Sky’s Blog @ The Dalai Lama Foundation — Spreading the word in a networked world

I don’t generally engage in hero-worship. But I do sometimes get wound up in interesting people and stories.

And speaking of such, George Lucas is one of the people I’ve only “gotten close to meeting.” So when a group of our Project Happiness students from Mount Madonna School were able to interview him last year (for the Project Happiness movie), I really enjoyed it.

Well, the “next best thing” to time with George was also really interesting. George’s assistant, Jane Bay, has been with him since just after the first Star Wars film was released. She and I both waited in line to see the film at the Coronet Theater on Geary Blvd. in San Francisco - though a couple of weeks apart. She got a job with George shortly thereafter, and I did not - I remained an academic for a couple more years and then started DesignWare (an edutainment software company), which ended up being my eventual reason for a few visits to Skywalker Ranch. (Continue for the audio interview…) (more…)

In my “commercial” world, one of the things I do is related to art-in-public-places. More specifically, I create “games” that play out thru mobile phones and the Internet, and they are (currently) all linked to art that’s in public places.

So when Cory Doctorow blogged this event (which took place in October-November 2007) it immediately captured my attention. It’s an interactive light painting on the face of a cathedral where the color and patterns of light projected on the face of the building react to sound input from the spectators. “Usman Haque has created responsive environments, interactive installations, digital interface devices and mass-participation performances.” I hope you get as much of a kick from viewing the video as I did.

Yosemite — “Half Dome” — July 2007

Ah, the halcyon days of summer end in a few days (northern hemisphere) and now it’s time to chronicle all the fun we had. As I mentioned briefly in late July, we trekked about 65 miles (100+ km, with heavy packs) from Yosemite Valley down into Ansel Adams Wilderness where we spent the better part of two days, and then back over Red Peak Pass, which we had attempted unsuccessfully twice before (2003 and 2006 - bailed out because of too much snow remaining all summer long).

My neice, Merri, is down under (Australia, for a university semester) and being a suburban girl (Fairfax County VA) she is experiencing for the first time the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef, uncrowded beaches and scuba diving. How many of you are city folk? My annual summer treks into the Yosemite Wilderness help keep me fit and sane, and I would think that any city folk would want to do this too.

Rather than treat you to paragraph after paragraph of text, why not just look at the photos and accompanying commentary?

The Crew — July 2007 — That sun is really bright!