Geek Summit, Social Media Style

In a flurry of panels, one-on-one dialogues, product promos and surprise guests, the three day Web 2.0 Summit just held in San Francisco felt a bit like speed dating for tech companies:

"Hi, my name's HP and I'm eco-friendly. What's your sign?"
"Nice to meet you. I'm Google, and I can search your shared social media and make sure you're not too creepy."
"I'm MySpace. I'm a sensitive artist. Wanna come over and see my etchings?"

Bringing together Silicon Valley execs, media moguls, content producers and techie elite in one place wasn't an easy feat, but O'Reilly Media and TechWeb did a bang-up job, overflowing the ballroom at The Westin San Francisco Market Street.

Not afraid to bring out a little tension from high stakes competitors in the growing new media marketplace, John Battelle and Tim O'Reilly asked some sharp and intriguing questions of the speakers, enticing a Battle of the Bands style presentation as many presenters made major product announcements during the conference, including large screen demos and glossy booths. Wednesday's sponsoring headliner was Microsoft, introducing Bing's Twitter search, just before Google's encore performance announcing a Twitter deal and their upcoming Social Search.

The metropolitan crowd came laptops in-hand and left with plenty of exciting new ideas to take home and prepare for the next new new thing, but the waves rippling across the twitterverse will continue. Meanwhile, check out John Battelle's conference play list.

(Reposted from my column at SFGate.com.)

Blogging the Democratic National Convention This Week

Thanks to the MOMocrats for initiating this great project... I'm going to Denver today, covering the Democratic National Convention for several online publications (mostly blogs) including:

Sairy
BlogHer
MOMocrats
Obama HQ Blog
WomenCount Blog
FutureCampaigns Blog
Silicon Valley Moms Blog
Huffington Post - Off the Bus
The Political Voices of Women

I'll be spending time pretty much everywhere - at the convention itself, in the Big Tent, at the Unconventional Women event, the EMILY's List events, Youth delegation events, California events, New Democrats Network events, getting together with Emerge alumni, meeting people and of course partying. I'm particularly looking forward to the Rocky Mountain Blogger Bash which looks to be a great way to kick back, and the Big Tent will be hopping I'm sure.

Follow the action via Twitter - sairy - and momocrats!

Sebelius is Ready for DC and Coming to SF

As I wrote at MOMocrats today, I'm a big fan and supporter of Kathleen Sebelius. I may have mentioned that on this blog before as well. Essentially she took on a tough job as governor of Kansas - she's a woman Democrat in a state traditionally governed by Republican white guys. Mostly anyway. Now she may be our next best hope for breaking the glass ceiling if Hillary Clinton can't get the nomination. Kathleen Sebelius is on Obama's short list for a VP running mate. And she's a seasoned executive leader with a great record. So I'm excited to meet her tomorrow night in SF for an event where she'll be speaking. I'll be writing about that in the next couple of days.

There's an interesting article by Ben Adler on Politico.com about the women who might be good VP options for Obama.

Election Day Tomorrow - Make a Difference!

Just a reminder, particularly to Californians and San Franciscans who read this blog - tomorrow is election day. You can vote for Mayor of San Francisco or Palo Alto City Council and School Board or Menlo Park Fire District or whatever fits your locale, but don't think this election doesn't matter - local politics are important and your vote will make a much greater difference in this smaller, local election where only several thousand people submit ballots. So find your polling place and even if you haven't remembered to change an address or whatever, submit a provisional ballot and get it done.

If You Want to Write a Novel, There's No Time Like November

National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo, begins again this Thursday, November 1st. It's a month-long journey into the experience of speed fiction, and tens of thousands (perhaps more?) have participated to date. "The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30." Loads of people do it, and they love it. The idea is to focus on quantity, not quality, and to come to the end and say: "hey, I wrote a novel."

