everwas

a blog by Ian Kennedy

Year: 2005

  • Chirac mocks British cuisine, UK fights back by stealing Olympics

    Nothing like a good international rivalry to brighten up your morning paper and the French politicians can always be counted on for a good zinger every now and then. Chirac’s latest off the cuff remark overheard by a reporter at the French paper Liberation was well-timed right before the G-8 summit being held in Scotland.

    “We can’t trust people who have such bad food,” Chirac was quoted as saying. He reportedly added that only Finland has worse food in Europe and that mad cow disease was Britain’s sole contribution to European agriculture.

    Ouch! Well the morning papers ate it up as everyone spoils for a good fight. Of course, when news that London clinched the 2012 Summer Olympic bid from runner-up Paris, my mailbox was peppered with all sorts of good-natured jabs such as the photo above.

  • Google’s Master Plan Revealed

    Google Master Plan

    Google’s Masterplan discovered on a “Do Not Erase” whiteboard, photographed and annotated for posterity in this Flickr posting.

  • Tintin and old friends

    Tintin and old friends

    Yesterday I had a nice suprise. Mark Prendergast, a childhood friend from when I was in 3rd grade, sent me a note filling in some details which I had left off my biography. Mark used to come over to my house and we would read my Tintin comic books and listen to The Goon Show tapes my dad had on his old reel-to-reel tape deck.

    Mark lived a culturally rich life as he was up on a hill and was able to get the NBC channel that carried the Star Trek series. I remember being left out of all the playground conversations because I didn’t know what anyone was talking about. I was down in the valley and resorted to European comics where the hero always would exclaim “Hello?” when he was shocked and offbeat British humor.

    Anyway, it’s nice to see that Tintin has left a mark as he says he now reads Tintin to his daughter. My sister, when she travelled to Thailand last year, brought me back a wooden replica of Tintin which sits on my desk at work – on his way to his next adventure.

  • July 4th weekend, Dancing ’til Dawn, BBQs, Parades, more BBQs and Fireworks

    My sister finally fulfilled her dream and dragged me out for a night on the town. We piled into two taxi cabs and raced through the streets of San Francisco to an non-descript warehouse where DJs held fourth and mixed sonic waves of sound effects to titilate the crowd into a frenzy. I had a really good time and managed, in the course of the evening, to work out a kink in my neck that had been bothering me for the past week.

    On Sunday, I went over to visit a colleague’s loft in West Oakland for some scrumptous BBQ and, while waddling back to my car, spotted a rad-looking mod car. The photo sucks (I really miss my digital camera!) but if you look closely, you might see that the whole car is covered in bones and skulls which give it a nice Mad Max effect. I’d hate to see that thing bearing down on me in my rearview mirror.

    On July 4th, I hung out with neighbors in Alameda. The entire Island was decked out in red, white, and blue bunting and many of the streets were blocked off for block parties. Thompson Avenue had it’s own casual gathering and our neighbor (who is an old school longboarder) had his extended family which are all skateboarders. Everyone from the four year old up to grand-dad himself spent the afternoon listening to surf music and shredding on the street in front of our house.

    A parade through town provided a break from the action and the entire town came out to see some 200 different groups parade the 5 mile loop that weaved down Park Avenue, along Shoreline Drive, up Grand Avenue, down Central and then back up Webster Street. I think the parade organizers wanted to mix things up a bit with some of the placements and put the Disabled Veterans right in front of Mother’s for Peace and the gay group Out on the Island in front of a local church group which is known to be anti-gay. The parade also requires some groups to boil their message down to the bare minimum with the Falun Gong foks passing out flyers to parade viewers while saying “It’s good exercise.”

    While riding through town, I spotted a Zydeco band, a street beach volleyball tournament, and a frog jumping contest. I capped out the weekend with a view of the official (an unofficial) fireworks that were being launched all around us from when it got dark around 9:30 all the way to midnight.

