A visit from out the humidity

We recently enjoyed a visit from Dad and Liz.  It was nice to hug my dad again after the recent stroke stuff.

He's doing great and Liz is wonderful, smart, fun and lovely as always.

After picking them up from the airport, we hit Silver House, the best Chinese I've ever had in San Mateo (and yes, the only - Maker Faire is once a year, so not many chances to make it to San Mateo.)  The fook kin fried rice is a must.

On Wednesday, we did some Golden Gate Park time by seeing Wicked Plants at the Conservatory of Flowers (personally, I wish I'd read the book first), some Picasso at the DeYoung (a huge exhibit, I'm going to try and make several trips this summer, so more on that later) and even some fish-watching at the California Academy of Sciences. Phew. They aren't slowing down much!

We fueled up at Muguboka, a delicious Korean mom-and-pop sort of place. We all learned about banchan, the 13 small dishes brought out with the meal. Yum!

While those tastes of Asia were nice, the true culinary treat came with them taking us to Alice Water's Chez Panisse. We went on Wednesday, so here is the menu:



The server was nice enough to ask if we wanted and take our picture in the kitchen (as close as I come to a house of worship.)



It was beyond my words. So.

Interestingly enough, it may not even have been Liz and Dad's best meal of the trip, as they are did French Laundry last night! Thanks for the visit you two. Much love.

Rockcrowd Fest 2011 - Concert #9

Rockcrowd #9 was a different experience for me. It was a bit like watching the movie, The Wrestler. Edwin McCain is known for this mega-smash-hit "I'll Be" - which is probably one of the Top 5 Wedding tunes of the past 15 years or so. Personally, I love his album "Austin Sessions" He has an incredible voice.

But this wasn't that vision I had of Edwin.  This was Red Devil Lounge.  This joint:





Not a sexy place for performing. This dugout is the kind of joint where, there isn't a GOOD seat in the house.  Awkward stage angle, stage next to the bathrooms and pillars blocking almost any view. Bartender washing dishes during the performance - or yelling at the drunk lady "I'M CALLING THE COPS RIGHT NOW." Fat lady eating stinky Mexican food she brought in. Bar staff talking loudly, trying to pick up chicks during the performance. Cheesy drinks, like Starfucker (Rockstar + double Stoli.)  A bathroom door that could seriously use some WD40. And more. SO much more.

It was a creative writing dream. I guarantee next time I need a hard-boiled detective shithole, I've found it. I may go there every night for a month with a pad of paper.

Edwin talked about "coming home from the warehouse" Not sure if it was a venue or a job?  But Edwin's voice belting over the mess this place produced still made me smile:


And my mysterious bride enjoyed hearing one of her favs. (Seriously, getting Shawn Mullins, Rhett Miller, Pete Yorn and Edwin McCain in 3 months - we pretty much heard the soundtrack of the beginning of our relationship 7+ years ago - if not the most current of music scene!)



Things are going to slowdown for us a bit here. A gig once every 2 weeks or so. But who knows... (3 pints + the StubHub app is dangerous.)

Rockcrowd Fest 2011 - Concert #8

I know, right?  They are coming at a blistering speed right now.  Today, I have to get the post up about last night, because #9 is already tonight.

Luckily, we are finding time for rest:



This concert was at The Greek in Berkeley, so we headed over early and got some yummy Chicago-style deep-dish at Zachary's. Sam had a sleepover the night before, so he was pretty tired.  We decided to show him the fine art of college lawn napping, a skill I mastered - in fact I was known for sleeping on pebble beds as well.

As you can see, we played in the shadow of the Campanile, Mary's favorite semi-building, semi-instrument type of structure.  It gave us our first opening act.  We heard it warming up a bit, so I wandered over close.  Before the 6pm struck, I decided to experiment with a field recording of the playing.  Given that I was starting off with the noise of something industrial whirring and lots of conversations, I just went with raw capture.  I knew the wind would be difficult, but you have to get the full Bay-Area experience, eh? The recoding includes a guy asking help "getting to the Greek" and finishes with The Battle Hym of the Republic.  I didn't capture the whole concert, because this was my first long soundcloud phone recording and I didn't know if I had restrictions, plus TBHOTR is a good close.

Campanile at UC Berkeley by cameronmaddux

Then we headed to the actual concert.  Now, I am not a big fan of Dispatch - and I don't mean that in a negative way - it is more from ignorance. We are ironically "discovering" them in the midst of their Reunion Tour. We learned to enjoy a couple of their songs from Pandora suggestions. Then Mary liked how involved the band is with social causes, especially in Zimbabwe.  This concert was more attended on a lark.

It turned out to be incredibly worth it.  We knew The Greek to be a phenomenal venue: outdoors, trees, people, music. All quite lovely.







Nice jams.  Glad we went. I am officially a Dispatch fan.

Rockcrowd Fest 2011 - Concert #7

Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt on stage with a couple chairs and guitars.

