Concert Review: Jack Johnson @ Camden Entertainment Center

( #JackJohnson, #Philadelphia, #Camden )

Main Event: Jack Johnson
Opening Act: G Love
Date: Sunday, July 11th 2010
Location: Camden, NJ (Susquehanna Bank Center)

[Opening Act]

I can’t say one thing about G Love because I completely missed his performance. My wife and I left our house at 6:00 PM for the 7:00 PM show (we live about 20 minutes from Camden). Everything was smooth until we got about 1/3 of mile to the Camden Entertainment Complex exit (5A); we were stuck there for the next 100 minutes. It took another 20 minutes to get forced into a $25 parking lot.

As you could imagine I was pretty pissed off getting into the concert, but thankfully I didn’t have to wait in line to get into the show.

[Main Event]

I have never seen the Camden Entertainment Complex (it’s called the Susquehanna bank center but this place changes names every 18 months, so screw it) so packed. The lawn area was an absolute sea of people (this show was definitely oversold). There was no room to put down blankets. This was one massive standing room only concert. In addition to the crowds, the PA for the lawn area was underpowered. You could hear the music, but not well (you don’t normally read me complaining a concert was too low).

Overall, Johnson sounded really good (like he always does). He put on an earnest yet laid back show. G Love came out to jam on a few songs (I was glad I got to see him play). Jack’s band was very good tonight; especially his multi-instrumentalist (mainly keyboard instruments). I don’t know the guy’s name, but he made slower songs like “Banana Pancakes” pop.

To be honest, we cut out at 11 PM because we were terrified of getting stuck for another two hours in Camden and it was so tight on the lawn that you couldn’t scratch your eye without elbowing somebody in the back. While I am a little annoyed at the concert conditions, Johnson is donating all profits from the tour to charity, so I felt good about my money going to good causes.

I keep saying it, but I really do think I am done with the big concert venue shows and any kind of open seating situation: they are expensive, the sound is usually not great, and there are ALWAYS a small group (or pockets) of people that ruin the show for everyone else.

Here’s hoping Johnson does a winter tour in small venues!

The Downfall of the Current Education System

Are you a parent of a teenager wondering exactly how you are going to help your child pay for college tuition? Are you a student wondering why you don’t feel satisfied with the career options you have going into college? Do you get the general feeling that something isn’t right with the whole system? If you feel that way, you aren’t wrong and you aren’t alone.

[The System has Failed Us]

When I first started to write this post, I was initially taking the “road to hell is paved with good intentions” approach to how the education system became such a mess, but after reading a book called Linchpin by Seth Godin, I modified my perception. The American education system (top to bottom) was designed to create followers (sheep). We give up our creativity with this unspoken expectation/promise that if we follow the rules, big brother will take care of us. School is design to make children good at following directions and spitting back output. This is the factory assembly line mentality to education. Big business barons (say that three times fast) back in the early 19th century realized the best way to mollify cranky workers is to give them just a bit of education to make the compliant. THAT IS MODEL THAT THE MODERN AMERICAN EDUCATION SYSTEM EVOLVED FROM.

After America won WWII and committed to educating our soldiers, American colleges started to modify their business model and focus on the masses. Suddenly college education which was reserved for the elite, was in the grasp of anyone who wanted it. The GI bill made education affordable (almost free) to thousands of boys in the 1940’s. That generation started the expectation that everyone should go to college to get ahead.

50 years of the Government subsidizing education through state schools, community colleges (which in it’s current form was an invention of the Nixon administration), and private subsidization through Pell grants ended this decade with the implosion of the economy. Instead of giving students a free ride (or at least a discount), Uncle Sam helped them secure cheap loans at 1-3% interest…”free money”. Thus was born the generation of 21 year olds with 100,000 dollars of debt.

100k of debt is okay when you are making enough money to pay it back and are able to live, but when we aren’t creating jobs for these kids paying back $100,000 loan on a waiter’s salary isn’t going to be easy. Realize that this is the moment (right now) where America’s unspoken pact with it’s students has broken. The weight of our ideals and expectations has finally collapsed and we are left wondering for the first time in 50 years if a four year undergraduate degree is worth the cost.

[Where are we today?]

Instead of making this into a long section – let me make it short and terrifying:

  1. Since 1983, the average college tuition costs has risen 494% AFTER INFLATION (credit: DIY U by Anya Kamenetz)
  2. Due to middle and lower class America perusing higher education since the 1950’s, colleges have been marketing and calibrating themselves to serve the masses. The undergraduate degree has become the educational equivalent of a McDonald combo meal (just keep bringing them in and turning them out).
  3. Since the Princeton Review started publishing it’s college rankings in 1981, colleges have been trying to improve their position. They improve their rankings by rejecting more students. They reject more students by marketing to more students (and needing a marketing department)
  4. The old American schools like Princeton, Harvard, and Yale built their reputation because they were around the longest and amassed the greatest collections of knowledge (aka their libraries), ask yourself if that is relevant anymore with the availability of instant information via the internet
  5. Colleges justify their tuition increases by stating that students and parents want brand new gyms, fancy dorm apartments, “free” laptops and ipods. They also need marketing departments and alumni relations to keep the college’s name out in the public’s conscious. Ask yourself if a brand new rock climbing wall and dorm suites worth $40,000 for 9 months?
  6. While private colleges increase their services and tuition, state schools are forced to do more with less as state funding gets reduced or eliminated. Students looking to go to state schools have much more competition as everyone wants to get in on the bargain prices
  7. At the same time colleges are increasing their tuition, they are reducing the amount of tenured staff (from 66% in 1980’s to about 33% today). Most adjunct professors are hired. Those professors, even with a full course load only make about $10,000.00 per year teaching at some of the best schools in the world. Most of those adjuncts usually teach at community colleges when they get free spaces in their schedules – which they say usually pays more at the same as the “good schools”

