The BIL 2013 conference was held in the heart of downtown Long Beach with an attendance of more than 600 people. If TED is mostly attended by over-achieving baby boomers, BIL caters to the boomer’s tech-crazed offspring. It is a quirky, populist unconference that’s named from the 1989 science-fiction comedy film, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
It is fully participant driven, featuring an eclectic mix of technologists, scientists, artists, hackers and those with a passion for community awareness, social entrepreneurship and innovation. The unconference emerged from a community of people who aspire to change the world for the better. BILders are the everyman thinkers and doers of today and for tomorrow.
The speakers share ideas, talk about problems that need solving and discoveries that the community is excited about; Jason Dunn talked about technological advancements with a primary focus on manufacturing in space and Craig Montuori enlightened the room about the difficulty of acquiring visas for foreign entrepreneurs that are planning startups. We left inspired and a bit more hopeful of what’s to come.
There were several sponsors including Bulletproof Coffee. Supposedly, it’s coffee that is as free of mycotoxins as possible. We tried the Upgraded Coffee with grass-fed butter which added a lot of texture making the drink very creamy and thick. It gave us an energy boost that made driving back to San Diego in traffic more manageable.
The Mountaintop
One of our favorite plays of the year (so far) is San Diego REP’s rendition of Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop. The play took us on an emotional roller coaster by going into Hall’s imaginative re-creation of what might have went through Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s head on the final night of his life.
Dr. King was assassinated April 4, 1968 while standing on the balcony of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. After delivering his I’ve Been to the Mountaintop speech, Dr. King retires to his room and calls the front desk for room service. After some discussion he finally gets his request, “just a coffee”. The maid, Camae, arrives quickly and states that it’s on the house for one of the hotels favorite guests. Dr. King flirts, smokes, cusses and calls his wife in the middle of it all.
He talks about his devotion to God and his hope for the people. At times he expresses exasperation such as when a march turned into a riot and people grabbed “free” television sets from closed businesses.
The audience gets to see him as a complex man and not a martyr. Camae tells him it’s her first day on the job but stays to smoke, drink and flirt back. She’s in no rush to leave as the audience anticipates where all this is leading and she finally reveals who she is.
You’ll have to go watch to find out. The play moved us to tears and made us laugh out loud, sometimes simultaneously. The acting was superb and lighting design impeccable. A production not to be missed.
The Mountaintop will be showing until March 31 at the Lyceum Stage. For more information and tickets go to sdrep.org
Family Winemakers of California annual tasting
The Family Winemakers of California’s annual tasting event returned to San Diego for a fifth year. This was their 23rd year hosting the event that was formed in 1991 and first held at the Sheraton Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
There were more than 700 wines to choose from at this event, once only open to members of the trade. In addition to your general ticket you could purchase access to the Reserve Area where you could taste fine wines that retail at $75 or more.
The variety of brands, types and business size makes this one of the most comprehensive annual tasting events for wine lovers. Upon entering you pick up a wine glass and a “spit” cup (aka. big red cup). It’s recommended that you have an action plan before arriving to an event like this so you don’t get overwhelmed. We stuck mostly with dessert and rosé wine selections which worked out deliciously well.
Kicking yourself for missing this event at Del Mar? Get a list of all the participants and find out about upcoming tastings by going to familywinemakers.org
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RT @anapines1: Nice meeting U 2day @SDJoeCoffeeBlog! The coffee we told u about is called Bullet Proof Coffee. Here’s our article: http://t.co/YHyZu1ETdW