As part of the new blog, I'll be doing a "casual Friday" post every Friday that takes a step back and discusses the finer things in life. In other words, anything that isn't what we do for a living all week. Feel free to post whatever you wish in the comments, whether it is related to music, movies, TV, books, technology, or just something cool that you found on the net.

TED Music

Via Boing Boing, there was apparently some pretty interesting music at the TED conference this week in the form of a string quartet called ETHEL. Thomas Dolby (yes, that Thomas Dolby) is TED's music director, and according to his blog, they put together some interesting renditions of several modern songs that normally wouldn't be something played by a string quartet. Eleanor Rigby, by the Beatles, is actually the least surprising, since my son's high school symphony orchestra played this song a couple of years ago in a school concert. Kashmir, by Led Zeppelin, is probably the one that I would like to hear the most. Unfortunately, recordings of the songs that they played aren't available in any form that one can purchase yet, but if they do show up on ITunes or somewhere else, I'll make a note of it here.

Melbourne

And for your viewing pleasure, here are a few photos of downtown Melbourne that I took when I was there in December working with an ElevateDB customer (hopefully more on that later). If you ever get a chance to go to Australia, book those tickets immediately. It is well worth the flight time and is absolutely beautiful.

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Tags: Casual Friday

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Comments (3)	You must be logged in to comment
Steve Gill said...	Reply
Nice photos Tim.  Pity you didn't get to Canberra.  Despite what many Aussies say, it's not full of politicians (in fact I've seen 2 in 40 years).  It's looking green here now that we've had some rain. Steve Gill
Tim Young [Elevate Software] said...	Reply
I definitely want to get back soon.  A week just isn't enough, especially when most of the week is work. Next time I'm there for pleasure I'll make a point to stop by. It's nice to hear that you got some rain.  That was one thing that I wasn't aware of, but became aware of quickly in Melbourne - the lack of rain in Australia over the last few years.  We kind of take fresh water for granted around here.  We're right between two great lakes (Erie and Ontario) and right next to the Niagara River that connects the two.
Adam H. said...	Reply
Gotta get away from the city mate... Cities are all the same. Next time come and visit the bush and see the *real* Australia