leftcoasters

Photos from Paso Robles, Templeton & Cambria - February 2010

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:39:00 -0800

Photos from Barcelona & Mobile World Congress - February 2010

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:36:00 -0800

If this (right outside my “office” window)...

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:34:12 -0800

If this (right outside my “office” window) doesn’t mean FiOS is finally coming to my pad, I don’t know what ever will!

Eddie Izzard at Nokia Theatre - 1/30/10

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:14:13 -0800

Eddie Izzard at Nokia Theatre - 1/30/10

I’ve been trying to track down this acoustic version of...

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:53:25 -0800

I’ve been trying to track down this acoustic version of “Life During Wartime” by Billie Joe Armstrong for years. It’s a great song he did with Pinhead Gunpowder years ago. Hopefully now I can enjoy it whenever I want right here on my blog. The YouTube video is pointless, but so be it.

Remembering Howard Zinn

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:21:00 -0800

We all lost a tireless friend today.

What can I possibly say about the historian/activist that helped reignite my passion for history when I read “A People’s History of the United States” during my senior year of high school? Thank you for helping me love history and writing about it in such a fun, powerful and rewarding way.

I’d originally fallen in love with history when I learned about America’s war of independence in the 5th grade, but eventually, powerful forces like cynicism and punk rock helped me rethink everything, including the official versions of history I’d previously been taught. Howard Zinn’s shocking and unafraid portrayal of American history couldn’t have had any greater impact on me or my eventual decision to study history more thoughtfully and in-depth from there forward.

I’m grateful for the opportunities I had to see Zinn speak in Berkeley, Newport Beach and Santa Cruz. I also got to see a couple performances of his remarkable play “Marx in Soho.”

I’d like to close with Zinn’s own words from his essay, “We Need New Ways,” which he wrote immediately following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

WE NEED NEW WAYS by HOWARD ZINN

“The images on television horrified and sickened me. Then our political leaders came on television, and I was horrified and sickened again.

They spoke of retaliation, of vengeance, of punishment. I thought: they have learned nothing, absolutely nothing, from the history of the 20th century, from a hundred years of retaliation, vengeance, war, a hundred years of terrorism and counter-terrorism, of violence met with violence in an unending cycle of stupidity.

Will we now bomb Afghanistan, and inevitably kill innocent people, because it is in the nature of bombing to be indiscriminate? Will we then be committing terrorism in order to ‘send a message’ to terrorists? Yes, it is an old way of thinking, and we need new ways.

A $300 billion military budget has not given us security. Military bases all over the world, our warships on every ocean, have not given us security. Land mines, a ‘missile defense,’ will not give us security.

We need to imagine that the awful scenes of death and suffering we are witnessing have been going on in other parts of the world for a long time, and only now can we begin to know what people have gone through, often as a result of our policies.

We need to decide that we will not go to war, whatever reason is conjured up by the politicians or the media, because war in our time is always indiscriminate, a war against innocents, a war against children. War is terrorism, magnified a hundred times.”

Sara Bareilles is cool and she cusses like a sailor.

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:43:30 -0800

Sara Bareilles is cool and she cusses like a sailor.

Photos from kicking off 2010 in snowy Boston

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 22:57:40 -0800

Photos from our winter trip to midcoast Maine

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 22:53:03 -0800

Frank and Mario

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:31:00 -0800

Frank Caliendo

Mario Batali

Frank and Mario

Red Bull foam! I’ve seen it all, thanks to Sprint.

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:29:00 -0800

Red Bull foam! I’ve seen it all, thanks to Sprint.

New Year’s Day in Boston

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 15:53:00 -0800

New Year’s Day in Boston

Venturing around mid-coast Maine

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:35:00 -0800

Camden, Maine

Camden, Maine

Camden Hills State Park

Camden, Maine

Camden, Maine

Camden, Maine

Belfast, Maine

Belfast, Maine

Rockland, Maine

Rockland, Maine

Venturing around mid-coast Maine

Snow day in Rockland, Maine

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:55:00 -0800

Snow day in Rockland, Maine

Mid-coast Maine Wine Country

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 13:36:00 -0800

Mid-coast Maine Wine Country

A beautiful day in Rockland Harbor

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:35:00 -0800

A beautiful day in Rockland Harbor

Sunrise over Rockland Harbor

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 04:47:00 -0800

Sunrise over Rockland Harbor

Christmas tree made out of lobster pots in Rockland, Maine....

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 11:30:00 -0800

Christmas tree made out of lobster pots in Rockland, Maine. They’re also going to be up for grabs in a raffle soon.

Making me feel right at home here in Portland, Maine

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 06:40:00 -0800

Making me feel right at home here in Portland, Maine

Here’s a blast from the past. Check out this Deceptacons...

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 02:02:00 -0800

Here’s a blast from the past. Check out this Deceptacons cover of “I Wanna be a Homosexual” by Screeching Weasel. *note: there’s a pretty long silent intro.