Heard an interview on BBC last night about worldwide fishing stocks (they're in trouble). One guy was talking about a single bluefin that recently fetched $30,000 at auction in Japan.
Wonder if the cat will get any.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Elephant Revival
Just wrapped an hour interview with Dan Rose, bassist and de facto press spokesman for the Lyons, CO based string folk troupe Elephant Revival - their eponymous CD is available all over, and highly recommended.
Gorgeous, occasionally haunting, jig-friendly and generally leaning more toward folk/songwriter seasoning than bluegrass. Unforced, poised, beautifully crafted under the producer's hand of longtime area string music master David Tiller.
Piece will appear in next Thursday (2/5/09) Boulder Weekly.
Gorgeous, occasionally haunting, jig-friendly and generally leaning more toward folk/songwriter seasoning than bluegrass. Unforced, poised, beautifully crafted under the producer's hand of longtime area string music master David Tiller.
Piece will appear in next Thursday (2/5/09) Boulder Weekly.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Back from Cleveland
Nice visit, very busy since returning. A few words about stimulus, pricey fish and other matters tomorrow, time permitting.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
President Obama
Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States today. The several days have witnessed a fever pitch of excitement and a prevailing sense of being witness to history - if anything, frankly, a little overplayed in the media.
The man has a gigantic task ahead of him. The economic situation seems to be growing worse (the DOW dropped 300 points today), and despite the utter relief that Bush's eight years (upon which I'll reluctantly withhold commentary) is finally over, people are scared, institutions are disappearing and every time we think we see a bottom, it recedes downward again.
If nothing else, it's hard now to imagine John McCain, in his early seventies, having the vigor and resiliency to handle this crisis. Barack Obama is a young man - 47 - and he'll need to draw from that.
In fact, for the first time in my life...the president is young than I.
Yikes.
Good luck, President Obama. We've got your back.
The man has a gigantic task ahead of him. The economic situation seems to be growing worse (the DOW dropped 300 points today), and despite the utter relief that Bush's eight years (upon which I'll reluctantly withhold commentary) is finally over, people are scared, institutions are disappearing and every time we think we see a bottom, it recedes downward again.
If nothing else, it's hard now to imagine John McCain, in his early seventies, having the vigor and resiliency to handle this crisis. Barack Obama is a young man - 47 - and he'll need to draw from that.
In fact, for the first time in my life...the president is young than I.
Yikes.
Good luck, President Obama. We've got your back.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Massive Big Blue layoffs?
There is a buzz on the net that IBM plans to lay off 16,000 employees this coming Friday. Apparently it originated at the AllianceIBM website. I had my yearly review with my boss on Wednesday 1/14, she gave me a high rating and didn't say anything - but she wouldn't have been allowed to anyway.
Nervous - again. At this point, I've been worried about getting the axe for so long, I'm not sure actually getting it would feel like such a shock.
Either way, if it comes to pass, I hope they get mountains of toxic press over it.
More on this from The Register.
Nervous - again. At this point, I've been worried about getting the axe for so long, I'm not sure actually getting it would feel like such a shock.
Either way, if it comes to pass, I hope they get mountains of toxic press over it.
More on this from The Register.
Loveland Day 6
Amazing day. 30 degree F, no wind, packed snow, sun all day.
Crowded, but I got up there early enough to make it into the Basin pasking lot - no minor feat, as the place was very busy all day.
My skiing was better, but it would be, since I do best on packed snow in good visibility. Got 24 runs in, and a little sun-color on my face today. At least 8 comments on the hat - one guy I rode up with said he thought he had ridden the lifts at least six times with me over the span of 15 years, and said "you may not know this, but you're a fixture here." It was a nice, and slightly weird, comment, and I took it as a compliment.
This is probably my 20th season up there. Fifth since Karin passed. I guess he's right.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Vaclav Havel...and pre-cognition?
Does this ever happen to you?
Last night, driving back from the gym, my mind suddenly drifted toward Vaclav Havel (former Czech dissident turned President), specifically an interview I read with him years ago when he talked about how much the early Zappa/MoI records meant to him and his co-dissidents back in the late 60's. Zappa's uplifted middle finger at convention and big brotherism rang consonant with Havel's anti-communist poetry and plays - they eventually met and became friends/mutual admirers.
