By J.D. Lasica

This summer and fall, the most melodious bird I’ve ever heard kept a regular vigil outside my home here in the San Francisco East Bay.

I’m really curious if anyone can identify it. Take a listen:

Some observations:

• It spend a lot of time in a tree next door, and I snapped the photos above (but needed a more powerful lens) while it flitted up in the air about six feet and then descended on the top branch again.

• It was as nocturnal as I am, with much of its chirping and warbling taking place between midnight and 2 am. The sounds were fantastically primal, with at least a dozen variations coming from the same bird.

Leif Utne, who’s become something of a naturalist up in the Pacific Northwest, offered to take a crack at this a while back, and one Twitter friend sent along these links:

• Northern Mockingbird, from Field Guide to Birds of North America, which notes that its terrain includes Northern California.

• Know your garden bird song (Guardian) — the song thrush could be another candidate.

So, mockingbird, or not?
JD Lasica works with social change organizations, nonprofits and businesses on social media strategies. See his profile, visit his business blog, contact JD or leave a comment.

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Highlights of California’s Tri-Valley region from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

Here’s a short chat I had with Amy Blaschka, President and CEO of the Tri-Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau, about the Tri-Valley region (where I live), located in the San Francisco East Bay. The Tri-Valley consists of Pleasanton, Livermore, Danville, San Ramon and Dublin, and it’s best known for the Livermore wine region, golf, an amazing array of parks and sports fields, and the historic downtowns of some of the cities, especially Pleasanton.

As Wikipedia points out:

In the 1850s, the town was nicknamed “The Most Desperate Town in the West” and it was ruled by bandits and desperados. Main Street shootouts were not uncommon. Banditos such as Joaquin Murrieta, upon whom the legend of Zorro is based, would ambush prospectors on their way back from the gold rush fields and then seek refuge in Pleasanton. This reputation passed, and in 1917 Pleasanton became the backdrop for the film “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.”

Pleasanton was among the cities named in CNN Money Magazine’s list of “The Best Places to Live” in 2010, and was also named one of “Americans’ Top Hometown Spots” in the United States in 2009 by Forbes. Also, notably, late night host Craig Ferguson took some lighthearted jabs at Pleasanton after he passed through town.

Watch, embed or download the video on Vimeo

JD Lasica works with social change organizations, nonprofits and businesses on social media strategies. See his profile, visit his business blog, contact JD or leave a comment.

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I‘ve given a final update to my TypePad site Darknet.com (see it on Amazon), and as regular readers know, my blogging these days takes place at Socialbrite.org and Socialmedia.biz.JD Lasica works with social change organizations, nonprofits and businesses on social media strategies. See his profile, visit his business blog, contact JD or leave a comment.

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To undecided voters deciding whether to re-elect Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, I have one question: What do you know about Republican candidate David Harmer?

Are you aware that he favors privatizing Social Security, even after the Wall Street meltdown (no surprise, given his discredited deregulate-everything philosophy)? Or that he has spoken at a local Tea Party event? Or that he wrote in favor of abolishing public schools and returning education to “the way things worked through the first century of American nationhood” in an op-ed piece in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2000, a position he has not backed away from? Pleasanton has some of the best public schools in the state, and his rants against “socialism in education” have no place here.

My family members are canvassing our Pleasanton neighborhood so that Rep. McNerney, one of the most capable centrist members of Congress, isn’t turned out in an unfocused anger at everything about Washington. Electing Mr. Harmer and a return to Wall Street rule is not where we want to take this country in the next two years. Mr. Harmer is far out of step with the voters in this centrist district.

• Jerry McNerney endorsed by veterans, RepublicansJD Lasica works with social change organizations, nonprofits and businesses on social media strategies. See his profile, visit his business blog, contact JD or leave a comment.

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Sen. Boxer on reforming the filibuster from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

Yesterday I headed into San Francisco and saw Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., speak to a packed gallery of 350 or so people at the Commonwealth Club of California (I’m a member). She’s in a hotly contested reelection campaign against Carly Fiorina.

As is the case with popular speakers, audience members had to write their questions on a slip of paper and the moderator has to choose which ones to ask. The second question asked was the one I posed: Given the unprecedented use of the filibuster by the Republicans in the current Senate session, hat is your position on reforming or eliminating the filibuster?

