Kamis, 27 Januari 2011

At Least You Aren't Shoveling Snow Today [Extra Extra]

At Least You Aren't Shoveling Snow Today [Extra Extra]
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WSJ weekends in our town

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and, yes, even Monday make a sojourn in Austin with a full schedule presented on the front page of the Off Duty section of today’s Wall Street Journal (“Take Monday Off: Austin,” byline Kate Bolick).

The on-line version is illustrated by ranks of boots from Allens, but the print version shows, in addition, a delectable entree from Fonda San Miguel, an exterior shot of the Broken Spoke, a western-themed suite in the Driskill, and a half-dozen more (view the slide show).


There’s that word “mosey” again, along with an anonymous reference to a person who can only be Leslie. This piece tries to cover all bases, from some C&W flavor to urban trendy. Coming in for mentions are Hotel San Jose, Uchi, Jo’s, Uncommon Objects, the Continental Club, Waterloo Records, and many, many more destinations.


There’s quite a lively page of commentary, some of it discouraging people from visiting Austin or contemplating living here. Someone cites two of my favorite disadvantages in this context (heat and respiratory allergies), but I don’t see mention of the third repellent, which is the giant cockroach, unfamiliar to people from many parts of our great nation and truly horrifying to them on first sight.


This is really one of the better Austin once-overs; in case inspiration should fail during SxSW, tear this one out and have your house guests play pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey to fill those little gaps in the schedule.

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GTD This Weekend: The Brother and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pantless

Plenty of opportunity for beer, followed by an opportunity to go pant-less. In other words, start the new year off right.


SATURDAY



  • This one basically writes itself: at the Pancakes and Booze Art Show, over 50 “underground” artists will show off their art. In addition, there will be live nude painting, music, and an all you can eat pancake bar. A little beer to wash it all down, and you have the breakfast of champions. $5. From 8pm to 2am on Saturday and Sunday at 2441 Hunter St., Downtown.

  • If you want to cut straight to the beer, head out to Eagle Rock Brewery, which is celebrating its very first birfday. Ten bucks gets you a commemorative pint glass with four drink tickets. $10 at 3056 Roswell Street in Glassell Park, which really is right next to Eagle Rock.

  • 826LA hosts the 3rd Annual “I Work in Reality TV” benefit, with proceeds going to 826LA. Thankfully, you’re not going to be the next Snooki at the benefit (and I mean, “Thankfully” on behalf of the civilized and uncivilized world); rather, the benefit features photos taken by all the people behind the camera who create the reality that you think is television. Suggested donation of $10. Reality bites at 8pm at Lot 613, 613 Imperial Street, Downtown.



SUNDAY



  • ZOMG you’re either going to want to ride the subway today, or avoid it like the plague: GuerilLA Improv leads the charge in the No Pants Subway Ride of 2011. It’s the LA edition of Improv Everwhere’s No Pants Subway Ride, now in its 10th year. That’s a decade of riding the subway pantless, people. See the event stripped down and explained in detail here. Heh heh. The brother- and sisterhoods of the traveling pantless plan on boarding the 2:34pm train from Union Station. Pay your own train fare ($1.50/one way) and fines levied for indecent exposure, if any.

  • Resolve to really lose weight this year? Start it off right with Richard Simmons. Yes, you read that right: he of the shiny workout wear is offering Slimmons, a free motivatonal seminar and exercise classfor those who need to lose 50 pounds or more. Why? “Because you deserve it!” Yes, you do. Registration is at 12:30 at 9306 Civic Center Dr in Beverly Hills.

  • The Echoplex celebrates Elvis’ birthday a day late with a giant bash to benefit the Union Rescue Mission. Lisa Finnie, the Dusk Devils, and the South Bay Surfers will be covering some classic Elvis hits, including, I hope, “Suspicious Minds.” The King would have been 76 this year. In the words of Perry White, Great shades of Elvis. $20. 7:30 at the Echoplex, 1154 Glendale Blvd. in Echo Park.


Photo courtesy ~db~ via the Blogging LA Flickr pool.

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Got Something You Want to Show the World? Open Screen Night is back!

Next Wednesday, we’re bringing back OPEN SCREEN NIGHT, one of our favorite, and most bizarre, Alamo traditions. At this event, we give YOU control over our screen. For this night only, you choose the programming, and we will project absolutely anything you bring (as long as it does not break the legal restrictions placed on us by the FBI, TABC, CIA, IRS, and/or USSR). Want to show off the new short film you just made? Perfect, bring it in. Wanna make everyone watch a particularly uncomfortable clip on YouTube? Just give us the URL and we’ll put it up. Have a favorite home movie or super embarrassing clip of your college roommate? Bring that in, too!

