This evening is your last chance in 2006 to catch Peter "Pedro" Isler (USA, sailing team) live -- on stage again tonight at the Teatre Ves, his third appearance there. If tonight's gig is half as much fun as the last two it will be a great evening. One hears that, otra vez, a few AC friends will sit in with Pedro for a song or two, including our own Jane "Dylan" Eagleson (USA, media relations). She sat in during the first gig to wide acclaim, and also joined the jam session with Pedro and others at the team farewell party on Friday evening. So expect her to be in top form as well.

Scotty Sandford (NZL, shore team) is well known for putting in long, hard days for our team. He is a versatile, competent, can-do man if ever there was one. And apparently Scotty is nocturnally talented as well, as today we received this email:

"Scotty had a brilliant performance in Kiel Friday night when the band called him on stage, and he performed "Summer of 69" with them. I took some pics with my mobile, but then it broke down. Now the mobile is repaired and the pics are still there! Pls find attached."

With thanks to our cellphone snapper, who wishes to remain anonymous....








Unlike Scotty, a few of us on the team are old enough to remember '69, and with fond memories. (Get your minds out of the gutter -- it's was cool watching them land on the moon.)

Regardless, nice work, Scotty, but please don't give up your day job -- at least not for another eleven months or so. Meanwhile, maybe we can hook you up with Pedro next time he rocks on in Cabanyal.

By the way, since the summer of '69 fully one third (11) of the 32 America's Cup defenses have taken place.

["Summer of '69" lyrics by Bryan Adams. However, for reasons that will be obvious only to Jane Eagleson, this blog post is dedicated to Marilyn Manson.]

Now this looks like something worth taking in if you are going to be near any of the tour cities in the States over the next couple months, beginning this Friday (18th Aug) in the Big Easy....

New York, NY – The 2006 BMW Pop-Jazz Live Tour will get off to a rousing start with a special debut show in the birthplace of jazz at the historic jazz venue Tipitina’s French Quarter, 8/18 at 8pm.

The New Orleans show—conceived as a “tribute” to the Big Easy in recognition of New Orleans’ singular contribution to jazz history—will feature the tour headliner Mike Phillips, who appears courtesy of Hidden Beach Recordings. Phillips, a NAACP Image Award Nominee, regularly tours and collaborates with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Prince and Jill Scott.

Phillips will be joined by local jazz legends Kermit Ruffins and Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews. The invited audience will include community leaders, dignitaries, local jazz musicians and New Orleans residents. “We want this special show to serve as a post-Katrina reunion that brings the community together,” said Michael Aiken, Managing Director of Spring LLC, the driving force behind the tour. “The show demonstrates our thanks for the city’s contributions to jazz and music and gives our guests at Tipitina’s a well-deserved opportunity to just have a good time and see old friends.”

Dedicated to “re-inventing” jazz for a younger, sophisticated and hipper generation/audience with new ideas on what jazz should be, the 2006 BMW Pop-Jazz Live Tour will then travel to six other cities:

+ Chicago, 13 Sep
+ Washington D.C., 19 Sep
+ New York, 21 Sep
+ Atlanta, 26 Sep
+ San Francisco, 10 Oct
+ Los Angeles, 12 Oct

Full story

OK, Herr Hussmann, how do we get some tickets!? And why not bring Mr Phillips & Co to Valencia next Spring??



Further information about Mike Phillips and the tour is available at
www.ipopjazz.com.

From a Wall Street Journal article carried by AOL over the weekend:

CEOs that Rock
By ETHAN SMITH, The Wall Street Journal

(July 28) - The scene at J.D. & the Straight Shot's New York gig was typical for an up-and-coming blues band. The group played a mix of original material and covers by the likes of Little Feat and the Allman Brothers Band and took good-natured digs at each other between songs.

Like many other struggling musicians, the 51-year-old J.D. has a day job. Only James Dolan is president and chief executive of Cablevision Systems Corp., a $5.2 billion publicly traded media conglomerate.

Meet the new boss: He's playing Led Zeppelin covers until closing time at the neighborhood bar and recording CDs in the basement. From the president of buyout firm Wasserstein & Co. to the White House chief of staff, baby boomers at the top of their professions are refusing to give up their youthful rock-star fantasies. The garage bands of the mid-1970s have moved into boardrooms, some of which are now filled with people who as kids dreamed of being the next Hendrix, Page or Townshend -- and who today still have the same dreams.

Cablevision CEO James Dolan.

White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten.

BMW ORACLE Racing navigator Peter Isler.


