Then And Now

 

Top photo from Brown's commencement, 1989 (guest speakers were NY Governor Mario Cuomo, Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights Richard Schifter, broadcast journalist Irving Levine and poet Maya Angelou - what a lineup to begin adult life). With Seamus on the left, we were on Brown's cross country and track teams together my junior and senior years.

Fergal has gone on to accomplish great things as the founding partner Highland Europe, the elite venture investment firm. He has four children at or graduated from Brown and, true to form, ran 7 marathons on seven continents in seven days in 2025. 

The bottom photo from last weekend at the Ireland-England rugby match at Twickenham stadium (Ireland 42, England 21). New friend Dom, a career coach par excellence, is on the far left.

Cook Strait NZ - 14 miles - 7 hours and 40 minutes

 

Firenze

A properly made Negroni

Sonnet and I return from California with Eitan and Madeleine following a week in Berkeley with Katie and Daniel and Daniel's three sons William, Harry and George who are in college (Will, Sophomore at Vermont) or applying/ going this year. Gracie and Katie secure a 10 foot Christmas tree which we decorate for the season.

Sonnet and I quickly turn around for Florence and the Palazzo Strozzi to see the Beato Angelico exhibition. Beato (also called Fra) was a Dominican friar and painter during the early Florentine Renaissance of the 15th Century and the brightness and colours of his work stand out from anything else.

Florence reminds me of a Freshman class I took at Brown on the Renaissance taught by a wonderful Italian professor who made the period come alive with violence and land battles, beheadings, art (of course), plague (I read the Decameron) and the sex - the nunneries, mio Dio. The course sandwiched between pre-med STEM biology, chemistry and psychology and Calculus classes. No wonder the Renaissance was a favourite (only wish I knew how to write a college-level paper at then).

Annunciation

Cook Strait, NZ - February 2026

The Cook Strait separates the North and South Islands of New Zealand, connecting the Tasman Sea on the NW with the South Pacific Ocean on the SW. It is 14 miles at its narrowest and considered one of the most dangerous and unpredictable waters in the world.

The Cook Strait is dominated by strong tidal flows, unusual in that the tidal elevation at the ends of the strait are almost exactly out of sync with one another, so high water on one side meets low water on the other. This is caused by the main lunar tide that happens about twice per day (12.42 hours) circulates anti-clockwise around New Zealand. On the Pacific Ocean side the high tide occurs five hours before it occurs at the Tasman sea side. One side is high tide and the other side is low tide. The difference in sea level can drive tidal currents up to 5 knots across the strait.

There is all kinds of wildlife from territorial seals to stinging jellies, dolphins and whales - humpback, blue and sperm; killer whales pass thru and the ever lurking Great White drops in from the Pacific having done who knows what.

Break Dancing Chicken

Portland Oregon resists ICE

Cold Water Mania

Along with my hard-core swimming regulars who I meet at the Richmond pool three or four times a week, I have been introduced to another community of athletes only this group meets Friday mornings at sunrise to swim in the Thames due West of the Teddington Lock. 

In the summertime, the water temps will reach 20 or 22C and warm enough to swim to Kingston and back or about 5km. This time of year, in winter, the river drops to 6-7C on its way to the coldest days when it may be 1-2C, depending on the air temperatures. At this range, we stay in for maximum 3 minutes - no wetsuit - it can be dangerous for longer - with our recovery clothes on the riverside at the ready - in my case, a down jacket rated to -20C.

As to the why ? While the health benefits of cold water swimming or showers is yet proven, the after-event high is real. We huddle over warm tea and cake; some bring a hot water bottle and all of us bitch about the cold.

On my mind is the North Channel connecting Northern Ireland to Scotland in August 2027. Perhaps hardest of the Oceans Seven swims due to the cold water, I will be in sub 14C for 10 hours or so.

Central America

Madeleine uses her hard earned dough as a barista at Hermanos Colombian Coffee Roasters in Barnes, frequently opening the shop at 6:30AM, an ungodly hour for anyone but especially a 23 year old who needs her sleep, to travel Central America with Tilda who she meets in Nicaragua.  From there, our gal goes to Guatemala and El Salvador where she hikes to the peak of an active volcano, explores rivers and rain forests and meets like-minded young people in the hostels she visits.

Post Manhattan and pre business school, I worked in Belize for a period of time helping set up the country's eye-health program with the Belize Council for the Visually Impaired and the Pan American Health Organisation as partners.  Belize a beautiful country and poor with then-undeveloped cays a Cessna hop from Belize City. The emerald Blue Hole, a submerged marine cavern where hammerhead sharks in the thousands circle and mate, can be found at a nearby atoll. 

As for the eye care, it became a model for primary care delivery in Pan America and a Harvard Business School case study, "Help The World See", published in 1997 and still in classroom-use today.

