Nothing could be more perfect for a Saturday night than Estelle and the way she sings “American Boy”.

YouTube – American Boy – Estelle Feat. Kanye West

BTW, that link has some swearing in it that this link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY7xXSW_NG4, does not have. Oddly, in this second link, the Michael Jackson button that Kanye is wearing is grayed out. Then again, this second link is associated with WEA music: that may have something to do with it.

I like the reference to Gladys Knight and the Pips in this song: Estelle reminds me of singers of that era.

I like how the shadow dances out of synch with her too. Heck, I like lots about this song/video, from the changing tempos, the guest appear of John Legend, the use of black and white patterns visually, her outfits, even.

Definitely bears repeat watching and listening.

If you feel stuck in a rut or needing a push to make “your life happier, healthier, and smarter”, then you want to surf over to
Daily 15. Every day the site posts “a challenge that will take you 15 minutes or less”. It may be just the thing to get you going.

It might look like a work of art

and in some ways it is, but first and foremost, it is a fine chocolate, from Christopher Elbow Chocolates.

If you like the look of this Russian Tea chocolate (a dark chocolate ganache infused with black teas and scents of citrus, bergamot and spices), then head over to the site for more cocoa goodness.

The nytimes.com has a good article on an captivating web site that IBM has produced called many-eyes.com:

Novelties – Lines and Bubbles and Bars, Oh My! New Ways to Sift Data – NYTimes.com

The site has been getting alot of attention not only because of the ability to effectively visualize data, but also because of the community aspect of it. It’s very smart in alot of ways.

Another smart site that is associated with IBM is wordle.net. Jonathan Feinberg is the author, and although he calls it a “toy”, it has been used extensively already in the US presidential election by people/bloggers analyzing the speeches of candidates.

Speaking of speeches, here is a famous one. Can you guess whose it is?

Anyone with a boring spreadsheet of data or a word document in need of analysis should check them out.

Much has been written about this already, but in case you have missed it,

“The Orwell Prize, Britain’s pre-eminent prize for political writing, is publishing George Orwell’s diaries as a blog. From 9th August 2008, Orwell’s domestic and political diaries (from 9th August 1938 until October 1942) will be posted in real-time, exactly 70 years after the entries were written.”

For more on it, see here

P.S. One thing to note is the really good blog roll. There are dozens of great news sources there.

American Book Review has the list, from:

1. Call me Ishmael.

to

100. The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting.

Some are short, while others slowly unwind. Some are very dramatic, while others are almost plain. In any case, you’ll have fun reading them.

P.S. Ok, they also have Edward George Bulwer-Lytton’s “It was a dark and stormy night…”, which, come to think of it, isn’t as bad as I have come to expect.

This bench reminds of in some ways of Art Nouveau furniture, but it is really a work of art.

I love how it goes from being a common orderly bench to something wild.

You can see more here