what i'm podcasting

I'm a relatively recent convert to downloading podcasts. They didn't sound that compelling to me until I realized the simple beauty of listening to fresh spoken word content at work. Even though I'm fortunate enough to sit in an office, there are only so many times I can listen to Nine Inch Nails while trying to think. But podcasts provide a fountain of interesting stimuli that aren't too intrusive to my thoughts or the work environment.

There aren't too many podcast subscriptions in my iTunes as yet, but the few I have are definitely worth recommending. Let me know if you have any particularly good podcasts for daily music or tech news. My current favorites, in no particular order ...

Meet the Press / This Week with George Stephanopoulos: I seldom observe the day of rest, so Sunday morning news shows come and go while I'm running around elsewhere. These podcasts provide ad-free audio of the entire show, including interviews and roundtable discussions. I prefer Tim Russert's interviews, but ABC has the better panel.

MotoGPod: The motorcycle racing season is history, but there's plenty to talk about during the "silly season" of contract negotations and organizational politics. The host may have a voice made for mimes and the audio charisma of a talking fish, but he gets good information and interesting content ... plus he's the only one out there talking MotoGP.

Lost / Battlestar Galactica: These are easily my two favorite TV shows now that Carnivale is cancelled and Six Feet Under has passed on. Both use sci-fi as a loose backdrop for telling good stories with relevant themes, and respect the audience enough not to spoon-feed information or deliver messages via sledgehammer. Both also have creative teams that are hip to podcasting; BSG takes an episodic commentary approach (no doubt priming the pump for the Season 2 DVD) while Lost is less structured.

Texas Music Matters: KUT is a pretty damn good public radio station with some pretty damn good podcasts. And it just got that much better when David Brown left his bigshot LA gig on Marketplace to host a music program in Our Fair City. David Brown could recite the phonebook and make it interesting, so hearing his golden voice contemplate Texas music is sheer joy.

turkey talk

Rachel and I are in NYC for Thanksgiving, basking in the chill of true Fall weather. Being the massive travel holiday of choice, we had to earn our trip here.

Our stopover in Houston went from a 30-minute pit stop to a 2-hour marathon. La Guardia issued a travel restriction that kept us on the runway just long enough for a guy in row 12 to have a panic attack. We returned to the terminal to boot his jumpy ass off the plane, and then waited for American to dig Mr. Jitter's baggage out from under the plane. This whole production caused us to miss our next departure window, setting us back another 90 minutes.

While there's probably some highly critical national security rule that prohibits the shipping of unattended bags, anyone who loses their nerve after the doors close should be separated from their bags just on principle. Even better, let's kick the guy off and then split up his luggage like pirated booty.

We finally made it into New York, and have been enjoying the holiday atmosphere ever since. The annual Thanksgiving feast in Brooklyn went off as expected, with temptations from cold cuts, sausage, lasagne and stuffed artichokes preceding the traditional fare. Max and Courtney joined us, and we strolled down to the Brooklyn Promenade to witness the famous Manhattan skyline. Our enjoyment lasted approximately 32.4 seconds, or the amount of time we could survive in freezing temperatures with frigid 40 mile-per-hour gusts.

While the REAL patriots were propping up the economy on Black Friday, the wife and I made like a couple of draft dodgers and visited the MOMA and strolled through Central Park. Art and natural beauty were admittedly meager substitutes for long lines and fanatical consumerism, but it was just enough to assuage my guilt.

Another pleasure of NYC is eating at fine neighborhood restaurants. Gennaro's served reasonably-priced, high quality Italian food that crops up all over New York but is all but impossible to find in Austin. Tonight's meal at Indus Valley was almost comparable to the incomparable Clay Pit, which is good enough for me.

Tomorrow it's back home to the dog and warm temperatures. I'm glad we got a taste of winter, but I'll need a warm weekend to run off the excesses of New York.

open letter to the city council

This Thursday, the Austin City Council will vote on whether to approve a change in zoning for the Spring Condominiums at 3rd and Bowie. This blatant display of favoritism and developer welfare has moved me to a rare public statement of protest. I sent the following letter to the Mayor and Council members. You can voice your opinion (on this or any subject) here.

