Exiting 2007 on a high note…thanks to all of you!

With just hours left to go in 2007, I just wanted to thank all of our friends, supporters, listeners and guests one more time for making this past year such an incredible experience for me and John.

Looking at our stats, the Technology and the Arts blog is at the height of its popularity…except for in March when legions of fans of both Christian Beach and Gregg Taylor/Decoder Ring Theatre stopped by to listen to their interviews and inflated our numbers drastically. However, with March being the exception, more people stopped by to visit the site in December than in any other month since we started this endeavor.

So thank you so much for tuning in and reading the blog. We look forward to bringing you another year’s worth of podcasts in 2008.

Happy New Year!

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Happy Holidays from Technology and the Arts

Flickr photo attribution (clockwise from top left)…

Holiday spirit by Kelley Mari

Technology and the Arts logo by lemasney

‘Tis better to light a candle by Unhindered by Talent

candle light i by Laenulfean

(T+A #25) Technology and the Arts: 12/19/2007

(T+A #25) Technology and the Arts: 12/19/2007

Barbara Mink, director and founder of the Light in Winter Festival in Ithaca, N.Y., discusses the annual event celebrating the synergies of science and the arts in this installment of the Technology and the Arts podcast. Other topics of discussion include year-end “top 10” lists, Christmas stories on OldRadioFun.com, the RIAA’s unfair view of “fair use,” and social music site iLike.com. Hosts: Brian Kelley, John LeMasney. File size: 15 MB. Time: 30 min., 30 sec.

NOTE: Once again, I had to correct something in the audio file for this podcast. If you downloaded it before 11 p.m. ET on 12/20/07, you may want to try it again for the best possible version. Sorry about that. Oh, and I do know that I say at the end of this podcast that our next show will be Wednesday, January 9, 2007…instead of 2008…d’oh! – Brian

Show Notes for Technology and the Arts Podcast #25

Barbara Mink, director and founder of the Light in Winter Festival in Ithaca, N.Y., discusses the annual event celebrating the synergies of science and the arts in this installment of the Technology and the Arts podcast. Other topics of discussion include year-end “top 10” lists, Christmas stories on OldRadioFun.com, the RIAA’s unfair view of “fair use”, and social music site iLike.com. Hosts: Brian Kelley, John LeMasney. File size: 15 MB. Time: 30 min., 30 sec.

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Featured Story:

• Light in Winter Festival – Barbara Mink, director and founder of the Light in Winter Festival in Ithaca, N.Y., talks about this annual event celebrating the synergies of science and the arts. This year’s event takes place January 18-20, 2008. Watch the promotional video at the bottom of this post.

Related Links:

• crumb.tumblr.com – John LeMasney’s tumble log.
• bktandem.tumblr.com – Brian Kelley’s tumble log.
• John and Brian reflect on one year of producing the Technology and the Arts podcast.
• Changes are coming for lemasney.com because…
• …John is moving entirely off Windows at home and going all Linux!
• Brian and John once again thank Pandora, the Urban Saloon in Philadelphia and Bud Select for a great time out on Dec. 5.
• John talks about a recent presentation by DJ Sakuramboo at a recent Linux Users Group in Princeton (LUG/IP) meeting in which he turned a terminatorx/aldrin demonstration into a 40-minute performance. Check out David A. Harding’s blog post featuring a description and photos of the event.
• John Time Magazine’s list of “50 Top 10 Lists.”
• Since we’re in the season, try to listen to some Christmas stories on OldRadioFun.com.
• John searches the Internet for new pizza dough recipes, like this one…and this one.
• Brian takes one more shot at the Recording Industry Association of America — the RIAA, for short — in 2007, as it continues to insist that ripping a CD that you legally purchased onto your computer as a backup or to put on your MP3 player is the same as stealing music.
• And since we are in the final days of the holiday season, check out Ars Technica’s holiday hardware guide.
• If you are a creative person and need better time management skills, check out a free ebook called “Time Management for Creative People.”
• Social music site iLike.com has already made it big on Facebook. Now, it plans on dominating the music scene across the entire social networking universe.
• Check out the Technology and the Arts Events page.
• Also, just to be clear, at the end of this podcast, I say that our next show will be Wednesday, January 9, 2007…obviously, I meant to say 2008. Sorry about that.

Promotional video for Light in Winter…

Link

One Long Year!

