Normal Rockstar

Daniel Hannan Offers Up a Civilized Tongue-Lashing

I heard the audio of this clip the other day on the radio and thought it would be worth sharing. Daniel Hannan is a writer and journalist, and has been Conservative MEP for South East England since 1999. He delivered the speech below in the European Parliament, directly addressing the Prime Minister of Britain, Mr. Gordon Brown. Regardless of what your political beliefs are, you have to give this gentleman credit for clearly and precisely delivering such a confrontational speech.

I shudder to think what would happen should someone attempt to address the President of the United States with such candor and constrained passion - I highly doubt such an individual would be permitted to finish their remarks.

Obama, Leno, and the Special Olympics

Four months ago I don't know that I would have given this story a second thought. Today, as the proud new father of a son with Down syndrome, I am unable to overlook last night's "offhand comment" spoken by the most powerful man in the world on late-night TV.

President Obama made history last night by being the first ever sitting President to appear on a late-night television show as a guest of Jay Leno. I understand his attempt at self-depreciating humor (in case you didn't watch the video clip, go here for the transcript [HT: Huffington Post]) - generally that's always a safe bet for a good laugh. I'm sure it wasn't mean-spirited or meant in an offensive way. I know he called the president of the Special Olympics and apologized even before the show aired; I know he has now extended an invitation to Special Olympics athletes to the White House to bowl and play basketball (I'll keep my opinion on that to myself... you do the math). The fact of the matter is that "off-hand" or not, I expect more of the American President.

Being is a position of such visibility and responsibility is a tough task - people hold such people to a higher standard and rightly so. By accepting such a position one agrees to live by that higher standard. I am personally learning the power of words all over again - whereas just a few short months ago it would not have been uncommon to hear me call myself "retarded" when I make a silly mistake, now as the father of a son who's mental and physical development is technically "retarded" (i.e. slower than normal) I start to see red whenever I overhear someone make such an "offhand" comment even though I know the intent is most probably not harmful or derogatory.

I really don't have much more to say. There's plenty more that could be said and IS being said around the blogosphere - many are turning this into a political "look what we've gotten ourselves into!" thing - my intention is not that. If anything, may this simply serve as a reminder that it really doesn't matter who you are - the President of the United States, Joe the Plumber, a rockstar, a housewife, a blogger - think twice about the words you speak. They have the power to wound or to heal. And once they're spoken, there's no taking them back.

I'm Buying a House in Mongolia and Need Your Help

** UPDATE: I fixed the link - it should be working properly now.**

It has taken me a while to get this put together, but the success of my fellow Rockstar Runner Glenn put me over the edge and got me working on this. I am running the 1/2 marathon in Missoula, MT in a few weeks (July 13th) with my father-in-law and wanted to make it count for something other than personal accomplishment this time around. So, here's the plan: seeing as my parents are currently in Mongolia doing missions work, I thought it would be cool to raise money for a specific project in Mongolia: namely, a Mongolian ger. Click here to read more about the house I'd like to buy and how you can be a part of it. Let's together buy a house for a Mongolian family - I'll do the running, you provide the funds!

"Wired" Magazine: Why FREE is the Future of Business

Chris Anderson, author of "The Long Tail" and editor of Wired Magazine, has written a fascinating article this month called "Why $0.00 is the Future of Business". Here is a link to the full article - it's pretty long, so you'll need to give yourself a little bit of time to wade through it. If you don't have the time and would rather watch a video, you can watch him give a synopsis of his article below (Wired posted it on YouTube but didn't give any embedding code, so I just recorded it and posted it on my YouTube page so that I could embed it here for your viewing ease - please forgive the low quality audio.)

What do you think?

UPDATE: I guess Wired got jumpy about me recording it, so the video below won't work anymore. Just click on their YouTube link above to watch it. So much for making things user friendly!!

"A Thousand Splendid Suns"

I haven't read a novel for a while, but my wife brought home Khaled Hosseini's "A Thousand Splendid Suns" and I've really been quite enthralled (I haven't let her start it yet!). Hosseini wrote the best seller "The Kite Runner" (which I haven't read yet either) and I can see how it became such a hit - he paints such beautiful pictures through the written word of a culture that I know nothing about (the story takes place in Afghanistan). I'm about halfway through and should be done by the end of the week at the latest - so far I would strongly recommend the book... I'll let you know if that changes by the time I finish!

kite runner, hosseini, afghanistan, taliban

Academy Awards Highlights

I'm discovering that I'm not really big on awards shows. I watched the last 30 minutes or so of the Grammys as I rode my bike in my living room (it's on a trainer, which is a piece of equipment that turns my road bike into a stationary bike). Well, last night I only caught the last hour of the Academy Awards, turning it on right in the middle of the "Falling Slowly" performance. Here are my highlights from that point on:

• performance of "Falling Slowly" - if you have not yet downloaded the soundtrack to the movie "Once" do it NOW. This song in particular is one of the most moving songs I've come across in a long time... just a beautiful melody and the synergy of the two vocals is fantastic.