The Six Million Dollar Man

"Steve Austin, astronaut.  A man barely alive.  Gentlemen, we can rebuild him.  We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world's first bionic man.  Steve Austin will be that man.  Better than he was before.  Better... stronger... faster."

The opening credits on The Six Million Dollar Man shook my world every Sunday night in the mid 1970s.  My eyes gaped as Steve bent steel or jumped tall hedges. It made sense that he was launched from a submarine into the Pacific to prevent a planet-destroying weapon being built on a deserted island. The "nyosynthetic" (advanced bionic) sasquatch - created by an alien colony hiding on Earth in the Pacific Northwest - required a double Bigfoot episode and a "to be continued" still-frame - Game on !!

Us boys debated the whole Jaime Sommers bionic woman love affair and thrilled to Max, the German Shepherd whose bionic legs and jaw gave him super strength and speed. There was good and bad in the 70s but, as a kid, it did not get better than the bionic man.

Catalina Strait

Catalina Strait start 

The official Big Swim season ends, at least in the Western Hemisphere, around early October when water temperatures drop below comfortable levels. I take advantage of July to swim around Manhattan ( 29 miles in 8 hours, 30 minutes) and September for the Catalina Strait (22 miles in 10 hours, 49 minutes). With the English Channel, I am the 394th person to complete the so-called "Triple Crown" of big water swimming.

The Catalina swim notable for its 11pm start-time to avoid the windy afternoon swells along the Southern California coastline. The darkness disturbing but, even more so, the unlucky British swimmer, also swimming the straight, nipped by a great white shark the night before my jump. The poor fellow pulled from the water after two hours, bandaged and greeted by the coast guard, then ambulance and fire engine at the Long Beach docks, and raced to the emergency for a few stitches to his leg and hand, all reported dutifully by the local news channels and hitting the BBC and Times just in time for Sonnet to worry. A truism I accept : The only strategy for sharks is to not think about sharks.

Cliterati and DeepMind

Laura, Sonnet's first flatmate post-college in San Francisco's North Beach neighbourhood, now lives with husband Chris in Bernal Heights following a long-tour in Lower Manhattan. Laura took an academic route - PhD in British Literature from Columbia, professor of literature at Yale and The New School (NYC) and, most recently, teaching courses on Ulysses and the MeToo movement at Stanford.  She also writes about culture, gender and sexuality - a few of her academic papers include 'The Cult of the Clitoris', 'Stein's Tickle' and "Third Rail Erotica: Anais Nin's Auletris" (independent.academia.edu). She recently engineered Harvard's acquisition of an extensive collection on women, gender and sexuality in American History as part of Harvard's Schlesinger Library, collected, in part, from San Francisco's sexual underground movement beginning in 1970s.

Chris, meanwhile, is a Senior Director at Google's DeepMind where he leads teams in Information Quality, Media Integrity, DeepFakes, Cheapfakes, VFX Tech, AR/VR, Human Pose and Face Analysius & Synthesis with launches in Google Search, Ads, T&S, YouTube, DayDream, Phots, JigSaw and other product areas.

Katie Protests

Brooklyn

There is plenty to protest in 2025 and it seems like 1968, the year the US revolution did not happen. Could there be a civil war in the United States? No, but it's not impossible either. The 2024 elections failed to save us from Trump 2. Will the 2026 mid-terms see us through ? If the Democrats take the house and the senate Trump will be impeached and removed from office, straight to the Manhattan Court House who owes him a sentence on 34 criminal convictions for falsifying business records and payments to Stormy Daniels.

James Murphy Live

Brixton

LCD Sound System

Pre-concert

Eitan, Rachel, JC and I see LCD Sound System at the Brixton Academy on a Sunday evening. I am the hero for navigating, mid-concert, a packed crowed, from bar-to-front with four times 1-liter open-containers of beer. Try it.

Afterwards we have a dinner and the only joint to serve us at the late hour is a local Jamaican restaurant, which stays open for us, serving their house specialties, to the delight of the Jamaican lady-owner.

Post-concert

Simon in Full Bloom

Simon and daughter Sophie

Simon turns 60, celebrated with a party at a Soho Italian. Over dinner I meet Sam (attorney working on criminal investigations), Fran (Cambridge PhD earned in her 50s now teaching english literature at .. Cambridge), Nick (investing public equities at Al Gore's Generation) and Andrea who is a classical  recitalist, piano, and technology banker and solar industrialist. This, mind you, at my end of the table.

Sophie, meanwhile, pursues her career as a serious gumshoe journalist when not doing stand-up work at the London comedy clubs. 

As for Simon, he invests in the climate transition and is active in climate policy and the geopolitics of energy. He chairs the Octopus Energy Climate Ventures Advisory Board and, before that, was a vc (founder, Fidelity Ventures and Generation) and the CFO of a startup from business plan to $1bn IPO. Simon's books include 'Terror Vanquished - The Italian Approach to Defeating Terrorism' and the Center for American Progress blueprint for defeating violent white nationalist extremists. He was Chair of the Foreign Policy for America in Washington D.C. and now chairs the board of the Center for Countering Digital Hate.

