Prince autumn 2010 tour: more dates in Italy

I just updated my previous post: two more dates have been added, in Rome and Milano. Full information here. Tickets available here.

Furthermore, the usual source of Prince tour information lately is hinting that there will be shows in Barcelona and Zurich. It seems we are heading to an almost fully fledged tour of Prince in Europe/Asia in the coming months.

Sufjan Stevens' new album "The Age of Adz", available to listen in full

Yes it is true: you can listen to the full new album at NPR, with all songs available in streaming. In case you were slightly interested, this might be the perfect occasion to get hooked on the wonderful music world of Sufjan Stevens. I only could listen a few songs thus far, but I must say I am deeply impressed, particularly by the last one, a tour de force lasting more than 25 mins which is mind blowing.

"The Age of Adz" will be available there until its official release, on October 12.

Prince will play in Abu Dhabi on November 14, 2010

As confirmed today in the press:

Prince, Kanye West confirmed for Abu Dhabi

Pop icon Prince will headline a series of concerts at Yas Island, organisers confirmed Tuesday.

Hip hop star Kanye West and alternative rock band Linkin Park are also set to perform in Abu Dhabi, following the second edition of the capital’s Formula One Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Grand Prix.

West will perform on the first night, while Linkin Park take to the stage on November 13, before the 'Purple Rain' singer brings things to a close on November 14.

The concerts are only open to those holding tickets to the Grand Prix.

But people without tickets can take in several other artists at Al Sahil Beach the Abu Dhabi corniche, including American R&B singer Kelis and the Arabic superstars Nancy Ajram and Fares Karem.

The events are part of Yasalam 2010, which organisers Flash Entertainment are calling a month-long party of “once-in-a-lifetime experiences inspired by the passion, energy, and glamour of motorsport”.

Also on the calendar are a series of activities around the capital, called Yasalam Live Across the City, including community programmes in universities and public locations, as well as live events, exhibitions and entertainment on the corniche. Except for the after-race concerts, all events are free to the public.

Nearly half a million people attended last year’s Yasalam events, Flash Entertainment Managing Director John Lickrish said.

“Yasalam remains a vital tool with which to project our growing ambitions as an international entertainment and leisure destination. We once again look forward to another spectacular month of celebrations across Abu Dhabi as we build up to one of our biggest sporting events on November 14,” Ossama Khoreibi, Chairman of FLASH Entertainment said in a media statement.

Excellent preview of the Pentax K-5, posted by Falk Lumo

This is clearly labour of love, one of those articles posted by a passionate photographer who loves the philosophy of the brand (cameras from photographers for photographers), and takes attention and care in writing about it. If you are interested in the new Pentax K-5, this is a must-read article. All props to Falk for such an amazing preview.

Let me quote his conclusion:

This concludes my hands-on preview report of the Pentax K-5 semi-professional APS-C SLR camera. It combines what may currently be the best APS-C sensor with a camera which has almost professional grade attributes but in a package which pleases the outdoor and street as well as the enthusiast photographer. It shares the genes of the applauded K-7 and improves on the three points which could have been considered its only weakness: ISO performance, autofocus speed, uncommon sources for blur (maybe).

The K-5 has only two rivals which however, can't beat it (except maybe for very fast action and long lenses): the very similiar Nikon D7000 and the bulkier and more expensive Canon 7D. If you now consider that only Pentax managed to pack a good sensor-shift stabilizer into the body which is the most elegant, sturdy, lightest and smallest of the three and is done by the smallest company of the three, then the K-5 is an engineering gem and a photographer's pleasure. No wonder it is the only SLR to receive this year's Photokina Star 2010.

Princeinprint.com is open

This is hardly news in the community of Prince fans, but to those who might be still unaware, a new reference site was opened yesterday: princeinprint.com, including a truly extensive collection of scans from articles devoted to Prince.

The work required to put such a site online is amazing and I am thankful to the person who has put this resource available to all fans. It is much appreciated, and I am sure this new site will receive as much attention as did a previous website from the same author, Databank.org.

Autumn 2010 Prince tour in Europe

As pretty much everybody knows by now, there is already official announcement of a few Prince shows in Europe during October/November (with some escapades to Abu Dhabi...). Rumours speak about a total of 7 dates, of which four are out there:


15 October: Helsinki, Finland - Hartwall Areena
18 October: Bergen, Norway - Vestlandshallen
20 October: Copenhagen, Denmark - Forum
22 October: Herning, Denmark - Herning Messecenter
26 October: Antwerp, Belgium - Sportpaleis

2 November: Roma, Italy - Palalottomatica

3 November: Milano, Italy - Forum Assago

14 November: Yas Island, Abu Dhabi - (only for holders of tickets for the F1 Grand Prix)

In addition, there are (unconfirmed) rumours of additional shows at Bergen, and also in Cracow (Poland). I will update this post as long as official news are out.


