Bay Area Radio

KFOG is Dead

RIP KFOG      1982 – 2016 (at least the rock years of KFOG)

KFOG_logo
The now defunct KFOG logo.

The Bay Area’s World Famous KFOG is gone. Is it just a sad April Fool’s prank? It doesn’t seem so. On March 31st all of the on air staff were sacked and the original broadcast format was replaced with just music interspersed with a cryptic, overproduced sound byte stating that “the evolution is coming 4/20”. What the hell does that mean? Are they gonna play Peter Tosh’s Legalize It 24/7 on 4/20?

Gone is the 10 at 10 time roulette. You never knew what year the music would bring you back to along with clips from the news and films of the year.

Gone is the not pop, not modern rock, not classic rock format and all of the interesting personalities that made listing to the original KFOG such a mind expanding pleasure.
But as Bruce Springsteen said way back in 1982, everything dies…

“Everything dies baby that’s a fact / But maybe everything that dies someday comes back / Put your makeup on fix your hair up pretty and meet me tonight in Atlantic City” (because the Bay Area rent is too damn high to meet here)

The Evolution will not be televised and it probably won’t be listened too either.

But you can still listen to a somewhat similar non-commercial station out of Pennsylvania online:  http://www.xpn.org/

It appears that Cumulot kept Irish Greg, No Name and a few of the other recent KFOG additions, probably because their labor cost was cheaper than some of the veterans that brought so much music knowledge and history to the KFOG broadcast team. But Cumalot is not interested in the music or any knowledge thereof. They are only interested in profiting from overpaying for the station in the first place with severely leveraged money.

 

Fix My Problem, Tech Fails

Huge Bay Area Comcast Outage

Somehow Comcast missed waterproofing 101 in their cabling class with the first mild El Nino blameable storm knocking out Comcast’s less than robust monopolized Internet and Cable TV service. Comcast is clinging to a dying business model and refuses to see the writing on the wall. Consumers only need you because you’ve managed to monopolize the Bay Area’s Internet providers. Once their is another viable option, toast you will be.

Beer

Beer Advent Calendar 2015

Costco has these beer advent calendars that contain all German beers, most of which are not all that easy to find out here in Silicon Valley.

German-Beer-Advent-Calendar

Here is beer number one, Alpen Stoff:

Beer-Advent-Calendar

 

Silicon Valley Weekend

Happy Friday Silicon Valley!

Happy Friday Silicon Valley!

Hope you had a good week wrangling data, selling advertising or making the world a better place through minimal message-oriented transport layers. Whatever you’ve been working on, try to take a break this weekend. It’s summer. Remember summer vacation? Those faded memories of being outside in the sun and riding your bike to wherever you felt like. No smart phone. No 24/7 connectivity. No DVR to catch up on. No facebook, twitter, snapchat or instagram updates. Just the endless possibilities of an unplanned day.

Here are a few things you could do this weekend if you weren’t wired into your Macbook Air constructing elegant hierarchies for maximum code reuse and extensibility.

Cool off with some garlic ice cream at the 37th annual Gilroy Garlic Festival,

Watch people much fitter than you run the San Francisco Marathon

Try some lamb dishes at the San Francisco American Lamb Jam.

Or just relax and enjoy your moment of beer zen:

Have a great weekend and enjoy the beautiful Bay Area weather. You’re paying for it whether you use it or not.

Bay Area Earthquakes, California Earthquakes

Did you feel that? 4.2 Mag Quake Jolts East Bay

A 4.2 magnitude earthquake rattled some awake at 2:41AM. The small quake was centered east of Union City. Check out the shake map.

The USGS has since downgraded the trembler from 4.2 to 4.0 magnitude.

Silicon Cali Tech Business

SolidCon 2015 Day 1

Here are a few pictures from the first day of O’Reilly Solid Con at Fort Mason San Francisco.

 

Building_a_drone_SolidCon_2015_siliconcali_

 

Silicon Cali Food

How Did You Celebrate National Donut Day?

How did you celebrate National Donut Day? Or is it National Doughnut Day? Did Dunkin’ Donuts simplified spelling of “doughnut” transform the world of fried doughy goodness?

Krispy Kreme still uses the original spelling. But of course they use their own spelling for “krispy” and “kreme”. Krispy Kreme also has a free doughnut offer for National Doughnut Day.

Check out some spinning Voodoo Doughnuts. Yes that is real bacon you see there.

The creative sugary treats of Voodoo Donuts in Portland, Oregon. Get them while they’re fresh!  National Donut Day (or National Doughnut Day) is celebrated on the first Friday of June each year.

 

Is the correct spelling Donut or Doughnut?

California Drought, Silicon Valley weather

Rain in the Valley

Rain is finally falling in Silicon Valley. It won’t amount to much but it is good to see some rain washing the pollen and Gobi Desert dust out of the air. This storm is actually bringing some snow to the higher altitude Sierra’s as well. Spring snowboarding anyone? The west is of course still in a serious drought and this welcome bit of precipitation won’t change that. Keep saving water when you can.

Adventure Travel, Astronomy Tech

Astronaut Scott Kelly is Watching You From Space

International Space Station Commander Scott Kelly is spending a #YearInSpace and he’s keeping an eye on all of us down here on Planet Earth.

He just took this awesome photo of San Francisco and the Bay:

 

 

Commander Scott Kelly will be floating aboard the ISS until the spring of 2016 when he is scheduled to land in Kazakhstan. Keep the pictures coming Astronaut Kelly!

ISS Progress 59, a resupply ship is planned to  launch of  from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in a few hours bringing with it over three tons of supplies to the International Space Station.

Silicon Cali Food

Village Hummus Coming Soon?

Is a place called Village Hummus really coming soon to 1001 Park Place next to Starbucks? Well the banner has been there for months now and there’s a real estate lockbox on the door. The Quiznos decals are still on the glass door, remnants of the former occupant. Quiznos. Who eats at Quiznos these days? Especially when there is a Chipotle accross the street. Though the Quiznos at Park Place closed way back when the Chipotle location was occupied by a Daphnes Greek Cafe. Daphnes Greek Cafe only lists two Bay Area locations on their site now, Daly City and Alameda. So if you have a craving for pitas, hummus and falafel in this area, just head over to Whole Foods.

When I first saw the “Village Hummus” banner flying above the long empty former Quiznos location, I had hopes that it would be a place like Cava Mezze Grill which is setting up new locations in So Cal. Cava Mezze Grill has been quite successful with their fast casual Chipotle style Mediterranean food. I had never heard of a restaurant called Village Hummus in this area but I’m familiar with Hummus Mediterranean Kitchen in downtown San Mateo.

So is Village Hummus coming soon? I won’t say anything because no one ever listens to me anyway. I might as well be a Leonard Cohen record.

Update May 4th 2015:  There is activity at the Village Hummus location in San Mateo. The Quiznos signs are gone and Village Hummus signs have gone up. It looks like they are actually going to open at some point. Looking forward to giving this place a try.

Living and working in Silicon Valley