Here’s the video I took of Sen. Boxer’s two-minute answer. She said she supports reforming the filibuster rules when the next Senate assembles to set its rules in two ways: requiring 55 votes instead of 60, and requiring senators to actually filibuster on their feet.

Now, we need a majority of senators to agree on the same reforms.

Watch, download or embed the video on Vimeo

My thanks to the Commonwealth Club for allowing the public to videotape and photograph their speakers. JD Lasica works with social change organizations, nonprofits and businesses on social media strategies. See his profile, visit his business blog, contact JD or leave a comment.

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David Boies on Prop 8 & Supreme Court from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

Apumped-up David Boies said last night that it’s a “dead certainty” that the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the issue of same-sex marriage if a federal appeals court sustains the trial court’s landmark decision Wednesday overturning California’s Proposition 8.

In an hourlong appearance before a capacity crowd of 300 at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club, Boies — who led the plaintiffs’ legal team alongside Ted Olsen — declined to handicap the case’s chances before the conservative High Court. But he said his legal team was “not taking any justice for granted and not giving up” on any of the nine justices.

Boies predicted the often liberal 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals would rule on the case later this year and the Supreme Court would follow in 2011.

Boies joked that Olsen, once a darling of the right who served as opposing counsel before the Supreme Court in Bush vs. Gore, would be instructed to win over the five conservative justices while Boies’ job would be to woo the four more liberal justices.

Turning serious, he added that if the Supremes apply the trial judge’s findings of fact, “I think we ought to win every one of those justices. I’m not saying we’re going to, I’m saying we’re not giving up on anybody.” (Watch Boies’ comments in the 3-minute video excerpt above.)

Boies talked about how people of his generation were reared in an era when gays were publicly discriminated against, citing President Eisenhower’s executive order prohibiting gays and lesbians from serving in the federal government in any capacity — including postal carriers and court typists.

“As you move toward greater equality, people have to abandon decisions and positions they took before. I’m very conscious of the fact that we’re going to be arguing this to judges that are of my generation,” he said. “You had laws prohibiting gays and lesbians from various employments — forcing employers to discriminate. That was the culture in which those of us of a certain age grew up. And (now) you have to ask judges to put those cultural influences aside.”

Boies said the plaintiffs won at the trial level because “religion does not have a place in American legislation, and that has been true since the First Amendment to the Constitution was passed.”

He said the proponents of Proposition 8 relied on outdated notions of marriage, and he got a rise from the audience when he noted that the trial judge expressed skepticism at the notion that marriage should be restricted to couples intending to procreate. “A week earlier the same judge married a couple in their 80s, and I doubt they intended on having any more children.”

U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, of San Francisco, on Wednesday declared California’s same-sex marriage ban, passed by voters on the same day that President Obama was elected president n November 2008, to be in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantees of equal protection and due process of law. Prop. 8′s supporters filed their appeal Thursday.

Cross-posted to the Huffington Post.
JD Lasica works with social change organizations, nonprofits and businesses on social media strategies. See his profile, visit his business blog, contact JD or leave a comment.

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I‘ve met Jerry Brown and consider him a straight shooter compared with the stream of misleading claims coming from Meg Whitman’s campaign. So I just contributed $50 to Brown’s campaign for governor.

From the Brown campaign today:

Yesterday, Meg Whitman launched her latest false attack ad, backed by even more millions from her personal wealth. She recycles the same lies — ridiculous claims about my husband that have already been proved false by journalists and non-partisans like factcheck.org. Her strategy is simple: spout the same un-truths, over and over, buying up the airwaves, and hope Californians believe them.

That’s not the way to get California working again. Can you help Jerry fight back? Since we’ll be massively outspent, we’ve carefully conserved our resources, but we will still need more grassroots donations to help us get the facts out.

Whitman’s latest ad repeats the same false claims that Jerry raised taxes, that California lost jobs and that state employees gained excessive benefits. Whitman’s ad offers no specifics and no support for those claims.

Let me tell you the truth about Jerry:

* Under Jerry, Californians saw their tax burden reduced by more than $16 billion.
* Jerry indexed the personal income tax to adjust for inflation, eliminated the business inventory tax and offered energy tax credits, as well as other tax-saving measures.
* Under Jerry, California created more than 1.9 million new jobs — including the job Meg Whitman moved to California for in 1981.
* As Governor, Jerry proposed limiting pension benefits, and vetoed pay increases for state employees when he believed the state couldn’t afford them.. (You can read all the facts here.)