NaNoWriMo was founded by Chris Baty, who also came up with my nickname, Sairy. He's a friend from high school and he now runs the nonprofit, the Office of Letters and Light, which manages NaNoWriMo, Script Frenzy, and more based in Oakland. Chris also authored No Plot? No Problem! the handbook and kit for writing novels quickly. Chris is a brilliant writer, and NaNoWriMo has enjoyed significant success to date.

In any case, if you've ever wanted to write a novel, this is a great environment - supportive, fun, and low key. Best wishes to everyone who participates in NaNoWriMo this year!

New Environmental Activism Social Network eRedux

This is in just-launched mode, but it's worth a look - eRedux - "neighborhood-level social networking about the environment." It doesn't necessarily offer any features we haven't seen before in other places, but it's all targeted to local and environmental concepts.

For example, the front page currently shows a cool carbon footprint map by state, illustrating how population drives pollution. The site is primarily zip code based, and it has links to air quality and emissions, local farmers' markets, political contributions, lowest gas prices and more cool "green web tools." It also lists a green events calendar and a local map that I'm assuming will have more features in the future. They should be allowing local submissions of environment-related articles soon as well.

As a former city-level environmental commissioner and a local eco-activist, I think this site could really be of use to local groups like we have working in Menlo Park and Atherton. It would be nice to have one online hub for activities.

Hillary in Hillsborough

How could she not open her speech by talking about the weather on a day like yesterday? I could see across the Bay from this amazing property in Hillsborough - Redwood trees, gazebo and terraced gardens overlooked a tented lawn and the most perfect pool setting I've seen outside of Italy. Hillary Clinton, hopeful first woman president of the U.S. (applause please, everyone always applauds when this is mentioned and she's in the room), came to speak to 200 people. She sparkled as she came out into the sun before entering the tent.

This was my second time to see Hillary Clinton in person - my first was in the spring at a much greater distance. This time she was 10 feet from me, close enough to see the expressions on her face and notice the details in her jewelry. As she spoke - about the economy, energy policy, healthcare, education, innovation and terrorism - I felt both humbled at the opportunity and awed by how one woman, her voice hoarse from speaking around the country, can persevere through so much to achieve this simple but incredible goal of leadership.

Although most people in the group I'd peg as moderate Democrats, we had a significant share of Republicans at the event, which made the discussions during and after the event a little different than when I saw Senator Clinton last in San Francisco. There was more talk about bipartisanship and incentives for businesses, more discussion about making college affordable for everyone, and encouraging innovation while simultaneously bringing down prices in the healthcare and energy sector.

Senator Clinton spoke at length about her top priorities both now as a senator and for the future as president. She emphasized the need for a new energy policy "for our security, our environment and our economy." She jabbed at George Bush - "you cannot be a leader if no one is following." She discussed how in order to make the sweeping changes that are necessary, we will have to "reform the government."

When asked about how she would proceed in the "war on terror," she had a 3 point plan beginning with regaining the "moral authority that we've lost." "We're now seeing the results ofthe deterioration in Pakistan," she said. She thinks it's the most dangerous place in the world right now, and she thinks they have nukes. "We've got to be vigilant - not fearful bit vigilant."

On the environment, she said "it's not going to be easy (major environmental progress) but we are making some positive changes," talking about the time we have before the election. She lauded former Vice President Gore for his Nobel prize and for his efforts, but she said "I think Al would be happier with a policy than a prize," knowing there is much work that needs to be done on her part in order to make the necessary changes.

About healthcare, Hillary brought out her vast knowledge of that area and cited several related statistics. "We can't continue to spend more than anyone else in the world and not cover everyone." She also advocated on behalf of electronic medical records, saying it would save us $44Billion/year. That figure I find staggering, but I've often wondered at the disorganized fashion of most medical records as a technologist. This could build and expand businesses too, from what I know of the industry. She talked about creating new jobs and coming to agreements with everyone in biotech, insurance, "big pharma" and the rest of us and how it's unlikely the first step will be much more than a lot of compromise for everyone, but she indicated that may be the only way we can get everyone covered.

