MGMT is a group and a sound new to this blogger and just introduced at last week's YouTube Happy Hour at 111 Minna Street (video coming).
MGMT is a new group from Brooklyn that rose fast, having formed just outside of five years ago, recognized by SPIN Magazine three years ago, hit the British scene in two years ago, and got its first Grammy nomination this year, you'd be forgiven if you'd never heard of MGMT.
What drew me into MGMT was its pulsating, unmistakable, soulful sound. At the YouTube function I asked "Who's that?" and was told "MGMT." I was hooked.
MGMT's rocking, or perhaps given its sound pulsating, The Coachella Music Festival this weekend. Here's a video from their performance:
While MGMT pleased the Coachella audience, Billboard reports that the crowd wasn't too keen on some of their new material. The rule is don't mess with a good thing.
Stay tuned.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
A YouTube tale: The Seattle Freeze
The video below, created using YouTube / Google's searchstories application, tells a story of a California marijuana addict who seeks to start a new life in Seattle. Along the way, it seems that person ran into something called "The Seattle Freeze."
If you recall the Super Bowl Google ad, it was essentially an introduction to Youtube.com/searchstories and told the tale of a man who meets and marries a French girl. Well, this video, shown below, is in that sprit:
What's interesting about the YouTube Seattle video is what it says about Seattle through the eyes of the video maker who's channel's called RyanNoir. Is it that hard to find love in Seattle? Is is easier than finding a job or an apartment? Why?
What's the Seattle Freeze? According to a video that could not be embedded here, an action which is a kind of social network freeze itself, so here's the link, Seattlites are described as being, well, cold. One woman says she doesn't give hugs to friends or family. I'm thinking, what the hell's wrong with her? That's just plain weird. Moreover, it's neurotic because of the weird misunderstandings it creates. People like that become their own worst enemies.
On Yelp, the Seattle Freeze has its own forum, where people write their experiences with what The Seattle Times calls "Our Social Disease" that for some on Yelp seems justified...
Learning more about The Seattle Freeze, it could just as much apply to San Francisco or Atlanta. I hear similar stories from transplants to Atlanta, and San Francisco has changed such that there's a large problem of anti-social behavior. I do find that people in Atlanta reach out far more than they do in San Francisco, but not as much as in Los Angeles or New York or Chicago.
The Seattle Freeze also applies to race. While there's no discussion of The Seattle Freeze from a racial persective, observation by this blogger is that people who practice this "freeze" in many cases have a few friends, and all of the same color. There's an indirect correlation between freeze behavior and diversity.
Perhaps that's why there's no "freeze" in Los Angeles or New York or Chicago. People who exhibit that kind of fear of others in the end are the last to get good jobs or be really good friends to anyone. A city's a reflection of the people within it. The most dynamic and successful cities aren't the coldest ones socially.
Stay tuned.
If you recall the Super Bowl Google ad, it was essentially an introduction to Youtube.com/searchstories and told the tale of a man who meets and marries a French girl. Well, this video, shown below, is in that sprit:
What's interesting about the YouTube Seattle video is what it says about Seattle through the eyes of the video maker who's channel's called RyanNoir. Is it that hard to find love in Seattle? Is is easier than finding a job or an apartment? Why?
What's the Seattle Freeze? According to a video that could not be embedded here, an action which is a kind of social network freeze itself, so here's the link, Seattlites are described as being, well, cold. One woman says she doesn't give hugs to friends or family. I'm thinking, what the hell's wrong with her? That's just plain weird. Moreover, it's neurotic because of the weird misunderstandings it creates. People like that become their own worst enemies.
On Yelp, the Seattle Freeze has its own forum, where people write their experiences with what The Seattle Times calls "Our Social Disease" that for some on Yelp seems justified...
The Seattle folks seem passive -- but they're not -- they're cautious because of all of the apparent nutjobs out there. I've observed that these people don't respond well to being confronted on any level;, hence the incidents you read about in the Seattle papers about the "after the bars close" violence in this area that starts over very minor shit.
Learning more about The Seattle Freeze, it could just as much apply to San Francisco or Atlanta. I hear similar stories from transplants to Atlanta, and San Francisco has changed such that there's a large problem of anti-social behavior. I do find that people in Atlanta reach out far more than they do in San Francisco, but not as much as in Los Angeles or New York or Chicago.
The Seattle Freeze also applies to race. While there's no discussion of The Seattle Freeze from a racial persective, observation by this blogger is that people who practice this "freeze" in many cases have a few friends, and all of the same color. There's an indirect correlation between freeze behavior and diversity.
Perhaps that's why there's no "freeze" in Los Angeles or New York or Chicago. People who exhibit that kind of fear of others in the end are the last to get good jobs or be really good friends to anyone. A city's a reflection of the people within it. The most dynamic and successful cities aren't the coldest ones socially.
