Birdmen

I listen to 60 Minutes as a podcast (don't get me started on old/new media etc etc etc) and usually listening is enough for me as I do my time in the gym or subway. But tonight I had to go on line and check out a segment -- no, not another demented polemic about some triviality from Andy Rooney -- about these guys who base-jump from mountains while wearing high-tech flight suits that allow them to glide. It's an amazing segment that just filled me with joy.

Unfortunately, blogger.com won't let me use an embed tag, so here's the link:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6027416n&tag=api

Proposing to Sarah

As early as last year I knew that 2009 would be the year I proposed to Sarah. A couple months ago I picked out a ring and ordered it. I knew I wanted to get something classic and not to gaudy for Sarah...we live on the Upper East Side of New York and there are just too many women hauling back-breaking rocks around up here. It's a bit much, as we say. I'd actually been ring-shopping since I was in South Africa this summer, but I wanted to wait for late fall since we had some family things going on (namely, my sister's wedding and Sarah's brother's wedding) that I wanted to get past before popping the question.

The funny thing was how I had to play the part of the reluctant bachelor for more than a month in the interim between buying the ring and presenting it to her. For example, we'd be walking down the street and she'd talk about a friend's wedding or something and I'd tell her "quit hocking my chinick!" Which is a transliteration of a Yiddish expression that's more or less like "stop busting my chops." We even joked about that...Sarah would say "I'm honking!" Honk. Honk.

So I got the ring during the week of Thanksgiving, and scoped out a spot where I wanted to propose. I wanted to be outside on a beautiful autumn day...Sarah and I love to take walks in Central Park and enjoy the foliage together. The only problem was that the weather was predicted to be gray and drizzly all week.

Nonetheless, I started hinting a week early that I really wanted to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Sarah had very little interest in doing this and thought it would be boring, so she kept suggesting that we invite friends...and I had to act frustrated and list believable reasons why I wouldn't want to bring them along. Meanwhile, I told her that I'd looked online and identified a perfect vantage point from within Central Park to watch the parade.

The night before Thanksgiving we went to one of our favorite Italian restaurants on the UES called Felice...I had the ring in my pocket and the place is beautiful...I really considered asking her right then. I was excited about just doing it. I didn't want to wait another day. But I held out and stuck to my plan.

On Thanksgiving, I woke up early...obviously a bit excited but I let Sarah sleep in. Then we headed out around 11 am to the park. Lo and behold, the weather cleared up -- it turned into one of those PERFECT New York City autumn days...the sun on the autumn leaves was radiantly golden.

As we walked to the park I had to pretend that we were just meandering, but all along I was guiding us to the spot I'd picked...right by Belvedere Castle, which is the highest point in Central Park. It's really a beautiful spot -- and nestled between the Delacort Theater and the Castle there is the Shakespeare Gardens and The Ramble...which can be wonderfully secluded even on a busy day like Thanksgiving.

We sat for a while on the steps at Belvedere Castle, but there were too many people around. I didn't want to make a spectacle of the moment. So we walked to the other spot just down the path from the castle. Perfect...a beautiful view and no one around at all. And all that autumn sun!

Sarah had an apple in her hand (which is quite typical) when I pulled her over to hug me. I said, "Sarah, I'm so thankful for you. Will you marry me?"

"What?!?!....Yes!" she said.

I held her for another moment and I could tell she was trying to figure out if I was kidding or serious. She started laughing and crying at the same time, which is a trick that girls can do...it's pretty neat. I reached into my jacket and pulled out the ring and her eyes popped. It was an awesome moment.

Then she held out her right hand, which I thought was pretty funny; I guess she was a bit flustered.

Thanksgiving was the perfect day to propose in many ways -- Sarah and I express our gratitude for eachother all the time, so symbolically, it's quite reflective of our relationship. And then, of course, there's the practical matter of calling family. I knew my family would be all together, so I could call them and celebrate with them over the phone. And last but not least, Sarah and I planned to have Thanksgiving dinner with her family in the East Village -- so I knew we could give them the news in person, which was just delightful (though I think we almost gave several family members a heart attack.)

So that's the story...I keep thinking about it and how wonderful that moment was. Sarah's surprise, her happiness, telling our families and friends. Nice.

And yeah, now we're trying to figure when and where to get married...but that's all good. We'll figure it out together.

A new blog...another one?

This blog has been fun to update now and again, and I plan to continue. But it doesn't seem like the right spot to talk about my work life -- and increasingly it makes sense for me to blog externally about my work at IBM (I'd been keeping up a blog on IBM's intranet, which is behind a firewall so unless you're an IBM employee you can't get to it.)

Anywhoo.

If you're interested in hearing about my thoughts on intranets and alumni relations and communications in the corporate world, check out EthanMcCarty.com.

Flu shat

I got my flu shot. So I am flu-shotted. Or flu-shat. At any rate, I amn hoping that I don't get sick this year. I have a new boss and a lot of work to do, so I really don't have time to get ill (and I don't mean that in the Beastie Boys sense of the expression...for that, I have time)

Candy

Were you one of those kids who hoarded Halloween candy or ate it all in one go? I hoarded.

Why are you standing in front of the subway entrance?

Photo by Alicia Peck of Bella Muse (amazing cards, prints and other designs).

Great wknd

The weekend started Thursday with a night out at Heathers in the East Village -- so great to finally introduce Sarah to the "Losties" (a group of friends that started hanging out to watch Lost, but has become so much more than that.)

After a hectic day at IBM and the hospital, Friday Sarah and I treated ourselves to one of our favorite dinner places on the Upper East Side - Felice. Great Italian food! And ambiance that is unusually charming given its UES location. We drank a wonderful bottle of Italian red -- a neboliono? Anyway, we were both dressed up a little so it just felt special.

Yesterday was all about being social and enjoying being together in the city. We read the NYT on the sofa for a little bit and then headed to Cafe Orlin to meet up with Claire Shegog and Sarah Strahan for brunch, which was just delightful. We sat outside there for a bit more than two hours. The autumn morning chill disappeared as the sun broke through. Great conversation with some of my favorite people -- we have all got to spend time together more. And we will.

