Category: the global world

Jun 13 2016

Love is love is love is love is love…

In the shadow of the horrible tragedy in Orlando Sunday morning, Lin-Manuel Miranda (creator of the hit musical Hamilton) delivered a passionate sonnet as part of his acceptance speech for Best Score. At its climax he pleads “And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside.”

If there is any truth and hope to be found in the world, it is this. If anything will ever change the horror and sadness in the world it is this.

Love.

Hold on to love. Do not let it go.

Let hate go as it will only prevent you from loving.

Just love.

Love.

There is nothing bigger than love.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2016/06/love-is-love-is-love-is-love-is-love/

Jan 26 2012

Portland vs. Brooklyn

Portland vs. Brooklyn

From DJ Drue via ilovecharts via the frisky

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2012/01/portland-vs-brooklyn/

Nov 08 2011

when rhino’s fly

rhino air lift

© Michael Raimondo/WWF Black rhino being transported by helicopter to an awaiting land vehicle. The helicopter trip lasts less than 10 minutes and enables a darted rhino to be removed from difficult and dangerous terrain. The sleeping animals suffer no ill effect.

a flying rhinoAs part of conservation efforts, a group of 19 rhino’s were moved to a new range.  Part of the journey involved a short helicopter trip.  More from the WWF here.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/11/when-rhinos-fly/

Oct 23 2011

Vancouver BC (Timbers vs Whitecaps)

As Sept turned to Oct, I flew up to Portland to meet up with my friend Elizabeth.  The purpose, to drive up to Vancouver BC to see the Timbers take on the Vancouver Whitecaps in the last “Cascadia Cup” match of the season.  Unfortunately, the result of the cup competition was already decided for this season (damn flounders)…but we were still in playoff contention and definitely could use the 3 points against one of our natural rivals.  The game was on Sunday Oct 2nd in the early afternoon, so we headed up Saturday morning to make sure we’d have plenty of time to check out some events planned by the Timbers Army (and we would have had to leave super early to make it to the match on Sunday if we had left the same day).

Because of the early start time, and the request from the Whitecaps front office that we be in the stadium a couple hours before kickoff, the morning meetup was pretty early (at least for the folks that had stayed out late partying the night before).  Since we had all been pretty tired from the drive on Saturday, we had ended up crashing pretty early.  As a result, I got up at a fairly normal weekend time for me (around 7am), got ready and went for a walk.  It was an absolutely gorgeous morning with hardly a cloud in the sky.  It wasn’t until closer to game time that the projected cloudiness appeared at all…and that was just some light cloud cover at that.  One of the great Pacific NW fall days for sure.

Vancouver BC

There were around 500 of the Timbers Army in town to support the team.  The pub we met up at to pick up our match tickets was about 1 kilometer away from BC Place (the stadium).  Being the best supporters around…we sang the entire way there.  It made for some interesting looks for the friendly natives.

Timbers Army marches to BC Place

Despite being inside the stadium before any of the local fans, the we were all up singing and waving flags from the moment we got to our seats until the end of the match.  We were apparently a little loud, as friends watching on TV told us later that you could only hear the TA chants and barely anything from the Whitecaps fans.  Our newly favorite chant of the day “Our House, in the middle of BC” was pretty accurate (especially as we won the match).

Timbers Army in BC Place

It was a great time, even if I didn’t get to see much of Vancouver (since we left to drive home right after the match).  I definitely want to go back and visit for a longer trip sometime soon.  More pictures from the trip and the match are HERE.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/10/vancouver-bc-timbers-vs-whitecap/

Oct 10 2011

NYC for Mike’s wedding

In early September, Alicia and I flew to NYC for my friend Mike’s wedding.  It was Alicia’s first trip to NYC (and my second).  We caught a red-eye flight from LAX to Newark (through Cincinnati), and arrived to NYC Friday morning.  Because we had flew into Newark, we had to take the train into the city from the Newark airport.  So our first experience with NYC was emerging from Penn Station.  We had to pick up the keys to the apt we were staying at in Brooklyn, which was a short walk to 5th Ave.  Along the way, we walked through Koreatown.  We had left one Koreatown for another (though NYC’s K-town is a much smaller deal than LA as its only one block).

Koreatown NYCAfter picking up the keys, we got some lunch and then headed to Brooklyn to drop off our stuff and get ready to head out for the wedding.  We were able to walk over to Mike’s apt from where we were staying and then go with the larger group heading over to the wedding site.  As for the wedding itself, it was probably one of the best weddings that I’ve attended.  It was low-key, but not overtly.  They had friends that had provided homebrewed beer as part of the beverages and it was catered by a pizza truck (I don’t remember if it was wood-fired…but it was definitely artisan pizza).  Mike and Jessica had written their own vows (Mike’s referencing his obsessive fandom of the Oregon Ducks and other sports).  A real good time.  We did end up bowing out around 11pm (ET)…since we had very little sleep since the day before (and what sleep we had was airplane sleep).