The only details regarding the band is the comeback of the magnificent drummer John Blackwell, together with another past member who remains undisclosed thus far. Rhonda Smith seems a probable candidate for that role, although it could also be the genius of Renato Neto. We will see.

First video comparison Windows Phone 7 vs iPhone

There you have it, the first of a presumably long series of comparisons. This one used a beta version of Windows 7, but the differences are already very clear; notice this video is available in 720 HD.

Performance of the new Pentax K-5 at very high ISO

One of the main complaints regarding the dSLR models from Pentax (until the arrival of the K-x) was their performance at high ISO, which was not up to standards from Canon and Nikon. The K-x demonstrated they had learnt to have excellent high ISO performance, to the point it was hailed as the best model, in that respect, in its category.

Now, the first tests of the performance of the new flagship model, the K-5, at high ISO have been published by popco.net (original in Japanese) and in comparison to the K-7, they also show very clear advances in the field. So at this point, I think there is nothing that can be reasonable argued to state that Pentax models are inferior to their counterparts fron CaNikon (since the other common complaint, the autofocus, has been already addressed in previous models like the K20D and K-7, and in my book, more points in the autofocus system does not equal to better autofocus).

I think there will be extensive tests in the near future addressing this very topic, and I will post about the most interesting ones here.

The Onion: 1 in 5 Americans believe Obama is a cactus

The guys at The Onion, sometimes, are outdoing themselves. This is one of these occasions:


The Onion- Poll: 1 in 5 Americans believe Obama is a cactus

I just love this part:

During a Wednesday morning briefing, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs once again denied that President Obama is a cactus, citing numerous physiological attributes of the nation's chief executive, including his ability to walk upright and to manipulate objects with his opposable thumbs.

"Cacti don't talk," said Gibbs, shaking his head. "They just don't."

President Barack Hussein Obama was born Aug. 4, 1961 in Honolulu, HI to parents Ann Dunham and Barack Obama, Sr. From the ages of 6 to 10 he lived with his mother and stepfather in Indonesia, where he attended Besuki Public School and St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School. In 1971, Obama returned to Hawaii, where he was raised primarily by his grandmother until he left home to attend Occidental College in Los Angeles.

"I don't care what he says or what his people say or what anybody else says," 48-year-old Kansas resident Jake Nolan told reporters. "The guy's a cactus, plain and simple. I mean, Christ, look at him."

Bold messages from a Nobel prize, Timothy Hunt

Last week I attended a big scientific meeting, where I had the pleasure to watch a truly magisterial lecture given by Timothy Hunt, Nobel Prize in Physiology, 2001. Beyond the topic of the lecture, it was a real spectacle, in the best meaning of the word, to see someone with the highest talents in its job, giving a lesson in all humility ("My wife uses to say that, if I recieved the Nobel prize, anyone can receive it"), including fine sense of humour and a few, bold, take home messages.

Two of them retained my attention:

First he addressed the topic of the current trend in biological sciences, where many top teams are heavily involved in what is pompously called "Systems Biology". He plainly said he's a disbeliever on that kind of science, and cited a famous sentence from another master of science, Sydney Brenner, who has often repeated this:

Little input, high throughput, no output

From my unimportant position as a standard scientist, I completely agree with that view; the millions and millions of data provided currently by the omics techniques are overwhelming and can impress from the distance due only to its massive amount of information. Yet I have read many papers summarizing these kind of studies, and often, when I finish reading them, this is the only idea in my mind: "So, what?".

A second idea he stressed was the importance of having a small team where there is strong interaction, and where members have a close relationship, enabling them to think in depth about scientific problems, to ask the most important questions, and to plan careful and meaningful experiments to find a reply to those questions. This can hardly be done in huge teams where the majority are researchers working on their own and with little to no relationship to the researcher who is working next at the bench.

I couldn't agree more with both points of view, and it is very nice to find such ideas openly expressed by obvious leaders in science, who have nothing to demonstrate in their careers.

If you would like to know more about the brilliant thinking of Tim Hunt, you can watch a documentry from BBC4, available in full in youtube, devoted to him; it's part of the series Beautiful Minds, and this is the first part:

Google Maps Area Calculator Tool

Due to personal interests on some properties, I was digging today the net to discover some way to calculate areas based on aerial views available in Google Maps. And much to my surprise, I discovered there is a page devoted exactly to do it, in a very easy way: you select your area of interest (simply by clicking a few times on top of it, to define its surface), and it gives you a quite precise calculation of it, in different units.

The page is Google Maps Area Calculator Tool.

