Taj Mahal cools his heels in Berkeley again, blending thirst for world's music and its link to the land

Looks like I'll have to be on the lookout for Taj Mahal sightings when I go to Shattuck Ave. for lunch!

Taj Mahal cools his heels in Berkeley again, blending thirst for world's music and its link to the land

I Ain't Gonna Get No More Socca!

Socca Oven, which I blogged about previous, has closed:

eastbayexpress.com The East Bay Express Blog � Gregoire Sticks a Fork in Socca

(At least in this location.) Too bad, they were just about to go on my list of Berkeley-area pizza places!

Wiki Wiki Woo

The other day, I set up MediaWiki as a kind of household chronicle. You might ask, why yet another system when you already have half a dozen e-mail accounts, Palm desktop for to-dos, at least 3 calendar systems and 3 address books, not to mention spreadsheets for general-purpose lists, this blog or my personal site or my iWeb experiments for prose, and PBase for photos. (Note to self: must set up Flickr and SmugMug accounts soon.)

Good question.

It's an experiment. We'll see. I like how categories spring into being when referenced. So do stub articles -- create a link to a non-existent article, and the link goes red to show it's for future expansion. Follow the link and you're editing the article.

The ease of cross-linking appeals to me. Brings back memories of
Lotus Organizer. Back before the abomination of Notes, Lotus actually had a product that was enjoyable to use. ("To get away from Lotus Notes" is one of my stock answers to the question of why I left IBM.) You could link disparate things together in many-to-many relationships.

I'm also interested in the ease of getting pictures into the system, auto-thumbnailing, and how well the text flows around a layout with a lot of pictures. You know, all those travel stories with dozens of links off to photos, rather than photo galleries where all the text takes the form of captions.

The real test will be, how easy is it to get data out? Printable format for informal to-do lists. XML export format for bringing stuff up to my personal site. Copying the MySQL database to sync with another MediaWiki instance. These aspects are yet to be explored.

Tea for More than Two

In the ongoing search for good vegetarian dim sum in the Bay Area, tried out Tin's Tea House in Walnut Creek. Several reviews focused mostly on the traditional (i.e. meat-heavy) dishes: East Bay Express, San Francisco Chronicle. (Is there an editorial rule at the Chronicle that they are forbidden to mention a single vegetarian dish, unless it's a lame salad?)

But by wading through dozens of mini-reviews on Yelp etc., I pieced together that they really do have some vegetarian dishes. And it's true. I especially liked the sesame balls with lotus seed paste. In addition to half a dozen vegetarian choices on the dim sum menu, there is a vegetarian section on the regular menu and we ordered a couple of larger dishes there. (Mongolian faux beef for me, veggie chow fun for Lotus.) The only knock on the veggie offerings is that both the dumplings and the potstickers were jammed full of mushrooms and nothing else. A bit more variety there would be welcome.

All in all, a nice find now that Long Life Vegi House in Berkeley has stopped doing weekend dim sum.

Can I See Clearly Now?

Previously, I did some monitor calibration by eye using various test charts. I finally tried out some real calibration equipment (the Gretag Macbeth "Eye One Display 2"). Now, I know someone in the business of high-end color management who scoffs at all the consumer-level products. So my expectations are not sky-high.

Running through the wizard on the Easy setting turns out to be a snap. Just hang the mouse-like contraption over the front of the monitor, let the software flash different colors on the screen to be measured by said contraption, and it's done. Watching the software do a binary search with white and black squares to locate the sensor against the screen is kind of entertaining.

I read one review (ehhh, can't find the link now) that concluded that the Eye One Display actually was more accurate on the Easy setting than the Advanced one, so I left it at that. (Ran the process on new 24" iMac, old 15" iMac, and old 15" Aluminum Powerbook.) I can say that, subjectively, I do see some difference, with reds and blues looking a little deeper. The real test will be working with skin tones, gently graded skies, and high-contrast scenes.

My skepticism about color profiling comes from the fact that most color problems I experience are rooted in the camera (3x Canons). The S30 takes pictures that are a little too saturated. The G3 tends towards too much yellow in the color balance in any kind of tricky lighting. And The 20D oversaturates the reds (by about +15 in Photoshop terms) in any picture with big patches of red.

After a couple of days of use: I am actually seeing over-saturated reds now on the monitors, both flesh tones in news photos and solid red patches in GUI apps. The next test will come on Tuesday, when I'll have a couple of post-calibration images projected in the local camera club competition.