Don’t let these facts sit on the sidelines. We’re preparing an aggressive push in the coming months but need your help to give us the resources to dispute Meg Whitman’s falsehoods and lay out our vision for getting California working again. Meg Whitman may have a big checkbook, but we have thousands of committed, grassroots donors. If we all chip in — even a little — we can keep pace.

Click here to donate and help us fight back against Meg’s latest barrage of lies.

JD Lasica works with social change organizations, nonprofits and businesses on social media strategies. See his profile, visit his business blog, contact JD or leave a comment.

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‘He’s Just Not Your Type’ from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

Imet Andrea Syrtash — author, advice columnist and life coach — at last year’s 140 Characters conference in New York, so when she swung into San Francisco as part of her book tour for “He’s Just Not Your Type,” I caught up with her after her talk at Book Passage along the Embarcadero.

“He’s Just Not” isn’t the typical fear-based dating advice book (You’re not getting any younger! Settle!). Mostly, it’s about discovering things about yourself, including unsuccessful dating patterns. “If you keep dating the same kind of person and it’s not working, you might want to mix it up,” she said.

The book explores not just relationships and dating but finding balance in your life. “It’s about connecting with values in all areas of your life so that you’re living an authentic life,” Andrea said.

There are more than 40 million Americans who are dating online — that’s almost half the single population — and social media is becoming an important part of the singles scene. She told the 20 or so attendees that she was against “Facebook stalking,” but that doesn’t mean online doesn’t play a part. “I think social media is a great place for building relationships. The key, though, is to take it offline.”

Watch, embed or download the video on Vimeo

And be sure to check out “He’s Just Not Your Type” at Andrea’s site.JD Lasica works with social change organizations, nonprofits and businesses on social media strategies. See his profile, visit his business blog, contact JD or leave a comment.

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LA Derby Dolls from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

At a recent Ignite Bay Area for women innovators (there’s another Ignite on Monday night), my longtime friend Micki Krimmel of Mickipedia fame gave a 5-minute presentation on the LA Derby Dolls.

Micki has been a member of the LA Derby Dolls for about two years now –
roller derby is a rough and tumble “full-contact sport mostly played by all-female teams,” she says.

I didn’t know much about the sport, so Micki explained it this way: “The object of the game is for the jammer to get past the path of blockers” and to get points by passing people on the opposing team. Under the rules, you can’t use your elbow, arms, hands or fists; you can’t grab anyone. You can block with your hips, butt or shoulders.

Roller derby, in short, is the fastest-growing sport in America. For the movie Whip It, the LA Derby Dolls worked with the filmmakers on training the cast members, and two of the Derby Dolls appear in the film.

“The athleticism keeps getting better every season,” says Micki, wearing a Mickispeedia jersey. “I love the girls, I love my league, they’ve become my family.”

In her other life, Micki is the founder and CEO of Neighborgoods.net, a community site about sharing, buying and selling at the neighborhood level. Check it out!

Micki describes it as “Craigslist mashed up with Facebook,” but it has a bit of Freecycle in the mix, too. You can borrow, rent, sell or give away items like ladders, lawn mowers, chain saws. Cool idea.

Note: This was one of the first interviews I’ve done with the Kodak zi8 handheld recorder, on loan to me from Kodak. It’s hi-def and infinitely easier to carry around than a large camcoder, though doesn’t always perform well in low light.

Check this photo album for more Derby Dolls action.

See the photo set of the LA vs. San Diego Derby Dolls bout on March 6.

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• NeighborGoods.net Is Sharing 2.0JD Lasica works with social change organizations, nonprofits and businesses on social media strategies. See his profile, visit his business blog, contact JD or leave a comment.

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Here are 90-plus photos from my trip to Yosemite this past week. The valley is even more stunning than I remember from 15 years ago. Check out the closeup of a gorgeous bluejay and a long-range shot of a bear. JD Lasica works with social change organizations, nonprofits and businesses on social media strategies. See his profile, visit his business blog, contact JD or leave a comment.

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