Then Sarah and I looked at a few apartments -- we're thinking of moving downtown-ish. We saw several places in the East Village -- some of which were pretty nice -- but we couldn't get past the feeling that we'd be moving into a dorm. All those tiny bedrooms crammed on top of one another and walk-ups etc etc. So then we went and saw a few places above 14th street but below 20th and I think we've found our sweet spot. It's just a little more grown up in the blocks east of Gramercy -- and there are definitely some places we could get into.

While we were in that area we met up with Erica Ash and her boyfriend, Lior (I might be spelling his name wrong). Also, met his chihuahua, York, who was surprisingly cute. Chihuahuas usually make me a little nauseous. Anyway, it would be great to live closer to Erica -- she's a good egg and we always have a nice time together.

We were going to go to Costco to do our big shopping trip for the month, but by that time we both felt pretty pooped, so we headed home and I cooked us pasta with smoked salmon in a cream sauce loosely based on this recipe. It turned out great -- first time I've ever made a cream sauce...yum. I also made asparagus as a side.

After dinner, Dara Moses (one of Sarah's long-time friends) stopped by for about an hour and had a glass of wine with us. It was really nice to spend a little time with her because I know how important she is to Sarah, and yet I've only really talked with her in noisy bar situations. After chatting for an hour I see why Sarah loves her so much...she's great.

After Dara left we watched Rachel Getting Married. I was expecting something better -- more cohesive, or something. I didn't love it, but I liked the idea of the cross-cultural, music-driven wedding they had.

This morning I wrote myself a to-do list so I wouldn't fritter away the day (or rather, so I would fritter more meaningfully) -- it includes things like "go to the gym" and "change the guitar strings" and "read and drink tea." So far I'm doing pretty well -- I even played my guitar for about 40 minutes, which felt great. It's been far too long. I printed out the lyrics to about 25 songs of mine since I no longer have them committed to memory...it helped me get through the songs.

So my tea is almost done and I read most of the "The Week." I guess that means I'm off to the gym now...

Beck and the Velvet Underground

I was starting to wonder if Beck and I would actually grow old together or not. His last couple albums (with the exception of a few brilliant singles) have left me wanting the Beck of yore (Mutations, anyone?)

Well, he's back with a brilliant idea of covering entire albums and posting them with lo-tech videos online. And even brillianter? Beck started with The Velvet Underground & Nico. Check out this cover of Sunday Morning:

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico 'Sunday Morning' from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

The richest city, the saddest city

From what I've heard, the most satisfied people are not necessarily the ones who have the most choice. In fact, the opposite is often true (does anyone know where I can find that study that shows customers who had fewer flavors of jam to choose form were more satisfied with their purchase?) If this is the case, and I believe it is, a city like NY would be inherently the least happy. Just in the short walk to work you see a zillion more possibilities -- cars, homes, food choices, potential friends and lovers -- than you might see in a life time in a small town. The more you put in front of people, the more they are dissatisfied with what they have. And then the more they seek more. It's a self0perpetuating cycle...and the keyword is self.

Edging closer to making music

Well, now that I am done with my masters degree and have returned from my assignment in Africa I am ready to embark on a new prject again. Things at work are lining up to be very busy, but even if I end up in the middle of the major galactic project that seems to be taking shape, I will need more.

I've been wanting to get back into making music with more regularity -- or at least more frequency. Over the past couple years I have all but given it up. I have a zillion reasons I could list, but the only one that matters is energy. I have a finite amount of energy and it was spread pretty damn braodly and deeply on other things. It's no wonder it took me five years to put out the my album.

So over the past few days I have been going through and just listening to all the songs I have recorded over the years. Say what I will, I've been pretty prolific. I have written dozens of songs. What's weird is that I've truly forgotten them. Forgotten the words, forgotten the chords. And so last weekend I transcribed the lyrics to a few and found a few sets of lyrics that Dan and I had typed out a while back. I've started to collect the lyrics in a folder. This afternoon I'll do a little more transcription and maybe try to work out some chords.

It sounds silly, but I am really reluctant to pick up my guitar and play. I just haven't done so for so long I really feel like I have lost my touch. Or is it just exhaustion?

The word that comes to my mind lately is "mobilize." I need to mobilize my energy, my talent, my skills, my desire...the alternative is to just spend my weekends watching the internet grow.

Looking back on South Africa

So that's it for my stay in South Africa. I got back to NYC yesterday after about 70 hours of travel (don't ask). Strangely, I had enough energy to meet some friends for brunch only a few hours after getting off the plane. I guess I just really needed to see them after being away so long. I was definitely at the point of craving familiarity. I can't tell you how great is was to see my ladyfriend.

And now I'm in the process of getting caught up on mail, email and other missed connections. I spent most of the day "doing email" and am not in bad shape. My team at IBM did an excellent job of covering for me, intercepting messages, and leaving me off of the cc list.

Looking back at my blog entries about the Corporate Service Corps I realize I over-emphasized the extracurricular activities. I don't think I wrote quite enough about the project I was working on. That's at least in part due to the fact that for the first couple weeks we were just trying to figure out what the heck we were going to do and simultaneously doing research and trying to meet all the involved parties. There was a lot of reading and meeting and research -- bloggable, for sure, but pale in comparison to jumping off of cliffs and seeing elephants. And so I admit, I gave the work itself short shrift on the blog even though the experience of the work itself was quite intense.

I'll also admit to a level of cynicism. It just didn't seem realistic that in four weeks we'd be able to have an appreciable impact. There were only three of us on my little Business Against Crime -- Caroline, Anil, myself -- and we had only met one another for the first time on the first day of our arrival. Did we even have the right tools, skills and ideas? And so I was reluctant to build things up too much on the blog.

But in the last week -- really in the last few days -- it all came together. We came together. We had a couple of key meetings that helped us to crystallize a direction for our project, a fairly clear set of things we'd deliver for our client and a sustainable business plan for the work so that it could be carried on when we left. I feel really good about what we finally turned over to our client in our last presentation to them, which was attended by several stakeholders (including the head of a government agency for tourism, cell phone service providers, heads of several security firms, a local technology provider and the local chamber of commerce.)

Our final presentation was met with more than just enthusiasm -- the relevant stakeholders literally offered to fund the work. I think we've left our client in a great position to proceed.

Here's a summary from the cover letter of the report we gave our client:

Tourist safety is an integral part of any successful overall tourism strategy. Based on the research and recommendations from Team 1, and our own investigations over the past three weeks, we offer the following four items that will build tourist confidence in the Mpumalanga area and assist in creating a climate for continued tourism growth.

1. First, building on the concepts from the Corporate Service Corps South Africa I team, we describe a viable model for an SMS messaging system for tourists that carries safety tip messages.

2. Secondly, we describe a model application for smart phones that can bring substantial value to the local tourist industry and tourists while simultaneously raising tourists' consciousness about common sense tips for avoiding crime. We offer details for accessing a live demonstration of this application via smart phone.

3. Thirdly, we have developed an outline for a safety best-practices guide that can be shared through LCBT with local lodge owners.

4. Finally, we offer some observations and recommendations concerning the incident reporting systems in use by local security firms and SAPs. We have included a brief workshop guide to help these parties come quickly to an agreement about implementing a common incident reporting system and avoid potential obstacles in deploying and managing such a system.

Although a multitude of solutions are already in use in the Mpumalanga region to assist tourists, these solutions are not combined to create a unified, integrated crime reduction program.

By leveraging existing infrastructure, procedures and technology we believe an achievable strategy using the above four core activities will hold both short and long term benefits. In the short term the aim is to raise the profile of Mpumalanga as a safe tourist destination for the 2010 FIFA World Cup matches to be held in Nelspruit. In the longer term the aim is to create sustained safety levels for tourists, by building ‘best practice’ safety measures into the tourist industry and improving the collaboration and information sharing among South African Police (SAPs) and private security firms.

We propose to harness traditional print media for immediate use such as handouts and brochures in addition to evolving cellular technology (third generation smart phones). As new technology becomes more widely used and affordable, the proposed strategy will naturally evolve away from printed and SMS based information distribution towards Web Based smart phones. There will naturally be overlap between the print, SMS and web content distribution models. This staged strategy caters to the immediate needs leading up to 2010 World Cup while paving the way for the next generation of tourists and tourist industry operators.

I have a whole new appreciation for what business consulatants do now. You literally have to take a zillion pieces parts and weave them together into something whole. I'm sure I'll add more about my South African experience, but I wanted to provide at least a little wrap up of the work I did in South Africa. There you have it.

Lion encounter, exotic fetuses and looking through God's window (again)

We went on a wonderful tourist adventure over the past few days that included a nighttime safari, Blydes River Canyon, God's Window, off-roading on quad bikes, zip-lining and so much more. The whole thing was sponsored by one of the clients, which happens to be in the tourist industry, so they hooked us up.

Oh, and did I mention we stayed at a 5-star chalet? So awesome.

What are a few highlights?

Climbing around on the rocks at the "Three Rondavels" area of the canyon…it was so beautiful and we just ended up hanging out up there being amazed by the beauty. What is it about standing on the edge of a wide open space that opens your heart? I don't know, but it works. Maybe because the sensation approximates the feeling of flight, but you get to keep your feet on the ground.

Going to God's Window a second time was great – I didn't feel the need to take any photos, so I just was there without trying to document the moment.

Going to Kruger for the second time during the day was amazing for the same reason. I took a couple of photos, but for the most part I just relaxed. I did get to see a hippo in the morning, which I was hoping for since I didn't see one on the first safari.

Checking out Kruger Park's collection of animal fetuses. Ewwwwww!!!! Freak out!

Seeing a lion on the nighttime safari was so thrilling and scary and beautiful. You can't really get a sense for how close it was to our open truck. The video here is taken without zoom. This cat was CLOSE!

Filming a zip line run was fun, but it completely took me out of the experience. For example, i remember actually looking through the screen on my camera for a moment while on my way down the mountain. Kind of silly to watch the experience on a 2 inch screen while I'm immersed in it. Anyway, the video is fun to watch.

In case of attack: Hide in the bathroom, blow the whistle in short bursts

There's something about documenting an experience while you're having that takes you out of the moment and reduces the potency of the moment. I didn't blog a whole lot this past week. I guess I've just been busy with the experience itself.

On Monday night our client asked us to attend and present about our project at the local Rotary Club in White River (South Africa). I was struck by the whiteness of the audience – not a single black person. I am certain that the club itself doesn't exclude people of any color, but it was still weird. I did the presentation for the team and got a nice response. It was a good practice run-through for our final report next week.

During the week, we visited a lodge where the lodge owner was once held hostage at gunpoint. She has, since then, put together a comprehensive set of safety tactics on her premises including putting a whistle in each shower. The point is that she instructs her guests to lock themselves in the bathroom and blow the whistle if there's a security crisis on the premises. She demonstrated with her hand gestures how the high windows in the bathrooms would make it hard for someone to shoot into. This tour was preceded by perhaps the best South African cooking I've tasted yet.

On Thursday we joined the Cash In Transit Forum (CIT), which is a local group comprising security firms, the South African Police, Businesses Against Crimes and a few other interested parties. They were putting on a demonstration of automatic license plate recognition technology. Businesses Against Crime has partnered with CIT to get together the funding for a few of these vehicles to patrol the Mpumalanga area – so many of the crimes committed here involve stolen vehicles that improving that problem will potentially have a big overall effect on crime in the region.

The technology itself was incredible to witness: they drove us around in the car and in just five minutes we were able to find half a dozen vehicles with some kind of issue. The license-plate recognition reads the plate and cross-references it with half a dozen databases in 0.8 seconds. It can read dozens in a minute. Impressive.

Day trip to Swaziland (warning: Ethan dancing)

Whereas typically I'd spend July 4th relaxing my way towards a New York fireworks display, this year I went to the Kingdom of Swaziland.

