Category: On the road…

I’m in Florida with my family. Long story. More soon.

Dear Blog and its reader,

I’m headed to South Africa tomorrow to go on Safari with my parents and brothers. Internet access will be nill out on the brush so expect to hear from me after the 29th when I return home to California.

Happy Holidays.

–Kevin

Good to be home. Tonight will be about unpacking and getting to bed early.

So I’m camped out in my old hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan, decmpressing after attending the wildly successful Idea Festival. The amount of collective brain power in there actually make me feel very smart and horribly stupid at the same time.

Got to see my old friends JD Lasica and Elizabeth Spiers. Paled around with Will and Mangesh, founders of Mental Floss magazine whom I’ve known virtually for nearly 2 years but never met. Befriended the new Mental Floss editor Mary Charmicael whose charming as all heck and knows a bunch of science stuff I could stand to learn. And had coffee with Dr. Leonard Schlain who is one of those genius people doubly blessed to be from SE Michigan but currently residing in San Francisco. I hope to be like him when I grow up.

From my wrap-up at the Huffington Post, I had this to say about what I learned…

…I’ve learned from world-renowned primate biologist Robert Sapolsky that chimpanzees commit genocide on rival troupes and that chess masters can burn 6000 calories a day from mental taxation during tournaments. I’ve heard http://www.loe.org/about/steve.htm”>Steve Curwood, host of NPR’s “Living on Earth” propose a government-sponsored corporation ala Fannie Mae to guarantee loans for the building of home solar and wind systems. I’ve heard inventor Ray Kurzweil inform us that we are only a decade and a half away from computers having the processing power of the human brain, witnessed DJ Spooky remixing “Birth of a Nation” live and science writer K.C. Cole explain quantum mechanics in 10 minutes better than my college professors did in 4 months. Along the way, I also missed a presentation on Zora Neal Hurston, another on the mind of Leonardo Da Vinci, and a third on the special effects wizardry of The Matrix. I’m disappointed on the one hand: When will be able to hit on those three topics in a single afternoon again? On the other I’m relieved, because the psychic contradiction they raise may have made my head explode: At the Idea Festival, you feel smart and stupid at the exact same time.

Big thanks to Kris Kimel and his staff for making it all happen. If you’ll have me, I’ll be back next year.

Additional information from…

*The Idea Festival Blog

*Idea Festival at Technorati.

We now return to regularly scheduled blogging.

I want to tell you all about the Idea Festival (which was a blast) and about a thousand other things but I just arrived in Ann Arbor for my 3 days of R&R and couldn’t be happier. More tomorrow…

And emotionally worn to a nub. Been catching up most of the day, which is just fine.

Here for the Jewish holidays so blogging will probably be light. L’Shana Tova, beeyacthes.

So I just got back from Marin County where I was picking up a shoefly pie. Please don’t ask.

Tomorrow I head out to Chicago for Lollapalooza and a birthday dinner (mine) with 25 of my closest friends. I may be blogging while out there but most likely not.

See you Tuesday then. The next time, I’m here, I’ll be 33.

Back from a week and a half away. I’m going to be in and out all summer long with a week in L.A for my book and to visit family, Lollapalooza and my birthday in Chicago, Jer and Allie’s wedding, my cousin Jake’s wedding and a September invitation to speak at a conference in Banff. I’ve got my book proposal to finish before Sept. 1, pieces due for Poets & Writers, The Chronicle and Dailysonic, plus a half dozen other projects to make some much needed green. I’d also like to get to the gym and the Jews, see my friends and breathe deep.

Which means this weekend, I need to to do two things: Lay low and plan for the summer. Much to do and see, much of it exciting. But I will need some Me Time to see it that way.