Tavis Smiley's radio interview with Wendy & Lisa

I discovered this morning that Wendy & Lisa made recently (as of September 2nd, 2010) a radio interview for Tavis Smiley, celebrating their first Emmy award, and it is available online. I have not heard it yet, but the ladies always deliver interesting stuff, so I suggest you to have a quiet listen here.

Official specs of the new Pentax flagship, the K-5

Slightly before the hour marked for the release of official information, Pentaxforums has posted the full specifications sheet for the new Pentax K-5, which includes some rather exciting news, as seemingly excellent capabilities to shoot under very low light (ISO 80-51200), 7 FPS and the new, improved autofocus system (11 point SAFOX IX+), which were the main reasons of criticism to former Pentax flagships, as the K-7. The link is here, and I'm sure the internet will be flooded by articles discussing this new camera, which on first look seems to me a most competent alternative to mid-level dSLR from Olympus, Nikon & Canon.


As in previous cases, I suggest to read in detail the excellent preview of the new model, posted at DSLR Magazine.

"Swanlights", new album from Antony and the Johnsons, has leaked

For good or bad (these days, it seems it is simply impossible to avoid), the new album from Antony and the Johnsons (and one of the albums I expected with more excitation), "Swanlights" has leaked to the internet. And while my order of the CD is already done, I confess I won't wait until I receive it to listen this new album; expect a full review as soon as I have explored in depth this album, which I am going to do as soon as possible.

In the mean time, the first reviews of the album are excellent, and I think we have definitely another one to reach the top positions in the best music of 2010, together with Sufjan Stevens and Tracy Thorn.

It is worth noting that there is a new website devoted to the new album, www.swanlights.com, providing some additional resources, like the video shown above (filmed by Antony when arriving to New York, in his younger years) used to promote the first single, and an audio player of such single, "Thank you for your love".

Miguel Ríos, legend of Spanish rock, says goodbye to live shows

During the last weekend, Miguel Ríos, a real legend of Spanish rock, started his last tour (and you can believe it is for real). Ríos started performing in the early 60s, and has remained a stunning live performer along his whole career; some friends who attended his show of Saturday in Granada confirm he remains in great shape, at 67 years. In these shows, he did a final compilation of his many hits, in company of a handful of good friends of the music.

I would like to pay homage to the career of Miguel Ríos, who made a most brilliant tour in the early 80s, entitled "Rock & Ríos", released as a double LP recording, reaching a resounding success in Spain. I remember countless evenings at a certain bar, while listening the beautiful songs from that recording. The vibe and the atmosphere in that show was absolutely memorable, and pretty much every guy of my generation has fond memories from "Rock & Ríos".

So I'd like just to say a great Congratulations and thanks! to Miguel for being living evidence that rockh as a meaning in Spain, and for making loads and loads of spectacular & moving live shows in the almost 50 years of career in music.

Here you have the begining of a show from the Rock & Ríos tour:

In homage to Fiat Multipla

Among the recent news I've read on the Fiat plans for their future range of cars, it seems that production of the Fiat Multipla will cease soon.

I am the proud owner of a Fiat Multipla, which was obviously the best choice for families of six people, like mine. This car has it all: space for six tall adults plus a good volume of luggage. I said "plus" rather than "instead", which means that the Multipla, unlike most MPV cars, can transport BOTH six people and loads of luggage. Most alternatives allow you to choose between many people or a high luggage volume, not both.

Somewhere I have read that the Multipla was designed by taking into account first the goal (i.e., a good, comfortable car for six people and all their stuff), then making the car to fulfill that idea. And may I say that, as controversial as its design is, I truly love this car: useful, reliable, comfortable and allowing you to actually enjoy your trip. Yet it is also true that most people find this car very ugly, which, well, is something you have to accept. But on the other hand, the excellence of this design was highlighted by its inclusion in exhibitions at the MOMA in New York. In fact, the Fiat Multipla was intially a concept car, which success among critics & journalists enabled to become an actual product in the market. It won different design prizes before its industrial production.

After watching the pictures of the original Fiat Multipla concept car of 1996 (shown above), it is interesting to notice that the complete design was implemented in the actual car that was produced, without any change, including the inside design.

In 2004, there was a lifting of the Multipla design, making it softer and more "domestic", to try and be accepted by the general public (to little sales success, it seems). In my opinion it lost the charm of the original design, although most people I've spoken with say it is "less ugly":

Finally, latest news suggest that the next generation of Fiat Multipla will be an all standard 5/7 seats MPV, based ona Chrysler platform, and thus marking the end of the excellence in design drawn by Fiat with the original Multipla.