I remember wondering last night how Havel was doing health-wise. The guy was a chain smoker for decades and I recalled that he went through a cancer scare and other bronchial challenges in the 90's.
But...was he still alive? I searched my memory for anything related to his passing, which would have been a big deal - he is frequently credited with leading the so-called Velvet Revolution which overthrew Communist rule in Czechoslovakia.
And so, uncannily, came this story that he's in a Prague hospital, suffering more bronchial distress. Not life threatening, evidently, but serious.
But I mean...honestly, I had heard no news of this last night. And when was the last time I actually thought about Vaclav Havel?
Just freaking weird.
Last night, driving back from the gym, my mind suddenly drifted toward Vaclav Havel (former Czech dissident turned President), specifically an interview I read with him years ago when he talked about how much the early Zappa/MoI records meant to him and his co-dissidents back in the late 60's. Zappa's uplifted middle finger at convention and big brotherism rang consonant with Havel's anti-communist poetry and plays - they eventually met and became friends/mutual admirers.
I remember wondering last night how Havel was doing health-wise. The guy was a chain smoker for decades and I recalled that he went through a cancer scare and other bronchial challenges in the 90's.
But...was he still alive? I searched my memory for anything related to his passing, which would have been a big deal - he is frequently credited with leading the so-called Velvet Revolution which overthrew Communist rule in Czechoslovakia.
And so, uncannily, came this story that he's in a Prague hospital, suffering more bronchial distress. Not life threatening, evidently, but serious.
But I mean...honestly, I had heard no news of this last night. And when was the last time I actually thought about Vaclav Havel?
Just freaking weird.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Right...so maybe we spoke too soon
Palmisano was on with Fareed Zakaria this past weekend, and I noted this interesting exchange:
Zakaria essentially asks him if outsourcing American jobs to Brazil, India, etc is in the interests of Americans as a whole (presuming that the laid-off American worker's interests aren't worth mentioning, of course...), and Palmisano carefully sidesteps the issue by saying 'hey, we've always hired people in other countries...'
Without, of course, mentioning the rhetorically inconvenient reality that the hiring there is at the expense of similarly (actually, usually higher) skilled counterparts in the US. And that, really, the issue is labor cost and profit...not multi-culturalism, corporate tradition, some fanciful notion of innovation or anything else. Cheaper labor floats the profit line and stock price.
And Zakaria lets him off the hook, graciously. This is a guy who's interviewed world leaders, and it's obvious he's ...politely reluctant... to seriously challenge Palmisano on the thousands of US layoffs he's implemented, or the thousands more they have planned under some nonsense about 'diversity' or 'innovation'.
Dressing it up as a rhetorical exercise in cross-cultural innovation is all well and nice and plays well to the current IBM corporate meme. But no one yet has demonstrated to me that American society benefits by sending jobs overseas for the sake of stock price or executive bonus enhancement. Corporate America has been doing this, eagerly and gleefully, for two decades, and we are all now paying the price, and seeing the results of handicapping the American middle class, which by any real measure has been the single strongest global economic engine of the last 60 years. Put it out of work, burden it with high energy prices, drain of it its buying power and it can't support the rest of the world. Period.
I'll scrape up some hope for the future when I hear someone at Palmisano's level publicly address that. Still not holding my breath.
ZAKARIA: Can you imagine your interests as a company diverging from those of the American citizen?
In other words, is there a tension here, where you have to try and provide maximum return to your shareholder, which means maybe you outsource to whatever place you need to, versus the interests of the United States? Is there a tension between being a multinational, global corporation and having, you know, an American identity?
PALMISANO: No, I really don't think there is. I mean, again, I look at it and say there's tons that we do every day to contribute to the United States.
Our view of the world is different than the traditional view, which people call outsourcing. We're 100 years old. We've operated in most of these countries, sometimes 90 years.
So, if I'm in a country like Brazil, where we've operated for 90 years, I don't view that I've outsourced because I hired somebody in Brazil.
I mean, we've been in and out of India for 50 years, or China. You know, I mean, so, we've been operating there so long, we don't view it that way. We view it as a great population out there of excellent skills. And why wouldn't we take advantage of those skills?
