Category Archives: review

The Truth Of A Place

Why I’m A Sucker For A Good Travel Blog

Travel blogs are a not oft mentioned, yet not entirely secret, pleasure of mine. I love travel writing in general. But a good travel blog, especially of someone actually living in a new place long term, is really my thing. Not only do they feed my desires and intentions for my own future journey, they provide brief and unique perspectives from someone who is both within and outside. A person that may be inside of a place but is now and likely will forever remain slightly outside a culture.

The things that make a “good” travel blog are, of course, subjective. To me they are this:

  • Good Photos.
  • Great storytelling.
  • Deep insight into the truth of a place.

In other words, I would like to be transported. I want, for just a few moments, to be where the writer is and see with their eyes and experience through these words and understand a place as they do.

Recently, I have been enjoying a few of these that I will mention here:

  • Spartan Wanderer — This is the blog of Seth who is spending a year in Daqing, China teaching English. It fits all of the criteria mentioned above. Compelling observations about life in China .

  • David Byrne’s Journal — As multimedia artist David Byrne has been on tour with St. Vincent in support of their collaboration, he has been writing wonderful insights on all of the cities they play. Everything from a visit to a creationist museum to the circuses of Ancient Rome.

  • Idle Words — Maciej CegÅ‚owski, developer of Pinboard has a blog where he writes about travel and food and it is really good. I had no idea until Chris Gonzales alerted me to that fact today. Since, I have devoured several posts in what little free time I’ve had.

There are more but that should give you some idea of why I love this particular genre of writing. And, if you know of any you’d recommend please feel free to send them my way. I’m always open to sugestions in this area.

Calling Your Attention To… David Byrne

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is the first in another series of regular writing devices I’m trying. This will be individuals or projects that require more space than would be appropriate for my Items Of Interest posts.

Many may only know David Byrne from his time as front man for The Talking Heads. And, if that is where your musical knowledge of his music stops then you are missing out on some of his best work. For instance, his latest work, a collaboration with St. Vincent called Love This Giant, is likely one of the best albums he has ever produced. It’s eclectic, funky, imaginative, and likely far ahead of it’s time. But, why stop there? His discography includes eight solo albums and dozens of collaborations and scores.

But there is so much more to David Byrne than his music. His books are all excellent (especially How Music Works). His art installations push the idea of creative intersections forward. And, his blog… So, so good. Especially his recent travel journal style entries he’s been posting while on tour. He is an avid bicyclist and is fascinated about cities and community and history in ways that are relevant and important. I mean, whom else could make such a beautiful and compelling case for Des Moines, IA being one of the best places to live in America? Only Mr. Byrne I suspect.

The thing is, that David Byrne is into so much and his creative output so prolific that I could catalog and review his work far longer than your patience or my current energy level allows. So let me leave you with one of the best kept musical secrets on the internet — David Byrne Radio. Every month, he curates a fantastic selection of eclectic music , usually around a central theme, and plays it on his streaming internet radio station. I have found tons and tons of music I would not have heard of otherwise this way. His tastes are diverse and span the globe. The current playlist is Cold Weather Songs in Summer, Part II which is exactly and not at all what you expect at once.

So, do yourself a favor and make David Byrne a person whose work you always follow as he has long been one of mine.

Everyday Software (Mac)

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For no particular reason, other than the fact the people like to know these things sometimes and full disclosure, here are the apps I use every single day on my Mac. This does not account for everything installed and used. This is just the stuff I use every day without fail. I’ll likely do one of these in the future for iPhone and iPad as well.

  • Safari — I believe in using the built-in tools whenever possible. It helps when the built-in tools are pretty darn good. I find Safari pretty darn good most of the time.

  • Mail — The one email client I have used long enough and learned deeply enough to be maximally efficient with it.

  • BusyCal — Way better than the built in Calendar app (formerly iCal) and has easy sharing of calendars which my wife and I depend on.

  • nvALT — I’ve been a Notational Velocity user for over 8 years. I use it for all sorts of things. Currently contains 867 notes. nvALT is Brett Terpstra’s fork of this open sourse project that adds a ton of useful features which make it that much better.

  • Byword — What I use for most writing when on my Mac.

  • Twitter — Yes, Twitter. The official client. I still check in here daily despite having mostly moved to App.net.

  • Reeder (awaiting update) — My RSS reader of choice. Only worked with Google Reeder so I have not used it since that shut down on the first of this month. Once it updates to support FeedWrangler I’ll gladly fire it up once again.

So, those are all the “app” apps I use. But, what about the menubar and “just runs in the background” sorts of things? Here are those:

  • Droplr — For sharing files, screenshots, and quick one off notes easily.

  • Dropbox — If it is a file of any sort it is likely in here.

  • Day One — Which I use more as a daily log than a journal.

  • Jumpcut — Clipboard buffering. Keyboard driven. Full on awesomesauce.

  • Shortcat — Use your keyboard to find and click on buttons and links. The less I have to touch my trackpad/mouse, the faster I am.

  • FastScripts — Execute scripts with keyboard commands.

  • QuickCal — Enter calendar events quickly using your keyboard and natural language processing.

  • Quicksilver — Launch apps and do all sorts of other cool things using your keyboard (Are you sensing a theme here?).

  • DragonDrop — Provides a “shelf” with the shake of your mouse to drag stuff temporarily before dropping it.

I might have missed a few things but that’s what I use every single day on my Mac.

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