Gapless Playback in iTunes 7

Having used iTunes 7 for several weeks now, I'd have to say the worst thing about it (for me) is the whole "gapless playback" idea. On the surface, it seems fine. iTunes analyzes all the songs and figures out which ones don't need any silence between then when they're played consecutively. The gaps have always bugged me on, for example, Pink Floyd's "The Wall" where one song trails off into a bunch of sound effects and dialog, which then segues straight into the next song. But consider:

• iTunes 7 tries to analyze every song in the library the first time you run it. (That process is very slow, you might have to let it run all night and all the next day.)
• If you interrupt the analysis, iTunes tries to run it again for your whole library the next time you import any music.
• If you use the technique of removing the iTunes library data file, and re-importing a modified XML data file, iTunes does the analysis yet again! The "gapless / not gapless" setting isn't preserved in the XML file. I've used this technique several times recently while moving songs between hard drives, and the constant "analyzing songs for gapless playback" is driving me up the wall.
• How often do you actually listen to an entire concept album with shuffle turned off? I'm much more likely to hear a song from "The Wall" as part of some playlist. For me, it would be more useful to have a way to join two songs into a single unit retroactively. You can join songs like this, but only when you rip them; neglect to plan ahead, and you have to go back to square one with that CD.

A Canticle from Leibowitz

The National Kidney Foundation hosted its annual Authors' Luncheon, with featured speaker Annie Leibowitz. (Actually, I was only vaguely aware that there were five other speakers, because all the buzz among the local camera club members was about Annie and her new book.)

I did learn a number of things -- some contradictory -- from the other authors. From flipping through the Annie Leibowitz book, I got some ideas about portraiture (always more to learn there) and black and white. Now digital cameras are still weak when it comes to dynamic range, making for less overall contrast in black-and-white shots. But my impression, which goes against the conventional wisdom, is that when taking a single exposure, it's better to underexpose a little rather than try to get the histogram concentrated in the brighter part of the range. The photos in he book seemed to bear this out (despite being shot on regular film rather than digital) -- the brightest parts were well short of being blown out, and some of the darker parts seemed solid black.

Stop Draggin' My Heartbreaker Around

Took in the last Tom Petty concert at the Greek Theater in Berkeley on Friday. I think this is the fourth time I've seen him in the Bay Area. (Once in full concert at the Shoreline, a couple of times at Neil Young's Bridge School Benefit concerts.)

Stevie Nicks was a special guest who sang on a couple of songs, and sang backup on some others. Stevie can still hit the high notes.

This tour (for the album "Highway Companion") has been announced as the last from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Tickets were hard to come by. The first two shows at the Greek sold out pretty much before the box office opened -- we were first in line but couldn't get two seats together in reserved seating. Luckily, this third concert was added, several weeks later.

Interesting show. Good lighting. We had a great view of the sound guys and cameramen doing their thing. Each cameraman focused on one band member the whole concert, even when the lights were off them. I was jealous of one sound guy working 6 monitors at once.

Trivia time: The lead singer of The Dandy Warhols said the Greek Theater was designed by Bernard Maybeck, but it was actually designed by Julia Morgan. (Maybeck did some of the other buildings. Seems like every prominent American architect of the early 20th century had a hand in some of the UC Berkeley campus buildings.)

Separated at birth:

Guitarist, keyboardist, and singer Scott Thurston from The Heartbreakers. (He has less hair these days than in this picture.)



Canadian journalist and pundit Rex Murphy.

New Sensation

I've always had a love/hate relationship with my tennis racquets. The good ones made playing a joy, the bad ones prompted endless frustration. Sometimes I played with free racquets from a sponsor, even if the model wasn't the best choice. Whenever I would switch to a new model, I'd always have a couple of excellent matches to start. Several times I had to borrow totally unfamiliar racquets due to broken strings or cracked frames with no spares on hand -- resulting either in total disaster (that would be the Canada Games), or inspiring heroics.

The last few years, during my latest comeback phase, I've played with a very light racquet. It has great control for dropping the ball neatly into corners, the better to run opponents into the ground. But I was a little annoyed at not having enough oomph on shots to sock clean winners against speedy opponents, or having to finesse passing shots. Volleys seemed to require too much swing.

It's interesting to look back at previous years, when I would try to adjust my game based on the characteristics of a racquet, or tweak my strokes based on the tension of the latest string job. I reached the point where I realized, if the ball is landing 6 inches out, I'm not going to change my swing, I'm going to get the strings cut out and re-done at a tension that works better with my natural game. In the same way, I'm not going to rework my serve or volleys, I'm going to experiment with racquets to find the one that works the best for my particular style.

Years ago, I bought racquets sight unseen or after a single trial where they seemed to work OK. This time, I did a more thorough compare-and-contrast. I took out 2 prospects and tried them alongside the current racquet. Then 2 totally different models. Then the best of each group for a side-by-side comparison. Each time, hitting buckets of balls to check how each one worked for different shots.