Senator Clinton spoke at great length about the challenges we have in education. She wants to provide pre-Kindergarten in 50 states. Because there's a huge drop-out rate by the third grade. Third grade! It makes me sick to think about it. She thinks it's deplorable what's happening with the cost of college education. "A lot of people in mortgage crisis are there because they took out second mortgages to send their kids to college," she said. She told stories about some of the people she's met in that situation. She also said that the U.S. is declining in the percentage of people who are going to college now, compared to many other countries.

The senator and former first lady spoke for over an hour and took Q&A for at least 30 minutes more before being whisked away to catch a flight to her next event. Hosted by Cynthia Shuman and Dan Banks and Chaired by former California State Senator Jackie Speier, the lunch event lasted longer than I expected. Jackie Speier, as always, was radiant in her introduction and shared personal stories that illustrate why she's supporting (and speaking on behalf of) Senator Clinton. There was some buzz as well about when Jackie will run for office next. Everyone in the room, of course, will be rooting for Jackie in her next race.

My mom, who happened to be in town this week, kindly sponsored my attendance to the event, since intimate political fundraisers (yes, 200 people is "intimate") tend to cost a pretty penny. She came along with me, and I was able to find one friend at short notice who came as well. She's one of the registered Republicans and she was impressed by Hillary's knowledge of the issues, but she's a tough sell (in this case because she knew one of the Republican candidates personally).

There's still a lot of talk among women and men about whether Hillary's electable - I thought that was past - but I guess not. The truth is we'll never know until it happens. Polling results say it's possible. I keep pointing-out to people that several of the first milestones in women's political history were in cases where women took offices their husbands previously occupied, so there's actually a strong precedent for this. People talk about her baggage, the smear campaigns against her, etc. and all I can say is it's sad how much of our tax money has been wasted to turn the American public against one woman - a smart, dedicated, driven, amazing person - who can and is making a monumental difference in the state of our world.

These are not simple problems Senator Hillary Clinton faces and they don't have simple solutions, nor is her list of adversaries small, but as I study her - through the debates, seeing her in person, reading what she writes, learning about her character from those who know her - I just can't help but feel that we would be in good hands if and when she becomes president. She's not sugar-coating what needs to be done and she's not making promises she can't keep. It's refreshing to me both to see a woman and someone who presents a realistic perspective on our situation as a nation, but who brings people together in a problem-solving fashion to address these issues in a proactive, insightful way. At one point during her speech, she rebuked Bush's choices as president and rhetorically asked, "how about appointing qualified people [to their posts in our government]?" Let's start by electing one.

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Also posted on the Silicon Valley Moms Blog.

Cybersalon Summary From Last Week - Politics 101, Web 2.0, and Democracy vs. Demagoguery

First mentioned at Cybersalon, a "round table" (round room) discussion that took place in Berkeley last weekend, was that Joan Blades of MoveOn and MomsRising couldn't attend due to the Senate's censure of MoveOn for the Petraeus-Betray Us ad. The group (40 or so people, mostly local) discussed whether MoveOn's decision to run costly print advertising like this was worth it. Most said yes, since they made $500,000 in one day as a result. One person noted that Hillary Clinton, on the talk show circuit, said the reason the Republicans were coming out against the ad was to change the subject. Some said there were better ways to make their money and gave suggestions. Not that this crowd was biased at all. (Please note sarcasm.)

The discussion moved to whether or not the Internet is really making a difference in politics, and many talked about how it depends on its use. I agreed with the quote Sylvia Paull, Cybersalon organizer, said about Esther Dyson noting that technology itself is neutral and how it can be used for either. (I'm paraphrasing.) My example: blogs. You can use them as dictatorial mechanisms with strict content and message control, no comments or massive comment censorship, or you can leave them totally open. One woman said she thought that due to all of the frustration about the 2000 and 2004 elections, it was nice to have a place to vent online. I also pointed-out that voter data seems to have spiked in direct relation to greater use of the Internet in campaigns.

