Outstanding in the field

So, I found out about this program (organization? movement?) via a design*sponge post and now I'm riveted. How do we get these guys to come to Huntsville, anyway? Naturally, Alabama superchef Frank Stitt (of Bottega and Highlands Grill in Birmingham) has already participated... I know this thanks to OITF's handy Google map of everywhere they've ever had a farm dinner:


View Outstanding in the Field Dinner Site Map in a larger map

(I created one of these for our educators visits of all of the Alabama Math Science Technology Initiative hub sites across the state - love them!)

Anyway, thinking of starting a social media campaign to get them to visit Huntsville.
I'm thinking a Ledges/Mezza Luna collaboration. But of course I am biased. Nowhere in their FAQ does OITF break down how to get a meal in your area, so I'm going to go ahead and assume it's all contacts and convincing.

I would definitely save (and save, and save) $200 for an experience like this:

Outstanding in the Field is a roving culinary adventure - literally a restaurant without walls. Since 1999 we have set the long table at farms or gardens, on mountain tops or in sea caves, on islands or at ranches. Occasionally the table is set indoors: a beautiful refurbished barn, a cool greenhouse or a stately museum. Wherever the location, the consistent theme of each dinner is to honor the people whose good work brings nourishment to the table.

Ingredients for the meal are almost all local (sometimes sourced within inches of your seat at the table!) and generally prepared by a celebrated chef of the region. After a tour of the site, we all settle in: farmers, producers, culinary artisans, and diners sharing the long table.

The dinners generally begin at 3 or 4 p.m., depending on the time of the year, and wrap up around sunset. As the days get shorter in the fall, the dinners last until candlelight is required. Length of each event is four to five hours, and guests often linger at-table well past sunset, reluctant to have the magical evening come to a close.

So, who's with me?! Let's get this campaign started so we can have a fabulous meal at a table like this one, in the DC area...

When I own a home

The first thing I am going to do is find a room to paint turquoise. I've seen so much of it around lately. And you know how I feel about it. So ready to feel some personal investment in a house and to paint instead of just hanging things on the super plain white walls.

Some inspirations -(via Design*Sponge)

(via CB2.com)

Love the vibrant turquoise with the crisp white.

Perhaps even some wallpaper on a small accent wall (this price...oof.) -


That is all.

another reason to love tar-jhay

though the store has the potential to completely torpedo my new commitment to a dave ramsey budgeting system (where EVERY PENNY is allocated before it's ever spent...blargh), target remains my all time favorite place to spend a lunch break or a sunday afternoon.

i've always thought their ads were cute, and appreciated the weekly specials in my inbox, but until this particular ad campaign, i hadn't noticed their advertising much.

pictured above: the "i just went in for tape" collection - heh.

behold, target collections

target gives you a completely bizarre and seemingly random collection of items you can purchase in the store. you name the collection something clever, then tweet your collection name to #targetcollection for the chance to win a $500 gift card. how fun is that?

and check out the ads they've created so far:

i KNOW this one, all too well -



and this one is pretty good too - best. discovery. ever. don't you agree? -



i won't spam you with all of them, but if you're feeling frisky, you should head over to their youtube channel and check 'em out. awkward valentine is a good one too.

i am so appreciative of clever, audience-participatory advertising... just makes everything more fun. and since i already am a target addict, at least they make my experience a fun one.

The Video Post.

I came across (or rediscovered) three videos today that are inspiring in one way or another. I try not to limit my online sharing to things that I find inherently awesome and that I am relatively sure you - or some portion of you - will find awesome in some way as well.

So, first - WaPo (whose subsidiary, Slate, is one of my favorite sources for news and commentary) with their Scene In series - this one is Union Station, but I love the Dupont Circle one, too. Makes me really miss the district. I particularly love the dapper guy with the monogrammed cufflinks (he reminds me of my boss while I worked there) and the two little girls with the magic tape.

Unfortunately, this one won't let me embed - but visit the link, it's totally worth it.

WaPo also announces the new Pantone color of the year in the Styles section - Which, as it happens, has been my color of the year every year since, oh, 1999. Delightful!


O.K. Next video. The following two are of a similar, slam poetry ilk. Typography was brought to my attention by my old Auburn prof, Robert, who was linked to it by a current student. It's fun staying in touch with people who, without social networks, would likely be lost in space until some big reunion year, if that. Yay for the internet.

Also, I am totally guilty of what this video is railing against, you know? (heh.)

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

Lastly, Canada! I've been completely fixated on Canadia with the start of the Winter Olympics, gobbling up Slate's Five Ring Circus coverage, and generally contemplating what it means to be sort of Canadian. (If you are not aware, my mom is a Canadian citizen. She married my dad in the seventies and after a stint abroad, moved to the U.S. She's been living here for 30+ years; never naturalized. Our little - legal - alien.) It's interesting, because aside from a visit every year or two, I haven't really explored that part of my identity. Probably why I'm so interested in people's takes on the Canadian people and their culture and lifestyle.

Which leads me to Shane Koyczan's take on his mother country in We Are More, which was commissioned by the Canadian Tourism Commission and was used in the Olympic Opening Ceremonies.



So, these are an assembly of things that I have been enjoying lately. Anything good I've been missing out on?

OCTOBER?! REALLY?

A new low for length between blog posts. This is pathetic. I'm officially the worst. blogger. ever.

Truth is, I spend so much time banging away at the computer for work (we launched a new Drupal Web site in July, and I've been messing with that, oh, forever. Most recently incorporating an intranet for internal users) that I am pretty much over it by the time it comes to anything else.

