Space Shuttle Endeavor at the Golden Gate Bridge

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The last voyage of the Space Shuttle Endeavor to the San Francisco Bay Area, brought a whole lot of people out to see it pass overhead. Just as we were setting up to record at the Marin Headlands, the craft suddenly flew into view over my shoulder!

This is in 1080HD so make sure and set it to that on the player. Thanks to J. Oppenheim for driving and camerawork.

And here’s just the Flyover through the Golden Gate Bridge:

The international release of Prometheus in advance of the October DVD release has lots of people hitting my site to read this blog post so I am reblogging it. MTK

mtk's avatarMTK The Writist

**8,500+ hits (as of Apr ’14) from around the world to this post, which was written when it first opened in theaters. Please do answer poll. Thanks**

The writer William Gibson recently tweeted (@GreatDismal) that he’s also noticed strong and divided opinions about Director Ridley Scott’s new science fiction spectacular, Prometheus, in theaters now.

Gibson tweeted on June 14th: “Split on Prometheus (which I haven’t seen) is vast and deep, with smart friends on both sides. In that situation, there’s often something going on with the dichotomy.”

Similar critique surrounded Scott’s Alien three dozen years ago and Bladerunner received  the same treatment when it came out in 1982; the producers felt disrespected. On the DVD of the Director’s cut, with commentary, one of them snarls that Gandhi won the award for Best Costume Design over Bladerunner that year.

What if Ridley Scott’s worst crime is he’s a visionary unable…

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Are You at The Game?

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If you are at the game, be at the game.

Here in San Francisco we’re struggling to win baseball games at home down the stretch and I’m convinced it’s because our fans, led by Comcast, are far too distracted by things that have nothing to do with the game – even while the game is being played!

We’re distracted and our team needs us to be focused.

This was never true at Candlestick, where it was cold, windy and miserable most of the time. You were there because you loved the Giants and watched every pitch.

If we want to win home games, fans have to focus on every pitch. It’s called watching the live action and all long-time fans do it. You chat between pitches, but when the pitcher sets, you do too and you turn to face the plate.

These days, because of the incredible number of distractions from the scoreboard and overtly non-baseball production of the media, I see fans bringing children under six or seven who have no interest in the game, who are there solely because a parent is making them be there.

These parents bring their kids as an entertainment for the children, which would be cool if they kept them abreast of what was happening, taught them to score the game and etc. But they don’t spend the requisite time making them watch, and indeed focus intently on, the action when it is live.

I saw two young girls facing each other in the seats in front of me talking to each other for an entire inning in the Lower Box. Their Dad was sitting beside them on his cel-phone the entire game, just chatting away and looking all around the park! They could’ve been beaned so easily by a foul ball.

I also see lots of tourists in our crowd – people here for our fabulous Indian Summer – it’s the high season after all. But these fans are hardly as loud or supportive as our own home-grown fans, which is why we have to lead them.

I watch Comcast spend more time following people goofing around or wearing funny hats or the Delorean hovercraft in McCovey Cove than the game itself; listen to Kruk and Kuip (normally solid baseball analysts) making inane social commentary about Gamer babes and Amy G pushing soccer Mom culture and I think all of this is creating social media fans not baseball fans and it’s definitely created the distracted attitude at the game.

ENOUGH. Fans have to get involved.

Two examples:

Mat Latos was on the mound for the Reds earlier this year and he was tearing us apart. It was the bottom of the third at AT&T Park, midweek, daygame. It felt like a morgue. As soon as Latos strode to the mound I yelled, loudly, “Hey Mat! Oh My God! You have a no-hitter going! … Woah! Don’t think about it man!”

It freaked out my whole section and some tittered nervously.

On the next pitch Angel Pagan singled to right.

This was calculated. Watch the action, see what would help, plan your comment, wait for a quiet moment and throw it out into the field of play.

Second example was against the Nats when Timmy faced the Phenom and Melky was suspended – crazy game. But we were within striking distance at the end when Pablo popped up to the infield and ran hard for first. The crowd above the first base line shouted and screamed and went nuts forcing the second baseman to drop the pop-up, an error that allowed Panda to get on. It was awesome. Fruitless, but awesome.

