TechCrunch' Michael Arrington leaves SF Bay Area for Seattle

Michael Arrington with friend

Pointing to a need for a change of scenery, Michael Arrington, the founder and editor of the tech blog TechCrunch, and one who's always made himself available to this blogger, is (sadly) leaving the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley for Seattle.

In his blog post written Monday (today), Arrington reports:

This last weekend I moved my primary residence from Silicon Valley to Seattle. My plan is to roughly split my time between Seattle and Silicon Valley, and spend a lot more time on the road meeting entrepreneurs around the world.

Michael says there are "scores and scores of startups here that are doing innovative and disruptive things" and he wants to be a part of that. But really Michael says he needs the change of view. Too bad.

It will not be the same around the Bay Area. Michael would turn up at places like Amsterdam Bar in San Francisco for a party, or at any of the TechCrunch events held around here. One assumes he will still fly down here, but the bet here is he's going up there for the skiing. It can't be for the social life. I wonder of Michael knows about The Seattle Freeze?

Seahawks Golden Tate loves The Crab Pot

Former Notre Dame and now Seattle Seahawks Wide Receiver Golden Tate seems to be settling into his new hometown Seattle and has discovered The Crab Pot.

According to Golden Tate's Twitter account called @ShowtimeTate, he's working to learn the playbook and earn playing time:

Another day at the office! Trying to learn this play book! And missing keenan hall!
7:41 AM May 1st via Twitter for BlackBerry®

Golden Tate, who's college humber was 23, is now #81, a clear sign that he's ready to be an NFL wide receiver. Reportedly he's playing well in Seattle's minicamp. But Tate's also taking to Seattle, as this tweet shows:

I for sure just devoured snow and king crab from Crab Pot!
about 6 hours ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®

The Crab Pot is a Seattle institution at The Bay Pavilion at Pier 57 on the Waterfront. It's known for "The Seafest," or as the website describes:

We take a variety of crab, clams, mussels, shrimp in the shell, salmon, halibut, oysters, potatoes, corn on the cob and andouille sausage steamed with mouth watering spices and pour it right on your table! No need for silverware, we give you a bib and a mallet and let you go at it!

Since Golden Tate didn't do "The Seafest", here's a video preview of what he's in store for:



Hopefully Golden Tate sends a tweet while he's devouring The Seafest" the nest time he goes to The Crab Pot.

Ted Ginn Jr. with 49ers - Niners should run the receiver screen

Now that the 2010 NFL Draft is history and the San Francisco 49ers traded for former Ohio State and Miami Dolphins Receiver Ted Ginn Jr., yet failed to add more speed in the form of Clemson Running Back C.J. Spiller, it's obvious Ginn's going to be the speed guy. According to various reports, Ginn's going to be more than the return man - he's going to be a receiver.

The reason is Ginn's coming in and surprising people with his determination to be a good receiver. He's got a lot of work to do, if Niner Nation's blog is considered. "Smiley" wrote a full account of all of Ted Ginn's games in 2009 including his best (11 for 108 against the Colts) and his worst (the 2 for 8 performance against the New Orleans Saints).

Considering Ted's amazing speed as shown in this record setting performance where he returned two kicks for over 100 yards in one game and in one quarter...



The 49ers should use Ginn in flanker screen plays and reverses, as the Dolphins did. The Niners may want to place Ginn at Split End and just have him, but Flanker's actually a more efficient place for Ted Ginn to be.

Washington Redskins Fans at 2010 NFL Draft Red Carpet

This NFL Draft installment (thanks to the Inn at Irving Place, part of the Small Luxury Hotels of The World brand) comes from New York, Radio City Music Hall - The NFL's known for some of the craziest fans in sports, but The Washington Redskins Fans have to take the cake as the most rabid and dedicated.

This group came up dressed in Redskins colors and mostly as hogs to make one point: they wanted Washington Redskins General Manager Bruce Allen to select an offensive lineman. They wanted a hog.



