POTD - Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley - Read by Bryan Cranston

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Ozymandias

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away". 

 

This teaser introduced the final season of AMC's Breaking Bad, read by the show's star, Bryan Cranston.  

POTD - Viking Ships in Los Angeles by Brandon Brown from Poesia Para La Gente

Viking Ships in Los Angeles

by Brandon Brown 

The simple have their slogans, and the wise their proverbs. 
A builder has wood, rough and lifeless in piles. 
My eyes, they have your eyes. My breath mixes with your breath.
Once, we drew a map to your house on a brown paper napkin and sailed 
through neighborhood alleys like Viking ships 
until we reached your staircase, its flickering light bulb 
suspended above us like some artist sketched it 
over our heads to show everyone that our brains were full 
of ideas. Really, we were just dreaming of buried treasure 
and our hands on each other’s bodies, 
tracing one another’s mouths with our tongues. Here, 
on these same steps, our fingers now have 
another set of fingers to hold and study like hammers or worn-faced coins. 
And it’s here where I have built for us a tower, 
one that stretches up from the planks of the creaking deck under our feet 
so that when you and I scale it, we can look out 
over all the familiar houses, yapping dogs and divorcees sunbathing in their backyards. 
Each time I cup your face in my hand, I know that I’ll be with you 
as my hair grows longer and my clothes become old. I know 
that if you leave your body before I leave my body, I’ll carry you down 
from our perch like wood from the pile, polish two coins 
with my trembling fingers, and rest them on your eyes as you begin 
to float down the tar-black river on a bed made of flowers and sticks. 

I had the privilege of meeting Brandon (@yourmoneyisours ) during our Poesia Para La Gente on the LA Metro. He read a number of poems, but this one, read at edge of the pond in Macarthur Park just lit us all up. He was gracious enough to let me publish it here on 5 things. 

The links directly to Brandon reading his poem: on Vimeo

Below is the whole video (his poem starts at 22:35) 

On Sunday afternoon, June 30th, several poets met to ride the LA Metro and at each stop and along the way shared their poems and spoken word with fellow Angelenos. There were many poems and tales, but for the sake of expediency I chose just one poem from each poet to include in the video.

SKYE Weather+Photo

SKYE Weather + Photo brings the weather to life with elegant reports and beautiful photos shared by users like you. The app not only offers real-time conditions, as well as hourly and seven-day forecasts, but it also makes photos of weather around the world visible with the swipe of a finger. Upload and share your own weather photos, and scroll through other users' shots of your favorite places. With this easy-to-use app, you’ll get the clearest possible picture of the weather in the places you care about. Features: --Rich and immersive forecasts --Beautiful background images showing current conditions --Hourly and seven-day forecasts --Real-time crowd-sourced weather reporting --Real-time weather photos from around the world --Place current weather data on your photos with beautiful stencils --Share forecasts with friends via Facebook, Twitter, email or SMS --Save and organize your places for forecasts --See the weather in your friends' top places --Horizontal swipe for place details --Vertical swipe for quick switch

Besides doing this everyday, I have a day job as a user experience designer for BermanBraun here in Santa Monica. 

The cycle for producing an iOS app can vary in length quite a bit. When I first sketched on the screens for SKYE WEATHER+PHOTO in early 2012, I wasn't sure where the exploration would take me. 

The app is live now (iTunes link) and I am excited to hear what you think.

There are two main sections of the app: forecast and photos.

The forecast section includes current, hourly and 7-day weather information for places around the world. 

The photo section lets you discover photos (with weather information stenciled on) in any of the locations around the world. And, if you like, you can add weather stencils to any of your own photos. 

Your weather photos tell the story of your experience, the way it felt to be there at that moment. You can share your photos out to your social networks, save them to your camera roll, and document the weather for those places. 

Here are some of my favorite photos I've taken with the app: