iPhone!!!

iPhone.jpg
Pronounced Eye-Pee-hOn

So I’ve been wanting to talk about the iPhone for weeks – both its ups and downs & why I’ll be getting one ASAP!! and what tradeoffs I’m willing to live with. But I can’t because, as an Apple employee, I can only talk about stuff that has been made public. Luckily the reviews are starting to roll in & here are the tech industries biggest two columnists weighing in on the iPhone & they do a good job ‘splaining it all……

Walt Mossberg from the Wall Street Journal
David Pogue from the NY Times

‘deep

.ps
Does anyone use AT&T in SF? I’d love to know how you feel about coverage since I’m switching from Verizon (Verizon – how I loathe thee for crippling my phones – though I’m a slave to your coverage area!)

.pps
Ok – here is one more – Steven Levy from Newsweek – he captures the feel of it (& it is funnier!)

FlashDance 7: Line Dances, Bollywood & Cops = the best FD yet!

NOTE: Please email me any good pics you have! Also I’ve just realized that there is no photographic evidence to suggest I actually dance at my own FlashDances 🙂 )


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Gretchen works it out

Yep. That did it. FlashDance 7 was THE way to get me fully back into my life. I sooooo love you guys. That was just AWESOME. Even though it could compete with FD3 for beauty, it was my FAVORITE FlashDance so far – it was just so wacky and surprising:

  • Allegra’s amazing synchronized group line dances (we’re soooo learning one for next FlashDance! Think Jackson 5!)
  • The bizarre turn of events when the cops dashed through the crowd to tackle the wallet-thief (yay cops!)
  • Archana’s great one-woman reproduction of the Saalam-E-Ishq Bollywood dance number (Did I swoon? I think I may have swooned?… In a very manly way of course 🙂 )
  • lots of cute kids!
  • The only thing missing was something stage-like for me to dance on (yes I have a problem) & ok – I think I need to get YET a bigger sound system! I JUST bought the last one – sigh.

    Here are some pix from Flickr courtesy of Romel! (click on the pix for more):

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    Read on to get the playlist & more thoughts… Continue reading

    India: The Ups & Downs of the Genetic Homeland



    This is a live Google Map so click & scroll away! (Created with My Maps Plus)

    NOTE: This is my final post about my month of traveling – if you want to skip the chatter & JUMP STRAIGHT TO THE PIX, CLICK HERE – there is a SMALL set of PIX & a COMPLETE set of pix.
    Also, if you want to see all my travel posts to this point click HERE.

    As many of you know I just got back from almost a month in the Olde Country – India. It was a big and fascinating trip – and there was a lot I liked about it & honestly some big things I *really* didn’t like about it. There was both much fun and much not fun. Some of that had to do with India & some of that had to do with the fact that I was LARGELY BY MYSELF FOR AN ENTIRE MONTH. If you ever want to drive a hyper-gregarious, hyper-talkative person suicidal, send them to a large, fascinating & difficult country by themselves in the non-tourist season FOR A MONTH. Sit back & watch the fun! Anyway, it has been a week since I got back & now that my super-powers are returning, it is time to write up my impressions…

    Before I get into what I liked & disliked about India it is important to understand that the key part of any trip is having resilience, curiosity and a good attitude. Normally these qualities are a strong suit of mine. But this trip, “curiosity” was the only one I could consistently muster. A variety of things combined to cause the others to come & go. As I said, the biggest factor by far was that I only had people to really talk to for maybe 4-5 days combined out of my 3.5 weeks in India: NOT GOOD FOR OUR HERO.* So I guess that means maybe if the circumstances of my trip were different my impressions would skew differently…

    But that all being said, what follows are my impressions of India such as they are, for better & for worse. Here is the quick list for those of you skimming – feel free to click on just the items that seem interesting. (damn this is a long post! Did I mention I had no one to talk to for a month?)

    Things I liked:

    Things I did NOT like:

    I should also state up front that I’m more curious and more demanding of India than I would be of many other places for a variety reasons. Obviously, being my genetic homeland, I’m going to be pretty curious, but also there are many people in my life (my immediate family for starters, but others as well) who expect that I SHOULD have a strong connection to India: “India is your home!” or “You just don’t understand that you ARE Indian” etc etc. This all leads to a closer scrutiny on my part.

