Ferris’ New Website – for Apartments!

My cousin Rick sent this to me in a batch this afternoon, and I wanted to post it here for posterity, for when he's richer and more famous.

Indeed, it IS a jungle out there, and now you can rent through a local NEO broker.

Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2009 3:50 PM
Subject: Ferris' New Website – for Apartments!

Dear Friend,

I need your help! I have been working on a new internet startup with my business partner, Jon Pastor. The site is an apartment search engine (like Google) that scours the internet for every apartment listing in the U.S. (unlike Google, we specialize in apartment search only). We organize the results in a simple, powerful map/results page. We have ~1 million listings, which is 5x our closest competitor, and we just launched this week.

Please check it out at RentJungle.com. I would really appreciate your feedback and comments. In fact, if you're on Facebook, please become a fan of our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rent-Jungle-Search-Millions-of-Apartments-and-Homes-For-Rent/80142981156 and post a comment.

The map interface is particularly useful, try: http://www.rentjungle.com/mapapartments/oh/cleveland/.

So if you, your kids, parents, friends or relatives are in the market for an apartment, please give it a try: RentJungle.com.

Thanks, I appreciate it, and please share your thoughts with me,

Rick Ferris

Mike Lang finally in the PD, after he throws women's clothes into the booze equation

Euclid Avenue construction nears completion - Cleveland Metro News – The Latest Breaking News, Photos and Stories from The Plain Dealer -- A few weeks ago, I wrote here about our friend and neighbor Mike Lang and his survival epic that's played out on Euclid these past few years. Now, yesterday, he gets some front-page billing in the PD, and its for adding women's clothes to an aggressive mix of liquor and men's sartorial splendor. I understand he had a minor marketing epiphany recently listening to that song that has the refrain, "Show me, where's the dress?"

Good luck, Mike. I'll be teetering down to 1275 Euclid soon, as quickly as I can get used to these new heels.

the debut of Peterman's Eye

Sweet Smell of Pig Peterman's Eye -- One of our older Hoya boys is J. Peterman, down in Lexington (Kentucky, that is). He's an entrepreneur whose progress, and ups and downs, I've followed for years. He's an arbiter of taste, a connoisseur, and an incredibly curious Renaissance man; the Jesuits built us all on the same basic frame, so now we have a worldwide mutual admiration society; we like us. We may not always be totally right, or politically acceptable, but we're all pretty much on the same page and share common mythologies. There's a camaraderie in having been raised by Jesuits. I'd imagine Romulus and Remus would tell you just about the same thing.

Check out Peterman's Eye. (John has built his business on his "eye" for what we all want, knowing intuitively, instinctively, and just somehow what merchandise looks like in the Platonic world of forms.) Peterman's Eye is a combo effort at interactive blog, news aggregation, and topical research. I think he's doing whatever he wants to do, which is pretty much what I do here, for the most part, as the spirit moves me. It's salutary.

Welcome, J., to the blogosphere. Do you think it's time for you to MeetTheBloggers?

While you're at it, check out the mission statement, or purpose:


About Us
Welcome.

My aim is to build a marketplace for ideas. A place where we can educate, entertain and discuss with each other topics we find interesting.

I'll lay out some thoughts, you join in, points of view will accumulate and alter, new topics of interest will emerge...

I don't know where it will all lead. But I'm confident there will be a certain feeling of creditability and openness. A wonderful chaos where actual facts and real opinions collide without apology.

(Frankly, the "media landscape," as they say, has gotten a bit loud. Most traditional outlets want us to believe they are unbiased. Some Internet voices want us to believe they alone hold the truth. And, sometimes search engines feel like mousetraps shuffling us endlessly here and there.)

I've traveled a lot over the years. Met lots of folks, from ranchers to maharajas. Made lots of mistakes. Laughed. Argued. Learned, a lot. Been lucky, but mostly curious. Pull up a chair; I'm sure we can find something interesting to discuss together.

"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples," G.B. Shaw said, "then you and I still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas."

Amen.

[J. Peterman]

Peterman's Eye
1001 Primrose Court
Lexington, Kentucky 40511

another Dennis hits the bright lights

One of our MeetTheBloggers Salon edition alumni, Dennis Althar, has sent us this press release. His new invention (they look like twin cobras!) got included in an artwork at The Whitney Museum. Our local talent goes to New York to get discovered. Does anybody else think this is ironic, or just plain wrong?

ALLTRONICS TECHNICAL SYSTEMS
CLEVELAND, OHIO
800.255.8766
http://www.atssounds.com/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 6, 2008
CONTACT: Dennis Althar
Cleveland
Audiophile Speaker System Selected for Whitney Biennial Show
Cleveland, Ohio

All-tronics Technical Systems announced that its Copernicus II speaker system has been selected for use in the prestigious Whitney Biennial Show in New York, March 6-23, 2008. The Whitney Biennial showcases 81 of the most innovative contemporary artists from around the world and is expecting 40,000 people to attend.

