Apple released the iPod today. It’s really cool (especially that it’s FireWire-based and you can use it as a FW harddrive in addition to a dedicated MP3 player), but at $399, more than I can spend on it. However, if you want to buy me one, this link takes you right to the iPod’s page at the Apple Store.
The Rev. Howard Finster passed away yesterday. In addition to creating some great cover art (including my all-time favorite album: R.E.M.’s Reckoning), he created all sorts of cool folk art. Finster was probably the first and the biggest of the Southern folk artists (often referred to as the “Outsiders” though the term is inaccurate), he was an interesting man. I studied Southern Folk Art while in graduate school and Finster’s work always seemed the most original and honest (there were/are lots of Finster rip-offs). RIP Rev. Finster.
YEE-HAW INDUSTRIAL LETTERPRESS has all sorts of cool folk-art-like posters and prints for sale. I especially dig the James Brown and Lucinda Williams ones. I must have one (or more) of these prints! Friends and Family thinking of Christmas take heed!
Todd and I are going up to Missouri to fish Crane Creek tomorrow, and I’m fired up about it. The Ozarks are in full color, and the fishing is always good at Crane. Crane Creek is interesting because it’s full of wild rainbow trout. “Why is that interesting?” you ask. It’s interesting because there are no native trout in the Ozarks. Almost a hundred years ago, a train was travelling through Missouri to deliver a shipment that included some young trout fry to the East Coast from the McCloud River in California. The train broke down in Missouri. Instead of letting the fry die, they released them into Crane, which is a spring creek (important because they’re cold, even in summer, and trout are coldwater fish). They’ve lived there more or less happily ever since. The State of Missouri has a lot of special regulations (including catch and release) that protect that population. They don’t grow very big (it’s a small creek), but they’re beautiful (especially compared to the “rubber” hatchery trout we have in all of our tailwater fisheries in Arkansas, no matter how big those fish get) and they’re very wary, so it’s a real challenge to catch any.
Looks like we’re going to be doing some MAJOR redesigning of our sites at work. I’ve learned a lot about information design since we launched the last redesign nearly a year ago, so I’m looking forward to making some big improvements on the site. And, fortunately, we’re going to take our time about it. I’ve got nearly four months to get it done (though I’ve got a lot of other stuff to do in the meantime, as well, so that’s not as much time as it sounds like). It’s going to be fun… I think. If you’ve got some things you like (or don’t like) when it comes to news (and newspaper) sites, leave a comment or email me. I’m going to be absorbing a lot of new data in developing this new version.
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