In high school and college, I made mix tapes from recording the radio. Occasionally there might be a few songs mixed in from albums borrowed from the Oak Lawn Library. For context, I graduated high school in 1993, college in 1997. It's fun to look back at the songs captured from that era.
One of these days it would be fun to convert these over to one long mp3 file for each cassette side. Then again, I need to do that with the radio show that Erik and I did for four years at Wesleyan.
I thought I decorated these more, but at least I customized the fonts. The start of my graphic design career!
Below the jump is the song list for all the tapes (if you don't see the list, click on the comments link)
It's amazing what you can find in the iTunes music store. I was able to create two albums of songs all based on Psalm 27. My mom really like that's that chapter in Psalms, so I did a search for: "Psalm 27" in iTunes. There are over 90 songs in the results. There are about 20 songs that are decent, so I split them up into two albums.
• Psalm 27: Album 1: with a more congregational aspect
• Psalm 27: Album 2: with more contemporary music
(these links will open up the iMix in iTunes)
The Lord Is My Light and My Salvation Of David.
27:1
The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
2
When evildoers assail me
to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes,
it is they who stumble and fall.
3
Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
yet I will be confident.
4
One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to inquire in his temple.
5
For he will hide me in his shelter
in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
he will lift me high upon a rock.
6
And now my head shall be lifted up
above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.
7
Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
be gracious to me and answer me!
8
You have said, “Seek my face.”
My heart says to you,
“Your face, Lord, do I seek.”
9
Hide not your face from me.
Turn not your servant away in anger,
O you who have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not,
O God of my salvation!
10
For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
but the Lord will take me in.
11
Teach me your way, O Lord,
and lead me on a level path
because of my enemies.
12
Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;
for false witnesses have risen against me,
and they breathe out violence.
13
I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living!
14
Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!
I was recently asked who is a favorite artist of mine. I really haven't evaluated that in a couple years in the framework of favorite. The true inspiration is the artists that are around me. They influence and inspire me to get going and producing work. However, to list actual names is tricky, because I don't want to accidentally leave anyone off the list. For this exercise I'm not going to include anybody I know.
Here are 14 artists with work online (that I don't personally know) that have inspired me this year:
------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Bruno Taylor's Playful Spaces
This is a film about hijacking a bus stop.
------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Global Free Hugs - Chicago Style
Spreading love one hug at a time during Global Free Hugs day - 10.19.08
------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Jay Carlson's Stranger Photos have Happened
A disposable camera tied to a bench in Atlanta with a sign encouraging people to take photos. I've been meaning to do this project.
------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Edward Hopper's "Gas"
The ol' standby. The Art Institute recently had a show of his paintings up, and it reinvigorated my love for his work. In particular I really liked his 1940 painting "Gas." I must have stared at this for 20 minutes. The above photo is me trying to sneak off a shot. Oh, and side-trivia. I was the very very last person to visit this exhibit in Chicago. I went on the last day, and security had to ask me repeatedly to leave the exhibit. There was one visitor behind me, and I stalled a bit, waiting for her to exit through the exit before me, so I could be the very last one.
------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Watch the Road: World’s Earliest SatNav
A scroll watch. Too cool. I want one with bible verses. I've been thinking of leaving bible verses in mini scrolls like this on the train.
------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain's "The World, Justified"
Anytime someone plays around with maps, I love it. Here's a completely new way of looking at the world if you took a map and slide everything to the left side--a left justified world! It reminds me of the 2005 piece I did "Aligning Countries. Since then I've wanted to cut out all the countries on a world map into wooden pieces and then stack them.
------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. Alec Ostrowski's "Look Up"
Business cards with a phrase printed, “By lifting your field of vision to chimney level, your body is able to lift your mood.” Anything to lift someone's day is truly an inspiration.
------------------------------------------------------------------- 10. Before I die I want to...
An absolutely great idea:
#1 This is a great question to ask people. How would you finish this question?: Before I die I want to __________. Really forces people to access what they are doing on this planet in this life.
#2 This project takes advantage of the poloroid medium. Instead of just having someone write their idea on a piece of paper, write it right on this photo of you that we JUST MADE!
#3 Having the photo of the person next to his/her response really makes this project come alive. Imagine if there was no photo. It's an ok project. But with the photos, it brings this project to life.
#4 Plus, you can see the handwriting of the person, bringing out more personality.
#5 You have the entire momemnt captured in one photo. Image of the person at the very moment of the question. The handwriting of the person right at the moment of the question. The quality of that moment weighed against the contemplation of an entire lifetime.
If you visit this site, make sure you scroll to the RIGHT to see more polaroids
------------------------------------------------------------------- 11. its not that far really
#1 This is a postcard. I love postcards. We all need to send more postcards--not just on vacations, but just in general.
