Peter’s Summer So Far
Peter has had a busy summer so far. As soon as school ended he left for UNC Basketball Camp. This is the third summer he has attended this camp in Chapel Hill. He stayed with his best friend in an off campus dorm and played basketball all day, every day. This is a perfect camp for gym rats. There are no filler activities like swimming or crafts.
The kids are divided by age into gyms for the length of camp, so Peter was with a group of nearly 50 kids who had just finished 5th grade. The boys are divided into teams, who play against each other for week. Peter’s team did not do very well in the championship games, but that’s because, according to Peter, players on his team were ball hogs and didn’t pass enough. Although in the end, it did not bother him that his team came in last in his division.
There was a free throw competition each day, and Peter won for his gym the first day. At the end of camp there was a a competition of each day’s winners. It came down to Peter and a kid whose dad played basketball for UNC. The kid was wearing his dad’s actual Carolina jersey. This was not intimidating to Peter because he didn’t realize it was real jersey. Anyway, Peter won the competition, so he was the free throw champion for his age group.
These are the kids from Chapel Hill who attended basketball camp with Peter.
He was home for a few days before heading off to Boy Scout camp at Camp Bonner on the Pamlico Sound. He had an okay time, but he needed to participate in the new Scout program to check off lots of the Boy Scout achievements. This meant he did lots of boring things (his words), rather than the fun stuff that the older boys were doing. He also came home with lots of mosquito bites. We were told it was 69, but no one really counted. And yes, he did have bug spray and use it. The bugs were just that bad. So he had a good time, not a great time, and it made him look forward to Scout camp even more next summer. And yes, they will be going to a different camp.
Thanks to Glyn Tomkins for the Scout Camp photo.
And today Peter left for the beach with his friend Blake. He was home long enough to unpack, wash clothes and pack for the beach. But when he gets home next weekend, he’s around for the rest of the summer.
Best of the Triangle at Golden Belt
Last night was Third Friday, an arts celebration in downtown Durham, and the biggest party of the night was at Golden Belt, a renovated mill east of downtown. The Independent Weekly, our local arts and alternative weekly paper, celebrated their “Best of the Triangle” results with a party in the Cotton Room, where samples were served from the Triangle’s best restaurants, as chosen by The Independent’s readers.
I went with some friends and ran into several others that I knew. We tried food from restaurants like Chubby’s Tacos, Lilly’s Pizza, Revolution, Tyler’s and The Mint. There was beer from Big Boss and Carolina Brewery and desserts from Sugarland and Gugglehopf. I met one of the guys from Wine Authorities and talked to him about North Carolina Wine TV. He knew who I was (those 2 guys who talk about wine) and I found out that the store does not carry NC wine, but has something called an endomatic, a self serve wine machine. I definitely need to check that out.
There was music inside The Cotton Room, ambient weirdness by Brad Cook, from the folk band Megafaun. There was also a stage outside where Thad Cockrell and Hobex performed. Since this was a notable Durham event, my friends from Onlyburger were there too.
Here’s a link to a few more pictures I took.
North Carolina Wine TV
I recently launched a new venture with one of my business partners, Kipp. We are tasting and reviewing wine from North Carolina on NorthCarolinaWine.TV. Our state has a growing wine industry, over 80 wineries, and neither of us had tasted much of it. We decided to create an online video show, with two episodes a week, to taste every wine produced in North Carolina. As we learn about North Carolina wine, so will our viewers.
Response has been great so far, after only two weeks and five episodes. We have gotten lots of comments, including one from one of the wineries who’s wine we tasted. We have been invited to a winery to do a show in front of a live audience. We have even been interviewed by a local Raleigh blog about the show.
If you like the show, and you want to learn about North Carolina, subscribe via RSS or email so you don’t miss an episode, follow us on Twitter for the latest info and fan us on Facebook for exclusive, behind-the-scenes content.
Not Just Cool, But She Understands Me
Tonight I went shopping with my 8 year old daughter and she was playing with my iphone. She is recently enamored with a bubble wrap game. She has mastered it and has knocked my high score out of the high scorers. Every few games, the app shows a promo ad that offers prizes if you play the pro version.
Grace read me the ad and said that it is only 99 cents.
I told her that I don’t pay for apps.
“You paid for the Twitter app.”
Memorial Day Questions by Grace
We went to a friend’s open house over the Memorial Day weekend, and my 8-year-old daughter Grace interviewed partygoers with a series of questions. This video is the result.
Here’s a link to the YouTube version if you have trouble playing the Vimeo one above.
My Own Version of Freezerburns
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but what are parody and mockery? My friend Greg produces a web show called Freezerburns, where he reviews frozen foods, and this is my interpretation of his show. Not only am I a fan of the show, but I have appeared on it as well. I just felt like poking a little bit of fun at Greg. The lasagna was good, by the way.
Grace as George Washington Carver
Grace as George Washington Carver from Jeff Cohen on Vimeo.
My 3rd grader, Grace, was part of a living wax museum at school, where each student researches and writes a biography about a famous person and presents the information as a first person narrative. She was George Washington Carver.
Grace and My Little Bronto
I have several friends who work at email marketing firm, Bronto, whose mascot is the dinosaur formerly known as the brontosaurus. I was given an inflatable bronto and Grace decided to sing to it, with me videoing it of course. They posted this video on their blog, BrontoNation. And for anyone who is wondering, I shot this video long before I applied for the job at Bronto.
The Realities of Business Consulting
I told my son, Peter, that I had a meeting with a friend of mine and we were talking about how he can use social media to grow his business. This is a common topic these days, but especially in my life. Anyway, Peter asked. “Is he paying you money.” I said I don’t know yet. Why. Peter’s response was, “Because money pays for me.”
Grace is Going to Rock Camp
Grace sings in the church choir. She is also in a drum corps in school, and that’s elementary school. She frequently plays percussion rather than drums proper. She also plays Rock Band at her mom’s house. But this summer she’s going to Rock Camp for a week and she is super excited.
The concept is simple. Bring a bunch of girls together for a week and let them bond over songwriting and learning to play instruments. Like most programs of this type, it is less about the music itself, and more about the creative process of musical expression and building self-esteem. And at the end of the week, there is a performance at local rock club, Cat’s Cradle. I’m definitely looking forward to that.
The local organizers are part of a national group that runs Girls Rock Camp across the country, and here’s the trailer to a documentary about the program.