October 2003

Dave Winer picked up on a salon idea that I suggested at one of the Thursday night weblog writer meetings at Berkman a few weeks ago. Bloggercon is a great event to have once a year, but in the meantime it would be nice to get people together in a mostly informal, conversational setting discussing pre-selected topics. For the Boston salon perhaps Chris Lydon could conduct a 10-15 minute interview wih someone in the room and have it taped for his MP3 archive. The interview would then kick-off the open discussion. Dave mentions that a few people might be flown in to participate. I’m not sure I see the need for this. There are so many people to tap into in the Boston/Cambridge area and I’m sure that is true for the rest of the world whether the salon is in New York City or Sheyboygan. In any event, it should be an interesting adventure to discuss at tonight’s weblog writer meeting!

“Now in its eleventh year, the South by Southwest Interactive Festival emphasizes cutting-edge, creative thinking as related to the world of websites, interactivity and online technology.”

That sums up the official description of the annual South by Southwest Festival but it’s also an affordable and inspiring adventure in Austin to get together with other people working in technology/web/Internet worlds. It’s also the most exhilarating five days you can spend conspiring with people who are collaborating and creating independent web projects. The deadline to submit your website to the 2004 Web Awards Competition is Friday, December 19th. The walkup rate to register for the conference is $250. You can save $75 if you register by November 14th. And if you have a spare two weeks you could also attend the film and music festivals and absorb everything.

Southwest Airlines is a good option out of Providence for reasonable airfares (as low as $99 each way).

I spent Saturday and Sunday in New York City with friends so we could go to Cynthia Von Buhler’s party Saturday night. Cynthia has an enormous (4,500 square feet) loft in the meat packing district that she has transformed into CVB Space, a gallery featuring her artwork and the work of others, too. By the time we got back to Josh’s apartment in Brooklyn it was 5am and we had to be up a few hours later to meet Carrie, Jeffrey and Miranda for brunch. Who needs sleep?

After the Berkman weblog writers meeting tonight we relocated to Changsho for dinner. I got pretty good advice at the end, as seen above. Matt May from the W3C’s Accessibility Group attended the meeting in town from Seattle for a few weeks. We knew each other online a long time ago and hadn’t seen each other in person since Web99 in San Francisco. It was a very cool surprise to see him at the meeting. It’s been that kind of month.

Lush, a handmade cosmetics store, finally landed in Boston a few weeks ago at 166 Newbury Street. I’m not really a perfume-y kind of person but their products are exceptional and everything is made of organic, fresh stuff. And their products have very amusing names including my favorites Rock Star Soap (it smells like candy), Ceridwen’s Cauldron (A fizzy bath concoction), and Wiccy Magic Muscles (a massage bar that includes cinnamon leaf, spice oils and aduki beans). I’ve been ordering from their Vancouver, Canada store for years. It’s about time they arrived in Boston. Last night I had two hours to occupy before the Mass for Dean canvassing meeting at Marche so I wandered down Newbury Street to find Lush. You can smell the store at least ten feet away. I picked up some “Demon in the Dark” soap and a few other things. Thanks to Shannon for alerting me about the store’s arrival to Boston. Yum.

Whatcha doin’ with a suitcase
Tryin’ to hit the ground with both feet runnin’
Aren’t you trippin’ on your shoelace

You’re stealin’ away on a sunny day
Well aren’t you ashamed at all
Funny but I feel like I’m fallin’
I wanna beg you to stay
You’re stealin’ away on a sunny day
— “Suitcase“, from Over The Rhine’s OHIO album

Last week I finally had a chance to see Over The Rhine in concert, a favorite band of Shannon’s and Annalisa’s (both natives of OTR’s homeland Ohio). It was a great show but TT’s was definately too small of a room to even attempt to contain their sound. After the show I took a photo of Gregor with Over The Rhine’s Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist.

Last night I was wading through my old photo archives at capricious.org and stumbled across this photo I took of a peony a few years ago. It’s too bad my favorite flower is only around a few months each year. Click the image to see a larger photograph.

I got home a few hours ago from my weekend canvassing/volunteering for Howard Dean in Dover, New Hampshire. It was a wonderful weekend. I took a bunch of photos that I need to get developed tomorrow. I’ll have more to say about the experience when I put the photos online. But in the meantime, this is a photo Jerry Sneivson of Durham, NH, took of the Mass for Dean volunteers who spent the weekend canvassing in Dover. This morning Dean gave a short speech at the Elks Lodge in Dover. As he was shaking hands and talking to people I asked Chad (Dean’s driver) if we could somehow get Dean to take a photo with the Mass for Dean group. Dean has a very gracious staff — somehow they managed to make it work. We were all assembled outside next to Dean’s van so when he walked out we were ready and waiting for the photo. Click on the image to see a larger photograph.

On Sunday Heath Row’s Boston World Explorer’s Foundation is going on a trip to Fun Spot in New Hampshire, the second largest arcade in the country. Sounds like an amusing and fun trip. Heath needed RSVPs this morning but there’s a mailing list for future events, too. This brings back memories of when my parents owned a bar when I was a kid and I would spend Saturday afternoons taking quarters from the cash register to play Asteroids.