The owls are not what they seem.
Macworld is starting tomorrow. I’ll be showing up to check out all the new stuff and more importantly to see and meet friends from near and far. I’ll be tweeting @davebryan for updates on my whereabouts.
Wednesday and Thursday nights will probably be the nights I stay out late.
Who knows what will come out since Apple is trying to downplay the event as a launching event for new products. There will probably be some updates or maybe something big – nice, now that our expectations are lowered!
My blog is currently being updated. I migrated from Movable Type to WordPress and changed web hosts. Links and images are being updated today so there might be some broken links and missing images!
Yep time to update a little bit of the crusty blog. So I started playing around with Movable Type stylesheets and slapped in my new masthead. Feeling nostalgic, I thought I’d use Copperplate which I actually liked back in 1992. Now my blog looks like a Steakhouse. Care for some cream spinach with that?
Mix some of my favorite things – magazines, fun people, snacks and beer and you got the ISSUES One Year Anniversary Party! ISSUES is my favorite shop for many reasons. They have an awesome magazine selection, great music playing in the stereo, interesting books and ephemera. I always leave with one of their bright green plastic bags full of readable delights.
The place was packed by the time of the afternoon drawing and I got to win a prize! I selected the Peet’s gift box of coffee beans. Next time your over on Piedmont Avenue, check them out!
Like a bourbon soaked butterfly, I fluttered between Web parties the other night. I started at Webmonkey’s Relaunch event at Gallery Lounge and ended up over at 21st Amendment where the Laughingsquid crew was have a meet’n greet with some of their out of town friends.
During my adventure, I strolled through quaint South Park and saw this funny flyer. I also swung by Vima Dance Studio. The people there are friendly and tear it up on the ballroom floor. My girlfriend wants us to take some lessons soon. I think we’ll start here!
Crikey, the last vid is dead, so how about this one?
With too much going on at work I had little time this year to indulge in Macworld Expo. On Friday afternoon I was running around trying to find the most interesting booths and displays. Near the end of my trip, in the furtherest corner of the South Hall, I heard some interesting music coming from the shadows. My view was obscured by the hall’s large support beams but when I went to check it out, it was a Best Buy mini-store. Standing behind a mixing desk with some video monitors behind him was Bauhaus‘ David J Djing some soundscape mixes! Now if Best Buy always had members of Bauhaus playing music I’d visit more often!
Going to high school late seventies Santa Cruz, my favorite local band was The Humans. They were a mix of the then emerging New Wave scene with a mix of surf, punk and avant garde theatrics. The first time I saw them was after Devo played a show at the Santa Cruz Civic in 1979. I hung out after the show and got to meetup with Devo so I could show them some pics from their previous Santa Cruz show when they played earlier that year.. While talking to them, they got an invite note from a local band called The Humans that said they were inspired by Devo and that they should come check out their show later that night at JJ’s Pizza over in the East Cliff neighborhood. The guys from Devo and their brother/manager said come on let’s all go!
So me and my younger brother booked out to JJ’s in my Datsun 510 to go hang with Devo and finally get to see The Humans which were getting some considerable buzz at the time. Half an hour later, I’m sitting at a little table with a couple guys from Devo, their manager and a pitcher of beer! I guess those times were a little different.
The Humans came on stage and did a blistering set of punk/new wave music with great surfy guitar licks. I became a big fan of them that night and went to almost every performance they did around the Monterey Bay area. The band was always so cool and friendly to this dorky teenager with his ever present camera around his neck.
Recently I’ve been going through and digitizing some of my favorite old cassette tapes and I found this aircheck tape of Eric Gies and Sterling Storm of The Humans being interviewed on KLRB – the ‘alternative’ progressive FM rock station that broadcasted from the Barnyard in Carmel Valley. Because of this station I was exposed to the Punk revolution, New Wave as well as artists like Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa and anything else weird the DJs felt like playing.
After a fun afternoon driving up to Vallejo to visit my good friend John Zorko, we took the ferry to SF to pickup his WWDC credentials. What’s in store this week? Can’t wait to find out! Probably some cool GUI interface tricks with Core Animation. John is hoping that Apple opens up the iPhone platform to developers to justify an iPhone purchase. I’ll probably look into getting one when my two year contract is up with my Sony/Ericsson W600.
Another fun part of the day was trying out my new Canon SD750. I got it to replace my little Nikon that I squished a bit in NYC last month. This camera is pretty cool. It’s super small but the quality is great. There’s a slow sync mode reminiscent of the rear-curtain sync settings I liked using in the film days. Another surprise is the quality of the video this thing shoots. 30fps – very smooth! My first digital camera, the Canon G2 couldn’t come close to this.
Bye-bye City! Um until Monday morning…