Sunday, November 30, 2008

Milk on Charlie Rose

Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Gus Van Sant were all on Charlie Rose this weekend. Thanks for the tip Matt Belloni. It's a really good set of interviews and there were some great digressions as well. Apparently Charlie Rose has a man crush on Eddie Vedder (min 31) and Josh Brolin is a day trader (min 50). Charlie was about to hand over his checkbook when he heard how up Brolin is this year. Funny stuff. All in all though, good interviews and worth your time. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie.

Chillin'

Great picture from Fred Larson, who has been on a serious roll.

Born Standing Up

Great interview on Steve Martin from NPR's Fresh Air a couple weeks back. He's a really interesting guy. The podcast is entertaining and there are a few pearls of wisdom in there too.

I'm going to get his book, Born Standing Up. The excerpt published in the New Yorker was really cool. Here is an excerpt he read for the New Yorker.
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Saturday, November 29, 2008

A Real Cowboy

Enjoyed this article on Extreme Beers from the New Yorker. The guy who started Dogfish Brewery is a real cowboy. I loved the fact that Anchor Brewing (AnchorSteam), was the only "micro brewer" alive 20 years ago. They're based in SF, make incredible beer and have a really fun tour in the afternoons. We indulged in the tour quite a bit when we were at CAL.

Screens

Thought provoking essay by A.O. Scott on "how we view movies." This quote about Internet entertainment got my attention but the whole article is good.


At the same time, smaller-scale visual narratives have been flourishing on the Internet, delivering topical satire, political commentary and slices of real-life absurdity with a nimbleness and speed that makes both conventional film and traditional television seem unwieldy.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Friday Chill Music (November 28, 2008)

Some quickies on a nice Friday after Thanksgiving.

Yeasayer - from the ladies at I'm All Ears. I need to do some more investigating on these folks. I'll take reccomendations on them in the comments, please.

Band of Horses are threatening to crack my Top 5. I know they're in Becker's already. Our Swords was highlighted by I'm All Ears earlier in the week. Love it.

Little rock from Zeppelin. Great song. Reminds me of road trips while I worked at summer camp in college.

We'll finish with some old school Wilco on "When the Roses Bloom Again"

Interesante

Image representing Amazon as depicted in Crunc...Image by via CrunchBaseCouple interesting articles I came across this morning:

"We get what we promote." - Seth Godin

"If you don't have a willingness to be misunderstood for a long period of time, then you can't have a long-term orientation." - Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon, in a US News interview.

I couldn't agree more with both of them.
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Instapaper

Instapaper.pngImage by ric_w4u via FlickrAlex Bain introduced me to Instapaper a few weeks back and it's become something I can't live without. It's a service that allows you to save the webpage of an article, picture, song, etc that you either can't consume right at that moment, or you want to save for later.

Give it a whirl. Try it out. Take a chance. Whatever you call it, Instapaper is a great service.

P.S. While you're at it, start following the blog feed "Give Me Something to Read." It's a public Instapaper that features a lot of good reading material. Another Alex Bain rec, btw.
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Thursday, November 27, 2008

The Thanks I Give

A big thank you to everyone who reads this blog. Whether you're pointing out my grammar mistakes, calling b.s. on my thoughts, agreeing with me (my favorite :)) or just silently coming along for the ride, thanks for making this blog possible with your attention.

Writing this blog is one of my favorite parts of the day, but without your interest and comments I wouldn't be able to hack it.

Along with my thanks, I'd like to give you the gift of Fred Larson's picture to the right. Holy cow, is that a beautiful picture of the bridge or what. Finally, here is a great Wilco song to listen to sometime today. Now go eat some turkey.

Wilco - The Thanks I Get

Greg Mercer's Drawings


This is so cool. Mercer keeps churning out neat stuff on Field Access everyday. Now he's adding color.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Alcatraz

Alcatraz at night...(Mystical Photography)

Bernanke in the New Yorker

Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Board of Governo...Image via WikipediaOver thanksgiving, I'm going to keep posting, so if you have time to kill, check out Kenny K. I plan to do a ton of relaxing and reading, so hopefully I can unearth some good stuff.

First of is a great article from the New Yorker on Ben Bernanke, Fed Chairman. It highlights his mistakes and also the efforts he's been making to keep the finance world together. He really screwed the pooch for a long time with his loose money and belief that you should just let bubbles build, then try to clean up the mess. However, he has worked very hard over the last 3 months. We wouldn't be in the situation we are in now without him and his Greenspan, but at least he's trying to clean it up.

