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Brent Jones  //  

Aug 17 / 8:59pm

Indiana University: Music!

The Sample Gates seemed like a good place to start, being the entrance to campus. Now, though, we're going to jump all the way over to the other side and take a look at the music complex. Indiana is quite well known for its music program.

This is the view from the parking garage just north of Read Hall, which is where I lived during my time at IU. The brick building on theright is Delta Gamma house, a sorority (and one of the few Greek houses still located on the main part of campus). The tall structurenext to it is the fly space of the Musical Arts Center. Farther left is part of the Simon Music Center.

This is the Musical Arts Center. It was built in 1971. The MAC, as it's known, has 1,460 seats, a 90' by 60' stage and room for a 100-piece orchestra. I performed in the chorus in a production of Berlioz' The Damnation of Faust here. Good times. The backstage area is huge -- the university's site says the backstage area is more than half of the building. The seating is atypical: Long unbroken rows, a very shallow house (something like 20 rows deep) and three shallow balconies with boxes extending toward the stage on the sides. Even from the back of the house, you're almost on top of the stage compared to some other venues.

This is Peau Rouge Indiana, a sculpture by Alexander Calder that sits on the lawn of the MAC. I saw this thing pretty much every day I went to classes.

This is the Simon Music Center, as seen from across Jordan Ave. The building was originally built in 1951 and housed the School of Education and the laboratory school (and despite renovations, it looks it on the inside too -- wide hallways with music lockers lining themreminds one of high school). The School of Education got a new building and moved out in 1992, the Music School took it over in 1995.

This building houses two performance halls: Auer Hall, a 400-seat auditorium including balconies and a pipe organ, and Ford-CrawfordHall, a 100-seat recital hall. There is one large lecture hall where I had various interminable classes on music theory or ear training. Ithink choir may have been in there one semester too.

It also has the Cook Music Library, which is not only a traditional library (and my first experience with movable shelves!) but has anextensive digital library -- Variations (now Variations2 and soon to be Variations3...not real creative with the naming there...) -- whichcatalogs recordings, images of scores, midi files and even digitized notation files to be used with programs like Finale or Sibelius. Inaddition to all that, it (if I remember right) integrates with the rest of the library's collection, so if you search for a specific workyou'll also find hard copies, reviews and reference book entries. You can only access most of it from the library itself owing to rightsconcerns, but it's still pretty cool.

This is the fountain in front of Simon. I didn't realize it while I was attending, but on this visit I exited the building and it struckme that the fountain sounded like applause. Kind of cool.

This is the McKinney Fountain. I read someplace it's meant to represent a conductor (the tall guy in the middle) directing anorchestra (the long curvy guy with the fountains of various heights).

Here's one of the main entrances to Simon. You can see the University School nameplate above the door, the school seal at the top and themetalwork above the door.

This is another of the music buildings, the Music Annex. As far as I can tell, it was built in 1960. You can see the carillon at the top,which is occasionally used for practice (there's another carillon on campus too).

Here's another view of the Annex. It's very round -- the hallway inside is round as well. There are offices, classrooms, practice roomsand larger rehearsal rooms inside. I think my first college class ever may have been in this building. I also sang with the Singing Hoosierschoir here.

This is the front of the original music building, called Merrill Hall (the south side -- it faces 3rd street and is the opposite side ofwhere the Music Annex is hooked on). The building was completed in 1937. It has the names of composers inscribed around the top -- Bachis above the main entrance.

And here's a closer view of the front door of the music building. I was always a fan of the carving on the columns on the sides of thedoor (note the small "IU" symbol in the intersection) as well as the metalwork on the doors and lights next to the doors. Somewhat FrankLloyd Wright-ish. Also of note is the figure carved above the door -- there's a figure or symbol relating to music carved above eachentrance.

Here's one of the side entrances to the music building. You can see the treble clef over the door.

And finally, here's the area we're talking about. The Music Annex is an easy starting spot because it's round. Just south is Merrill Hall, the original Music Building. The building immediately east is Simon Music Center, and to the east of that building you can see the curve of the fountain. North of there is the MAC, and if you go a bit northeast, you'll see the parking garage where the first photo was shot from.


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Aug 16 / 9:57pm

Indiana University: Sample Gates

These gates form the ceremonious entrance to the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington.

