Tonight: Friday April 18th.
"The Seven Deadly Pleasures - A cabaret opera by Allison Lovejoy and Geoff Ball - A story of human character...or, the search for it."
8.30pm seating, show at 9pm at the Community Music Center, 544 Capp Street, San Francisco. $10.
It would be a sin to miss it...
San Francisco is having a mini-heat wave, summer is here and I hope you manage to log off and tune in a bit and go outside of the geek world :-)
Coming up on Friday April 18th the debut of:
"The Seven Deadly Pleasures - A cabaret opera by Allison Lovejoy and Geoff Ball - A story of human character...or, the search for it."
At 9pm at the Community Music Center, 544 Capp Street, San Francisco. $10.
It would be a sin to miss it...
"First Fridays with Foremski" at the de Young Museum returns this Friday April 4. It was fun last year, small groups, good conversation and a great environment: the De Young Museum in Golden Gate park, which is open until 8.45pm Friday evenings.
(BTW, the De Young was founded by M.H. de Young of the SF Chronicle newspaper family.)
This time I'd like to start off at Peet's coffee on Broderick and Oak around 5pm for a walk through the Panhandle and into the park. Or you can join me at the museum from about 6pm onwards. And drinks at my place 9pm afterwards...
This is not a networking event as such. It is more about connecting than networking.
Come and say "Hi" and come and enjoy the spectacular de Young. There is a no host cocktail bar, and music, and a fashion show, plus lots more this Friday, all free!
Take a look:
Discarded to Divine
Discarded to Divine debuts one-of-a-kind creations designed from recycled materials by Bay Area fashion designers and students of recycled couture to benefit the St. Vincent de Paul Society’s programs for the poor and homeless.
Bay Area fashion designers such as Jessica McClintock, Colleen Quen, Nice Collective, Cari Borja, Verrieres & Sako, Michael Boris, and Sara Shepherd join fashion students from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, City College of San Francisco, and Academy of Art University.
Music by Von Iva and DJ Omar presented by Noise Pop
Von Iva, the Bay Area synth rock trio—fronted by vixen soulstress Jillian Iva and featuring Becky Kupersmith on keyboard and Kelly Harris on drums—takes gritty soul-drenched dance punk to the masses.
The de Young Poetry Series: Three Vietnamese Poets: Nguyen Do, Hoa Nguyen, and Truong Tran
In celebration of the recently published anthology Black Dog, Black Night: Contemporary Vietnamese Poetry (Milkweed Editions), three Vietnamese-American contributors will read their poetry.
Art Activity for Everyone
Inspired by Discarded to Divine, create jewelry from found and reusable objects.
And don't forget the Gilbert & George exhibit! Maybe I'll see you there?
Tim Ferris is launching his popular book The 4-Hour Work Week
I first met Tim at a lunchtime event I was speaking at. He wanted some advice on how best to market his book online, which was just a couple of months from publication. He took to the online world of blogging and online marketing like a duck to water. His is a perfect case study of how to launch a book and make it popular without the endless rounds of book tours.
Obviously, you have to start with great content. Here is a Silicon Valley Minute pitch from Tim:
The 4-Hour Work Week
Please see: Just Say No To Our Digital Leashes
I try to keep my Friday evening and weekends geek-free :-) The Friedlander opening at SFMOMA was excellent. I was told I wasn't allowed to take photos at the photo exhibit but it was too late, my iPhone had already snapped a few.
Saturday, February 23, 2008 - Sunday, May 18, 2008Among photography's most prolific practitioners, Lee Friedlander is also heralded as one of the United States' finest. This retrospective assembles the most comprehensive array of Friedlander's work to date — nearly 400 pictures spanning the 1950s to the present — for a stunning overview of his multifaceted career. Inspired by Walker Evans and Robert Frank, Friedlander trained his eye on the everyday — streets, cars, storefronts, billboards — to capture distinctly American scenes and images. His style is inflected by a sharp wit and sense of humor, frequently taking advantage of elements considered by most to be obstacles, including his own shadow or reflection. Friedlander features examples from the artist's extensive personal photo series as well as his commercial work for magazines and album covers. SFMOMA's presentation also includes recent pictures from the sets of high-end fashion shoots.
