Cal Bears Football, Past and Present...

Before week 2 kicks off in earnest, I thought I should give a quick shout out to Cal "alums" who took care of business during week 1.

Aaron Rodgers made an impressive debut as the Packers starting QB, throwing for a TD and running for another against a strong Vikings defense.

In Philly, DeSean Jackson was strong in his first regular season game for the Eagles. DeSean didn't have any TDs, but he added several solid kick returns to more than 100 yards receiving on the day. Well, done Mr. Jackson.

And last but not least, Marshawn Lynch had what can only be described as another Lynchian day for the Bills. I don't know if Marshawn will ever average more than 4 yards per carry (though I suspect the Bills line has something to do with that) but Lynch almost always finds a way to make it into the endzone. Last Sunday was no different--keep it up, Marshawn. Make the Bears proud.

It should also be said that while several running backs rushed for more yards last week than Marshawn did, I find it hard to believe that any of those backs are half as handsome as he. Just saying...

Alright, everyone--happy footballing this weekend and I'll talk to you soon.

Go Bears, beat the Twerps! Go Duke, beat Navy! Hail to the Redskins!

Quarterly California Report

Notable vehicle enthusiast Marshawn Lynch took things a tad too far the other day--no one likes it when you hit someone and then keep driving, Marshawn.

Who would have thought the guy could get into more trouble in Buffalo than he ever did back in Oak-town?

In other news, a Berkeley institution is shutting down--how will the community survive without the UHaul to rail against?

I actually used this UHaul twice--once to move stuff into storage, and once to move it out. As the article suggests, parking in that neighborhood is a bear.

That's all the California stuff I have to share tonight--hat tip to Tom for sending me the UHaul link.

The roundup, btw, is still in the works...check back tomorrow morning and it should be online and ready to go.

Another interesting read on Dawkins to Stanford

Reading this article just slams home how painful it is that such a great guy had to go to Stanford, my graduate school's arch rival and nemesis (and no small rival to my undergrad to boot).

For me, this situation is like Mussina (himself a Stanford grad now that I think about it) going to the Yankees a few years back. As someone who grew up with the Orioles, it took me years to get to the point where I could root for Moose again (don't tell my in-laws) but eventually I got there.

With Stanford, I have much more of a reason to remain vigilant...but we're talking about Johnny Dawkins! How can I not root for the guy???

Schindler or Tom or Kyle--help me out here. What's a boy supposed to do?

Rain down on Radiohead

It turns out that the Radiohead show in VA the other day was so bad its made national news (at least in the music-snob circles).

The show itself was great (everyone seems to agree) but the logistics of the event were such that lots of folks missed the show entirely. Not cool, Nisaan Pavilion, not cool.

There is a WaPo article linked in the pitchfork piece, and it makes reference to Radiohead's bad DC luck through the years. I was actually at RFK back in 1998 when Radiohead was supposed to play at the Tibetan Freedom Concert...but apparently Tibetan Freedom was less important to some people than safety, because a measly 2 people in the stadium got struck by lightning and they called the whole thing off. Radiohead played a make up gig on day 2 of the festival, but I only had tickets to day 1.

Of course I did catch Radiohead in Berkeley in 2006, and that was an experience I'll never forget. Nothing quite like seeing your favorite band perform in the the same on-campus stone amphitheater you graduated in, a mere 5 minute walk from your apartment and a 2 minute walk from your business school.

Adam--did you (successfully or not) attempt a trip out to the Pavilion to see Radiohead this go-round?

MBA Case Studies: Where are they now--Biopure

Oh Biopure, you so crazy...

Money Quote: "Moreover, the analysis of Biopure's experience, based on pooling of heterogeneous trials, we believe to be significantly flawed as it fails to meet the homogeneity criteria of meta-analysis, thus invalidating the conclusions."

I agree wholeheartedly with Biopure's stance on the homogeneity of their meta-analysis, I really do...but I just don't think it's in the cards for everyone's favorite blood-substituters.

Sorry, Biopure. I was pulling for you.

Welcome to Bear Territory...Mike Montgomery???

Wow. This is like Rick Pitino all over again, except with two programs that have 1 men's NCAA championship between them (Go Bears) instead of 47.

For those of you who don't know, Coach Montgomery was at Stanford for years before an ill-fated try at the NBA. He's back in college, now, and I have to say...this could end up as a really great hire for the Bears. We shall see.

More Cal Related Shenanigans

In my time in Berkeley, all we ever got by way of controversy were your regularly scheduled protests (boring), the town wide attempt to impeach the President (slightly amusing), and the disappointingly dull antics of the Berkeley Tree People.

Now, all of a sudden, things are really heating up in that other city by the bay.

First you've got the made up recruit, a kid in Nevada or Utah who staged a fake press conference to announce that he was signing with Cal for football. Turns out noone at Cal had ever even heard of the kid. I dunno about football, but someone should hire the kid for his fake-event planning skills. Waitta be, buddy.

And second, you've got the "Marine Recruiting Station" controversy. This one really speaks for itself so I'll abstain from further comment. Stories like this are what make Berkeley the self-importantly hilarious (but wonderful) place that it is. Oh, Berkeley--sigh--how I miss you...

Reble, Reble, I Like Your Playlist

As some of you may know, while I took the safe path to internet riches (i.e. the one that leads to internet upper-middle-classness), my younger cousin Nick said to heck with all that, moved himself to California and launched himself a startup. Waitta go Nick, right?

The fruits of those various labors are starting to come to fruition with Reble.FM. The basic idea is that you link to a buddy list through Reble's IM client, and then you can stream any song on your friends' computers--so long as only one person is listening at a time. Neat stuff, I know.

So go and check out Reble.FM, see what the nice people at TechCrunch have to say, and drop Nick a line to congratulate him on a company well-founded. Here's to great success for Reble, and here's to many more companies along the way.

And for the record, yes--I blatantly stole TC's headline on this one. Suck it, Arrington!

California Dreaming: a Biannual Update

It wasn't that long ago (17 months, to be exact) that I was a lot more concerned with mp3's and Cal Bear's football than I was with nation building and ways forward.

Being here at the Forward Edge changed all that, but music and all things Cal still matter to me a great deal...so without further ado, it's time for my every-6-months update of the digital media business!

My once (and future?) employer Amazon.com has struck another blow in the online music wars, announcing a deal w/ Sony/BMG to distribute DRM free mp3s on Amazon's digital music store. For those of you keeping track, this makes it all 4 majors for Amazon, and only 1 for iTunes. Interesting times, these.

Meanwhile, on the football front, DeSean Jackson surprised absolutely no one by declaring for the NFL draft after a disappointing junior campaign that saw the Bears lose 6 of 8 games down the stretch. Sigh. Better luck next year, fellas. And good luck in the pros, DeSean.

And one more note while I'm at it...I completely missed the fact that my alma mater dear, The Haas School of Business, was ranked 2nd in this year's WSJ MBA rankings. Second?? Gosh darn right, second.

Granted, any survey that ranks perennial powers Harvard and Stanford out of the top 15 is slightly suspect, but hey, the WSJ rankings are legit. I'll take it.

In closing, I really do miss all of my California friends tremendously...Tom and Anna and Oski (pictured above), Schindler and Kyle and Nate and Matt and other Nate and Dauber and Eric and Dan and Nick and Nick and Rhonda and Megan and Wade and Pam and April and Seth and Andy and Andy and Bryan and Brian and Simona and Colin and everyone in DMEC and in HSA and Dan/Amy/Julia and Steph/Pete and all of my awesome professors and all the 08ers and 06ers and...