I particularly couldn't be happier about our purchase of this car (ours is exactly the same as depicted in the first picture of this post), and when I heard about the stop of its production, I realized that there are very few realistic options for our next car. And right when I thought it had to be a Honda FR-V (which is a pale copy, although possibly more digestible by masses, of the original design of the Multipla, I discovered that also this model is about to cease production):

Sadly, it seems that good cars for families of 6 members are in the way to extinction, and we will have no choices in the near future (other than the standard and uncomfortable 7 seats MPV).

Rebadged Chrysler models will be sold in Europe under the Lancia brand

I found today these news in a Spanish article, but seemingly it was reported sometime ago also in English media; according to these articles, and within a strategy to merge the Chrysler and Fiat groups, it seems that different Chrysler models will be rebadged and sold in Europe under the Lancia brand. In particular, it seems the Voyager will be one of these models.

These are very bad news, in my opinion. The identities of Chrysler and Lancia couldn't be more different, and while there are many fans of the classy, elegant and bold Lancy car styling, the same can't be said about Chrysler. I am particularly fond of the current Lancia Delta, one of the most beautiful cars in its class; besides, the expensive Lancia Thesis was a landmark for this brand, whose qualities did not allow to achieve the deserved success.

Anyway, if this example of rebadging is one of the core ideas of Sergio Morchione, I guess the bright years of Italian car design might be getting behind. Hopefully they will leave, at least, the Alfa Romeo brand to continue their flourishment along the last decade.

New Olympus E-5 officially introduced

Here it is, the all new Olympus E-5, the new flagship model from Olympus, is already official. As in most occasions with important models, there's plenty of information all around the net, but I will advice to read in depth the excellent hands-on report published by DSLR Magazine. One of the important bits published by them: this might be the last model of the standard 4/3 protocol released by Olympus, which seemingly is completely focused now in their micro4/3 standard for future developments.

"Too much", new song from Sufjan Stevens, free to download

Another song from the forthcoming Sufjan Stevens new album, "The Age of Adz", has been made available for free at bandcamp. It is available in all kind of formats, including flac.

Picture of the Pentax K-5 leaked, specs posted at Pentaxforums

NEW UPDATE: According to recent reports posted at Pentaxforums by its administrator, it seems that the situation is the contrary as to what I posted before: the picture seems to be authentic, the specs "leaked" earlier were false. The new camera will use the same form as the K-7, use the same grip, and will have much better autofocus but not with 18 focusing points: it will use 11. This is the information posted there:

16.2 Megapixel Sony sensor

The ISO range will be 80-25600

SAFOX IX+ 11-point AF system, completely new algorithm, extremely accurate in low-light situations

7 or 8 FPS: nobody knows for sure
Same body casing as the K-7, and compatible with the same grip

Expected pentax k-5 price: $1399 (body-only) MSR

New Olympus E-5 to be introduced on September 15

This has just been 43rumors: the leak of the official teaser for the introduction of a new Olympus dSLR model of the E range, most probably the E-5. Things are getting hot before Photokina, as expected; now let's see whether the rumoured Pentax K-5 makes also its appearance.

In the mean time, 43rumors posted also the main specs of the new Olympus E-5:


- Weather-proof (Magnesium) body
- 12 Mp sensor
- ISO 100 – 6400
- AVI Motion JPEG (30fps) HD (720)
- 6 fps
- Can take a picture with sound
- Mono mic with stereo external microphone input
- 3 inch LCD with 920.000 dots resolution
- 11 points full-twin cross AF sensor (phase-difference detection system)
- 11 area multiple AF (contrast detection system)
- CF and SD dual slot
- Built-in wireless flash

Flowers, flowers...

Given that my Fujifilm Finepix F30 has a rather good macro mode, enabling to make sharp shots of very close subjects, I have developed lately the use of shooting flowers from time to time, and here you have a few recent takes, made in August 200.

De Cateto blog

De Cateto blog

De Cateto blog

De Cateto blog

De Cateto blog

Carpe diem 2010

This little tradition continues, and here you have some random samples of our summer holidays in 2010. We mixed family, friends, beaches, hometown and good wheather to get away from the everyday life. And I think we were fairly successful...

Life is what happens every moment, not what is to come.

The new Pentax K-r

As reported widely on the net, the new Pentax K-r is already official. It keeps on improving on the strong aspects of its mother camera, the K-x, and it allows the use of either a rechargeable lithium battery or else, AA batteries with the use of an optional adaptor. The rest of the specs were leaked and they are confirmed, including a 12 Mp sensor with an additional ISO step. And of course, you can buy it in a myriad of colours. Full information is available here. And an extensive, quality hands-on report is available, in Spanish, at DSLR Magazine.

In all, it seems that Pentax decided to play safely in order to ensure the continued success of their entry level model in the field of dSLR.