• Jon Stewart inviting Marketa Irglova back to say her thank-yous - I was quite impressed with Jon Stewart all night, actually. He was an entertaining host (for the portion that I saw) and didn't try to push any boundaries or push any personal agenda. But what I found extremely classy was when, after she was cut off at the mic by the music going into a commercial break and not able to say her acceptance thank-yous, Jon invited Marketa BACK on stage after the break and let her say her piece as well - which was a beautifully humble word of thanks and encouragement to the independent artist community. Very classy, indeed.
• "Juno" winning "Best Original Screenplay" - while I can't say anything about her lifestyle, I will say that "Juno" was a beautiful story and well-deserving of the recognition. (Read more about writer Diablo Cody here. [HT: Randy])

Zipcar Revolution

This is one of the coolest ideas of come across in a while (and once again I came across it in my most recent issue of Fast Company). Zipcar is a company that is revolutionizing the way people live in urban centers. It can be a fairly expensive and rather unnecessary thing for someone in the city to own a car. Besides paying for parking all the time, you may only need a car for a few hours every week to run various errands - the rest of the time you're riding public transportation or walking. So the basic idea of Zipcar is that scattered around a major metro center (click here to see a map of where they currently are in the US) they have cars parked in reserved parking spaces. As a member of their service you are given a keycard that allows you to walk up to any Zipcar and unlock the doors, activating your reservation. Then you use the car for an hour or two (or as long as you need it), leave it in a parking space, and walk away. The best part? The low hourly rental fee includes gas and insurance, unlike standard car rental agencies.

Check it out - if I lived in an urban center, I would be a member in a heartbeat!

Ben Stein is Expelled

I came across this movie the other day [HT: Brock] and have been quite taken by it. I've seen banners for it on other blogs but  haven't taken the time to really check it out. Watch the trailer and let me know what you think.

Ben and his team have done a fantastic job of providing some great resources for people like us to help get the word out on this movie. It's releasing in April, not February like some of the trailers say. One of the quotes in the super trailer that stuck out to me is this:

"In my experience, people who are confident in their ideas are not afraid of criticism..."

Check out these links for more info:

Resource Site
Official Website
YouTube
MySpace

(This is post 301, by the way... pretty cool!)

I Should be a Dog Show Judge...

... 'cause I picked the winner at 132nd Westminster Dog Show in Madison Square Gardens tonight. His name is Uno and he's the first Beagle in the history of the event to win Best in Show. He was fun to watch prance around the arena floor - a beautiful, unassuming dog. My wife and I sure saw some funny-looking dogs over the last couple of days, but in the end it was the crowd favorite that took home the big prize. Congrats, Uno - you are now the king of the castle! If you ever want to play fetch for a little bit, look me up... we'll hang out.

Mike Huckabee Gets Another Key Endorsement

This just in... "Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee garners another key endorsement from blogger Normal Rockstar."

I have NEVER posted a blog about politics - frankly, it intimidates me to know that there are so many people out there who (a) know far more about that whole world than I do, and (b) are too entrenched in their own political bubble and agenda to have a civilized dialog with someone of a differing opinion. So, I usually keep my mouth shut (I had to create the "Politics" category for this post!).

Well, it's a new year, a new day, and I've enjoyed following the presidential race as of late (sadly, I believe I've been more excited about primary results on CNN than Sportscenter on ESPN... ouch!). So, seeing as every vote counts (with the exception of mine seeing as I'm a Canadian) I thought I would throw in my two cents and tell you why I would vote for Huckabee.

Two main reasons: first, he's a runner - a marathoner, in fact! That in itself says a lot about a person and their ability to be disciplined. Read a great commentary on this by the ultramarathon man himself, Dean Karnazes [HT: Glenn].

Secondly, he's an accomplished musician. Now, every time I think about this I get some pretty scary flashbacks of a former President playing saxophone, but for some reason this doesn't feel quite as much like a publicity stunt. He plays bass guitar, which really means that any time he straps on the guitar he's in a supportive role - it's not all about him, musically speaking. Maybe that's why it feels different.

Those are my main reasons. You'll notice I didn't say anything about his politics - take me to task if you will (and I'm sure you will!). But at the end of the day you get to vote for who you want and I... don't. So consider this my vote...

Huckabee for President!