Monthly Archives: April 2013

(Community Matters) The National Parkinson Foundation released early findings from its Parkinson’s Outcomes Project. NPF and Dr. Mark Guttman from Markham Stouffville Hospital’s Centre for Movement Disorders, an NPF Center of Excellence, to explore the most important findings of the study and the factors that have been found to affect the health of people with Parkinson’s, including depression, mobility and activities of daily living.

Register Now for the Live Webcast >>>
Friday, April 12, 2013 at 1:00 p.m. ET
Online pre-registration is required (here).

(Community Matters) Our friend Steven Dietz’s newest play Mad, Beat, Hip & Gone opens tonight at Zach Scott. Commissioned by Zach and UT Dept of Fine Art, the story of two Nebraska lads following across the country in the car behind Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady is played by a new generation of Austin’s best actors, Jon Cook, Jacob Trussell and Erin Barlow.

Steven is probably the most produced, contemporary playwright in America – and it’s no surprise why. His material is smart, relevant and accessible. As the director of this play, he also summons the technical elements of the stage to tell his story in between the lines.

UT Fine Arts Dean Doug Dempster and Theatre & Dance Chair Brant Pope hosted a cocktail reception in the Skyline Lounge prior to last night’s show. Great seeing them, Steven’s wife Allison Gregory, JoLynn & Greg Free, Nancy Scanlon, James Armstrong & Larry Connelly, Michele Baylor, Sharon Watkins and many other friends, including my second favorite theater date (Steven’s traveling), Michael Mitchell. 

(Community Matters) . . . . and Kansas City, and other cities part of the Gigabit Web World

(Community Matters) Serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine – who knew these may be the most precious “elements” in the universe? The Human Connectome, I should know what this means.  Why aren’t they on the tip of our tongues?

Over the last couple of months, I’ve awakened to issues of brain chemistry imbalance and the importance of neurons firing correctly – Neurology. Helping a family member recently diagnosed with Parkisons first brought the importance of dopamine to my mind. Another loved one’s sleeping issues registered serotonin. And, several friends have recently discussed depression, so add norepinephrine to the precious chemicals required. Monoamine is one of the enzymes required to break the precious chemicals down and maintain critical balance, but we don’t want too much.

As I’m reading (& I have just begun to skim the surface), it boggles my mind that we haven’t invested more in brain research, that we don’t have confirmed disease models for brain disorders – Depression, Parkison’s, Hunnington’s, Alzheimer’s, Autism, Epilepsy, Multiple Sclerosis and way too many others. Perhaps the computing power to do this wasn’t available until now. I don’t know.

Coincidentally as I’ve started this exploration, it’s announced President Obama is including $100mm in our federal budget for an important brain research project. Listen to President Obama’s brain research initiative announcement on NPR and Ira  Flato interviewing National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins.

Image immediately above from Human Connectome Project. 

Watch Dr. Seung explain the Connectome in a TED talk.

Finally, my friend Kevin Keim suggested the Charlie Rose brain series – I’m eager to watch each.

I admit upfront, this posting will read simplistic, perhaps even convoluted, to those with better understanding. I’m a newbie and planning to catch up.

(Community Matters) perhaps a bit of obsession with Google this week. And, found this interesting.

(Community Matters)  The next big thing in Austin! As the announcement of MCC and Sematech forever changed the future of Austin, so does the announcement that Google is bringing Google Fiber to Central Texas.

It’s not only about internet speeds 100 times faster than today’s (& the competition this creates), nor just about the increased productivity & connectivity for Austin startups & small businesses, and this probably means the next big wave of startup migrations to Austin . . . . Google Fiber means a better quality of life for Austinites. We laugh when we think back to dial up modems; we’ll laugh when we remember download & upload speeds of 17 and 1 Mbps. We’re talking about entering the Gigabit Web World.

Thrilled to hear directly from my friends at Google that connecting residents & small businesses are priorities as is digital inclusion. Everyone in Austin will eventually be able to obtain gigabit speeds, even for free for those who can’t afford it – discussions around radical digital inclusion forthcoming. 

Wanna see how it works in Kansas? It’ll work even better here – click here

correction: I think the free broadband is less than gigabit speed but still  very robust.

(Community  Matters) Lots of conversations lately about media convergence and how content + distribution channels = product.