My only regret with the article, which is excellent, is that they didn't use his famous quote about fighting deflation by (paraphrasing) -"dropping dollar bills out of helicopters..." And you wonder why I own gold?
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Fun People

I work with some great people. This message was posted in the uni-sex bathroom the other day. It made me laugh (and yes, it was probably deserved).

We went on to discuss Urban Cougar Dens at lunch. Lot's of laughs.

If you don't like where you work, take a few minutes to reflect this Thanksgiving and figure out a way to get somewhere that you'll have fun and love your job. Maybe you should start your own thing?

Regardless of your path, it makes a huge difference to be on a journey with people you enjoy.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

via Hegarty

via Hegarty. He nailed it. The Santa Claus El Train is an example of why Chicago is such a great city. So much pride, effort and a sense of humor.

Monday, November 24, 2008

via Mark Lisanti & via Deplorable Beautiful

I love the concept of "Via" to stand for someone else's reccomendation. Plus, I love Wilco's Via Chicago (found here: wilco - via chicago).

Anyways, two quick recs today "Via" friends:

1) Mark Lisanti's blog and the story of the dangerous turkey frier. This guy makes me laugh with almost every post. This turkey video he embedded was strangely captivating. Click through for commentary.



2) Deplorable Beauty posted some great music videos. Wilco and Pearl jam are my top 2 bands and he/she posts two great videos plus a couple from the Shins and Sleater Kinney, two other bands I really like. Here's the Edde Vedder video. Ananda suggested I learn ukele the other day, and I think she's right.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

No Country for Old Men

Loved this editorial titled Rearranging the Lineup on Capital Hill in the San Francisco Chronicle today on the shuffling going on in political leadership. The path is being cleared for some of Obama's biggest initiatives. Good stuff.

Fading Influence

Image representing Seth Godin as depicted in C...Image by http://www.prestonlee.com/archives/67
via CrunchBase
Seth Godin has been on a serious roll at his blog. Today he talks about the New York Times. I loved this quote.

"All the News That's Fit to Print" is the heart of the problem. It was never that, of course. It was "All the News That Fits." The entire mindset of (every) newspaper has been driven by the cost of paper, the finite nature of paper, the cost of delivery and the cycle of a daily paper. You run enough articles to fit as many ads as you can sell.These are artifacts of a different age, one that today's consumer doesn't care a whit about."

Godin prescribes a bunch of fixes for the Times. Great article and applies to most big newspapers. My two cents, is that I mostly read the SF Chronicle for the columnists now. What if they just printed the columns of the top 100 bloggers everyday, or sampled the top 1,000 and printed their favorite 100? They would be taste makers again, introducing people to amazing content. Who cares if it isn't theirs? They'll have some piece of the distribution again.

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Free Enterprise

I freaking love this photo by Justin Gaynor. It has so much going on and it's shot so clearly. Plus, I love black and white.

My favorite part is probably a coincidence though. It's the fact that the subject is wearing a shirt that says, "Free Enterprise" and then is playing cards -- a game of chance, where there are winners and losers. Seems apropos to remind ourselves of this concept, in a time of bailouts.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Cozy

How cozy does the fog make the bridge and the bay area look?

(courtesy of Mystical Photography)

Friday, November 21, 2008

Let's Not Overshoot

Image representing The New York Times as <span class=depicI read this Op-Ed column in the NY Times titled The Insider's Crusade, and came away a little worried that we're going to overshoot on the political decision methodology spectrum.

Under George W., we've been in "Go With Your Gut" mode for 8 years and it hasn't worked out so well. So the natural move is go "Educated Elite Ultra Analysis" mode. More thinking and analysis is great but the article felt a little too self-congratulatory. Here's one quote.

This truly will be an administration that looks like America, or at least that slice of America that got double 800s on their SATs. Even more than past administrations, this will be a valedictocracy — rule by those who graduate first in their high school classes. If a foreign enemy attacks the United States during the Harvard-Yale game any time over the next four years, we’re screwed.