#2 The idea behind this card is really sweet.
#3 It's completely customizable for whomever buys this postcard.
#4 It brings people together. Closer.
------------------------------------------------------------------- 12. Art of the Month Club
Oh wow. I totally had this idea years ago. People subscribe and get an art print once a month. It's cool to see how someone took this idea and made it real. I'm gonna do this too... someday.
------------------------------------------------------------------- 13. Charlie Todd's 50 Cents Per Idea
I love what the sign says, "Looking for something fun to do? 50 CENTS PER IDEA. Plus: a toy maybe and map of fun idea requires travel. And who knows what else? Reasons why this is so cool:
#1 Often, people are at amiss for what to do. This will give suggetions.
#2 Often, people get into a rut and do the same thing over and over. Suggestions here!
#3 If someone invests the 50 cents into the machine, they are already open to the suggestion from the machine. Therefore, they are more likely to actually do it.
#4 Every bubble has a quarter in it, so the user gets half their investment back already. People would love getting that quarter. I guarantee it. Even though they initially spent two quarters, just getting one quarter back in addition to the idea/toy/map, will give the person a pleasant surprise and start their experience with this artwork on a good note.
------------------------------------------------------------------- 14. Postcrossing (photo from robayre)
"It's a project that allows anyone to exchange postcards (real ones, not electronic) from random places in the world." Heh. I signed up, but I still have to send some cards! I even have foreign postcard postage.
The architect's rendering of the rink at Wrigley Field for the Winter Classic. (Handout photo/NHL)
With the Wrigley Field being iced over from the Blackhawks game on January 1, they are going to let regular people ice skate on it January 4.
Sounds really cool, right? Ice skate on Wrigley Field. Want some tickets? Uh. Where do you get them? Nobody seems to know. The Chicago Tribune reports:
The Cubs sent e-mails to neighbors and neighborhood groups last week announcing a community skate on the hockey rink soon to be installed at Wrigley Field for the Winter Classic between the Blackhawks and Detroit on Jan. 1.
The skate will take place from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Jan. 4, just before the temporary rink is to be dismantled. Cubs neighbors will be given a chance to skate in one-hour shifts for $10 apiece, with proceeds benefiting Cubs Care.
Who are these "neighbors" of Wrigley? I live at Lawrence and Western--two and a half miles away from Wrigley. Am I close enough to be a "neighbor?" Are these only community organizations? It all seems kind of vague.
The Tribune is advertising this event to show this goodwill idea. But many people would like to know if they are considered a "neighbor" and can skate on Wrigley. If anyone has seen this secret email sent out by the Cubs, please let me know. Thank you.
We all often sit like robots on the bus. I'm a reading robot. Being a robot can be good sometimes, because we respect each other's quiet and space. But we don't have to be totally robotic.
This past Wednesday night I was in a good mood after a very good small group Bible study. The 81 bus was tooting along Lawrence Avenue. My seat in the back of the bus had a nice big window that was all fogged up. I kinda looked around at the people on the bus and shrugged to myself, "I'll draw on the window." A nice happy snowman appeared on the window. Then a pile of snowballs, a Christmas tree, some presents. Then there was the top window. A moon, stars and clouds. Not a great masterpiece, but it was something fun.
Some dude sat in the seat facing me and my creation. He was just staring at the window. Studying it. lol.
I'd like to do something really cool next time. Not that coolness is the point of this. But still, it would really rock to do something along the lines of the mailbox snowmen. What would be good for a bus window?
99.9999999% of German music sucks, but of the 0.00000001% that is good, it's like REALLY good. There is no middle ground with german music. It either really SUCKS or it really ROCKS.
Here is the basic categories of German music.
1. It's like most of German pop is in the 80s, the bad 80s.
Ever wonder why David Hasselhof is so popular in Germany, but not the rest of the world? David Hasselhof is pure 80s--bad 80s. Germans love it. So much of their pop music sounds like really bad 80s music.
2. German singers is like me singing
You don't want to hear me sing. Only a couple years ago did I even realize what singing on key was. Not that I can even do it. But I didn't even know that existed until I played Karoke Revolution. I'm half German. So there you go.
3. Hmm
I feel like there should be a point three. But I can't think of one.
Yes, it's unfair to categorize all German music under suckage. But seriously, there are about 1,000,000 German albums with no good songs.
