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Was it really 11 summers ago... ?!

Summer of 1996. About 20 of us sat in the hidden basement of the old Tokyo Rose, the now-defunct but forever legendary Charlottesville sushi restaurant-stroke-indie-hipster dive, watching Chan Marshall with her back to us, nervously strumming on her guitar and avoiding eye contact with the already enamored crowd. Sounding like a goddess. Wearing a Hanes T-shirt and Chucks.

Her voice was nothing short of mesmerizing. When I began to intern at Matador Records a year later, I'd occasionally see her out at gigs in NYC and through friends of friends, especially the Louisville, KY crowd. She always felt more like "one of us" than "one of them".

In the spring of 2003, her album You Are Free became the soundtrack of that era in my life, a season full of marathon, 8-hour long Saturday printmaking and lithography sessions, surfing in Brazil and the momentous decision to leave McKinsey and return to U.Va. after five long years.

The two most recent shows I saw her play were in London, June 2006 at the Barbican and again in November at the Roundhouse. JBD was there both times, and they must have been memorable in some way, as he now lists her among his favorites on Facebook...

So, I just had to smile when I saw this headline on BBC news a few minutes ago: Singer Power Wins US Music Prize.

I guess all I can say is it's about time.

To properly wish Jamie B.D. a happy birthday as he turns a young 31 today, I thought I'd give him a long-overdue "feature" and introduce him to my virtual blog world.

It would be impossible to sum up our adventures in these few lines... to try and describe the person who has been to the ends of the earth with me, whether it was broadcasting back to the UK via satellite from the side of the High Atlas in Morocco or narrowly avoiding crumbling, rocky death-traps at 13,000 feet in Northern Pakistan, placing our lives in the hands of Inayet, our godsend of a mountain guide and general all-around superhero.

Suffice it to say that Jamie is a 21st century renaissance man in every sense of the term: he is as comfortable reading Virgil's Aeneid in the original as he is climbing a Himalayan peak or chatting to one of his Year 10 students about the latest grime remix to come out of East London. And, for the record, he makes a mean creme brulee.

For all of these reasons, and countless more, here's wishing Jamie a fabulous birthday and many, many more...

xx

The spotlight is on my dear friend Lukas Birk as he delivers his cutting-edge art-meets-technology installations at the Dana Centre's Take It Away DIY media festival all of this week.

If you are in London, don't miss it!! Tickets are free and it is sure to blow you away. Check out the Human Tool project and stay for the talk on his film/photography book/art/website on tourism in Afghanistan, a collection of work entitled Kafkanistan (made with our friend and collaborator Sean Foley).

And if you think you recognize the girl in the burqa, you are absolutely right. ;)

To make up for the month-long hiatus I have taken from this site (more on that later), I offer fun images from this past "bank holiday"(i.e. long) weekend, spent relaxing with dear friend Miss Laura aka "Laurinha" Baker as she breezed through London on the tail end of a European business trip. Having just visited Madrid, Prague, Bratislava and Berlin, she decided that a chilled-out weekend of good food and great conversation in London was all she needed. Although the weather was less than sunny and our grand plans to spend a leisurely Saturday tanning at the new London Fields Lido were thwarted, we managed to find other creative ways to amuse ourselves.

Can't wait to see Laura again...

And perhaps this will inspire other faraway friends to make it out here.

xx

Hot off the presses come these additional photos (gracias Gaby!) from the 2007 Nordic Challenge, which was a 4-day long cross-country skiing adventure through the beautiful mountains of central Norway (in and around Finse, Giterygghytta and Raggsteindalen).

Just to be very clear, it may look like it was all fun and games, but please believe me when I say that it was A LOT OF HARD WORK. Norwegian mountains are a truly rugged and spectacular environment and have no mercy (you may have read about the two Scottish youths who lost their lives in Norway a few weeks ago? Well, that was about 7km from where we were).

This year, I came home with 2 black toes, blisters on both shoulders and a rather large bruise on my left thigh! And it was all to raise awareness and sponsorship funds for the Offscreen Education Programme and its 2008 Student Expedition which will bring 8 Middle-Eastern students to the UK, as a reflexive answer to this year's UK student expedition to the Middle East.

It is still not too late to sponsor me, so please drop me a line to help this very worthwhile cause!!! Every last $ (or £) helps, so do get in touch and help spread the word of tolerance and global understanding TODAY! [ok, I'll get off my soapbox now]

Enjoy the photos!

xx