[Where do we go from here?]

Now that I have ruined your children’s dreams, what do we do? We need to stop looking down on community college and 2 year degrees. Who decided that we need a four year degree (or a master’s degree) to be proficient on a subject? What happened to master/apprentice relationships in business instead of just trade?

A new generation of DIY’ers and free thinkers are taking things into their own hands. More concerned with the actual skill instead of the accreditation, learners are seeking out experts to teach them their trade. As I mentioned before, college professors aren’t making a living at the schools so they are offering private courses. These courses are cheaper than the college class and more tuned to the individual student (and not broken out into three or four courses). This is a win-win situation for student and teacher.

Colleges are not leveraging technology to reduce costs. There is an “open education” movement where people who want to share their knowledge are offering their skill for free. We are seeing this in blogs, wikipedia (and other wikis), message boards, online text books, and even in the colleges themselves. Many institutions including M.I.T. and Harvard offer free online classes to whoever wants to take them (not for credits). Why aren’t colleges taking advantage of the free materials available online to reduce their overhead and the cost to students? Why aren’t colleges banding together to share resources to reduce costs?

As people learn for themselves, colleges like Western Governor’s University offer fully accredited degrees that let you test out of the classes you already know, making your education cheaper and allowing you to focus on the things you need to learn (in the interest of full-disclosure, after months of research I will be attending WGU for my MBA starting next month). Unlike online degree-mills, WGU is non-profit, charges in 6-month increments, and lets you take as many classes as you can in those 6 months. Google and Bill Gates have invested heavily in the school citing it as a model that works for the future of education. WGU is just one example of many non-traditional schools emerging to make education affordable but still challenging (I’ll keep you updated).

[Conclusion…For Now]

Just because our parents did it and “that’s the way it’s always been done” doesn’t make it the best way to do something. We need to open our minds to the possibilities that technology is creating. The educational model is broken on the grade school, high school, and undergraduate levels; unless students and the employers of the world take a stand and accept change, we are all going to be in a shit-load more debt with nothing to show for it.

[Resources]

  1. Career Key: Helps you determine what career you are best suited for.
  2. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Outlook Handbook
  3. YoutubeEDU: Hundreds of free online lectures
  4. Open Yale Course: Dozens of Free Classes provided by Yale Professors

[Credits]
This post relied heavily on source material from the books:
DIY U by Anya Kamentz
Linchpin by Seth Godin
I highly recommend these books

Chicago 2.0: Hotel Review (Hotel Palomar)

I would be doing you a disservice if I didn’t finish up my Chicago summary with a review of our hotel.

The Hotel Palomar: Chicago
Website: HotelPalomar-Chicago.com
Location: 505 North State Street

This recently completed hotel is planted in a perfect location. Right next to the red line giving you easy access to everything (and not having to carry luggage for several blocks after a flight), the hotel is perfectly positioned for people who want to experience the what the city has to offer and want to be tucked a few blocks away from the “Mag Mile” tourism.

Unlike other Palomar/Kimpton Hotels we have stayed out, this room was not the typical shoe-box space (big enough for a bed and a tv and nothing else). We had enough room for a real desk and an extra lounge chair. It was the perfect size. The hotel’s amenities included an indoor pool, a decent gym, outdoor lounge, and a nightly wine tasting.

This hotel enhanced our stay in Chicago, the staff was friendly, and the location was perfect. I highly recommend it.

Chicago 2.0: Day 3

After an even later start than the previous day (thanks to a very late night enjoying Second City), we didn’t get moving until Noon. We did register for our flights and get a work out in, but the morning defiantly moved slow. Since it was already lunch time, we decided to skip breakfast and an insane idea popped into our heads…

[Food Hattrick]

Allison and I could not decide if we should go to Big Al’s Italian Beef or Portillo’s Hog Dogs. I came up with a solution, get both…

Portillos
Location: 100 West Ontario Street
Website:

Chicago 2.0: Day 2

Our second day in Chicago started slowly. We took our time getting up, then I hit the hotel gym. By the time we were ready to get breakfast, it was 10:30 AM. We planned on eating at the hotel, but they stopped serving at 10 AM. The hostess suggested a place a few blocks away and off we went…

[Eggsperience Cafe]

Location: 35 W. Ontario
Website: EggsperienceCafe.com

About 5 blocks from our hotel, Eggspereince Cafe was a great way to start our morning. Even though it was light and open, Eggsperience was packed with people. Since I knew I was going to be eating terrible the rest of the day, I decided oatmeal and egg whites were in order. Even with the less-than-exciting ingredients, my meal was delicious. Allison’s vegetable crapes were too much for her to handle. Our service was extremely quick and we were in and out in 30 minutes.

