Spain

I was recently in Spain to teach at the Strategic Leadership Consultation in Malaga. Malaga is a city of about 560,000 people and a beautiful place. 

 

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Great Cities of the World

Pittsburgh

I have never been to Pittsburgh before…well maybe I drove by on it the highway some decades ago but I have never stopped over in this city. Before coming here I had some vague impressions of some dirty, dusty, smoke belching industrial city spewing out pollutants into the river.
I was pleasantly surprised. Pittsburgh has got some old time class. Once a city of 800,000 with a booming steel business Pittsburgh was probably very dirty city and the river was probably quite polluted since it was one of those cities in the infamous rust belt. Pittsburgh lost it leadership as being one of the key cities in the world to produce steel. Most of the steel factories went to Japan and Pittsburgh suffered and went from 800,000 to less than 350,000.
Today Pittsburgh seems to be moving up once again but not with steel.  Pittsburgh is growing because of robotics and healthcare.

Nevertheless much of the housing still reflects the old architecture and has a beautiful old brownstone feel. There are about 90 neighborhoods in this city. The south side of Pittsburgh is one of the more classy old sides of the city with lots of ethnic restaurants and music.

Pittsburgh even has its own English dialect called Pittsburghese. In Pittsburghese, for example, "the car needs washed" instead of "needs to be washed", "needs washing", or "needs a wash". The dialect has some tonal similarities to other nearby regional dialects (e.g., Erie, Baltimore), but is noted for its somewhat staccato rhythms. The staccato qualities of the Pittsburgh dialect have been suggested to originate either from Welsh or from Eastern European immigrants. It has so many local peculiarities that the New York Times described Pittsburgh as, "the Galapagos Islands of American dialect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh
One of the cool things in Pittsburgh is the Duquesne Incline that goes up Mt. Washington and was completed in 1877 by Samuel Duquesne. It is inclined at a 30 degree angle and climbs 800 feet long. It used to be steamed power but is now electric and was originally designed to carry cargo but now transports people. The other incline in the city is called the Monongahela Incline.

Here is a video of the incline going up at night. 

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YWAM is hoping to work out of this monastery which is right on the south side of the city.

Life story of my Father - Rev. Charles Svoboda

The Pacific Garden Mission has produced the life story of my father – Rev. Charles Svoboda on their Unshackled Radio program. My brother John Boda has put some video clips along with it. It traces the life of my father from his early days in Cicero as he washed cars for the Al Capone gang, his high school days, war years and then into his call into the ministry. My father planted churches around the Chicago land area and then started a unique ministry that goes on till this day as an arbitrator for divided churches. The video can be found here.

Why am I Dreaming of a White Christmas?

Must be the music since most of my last 28 Christmases have been in warm weather. I am actually dreaming of a India Christmas where there is less commercialism and lots of church programs, Christmas caroling that goes on till 4am in the morning waking people up in the middle of their restful sleeps and many good Christmas sermons. Anyway here is the Jeffrey Chin Quartet that played the other day at the Cadillac hotel in Uptown Tenderloin my home. I love hanging out at the Cadillac when there is good music and the Jeffrey Chin Quartet was just that.

Dirt Bag Challenge San Francisco Bay View Hunters Point

The Dirtbag Challenge is an annual event that was held this year on November 14th in Bay View Hunters Point on Quesada street near the Bay. Must of been about 1000 people in attendance with bikers from all backgrounds. The East Bay Rats (motorbikers club) and a host of others. Elias a motorbike Stunt man was there. Check out this video with him popping some wheelies....

To enter your bike in the dirtbag challenge you submit $ 20 bucks and then you have one month to build your bike. No harleys are allowed and you have to build your bike for under $ 1000. 

Here are some photos from the show....

Bikers that came to the show. 

Some nut pulling a burning tire

Street skier....

Blue Angels

The Blue angels were here for the fleet week in San Francisco October 9th, 2010. Heres a few videos of their flights over the San Francisco Bay. The precision and power was stunning. They put on a great show and the crowds loved it. According to the blue angels website http://www.blueangels.navy.mil/index.htm they performed for 8 million people last year and to date have performed for 463 million people.