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Details for a major new art installation, going in on the High Line this summer, have been finalized.
Building on the success of Spencer Finch's installation in the Chelsea Market Passage, we're once again partnering with public art superstars Creative Time and the public art wing of the Parks Department. This time, we commissioned a site-specific multi-channel sound piece from artist Stephen Vitiello, entitled A Bell for Every Minute. The piece will be installed in the 14th Street Passage, another semi-enclosed space where the High Line runs through a former industrial building.
To create the piece, Vitiello made sound recordings of bells from all over New York City and beyond. Sounds range from the iconic rings of the New York Stock Exchange bell, the historic Dreamland bell days after it was discovered in the water off Coney Island, the United Nation's Peace Bell, and more everyday and personal sounds of bike bells, diner bells, and neighborhood church bells.
During park hours an individual bell will ring each minute from speakers placed throughout the tunnel, the overtones fading out as the next bell begins. A chorus of the selected bells will play at the top of each hour, filling the space. The sources will be represented on a physical sound map that identifies the location of each bell, allowing the listener to follow the geographic journey of the recordings.
As a key figure in the worlds of sound art and experimental music, Vitiello has helped shape the field of sound in New York and globally. By exploring his native city through an auditory map in A Bell for Every Minute, Vitiello provides a unique take on the New York experience from both the communal and intensely personal perspectives that only sound can provide.
Filed under: Art, On the High Line |


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Sometimes you just want to curl up on a Saturday night and watch a feel-good flick that'll make you feel warm inside so you can smile to yourself and ponder how all is right with the world. Blue Valentine is the perfect choice if you are feeling the exact opposite. Grab a drink.
Blue Valentine is the story of a relationship, but handles itself more like it's the story of two. First you have the story of the callous, moderately alcoholic jerkass who provides for his family but really walks the line when it comes to being outright emotionally abusive to his exhausted, and increasingly depressed wife. Then you also have the story of the dogged nice guy, chasing down the girl of his dreams after love at first sight; it's almost too good to be true. Oh and it is, because it's the same couple, and the scenes are interspersed just the right way to make your soul hurt.
To go any further into the details robs the film of some of its juxtaposition power. Suffice it to say that it's a great film, well made, and is a joy to watch from that angle, but it's also such a total bummer that aims to show you how everything you ever though could be wonderful will actually turn to total shit if given enough amount of time. A meta-juxtaposition, if you will. Now that's my kind of movie! It just came to Netflix Instant, so go check it out. But get ready for a letdown, a really good one. [Netflix]

subset: commoncrawl


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Miley Cyrus: 'Dad knows nothing about wedding plans'
MILEY CYRUS is convinced her singer father Billy Ray purposely makes up rumours about her wedding plans to make his press interviews more interesting, because he "knows nothing" about her nuptials to Australian actor LIAM HEMSWORTH.
It would put our members' health and safety at risk
Billy Ray Cyrus recently sent the singer/actress' fans into a spin when he revealed the 19 year old wants to host three lavish ceremonies to celebrate becoming Mrs. Liam Hemsworth, but the claims were promptly dismissed by the former Hannah Montana star herself.
During a recent chat with U.S. TV host Ellen DeGeneres, Miley insisted there would be just one set of nuptials in her dream wedding.
She said, "This is the one day when it's what I choose and every detail is things that I love... There is some rumour going around that I'm having like 47 weddings. I'm not. I'm having one wedding... It has to be perfect."
Now Miley admits she has no idea where her dad gets his information from because she hasn't shared any of her plans with the Achy Breaky Heart hitmaker.
She tells U.S. news show Entertainment Tonight, "I don't know what my dad is doing or where my dad is on the planet. My dad knows nothing. I don't know what he is making up... I hate to put him on blast, but he doesn't know what he's talking about.
"He does what I do when he's sitting in a press thing - he's like, 'Let's make this fun. Let's make stuff up. Let's get the ball rolling on some good rumours because I'm bored and I can start something.'"
The Hunger Games hunk Hemsworth proposed to Cyrus in May (12).


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HP MonitorsMonitors and displays for home and business
- Image may differ from actual product.
*Internet Price is the price for online purchases direct from HP Canada. Product currently not sold online may be purchased from a HP authorized retailer. In this case, Internet Price is a suggested resale price. Your retailer may sell for less.


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Let the Offseason Begin
Even though most Cowboys fans began offseason weeks ago, its official now that the big game is behind us. Congratulations to the Saints for winning their first Super Bowl in franchise history. Drew Brees, Sean Payton and the rest of the Saints worked hard all year and definitely deserved to win it all. At least we can have joy in saying we were the first team to ruin the Saints undefeated season.
In other news, I think its sad that no one is shocked that Michael Irvin was fired from his ESPN show and at the same time was accused of rape. What else can you say?
Congratulations to Emmitt Smith for his Hall of Fame induction announcement. I cheered so loud when they announced his name at the Super Bowl to do the coin toss. Emmitt has always made us so proud, I can't wait until he gets his moment on the stage in August.
As for the Cowboys offseason, I believe it will be relatively quiet compared to recent years. I don't think there are any players who are unhappy… wait a minute, maybe I'm wrong. A couple of players may be 'unhappy' but none that have earned the right to make any noise.
I am looking forward to next season, and our road to six. The Cowboys have a great chance to play in the Super Bowl which will be extra special since its in their house! And maybe I've mentioned this several times, but it happens to fall on my birthday. I know every year we believe the Cowboys will win the Super Bowl but I've got extra high expectations for 2010!
So Cowboys fans – sit back, relax and enjoy the offseason. Hopefully it won't last too long.


