February 20, 2011

Today's Random Cool Things

Cool thing number 1:

As I mentioned in my last post, the Sketchbook Tour opened yesterday at the Brooklyn Art Library in New York. The reception ran from noon to 10:00pm. I’m pretty amped too, because after just a few hours I got an e-mail from the Art House Co-Op that my book had already been viewed by some people. That’s pretty amazing considering there are literally thousands of sketchbooks on display!

There’s a barcode on the back of each artists sketchbook that is scanned whenever someone looks at the book and each artist has a profile set up on the Art House Co-Op site, so everyone can pretty much see what’s happening with their sketchbook as it travels across the country.

Here's a link to an article about the exhibit in New York. I’m anxious to see how many e-mails I get by the end of July when the tour wraps up in Winter Park, Florida. Maybe no more at all, maybe hundreds. Who knows...


Cool thing number 2:

In the middle of last year I bought an iPod touch. A few months later while browsing the app store on it, I found one of the coolest FREE apps ever - and it’s not even art related, (well mostly). It’s the app of the website How Stuff Works (www.howstuffworks.com).


The site itself is kind of confusing, but what you have to do is either download the app or, (if you don’t have a device but have iTunes), go into the iTunes store from your computer and type “how stuff works” into the search field. You can then have access to these really cool and interesting little audio and video podcasts that they do on all kinds of subjects. If you don’t have a device or iTunes, then you can  check out their blogs.

I love history so one of my favorites is the one called “Stuff You Missed in History Class”. That’s an audio one.


Another really good one, if you’re into technical stuff, is one called “Brain Stuff”. Another audio one.


And there is also one called “The Coolest Stuff on the Planet”. That one has video with it.



The reason I love the How Stuff Works family of podcasts is that there is a wide range of subjects, the shows not only deal with historical stuff but with current daily news, and, none of the shows seem to have a political bent like many websites do anymore.


In the “Brain Stuff” one, the guy who does it (Marshall Brain) talks every Friday about tech news that happened during the past week. I find this one particularly cool because it’s relevant and current information that you won’t hear on any nightly news broadcast.

So this is just really cool, entertaining, and at times even useful stuff. Like anything else, it can become a time suck only if you let it. I just like the fact that when I can’t sleep, or when I’m on the subway into work I can listen to How Stuff Works and be entertained. And so can you!!

joe@joewinklerart.com

JoeWinklerArt.com