Earlier this month, I went on a one-day business trip to New York City.  I about half way through our walk around Manhattan, I remembered I had my Flip Ultra with me, so I random shot shots.

Here’s the video:

I’m a huge Nick Lowe fan, and of course I’ve heard of — even own a couple of LPs by — Brinsley Schwarz, but I’ve never paid much attention to the names of the other guys from Brinsley Schwarz.

Today, I’m listening to XM Radio’s The Loft, and a song comes on that I’m digging. I think, “Sounds a bit like Nick Lowe.”

I look at the radio display. It’s Ian Gomm. When I get out of the truck, I pull out my iPhone and send myself an e-mail as a reminder to investigate Gomm further later.

Well, it turns out that Gomm is also ex-of Brinsley Schwarz, and according to his site, co-wrote “Cruel to Be Kind.”

He even has a sample of the original Brinsley Schwarz version, and is offering up a CD of a long-lost Brinsley Schwarz LP with the song on it.

I can’t pass judgment on Ian’s solo work yet — haven’t heard enough of it — but I’m eager to see what I might discover that’s worthwhile.

Meanwhile, when I went to gather the Nick Lowe link for the first graph of this post, I learned that A 30th Anniversary edition of Jesus of Cool has been released. Well, there’s something else I’ve GOT TO spend money on.

Man, 30 years since Jesus of Cool (aka Pure Pop for Now People for us up-tight Americans) was released. When I was 17, Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran hadn’t even been dead for 20 years, and I thought they were ancient Rock and Roll history.

Somebody told me the other day, I’ve gotten more gray hair than I did a year ago … so it goes …

Here’s the Nick Lowe CD reissue: Jesus of Cool

And Ian Gomm: Hold On

After Otis died, I swore we wouldn’t get a puppy — to much work … lots of training, and they might chew, nip and dig. And who knows how he would interact with the cats.

The Monday after we put Otis down, Billie started searching the Internet for another Rottweiler rescue. Pretty much every one we found that we liked was already adopted our had approved applications. Today, Billie found this six-month-old puppy in Canandaigua, so we decided to drive down and check him out.

I really didn’t expect to come home with a dog today. I figured at best, the shelter would require we apply and then we would have to wait.

That’s not the way it worked with this shelter. We got him today with the promise to have him neutered within 30 days, as well as some promises to keep him as an indoor dog and give him a good home.

He he was such a damn good looking dog and obviously gentle and loving.

After a quick trip to the nearest town (Hopewell) for a dog license, and $95 from the bank account paid to the shelter, we were driving Pachuco home.

Why Pachuco? It’s a bit of home sickness for Southern California. It’s a bit of a homage to Mexican-American culture, which we admire and don’t get enough of in Western New York.

Because of our Southern California roots, we were leaning toward a Spanish name. One night, Pachuco popped out and became the leading candidate, if we found the right dog.

I suppose the name might offend some people — some people think all Pachucos were gang members (not true), and maybe some Mexican-Americans might take it as disrespect for a significant part of their heritage.

For us, it is a sign of respect. Our dog is a handsome young man, full of life and character, of a proud breed, and he carries himself well.

And we figure there won’t be too many dogs in Rochester named Pachuco.

Now, we need to find the right obedience class or trainer, though so far, he’s pretty darn well behaved. He knows, “no,” can sit and has learned his name already (when I was editing this video, his ears perked up every time he heard his name coming from my computer). He needs leash work and has other commands yet to master (down and stay, for example).

He’s does have the sweetest temperament and so far has been good with other people and dogs he’s met.

It’s hard to believe that whoever originally owned this dog didn’t go looking for him when he disappeared (he was picked up as a stray in Canandiagua about six weeks ago). While it’s unfortunate that his tail was docked, it does show somebody intended to take care of him and keep him.

Sure, it hasn’t been a full day with Pachuco yet, but I think once again, Billie found us a good dog.

Thank you to all my friends for your kind words after Otis’s passing.  The sympathy was much appreciated.

Recommended Music: Royal Crown Review: Mugzy’s Move

On the web, you can find out news in the strangest ways.