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Curriculum & Resources: Independent Television Service (ITVS) Lesson Plans
ITVS Community Classroom generously offers free and engaging curricula and lesson plans developed from powerful documentaries. This site not only will boost your students' knowledge about peace and justice issues in this country and all over the world, but also give them greater empathy for the human plight to equity and happiness.
EXPLORE ITVS Community Classroom
ITVS Curriculum Collections pair standards-based lesson plans with award-winning documentaries from independent filmmakers and PBS, and will engage your students in deeper understanding of a number of contemporary issues, including immigration and deportation, music and technology copyright laws, hip-hop culture, the role of religion in medical practices and ethics, and more.
Request a collection on DVD for free, or stream individual films online. Free lesson plans can be downloaded in PDF format and contain pre-/post-screening discussion questions, worksheets, writing prompts, and the Common Core Standards each lesson meets. Lesson plans are appropriate for high school and community colleges, NGOs, and youth organizations.
EXPLORE Curriculum Collections
EXPLORE Lesson plans
Here is a sample of ITVS's stellar curricula offerings:
Just in time for the general election in November! This Curriculum Collection—recommended for high school and college students—features seven lesson plans using four different documentaries: An Unreasonable Man, Chicago 10, Iron Ladies of Liberia, and Please Vote for Me. Lesson plans focus on the concept of democracy, gender, campaigns and elections, and media literacy.
EXPLORE Vote Democracy!
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
This Curriculum Collection features five lesson plans inspired by the PBS documentary based on Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's best-selling book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. Lesson plans focus on maternal mortality, gender-based violence, education, economic
empowerment, and modern slavery.
EXPLORE Half the Sky
Need another teaching tool to grab your students' attention? ITVS Interactive focuses on innovation, participation, and engagement bringing new audiences to public media 2.0. Students can enter a 3D virtual mountain top removal mine. Use the latest hand-held technology to participate in Power Poetry, the world's first mobile youth poetry community. Find sites of significance to black history in your city using a free iPhone or iPod app.
EXPLORE ITVS Interactive
For additional resources, films, and screening opportunities, visit ITVS's official website
Independent Television Service (ITVS) brings independently produced, high quality public broadcast and new media programs to international audiences. Through intriguing and engaging documentaries, ITVS aims to expand cultural awareness and inspire civic participation. VISIT ITVS Homepage.


