Timescale: A Call For Artists

Filed Under Art, Burning Man | 2009-02-28, 14:06

Timescale is an art project of great magnitude. A mile long, with 27 concrete columns over 6′ high, and a variety of artwork, this piece will be a scaled representation of the history of the Earth. It’s being created by Ardent Heavy Industries, the not-fire-art parent group to Interpretive Arson, which means the people that brought you Dance Dance Immolation and 2pir are working on it. I’m very much involved with this project (guess who did the website?) and highly recommend anyone that wants their art to be on display at Burning Man (and who knows where else) to submit a proposal. You only have until March 18th to get your proposal submitted, so don’t wait! Here’s the official “Call for Artists”:

We are now accepting proposals for all 27 Timescale chapter columns!

Timescale is a journey through 4.57 billion years of planet Earth’s geological and biological evolution, extended across one mile (5280 feet) of open playa. Beginning with the formation of the Earth from a cloud of gas and dust, participants will traverse through time — advancing two million years with each footstep, culminating at the present day.

Twenty-seven chapters in Earth’s growth are highlighted along the way, allowing participants to appreciate the transformation of our planet and the exponential complexity of living things. Each chapter will be marked by an 8-inch square column rising from the playa surface. The 6.5-foot tall column holds a clear box that contains a sculptural representation pertaining to that period of time.

We are actively looking for artists to create column sculptures. Pieces should evoke an event, creature or other aspect of the chosen chapter’s unique story. We will provide a well-lit clear display box eight inches wide and deep, and twelve inches tall. Electricity will be available for your installation if coordinated in advance.

For more information about this Burning Man art project, including display details, a list of chapters, and an artist proposal submission form, please visit the Timescale web site at: http://www.timescaleproject.com

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Mistabishi’s “Printer Jam” Video

Filed Under Geek, Movies and Music | 2009-02-27, 13:38

This great drum n bass track from newcomer Mistabishi is appropriately titled. The video is a nice companion for your eyes as your ears are assaulted, in that good sort of way. Turn up the speakers and hit play. If you like what you hear, you can grab his album on iTunes or Hospital Records.

Thanks Jof!

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WordPress Inserting Line Breaks In Front of Form Elements

Filed Under Geek, Wordpress | 2009-02-26, 13:37

So I’m working on a form for users to submit data on a WordPress-based site. I want it to look like this:

What I’m getting is this:

Those are screenshots, so here’s a “live” example:
Name:
Email:
Phone #:

Taking a look at the preview page using Firebug, I noticed that it was inserting <br /> in front of each input field. It did this with a select drop-down menu too. What gives? Anyone ever run into this?

4 Comments

Software I Recommend for OS X

Filed Under Apple | 2009-02-17, 14:38

It’s been over a year since I made “the switch” to OS X. I bought my Macbook Pro last January and while it’s been a struggle at times, I’ve managed to use it as my primary machine for over a year. I recently got an email from a friend who had just picked up an iMac and wanted suggestions on good software. I figure others might be interested in my favorite OS X apps. Here’s what I sent him as a response:
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The #1 best app ever is Quicksilver. It’s super powerful and can do all sorts of crazy stuff, but I mainly use it to launch apps and files. Apple+Spacebar, start typing the name of an app/file and it’ll show up. Hit enter and it launches. It also ties in with other apps to let you control them in ways they weren’t meant to be.

For all my IMing, I’m using Adium. It’s not awesome, but it works.

Growl is also pretty neat to have. It will display messages as things happen on your machine. So like if iTunes is playing in the background, it pops up a brief message to let me know what song just came on.

For Twitter, I’ve recently started using Twhirl, but I still jump on the website every now and then.

For terminal/command line stuff, iTerm1Password is hands down awesome. It has single-handedly saved my sanity.

VLC is much better than Quicktime for video playback. Plex is also preferred by many for a fancier interface. It’s based off XBox Media Center.

Handbrake is my new favorite media conversion utility. If you have a DivX movie or something you want to watch on an iPod, Xbox, whatever, it’ll convert it easily.

Xee is good replacement for Preview for image viewing and slideshows.

iStat Menus is great if you want to see stats on your machine, how hot it is, CPU load, disk writing, etc. It’s handy for when my machine bogs down and I don’t know why. “Oh, Firefox is using 110% of my cpu. Kill task..”
—

Do any of you have any essential apps you recommend for a new convert?

15 Comments

San Francisco Pillow Fight 2009 Photos

Filed Under Pranks, SF Bay Area | 2009-02-17, 02:21

I’ve finished going through the photos from the San Francisco Valentine’s Day Pillow Fight. There are some of the UNCCH before the pillow violence erupted as well as some photos deep within the carnage. The full set can be found on my Flickr.

Previously posted: San Francisco Pillow Fight 2009 and the UN

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An Absinthe Education

Filed Under Education, SF Bay Area, Video | 2009-02-16, 04:12

I’ve found myself drinking more and more absinthe over the past year or so. It’s a much more enjoyable drink than your typical beer or cocktail. We even had the pleasure of having the Absinthe Fairy Crusher visit the latest party at The Fishbowl.