A group of about ten of us made a day trip to the neighboring country and had a nice time of it. It was a long drive to the cultural village we visited (we cruised passed the capital without stopping) but worth it. The dancing and tour of the preserved Swazi village was very nicely organized, professionally presented and really interesting. It was a stark contrast with our trip the prior weekend to Mozambique.

Every one of us noticed that the Swazi people seemed calmer, more welcoming and just plan smiled more. I guess that's what political stability gets you. I don't know too much about the King of Swaziland, but the royal family has at least been a stable presence for a few decades, unlike the turmoil in Mozambique.

For the tour of the "village" the guide gave us each a role in a family as though we were a visiting tribe. It was clever and made the tour really interactive. He even pretended to marry one of people in our group (Veronica), which was pretty hilarious.

And yes, I danced.

Kruger National Park in about 12 minutes

So a few of us went to Kruger National Park on Sunday for a Safari. We saw elephants, a journey of six giraffe, wart hogs, buffalo, several white rhino, a rare and endangered black rhino, a wide variety of antelope (including impala, Klip Springer, Kudu), crocodile, a monitor lizard and an even wider variety of birds including the Marshal Eagle and a giant heron. We had a wonderful guide, Margeaux, who was enthusiastic and knowledgeable.

It was amazing.

I can see why people make such a big deal about going to Kruger. The whole experience of game watching has similar appeal to slot machines. You look and you look and you look while you drive and you drive and drive...and suddenly...ELEPHANT!!! Or RHINO!!!!! So you have your basic configuration of long stretches of relative calm punctuated by instants of intense excitement. So fun!

Here are some photos and a video I put together from the day.

Innibos music festival

We started the day early again (seems to be the thing to do around here) by going to the morning security meeting at Innibos, which is the region's largest music/cultural festival. The Innibos festival is focused on Afrikaans culture, so it's very specific. But it's been going on for six years and has grown steadily each year -- now they're up to about 120,000 attendees.

Almost all the music is performed in Afrikaans, which was pretty cool. I caught a minute on video (below). A lot of the tunes were really schmaltzy but at least one of the acts was pretty good -- Snotkop. Funny name, eh? The show had a really interesting format where they had all the bands on stage at once and they brought people on stage from the audience who got to pick which song they wanted the performers to perform. It was fun and interactive (and I didn't mind that it was all in a language I didn't understand...in fact, that made it more interesting to me.) Joanne did a nice job of describing the format of the show and posted a couple photos.



I got to try a couple of South African carnival food specialties -- Roosterkoeke (which was a nice grilled bread filled with the stuffing of your choice, such as sausage or cheese etc) and Spitbrei, which was basically just grilled meat on bread (only the guy insisted we put mint jelly on it, which I could have lived without.)

We heard a couple more bands, including one that had perhaps the worst lyricist I've ever witnessed (I think he might have been Belgian singing in English). All of his songs were pedantic, literal and cliche. However, his back-up band was incredible -- they had a stand-up drummer from Cuba who was rocking out. Terrific. After a while I found myself able to tune out the singer and focus on the beats, which were complex, polyrhythmic and multilayered.

It was definitely strange to be in a place with nearly no black people. The festival caters to the whites because it's all about Afrikaans culture. So with the exception of a few black families and festival staff, it was all white. I can't tell you how strange it was to be in a crowd of 40,000 white people in Africa. Everyone on the CSC team definitely noticed it.

As for the Business Against Crime project, we're making some progress. Today I drafted the outline of what will be our final report and sketched out a little more detail for what will go into our deliverable to the client other than the report. We're nearing the halfway mark, so we need to stay focused on actually pulling together our final work in time.

I think this weekend we're heading to Swaziland on Saturday and to a safari on Sunday. Oh, and the Americans on the team are going to put together a little barbecue for tomorrow night in honor of July 4th. Should be a hoot.

Me, falling off of a cliff

So here's the video of me going off the edge of the Big Swing -- a 68 meter free fall in Mpumalanga, South Africa. You fall straight down backwards and then bounce around a bit at the bottom. Amazing!

I went to Mozambique today: SHTAPPEN'S

The name of this bar we drove past today in Mozambique would make a good summary for the day.

Actually, we used a much stronger word.

We went on a day trip today to Mozambique. The whole day started off on bad footing when our guide showed up a half hour late in a nice big bus and promptly told us we had to switch to a tiny van. but first we went and gassed up the big bus (one supposes for some other, luckier tourists) and then drive to some guy's house to make the switch. Basically, an hour of mucking around before we hit the road.

The then "two hour drive" turned out to more like three and very chaotic hour-long border crossing. I don't want to kvetch too much, but the day trip was not great. Mozambique is a total hole -- especially on a Sunday in winter. We went to a boring deserted train station ("one of the main tourist attractions in Maputo") and drove around the dodgy downtown area. It's no wonder that the town is a craphole -- the Portuguese got kicked out in 1975 and hardly anything's been built or repaired since then. It reminded me a lot of the films I've seen of Cuba -- lots of patch work and decay.

What else did we experience? Getting shaken down by some AK-47-carrying police (one of us took a picture of them from a distance, then they wanted a bribe.) Missing the market which apparently closes early on Sunday (remember how we left an hour and half late?) A crazy and semi-scary reentry into South Africa at night at the Mozambique border. Spending about ten hours of driving in a cramped bus.

Ok, now I've vented...here's the good part:

• I have a Mozambique stamp in my passport
• Ate some decent seafood
• Walked out to the edge of the Indian Ocean (I dipped my toe in!)
• Played with some kids on the beach who wanted to show us their kool karate moves
• Took some interesting photos
  
• We got back in one piece and Mary organized a great dinner for us

Also, I'll say that it refreshed my memory about how awesome it is to be from New York, where everything is well organized and safe. I might not have said such a thing a couple weeks ago. And the day trip also reminded me how great South Africa is -- and how well organized and safe it is. I might not have said that a week ago either.

