A full moon 360 from up on the catwalk at the abandoned cement plant

Long exposures at night with moving clouds can make stitching 360 panoramas difficult. The 6 panos in virtual tour below were shot some time ago. Over the last 6 months I’ve finally developed a reasonably efficient post-processing technique to get the clouds to stitch smoothly. I’ve also upgraded my pano player software to Pano2VR Pro, which makes building a virtual tour really fast. I’ll be adding 1-2 more panos to the tour over the next few weeks, and then creating a separate tour for another part of the facility. In a regular web browser, click the button on the bottom right to go full screen. The virtual tour also works on on iPad or iPhone. Enjoy the panos!

360 Night Panorama: Stand Clear While Dumping

When I was a kid, my Mom would get Christmas cards from far away family members and people we knew who had moved away. The card or Christmas letter recorded the peak moments in a family’s year. So and so got married. So and so graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth. This was more than enough news.

I want to bring the spirit of the yearly news report back. I want social media to be like a Christmas card. The volume is currently much too high. There needs to be a Christmas card filter for Facebook.

I’m willing to make a compromise between current reality and the Christmas card filter. How about a monthly update from everyone you know that tells you the one big thing that happened. Look at this awesome cat photo. I had the best Sazerac at this bar. You’d have to pick the best thing that happened all month, and that would be the only thing you could post. Facebook — limited to 1 post per month, and everyone could see your post without filters or promotions.

I’d even make a further concession. Using my Watching Reading Listening Doing (WRLD) formula, you could make 4 posts per month on social media. The best movie you saw, the best album you heard, the best book you read, and the coolest thing you did in real life. Once your posts were done for April, you’d have to wait until May for the next ones.

Think about how much time you’d save. You wouldn’t have to hide or unsubscribe to so many of your “friends.” The world online would be a much of a better place with some editing.

But I’m an idea guy. I’m not going to start my own social network. So you’ll have to continue to please stand clear while dumping. Break your own rocks online if you want to. It’s optional.

Medicine from the 30′s and 40′s at Ruddy’s General Store in Palm Springs

Watching
Coming to Light: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indians [Amazon | Netflix]. Amazing photographs, and a story of dedication to a photography project like no other. Highly recommended.

Reading
Driving Visions is an academic book about road movies that’s organized by decade. Laderman does a superb job of showing the evolution of the form from the 60′s through the 90′s. The analysis of 70′s existential classics like Two Lane Blacktop is particularly good. The book concludes with a chapter that analyzes the European road film, including a nice look at Wim Wenders’ Kings of the Road.
Beta Testing the Apocalypse is what would happen if J.G. Ballard could draw comics. Kaczynski has set the bar really high with the 10 stories in this dystopian graphic novel. Highly recommended.
 Trance profiles Patty Hearst’s time with the SLA using a blend of history and fiction that often gets compared to DeLillo’s Libra. I couldn’t put this book down. And I also couldn’t get the Camper Van Beethoven song Tania out of my head. Trance has really great characters, Bay Area settings, and gave me new insights on the activities of the radical left during the 70′s.
Three to See the King is a simple fable by the author of the ultimate deadpan novel about work, The Restraint of Beasts. The subtle themes about home, relationships, and community have really stuck with me over the last few weeks. Recommended if you’re already a fan of Mills’ work. If you haven’t had the pleasure yet, start with Beasts or  All Quiet on the Orient Express.
 I realized after reading Kaczynski’s Beta Testing the Apocalypse that I’d never read Ballard’s High-Rise. Wow, that was demented.

Listening
 Sleeping People’s Growing was a Pandora discovery on the Don Caballero station. If Fripp riffs haunt your dreams, you may want to give this great math rock band from San Diego a listen. Reminds me of Rumah Sakit’s great self-titled album on the same Temporary Residence label.

Doing
If all of the press and crowds have scared you off, visit the Garry Winogrand exhibition at SFMOMA in April — when members get in 1 hour early on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.