When people are mentioned in the article, their undergrad and grad school are listed. My worry is that we overshoot. I've been lucky enough to go to two great schools - Berkeley & Kellogg - but I learned very quickly that a great academic resume does not make you a "Do-er" - defined as someone who makes good decisions and get's things done. The Fed has basically ruined the country over the last 10+ years with terrible economic policy that created terrible incentives for bankers and hedge funds. Everyone of those Fed governors has Ph D's up the wazzoo from top institutions. Did they make good decisions? No.

We need people who can combine their academic background and personal experience to make good decisions. There is always a shade of grey in every decision and it's even easier to rationalize a bad one - see dropping interest rates to 1% - so these are hard qualities to judge, but we should attempt to judge them. We should be reading about these people's decision making experience and methodologies, not their SAT scores and the names of the Universities they attended. Of course, we hope these qualifications are proxies for their decision making abilities, but let's dig in a little here and not lose sight of what is important.

Dating Darwinism

Really interesting article called Love in the Time of Darwinism by Kay Hymowitz that I found on "Give Me Something to Read" via Alex Bain. There are a lot of broad statements here and a lot of them are controversial, even cnotradictory. She uses a lot of one off statements off of emails and message boards to back up her argument. In fact, I'm not even sure what her argument is, but I thought it was worth posting because a few of the statements resonated with me and actually made me do a little self reflection.

Check it out and let me know what you think. While reading, here are a couple good dating songs by Wilco. :)

Heavy Metal Drummer - Wilco

I am trying to break your hear - Wilco

Shes A Jar - Wilco

Friday Chill Music (September 21, 2008)

Beautiful day in the Bay Area today. Hopefully it holds up for the Big Game tomorrow.

Here are some quick hits for Friday Chill Music:

Stars - Undertow - My favorite song off the new Stars album.

Cool song called So Weit by Urbs, surfaced by the ladies at I'm All Ears. 

Nice little instrumental song that's used as a pick me up by the folks at Hollrr. It's called The Lark Ascending.

Since it's Big Game week, we need something from CAL Berkeley's best musicians, Counting Crows. Sullivan Street is super mellow and one of my favorite Crows songs. I've done the drive he's describing many times.  Counting Crows - Sullivan Street  (live)

Finally a great sentimental video by Bright Eyes. I found it on Bijan's blog.

6 Minutes of Zen

This captures Stanford's epic drive and Cal's response. I like to think of it as 6 minutes of Zen. Enjoy.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

San Francisco Nights

Isn't San Francisco great?

(courtesy of Mystical Photography)

Romney on the Bailout

Mitt Romney visits Peterborough 2Image by Tim Somero via FlickrCan you tell that I'm interested in the auto bailout? Here's another link to Romney's editorial in today's NY Times that I found on Alex Bain's site. Couple quick thoughts.
  • It ran in the NY Times because that is a traditionally liberal (pro union) paper, so it has even greater weight.
  • What an opening line: "IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed."
  • He establishes instant credibility with the story about his dad taking over and running a car company.
  • It's fair to point out that watching his father go through it and probably struggle with the unions makes him have very little sympathy for union workers.
  • Romney made his money as a Private Equity guy. He knows turnarounds. You could make the generalization that most U.S. industries will need to go through turnaround mode and a guy like Romney would be incredibly useful.
  • Where was this editorial during the Finance crisis? Those are Romney's people. Interesting that he's willing to comment on a crisis in Industry, but not the Finance world.
  • I wish he would not have been so crazy on the social issues during the primary. He lost a ton of credibility with me because he dove far right on social issues.
Great editorial. This is the type of discussion we need in today's world.
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Tuesday, November 18, 2008

What He Said

General Motors CorporationImage via WikipediaThe New York Times believes GM should do a pre-packaged bankruptcy too.

"G.M is using money so quickly that a $10 billion infusion made today would disappear by February. That is why taxpayers shouldn’t fork over a cent, at least until shareholders are wiped out, management is tossed out and the industry is completely reorganized...

First, let’s recognize that G.M. doesn’t need life support. What it needs is Chapter 11. The bankruptcy process is not a bad thing — indeed, it should be embraced. Bankruptcy allows companies to do tough things they could never do in the normal course of business. It has helped many companies turn themselves around and come out even stronger."

This is one of the best editorials I've read in a while.
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Gonzo Gal

She's smart and funny.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Slumbdog Millionaire

Pash and I saw Slumdog Millionaire last night. It was really good. It's darker than the preview makes it look.

