Andy's LLS Video

It's not a bad way at all to spend just under 8 minutes during Thanksgiving week.  He chokes up, you will too.

Sarah!

Just announced as one of the PR People-to-Watch in PR at the annual PR People Awards Luncheon at the National Press Club in DC.  Hooray!

The Old Band Returns 2013

The first of probably several posts of CrustieCon 2013.  I can't seem to upload my audio file of the Band rehearsing Katzenjammer Prelude, a commission in memory of Janet Katz '77, pictured above.  If you care, email me and I'll send the audio file to you.  It should be obsolete by Friday's concert.

The page from the '71 Princeton show poop we presented to Tom Everett at dinner Friday night (you can explain to your kids what a mimeograph machine was; technology from the era when we marched 12 ranks with 8 musicians each):

Pictures of The Old Band from Tom Cole '80 available here.  Old photos from Laura (Carr) Trumbull '77 here.  More to come.

And greetings to the best ever Drum Major of the HUB, whom I understand reads this blog.

Mount Lemmon

58 miles round trip and +7400 feet elevation gain.  4 hours up, 1 hour down, plus an hour for lunch (more salt, please).  Harder than Tahoe, and just about as pretty.

Patti Smith covers After The Gold Rush

Wonderful:

My Favorite Street in Richmond, BC

From CBC News:



Here's a map of the intersection.

Standing In The Shadows Of Mad Men

It's a house in Angelino Heights, not Pennsylvania:

And now you know.

Summer Solstice 2013

At the Papago Park Boundary Sculpture at daybreak on the longest day of the year:

I knew about the shadows on the solstice day, but didn't understand the tree portion of the installation until seeing this aerial photo (and others):

Now off to the Central Library for solar noon.

160 Miles, 6 Days, 3 States, 2 Diseases

Sunday, June 2 was America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride around Lake Tahoe, through California and Nevada.  Beautiful weather, nice ride, and always one of the best days of the year.  I achieved my personal goal for 2013, which was not to get into a snit (or be on the receiving end of one) going up the switchbacks to the top of Emerald Bay.  Set achievable goals, I usually say.

Then on Saturday, June 9, was the 2013 Bike MS Ride the Riverside, sponsored by the National Capital Chapter, in National Harbor, Maryland.  I did the 60 mile ride with my team Babes and Babe Magnets on Bikes (yes--an even more embarrassing team name than Lymphomaniacs!) which included a former US Ambassador, a future (we hope no filibuster!) US Ambassador, a future Navy admiral and commander of US naval forces in the Korean Peninsula, and a former congressman (ho hum).  I borrowed a bike but forgot my shoes, leading to a last-minute shopping trip (but I like my new shoes better than the ones I forgot, so not all is a sunk cost).  Yes, I rode 60 miles wearing the world's ugliest bicycle jersey and a pink flamingo on my helmet.

And although I hit everybody up already for LLS and you don't have to contribute again, if you want to do a disease-of-the-week double, here's the link to contribute to the National MS Society via my page.

Arrested Development Comes To Phoenix

And not just via Netflix.  Can't burn your hand on the taxi door with Netflix.

Sorry about the ad, it came with the embed.

AZ Open Water Swim 2

At Canyon Lake in the Tonto National Forest recreation area, swimming off the Boulder recreation site.  4000 meters, 1:13:58.  Results: overall 66/93, masters men 8/17.  Beautiful day, very nice location, even if it felt like swimming through mud at times.

The best part was finishing hard, passing somebody in the last 200 meters, then getting a huge leg cramp when pulled out of the water, so I collapsed and was writhing around on the ground for a minute or so.  When you finish exactly when you can't go any farther, well, isn't that the point?

Spock vs. Spock

Definitely the best Star Trek ad ever, and maybe the best nerd ad ever:

Two Andys and Tahoe

With Andy Gordon (2012):

With Andy Fredman  (2010):

For the past 5 years (n1), I’ve ridden in the somewhat (n2) self-importantly named America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride (AMBBR) around Lake Tahoe.  It’s a great century ride—well supported, the Lake Tahoe region is incredibly beautiful, the route is a circle around the lake and you finish where you started with no long boring bus ride back to your car, and the last 20 miles are the prettiest of the ride and, most importantly, almost entirely downhill.

