Drivetime: Videoblogging the JP-Allson-Cambridge Commute
Drivetime: Videoblogging the JP-Allson-Cambridge Commute
Over lunch today I attended the Brain Gain luncheon hosted by the Harvard Business School where Katie Livingston-Vale talked about what’s happening in educational technology at MIT. In her discussion of a course on social software tools she’s teaching, she mentioned a video blog she points her students to called Drivetime, a talk show filmed during Ravi Jain’s commute to work. The segments themselves are great, but I’m even more pleased that his route takes mirrors the one that I travel several times a week to get to Cathy’s or to St. James’s. Here’s how Ravi describes his blog:
DriveTime is a video blog that I produce during my daily commute to work.
My commute to work takes me from Jamaica Plain through Coolidge Corner and on to Allston. My evening commute: Allston, brief foray into Cambridge, Fenway area, Jamaica Plain. My hope is to pick up some guests along my commute — folks that have something going on in and around Boston.In most episodes, picks up guests and interviews them, often to discuss an upcoming event that they are a part of. I’ve only just dipped into the site but I can tell I’m already hooked. Check it out.
Graffiti, Somerville/Cambridge Style
This afternoon I noticed these two pieces of street art on Summer Street in Somerville, one a spray painted portrait of Nome Chomsky and the other a picture of a mushroom cloud attached to a no parking sign a little way down the street. Someone from the neighborhood has noticed the Chomsky portrait as well, wondering if this might be a form of “intellectual graffiti ” and has commented, “I presume it was motivated by political rather than linguistic reasons, but it’s still the only instance of cognitive science graffiti I’ve come across.” I agree with her that only in Cambridge would someone think to chose Noam Chomstky as as a graffiti topic, though I did run across a mention of a similar sighting in Atlanta .
A Day on the Franconia Ridge Loop
Saturday we spent the day on the Franconia Ridge Loop, the best trail I’ve been on so far in New England. It’s got everything–peaks, waterfalls, 360 degree views, woods, river crossings, holly berries–all in a hearty 6 hour hike. We started on the old Bridal path which was a strenuous but short hike up to the top of Mount Lafayette (5,2000 feet), where we had lunch with a brilliant view of the Mt. Washington and the Presidential Range. From there we bundled up with all our layers to brave a blustery jaunt across the ridge to Mt. Lincoln and then Little Haystack. To add a bit of excitement, two jets made a close flyby over the trail. The final 3 mile leg took us down the Falling Waters trail, the first half of which we skied down as much as walked, on a few inches of soggy leftover snow. Towards the end the trail wove in and out of several streams that eventually joined into a series of waterfalls, a beautiful way to round out an already enjoyable hike.
Some sounds from the hike (700kb mp3)
Jamaica Pond in Color
Sam Blackmon has a new site call The Jamaica Pond Project. Heres how he describes it:
Life on a Smaller ScaleWe live in Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood on the south side of Boston. One of the best parts of JP is, undoubtedly, Jamaica Pond, a small, spring-fed, kettle pond.The pond covers about 60 acres and is 90 feet deep at its center, making it the largest body of fresh water in Boston. It’s ringed by a walking path that is rarely empty.Every time I walk around the path I try to find something different, or beautiful, or sad, or silly. This is what I’ve seen.A few days ago, this photo was what I saw riding by Jamaica Pond. Hard not to miss.