A friend sent me a link to the MySpace page of Rev. Keith A. Gordon, a music critic and music fan, just because he thought I’d find him interesting.

I looked over the page a bit, and just as I was about to click off, I noticed a headline “Remembering Sean Costello.”

That knocked me to the floor. It implied Sean Costello is dead.

Sadly, he is. Unknown causes just a day before his 29th birthday.

To my ears, over the past 10 years or so, there hasn’t been a better blues musician than Costello. And he never got the recognition he deserved. It’s sad, sad news.

I interviewed Sean a number of years ago. He was quite, nice guy. He loved his music and a deep appreciation for the roots of blues and cherished an authentic, electric sound. I longed to see Sean Costello play live, but he rarely made any west coast trips. He finally did, after I left California. I figured at some point, he would make his way to western New York. That isn’t to be.

My favorite Sean Costello CD: Sean Costello: Cuttin’ In

For the past few months, I’ve been meaning to write a blog post about Otis, a rottweiler my wife adopted from a rescue house.

Now, instead of telling you about my great new friend, I’m writing Otis’ obituary.

We had to put Otis down today. He had bone cancer and it couldn’t be cured.

We discovered the cancer yesterday after he landed awkwardly jumping from a groomer’s table. At first we thought his ankle was sprained, but when the vet took x-rays, he spotted the tumor.

We brought Otis home with the idea of keeping him on pain meds for a while and letting him live out a little longer life, but it was just too hard from him to hop around the house. Over night, the swelling in his leg increased, and we realized he just wasn’t going to get any better.

Otis was my first dog. I never had a dog growing up. As first dogs go, he was a good one. He was already well socialized, well trained and eager to please. He made friends with every one he met. The phrase, “He’s a good dog,” was invented to describe Otis.

And a Book: Golden Age of the Great Passenger Airships : Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg

Related Book: After the Affair: Healing the Pain and Rebuilding Trust When a Partner Has Been Unfaithful

My friend Dave Insley has a new CD coming out. Based on what I’m hearing on his MySpace page, it sounds great — I’ll buy it from CDBaby.

Previously, I’ve written about Dave’s music, calling it Western Soul, back when he was with the Trophy Husbands.

It’s good to know that Dave is still recording some damn good shit.

Also available from Amazon:

• Here with You Tonight
• Call Me Lonesome
• Trophy Husbands: Dark and Bloody Ground
• Trophy Husbands: Walk With Evil

When I was a much younger man, single and unencumbered in San Diego, I spent a lot of time in the Anza-Borrego desert. I was particular drawn to a place called Ghost Mountain.

In the 1930s or so, a writer of cheap fiction by the name of Marshall South had moved his family to Ghost Mountain. He claimed it was an experiment in alternative living, away from the maddening crowd of modernity. I used to say he was counter culture before counter culture was cool. He was an original hippy.

Years later I would learn that life on Ghost Mountain wasn’t quite as idyllic as his columns in Desert Magazine (I read every one at the SDSU library) made it to be. In the end, he reportedly cheated on his wife and his family broke up in acrimony.

I did, however, write a poem called At Yacquietepec. Previous blog post about it here.

Today I got an e-mail alerting me to the release of a documentary about Ghost Mountain.

Here is screening information:

Friday, March 21, 7:00pm

Borrego Performing Arts Center

530 Palm Canyon Drive, Borrego Springs

Q&A with Filmmakers. Suggested donation $10. No reservations. Seating is limited.

I wish I could go.

You can watch the trailer here.

Here’s a DVD about Anza-Borrego: Anza Borrego State Park, California

My friend Matt Welch appeared on Bill Moyers to talk about John McCain. Video and Transcript.

MATT WELCH: John McCain has an ideology that’s little appreciated and little understood by the press. He receives more adoring press probably than any Republican that I can think of in my lifetime, or certainly the last 20 years. And by the time you’re done reciting all of the marvelous things in his biography and talk about how much fun it was on the Straight Talk Express, there’s not a whole lot of time to talk about where he came up with his ideas about what the government should or should not do.

