All Forces

On my subway ride home I noticed one bodyguard. Then two. Then three. I mind my own business continuing to read my AS3 book and eventually get ready my phone to take a picture just in case. I look up and there he was– mayor Bloomberg taking the subway just like the rest of us. I had heard he has always been an avid subway rider but you sometimes hear things and never know how much of it is true. It was a very New York experience– seing him doing the same thing I was doing, just minding his own business reading his newspaper.

I got this new shirt on Broadway just a couple of blocks north of Canal St. at a new store that is shared by several artisans. Dante was crushed he didn’t get one. But daddy needed this shirt. :-)

Tomorrow will be a big day in politics as most US states get to vote for a candidate in the primaries. Today I was chatting with my friend online only to realize we were having an avatar battle. He’s a huge Hillary supporter and I’m backing Obama. Rock The Vote!  

My current book stack is growing thanks to some new additions added on christmas day(thanks Lilia and Ari). Here’s the list with some Amazon link love.

• The Divine Comedy: Inferno; Purgatorio; Paradiso
  Dante Alighieri
• Memoria de mis putas tristes (Memories of My Melancholy Whores)
  Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• El Amor en Los Tiempos de Colera (Love in the Time of Colera)
  Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Magic Lantern Guides: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
  Michael Guncheon
• La Quinta Montana (The Fifth Mountain)
  Paulo Coelho
• America (The Book)
  Jon Stewart and The Daily Show
• ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook
  Joey Lott, Darron Schall and Keith Pete
• How to Grill: The Complete Illustrated Book of Barbecue Techniques
  Steven Raichlen
• Upgrading to PHP 5
  Adam Trachtenberg

I am truly sadden whenever we loose a great artist and Marcel Marceau is no exception. I know that in general, the art of mime is not as honored in the US as it is in other parts of the world. It is evident in so many movies were mimes are mocked. But that’s probably because they’ve never seen Marceau perform. I saw his show at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles a few years back and it was a magical experience. So here it is to Marcel Marceau. You will be missed.

Marcel Marceau on:
Link: Wikipedia
Link: Flickr
Link: YouTube

Yesterday Anika, our 7 year old, overhead us talking about how disappointed we were about Hillary’s new health plan. She interrupted us asking if we were mad about it, to which we replied “well yes, we are”. So I thought this was a great opportunity to school my daughter about our nation’s current “for profit” health care system compared to other nation’s free universal health care systems. She was shocked to hear people die in the US because they can’t afford the medicine or an operation they need. And that in other european countries the doctors help you in any way they can without having to worry about money. At first, I was very impressed with her interest and conclusions. She asked “Is our president too distracted with the war in Iraq to think about health?”. But when I mentioned Hillary Clinton’s new proposed plan. She said “Hillary Clinton? I thought you were talking about the other Hillary. Hillary Duff!”. She then quickly realized how funny it was and broke out laughing. I kept trying to go back to the subject at hand but I had lost my audience to a running joke that lasted through the night.

Link: Hilary Duff
Link: Hilary Clinton

To celebrate me and my wife’s birthdays in July, we went to Maui, Hawaii for a a week and took the kids with us. It’s funny because we lived in Los Angeles for 13 years but never vacationed in Hawaii and within a year of living in New York, we decided to go to there. This added and extra 6 hour leg to the 6 hour flight from LA. We stayed in a rental condo owned by Gary, a dear friend from LA, in Kahana on the island of Maui. The condo had a full kitchen and was literally in front of the beach with a balcony that faced the water. In this cozy spot overlooking the sunset, we had many memorable meals, wine and cheese and even made out frequently late at night while the kids were asleep. The kitchen came in very handy since food in Hawaii turned out to be just as expensive, if not more expensive than New York. It’s been a month now since the trip and I just barely got around to finish tagging all the photos and posting them to Flickr. Enjoy the pictures!

The Flickr Set
The Condo

Today is my 35th birthday. That’s right, I’m entering a new demographic. I know how to go to the next pulldown menu. I am half way through my life and I will be celebrating big next week in Hawaii.

And for those inclined, my Amazon Wish List is up to date.

I just launched the offical blog for Michael Moore’s new film Sicko. A documentary about the health care system in America. Now, blogs are not a common medium for movie websites, except for the often ridiculous myspace movie pages. That’s because movie sites usually require some sort of magical flash experience that sucks you into the magical world of the film. But in this case, a blog seems to be a perfect fit for Sicko. I am very curious to see what part blogging will play in it’s success, or even better in the transformation of our health care system. Please check it out, participate and give me your thoughts. You can rate your Health Care provider and comment on just about any health care experience you care to share. Help me spread the word because it looks like big brother is stepping in to block it’s release already. I am personally really excited about the film and thrilled I get to work on it, although I only had a day and a half to set up the blog. For those are curious, it runs on WordPress and the ratings are run by the wp-ratings plugin.

Link: sicko-movie.com

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6p5ar2bBZQ[/youtube]

My dearest daughter Anika rocked her 2nd grade class yesterday as she presented to her classmates and parents a book she made about New York’s Central Park. She spent a few weeks working on the writing of the book and she did a painting to accompany it as well. She has an incredible gift for public speaking that she’s inherited from her grandpa and auntie, both who have been involved on radio and tv. I am a very proud dad.