Mike & JessicaSaturday, one of Alicia’s college friends came up to the city from Rutgers.  We met up with her at Central Park and walked around there for a while and then I left to meet up with Mike at the NYC Duck’s bar to watch the football game (see the vows reference above).  One cool thing that happened on Saturday, is that while Alicia and her friend were checking out the Highline Park, they ran into a La Newyorkina cart.  We had just received her Paletas cookbook from the KCRW cookbook club a week or two before the trip.  (Alicia and I went back the next day, because I wanted to try one as well).  After the Duck game was over, I met back up with them and we ended up heading down to the tip of Manhattan.  We walked by Ground Zero, where they were going to have the big grand opening of the 9/11 Memorial the next day, and then walked down to see if we could catch the Staten Island Ferry.  When we got to the terminal, we had just missed a ferry and didn’t feel like waiting for the next one.  Because it was the 10th Anniversary of 9/11 the next day, they had set up white flags for the persons killed in the attacks in Battery Park.  Each flag had each persons name on it.  It was a pretty impressive display (it takes a lot of park space to put up that many flags).

9/11 FlagsIt was a quick trip (we had to head back Sunday), but we both had fun.  Alicia wants to move there (I think its a nice place to visit…but I wouldn’t want to live there).

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/10/nyc-mikeswedding/

Sep 22 2011

World Rhino Day!

The March of MankindToday is the WWF’s second annual World Rhino Day supporting the efforts to end rhino poaching worldwide.

In honor of World Rhino Day, Flickr is highlighting photos of rhino’s today. (the images in this post come from flickr…many more here).

A rhino's smile

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/09/world-rhino-day/

Jun 09 2011

Obama’s Leadership

An interesting reflection on President Obama’s leadership during his first term from a friend’s husband and the Christian Science Monitor…read it here: Obama and leadership

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/06/obamas-leadership/

Aug 15 2009

All I Need

Wow. Just Wow.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2009/08/all-i-need/

Mar 12 2009

Paris

My first overseas trip has finally happened.  I finally made it to Paris, after wanting to go for at least 12 years.  Because my current job is still through a temp agency, which means no vacation days, I was only able to schedule a long weekend.  I left on Wednesday afternoon from LAX, arriving Thursday morning in Paris.  Here is a picture from the plane as we crossed over the English Channel into France:

After arriving at the airport, I took the train into Paris and headed to my hotel (in the 13th) to check in.  After a shower, I ended up walking up to where Alicia’s class was near the Bastille.  When then walked around a little more, checking out Notre Dame Cathedral and the Shakespeare & Co Bookstore.  For dinner, we went to Le Zimmer, a place recommended by my Irish friend Lynda, for their French Onion soup(click for picture).  Since I was recovering from the long flight, we decided to take things easy the rest of the night so I could be rested for Friday.Friday, we took the metro out to Versailles.  We had brought some stuff along to have a picnic out in the gardens.  The size of the gardens is kind of amazing, however it still being winter, most of the statues were covered up.  Luckily the clouds had decided to break, and we had nice blue skies to enjoy our lunch under.  In the end, I decided that I’d rather spend 12 euros going up to the top of the Eiffel Tower than to go inside the chateau, so we ended up heading back to Paris not long after eating lunch.  We headed to the Eiffel Tower and took the elevator’s up to the top.  It was pretty cool way to get a perspective of Paris.  That evening, we ended up heading to the Montmartre area, planning on going to a fondue place that serves wine in baby bottles.  However, when we got there, there was a decent wait, so we decided to walk around and find somewhere else to eat.


Alica looking for her apt from the Eiffel Tower

Saturday, after breakfast (oh have I forgotten to mention the amazing Pain au Chocolat and Baguettes yet?), we headed to the Place Palais Royal to meet my friend Armelle, whom I met working in Sun Valley, ID the summer between my Freshman and Sophmore years of college.  We walked around the 1st, a little bit before heading to a cooking class.  There we made lemongrass chicken, with fingerling potatoes (cooked with garlic and lime juice) and a mango tart w/ passionfruit caramel.  After the class, we walked around some more before heading to Armelle’s apt in the 15th for some homemade crepes.

Sunday, Alicia and I went to church at the American Cathedral and then went to the Louvre.  I was able to see the Mona Lisa in person (though a little disapointed that you can’t get within 5-10 feet of it).  I think the ceilings and architecture of the Louvre were more interesting than a lot of the art inside, but then we did just do a quick trip through the museum.  For dinner, we went to a restaurant on a medival street in the Latin Quarter.  It had a 15 euro prix fixe menu.  For a starter, I chose escargot, as I figured where else better to try it than in Paris.

Monday, I packed my suitcase and we dropped it off at Alicia’s apt and explored her neighborhood (the 15th) for awhile, until I had to head out to the airport.  I really liked Paris a lot.  Its a big city, with a small city feel, at least in many of the neighborhoods.  The bread was amazing and inexpensive.  Same with the cheese.  I still don’t know if I had a favorite part though (which is the question everyone asks).  I guess I’d have to say the food (and of that the bread) if I had to pick one thing.  Restaurants are pretty expensive though, trying to eat fairly frugally, I still spent just under 50 euros for each dinner out (for 2 including wine).

More pics here

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2009/03/paris/

Jan 29 2009

Je voyage à Paris

Tonight, I purchased a plane ticket to Paris.  It will be my first trip outside of North America (I’ve been to British Columbia, Canada).  I’m pretty excited.

I’m finally actually doing it.  I’m off to see the world (well Paris at least)!

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2009/01/je-voyage-a-paris/