His ideas about what the government should do are basically, he wants to restore your faith and my faith and Mickey’s faith in the idea of America being a shining city on the hill. He wants to restore our faith in governing institutions, in the federal government, in other words, and use the federal government as a sort of blunt instrument to go after anything that makes us cynical about those institutions and the greatness of America. It’s a sort of national greatness conservatism which has a kind of militaristic component, let’s say, in which we are all supposed to sort of sacrifice ourselves to the greater cause, the higher power of American nationalism.

Now, go buy Matt’s book: McCain: The Myth of a Maverick

I never knew this. Before there video games, there were comic books.

Obvious, right?

What I mean is, before video games were around to take the blame for the destruction of our youth, there were comic books.

I learned this from an interesting slide show on the early history of Batman.

I also learned that Batman, from his earliest incarnation, reflected the idea of the perfectibility of man — that through hard work, discipline and education, a man could achieve great powers.

I also learned that Batman may have been gay, with an interest in young boys.

And that was where Batman really ran afoul of the moralizers of the post-war era, and why there is a Batgirl.

The Batman I grew up with is nothing like the original Batman, but the original Batman has more in common with the recent movies.

The latest DVD: Batman Begins [HD DVD]

Entertainment Weekly has published a slideshow of the 17 coolest cars in pop culture history.

The editors missed one. It’s a rather glaring oversight. They left out the Mustang Steve McQueen drove in the 1968 film Bullitt.

The movie is really what made the Mustang into the muscle car icon it is.

Oops.

The DVD: Bullitt

Shouldn’t some rock and roll song, a power ballad maybe, or a good dance tune, be the music that pulls your mind back to your young life on a college campus.

A piece of classical music shouldn’t do it for you, should it?

This evening, I happen on the Grammys just as they’re about to start a performance of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

I’m sure I heard this piece years before college, but it was in college where it came to life. Point Loma Nazarene College was a religious school, and we were required to attend thrice-weekly chapels.

At the 1984 Olympics, the opening ceremonies included some 50 (or more, I don’t remember) piano players playing Rhapsody in Blue. One of the players was a fellow PLNC student, Victor Labenske.

At chapel, after that performance, Victor and a music professor, reprised that performance. Two pianos, no orchestra, playing what seemed to be the must stunningly beautiful and brilliant piece of music I had ever heard.

Over the years, my appreciation for the piece has only grown. Gershwin perfectly captured post-industrial, modern America. No piece of music, with the possible exception of Aaron Copeland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, so eloquently speaks for the United States, than Blue.

The song, with its blues-tinged jazz (the very definition of American music), captures all of the emerging moral ambiguity of the era, along with the hustle and and hurry of a modern American big city, from the trains and scurrying pedestrians to the factories that still defined the economy.

The music both soars and weeps, celebrates and reflects.

Blue clearly comes with a point of view, which is that of work-a-day American who both chases the dream and longs for a gentle touch. There is an ambition in the song that speaks both for America as it was and for the man watching the modern world pass as he tries to live out his own sometimes frustrated dreams.

If there is a companion poem for Blue, then it is T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”

If you want to understand America in the early 20th Century, listen to Gershwin and read Eliot. Then you will know something about the transition from the Romantic notions of the pre-Great War era to a disillusioned but still vibrant America that would grow into an economic dynamo like no nation before it.

And I conclude my post with one more note about Labenske: Nearly a decade later, many years since I had last spoken with Victor, I found he had become a professor at PLNC. My wife and I decided to get married on the PLNC campus in a little chapel called Goodwin (it has since been torn down). I ask Victor to play Blue while guests filed into the Chapel, and then Victor played the rest of the music for our ceremony. I’ve never known a better piano player and to this day, I still think it’s cool that we had such a great musician provide the music for our wedding.

Book and Music: Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue W /CD

Did Robert Capa fake his famous Falling Soldier picture?The way I read this PBS.org article, it’s hard to believe he did.

This morning the photography world is abuzz with news of a recently discovered cache of Capa negatives from the Spanish Civil War. According to news report, the discovery could help answer the question.

