It’s that time of year again… time to haul out the lawn chairs, sunscreen and ear plugs, kiddies.  It’s music festival season.

Me (as a blond) and Kyle at Pitchfork Fest 08

But this year, don’t forget your iPhone. Web 2.0, social media, new media… musicians, concert venues, and music festivals are all jumping on the ‘interactive’ bandwagon.

As if crowd surfing wasn’t interactive enough.

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Filed under: Current Events, Design, Exhibitions, Horticulture, Marketing, New Media, Technology

The Forefront exhibition Adaptation: Video Installations by Ben-Ner, Herrera, Sullivan and Sussman & The Rufus Corporation is being celebrated tomorrow night at the IMA with a talk with video artist Eve Sussman followed by a reception. Sussman is a leading figure in contemporary video art and has transformed the medium with her use of lavish production values and stylized methods of filming. If you are an emerging filmmaker, contemporary video art lover, or just curious, bring your questions. Tickets are free!

Guy Ben-Ner is another artist featured in the exhibition Adaptation. IMA Curatorial Associate of Contemporary Art Allison Unruh and I had the pleasure of asking Ben-Ner about his work earlier this year:

Interview with video artist Guy Ben-Ner
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Filed under: Art, Exhibitions, Film, Interviews, Public Programs

Last Friday night I thought I would check out the soft release of Wolfram Alpha.  I was greeted with the following:

So they were running into some load issues, but then again they’re not your traditional search engine.  Wolfram Research is the software company behind Mathematica.  Mathematica is to a mathematician as the utility belt is to batman.  Suffice it to say, it’s pretty amazing software.  It came as somewhat of a surprise that the company was launching a search engine.  They are quick to denounce themselves as a Google replacement.  Search results in Alpha present more thoughtful and curated responses — if it knows what you’re asking.

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Filed under: Technology

but does it float – Another curated blog for your enjoyment. Today’s exhibition is a set of photographs from Ed Ruscha. I like ‘em. Oh, and on a nerdy technical level, the built in autoload feature when you get to the end of the page is super slick.

Twitter Tools for Business – For the time being, Twitter is important to the people on the Internet. If you tweet and are interested in augmenting your tweeting capabilities, check out this top ten list. It’s no surprise to me that Tweetdeck and Tweetie for iPhone are on the list. However, OutTwit is a new one for me and may have my IT guy hook me up.

New Media Round Up – If you like turntables and the possibility of getting hit with virtual spittle from a beatboxing dog, check out Beatbox (thanks Kate). And if you’re into Facebook and political humor, the Atlantic’s own political cartoonist Sage Stossel has combined the two into a brilliant series of potential LOLs.

Monday Music – “Peloto” by Hyperpotamus. More beatboxing. This time from a human.

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Filed under: Art, Current Events, Marketing, New Media

For annuals we are in the transition period between Spring and Summer. In fact, the Summer annuals arrived this week so you will soon see the pansies disappearing and the zinnias, petunias, and lantana appearing.

It’s always a bit of a mad dash to do the change-outs. As soon as that is done the dahlias and other summer blooming bulbs need to get in the ground and then we just wait for the 80+ degree temperatures (though I prefer 72 with a gentle breeze).

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Filed under: Horticulture