nanovivid

• Imogen Heap - Just For Now (Live at Studio 11 103.1FM)
  A cappella with a sampler. Loops on loops. Very impressive and beautiful.

• Dreams
  Beautiful Sprint commercial. Done with flashlights and stop motion.

• Homeland Security Threat Level Raised to Chicago Dog With Everything
  The “gut feeling” advisory system.

Last night’s downtown bowling outing turned out to be quite an adventure. An adventure where we learned that apparently Tuesday nights are secretly no-bowl nights at most places. Let me explain.

We set off in high spirits for a night of bowling, following Aurda’s directions. First, to get to the parking lot, we had to pull around the back of the building between some run-down warehouse-ish places. As we were rounding the corner, a minivan parked in front came into view. A minivan with all four tires flattened (and maybe a broken window or two). There was a grand total of one other car in the parking lot. I immediately noticed the two signs in the entrance’s front window - “Closed July 4″ and “Closed July 15 through Aug. 8.” Um, ok. Nothing about being closed last night, even though it didn’t look very open.

Audra went to investigate and returned with news of yet another sign in smaller print saying “closed Mondays and Tuesdays beginning April 18.” Right. Awesome. As we started to pull away, a guy came to the door looking like he wanted to invite us in but we were all a little creeped out ready to move on at that point.

We figured that this place must just be weird (and scary and run-down), so we decided to go back to Ambassador Lanes where we had bowled before. Ambassador Lanes, which happens to be on top of a parking garage. This time, we weren’t even greeted by signs, just locked doors. Apparently there’s a secret law that no bowling is allowed in Cleveland on Tuesday night?

The only other bowling alley anyone knew of downtown was The Corner Alley, which had been described to Audra as “martinis and bowling.” That prompted the following exchange:

Megan: That sounds like a recipe for disaster. Me: No, no. It sounds like a recipe… FOR AWESOME.

We did a drive-by to make sure that our last hope was actually open, and shockingly enough they bucked the trend. In addition to being open, the place is really cool and they have nice comfy couches for sitting while bowling instead of those uncomfortable plastic swivel chairs. They also have a hell of a martini menu, with forty choices. In short, it is indeed a recipe for awesome.

Unfortunately, we were far too sensible and only bowled one game and didn’t have any drinks, what with it being a work night. But we have promised to go back and partake of the full experience. Because that cajun martini? Has my name written all over it. But not, apparently, on a Tuesday night.

♫ Feist - Honey Honey

• Five things you might do with “all that ass”
  … all that ass inside them jeans.

New Underworld, Oblivion With Bells, coming in October with fantastic cover art! Squeeeeee!

♫ Feist - 1234

• How Seagate Learned To Package Like Apple
  The packaging and quick start guide for Seagate’s new FreeAgent external hard drive is pretty impressive. Not quite Apple quality, but close!