Must. Have.
Breakfast at Volunteer Park Café
(You can click on individual photos to enlarge):
This delightful creation is a strata (a cousin of quiche) filled with mushrooms and ham. I think it had some sweet cream/milk added to the egg mixture, adding just enough flavor and depth to make it unique, but not to overpower the senses (or the other flavors).
Coffee from Stumptown Coffee Roasters (some of the best brew in town).
Volunteer Park Cafe
1501 17th Ave E (NE Capitol Hill)
Seattle, WA 98112
206.328.3155
Cameron Newland Presents: The Four Seasons Megamix
I took my favorite bangers from the last year and made a MegaMix for y’all to enjoy.
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TRACK LISTING:
Kanye West – Diamonds (Ratatat Mix)
Modest Mouse vs. Ratatat – Beat #6/The World At Large
Notorious B.I.G. – Party and Bullshit (Ratatat Mix)
Passion Pit - Little Secret
Dizzee Rascal and Calvin Harris ft. Chromeo - Dance Wiv Me
Tilly And The Wall – Beat Control
Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band – A Fifth Of Beethoven (Soulwax Remix)
Ratatat vs. Michael Jackson - Falcon Jam (Ruben X Mash Up)
Justice - Phantom Part 1.5 (Live)
Timbaland ft. One Republic and Cameron Newland – Apologize (Hyper Piano Mix)
The Panasonic GH1 Kills The DSLR, TV-Industrial Complex
This is an amazing time to be alive, what with all the things that are changing, evolving, improving.
A major step was just taken that will revolutionize how video is produced and consumed. It’s called the Panasonic GH1.
It dispenses with the traditional SLR mirror and optical viewfinder, allowing a shorter lens-to-sensor distance; in turn enabling smaller, lighter, and quieter cameras. The platform, called ‘Micro Four Thirds’, maintains the same-size image sensor as a traditional DSLR, and uses similar (though smaller) interchangeable lenses that allow for shallow depth of field, which is one of the defining characteristics that DSLRs have long had a monopoly on versus point-and-shoot consumer cameras.
So it’s smaller. Why is this camera so revolutionary, then?
Well, size is not the revolution. HD video functionality is.
Though hardly the first digital camera to shoot HD video (notable examples include the Canon 5D Mark II and the Nikon D90) the GH1 manages to provide jaw-droppingly-good HD video (1080p) in a smaller and less-expensive package* than its predecessors and rivals. This means that any idiot with a thousand bucks, a subject, and a PC can become a movie producer.
Here’s the freshest example of HD video shot off a Panasonic GH1 (if you watch the HD version closely and notice the shallow depth of field and fantastic quality, you’ll understand how revolutionary this is!):
Panasonic Lumix GH1. First footage from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.
What we’ve seen with print media–the replacement of the top-down newspaper/magazine model with a more democratic, user-generated model–is exactly what is going to happen with digital video. With the increased accessibility of cheap HD video recording, sites like Vimeo and FunnyOrDie are going to be swimming in quality user-generated content (if they’re not already). The losers are going to be the big studios, whose only advantages will be 1) bigger budgets for marketing/production, 2) star power, and 3) existing distribution channels (movie theaters, et cetera). The studios, however, will be at a massive disadvantage on the internet, coming up against small niche players who will be able to undercut them on production cost AND content pricing, providing the content for free (ad-supported). If the big studios eschew the free-content route, as print media did, and they’ll lose market share to the internet upstarts.
This is a MASSIVE opportunity for anybody with film-making experience. You have the opportunity to be involved in a revolution. Yes, the democratization of HD video will mean declining prestige, and an increasingly flooded content marketplace. But at the same time, it allows content creators to put more professional-looking creations on the web and garner maximum exposure before the big studios begin to adapt to the new platform.
If there is to be an internet video production star made, he/she will be made king very soon. As I said earlier, this is an amazing time to be alive.
*Note: the Panasonic GH1 may be priced similarly to the Nikon D90. We’ll have to see.
Kauai sunset: Lumix GH1 slow motion from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.
Of Biblical Proportion: Earl Nightingale
This guy lays out personal responsibility, rationality, and purpose like no others. The Meaning of Life, summed up in a few words:
Thanks, Salar.
Cool Sweater
Came upon this in some random photo album on Facebook while wasting time: the coolest vest ever. Okay. Maybe it would be cooler if it was Luigi (from Super Mario Bros.) instead of a pirate. Still, good attempt:
Cherry Ginger
Tastes like Cherry Coke with a hint of sweet orange.
1 oz. Southern Comfort
1 oz. Disaronno Amaretto
Ginger ale to taste
Juice of 2 lime wedges
Strain over ice. Enjoy.
Kudos to the barman at Lucky Strike Lanes at the MIT Enterprise Forum event last night for the concoction.
Old School
Just about perfect with the grey felt and the high-top:
The Vans Vault Grey Stone Pack
Via Kanye West.
Bourgeoise Brass Knuckles
Bourgeois Brass Knuckles. Designed by Jonathan Sabine from Chromoly:
Via Kanye West.
iFog for the iPhone
A buddy of mine has developed a pretty cool iPhone app called iFog.
The app allows you to take a background image and blow into the iPhone’s microphone, which fogs up the screen. Then you can write little messages on it, like a fogged-up window.
The coolest feature is Secret Message, where you write a message on the screen, and it doesn’t become visible until the recipient blows into the mic (fogging up the screen and revealing the secret message). Could be pretty useful in picking up on members of the opposite sex.
Under New Management
I might wear this shirt to the George W. Bush’s Last Day In Office Party I’m going to:
Via Kanye West.
Nas ft. Keri Hilson – Hero
This is the most mind-blowing track I’ve heard all year:
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It’s off Nas and DJ Green Lantern’s The Nigger Tape. (Mixtape download link here.)