YouTube, Yahoo, Metacafe, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, StupidVideos and Viddler

And in Oklahoma Offensive Tackle Trent Williams, The Washington Redskins Fans got their wish. They got a hog as the Redskins 1st round pick. Now, the Redskins hope they can get Williams signed in time for training camp.

When Williams was introduced to the organization and the media last Friday, Bruce Allen played media member and asked him if he planned to sign and be in camp on time. Williams said he would.

Fot the long suffering Redskins fans, let's hope he does.

Nashville, Memphis Tennessee flooding impacts millions

The news of Nashville and Memphis Tennessee flooding hits this blogger in a personal way. All of my aunts and cousins are in cities and towns between Nashville and Memphis Tennessee. My mother called today (Sunday) to explain my aunts' kitchen is flooded, but didn't explain why because of our bad phone connection; now I know why.

This video explains it all:



Reportedly, thunderstorms dropped a foot of rain on Nashville, Memphis, and the Mid South, forcing the evaculation of 1,500 people according to The Commercial Appeal.

Memphis, Tenn

One river, called the Loosahatchie River at Arlington, Tennessee, rose a whopping 23 feet in 24 hours, and reached a record of 25.31 feet Sunday. Joe Ford, the Interim Mayor of Shelby County, called a State of Emergency on Saturday. Millington was the hardest hit of all of the cities, with two subdivisions flooded.

The weather today? 77 degrees and partly cloudy as of this writing.

Stay tuned.

Oakland Museum Party a ton of fun, but what about the future?

The Oakland Museum on 10th Street next to Laney College in Oakland, California had a great all-night block party that was a ton of fun. You know it was a perfect Oakland event when you run into people you know from all over the town, as was the case for this blogger.

Before I install the video from that fun event, this post was necessary if only to gush about how nice it was to see a free Oakland event that reflected the true sprit of the City. Yes, the Museum looked great, but the people looked even better. The drinks flowed, the food was good considering much of it was either free to cheap, and the artwork was excellent.

I didn't stay all night because my dear friend insists on getting up early to do her endurance training. Were it not for that, I'd have stayed until 3 AM; the party closed at 6 AM.

We spent time with Susan Mernit and Amy Gahran, and Editor and Publisher and Senior Editor of Oakland Local (who had staff all over the Museum) as well as a number of friends and associates, some that may want to be kept out of a blog, so be it. It was a fantastic time.

The one thought which kept rolling through my head was how will the Museum top the event? The problem as I see it, is the event was more about the event at the Museum than the Museum itself. I'm not taking anything away from the Oakland Museum, but my friend's first question was when were they going to do it again?

That's the point. It was so great, the Museum could suffer if it doesn't do one again and make it some kind of annual thing.

I hope it does.

2nd Avenue Deli Memories & great food! posted by Suzannah B. Troy

Lynn told me she has the greatest job in the world.  (I have heard that before but only from New York City Firemen, especially long term fire eaters from the old days!) Remembering Abe...... Lynn credits Abe Lebewohl for the love she has for her job and really for everything she has.  Talk about attitude with gratitude! Lynn said to me, "Abe was so big hearted."  When she was started working there 17, maybe 18 years ago, she was told she was hired but she had to serve Abe soup first.  For anyone who has not dined at the famous deli you have no idea what an endeavor that is.  All the portions at the 2nd Avenue Deli are huge!!!!! According to Lynn, Abe still lives...she loves working at the Deli and I get the vibe from her Abe's big hearted energy still can be felt  like a guardian angel accompanying the many photos of Abe with many movers and shakers.  My favorite picture is of Abe and his wife Eleanor with Dustin Hoffman.  Lynn spoke lovingly of Eleanor saying she was such a down to earth woman that when she came to eat you would never know she was Abe's wife. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ8EQ_DPLX0 I  remember being greeted warmly by Abe every time I stopped in. I also remember when my Uncle passed away I stopped in the Deli when it was really on 2nd Avenue Deli and I need to get a tin of rugelah  and I couldn't reach the shelf high above the counter and a big young teddy bear NYPD officer reached up and got a tin for me. I do believe one day the NYPD will solve this crime. Call 1-800-577-TIPS (8477); Text "TIP577" (plus your message) to "CRIMES" ( 274637); Submit Internet Tips · rss Subscribe to NYPD Most Wanted RSS ... www.nyc.gov/nypd   There is a park by St. Marks Church near where the original deli was dedicated to Abe's memory. I interviewed Jack, Abe's brother asking him when did Abe open the deli? Jack did the math.  Abe was born in 1931.  He was 23 years old when he opened the del with 2 partners.  Shortly there after they bought out one partner and in the 1960's Abe bought out the other partner becoming the sole owner with soul serving Jewish Soul Food!!!!  Those are my words, not Jacks! I am heavily into soul. By the way I asked Lynn if you had any celebrity stories I could blog about and she said, No, discretion is the greater part of valor!   I asked Jack as well....similiar response but the walls are filled with photos of celebrities, NY characters, politicians, sport stars & their owners as well as Yiddish theatre stars!!!!! Lynn is the official Jewish Mother on the premises and decided since my tummy hurt I was to have ginger ale, no ice, no straw, and that I must slowly sip my soda.   She recommended kasha varniskes for me.