What about that 0.00000001% of German music that is good? I like to focus on the good, not the bad. This post was about the bad. Let's look at the good. I like looking at good. Good is good. Here are some good German Christmas songs:
Not available on iTunes:
• "Was bringt der Dezember" by Rolf Zuckowski
• "Morgen kommt der Weihnachtsmann" by Rundfunk-Kinderchor Leipzig
However, these are all Christmas songs. Germans can do Christmas. But what about regular songs? I've tried searching all over the iTunes store for some non-christmas German songs, but can't find any. I've tried searching for German Pop. German rap. German ich. German dance. German alternative. If anyone knows of any German music that is good. Please let me know.
Clear logic says that the further north you go, the closer you get to the sun. But then why does it get colder up north? Maybe this whole “the sun is hot” thing is all wrong. The sun is actually one big cold-emitting snowball. And when it snows, it’s actually pieces of the sun falling off to earth.
This just in! The color of the sun has been incorrectly inversed for all this time. See the image associated with this post for the true color of the sun! Scientists say, “when something is that far away, the colors tend to get messed up, so yeah, when we thought the sun was like, kinda yellowy and reddish, it was actually blue—y’know, like a big snowball. So uh. Yeah.”
Before I went to bed, I put this away message on my instant messenger: "Sleeping. Send me a dream through instant messenger." It's fun to think that someone could send a dream via instant messenger into my head while I'm sleeping.
What dream would you put into my head while I'm asleep?
There are two great websites to post your book library and reviews, librarything.com and goodreads.com. Which service is better? The following is a feature-by-feature comparison between librarything and goodreads.
Exporting
Librarything allows you to export your data. Goodreads does not. I'm always leery of spending a lot of time investing into a website without having my own backup. Librarything allows you to export all your catalog information. Most sites, like goodreads, won't let you do this, because they fear you will take that exported data and start using another book cataloging website. Librarything knows they are the best in the field of book cataloging, so they know you won't need to go elsewhere. Librarything wins exporting.
Tagging
The tagging system on Librarything is so much easier than Goodreads. In LIbrarything, you can see what tags other users assigned to a book. Goodreads does not. Instead Goodreads version of tags is called "shelves." Their shelves to be very buggy. I'll assign a book to a shelf, but then it won't stick. Librarything wins tagging.
Stats
Goodreads has no fun stats. Librarything has an incredible range of stats for your collection. How many of your books are in English, German, etc. The publication date range. I own 202 books from 2000-2008, 209 books from 1990-1999, 54 books from 1980-1989. I guess I got a bunch of books while in high school and college. Wow. Librarything wins stats.
Social Networking
This is a big section, so I'm going to break it up into Librarything and Goodreads:
Librarything:
--Librarything offers this really cool feature where it shows members with the same books you own. AiRD owns 29 of the same books as me, but AiRD's library is 1,628 books! Librarything does a weighted formula to figure out your commonality with users based on how big their library is. The member most in common with me is girl.x with 8 common books out of her 236 book library. But does this all really matter? I've never friended any of these people.
--A webpage that shows other members' most recent reviews of books you own. And an RSS feed. Nice.
--On a member's profile page, there's an "Also on" list of 132 other sites the member is on (e.g. AIM, flickr, deviantart, blogspot, last.fm, etc)
--Members can add favorite bookstores and libraries to their profile.
--Many many groups to join. Both by location and by topic.
Goodreads:
--Goodreads send out email updates whenever any of your friends writes a review or adds a book. Librarything doesn't do member updates. Although Librarything does offer RSS feeds of a member's activity.
--The homepage of Goodreads gives a nice summary of what's new with your friends. Very nice.
Goodreads wins social networking. Librarything does has a ton more social networking feature, however Goodreads implements their few social networking features a tad better. But social networking is all about the people. I have two friends on Librarything. Two. But on Goodreads I have 69 friends. Gotta have friends to make the social networking thing work.
Facebook
Librarything's application on Facebook only gives a text list of books you've updated. BORING! Goodreads' facebook app is like a mini-version of their homepage. Much more engaging. And you can choose to put your book updates into your facebook news feed. Goodreads wins Facebook.
Adding books
Nothing beats the ease of adding books with Librarything. They offer a $15 scanner where all you do is bring up the website, and scan the barcode of the book. And that's it! Librarything wins adding books.
Local events
Librarything works with bookstores and libraries across the country to add events into their calendar. The end result is if you go http://www.librarything.com/local, you will see a list of all the book events around your address or zip code. It's amazing. They even offer an RSS feed customized to your specs. I have a feed set up to alert me of book events within one mile of my address. Goodreads doesn't have any of this. Librarything wins local events--BIG TIME.
