7 posts tagged “london”
Democrats abroad are hosting a screening of the documentary this Friday in London (if you are here)...
FILM: 'Who Killed the Electric Car'
This 2007 film investigates the events leading to the quiet destruction of thousands of new, radically efficient electric vehicles. These vehicles were introduced by GM and others the mid-1990s but soon abandoned for .. Through interviews and narrative, the film paints a picture of an industrial culture whose aversion to change and reliance on oil may be deeper then its ability to embrace ready solutions.
From the NY Times - "A murder mystery, a call to arms and an effective inducement to rage, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" is the latest and one of the more successful additions to the growing ranks of issue-oriented documentaries."
Date: Friday 6 February
Time: 7:00 pm (Doors Open at 6:30 pm)
Location: London School of Economics, Room D302, Second Floor, Clement House (this is the new room)
Cost: £5 General, £3 Unwaged
Please RSVP to: films@democratsabroad.org.uk
There are a limited number of seats so please con sider your RSVP a commitment to attend; if you need to
cancel, please let us know as soon as possible so we can offer the booking to someone else.
For more information on the film including reviews please click on:
http://www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com/press
Date: Friday 6 February
Time: 7:00 pm (Doors Open at 6:30 pm)
Location: London School of Economics, Room D302, Second Floor, Clement House
Cost: £5 General, £3 Unwaged
Please RSVP to: films@democratsabroad.org.uk
Please consider your RSVP a commitment to attend; if you need to cancel, please let us know as soon as possible so we can offer the booking to someone else.
Schedule:
6.30: Doors Open
7.00: Introduction
7:15:Who Killed the Electric Car (88 minutes)
8:45: Discussion, Q&A with Peter Durante and the Executive Producers of the film
9:30: Building closes
Peter Durante, who will be leading the discussion, has spent over 8 years in the energy industry, currently working as a CO2 trader. In addition, he is a pro-bono advisor on energy and environmental issues to various politicians, NGOs, academics and industry groups. He has a keen interest in the potential (and challenges) around the electrification of transport and its relationship to renewable energy, as well as reducing CO2 and dependence on oil. The Executive Producers, Tavin and Richard Titus, will be present for the discussion.
Please join us afterwards at the Old Bank of England Pub, 194 Fleet Street
Street map showing the location of LSE within London: Click here
Detailed map showing the Clement House building
(Building D in the lower right hand corner of the map):
http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/mapsAndDirections/findingYourWayAroundLSE.htm
So yesterday a.m. I spent with some Russians.. some were in the room physically, some were there metaphysically. If you are doing anything in Europe which requires money, you will eventually meet an Oligarch or their agent. I like them, cigars, cuff links, bodyguards helicopters and english football clubs. I actually get how their minds work, many of them have a vivid lust for life, they are smart, educated passionate. I try not to think about the fact they'll likely break both arms, or worse if I lose them their $10 or 100 million. Which at the end of the day is always the reason I decline to take their money.... brings new meaning to the term risk capital doesn't it.
So last night we hung out with Clive, my best friend Jason, (visiting from LA) and Paul - who lives here. Had a day of meetings about the super-secret earth changing (well consumer reality changing) idea. Including our dinner, which frankly was amazing and fun. Strangely the food wasn't that good. ;-) It's so rare when you get a bunch of really smart people together and have a deep deep conversation on a topic, this one was about how people experience Music on the net today, why it's broken, and what could be done to make it better.
Then Jason, Paul and I (Clive bailed) went 1st to Soho House Electric, across from paul's flat, which was dead, then to Soho House Shoreditch, which was Jumping! It's the newest one here in London and it was packed chock a block full of people, pool on the roof. In fact it reminds me very much of the one in NY. Met a trio of lovely ladies, one from Italy (she ignored me so I can't give your he background) and two lovely south Africans. One of the south Africans, who I swear couldn't have been older than 23 turned out to be a 30 something dentist! Fun conversations, though I'm partially deaf so I always forget how isolating a club can be, still, it was great to be out, about, the hustle and bustle of the city. The ride home involved an incursion with London's finest constabulary who didn't like our drivers evasion techniques of the drunks on the street. But it turned out ok when they realized he was driving a couple of yanks..
Tomorrow a few more meetings, we pack and I'm off to the UK.
So last night, at the invitation of the CEO of SpinVox (which, btw if you haven't tried it is simply the most important and useful new technology I've stumbled on since the blackberry - Voice to screen - with the 1st killer application emailing me perfectly transcribed voice mails with smart text phone numbers in them.) I attended the launch of an environmental non-profit here in the UK called The Green Thing. It's founded by a couple of chaps from the advertising business including Andy Hobsbawm who founded my old nemesis Agency. (razorfish and agency were the Hatfield's and Mccoys of the old interactive agency days.)
The event was lovely, great food, good conversation. The ask wasn't too harsh and I felt these were people who really want to make a difference. The idea is quite simple really - build a set of small, viral, jib jab style vignettes (website, emails videos, etc.) which encourage people to do one "green" thing a month. Like walking instead of driving for instance.
