March 26, 2003
Paris today
Another beautiful day here.
Le Louvre
Through one arch, beyond the obilisk, to the Arc de Triomphe, to the Defense.
Hop the Metro, go the the Latin Quarter. The Metro's art deco splendor makes me smile.
Un chien at Place St. Michel
Walked through medieval streets ("This tower built 1100 AD") to the ancient church of St. Germain:
Nearby are the Cafe Flore, creative catalyst for Sartre and Beauvoir, and
the Deux Magots, where Hemingway took Scott Fitzgerald to the toilet to check out Fitzgerald's manhood.
The Lipp, across Blvd St Germain and beyond the illegally parked Ferrari:
Popular sentiment in the Metro:
Paris
I seem to have brought Berkeley weather to Paris. Today I am walking around in shirtsleeves. The sun is pouring into the courtyard just outside my office here.
The Musee Jacquemart-Andre is a sumptuous 19th Century mansion on Blvd Haussmann not far from l'Arc de Triomphe that houses a wonderful collection of Botticelli, Titian, Bernini, and the like. Currently the Musee is also hosting Caillebotte to Picasso, a beautiful modern collection that includes several works by Henri Cross (not related to the famous blogger). I spent more than an hour wandering through the museum, often bending over backwards to admire the handpainted ceilings.
Last night I had a marvellous coquillage at Chez Clement on Blvd. Capuccines. The Clement is part of a chain of bistros where the chandeliers, coat hooks, and statuary are made of bent spoons, brass faucets, and copper pots.
Here are the leftovers from my snack of 6 speciales petites oysters, 3 Spanish mussels, 3 tasty clams, heaps of cockles, whelks, grey shrimp, and pink shrimp. The tiny shrimp are truly great -- you eat the little devils whole, so they don't show up in the picture.
March 24, 2003
The Cotswolds
March 19-23, 2003
The Cotswolds, an idyllic spot in the center of England composed of yellow stone buildings, rolling farmland surrounded by stone fences, winding lanes, and medieval villages. Now so gentrified that half the barn walls conceal deluxe getaways for London millionaires, the Cotswolds have nonetheless preserved their rural, unspoiled feel. Walking along the country lanes, the smell of manure and the baying of sheep are constant companions.
My friends Jane and Philip live in this coach house.
I stayed in the room marked with the arrow.
The coach house served this manorhouse. The peaked roof between the trees on the left is the coach house from afar. The property includes a charming little private chapel.
Chipping Camden is a fetching medieval village. The market hall is a fixture from a bygone era..The locals have good taste in dogs.
Walking the countryside from Upper Swell to Lower
Swell.
Excursions with Philip to Stratford and Toddington.
Michael, the fellow next door, owns a 1936 Lagonda
that looks like it was built yesterday.
The previous day I'd visited a motorcar museum in
Bourton-on-the-Water. Highlights were a 1938 BMW that Jaguar copied almost directly for its
XK120 and XK140 models. The green car is a Morgan three-wheeler, with a JAP
motorcycle engine up front. The Michelin tire pump shows an earlier incarnation
of Bibendum, the Michelin Man.
Upper Swell.
March 20, 2003
Manchester
Manchester
March 15-19, 2003
In March I spent the better part of five days in Manchester, in the north of England. Giving the opening keynote at eLearning 2003 paid for the flight and hotel so I arrived a few days early to enjoy the city. People had told me to expect grim, cold, sunless weather. We had bright sunshine the entire time I was there.
Manchester is where the industrial revolution took off. Factories for spinning and weaving cotton with machines replaced cottage industry. Hundreds of factories inhabited the town. The warehouse in the photo, dating from 1830, is the oldest railway building in the world.
Before the railroads, Manchester was a trading center because of its canals. (It's also the meeting place of three rivers.) Hidden between tall buildings, the canals are still there, and while it's a bit of a stretch, Manchester thinks of itself as the Venice of this part of the world.
This immense building is the former Royal Cotton Exchange, the trading floor when Manchester was cotton capital of the world. Undoubtedly the cotton that my grandfather and great-uncle, both cotton brokers in Arkansas, shipped cotton that was traded here and processed in Manchester.
Many of the streets are reserved for pedestrians. Along King Street and around the Exchance, are all the usual LVMH suspects -- Armani, Aquascutum, Balfour, Bally, Burberry, DKNY, Gucci, etc. Metal umbrellas cover the passageway from King Street to the Ape and Apple Pub.
In the town center, the Wellington Pub, a converted medieval home, and the neighboring oyster bar, are a popular gathering place. This little complex, locally known as "The Shambles," survived the World War II blitz which brought down building all around it, only to be severely damaged by an IRA bomb that destroyed the heart of downtown in 1996. The Cathedral's next door.
