The River

Before Topix.net’s ZIP-code targeted RSS feeds, I’d never have known there’s a local carpenter who likes to work in the buff.

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Originally uploaded by Pamela PC.

Spotted this in the Mediterranean food place next to where the EFF debate was held last night. It’s a small place and this was posted prominently enough that I saw it from outside the door. Now that’s a local merchant who “gets” online.

Many thanks to Fred for the link and for the memories of a band that was a big part of my life back in my immediate post-college years. I think I must have discovered them via an NPR interview or via KTRU, Rice University’s radio station.

I pulled out my Poi Dog collection upon arriving home this evening, and find the tunes are perfect for a sunny (after so much rain!) California holiday-weekend Friday. The lyrics are happy, idealistic, sensuous and earthy. The music features varied instrumentation, with a generally acoustic-sounding vibe. Fred says he’s got two albums and a commenter on Fred’s blog mentions “U - Li - La - Lu” — definitely a fave of mine. To my surprise, I own five Poi Dog Pondering CDs. It’s honestly been a really long time since I’ve pulled them out, but I recall the eponymous debut and “Wishing Like a Mountain and Thinking Like the Sea” got many rotations in the CD player. Later records were good, but not quite to the same standards.

Again, thanks Fred, for reminding me of the band. Gotta burn the five albums and get them on the iPod for beautiful walks home like the one today.

Nice post from Gary Stein at the ISOBAR client summit. He quotes data from a Yahoo!/Isobar study called “Fluid Lives” that found that putting wireless/broadband technology in people’s homes made them:

More involved politically: 26%
More involved with my community: 29%
More involved with organizations related to my interests: 55%

Gary mentions his ability to “drop in” to his neighborhood Yahoo! Group. I feel the same. It’s only via the Internet that I’ve been able to keep up with a huge debate racking our little East Bay city.

Unfortunately, technology doesn’t create hours in the day, or enable less sleep at night (which, as a mom of a 9-month-old, I’d welcome heartily), but perhaps it lets us dip our toes into many more waters, so we can determine where to dive in.

So, apparently it rained 25 days out of 31 in March. And now it’s rained every day in April, thus far. So, one of my office neighbors looked at a 10-day forecast, hoping to cheer himself up with the prospect of sun in the future. But nope. The best that’s predicted is partly cloudy.