I was at Panera, downstairs, overhearing a passionate discussion up above. Physics and cosmology. Went upstairs and sat near the three communicants. Listening in, pretending to read my Wall Street Journal. Singularities, black holes, quantum physics, event horizons and other disputed cosmic exotica. Seldom heard such an intense and interesting engagement and debate in ages. Consulting Webster's for definitive definitions to boot. Don't know who they were. But this is over by Northeastern.
Reading now ... Secrets of the Operating Room. Wall Street Journal. Review/C3: 12/31/11 - 1/1/12.
Thought for now ... Maybe beauty comes from meaning.
... Overheard.
The Higgs Boson, an elusive subatomic particle who's existence has been theorized since the 1960's as helping to give mass to matter, may have finally been spotted at Cern, the super particle accelerator array straddling the Swiss-French border deep underground. Here's a video describing the possible discovery.
Meanwhile, I'm flying along learning XHTML and CSS. Very exciting. I've always loved programming. This will bring Roofscape up to current standards and lift the design and functionality of the magazine by several notches.
Very chilly today. Must be in the 20's with some breezes, even real winds at times. Worked at the Prudential Center's 'Winter Garden', Panera and YMCA. Snell Library at Northeastern closed today.
Began moving titles and content into Roofscape #1, while working with CSS coding learned this morning - 'span', 'div' and 'float'.
I do, however, suffer from being at computers for hours on end, a physical unease and mental fatigue. Maybe we all do at times, but some more than others.
The more I study physics, the deeper I fall into its grip and the bigger the questions become. If I were a scientist I would be a physicist like my father. Physics, in all its phases, on all scales, is on the brink of some amazing discoveries.
In education, I firmly believe in Physics First. Not that I really believe in education. I don't think it's possible. The only educatiom is self-education. To that end all education must point, and the sooner the better.
If I designed a curriculum for kids it would include - physics, nature studies (trees, rocks, plants, etc.), writing (which requires reading), personal finance (as necessary as basic literacy) and drawing (which involves design). That's it, that's enough. Kids will figure out the rest all on their own with no help needed. For example - you need to teach a kid to use a computer these days? Obviously not.
I might include music, but no one should be the least encouraged to become a musician (or worse yet, an actor). That's just more trouble that they can figure out on their own. I see the swarms outside the Berklee College of Music every day.
Speaking of which, I just noticed that I did a Nile Rodgers set on Radio Roofscape. Sometimes these things slip by me. I can take a break from string theory by programming Chic or watching Quiet Desperation and remember nothing. In the case of Quiet D, much as I love it, that's a blessing of course. I'm a huge fan of Nile's B Movie Matinee. The guitar work is beyond crazy. Both hugely guilty pleasures.
Speaking of which, Lady Gaga is on Twitpic. Generally looking like her slutish self. Now that girl cries out to be on Quiet Desperation. Or maybe she is and I just didn't recognize her in that rolling freak show. What makes that girl tick I couldn't even begin to guess. But whatever it is it must be very tightly wound. I read the Rolling Stone interview and she's surprisingly intelligent (as she says, "you seem surprised"). What did come across is that loyalty to and the support of her friends (the Haus) was one of the most important things in her life. Well, that can carry you far. And it's good to see.
I've never lived in a place with so many crows. I haven't yet seen a single hawk, but the crows are all over. And noisy, kicking up a ruckus like a haunted house of rusty hinges.
Sunday morning. Kicked back in bed, iBook in lap, writing. Resting up for a big busy week. Thinking my thoughts. Thinking things over. And here's one of them. I have a huge decision to make.
But the hell with that. I just discovered a dozen pictures from yesterday that I hadn't even downloaded from the camera. Everything drops for photography. It's not even funny. The world stops. Image of Our Lady of the Streets, taken at St. Kevin's. She has a very large, and rather happy looking or maybe just leering, serpent snaking around her feet with various offerings of dead flowers, burned out candles and rosaries down below. That and more virgins.
Here's the decision. I have to figure out whether to keep Roofscape Magazine going or shut it down and just focus on the Roofscape Journal (which you're reading now), using Google as the platform for all future work. The magazine has been abandoned for awhile now, since I moved, but Journal is constantly being updated. At the least there's a new image every day.