    Anyway, without further ado, lets get to the superficial impressions that I will attempt to pass off as facts. (hey look! “hubris” – I AM returning to normal!)

    Continue reading

    Helloooo Bollywood!!!

    So I’m in Mumbai a.k.a Bombay & thus it is a perfect time to mention Bollywood dance numbers – one of the best things about India. Here is an awesome recent one with an great song that has been the Official Theme Song for My Trip. I saw it on MTVIndia one night & the next day heard it again on a car stereo & was hooked.


    Title track from Salaam e Ishq

    I bought the movie too (Movie Night Soon!) & it isn’t bad (a little cheesy of course) & is full of amazing eye candy – Hellloooooo Priyanka!) and even more importantly great song/dance numbers. This video covers pretty much everything great about Bollywood dance numbers:

    • great outfits
    • spectacle
    • ridiculous yet inspired choreography
    • and finally, pure joy

    That last one is it actually, there is something about a musical (& India seems to be state of the art) that just does JOY perfectly….

    ‘deep

    .ps be home soon & very much looking forward to it

    .pps “Salaam e Ishq” translates to “Love’s Salute” I think.

    Using 25% of the World’s Resources is HARD to Do

    So I’m an American & I’m traveling in the third world (maybe India is somewhere in-between by now) & I feel it is important that I represent!  So I’m trying to use a hugely disproportionate allocation of resources while I’m here.  But it really isn’t easy. 

    To wit:

    • Showers: It is very very hard to take 1 hour scalding showers when it is 4 milion degrees outside.  Though that is in Celsius, so it is only like 2 Million degrees Fahrenheit.  (& with the wind chill factor it’s like 1.9999 Million degrees F.)

    Continue reading

    Travel with My Lil’ Electronic Friends

    In my past few trips abroad, I’ve discovered my favorite way to travel. I love it & India is a country that supports it fully. See the world, experience it as fully and immersively as you can (or as much as any tourist can) but share it with your friends as you do it & without compromising the experience itself. (I need a good name for it – electronic umbilical? e-travel?) Well one good way to think of it is travel with my Lil’ Electronic Friends. (DeepLEF?)

    Those of you who don’t like their cell-phones or don’t check email when they can help it, you and I don’t see eye to eye anyway, so the joys of this will be lost on you, and shouldn’t you be putting more coal in your calculating-engine to keep it running while you read this anyway? And check the inter-tubes for blockages while you’re at it 🙂

    This is the deal: Place meets ‘Deep with his lil’ electronic friends: Mr. Cellphone, Mr. Computer, Mr. Thumb drive, Mama Net & of course a digital camera (neuter).

    My first few days in New Delhi, I got a cell phone Continue reading

    Urban Monkey?

    While I was in France I suddenly noted how much happier I was when I was in Paris rather than the South & thought “Yep! I’m an Urban Monkey”* but then I got to Delhi & can’t say I enjoyed it much (though I never really gave it a chance – I was in the “suburbs” with the fam fam.**)
    In any case, I’m not sure Delhi is big enough for 2 types of urban monkey:
    UrbMonkey.jpg

    spotted these guys in Delhi downtown, just as I walked out of Spider-Man 3 (cousin had free tix & took the family)

    It is tough for an avowed urbanist to swallow, but so far India seems much more beautiful and interesting outside the cities. Maybe this is what the U.S. was like in the heydey of the Industrial Revolution…

    Anyway, I’m just south of Chennai (city #2) and in a beach town called Mammalapuram… more soon…

    *to be fair, the weather in the SoF was rainy & so we spent most of our time in the car driving around, not nearly the fun possibilities of sun/bike/Paris.

    * more fairness: suburbs is a bit strong, Gurgaon is more like adjacent sprawl. I would imagine Delhi has more nightlife and restaurants, hustle & bustle etc.

    Je t’aime Space Invader Graffiti!

    (or “Favorite thing about Paris #284”)

    [Ed Note: click on any of the pix for all my Space Invader shots, or read to the bottom to get the full scoop AFAIK.]
    [Ed Note: Added a few new Space Invaders I found 5/5/07]

    Way back in 2003, on my maybe 3rd visit to Paris*, I saw some graffiti off in the distance (here’s the shot) & thought – “Hey! That’s a Space Invader!”

