It was 20 years ago today that the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Back Bay Boston was broken into. In total thirteen works were pilfered. The thieves were never captured.
I haven’t been there in years, since sometime in college, but I heard there’s a whole expansion set to open in 2012. That’ll be something.
BREAKING NEWS: Reporter / blogger Justin Ellis just announced he is leaving the Portland Press Herald as of March 31: “Early retirement comes to the NXT Desk.”
Ou friendship with Ellis started two and a half years ago when he wrote about our Dubai adventure in the paper (see Portland Press Herald). Fortunately for us it continued in person once we were back stateside.
It’s a shame that the Press Herald is losing the one writer who connects with, as he says, “the young people” – covering their culture, technology and local music. In this day and age the mainstream newspapers need all of the readers they can get, and, as the cliche says, “children are the future.” To lose that voice is unfortunate. It seems that papers need more writers who can bridge the gap between young and old, reporter and blogger, hip and stoic.
I really wanted to link to his November 6, 2008 article “An aspiration no longer out of reach” about the election of President Obama, but it’s archived now and behind the paywall. If you feel like coughing up the two bucks it’s a fantastic read.
Anyway, I’ll miss Ellis’ contributions to the Press Herald, but wish him luck on the next chapter.
An hour ago WCSH reported Civic Center approves new deal with Pirates!
UPDATE: Apparently this was a done deal early enough for Steve Solloway to write about it in today’s Portland Press Herald? See: “Building a future for a building.”
If you’re Irish or not, I want to wish you all a very Happy St Patrick’s Day!
Now go drink some green beer like the Celts used to in 400 AD.
And watch out for the snakes.
I’ve been thinking about that new Disney book Project Future that I was telling you about yesterday (see New Disney Book).
I’m psyched for it, but there’s another book that I really want to read.
Sadly, it’s unpublished.
I swear I’ve talked about this before, but I can’t find the link. See, in the late 1960s when Walt Disney wanted to build what became Walt Disney World he sent a company lawyer to Florida to start buying up land.
And that lawyer, Robert Foster, wrote his story down.
From what I know it’s a story of pseudonyms and shell companies, determining who owned the land (and the mineral rights to said land) – probably all of the stuff in the new book above.
Sadly, Foster, who used the name “Robert Price” to keep his identity secret, never got his book published.
(And Foster/Price shouldn’t be confused with Harrison “Buzz” Price, whose Walt’s Revolution!: By the Numbers is a nerdy good read).
Foster/Price did, however, get a window on the Magic Kingdom’s Main Street, USA as both “Foster” and “Price”, a rare feat.
Fantastic article about digital preservation in Monday’s New York Times: “Fending Off Digital Decay, Bit by Bit.”
Check out this Portland Press Herald article about the B&M Baked Bean factory right around the corner from our place: “Reporter spills the beans about factory where nothing is half-baked.”
Nice to see something still being produced in Maine.
A month ago I mentioned my “mall dreams” (see I’m Up!).
Well I had one Monday night. I don’t remember the dream much, but I want to catalog it here.
I don’t remember much, but I was decorating a Christmas tree in a huge Macy’s-sized Disney Store.
Then the dream took a detour, and I was skiing, and my old boss was there … very odd.
Yes, I’d like a Apple iPad when they come out in 18 days. But I’m wary of being an early adopter, especially on new Apple products. You might remember when Apple cut the price of the iPhone by $200 two short months after it came out. Plus sometimes new products have bugs, especially when they’re as new and untested as the iPad.
So I’ve thought up a more economical use of my $500.
Well, theoretical $500.
Take a Refurbished Mac mini 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, which happens to sell for $499 – the same price as the current iPad. Add a $20 cable you can hook this up to your television: instant home entertainment system.
For the past 3 1/2 years we’ve used our 5.5th Generation iPod to play movies and TV shows to our TV (see iPod, TV and Me). That’s fine, and works quite well, but only holds 30 GB of entertainment. The Mac Mini has five times that, plus external hard drives.
Also it would be a hub for all of our music, which right now reside upstairs on a hard drive out of reach. Sadly our laptop has nowhere near the space needed. But with a Mac Mini we could play the songs over our network; all of our music would be at our fingertips anywhere in the house.
So while, yes, I’d like an iPad, I think the Mac Mini would work better for us in the short run. I know eventually we’ll have gobs of cash with which to buy all of the neat toys our hearts desire, but for now …
Missed this one yesterday – the first .com domain was registered on March 15, 1985.
Twenty-five years ago symbolics.com linked to a – you guessed it – now-defunct computer manufacturer.
My only question, if it was the only website on the internet, who went to it?
Oh yeah, I joined Facebook over the weekend, so go find me if you’re into that stuff.
How have I not heard of this book?!
If this were any more up my alley I would have written it! Check out this Orlando Sentinel article: “Talking With Chad Emerson: A ‘spy-like’ start for Disney.”