What I found most fascinating was in chatting with various folks at the event how knowledgeable people in Europe are about the topic of climate change compared to the US. I'm going to try and help them in a few ways including arranging a benefit screening of Who Killed the Electric Car? I did meet a chap in the electronics refurbishing and recycling business who was lovely - and has a VERY interesting business model.
As I start to build my UK network I find its both simple and challenging. People are quite welcoming and interesting, but I don't seem to be communicating for some reason that I really am looking for a job. Is it really so hard to imagine that I just might want to get re-engaged in something to do which is NOT of my own initial construction?
I still think that in the perfect world, I'd start an early or mid-stage VC fund. But my sense is that I don't quite have the profile to do this yet. Over the past three weeks I've met with 20-30 entrepreneurs and found easily 8 companies I would have invested in if I was on that track. London is a fascinating place and I'm still in love with it.
So today I went to what they call London Open Coffee which is a forum for entrepreneurs and early stage vc's to collect and meet. I expected very little, as similar events in the us I've attended previously were mostly a waste of time; occasionally I'd see something interesting, but the stalker to star-up ratio was high.
This actually turned out pretty to be good. Lovely people, met a few VC's including Jason Ball A couple of decent companies - all in all it was much more interesting than expected. Most of them are a bit intimidated by my USA-digerati communication style (direct/blunt/opinionated) but all of them were smart folks. I really didn't meet any time wasters!
Strangely they are quite ignorant of the US market, which surprised me, I would expect British entrepreneurs to be looking wistfully over the pond. The UK is a tiny market with lots of capital. The US is a massive market with difficult capital - I think that this is a good place to be an entrepreneur.
Off to Home House now - which is another of those posh private uk clubs they love so much.
For a 18 month old she does a lot of quite scary things.. counting, running, climbing (can climb a ladder) talking (favorite word is either Airplane or upadup (up and down))
As for the movies, well - I seem to be running out of rabbits in my magic hat. For the last year every time we ran into a problem on the movies, I reached into the hat and low and behold another Rabbit came out. That hat was VERY warm and fuzzy.
No idea what to do but I do seem stuck. The Film finance is SO close to being closed, but I'm unsure how to close this last chasm. Too complicated to explain here, but essentially, everyone has started to move the goal posts and suddenly we can't reach. The film business sucks, but not for the reasons people think.
On the plus side, I've been meeting with lots of technology folks here in the UK, one in particular, a chap named Simon at SpinVox is quite fun. I'm already a customer of course, and a HUGE fan of the technology.
If you aren't familiar with it yet, it basically does what I've forced my assistants to do for years. it listens to my 4 separate voice mail boxes (2 in US 2 in UK) and transcribes my messages into emails/sms's (my preference) and sends them to my blackberry. It's priceless. even better, if it can't make sense of a message, it sends me a message saying so and indicating a number to call in and listen to it. Lastly, all of the phone numbers it collects it puts in click-able live text, making retuning calls simpler than pie.
Ok /end commercial, but he was lovely and I'm meeting their CEO tomorrow to chat a bit more about their business and see if I could be of any use. Funny, the technology business conversations I'm having right now, alongside the sustainability/political dialogs completely trump any movie ones.
Best
What is your home decorating style, and how has it changed over time? Do you have plans to redecorate?
Submitted by enSue.
We are confirmed modernists, with a taste for dark wood and leather. hmmm we sound bookish.
Living in London means that we live in a house which is old (pre-war) brownstone brick on the outside with a gravel driveway and modern with clean lines on the inside.
Eclectic is likely the right word.
I will say our previous house in LA, was by Thornton Ladd, a student of Neutra, I'll put up a photo of it, it is still my favorite house I've ever lived in, although it was a death-trap for kids (thus why we sold it) and had only two bedrooms and a guest house.
Photo of my old house in Los Angeles
we LOVE architecture and I will say it's hard to beat Los Angeles for architecture.. so strange, who would have known that the art of building structures would have been so rich and diverse in a city which is usually so vapid and devoide of culture.
ok 1st thing it SNOWED last week !!! central London 5" of snow.
see photos here. it was beautiful.. I woke up my girls to see it before anyone drove on it.
it was a blast!
then, i finally recieved my US version of Burning crusade....
I now have Zoetrope, level 10 bloodelf rogue.. lots of fun.
Then I flew to Lithuania.. to scout another studio.. i REALLY liked it - actually. Lithuania is here:
Imagine a cross between Bulgaria (think poor 3rd world) and Sweden (shiny, clean well designed 1st world). It was really great - good stage, studio and people...
I think we might move a movie or two there.. food is good, great little town. Food was remarkably good, I had just about the BEST piece of venison I've ever had. It was also BLOODY cold, -25c and snowing almost continuously. I like the people, they seemed very scandanavian, but at the same time warmer..
hopefully this is the week to close everything and get it moving. I'll keep you updated.