Then the discussion moved toward military censorship of soldiers. One person seemed irate that this would happen; another said that's always happened. Either way, they made it sound as if soldiers' email and outside communications access is so limited, they can barely say more to their families than they are alive vs. actually giving their real opinions about the war.

Then the talk came to how people can make a difference on a local level. The site, Kitchen Democracy was mentioned along with the San Leandro Citizens Network. Someone from Progressive Punch introduced himself. Also MapLight was there. Everyone concurred that a great way to GOTV is through neighborhood weekly "Margarita Fridays" where you get your neighbors on the block to come over, drink margaritas and talk about local issues. Sounds good to me.

Rosebud Revisited - Peter Finch & Thunderbird Theatre Production in SF

What do H. G. Wells, Orson Welles, Huey Lewis and Tom Stoppard have in common? "Aaah! Rosebud," a new play by KFOG News Director, Peter Finch, directed by Dylan Russell and produced by the Thunderbird Theatre Company. A comedy of Evil Dead proportions, featuring an "evil sled" (often referred to as a "she-devil" by multiple characters in the play), the play takes us "Back in Time" to retell the story of Citizen Kane, where a collection of crafty champion curlers fight a killer cabal.

The theme of the play twists the tale on why Kane's final word was "Rosebud", taking it in a comedic direction vs. a serious one. Finch, a veteran actor for the Thunderbird Theatre Company, wrote the play with the theatre company and several of their regular actors in mind according to the Chronicle article. He acts splendidly in the two roles he plays. My husband, brought up in Michigan, was cracking up at his Canadian curler accent as Mack.

We signed up for the play to see our friend, Maria Ross as Esther, belting an off-key musical number and taking on some not so pretty new personality traits. (I could tell you, but I don't like spoilers.) She didn't disappoint; nor did any of the other actors including Max Bernstein, who, proving the world is always indeed a small place, was a former co-worker of mine at NDA. (I didn't know he was in the play before perusing the cast list in the program.) Other actors include (in alphabetical order) Faith Aeryn, Shay Casey, Dirk Echols, Emma Fassler, Matt Gunnison, Jason Harding, Rob Herrmann, Z'ev Jenerik, and Nathan Tucker. I was always annoyed when they told us in playwriting classes the rule was to never write more than 8 actors into a play (due to the cost of production); kudos to Finch for ignoring that.

There are some really silly moments in "Aaah! Rosebud". My favorites included the "Washington Lobbyist" cardboard cut-out's place in Xanadu, some great newspaper headlines, and a lot of jabs at the musical, "Cats". And the song adds a feel-good element to the ending. The only problem I had with the plot was when the curlers (ok, so one brief spoiler required for this) are standing over a pristine sheet of ice that is being soiled by a bloody corpse and their first action is to be sad over their friend's death rather than appalled by the soiling of their frictionless practice surface. I'm kidding, of course, but as a figure skater, I had to make one joke about it.

The play takes many fun twists and turns, breaks the fourth wall on occasion in a Ferris Bueller-esque way, and follows baguette-length tangents toward dramatic and comedic ends. (Trust me, this will mean more when you see the play, which I highly recommend if you're at all a fan of the stage or comedy.) An easy hop into SOMA for a fun night, don't forget to stop by Basil for dinner beforehand.

At intermission the night we attended, the company gave away raffle prizes as well as some prizes for a random drawing for getting on their mailing list. My husband won the drawing for 3rd prize and I won first prize which included a photo with the character of my choice. I chose Mack, played by Peter Finch. (See the blurry photo of a Polaroid below.) All in all, it was a good time.


"Aaah! Rosebud" is running August 23rd through September 8th at the New Langton Arts theatre at 1246 Folsom Street and September 21st-22nd at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts at 2640 College Ave. in Berkeley. Don't forget to support the San Francisco Bay Area Curling Club.

Hillary Clinton in SF on August 12 - $250 for Young Professionals

I'll be out of town for this, but the Bay Area LGBT Community and The Young Professionals of San Francisco for Hillary invite you to a cocktail reception in support of the Hillary Clinton for President Exploratory Committee with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday, August 12, 2007 at Trader Vic’s, 555 Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco. VIP tickets are $2300 and the general reception begins at 5:30 and is $250 for young professionals. RSVP here.