While the Technology and the Arts blog celebrated its first year of existence on November 30, today marks the first anniversary of the debut of the Technology and the Arts podcast (show notes), so John and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our listeners, guests, friends and supporters.

We truly appreciate every single person who has helped make this podcast an enjoyable endeavor for me and John. It has been an honor for us to talk to all of our guests during our first year of doing this, so we would like to acknowledge all of them in this post.

• Susan Kaprov, artist (T+A #1)
• Patricia Lay, artist (T+A #1)
• Sharon Libes, artist (T+A #
• Barbara Osterman, artist (T+A #2)
• Alan Goldsmith, exhibit curator (T+A #2)
• Sally Davidson, exhibit curator (T+A #2)
• Perry Cook, professor of computer science, Princeton University, and co-founder of the Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk)
• Ge Wang, graduate student at Princeton University, and co-founder of PLOrk
• Donald Ambrose, professor of teacher education, Rider University
• Sigfredo Hernandez, associate professor of marketing, Rider University
• Tim Westergren, founder, Pandora
• Gregg Taylor, founder, Decoder Ring Theatre
• Christian Beach, singer-songwriter
• Eddie Kramer, lengendary rock ‘n’ roll producer/engineer (Jimi Hendrix)
• 2007 Trenton Computer Festival exhibitors and attendees (including members of MARCH – Mid-Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists)
• Janie Hermann and Evan Klimpl of the Princeton (N.J.) Public Library’s Poetry Podcast
• Marsha Loftis, creator/producer/writer/narrator of the “Madie: Life in Bear Country” podcast
• J.G. Birdsall, writer/director of the “Venus Rises” sci-fi vidcast
• Whitney Hoffman, creator/producer of the the LD Podcast and lead organizer of PodCamp Philly 2007
• Veronica Yankowski, photographer

Oh, by the way…the title of this post is a reference to what I will be doing tonight on this anniversary of the Technology and the Arts podcast. I will be at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, N.J., with my friend Christian Beach to take in a performance by one of our early musical influcences, Todd Rundgren…who released a CD back in 2000 called “One Long Year.”

I would love to get a quick interview with Todd for our podcast, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. However, that would be one cool anniversary gift!

Once again, thank you for reading and listening during this past year. John and I really appreciate it.

– Brian

UPDATE (12-14-2007) – Because I had actually written this before posting the special “Night with Pandora” podcast, I left out our most recent guests from the honor roll above…so allow me to correct that now…

• John S. James, editor/publisher of “AIDS Treatment News” and computer programmer
• Chris McGrew, videographer for Pandora and drummer for the band Griddle
• Kevin Seal, host of the “Pandora Presents” podcast and vocalist/keyboardist for Griddle.

T+A Special: A Night with Pandora in Philly

T+A Special: A Night with Pandora in Philly

Brian Kelley and John LeMasney, hosts of the Technology and the Arts podcast, attended a Pandora get-together at the Urban Saloon in Philadelphia on Dec. 5, 2007, and had a chance to interview some of those in attendance, including: John S. James, an editor of an AIDS newsletter and a computer programmer who has an idea that may impact the online music industry; Chris McGrew, drummer for the band Griddle; and Kevin Seal, host of the “Pandora Presents” podcast and also a member of Griddle. File size: 21 MB. Time: 43 min., 55 sec.

John and I would like to thank “the other” John, Chris and Kevin for taking the time to join us for interviews. We would also like to thank the Urban Saloon, Bud Select and, especially, Pandora for a really great time.

Stay tuned for our final regular podcast of 2007 on Dec. 19!

– Brian

Pandora Presents at the Urban Saloon

At the risk of repeating myself, Brian and I had a lot of fun on Wednesday night at the Urban Saloon in Philadelphia talking with Pandora users at the Pandora Presents get together.

Pandora, ( http://pandora.com ) for those of you who might not know, is an online music service that allows you to log in and create ‘radio stations’ that you program to your own tastes.

In Pandora, in each station, you start with a song, and as a song finishes, another song starts. You thumbs-up songs that you like, and you thumbs-down songs that you don’t.  Each vote shapes the musical taste in your radio station. By voting, you also inform the Music Genome Project about someone who likes songs a, b, and f, but not g, j, or t.

The more users who vote, the more likely that the music that Pandora suggests for you to listen to (tuned by you and influenced by others who tune their stations in similar ways) is enjoyable, interesting, and surprising.