Stay tuned.
World Cup Soccer coming to Barbacco in San Francisco
While Oakland's Lake Chalet is still this blogger's favorite restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area and followed by The Balboa Cafe in San Francisco, Barbacco, in downtown San Francisco, is moving up the list fast. Barbacco, owned by the same group that started Parbacco next door on 220 California Street near Front Street, is more in the style of a futuristic deli cafe that you'd expect to see in a Star Trek movie.
Now you may ask why do this blog post? Did anyone ask me to do it? No. Was I an official spokesperson for them as was the case for the Lake Chalet (which was my favorite place before they asked me to help them with New Media and of which I still enjoy after the engagement)? No. Was the video paid for? No.
I did the blog post just because every time I walk in to Barbacco or Perbacco before it, the service and the food are excellent, the staff's really nice, and the owner, Umberto Gibin always greets me and has done so for years before he knew I blogged.
If I'm having a lousy day, Barbacco's a great pick-me-up. Plus, all of my friends raved about this place, so I had to try it.
Check it out.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
NFL Draft : Jahvid Best of Cal's "concussion leak" news
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| Jahvid Best |
In that game, Best tried to score a touchdown by jumping in the air. As Best did, he was hit sideways by an Oregon State defender and came down on his neck and shoulders. Best froze on the field, having suffered a concussion, and was taken to the hospital.
The article, by Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, lists the NFL Draft running backs who are "beaten up" and reports that Best suffered two concussion's in two straight games. After missing four games and a bowl game, Best decided to enter the 2010 NFL Draft. This is what I said then:
After a time it seemed the injury was behind him but this concussion leak is major. The scout said:
"Yeah, he's worried about it. Plus, he has a muscle going down from his neck to his leg that bothers him. That's my reservation on Best. He's coming in all beat up."
It's not the kind of news you want out there less than a week before the NFL Draft; this issue about the muscle is new.
That news caused ProFootballtalk.com to assert Best would be the last of the record number of 16 players to visit New York for the NFL Draft to be drafted. Some Draft watchers have Best falling toward the 2nd round and to the Detroit Lions. Based on his NFL Combine performance and ranking, this blogger believed the San Diego Charger should take Best, but that's far different that what they will do.
Stay tuned.
NFL Draft: Tim Tebow says Jerry Jones just having fun
In the latest NFL Draft news, Tim Tebow continues to show why so many people just plain like the quarterback. Asked about the now-famous rant by Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones that was caught on cell phone camcorder, where Jones said Tebow would "never get on the field," Tim Tebow gave a good natured response:
Which may be Tim Tebow's christian way of saying, "Yeah, and when I play the Cowboys, I'm gonna kick their butts up and down the field." If you didn't see the video, here it is with my take:
Since then Jerry Jones has said Tim Tebow is an "outstanding" young man, but that the Cowboys don't have a need for a quarterback. Jones also said he has special feelings for former head coach Bill Parcells, now President of The Miami Dolphins Organization.
Parcells said he and Jones "talked it out."
"I really haven't even thought about it. I don't even take that as an offense. He's just having fun."
Which may be Tim Tebow's christian way of saying, "Yeah, and when I play the Cowboys, I'm gonna kick their butts up and down the field." If you didn't see the video, here it is with my take:
Since then Jerry Jones has said Tim Tebow is an "outstanding" young man, but that the Cowboys don't have a need for a quarterback. Jones also said he has special feelings for former head coach Bill Parcells, now President of The Miami Dolphins Organization.
Parcells said he and Jones "talked it out."
Oakland Mayor's Race has ten candidates so far
See: city of oakland, mayor of oakland, ron dellums, jean quan, don macLeay, jean quan, greg harland, maya dillard smith, terrance candell
The City of Oakland, California Mayor's race is more crowded than you think. It's not just Don Perata, Don MacLeay, Oakland District 4 Councilmember Jean Quan, and Rebecca Kaplan. The Oakland Mayor's Race has ten candidates, nine of them fully known and the last one still largely "under the radar."
The full list of Oakland Mayor's Race candidates consists of incumbent Ron Dellums, Don Perata, Don MacLeay, Jean Quan, Greg Harland, Maya Dillard Smith, Terrance Candell, and an tenth person who's still not ready for prime time, but will be.
Ten choices for Mayor of Oakland, California.
This blogger just got off the phone with Greg Hatland, who's an Oaklander who graduated from Oakland High School in 1964 and lives close to California Attorney General Jerry Brown in the Oakland Hills. Hartland, who's website is at Harland4Mayor.com, decided to run for Mayor because Oakland has been a focus of crime for as long as he could remember and wanted to take action.
