Well, what happen if the two things combined? Well for one day only they have. Today is Ask a Conductor day on Twitter.
A little background. On Twitter, if you have a question to ask the universe, you use something called a hashtag. Hashtags go on the end of a Tweet and they are indexed by the site, so anyone can search for them. The hastag in this case is #askaconductor. Click on that last link and you'll go to the Twitter search results for instances where that tag's used in a Tweet. The directory's updated in real time.
So if you're a Twitter-er and you have a burning question you want to ask about classical music, just ask it and use the hashtag #askaconductor. Conductors and orchestra people from all over the world will be monitoring Twitter today and answer these questions personally. There are conductors from all the world's major (and minor) orchestras involved so who knows? Maybe Michael Tilson Thomas or Esa-Pekka Salonen will answer your question. Here's the link to the #askaconductor site.
Range hoods used to be an afterthought. They were the unglamorous, practical thing that every kitchen needed. For years, they were the gnarled hand of necessity reaching into an otherwise lovely and well-thought out room. They were all so boxily utilitarian that nobody really thought about them.
All of that started to change since the beginning of the new millennium and we seem to be reaching some kind of critical mass with them. every time I turn around it seems, someone's re-thought the range hood again.
Well, most of the time I don't get too excited about these re-thought range hoods. Then I saw this.
That's the Sphere from Frecan.
Frecan is a Catalunyan appliance manufacturer with its headquarters in Barcelona. They didn't stop with the Sphere either. Check out the Saturn.
Between the two of them I'd be hard-pressed to pick which one I like more. Now clearly, some of these hoods (and I hate to call them hoods, the Brits call them "extractors" which sounds so much more elegant) aren't capable of venting to the outside, they just recirculate. Keep in mind that in their target market, they're not dealing with the enormous cooking appliances popular in the US. However, some of these models could be adapted to use in North America. Just look at these beauties.
Frecan's really onto something here, who says that range hoods have to be boring? Check out Frecan's website, maybe I'm not the only one who'll be questioning everything he thinks he knows.
The following is a Blog Off post. A Blog off is an event where bloggers of all stripes write about the same topic. You can learn more on the Let's Blog Off site. As the day progresses, a table will appear at the end of this post and it will list all of the participants as well as link to their posts. This week's Blog Off topic isn't just a topic, it's a situation.
No, not that Situation. I mean it's a hypothetical situation:
You’re given an island. The only thing to consider is once you move there, you can’t leave. Who and what would you bring? What are the rules?
There's nothing in here that says I won't have contact with anybody once I'm there, so I'm not bringing anybody with me. Now that that's decided, I'm going to pack up a U-Haul and go to my island. So the answer to what will I bring is everything but my car.
Since this is my island situation, I get to pick the island and here's the island I'm picking.
It's not just any Manhattan though, it's my Manhattan. It still operates under the usual rules except for a couple of important changes. First, on my Manhattan I have an income in the mid-six-figures for being a bon vivant. I'm going to be one of those Manhattanites who lives really well but has no visible means of support.
I will have a townhouse on Perry Street in the West Village and I get the whole house, not just a floor.
The following businesses will remain in business in perpetuity so that I can hunt and gather to my heart's content.
And for times when I want an injection of hip without spending too much money, I want a table standing by at the Coffee Shop in Union Square.
I know, I know, but I like how the hip factor rubs off of all those NYU kids and onto me when I'm in there.
I will need to get around, so I will have a magic MTA card.
My MTA card will always have a $25 balance no matter what I do or how many times I jump on a bus or train.
While I'm casting spells, I'll need to do something with the weather. I love New York but the weather's dreadful for almost half of the year so I'm posing the following weather schedule. On Mondays and Fridays it will be spring and tulips will bloom up and down Park Avenue on both days.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays it will be autumn, but a warm and sunny kind of autumn.
On Wednesdays it will snow but it will be gone by the time autumn arrives on Thursdays.
Every weekend it will be July, 1983 when Miss Diana Ross captivated the world with a free concert in Central Park.
And every night, Sak's Fifth Avenue will light up its facade with The Story of the Bubble and the Snowflake.
So the rule is, I make the rules.
Oh and there's one more thing. In my Manhattan, I'll be able to wander into Grand Central Terminal any time I want to and stand in the middle of the concourse. Then I'll look up at the ceiling and just spin slowly with my arms extended. I do that now but in my personal Manhattan no one will mock me when I do it.
Merlin Glass just made a marketing video. As a glassblower, Liam makes far more than door knobs and in this video he's making a perfume bottle. Feast your eyes on this:
This video's as well-made as his glass. Wow.
Merlin Glass is available outside of the UK if you buy from Liam directly. If you're interested in becoming a dealer they would love to talk to you. Check out Merlin Glass' website.
Someone sent me what has to be the fourth or fifth list of the ways I can "green" my Christmas yesterday and I've about had it. To a one, each of those lists concerned ways I could either spend more money than I would otherwise on unattractive crap or new and inventive ways for me to wear a hair shirt in public and thereby prove my "green" bona fides to passersby. Please.
Human civilization faces some very real and very pressing environmental problems. Left unchecked, a number of these have the potential to grow into outright crises and they need to be dealt with decisively and immediately. All of them can be traced to an American (and increasingly global) pattern of consumption. It's not just a matter of quantity of that consumption either, it's more a problem of that consumption's inefficiency.
The contemporary "green" movement was no doubt founded with the best intentions, but the more of its popular expression I see the less enthused about it I become. These Christmas lists I've been seeing are a terrific case in point. The problem is excess and inefficient consumption. So the solution cannot be more consumption. Buying a $75 Christmas tree ornament made from an old sock is still buying more unnecessary stuff. It's a more sustainable idea to just keep using the Christmas tree ornaments you already have.
The overpriced "green" trinkets and gewgaws being pitched around the internet are just another manifestation of this consumption problem. What needs to change is the impulse to buy stuff for the sake of buying stuff. "Green" consumerism is still consumerism.
A better way to think about your role in the face of these looming problems is to commit to using scarce resources wisely and efficiently. That goes for all scarce resources: energy, land, water, time and your money. Make a commitment to yourself and at the same time a co-commitment to the people with whom you share the earth.
So rather than a bunch of simple minded lists of how to have a "green" Christmas, why not just stop buying crap? Stop substituting things for your time for and emotional availability to the people you love. Gift giving is a great custom, one of my favorites in fact. But how smart is it to go broke every December?
"Green" ideas for this or any time of year start with the best intentions, but all too quickly become the social equivalent of methadone. Buying crap is still buying crap, regardless of its recycled content. So don't buy crap. See? No hair shirt.