They also allow people to advertise their stations to others, and create multiple stations, so I might have a lemasney approved jazz station, a rock based holiday songs station, and a drum and bass club mix. Or, I could just find others’ existing shared stations that meet those needs.

They also just recently added classical music to the stations, so the music is becoming more and more diverse, just the way we like it.
It’s a fun way to listen to music, a great way to find new sounds that you are likely to enjoy, and a great form of social collective work that influences on both an individual and a group level.

Special thanks to Kevin Seal, the host of the evening, and Chris McGrew, for stopping by to converse with Technology and the Arts. Go, Griddle!

(T+A #24) Technology and the Arts: 12/5/2007

(T+A #24) Technology and the Arts: 12/5/2007

In this installment of the Technology and the Arts podcast, we will discuss some interesting news, web sites and online resources we have come across recently, including FoodTube.net, art inspired by spam subject lines (see example at right), recreations of iconic photographs featuring senior citizens, and six things to be thankful for in technology. Plus, we’ll take a look at Pandora’s new classical music service and Google’s upcoming online storage utility. Hosts: Brian Kelley, John LeMasney. File size: 13 MB. Time: 28 min., 15 sec.

Show Notes for Technology and the Arts Podcast #24

In this installment of the Technology and the Arts podcast, we will discuss some interesting news, web sites and online resources we have come across recently, including FoodTube.net, art inspired by spam subject lines (see example at right), recreations of iconic photographs featuring senior citizens, and six things to be thankful for in technology. Plus, we’ll take a look at Pandora’s new classical music service and Google’s upcoming online storage utility. Hosts: Brian Kelley, John LeMasney. File size: 13 MB. Time: 28 min., 15 sec.

• Subscribe to podcast via RSS feed
  
• Subscribe to podcast via iTunes

Featured Story:

• Linzie Hunter’s Spam-Inspired Illustrations – Linzie Hunter is a UK-based freelance artist who has a series of illustrations based on spam subject lines, similar to the “No Girls Laugh at Me Now” illustration above. Check out her work.

Related Links:

• crumb.tumblr.com – John LeMasney’s tumble log.
• bktandem.tumblr.com – Brian Kelley’s tumble log.
• John discusses the new Rider University home page…coming soon.
• PodCamp NYC 2.0 is coming soon…to Brooklyn!
• A cover of David Bowie’s “Five Years” recorded by Christian Beach and featuring Brian Kelley on organ will be included on “Hero-The Main Man Records Tribute to David Bowie,” scheduled for release this Christmas.
• Brian recently saw They Might Be Giants play in Philly. While TMBG was awesome, Brian suggests you check out the opening act that night, Oppenheimer, a Belfast, Ireland-based synth-pop duo who really know how to write somewhat-quirky, fun pop songs.
• Also, Brian continues to work on new songs that he is publishing on his MySpace Music site.
• John talks about objects made of other objects, such as this spider made from scissors.
• Another thing that caught John’s eye recently was iconic photographs recreated using senior citizens.
• Google is reportedly close to launching its long-awaited online storage service.
• The One Laptop Per Child Foundation has unveiled a “Get One, Give One” promotion. Buy two laptops for a total of $425 (including shipping)…you get one and the other gets donated to a deserving child.
• One subway train in New York City apparently forbids cast members from Full House.
• Dezeen.com shows off redesigned compact fluorescent light bulbs.
• John discusses a New York Times slideshow depicting the working conditions at a foundry in India where New York City manhole covers are made.
• Pandora has added classical music to the Music Genome Project.
• A University of Utah professor calculates he rings up $12.45 million in copyright liability each day — without participating in peer-to-peer file sharing — and says overly broad copyright laws have made the United States a “nation of infringers.”
• Ars Technica presents six things to be thankful for in technology, 2007.
• Grant Achatz, acclaimed chef-owner of Allinea, has made a deal in which the Internet will be used in interesting ways to publish a cookbook.
• Want to learn how to cook a certain recipe by watching somebody do it? Try FoodTube.net, which aggregates cooking videos from sites like YouTube and Google Video by recipe to give you visual step-by-step instructions for preparing a dish. Some videos are homemade, while others are cooking shows uploaded to YouTube or other video sites.
• Check out the Technology and the Arts Events page.