Politico Playbook — “Tech upstarts threaten TV broadcast model,” by Reuters’ Liana B. Baker and Ronald Grover: “Two fledgling technologies could dramatically reshape the $60 billion-a-year television broadcast industry … On April 1, a U.S. appeals court rejected a petition by the major broadcasters including Comcast’s NBC, News Corp’s FOX, Disney’s ABC and CBS, to stop a service called Aereo, which offers a cut-rate TV subscription for consumers by capturing broadcast signals over thousands of antennas at one time. … In November, a California court struck down Fox’s request to ban Dish Network’s ad-eliminating video recording device called the Hopper. The two services strike at the heart of the TV broadcast model, whose future will be up for debate at the National Association of Broadcasters show, which 90,000 people were expected to attend in Las Vegas this week. …

“[B]roadcasters fear the services will continue to expand, cutting into their viewing audience and advertising revenue. Even though courts have made preliminary decisions in favor of Dish and Aereo, both cases are still in the early stages and those decisions could ultimately be reversed. … A favorable outcome for Aereo and the Hopper in court would push TV operators to dramatically reshape themselves. It could even force them to trade in their broadcast towers and become cable channels alongside networks such as Bravo, AMC and ESPN, says Garth Ancier, who has been the top TV programmer at Fox, NBC and the WB networks. …

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(Community Matters) Artpace – a laboratory for the creation and advancement of contemporary art. Their San Antonio Gala had a Marfa spirit – Gamping: a glamorous camping motif. Fun dress, dinner space circled by restored Airstreams – many by Austinite Taylor Perkins.

Our friend Jeanne Klein is the founding chair of this way cool organization founded by the late philanthropist Linda Pace. Neighbor and friend Laurence Miller an original advisor and arts entrepreneur. I joined Suzanne Deal Booth and friends for the evening.  Big Austin contingent in addition to Jeanne & Suzanne, including Kevin Keim, Deborah Green & Clayton Aynesworth, Veronica Roberts, Carlos and Andrea Martinez and Davis Neindorff. Mayor Julian Castro came as my guest. Erica and Steven were scheduled to attend . . . alas competing obligations. Ran into several dear SAT friends to, including DNC fundraising chair, Henry Munoz, and Elise & Craig Boyan. Thought might, but bummed, didn’t see Susan Ghertner or Ron Prince – next visit.

(Community Matters)  Ivy league pedigrees aside, Austin beware.

What Richard Florida called “the mass relocation of highly skilled, highly educated and highly paid Americans to a relatively small number of metropolitan regions, and a corresponding exodus of the traditional lower and middle classes from these same places” is one of the striking social facts of the modern meritocratic era.

Ross Douthat: The Secrets of Princeton

Austin and tribalism aside . . . as to Douthat’s major premise . . . I admit to unsuccessfully urging my siblings to send their children to elite secondary and higher ed schools in recognition of the increasing difficulty of living a life with access and privilege if you aren’t born into it. It’s unfair, some might say even despicable, but it is what it is for now, and while it is, who doesn’t want to ensure their children are at least competitively equipped to do well in life? As a kid whose parents sacrificed, laying the ground work for upward social/economic mobility, feels like a forward responsibility for the families’ next generation – as is our obligation to open up access and opportunity. It’s not just altruistic  greater opportunity & access would serve us all best.

(Community Matters) Stanford Social Innovation Review: Despite years of claiming the contrary, donors still don’t really care about nonprofit performance or impact.

(Community Matters) Brett Hurt is a good friend, mentor, a fellow EF board member and the founder of Bazaarvoice. His blog posting:  7 lessons learned on the journey from founder to CEO

(Community Matters) This missive found me by a circuitous route.

The Rambling Boy

By Lonn Taylor

Several weeks ago I wrote a column about Ballroom Marfa’s plans to build a drive-in movie theater in Marfa at a cost of $4.5 million. This column is about David Bebee’s drive-in movie theater, which  Bebee estimates cost $2500 to build and which is already operating on the lot Bebee leases behind Padre’s in Marfa. He calls the lot Airstreamland because it has five Airstream trailers parked on it in addition to a taco stand, a recycling center, and a 1967 Chevrolet Suburban that once belonged to the University of Texas Department of Zoology, where it was known as Murgatroyd.

The Ballroom’s drive-in will have a screen that measures 40 by 52 feet. Airstreamland’s screen measures 6 ¾ by 12 feet and is constructed from 3 sawed-off telephone poles, some 2 by 6 planks, and a piece of plywood. Bebee has given it 3 coats of industrial oil-based paint and plans to add a coat of gray movie screen paint containing glass beads, which costs $300 a can. His projection booth is a metal table with “Cerveza Superior” stamped in each of the four corners, the type of table you used to find in Juarez cantinas.

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