His Point of View

This week I was able to attend a performance of  the one man play “Thurgood” starring Laurence Fishburne.  This was a magnificent performance.  I often had to remind myself that Fishburne was only playing a role.  The play is near the end of its run at the Kennedy Center in DC, and unfortunately its sold out for the remaining performances. If you can I would advise you to go to make sure you see this show when and if it comes to a theatre near you.  I did not know until I began doing a little research for this post, that this play has been on going on and off broadway since 2006, when the role was performed by James Earl Jones.  I only wisht that I would have known about the show so that I could have seen what Jones brought to the role.

As can be expected the play details many of the highlights of the life of former US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.  The performance focuses on his early years as a budding attorney, and his fight to win Brown vs. The Board of Education, as well as a few other cases that were crucial to the civil rights movement of the mid 1900′s.  Surprisingly there was quite a bit of humor which I did no expect, it just goes to show that there is a human side to everyone, no matter what their public image may be.  The was much I did not know about Thurgood Marshall, and I now have a desire to do more research into the life of America’s first African American Solicitor General and Supreme Court Justice.  I hope that the 90 minute show continues to shine a light on a man who did so much to change America.

***Update*** Gil Scott is performing in DC June 17-20, 2010 at The Blues Alley***

‘I’m New Here’ is the title of Gil Scott Heron’s latest album/CD.  If you don’t recognize the name Gil Scott Heron, you need to get familiar… Once you do some research I am sure you will find a poem or two created by him, that you have heard of.  His latest work of poetry is an excellent combination of music and spoken word poetry.  I can relate to so much of what he speaks of, and I do not doubt that you will relate to something on this CD as well.  Gil Scott Heron was fairly popular a few decades ago, and many people who were fans of his, unfortunately are not even aware that he has released a new work.  To whomever is responsible for promoting this album…please get on the ball, there are many fans out there who would surely make a purchase if they were made aware of this album’s release.

You can go to his website to hear the album now, while you are there read some of the press about him so that you can get familiar right quick… And you can order the CD from BestBuy.com, good luck attempting to find a copy of the CD locally.

Oh yeah my favorite tracks are ‘running’, ‘me and the devil’, and ‘On coming from a broken home’.

I am not a person who runs out to buy the latest hot scents, I typically purchase the same four or five colognes until they are no longer available.  During my trip to Las Vegas this past weekend I wandered into the Tom Ford store and I found three new favorites.   Tom Ford’s Black Orchid is the scent that I am referring to, and I like it even more each time I wear it. (continue reading…)

Air Mouse is the latest reason I have found to fall in love with my iPhone again.  This app allows you to use your iPhone as a mouse & presentation pointer for your desktop/laptop/Mac.  All you need is a wifi connection and a free down loadable application to install on your desktop/laptop.   Your PC/Mac can be connected via a wired or wireless connection as long as it is connected to the same network that your  iPhone is connected to via wifi.  I find this app particularly useful since I don’t like to sit at a desk while using my PC, so now I can sit back and use my PC across the room or from my comfy chair as long as I can see the monitor(a large monitor comes in handy).  The app even allows you to use your iPhone as a fully functional keyboard, really you have full control of your PC from your iPhone.  In fact i am typing this blog post on my iPhone while sitting back in a nice comfortable chair away from my desk.  I think this is a must have for entrepreneurs or people constantly on the go who want to minimize the number of devices in their equipment bag.  The app only costs $1.99 at the itunes store so give it a try.  See the vendor’s site by clicking here.

Sooooo, about 15 years ago I stopped eating pork, and maybe 5 years ago I stopped eating beef.  As a result I avoid products which contain gelatin, as most gelatin is rendered from the remains of cattle or swine.  To make a long story short, I have had to give up gummy bears and gummy worms. Well I was in Toys R Us yesterday and I found organic, vegetarian gummy bears and worms… even the sour kind.  If you are interested they are “Surf Sweets” by Santa Cruz Nutritionals for only $.98 for a 2.75 oz. package. And best of all they taste great, they even taste better than I remember…. Now if only then made a vegetarian Jell-O substitute…

FYI: Surf Sweets products are all gluten-free and casein-free

http://www.surfsweets.com/ OR  www.SantaCruzNutritionals.com It has been brought to my attention that Surf Sweets is no longer a part of Santa Cruz Nutritionals, although both companies appear to sell similar organic candies.

