Pieces, Particles XXI

I'm going to stop this series of Media Diet entries. Rather than offer entries featuring article heads and decks, I'm going to start using Delicious more frequently. You can find my bookmarks here -- and you can also subscribe via RSS.

Park Place

In poking around to see if Brooklyn had a borough baseball league -- like the team in the town I grew up in. Nothing doing, it seems, but New York City's Parks and Recreation department has an extremely impressive Web site.

What wowed me? The Your Park section includes an interactive park map with which you can search for parks based on ZIP code. And each park gets its own minisite, which features all sorts of information. The minisite for the park I live by, Monsignor McGolrick Park, includes details about the pavilion, the war memorial, the Monitor and Merrimack monument, and the park's history.

Thanks, New York!

Update: The Westchester/Rockland Wood Bat League covers New York City -- and includes a team based in Brooklyn! Hooray for the Brooklyn Falcons.

On the Baseball

David Kaval, a Stanford MBA who used to work with Accenture and Sparks.com, and Amit Patel, another Stanford alum and former PR professional, have founded an independent professional baseball league, the Golden Baseball League. Intending to form 10-12 minor league teams in California, Southern Oregon, Western Arizona, and Northern Mexico, the league has attracted investment from Tim Draper, Pat Sajak, and a couple of Cisco execs. Kaval has also written a book about seeing baseball games in 30 ballparks in about as many days.

The Brooklyn Cyclones are also a relatively recent baseball project intended to promote the game and contribute to the economic development of a neighborhood. When was the last time you went to a minor league baseball game -- or a city team game?

Person of the Day

Leon Czolgosz, anarchist, assassin of President William McKinley. Killed by electric chair. Also, a band.

Reverse Egoboo

Shock! I just realized that Gmail has been shuffling my Amazon sales alert notices into the Spam folder. Since early December, I have sold 12 books unawares. Lest my Amazon rating be slammed south -- reverse egoboo -- I just emailed those 12 buyers to let them know what happpened -- and that, given their address, I'd send the book they bought ASAP. How'd I realize what had happened? Amazon sent me an email indicating that a buyer had requested a refund. What? Shock! This has never happened to me.

Computers and Community

Lured by a friend with whom I used to interact somewhat via Delphi Forums, I've dipped into Myspace somewhat recently. Check out my profile and poke around some yourself. I'm a latecomer, so I feel somewhat naive, but it seems like yet another social networking service with a blog and file-sharing component.

Anchormen, Aweigh! XXXI

Get your Anchormen ringtone here. "Spy Pond" in midi. Can't get much better than that!

Pieces, Particles XX

The following stories spotted recently in print publications might be worth a look. Heads and decks, only. Heads and decks.

Flatlands Has Had a Bumpy Ride, by Tiffany Eliott, Greenpoint Star, Dec. 30, 2004

Grand Opening, by Jake Silverstein, Harper's, January 2005
Ronald McDonald conquers New Spain

"Highbrow Fight Club", by Wesley Yang, The New York Observer, Dec. 20, 2004
Tiny mag attempts "revitalization of civilization"

Maggo, The New York Observer, Dec. 20, 2004
Your first buyers' guide for magazines

An Online Journey through a House's History, by Christopher Gray, The New York Times, Dec. 5, 2004
Streetscapes: 52 West 74th Street

Read All About It, by Pete Hamill, The New York Times, Dec. 5, 20004
Park Row housed the great newspapers during their gory glory days. A veteran reporter sits on a bench and remembers how much fun it was.