OK, so Pedro didn't make it into the WSJ article. But he does play in a band called The Water Brothers back in his hometown of San Diego. Recently he played a couple of gigs at a bar here in Valencia, just up the street from the Port America's Cup, enjoyed by many Cup colleagues and friends. ACM's website gave a bit of coverage to the first gig, and the BOB's celebrity stalker was present and snapping away....


Pedro Unplugged: singing the blues at a bar in el barrio Cabanyal
last month.



During a break between sets with a buddy from college sailing days at
Yale, Dave Perry (USA), now rules advisor to Sweden's Victory Challenge.


ACM web editor Peter Rusch (CAN, left) enjoying the scene with other
AC 32 music aficionados. Peter works long hours, witness his coming
straight from the office in his ACM staff shirt with the interesting
event-branding patch.


Aspiring musician and Dylan-head Jane Eagleson (USA, public relations)
takes the odd guitar lesson from Pedro. She was coericed by the lively
crowd -- "We want Jane! We want Jane!" -- into joining Pedro on stage
during the second set.


Despite her reticence Jane performed admirably. Their duet was one of
the high points of the evening. BTW, these days one sees more and more
of the blue Agua Limpia bracelets adorning the wrists of AC team members
and their familes. Check the Agua Limpia site for details.


After Jane's debut she was congratulated, and consoled, by Laurent
"Father" Esquier (FRA/USA, ops director), a comforting figure in the Cup
if ever there was one.


Rodney Daniel (AUS, sailing team), Aimee Hess Daniel (USA, sailing team
coordinator), and Pete Balash (USA, shore team).


Michel Kemarec (FRA, design team).


Rock on: Linda and Graeme Winn were among the many AC family and
friends in attendance for Pedro Unplugged.

Congrats to the Family Committee on the success of the 80's party they produced and directed at our Team Base on Friday evening. Some of those who attended are still in recovery.

One could not help but be impressed by the number of people who rose to the occasion and created costumes -- and impersonations -- of beloved, and not so loved, 80's figures. There does exist a video slide show that the Internal Affairs Dept already produced which documents the evening and all the clever get-ups. However, the Blogger-in-Chief promised to protect the innocent and the not so by keeping the snaps (and hence video slide show) private to the team.

Suffice to say, it was one hell of a party enjoyed by all who attended.


OK, so we had to at least show one or two pics of the fun we had Friday
evening. All work and no play makes a team, well, boring. These days,
and with less than nine months to go to the start of the LVC, BMWOR
is anything but.


Good times: were the 80's really this much fun? Those were the days,
my friend, we thought they'd never end.... For some of us, it seems like
only yesterday. Yes, that's the inscrutable Fuku, impeccably adorned,
in the background.

After a long, hard slog these past three weeks (to say nothing of the last three months given all the goings on since 87 arrived in VLC on the Antonov, getting her commissioned, the christening party, the three Acts, the Rock Center Exhibition, etc.) the team has a well-deserved day off.

But just one day off, as by this time tomorrow de-brief meetings for every department will be in full swing at the Base. During Act 12, at times it felt like the regatta had been on for a month, but now that it's over it seems it literally flew by.

Last evening on the roof of their team base Alinghi threw a spirited "season-ending" party -- classy but relaxed -- attended by 40 or so from our team, and another 500+ people from the other teams, ACM, officials, etc. In the heat of the night the Moet was flowing and the music blaring. Everything in Spain is loud. One hears (with ears still ringing the next morning) that some danced until 0400. Not your Ed., who like many was too pooped to participate much beyond midnight. Regardless, it was a right good piss-up, and put an exclamation point on what can only be called the best match racing in the modern history of the Cup, and probably ever.


Together last night the teams let their collective hair down a bit. Above,
two of our favorite ex-teammates: Cameron Dunn (NZL, Mascalzone) and
Denise Holmberg (USA, wife of Alinghi helmsman Peter Holmberg) at the
classy season-end party hosted by Alinghi.


This morning the local weather service has issued a heat warning, saying that parts of the Valencian community will see temps north of 38 (100F). Things are just warming up in time for the Pope's visit this coming weekend. Well over one million visitors are expected. One has no idea where they will reside while here -- every hotel room within 300km of VLC is said to be booked. And the sidewalks on either side of the Old Turia riverbed, now Valencia's city-long central park and where His Holiness will present this weekend, are lined with, literally, miles and miles of portapots. Organizers must have gathered up every dunnie in Spain. One can only imagine how this city is going to look -- and smell -- a week from today.

In the meantime, seems a good day to reflect on the past weeks' work, and the work we have cut out for us in the remaining months of AC 32. Ideally, after finding someplace nice and cool.


For most today it's "Vamos a la playa, o la piscina."