The one I settled on is the Babolat Z-OS. (Yes, a tennis racquet that could be confused with a mainframe operating system. :-) It does just the right amount of work on volleys and half-volleys. Spin serves curve down to hit the sidelines at sharp angles. Groundstrokes kick up high, topspin backhands stay in the court.

When I tried the new axe for the first time "in anger", I could feel it in the wrist the next day. If the racquet is hitting the ball with more power, the force isn't coming for free. But soon I could play on successive days without ill effects. I'm taking this season off in the local tennis league; things are looking good for next season.

Prius Mileage - 1 Year Later

We took a 1-week trip to Yosemite exactly a year after our first long road trip in the Prius. This time, we covered more miles because of a 78-mile roundtrip within the park, up to Tuolomne Meadows in the High Sierras. But having learned the tricks to squeezing out the MPG, the fuel efficiency was higher overall for the trip: 573 miles @ 49.3 MPG. (Last year's trip averaged 48.0 MPG.)

Polarizing Filter

Up to now I've mostly been concerned with interchangeable lenses for my digital SLR (Canon 20D), for different amounts of zoom and wide-angle. The only filters I have are UV filters that I leave on the lenses all the time, more for scratch protection than anything to do with the pictures themselves.

I've been spending a lot of time cleaning up landscape shots by darkening the sky and/or lightening the ground though. Sometimes mashing together 2 or 3 auto-bracketed shots to get decent contrast in bright outdoor situations. I finally got a polarizing filter, and I can see that the editing time will be much reduced!

Despite what you might think from the name, a polarizing filter has nothing to do with Joe Lieberman. It acts like sunglasses for your camera -- reducing glare, increasing colour saturation, reducing blown-out highlights. It reduces the overall amount of light that comes in, but a camera like a DSLR that meters "through the lens" (TTL) can automatically compensate. Camera mavens consider a polarizing filter the #1 most important filter for photographic effects. (They'll advise you not to skimp based on price. In this case at least, I'll concur with that advice.)

There are 2 types of polarizing filters, circular and linear. DSLRs require a circular polarizer, whose effect increases and then decreases again as you spin its front element around. This fact triggers several interesting consequences. A circular polarizer would be useless if zooming or auto-focusing actually caused the lens element itself to rotate, because you could never rely on the polarizer to stay at the rotation where you left it. Cameras that do rotate their front lens elements must therefore need a linear polarizer, which I won't mention again. Because the circular polarizer has two pieces, the back that stays steady and the front that you spin around, it has the potential to be relatively thick. You can pay extra for a "slim profile" filter. (I did.) Now the DSLR owner has three things to spin around on their lens: the zoom ring, manual focus ring if you want, and the polarizer. Luckily, once you get into a bright situation with refections and glare, you can spin the polarizer to the setting you want and then leave it there the rest of the time.

Although a DSLR like the Canon 20D does compensate for the decreased light coming in, that's at the expense of shutter speed. Be prepared to boost your ISO value by a couple of steps -- 400 where you might usually use 100, 800 the moment the daylight is anything less than bright.

The polarizing effect doesn't apply equally in all directions, and its amount depends on the angle you are shooting vis-a-vis the angle of the sun overhead. You can predict where the effect will be strongest by pointing at the sun and tracing an arc directly perpendicular to it; the usual advice is to make a "gun" shape out of your index finger and thumb, aim your index finger at the sun, and rotate your wrist (or imagine doing so) and your thumb traces out a path that points at all the places where the filter will have the most effect. But I only find that useful for figuring out where to look as I turned the ring to gauge the effect. Looking towards reflective water, I could actually see texture appear and glare fade as I adjusted the filter.

I've always been annoyed that Canon DSLRs by default produce photos with low saturation. I've actually got a Photoshop action set up to boost saturation, that I run practically all shots with. (In pictures with bright reds, sometimes the right adjustment is boosting saturation for blue and green, but leaving it unchanged for red.) However, now with the polarizing filter, I can see that this dull-looking default leaves room for the natural increase in saturation you get with a polarizer.

Net result: My pictures taken against the sky or ocean came out much better than usual -- no burn out, good cloud definition, even correct exposure for an eagle in flight instead of the usual black silhouette. I had to boost exposure time and ISO maybe more than I'd like for a set of fireworks pictures, but those pictures had good colour that required less adjustment and saturation-boosting than normal.

One other tip for shooting with a polarizer. Because the darkening effect on the sky varies depending on the direction, you might want to leave the filter off when shooting multiple shots for a wide panorama, to avoid uneven brightness in the sky.