Noted visual and sonic artist Marina Rosenfeld has chosen the Copernicus II for use in her installation “Teenage Lotano,” a realization of noted Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti’s modernist masterpiece “Lotano” (1967). Ms. Rosenfeld’s performance uses a choir of 20 teenagers, thereby juxtaposing a high modern composition with a teen-vocal sound reminiscent of pop music. The individually recorded tracks are then melded into a sonic mix, sometimes with moments of choral harmony, then dissipating into abstract isolated sounds. Fragments appear with cello, percussion, bass and electronics.The challenge for Ms. Rosenfeld is in transferring the specific placement of sounds which she has created to an open performance space. The imaging, or source of each sound, is critical to her artistic vision of the piece. In previous settings, a series of headphones (binaural sound systems) were set up for use by the audience. In this so-called “perfect environment” the producer can control the elements of the recording, especially the imaging. But at the Whitney installation, a large, cavernous assembly room, with heavy wooden walls and floor will be used, and an open speaker system was required. Most high-quality audiophile speakers seek to “fill” the room, resulting in levels, balance, and sound placement entirely dependent on the room’s acoustics. The detailed elements and imaging of Marina Rosenfeld’s “Teenage Lotano” would be lost. Ms. Rosenfeld selected the Copernicus II speaker system because of its focused imaging and accurate reproduction of sound. The system employs a novel, 16-speaker array in each of two slim, curving towers, each paired with a powerful subwoofer, to focus the sound in a “sweet spot,” placing the listener in a three-dimensional sound stage, with absolute imaging, depth and presence. Utilizing precise time-alignment technology, the speakers allow the listener to visualize the vocalists and instrumentalists at their exact positioning on the stage. Vocal quality is perfectly reproduced, with the soloist seeming to come forward into the room. Sounds emanate, not from the speaker drivers in front of the listener, but from the musicians, wherever they are located on the stage. In “Teenage Lotano,” the listener is beckoned by lighting to approach that location in the room where they will experience Marina’s sonic creation. They will be able to pinpoint the various spots in the room from which the sounds seem to emanate. Standing anywhere else in the room, listeners can experience the unique mix of sounds which she has assembled, but in the “sweet spot’ the sonic experience is unique – and as intended and designed by the artist.

"I have found working with All-tronics' Copernicus II speakers to be an extraordinary experience,” the artist noted. “The tremendous focus of the speakers allows the listener to encounter sound in a truly sculptural fashion, and is the reason I selected these speakers to present my vocal and electronic composition in the Whitney Biennial 2008 exhibition. I don't know of another system that is as realistic, elegant looking and sonically refined as these speakers. A truly wondrous sound system!"

The Copernicus II speaker system is designed and manufactured by All-tronics Technical Systems, located in the historic Slavic Village neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. The All-tronics staff and advisory panel have extensive experience in audio speaker development and sound reproduction; as well as knowledge and expertise in medical sonography, where time alignment is critical to accurate sound generation. “Techniques developed for Doppler phase array technology,” general manager Dennis Althar noted, “have, for the first time been applied to the field of music reproduction.” It is the precise placement and timing of the speaker output which produces such accurate imaging for the listener.

Additional information on the Copernicus II speaker system may be found at http://www.atssounds.com/

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e24 Transcription | Web 2.0 Transcription Service

e24 Transcription Web 2.0 Transcription Service -- Somehow, when they offer to transcribe our podcasts with the advertisement "All transcriptions are down by Human and not by machines," my enthusiasm wanes.

a rolling moss gathers no stone, or words to that effect

Here's some good news from the CIA's FUTUREcommunicate, June 2007:

Moss Takes "Entrepreneurship by Design" to Heart

After two years managing a startup with CIA, FUTURE's Founding Director is leaving to launch his own design firm, in the soon-to-be-established District of Design, Midtown, Cleveland.

Moss will be joining forces with existing partners of Nead Brand Partners and Newbomb. The combined firm will offer a progressive approach to Brand Communications, Strategy, and Experience Design and will launch under a new name in the months ahead.

The change will also allow David to further his Regional advocacy for Design and Technology, dialing up his contributions to IngenuityFest, Friends for the School of the Arts, CPAC, GameHub, Defrag, Tuesdays, and others.

Likewise, he looks forward to supporting the Cleveland Institute of Art in their efforts to integrate FUTURE programming into the strategic buildout of their new combined campus in University Circle's emerging Arts District. Best wishes, David!