John Edwards in Palo Alto Last Night and in SF Today

I've now had the opportunity to see Elizabeth Edwards twice including last week at BlogHer and last fall with the Silicon Valley Moms Blog in a small group, so I was eager to go as my husband's guest to see John Edwards speak last night at a gathering in Palo Alto. (Disclaimer: Chuck gets the contribution credit for anything for John Edwards; I get it for Hillary Clinton and it's likely we'll end up voting accordingly, but we both see things we like in both candidates and we will both work hard to get either one elected next November.)

My friend and co-blogger from the Silicon Valley Moms Blog, Glennia Campbell, has a fabulous post about the event at her blog, The Silent I, so I don't feel the need to expound upon the event much more myself except to say that Edwards began by talking about the environment and he continued making references to it all throughout his talk and the Q&A. Given what I know about the crowd that attended, I think Edwards is really targeting the environmental vote, and he's smart to do so. His environmental policy isn't the most aggressive of all of the Democratic candidates, although he won the MoveOn poll - Richardson's is - but it's out in front with his passion about poverty issues.

I just heard from a friend who attended the Edwards event in San Francisco with 800 people and another small group event that both went well. For those who say he's falling behind in this or that poll, I wouldn't count Edwards out yet. We still have six months until the primaries. A lot can happen.

techPresident on Compete.com Data - Site Visits Mirror Recent Polls

I thought this post by Micah Sifry of techPresident was prescient - according to compete.com, site visit stats so far this year mirror polling data both nationally and in key states like Iowa and California. As of June, Clinton has a strong lead. Republican data isn't as strong as Democratic data in general - it's widely known they aren't campaigning as heavily online - but their rankings still line up fairly well.

Seeking Women to Run for Office!

The following is excerpted from something that was sent to me through Emerge America, a national women's Democratic political leadership training program):

"Can you think of a “PTA mom” who should run for school board? A community leader who should run for city council? A businesswoman who should run for the legislature? Introducing the She Should Run campaign, a brand new project of the Women's Campaign Forum, aimed at gathering the nominations of 1,000 pro-choice women to run for public office... "

Do you know a pro-choice woman who should run for office? Tell her that she should run:
http://www.sheshouldrun.org/EmergeAmerica

"Women don’t need to be career politicians to be qualified to hold political office. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was a small business owner before she ran for state representative. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney was a teacher and school administrator before she ran for New York City Council. And Congresswoman Gwen Moore was a Milwaukee AmeriCorps *VISTA volunteer before running for state assembly. These women ran because they were leaders in their communities – and somebody encouraged them to reach even higher. We all know someone who should run for office. It could be your mother. Your sister. Your co-worker. Your neighbor. Your friend."

Local? Ask me questions about Emerge California as well. It's a great program.

FREE Debate Viewing & Party At New Hillary Clinton SF HQ on Monday

Everyone who visits this blog is invited to the grand opening of the Hillary Clinton for President Northern California Headquarters this Monday night, July 23rd at 1122 Howard Street, top floor in San Francisco. (That's South of Market, between 7th and 8th. Easy highway access.)

The fun will begin at 4pm with the debate viewing on CNN/YouTube. Then the party begins at 6pm. Meet Clinton supporters, local elected officials, volunteers and political friends. See a real campaign office in action. No charge.

It doesn't matter if you support Senator Clinton or not, and I don't care if you're a Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian, Socialist, Communist, etc... if you're interested in watching the debate and you're willing to consider voting for her, you're welcome. It's not often you get invited to a political event like this. The energy involved in this campaign is really exciting. Be a part of the process and witness history in the making.

RSVP to mmartin(at)hillaryclinton(dot)com.

P.S. Check out my new blog, 1st Lady POTUS, at hillaryclinton.com. Sign up to volunteer and you can start one too!