We encountered more hostility today (in the form of people giving us the finger, interrogating us, intimidating us, begging aggressively etc) than we have in the whole time we've been here in Africa. It's just a different world in Mozambique. As a touristic day-trip, it really stunk (and I'm fairly certain our guide fleeced us a bit too). But at least I've had the aperture of my personal perspective broadened once again.

A day of danger: chimps and cliffs

A quick post because I am soo tired. Today we saw chimps and jumped off a cliff.

In the morning a group of us went to the Jane Goodall Chimp Eden, where abused chimps are taken care of by a dedicated staff in an incredible facility. They have about 30 chimps in all. I had no idea how dangerous chimps are until the guide showed us her stump of a finger where a chimp had bitten off half. Apparently they also like to hurl rocks at tourists (video to come!)

In the afternoon we headed up to a gorgeous gorge (cliche, I know...sorry) with an incredible view...and jumped off of it! It's an attraction called The Big Swing. First, you do a zip line across the gorge, then you do a 68 meter, 3 second free fall backwards into it from another platform. That's like a 23 storey drop. All I can say is that the experience was dreamlike. I often dream of flying and the free fall into the gorge was as close as I've come to the sensation in reality as ever. I laughed the whole way down. And yes, I was scared shitless at the moment I jumped.

After the incredible gorge experience (I am still laughing every time I think about it -- it was THAT good) we headed up to God's Window -- which was also incredibly beautiful. It's a high point and canyon with a celestial view of South Africa.

I have some great photos and video (thanks to Chris, Zach and Caroline) of Anil, Scott and myself on our high-speed journeys into the chasm, which I'll post later -- just putting up a few shots now because it's late and tomorrow we are getting up very early to go for a day trip to Mozambique.

Busted!

No, Anil and I have not been arrested :-) Actually, one of the advantages of hanging around with cops is that you get to ride in their cool cars. In this case, it was Commander Cornelia's a tricked out BMW 5 series...hot!

We met this morning with a private security firm affiliated with the police -- they seem like really good guys who want to make a difference in the region (along with, of course, making a good living doing security.) They were so interested in our project and really willing to help. We learned from our client (Business Against Crime) that this region is different fro the rest of the South African states in that there is an unusually high level of cooperation between the state police and the local security firms. Before I left the US I'd seen a documentary that presented these firms in a very negative light -- and it's true, there are some fliy-by-night operations out there. but there ar also a buch of firms that are really doing good work in conjunction with the state police and filling gaps in under-serviced areas.

One of the things my little team is going to do is to build a prototype web application for smart phones that will help people report security incidents and get help etc. It will be a like an iPhone application. Believe it or not, we learned that the local phone provider has already deployed a 3G network in the area (that's the super-fast wireless network) and they are introducing iPhones and other smart phones to the market now. I say 'believe it or not" because the state of Mpumalanga is quite rural, but that doesn't mean the people here are happy with slow wireless!

In other news, we have been making group meals with everyone...tonight is my turn. I'm making veggie lasagna, salad and garlic bread. We have a few people who are vegetarian and, well, it's hard to go wrong with lasagna. So easy and I can serve the whole group in one shot. Also, we've been eating soooo much meat...it'll be nice to have something alittle lighter.

Just now I was teaching a few of the other people on my team how to use the Sony Vegas video editing software -- they are so excited about it and it's fun to teach them. It's nice to actually know what I am doing for a minute and feel like an expert on something. Being here is great, but very foreign -- even when I was teaching the software one of the people had it in Spanish, so it was a bit of a challenge to teach it without really being able to read what was on her screen.

Oh, and driving has been fun. The GPS has been indispensible and now I know how to drive on the left side of the road :-) Which some people claim is the right side of the road.

Ok, time to put away the computer and get some lasagna in the works!

Stars, wireless providers and a safari

The funny thing about the southern hemisphere is that the stars are actually different. You look up at night, see a zillion stars and then you realize you are on the other side of the planet.

Back on earth, this afternoon we had a very promising meeting with the largest local wireless provider -- if we can get them to work with us on this project, it would be a major windfall. I think the meeting went really well; the head of their regional marketing group liked our ideas, spent more than an hour with us and agreed to help us out initially. We'll see whether they come through or not, but it looked good.

Elsewhere on planet earth, this morning my little team got a special treat. Those two lovely SAP (South African Police officers) husband and wife couple, Ozzie and Cornelia took us to a private game reserve. We had to promise not to disclose the name or location because it's the private property of some gazillionaire they know -- he has more than 200 rhino (each of which cost about 200,000 rand) not to mention Kudu, Giraffe, buffalo, warthog and roan antelope...to mention a few. The owner of this private reserve protects these rhino by removing the horns -- this way, poachers are disinterested. He also makes sure the property is free of predators that would harm them. It was simply incredible. We were just a few feet away from these animals.

At one point the rhino actually charged me and Anil...we thought we were done. but it was just trying to intimidate us (it worked) and it stopped short of us by a few feet -- a thin wooden fence was between us. Gulp.

Here are the rest of my photos from today.

Another amazing day...and a lizard in my room

I can hardly describe all the stuff that happened today...but let me try a few bullets.

• Yoga in the morning and then a jump in the freezing pool
• Met with the South African Police force
• Went on a massive tour of the crime-ridden, under-serviced rural South African areas with two really cool cops
• Listened to the cops' mind-blowing stories about everything from narcotics busts to how to evade a rhino on foot
• Saw the cops' incredible collection of weird artifacts, evidence and zany items (including the elephant tusk)
  
• Visited the old 10111 center (the South African equivalent of 911) and then visited the new 10111 center, which is under construction...they were literally hanging the big flat screens when we arrived
• Ate a pretty gross chicken sandwich
  
• Went back to the office and planned our next steps, consolidated a bunch of information
• Jumped on a trampoline with Anil outside of the super market
  
• Saw a little lizard in my room
• Decided it was a friendly lizard
• Ate some pizza and hung out with the other CSC folks
  

Donating gifts for a local school

My IBM Corporate Service Corps team pulled together a pile of gifts and collected money to buy school supplies and sports equipment for a local school while we're on assignment here in Nelspruit, South Africa.

