A San Francisco Day - Macworld and Diane Arbus

Had a great day today hanging out with my old friends Andy Kivel and Jim Goldberg. Andy and I took in the Macworld exhibit hall this morning. One thing I saw that looked cool is the Squeezebox, a digital wireless media hub that can play music from iTunes libraries on a home stereo over 802.11b. Unfortunately it doesn't work with files purchased from the iTunes music store, due to Apple's DRM technology - sigh.

Apple introduced the Mini-iPod today. Very cool form factor, but at $250 for 4 GB (compared to $300 for 15 GB on the regular iPod) it hardly seems worth the price. I think it would've been really groovy at the $100 price point that was rumored last week.

Apple also introduced music software called Garage Band, that looks like a lot of fun - sort of like the Acid software that's available for Windows, but maybe even better. I foresee myself spending endless hours playing with this one.

I purchased a new laptop backpack from Crumpler. Terrifically designed and constructed bags from these folks. But unfortunately, the sales droid at the booth told me that the Sheep Scarer would fit a 15" PowerBook, but when I got back to the hotel tonight, it doesn't. Sigh - will have to go back to the show to exchange it for the larger Base Toucher.

Then we went across the street to SFMOMA to see the Diane Arbus exhibit. This is a *major* retrospective of Arbus' work, and was an incredible experience - lots of photographs that she never printed herself, plus lots of her writings that were never published before. I was somewhat surprised to find out how articulate she was about her artistic aims, especially around documenting all sorts of ritual behavior throughout our society. I also was impressed by the respect she accorded her subjects, no matter how out-on-the-edges they might seem to us today, to say nothing of how far out they seemed fifty years ago when she took the photos. Well worth checking out.