/>
I popped along with Allison Lovejoy to interview Peter Fitzsimmons, the head of the Fillmore Jazz Heritage Center. He told us about plans to revive what used to be a vibrant jazz scene in San Francisco. In fact, the term "jazz" was first used here, he says, not in "N'Orleans."
It is a controversial claim...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UPH5TJEIhc
Allison Lovejoy interviews Peter Fitzsimmons, executive director of the Jazz Heritage Center located in San Francisco's historic Fillmore district. The Fillmore used to be one of the world's top jazz centers and where the term "jazz" was first coined. Mr Fitzsimmons talks about the work of the non-profit organization, the art gallery, and the new Yoshi's resaturant and jazz club, which recently opened in the Fillmore.
There is a free "Living Legends" jazz concert on Sunday February 24 from 2pm to 5pm at 1290 Fillmore Street, San Francisco:
Eddie Duran, Guitar
John Handy, Sax
Frank Jackson, Piano & Vocals
Al Obidinski, Bass
Denise Perrier, Vocals
Allen Smith, Trumpet & Flugelhorn
Akira Tana, Drums
Other recent Interviews:
Beth Custer...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENPawvQ94m4
The Edwardian Ball...
The Beth Custer Ensemble will perform new songs written with Octavio Solis from three musical productions: the popular Ballad of Pancho & Lucy, Lethe, and the upcoming June in a Box. They’ll also be playing songs from their CD Respect as a Religion (voted one of the top 100 albums in WNYC's “Listener Poll”) and music from the Joe Goode Performance Group's Hometown.
The Beth Custer Ensemble is the crème de la crème of Bay Area musicians, including drummer Jan Jackson (who’s played with Grammy nominated Will Bernard’s ensembles for many years), guitarist David James (Sila, The Coup, Spearhead), iconic pianist Graham Connah, and bassist Mark Calderon (The Meters, Roots).
Beth is a founding member of the notorious silent film soundtrack purveyors the Club Foot Orchestra, techno-tribal ambient ensemble Trance Mission, the quintet of esteemed clarinetists Clarinet Thing, the trip-hop duo Eighty Mile Beach, and the Latin-jazz-rock influenced Doña Luz 30 Besos.
$12 suggested donation. Doors open at 7:30 pm. Show at 8:00 pm. 2698 FOLSOM STREET SF, CA 94110
http://www.redpoppyarthouse.org/concerts.html#
http://www.meetthecomposer.org/conversation.htm
Here is a recent video: Beth Custer in conversation with Allison Lovejoy:
The Fifth Annual Edwardian Ball starts its 3 nights of festivities this evening at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. Saturday is sold out but some tickets are still available for Friday and Sunday.
You don't need a top hat, but many do...
Allison Lovejoy is one of the many performers in the Friday lineup. Here is Allison interviewing Justin Katz, the executive producer, at an event on the eve of the ball.
More info: The Edwardian Ball Weekend 2008
Will it get past your spam filters?
From HATEGrenade team:
Has anybody ever pissed you off so bad that you wanted to add them to a SPAM list?
If so, a new startup site, Hategrenade.com can help! By using the form on their website, you can anonymously add the people you most HATE to the world's first community driven SPAM list ...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What it is ...
It is the world's first community driven SPAM list, a.k.a. The Ultimate Online Payback!
How it works ...
It's quite simple and 100% FREE … this website is regularly crawled by spam bots. The person's email address that you add to HATEgrenade.com will get completely blown up with SPAM very soon ... this is what we call, Dropping a HATEgrenade Beeeatch ...
The rules ...
There are no rules ... except that you should be aware that you, not us, YOU are soley responsible for the comments you make on this website.
Why we created this ...
Because we are dorky web-developers that do not know how to fist fight. Because we might be able to make some money from it one day? Oh yeah, and because it feels oh so good to SPAM our enemies ... muahahaha!
--
HATEgrenade Team
hategrenade@gmail.com
http://www.hategrenade.com
Technorati Tags: hategrenade
News Release from Leela Palaces, one of India's premium hotel and resort spa brands: 
Thursdays Begin Long Weekends for Techies Who Head to Leela's Spas in Bangalore and Kovalam to Unwind and De-stress
Bangalore -- January 2008 -- What do American hi-tech and finance pros from Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Goldman Sachs do when they are done with business in India? They indulge in a Royal Spa Weekend at the five-star Leela Palace Kempinski in Bangalore or hop on plane and fly an hour to the ultra-luxurious Leela Kovalam Beach Resort in Kerala and enjoy the hotel's new 8,000-square-foot Divya Spa and Ayurvedic Center. Weekend room rates and spa services at the spectacular Leela Kovalam are a "steal" with lodging prices starting at $215 per night and spa treatments beginning at $55.
