After 10 years in California, we finally made it to Yosemite Valley and stayed in a tent cabin at Curry Village. I think we finally figured out that you either have to luxury camp or backpack in California because typical car-camping simply sucks. I can get along w/ this luxury camping... we are already booked for a heated cabin this coming winter at the same place.   read more »  

We didn't catch a whole lot of shows this summer, and only one on this list, but thanks to some generous artists and savvy tapers you can enjoy these from the comfort of your MP3 player. I recommend downloading the variable bit rate MP3's as a zip file, unzipping, and then importing into iTunes.   read more »  

You never know who you'll run into on the streets of San Francisco

Summer cruises along in grand style...   read more »  

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In late June, Simon tested (and achieved) his blue belt in Kuk Sool Won.   read more »  

They are shrinking the groceries and keeping prices the same. Keep track of the offenders at The Consumerist. Meanwhile... I am long agricultural commodities (just entertainment, I am not a financial advisor!!)

"Full-Screen" View

Since we don't have a television, we were expecting to miss the Olympics again this year... but didn't want to. We were ready to sign up and pay for Internet video if it was available. It's available... and it's free!! Just visit nbcolympics.com and download the Silverstream plug-in for Firefox. At first we couldn't get Silverstream (Microsoft's version of flash video) to work on the Mac, but after a re-install we are super-hep with a video area of 846 x 480 pixels. For a shared experience, we pump it up to the big screen w/ an lcd projector.

The Olympic Live Control Room

So far, I have not had to watch a single dramatization of an athlete's story. Nor have I had to listen to any kind of commentary during the events (aside from some highlight reels.) We can watch events in their entirety, including the setup and the breakdown and all the slaggage during the proceedings. We can hear the grunts and the splashes. And, since we don't have a t.v., it's been easy to avoid spoilers and watch the events when we can / when we want to. This is important as the boys are enjoying everything from the swim races to judo to pistol shooting to archery to rowing and much more to come.   read more »  

The artist lineup for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival #8 has been revealed. Of course, the biggest news for this year's fest is the reunion appearance of   read more »  

Here is Rob Brown's latest short film called "Leap of Faith." Rob is an old school chum who now lives in Nashville. Please enjoy...   read more »