[Tickets Again]

After our breakfast, we walked over to the tourism office to see if they had tickets for Second City again. They didn’t. They girl gave us a phone number to call and Allison managed to snag tickets to the 11 PM show (I was going to have so much fun trying to stay up). We headed back to the hotel area and I run into a used book store to get something to read on the flight home.

After buy a few books, we freshened up at the hotel and headed back to the “Red Line” to take us to Wrigley Field.

[Cubs vs. Pirates]

Like our last trip, Wrigley Field is always an interesting experience. IT WAS PACKED. PACKED doesn’t do it justice. After navigating our way through the sea of people, we managed to get to our seats, and I was pleased with our location: right behind home plate. The people around us were great, the weather was awesome. We decided to leave a little early to enjoy the weather/city and the Cubs were in the lead.

I checked the score later and they lost 10-7. Busted.

[Weber Grill]

Location: 539 N. State St.
Website: Weber’s Grill

After walking around the city and enjoying a wine reception at our hotel, we headed over to the Weber Grill for dinner. Since the weather was mild (and they had outdoor heaters) my wife requested outdoor seating. While the weather was nice, the seats were TERRIBLE. They really impacted my enjoyment of the meal.

Seating aside, the food was very good. It wasn’t mind blowing. I don’t know if red meat at a restaurant will ever blow my mind since my old man is the king of steak. My brisket was cooked well, but I think it should have been taken off the grill a little sooner (and that would make sense since it took a long time for the main course to come out).

Overall, it was a good experience, not great.

[Second City]

Location: 1616 N Wells St.
Website: SecondCity.com
Show: The Taming of the Flu

After a “itis”-induced rest thanks to Webers, we headed over to Wells Street. Second City is one of the few places there isn’t easy public transportation to, but a $7 dollar cab right isn’t going to break the bank. Earlier in the day, the teller recommended getting there early since our general admission tickets could put us anywhere. We arrived at 10:20 PM and ended up getting great seats a few rows back from the stage.

The show was very much in the same template as the Stud Turkel show we saw last May. I was pleased to recognize some of the same cast as well. The show was funny, took shots at the city of Chicago, the nation, the state of the economy, education and whatever else they came up with.

The cast seemed to be having a lot of fun as they “broke character” a few times and actually laughed during the skits. I always like when that happens on SNL. My wife hoped there were more interactive parts like the Turkel Show, but I can see how that’s a gamble if you pick a lame duck in the audience. I had a great time and managed to stay awake during the show.

We got back to the hotel around 1:30 AM and I was exhausted. I am curious what tomorrow (actually today) brings since we don’t have tickets, plans, or an agenda. Free form vacation day in Chicago, tune in tomorrow to find out what happens.

Click on the link to read: Day 3

Chicago 2.0: Day 1

“It is hopeless for the occasional visitor to try to keep up with Chicago-she outgrows his prophecies faster than he can make them. She is always a novelty; for she is never the Chicago you saw when you passed through the last time.”
~ Mark Twain “Life On The Mississippi,” 1883

People asked me “why go back to Chicago? You were there last September!” I think Mark Twain’s quote sums my thoughts up about that matter quite well. It also helps that my wife and I scored awesome flight and hotel deals, we couldn’t say no. I went into this trip less planned and organized than the last. We saw all of the typical things you might want to see in the city last time, to me this trip was more about relaxing and seeing what the city offers.

We arrived in Chicago around 10 AM local time. No real issues on the flight, but Southwest was BUSY in Philadelphia. This was the first time we had a line going outside to check in luggage (make note of that if you are traveling out Philadelphia using Southwest). We easily found our way to the city’s public transportation in the airport and off we went. Our hotel is basically located right at the subway exit which was great, since I didn’t have to carry our luggage several blocks like last time.

We were able to immediately check into the hotel (we didn’t ask, they offered). So far, our hotel has been great (I will do a full review at the end of the vacation). After freshening up and answering some work emails (I know I am a sucker), we went to lunch. I spotted a Thai restaurant that we both wanted to try.

[Star of Siam]

Name: Star of Siam
Location: 11 E. Illinois St.
Website: StarofSiamChiago.com

We didn’t read about this place before, we just saw it and walked in – and I was glad we did. The food was very good. I will always rate Thai cuisine based on Somsak (Voorhees, NJ) and I thought Star of Siam was very close in quality, but the food was different, more Chinese in sauces, but the combination of ingredients was very Thai.

The service was excellent, the decor was open and inviting. Great experience.

[River Tour: Chicago’s First Lady Architecture Tour]
Location: 112 E. Wacker Street
Website: CruiseChicago.com

After lunch we walked over to the tourist center to see if there were any tickets for shows during our stay. Slim pickings for the weekend as we were told weekend tickets get released on Friday morning. I saw a adaption of a