Music to stream and download:
The benefits are over, but our friends have a long way to go recovering from the fire at Columbia House. A bunch of bands who played the benefits (including me as Reverse Polish Notation, and my band Ginger Ibex) donated tracks for a digital album – pay what you like, all money goes to the Columbia House folks:
A couple months ago I wrote about using a standing desk. In that article I mentioned a Kickstarter project for a portable standing desk. I did contribute to that project, it was funded, and today I received my Ninja Standing Desk.
I made a quick an unboxing and initial test video:
I haven’t had a chance to work on it yet, but here are some initial impressions:
– Assembly was quite easy (once I refreshed my memory with their video. They have not yet printed up instruction sheets – I had an early-bird delivery).
– The shock-corded aluminum tubes that support the shelves and let them fold in half for packing work well, though it took a bit of wrangling to pull them apart once assembled (which is not a bad thing when you plan to put a computer or monitor on them).
– The long straps onto which you fasten the shelves are all “loop” velcro on one side. I would have liked it if they had a bit of “hook” velcro on one end in such a way as to keep the strap coiled when in the bag (they were tacked with a pin for delivery).
– The door hooks worked well. It also comes with drywall hooks.
– It is packed in a carry bag that has enough room for some other items like an iPad or a small keyboard.
I don’t know when I’ll next take a trip for using this, but I’m happy to have it. Once they fulfill their Kickstarter rewards I’m sure this will be a big hit – visit their website for more info and ordering.
And if you like the music in the video, that’s one of my pieces…
Some items that drew my attention this week:
If you are a bicycle commuter you may have wished for a way to charge your mobile devices on the go like your hydrocarbon-burning peers – now you can, with the Ecoxgear Ecoxpower Pedal Powered Headlight + GPS/Mobile Device Charger:
Besides being an awesome musician with his band The Army of Broken Toys, Walter Sickert is a perhaps even more amazing artist. Check out this time-lapse video demonstrating some of the things he does to create one of his art pieces:
My friends Michael J. Epstein and Sophia Cacciola’s Kickstarter project has (as of today) 12 days to make another $5,700 to their minimum goal. You should donate at least a dollar even if you don’t care for horror movies for no other reason than they are making sure to personally thank every single donor at any level, plus communicate constantly about how it’s going and what they are learning about Kickstarter in the process:
Somewhere in the Boston subway system this weekend look for me busking with geek guitarist extraordinaire Matthew Lister. We’ll be covering tunes like this:
Rescuing the instruments from 95 Columbia (photo by Peter Moulthrop)
UPDATE: While all of these projects are cool, if you’ve got some spare cash please look at this Facebook event page: less than 48 hours ago 12 friends from the Boston music/arts community lost their living situation and most of their possessions in a 3-alarm fire at their Cambridge MA apartment building. Fortunately no one was seriously injured or died (but it was a close thing – 6 police officers rescued everyone), and firefighters retrieved much of their gear and instruments (though some are water-damaged). Please consider helping and spreading the word to others. You may donate directly via this ChipIn widget:
Some Kickstarter and IndiGogo projects I like: