templa la vida

This story in The New Yorker about elevators is an example of a fairly humdrum topic made interesting – fascinating even; just the kind of story its writers are known for.

The central drama is the story of a man trapped in an elevator for 41 hours. Forty. One.

Here is the time-lapse footage of the man’s ordeal. Spooky. And the soundtrack makes it moreso.

Here’s a good point, delivered in a presentation by Jeffrey Veen, an information architect and Web designer. I think he found it in a book about Sea Kayaking …

Obeying the rules without an understanding of the reasons behind them creates an approximation of competence which leaves one vulnerable to the exceptions.

This aphorism seems universally applicable, don’t you think? Where, in your life, does this little nugget come home to roost?

This blog, dedicated to the title sequences of movies, could get me lost all day long. The one that stands out for me, that I think of most often when I hear someone talk about the movie, is the title sequence from Gattaca.

Check out the blog.

http://www.artofthetitle.com

Brad Mehldau and his trio, rounded out by drummer Jeff Ballard and bassist Larry Grenadier, is a five-star recording. I can’t stop listening to it. Here ’s a story on NPR about the proclivity of Mr. Mehldau to cover modern-era Rock tunes.

Indeed, to hear the trio hammering out tunes such as Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun is a treat.

The new album, recorded live at the Village Vanguard in New York City, is available to buy on the artist’s Web site — MP3s to download at 320 kbps. Or on iTunes.

You should check it out.

I was listening to the radio on the way to work this morning. The local National Public Radio affiliate just wasn’t doing it for me, as they are in the midst of their Spring fund drive and I was feeling guilty and bored. So I changed the channel to a popular morning drive-time show on KMPS 94.1 FM.

Some guy called in and told this joke:

“A lawyer found his airplane seat, stowed his luggage, sat down, and fastened his seat belt. A blonde-haired woman soon came down the aisle and did the same. Her seat was right next to his. After exchanging hellos and spending a few minutes in awkward silence, they struck up a conversation, which went like this:

BLONDE: So, what do you do?

LAWYER: I’m a lawyer.

BLONDE: A lawyer, huh? That’s nice. I’ll bet you catch all kinds of flack from people, though.

LAWYER: What do you mean?

BLONDE: You know, what with all the lawyer jokes and stuff.

LAWYER: Oh, right. Well I could probably say the same about you.

BLONDE: What do you mean?

LAWYER: The blonde hair.

BLONDE: Oh, right. Well I’m actually pretty smart. I’m the smartest in my group of friends. In fact, I might be smarter than you.

LAWYER: Is that right? Smarter than me?

BLONDE: That’s right.

LAWYER: Well, perhaps we should have a little “battle of the wits.”

BLONDE: What do you mean?

LAWYER: You know, trivia questions. For money.

BLONDE: Oh, I don’t know …

LAWYER: C’mon. I’ll give you 10-to-1 odds.

BLONDE: What do you mean?

LAWYER: If I ask you a question that you can’t answer, you give me 5 bucks. If you ask me a question that I can’t answer, I’ll give you 50 bucks. Deal?

BLONDE: OK … deal.

LAWYER: OK, I’ll start. How far is it from the sun to the nearest star?

BLONDE: Hmmm. I should remember this one. From the sun … to the nearest star. I don’t know. Here’s your 5 bucks.

LAWYER: Now you ask one.

BLONDE: Right, OK. What goes up the hill on three legs, but comes down the hill on four legs?

LAWYER: Up the hill on three legs … down the hill on four … that’s a good one. Hmmm. I don’t know that one. OK, here’s your 50 dollars.

BLONDE: Thank you!

LAWYER: I have to know … what’s the answer to your question?

BLONDE: OK, here’s your 5 bucks …

The Temple is my third or fourth attempt at keeping a Weblog. I’ve also done some Web authoring, back in the days of pre-standards-based Web 1.0 and HTML 4.0 without style sheets. And without the actual design elegance you see today.

