"Salad"

I love this - click to see closeups:



At first I thought this was a sculpture made out of veggies and was disappointed to find out it's a digital rendering, but given that I thought it was actual veggies speaks to this artist's skills.

via boing boing

Charlie Rose treasure trove

Charlie Rose has made available his entire archive available for viewing online. If I didn't have a new job to find, I'd lose a couple of weeks to this... here's a great interview with Jack and Meg White:

Wilhelm Kempff / Moonlight Sonata

For my admittedly sophomoric ears (in terms of classical music), one of the best pianists I've heard is Wilhelm Kempff. One of my favorite piano compositions is Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14, popularly known as the "Moonlight Sonata."

The first movement is instantly recognizable - terribly easy to "play," but only a great pianist can capture the nuances of the feeling. The second movement is the calm before the storm of the third movement. Quite pretty, though my least favorite of the three movements. The third movement is what gets it for me - it's terribly complicated and terribly technical. Yet, given this, it is utterly beautiful and drenched with passion, anger and other emotions. Only a great pianist can play this (at all), let alone play it with the emotion that's needed to take it from a display of technical brilliance to truly being art. From Wikipedia's article on the sonata:

Of the final movement, Charles Rosen has written "it is the most unbridled in its representation of emotion. Even today, two hundred years later, its ferocity is astonishing."

Wilhelm Kempff performing Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2, first movement:



Second movement:



Third movement:

David Bowie "Ashes to Ashes" video

This is the "Ashes to Ashes" video by David Bowie. It's the coolest. From his "Scary Monsters and Super Creeps" album.



Aw hell, this is great, too.

First harvest from the garden

I harvested my first summer herbs and vegetables this evening. Using a Black Prince heirloom tomato, some freshly picked basil, some fresh mozzarella and some lovely balsamic vinegar, I composed a caprese salad (click through pictures for a larger version):


I then cooked some way-too-expensive coho salmon and made salmon with cucumber salad and a basil sauce, recipe taken from cookinglight.com


It's definitely satisfying not to have paid $3.00 for a little packet of basil. The tomato was on the smallish side, but the flavor wasn't.

"Best driver, worst person"

I saw this news story months ago and can't believe that I forgot to post it.

NEW PORT RICHEY - For about eight minutes on Tuesday, through the streets near downtown, police chased a driver who had no arms and one good leg.

He got away.

He is used to this sort of thing.

Authorities say the driver was Michael Francis Wiley, 40, who overcame three amputations, taught himself to drive with stumps and proceeded to become one of Pasco County's most accomplished traffic violators.

As far as I'm concerned, the Touyama / Wiley ticket is the best we can hope for in 2008.

Classic quote: "He is one of the best drivers I've ever seen in my life," said Lee Michie, a longtime acquaintance. "But he's the worst person I've ever met."

Photos from California trip

Here are photos taken from my recent California trip. Standing on top of Sentinel Dome in Yosemite National Park was transcendent. I didn't want to leave.

South Park meets Zen

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have animated audio recordings of the Zen Buddhist teacher, Alan Watts.

This works. I think Watts would have enjoyed these.

(read first on Boing Boing)