Michael Perkins

Hang drum virtuoso Dante Bucci performs Fanfare.



See Also:
Jake Shimabukuro: While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Banjoist Bela Fleck Plays Bach
PROJECT Trio Performs Bach Bourree
Trumpeter Paul Mayes Performs Bach
Blood, Sweat and Tears: God Bless the Child
Billie Holiday sings Fine and Mellow
Chris Botti & Sting perform My Funny Valentine
Renee Fleming and Bill Frisell

I just spent the whole evening listening to ukulele music. If you think of Tiny Tim when you hear the word ukulele, then you need to watch this video.



See Also:
Banjoist Bela Fleck Plays Bach
PROJECT Trio Performs Bach Bourree
Trumpeter Paul Mayes Performs Bach
Blood, Sweat and Tears: God Bless the Child
Billie Holiday sings Fine and Mellow
Chris Botti & Sting perform My Funny Valentine
Renee Fleming and Bill Frisell

The “what should be” never did exist, but people keep
trying to live up to it. There is no “what should be,”
there is only what is.
--Lenny Bruce





See Also:
Chuang-tzu: The Master soars past sun and moon ...
Laugh at the Sky
Jane Hirschfield: The Adamantine Perfection of Desire
Ikkyu: A single night of love ...
The Mind's Worst Disease

This delightful animation by Louis Lefebvre illustrates the "evolution of consciousness" as understood by Advaita Vedanta.



See Also:
With Our Thoughts We Make The World
The Mind's Worst Disease
Chuang-tzu: The Master soars past sun and moon ...
Laugh at the Sky
Jane Hirschfield: The Adamantine Perfection of Desire
Ikkyu: A single night of love ...
The Buddha: Do not believe ...

This video is from a November 14, 2009 concert in Prague celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution (i.e., the 1989 non-violent overthrow of the authoritarian government in Czechoslovakia). Vaclav Havel was guest of honor. Seated next to Havel is former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

I can think of no better way to celebrate this momentous event than with Lou Reed's perfect song and Renee Fleming's perfect voice.



See Also:
Renee Fleming and Bill Frisell
PROJECT Trio Performs Bach Bourree

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely discusses the placebo effect and other examples of how our expectations shape our reality.



See Also:
The Taste of Fine Wine
With Our Thoughts We Make the World

I recently posted a couple of blog entries that included data charts. I initially created these charts in Microsoft Excel and then converted them into images for inclusion in the post. This process was labor intensive, and the result could best be described as embarrassing. Excel is a wonderful tool with a nice charting facility, but it was not intended for the creation of charts for the web. So I decided to explore alternatives. I took a close look at three free web-based data visualization tools. To get a good feel for each tool, I reworked two of my previous blog posts in each tool. Here are my thoughts. 

Tableau Public

Tableau Public is a tool for creating complex, web-based data visualizations. The tool can be used to create highly interactive, multi-chart visualizations with dynamic filtering, highlighting and drill-down capabilities. Though I rarely have use for the more powerful features of Tableau Public, I was attracted to its capabilities for customizing the look-and-feel of charts and for adding text and annotations. However, Tableau Public's powerful set of features comes with a cost in usability. Of the products I reviewed, Tableau Public is by far the most difficult to use. Effective use of the product requires a significant investment of time and effort. It is not for the casual user.

I spent several hours learning the basics of Tableau Public and was able to create some very nice visualizations. Unfortunately, for my purposes, the visualizations have unacceptably slow load times. Though I am happy with the charts I was able to create with Tableau Public, I am not willing to subject my readers to such slow page loads. Tableau Public is a great solution for applications that require sophisticated, interactive visualizations where slow load times can be tolerated. It is not appropriate, however, for the light charting I need for my blog.

To get a feel both for the power of Tableau Public and for the time it takes to load its visualizations, click here to read an old post that includes a sophisticated Tableau Public visualization. 

Many Eyes and Swivel

Many Eyes and Swivel are similar in that they trade power for ease of use. I was able to create decent charts on both of these systems in minutes. Unlike Tableau Public, however, they do not offer a lot of control over the finished product. After spending time with Tableau Public, I was reluctant to give up some its features such as the ability to add text and annotations to charts. I finally decided, however, that for my purposes, the superior productivity and performance of Many Eyes and Swivel outweigh this loss of functionality.

Many Eyes offers more chart types than Swivel, but I found the look and feel of the Swivel charts to be more appealing. The Swivel charts are simple and elegant, and they load very quickly.  They work well in a blog post. Consequently, I selected Swivel as my tool of choice. Click here to view a version of my recent federal spending post that was reworked using Swivel.