Two of the most remarkable and memorable nights of my life have taken place in the last month.  These weren’t transcendent church-like experiences like the one Hendrik Hertzberg so elegantly blogged, but they were charged by a rare and too-often-missing connectedness with my neighbors.  They took place in sports bars, of all places.

Three weeks ago I went to Sonny Mclain’s to watch game 5 of the ALCS – the game started at a weird 5 PM and the venue was impromptu so I was solo.  I am a rabid Red Sox fan though I almost always watch them at home, but at about 3 in the afternoon I decided I wanted to watch the game with other people.  In a packed and die-hard bar we saw a depressing end to-the-season season funeral transformed during the course of 7 outs into an embrace-a-stranger-in-a-hug euphoria.  During a massive economic tremor.  An uncommonly emotional night about family and place came from out of nowhere.  But that was nothing compared to the election today.

My friends who read this blog know I’ve been sweating this election for a long time.  And so have they, its   probably why we’re friends. Voting involved a line and some intense neighborly banter.  Everyone in the office voted.  Jen (who phone banked over the weekend) and I met our great friends Mark and Tania at Busby’s – which is totally nondescript sports bar in Santa Monica that is always packed – to witness the election tonight.  And people were cheering like crazy and let’s just say it got really dusty in there during the acceptance speech.  (Best speech I have EVER heard).  There is so much patriotism in the air tonight (media!!) and it feels so empowering because its in abrupt contrast with a false and ultimately harmful impostor.  And he’s black?!?  On election night Obama feels like a gift to the nation.

And I won $1500 bucks on Obama futures!!!  Yeah!!

Ian’s post

Jonathan’s post

Mark’s post

Lucas’s post

Mark W’s post

Posted: November 4th, 2008 under politics, sports, travel.
Comments: Comments

My friend Thomas Kostigen has a new book out today that I highly recommend called You Are Here:  Exposing the Vital Link Between What We Do and What That Does to Our Planet.  Thomas traveled around the globe and documented the links between our western lifestyles and the environment.  Knowledge is power, and power creates change.  Check out the video below, and buy the book today.

Posted: September 23rd, 2008 under politics, travel.
Comments: Comments

Saw this last night, found it interesting and informative.  Whether or not these two men hold any culpability for current crisis is a debate worth having, but it isn’t the main point of the interview. The main line of discussion Charlie went after was a) what are the potential outcomes of the current crisis, and b) what should policy makers be doing.  Rubin and Summers advocated finding a bi-partisan process for making short and long term policy course corrections that admit a) current spend and borrow policy is an epic mistake that has 0% of chance of success in the long run – the balance sheet must be fixed. and that b) we are going to have to make some hard decisions which will require leadership, trust, and communication with the American people. Can’t we all agree with them on that?

Posted: September 11th, 2008 under digital entertainment, politics.
Comments: Comments

I was interested to read in the LA Times yesterday that the United Nations is now urging wealthy nations to make a dramatic shift in eating habits, saying the best way to curb climate change is for people to go at least one day a week without meat.  Maybe they are reading my blog.

If you are thinking about doing I’d recommend skipping the fish course as well and go completely vegetarian or vegan to the extent you can.  It’s not just about greenhouse gasses – the world’s fisheries are stressed as well, and even farmed fish require an inefficient conversion of feedstock.  There is some good information on the Environmental Defense Fund’s website about which species of fish you should be choosing when you shop that you can print and carry in your wallet.

Nine months later I’m thinking about adding another meatless day per week.

Photo by Mary Edwards

Posted: September 10th, 2008 under food, politics.
Comments: Comments

Two sites that I frequent (Huffington Post for political updates and Boston Globe for Red Sox updates) monetize their site using the annoying (but effective) pop under, where a new browser instance is opened and placed under your existing browser with an (usually Netlfix or Orbitz lately).  They were considered bad biz for a while but they are making a comeback (Boo – that sucks).  For some reason Firefox/toolbar pop-up blockers aren’t blocking all of them them. Both sites are using Tribal Fusion (Update: or caselmedia) to traffic their pop unders. If you use Firefox to surf the web (and you should), here is an easy way to block the pop unders at any site you hit.

1. Install the BlockSite Add-on
2. After it is installed Navigate to Tools>Add-ons
3. Select Options on the BlockSite Add-Ons
4. Click the Add button next to your “blacklist”
5. Enter http://a.tribalfusion.com in the dialog box, then click OK twice.
6. Repeat for any other domain serving pop-unders

Posted: July 24th, 2008 under politics.
Comments: Comments

If I were a gambling man (oh wait, I am), I’d wager on Obama winning the presidency in November. Right now Vegas has Obama at -194 or a little less than a 2 to 1 favorite. I can’t see how it will be close in the end. This election is shaping up to be similar to Clinton/Dole ‘96. One guy is young, energetic, smart, and full of vision. The other guy is old and crotchety. That’s a tough dynamic, irrespective of your political leanings or worldview. On top of that the Republicans have NO MOJO (negative mojo if thats possible) after 8 years of everything that could go wrong did go wrong. George Will on Charlie Rose last night thought that McCain’s only chance is if Obama fails to make the case that he had the gravitas to be president. After 5 months of speeches like this, I can’t imagine the electorate saying “No thanks, I’d like an old guy who’s just like Bush”.

Obama Victory Speech 6/3/08 in St. Paul Minnesota

Posted: June 4th, 2008 under politics.
Comments: Comments