My Dad is the true driving force that brings me to 2nd Avenue Deli.  We had a great time.   I did because I love my Dad as well as the Jewish soul food.

How Sandra Bullock and Jesse James kept adopted baby a secret

Hollywood's buzzing about how How Sandra Bullock and Jesse James could have kept the news they adopted a baby boy named Louis Brado Bullock a secret. Rob Shuter over at Pop Eater explains how they did it, or at least how she did it.

Reportedly Sandra Bullock kept everyone out of her house, even close friends. If Sandra needed to get dressed and made up for events like The Academy Awards, she'd have her team meet her at a hotel suite.

Since Rob doesn't mention Jesse James role in the secrecy, we can only guess James was so busy leading that double-life with Michelle "Bombshell" McGee, and other women, the last thing he wanted to do was tell any one of them he had a new baby boy at home.

Video recap of Sandra Bullock, Jesse James, and baby Louis news:



And on the matter of "home" Sandra Bullock and Jesse James are selling their Long Beach dwelling for $6 million. Bullock's reportedly moving to New Orleans to start a new life with baby Louis.

Stay tuned.

Justin Bieber hits on Kim Kardashian at White House Dinner

Kim and Justin at White House Correspondents Dinner

For a 16-year-old Justin Bieber's becoming the man. At The White House Correspondents Dinner Bieber hits on Kim Kardashian, who he's said he wanted to date many times.

Of course Kim was with New Orleans Saints Running Back Reggie Bush, who now has to suffer as his Super Star Ex-Girlfriend openly flirts and teases with a gaggle of men from other athletes to the 16-year old Bieber (photo from Twitter).

In fact, Justin Bieber's claiming Kim Kardashian's his on Twitter:

KimKardashian I officially have Bieber Fever!!! RT @justinbieber: Look its my girlfriend @kimkardashian http://tweetphoto.com/20716573
about 14 hours ago via TweetGenius
Retweeted by justinbieber and 100+ others

But as I recall Justin Bieber wanted to date Barbara Walters and Tina Fey to name a few. That young man's head's on a swivel for sure.

Meanwhile, Reggie Bush must be busting a gut over Kim Kardashian's ability to make media in a second. Bush has a constant reminder that he should have married her if only to escape the indirect punishment he's receiving for not proposing to her after the Saint's Super Bowl win.

Meanwhile Kim's rockin' the Casbah!

Web 2.0 Expo is a waste of time

There was a time, not took long ago, when this blogger was excited to attend Web 2.0 Expo. Now, having just reviewed the website for this year, over and over again, I can't find anything of interest to me.

Plus, in the interest of full disclosure, I asked for a press pass two years ago and was rebuffed rather rudely by Tim O'Reilly and his people. After that, and with the ever-growing tech world melding more with entertainment, there were other conferences and events to attend, so I did not care.

