Author: June Morrall

To view the definition of “Beyond Art,” please click here

I want to scream and throw my shoes at this tv commercial: Not only is it terrible and insincere using these middle-aged stars to hype the product with the “If you wanna be me, be me, be you, be whatever”twangy  tune in the background, but it’s a very poor attempt to copy Apple’s really good, older  commercials introducing iTunes, and featuring the face, height and  unusual voice of R&B singer “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe,”  Barry White. (I miss Barry White, don’t you?)

Please. Please, Please, pull this commercial off the air. It’s almost as bad as the one for the Palm Pre but at least the strange looking woman holding the Palm Pre elicits some mystery which is worth a few cents of my time.  I wonder how she really spends her day.

For more info on the “My Touch,” please click here

If you want to know more about San Francisco’s history, you will GREATLY enjoy this new book: San Francisco in Maps and Views by Sally B. Woodbridge, with an introduction by David Rumsey. There’s an interesting section about Leland Stanford’s efforts to change the 1880s Market Street railroad system to cable, thus encouraging travel out of town to the Peninsula. Stanford University opened its doors in 1891, with David Starr Jordan appointed the first president. Jordan, who had a special interest in marine biology,  was an early visitor to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in Moss Beach, where invertebrates thrived and fascinated beach-goers.

To read the story, please click here

Story by John Vonderlin

Email John: [email protected]

By June Morrall

Before it was over, I walked out of Vince Vaughan’s “Couple’s Retreat.”

And I was looking forward to laughing non-stop so much that I had considered zooming “over the hill” to a five- minutes- after- midnight screening that would have been the first showing of “Couple’s Retreat.”. In retrospect, I would have regretted staying up that late to watch this not funny movie.

The first 30 minutes and more dragged on without mercy; it was torture watching the cast of characters, so bored with themselves, that to entertain myself I focused on the actor’s collective crows feet and began an internal debate on how well the make-up artists obscured freckles on arms and faces. Not one of the known actors could pump life into this dead script: How painful to watch them trying.

Did hilarious “Wedding Crashers” star Vince Vaughan have writer’s block (WB) while he was working on the script AND when he was acting in it? If so the WB virus was catching—there were no standouts in this spirit-less flick.

I wanted to get to the Eden Resort, the Couple’s Retreat, the title of the movie, but far too much time was spent setting up the reason for the vacation. Time that would have been better spent writing comedy lines.

It was so bad that I left before the four boring couples arrived at the island, where I hope ticket holders finally got a few well earned laughs. Bottom Line: This is not a movie worth seeing, even if it’s free.

1970s Moovie: Crossing Devil’s Slide from June Morrall on Vimeo.

AliceMarie Mutrux Paints “RockawayWild”

————————————-

[Image below: “The Land Called Pacifica” By Dema Savage

To read John Vonderlin’s story, please click here

Lisa Petrides (head of ISKME, our very own “think tank: in Princeton-by-the-Sea)  Invites You to the Big Ideas Fest

Dear Friend of ISKME, Is it just me or have you noticed recently that there seems to be a great deal of enthusiasm about what is possible, yet skepticism abounds. And while the tendency might be to sit back and say this too shall pass, others of us feel the urgency to take action like never before. For those of us who either work directly serving students, or supporting systems, or trying to change the structures that enable innovation in education, I think we all agree that this is the time when the need to accelerate high-quality learning is truly essential for our country and our future.

It is in this spirit that ISKME (the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education) is pleased to offer you an opportunity to join us in spotlighting, challenging, and changing the business-as-usual model in education by participating in the inaugural Big Ideas Fest, which will take place December 6-9, 2009 at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay, California. Click here to register: http://a3.acteva.com/orderbooking/bookEvent/A303049

Come immerse yourself in three extraordinary days of inspiring presentations, like hearing what Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, has to say about rocketing our education system into a different stratosphere, as well as having the opportunity to participate in activities such as the “Action Collabs”, in which we will work together to actually design and prototype real-world innovations in education. There will also be ample time to network with other dedicated education enthusiasts next to the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean. The perfect ending to a challenging year. Guaranteed!

Please join us December 6-9, 2009 in Half Moon Bay, California, just a stone’s throw away from San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

Register today in order to hold your place for this ground-breaking event and you won’t be sorry:
http://a3.acteva.com/orderbooking/bookEvent/A303049

For more information about the Big Ideas Fest, go to www.bigideasfest.org.

Sincerely,

Lisa Petrides, Ph.D.
President and Founder, ISKME
www.iskme.org

—————————————

“You Go To My Head”  (1938) was composed by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie. Best recording by the smokey voiced Marlene Dietrich. And, yes, I thought the classic song was composed by the great Cole Porter. Not so!