videos Archives - Author JD Lasica

Lincoln Center Stage on ms Oosterdam

When Holland America Line president Orlando Ashford announced the cruise line’s partnershp with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts back in March 2015 at Seatrade, I was among those in the roomful of travel writers who were excited about the new venture, partly because I grew up in North Jersey and was able to take in the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center over the years. So I was jazzed last month to see Lincoln Center Stage as one of the prominent acts on my cruise to Alaska on ms Oosterdam.

An interview with Jonathan Coulton

Alt-rocker headlines ‘floating nerd convention’ on Holland America ship Earlier this month I spent a week on JoCo Cruise, the annual gathering of superfans of indie musician/singer/songwriter Jonathan Coulton, along with diehard fans of board games, alt rock, comedy, knitting, magicians and other odds and ends. Over the past seven years the JoCo Cruise has grown from about 350 people to nearly 1,700, enough for the backers to charter the entire ship — Holland America’s erstwhle Westerdam — this time around. Our weeklong sailing took us from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas and Loreto, Mexico, scene of the first land-based JoCo Cruise music & food festival, fancifully dubbed JoCoachella.

Highlights of Pleasanton and the Tri-Valley

Here’s a short chat I had with Amy Blaschka, President and CEO of the Tri-Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau, about the Tri-Valley region (where I live), located in the San Francisco East Bay. The Tri-Valley consists of Pleasanton, Livermore, Danville, San Ramon and Dublin, and it’s best known for the Livermore wine region, golf, an amazing array of parks and sports fields, and the historic downtowns of some of the cities, especially Pleasanton.

How Mother Jones is embracing social media

If you know Mother Jones, you probably think of them as primarily a print magazine. “That’s not really true anymore,” says Steve Katz in this 10-minute interview. Katz talks about Mothers Jones’ embrace of Facebook and Twitter and use of those social media platforms to extend their reach and generate new stories.

Sen. Boxer on reforming the filibuster

Yesterday I headed into San Francisco and saw Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., speak to a packed gallery of 350 or so people at the Commonwealth Club of California (I’m a member). She’s in a hotly contested reelection campaign against Carly Fiorina. As is the case with popular speakers, audience members had to write their questions on a slip of paper and the moderator has to choose which ones to ask. The second question asked was the one I posed: Given the unprecedented use of the filibuster by the Republicans in the current Senate session, what is your position on reforming or eliminating the filibuster? Here’s the video I took of Sen. Boxer’s two-minute answer. She said she supports reforming the

Boies predicts Prop 8 heading to Supreme Court

Apumped-up David Boies said last night that it’s a “dead certainty” that the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the issue of same-sex marriage if a federal appeals court sustains the trial court’s landmark decision Wednesday overturning California’s Proposition 8. In an hourlong appearance before a capacity crowd of 300 at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club, Boies — who led the plaintiffs’ legal team alongside Ted Olsen — declined to handicap the case’s chances before the conservative High Court. But he said his legal team was “not taking any justice for granted and not giving up” on any of the nine justices. Boies predicted the often liberal 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals would rule on the case later this year

United Breaks Guitars: The Dave Carroll interview

Musician Dave Carroll saw his guitar being mishandled by the baggage carriers at United Airlines. Nine months later he was denied compensation. So he wrote a three-part musical trilogy, “United Breaks Guitars.” The original video has been seen 8.8 million times and is the 12th most-watched video in the history of YouTube. Dave talks about the experience in this 9-minute video interview.

Micki on being part of the LA Derby Dolls

At a recent Ignite Bay Area for women innovators (there’s another Ignite on Monday night), my longtime friend Micki Krimmel of Mickipedia fame gave a 5-minute presentation on the LA Derby Dolls. Micki has been a member of the LA Derby Dolls for about two years now — roller derby is a rough and tumble “full-contact sport mostly played by all-female teams,” she says.

Interview with the CEO/founder of Foursquare

During the Where 2.0 conference on March 31, 2010, I grabbed Dennis Crowley, CEO and co-founder of Foursquare, after his eye-opening keynote talk. If you haven’t heard of Foursquare, you will — they’re on track to hit a million registered users around May 1. People in their 20s and 30s obsess over checking in at various locations to win digital badges.

Girls in Tech: Bringing women into tech world

For years I’ve bemoaned the lack of women on stage at the scores of tech conferences and events I attend. Girls in Tech is out to change that. I caught up with founder Adriana Gascoigne and executive managing director Robyn Cohen at Web 2.0 Expo earlier this month.