Moreover, now that my video-blog reach is much greater, I'm in better position to deliver a message to an audience, and I just plain don't give a you-know-what, I don't care about Web 2.0 Expo for another reason: it's so, well, Web 2.0 Expo. Here we are again with the mother of all "Let me dictate to you from a high platform" conferences that's not about real time interaction. That should be the focus. Where's Mark Cuban when you need him?



What I like about Jeff Pulver's 140 Conference concept is that it's based on talk and real time interaction. And in the interest of full disclosure, I've not yet attended one of his conferences but a lot of my friends and associates have, and from the massive number of tweets I've received, I feel like I was at the New York Conference, even as I was in NYC for the 2010 NFL Draft. Props to Jeff.

Plus, Jeff Pulver is a cool guy.  This I can say from personal experience.

So that's why I'm just not excited about Web 2.0 Expo and will not even spend a dime or ask for any kind of pass this year. It's an old formula and reeks of a kind of selectivity that makes me ask "Who the heck are you to tell me..." in this case, about the "Power of Platforms."

What's really awful is that after being really interesting Web 2.0 Expo has settled into the same tired pattern that repeats itself again and again: someone talking to you about Facebook and Social Media without us talking about how all of this impacts media and about what new platforms are out there.

In other words the innovation climate once a part of Web 2.0 Expo is just gone. Moreover, O'Reilly Media shows that it doesn't really know what it's doing here by using "certain" platforms and not as many as possible. For example, the Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco webpage has just one video platform, and that's Blip.tv. I love Blip.tv, but No YouTube or Vimeo, and no Tubemogul? Thats crazy!

Using Tubemogul would automatically mean Web 2.0 Expo videos were on many different video platforms and not just one. "Power of Platforms?" Right. Sure. Okay.

And that's what really bugs me about Tim O'Reilly's approach: the overwhelming need to select "who gets in" and "what is used" which runs counter to the social media best practice of having a "mark" in every platform territory not just to get the message out, but also to block the chance some mean person will set up their own Web 2.0 Expo video channel on some place Tim and his people overlooked because it didn't matter to them or they just didn't know about it.

Like, er, YouTube. While O'Reilly Media has its own channel, you'd think they'd have one for Web 2.0 right? Well as of this writing, no they don't. Check the YouTube search for Web 2.0 Expo now (this could change after the release of this blog) and we find O'Reilly Media and a bunch of totally boring videos; no Web 2.0 Expo channel.

And no video-bloggers running around capturing cool stuff. Like, my video from the Reddit party in 2007:



Trouble is Reddit was new then and is still very relevant, but not to O'Reilly Media, which doesn't even use Reddit on its website. (There's that selectivity crap again.) Where's the party for the next great startup? I guess I'll have to wait for TechCrunch's next event.

Stay tuned.

NYC Times Square car bomb scare: who did it?

This blogger just returned from New York and The 2010 NFL Draft, and given that a week ago Saturday Times Square, next to Radio City Music Hall, was bustling and teaming with people on a warm spring night, it's shocking to learn that Times Square's shut down by a car with a bomb in it.

It happened at between 6 and 6:30 PM EST Saturday and was a Nissan Pathfinder that was parked on West 45th Street near 7th Avenue according to Gothamist.com. A T-shirt vendor who was not named and who was a Vietnam Veteran told NYPD mounted police officer, Wade Rattagan that a SUV's motor was running with its hazzard lights flashing.

CNN interviewed another man,Hamid Boubain, who was standing not less than "15 feet" from the SUV when he told a friend "Yo yo look at this!" and said that police came onto the scene 15 minutes later to clear everyone out of the area.

Eventually, Times Square and most of Midtown Manhattan was a ghost town with patrons evacuated from restaurants or told to stay in theater playhouses until further notice. Police cleared an area from 45th to 48th Streets and between 6th and 8th Avenue, according to The New York Times.

Then New York Police used a robot to go in and enter the vehicle. Inside were "three propane tanks, two filled five-gallon gas containers, two clocks with batteries, consumer-grade fireworks and a locked metal box that resembled a gun locker" according to CNN.