OVERALL WINNER: LIBRARYTHING
Given the large set of features, librarything clobbers the crap out of Goodreads 5-1-1. Yet, most of my friends use Goodreads. The facebook app is nice. But we just need to get more people to join librarything.com
If anyone would like to add their library to Librarything, I will lend you my barcode scanner. Just let me know. (If you are curious, my Librarything profile is at www.librarything.com/profile/spudart. And if you are part of the huge masses of people already on goodreads, feel free to add me as a friend: www.goodreads.com/user/show/528508.)
I really love librarything.com. You can see the 484 books I own. I just added 16 more books. I'm very thankful that we live in such an age where so many books are available in such a wide variety of topics. It's truly amazing. I'm also very thankful that I have been able to have so many books.
Please borrow my books
The main reason why I post these books online is so that people can borrow books from me. I love sharing my books with people. So please, just ask me if you'd like to borrow something. I'm not at all picky about the condition of my books, so you can throw it in your bag and even beat it up. I love it when books get used. I love it even more when there are notes, underlines, and ideas written on the pages of books. It's great to be able to engage with a book and then share it with others. If you borrow a book from me, it must just have a bunch of my comments written in the margins. I would encourage you to write and underline stuff in any book(s) you borrow.
Here's a neat widget that updates itself with the ten most recent books I acquired. Or if you are really fancypants, you can subscribe to the RSS feed of my recently-added books.
When you join the Urban Prankster Network on Ning, a profile is required. One of the fields is "special skills." Just what sort of special skills does one need to be an urban prankster?
I researched many of the urban prankster profiles and compiled a comprehensive list of urban pranksers special skills:
--squirt guns
--pillow fights
--treeclimbing
--standing really still
--looking inconspicous
--looking conspicuous
--pretending
--laughing
--quasi-ninja moves
--fitting into small spaces
--fence hoppin
--boogie police
--house gymnastics
--leaving art on sidewalks
--slo motion
--parlour
--thinking I can parlour
--fitting into small spaces
--disguises
--impressions
--voices
--poker face
--ninja moves
--sarcasm
--crying on cue
If you have any more to add, please leave them in the comments, thanks.
My urban prankster profile contains the following skills: Leaving art on sidewalks, squirt guns, pillow fights, treeclimbing, standing really still, looking conspicuous, pretending, laughing, fitting into small spaces, quasi-ninja moves, fitting into small spaces, fence hoppin, boogie police, house gymnastics, slo motion, thinking I can parlour.
Note, I did not include disguises, impressions, voices, poker face, ninja moves, sarcasm, crying on cue, looking inconspicuous. Some things you just gotta be real with yourself about.
Go out and act crazy with a group of people! Flash mobs! Weeeeee! Chicago has their own organized flash mob! (In case ya don't know, a flash mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse.) Chicago's group did a pillow fight earlier this year:
New York has a flash mob group called Improv Everywhere that has executed over 75 missions involving thousands of undercover agents. They prefer that other cities don't use the name "Improv Everywhere" as that's just for the New York group. Oh, those New Yorkers. But they do have quite an impressive resume of pranks. They can be found on facebook, vimeo, and improveverywhere.com.
Tomorrow's blog post on spudart.org will cover some fun ideas on how to fill out your profile on Ning's Urban Prankster Network.
Chicago's Gene Siskel Film Center was showing the Great Muppet Caper this past Sunday. I went with my sister, brother and cousin. We love the Muppets! But who doesn't? Seriously. Tell me one person who does not like the Muppets.
As kids we had some 18-inch Muppet dolls. Rolf the dog (with puppet mouth), Kermit the Frog (with reporter trench coat), and Scooter (fun to make dance, because he has spaghetti legs and heavy plastic shoes).
My brother told me that he was going to bring the Scooter. What fun! But alas, he did not. Can you believe that?! It would have been so much fun to have that Scooter in the movie theater. Every time Scooter appeared on the screen, I could have shook him up in the air.
And then there was this bozo laughboy a few rows back who laughed at EVERYTHING. Seriously. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. I luv laughing. And we all need to laugh more often. Plus the Muppets are funny-and-all, but c'mon. This was just a bit much.
The constant loud chuckle at every... single... prank... every... single... joke was cute at first, but then it got annoying. (But then it became funny again.) I think everyone in the theatre was thinking, "gee that fellow laughs REALLY LOUD." Now if I had the Scooter doll with me, I would have stood up, turned to him, and said, "laugh at THIS, laughboy" and chuck the Scooter doll at him.
The great thing is that Scooter's heavy shoes would have clocked him really good.
Spudart.org has lots of fun stuff by Matt Maldre, a 35-year-old Chicago Christian, artist, designer, illustrator, photographer, webmaster, entrepreneur, curator, goofball, and croquet player. Read more about Matt on the about page.
. Thanks! 
