world according to ack ~ adam karas » nyc

Manhattan and Idaho, Equals At Last

ack — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:27:46 +0000

Curbed points to this very cool map of the population of NYC based on 2006 census estimates.

US Open Women’s Final

ack — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:10:00 +0000

At the last minute, I went to the Women’s Final for the US Open… rain delayed till Sunday night. Serena Williams played Jelena Jankovic and it turned out to be a great match, with Serena winning in two sets.

As you can tell from the panograph above, the seats were waaaay up there, but it was still great to watch and see Jelena battle the entire time. She really should of had the second set but couldn’t pull it out. The loud and active Serbian crowd helped no doubt.

Raw photos on Flickr.

Buckminster Fuller

ack — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:54:24 +0000

I’ve always been fascinated with architecture and design, especially Frank Lloyd Wright and Buckminster Fuller. Fuller especially caught my interest with his novel approach for his Fuller Projection map, shown above, which has the Earth on a polyhedron and unwrapped. It doesn’t show the distortion as the typical northern hemisphere weighted ones still used today. It also helps I’m a map whore.

But something I am interested in seeing it a new exhibit at the Whitney: Buckminster Fuller: Starting With the Universe, on view till September 21, 2008.

One of the great American visionaries of the twentieth century, R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) endeavored to see what he, a single individual, might do to benefit the largest segment of humanity while consuming the minimum of the earth’s resources. Doing “more with less” was Fuller’s credo. He described himself as a “comprehensive anticipatory design scientist,” setting forth to solve the escalating challenges that faced humanity before they became insurmountable.

The NYTimes has an article on the show also, Fixing Earth One Dome at a Time.

The Ting Tings

ack — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:51:06 +0000

Another great show on the 18th was The Ting Tings. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect since I really only knew their most popular song, Shut Up and Let Me Go, but I was pleasantly surprised they put on a really good show. This is impressive since there are only two of them in the band, but they both had tons of energy and worked the crowd well. The Fratellis still put on a better show (they also have more material), but both shows were packed with a good crowd, and I look forward to see how both bands develop.

They are another band catapulted from an iTunes commerical.

Live Music Photos.

The Fratellis

ack — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:55:12 +0000

A little late in reporting on this one, but went to see The Fratellis on the 13th, and as of this moment they hold the record for putting on the most lively show I have seen in NYC. These Scots really know how to jam. I’m also a fan of the “Rosie the Riveter” WWII type design on their Costello Music album, and you can now buy a t-shirt.

It has to be a pretty good show when you feel the floor bounce to the music. The Fretellis have a very upbeat and unique sound, and I especially like what I will describe as Skat since I can’t think of a better comparison at the moment.

There was also added flavor that a Certic rugby team was having a great time near us.

Band web site and Myspace. As always, more photos in my Live Music Set.

Their most popular song, Chelsea Dagger: