KEXP consistently rocks. Two items of note this week: Black History is Now on Monday 3FEB. I wasn’t able to listen to all of it, but I caught DJ Reverend Dollars set–epic. What a great musical history lesson in black dance music. Then, Friday was International Clash Day. I planned to listen, but totally forgot about it on Friday. Thankfully, they have a streaming archive, so I was able to listen to it on Saturday. You can do the same; hurry up, they only archive for two weeks!

We had a remarkably good jam on Friday, especially since none of us have been picking up our instruments during the week. I need to change that, my meager bass skills are starting atrophy.

Supreme Bowl III was on Saturday, and delicious as always. We had way too much food though, so we’ll be working through the leftovers for a bit.

Links

There are a few links mixed in this week. I said I was going to lay off the political links after the election, but I just can’t help myself.

Photo of a plaque on a blue wall with square, gray paving stones below. The text engraved on the plaque is: "City of New York Department of Plant and Structures, Transmitter House for Radio Station WNYC, F.H. La Guardia - Mayor, F.J.H. Kracke - Commissioner, 1936, Constructed by Works Progress Administration.
Plaque at the old WNYC Transmitter House – Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

NYC Congestion Pricing Data is being published by the MTA. Sadly, there have been many reports of government data becoming unacceptable over the last couple weeks. So, it’s nice to see a new dataset available. Go forth and visualize!

We took a trip to Greenpoint on Saturday. I say “a trip” because it involved a ride on the G train (running in two parts this weekend, even more exciting!), which makes it feel farther away than it really is. We took a walk around WNYC Transmitter Park. The old, WPA-constructed transmitter house is still there, but there are no vestiges of the old towers.

It was a successful trip, we returned with a very affordable ($6!) Bob James/David Sanborn record I’d been looking for (courtesy of Captured Record Shop), a Bodega Kitties mystery box (from myplasticheart), and an apple fritter the size of my head (from Moe’s Doughs).

After a couple weeks off, our regular jam session was back on. None of us have been practicing, but despite the rust, we didn’t sound too bad. It did serve as a reminder to try to pick up that bass a few times during the week though.

Links

Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking against the Vietnam War, St. Paul Campus, University of Minnesota
Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking against the Vietnam War, St. Paul Campus, University of Minnesota

Monday morning, Stevie Wonder’s Can’t Put it in the Hands of Fate was the first song that played when I hit shuffle on my playlist. A serendipitous tune for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Especially given the other events set to occur on this particular day. Keep fighting people.

I wrapped up the Asterisk Home PBX project this week. Wrapped up for now anyway. It’s working, but there are many fun and exciting things that can be done with it in the future.

A friend and former roommate was in town this week. We hadn’t seen each other for something like 27 years. A long time indeed. Our nostalgia was probably a bore for everyone else in attendance, especially those not even born when we were last in a room together. I hope circumstances allow for more frequent visits in the future.

Note: This is getting posted almost a week late. Sort of “forgot to hit send” on it last weekend.

I wrote a short wrap-up post for our trip to Japan. It might have some useful nuggets for travelers to Japan. Perhaps it will also serve my future self if we make a another trip there. This concludes the posting of pictures and prose from that trip. We will now resume regular programming.

Just a week shy of a year ago, I said I might want to set up a PBX system at home. Because, why not? This week, I got Asterisk running on an old Raspberry Pi. After a couple evenings of updating the OS, compiling code and configuring things, I was able to connect two softphones. Success! Now I need to get the actual phones working.

Links

Screen capture of a video depicting a blue, compact SUV on a Manhattan street sporting a large sign with the text "NEW YORKERS WON! CONGESTION PRICING". A man is standing in the moon roof with outstretched arms.
Screen capture from a Streetfilms montage celebrating NYC Congestion Pricing.

At the stroke of midnight on an icy Sunday, New York City congestion pricing began. I never thought I’d see the day. Let’s hope it sticks!

I finished posting photos from our trip to Japan. Looking at them makes me want to go back.

This Switchable Desktop Power Outlet project is one I’ve been wanting to do for a while. It was simple enough that I wasn’t sure if it warranted a write-up. However, I learned a few lessons–why not.


Links