People in South Africa abuse Powerpoint too

Yes, folks...it's official: people in South Africa have no compunction about putting 500 words on a single slide. Ahh, just like home.

But seriously, today we attended a working session about a set of guidelines that the various local security, tourism and governmental agencies are proposing as a means to improve security for tourists in the region. The main speaker presented the guidelines and accompanying research -- much of which was presented as tons of words on charts. But he was a good speaker and there was a fair bit of debate and discussion. It wasn't very well attended, but those who were there were really passionate about the subject. They are totally committed to the idea that that the tourism industry is the rising tide that could lift all boats.

We ate lunch with the head of a local security firm and the chief operating officer for the local airport. Both of them are incredibly comitted to growing the economic well-being of the region.

Then in the afternoon, we worked the rest of the day while sitting on the back porch of the manor (decent internet connectivity when there are only a few of us around). It's super nice to work from the porch -- the view is just incredible (the photo on this page is actually from upstairs at the breakfast room). We did a little mini-presentation with our client, Yvette who is pictured above on the far left.

Tomorrow we're meeting with the South African police and going for a tour of some of the hotspots -- and by hot, I mean places where crimes are commonly committed. Should be interesting to say the least. Oh and then in the late afternoon, we're meeting up with a local cell service provider to see what their interest might be in partnering with us to roll out the SMS emergency broadcast system.

First day at work and giant hairy spider in my room

Ok, so today was simply amazing -- as I mentioned in my earlier post, we started off with meditation and a jump in the very, very cold pool. After I went back to my room and changed (and wrote that earlier blog entry) we were supposed to meet with our clients in a conference room here at the lodge. I was late. Why? because as I was heading out of room I noticed a huge, vicious-looking spider on the ceiling above my bed. Blargh!

Aparently it's just a Red Roman spider, which will rarely bite humans. But what the heck do I know?...when I saw the giant hairy thing (about seven inches across) I collected my things, took this photo from all the way across the room and let the hotel staff know that I'd appreciate if they removed it for me. I tried to be cool about it, but whoa!

Anyway, we got to hear a presentation from the MTPA Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency all about the region and then an overview from each of the project partners/clients. Looks like we have some really interesting work ahead of us. As I mentioned, I'll be working with Business Against Crime (BAC) on a project that will entail meeting with a bunch of stakeholders over the next few days and then trying to help the local groups implement a wireless emergency alert system.

We met for a couple hours with Yvette from BAC and then she and I headed off to the airport to pick up the rental car we'll be using. I was very happy to see we'd gotten an automatic transmission -- i can drive a stick, but still. And learning to drive on the left side of the road was a bit thrilling, but I think I've got it down.

Tonight we're going to barbecue ("brei") at the hotel. Here's a shot of the sunset from where I'm writing this now.

First full day in Nelspruit

It's our first morning here at the Sunset Manor. There's a very cute dog who seems quite willing to come hang out (especially if there happens to be food present).

A group of us got up early and meditated led by one of the guys on my team, Anil. It was so cool. What a wonderful way to start the day.

And you wouldn't believe this place we're staying. It's on a hill top overlooking the whole city -- in the morning sun the view is spectacular. We did the meditation session on a patio next to a fountain in the brisk morning air. Incredible. I think we're going to end up doing yoga/meditation every morning.

In about an hour we're going to meet with our clients, though I actually bumped into mine (Yvette from Businesses Against Crime) in the driveway. We talked for a few minutes and she seemed very optimistic about the possibility of some progress. She also seemed acutely aware that the proposed scope for our project is enormous, which was good to hear because I think she has realistic expectations about just how much we can possibly get done.

I am beginning to think that just having us meet with all the interested parties will be helpful -- because each time we meet with them we'll be making the case for the emergency SMS system we're proposing. More on that later as it unfolds.

Oh...and I need to tell you about the breakfast room here...it's on the top of the building and has open air-windows overlooking the view. So nice. And they had some nice strong tea for me too :-) I'll get some photos for you.

My room is fine -- it's sort of an addition to the hotel (a bit of a basement, but with a really nice private outdoor space and I'm right by the pool.) It's a bit damp and chilly, but nothing I can't handle. Especially because the rest of the facility is so amazing.

Ok...off to meet the clients for the first-day overview.

First day in South Africa

(I actually wrote this a couple days ago...)
I am in the hotel in Johannesberg. Looks like a hotel. No monkeys yet :-) Just lots of IBMers. I got in really late last night and a few of us went out for burgers. The place we went was kind of funny because clearly during the week it's more like a cafe/pub -- but on a Friday night it was hopping. There was a loud DJ and it was a bit club-like, which was funny because all of us where exhausted from the trip and just wanted a quick bit. The food was good though and we had a laugh about the loud music.

Today we went to IBM's office here and met the senior guy for South Africa, Mark Harris along with a bunch of other people from IBM South Africa. Wonderful hosts (especially Claudia stone who rolled out a teeny tiny red carpet for me...thanks, Claudia!). We then went to the apartheid museum, which was very moving. And we drove by both Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela's homes. Pretty neat. I'm off to dinner soon. But I'm still so exhausted from the trip, I think it'll be a few days before I start feeling normal.

Tomorrow we drive the 4 hours to Nelspruit, where we'll be staying for the next four weeks. The weather here is great -- like autumn temperatures and it was nice and sunny today. Chilly willy at night.

For the most part the people on this trip with me seem like good folks, though with any bunch of people you can expect that I'll have more in common with some than others.

Here are a few photos from today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ethanmcc/sets/72157619911550165/

NY Cares Day 2009

This Spring I brought along my little flip-video camera to the biannual volunteer event I do with IBM. I made this video to share with the people I spent the day with, but I'm having so much fun making videos I figured I'd post it here too.