ZAKARIA: And that makes you a more dynamic company that can ultimately hire more people in the United States.
PALMISANO: If you look at the innovation, if you look at our most innovative products, they're multicultural and multi-gender.
The teams that do the greatest work, from an innovation and breakthrough, tend to come from all over the world. You see it in our laboratories all the time.
So, when you experience this, you realize that is the best way to innovate. You need the diversity. It needs to be multicultural. And quite honestly, the more successful we are, the more we invest.
I mean, the core portion of our research and development happens to be in the United States. Our most advanced manufacturing happens to be in the United States.
So, our ability to generate these profits around the world actually helps the United States -- in fact, more so than many of the other countries.
Zakaria essentially asks him if outsourcing American jobs to Brazil, India, etc is in the interests of Americans as a whole (presuming that the laid-off American worker's interests aren't worth mentioning, of course...), and Palmisano carefully sidesteps the issue by saying 'hey, we've always hired people in other countries...'
Without, of course, mentioning the rhetorically inconvenient reality that the hiring there is at the expense of similarly (actually, usually higher) skilled counterparts in the US. And that, really, the issue is labor cost and profit...not multi-culturalism, corporate tradition, some fanciful notion of innovation or anything else. Cheaper labor floats the profit line and stock price.
And Zakaria lets him off the hook, graciously. This is a guy who's interviewed world leaders, and it's obvious he's ...politely reluctant... to seriously challenge Palmisano on the thousands of US layoffs he's implemented, or the thousands more they have planned under some nonsense about 'diversity' or 'innovation'.
Dressing it up as a rhetorical exercise in cross-cultural innovation is all well and nice and plays well to the current IBM corporate meme. But no one yet has demonstrated to me that American society benefits by sending jobs overseas for the sake of stock price or executive bonus enhancement. Corporate America has been doing this, eagerly and gleefully, for two decades, and we are all now paying the price, and seeing the results of handicapping the American middle class, which by any real measure has been the single strongest global economic engine of the last 60 years. Put it out of work, burden it with high energy prices, drain of it its buying power and it can't support the rest of the world. Period.
I'll scrape up some hope for the future when I hear someone at Palmisano's level publicly address that. Still not holding my breath.
Palmisano addresses stimulus
Despite my misgivings about Sam Palmisano (for whom, incidentally, I work...at least for now), I am encouraged to read his editorial in the WSJ regarding about where he thinks stimulus pennies should be directed in the tech industry - basically, health record digitalization, broadband expansion and beefing up the power grid.
Without a scholarly dissertation on this, something I have neither intellectual mettle nor time for, this does seem to be a wise and probably well informed proposal. And as I fear for becoming a victim of a layoff from Sam's company at almost any time, I also have a dog in this race, having worked for a healthcare software company in my recent professional history.
The perfect exchange, in my view, would be Obama thanking Palmisano for his recommendations, and countering that such an investment (of which IBM would be probably see a decent piece) may be forthcoming if IBM finds a way in the meantime to stop sending American jobs to Bangalore and Buenos Aires. I'm not holding my breath.
Without a scholarly dissertation on this, something I have neither intellectual mettle nor time for, this does seem to be a wise and probably well informed proposal. And as I fear for becoming a victim of a layoff from Sam's company at almost any time, I also have a dog in this race, having worked for a healthcare software company in my recent professional history.
The perfect exchange, in my view, would be Obama thanking Palmisano for his recommendations, and countering that such an investment (of which IBM would be probably see a decent piece) may be forthcoming if IBM finds a way in the meantime to stop sending American jobs to Bangalore and Buenos Aires. I'm not holding my breath.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Lenka - "The Show"
Scheduled for an interview with this Aussie singer/songwriter tomorrow, and breezing through the CD now.
Breathy little popcandy flirtations, strains of resignation, the struggle to keep the helium in the balloon. Beautiful stuff, lots more depth than the leadoff title track suggests, and for me, well worth the deep dive.
"Live Like You're Dying" and "Trouble is a Friend" are my favorite cuts - do I gravitate toward the darker stuff?
