Light Festival Ok; Bikes Very Good
November 21, 2006 by Eric Richardson
Last night Kathy and I took a bike ride to go check out DWP's Festival of Lights at Griffith Park. As Mack wrote over at LA Voice, it's a bit cheesy as far as lights go, but it was a good destination and a good ride.
DWP does this yearly at the park and it's absurd that it's only open to cyclists for two hours on one night. Seeing as it's open to cars for 38 days, five hours a day, that's a good 1.04% of the time bikes are allowed.
You can check out the route we took via GMap Pedometer. We went up and over the hill via Glendale Blvd, then down the bike path to Zoo Drive. On the way back we went bike path to Riverside to Broadway and down into Downtown.
Crossing the Broadway bridge on the way back we paused and I took a few photos of Downtown, including the one above. I think I'd take Downtown's light show over the DWP one any night.
Recent Bicycle Ride Photos
November 17, 2006 by Eric Richardson
I've been getting out on the bike a bit more lately, which means I've also been taking photos. Some sets I particularly enjoy --
Elysian Park by Bicycle
Elysian Park by Bicycle Redux -- Night
IAAL-MAF: Take Back the Observatory
Beginning of the 3D Web? Hardly.
November 06, 2006 by Eric Richardson
It's a trip to read articles today talking about Microsoft's new Virtual Earth 3D.
"What we're announcing is what we believe is the beginning of the 3D Web," said Bobby Figueroa, product management director for Microsoft's Live Local Search.
The re-beginning, maybe, but I remember back to the days of 1998 or so when VRML was all the rage. Heck, it was 1997 when SGI unveiled "Flook", a 3d cartoon that seems to no longer be findable online. I remember SGI's Cosmo Player (also seemingly disappeared in SGI's mind wipe) on both IRIX and Windows. Black Sun Interactive (the makers of "PointWorld", which I think I used to go onto with the hip name "agrosk8er") has since become Blaxxun, but they're still doing multiplayer 3D worlds.
Heck, my time playing with VRML stuff was before I even started blogging, and that was in November of 1998.
I guess all this stuff was just too old to get remembered when it came time for deciding what constituted a "beginning."
Update (10:30): Check out this video newsclip for Flook from 1996.
Fun with Food
November 04, 2006 by Eric Richardson
One of the things you certainly get out of wedding gifts is a kitchen full of appliances, mixing bowls, utensils, etc. One of our gifts was a waffle maker and we've have put that to work several times lately. This morning I made chocolate waffles using a recipe from Alton Brown and Good Eats. Very good.
At some point I need to break out of my breakfast and meat mold and start making some real meals. First, though, we need to get a table. There's something about cooking a real meal to eat at the coffee table that just doesn't quite feel right.
Still Digging Danielson
October 22, 2006 by Eric Richardson
I have a habit of getting really into music others tend to think is just odd. For instance, I really like Blonde Redhead. Back in March of 2004 I wrote:
When you first hear it, you think it's going to be possibly the most annoying thing you've ever heard. But then you listen for a few more minutes. All of a sudden it's not annoying. All of a sudden you're hooked. But inevitably you set it aside for a little bit, and you forget. You remember that there's a grindingly high vocal, but not that it leaves you in a trance.
But then you hear them again, and you remember it all.
Far beyond that goes my long-held appreciation of the band Danielson Famile. I probably first heard them in 1996 or 1997 and just loved the song "Smooth Death." Then a few years later I got back into them, as evidenced by this 2001 blog post. Then last May I again got a hankering and picked up the Brother to Son album.
Last weekend Kathy and I went to Amoeba and what did I buy? Danielson's new album Ships. "Did I Step on Your Trumpet?" and "Time That Bald Sexton" are particularly amazing.