Inaugural Zip Car Outing
Inaugural Zip Car Outing
This weekend I rented a Zipcar for the first time for Cathy’s birthday and we took a little jaunt up to the Monadnack region of new Hampshire–just far enough to feel like we were getting away, but short enough that I would stay within the mileage and time constraints. We rented a Mini Cooper, a fun little car with a large sun roof, satellite radio, and plenty of zip. On the ride back I got to lay it open a bit on the interstate as we rushed to get it back on time, and I was impressed by how smooth it rode for such a small car.
We stopped at Mill State Park for a little hike, and were happy to be able to pose the Mini next to the Hummer parked in the the lot. The picture says it all, especially with the customized license plate.
Podcasting Places
Today I’m blogging from Boston University where I’m attending the Podcasting Academy for work. A bit ago Tony Kahn from WGBH radio talked about his experience with podcasting, particularly with Morning Stories. As example, he mentioned a segment called “One Foot in Front of the Other” in which Caleb Smith talks about walking every street in Manhattan between 2002 and 2004 in order to get to know his place (See New York Walk for more about his project).
I’m interested both in the project as a heuristic for exploring a place and in podcasting as a way to document one’s exploration of place. Since many place bloggers include visual media in their blogs (photographs, sketches, maps), it doesn’t seem like a huge leap to begin using audio (now that the technology is more accessible). I need to look around to see if anyone is podcasting regularly about places and reflect a bit on the relationship between modes and the representation of place (visual vs audio vs text).
So far, most discussions of podcasting in education focuses on using it as a mode archiving and distributing audio recordings of classes. However, it seems people will also begin using other people’s podcasts like Morning Stories as class material (Kahn gives the example of ESL teachers using Morning Stories in their teaching). I’d like to see more discussion of how student podcasting could become another form of composition–as forms of storytelling and research.
Since I recently bought a microphone for my iPod, I may begin experimenting with a bit of place-based podcasting just to see how it feels to focus on the sounds of place rather on views of place, as I normally do.
Easter Images
A little late in coming, but here some Easter 2006 images in the recently revamped Whereproject photo gallery. These photos were taken in and around St. James’s Episcopal Church in Cambridge, MA using my new Sony Cybershot W50.
TampaBLAB
Blog URL: http://tampablab.com/Description: TampaBLAB = Tampa Bay Local Area Bloggers. An aggregation of blogs that originate somewhere in Tampa Bay.Sticks of Fire: a Tampa website
Blog URL: http://sticksoffire.com/Description: A weblog all about Tampa, written by tampans.Coolidge Corner Theatre
Some random comments on a post from a couple years ago (Fargo Theatre Home of “Wood-Chip Marge”) prompts me to post a photo took of my favorite local movie venue, the Coolidge Corner Theatre. On Saturday night, Cathy, Megan, and I strolled over from Allston on a mild spring night to take in “Thank You for Smoking,” and having a new camera to test out gave me a good excuse to snap this photo of the marquee. When I move in September, I’ll be doing everything I can to keep some reasonable proximity to Coolidge Corner so that I can continue the habit of walking to and from tthe movies.