    Then I thought “Hey that isn’t paint – that’s tile work!”

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    Then I thought “That isn’t just surface tile work…they’ve taken the time to mount it INTO the wall!!”
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    Needless to say I was in love. Ah Paris 🙂

    So now every-time I come back to Paris, I see more….

    Continue reading

    The Beauty of It All & Where I’m at Right Now

    It’s April 28th, 2007 & I’m high above some state in the western United States, where the land is flat and cut into huge yet precise blocks by roads – nothing exists here to break up human-imposed geometries. A grid state. Possibly Nebraska.

    I’m currently sad, excited, scared, hopeful, wounded, content, anxious, fascinated, and oddly happy. I guess at 38, I can hold more than one at once. 🙂 . I’m thinking about my friend Greg’s book “Window Seat: Reading the Landscape From The Air”, global warming, a girl, human population (the *real* hockey stick!), wondering how attractive Cameron Diaz really is (inflight movie), and mostly, the beauty of it all. (Don’t think that you know which of the emotions tie to which of the subjects at hand, the combinations are remarkable and fluid 🙂 )

    A while back (Nevada? Utah?) I passed a small wind farm. Maybe 10 giant white windmills, standing silently on a hill, motionless (slackers!). The future is here. It is going to be quite a ride these next few decades. Buckle up 🙂 I can’t wait. (wow! bravado? sarcasm? hope? anticipation!? bring-it-on-let’s-do-this-coz-i’m-tired-of-worrying-and-what-is-the-name-of-this-feeling-anyway?*)

    Natural features have risen to contest the brute-force human ones of the grid state now past. The results, the combination of human geometry and natural diversity, are beautiful! (contour and strip farming – Thanks Greg!).

    Human + Natural = Beauty

    I never thought the Midwest was beautiful. Landing soon. The beauty has given away to standard farmland & now suburbia, but Chicago! Chicago is majestic in the afternoon light….I’m off on my latest adventure: a week in the south of France followed by three in the south of India, I guess there is a Southern boy in here after all. Hmmm… BBQ yes!, NASCAR not so much… ok so much for that thesis. My agenda:

    • Eat every mango I come across.
    • Avoid getting married off.
    • Face time with mega-fauna.
    • Observe humans in their natural habitats (both current & historical).
    • Marvel at people’s ability to lead apparently functional lives without direct contact with ME
    • Finally see India after all these trips, rather than just see relatives (god bless them and their kindness & hospitality nonetheless).
    • Try to keep you people entertained!

    To my peoples back home, I’ll miss you (I always do!). Please remember what I said about not having any fun while I’m gone. No. Really.
    ‘deep

    *I bet the Germans have a name for that feeling, they always seem to…. with their easy to-make-new-words-without-needing-hyphens language. I bet they have a name for that too! Damn! 🙂

    Earth Day Victory: ‘Deep Pledges to Reduce White Sock Wearing to Save the Planet

    sock_w.jpg sock_b.jpg

    SAN FRANCISCO, April 20 – In a stunning victory for local dark-sock activists, the ‘Deep administration announced that it will begin phasing out wearing white socks with pants. “Here at ‘Deep, we take saving the planet very seriously and our White Sock Reduction Initiative is one of numerous efforts to meet our ambitious goals.” said ‘Deep, a spokesperson for the administration. The administration announced that it would begin purchasing more black socks, and reducing its wearing of white socks, unless it was wearing shorts, saying “Shorts and black socks just don’t work.” When asked about the remarkable reversal of its decades long policy, the ‘Deep administration spokesman said only “once the link between global warming, the current mass extinction event and our socks was made clear, we had to act.”

    Local activists hailed the initiative and celebrated their victory while disagreeing on why they succeeded. “Our strategy of consistent nagging got the ‘Deep administration to look carefully at its sock choice” said Tom Radulovich, director of Nag For Progress. While Amy Laitnen of Better Straight Men Period, recounted asking a passing young lady about ‘Deep’s socks at a local breakfast eatery and said “I think it was our strategic use of attractive women combined with public shaming that really carried the day.” Added Wes Radulovich, “It has been a long road, but I think well worth it. The others can claim what they like, but personally I think the blunt force trauma was what did it.”