Patagonia's Latest Grantee & New Palo Alto Store

Saturday, the new Patagonia store in Palo Alto held their Grand Opening. With hourly raffles, live music, and community organizations in-house, it was really fun. (Not to mention the shopping. I came out with an organic cotton/hemp blend jacket and an organic cotton cap.) The new space suits the store well. I was impressed with their new line of shoes and they have an entire section devoted to eco books. (This is not new from other stores, but it's right in front where it's easy to see.) I was also happy to see that since their opening, they've gotten a lot of pro-environment petitions signed. That's something I've always admired about Patagonia.

A pioneer in technical and eco clothing, Patagonia is now making jackets out of recycled polyester as well as expanding their organic product line. I was also impressed by their children's clothing since I'd never really looked at that before having a baby. Our daughter's been decked-out in Patagonia since birth, but it was all gifts - this was my first time in one of their stores since.

Patagonia gave away a $1000 gift certificate at 4pm to a local woman through a drawing, they had some fantastic ice cream, courtesy of Rick's Ice Cream ("Palo Alto's gourmet micro creamery"), great cookies, drinks, and the Save Nature organization provided some very cool bugs to pet - an African millipede, a pair of not-so-scary domesticated giant cockroaches, and a couple of exotic walking sticks. Hidden Villa and the Sierra Club also had tables present. A $5000 grant was presented to Ventana Wildlife Society. They had the most votes on the Patagonia site for their organization. It was well-deserved.

I'll be going back to Patagonia again once the crowd subsides to do more shopping - they have some great skirts, shirts, tunics, jackets, shorts and cropped pants to last through summer and early fall.

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(Also posted at SFBayStyle.)

Report From Yesterday's "Ultimate Women's Power Lunch" in SF

Yesterday, I had the unique opportunity, thanks to Emerge America, to sit with a group of a few hundred women at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco and celebrate Nancy Pelosi's 20 years of service in the U.S. Congress and her election as Speaker of the House. They called it the "Ultimate Women's Power Lunch". I don't know if I'd go that far, but it was fun to catch-up with friends and although I'd met Speaker Pelosi before, it had been a few years. They showed a wonderful tribute to her service, including when she invited her grandchildren and other children in the House on the day of her swearing-in up to the podium with her. I have to admit that image brought tears to my eyes.

Nita Whitaker sang the most spectacular version of "God Bless America" I've ever heard. I felt like the ballroom was about 10 square feet with her voice able to carry several football fields in distance. In a past life, I sang in musicals, choirs, ensembles and the like, so I've studied voice and I'm particularly critical of female vocalists, but she blew me away. I was breathless.

Anyway, back to politics. So the DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee), through yesterday's lunch raised $1.2 Million for their Women LEAD program. The speakers included Congresswoman Allison Schwartz, Chairwoman of Women LEAD, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (our gal from Silicon Valley), and of course Madame Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, who received a well-deserved standing ovation when she came up to speak.

There was a lot of talk about "breaking the marble ceiling" and Speaker Pelosi detailed the long history of how we've been chipping away at that ceiling for 200 years. Then she spoke about her goals as Speaker of the House and how she's started to "drain the swamp that is Washington, D.C." She spoke about how we need to rely on scientific data for making progress on the environment and other issues, and that science and faith "both reflect truth" and in essence can work together.

Be prepared for when Congress returns to Washington - Nancy Pelosi says getting us out of Iraq is 1st priority and she wants it completed by April 1st, 2008. She said we're spending $10 Billion a month there. I couldn't believe that figure. Imagine all we could do with that money... and she said that generals who are leaving the military are advising her to withdraw now. I've been taking a back seat on the Iraq issue because I really don't know much about the state of the Middle East and I figure people who do need to make those decisions. But when she said the generals say we should leave, that got my attention. And she also said that the strategy they are advising does not mean we won't have troops in Iraq to deal with terrorist cells - that's something different entirely.