RIP Pete Newell

The great Pete Newell passed away today. Bruce Jenkins of the SF Chronicle wrote a great obituary. Newell won a national championship with USF and CAL Berkeley. He also won the Olympics. Jenkins wrote a great book on Newell a few years back that I enjoyed, called A Good Man.

Here is an excerpt from the obit, which is worth your time.

"There are those who feel Newell was the greatest basketball coach of all time, and to them, the issue isn't even debatable. He built empires out of sawdust, all the while molding impressionable youngsters into the men they would become...More than all this, though, I remember the man. People marveled at his instincts, his innate sense of the human spirit, his ability to accurately size up a person within moments. I learned that he was a coffee-swilling poker player by the age of 10; that he came from an ethnically diverse neighborhood in the heart of Los Angeles; that he was a child actor in Hollywood, routinely brawling with other kids over their jokes about his haircut; that he had seen Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manila and Singapore by the age of 19 as a steamship deck cadet; that he witnessed the horrors of World War II as a Navy seaman."

Here's a litle song send off for Newell, courtes of Eddie Vedder.

Goodbye - Vedder

Pocket Jockey

As I noted over the weekend on Twitter, my buddy Dave Abramson just released his iphone app, Pocket Jockey. I saw the beta version a few weeks ago and it was very cool. Check it out if you have an Iphone.

Regardless of whether you have an Iphone, I'd recommend watching this video. Nice work ladies.

Really?

I'm embarrassed GM and the auto industry would stoop this low. This video is embarrassing.

Btw - yes, those industries are in a world of hurt, but so are a lot. Going through a pre-packaged bankruptcy would create some pain, but it would also allow them to restructure all their debt, worker health and pension obligations and renegotiate their union contracts. I would love to invest in a slimmed down, healthy GM. I think they would give Toyota a run for their money. But they need to get lean before they do that, and a pre-packaged bankruptcy is the best way to get there.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Trigeminal Neuralgia: LivingWithTN

My buddy Ben Munoz and I started a website called LivingWithTN (http://www.livingwithtn.com) to help patients and family members suffering from Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) find each other and provide mutual support.

According to Wikipedia, TN is a disorder of the trigeminal nerve that causes episodes of intense pain in the eyes, lips, nose, scalp, forehead, and jaw. About 45,000 people in the U.S. and over 900,000 worldwide suffer Trigeminal Neuralgia. TN is an incredibly painful condition. To get an idea of the magnitude of this pain, check out the video below. It's heartbreaking what TeslaGirlIM goes through but also inspirational that she fights through it and even chooses to publicize the condition so that others can better understand Trigeminal Neuralgia.


The idea around patients and family members supporting each other is Ben's. Two years ago, right before our 2nd year at Kellogg began, Ben suffered an aneurysm due to a condition known as AVM. Somehow he got himself to the hospital and survived hours of emergency surgery. Ben is lucky to be alive, and we are lucky that Ben took this experience and built on it. While in recovery, he had a very hard time finding other AVM patients. He felt isolated but decided to do something about it. He used an Internet service called Ning to start a social network called AVM Survivors. The AVM community found it and a year later, the network is thriving with about 450 members. I've been a member of AVM Survivors since day 1 and I'm in awe of the support, positive thoughts and sense of family found at AVM Survivors and I check in often.

Last month, Ben approached me about extending the AVM Surivors concept into Trigeminal Neuralgia because he had heard about and then researched what a difficult condition it is. LivingWithTN is our attempt at extending the goodwill, support and information flow that AVM Survivors has fostered. Hopefully you can check it out, participate, spread the word and please let us know if there is anything we can do to make it better.
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Elf-ed Myself

I elfed myself with JibJab. I chose my 8 year old soccer picture. :)


Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Feature Request: Google Reader

Image representing Google Reader as depicted i...Image via CrunchBaseLot's of friends are writing blogs right now and a bunch of them are posting music. It's really hard to listen to music in Google Reader. I'd love to see "music player" functionality added. Something that pulls music from the page and let's you play it in Reader. Ideally, it would just roll through all the music posts in my queue.

There is something kind of like this in Tumblr. If you look at the bottom of this I'm All Ears blog post, there is an app called Streampad that kind of does this. This would be a great addition to Google Reader.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Sir Links-A-Lot (November 14, 2008)

I've accumulated a bunch of good links (using Instapaper - thanks Alex), so it felt like it was time for another Sir Links-A-Lot column. Instead of the customary picture of a knight though, I'm going with Mercer's Marshawn Lynch sketch.

