Clothes Optional...

Your clothes may be optional, but great art isn't. The Leopold Art Museum in Vienna is currently offering free admission to all naked visitors (who must also be quite strapped for cash).

I visited the museum just last summer and it is terrific. Any trip to Vienna without a few days at the MuseumsQuartier is a mistake. They also have a wonderful coffee house on the roof, but when I visited I had to wear my clothes the entire time.

Music Games II...

Just when you thought it was safe to perform in Carnegie Hall? Again, there's a lawsuit involved, but it's for a lot less money and a lot more respect.

Crazy California...

A news story out of San Francisco describes the terrible conditions at one of their state mental hospitals. In the spirit of the moment it's time to do some reading with the most comprehensive Database of Historic Asylums including our own famous mental insitution in Traverse City.

I didn't even know that there were so many names for these kinds of places, much less a complete databse of locations and photographs.

Google World...

The truth is that google is a revolution in being able to search for material on the web. Simple, clean, and clear in their title page. Even better, now there's a way to create your own custom google-inspired logo. If you need to search for something why not use the new and improved Big Can of Crazy Search Engine?

True Urban Legend...

With all of the recent bombings in London there has been new motivation for the use of cell phone "ICE-In Case of Emergency" labels. Therefore, if you're involved in an accident the hospital can take your cell phone can call the next of kin. It's slowly catching on here in the USA as well.

Camouflaged Military Recruitment...

With new recruitment challenges the military is now turning to extremely slick advertising such as the myfuture.com web site for teens (try the "work interest quiz" for fun). There's even a special version for parents at todaysmilitary.com (note that both web sites are listed as .com and NOT .mil). This camouflaged effort is in addition to their new video game "America's Army".

Serving in the military is a proud profession. At the same time, I've heard the stories from soldiers in Iraq and understand why the pentagon has to sugar-coat their recruitment efforts these days.

Music Games...

Politics is everywhere; especially in the world of professional music as in this recent article about a violinist who has sued the New York Philharmonic. Personally, the string section of the Cleveland Orchestra is much better than the New York Philharmonic, but that's just my set of two ears.