CLICK FOR MORE...
The City of Oakland, California Mayor's race is more crowded than you think. It's not just Don Perata, Don MacLeay, Oakland District 4 Councilmember Jean Quan, and Rebecca Kaplan. The Oakland Mayor's Race has ten candidates, nine of them fully known and the last one still largely "under the radar."
The full list of Oakland Mayor's Race candidates consists of incumbent Ron Dellums, Don Perata, Don MacLeay, Jean Quan, Greg Harland, Maya Dillard Smith, Terrance Candell, and an tenth person who's still not ready for prime time, but will be.
Ten choices for Mayor of Oakland, California.
This blogger just got off the phone with Greg Hatland, who's an Oaklander who graduated from Oakland High School in 1964 and lives close to California Attorney General Jerry Brown in the Oakland Hills. Hartland, who's website is at Harland4Mayor.com, decided to run for Mayor because Oakland has been a focus of crime for as long as he could remember and wanted to take action.
CLICK FOR MORE...
Greg Harland, Maya Dillard Smith, Terrance Candell for Mayor of Oakland
The City of Oakland, California Mayor's race is more crowded than you think. It's not just Don Perata, Don MacLeay, Oakland District 4 Councilmember Jean Quan, and Rebecca Kaplan. The Oakland Mayor's Race has ten candidates, nine of them fully known and the last one still largely "under the radar."
The full list of Oakland Mayor's Race candidates consists of incumbent Ron Dellums, Don Perata, Don MacLeay, Jean Quan, Greg Harland, Maya Dillard Smith, Terrance Candell, and an tenth person who's still not ready for prime time, but will be.
Ten choices for Mayor of Oakland, California.
This blogger just got off the phone with Greg Hatland, who's an Oaklander who graduated from Oakland High School in 1964 and lives close to California Attorney General Jerry Brown in the Oakland Hills. Hartland, who's website is at Harland4Mayor.com, decided to run for Mayor because Oakland has been a focus of crime for as long as he could remember and wanted to take action.
Harland's worked to stay relatively quiet until his campaign kickoff on May 1st from 11 AM to 5 PM PDT at Alpha Omega Worship Center located at 8627 International Blvd, in Oakland (of course). He's offering a $10 steak dinner and a chance to win a $100 cash prize at his event.
Maya Dillard Smith is someone who said she was running for Mayor last year and approached this blogger to explain her intentions. Since that time, Maya Dillard Smith's established a Facebook page as her website called Maya for Mayor, but as of this writing has not announced an official kickoff event.
Terrance Candell calls himself "The People's Mayor" and has this video below where he has others calling the other Oakland politicians sell-outs, takes a not-too-veiled swipe at Don Perata, and ends with Candell saying "I'm Terrance Candell and I'm not for sale."
Other than a March 13th campaign meeting, Terrance has no scheduled events on his extensive website at Candell4Mayor.com.
So there's the almost full, and bound to get larger, list of candidates for Mayor of Oakland. Unfortunately, you only knew of a few of them; not any more.
Stay tuned.
The full list of Oakland Mayor's Race candidates consists of incumbent Ron Dellums, Don Perata, Don MacLeay, Jean Quan, Greg Harland, Maya Dillard Smith, Terrance Candell, and an tenth person who's still not ready for prime time, but will be.
Ten choices for Mayor of Oakland, California.
This blogger just got off the phone with Greg Hatland, who's an Oaklander who graduated from Oakland High School in 1964 and lives close to California Attorney General Jerry Brown in the Oakland Hills. Hartland, who's website is at Harland4Mayor.com, decided to run for Mayor because Oakland has been a focus of crime for as long as he could remember and wanted to take action.
Harland's worked to stay relatively quiet until his campaign kickoff on May 1st from 11 AM to 5 PM PDT at Alpha Omega Worship Center located at 8627 International Blvd, in Oakland (of course). He's offering a $10 steak dinner and a chance to win a $100 cash prize at his event.
Maya Dillard Smith is someone who said she was running for Mayor last year and approached this blogger to explain her intentions. Since that time, Maya Dillard Smith's established a Facebook page as her website called Maya for Mayor, but as of this writing has not announced an official kickoff event.
Terrance Candell calls himself "The People's Mayor" and has this video below where he has others calling the other Oakland politicians sell-outs, takes a not-too-veiled swipe at Don Perata, and ends with Candell saying "I'm Terrance Candell and I'm not for sale."
Other than a March 13th campaign meeting, Terrance has no scheduled events on his extensive website at Candell4Mayor.com.
So there's the almost full, and bound to get larger, list of candidates for Mayor of Oakland. Unfortunately, you only knew of a few of them; not any more.
Stay tuned.
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