Since moving to NY three months ago we have gone out more than we did in the entire preceding 3 years. Whether it is a simple night out for appies and drinks or a trip to see the String Cheese Incident we have definitely been taking advantage of the city life. Tonight we are going to see one of Lana’s favorites, Rocco Deluca at the Bowery Ballroom.
Cannot wait!
We did it. We finally booked our trip up to Canada. The last time we went there on vacation was when Emma was about 3 months old (about 3 years ago actually). That trip saw about a dozen or more people migrate up to Edmonton to see us (or more realistically Emma).
This time we are heading to the coast of BC to see everyone. It should be pretty neat. Flying into Seattle then taking the Coho from Port Angeles to the town I grew up in, Victoria. Should be a whirlwind of good times and good people kicking off with Lana’s bday on the 12th.
We cannot wait to get up there and see everyone. The last time I visited Victoria was for a funeral and the time before that for a wedding. Both times were very rushed and didnt provide much time to visit. Looking forward to getting a chance to really catch up with everyone!
Congrats to Dave Morgan and the gang over at Tacoda. You can read more about it here. Having worked with them as a partner I can say they are a first class crew and AOL has made a very smart purchase.
Not sure on their current revenues but I am guessing the $275M acquisition price comes in at a nice multiple. Looks like the ad network acquisition binge may not be over yet.
As some of you know New York had a bit of an explosion on the 18th around 6pm. I myself was down the road and I noticed tons of emergency vehicles heading up 6th. A few minutes later I did notice a weird sort of cloud formation in the sky. Then when I got up to my apartment I looked online and found a brief report about a steam pipe explosion.
Then later in the night I found it out it was pretty serious. Looking around for more news I was able to find lots of syndicated reports but not a lot of photos. Enter Flickr. One good search and I had more to look at then I could possibly want. Gotta love the internets. I find it extremely interesting that not once did I think to turn on the tv to satisfy my demand for instant knowledge.
A million balls in the air right now it seems (mostly work). And the beauty of it is that it all seems somewhat manageable. I think since moving into the city I have just that much more time on my hands to get done what needs to get done. To top it all of it is my birthday on Thursday!
Right now I dont think I could imagine a much nicer summer. Enjoying my girls, the city and the life.
Oh, as a concert, I think it had a lot of entertainment value.
It’s the hypocrisy of all of this that kills me, and my complaint there is broader than this specific concert. Being environmentally friendly is the “hip†thing to do, but it’s this “do as I say not as I do†attitude that kills me.
Gore and others preach the value of conservation, but then at the same time refuse to change their own behavior.
Sometimes it’s about leading by example. Someone commented on my rant that they apparently DID try to do things more eco-friendly, but the fact remains that – awareness aside – these same people are setting a terrible example.
Two examples mentioned (http://urltea.com/xue): Madonna has “a fleet of cars, including a fuel-guzzling Range Roverâ€, and “the
car-loving rapper Snoop Dogg, who will play in Hamburg, appeared in a commercial for US automaker Chrysler last yearâ€.
Yeah, I hear you.
It is certainly not a perfect world. It is much easier to pay a contribution (money, time, etc) to a cause than it is to live and believe it’s ideals. I have been doing a fair bit of reading about Gandhi lately and not many that I have seen in this day and age come close to that kind of devotion to a cause. Certainly Al Gore can never be held to the same yardstick but who knows, maybe someone out there will truly stick up for this cause one day soon (and hopefully in a constructive meaningful way).
Anyway, as a closing note, I was actually given the tickets last minute and wound up there completely by accident. If not I probably would have little to no opinion on this. Having gone and seen the bands (at least in NY) I can say that it was a great show and the overall message was very overwhelmingly eco-friendly. If even 1% of the population picks up anything from it I say it was a great success.
Man for something that seems to be trying to spread a positive message Live Earth sure has received more than its share of bashes. Fred Wilson boycotted it, Tim Marman bashed it, Bob Lefsetz went on a rant about it (amongst other various complaints), the Arctic Monkeys called it hypocrisy and about a dozen or more comments or posts I have read have been way less than positive.
What confuses me is how all of them seem to miss the point that it may have actually raised awareness of some of the issues and simple ways to reduce overall energy consumption. Throughout the concert and on the website there were constant plugs for how to do better on a small scale. Sure a lot of that was mixed with a commercial message but at least the commercial message was for more environmentally friendly products. With the dozens of other summer music festivals I have been to there has never been a positive social message as the theme. Sure there was the typical consumption involved in a concert and of course the performers consumed massive amounts of energy to put on their show but, I say so what, they would have done it anyway right? At least this started conversations and continues to keep global warming in the collective conscience. All the previous big concerts like this have been strictly about entertainment with little to no theme or message.
Contrast that with Live Earth and the potential benefits of even a tiny percent of the Earths population gaining some knowledge of the little things that they can do in their every day lives to reduce their impact on the environment and I have to say it was worth it.
Oh and for all of you who say there was no one worth going to see, you sure missed a great show 
Check out more photos on Flickr here.
PS We took public transportation there and back along with thousands of others.
 
We have decided that it is time to take a quick trip to a local beach town to decompress for a few days. When we lived in Boston we used to just shoot up to Maine and hit one of the towns along the coast up there. Now that we live a little further away and have two kids to contend with (one of whom gets car sick) we are wondering where is good around New York. The main criteria is some sort of a beach and water to play in. Beyond that we are pretty flexible. Anyone have any good ideas?
For those of you who dont know, I am Canadian (and proud of it!).
Canada turns 140 years old today. Happy Canada Day eh!
