Briefly: I saw The Magnetic Fields perform on Boulder campus. A good band, not rock-n-roll, and they don’t seem to like performing, but quite talented. The opening act, Darren Hanlon, was quite good. He reminded me of Jonathan Richman, and when I commented on this to the woman next to me, she said he’d held her when she was a baby, and that Jonathan Richman was in her father’s tai chi class. Woah. I asked her to marry me right there on the spot, but she said she was “gay.” How do I find ‘em? Anyway, I asked Hanlon about Richman, and he said he was a fan, and that he’d played his most “Jonathan-like” songs.
Tonight I saw The Life of Brian at the International Film Series. Funny, good commentary on bureaucracy, independent thinking, feminism, and religion. Also on video is the PBS special, They Made America, which I linked to the video section of my website.
And right now on Charlie Rose, Nathan Myhrvold is on the show. He’s CEO & Managing Director, Intellectual Ventures and Former Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft Corporation. His new company is focused on invention, which ties to They Made America. He’s so creation oriented, which is great, and pointed out that people should be more scared of terrorism than nanotech. Good point.
Speaking of invention I met a Swarthmore graduate yesterday, Phil Wieser, a law professor at CU. He pointed me the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a think tank I might be interested in. I have some worries about living in DC, though. Still, the idea of fostering invention and advancing politial and ecomomic freedom — false dichotomy, really — does inspire me.