In a spectacular location:
The five-star Leela Kovalam Beach Resort in Kerala, located in the south of India and nestled on a spectacular outcropping of rock with panoramic views of the Arabian Sea, has fifteen highly trained therapists and four dedicated Ayurvedic doctors who create tailored Ayurvedic programs for each guest.
And if you can stretch your weekend out a few days...
For those who are able to stay for five days or more, the Divya Spa offers several life-changing packages including:
Stress And Strain Relief Package: Calming guests' moods and bringing relaxation to the body and mind by releasing the day-to-day stress and strain of busy lives. Packages start at five days for $1,490, seven days for $2,225, and fourteen days for $4,225.
You know you need it, all those hours staring at screens...
Spine & Neck Care Package: This program is designed to heal guests from neck and lower back pain due to poor posture from prolonged periods of time sitting at a computer, muscle strains and past injuries.
See you there...
Hotels currently in operation are located in Mumbai, Bangalore, Kovalam and Goa. For more information visit www.theleela.com
Technorati Tags: leelahotel
- Ken Kaplan notices far more video bloggers this year at CES: My CES Social Media Posse Leap in Interest Movin' Ahead
Ken interviews Tay Zonday of "Chocolate Rain" fame...
Here is Chocolate Rain...
- Jason Dunn's CES experience: The Personal Blog of Jason Dunn - The Blogger Bus CES 2008
- John Furrier taunts Kara Swisher :-) Kara Swisher Watch Out - Tom Foremski Has a Camera Furrier.org - Business & Technology Blog
- The incredibly prolific Dan Farber on CES: CES best of show winners | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com
- Sarah Meyers: Prank Gawker Style @ Ces Sarah Meyers
- Brian Solis: CES Day Two-- bub.blicio.us
- Rene Blodgett: down the avenue: BlogHaus Energy at Gates Keynote & Beyond
- Marc Canter: Marc's Voice CES #3 - Heading Home
The delightful Teresa Valdez Klein sings. From the Intel blogger event in Las Vegas, CES2008.
Real time is best time...
Six days in Las Vegas is a long time. But it was time well spent because I got to build relationships with people that would have taken me months to build online. FaceTime is worth at least 10x FaceSpace.
Coming home to Bloghaus...
-The Podtech.net Bloghaus media center was a life saver at CES2008. It was a warm, welcoming place to head for after and between CES events. Having a full bar manned by Carl and John was also very welcome. And the broadband never went down. It was our "home page" for CES.
A French startup...
-I drove up to the Microsoft Siicon Valley campus with Loic Le Meur, the French "Robert Scoble" one of France's best known blogger personalities and a new neighbor of mine in SF. It was great getting to know each other as my stoic Audi was being battered by a tremendous downpour. More on Loic and his video start up Seesmic coming up... From Loic's blog:
From: http://loiclemeur.com/
Mogulus 24/7...
-The boys from Mogulus, the live video startup, were always around and fun to be with. Max Haot and Rainer Cvillink were tireless in their coverage of CES. Here is a great roundup by Max.
(Max Haot is far left in photo.)
The universe always provides...
-It was fun hanging with blogger Paul Mooney (Living, Linking, Learning). As we were walking into the Bellagio, amongst a huge throng of people, I was complaining to Paul that processing my videos could be done a lot faster if it were done in silicon rather than running it through a general purpose microprocessor. Where are the multimedia co-processors when you need them!?
As soon as I said it, a guy walking in front wheeled around and gave us his card. It was Bin Lei, head of worldwide sales at C2 Microsystems, based in San Jose. C2 is developing chips for exactly what I need! What are the odds of that? Certainly better at CES but still...
C2's product family supports encode and decode of all major audio and video codecs (including VC1, H.264, Mpeg2, Mpeg4) in resolutions up to the most demanding HD video.
http://www.c2micro.com/
When the camera stops rolling...
