Sunday Morning Shards #15 (Better late than never):
On my mind and in my reading queue this week. The “All Better Now” edition:
The San Francisco Chronicle is doing a multi-part series on Mayor Newsom’s homeless program’s one year after he took office. This is the first part.
According to Paul Graham, we’re living in The Age of the Essay. As a practictioner, I’m inclined (and selfishly motivated) to agree.
The historic Algonquin Hotel in New York has undergone a $3 million renovation in hopes of staying current with the needs of the 21st century traveller. Home to the Algonquin Round Table, perhaps the most famous lunch spot in literary history where Dorothy Parker Robert Benchly held court and the New Yorker magazine was born, the hotel has long been famous as having a grand lobby and cramped, unsavory rooms. The renovation’s looking to change all that, by even adding flat screen TVs to the rooms and wireless internet access to the public spaces. It’s a start (via Readerville).
Scott Andrew pointed me to a great interview in the webzine PopMatters with six indie musicians on how they pay the bills. Rolling Stone doesn’t have ideas this good.
15 Megs of Fame lets bands upload songs for users to listen to then evaluate. Best rated songs end up on the homepage. Haven’t tried it yet but interesting concept (via The Digital Music Weblog).
Abandonia is a portal for abandonware games (computer games whose creators no longer support them and have effectively let slip into the public domain). I’d love to have another crack at the King’s Quest series but I’m confused as to how it all works. Naturally Abandonia assumes you know, has no “About” page and thus tells you nothing. I assume you have to download some sort of emulator but where? How? What? Help me out here people (via del.icio.us/popular).
Micropersuasion is a blog I’ve been reading regularly for a few weeks now about how the relationships between blogs, participatory journalism and the pr business. It’s more interesting than it sounds.
Faultless list by my buddy Merlin Mann on the crucial mistakes to avoid on musician’s web sites.
Suzan and I have been watching the first season of Six Feet Under which up until last Wednesday, I had never seen before. Great TV. Too bad it’s finishing up. Ah well. I still have four seasons to go.