As many of you know, I took a trip to Cape Town, South Africa in March, 2009.  If you don’t know, South Africa was under a system of legalized racism called Apartheid until 1994.  Apartheid ended just 15 short years before my visit, and it was clear to me that the racism is still alive and well in South Africa ( I can only speak of Cape Town and its surrounding region, as this was the only metropolitan area I visited during my stay.  Please see my previous post regarding my interactions which some of the citizens of South Africa here)  I saw that darker colored people held very few client facing jobs (such as waiters, hostesses, cashiers, etc).  I saw that coloured people drove nice cars, while most of the black people walked or took public transportation, I experienced hesitation to serve me in retail establishments until the shop keepers realized that I was not a local black or coloured person.  I won’t even mention the German owned book store which featured writings by Adolf Hitler and other Nazi (continue reading…)

I came across this video the other day, and its was a pretty interesting find.  Even if you are innocent, the ability to plead the 5th amendment is an important tool to use when you face an interaction with the police regarding a possible criminal act.  I am not endorsing criminal activity, but if you watch you will hear how failure to invoke the 5th amendment right  can land innocent people behind bars…or worse.  Even innocent people say things which can be interpreted as evidence against them, as you will learn about in the video.  My advice to you is to plead “the one, two, three, fo’,  fiiiiif!!!!’ (that’s plead the 5th for the slow people) , as Dave Chappelle so famously proclaimed.  Repeat after me… “The 5th amendment is your friend.”

I have not been this happy about new technology in a while…   Today I set up my Google Voice account and I am loving it.  The “Call Me” feature is a result of Google Voice.  I am testing an idea I have of allowing the public to call me via Google Voice in order to post to this blog… although its not fully automated,  I will get a feel of if this idea gets off the ground.  If you didn’t know, one of the many Google Voice features ifs automated voicemail transcriptions… when people call and leave a message you also get an email and/or text message of the text version of what they said verbally.  If any of you super-coders out there can come up with an app to automatically take those emails and post them to a blog we need to put our heads together and make it happen.

If you have something to say, please give me a call and let’s see how voice blogging works out for us.   Click the “Call Me” icon in the panel on the right side of your browser or at the bottom of each blog post.

(Adobe Flash/FlashPlayer  must be installed on your computer to use this feature)

Also today I was offered a chance to test a new feature on Twitter, which I am also loving.   (I don’t know how many people are testing this feature, but they asked us not to tell or blog about exactly what the feature is…) but I can say that I am absolutely loving it, and I am sure that you will too if it goes public.

I have set up my account at MobileMe.com and this allows me to record and share data (voice,images,files, etc) with anyone in the world who is connected to the web while I am on the go.  I can be anywhere the internet reaches and share my experience with anyone or everyone practically live.  (If I was fortunate enough to have the iphone 3GS or brave enough to jailbreak my iphone 3G I would have the ability to stream live video, but oh well.)

Now I am just waiting for my Google Wave invitation and I will be all set.

I am loving the internet right now, after many years of development it has become more than just a tool for entertainment and work.  The internet is really making life, networking,  communication, and maintaining relationships easier.

Recently I have had a few discussions with people who claim to be up on new technology, but they have not yet heard of Google Wave or Google Voice.   And I had to stop and ask myself how is it that folks who are connected to the web 24/7 have not heard of the two products which will probably have the greatest impact on our lives since email.

(If you don’t know, Google Voice is a service that Google is testing which will allow you to have one phone number that follows you everywhere, work, home, mobile… everywhere you go people will be able to call you on one number and reach you anywhere… check out the link above for more details(Oh and I can’t forget to say that it allows you to send/receive text messages from your desk-top’s browser).   Google Wave is something that’s kind of hard to explain, basically its a way to communicate with people using multimedia that’s sort of a cross between email, file sharing, document collaboration and chatting…  again check out the link for more details. ) I don’t know how you can claim to be into technology if you have never heard of these new offerings from Google.  All I can say is that I can’t wait until my invitations are approved.

Image from www.google.com

Today I am happy to report another technological advance in consumer electronics.  I have just learned of the new Nikon Coolpix S1000pj digital camera.  What’s so great about this camera you may ask???  If you did ask I would say that it is a pocket sized 12.1 Mega-Pixel camera with a  5X magnification optical glass lens, image stabilization, up to 6400 ISO, and best of all…. a built in projector.  That’s right this pocket sized camera($429.95) has a built in video projector which can display images and video captured by the camera onto a wall or screen up to 40 inches wide.  This means no more huddling around a 2 inch LCD screen to show your friends the photos you just took of them being silly, or to show family the photos of your recent trip to Paris.  And to the creative bunch, this opens the door to instant art not only can you instantly display images you just created, but you can incorporate those you just snapped into new works on the spot.  I think this (or the next few generations of this technology) will be a must have for the graphic artists on a budget, who draw or paint things they observe in the world.

For more details go to the Nikon site here  Or to the Nikon Rumors site here.