Over the last few years when Andrea I have found a new song on Apple Music we’ll ask Siri to add it to the “[this year’s]” playlist. There isn’t, as far as I know, an easy way to export these lists to other music providers, but nonetheless here is our list from 2020.
Update: It turns out, there is a service that can export music playlists from one music streaming service to another at https://www.tunemymusic.com. It even lets you export to .txt or .csv. Here’s the same 2020 playlist.
Yesterday I completed my One Second Everyday project for 2020. It turned into the Nesslin and Ian show given that this year I was working from home for a lot of the year. One can really see them growing up over the last 12 months in this video.
I also got a bit of help from Andrea because on the few days that I missed getting a one second clip I was able to borrow any live photos or videos that she happened to take.
It doesn’t seem like much, but it’s really tough to get a clip every single day. The worst is on days when you think about getting a clip and you know it will literally just take a second but then you think oh I better try and get something more original or interesting or oh, I’m going to see friends today so I’ll get a clip with them in it and in the end you just forget to do it. The worst.
(Music from Mixtape v2)
As an art teacher myself, I often think about the art teachers I’ve had over the years so I felt great disappointment this morning when I learned that Allan Jensen, my former jr. high and high school art teacher, died this week. No further details were given.
Along with being a great art teacher, I remember him most fondly for organizing and chaperoning a school trip to Japan in 1993.
He’s the one pictured on the far right. That trip was a once in a lifetime influence on me. I will always appreciate the art lessons and the inspiration.
This has been a tough year. He’s the forth person I knew personally that has died in 2020.
Update: Here is his obituary.
Allan Jensen
1941 – 2020
It is with great sadness that we, the family, announce the passing of Allan Christian John Jensen in Medicine Hat on Saturday, December 26, 2020, at the age of 79 years. He is survived by his half sister, Evelyn Schafer as well as four nephews and their families. He was predeceased by his mother and father; two half brothers, Alvin and Gordon Pfiefer as well as his close friend and brother-in-law, Richard Schafer. Allan was born on September 18, 1941, in Drumheller, Alberta. He was the youngest of four children to Ella and Peter Jensen. Allan began his teaching career in Munson, Alberta where he was the principal. He furthered his career at Crescent Heights High School in Medicine Hat as an art teacher, where he retired. Allan loved to travel and led tours around the world. He was heavily involved in the art and cultural community in Medicine Hat which was his greatest passion. A Celebration of Allan’s life will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in Allan’s name may be made directly to the Hat Art Club, 399 College Avenue S.E., Medicine Hat, T1A 3Y6 or to the charity of one’s choice.
I’ve been loving the level of detail in the new Apple Maps rollout and have been waiting for THIS particular update since I first learned that Apple was making these updates. Justin O’Beirne has been documenting the changes from old to new and I particularly love that street view (or as Apple calls it Look Around) has come to Lethbridge.
If you haven’t tried Apple Maps lately because you had a bad taste in your mouth when Google Maps used to be far superior, you don’t know what you’re missing. It’s got so much better and with the new maps rolling out, it’s now visually so much nicer to look at too.
If you’re a maps person, don’t miss Justin’s other documentation of Apple Maps updates.
(via Daring Fireball)
Joe Dator’s short, sweet comic in The New Yorker shines light on Columbo’s renewed popularity and what made the show so special.
(via MetaFilter)
I came across a site tonight that hits on a lot of my interests. It’s got a nice mixture of art, technology, with just a hint of psychology.
I’ve been interested in pareidolia since I first learned about it years ago. It is, as wikipedia defines it, “the tendency for incorrect perception of a stimulus as an object, pattern or meaning known to the observer, such as seeing shapes in clouds, seeing faces in inanimate objects or abstract patterns, or hearing hidden messages in music.”
In this particular case, the objects are grains of sand and the incorrect perception is that they look like faces.
In the artwork Pareidolia* facial detection is applied to grains of sand. A fully automated robot search engine examines the grains of sand in situ. When the machine finds a face in one of the grains, the portrait is photographed and displayed on a large screen.
Check out Pareidolia, face detection on grains of sand.
(via Waxy)
The Lincoln Project is an American political action committee formed in late 2019 by several prominent current and former Republicans. The goal of the committee is to prevent the reelection of Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Their latest ad features the comedic satire of David Cross explaining that he is just now starting to regret his vote for Donald Trump.
A lot of people are saying they’re regretting voting for trump… I can see why. pic.twitter.com/lqubPCcGvd
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) August 9, 2020
Here’s the original Cross routine that is a little longer than what you get in the ad.
It turns out, trying to work out what your film is going to be about is a pretty good topic for a film. Check out this interesting piece by Chico Jofilsan in which he talks himself into, out of, and back into making this particular movie and how exactly he went about it and how worrying about how choosing a bad idea can turn into something not that great doesn’t help because sometimes you just have to go for it. The whole thing is a bit meta.
In My Particular Case from Chico Jofilsan on Vimeo.
(via Neatorama)
Back in March 2014, Canadian Dr. Danielle Martin was asked to speak to a US Senate Committee investigation on health care systems, specifically regarding issues such as single-payer and multi-payer systems and wait times.
From a CTV report on the clip:
Martin was invited to testify by the committee chairman, Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist who would like to see the U.S. adopt a single-payer system like in Canada, something Vermont is already doing.
Canada’s health system is really run by the provinces, with federal funding, Martin explained, citing research showing better outcomes for cancer and heart patients in Canada at a much lower cost than the U.S. medical system.
That made her a target for Republicans on the committee, but Martin counter-punched with gleeful spontaneity.
Was it true that Canadians were dying because of health rationing? Not as many, she replied, as the 45,000 Americans dying each year in a health-care system rationed on the basis of someone’s ability to pay.
(via Metafilter)
This is the official music video for Redbone’s popular 1974 hit, “Come and Get Your Love”. It was released last week.
From IndianCountryToday:
As an enduring pop hit, Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love” has had millions of plays on air and on YouTube with the pioneering rock band’s visually powerful performance on TV’s “The Midnight Special” in 1974, when the song was released.
That clip begins with a powwow dancer performing in front of the band, introducing millions to a Native traditional dance they had most likely never seen before.
In 2014, the mega-budget sci-fi film “Guardians of the Galaxy” used the song in a key opening scene and on the official soundtrack, garnering a whole new generation of fans.
But the infectious, bouncy song with a message of earthy and universal love never had an official video from the band. Until now.
(Via Miss Cellania)