Honorable Mayor and Council members,

I wish to voice my extreme disapproval of the Spring project, and encourage you not to subject Austin to such a poorly-conceived and inappropriate response to the important issues of growth and densification.

Briefly, my concerns are this:

* The Spring is an inequitable project. Granting a massive windfall to one development group is patently unfair to every other group who attempts to develop projects in the DMU, or under any other zoning for that matter. It is also unfair to local residents who have made personal and financial decisions about living in the area based on the presumed zoning limitations of nearby structures.

* The Spring is a misdirected application of density. While it does add residential options to a (relatively) central location, it creates an island of density surrounded by neighborhoods, parks, and low-density businesses. The city should be emphasizing such developments in areas that offer the greatest promise and synergy with density: the CBD. The Spring is essentially a "mini-sprawl" development that hinders rather than helps develop a concentrated living area around shopping, public transportation, and services.

* The Spring subverts the entire planning process. Planting a skyscraper in the middle of the DMU promotes confusion by sending the message that zoning doesn't matter. Requests for DMU zoning are bound to crop up in the surrounding areas in the hopes that each one will be next to win the skyscraper lottery.

* The benefits of the Spring can be better derived from better projects. Density, affordability, taxable revenue: all these claims are tangential to the project. There is plenty of land that is already zoned for equal or greater density in the CBD. It is unclear how affordable the Spring will be for how many locals, but the city has other avenues to create truly affordable housing (if it chooses). And while the Spring land value would certainly be increased by this decision, will the revenues offset the increase in congestion, infrastructure and services created from its existence?

* The Spring is ... well ... ugly. Austin's skyline is defined by the Capitol and the UT Tower. We can take pride in a city that grows up and evolves around these landmarks. But now we're looking at the prospect of a bare skyscraper with no visually comparable buildings nearby, sullying the lakefront no less. This is an eyesore and a joke waiting to happen, and I am saddened that I might have to look at this every time I run along Town Lake or walk downtown (which is often).

I will be present Thursday to speak against this project, and hope that you hear the valid concerns that myself and other constituents bring forth.

Respectfully,
waePoint

hygiene, low-giene

Attention. Is it too much to ask that all users of the 2nd floor men's room please try to:

a) get all pee in the urinal rather than the floor, and
b) get all water in the sink rather than on the counter?

It's a simple concept, really. Our society has been steadily improving waste disposal and cleanliness for a couple thousand years, in various forms and technologies, and you're really setting us back with your Neanderthal behavior. If compliance is difficult, there is ample greenery just behind the building where you can fully embrace your hedonistic micturation.

Thank you.

stop presses on previous post

OK ... NOW I've seen everything. And I have a new favorite blog.

It all started when I was doing research at work. For real, on the clock. I had Googled a new product our client is testing, and came upon a reference to it in showmeblog.com. I was about to alt+left back, when I noticed the "recent photo" (at right) that put a whole new double entendre spin on the site.

I initially wrote this off in the "crazy naked guy" folder, but now I've gotten hooked on the site. First off, you gotta love any blog with the last four entries of "still no Internet." Throw in claims about inventing blogs, lots of crotchety criticisms of Bush et al, and a storied history in BBS, and you've got a blog damn well worth reading. Renews my faith in the Interweb.

Thanks naked stormwatching guy (aka Jim Howard).

now I've seen everything

Somebody has a very bizarre asthetic. Take one Italian motorcycle. Give it a custom "Dukes of Hazzard" paint job. Then sell it for charity ... in Britain. Huh? Wouldn't a Triumph done up in Good Neighbors paint scheme been more appropriate? Or an old Norton Commando with Dr. Who plastered across the tank, now there's a bike to get excited about. Especially if it featured Peri: sidekick, cutie-pie eighties style. [from MCN]