The Capa photo isn’t the only famous war photo to come under scruitiny in later years. A Roger Fenton photo from the Crimean War is also an interesting study in discovering the historical accuracy of famous pictures.

Of course everybody knows (right?) that there were two flag raisings at Iwo Jima. One became an iconic image of World War II. The interesting thing is that there is little doubt that Joe Rosenthal was just in the right place at the right time, rather than being involved in any staging.

This is in no way useful, but Google has a page where you can watch real-time edits to Google Maps information.

It can be kind intoxicating/relaxing … kind of like watching fish in a tank.

Go make your own Google Maps: Beginning Google Maps Applications with PHP and Ajax: From Novice to Professional

This isn’t intended to be a political statement in any manner, but Glen Johnson is my new hero.

YouTube Direkt Glen Johnson of AP does his job

Isn’t it ludicrous for a campaign staffer to tell are reporter, “Be professional. Do your job. Don’t be argumentative with the candidate.”

What, canidates are supposed to get a free ride from the press?

UPDATE: This is rich. Romeny reveals that Johnson asked his question not because it was a tough question deserving an answer, but because Johnson hadn’t had good food to eat, enough sleep or a place to sit:

LENO: I’ve got to ask you something. You had a run-in with an aggressive reporter yesterday. Tell us about that. Tell us what happened. We’ll show the tape.

ROMNEY: Well, you know, it’s kind of a normal thing. These guys have a responsibility to be adversarial, and, you know, we don’t treat them real well. The guys that follow us in the Presidential race come in a whole group. We put them in the back of the aircraft. We feed them lousy food. We wake them up early in the morning to go to events, and then as you’ll see in this clip, I think, we don’t give them chairs to sit on either. So they have a tough go of it, but they’re doing their job.

A book about Mitt: Mitt Romney: The Man, His Values and His Vision

My Top Ten list is naturally pretty subjective, but I’ve been doing this web stuff and using RSS for quite a while now, so I think I’ve developed some insights into what’s good and important out there. I’m sure 100 other equally or better informed people would come up with an entirely different top 10 list. I would be interested in seeing those, so if you put one together, please leave a comment.

If I have a bias, I think it’s toward being broadly entertained and informed from the perspective of a guy who has worked in media his entire life.

1. Digg. There was a time when Digg was only useful if you were a techno-geek. The social bookmarking site has become so much more than that. Oh, the tech stuff is still a big part of Digg, but it’s also a great place now to find just really interesting articles and blog posts, such as a couple of today’s top Diggs, The 30 Strangest Deaths in History and 8 Web Sites that Jumped the Shark. A suggested alternative or addition would be Slashdot.
2. Boing Boing. Long one of the most popular blogs in the world, it consists of a large assortment of posts on cyber culture, trends and oddball topics. Fascinating and entertaining.
3. Lifehack. Tips and tricks on how to live life better, more effectively or more efficiently. An alternative is LifeHacker, but Lifehack tends to be more focused on personal tips.
4. HuffingtonPost. HuffPo has expanded beyond being just a left-leaning political blog to feature a wide assortment of fascinating news and culture posts written by a wide array of pretty smart people.
5. TMZ. Today, being a fully rounded person means knowing a bit about what’s going on in pop culture. TMZ is a rich resource for celebrity gossip and news.
6. New York Times. Man cannot live by gossip and oddities alone. We must have hard news. The NYT probably fits the bill better than any other news source. For all of the newspaper industry woes, and recent turmoil at the Times, the NYT still churns out among the best journalism in the world. There are other sources to consider — most importantly, your home town newspaper.com — but the Times is really required reading.
7. Romenesko. What happens in the journalism world has a tremendous impact on society, politics and business. If any of these things are important to you, you should follow the news as Jim Romenesko aggregates it. A a good addition would be Lost Remote.
8. TreeHugger. Environmental issues are big right now. Even if you’re not a greenie, you should be keeping up with whats going on related to the environment. TreeHugger is a great place to start.
9. Chris Pirillo. Chis is an entertaining, fascinating guy, but more importantly, he cranks out posts and videos on a variety of interesting and useful topics related to computers and the internet. It’s hard not to learn stuff simply by following Chris.
10. YouTube. More specifically, Today’s Favorites. This might be the quickest and simplest way of staying abreast of the torrent of content that churns through YouTube every day. YouTube videos provide both entertainment and the chance to stay abreast of what’s going on in society.

