September, 18, 2004 archives

the higgins building, which you can see in the bottom of my earlier city hall photos, is converting to condos and some of the residents are not happy. it sounds like the developer is either screwing with the tenants, or only marginally competent.

i looked at the higgins building, but it was more expensive than where i ended up for lofts i wasn’t as attracted to. the deal for the condo conversion (half of the rent being put towards 5% of the purchase price) was intriguing, but it was pretty clear to me that the higgins spaces were not something i’d be happy owning.

another bit from downtown news: the old bank district artwalk is next weekend. read the article. (and the claim is that warung cafe will open soon. i’ll believe it when i see it, it has been “coming soon” since i moved here almost a year ago.)

rembrandt may have been “stereoblind”, which may have aided in his paintings. the interesting bit of the boston globe article is the tension between artists who don’t really want a scientific explanation for artistic excellence, and the scientist who wants to understand how they may be a factor.

apparently the incidence of stereoblindness is higher among artists. now if only being stereoblind actually made you a good artist….

apparently i’ve tripped the level of donating enough to several charities that i get the handwritten solicitations for money instead of just the standard bulk-mailed ones. i don’t believe that charles lyons of unicef or bill noce of childrens hospital los angeles actually hand-wrote either note, but it is interesting to see how different organizations react to different levels of contribution. (as another data point, i have never once been solicited by the electronic frontier foundation, although it is the charity to which i have contributed the most.)

sky captain and the world of tomorrow is a fun movie. it’s all about capturing the spirit of pre-wwii pulp science fiction, and does a fantastic job of that. i think they pushed the visuals a little bit too far into the fuzzy range, but i can’t fault it too much for that. (story and acting wise, it’s certainly on par with any other science fiction.)

for apachecon, which i’m not speaking at but planning to attend, the official conference hotel (alexis park resort) is $89 a night. for the nights i’m likely to be there (sunday through tuesday), the hard rock hotel and casino is $99 a night and is right across the street, and aladdin casino & resort is also $89 a night and is just down the street (on the strip).

i guess staying at the alexis park makes the most sense, but it also feels wrong to stay someplace i’ve already been. (i guess another alternative would be going even further away from the alexis park, but that’s either quite a hike, or you lose what you gain by taking taxis between the two.)