State College Arts Fest 07 !!
Colorful, artistic, melodious, full of life … these are only a few adjectives that can describe the 41st Central Pennsylvania Arts Festival that was hosted at State College, PA last week. This was the first time I attended the Arts Fest even though I’ve been staying here in State College for 6 long years. I have only a few more weeks left in this heavenly town and so I had to rid myself of the guilt of not attending this artistic, musical and colorful extravaganza before I left. Also it was the last chance for me to show off what a cool place State College is to Shweta, who thinks that its a village.
Every year, the Arts Fest draws nearly 125,000 visitors to this otherwise “sleepy” college town. Well, when I say sleepy I am only talking about summers, when the 45,000 Penn State students are not on campus and all you see are a handful of international students and their visiting parents. For State College, the Arts Fest was like a shot of steriods. Entire downtown was under its grip for the past 4 days. Allen St. was littered with stalls put up by artists displaying their art work for sale. Each stall had something unique to offer - beautiful water color paintings, ceramic pottery, intricately carved wood work, hand made jewelry with precious stones, numerous artistic show pieces - you name it and it was there. I wanted to buy everything that I saw. The only thing that kept me in check was the sticker price on the art works. Being a totally unartistic person myself, I have the utmost reverence for the participating artists but still I could not digest the idea of buying a painting for $200 or a ceramic pot for $100 . I guess I’ve been spoilt by the Wallmarts and the Targets that offer mass produced art works for 1/10th the price. Not to mention the fact that everytime I really felt like buying something, the “Indian” inside me kept screaming “you’ve got to be kidding me I can buy this for 100 Rupees in India”. But not everyone was as cheap as me and I could see a lot of people picking up a lot of stuff.
After the shopping (non event) was over, Shweta and I went over to some food stalls for some mouth watering snacks. With our stomachs full, we proceeded to the Old main lawns where a band was playing. Unfortunately it was their last song so we moved on to Heister St. near GMan bar to see the street paintings. I guess it just was’nt our best day as it started raining and the artists covered their street paintings. We went back to Allen St. to catch another live band playing “Swing” Music. The band was awesome and it soon drew a number of budding swing dancers who started dancing around the stage.
The crowd got thicker as night fell and by the time we had dinner at Allen Street Grill, downtown pubs were bursting at their seams. It felt like a “fall semester football game friday night”. Cafe 210, RathSkellar, Zenos, Shandygaff, G-Man and all other watering holes had huge beelines at the enterance. walking on Beaver Av. we could see crowds of drunken undergrads screaming from their balconies. By the time we decided to head back home it was already 2 AM but it seemed like the party had just started for many. Canyon pizza on Beaver Av., the usual midnight food joint after the bars close, had a huge crowd of hungry 20 somethings around it. Most of them had just stopped for a quick bite and looked like they were heading to a house party with cases of beer in their hands. I totally envied their stamina and energy as for me the lights were already dimming out and it was waaay past my bed time.
Here are a few glimpses of the colorful Arts Fest:
Sand Art:
Children Having fun under the water buckets:
Live band at Allen Street:
Street Paintings on Heister Street:
Blog-Roll Addition !!
Dheeraj Joshi, or DJ as we friends call him, has written an entertaining poem called “Electron Re-Volt” here. It has a good mix of humor and science and even has a touch of philosophy. DJ’s poem transported me back to my high school days. I would’ve enjoyed chemistry so much more had it been taught to me this way
Here are a few lines from his poem
“One day, it thus transpired,
in a lonesome molecule;
An electron got tired,
of protons’ ridicule.
While poor electrons tasked,
with never a sigh or groan;
the lazy protons basked,
in the quiet nuclear zone.
The electrons’ circular motion,
was periodic in time;
Their unparalleled devotion,
had earned them, not a dime.
The nasty protons scorned,
“we are positive, you nuts”;
The weary electrons warned,
“One day, we’ll kick your butts”………….
I’ve added him to my Blog-Roll and will keep checking out his latest works from time to time.
My Other Phone is an iPhone ..
Every so often I come across a bumper sticker that reads “My other car is a farrari” or “Porsche” or “Corvette” or “lamborghini”. I used to wonder why anyone would bother telling the world what their other car was and that too when it was so obvious that they owned it only in their fantasy. This was until I saw the iPhone from Apple.
I would classify myself as an “Early adopter” when it comes to technology and gadgets. However, I have not kept pace with the innovations in the cell phone industry. In a world full of a billion handsets, I have churned through just three in the past 6 years. Even the ones that I have owned, don’t really make me feel proud. Now that Steve Jobs has introduced the sexy and sleek iPhone at MacWorld 2007, I am looking forward to the opportunity to catch up.
From early previews, it looks like the iPhone will be a runaway success. AT&T has already said that more than a million customers have contacted them and have said that they plan to buy the phone once it is available. It’ll be interesting to see if these customers actually stick to their words when they hear the sticker price.
I plan to post a detailed review if when I get my very own iPhone. But with a price tag of $500+, for now, I guess, I’ll just put a bumper sticker on my car saying “My Other Phone is an iPhone”.
PS: With all the buzz surrounding the iPhone launch in june, I am putting AAPL stock on my watch list. Its at $108 and I can easily see it going to $150 by Dec.
What’s in a name?
The other day I and a few friends had an impromptu debate on whether or not the name of a company really matters to its corporate success. And while each one of us agreed to the fact that in the long run a company with a bad product would never be successful irrespective of its name we did have a few disagreements on whether companies with good products would still be as successful if they had really aweful names.
To Quote from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet”.
But if it were true about the names of companies, products and services we would’nt see the constant branding and rebranding of products. Just the other day Google, of all companies, dumped the name “Froogle” for a more descriptive name “Google Products Search” while simultaneously dumping the descriptive name “Google Personalized Web Page” for “iGoogle”. To me it made no sense but maybe it was a result of some large scale user group study conducted by the marketing department.
There is however no denying that a catchy name makes a good first impression as well as helps to differentiate a company/product/service from the rest of the crowd. This is more true now than ever when new Web statups keep popping up every day. I came across a handy Web2.0 company name generator here.
Here are a few names that it generated for me. You never know, one of these might be the next Google or youTube:
Devstorm, Wikizu, Nshots, Kizzy, Javu, Babblenation, Buzzlist, Zambee, FiveZ, Wikinti, BlueXS, Chatterspan, Vindu, Babbletags, Skyva, Kilith, Toptags, lueworks, Myfly, Kante
Some times legitimate companies do not spend enough time considering how their online names might appear and what results is an absolute train wreck
Independent Sources has compiled a top 10 list of companies with unfortunate domain names that can easily be misunderstood.
-
A site called “Who Represents” where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name… wait for it… is
www.whorepresents.com -
Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at
www.expertsexchange.com -
Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at
www.penisland.net -
Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at
www.therapistfinder.com -
Then of course, there’s the Italian Power Generator company…
www.powergenitalia.com -
And now, we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales:
www.molestationnursery.com -
If you’re looking for computer software, there’s always
www.ipanywhere.com -
Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their website is
www.cummingfirst.com -
Then, of course, there’s these brainless art designers, and their whacky website Speed Of Art:
www.speedofart.com -
Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at
www.gotahoe.com
If Shakespeare lived in our age, he would’nt have written “What’s in a name?” after hearing one of these domain names.
Opening lines !!
After a lot of delibration I have decided to start blogging.
My main focus with this blog would be to organize my own thoughts and if possible get some feedback from others about them.
keep watching this space.