Of course, you can also subscribe to the Back Channel feed and the HowardOwens.com feed.

What’s in your reader?

Recommended reading: We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People, For the People

Designing good logos is maybe one of the hardest things in the world to do. It may look easy, but it’s not. I’ve heard that even the best logo designers in the world have only a couple of true hits at best.

Personally, I’ve been involved in several projects requiring us to pick a good logo. I can’t say at any time that I’ve been involved in a project where we really got it right. The closest might be the current Bakersfield.com logo.

Have you ever thought how wonderful the Google logo is? It is memorable, playful, reflecting the simplicity and the product (a fast, slimmed down, realiable search engine (something not available on the web when Google was launched), and stands apart from any of the technology market leaders.

The logo is so deceptively simple, you may think Sergy and Larry simply got a box of crayons out one night and whipped it up.

Ruth Kedar, who was teaching design at Standford in 1999, explains the great deal of thought that went into the logo.

In the end this particular logo was selected because it reached its goal in many levels:

• It was playful and deceptively simple. The design subtle as to look almost non-designed, the reading effortless. The colors evoke memories of child play, but deftly stray from the color wheel strictures so as to hint to the inherent element of serendipity creeping into any search results page and the irreverance and boldness of the “I am feeling lucky” link. The texture and shading of each letter is done in an unobtrusive way resulting in lifting it from the page while giving it both weight and lightness. It is solid but there is also an ethereal quality to it.
• Times-Roman was the font of choice for the web at that time, while sans-serif fonts were the darling of the printed world. I wanted the readability of a serifed font, but looked for a typeface that had the same qualities we were looking for – subtly sophisticated, but with some humor and irreverence . The chosen typeface is a based on Catull, an old style serif typeface. Catull borrows elements from traditional writing instruments such as the quill and the chisel with a modern twist. Search, by nature, is an activity that requires we look into the past. Therefore Catull’s historical ties seemed appropriate, as did the bridging between the old analog world and the new emerging digital era.
• Visually, there were two main schools of thought at the time: those wanting to emulate the conventional non-web giants such as Sun and SGI (bold all-caps sans-serifed fonts), and those who viewed the irreverence of Yahoo’s non-designed approach as “the look” for the new medium. This design managed to break with the existing conventions landing Google with the unique visual expression it was looking for.

Is that incredible?

If Hillary Clinton can cry, why can’t Terrell Owens?

YouTube DirektTerrell Owens Crying
(better quality version here)

Actually, I’ve been impressed with the transformation of Terrell Owens this season — from selfish prick to team player. His emotional defense of his quarterback and his team is admirable.

It’s amazing what a few tears can do to make you seem more human.

Apparently, there is crying in football.

You can read about T.O.: T.O.

I don’t think vinyl will ever go out of style.

Even with the advent of digital distribution, I’ve never known a town of any size that didn’t have a record shop. CD stores may close, but vinyl shops seem like a pretty stable store-front business.

Ebay has always had a robust collection of LP records for sale.

But at least once a year, some journalist discovers the LPs are still alive. This time, it’s Kristina Dell at Time.

Like the comeback of Puma sneakers or vintage T shirts, vinyl’s resurgence has benefited from its retro-rock aura. Many young listeners discovered LPs after they rifled through their parents’ collections looking for oldies and found that they liked the warmer sound quality of records, the more elaborate album covers and liner notes that come with them, and the experience of putting one on and sharing it with friends, as opposed to plugging in some earbuds and listening alone. “Bad sound on an iPod has had an impact on a lot of people going back to vinyl,” says David MacRunnel, a 15-year-old high school sophomore from Creve Coeur, Mo., who owns more than 1,000 records.

Funny, music never sounds bad on my iPod.

But as I’ve said before, I love LPs, and for all the reasons described above.

Try some vinyl coasters: Vintage Vinyl LP Record Coasters - Set of 6