Democracy explained

iPod and a good amplifier/speakers

Last night up at my house in the Catskills I hooked up my iPod through the 1980 McIntosh MC2255 amplifier my uncle gave me and the NHT SuperOne speakers Mark Fleischman gave me a few years back...it sounds amazing. I have a McIntosh C33 pre-amp too, but I can't get it to work (I think it may have been damaged in transit to me.) Anyway, the amp from my uncle paired with the speakers from Mark sound incredible. I have been listening to music through a home-theater-oriented surround sound system for so long that I'd forgotten how breath-taking stereo can be with hi-end components. I listened to Beck's Sea Changes, Radiohead's OK Computer and the Cardigans' Super Heavy Gravity and am just wowed. It's really a completely different experience compared with listening to music through the Onkyo surround sound reciver and Polk surround sound speakers I have in NYC. Next up I'm going to plug a CD player straight in to this stero system, which should be even more spacious-sounding than the MP3s on the iPod. Music is a beautiful thing, indeed.

With crisp , clear sounds and great music , you will appreciate these good quality center channel speakers.

My album gets reviewed...

Dan just wrote me an email saying that we've gotten our first review for These Curds Don't Run -- it showed up in the Athens News, which calls us a "local band." Fair enough because Dan actually lives in Athens and I miss living there...I suppose that makes us a local band in NYC too! Anyway, check out the review...it's great. Really thoughtful and fun writing. Read the review.

And here are links to buy These Curds Don't Run on iTunes, Amazon or buy the CD directly from us. Or if the recession has you in the dumps, you can always check our a few free Indelible Beancurd songs and videos on facebook.

Check out my new video -- Pope Song

So I just finished editing another video for my band, Indelible Beancurd...this one is for Pope Song.

Our album, These curds don't run, is now available for download on iTunes, Amazon.com or order a CD directly from our manufacturer.

Buy my CD. Please!

That's what I would have been saying to you 12 years ago when I put out my first CD. My bandmates and I convinced our friends and relatives to buy our CDs in advance and then we used the money to do the production. Basically, we were strapped for capital and found a way to get it out the door. But these days, you don't need $3000 to make a pile of CDs...there are companies that do them one at a time and send them for you and collect the money and all that for you. And these companies aren't record companies...
So Indelible Beancurd has used a company called Kunaki to manufacture and sell our CD. We took five years to write and record the songs; they take about a couple days to pump one out on CD to you. Amazing! So order a copy of Indelible Beancurd: These curds don't run.

Or if you're a new fangled type, buy These curds don't run on Amazon by downloading it. (We'll have it on iTunes, Napster, eMusic etc etc soon too.)

The Wire...season six

I have bronchitis. Or rather, I am getting over it. I'm on antibiotics and all that, so I'm on the mend. But the past few days have been brutal...time in bed, chicken soup, fever, blah blah blah. All I could do was sit around and wait for it to go away. And while sitting around I downloaded and watched the final two seasons of the Wire (seasons four and five.) Four was amazing and five was great (a bit implausible, but still...wow.)

Boy was I bummed when I reached the end of the Wire...I want more.

Well, we're all in luck. Thanks to Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich we get season six of the Wire!

After five years, Indelible Beancurd's album is finally available

Well, here it is folks...finally got that album out the door: Indelible Beancurd: These curds don't run. Now available on Amazon.com.

We're getting the artwork for the physical CD uploaded now and I expect it will be on iTunes in a couple weeks.

Later this month we're starting on our next album. Song title submissions welcome.

Building a smarter planet

This morning the chairman of my company, Sam Palmisano gave a historic speech at the Council on Foreign Relations about a new strategy for IBM -- building a smarter planet.

I've been at IBM for about nine years and I have to say, this is the most optimistic (and yet grounded) material I've seen about the direction of our company. It's hopeful without being unrealistic; it recognizes that the world is on the brink of major change; it makes me feel really good about working at a company like ours.

It's ambitious on a societal level. Ultimately, this is the reason I came to IBM. to work on projects like this.

And so I'm sharing this with you and hoping you will feel moved too.

There are also some videos we posted on YouTube that talk about progress. Because making a smarter world is all about making progress.

It's not you.

About a year ago I was up in the country working on some song ideas with Dan and came up with a bunch of interesting little ditties. One of the ways we write songs together is to roll the tape and just make something up. So I was listening to some of the song ideas last wknd and stumbled on one called "It's not you." It's fully improvised, so it's rough as hell and needs a major rewrite. But it moved me to shoot a little video for it. Let me know what you think. Oh and we set up an Indelible Beancurd Facebook page -- become a fan if you'd like to get our latest stuff and find out about our upcoming album, These Curds Don't Run.

Lost and found...video

I have been sitting on some footage for over a year now -- shot by Sarah (thanks, babe) in the sweltering oppression of a New York City heat wave summer of 2007. Anyway, the "concept" I had turned out to be goofball...but when I revisited the footage, some of it could be hacked into a video. Which is what I did today using some trial video software. I'm not about to put anyone in the film industry out of business, but I'm am pretty happy with how it turned out. Enough so that I think I'll take my chances doing another one...we have some video for Pope Song (another song on Indelible Beancurd's upcoming album.)

Tina singing in the country

On vacation in the Catskills with Sarah -- Tina and Claire came up for the past few days and we've some of the best times ever. Good food, good friends, good fun. Kayaking in the river, hiking around, playing badminton in the backyard...And here's a video of Tina singing at the dining room table.

School soon come

Ah, you are probably not wondering what class I'm taking in the autumn, but in case you are...this is it: http://www.newschool.edu/nssr/courses.aspx?id=17190

Viral or just yucky?

My songwriting partner made yet another super sweet Indelible Beancurd video. They just keep getting better. This one features footage of two moths having sex.

Front porch and the rain

I'm sitting on my front porch and it's raining. Absolutely perfect. The morning was all sunshine and light breezes. Now I'm just out here with my computer transcribing some song lyrics. Going to grab my guitar in a bit too. Alas, my camera isn't working so no pics....oh well.