On one side -- where I'm standing -- is Kirkwood, Ave. For folks familiar with St. Louis, it's a Delmar Loop-like street (albeit a bit toned down) that has the town square on its other end. On the other side -- where you're looking -- is the Old Crescent, the origin of Indiana University on this site in 1885.

The gates are ornamental -- there's no fence around the campus. Coincidentally, while there's no physical barrier to campus, the crossroad here, Indiana Ave., is probably one of the clearest boundaries between campus and town. IU is a very defined campus (as opposed to an urban one), but the other edges still seem to blend into the town a little better.

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Aug 6 / 2:44pm

Indiana, we're all for you

                       

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Posted from Bloomington, IN

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Aug 1 / 4:10pm

On the legality of Flipboard

Social news app Flipboard was yesterday's hot new app, despite—or perhaps because of—technical problems that prevented some features from working. But there might be a bigger snag: Is Flipboard scraping content it doesn't have the rights to?

Flipboard is a new iPad app that purports to be a custom-generated magazine, based on feeds you select and on links shared by friends on your connected Twitter and Facebook accounts. I'm still waiting on an invite, so I can't say how well it works (though the non-customized feeds are laid out pretty nicely). I'm also not sure of the last iPad app I saw this much hype surrounding.

This Gizmodo post brings up an interesting point about whether Flipboard is serving up content it shouldn't.

In my limited scanning of the app, I originally thought it was using RSS -- stories (e.g. from the Onion) were truncated, and a tap on "Read on Web" takes you to the source's site in an embedded broswer, just like an RSS reader. However, it turns out that's not quite the case.

Flipboard scrapes content. In other words, it goes to the site, takes a look at what's there, figures out where the story is (along with accompanying photos/videos/etc.) and yanks them onto Flipboard's servers to figure out how best to display them into the app. The Gizmodo article makes the case that this may not be legal, strictly speaking, because Flipboard displays the content -- content that the sites haven't explicitly made available to outside sources through RSS feeds or another means -- without the ads.

It's an interesting question -- is it ok to view the content without viewing the ads? The same question is asked about ad blockers of course, and moving to another medium, whether it's ok to skip over ads on your Tivo.

The post calls out another "parser", Instapaper, but dismisses the problem in regard to that site because you ostensibly need to view the page -- and the ads -- at least once in order to "Instapaper" it (when you send an item to Instapaper, the site looks at the page, strips all or most of the irrelevant stuff -- menus, sidebars and yes, ads -- and then puts it in an easy-to-read setting on your desktop or mobile device). But here's the thing: that's not exactly true. Many RSS readers or clients allow you to send an RSS item to Instapaper directly. Even if they don't, they most likely let you email and Instapaper provides an email address where you can send links to be parsed and placed in your account. There are even sites that aggregate stories and provide Instapaper links (the little ovals that say "Read Later").

RSS is a different matter entirely: A site chooses whether to offer an RSS feed, and if they do, they choose how much of their content to send out. Some only send out headlines, some do excerpts and some do the full content (sometimes integrating ads into the feed itself). But, as the Gizmodo post points out, the choice with an RSS feed lies with the site. These aggregators operate on their own, without the site's consent.

I'm not sure of the endgame here: As much as I hate to say it, I can't see applications like Flipboard and Instapaper working out long term. If they stay small-scale, then maybe publishers won't be bothered enough by them to care much. But if they take off, I expect conflict. The most convenient solution for the end user may be for developers and publishers to come to an agreement that developers won't strip ads. But of course that eliminates at least part of the appeal of these applications -- unless the ads are unobtrusive and fit the flow of the viewer application (e.g. Instapaper is a very simple, very bare-bones viewer -- an ad that's too distracting would defeat at least part of the point of using Instapaper).

It's a bit of a tightrope for the sites that are producing content: it's important for that content to be accessible, passed around and convenient for the end reader, but it's also important to the site that users actually visit the site -- visits and ad views and site loyalty. To over simplify things: Too loose with control of the content, and the site won't get the hits, won't generate pageviews and won't get any ad revenue. Too tight with control of the content, and users will seek out content that's easier to consume. Publishers will need to find a middle ground, and it remains to be seen whether that world includes applications like Flipboard and Instapaper in their current forms.