It’s out now, and affordable for someone’s birthday two weeks from today … (cough amazon.com link cough).
The Forecaster has an interesting article about Maine gubernatorial candidate Les Otten. Even from the title I think you’ll get the gist: “Risky Business.”
Last month I made fun of a banner ad for NESN’s “Spring Break Live” starring Peter Gammons. How a sixty-five year old white guy in a suit doesn’t sell “Spring Break” (see Spring Break Live).
Over the weekend I saw this ad, and, while probably for a different program (no “Live”, no Gammons) it’s at least a little more like Spring Break:
At least they don’t have Tom Caron’s ugly mug in there …
Robert and Richard Sherman are the songwriters behind a host of tunes from Disney movies such as Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, and The Aristocats as well as theme park attractions such as It’s a Small World, Carousel of Progress (both the original and the 1975 revamp), Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, and my personal favorite, Journey Into Imagination.
Well yesterday they received the highest honor that a Disney theme park can bestow – a window on Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A.
Check out: “Songwriting brothers get window in Disneyland.”
By now you’ve probably heard about Conan O’Brien’s new national tour, the “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour.”
But did you see where he’s playing in Los Angeles?
The Gibson Amphitheatre, which happens to be at Universal CityWalk, right around the corner from Stage 1 at Universal Studios where he had his short-lived show.
Ya think he’ll point that out?
Peter Kafka at All Things D has dug up a fantastic list – the wholesale prices that cable providers pay the broadcasters for each channel. Check out: “Hate Paying for Cable? Here’s Why.”
SNL Kagan
Every so often my father and I get into a frustration match about the bundling of cable TV. This happens mostly before or during baseball season, as NESN isn’t “basic” cable – it’s on the more expensive pricing tier.
You know, because “basic” cable should cost $55 a month.
We want a la carte pricing – why pay for Fox News, truTV or the Style Network if we don’t watch it? I don’t buy magazines I don’t like to read, or food I don’t want to eat.
Of course, every commercial enterprise has their tricks and quirks, and long ago the cable industry made the brilliant move to bundle everything we want and don’t want together. Getting them to change that seems less-and-less likely as downloads and streaming video take over the web and the mega-corporate broadcasters have more frequent disputes with the mega-corporate subscription-television providers over transmission fees.
Also, as pricing sends a signal (i.e. you get what you pay for) broadcasters would probably want their channels to command a higher price. As the lower the price of the channel, more people would infer the channel is crummy and probably not sign up for it.
Oh well. I guess we can dream that someday Time-Warner will allow me to pay $4.06 for ESPN, $0.88 for Disney, $0.24 for MLB Network and a scant $0.14 for Comedy Central. That someday they’ll be hurting enough to get my $5.32 instead of the $55 that I’m not paying them today.
UPDATE: Just saw a New York Times article from Wednesday about cable-cord cutter who ditch their subscription-television provider and watch cable over the internet tubes, a rising number as cable bills rise. Check out: “Changing Channels, From Cable to the Web.”
The New York Times Abstract City blog is genius, last year’s “I LEGO N.Y.” might be my favorite pop-art ever.
Well artist Christoph Niemann is at it again with a funny take on Google Maps. Check out: “My Way.”
Can’t say I’m pleased with this: “Court: ‘Under God’ in Pledge is constitutional.”
In summation – a federal appeals court ruled that the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance and printing “In God We Trust” on currency doesn’t violate the separation of church and state.
So I guess because it doesn’t say which God it’s okay?
Let’s reinterpret the First Amendment to the Constitution. Can’t have an Congress-established religion? Then it’s an “appeal to patriotism, not religion.”
Nevermind the fact that “under God,” which was added to the pledge by a 1954 federal law, was lobbied for by the Knights of Columbus – a friggin’ religious group!
Now I realize that our country is something like 78.5% Christian (CIA World Factbook, 2007 estimate), and if you added the 1.7% of the population that’s Jewish and the 0.6% that’s Muslim we have eight of of ten Americans worshipping the same Abrahamic God.
But why’s it got to be on the money?
Seriously!
If you get the History Channel (I know it’s called simply “History” now but it’d be weird to say “If you get History”) watch Modern Marvels tonight.
The B&M Baked Bean factory in Portland – that’s right down the road from our house – is going to be on it!
From the WGME website:
Burnham & Morrill Company has been in the canning business since 1867. In 1910, the business was moved to its current location on Casco Bay in Portland. On Thursday, March 11th the B&M Baked Beans factory will be featured on the History Channel’s Modern Marvels. The show starts at 8pm.
We don’t have cable, but maybe I’ll download it on iTunes tomorrow.
Tonight? I think I’ll need hot dogs and beans for supper …
Josh finally lives in Maine again
after four years at Boston University, a stint in Southern California with
Walt Disney Feature Animation,
and two years in Dubai, UAE,
where he created and wrote
Newlywed in Dubai.