That's it. Simple, pure, beautiful.

This rockcrowd concert is (currently) our only Marin show.  (By the way, Lyle Lovett = rock? Interestingly, this was an idea that came up on stage - the "R-word."  It was decided that Lyle definitely rocked that night.)  While we are having fun actually "Getting out" for these shows, we definitely dug the short commute for once. 

The format of the show is just what you'd hope.  Actually, it wasn't a "show."  Lyle pointed out that it was a song that just kept going all night.  They came out and started talking to us. Someone in the audience shouted out a request, John Hiatt said "Alright" and started playing it.  Then they talked about the song and based on the song and discussion Lyle played a song.  This continued all night.  Conversation that led to playing that led to conversation that led to playing. No setlist. Just two guys jamming together. Well, not together. Actually most of the time one listened while the other played; I always enjoy watching musicians watch musicians, especially in such an interactive format.

It was interesting timing for this show.  I have been having fun playing on the hyper-actively buzzing turntable.fm this week. Music is best when it is social and responsive.  This show was absolutely that.

It was also quite lovely to hold hands with my lovely sweetheart during Lyle's stories. 

Tonight - OUTDOOR MUSIC!

Rockcrowd Fest 2011 - Concert #6

OK, I am really just putting this one up for the sake of doing it.  I kind of promised myself I'd get a post up of the previous show before we went to the next gig.  Well, we are hours from Concert #7!!

So - Show #6 - it was awesome!

I've got a feeling we'll remember as the first time we saw "The Head and The Heart" because those guys were really quite wonderful.  Buy their album - quite worth it. This song, Rivers and Roads was what they closed on and I went from like to love during it. 




Then we moved into the evening's main show: Iron and Wine



photo by WCHI News

There is just something magical about this music to me.  One Iron and Wine truism: it is the BEST PANDORA STATION.  For the concert, they experimented.  Let us hear things that we wouldn't hear on the albums, and that was fun.  He definitely has a 4th wall about him when playing. It is all about the sounds.  Good stuff.

OK, sorry - lame post - but it is time for Lyle Lovett prep!

60Fed Speakers

blue oompah by Tony Gonzalez

Kickass people came to chat with the students in 60Fed this semester.

First (02/23/2011) - we had a round of agency strategists who had all recently graduated from the program: Khaia Brogan (McCann-SF), Virginia Lu (AKQA) and John Quintana (Goodby, Silverstein and Partners). This experience was new for me - recent students from my classes, now working professionals. huh. This is how it is supposed to go, eh?

They were a big hit with the students. First of all, the three have this beautiful chemistry of differing personalities, but sincere appreciation for each other and both the student and strategy communities. They guided the students through many of their failures, successes, surprises and other stories in their education, finding jobs and "moving up the ladder." We had a full room of attentive students, who finally had the opportunity to see themselves reflected, even if only vaguely.

Second (03/15/2011) - we got disquiet. I was fortunate to meet Marc Weidenbaum a couple of years ago under what could have been professional collaboration, but because I took a left turn instead - we stuck to friendship. I talk about how critical it is to be a symphonic thinker: its importance to creativity, to survivability in today's economy and quite frankly to joy in life.  Marc is one of those people that dives deep into sounds, music, games, science, comics, technology, connections, conversations ... He lets it all swirl and then illuminates. He's the kind of person that can get you thinking extensively, even if you just take a peek into what he's doing.

Bazaars and musical/cultural maps.  These two things he discussed with us have stuck in my brain. I had just read about Michael Pollan trying to get us to "resolarize" the food system and Marc slaps me with how the internet is getting us back to the bazaar days of messy-organized exchange; btw, he referenced Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond for further reading.  Also, I have been assigning Cultural Maps as an assignment in my Intro to Planning class for awhile now.  The depth, breath, creativity, simplicity, interestingness they offer is one-of-a-kind. Marc used these as tools in his presentation - it was lovely to see.  The students greatly enjoyed hearing some ideas from someone outside of advertising agencies.

Third (04/13/2011) Rachel Coady and Matthew Scott stopped by our place to discuss connections and culture.  They told us how to take who you are and apply it to what you do.  They told us how to prospect, tell stories, be a conduit , how to assure and inspire, how to be awesome...

I love these two. I just do. And you will too if you are fortunate to play with them.

Fourth (04/05/2011) Gareth Kay popped into 60Fed.  Gareth is wonderfully giving. Sincerely, I know few people as giving with their thinking and time as this guy. I'm very lucky he enjoys playing with us so much. He came by to present his current thoughts about Small Thinking. His blog has more about the ideas. It is good stuff that is impacting my "Art of Planning 2.0" thinking.  I will get that up soon.

What a wonderful semester of idea sharing.  Thank you to Khaia, Virginia, John, Marc, Rachel, Matthew and Gareth.  You changed brains and hearts.