My brother in law: superstar

Just got home from a grueling day of corporate stuff and to unwind from it spent the past few minutes looking at (watching/reading) my brother in law, Robert Guererro's blog, Controlled Accidents. He and I went out for dinner (at a yummy Indian place) last night and had a wonderful, wandering conversation about life, the universe and all that other stuff. I'd be lying if I said I don't envy him a bit -- he is about as free as they come. Now granted, he's six or seven years younger than I am, but still. I just love the way he's drifting around following his passion and his star. He's a professional in-line skater on Rollerblade's pro-team. Whenever he's on the East Coast he and I get together, sometimes he stays with me. Last time he was in town he was doing a stunt for some tv show that required him to skate backwards at high speed down the steps inside the NY Public Library. He's just an incredible athlete and a warm, thoughtful person...those attributes aren't so often combined, which makes him a pretty unique guy. Anyway, check out this video he just put together a few days ago.

Wordle

I just plopped the text from my last term paper into an online tool called "Wordle" that allows you to create a word cloud from any chunk of text. Here's mine. So cool!

Check it out and create your own.

Hottttttt

Returned from London late Friday night and found myself at the front end of a NY city heat wave in an unairconditioned apartment with a whole lotta packing to do. No worries, Sarah and I spent Saturday sweating and packing boxes for the big move next week. We got 85% of it done, which is no wonder because we started early, taking lots of stuff up to the house. Tonight: more sweating and packing.

Saturday night I went out with Brent for a real East Village evening. We had drinks at the newly re-opened International Bar...my old favorite bar revamped and reopened after more than two years shuttered. They still sell cheap Rolling Rocks, so I'm a happy customer. Then we had aaaammmmmaaaazzzziiiinnnnnggggg burgers at a new place called Seymour Burton. The joint needs to finish some of the decor (noticeable issues with the ceiling, air conditioning was broken etc) but the food was incredible. I think they sautéed the burgers in butter o something. Incredible. Then off to the Music Box -- a bar I haven't been in for a few years. We met up with some of Brent's film industry friends...luckily people in production rather than actors :-)

On Sunday Sarah and I went to see Ironman, which we both loved -- especially escaping the mid-day heat. (And have I mentioned air conditioning enough?) Sunday night we celebrated Josh's birthday at Nurse Bettie's on the Lower East Side -- great birthday bar. Oh, and to redeem myself for the snarky anti-actor comment above, I should mention that we hung out with some of his thespian pals and they were delightful.

Zombies

Watched "I am legend" last night and loved it. Nothing like a good zombie flick to cap off a sunny, spring weekend in New York City -- especially a zombie flick that features images of a deserted, desolate alternate-reality New York City.

Burping, farting, mouth-breathing miscreants..and a lush sunset

I worked from my country house today. I sort of love/hate saying that. Love because it's something I dreamed of and worked for, hate because it sounds incredibly overstated and bourgeois -- especially considering the modesty of the property itself.

Anyway, I came up here because a few weeks ago I got busted speeding. In all fairness, I was speeding. But I should say that it was in a bit of speed trap -- a few hundred yards from where a 30mph zone turns into a 55 mph zone -- I was accelerating into the new zone and bang! So I decided to appear in court to see if I could at least bargain them down -- I looked into hiring a lawyer -- $300 - $500 for them to show up on my behalf and then usually a fine on top of it anyway! So I represented myself.

Weeeeellll...all I can say is that going to night court in a small Catskills town is like living a page out of a Mark Twain piece. The quality of the characters accompanying me within Walton, NY's faux-wood paneled hall of justice almost defies description. The first up was a nineteen year old kid there with his mom; he'd been arrested for waving a knife at some other kids and threatening them -- a class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison! He was dressed in a muscle T-shirt and wore a camouflage baseball cap. Then came the family of oxygen-deprived telephone-harassers. The defendant, an overweight nearly translucently pale woman kept trying to explain her case to me and show me the two telephones she had in her hands as evidence that the prank calls she was accused of making were actually initiated by the complainant. She promptly dropped one on the floor and it shattered into pieces. I suppressed a laugh and tried to stare nonchalantly at the judge. Her family (there as character witnesses, I suppose?) burped and farted loudly throughout. Her sister (mother? daughter?) had easily 35 hickies on each of her arms and carried a babydoll. She was either 14 or 47 years old.

And that was just the start of the parade of shorts-wearing, tattooed, myopically-haircut, lawbreakers in attendance tonight.

As for me, I looked as idiotic as the rest of them -- all Banana Republican and coordinated, Blackberry buzzing semi-silently, expensive teeth etc. But I got off with a plea bargain and everyone else has a date in a few weeks with the District Attorney. And that's what being rich (well, relatively) does for you in America.

After court I drove home (minding my speed, naturally) over Bear Spring Mountain through such intensely green greenery that, well, it took my words away. When I got home I made some Mandarin orange herbal tea and walked to the bridge to hear the river where I saw an enormous trout jump out of the water. Following dinner on the porch with the paper and the sound of chirpy birds, I went into my backyard and lay myself on the grass as the sunset faded into periwinkle. I turned my head east because I figured the sky would be darker that way. I watched a couple stars twinkle their way into existence, just like the song. It's like they pushed their way out of the invisibility of daylight into glorious night time shimmering. The birds faded into bugs and swooping bats that I could hear before I could see. And then the river in the distance emerged as night fell.

Sunny day in NYC with Shaydrian

After doing some IBM stuff, going to the gym and lounging a bit, Sarah and I spent the day walking around Manhattan with Shayna and Adrian, whom we've dubbed "Shaydrian" as their celebrity couple nick name. We passed this ad for the new Grand Theft Auto posted above a mega Keith Haring poster. Kind of an interesting juxtaposition, eh?

Infinite work, infinite entertainment

A friend of mine at IBM was just telling me how much she loves her ipod
touch. She watches movies while she does chores. She's also a blackberry
addict (full disclosure, so am I. In fact I'm writing this on my bb). It
occurs to me that both devices are embodiments of our corporate world
system in that the one promises infinite productivity and the other
infinite consumption. Someone should duct tape the two together.
-----------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Handheld.

Fountain

I passed this on the street this morning and snapped a shot with my cellphone...precious ad hoc re-interpretation of Duchamp's 'Fountain."