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Washington Post Editorial Claims Piracy 'Costs' Companies Millions; Believes PROTECT IP Won't Be 'More Sweeping Than Necessary'
from the mpaa-and-riaa-suddenly-concerned-bill-isn't-nearly-'sweeping'-enough deptAnother editorial has appeared supporting PROTECT IP, this time at the Washington Post. The writer, sporting the unlikely nom de plume "Editorial," makes the usual statements rehashing the usual arguments. In true pro-PROTECT IP fashion, it begins by pretending this act has something to do with counterfeited goods:
CITY SIDEWALKS ONCE were lined with merchants peddling counterfeit designer handbags or second-rate copies of popular movies. Such vendors are less commonplace today, but counterfeit goods have proliferated more than ever, thanks to the Internet.So far, so what. If anyone is still clinging to the notion that PROTECT IP is being cobbled together to stop trafficking of counterfeit goods, then these few lines of lead-in should allow them to remain comfortably misinformed. Editorial (or "Ed," for short) gets to the real driving force behind the act in the very next sentence:
Fake goods - from sneakers to pharmaceuticals - are produced half a world away but can be marketed to U.S. consumers through foreign Web sites.
Some sites stream pirated U.S.-produced or -owned movies and television shows. Such theft costs the copyright- or trademark-holders billions of dollars each year and thwarts the ability of writers, producers, songwriters and others in the creative arts to earn the royalties they are due.Costs? Really? Piracy COSTS the rightsholders billions of dollars?
Now, you can make the argument that piracy results in lost sales or that a decline in revenues can possibly be attributed to piracy (no really, go ahead... the comment threads are open), but I don't think that you can say that piracy of goods costs these companies anything. Just because the content providers of the US may be routinely filling out large numbers under the heading "PIRATES" in their collective Accounts Payable columns, they are incurring no costs as a result of piracy.
Now, those in the industry may be confused and point to the dollar amount expended to fight piracy as a "cost," but if that's the case, it's very much an optional cost. More to the point, pretty much every dollar spent on this fight is a wasted dollar. For all the good it does them, they may as well just contact major pirates (whoever they are) and offer them X amount of dollars to stop running their piratey websites. Sure, these pirates might take the money and some might even cease their piratical operations, but someone else would take their place and no one would be better off but a limited number of pirates.
In short, discussing piracy as a "cost' when it comes to digital goods is completely misrepresenting what's actually going on here. If we were discussing physical goods, then yes, theft (a word that is perfectly logical when referring to physical goods) could be considered a cost. But when it's just a matter of bandwidth usage paid for by the uploaders and downloaders, then there's no real "cost."
However, the inanity/insanity doesn't stop there. Read on:
Consumers often find themselves saddled with shoddy goods and little or no recourse to get their money back. Unlike domestic sites, these foreign-registered businesses are often out of reach of U.S. laws.Maybe those consumers who are purchasing counterfeit products are finding themselves with shoddy goods, but I can guarantee you that consumers who are availing themselves of pirated digital goods (movies, music, games) are finding themselves "saddled" with clearly superior goods, free of region locking, DRM, ridiculous street dates, a million anti-piracy intersitials and the like.
It goes on from there, sounding more and more like an MPAA press release than an actual editorial. There's some stuff about how PROTECT IP won't break the internet or violate anyone's free speech. There's talk about how "reasonable" and "fair" it is and how it will only be used to deal with consistent violators (the ever-popular "rogue sites") before wrapping it all up with this paragraph:
The Protect IP Act takes pains to protect Internet service providers, search engines and others that may have done business with a rogue site. They are not required to scour the Internet for offenders nor are they held liable if they happen to host or provide services to a site that is eventually deemed unlawful. They are only required to take "reasonable" and "technically feasible" measures to obey a court order. There may still be room to tweak these provisions to ensure that they are not more sweeping than necessary. But there is a need for a legal tool that stops those who persistently leech off of the innovations of others.While I would like to believe that efforts enforced by the DHS (in association with the MPAA and RIAA) would result only in tempered responses to the "worst" sites, there is nothing in the collective past of all the entities involved that indicates this would happen. And as has been proven already, what the MPAA/RIAA/DHS feels is reasonable is far removed from what ISPs and search engines feel is reasonable. So the definition of "reasonable" will obviously be left in the hands of those tasked with enforcing the legislation and, as other nations instituting various anti-piracy programs have shown, the public is already persona non grata during the debate of these bills. It can't be too much longer before everyone else on the "outside" of this bill (ISPs, search engines, etc.) finds themselves completely shut out of the input process.
And what exactly is this supposed to mean? "Not more sweeping than necessary?" Everything implemented in a top-down fashion by government entities is "sweeping." The government only knows how to do "macro." That's what government does best. The government should not be in the micromanagement business, but thanks to the fiduciary arm twisting of various lobbyists, it's finding itself in exactly that position. Even worse, "Ed" here is relying on the fact that the government (again, in conjunction with the RIAA and the MPAA) has any idea what "necessary" is and can be counted on to not "sweep" past it.
None of this is truly necessary and as such, it can pretty much be guaranteed that the implementation of PROTECT IP will bring about tons of enthusiastic sweeping with a large number of overreaching brooms. And not only will the taxpayers be handed a broken internet (while being scolded about "why we can't have nice things"), we'll also be expected to pay for the privilege, including any internet repair work down the road.
Filed Under: copyright, protect ip


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Saturday December 10th! Log in to WOWY super gym between 1-2pm and workout! You could win $500 in Beachbody gift cards! Even with a FREE account, you can win! Winner's in every time zone If U need a FREE account so you can participate sign up here! https://www.teambeachbody.com/signup/-/signup/free?referringRepId=77785
Note: Your workout does NOT need to be a beachbody workout! It can be ANYTHING!
While you are there go ahead and commit to get fit by entering in the Beachbody Challenge…again for FREE! Yes it is all free because Beachbody has a goal and that goal is to fight against the trend of Obesity. This happens one person at a time. I was obese and they helped me lost 68 pounds so far. I am going to keep on to my biggest goal (20 more pounds) and even after my goal. I will NEVER go back to fat, lazy, excuse maker me! Look for this banner on your FREE team beachbody page or commit on mine using the link above. Here is the banner image to look for. In fact if you click on the image it will take you to my page where you can sign up for a free account under the "join" link AND/OR commit to the challenge by clicking on the banner on my web site.


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Happy Tuesday! I have some super exciting news to share with you today! You may have seen it over at PaperCrafts yesterday. I'm going to be a cover girl on Card Creations: Volume 10. To say I was excited would be an understatement. It's a great feeling to have a card published and WOW it is amazing to have your card on the cover. My card is the Carpe Diem card on the right hand side. Thanks so much PaperCrafts!
And...I also wanted to leave you with another card. I am really enjoying the sketch challenges at Retro Sketches. This time I let the patterned paper do the talking. Keeping the card extra simple.