It's the last day of February, and again the winter storms are coming--see above for a weather tracking chart from just a few minutes ago. I always love the ominous look to the radar before a storm lands and its more natural corollary--while taking the dog out this morning I could feel how heavy the air is, very still, expectant. Or perhaps it isn't so anthropomorphic--maybe its just low air pressure.
Tonight I'm hosting the Moth StorySLAM at the Bitter End--full details are in the sidebar, and the topic is leaps. I'm curious to see if the oncoming storm keeps folks at home--I hope not, as it's going to be a great evening, and don't we live in NYC so that we can use mass transit to ignore problems like winter storms? I know I'll be there, and I hope to see some friendly faces out in the crowd.
•••
Yesterday's NYT had a big feature on hotshot, up-and-coming theater folks to watch for, including a piece on the redoubtable Alex Timbers, artistic director of Les Freres Corbusier. I wasn't included in the line-up, but even better than that was being quoted as a theatrical authority:
Mr. Timbers talks in fully formed paragraphs and in a gentle, lilting voice that makes his answers sound like questions. The monologuist Mike Daisey has called him a "cross between Jesus Christ and Ashton Kutcher.
I always thought I'd have to wait until I was 50 and embittered before the NYT would start quoting my opinions on other artists as holy writ--fantastic! I can only hope that this is the beginning of a trend, and my opinions on Mary Zimmerman, hand-washing stations and slave reparations will also find purchase in the pages of the Times. Stay tuned.
You can read the full piece on Alex here.
•••
Last night Jef Raskin passed away. Though never fully credited for his work, Jef was the creator of the Macintosh, spearheading the group at Apple that thought the world needed and affordable computer that worked intuitively, and it was his pioneering efforts in human interface guidelines that still form the bedrock on which everyone else builds. He will be sorely missed.
Leander has a nice piece on Jef, well worth the time to read.
•••
12:02 PM