Mick LaSalle posits an interesting theory linking Sidney Poitier & President Obama. I missed the Poitier era, but it makes a lot of sense to me.

Mark Cuban makes an excellent point on the fundamental incentive problem with hedge funds. I'd add that they don't have clawbacks either, which magnifies the problem.

Mark Lisanti is writing a great blog and Twitter posts these days. He used to write Defamer.com. Start checking him out for things like this:

I think a lesson for anyone picking a running mate in the future would be not to pick someone who looks exactly like one of the most famous comedians in America."
-- Seth Meyers

Colby Buzzell, who has been featured here many times, spent some time on the cover of Cnn.com thursday. check out his profile on Cnn and his work at esquire.com.

Great observation on Hulu and DVR usage via Loose Lips Sink Ships. Totally agree but I would add Netflix's new Roku box into this equation.

Phonetag's CEO, James Siminoff, makes a great point about why downturns are good sometimes. He articulates one of the fundamental problems I have with the bailout system we have created. Phonetag is a great service, btw. Use this link and we both get a free month of voicemail transcription.

Your reward for making it this far in the post? A song by Conor Oberst, performed with M. Ward and Jim James. Enjoy At the Bottom of Everything and have a great weekend!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Friday Chill Music (November 14, 2008)

Welcome back to Friday Chill Music! Should we get into it?

First, really enjoying the new Stars record, and this song, Stars - Sad Robot EP (2008) at Indie Muse playing a Thread Cut with a Carving Knife.

I love the distortion and background sounds in this song. It's a keeper.

The ladies of I'm All Ears check in with a cool song by Tegan & Sara, called Back in Your Head. I'm a fan.

I caught Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward (She & Him) last week at Bimbos and they were sublime. Here is the song they closed with. Zooey & M. Ward - Magic Trick

The Gonzo Gal told me about this sweet Fleet Foxes video. I celebrate everything Fleet Foxes, especially crazy clay-mation.


Life is Stranger Than Fiction

Great "weird moment in real life," posted by the Gonzo Gal.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

M. Lewis

M. Ward is one of my favorite musicians, and M. Lewis (Michael Lewis) is one of my favorite writers. He put together a fantastic article in Portfolio this month on the End of Wall Street. Just a fanstastic read. If you read one thing this week, make it this.

While reading, listen to M. Ward @ The Chicago Theater - May 8, 2007 on Undertaker.

&

M. Ward Covers at It's hard to Find a Friend

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

T. Boone

WASHINGTON - JULY 22:  Oil billionaire T. Boon...Image by Getty Images via DaylifeTaylor Meyer writes in with a great article on T. Boone Pickens, the oil man turned all-around alternative energy badass. I can't believe I'm actually linking to an article in Dallas Monthly (given how much I despised the Dallas Cowboys in the 90's), but it's a really interesting article. Some quotes & thoughts that stood out to me:
  • "At my age, I can't plant small trees." - T. Boone explaining why he's in a rush to see alternative energy adopted in the US.
  • "This is a problem we can't drill our way out of." - explaining that more oil exploration won't get the job done.
  • "Do you think I'm doing this to make more money?" - Yes & No. He was down to his last dollar and I'm sure he now believes you can never have enough. Besides, for people like Boone, making money is just how you keep score. So yes, I think he's doing it to make more money. But that is ok too. Social purpose combined with financial discipline can be very powerful. This orientation enables T. Boone to attract follow-on capital to his ventures, which gives them a better chance of succeeding, which is in the public's best interest.
  • He has been wildly successful and wildly destructive financially as well. I'm not sure he appreciates risk. There is a great quote from a younger guy about how they present info to T. Boone that argues against making an investment, and yet he does it anyways. The young guy says he has ice in his veins, but why is he really making those bets? Does he not appreciate risk or does he see something we don't. The only way to know, would be to be able to go back and read his deal notes someday. Now that would be a treasure.
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Monday, November 10, 2008

Credit Cards are Officially a Problem

American Express CompanyImage via WikipediaThis is a really bad sign for the economy. American Express has just become a bank. Credit Cards are officially a problem.

