Off to Whistler I Go!

I'm heading off to Whistler for a weekend of downhill mountain biking with Soctt, my buddy Mary and her boyfriend, Ryan. I'm way too excited for this weekend. Oh and I forgot- Roscoe is coming too! We booked a room at a doggie friendly resort so he can come and hang out with the bears! I'll be taking lots of video over the weekend but am not sure about the internet connection up there so you may have to wait a while (and by this point I'm sure you're used to it.

In the mean time, check out how ridiculously awesome the bike park is there! 

Roscoe the MAN

Roscoe got fixed on Friday. Aside from the cone you just might never know he was under the weather. 

NYC Day 1.5

Yesterday was crazy. I feel like New York days are significantly longer than Seattle days, but that could be for several reasons. For instance, my body is still on west coast time but I'm waking up on east coast time. So I'm up at 7 but not in bed till one. This greatly takes away from all that sleep I was hoping to get. But I feel like I've got so much more to do!

Yesterday I woke up and attended the conference for a few hours. My panel went extremely well. It was standing room only and I counted 100 chairs so we had that as a minimum. We decided at the beginning to have it be a short talk and make the rest Q&A for folks wanting to start social media at their company. The talk lasted about an hour and a half and we got an incredible response. I had people lined up to ask me questions for at least 15 minutes afterwards and then kept getting approached in the hallways. It felt weird to have people write down what I'm saying, but I think I've got a unique perspective on social media since it's something I was just kind of plopped in to. 

After the conference and a couple hours of work I met up with my old roomate from Seattle, Andy and we walked all around Central Park, which is only about a mile from my hotel. We went to the zoo and saw the polar bears (who seemed so happy to be swimming in their tank) and the penguins who were putting on quite a funny show waddling around their habitat. I usually find myself depressed at zoos because it means animals are held captive and will never know what wild life is like. But a lot of these animals were rescues that would have died if they hadn't been brought to this zoo, like the blind seal, who was so cute and would just bump his way around the tank. So, I ended up being happier than I thought.

After the park we took the subway to Canal Street to do a little black market bargaining. I bought the new Terminator movie and Taken, which I've heard is great. Andy got a gorgeous "Rolex" watch and talked the swindler down from 120 to $40 which seemed like a decent deal. It kept time the rest of the afternoon so it's off to a good start. After Canal st, we hopped a cab to the Lower East side to go to the Mastiha shop which is like the #1 thing I wanted to do while in NY. However, they were closed! Who the hell is closed on a Monday? Turns out, lots of people. They stay open for the tourists on Sat and Sun and take Monday off. Total bullshit. I wanted my Greek candy so bad and I came all this way and took 2 subways and cab to get it and got NOTHING. I'm really really really hoping I have enough time to eek out a trip there this evening so I can take the booty back with me. Seriously, these Mastiha toffees must have some kind of drug in them because I crave them like nothing else on the planet.

After my failed trip to the Greek shop I went back to my hotel and worked a bit more before heading out to dinner with Cornelia, a friend from high school. We went to somewhere, and got Thai food in this little underground cave. It was delicious, but then again, I rarely eat a Thai dish I don't love. After dinner we went to Mamafuku bakery for some dessert. Corn got candy bar pie (which was a conglomeration of pretzels, reeces cups, dark chocolate and snickers- i know, so good) and I got atomic fireball soft serve ice cream! How cool is that? I LOVE atomic fireballs and this stuff was bright red and tasted just like the candy!! What a weird thing to eat, but fun too.

After dinner I came back and worked till about 1am, which is WAY past my bed time. But, like I said I'm still running west coast time so it was technically 10pm which made it all seem a bit more reasonable. 

That was day 2. I don't expect today to be quite as crazy as yesterday, or nearly as long since I have to be out of my hotel at 5:30am to head back to Seattle tomorrow. Ick.

Quick Impressions

I'm in New York, specifically Times Square. If you've been here you know what a cluster it is. It's insane. It's not normal. It's not something I could handle for more than a few minutes a day. I got in last night, ate a quick meal at the hotel and ventured out for a walk around the mayhem. Here's what impressed me:

The late hours that stores are open is great. I was able to do a little shopping at 9pm, which, technically for me is 6pm so it didn't feel all that weird but it was 9pm and these stores were packed. Sadly for me H&M was a bit too far and I wanted to get to bed at a reasonable hour east coast time. I did make it to major tourist hot spot, the M&M store and I felt like happy puked all over me when I walked in the door. I also forked over $12 for M&Ms that I could pick out. Upon further investigation, I could have spent $4 at the grocery store and gotten my eclectic mix of Peanut butter M&Ms, Dark chocolate M&Ms and Almond M&Ms. But it was just so fun to pull the shoot and have them pour out into my bag.

The food at my hotel is good so far. I've experienced mediocre hotel fare, so was happy when I had a delicious piece of halibut with stewed grapes (!) for dinner last night. Yay Crowne Plaza! The service at dinner was great. They brought me the New York Times sports page to read while I dined alone watching the lights of Times Square flash below.

The extreme number of different cultures is mind blowing. I've been here before, but never alone. And when you're here alone you tend to watch and listen a lot more than if you were with someone else. I was taken aback by the dozens of different languages I heard, and was impressed that people understood the flow of traffic even though they may not come from a "keep to the right of the road" mentality.