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Aug 1 / 3:55pm

An awesome blog: Sleep Talkin' Man

I forget how I came across this blog, but it's not to be missed. Synopsis: An American woman marries a guy from the UK (and moves over there). She discovers he talks a lot in his sleep. And it's often hilarious. So, she records it, transcribes it and posts the recordings and transcriptions. (Note: Sometimes they contain an impressive amount of profanity) Here is one:

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Jul 5 / 10:54am

Yay Fireworks!

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Jun 27 / 6:52pm

Lightning: the beginning.

I think this is the first lightning photo I ever shot -- and raindrops, bad color and fuzzy bolt and all, I still think it's one of the best.

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Jun 26 / 5:05pm

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory II, Revenge of Gloop

The Mississippi River is a little on the high side in St. Louis. The steps at the Arch are still open down to where they meet the river, but the road at their base – Leonore K. Sullivan Blvd. -- is submerged under a foot or two of water.

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Jun 23 / 9:13pm

For want of a hyphen...

For want of a hyphen, I spend $20 on candy.

                     
So, the FDA banned candy and fruit-flavored cigarettes. Or, "candy cigarettes" AND "fruit-flavored cigarettes". That's what a whole bunch of blogs thought today, anyway. Gawker (screenshot below), citing Consumerist (which has now been updated, old Google result that now leads to a 404 below), and Slate's The Big Money blog (no mention anywhere on the site now that I can find, Google result below) all mentioned the new ban. Candy, marketing to kids, you know the drill.

Except not so much. The headline on the FDA's release, "Candy and Fruit Flavored Cigarettes Now Illegal in United States; Step is First Under New Tobacco Law" isn't terribly clear, but it was made worse by the addition of a hyphen between "fruit" and "flavored" in the blogs. That made it seem like, as I said above, candy cigarettes as well as fruit-flavored cigarettes were banned. That's certainly what I thought, and I even made the comment at work that it MUST mean that, because who's ever heard of candy-flavored cigarettes (now I want to get my hands on a blue raspberry Fun Dip-flavored Camel).

So without reading the original press release myself (lesson learned, my young friends, lesson learned) -- the text of which is perfectly clear, by the way: "a ban on cigarettes with flavors characterizing fruit, candy, or clove." -- I thought "wow, no more candy cigarettes ever!" I promptly set out to buy some. I saw lots of awesome graphic design on the packages (and some that's pretty terrible) and thought "I must document this for posterity!" Then I bought one of each.

The woman at the candy store asked if I was stocking up, whereupon I related the sad tale of the banned candy. No wonder she was so confused.

     

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Jun 21 / 9:35pm

The past, unearthed

I enjoy it when history intersects my life in interesting ways. I noticed this exposed streetcar rail the other day while driving on Olive just down the street from my apartment building. Streetcars used to be a significant form of transportation in St. Louis, and there's talk of bringing them back in a more limited fashion -- a Delmar Loop streetcar running from the History Museum in Forest Park down the Delmar Loop and back ws floated in the past year, and Grand Ave. is another place often mentioned as prime streetcar territory.

Whether a working streetcar will ever exist again in St. Louis I can't say, but thinking of the history is pleasant. That rail connected with a network that transported St. Louisans from all social and economic statuses, all neighborhoods, all walks of life around the region (I may be idealizing it, but it seems to me that our current system is much more segregated -- not that progress isn't being made). Iconically, to Forest Park for the 1904 World's Fair, recreationally to Sportsman's Park on North Grand or to the large department stores downtown, or vocationally to their offices or factories all around the region.

As it happens, my friend James Baker wrote a book about St. Louis streetcars called King Trolley and the Suburban Queens. It looks at the history of streetcars in St. Louis, with a particular focus on extending service from the city to Kirkwood and Webster Groves. It's got a ton of photos, first-person experiences of riding the streetcars, maps and if you want to delve in even further, footnotes.

But coincidentally, the back cover of the book features a photo shot by Wayne Leeman on May 21, 1966: A woman and child getting ready to board the Hodiamont car for the last streetcar ride in St. Louis. But what caught my eye is the clock hanging off the building in the background. It's on Olive too. It's just down the street from that newly exposed rail, where 44 years ago the last streetcar in St. Louis passed by.

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Posted from St Louis, MO

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