Dining for the Birthday Week

Recently I celebrated a birthday in high style. Because it was inconvenient to dine out on the actual birthday date, my wife and I spent the whole week treating ourselves at some top Berkeley restaurants. And by coincidence, I also got to dine at one of the top San Francisco restaurants the same week. Watch for a meal-by-meal account on my food blog.

Hot Town, Summer in the City

Played a tennis match over the weekend, mid-day in high '80s temperatures. The court was so hot, my opponent's inner tube exploded while we were sitting down on a changeover. Straight set win for me.

When I was a skinny teenager, the heat was my nemesis. Now it seems like I specialize in winning on the most scorching days. I've learned... well, let's not give it all away here! One thing I notice, is that whatever things I bring to beat the heat, I've got more of 'em than the other guy.

Among the Weeds

Woke up extra-early this morning. Felt like going for a row at Aquatic Park, which was my first time in a while. The bulletin board had a diagram showing a new course around the lake, to avoid patches of weeds. Well, I'm still learning the basic contours of the shore, so naturally I kept getting tangled in the weeds. Just like the Sargasso Sea! I finally happened upon a trick for untangling the oars, getting a little bit of speed and then spinning the oars entirely around while dragging them in the water. Not sure if that's the approved method!

Grateful Dead keyboardist dies

Here's the story from the San Francisco Chronicle. Keyboardist Vince Welnick was the last member to be added to the band. Playing keyboards for the Dead seems dangerous on the scale of playing drums for Spinal Tap. Welnick was also a member of The Tubes, who I vaguely knew but didn't know that they were also a Bay Area band.

First Look: Canon Powershot S3

Well, it's my first look anyway. My neighbours asked for some advice about cameras. After I laid out all the considerations, they asked what I would get if I was buying a new camera of such-and-such size and capabilities. The Canon Powershot S3 sez I. So that's what they got. I like the 12x optical zoom, familiar Canon controls, and how compact and light it is. (More even than the G3 I think.) Review to follow.

I'm Gonna Git You, Socca

Today browsed around a little bit at the Epicurious Garden, a new gourmet food court in Berkeley's "gourmet ghetto", steps from the famous Chez Panisse. I had tried the gelato place before. This time I got one of the chickpea-flour mini-pizzas from Socca Oven, something new from the owner of Gregoire's just up the street. No wheat, no dairy, vegetarian choices -- can't go wrong there. Nice little eggplant-covered treat.

Auto-Exposure Bracketing: An Idea Whose Time has Come

On this last trip to Yosemite, I finally tried out auto-exposure bracketing (AEB) on the Canon 20D. I had used this feature on earlier point-and-shoot digital cameras, but on an SLR it seemed a bit heretical. Aren't you supposed to fiddle with exposure and metering to get everything exactly right in one shot? Can't you slap on graduated neutral density filters and polarizing filters to keep sky detail from being blown out?

Well, it turns out there's nothing inherently wrong with using AEB on a good camera. I used it extensively to shoot landscapes, rushing rapids, waterfalls, and people in front of all of the above -- situations with a lot of dynamic range, or rapidly changing light, or unpredictable metering such as when you hand the camera to someone else to shoot a picture of you.

Along the way, I learned a lot about the 20D's advanced options for bracketing, and how to sort, choose, and combine the results in Photoshop. I'll turn these lessons into a series of articles on my new (yet-to-be-named) digital photography blog.

Prius: Tire Pressure and Gas Mileage

On our first trip to Yosemite National Park in the Prius, the average miles per gallon worked out to 48.0. But lately, commuting and puttering around town has been getting 46 and change. The only change car-wise is the addition of a bike hitch, which adds maybe 30-40 pounds total. That doesn't seem like enough to account for the difference.

I read that underinflated tires can lower MPG by about 2% for each pound of lost pressure. The Prius recommended pressure isn't written on the wheels, and it isn't listed on the door jamb or in the owner's manual. It's actually on a sticker on the inside of the glove compartment. Turns out the front and rear tires should be 35 and 33 PSI respectively, and they were about 2 pounds low according to the tire gauge.

Normally, a figure like "2% better gas mileage" is hard to get my head around. But with the Prius getting close to 50 MPG, that 2% is around 1 mile per gallon. Sure enough, inflating the tires an extra 2 pounds resulted in an extra 2 MPG for this trip, clocking in at exactly 50.0. (On arrival at Yosemite, we were actually up to 52.)

Birth of an iTuNation

To keep long music-related posts from overwhelming this personal blog, I've set up a new one strictly for posts related to iTunes, iPod, and music in general:

iTuNation