my designer went to Flashbelt and all she brought back for me was...
...this photo of foam on the river, shot from the pedestrian bridge at the U.
Seriously, however: Flashbelt was once again chiefly an inspiration. The session topics I chose were rather polarized, with not a whole lot of notable presentations in between widely experimental digitally-initiated and Adobe stumping for its new creative suite. I'm not sure if this observation just illustrates something about me or about Flashbelt, but, well, there you have it.
Experimental Juju:
Jeremy Thorp's "The Pixel Economy" presentation. Be sure to check out his
Plumage project. The
Variance one is good as well.
Joshua Davis is one animated speaker. To illustrate his thoughts on the true organic, and ecstatic, nature of improvisation, he opened up the session by playing this most excellent video of a
Stevie Wonder drum solo. You can check out his Dynamic Abstraction experiments
here. I was sad to discover that, while I did get to see a little of his work at the Cooper-Hewitt a few weeks ago, he has a new and sure-to-be excellent
show in Brooklyn, right now. Dude likes flowers. And fabrics with flowers. Love it.
I felt like I needed more coffee (like, three depth charges) in order to keep up with Paul Ortchanian, but he presented an impressive series of math-driven visual experiments, all of which can be found somewhere on
his site. My conclusion from these presentations: the path to flash enlightenment and fulfillment is right there in front of me, but I will need to forgo some sleep (and other healthful habits as well) in order to gain ground.
Adobe Is God King Of This My Digital World:
Step Inside The Creative Mind. Flash CS3 has some excellent features & I can't wait to try them out. Also, I can do video with Flash (some great tips were provided by
Lisa Larson). Some great examples:
neave.tv and
Caveman's Crib. For sample video clips to get started, I can go to the
Prelinger Archives.
One of the few middle-ground sessions I attended was the Flash Accessibility (see blog
here) Dinner with Adobe's Bob Regan, and it was most informative and enjoyable. Some things I learned: Blindness/some degree of visual disability is not the most common form of disability, but it does have the most effective lobby (and for that reason, it is the main focus of designers concerned with accessibility).
The most common form of disability is cognitive disability-and it is the one disability whose troubles are not solved by using plain text in internet applications.
The best tool a designer can use to improve the accessibility of her work is to get into the habit of testing her work with a screen reader utility. DAILY. TWICE.
Some key concepts for Flash Design for Accessibility: Label, Role, State, and Structure. Be thoughtful and thorough. Other links:
Adobe's Accessibility Resource page.
Also,
David Lowe-Rogstad presented some excellent cases for user-driven online experiences, advising designers to build prototypes, listen to user feedback, and work with it. Topic is well-blogged about
here. Examples included Nike's JoinBode.com site (taken down but reviewed nastily
here). Here's
a book to read.
Labels: design, media
Orange you glad...
This is the first summer that the butterfly weed (one of the rain garden employees) has bloomed. This is most excellent news, especially as the Louisiana iris that we snuck into the otherwise native plant-filled garden is languishing. Ah well, serves us right. At least the native blue flag iris are flourishing.
Labels: garden
and I'm not talking Russell Stovers
Endeavoring to prolong our vacation, hubbie and I (only after getting the yard watered) headed out yesterday afternoon to see
"Paris, JE T'AIME." The film is a collection of 20 vignettes shot by 20 different directors, shot in 20 different Paris neighborhoods. Seeing it was a great way to wrap up a vacation to a large city, even if it wasn't the same one.
Without sounding too trite, it was like a box of chocolates - very good chocolates, like the Godivas that Steve got for me this Valentine's Day. Each vignette started with a brief scenic shot of the appropriate
endroit, captured in the typical damp but glowing grey of Paris. At that point, I knew something flavorful was coming, but didn't know if it would be happy, sad, or just plain weird. I can't pick a favorite, but Wes Craven's "Père-Lachaise" segment was particularly... Parisian.
Trains!
Back from New York/Jersey. Ate/visited/imbibed here:
Azucar Cuban Cuisine: a most excellent batch of Yuca Frita Cubana & a yummy mojito as well.
The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum: The National Design Triennial was exhaustive but excellent. Loved the
Josh Davis work. I'm looking forward to his session at
Flashbelt. The
Ladd Brothers' "elaborate handcrafted works" were beautiful and inventive; it reminded me of works by Holly Anderson Jorde and Erika Olson, in
a recent exhibit here in St. Paul.
Resto: A great Dutch baby and some excellent Belgian brews (check out the decor- and the great gams on that table- in the photo at left).
Blind Tiger Ale House: Mmm, the Brooklyn Wheat, with Murray's cheeses.
Robongi in Hoboken- yet another great sushi meal. With
Ben!
The Overnight: Very powerful. We miss Jenny. Many people there were missing loved ones, as well: there were a lot of great t-shirts with photos, quotes, and loving words.
South Street Seaport: Very busy. Bustling, even. Loud but fun. I love wharfs (usually).
Dodo offered a most excellent organic pinot noir from Mendocino.
Josh & Ive's: Got a smashed bagel there, and a "sober" one as well, to share with hubbie. It's funny that, for backpacking food, I choose bagels because they
can't get smashed, and yet here we pay extra to get them smashed. Odd gimmick, but still made for a much better post-run breakfast than our hotel's restaurant could offer.
That run, by the way, was most excellent. I wish I could pull off something similar at home: mark out a run that puts me at a bagel shop that is x desired miles away from where I start. Run the route, buy bagels and coffee, then drink coffee while waiting for commuter train to take me back to start, where I then enjoy the bagels with husband.
Rosa Mexicano had the tastiest salsa I've ever had.
A funny moment, near end of trip: at 10:05pm, walking to PATH train inHoboken, a voice yells from some apartment: "Tony Soprano LIVES!" (The HBO series finale had just ended.)
Labels: food, running, travel
Somebody took a shotgun to my Hosta
These Asiatic lilies decided not to open up unti after the hailstorm that shredded my hostas Francee and Frances Williams, at left. Still, these hosta have grown so much in their first two years - tripling their size from last year- that we'll need to divide them at the end of the summer.
Here's a view north from the middle of the rain garden: clockwise from top we have blue flag iris, red-twig (Ivory Halo) dogwood, hardy hosta, milkweed (or boneset?), bottle-brush, then some red lobelia.
This is the first year of blooms for those native Siberian (blue flag) iris... they too waited until after last weekend's hail, to open up.
Labels: garden
married a year
Our most excellent anniversary dinner, Sunday at
112 Eatery:
Course 1:
boston bibb w/ fine herb vinaigrette
cold cuts w/ pickles
Course 2:
tagliatelle w/ foie gras meatballs
marinated bone-in pork tenderloin
cauliflower fritters
Course 3:
chocolate pot de crème
Wine:
rioja, tempranillo, ramon bilbao, spain 2001
Labels: food
no time for oatmeal
My 8k race on Sunday went very well, in spite of oversleeping past the time I'd planned to eat a decent breakfast. As it turns out, a previously-thought-to-be indecent breakfast of a z-bar, banana and 3 sips of coffee worked out just fine. No sideache, even. A most excellent run.
I managed to maintain an 8:06 per mile pace, finishing with a time of 0:40:17. Onward!
Labels: running
