With a certain little movie called “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” hitting theaters this week, I’ve been doing a bit of “Star Wars”-related news coverage.
First, I wrote about local “costumers” who show up at charity and publicity events dressed as “Star Wars” characters.
Allison Kaplan, my former Pioneer Press colleague and the host of Shop Girls, had me on the show (as she tends to do this time of year) so we could talk tech for the holidays.
I made a couple of dynamite discoveries while I was there.
First, Allison’s mother, Harmony, is now her co-host. Cool! Second, Harmony is the radio program’s tech guru of sorts with a regular segment on the latest in the tech world. Even cooler!
In what has become holiday tradition, I was again a guest on the WCCO Sunday Morning news program with Esme Murphy to talk about tech gifts for the holidays.
Esme was most fascinated by Google Cardboard, the simple virtual-reality goggles that serve as holders for a smartphone in order to view VR videos and photos.
Instagram photos are online constructs that, usually, aren’t meant to be printed out.
Sometimes, though, you want to frame such square pictures, or to bestow prints upon others. A host of print-to-order services have cropped up for such occasions.
Most such services leave me underwhelmed, at least based on a scrutiny of their sites, but there’s one exception. It’s a service so compelling I felt duty-bound to use it post-haste.
It’s called Social Print Studio (formerly Printstagram).
My esteemed St. Paul Pioneer Press employer is no longer in the dreadful downtown shoe box it had occupied since 1984.
It recently sold off that awful building at 345 Cedar St. and, as of this week, is operating out of bright, modern digs just across the river. I’m elated since I found the dim, decaying old headquarters to be depressing (which is one reason I worked at home a lot).
And yet, as the move date loomed last week, I felt sad about the imminent demise of the eccentric workspace where I spent the bulk of my journalism career (I’ve been at the Pioneer Press since 1987).
So, in the last few days of the Cedar Street newsroom, I spent quite a bit of time visually documenting the space and the people in it.
My wife, like many in South America, grew up dancing – everything from salsa and cumbia to dance variants from a certain gringo continent to the north.
When she was a little girl, she began dancing the twist at a party and made such an impression that adults gathered in a circle around her to dance with her and cheer her on.
So I thought of her when my neighbor Sharon Murphree recently asked for dancers as photo subjects.
Some in St. Paul take Halloween very, very seriously.
On the big night, one resident in my Summit-University district dresses as a gorilla and goes apeshit in a cage for a good cause – He collects canned goods for the needy.
Another does a killer “Thriller” routine on his front lawn – Michael Jackson would have been impressed.
Then there’s Matthew, one of my neighbors across the street, who also goes all out on All Hallow’s Eve.
I have an embarrassing confession: I used to hate Halloween.
Well, “hate” is too strong a word, but I wasn’t crazy about it. My wife for most of our marriage was much more enthusiastic about the holiday.
Great Scott! Tomorrow is Back to the Future Day.
It is on Oct. 21, 2015, that Dr. Emmett Brown and Marty McFly (and his snoozing girlfriend) are due to arrive from 1985 in the DeLorean sports car that Doc retrofitted to work as a time machine.
I marked the occasion earlier this week in the best possible way: I drove a DeLorean.
I am in possession of two splendid volumes, bestowed upon me by the authors, who are friends of mine.
The Minneapolis-focused books have qualities in common. They extol particular areas of the city, and do so with gorgeous photography along with the written word.
These books are gems. You will want to buy them.
I was Karin Housley’s radio-show guest again, which is always a slice.
Karin (who you may know as a politician or a real-estate agent) has a new show, the Get Real Happy Hour, on a different station, Go 96.3.
The drill, though, was pretty much the same. She introduced me as her radio boyfriend (*blush*) and then we talked tech. Fun.
Today's Joy of Tech comic!