And even if you don’t have anything to show this time, come on out to have your mind blown. You never know what you’re going to see at OPEN SCREEN NIGHT, but somewhere in there you’ll definitely get a special treat. And if anything crappy gets shown you’ll only have to suffer through two minutes of it before our gonger can respond to your boos and get that garbage off the screen with one mighty bang on his gong.


Here’s a special note of encouragement from Chris Trew, the emcee of the evening: “The Stand-up comedy open mics in Austin are always packed with hungry performers looking for stage time in hopes of meeting new people to collaborate with or impressing people-in-charge to get some paid gigs. OPEN SCREEN NIGHT isn’t that different. If you’re a filmmaker (especially a comedic filmmaker) then you should be here with your DVD or YouTube link. It would be silly not to. Sure, you might get gonged, but if you do then take the note and come back next month with something better.”


Trew will be joined by his comedy theater The New Movement, who will be bringing their own special videos and will engage in entr’acte antics.


Do it! Doooo iiiittt! OPEN SCREEN NIGHT – Wednesday, January 26th, at 9:40 @Ritz.

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Oscar nominations! Got some catching up to do? We can help.

As you’ve surely noted by now, the Academy Award nominations were announced this morning to the expected flurry of hype and controversy. While we may respectfully disagree with the exclusion of the likes of Christopher Nolan and Ryan Gosling from individual awards categories, the Best Picture slate is pretty solid. Check it out:

THE BLACK SWAN, THE FIGHTER, INCEPTION, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, THE KING’S SPEECH, 127 HOURS, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, TOY STORY 3, TRUE GRIT, WINTER’S BONE.


OK, so maybe they missed on BLUE VALENTINE but you can’t win them all. Looking over this list is especially satisfying because we have played all of these films in our theaters this year with the exception of WINTER’S BONE, which we couldn’t fit in at the time. And of these; THE BLACK SWAN is onscreen currently at South Lamar and Lake Creek, THE FIGHTER is playing at Village, THE KING’S SPEECH is packing houses at South Lamar and Lake Creek, and TRUE GRIT continues as one of the biggest attractions at South Lamar, Lake Creek and Village. It’s good to know that we have an audience that wants the best and we’re thrilled to provide it.


There were some big surprises in the other categories. One of the major headscratchers is the exclusion of Christopher Nolan in the Directing category. While all of those nominated did an excellent job, Christopher Nolan seemed like an obvious inclusion.


Another notable name missing is Ryan Gosling in the Best Actor category, for his performance in BLUE VALENTINE. While his BV costar Michelle Williams was nominated in the Best Actress category, he didn’t make the cut.


One positive surprise was the nomination of DOGTOOTH in the Best Foreign Language Film Category. We sort of thought this one might be too weird for mainstream acclaim, but there you have it.


We were also happy to note that the consensus best movie of 2010 from the Alamo Programming Team, EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP was nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category.


As for all those Oscar Shorts, very few of us get too excited about these because so few have seen them, but as we’ve done in years past, we will be screening both the Live Action and the Animated Shorts nominated films at South Lamar starting on February 11. We’ll announce showtimes here when they become available.

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Commerce Department and WAA Code of Ethics

Thanks to Tim Evans I was alerted to a report about the Commerce Department weighing in on privacy issues online. Suffice to say I agree with the direction Commerce is giving the Obama administration. Specifically the idea that, according to CNN’s Money, “the government ‘enlist the expertise and knowledge of the private sector’ to create ‘voluntary codes of conduct that promote informed consent and safeguard personal information.’”

More or less exactly what John Lovett and I proposed back in September of this year.


I have started reaching out to the media on this point — that we in the digital measurement community are already taking matters into our own hands and stepping up — but we could use your help! Please, if you know anyone in the press, send a link to this blog post along to them and help spread the word that as a community we can take responsibility for our own actions and we are willing to do what is right for consumers around the globe.


This issue affects all of us in the digital measurement sector — vendors, consultants, and practitioners alike. Please help us create awareness about our efforts.


Here are links to the relevant background materials:



Here is the link to the near-final draft of the Web Analysts Code of Ethics:




The Standards sub-committee for the Code of Ethics met yesterday and as I publish this blog post John Lovett is presenting the final version to the Web Analytics Association Board of Directors. We expect the Code to be available to sign at the WAA web site in the coming weeks.




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EaselJS / Canvas Generative Graphics Flickr Set



Just a quick note, but I have created a Flickr set which contains some of the generative graphics I have been creating using canvas, JavaScript and EaselJS.



You can view the set here.


I havent released all of the code used to create all of the examples, but I will release the code / examples as I finish them. Ill post new images on the set whenever I create something I think is interesting.

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