Finished programming the Nile Rodger's set. He's such a musical genius. Wiki says that he has an autobiography coming out this year or next. Now that should be an interesting read. This is a man who's known and worked with everybody. He started out touring with the Sesame Street band then worked in the house band at the Apollo Theatre. What an education! I've read interviews with him and some crazy shit went down in his long career, as you might imagine. I'm a total freak (Le Freak) for musician biographies. Keith is supposed to be dropping soon too. Now talk about interesting. Plus it will be a chance to tell my Keith story. Here's a cut from B-Movie Matinee (1985).
This is such a great video too. When it ends, check out State Your Mind, perhaps an even more slammin' track from B-Movie.
OK, I'm going to tell my Keith Richards story. I've got nothing else to write about at the moment (well there is string theory, but I've currently lost the thread on that) and I feel like writing to avoid the dire necessity of doing any actual work. It is Sunday after all.
It was New Year's Eve. Josiah (One Take, Jo, Teddy, Theodore) Kinlock and I were in New York City. Jo's buddy Gwen Guthrie, the great R&B, soul and disco singer-songwriter (Ain't Nothin' Goin' On But the Rent) picked us up in a white stretch limo that could probably have swallowed about a dozen Smart Cars without burping. I hadn't a clue where we were headed and couldn't care.
Jo, of course, is being crazy, doing a rastaman routine, and keeping everyone convulsed. Sitting up front while I'm in back between Gwen and her equally ample backup singer. As Jo cracks them up I'm getting crushed. But enjoying it.
We head to the upper East Side and pull up in front of a building decorated like an Egyptian, or maybe Etruscan, tomb. For a party at Jellybean Benitez's (all of Madonna's first big hits, Whitney Houston, etc.). I'm sitting next to this really attractive blond who's being hustled on the left by a gorgeous boy toy and on the right by some music biz slimeball. And she's into #2. I'm laughing my head off hearing his stupid shit. When I catch up with Jo he tells me that was Debby Harry (Blondie).
We head downtown. Gwen's scheduled to do a track date at World, I think it was called, a club in the meat packing district (although my New York savvy is sort of shaky). On the way go into a building along Broadway.
We get in the elevator. A voice calls out, "hold the lift there mate", and Keith Richards steps in with the biggest bottle of Moet-Chandon that I've ever seen before or since.
I'm struck absolutely dumb, but my friend Jo doesn't miss a beat and begins chatting Keith up while his eyes take a stroll over Gwen's ample physique. 'Cause you know Keith likes him some large black girl singers (Sarah Dash from LaBelle). So he figures we're heading to the same party and as the door opens says, "let's go". And believe me, when Keith says to you let's go - you go. Wherever. Hell and back.
... More later.
Quote of the Day We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.
Stewart Udall
For a great introduction to modern physics, visit the Cern website. The science is very clearly, non-technically explained and features a comprehensive glossary of terms. It also conveys the excitement and wonder that is at the heart of the the project of physics, stretching from the interior of atoms to the furthest reaches of the universe.
This is especially appropriate since the Web was invented at Cern. And for a fascinating glimpse at how the Web came about check out an interview with Robert Cailliau, one of its founders. Here he is talking about the competition between European and American scientists.
Not only will you not just leave us alone, you will not stop working. You will not switch off. You will not take holidays. You will not enjoy life. You just work like crazy, and you can put that in your article, if you like. It's very hard competing with you guys. It's impossible.
The Cern site also has a very good section on how the Web works and its origins.
Finally finished scrubbing the porch. Only took me four days. Looks spectacular.
The principal of the Carter School in the South End has given me permission to photograph their Sensory Outdoor Garden. This is where remanents of the ruins of Martin Luther King's residence were dug up - massive granite foundation blocks and building bricks - and incorporated into this garden designed for special needs kids.
Quote of the Day We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.
Anais Nin
That sounds like a statement of the anthropic principle, doesn't it?
Image ... Sunbather in a Saltmarsh 2. Gloucester, Mass.
Welcome! Tales of a Seaside Inn is a sweeping illustrated historical novel of the sea, seaside, Rowley, Massachusetts and the far-flung Morris family spanning from Elizabethan England to present-day New England.