A Romance of Rust, by Donovan Hohn, Harper's, January 2005
Nostalgia, progress, and the meaning of tools

Signmaker, Signmaker Make Me Some Signs, by Jennifer Fishbein, Greenpoint Star, Dec. 30, 2004

The Trash Folder, by Matthew Power, Harper's, January 2005
As waste, our computers are not so easily erased

Up from Underground, by Chris Dodge, Utne, January-February 2005
Comic book artists to watch out for

Why Read Books?, by Chris Dodge, Utne, January-February 2005
(And which ones to read)

You Can Almost Smell the Popcorn, by Carl MacGowan, Newsday, Dec. 5, 2004
Outings

Event-O-Dex CIII

Friday, Jan. 14: Partyline MP3 (Allison Wolfe from Bratmobile), The Gazelle (Rebecca Gaffney, Megan Dream Lovers, Calder Excepter, and Kari from Runaways), Cop on Fire (Joel ex-Parts & Labor, Bret, Oran ex-X27, and Robert Paredez), and Plunge into Death (Jef of the Anchormen, etc., Mac, and Dave) get giddy in Greenpoint at Tommy's Tavern, 1041 Manhattan Ave. (at Freeman Street). 8 p.m., $5. Just hop the G to the Greenpoint stop. Then walk north toward Queens on Manhattan.

Among the Literati LIX

If you buy one book this week, this month, this year, let it be Curtis Sittenfeld's new novel, Prep. She's got the goods.

Products I Love XIV

For a handful of years now, I've had a mountain-climbing caribiner attached to the shoulder strap of my satchel. I've used it to hold a small thermometer, a thermos, my canvas lunch sack, and an umbrella as I walk around the towns I've lived in.

This morning, it broke. Somehow, while in transit from Greenpoint to Midtown, the caribiner bent back on itself, and the spring insertion that maintained the tension to keep the cariibiner closed, came out. I've been unable to fix it.

While Back Country Gear offers a wide range of caribiners, it seems silly to mail order just one -- $4 S&H on a $6 item. So I turn to finding a retail store in New York City that sells caribiners.

ClimbNYC indicates that Paragon Sports at Broadway and 17th sells climbing gear. Do any Media Dieticians know where I can pick up a caribiner or two in New York City?

Pieces, Particles XIX

The following stories spotted recently in print publications might be worth a look. Heads and decks, only. Heads and decks.

25 or 6 to 1984, by Dave Queen, Village Voice, Dec. 22, 2004
Bottoms up! OU812! 5150! Hike! Stop! Hammer-on time!

Cartoon Web Spinner Out to Conquer Another Front, by George Gene Gustines, New York Times, Dec. 23, 2004

Eddie Layton, a New York Sports Fixture, Is Dead, by Richard Goldstein, New York Times, Dec. 27, 2004
He knew little about baseball when he became the Yankees' organist in 1967.

Fade to Black, by Jim Rasenberger, New York Times, Jan. 2, 2005
For 123 years, parts of Manhattan have been illuminated by the brand of electricity favored by Thomas Edison. By the end of the year, it will flicker to a close.

The Last Laugh (for Now), by Dave Barry, Daily News, Jan. 2, 2005
I'm taking a break before I join the hordes who say I used to be funnier

Super Books About Superbeings, by Frank C. Rizzo, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Dec. 26, 2004
Newspaper cartoons are the focus of one; comics' evolution fills another

The Free-Range Comic Book Project XLIV

This is an installment of Media Diet's Free-Range Comic Book Project:

Star Trek: Voyager -- the Planet Killer #1 (Wildstorm, March 2001). Writers: Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith. Artist: Robert Teranishi. Location: On a chair in the Northwest terminal gate area at LaGuardia.

The X-Files: Afterflight (Topps, August 1997). Writer: Stefan Petrucha. Artists: Jill Thompson and Alexander Saviuk. Location: On a chair in the Terminal C gate area at the Minneapolis airport.

For more information on this project, please refer to this Media Diet entry.

Magazine Me LVI

Real Time Marketing now offers "virtual magazines," online magazines that read almost like the real thing. So far, Hamptons Bride may be the best example. While the music is slightly annoying and I can't get past turning the first page, it's a pretty slick technology. "Allow your readers to read online the way you intended them to, just the way you created it," says production manager John Cunningham.