  • Decadence

    Decadence

    My high school roommate, Andy Hoffman, dropped me an email to ask if I wanted to join him and his skipper John as “rail meat” on his boat for an Friday evening sail to kick off the 4th of July weekend. His boat, Luna, is an Antrim 27, built for speed with high performance rigging, an open transom, and a superlight fiberglass & balsa hull. For a 27 foot, it’s got a surprisingly big cockpit and a 6′ keel fixed with a 1,000 lbs. bulb. She’s as close as you can get to a 27′ windsurfer.

    She’s moored over in San Francisco near the Presidio and we set out in 20 – 25 knot winds out under the Golden Gate over to the Marin Headlands. On our way we spotted several pairs of porpoises and and dodged a few container ships on their way out towards Asia. The seas were choppy with five foot swells and shifty wind which I understand is normal for the Bay which is some of the trickiest waters to sail in North America. The boat handles well though and with Andy’s Lynard Skynard blaring, we even dipped the boom a few times as we raced back under the Gate to Sausalito.

    We pulled up at a Tiburon sailor’s institution, Sam’s Anchor Cafe, for dinner and enjoyed the setting sun while watching the fog roll over the Sausalito hills like a gigantic, slow-motion tidal wave. Topped up with Bloody Marys and dinner, we set back home and turned on the navigation lights and planed our way back home.

    It was really amazing to be out on the Bay on a beautiful Friday evening – the city was lit up all around us but we were all alone out on the Bay with only the searchlight and fog horns of Alcatraz to keep us company. It was like our own private playground. After tying up at 10 pm I was back home taking a warm shower by 10:45 and feeling deliciously relaxed and anticipate a deep slumber with the rocking motion of the waters lulling me to sleep.

    Thanks Andy and John for a wonderful evening!

  • Peeling away the years

    renewal.jpgOn Market Street in downtown San Francisco they’re pulling away the awful faux marble facade from a building and revealing the preserved brownstone that’s been hidden from view all these years. The style reminds me of the wonderful Mauresque arches on the Stanford campus so maybe this building comes from the same era. It’ll be fun to watch this project evolve and once it’s done, I’m sure it’ll will but the other buildings on Market to shame.

  • Ian Turner Missing

    Update: He’s been found! Safe and sound but missing a passport in Atlanta.

    The blogosphere organizes itself to look for one of their missing. If anyone who attended the recent WebmasterWorld conference in New Orleans has seen him, please contact the New Orleans or Atlanta Police.

    New Orleans Police – (504) 821-2222
    Atlanta Police     – (404) 730-5700

  • Oliver Mtukudzi

    So I never got around to posting about the concert I went to see at Yoshi’s on Monday night. An old college and Tokyo friend, Rick Esquivel, suggested we go see the Zimbabwe pop artists Oliver Mtukudzi and I’m really glad I did. The venue is cozy. Mostly sit down with small tables for drinks and light food. Sushi seemed to be the dish of choice. The music was great and we had some seats right up front but couldn’t resist the urge to get up and dance.

    About halfway through the set, Oliver dedicated a song of his which had been recently covered by Bonnie Raitt to "Ms. Raitt who’s somewhere out there." I thought he meant figuratively because I know Bonnie lives in the Bay Area. Of course we were all delighted when she later bounded up on stage to belt out the chorus along with the rest of his band. She later stepped down to join us in dancing through the rest of the set.

    That’s one thing I love about living here. There are so many great musicians that make the Bay Area their home and in the grand tradition of their art, they often show up and play with visiting artists to make local concerts here truely unique experiences.

  • Treasure Hunt #3

    22730932_670ee2634e_o.jpgTypePad 10% Lifetime Discount card to the first one there. In a back alley in San Francisco. Go to blupointesf.com to find address of a yummy restaurant near Union Square, get a seat outside in the back alley and while you are enjoying your scallops and Chardonnay, look for this card on the wall opposite the restaurant.