More Berlin Stories - Stew and 'Passing Strange' on NPR

So I'm listening to NPR's 'All Things Considered' and they start talking about an old pal of mine from my days in Berlin, Stew. The segment is called, "Wondrous 'Strange': Spike Lee Makes A Musical" and it's about how Spike Lee produced a film version of Stew's musical 'Passing Strange' which won a Tony last year (see my write-up).

The musical is about Stew's experiences growing up in L.A. and then going to Amsterdam and Berlin. Since that's when I knew him (we were in the same group called the 'Wonderful Guise'), I look forward to seeing the film. Here's the trailer.

Real-Time Web: It's More Than Just Twitter

I liked the article in BusinessWeek on the 'Real-Time Web'. It being BusinessWeek, they naturally devoted a significant portion to speculation on how to make money from this emerging trend and I had to laugh at the illusive precision of there being "at least $5 billion to be made on the real-time Web". What, just $5 billion?

Anyway, to give them their due, they correctly identify the trend:

In just the past couple of years, several developments have come together to make the Web more of a real-time experience: ubiquitous high-speed Internet connections; a growing number of mobile devices such as the iPhone with full Web browsers; and new Web technologies that enable instant transmission of messages and data. That mix has made always-on, real-time communications easy and addictive.

Okay, that sounds pretty 'real-time' to me. What I can't understand though is the focus, bordering on fixation, on Twitter in this and other articles. I mean, here it is, we've got an emerging technology that's giving us real-time group communication both in text, voice and video and the most impressive thing they can think of is a text stream limited to 140 characters?

You can't be serious. Off the top of my head, the number of possibilities include:

• Switch from traditional telephones to more computer- and network-based audio
• Conference calls on steroids -- now with video
• More ways to interact remotely at meetings and conferences -- routine live blogging and group chat are just the beginning
• Greater use of video chat -- for no better reason than there being a video camera on everyone's laptop
• Remote mentoring including real-time online editing of student research papers
• Easier and more dynamic ways to collect and organize research

And yes, I've seen the video introducing Google's ambitious Wave Project. It's nice but I'm most optimistic about initiatives that build on past successes and move forward by incremental steps. The kind of technology we've become familiar with as hallmarks of Web 2.0 (YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, etc.) has prepared us well for this next step.

[h/t ReadWriteWeb]

Augumented Reality App for London Only Shows Yankee Fastfood Chains

I kind of like the idea of "Augmented Reality" (AR) and consider it the next logical step in GPS applications, but I found it strange that the food listings advertised on the iPhone App for London Transit consist almost entirely of U.S. fastfood chains. I mean, it's nice to be fitted out with the latest in technology but you'd hope it could do more than simply direct you to the nearest McDonald's or KFC.

Why I Hate Netflix

Because I'm sick and tired of their ads popping up on every other website I visit.

Back to School at UIC

Today was the first day of school at UIC. The weather was great.

The first picture is of the East Campus at around noon. The second picture is later in the day of new student Alex (son of friend Aaron) sampling local delicacies -- including a polish sausage with grilled onions and fries from Jim's Original Maxwell St Polish and an authentic piece of original baklava from the Pan Hellenic Pastry Shop on Halsted.

Pictures from the Illinois State Fair

I had a great time at the Illinois State Fair. I was there on Tuesday and Wednesday. Usually the first day, I hang around the city and the second day, I hang out at the fair.

It's a pretty city.

Of course, I was bummed out to see that Boone's Saloon had closed. The backyard patio was a perennial stop for me.

One thing you absolutely must do when you're at the Fair is see the Butter Cow in the Dairy Building. This year, the Butter Cow was joined by a youngish Abe Lincoln, this being the 200th anniversary of his birth.

Finally, I kind of liked the message from the Illinois Pork Producers. Porkchop-on-a-stick is a favorite of mine.

First Law of Travel

Buy new underwear!

First Law of Electronic Reserves

Make sure your students have a copy of your syllabus just in case the frickin' server breaks down.

Tribune Launches Much Improved Site Redesign

It's 2009 and the Chicago Tribune has only now figured out what it takes to design a website. Still, you have to hand it to them, it's a vast improvement over the previous iteration. They even went back to the old letterhead.

'Cash for Clunkers' - Everyone's Doing It

You know, as someone living in the city who doesn't drive a car, I've been feeling kind of left out lately with all this talk about 'Cash for Clunkers'. Who should run to the rescue but local furniture retailer Walter E. Smithe?

In a pretty funny commercial I just heard on WBBM radio, they announced they were offering cash discounts of several hundred dollars on new purchases if you bring in your old couch or armoire.

As store owner Walter Smithe explained in this comment to Furniture World:

"While not everyone has a clunker car, almost everyone has at least one piece of clunker furniture they'd like to replace with something nicer. This is a great opportunity for consumers to trade their old furniture for new furniture."

The clever company even has a twitter account where the latest tweet is about -- what else -- their 'Cash for Clunkers' deal!

DePaul Makes It into Andrew Sullivan's 'Daily Dish' -- in Reverse

Here's something interesting. Andrew Sullivan, on his blog, The Daily Dish, has been featuring a series of user-submitted photos called, 'The View From Your Window'. And wouldn't you know, Saturday, he ran a picture from DePaul!

You can look up the image and then compare it to the one above. They're both from the Garden Terrace in the 'DePaul Center' on Jackson and State*. The only difference, strangely enough, is that Sullivan's copy seems to be reversed. How'd that happen?

[h/t Brian]

---------- * Family Tradition: The building, formerly known as Goldblatt's is where my Aunt Shirley for years used to work part-time in Notions & Lotions on 1 and where I continue to toil in Reference on 10.

The World of HTML5

Now that XHTML2 is officially kaput, I've noticed a number of very helpful posts attempting to get people comfortable with our new upcoming main-squeeze, HTML5.

The ever-wonderful, Smashing Magazine features a good introduction by Tim Wright, called "HTML5 and The Future of the Web". The links and references following the article are particularly helpful.

Even more 'hands-on' is an interesting tutorial called, "HTML 5 and CSS 3: The Techniques You’ll Soon Be Using" from the site, Nettuts+. The goal is to redesign a blog page using, as the title would suggest, HTML5 and CSS3 tagging. This approach is a wonderful way for those familiar with the current state of tagging (say, you and me) to begin grappling with the new system.