Written while jammin' to Lover's Spit from the album Bee Hives by Broken Social Scene (thanks SG)
With all the Clinton hype out there I was reminded of the time I met the man. Yes, it's true. It's thanks to Ariane and it's a long story...it's coming I promise.
UPDATE (finally): So it was 2000 and Bill Clinton was the President. Ariane worked as the Development Director for a non-profit based in East Palo Alto named College Track (they help high students from under-served communities get into college through tutoring and many after-school programs). The founder of the organization and her husband are friends of the Clintons so a visit to College Track was arranged when the President was in town for digital divide work (think HP computers on a few desks in East Palo Alto with the logos blown up for the press shot). President Clinton's visit to College Track was to be an "off the record visit". That is to say it wouldn't be published on his official calendar and the press wouldn't know about it either.
I was recruited as a volunteer to get a group of the students to the office by 7 a.m. Now, how would you get a group of teenagers out of bed at 6 a.m. and get them to wear something other than pants around their knees and t-shirts down to their ankles? Easy...tell 'em they're gonna be extras in a Denzel Washington/ J.Lo movie.
Secret service? Check. Ten more secret service? Check. President two hours late? Check. East Palo Alto traffic to a grinding halt during late morning commute? Check. Finally we gotta tell the kids what's going on.
"Guys. We had to tell you a bit of a lie to get you here this morning. You all are very lucky. you are going to meet the President of the United States, Bill Cliton."
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One of the students finally mustered up the courage to ask what was, apparently, on the minds of all of them.
"So, we're, like, not gonna meet J.Lo?"
And so an hour or so later the President arrived with his Jay-Z sized posse in tow. His smile was blingin' and he worked a handshake to everybody assembled there introducing himself as he did (just in case we thought he was someone else I 'spose). He then spoke for about 20 minutes about the importance of technology to get into the hands of all young people so that some didn't grow up with no exposure to it.
A few flashes, some catered Italian food (courtesy of Francesco, Apple's chef) and the President was gone as quickly as he came. Six black on black Chevy Suburbans pulled away and it was quiet again.
Postscript: I never met Francesco that day, white shirt, kneeling soccer-pic stylee in the photo. It wasn't until this week that I noticed this really familiar guy at Apple. I had just looked at him again for the first time in a while after all as I scanned the photo. I approached him in the Apple cafeteria and introduced myself. He's the chef Steve Jobs called when he returned in 1997 ("Francesco, the food sucks here, you gotta come help"). The world gets smaller again.
Written while jammin' to Home (Intro) from the album Chilltown, New York by Eric Sermon
Mark Morford's got a column today that involves something that used to be near and dear to my heart that's become even nearer and dearer to my heart recently. Here's a snippet:
"Really, what can we look to in today's culture that's at once immediately accessible and also representative of the speed, dexterity, magic, annoyance and utter savage bliss that is modern life? Voilà: the iPod. What, you were gonna say "Nokia?" Or "Explorer?" Or "TiVo?" Please."
Written while jammin' to Runners Dial Zero from the album Mutations by Beck
Written while jammin' to Let's Save Tony Orlando's House from the album And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out by Yo La Tengo
Written while jammin' to Shake That Sh** from the album Shake That Sh** - Single by Shawnna & Ludacris
Written while jammin' to Easy Read from the album I've Seen Everything by The Trash Can Sinatras
Written while jammin' to Closer (Fatboy Slim Remix) by Nine Inch Nails
He's baaack:
Q: But when you refer to weapons of mass destruction as "B.L.T.'s" in your interview with Pat Buchanan, he picks up on the term and just kind of goes with it. Surely he's in on the joke there.
A: Yeah, I was surprised that he didn't correct me. But my interpretation of that is that he thought: "Maybe this stands for something that I don't know. I don't want to appear like a fool." In his mind it could stand for "ballistic long-range trajectory" missiles, or something.
I count myself among the Font Geeks. It's the only to explain why this article is so darned fascinating to me. A snippet:
The typeface, Gotham, deliberately evokes the blocky, no-nonsense, unselfconscious architectural lettering that dominated the streetscape from the 1930's through the 1960's in building names, neon signs, hand-lettered advertisements and lithographed posters.
Written while jammin' to Declare Guerre Nucleaire from the album Veni Vidi Vicious by Hives
Written while jammin' to Can't Stand It from the album Summer Teeth by Wilco
Written while jammin' to Stop Breathin from the album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain by Pavement
Written while jammin' to The Ultimate from the album The Roots Come Alive! (Disc 1) by The Roots
“You is the most cleverest students in America,” he said, noting later that he considers this country to be among the greatest in the world, behind Jamaica and Thailand."
Ali G strikes again (big props to MarkT).
UPDATE: Read the whole speech here.
Written while jammin' to Can't Trust The Waves from the album The Death Of Cool by Kitchens Of Distinction
Written while jammin' to Amazon Adventure [Azymuth] from the album The Remixes 1997 - 2000 by Jazzanova