What's been going on, other than computers? Not much, BUT...

• I did go to the Salesforce conference in San Francisco in November. Amazing trip, both personally and professionally. I was able to meet up with my aunt and uncle which was a blast - lots of amazing food, a performance of Wicked, and a really appreciated mini family reunion. The Salesforce conference itself signified a looong road ahead of more Web wrangling. This time trying to integrate our relationship management system (Salesforce) with an eCommerce element that has yet to be chosen and the Drupal site. Oof. Equally as disturbing - J and I watched Up in the Air in the theater a month or so ago and the whole sequence where they crash the corporate conference was eerily reminiscent of the San Fran conference. Those conferences are ridiculous.
  
• Christmas and New Year were awesome. Lots of amazing food and really nice times with everyone. Added some new ornaments to the collection and about 33 more strings of lights. Our living room was pretty reminiscent of Vegas. Which was delightful. Coming to find out I'm not really strong on restraint when it comes to home decor. Had great visits with long-lost, out-of-town friends. Ahem, Dustin.
  
• The weather sucks. No, really. I'm so ready for spring and a bachelorette weekend to the beach for umbrella drinks and excessive sunning that I can't stand it. Damn you, Puxatawney Phil. Which reminds me of a good one I heard recently. "They should re-release Groundhog Day and call it Groundhog Day 2."
• Wedding planning continues. I'm having way too much fun on ETSY.
  

There's lots more, but this is a good start for now, no? Zero to... one in three months. I'll work on improving. No promises, but perhaps this will get me kick started again.

Making science "sexy" with Francis Collins

Before I came to work at my job, and before Dr. Francis Collins was executive director of the National Institutes of Health, the then NIH Human Genome Research Institute Director delivered our opening keynote speech.

Collins, far right.

Collins is a rock star of science. He's an extremely dynamic and engaging speaker as illustrated at our 2008 grand opening. Collins spoke of the fictitious "Betty", a woman who experienced two alternate existences - one with the aid of new genomic-based therapeutics and diagnostics and one - decidedly more bleak - one without.

Collins speech inspired our Save Betty campaign, encouraging people to use resources like the NIH family history tool to be aware of your personal health history.

Anyway, Collins recently appeared on The Colbert Report, updating Stephen about advances in personalized medicine and explaining why Colbert might not want crab claws to replace his hands.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Francis Collins
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Michael Moore

Love how Collins isn't afraid to be a little goofy to access audiences who are normally uninterested and unengaged in the sciences. I never considered myself a science type, and I'm still not that way inclined. However, learning about the specifics of the kinds of research that go on in my institute, in my town has been fascinating. I more than likely won't be a scientist any time soon, but continuing a career path of communications and outreach for these guys becomes more attractive by the day.

Get it, Francis.

I Could Have Told You That...

My friend Trav over at An Ocean of Noise just posted about Pitchfork's top 10 best songs of the decade. Sooo... who'd they list at number one?
BOMBS OVER BAGHDAD. Naturally.

I have been evangelizing this song for years now. Since freshman year in college, B.O.B. has been the obligatory pre-night out pump up song. I love it because it's pure cardio for those nights when you didn't have time to get a work out in before the debauchery. (Also, for those of you who have seen Zombieland - amazing - you know the importance of cardio in surviving zombie apocalypse...)

The high-minded types over at Pitchfork did go into a little more depth about why B.O.B. is so amazing. Other than the pure, jumping up and down cardio the song affords:

"B.O.B." is not just the song of the decade-- it is the decade. Appropriately, the contemporary hip-hop act most in tune with the Afro-Futurist philosophies of Sun Ra, George Clinton, and Afrika Bambaataa, wound up effectively crafting a fast-forwarded highlight-reel prophecy of what the next 10 years held in store. The title-- aka "Bombs Over Baghdad", a phrase that sounded oddly anachronistic in 2000, sadly ubiquitous two and a half years later-- is only the start of it. In "B.O.B"'s booty-bass blitzkrieg, we hear an obliteration of the boundaries separating hip-hop, metal, and electro, setting the stage for a decade of dance/rock crossovers. We hear a bloodthirsty gospel choir inaugurating a presidential administration of warmongering evangelicals. We hear André 3000 and Big Boi fire off a synapse-bursting stream of ripped-from-the-headlines buzzwords ("Cure for cancer/ Cure for AIDS"), personal anecdotes ("Got a son on the way by the name of Bamboo") and product placements ("Yo quiero Taco Bell") that read like the world's first Twitter feed.

Yeah, I do suppose I like it because of all of those reasons, too. I do recall thinking that the repeating "bombs over baghdad" phrase was catchy, if slightly odd, in 00. And then thinking how oddly relevant it was (again) in 03, with Bush standing on that air force carrier announcing that the war was over. "Mission Accomplished." Right.

Anyway, the others in Pitchfork's top 10?

• Daft Punk - One More Time
• Beyoncé - Crazy in Love
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
• Missy Elliott - Get Ur Freak On
• M.I.A. - Paper Planes

The others are from indie groups like Radiohead, Animal Collective and Arcade Fire - groups I typically categorize as high-minded and snotty. But with the selection of the top 10 I've listed above, perhaps I should give up my preconceived notions and download the others. Give them a shot. Have a dance party. Yesss.

Power music, electric revival
Power music, electric revival
Power music, electric revival....

Repeat 43 more times while jumping up and down, flailing your hands in the air, in your college dorm room.