They're doing this so they can access the Federal Reserves cheap credit windows, otherwise, they would have no liquidity and be in trouble. By the way, moves like this have made the Federal Reserves balance sheet grow from $900B in August to $2Trillion as of last week. That is truly mind boggling! (source: Bill Fleckenstein)
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Amazing New Blog: Field Access

My buddy Greg Mercer has started a new blog called Field Access, to display his artwork. Greg's training is in human physiology so he draws with incredible detail as you'll see below. He works at Chicago's Field Museum and uses the exhibits as inspiration. In the future you'll see a nice mix between everyday items like the Bowling Shoe
to the right, and animals, like the Grizzly Bear below.

Mercer is an incredibly talented artist and it's great to welcome him to the blogosphere.

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Sunday, November 9, 2008

Wisdom of Away

Just saw this little nugget on the blog of my friend Dave Silverman. He's on a trip and he loves to eat, so he's chronicling the local food. The pics of food are nice, but then out of nowhere he drops some knowledge (below).

"Always amazes me how much people all over the world have in common. Everyone wants a good job and time to spend with their families. Lots of smart people everywhere."
Then Dave goes back to posting about food. Awesome.

Smoking

While living in London in 06' I developed a nice little smoking habit. It went on for a couple months and after I returned to the states, I never had the urge to do it regularly again. But smoking and I, we had some good times in London and I look back on it fondly.

That's why I laughed out loud while reading this quote from the Sports Guy about Fantasy Football. He wrote a power poll of all 32 teams and there were a ton of great digressions in it. Definitely worth a read. Here's the quote.


My big epiphany: Really, the fantasy football season isn't fun. Winning is OK; losing is agonizing. You constantly feel awful about your choices and your bad luck; it's the only exercise that causes arguments with friends you normally never would argue with; and you spend roughly a kazillion hours managing your team for the 10 percent chance that you might win your league. There's just not a ton of upside. It's almost like smoking cigarettes -- it started out with good intentions, and it's something to do, and it can be fun in the right moments, but ultimately, there are an inordinate amount of moments when you find yourself leaning out a window in 20-degree weather to puff out a quick cig as your nose gets frostbitten, or bumming a cig from a group of horrible girls and then feeling obligated to talk to them, or waking up in the morning and coughing up your right lung. Really, it's more harm than fun. And yet, we continue to do it. And love it. This entire paragraph made me want to smoke.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Ralph Nader is a Jackass

Some great commentary on Tim Goodman's Bastard Machine about what a jackass Ralph Nader has turned out to be. First, he went on television on election night and called Barry an "Uncle Tom." Who defended Obama, none other than Fox News. Definitely check this exchange out.



Goodman followed it up with some more thrashing today and included this priceless video, of Nader being interviewed by Triumph the Wonderdog.

Friday Chill Music (November 7, 2008)

Great find by "I am Fuel..." with this song by Ben Sollee and Jim James (of My Morning Jacket). I Am Fuel consistently turns up great music for me. Thanks a bunch.

Another good find by Fuel is this blog entry which contains the Eels' "Fresh Feeling."

A little Jeff Tweedy never hurt anyone - Shot in the Arm -- linked to by Bijan.

And finally, John Hamilton brings us some great patriotic songs via his blog (must click through). Patriot is one of my favorite Vedder covers...

Thursday, November 6, 2008

MBA's at Sports Basement in San Francisco

Kellogg's own Aaron Schweifler is putting on a MBA (and wanna-be MBA) event at Sports Basement on November 20th from 6-8pm.

He's inviting all the MBA affiliated people around the Bay Area to enjoy a presentation by the founder, Eric Prosnitz (HBS) on how to start and grow your own business. Sports Basement has come a long way in its few years of operation and this promises to be a really interesting talk.

If you attend the talk, you'll get 20% off of everything in the store, and what MBA doesn't love a discount. This discount is only for people who attend the talk. Free wine, beer and food will be provided as well.

If you claim Kellogg, register on this link. If you're from another school, email Aaron at this email: aschweifler(at)sportsbasement(dot)com.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Reblog: How He Did It

IL_CST_11052008Image by Barack Obama via FlickrReblogging a post by Mike Walton on the analysis of how Obama - aka "Barry" - did it. No matter what your politics, you can learn from this. Loved the Clinton anecdote.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Bonus Election Song

Wilco and the Fleet Foxes released this a few weeks back as a promotion to help get people out to vote. Enjoy I Shall Be Released.

East Bay

Been thinking about the East Bay a lot lately. Miss it. Here's a cool shot of Mt. Diablo from Fred Larson. I grew up right around there.