cool panoramic pictures of mostly the downtown area.
i need a police scanner
May 19, 2003 by Eric Richardson
So just now I'm sitting in bed, watching Simpsons, when all of a sudden a deafening roar shoots past, sounding like a fighter plane swooping over our building. Then it happens again, so I finally get up to look. It's the LAPD ghetto-bird, but flying harder than I've ever seen it fly. They illuminate a house a block back from my apartment (just across 29th), and keep circling tight. Then the cars show up. Final estimate I'd put around 10 LAPD cars, and 3 or 4 DPS vehicles. Late in the game a fire engine and an ambulance make appearances. Then the chopper leaves after 6 or 7 minutes, and I'm left just watching a huddle of cops on the sidewalk. Very unfulfilling. I wish there was some way to know what was going on in situations like this.
mmm... music
May 19, 2003 by Eric Richardson
Today I got a hold of the new Tricky album and posted Car Crash as a new song of the moment. Vulnerable is a very cool album. But what I really wanted to post here was that former Tricky vocalist Martina Topley Bird has her first single out (with a video), and it's a surprisingly straight forward rock and roll song. I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of her album when it comes out.
Tricky - Car Crash
May 19, 2003 by Eric Richardson
Tricky's newest cd, Vulnerable, released in Europe today. I couldn't resist, so I downloaded it. The whole cd has vocals by Italian unknown Costanza Francavilla, and her voice is a perfect highlight for Tricky's deep textures. My other favorite songs on the album, "Dear God" and "Hollow", both share the pacing of "Car Crash," one that I think serves Tricky very well. It's not a perfect album, but again Tricky continues his unending evolution and does it well.
next step in the copyright battle
May 19, 2003 by Eric Richardson
In my paper on copyright and the public domain I concluded by saying that change would only come via legislation. The first steps in that direction have now begun, as lobbying starts for the Eric Eldred Act. The idea behind the act isn't new, and it doesn't address all problems with current copyright, but the important thing is that it's a sensible proposal that has a chance of getting passed. This will only happen, however, if people take a stand and let their representatives in Washington know that this bill is something they care about.