Look. Up.

As a person who still gets Citigroup Center confused with the Bloomberg Tower, I am particularly fascinated by Stephen Wiltshire's current project at the Pratt Institute.  Wiltshire, a British artist on the Autism spectrum who didn't learn to speak until he was nine years old, has a remarkable gift for drawing city skylines in great detail ... from memory. Wiltshire has been drawing the New York City Skyline from memory on-site at the Pratt Institute since Monday, October 26th.  You can watch him, live on webcam, here. Designboom has close-up photos of the canvas and the work is stunning.

Here's a profile of Wilstshire that aired on BBC as part of the German-produced "Beautiful Minds"  series (Expedition ins Gehrin).

 Since the Balloon Boy fiasco, it's nice to have a new reason to look up. 

NY Media Hit and Miss

I returned from my California vacation with a 24-hour stomach bug, so I dared not leave my home to venture up to the Upper East Side to see Ira Glass at the 92nd Street Y last week.  Fortunately, my friend Jesse was able to use the tickets and he told me today what I missed.  Apparently, during the evening Ira announced that he asked the Showtime Network not to renew the This American Life television show.  A devoted fan of the TAL radio show, I never really got into the television adaptation, so I can't say I'm sorry to see this go. I really believe that the magic of This American Life is rooted in the ethereal transmission of voices; the stories are so perfectly produced for radio, I found the television treatment awkward and distracting.

In other Public Radio news, I'm excited to catch the new Moth Radio Hour on WNYC.  I've been a fan of The Moth podcast for about a year now and I've been lucky to attend a few of The Moth Story SLAMs live in New York. I'm curious to see how this 15-minute podcast transitions to a one hour radio program, distributed by PRX. The Moth is doing some interesting work using online and offline media.  If you're interested in appearing on the new radio show, you can pitch your story idea via phone, website or Skype. The group is also facilitating "Moth Up" private events based on the meet-up model. Content will be recorded and uploaded to the website for sharing.  Stories may be featured on the podcast, radio show and the process will also be used for future expansions of the official Moth Story SLAMs.

Finally, I got to attend a live taping of one of my favorite podcasts, The Sound of Young America, live at the new Jerome L. Greene performance space at WNYC on Friday night.  Jesse Thorn presented one of the most diverse bills I've seen in a long time: comedian Kumali Nanjiani, musicians Nellie McKay and Andrew W.K,  director Rik Cordero and actor Scott Adsitt. The performance was webcast live, and you can see some footage from the night here. Can you see me in the audience? Probably not. After the show, Jesse Thorn autographed my poster, so now I can go to Nerd Heaven when I die.

If you're not familiar with The Sound of Young America, here are a few great episodes to check out:

Terry O'Reilly (CBC's "The Age of Persuasion") Interview

Online Branding with Merlin Mann, The Brothers Chaps and Jeff Olsen

Radiolab with Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich

Zach Galifianakis Interview

Follow That Truck!

NPR's Morning Edition had a story this morning about Kogi, a Korean BBQ and Taco Truck that roams the streets of L.A. and connects with its fans via Twitter. The little Taco Truck That Could (now two trucks) has over ten thousand followers on Twitter and they use the platform to inform their followers where they can be found that day.

"You've got to go on Twitter to get the most up-to-date news on what kind of specials they have that day or where they are," [said one Angelino]. "They actually got here late — that's what they announced on their Twitter."

And of course, since this is the Internet we're talking about, Kogi also has a pesky Brand-squatter who pushes out fake information on a bogus Twitter Feed (no link here because we don't like to encourage this kind of bad behavior.)

Photo by ShellyS via FlickrMeanwhile, back in Gotham, I use Twitter to track two of my favorite mobile food purveyors: The Treats Truck and Wafels & Dinges. Any day the Wafel truck is in Midtown is a good day, even if I rarely have time to run out and grab Cinnamon Liege Wafel on my lunch break. The Wafel Truck is currently in the shop with mechanical problems, which is all the more reason to follow @TheTreatsTruck for your sugar fix.