I’m no guru, but I have found this one little tool that I’ll share. Sometimes linking to other pages on the Web can be cumbersome — especially when the URL of the page you’re linking to has dozens or even hundreds of characters in it.

Enter Tiny URL, a little Web application that shrinks your really long URL linkers down to a manageable size. Just surf to http://tinyurl.com, copy and paste your long URL into the engine and — voila! — you’re given a much shorter URL to copy and paste into the link you’re building.

Here’s the link Google Maps gives you when you search for Apple Inc. headquarters in Cupertino.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1+Infinite+Loop,+Cupertino,+CA+95014&sll=37.332853,-122.030447&sspn=0.009435,0.01605&ie=UTF8&ll=37.332853,-122.030447&spn=0.009435,0.01605&z=16&iwloc=addr

As you can see, it’s cumbersome. I can, of course, simply assign the URL to a short little word or phrase, like Apple Inc. for example, like I did above, and hide the long URL in the mechanics of the site.

But using Tiny URL to shorten links makes it easier to keep lists of links organized, especially lists of books on Amazon and the like. or maps. One drawback — when readers hover over your links to look for the URL’s root context, they get the coded version of your link from Tiny URL, which looks like this:

http://tinyurl.com/4ocubf

But if you’re willing to lose the actual Web site context of a longer URL in your links, using Tiny URL is a great way to uncomplicate the language of the Web.

Back in early March, when the USA Today ran the huge NCAA Basketball Championships bracket in a center spread, my brother Justin picked Memphis and Kansas in the final game. He picked Memphis to win. Justin has long enjoyed following the NCAA hoops extravaganza, but I’ve never followed it.

This season I watched a few games with my bro and now I’m hooked.  Justin was really pulling for Memphis, and last night’s game was a gut-wrencher.

The hometown newspapers of theses two venerable teams tell the story in large print. But the story for me was getting some quality hang-out time with my brother — watching the last half of the Kansas-Memphis game with him, then aching through the Overtime.

The game was one of the closest, from the tip-off to the final swish, that I remember ever seeing.

The song Radiant, written by the E-Pop, a Mars Hill Church-Seattle worship band, is the top-played worship song in my iTunes library. It’s on my iPhone, so I listen to it a few times a week, usually during a break away from to office to unwind and remind me who I am.

Give it a go. (via Muxtape) UPDATE: Muxtape is off the air due to copyright issues. However, the link is still active, and features the site’s founder telling the story of his battles with the RIAA and the record companies. Fascinating.

What kind of music do you suppose God considers a joyful noise? Does it have to be sung in a church building to be considered worship? Does a song even have to name God to be worship music?

The prophet Amos passes along this message from The Sovereign Lord to the house of Israel. Maybe it’s really the attitude of our hearts that determines whether we worship — or not. (Read Chapter 5.)

To be honest, while I love E-Pop, and the other bands at Mars Hill Church whose members love Jesus and write powerful songs about him, my heart is full of worship of God and His bigness when I listen to Foo Fighters or Brad Mehldau or Stevie Ray Vaughan. Because I’m in awe that God created time and the aural spectrum, through which music gets its life. And that he created us with the ability to sub-create.

What do you think about it?

Through a bunch of random iTunes shopping I found Nick Drake. I’ve heard of Mr. Drake and all, but never really known about him in the way the web can help you to know about someone, that is, if you believe everything you read.

There’s a peaceful tune called Pink Moon that was once used in a Volkswagen commercial. 

The story goes: Nick Drake, an English singer-songwriter who had enjoyed only limited commercial success, overdosed on a prescription antidepressant and died at his parent’s home in Warwickshire when he was just 27. 

Although he never witnessed interest in his own music blossom, it did; many artists claim Mr. Drake’s music as an influence in their own.  In 2000, Volkswagen used the title track to his 1972 release, Pink Moon, in a Cabrio commercial.Within one month, Mr. Drake’s music had sold more records than in the previous 30 years. 

I may be a bit late, but I think I’ll enjoy catching up with Mr. Drake.