Brian L. Colbert

Archive for June, 2009

I had the pleasure of tagging along to attend a  Teach for America happening,/pep rally/ get together last Thursday at the Berkeley Marina.  I was never a  member of TFA.  TFA began after I graduated from Oberlin College. The event was split into two parts.  The first part was held at the Berkeley Marina Doubletree hotel.  There was a gathering of TFA alumi from the early 1990s.  These are some of the first and oldest participants in TFA.  Some were still involved in education (admins, teachers, private practice), some had left education completely, and some had returned to TFA after doing a variety of things.  The TFA alumni all seemed to be happy to reconnect about how much TFA had grown and how far the organization had advanced.  There were  also a couple of presentations by TFA staffers. Leslie brought the alumni up-to- date on the growth of TFA and a second staffer spoke about TFA’s current 5-year plan.  TFA likes to lay out five-plans.  I can see the usefulness of a 5-year plan as a way to  to meld  vision and execution, but I always think of Stalin or the U.S.S.R.

The second part of the evening consisted of a boat trip out into the bay so that alums could mix and mingle with the the new TFAers.  The new group was in Berkeley for a week and then heading down to LA for the summer institute before running to Bay Area to start the new school year.

The new recruits were excited for the opportunity to meet the alumni and many of conversations were peppered by expressions of disbelief at how small TFA was a the beginning and how challenged for resources TFA was that the time.  Sounds like the general state of most non-profits to me.  But as a board member of CALICO,  I’m exposed to resource concerns on a continual basis.

It was also my first time out in the Bay on a boat and the captain, a fine fellow by the name of Richard was patient enough to give me a bit of a tour and answer multitude of questions.

Had dinner Michael Mina’s new place RN74 Friday evening. I’ve already dined at his flagship “Michael Mina” and decided to mix things up.  RN74 is on the ground floor of the Millenium Tower in SOMA.

The food was unsurprisingly delicious.  The preparation was absolutely flawless, Friday’s selections consisted of  the following:

• soft-shell crab with lemon and ginger
• sauteed pork bellies and manila clams with spring garlic and paprika
• wild Alaskan halibut with black truffles, sunchokes, peas and a whole lot of carrots
• duck “cassoulet”

The meal was topped off with a couple of delectable desserts:

• Kumquat Confiture with coriander sponge cake, yogurt and white verjus sorbet
• Warm beignets with mascarpone, blueberry, lemon thymey and Ras al Hanout sorbet

The menu is simple and , so I would definetly make sure that everyone in your party was happy with the possible selections before making a reservation.

The room, successfully invoking the feeling of railroad era gone by  was nice, not particularly cramped and nice high ceilings.

The place was also a bit loud, but that could be the result of dining on a Friday night.  The bar area is a  least the size of the restaurant and at one point the line for the bathrooms (coed) was baffling long.  Perhaps someone (or some two) was trying to recreate the bathroom experience at The Box in NYC.

Very interesting meal for an anniversary.

Here’’s some photos of my buddy Jonathan on Saturday.  Jonathan was in town for the weekend and was kind enough to treat me to a delicious breakfast of pancakes over on Fillmore Street. I was feeling expansive on Saturday so I let Jon talk me into talking a picture without my ever-present sunglasses

Nihal even made a guest appearance

Did you know that Joseph Schmidt is closing.  Discovered this when I was on my way to a meeting in the Ferry Building last week.  Turns out that Schmidt is closing its doors forever or more accurately, Hershey is closing Schmidt’s doors forever at the end of this month.  So if you like Schmidt’s confection head to the Ferry Building or the Schmidt’s shop, the confections are 50% – 60% off.  I’m not a huge fan of Schmidt’s confections, but I did pick-up a few bites over the weekend.

Heard a really interesting talk by the artists and designers that that run Cronan Michael Cronan and Karin Hibma.  In June of 2009, he and Karin Hibma were named two of Fast Company’s list of 100 Most Creative People in Business.  I was really looking forward to today’s talk and Michael and Karin certainly disappoint.  They were were funny, engaging and insightful.  It was a great talk.

I keep finding myself in the East Bay.  last weekend I was in the Berkeley Hills, today I was back in Berkeley and tomorrow I’ll be attending a Teach for America Alumni event in the Marina.

• I just recommended the Culture series of books to a friend http://bit.ly/M3JO2 #
• At SFnewtech #
• at the #building43 launch #
• In Napa — doing the "Napa" thing. #
• At the Semantic Code Camp in SJ with Danny http://bit.ly/YTy7u #
• currently chatting at http://mashable.com/chat #mashchat #
• RT @steverubel Participating in a Mashable chat tonight at 9 PM EST. technology is very cool. Hope you can join http://mashable.com/chat/ #
• Getting ready for tonight's CALICO board meeting in the East Bay #
• At the ballpark, Giants/Angels with Daron #

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At the ballpark, Giants/Angels with Daron

Getting ready for tonight’s CALICO board meeting in the East Bay

RT @steverubel Participating in a Mashable chat tonight at 9 PM EST. technology is very cool. Hope you can join http://mashable.com/chat/

currently chatting at http://mashable.com/chat #mashchat

At the Semantic Code Camp in SJ with Danny http://bit.ly/YTy7u

In Napa — doing the “Napa” thing.