Random thoughts on art, technology, stuff, and occasionally Real Estate: February 2010

I am not a big fan of those real estate agent talking head videos featuring the agent rambling on about this or that topic while driving .....

But that said, I think this little device, the Sticky Pod Mini Dashboard/window Camera Mount, could have plenty of uses:

Watch the video here:  http://www.stickypod.com/osc/product_info.php?products_id=55

I think I just might order the three pack in the next few days.

You are invited to resonate in a Spring Quinox Sound Bath, Friday, March 19, 7:00 - 9:00 PM

Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock

2225 Colorado Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90041

Join Jamie Bechtold and Mary Frances Spencer as they welcome the Vernal Equinox with an energizing Spring Concert of Planetary Gongs and Crystal Singing Bowls.  Sit back (or bring a blanket and lie down) in the Center's majestic main gallery and relax while being bathed the powerful vibrations of reverberating sound.

RSVP recommended 323-226-1617

$10.00 suggested donatation

For more informationL

www.centerartseaglerock.org

www.dancingspiral.com

www.hennatouch.net

We {HEART} Entrepreneurs

Who's gonna pull us up out of the recession?  My money's on our street corner entrepreneurs.  God Bless this guy.  I hope he sells all the flowers and all the balloons and ends up with enough money to take his family out to a nice dinner.

You can nominate your local community for Google Internet Service here:

http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/public/options

Saturday, February 13, NELAart presents: SECOND SATURDAY GALLERY NIGHT

WHEN: The Second Saturday of Every Month  7:00-10:00p.m.
WHERE: Highland Park and surrounding neighborhoods.

NELAart Second Saturday Gallery Night is a free self-guided tour of the galleries, non-profits and artist run project spaces located in Northeast Los Angeles (NELA).

NELA has a tradition in the arts that dates back to the early 1900s.

The tradition continues with new spaces opening regularly. NELA is now one of L.A.'s most exciting destinations to view contemporary art. 

Individual gallery hours may vary:

Avenue 50 Studios, 121 North Avenue 50

Cactus, 5434 Eagle Rock Boulevard

Cafe de Leche, 5000 York Boulevard

Future Studio, 5558 North Figueroa Street

hi tree, 131 North Avenue 50 (behind Avenue 50 Studio)

Jose Vera Fine Art, 2012 Colorado Boulevard

Judson Studios, 200 South Avenue 66

Kristi Engle Gallery, 5002 York Boulevard

Land of Odd Gallery, 4690 Eagle Rock Boulevard

La tierra de la Cuebra, 240 South Avenue 57

MorYork Gallery, 4959 York Boulevard

New Puppy, Unit 1, 2808 Elm Street 

New Stone Age Mosiacs, 4532 1/2 Eagle Rock Boulevard

Outpost for Contemporary Art, 1268 North Avenue 50

Sea and Space Explorations, 4755 York Boulevard

She Rides the Lion, 133 North Avenue 50

THIS, 5906 North Figueroa Street

Toros Pottery, 4962 Eagle Rock Boulevard

2 Tracks Art Studio, 135 North Avenue 50 (Next to Avenue 50 Studio)

WORKSPACE, 2601 Pasadena Avenue

York Studios, 5029 York Boulevard

NELAart is based in Highland Park and consists of galleries and art organizations located in Northeast Los Angeles who are dedicated to increase the visibility of the thriving arts community in the area. Northeast Los Angeles has a long tradition in the arts. Many working artists now continue this tradition by making their homes and having their studios here. The neighborhood is also home to many galleries, alternative arts spaces and arts organizations. NELAart provides a resource to share information and ideas, and assist in promoting galleries and organizations. Please join us in celebrating the arts in Northeast Los Angeles.

If you've heard about Google Buzz on the news (the announcement is even showing up on mainstream AM Radio news and network TV news around here) you might be eager to take a look at it.

If you use Gmail, a Buzz link will eventually show up in the left panel of the Gmail screen.  It will show up when Google manages to get around to it.  There's nothing you can do to install it there on your own.  This screen shot is from TechCrunch ... here is the link to their Google Buzz story

HOWEVER, if you have an iPhone or an Android Phone, you can install Google Buzz right now and try it out.

In your phone's browser, go to buzz.google.com, click the little "Do you want to..." message balloon, and stand by.  On my iPhone the installation took several minutes;

UPDATE:  There is is... I have been BUZZED IN....   now I have Buzz on my Gmail desktop

FaceBook made some changes to their interface yesterday.

NikNik posted 10 Very Useful Tips here for navigating the new FaceBook layout.

One of those changes is especially annoying for someone who uses FaceBook the way I use FaceBook.

It seems the ability to set a particular Friend List as my default newsfeed is gone.

The ability to create and edit lists is still there, look up in the upper right corner under Account -> Edit Friends.

And the ability to read the lists individually is still there, look in the left column, click on "Friends" and there are your Friend Lists, click on the one you want to read.

BUT I can't set any of those friend lists to display as my default newsfeed.  Meaning whenever I log on to FaceBook, it is going to take two more clicks to get where I want to go, and read the people I want to read.

Why is this important to me?  I have, for example, a friend list of local politicians.  I read that list to know what is going on at L A City Hall. 

BUT I don't want those people right up there in my face in my main newsfeed the first moment I log on to FaceBook.  No offense intended, Mayor Antonio.

Some links from Mashable:

http://mashable.com/2010/02/04/facebook-redesign-4/

http://mashable.com/2010/02/05/facebook-birthday-video/

Oh, and for what it is worth, here is my old post on using Friend Lists back from when you could make a list your default newsfeed  http://activerain.com/blogsview/1195274/organizing-your-facebook-friends-into-lists-will-save-your-sanity

Lots of stuff to plan for this coming week!

Saturday, February 13 is NELAArt Second Saturday

Sunday, February 14 is Lunar New Year AND Valentine's Day

Monday, February 15 is President's Day

Tuesday, February 16 is Mardi Gras

Want to style the sidebar of your WordPress Thesis Theme and learn a little CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) in the process?

Copy this little snippet of CSS code and paste it into  the custom.css file of your Thesis themes installation (wp-content/themes/thesis_16/custom/custom.css)

.custom li.widget ul li{
background:#F0F0F0;
border: 0.1em solid #C7C7C7;
-moz-border-radius:4px;
padding:0.5em;
font-weight: bold;
margin:0.5em;
}

.sidebar h3 {font-weight: bold;}

This little snippet will make the sidebar links in the Thesis Theme look like this:

OK.  Suppose you wanted the links to have a different background color... Change the color hex code in this line  background:#F0F0F0;

For example, change that line to read background:#FF00FF;

That will give the sidebar links a hot pink background, like this

Lime green, anyone?  Change that line to read:  background:#ADFF2F;