Speaker Pelosi & Geraldine Ferraro Speaking July 9 in SF

This is an event that any Democratic woman interested in politics will want to attend: The first woman Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and the first woman Vice Presidential nominee, Geraldine Ferraro, at the "Ultimate Women's Power Lunch" celebrating Pelosi's 20 years of service in the House on July 9th at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. Funds raised go to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). General tickets are $500 but there's also a "Young Professional" rate for $100. Sign up here. You'll find me there at the Emerge table.

Fashion Show Benefitting Leukemia & Lymphoma on Thursday

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society are hosting their third annual fashion show, "Five Designers and a Poodle", Thursday (June 21) at Mezzanine, 444 Jessie Street. The show features Colleen Quen, Rachel Roy, Bacca Da Silva, Simayof and "many more". VIP Reception begins at 6:30 and main event starts at 7:30, lasting until 1a.m.
General admission of $75 includes wine, food, fashion show, silent auction, and dancing. VIP reception tickets for $125/person include goody bags and more food options. Supposedly 100% of the proceeds go to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (that's nearly unheard-of for nonprofit fundraising events.) To get tickets, call 415-989-0230 or email info[at]hathawaypr.com.
(Cross-posted at sfbaystyle.com.)

Silicon Valley & Bay Area Charitable Giving Pales in Comparison to Other Areas

I've been meaning to blog about this for a while... for anyone who didn't see the April San Francisco magazine, they reviewed philanthropic giving in Silicon Valley, the Bay Area, and Los Angeles. They got the numbers from the NewTithing Group. Unfortunately I couldn't find out how they differentiate between "Bay Area" and "Silicon Valley" but it's no shock to me that people farther south of San Francisco toward San Jose contribute less philanthropically. However, not that much less. L.A., on the other hand, gives twice as much per capita than the Bay Area.

Nationally, California is way below other states like Oklahoma and Nebraska, whereas Utah is highest on the list. (I don't know if this includes church giving - the LDS church urges most members to give at least 10% in tithing to the church so that could skew the numbers if so.) In any case, California is 22nd in philanthropic giving nationally according to the research done by that group.

While poking around, I found an interesting site for nonprofit benchmarking at The Center for What Works.

The Police - Arrested Development Turned at Last to Harmony

I've been doing the rounds of old timers concerts the past few years - Simon & Garfunkel, Yes, the Doobie Brothers, and I would've been to see Paul McCartney but I was 9 months pregnant and on bed rest and just didn't feel up to it, aside from the risk to my baby's ears in utero. Last night I was lucky (thanks to my husband's eBay gravitas) to see The Police at the Oakland Coliseum - only the third stadium tour I've seen (including the Jacksons, circa '85 and Billy Joel & Elton John, circa '95).

Getting there was a chore - traffic was some of the worst I've ever been in over my whole life. It was worth it, but if I had to do it again, I would've taken Caltrain to BART and brought some sandwiches. Finally entering the stadium, wafts of pot smoke filled the air as thousands of people pushed and shoved to get through lines of nearly 100 to get to the ATM, the bathroom, the beer. We were still on the concourse when the concert began, grabbing a late dinner after 2.5 hours in traffic and could see the entire stadium full of people. Just the audience itself was a sight to behold, but then seeing that trio of so many classic tunes together on stage after a 20 year hiatus was a breath to behold.

I wasn't an immediate fan of The Police as a kid. I didn't like Sting's voice at first because - and this took me a long time to figure-out - he tends to ride the low side of notes, lingering dangerously close to being flat. And the raspiness mixed with the style of some of their songs - the reggae elements, perhaps - was a little too mature for me as a pre-teen. Then one day I listened to the lyrics of "Every Breath You Take" while my dad was in the ICU of a hospital on a ventilator and it struck a chord deep inside me. The words can be interpreted different ways, of course, but for me as an 11 year-old, I stuck more with the literal connotations and I kept meaning to dedicate it through "American Top 40" during my dad's long recovery, but I was too chicken to try. As I grew older, I learned to appreciate the musicality and depth in the sound both in the music by The Police and Sting's solo stuff. I bought all of their albums and listened intently to the quality of their unique sound.

