Just released: Curt Smith’s new single “All Is Love (featuring Zoë Keating)”

In case you don’t follow me on Twitter (and why on earth not???), here’s a tip: The new single from Tears for Fears co-founder Curt Smith, “All Is Love (featuring Zoë Keating),” is available for the next few days as a free MP3 download from AmazonMP3 (U.S. only – it’s an Amazon U.S. thing). It’s awfully good. Click below to grab it.

Shagadelic, baby

My favorite new iPhone app is PhotoTropedelic by Larry Weinberg ($1.99). I’ll say upfront that v1.0 auto-adds a credit to your photos – BOO for a paid app –  but the developer  heard the cries of his public and has submitted a 1.1 revision which he promises will eiminate this annoyance.

Here are a few originals and the PhotoTropedelic versions I created of them. Click  each one for a larger image. For a one-button photo modifying app, it’s pretty sweet, don’t you think?

How the International Medical Alliance is Assisting the Haiti Relief Effort

… and how you can, too.

I received this email late on Saturday from Lee Kagan, our personal physician and longtime friend:

Dear Friends:

The photo below was taken today (Saturday, Jan. 16) at the hospital in Jimani, Dominican Republic, where a medical team from the International Medical Alliance (www.imaonline.org) is now working. The town sits an hour east of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, right on the frontier. Refugees fleeing the chaos in the Haitian capital are streaming over the border into Jimani. Doctors with the IMA who are there describe Haitians with crush injuries arriving at the hospital in the backs of dump trucks. The hospital and medical personnel are overwhelmed. This poor rural community where IMA has operated clinics for the past twelve years is now at the epicenter of an emerging refugee crisis. The situation is becoming desperate.

Patty and I have worked with the IMA in Jimani annually for the past two years. The people who run the IMA are the same folks we worked with in NOLA after Katrina. They have operated ongoing clinics for years in Kenya, the Dominican Republic, New Orleans, and elsewhere. There dedication is inspiring. Every dime donated to IMA goes straight to patient care. There is essentially no overhead, no paid staff.

You all look at the news. I don’t have to tell you how desperate the situation in Haiti is. Please consider making a donation to the International Medical Alliance to support the work they do. If you’re looking for an organization that will put your charitable dollars directly to work helping those in need we can tell you that this one does just that. You can donate right on line at their website. (www.imaonline.org) or send a check to the address posted at the site. The website also has some moving photos and written accounts of what they are up against in Jimani.

We are going back to the DR/Haiti frontier next month with an IMA team including students and faculty from the Mayo Clinic Medical School. We are also strongly considering making an additional, earlier trip (in about a week) to join our friends and colleagues who are already there hard at work. We’ll let you know our plans.

Thank you for your support. Our best to you all.

Lee and Patty

Heartbreak

A dear friend, who’s three years my junior, learned yesterday that the breast cancer she’s fought fearlessly for a dozen years will soon have the last laugh. She sent a typically wry email around to announce this news to her “Best Beloveds.”

In it, she muses about how best to use her remaining time. “Does one keep moisturizing,” she wonders, “even if future wrinkles may no longer be an issue? Which books should I read: old favorites or nifty sounding new ones?”

I’m devastated.

The Known Universe, Scientifically Rendered For All to See | American Museum of Natural History News

A welcome, perhaps even necessary, bit of perspective as we ring in the New Year, this short film vividly depicts the Universe as scientists best know it. Produced by Michael Hofman and directed by Carter Emmart, it’s well worth six minutes of your time. Click left or below to view.

The Known Universe Scientifically Rendered For All to See | American Museum of Natural History News.

Photo Blog: Shelf Road Trail, Ojai

On the Sunday after Christmas, we (Tom, Steve, Sims and I, accompanied by Jefferson, S&S’s chocolate lab) hiked the lovely Shelf Road Trail in Ojai.  Below, some iPhone photos from our walk:

My Bunk Bed Is My Screening Room (Guest Blog)

By Ben Wszalek

I love watching movies, and once I moved into my college dorm room, I wanted better sound and picture than my laptop provides.  This is what I’ve devised so far: my dorm room bed – aka “The Screening Room.”

This sheet acts as a curtain that helps to keep light out. It’s not a perfect seal of course but it doesn’t need to be. Even with the lights on the video looks good.

This is the crux of the whole project- my projector, and its shelf. Both had their difficulties; finding the right projector, and then having a stable place to put it. I was using a clip-on shelf with a C-clamp, but it was very unstable and the projector was constantly sliding around. A few sketches and a trip to the hardware store later, and I have a proper shelf which is very stable. The shelf is also fairly easy to move if I want to make it higher or lower.

It’s effectively bolted to the bed using plumbers tape. Even with just one of these brackets, the wood was firmly fixed. With four it isn’t going anywhere even if someone hits it.

Here’s a closer look at the projector. My copy of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” is keeping it propped up at the right angle. I was going to do something fancier but so far I haven’t felt the need.

Another crucial component- the screen. This is a stretched canvas used for painting which I bought at Michael’s for $17 (it was 50% off). While technically any flat, white surface would have worked, it’s better to use something matt and unreflected. The canvas is also very tough and the wooden frame makes it an easy task to simply hang it from some cord.

Behind the screen, some speakers. That shelf was actually originally from my mini fridge, but I had removed it so that I could fit in my water filter. The shelf is attached to the screen frame and rests on one of the bars of the bed frame.

Having the speakers behind the screen was very important. In movie theaters the center speaker is always behind the screen, and generally it just makes logical sense subconsciously that the sound should be coming from the same source as the visual. The speakers are hooked up to my computer via a cable running under the bed.

Here you can see the relation between the computer and the projector. That cable running along the wall is the VGA video cable. The audio cable running to the speakers runs along the floor, as does the USB cable for the mouse (next photo).

Since I can’t reach my computer from my bed, I need to be able to control it from there. A trackball mouse was the easiest way to go; a traditional mouse would not work, because moving it around the uneven surface of the bed would have been difficult and inaccurate. Of course, I still can’t use the keyboard, so I plan on replacing this mouse with a wireless keyboard that has a trackball mouse in it.

And so here is the projected image. It’s about the equivalent of a 40″ television screen (that’s measured diagonally). All told so far I’ve spent about $400 on the project, with most of it going to the projector and the supplies to build the shelf, and the rest being made up of smaller purchases (cables, adapters, etc). That’s not counting some things I already had, such as the speakers.

I don’t consider the project done- it will be a continual work in progress throughout the year, and probably beyond that when I move to a different room next year and redesign it. The main priority now is making it more user friendly and with added features, such as a wireless keyboard and a switch that will allow you to switch from using the speakers to headphones without having to get up or unplug anything. I’m really happy with how it’s turned out and it’s been a blast working on it.

Topa Topa

Sundown, Christmas Day

Temporary Well Being

The pond is plenteous
The land is lush,
And having turned off the news
I am for the moment mellow.

With my book in one hand
And my drink in the other
What more could I want

But fame,
Better health,
And ten million dollars?

– Kenneth Burke

Tits

Tits, by Seb Lester

You can purchase this, and similarly imaginative Seb Lester prints, here. You can also follow him on Twitter, where he’s @seblester.