Each year, I’ve done the ride as a mere participant, but each year I have hung around with Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Team in Training groups, both from Phoenix and from Westchester-Hudson Valley, New York.  I’ve been a TnT lurker, but never a participant, even though I probably should have.  I’ve got two people in my life with blood cancers, my law partner Andy Gordon and my step-brother (n3) Andy Fredman.  Both are in remission; both have ridden AMBBR multiple times; and both are huge LLS fundraisers and machers (n4).  This year is Andy Fredman’s 10^th consecutive AMBBR, and Andy Gordon is now on the board of directors of LLS here in Phoenix, so I signed up to be a Lymphomaniac, Andy F.’s national fundraising team (n5).

If you could treat and cure blood cancers through pep rallies and almost cult-like behavior, TnT would have the diseases licked.  However, actual medical research requires actual financial support, which is where you come in.  This email list usually involves a political event, but today I’m asking for a charitable contribution to help those with blood cancers like leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma.  I know from both Andys how treatments they got simply didn’t exist a couple of years ago, and if either cancer recurs, we’ve got to have something new to throw at it.  So please, contribute. Go to my fundraising page here.  As you’d expect, LLS takes all the usual charge cards (even Discover).  If you want to write a check for some reason, let me know (or just mail it to me at the office address, email me for it).

It’s not that big a deal to do AMBBR; I’ve never been bothered much by the altitude, and the ride itself is actually at lot of fun; if you’re a cyclist, you should consider doing it.  For me, however, the real challenge will be to raise at least $3,600 to help cure blood cancers.  Thanks for considering a contribution, and please consider violating my own rule about never giving in response to a mere email because, first, the contribution is tax-deductible, and second, if you don’t give now, then I will call you.

Thanks—and let me know if you have any questions.

Footnotes:

1: Definitely 5 years—that’s how many long-sleeve t-shirts from past AMBBRs that I have, I just counted.  Especially as there are maybe 6 days a year when a long-sleeve t-shirt is comfortable in Phoenix.

2: Somewhat?

3: Actually, my deceased father’s second wife’s divorced third husband’s son. In my world, that’s family.

4: “Big deals” for you non-Yiddish speakers.

5: You should have seen the team names that were rejected, OK?

ITU World Triathlon San Diego

A very nice course--a salt water swim in Mission Bay, a 2-loop bicycle course around the bay and Fiesta Island, and a 2-loop run along Mission Bay and beach, with lots of people in beach houses watching and encouraging the runners (plus we got to watch the beach volleyball players).  The bicycle course came with an elevation chart--which looked troublesome until you looked at the scale, which went from sea level to 50 feet, a roadway overpass.  Not a fast time amid a very fast, very capable field of age-groupers, but given that my foot was in a cast 5 weeks ago, I was delighted to finish the run in 1:02 (after a 7 minute T2 to make sure my lace-up shoes were secure and tight).  And Tri-Scottsdale placed second in the Class 2 national club competition ("We are the runners-up-to the champions, my friends").  3:07:35, overall 747/902, age group 33/36.  Plus photos and video here (be warned, when you click on the link, the video starts playing immediately).

Arizona Open Water Swim #1

The AOWS Spring 2013 series kicked off at Tempe Town Lake on Sunday, April 7.  The 4500 meter distance (2.79 mi) was 6 laps around the course.  By the fifth lap, I had figured out where the buoys were located.  I had hoped to finish in under 2 hours (20 min/lap) but actually did 1:28:46--very steady 14-15 minute laps. Finished 10th male masters, 27/43 overall.  Really, really nice day in the water.  All results here.

More Harvard Band: The Next Generation

"Nerd Alert?" Couldn't be prouder, thanks Fox Sports.  (The exploding White House from the movie ad is a bonus.  And as Rick Minard '77 noted, it would have been cooler if it had been Lowell House exploding, but nobody who watches Fox would have gotten the joke.)  Plus the kid got his first quote in The New York Times.

Harvard Beats New Mexico, (29 + 39) - (29 + 33)

That's our son holding the baton at the bottom right of the photo.  Better quality (and the caption) available here.

We now await the Harvard vs. the-Harvard-of-Tucson game on Saturday.

The Old Band Returned (Video Finally Available)

Here's the Harvard Band pregame and halftime show from the 2012 Bucknell game when The Old Band (we're no longer just Crusties, and the Seventies Will Never Die!) returned to march with the callow undergrads who refused to get off our yard lines.  The HUB blog claims this show was posted on October 31 but that's, dare I say it, wrong.

The Old Band credo: Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Pregame:



Halftime:



Not necessarily the worst show ever, but one that certainly deserves consideration, and proof that raising the drinking age to 21 wasn't an entirely a good thing.  I helped spell those words only 4 months ago and I can't tell you what most of them were (I got 2 out of 9. What's that translate to an SAT Verbal score?)