Breathy little popcandy flirtations, strains of resignation, the struggle to keep the helium in the balloon. Beautiful stuff, lots more depth than the leadoff title track suggests, and for me, well worth the deep dive.
"Live Like You're Dying" and "Trouble is a Friend" are my favorite cuts - do I gravitate toward the darker stuff?
On Every Street
For someone who writes about music, my iPod working-out playlist is embarrassingly limited - maybe 15 or 20 different albums, most of which are more than two decades old. What can I say? I have a fair selection of sedate electronica, airy jazz and other cerebria onboard, but ECM jazz isn't always the best stuff to pound a treadmill to.
One of my favorites is a Mark Knopfler/Dire Straits collection, ripped from a double CD I gave Sharon for her birthday a few years back. I typically don't go for compilations, especially for artists I count as favorites (too many non-radio cuts left out), but this one is okay.
Karin liked Dire Straits. I played "Walk of Life" at her funeral, and that song is now (sadly) more or less done for me. But another selection, the title track to the Straits' last studio album On Every Street, also bears a nasty barb for me. The lyrics, especially the first verse, really get me.
And the hook, simple and evocative, that rides the song out after the vocal section, recalls a pixel-detailed memory of the two of us rolling down a Colorado mountain valley highway, arms-length from each other in the cavernous and rattly Scout, on the way together to a sunny and isolated place in the lost wilds of the high country. Just the three of us, pretending we would live forever, squinting off the Colorado sun.
And now, of the three of us, it's just me. And this song.
That's how this stuff works....
One of my favorites is a Mark Knopfler/Dire Straits collection, ripped from a double CD I gave Sharon for her birthday a few years back. I typically don't go for compilations, especially for artists I count as favorites (too many non-radio cuts left out), but this one is okay.
Karin liked Dire Straits. I played "Walk of Life" at her funeral, and that song is now (sadly) more or less done for me. But another selection, the title track to the Straits' last studio album On Every Street, also bears a nasty barb for me. The lyrics, especially the first verse, really get me.
There's gotta be a record of you some place
You gotta be on somebody's books
The lowdown - a picture of your face
Your injured looks
The sacred and profane
The pleasure and the pain
Somewhere your fingerprints remain concrete
And it's your face I'm looking for on every street
And the hook, simple and evocative, that rides the song out after the vocal section, recalls a pixel-detailed memory of the two of us rolling down a Colorado mountain valley highway, arms-length from each other in the cavernous and rattly Scout, on the way together to a sunny and isolated place in the lost wilds of the high country. Just the three of us, pretending we would live forever, squinting off the Colorado sun.
And now, of the three of us, it's just me. And this song.
That's how this stuff works....
Loveland Day 5
Blustery day. The basin was filled with swirling blown snow most of the day, and visibility got pretty dim toward 3PM.
I'm not satisfied with my skiing this season. I expected to start slow after my tibial plateau fracture last March 8th, but I do find myself tight and having some trouble keeping my weight over my skis. I AM conscious of it, and try to correct, but overall I have to think about my balance, and from my meager athletic experience in tennis and other sports over the years, it's hard to perform well when you're focused too much on technique.
Also, my ski boots just aren't cuttin' it. Right foot swims too much, and it makes me uncertain in hard left turns.
But skiing is life, and life gets better.
RIP Mark
As I posted a few days ago, one of the members of my online hangout, the GTF, suffered complications from a cardial procedure to fix a malfunctioning pacemaker. He suffered rapid and catastrophic loss of blood flow to his brain, and after two days on a respirator, his family removed him from life support on Thursday, and he expired.
Mark was only 33, and this tragedy hit the members of that community very hard. He had several close friends there, and the site has posted a donation program for the young family Mark left behind.
Personally speaking, I did not know Mark very well. We had a few contentious exchanges many months ago, and unwilling to establish and promote a negative relationship with him, I generally avoided discussing much with him. Whatever our relationship was or wasn't, no one deserves a fate like this, at such a young age. The man was robbed.
Having lost my own spouse four years ago, under different circumstances, I felt immediate sympathy and empathy for his young wife. Her couple of days between the procedure and the decision to remove life support, chronicled on CaringBridge, brought back toxic memories of my own.
