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Just to give you an idea of just how retro I am, I'm only now sitting down and enjoying The Sopranos. We're about halfway through Season 3. In the last episode we saw, Tony's mother died -- conveniently -- so she didn't have to testify about the stolen airline tickets. I don't know how people managed to wait seven days between episodes. We crank through three or four at a sitting, thanks to wonderful DVD technology.
Why hasn't there been a Sopranos movie yet?
Saw George Thorogood and Buddy Guy last weekend in Murphys, CA, at a winery whose amphitheatre can accommodate more than 5,000. There were a lot fewer than that on Sunday night: the ushers automatically upgraded our seats from "halfway back" to 12th row because so few tickets were sold. Maybe there's something to this recession thing...
Thorogood's band was good but, I dunno, it played the same set as it would have 20 years ago. George himself looked OK but a bit paunchier than he used to -- then again, who doesn't?
Buddy Guy was totally into it. He walked through the crowd (gotta love wireless) and let loose with many a funny blues verse. My favorite:
One leg pointed East
One leg pointed West
I was right there in the middle
Trying to do my best
The region east of San Francisco known as the East Bay is under mandatory water rationing. Yesterday we got a document from the water authorities laying out our consumption patterns over the past three years, and ordering us to reduce our consumption by 19 percent from that baseline amount. If we don't, we'll be fined $18 a day, which over a 60-day billing period comes out to $1,080, or $6,480 a year. And that would be on top of the 10 percent rate hike that's already been put in place for everyone, whether they conserve or not.
So I think twice when I lean over to flush the toilet. I don't languish in the shower. Our car is filthy. If your local reservoirs are full, be thankful.
It's about time. About 50 people protested yesterday in front of News Corp.'s NYC headquarters. The charge: racism in Fox News reporting. There's plenty of it. TV Newser has details.
Don't get me started about Fox. You've seen the Outfoxed site, right? Buy the DVD. Support Robert Greenwald's organization. They do wonderful reporting work. So does ProPublica. A topic for another day.
Heard him speak today at Fortune Brainstorm in Half Moon Bay, CA. Young is still making music but he's also an entrepreneur: he's helping to develop new, more efficient automobiles, and he's also trying to establish a new "high-res music" standard.
Let's talk about the music. Young has no use for Steve Jobs or iTunes, whose compression algorithms destroy music's fidelity, Young claims. No one cares about how music ought to sound; it's all about convenience, Young laments. He thinks the PC/Windows industry can and should establish a high-resolution audio standard, displacing MP3 and AAC with something offering higher highs and lower lows. Young says he spoke to Michael Dell about this, who in turn said he will look into it. It's gonna take a lotta love to change the way things are. What do you think?
Got a chance to use a Segway today. It's pretty cool. You place your feet on the pedals and press down with your toes to go forward and lean back on your heels to slow down or go back. Top speed is 12 MPH. They cost $5,350. You can't use them on sidewalks in Berkeley and San Francisco; bike paths are OK. They probably suck in the rain or in high winds.
The Bay Area rapid transit system, BART, is temporarily banning them on its trains while it considers its long-term policy. A Segway owner lost control of one recently inside a station: the thing rolled itself onto the tracks, whereupon a BART train promptly ran over it.
I quit this blog a while back because I saw things moving to Facebook and Twitter, and now, FriendFeed, Identi.ca and God knows what else. Also, I was discouraged by the lack of comments... I felt like a proselytizer, posting into such a vacuum.
Just for grins I went to Feedburner this morning to see how few people remained subscribed to this blog feed. Incredibly, this blog has more RSS subscribers now -- 145 -- than it ever had when I was posting every day. I'm not sure I believe this figure. Do you believe Feedburner figures?
Anyway, I think I'll start posting here again, at least for a few weeks, and see what happens. Blogs seem to be seen as passe these days. Though not everyone thinks so. Fred Wilson doesn't.
Do me a favor? Check in and say hi, OK? Let me know who you are.
