While we're on the topic of books...part 2

...QUOTES...

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

“...simplicity is the ultimate sophistication...”

“...the journey is the reward...”

“...'memento mori': Remember you will die..."

The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson

"...lost in the meditation of labor..."

"...intellect has no real mettle, you see, and at the first threat, into a hole it scuttles. But love is divine. It comes from the realm of the infinite, and is entrusted to the heart as a gift from God. Love has no calculation in it. ‘God loves you’ is the only possible sentence! So it’s love you must follow to the heart of your father-in-law. Love is the pearl of an oyster living in the ocean, and intellect lives on the shore and cannot swim..."

"...love is the king that must rescue his coward slave..."

The Theology of the Book of Revelation by Richard Bauckham

"...John (and thereby his readers with him) is taken up into heaven in order to see the world from the heavenly perspective..."

"...Revelation counters that false view of reality by opening the world to divine transcendence..."

"...the point is not to predict a sequence of events. The point is to evoke and to explore the meaning of the divine judgment which is impending on the sinful world..."

While we're on the topic of books...

While I love all books, I really love physical books. There's something special about holding one physically in your hands, the feel of the paper, the ink on the pages. Especially old books. BUT, there is a necessary and growing momentum for ebooks. (I'm guilty; kindle owner) IDEO several months ago came out with some great thoughts on the Future of the Book. They identified three new opportunities with ebooks new narratives, social reading with richer content, and providing tools for critical thinking.

I know that education was something close to Steve Job's heart, mostly because he saw the system crumbling and no one stopping the inevitable disintegration. In light of that, it's cool to see Apple's announcement yesterday. They have plans to reinvent the educational textbook market and the technology that underpins them. It plans to enable "all sorts of dramatic interactivity with rich media e-textbooks" and empower authors to circumvent publishing companies that are attempting to maintain status quo in the industry.

It's awesome to see someone dreaming the way forward for books and education.

Obsession

"Books are both our luxuries and our daily bread."

~Henry Stevens, as cited in The Literary World

My friends know I LOVE BOOKS. Three years ago (when I was snowed in, in DC) I took inventory of my books. There were 200+. As 2012 kicked off, I decided this was the year to finish many half read books (check out my list of half-read books), and start many more!

2012 read book list (1.19.12)

1. The Inheritance Series by Christopher Paolini

-Eragon

-Eldest

-Brisingr

-Inheritance

2. Thrive: The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life by Brendan Brazier

3. Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh

4. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

and I just started #5 - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

What are you reading in 2012?

Race season

We are back in race season. Jay raced in a Pro 1, 2, 3 race. It was a great race. One guy jumped off the front right from the start, and won. Otherwise, it was a good, fast race. Plus, there were some amazing pro riders.

One of my favorite things about the race season is the road trips. Not because I like being in the car, but Jay and I have some of our best conversations sitting in the car. We can't be busy with other things, or distracted. It's just us. Today we talked a lot about Egypt and Twitter. I bring the political side, and he brings the tech side. I also read a fascinating article in Foreign Affairs; about the role of social media in political uprisings. Interesting enough it was written in Nov/Dec of 2010 lloooonnnggg before the recent events in the Middle East. One of his points was the role the US can and should have not in creating more was to circumvent closed countries getting access to the internet, but rather encouraging the broad flourishing of the social sector. Encouraging open public debate, because as they argue, most closed countries don't notice when the internet shuts down, but they do notice when the things they use innocently everyday are taken away. The Google Executive who was arrested and released in Egypt last week said exactly the same thing. The worst thing Egypt did was shut down Facebook. All of a sudden they had the whole country up in arms and aware of just how weak and afraid they were. The best thing we can do across the globe is to encourage public debate, honest use of technology, and access to information.

Until next weekend.

Quote of the Day...

"...always make new mistakes..."

missing video - Gorillaz

...season of concerts...

We've been to several amazing concerts this year. First, Jay's old boss Kerry gave us FRONT ROW tickets to a sold out Pixies show. It was pretty cool; we got to share the experience with our friends Marianne and Jamie Tolosa, also HUGE Pixies fans.

Then Jamie Cullum came to town. Jay RAVED about the last time he saw Jamie at the 930 club. So we called my sister, a huge fan of Jamie Cullum, and convinced her and her boyfriend Mason to drive to DC for the concert. It rocked. Hands down one of the best show I've seen. He is a true performer, and the 930 club is small intimate and perfect for a performer like him. In this video clip, you can see he is actually spontaneously creating rythm on the top of the piano. The whole show was spontaneous, had a feeling of a Jazz show with a rough idea of what's going to happen, but with lots of playful musical interaction by the musicians


Then we moved across the country and decided to check out the shows here. In July Mos Def came to town. It was Jay's birthday present to go to this show. I think we both had very high expectations and were...overall a little let down by this show. The building where the concert was held was BEAUTIFUL! It's an old theater that they remodeled and retrofitted to be a concert hall. I think we were both in awe of the architecture and intricate details of the theater itself.

Most recently, last night, we went to see the Gorillaz. As much as I loved Jamie Cullum, this is my favorite show ever. It was absolutely unreal. 1. It's Halloween and people here in SF go nuts over this holiday. So most people were dressed up, there was big bird, cookie monster, a bear, maybe 50 Lady Gaga's, and lots of pink, red, blue, and green hair. 2. The Gorillaz are a random group of artists who originally didn't want to be known so they created cartoon characters who performed for them. Now days people know who they are and they no longer hide their identity but they still have the visual affects of the cartoon characters. It was hard to know what to watch the characters or the musicians. Check out the video and you'll understand.

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