As we made our way last night to our seats in the 3rd row on the field, off to the right by the speakers, and the way it was setup, we were basically right next to the barrier of the stage area (but still about 100 feet from the band). We were close enough to see their body language from a distance, but not their faces. Still, with a jumbo jumbotron right next to us, we could see every nuance on their faces just fine through the camera's eye. Clearly, Andy Summers didn't want the camera on him and he spent the first few songs looking frustrated while Stewart Copeland had a serious look on his face, pounding away on his immense drum set, but Sting, veteran performer and one of the most beautiful men in the world, held the show together, using every ounce of his glorious charisma to get the 3 musicians to play to the same beat while calming the audience with his melodious voice.

I've learned from being a singer in ensembles that warming-up and rehearsing just before a concert is essential. I'm guessing they didn't do that. Acoustic guitar, wireless bass, a couple of drumsticks and a can - whatever... just to get the muscle memory working. It takes the body longer to warm-up as you get older, no matter how talented you are. It took them 4-5 songs to really gel. Physically that's to be expected, but when you pay a pretty penny to see legends play music, you expect a little more precision. After seeing Simon and Garfunkel though, these guys seemed polished. It took Art Garfunkel until almost the encore to warm-up his voice.

In their defense, it's incredibly difficult to play in an outdoor arena setting like that - the acoustics are tough to hear. For bands like Rush who've played together in every setting for over 30 years, it's no big deal, but there were moments in this concert where Sting had to start the song like a high school garage band: "1, 2, 1, 2, 3..." to get them all on tempo. Copeland, it's been noted, is one of the most incredible drummers ever, so half the reason I wanted to see this show was to see him. I've studied Neil Peart, Ray Cooper and others, I am always impressed by those drummers who can play both drums and percussion brilliantly - Copeland is one of them. And as we're all our own worst critics, he roasted their performance in Vancouver.

I think Oakland was probably better. The mistakes I noticed were really miniscule and since many people in the audience were drunk, stoned and/or tone deaf (I think one woman behind us was all three), I doubt most people noticed. By the end of the tour, they'll be in great shape. I think Sting surprised himself singing some of the high notes later in the set. Hey, if Elton can still do it after major rehab, Sting and his finely tuned instrument should be A-OK.

Some of the unique points in the show are worth noting, like Sting's ancient Fender bass - his original - warn and tattered - he probably gets splinters from it, but it looks great and sounds great on stage. Summers's guitar was held on his shoulder by a strap reading "Oh my God, he killed Kenny!" with a picture of the red coated South Park character. It added an element of comedy to the stoic look on the guitarist's face during most of the show. "Wrapped Around Your Finger" included not only amazing percussion but some nice visual effects with the candles from their old video. They showed moving video footage of children and soldiers in Iraq (I'm guessing here, but it was definitely the Middle East) during "Invisible Sun". I like it when musicians ask their audiences to think a little with that kind of message in concerts - U2 and Rush have shown footage like this.

Supposedly the band changed keys of a few songs (I noticed something different but couldn't pinpoint that until later) which may contribute to the slower pace - they weren't used to playing it that fast in another key... makes sense. I'm sure they have their reasons for doing that and it's a risk they can take with packed stadiums all over the world. They definitely altered the vocals to lower in several songs - and although it still sounded good, I missed the old melodies. I also missed the higher backup vocals. I could tell Summers and Copeland were singing backup vocals during the performance, but they weren't mixed in very well - I thought they could've been a little louder as to not be overshadowed by the guitars, but perhaps it was just where we were sitting that they sounded that way.

By the time the trio got to "Roxanne", they were playing perfectly. It was like being transformed back in time to see them live. Then they went on to "King of Pain" and "Every Breath You Take", both which were fantastic to see and hear. They performed 3 encores and at the end took a few bows holding hands together - all of them smiling. We were mesmerized. I don't know about the rest of the crowd, but they had me wrapped around their fingers.