The guys need you. Get involved in every play. If you brought kids, teach them to do the same. Pay attention and root for our guys. They can hear you.

You need to pump Zeets up. You need to encourage Pence and Blanco to be more patient at the plate. You need to push the Dodgers into mistakes.

When you are at the park, BE AT THE PARK.

TOGETHER WE’RE GIANT.

Are You At The Game?

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

If you are at the game, be at the game.

Here in San Francisco we’re struggling to win baseball games at home down the stretch and I’m convinced it’s because our fans, led by Comcast, are way too into things that have nothing to do with the game, even while the game is being played!

We’re distracted and our team needs us to be focused.

This was never true at Candlestick, where it was cold, windy and miserable most of the time. You were there because you loved the Giants and watched every pitch.

If we want to win home games, fans have to focus on the game, on every pitch. It’s called watching the live action and all long-time fans do it. You may chat between pitches, but when the pitcher sets, you do too.

These days, because of the incredible number of distractions from the scoreboard and the overtly non-baseball production of the media, I see fans bringing children under six or seven who have no interest in the game, who are there solely because the parent is making them be there, but who are wholly distracted from the action.

These parents bring them as though it’s just an entertainment for their children, which would be cool if they kept them abreast. But they also don’t spend the requisite time making them watch, and indeed focus intently on, the action when it is live. I saw two young girls facing each other talking for an entire inning in the Lower Box. They could’ve been beaned so easily by a foul ball. Their Dad was on the phone!

I also see lots of tourists in our crowd – people here for our fabulous Indian Summer – it’s the high season after all. But these fans are hardly as loud or supportive as our own home-grown fans, which is why we have to lead them.

I watch Comcast spend more time following people goofing around or wearing funny hats or the Delorean hovercraft in McCovey Cove than the game itself; listen to Kruk and Kuip (normally solid baseball analysts) making inane social commentary and I think this is driving the more social fans and the distracted attitude at the game.

ENOUGH. Fans have to get involved.

Two examples:

Mat Latos was on the mound for the Reds earlier this year and he was tearing us apart. It was the bottom of the third at AT&T Park, midweek, daygame. It felt like a morgue. As soon as Latos strode to the mound I yelled, loudly, “Hey Mat! Oh My God! You have a no-hitter going! … Woah! Don’t think about it man!”

It freaked out my whole section and some tittered nervously.

On the next pitch Angel Pagan singled to right.

This was calculated. The way to do it is to plan your comment, wait for a quiet moment and throw it out into the field of play.

Second example was against the Nats when Timmy faced the Phenom and Melky was suspended – crazy game. But we were within striking distance at the end when Pablo popped up to the infield and ran hard for first. The crowd above the first base line shouted and screamed and went nuts forcing the second baseman to drop the pop-up, an error that allowed Panda to get  on. It was awesome. Fruitless, but awesome.

The guys need you. Get involved in every play. If you brought kids, teach them to do the same. Pay attention and root for our guys. They can hear you.

You need to pump Zeets up. You need to encourage Pence and Blanco to be more patient at the plate. You need to push the Dodgers into mistakes.

When you are at the park, BE AT THE PARK.

TOGETHER WE’RE GIANT.

My Thousandth Tweet

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Recently I posted my 1000th Tweet:

1000th Tweet: Twitter’s useful but cluttered. You have to tweet a lot to get good at it unless you’ve a weird knack. Reading others is best.

As a critique thus far, I think those 140 characters do it. I won’t recommend Twitter, but I do find some value in it. I will continue to read and post there, which is a huge surprise to me given how I began:

A little less than a year and a half ago, amidst the San Francisco Mayor’s Race, but before Interim Mayor Ed Lee was allowed to run, SF Board of Supervisors Chair David Chiu (himself a Candidate for Mayor) led the Board and the Interim Mayor to The Great Twitter Giveaway of 2011, which ended the strictest controls on corporate investment in public space in the country: SF’s city tax on companies wanting to do business here.

They shattered our City’s progressive history functionally to create a tax-break to entice Twitter to make its base in San Francisco. That was when I started my first and only Twitter account @mtksf and posted my first tweet:

Twitter doesn’t deserve the tax break on stock options. They stand to make tens of millions at IPO!”