I got some great footage while at CES, but the best is always when the camera stops rolling. I wish I could transfer my memories to video :-)
Here is a recap, in chronological order...
From My House to Bloghaus: The Media Center Bus to CES in Las Vegas
Watching the Bill Gates Keynote in the BlogHaus
Showstoppers + BlogHaus
Intel Atomic BlogHaus
Scoblewatcher
Robert Scoble's first girlfriend(!)
SiliconValleyWatcher CES2008 Out Takes...
Technorati Tags: CES2008
I've been enjoying my time in the UK and I've got loads of great material to post (coming very soon.)
Here is a fun video from my trip to Liverpool to see my long time great friends Stuart and Carmel Nolan. I was lucky to catch up with Pete Price, a local Liverpool radio personality, stand up comedian, and newly published author: "Pete Price Namedropper."
It was great to show Pete how I put this video together, in about 10 minutes, literally, and I had it posted on Youtube just minutes later.
It's not that I'm some kind of techno whizz kid, which I'm not, it is just that the technology these days: a Sony hi-def video camera and a MacBook Pro with iMovie 8 (comes standard with the laptop) is so point and click that I can wow people without regard to my actual technical skills. It all looks tremendously impressive and I'm happy to take the credit :-)
For about $2500 or 1250 pounds sterling, you too, can have a mobile high-definition video/television production studio....
In a world where the technology is easy, it is one click, it is access to the content that becomes the most important thing.
Technorati Tags: peteprice
I'm looking forward to working from London and New York for the next three weeks. When I'm able to be outside of Silicon Valley for a week or more, this place starts to look a bit differently from my usual perch.
And that helps my overall perspective about what goes on here. Otherwise we get caught up in our own words too much and lose sight of Silicon Valley's place in a much much larger place.
Silicon Valley often feels so very small, like a village. The key influencers here probably number just a few hundred. Which is amazing because Silicon Valley's influence is global and now spans across many important industries.
A few hundred influencers helping determine the future of a much bigger world is fascinating. But that only works if Silicon Valley knows its place in the world, and can converse in a common language of ideas. Otherwise it looks like gobblygook to outsiders. And some of it actually is gobblygook.
Most of the time I'm pretty sure I can tell what is what. But it never hurts to double check and take a look at things from a distance, from the outside in :-)
- - -
BTW if you haven't seen this music video yet you are in for a treat:
(Part of a major new Broadway musical coming in 2008...!)
- - -
Sometimes you don't need to go to a distant place to get a change from the usual. Coming up: "Sing it yourself Messiah" is at Davies Symphony Hall, December 12, 2007. Tickets: 415 401 9229 or www.sfsinfonietta.org
Here is classical pianist and educator Allison Lovejoy interviewing maestro Urs Leonhardt Steiner, who will be conducting the event as the audience sings Handel's Messiah along with the professionals. I can't be there but maybe you can...?
I don't understand why plastic hasn't become the darling of the green movement. It is a great way to sequester carbon for many thousands of years.
Plastic is made from oil:
--You can either burn oil and produce copious amounts of carbon dioxide and pollutants.
-- Or you can convert oil into plastic and its carbon stays put for several thousand years. The carbon is bound with chemical bonds that are so strong, it takes many thousands of years to break down and release.
Plastic has other great properties:
--The contents of plastic garbage bags in garbage dumps are partly protected from decomposure. Which means that their carbon content is not released as quickly as in a cultivated compost heap, through methane and other biological actions. The plastic bags protect their contents from those carbon-releasing processes--and that's a good thing.
--plastic based clothing fabrics such as microfiber offer silk, cotton, and leather-like substitutes that are getting better than their organic (and carbon-loose) comparable materials.
--creating plasticized wood and cements is producing superior wear resistant materials that are longer lasting and have superior carbon sequestration properties than their counterparts.
A Carbon Sequestration Value
It would make sense that materials of all kinds, in all manufacturing processes, should be rated on their carbon sequestration properties. For example, wood based products would have a lower value (bad) because they give up and recycle their carbon easily through burning or composting.
Plastic based products would have a higher carbon sequestration value than wood, which would be good because the carbon in plastic is tied up for thousands of years. And plastic does not pollute, it is a very inert substance which means it does not dissolve or react with anything in our environment.
Recycling Increases Our Carbon Footprint
Every time we recycle anything, it increases our carbon footprint because of the energy that is needed to process the recycling. With plastics you don't need to recycle, you just bury it.
