Palladian
Target Pharmacy - Amazing labeling system for pharmaceuticals that Target rolled out a couple of years ago. Also, I haven’t been able to find it, but they have this fantastic logo for their pharmacy that looks like a pill, and the little specs in one side are tiny Target logos. I thought it was really eye catching, both from far away and up close.
This picture is hilarious.
1992: Philharmonic plays Carnival of the Animals - Katy took me to see Joshua Bell at the Ordway for my birthday this past May. In addition to the violins sounding gorgeous, Mr. Bell was (to my untrained ears) awe-inspiringly amazing. (For someone who made his Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 18, I should hope so!)
Anyhow, one of the movements performed was Carnival of the Animals, which is typically accompanied with prose by Ogden Nash. In the past decade or so, however, verses by Mr. Peter Schickele are also used. He’s famous for inventing a fictional brother of J.S. Bach’s, named P.D.Q. Bach. Interestingly enough, P.D.Q. Bach actually has real recordings. For example, Oedipus Tex and Other Choral Calamities. Anyhow, now that you know who he is, a joke from Mr. Schickele:
The “Elephants” movement, for example, was preceded by a parable in which an elephant with a dreadful cold decides that he is at death’s door, and gives away all his worldly possessions. He wakes up the next day cured of his cold but penniless, from which Mr. Schickele drew the moral, “just because your trunk is packed doesn’t mean you’re ready to go.”
A cornucopia of unique business cards - See anything you like, Mykala? I liked two of the dentist ones—the one with floss threaded between teeth at the bottom, and the other with an embossed impression of teeth. Fun!
Nothing like putting the cart before the horse.
Neigh!
1983: Stereophile’s jubilant review of the first CD player - You see, when the compact disc came into the consumer space, it was a pretty big deal. An entire host of problems were completely eliminated:
… the sound was so opulently gorgeous it almost defied belief! It was a total incarnation of the perfectionist’s wildest dreams: rich, velvety, airy, awesome, liquid, yet incredibly detailed. There were none of the analog disc’s problems. No marginal mistracking, no subtle VTA-error distortions, no disc-resonance smearing, no feedback-induced low-end boom or mud, no ticks or pops or pressing grumbles even at the highest listening levels. And there was no analog-tape flutter or modulation noise or transient-rounding or print-through or hiss.
I don’t know what much of that means, but I do know that the Sony CDP-101 was a big deal when it arrived. I think it’s hard now to understand what a massive jump in sound quality it was.
The father of the father of Engadget - Peter Rojas eulogizes his father, the man who inspired his passion for gadgets and technology. A heartfelt, moving, piece of writing. The paragraph that struck me most:
What always amazed me about him was how multifaceted he was. He was an intellectually curious physician living in a small town who had traveled the world, read at least a book a week up until he died, could continually kick my ass in Scrabble even though he didn’t learn English until he was 23, and knew practically everything there was to know about classical music, Spanish wines, and French cinema. All I wanted to be when I grew up was as smart as my dad.
Sometimes, when you’re job searching, you are looking up businesses and their locations in your area. Then, you find yourself Google Mapsing Hawaii, specifically the spot where you vacationed last…
Yes, there it is, 484 Kuhio Hwy, Kapaa, Kauai, Plantation Hale: Best Western. For being a Best Western, the place was very very clean, had a great view, and a very good concierge service. The thing that was coolest for me, coming from Minnesota, was that the hallways had no walls at the end. It was just stairs protected by the overhang from the roof. So, each morning when you stepped out of your room, there was a gentle Hawaiian breeze blowing through the hallway.
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