However absinthe is a much misunderstood beverage. If you’re not familiar with absinthe, it’s production, and it’s effects, you might want to take a few minutes to sit and watch this great series of videos from Chow.com. Lance Winters from St. George Spirits, a local Alameda based distillery, talks about how to make absinthe, what to look for in a good absinthe, how he feels about absinthe, and his plans for future batches. Not only is it educational and entertaining, it’s also great cocktail party knowledge, especially if you’re planning on stopping by for our next gathering!

You’re Not Hallucinating: Forget all the myths and rumors about the green fairy

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San Francisco Pillow Fight 2009 and the UN

Filed Under Pranks, SF Bay Area, Video | 2009-02-16, 03:16

Every year in San Francisco on Valentine’s Day, thousands of people gather to confront each other with the softest weapons known to man. Many of my friends have joined in this battle, wielding pillows of all shapes and sizes. This year I decided that I would lay down my pillow and take a neutral stance as an embedded journalist. I went into Justin Herman Plaza alongside the The United Nations Commission on Costumes & Holidays (UNCCH), who were there to try to defuse the tense situation that seems to happen every year. The UNCCH inspected pillows to make sure they all conformed to international standards, while continuing to insist that they should seek other forms of conflict resolution.

UN Pillow Inspections from Ed Hunsinger on Vimeo.

The pillow militants surrounded us on all sides, and we all knew what was coming. There was no stopping a movement as strong as this one.

The Threat of Pillow Violence is Imminent from Ed Hunsinger on Vimeo.

The clock struck 6:00 and the feathers flew. The carnage was far and wide as an estimated 2,500 people swung pillows, battering others left and right. We stayed around the outskirts at first, but then decided that the story had to be told from the front lines. Along with my trusty cameraman, Steen, we braved feathery weapons to make our way through the battlefield. It wasn’t pretty, but then again Valentine’s Day isn’t always pretty either.

Embedded in the Pillow Carnage from Ed Hunsinger on Vimeo.

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Celebration and Explosive Sledgehammers

Filed Under Fire, Video | 2009-02-12, 15:53

Unfortunately we missed it this year, but next year you should grab your Thor costume and head down to San Juan de la Vega, Mexico in February for some explosive celebrations.

Every year on the Tuesday of Carnival (which fell on Feb 5th this year), the residents of San Juan de la Vega get together to “recreate” the great battle of their patron saint (San Juan de la Vega of cours) and the government. The story is that this Juan was a bit of a Robin Hood character and stole from the rich to give to the poor. During Carnival, there is a little bit of a recreation of the story of some thieves stealing gold, but not all making it out. The captured thieves are then offered up for a ransom that exceeds the amount of gold stolen. Money is collected, but apparently not all goes according to plan and there is the resulting battle with the government. This isn’t a small recreation though. Tons of potassium chloride and sulphur along with many thousands of people gather to set off these explosive hammers.

The explosive recreation of the “battle” used to take place in the main square of the city, but due to damage to buildings (I can imagine!) it has since been moved to a soccer field where there aren’t any windows to break. Surprisingly with this large number of explosives and close proximity of exploders, there are very few injuries. In 2007 there were 17 reported minor injuries, and 50 in 2008.

There’s a translated article (thanks Babelfish) about the 2007 celebration if you want to read more about the reason behind it all. There is also the original article for those fluent in Spanish. And an article on last year’s celebration: English / Spanish.

The above video is from a previous year, and here’s a video from 2008:

And thanks to avidd, there’s also a humorous Instructables based on the top video entitled “Physics experiement with exploding sledgehammer”.

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San Francisco’s Western Addition: Then and Now

Filed Under SF Bay Area, Uncategorized | 2009-02-02, 01:31

Having only been in San Francisco a few years, I’m always intrigued with how it used to look. Heather came across some great Flickr photo sets dating back to the 70s and 80s, one specifically dedicated to our neighborhood, Western Addition. We went through the photos and attempted to track them down via Google Street View. Here are the results (links open in new windows):

Page and Fillmore (one building is under wraps but we still found them):
1969 / Google Street View

Stardust Lounge (now a boutique):
1970 / Google Street View

Steiner and Sacramento (building is gone):
1977 / Google Street View

Baker’s Market (Green Chile Kitchen now):
1978 / Google Street View

Wash Dry (we think it’s the same laundromat):
1979 / Google Street View

Fillmore St:
1979 / Google Street View

People’s Temple (now a US Post Office):
1979 / Google Street View

Webster and Hayes (the store is gone but the building is still there):
1979 / Google Street View

Oak and Buchanan (looks pretty much the same almost 30 years later):
1980 / Google Street View

Laguna and Post (beautiful building demolished for Japantown):
1980 / Google Street View

Golden Gate & Scott:
1980 / Google Street View

Hickory St (you can see the old freeway that no longer exists in the background):
1980 / Google Street View