Leprechauns and Lizards in Palm Springs
March 19th, 2009 by Julia TaylorSt. Paddy’s Day in Palm Springs seems to mainly occur in Mexican restaurants. Somehow it fits the culture here.
Irish Eyes and Chips and Salsa
I talked a good friend of ours, Susan Freid, into the investment of an iTouch and spent some time loading up apps–lots of fun. She is looking for a good name for her iTouch so if you have any ideas–pass them on. Something interesting like Xavier.
Susan after buying the iTouch!
We visited twice with Jude and Nora Werra and Chris and Storm Eiser. Nice to catch up and enjoy the sun. Lunch was at Cheeky’s again. Tara should provide a Milwaukee discount!
A few Cheeky people!
Christine Rodriguez and her friend Jose Grijalva came to visit yesterday. We drove around old Palm Springs and found Elvis’s Honeymoon house and several Richard Neutra homes. What I didn’t know I could make up and probably be as correct as the tour buses that run down the street all the time. Then we went to the Aqua Caliente Reservation and hiked a bit through the Palm Canyons with a stream running through desert. We listened to Jose’s CDs of poetry and music and it was an idyllic day. When I get home I’ll do a blip of Jose’s song about Milwaukee–the water, the Calatrava and the people. “Lago, Dama, Gaviota y Fiesta”.
Christine and Jose
This morning, there was a lizard under the frig–probably the equivalent of a mouse in the kitchen in Milwaukee. He is now resting a bit confused on the patio outside. He was a bit of a nipper too!
Something is blooming and the air is really fragrant. We have a little cloud cover so it is great to write by the pool though it is getting quite warm already.
I’ve been playing with more iPhone Photo apps and while camerabag is still my favorite for effects–love that Lolo lens–try out Molopix and Redden. Molo does a tiling effect of camera shots and you can shoot rapid fire or slow.
Here’s Mr. Lizard from a few angles. Also Reddin takes makes everything except the color red monochromatic in an iPhone pic for a very fun effect.
4 shots of our kitchen lizard
I’ve been following the Bucks here through Twitter and @Bucksdotcom http://cli.gs/UPjDGY . I saw Charlie V get 4000 followers in a day following his little mid-game tweet but then his coach was ticked off at him. I thought it was a great fan connector myself. But Scott Skiles knows what he is doing and if Twittering during a game is distracting, then we will wait for post game tweets.
Tomorrow we pack up and head to LA for dinner with friends and family. We’ll stop by Christine’s place on the way and then fly out Saturday midday. It’s been a great, great easy going vacation.
See you back in MKE soon–hopefully, with spring in the air.
Saturday Morning Walk and the La Quinta Art Fair
March 14th, 2009 by Julia TaylorHere’s a few pics from this morning’s walk with their own comments.
After a quick walk, we met our friend, Susan, and headed to La Quinta for the 8th largest juried art festival in the country. It is huge and very high quality.
The wrapped wire figurines were just gorgeous. The artist wraps the wire around wax figures and then melts the wax.
These contemperary type of totems were colorfully amazing and had the advantage of great height.
But a real living sculpture were these magical creatures spinning and dancing around us and occasionally leaning in close to say hello!
And what is an Art Festival without some Koi under the bridge.
Palm Springs Walk About
March 13th, 2009 by Julia TaylorToday was a lazy day with a very very long walk this morning. Here’s some pics from my walk about. There is a huge filming caravan down the street. I took lots of fast pics with the fast tap camera app but then didn’t save them-arrrgh.
Oh well there is tomorrow…
Our home away
I Love the New Photo Editing iPhone Apps–Vacation Tested
March 12th, 2009 by Julia TaylorFlight delays and airport gate rushing started this vacation off slowly on Tuesday. The Wednesday morning drive from LA to Palm Springs gave me plenty of time to download some new photo apps to play with here in vacation heaven.So here are my editorial comments and a sample of the work. Enjoy–I am!
Panolab Pro The pro version of this panoramic software (on sale for $4.99) works amazingly well for the limitations of size of the iPhone. I did learn to use my library pictures versus taking the pics with the program. To maintain a level field of focus, you need to take the pics quickly and then match them with the software. It’s easy to rotate and match using an opacity filter and a curved grid. The pro version gives you the chance to auto adjust contrast and color–which I used more than I thought I would. Here’s the original assembled panorama of the mountains by Panolab Pro and an uncropped panorama of the living room using the free Panolab app.
I didn’t use the built in cropper but rather used Photogene to sharpen, color correct and crop. It is more detailed and flexible.
To rapidly take pictures, a simple .99 cent tool is FastTapCamera. It also has a 2x digital zoom. It opens quickly and just touch the screen to take the picture. It does take longer to save.
QuadCamera> is a little weird. It reminds me of an Lomographic 4 lens film cameras and takes 4 pictures rapid fire but saves them all on one photo like a photo strip taken at a mall photo booth.
My FAVORITE one is CameraBag. It provides a jillion filters that really worked well with the desert scene. The Lola filter was my fav for wandering through Palm Springs.
Here’s Cheeky’s Cafe on Palm Canyon Dr. (owned by Tara the first cousin of our own Milwaukee Tina Chang). Based on the food and the menu, creativity and craftsmanship run deep in the family ties. There is also a pretty good Flickr site.
Here’s a sample from the panorama with the instant camera filter.
And finally, there is Photo Lab– its limited for editing compared to Photogene but has some cool filters that remind me of Photoshop’s artistic filters. 
I’ve been relaxing a bit too and reading Twilight on the Kindle app downloaded on the iPhone–it is remarkably easy to read and you just swipe through the pages. Plus no one needs to know I’m not reading Pride and Prejudice!
Art, Kindle and Emily Thomas’s Blog
March 8th, 2009 by Julia TaylorMary Louise Schumacher’s (@artcity) article today in the MKE Journal Sentinel pulls us out of the insulation of our usual circles into the eyes of a mother , Emily Thomas, who visits the Milwaukee Art Museum with her daughters. This family squirms some and views both the contemporary and traditional art almost comically. No connection through a docent tour, an audio tour or even a little advance reading of the reviews for this family.
We would never know of their views except for the Mom’s blog recapturing the visit. Technology opened the door of opinion though the door of conversation on art got stuck and never yanked open.
Technology is lifting the skirt on lots of discussions. We’re leaving on vacation soon and I’ve thought about the Kindle seriously. I have stacks of books I could bring but luggage limits make it costly and I’ve gotten used to finding things on line and clicking for instant gratification.
Lots of comments back from twitters both wondering the same thing and a few who own them. I just hate to commit to another gadget that is ready for the technology heap in a year and I don’t know if it could really replace the physicality of a book.
Maybe I’m a little like Emily above–willing to venture out some to new experiences but not out of my comfort zone. I also feel a little traitorous to my all friends who make their living with ink, whether newspapers, bookstores and even our great postal carrier.
So at @khinrichs suggestion, I compromised and downloaded the kindle app on my iphone and tried out a book. Surprisingly it works pretty well. Usually I have big problems reading much text on the 3 1/2 inch screen but I can read it easily and with swiping the pages, I feel like I am in “Evelyn Woodhead’s Sped Reding Course.” So for the time beginning, it’s a fair compromise.
Just checking back on line, there is a lot of talk about Emily Thomas and some –wow-significant reaction.
Maybe MAM could invite them in for a docent tour and some of the family art classes which has a good dose of art history in it. Sometimes it’s ok to start with a 3 1/2 inch screen and expand your vision from there.