RIP Mark. Sorry we didn't know each other better.
Mark was only 33, and this tragedy hit the members of that community very hard. He had several close friends there, and the site has posted a donation program for the young family Mark left behind.
Personally speaking, I did not know Mark very well. We had a few contentious exchanges many months ago, and unwilling to establish and promote a negative relationship with him, I generally avoided discussing much with him. Whatever our relationship was or wasn't, no one deserves a fate like this, at such a young age. The man was robbed.
Having lost my own spouse four years ago, under different circumstances, I felt immediate sympathy and empathy for his young wife. Her couple of days between the procedure and the decision to remove life support, chronicled on CaringBridge, brought back toxic memories of my own.
RIP Mark. Sorry we didn't know each other better.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
New Year
We managed to survive Vegas, although we left a little pile of legal tender behind. The crush of humanity, the lights, the sheer excessive consumption of the place is a little overwhelming. Lots of standing in line, lots of spiky-haired hotshot gamblers, lots of stretch limos in some of the most insanely crowded streets I've seen since living in NY (at least around the strip).
John's wedding was at the top of the Stratosphere, the needle-type monolith at the south end of the strip, 103 stories over Vegas. I don't handle heights well, and just recalling the view makes my palms sweat.
There's a wildfire burning a few miles from the house - high winds knocked over a power transformer (or power line, not sure which) and started a nasty fire that's already consumed one home. We're pretty far from it, so I believe we're safe for now.
Found out that one of the members of the GTF, someone I'd hesitate to say I am close to but a regular member nonetheless, is suffering severe neurological dysfunction after a relatively minor heart operation gone wrong (is there really such a thing as a routine heart operation?). His prognosis appears grim, and thinking about what his young wife is going through, I can't help but flash back to my own experience being in this place. Terrible thing.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Happy New Year
One of the forums I visit regularly had a thread about New Year's resolutions, and while my track record on these things has never been very impressive, I threw a few things out.
1) Be a better husband.
2) Lose another 15 lbs. (Lost 15 in '08.)
3) Quit the Nasty Habit.
4) Hold onto my job(s).
5) Write more, write better.
6) More rafting, more skiing, take my wife camping.
7) Remix my first album, finish my second.
8) New PC (or mobo/cpu, at least).
9) Capture and document conclusive evidence of an afterlife.
Can't help but think that these things are preemptive commitments to orphaned expectations, but I guess they at least measure our recognition that there are things to strive for. Ways to improve, ways to be better, whatever "better" is relative to what we think we are now.
On item 5), I signed up for Suite101 a few weeks ago, accepted on the strength of my audition of a couple of Boulder Weekly stories I did earlier this year. The commitment is 10 stories every 3 months, 400-600 words a piece, and they ask you to go through a little training exercise (style hints, that sort of thing) before you start scribing.
The output they ask for is a bit steep, and after 30 years writing freelance, I have to lower my own internal resistance against being told how to write, but I do think I need to write more, and time will tell if I can muster the time and energy to do this. I do feel as if I need to. So...here goes.
1) Be a better husband.
2) Lose another 15 lbs. (Lost 15 in '08.)
3) Quit the Nasty Habit.
4) Hold onto my job(s).
5) Write more, write better.
6) More rafting, more skiing, take my wife camping.
7) Remix my first album, finish my second.
8) New PC (or mobo/cpu, at least).
9) Capture and document conclusive evidence of an afterlife.
Can't help but think that these things are preemptive commitments to orphaned expectations, but I guess they at least measure our recognition that there are things to strive for. Ways to improve, ways to be better, whatever "better" is relative to what we think we are now.
On item 5), I signed up for Suite101 a few weeks ago, accepted on the strength of my audition of a couple of Boulder Weekly stories I did earlier this year. The commitment is 10 stories every 3 months, 400-600 words a piece, and they ask you to go through a little training exercise (style hints, that sort of thing) before you start scribing.
The output they ask for is a bit steep, and after 30 years writing freelance, I have to lower my own internal resistance against being told how to write, but I do think I need to write more, and time will tell if I can muster the time and energy to do this. I do feel as if I need to. So...here goes.
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