The street vendors work LATE. And not just the dudes selling pretzels (which I will stuff into my face in a few hours and I can not wait) but the dudes hawking fake sun glasses and pashminas and purses. I suppose if the streets are packed with people you may as well pack the people with street vendors. This city employs a lot of people that aren't financial sector assholes. People that are trying to make an ironically honest living selling fake Dolce and Gabana sunglasses (that, by the way, make THE BEST snowboarding goggles ever, which is one thing I will purchase while I'm here.) must pull in a decent amount of cash of off tourists like me who don't give a shit if it's legit (someone should trademark that!).

What I was unimpressed with:

The smoking. Everyone smokes. It's gross. I was fearing for my nice Arc'teryx jacket that it would get burn holes in it from some careless jerk flinging his cigarette around. And seriously, this city is polluted enough, do we REALLY need to have cigarette smoke blown in our faces while we peruse the town? This kind of shit does not happen in Seattle. If it did, I'd give the person a piece of my mind. Here, I don't quite have that level of comfort shooting off my mouth, so I suck it up, and gag.

The slow moving pace of people. I'm admittedly a fast walker for someone with short legs. I'm not intentionally in a hurry but I don't like to go slow and waste time if I don't have to. Here, you have to. There is just so much to see and gawk at that you have to stop every five steps and wait for people to pull their mouths off the ground and keep the flow of traffic going. But I tell you, it's hard for me to stop. I smell the roses all the time, but not when I'm trying to get somewhere at a certain point. It bugs me.

One thing is for sure, American spirit is alive and flourishing in this place. It really is the city that doesn't sleep (except for me. I slept 8 hours thank you very much.). People fork over money for crappy statues of Lady Liberty, and while someone may not be paying taxes on that income, at least he's not fighting with other people for open jobs.  The streets are packed. People are shopping, eating, drinking, taking double-decker bus tours and hoping to see someone famous (I just watched Dan Rather give a really interesting speech on new media vs. old- does that count?).

I'm about to embark on my first panel session as a speaker. I find it odd that people want to hear what I have to say. I guess I shouldn't count my chickens. For all I know it may be an empty room.

Till then, cheers.

New Yoooork

I'm leaving for NYC tomorrow morning (In like 8 hours. I suppose I should pack) for a conference. Which means, I'll have  a little down time to write! Yay!

Check back in the next few days for the deadliest catch post as well as whatever else floats to the top.

Thievery Corporation

Look at all of these people!

I want to be someone who goes to a lot of shows. And by shows I mean concerts. I guess shows is what the kids say these days. So Yes, I want to go to lots of shows.

I rarely go to a show I dislike. That's how it works when you only go to shows of bands you love. Picky? Perhaps, but I waste nary a dime on tickets by being selective.

Last Tuesday I had the absolute privledge of attending a show by one of my most favorite musicians: Thievery Corporation. For those of you who do not know, TC is an absolute worldy mix of downtempo, reggae, far eastern and middle eastern music. I THOUGHT it was just 2 dudes using computers compiling the music. Little did I know that this music is made by a lot of people... I mean, the stage was packed. At any given time there was the two DJs (I'm happy to announce one used turn tables, the other a sound board and synthesizer. Super rad), TWO percussionists, a trumpeter, sax player, at least one guitarist, electric bass player, and a (this was SO cool) SITAR PLAYER. A Sitar! I've never even seen a sitar! 

I honestly thought they just sampled a lot of their stuff. I really had no idea that they played this music live. It's akin to discovering that the Beastie Boys really do play incredible music. Oh and I didn't even mention the singers. They had about 6 different singers. They were from: Iran (eat that, government), 2 from Jamaica, Brazil, Argentina and I can't remember where else. And they were all incredible. I think they pulled the majority of these singers right off of their albums. Either way, it's a hell of a crowd to have to schlep around from city to city.

The show was held at the Paramount Theatre, which is a GREAT venue to see rock band shows, but I was unsure of this for a semi-electronic show..or really any show where you'd want to dance. You see, the venue is stadium seating and big. TC is a semi popular group but the place was only 1/2 full and we were seated. This is the kind of music you want to flow around to. Granted most of it can be done seated, but during the encores the whole place was dancing around like a bunch of hippies on hashish. I had permagrin from watching everyone just really FEEL the music. That's what it is about this band.. it's not just that their music is beautiful, but it's extremely emotional and soulful. You can experience the music. It's almost visual. They had a great LED light board set up to go along with the beats. It was truly fascinating.

Here's a link to TC on Rhapsody. You can all listen to them for free. I suggest "Une Simple History", "mandala", "the Forgotten People" and "the shining path". All are incredible songs. If you EVER get a chance to experience this show, I'm telling you I don't think you could not enjoy it. Even if this type of music isn't your thing, it's just infectious. GO SEE THEM. 

Why I've Been Absent

Maybe these are excuses, but I don't know what else to say. I realize I've been absent for a few months, mostly since Roscoe came along. But it has more to do with stress and work than anything else. I spend all day every day reading blogs and writing and commenting and Twittering that when I get home at night the absolute last thing I want to do is get on my computer, in a room by itself, and write some more. 

I hope it's just a temporary thing.

I miss writing to you all, but until I have lots of great things to write about and lots of desire to do it, I'm going to stay on my random posting schedule.

But, just so you know, here are topics to come:

Thievery Corporation

Deadliest Catch

Gardening

Roscoe Update

New York trip

What do YOU want to hear about? Maybe you'll inspire me!

Till then..

xo