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Social Broadcasting OK. To the view of this blogger, the term "Social Networking" is not only inappropriate, it's illogical. The correct term is really "Social Broadcasting" and if more people thought that way, they would understand how media has really changed over the last two decades and how to take advantage of the tools available to them. Two events led to the use of the term Social Broadcasting for this blogger. First, on April 10, 2008, James Earl Buck used Twitter to get out of an Egyptian jail. What happened was that Buck, a University of California at Berkeley, or "Cal student", was in Mahalla, Egypt reportedly covering an anti-government protest when he and his colleague Mohammed Maree were arrested. While being transported to jail, James Earl Buck used his cell phone to send a message that read "Arrested." (If it were me, I'd have sent a tweet rather than a message.) Eventually, bloggers and friends at Cal and

On Wednesday, Oakland City Attorney John Russo sat down to talk about the need to legalize marijuana use, the Golden State Warriors, the Oakland A's, and World Cup Soccer. The result is this 14 minute video interview , the latest in a string of nine videos Russo has done with this blogger, and friend. In this one, John Russo talks about his support for the legalization of recreational marijuana use in California. The vote to cause the legalization of marijuana use is on the November ballot in California. According to a recent poll, 37 percent of potential voters use marijuana. John Russo is the first elected official to openly support the legalization of marijuana use in California. Why does Russo support legalization? "Well, Russo said, first, number one I think marijuana prohibition has been a demonstrated failure at this point, no different than alcohol prohibition in the 1920s." Russo says it's also "cooler" for the young to use marijuan

Jed York San Francisco 49ers Team President and Owner Jed York was reported as implying that the San Francisco 49ers NFL Football Organization would move to Los Angeles if they did not win approval to build a new stadium in Santa Clara, California this Tuesday, June 8th. This blogger had the pleasure of meeting Jed York at Former San Francisco City Hall Staffer Hala Hijazi's June Professionals VIP event last night, Thursday, at The San Francisco City Club. Late for the event, thus missing York's presentation, I made up for it by having an informal conversation with him afterward. It was a great moment, with other event goers who also hailed from York's hometown of Youngstown, Ohio coming up to express their warm wishes. But I had to ask him if he intended to move the San Francisco 49ers to Los Angeles. "The San Francisco 49ers will remain in the Bay Area," York said. Moreover, York said it directly, clearly, and deliberately. York told me he's o

Movie product tie-ins are common and many new products are aimed at kids. That's why the news of the McDonalds Shrek glass recall is so terrible. But first, thank the Office of Congresswoman Jackie Speier for the discovery of the problem. According to the San Francisco Chronicle via the Associated Press , there were 12 million McDonalds Shrek glasses on the market: all of them must be recalled after a discovery by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The glasses are tainted with Cadmium, a carcinogen that can cause "long term adverse health effects." While that's in the recall notice, along with the news that the discovery came from the Office of Congresswoman Jackie Speier from California, that news is buried way down deep in in the Associated Press article. The article also makes it seem as if the Consumer Product Safety Commission made the discovery. You have to read the entire, long work to see that it was Rep. Jackie Speier's office wh

Also: city of oakland, cA, sf bay area race relations, san francisco, california, rockridge and race, black white oakland Rockridge, Oakland, CA  Oakland, CA - Fresh from a visit to my doctor's office that didn't go as I would have liked (I was told, really ordered, to lose 20 pounds and gave a large vial of blood with the fear of the unknown report to come), I decided that I needed to relax. Normally, a trip to the gym would be the next stop but that's not relaxing, really. Fitness work is just that: another kind of work. The fantasy of having a glass of whiskey at a Rockridge, Oakland, California restaurant next to Rockridge BART - the owners I've known for a long time - seemed like a fun idea. Not meeting anyone; just totally spur of the moment. So I arrived from Rockridge BART, walked in, and noticed the lower level bar area was totally redesigned. The bar itself was smaller than before and two people took up most of it. The bartender, a nice Lat

"Outside Lands" the popular festival set for San Francisco's Golden Gate Park August 14th and 15th 2010, just released its schedule today. The 2010 Outside Lands list features former Grateful Dead members Phil Lesh and Bob Weir of Furthur, The Kings of Leon, The Strokes, My Morning Jacket, Phoenix, Social Distortion, Al Green, Gogol Bordello, Nas and Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley, The Levon Helm Band, Cat Power, Empire of The Sun, Wolfmother, Bassnectar, Chromeo, Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros, The Temper Trap, Pretty Lights, Janelle Monae, Amos Lee, The Devil Makes Three, Tokyo Police Club, Beats Antique, Rebith Brass Band, Wild Beasts, and a host of other bands. Here's the presentation video listing them all : Tickets for this popular festival of music, food, and wine go on sale Wednesday. Visit SFOutsideLands.com for more information.

This is The Grove in The Marina in 2007! One of the top-listed posts at SFGate.com is by San Francisco Chronicle Food and Restaurant Critic Michael Bauer, who rightly asks why laptop and cell phone use in restaurants make patrons angry. Before weighing in on that, this blogger's compelled to point out that the photo used in his post was taken in 2007 at at The Grove on Chestnut Street and Avila Avenue in San Francisco's Marina District. The Grove is specifically designed for laptop users. I discovered The Grove for myself in that same year of 2007, while attending a screenwriting class in Fort Mason, nearby. The attraction was that the vast majority of patrons were using their laptops for work. That habit continues today, even as the Grove's recent remodel makes it less favorable to use as a office away from home. That was an awful move, the design change. There are fewer seats for internet work, and more for just lounging. Or it seems this is the case; more