I stand by that first tweet, there was no reason to give Twitter the taxbreak, which is being extended now to other social media and tech companies. They all want to be in SF.

The Board and Interim Mayor Lee failed to represent our city’s values and changed our city fundamentally.

Those Mayoral candidates used the tax-break to gain money and support for their campaigns from corporate interests, railroaded the Board and City into giving up millions of dollars that could have gone in the General Fund and, far worse, shat on long time businesses that have stayed in SF choosing to contribute to our bottom line when it would’ve been cheaper to leave.

I started using Twitter as a part of my Campaign for Mayor in an attempt to bring  light to these and other issues I have with contemporary SF politicians – a wholly bought-out crew of pawns for special interests.

But I continue even now to use, read and post to Twitter, which has grown on me. I use it primarily to read others and to find important links sent by intellectuals, writers, news and sports reporters,actors, producers, comedians and athletes.

Lincecum vs. Strasburg and Melky Suspended 1080HD video

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This past Wednesday was a crazy day at the park.

My son and I had been excited for weeks because we figured with both teams in the hunt for the pennant and young, premiere pitchers on the mound, it’d be a defensive battle. The Freak vs. The Phenom

Then SHOCK! – we find out at the ballpark moments before the game starts, that Melky Cabrera, who leads the Giants and the National League in hits and is second in batting average only to the Pirates’ Andrew McCutcheon, had been suspended for 50 games for violating MLB’s substance abuse policy.

Numb, speechlessness … and the game began:

We're Cheaters.

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It was amazing how none of us knew or suspected up to the last minute.

I was at the park yesterday with my son and we had no idea. We got there early to watch BP and see if any of the players would sign autographs (Thanks, Jeremy Affeldt!).

Then a family of four came walking up the aisle wearing crisp, new Melkman hats and I heard the daughter say, “Daaaaad … why am I wearing this? They just suspended Melky for 50 games!” and I laughed out loud.

She clearly didn’t want to be at the park wearing a silly hat her Dad bought her, so I figured someone was just telling her that to annoy her and she was not informed enough to know it wasn’t true.

Ten seconds later, I sat, stunned, holding my mobile phone staring into space – Melky Cabrera suspended 50 games for violating substance abuse policy of MLB.

Oh Melky, why? Oh Sabean, Why? Oh Bochy, Come On!

Finally today, after hours of being stunned and speechless, I was able to make a joke:

SF Giants Fans are now lactose intolerant – is there a guy named Soy available out there who could play left field?

We’re Cheaters.

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It was amazing how none of us knew or suspected up to the last minute.

I was at the park yesterday with my son and we had no idea. We got there early to watch BP and see if any of the players would sign autographs (Thanks, Jeremy Affeldt!).

Then a family of four came walking up the aisle wearing crisp, new Melkman hats and I heard the daughter say, “Daaaaad … why am I wearing this? They just suspended Melky for 50 games!” and I laughed out loud.

She clearly didn’t want to be at the park wearing a silly hat her Dad bought her, so I figured someone was just telling her that to annoy her and she was not informed enough to know it wasn’t true.

Ten seconds later, I sat, stunned, holding my mobile phone staring into space – Melky Cabrera suspended 50 games for violating substance abuse policy of MLB.

Oh Melky, why? Oh Sabean, Why? Oh Bochy, Come On!

Finally today, after hours of being stunned and speechless, I was able to make a joke:

SF Giants Fans are now lactose intolerant – is there a guy named Soy available out there who could play left field?

Lincecum v. Strasburg [Melky Suspended] 1080HD

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, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This past Wednesday was a crazy day at the park.

My son and I had been excited for weeks because we figured with both teams in the hunt for the pennant and young, premiere pitchers on the mound, it’d be a defensive battle. The Freak vs. The Phenom

Then SHOCK! – we find out at the ballpark moments before the game starts, that Melky Cabrera, who leads the Giants and the National League in hits and is second in batting average only to the Pirates’ Andrew McCutcheon, had been suspended for 50 games for violating MLB’s substance abuse policy.

Numb, speechlessness … and the game began: