Thursday, November 25, 2021

Music in the soul...

Alan Watts on finding meaning in meaninglessness

Victor Frankl wrote "between stimulus and response there a space." That space is where we find freedom and growth.

Still trying to find time to drive to Dallas and see Slip Zone: A New Look at Postwar Abstraction in the Americas and East Asia at the DMA. We have until 10 Jul 2022. Here's a write-up of the exhibit from the local NBC affiliate.

Miles Davis' iconic Kind of Blue covered in Seinfeld style: Sein of Blue.

The impossible typeface, inspired by Escher.

It's not a spoiler that Rolling Stones' list of the 50 greatest progressive rock albums is topped by Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. I have 20 of them, including 9 of the top 10.

I don't recall why I bookmarked this page of free, open-source healthcare icons but here they are in case you need to use one.

Along those same lines, here's a page with 4000 web badges, those little rectangles that proclaim some affilition.

Michael Crichton's Andromeda Strain novel and the 1971 film by Robert Wise are both absolute favorites of mine. Meaning I could reread or rewatch at any time with full enjoyment. Here's a look at production of the film. If nothing else, click through and watch the original movie trailer.

Visualizing all the world's languages.

Science has found some of the universe's missing matter, "confirming that 80–90% of normal matter is located outside of galaxies."

Yes, the Crystal Bridges Museum is off the beaten path. And yet it's architecturally beautiful (soon to be 50% larger) and the collection is top-notch. Read Alice Walton's thoughts (of Walmart fame) about what she created in Bentonville.

Like most lists, the compulsion is to see where you fit. In the list of most educated cities in the U.S., the Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington metroplex comes in at a disappointing 73rd place. Madison, WI comes in 5th place which is ahead of 6th place Boston, Cambridge, Newton. 

Austin has been named the #1 place for post-college life in the U.S. Fort Worth is #5.

Prehistoric. Giant. Swimming. Head.

From the Things I Didn't Know Could Be Fossilized, here's some dino skin.

An exhibit of Helen Frankenthaler's work promises to "reveal just how accomplished Frankenthaler was in modulating control and spontaneity in her art.

Often in the discussion of Fort Worth's art museums, one gets left out. There's The Modern and The Kimbell, but don't forgot about the Amon Carter.

You've heard about NUKEMAP, the online tool for computing the effects of a nuclear blast. Here's Earth Impact Effects Program (not nearly as snappy of a name) for computing the effects of a meteor impact.

Speaking of meteor impacts, the legend of Sodom may be based in fact.

Early today I tweeted that Mutual Isolation, the new album from the duo of Colin Edwin and Jon Durant, is probably my favorite of all their albums (under the name Burnt Belief). Here's a preview.

Music for the eyes.

"all marks on a flat surface are abstractions" writes David Hockney in Abstraction In Art Has Run Its Course which is interesting but I didn't reach the same conclusion he has.

I won't make it to the San Francisco MoMA before 17 January, so hopefully someone else will checkout the Joan Mitchell retrospective.

The richest man in Jerusalem probably sat on this throne.

What would a nuclear weapon with a yield of 1,000 Mt be like?

A Bulgarian Air Force SU-25 and accessories in a Tetris Challenge. 

A Tardigrade has been found fossilized in amber. Cue theme music for a tiny Jurassic Park.

Get your groove on with Tycho's Red Rocks DJ set.


Never miss an episode of Ze Frank's True Facts. Here are two: The Mosquito and Lurking in the Deep.

Tom Peters reminds us that hard is soft and soft is hard. I had this conversion with our interns over the summer. 

Only a poor artist blames their instrument. So enjoy art made from checkboxes.

I just became aware of (and ordered) John Coltrane's A Love Supreme - Live in Seattle. There's a preview at the site worth listening to.

Speaking of live music, here's Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians performed live in Paris in 1976.

There are many reasons why The Aviationist is on my list of must-read blogs when it comes up in my RSS feed. Here's one of those reasons - a fabulous slo-mo video of the F-22. I could watch this for hours.

Regrets of the dying might seem a little morbid but they do offer life lessons. #3 I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.

CTO Pradeep Dass calls his hypersonic aircraft "Sexbomb." Send bombs and vagene?

There are many candidates for the best animated short film Oscar. The one that stands out to me for its wonderful geometric animation is Any Instant Whatever by Michelle Brand. 

What do you need to know about quantum physics? #3 Many things will be discrete versus continuous.

I believe the $17 million paid for Agnes Martin's Untitled #44 is a record for the artist.

...can be heard in the universe. ~Lao Tzu (incorrectly attributed)