The SUV itself was unidentified. The license plate came from another car and police contacted that person who told them they'd taken the original car with the plate to a junk yard. The Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) was removed. It was a deliberate but unsuccessful attempt to terrorize New York City.

The question is "who did it?" No one knows. There were claims that someone ran from the car, but those were unfounded. The attempt was compared to the bombing in Glasgow, but that was in 2007.

Stay tuned.

Time Square Bomb Scare post by Suzannah B. Troy

First and foremost highest praise for the NYPD for their response and handling of what appears to be some kind of crude amateurish bomb that could have  harmed innocent people if it had gone off.    A t-shirt vendor heard some suspicious noises and alerted police and highest praise for a civilian coming forward.

Here in NYC we have signs in the subways and else where always alerting us if we see something suspicious to alert the NYPD and in this case someone did just that and helped prevent would could have been a terrible tragedy.

I am signed up on the Notify NY program with the City of New York so I get a text messages and emails alerting me but it gave no details, just police activity and that the area was closed off.  The t-shirt vendor alerted police at 6:30 but I got my text, May 2 at 12:50AM, still I am glad to get it and glad Notify NY is up and working.

 I wrote Commissioner Kelly asking if the NYPD could actually have a more extended notification system than this, that alerts New Yorkers about crimes that could help us to be even safer and give info if the NYPD need help catching a criminal by texting the people a description.  I am critical of the mayor for denying us a referendum and pushing a reckless tsunami of development but as far as 311 which needs work in terms of the city actually solving problems rather than answering calls and Notifying NY,the ideas are good, both need work.

Also here in NYC the 911 system has been overhauled,  called the UCT Dispatch System  and there are major problems especially alerting the FDNY and EMS  that still need addressing but last night all was good and every system worked as it should thank goodness!!!

Today thankfully we have a happy ending.  The NYPD are going to find the person responsible I am sure and that person will be spending some quality time in jail.  Thank goodness no one was hurt and many people that were there so see Broadway shows got first hand New York City Street Theatre for free.






Here is video from The New York Post.

Again highest praise for the NYPD.  Also for anyone interested here is a YouTube made by the NYPD about their amazing Bomb Squad check it out.   Personally, I have to say I am in awe.  I also got to speak to one of these officers and asked him some questions including about his gorgeous dog w/ a badge, a four legged NYPD officer which was "a bomb" - as in a good and wonderful experience for me.  Here is the slang dictionary for bomb being cool! http://onlineslangdictionary.com/definition+of/bomb,+the

If you have seen the Oscar awarding winning film Hurt Locker than you will recognize the safety clothing these brave officers wear so watch this YouTube!

Also for NYPD buffs -- Do you know who created The Bomb Squad? 

I have been told that Lt.  Joseph (Giuseppi) Petrosino created The Bomb Squad and he did so because he was fighting the Black Hand who were setting off explosives here in NYC.  

I found this comment posted to back up what I was told by an NYPD officer after 9-11 and also what I have read in the internet.

Lt. Petrosino's memory lives on in infamy. He was responsible for forming the NYPD Bomb Squad along with being the leader of the "Italian Squad". Lt. Petrosino went after "The Black Hand" and early form of the "Mafia" as we know it today. He stood for all that is good about Italian-American's and gave his life defending his belief. I have had the privilege to meet and work with his Granddaughter who is director of Bishop Kearney high school in Brooklyn's 66 Pct. May we never forget his ultimate sacrifice. God Bless.

— Det. John D'Onofrio

Lt. Joseph (Giuseppi) Petrosino was the 1st NYPD officer to die in the line of duty abroad.  Here is a YouTube where I take you on a short tour of a special exhibition at the NY Police Museum honoring Lt. Petrosino.   An Italian film maker is making a new film about him but there are have been others including a Hollywood film starring  Ernest Borgnine playing Lt. Petrosino called "Pay or Die".

In this YouTube I show you an NYPD pin I was given with Lt. Petrosino's badge number.  I treasure this pin and I thought I lost in Grand Central Station.  The pin had fallen in to my bag and a kind man got on his hands and knees along with me to help find the back of the pin which he did as many people busily past us.