Gibraltar

Rock of Gibraltar; Jade and Tim 

Following Eitan's marathon and S of France, I head for Tarifa, Spain, the wind- and kite-surfing capital of the world, to swim the Gibraltar Straight with three friends from the Croatia camp plus our Red Top coach Tim. Alas, the beautiful spring sunshine during the week is matched by windy conditions over the channel putting a cork in the bottle.

Sub 3

Eitan at mile 19

Eitan runs his first marathon in Paris in April, opening the summer in style with a 2:56 effort. An Orenstein has finally broken three hours and I can go to my grave in peace.

Eitan informs that the last several miles of the race was hard-going but he persevered across the worst of it. Sonnet and I catch him at several points along the route rewarded with a small wave and a big smile. From here to here.

Sonnet and I arrive in Paris in time to meet Eitan and his wonderful friend Fleur for the pre-marathon carbo-heavy dinner and to see the David Hockney paintings at the FLV in Bois de Boulogne. We visit Guy and Jeanine in the 7e joined by Marshall and Veronique who is a trustee of the Centre Pompidou and on the acquisitions committee.

In real time, Sonnet proof reads her book on Elsa Schiaparelli that will accompany the 2026 exhibition; Eitan continues his work at Legal Aid and prepares for interviews with law firms; Madeleine works for October Films researching serial killers and other compelling subject matter.

Ping Pong

Sonnet a natural in el lay (July this year).

In 2018 Sonnet did a Fellowship at the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA). During this time she lived in Venice Beach, joined by Madeleine and Madeleine's friend Willoughby (ages, 16) who had never been out of the UK let alone the West Coast.  The two of them enjoyed un-parented days of skateboarding and surfing for an endless California summer.

Noah Davis

From NYC, Sonnet and I visit Gracie in Berkeley and drop down to Santa Monica to bop around LA including the UCLA Hammer Museum where we visit a wonderful retrospective on Noah Davis (b June 3, 1983- August 29, 2015), an influential black LA artist and co-founder of The Underground Museum to bring museum-quality art to the Black and Latinx community. 

We stay at the Prosper Hotel complete with sun-soaked rooftop pool and bikini bar. 

Manhattan 20 Bridges

The blue dot is me

I complete my second Big Swim on July 20 circumnavigating Manhattan beginning, and ending, at Pier A on the island's southern tip, next to the Staton Island Ferry, which runs every 15 minutes, forcing me to scoot from the start while keeping an eye on the boats. During the swim I'm accompanied by my cut man Ethan (an opera singer, comedian and extra on Law & Order), the observer (otherwise an exec at Goldman Sachs), the Pilot Dave and a kayaker.  It was an A-plus team and the swim never in doubt.

And what a swim. From the git go there were the icons - The Brooklyn Bridge ! The Williamsburg Bridge! The Manhattan Bridge! - within the first hour. Then the Empire State and the Chrysler building and the United Nations. Eventually things string out on the Harlem River (NB NYC resides in a tidal estuary and the East River and Harlem River are tidal and not rivers) while 15 of the 20 bridges cross here.  Finally the mighty Hudson's flow brings me home, ending beside Wall Street lit-up like a 100-story Christmas candle.

Sonnet, Kate, Brad and Deborah follow me around the island, notably at the Washington Bridge connecting NY to New Jersey where they hoot and holler from the little red light house. Then, 8 hours and 30 minutes later, Sunday Midnight/ Monday morning, it is over. Sonnet and I find a strictly saw-dust-on-the-floor and cheerful Irish pub for a Guinness and an intimate celebration.   

 

Me and the cut man at the Little Odessa boardwalk, pre swim

Barney In Full Spring

Barney is a California native who I recently connected with in London while he toured Europe with his wife and family. 

I met Barney in Maida Value,  W9, the neighbourhood of our second flat, in 1999. Barney had completed his B.S. at Stanford (Symbolic Systems) and Ph.D. at Cambridge in computer science and AI. 

And what does one do with such credentials ?  Work at NASA, of course, where he was the Software Architect on the Remote Agent, the first s/w agent to fly onboard a deep space probe during NASA's Deep Space One Mission, and widely considered one of the top achievements in the history of AI  and awarded NASA's "software of the year" in 1999. 

From there, Barney founded PowerSet, a neural networking application, backed by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, and sold to Microsoft becoming Microsoft Bing. A fellow has to make some money in his 20s, afterall.

Barney has gone on to found and fund over 200 AI-related start-ups in SV.  We frequently see each other, and I am always refreshed by his ideas. Back in the day we agreed to form a venture firm together but that would have required my relocating to the Bay Area, which Sonnet and I were not ready to do then.