Of course, we would have to weigh up the value of carbon sequestration in each case. But right now, we don't consider it at all, and we should.
Technorati Tags: plastic, carbon sequestration
A few weeks back I was in North Beach at Pearl's jazz club with friends Allison Lovejoy and her sister Erika. It was a Tuesday night and there were just a dozen people in the place, a lucky dozen because the Marcus Shelby experience works on small and large groups.
Here is Marcus Shelby and company, (almost) live from North Beach, San Francisco:
- - -
Please see:
San Francisco Chronicle: Marcus Shelby marries lyrical life of Harriet Tubman with jazz
CNN:The coolest and hottest of San Francisco's music scene
Marcus Shelby profile
Technorati Tags: marcusshelby
Silicon Valley is getting better at paying attention to its own culture and history--and noticing that there are many giants still walking among us. Recently, the Computer History Museum celebrated 4 key technologists at its 2007 Fellow Awards fund raising event.
It was a great event, I took my son Matt with me so that he could see some of our living history, the people that have helped make Silicon Valley into the world's innovation engine. We were guests of Microsoft, one of the sponsors of the event.
Morris Chang helped create the fabless chip industry. And in doing so, he created a massive innovation platform by enabling small bands of chip designers to buy production time as they needed it. Chip companies no longer needed to own and maintain hugely expensive chip fabs.
John Hennessy helped develop the RISC microprocessor, whose features are found in all modern microprocessors. As president of Stanford University, he has made huge contributions to education, and the creation of a student body that has gone on to found many of Silicon Valley's largest companies. And his work has helped generate huge licensing revenue for the university.
David Patterson made important contributions to microprocessor design and RAID data storage technologies. As head of Computer Science at the University of California at Berkeley, he has helped educate generations of computer engineers.
Charles Thacker helped create the personal computer. His work at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center led to the Alto, the machine that inspired Apple Computer and featured a windows graphical user interface. He co-developed Ethernet and also the laser printer.
http://www.podtech.net/home/4412/silicon-valley-turns-out-to-honor-top-technologists Video by Aron Pruiett and Tom Foremski. Video Editor Aron Pruiett. Tags: Morris Chang, John Hennessy, David A. Patterson, Charles Thacker, John Hennessy, David Patterson, Charles ThackerTechnorati Tags: computer history museum, TechOne
by Lucaso
Vagabond Opera strolls through old world gypsy classics, 1920's European Cabaret, up tempo Balkan beats, and Klezmer funk, all with a sideshow of theatrics that will get grannie out of the rocker and off to the show.
The aptly named 6 piece band hails from Portland, OR and puts the vibrato in neo-classical opera, complete with fedoras and striped stockings.
Take a look as we recently caught up with them at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, CA.
TechOne - Jay Smooth: Interview with director Charlie Ahearn An interview with the director of 1982's seminal hip-hop film "Wild Style," featured this week on VH1's "Hip-Hop Honors" show. Americans are not stupid This is a hilarious video asking people in the street about the world they live in...
I was down at UN Plaza Friday evening catching up with my friend Tom Sanders, from VNUnet and the author of the excellent blog Silicon Valley Sleuth. He's heading back to Holland later this year after a 6 year posting here as a journalist.
I offered to drop Tom off at Caltrans, and on the way we stopped to pick up my friend Tom Abate, business reporter for the SF Chronicle (and Mini Media Guy blogger). Which made for a very rare occurence: 3 Toms in one car.
Actually, it was stranger than that, it was: 3 Toms who are also journalists in one car.
This is a dangerous situation, and I warned my passengers. This type of rare situation can tempt the hand of fate.
It can also draw the ironic hand of the divine being - which expresses itself by taking an enormous interest in our lives. The Divine Being expresses itself by looking very carefully for opportunities that show its complete interest in our lives, by enabling ironic disaters. . . such as : 3 Toms Perish in Fiery Car Crash.
We were fortunate to survive.
---
Please see: Ironic Design Offers Better Proof Than Intelligent Design
Technorati Tags: ironicdesign, iornic design
Allison Lovejoy plays Bartok:
Here is Jay showing us how Fox News' Bill O'Reilly was a rapper (I'd like to see one on Tim O'Reilly ;-)