I ate my first lunch of the trip at Tom's Chop House, a pub for the last hundred years, with a splendid Victorian interior. Dripping with atmosphere, everything was set for Inspector Morse to pop in for a pint. I quaffed a John Smith's Ale with my smoked salmon sandwich. St. Ann's is in the square just behind Tom's.
For sports fans, this is the home of Manchester United, the best marketed football team in the nation. Here's the Manchester United bookshelves at Waterstone's. On the sign outside a pub, someone has scribbled in "Louts," for that is the issue: No Football Louts Allowed.
In front of Town Hall were Prince Albert, in an incredibly elaborate memorial, and an Irish Festival, the next day being St. Paddy's. Given what they eat, I do not understand how these people live beyond the age of 30.
Manchester is a mix of old and new. The benches in the plaza inbetween the Urbis museum and the glass-fronted Marks and Sparks recall the early railroading days. The monument to the Eternal Struggle for Peace is a modern take on an ancient problem (We started bombing Iraq the day after I took the picture.) And I loved this old pub, an island unto itself amid a sea of modern buildings.
March 13, 2003
The Google Blogger Party
Last night Google's acquisition of Blogger was feted at Kelly's Mission Rock. Chris Pirillo has posted embarrassing photos of the party, including one of me:
Click for full size.
Allow me to return the favor. Here's Chris:
Stupid UI Tricks
Since the telephone reservations number put me on indeterminate hold, I opted to make a reservation on the SuperShuttle website.
I entered information about me, my address, my flight, instructions to the driver, and more. At the tail end of this grilling, I was greeted with the message:
Due to high customer demand, the time you are requesting is booked to capacity, for further assistance please call us directly.
March 12, 2003
Lease XP or buy?
From Chris Pirillo:
- "The successor to Windows XP (due in 2004, and rapidly slipping to 2005) is currently code named Longhorn, and it will not be compatible with your existing software, hardware or methods. Microsoft has already stated that backward compatibility will not be a design feature."
March 10, 2003
Blogophilia
I saw the blogosphere coming several years ago. Pity I never figured out how to profit from my vision!
- THE FUTURE OF WEBLOGS
Blogging, which a few years ago was viewed as a lot of inconsequential chatter, is morphing into a cutting-edge phenomenon that may provide a platform for the Internet's next wave of innovation and moneymaking opportunities. "Just like the Internet was 10 years ago, blogging is popular with an underground culture that is doing it for the love and passion," says Tony Perkins, editor of the recently folded Red Herring magazine. "Now there are people like me coming along and trying to figure out how to package it. It's time to take it to the next level." Other heavy hitters hoping to cash in on the Web's so-called "Blogosphere" include Terra Lycos, AOL and Google. Last month, Terra introduced publishing tools to help users launch their own blogs, and AOL plans a similar move later this year. Meanwhile, Google just snapped up Pyra Labs, which runs Blogger.com, a network of Weblogs boasting more than 1 million members and more than 200,000 active blogs. "We want to take what has been an underground phenomenon and introduce it to the masses," says Charles Kilby, Terra Lycos' director of product marketing. "This is the 'eBayization' of the media," says Perkins. "You create a compelling arena and then let the real entertainment come from the participants themselves." (AP 9 Mar 2003) http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030309/D7PLQS200.html
Thanks to Newscan, a free news service.
March 06, 2003
War
This morning I spoke with a friend in Europe who speaks fluent Arabic in addition to German and English. He was raised in Kuwait and feels that he understands the Arab psyche. If America bombs Iraq, we should expect suicide bombers on our soil for at least the next fifty years. A large portion of the world will hate us forever.
Yesterday an economist on NPR gave estimates of the cost of the war. The military will rack up $50 to $150 billion in costs. Since no allies are joining us for this one, the U.S. will have to foot the entire tab for rebuilding Iraq, somewhere between $100 and $300 billion. If oil prices zoom up, that might trigger a worldwide recession. The high estimate of the total bill is on the order of $10 trillion. That's $20,000 per taxpayer.
Given that we'll have to pick up our son's share, my wife and I have three taxpayers in our household. We're not wealthy, but we're better off than most, so I figure each taxpayer in our bracket will have to carry at least two impoverished or indigent people. So we'd have to reach in our pocket to the tune of $180,000 to foot the bill for this senseless war.
If Bush wants to become a popular hero, he should display the courage to recall the troops. Save face by saying that the CIA discovered that Saddam has destroyed the weapons. Call off the war. Spend hundreds of billions to prime the economy and rebuild our institutions.