Times Square, Manhattan.
Name that painting.

Photos of Chelsea's High Line by Joel Sternfeld, now published in a book, are part of a propaganda war. (See also this shot.)

Photo log: abstrusities.com.

Gowanus Canal zone, Brooklyn, from a bus.

A reader wants to know how the digital photographers out there deal with long trips. Do you buy lots of memory cards, take a laptop or somehow download photos on the road? Send in your responses and I'll summarize.

A recent article in USA Today had some terrible advice on the subject:

Take a tiny printer. ...Print out your work in your hotel room or campground and have them scanned to share with friends and family via the Web at a local cyber cafe or when you get home.

Or you could take Polaroids of your favorite shots on the digicam screen...

Laura Holder: Blender berries.

Playing with fire in Union Square, Manhattan.

From Shout magazine:

"If you searched for World Trade Center on Google," says Dan Geller of the digi-pop duo I Am the World Trade Center, "we were the first thing that came up on September 11. So we had seven million hits on our site that day. We immediately started getting e-mails. You got the impression that some people thought we named our band, created a website and released a record all on that day."

They changed their name, then changed it back. Here's an MP3.

The lounge version of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (RealAudio), from Prozak for Lovers.

Lafayette Street, Manhattan.
Oops, Jami complains that I was actually on 4th Avenue, "the shortest avenue in New York City, but an avenue nonetheless."

The BBC asks for input on which of four subjects it should investigate, and will then ask for input on how its investigation should proceed. Democratic journalism? Via Matt Jones, the guy behind warchalking, who has an interesting weblog.

I wrote a short item for today's NYT on Pyra's Brazilian venture: Free Weblog Service and a Vampire, Too.

Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

Times Square, Manhattan.

Soho, Manhattan.

Peter Maass goes visual with photos from Belgrade.

Flip-flops, flying. Via Red.

Park Slope, Brooklyn.

I found this in an old e-mail. It's a nice tidbit from the boom years, when things were so much simpler.

Zapata hooks up with Amazon, stock soars

By Reuters
January 7, 1999, 3:30 p.m. PT

Fish oil firm and reincarnated Internet startup Zapata said today that it will market Amazon.com products on its future Web site in return for referral fees.

Under the deal, Amazon will pay Zapata's Zap.com subsidiary fees ranging from 5 to 15 percent of the sale price on more than 1.1 million book titles, CDs and videos, Zapata said.

The announcement sent Zapata's shares up 2.625, to 14.75 today.

The textbook that has one of my photos on the cover goes on sale Dec. 3 -- just in time for Christmas! Order now.

Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn.
The trains got a track upgrade.

Why is FoxNews.com turning away all search-engine robots? (This is supposed to keep Google etc. from indexing its stories, although it looks like some pages are in there anyway.) Are they afraid of getting too much traffic?

Dumbo, Brooklyn.
Creative Time's Consuming Places show is semi-interesting.

See also 2.27.

I wrote an item for the NYT's business section about a little legal spat: And Now the Sequel: Every-zilla Meets the Lawyers. The owners of the rights to the Godzilla character are not fond of a weblog called Davezilla.com. Some background links:

-- Letter to Davezilla from Toho Co. Ltd. of Japan
-- Ericzilla: Roundup of coverage
-- Take a quiz at Quizilla.com: Is it Godzilla?
-- "Bambi Meets Godzilla"

Rion and Mike C went to Coney Island.

The piracy problem in China is really getting out of hand.

Upper West Side, Manhattan.
Yes, these are pictures of a kitty. You got a problem with that? (If not, there are more here.)

The guy and gal who do the WebTalkGuys Radio Show read my Business 2.0 story about the Google quest and asked if they could interview me for this week's show. "Web Girl Dana" writes:

The show will broadcast on CNET Radio Saturday, 8/17 from 10-11am PST in San Francisco/San Jose (910 AM), in Boston (890 AM) at 1pm EST and the XM Satellite network on channel 130. It will repeat on Sunday, 8/11 at 5pm PST. It will stream live on CNET at www.radio.com at those times. It is also broadcast in Seattle on KLAY 1180 AM on Saturday at 11 am.

Or you can just listen to the interview right now in RealAudio or Windows Media format.

One clarification: I'm a freelancer, not a NYT reporter.

Related e-mail:

From: Marcy ... <...@bellsouth.net>
Subject: (no subject)

I was wondering, does David Gallagher answer his own e-mail or does someone do it for him?

Thanks for writing, Marcy. Unfortunately my e-mail is answered very sporadically, if it is answered at all. I should really think about getting someone to do it for me.

Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.

Park Slope, Brooklyn.

An older man, loudly and to no one in particular, at the corner of Sterling Place and Seventh Avenue in Park Slope: "Watch out for the airplane!"

Lower East Side, Manhattan.

I saw this great video in a bar in Athens last year and wondered what the heck it was: Alex Gopher, "The Child," directed by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet. (Big RealVideo version.) Via videos.antville.org.

Upper West Side, Manhattan.
There was some serious lightning the weekend before last.

Last fall a CD case containing 10 discs vanished from my checked suitcase. The empty jewel boxes are still sitting in my room, looking forlorn. I wouldn't mind having something to put in them. So if you own any of the following CDs and are able to burn me a copy, please do so. To demonstrate my gratitude I will send you a glossy print of the photo of your choosing from this site.

Amon Tobin: Supermodified
Bang on a Can/Brian Eno: Music for Airports
Massive Attack/Mad Professor: No Protection
Idlewild: 100 Broken Windows
Plaid: Rest Proof Clockwork
Sasha: Global Underground Ibiza, disc 1
Tom Waits: Mule Variations
Pavement: Slanted & Enchanted
The White Stripes: White Blood Cells
Everything But the Girl: Temperamental

And if you want to talk about music theft, please call Alitalia. Thank you.

Update: Karin is sending "Music for Airports" (which is really good to listen to in airports). Thanks!

Update 2: Felix and Rob are helping out with a bunch more. This might actually work.

Update 3: Mike likes Idlewild, Jason likes Plaid and Missy likes Amon Tobin and Tom Waits. They're all sending me CDs. Amazing. (How come nobody likes EBTG?)

Update 4: Juli likes EBTG. And that's 10.

I'm glad that the International Trademark Association managed to find a memorable URL.

New Orleans.
Swamp highways.

They say the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway is "the longest over-water bridge in the world."

Dead machines at the ferry landing near St. Francisville, Louisiana.

Craig's List: NYC Missed Connections. I'm amazed at how many of these there are. Does this ever work? It's a big town. Via Red.

Also: Pick up Cockroaches = $$$$$.

The Bonnet Carré Spillway, on the Mississippi above New Orleans, completed 1932.

Mr. Mildew compiles a Metaphysic of Condiments. Mustard is from heaven, mayo is from hell.

Various bits of Louisiana.
There's a wide-screen version of the last one.

Walter Grutchfield has some good photos of New York signs and things.

F*Stop: Shipwreck.

After a wrong turn outside of St. Francisville, Louisiana.

What does the rental car agreement say about fording streams?

I wimped out and turned around.

MarryTheresa.com. The Billboard Girl!

Great River Road, New Orleans to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The guidebook said the experience of visiting the lovely old plantations had been ruined by encroaching industry...

...but somehow I ended up with lots of photos of grain silos and petrochemical plants.

Salon visits the graveyard of expired domain names.

New Orleans.

Beignets.

Hot sauce.

Taking a bath in Hitler's tub, and the (long-winded) back story. Via Metafilter.

Eric Alba goes to Shanghai.

New Orleans.

Fleeing Rabbit is a weblog/photo thing. Via Harrumph.