Future Lit

Yesterday I finished reading William Gibson's All Tomorrow's Parties. I love the details he comes up with, like the stuff about the "bridge" subculture and the way that the Lucky Dragon stores are all premade like those houses you see once in a while riding down the highway on a wide load truck. Maybe that's when you know you're reading good science fiction -- when you find yourself asking, "Why don't they already do it that way?" It just makes sense that McDonalds and 7-11 will someday build all their stores in a giant fast food/convenience store factory and then ship them wherever they're "needed." Chain restaurants will literally appear overnight in empty lots, and if they're not successful, they'll be gone in a few weeks, moved on to a more lucrative location.



Today, still high on sci-fi, I went to a book sale and spent about $7.75 to buy a huge pile of books. Some of them I had read before but just didn't have a copy of, like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451. I got I, Robot and read it as soon as I got home. (I didn't do much else today.) I might have to reread the ending though. I shouldn't have tried to finish the book in a room where someone was watching TV.

Cute technology

I try to make art sometimes. Once, I fingerpainted a rollerskating robot for my friend. And last week, I painted a robot with ponytails and hung it on my wall. But it wasn't until today that I had an artistic role model. My new friend Kelly Newcomer makes art that is colorful, futuristic and fun. Check out her website for lots of examples and a schedule of upcoming shows.

Rockin' out with Alan Alda
I watched a PBS show last night that made me wish I went to MIT. Some of it was about student "cyborgs" who make their own wearable computers. Another segment was about a class building robots for a competition. (Lots of robots and lots of drama.) The part that interested me most was about new toys and software that make it easy for kids to write their own music. They talked about a program called Hyperscore that lets users compose music by painting on the screen. Download it here for free. I would like Hyperscore better if it let me export midi files, but I think I'll have to wait for a more advanced version. If you missed the show and like this kind of thing, watch the segments online.