Middle-earth Cookbook Author at Borders!

Hi Everyone,
Check out this event!
Cookbook author Emerald Took will be sharing some summer recipes from the only cookbook cool enough for Hobbit and Elves alike: Regional Cooking From Middle-earth: Recipes of The Third Age at Borders Books East Side (East Liberty neighborhood) of Pittsburgh, PA on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 from 6:30to 8:30pm. There will be a sample of something with chocolate...I am soooo there! Copies of her cookbook will be available for purchase, and signed of course. How many people can sign their books in Elvish?! This rocks!

There will even be a FREE BOOK for every guest given out during the event! It's for active types or those who enjoy adventure...shhh...it's a secret!

We hope to see you there. Just follow the smell of chocolate...
Peace,
Falcon and Dove

Goodbye, Kia-Safe Journey, Randy

Hello World Family,
Falcon here. This is probably the toughest post I have ever written. I must say goodbye to two very special people who left our world this week, and I wanted to tell you a little about them.

One, I have never met; the other, Dove and I had the pleasure of meeting. One was taken by an unspeakable act of violence; the other by an unspeakable cancer. One was my age, a college professor, husband, father of young children; the other was just beginning her adult life, a Salvation Army volunteer, and a mother. Both were special not because of how they died, but because of how they lived. The fact that their spirit has left us to go to a better place is our loss, not theirs.

Kia was a mommy. She was about to have a son on July 30th. She was murdered for that child: tied up, cut across her abdomen, and suffocated. She was only 18 years old. She was happy, helpful, generous of nature, and compassionate by every description I have seen about her. She was murdered by a woman (probably with some help, charges pending) who wanted a baby very badly...for years. She had been in jail before for cutting one woman and trying to steal her baby, and another time attempting to steal a baby from a hospital years ago. The dysfunctional environment that surrounded that woman's situation that brought her no real, permanent help but only enabled her obvious mental illness contributed to this horrible event. Kia was going to help many people every day with her smile and kindness. Falcon prays that in her loss, more will follow her lead: be kind to others, and help when and where you can.

Kia won't get to raise her son. It is the saddest of outcomes that his mother did not survive this vicious attack. I hope that his family never forgets to tell him every day how kind she was, and how she volunteered in her community. She will be watching him from Heaven, that I am sure.
Love never dies.

Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Many of you have watched his "last lecture' video on You Tube, or read his book, "The Last Lecture." Randy created the Alice computer program designed to help kids with their computer skills. He gave away the software to Home School students like my daughter, Dove. I lectured occasionally at CMU, so I saw Randy now and then, and I saw the impact he was having on youngsters who needed more concrete, advanced computer skills, and his students at CMU.

Never did I imagine how many people's lives he would touch with his lecture. The very technology he celebrated helped to include millions of people on his journey to honor his own life, even during the sunset of his life.

Randy was fun, and he was also poignant. He found a way to channel the horror of his illness into extremely constructive areas, like celebrating what is good about living.

So today, in mourning the loss of these two special spirits, let's also remember how lucky we are to have the lives we have. There is still time...for us. Let's respect life more, let's find a way to include more genuine joy in our lives. That comes from living well...in thought, word, and deed.

Live well.
Falcon and Dove

TFATD: Harry Potter 7 Anniversary Party - Women Authors and Conservation

The Falcon and the Dove is BACK this week to celebrate the one year anniversary of the release of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows', as well as the 10-year anniversary of the release of the first book in the United States! We held this workshop at the Eastside Borders in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where, as most of you know, is where we held the Midnight release party for the seventh book one full year ago. That party attracted over 600 people as we brought in the Midnight hour on the night of July 20th, 2007!

On July 19th of THIS year, we held this anniversary workshop, and also discussed the lives and conservation efforts of J.K. Rowling, Rachel Carson, and Beatrix Potter. The efforts of these women authors changed (and are still changing) the lives of many for the better, at the same time as improving our planet. All three of these women encountered large amounts of adversity, for their ideas, their gender, their classes, and their dreams. All of them overcame, and this workshop was a celebration of them. We hope you enjoy!

- Overview of disussion.

- We and our audience discuss our feelings on the 10-year anniversary of Harry Potter, our favorite characters, and our favorite passages.

- We cover the impact that these women's works have made on us individually and the world population as a whole.

- We highlight Beatrix Potter and discuss her life and achievements.

- We talk about Rachel Carson's biography, the adversity she encountered at the time of her writing of the bestseller, 'Silent Spring', and her further accomplishments.

- We get into an in-depth discussion of society's past views of women, the ridiculous conclusions that have been made about them (some of them made by high-ranking people), and how we can change the negativity.

- We ask our audience what their favorite stories are.

- Finally, Dove (Areya) reads 3 excerpts from 3 of the Harry Potter books: 'Sorcerer's Stone', 'Goblet of Fire', and 'Deathly Hallows'. We discuss each passage in-depth following each reading.

- During these discussions, we touch on another fantasy tale, 'The Neverending Story', and its similarities to 'Harry Potter'.

- We say farewell, leaving our audience and ourselves exhilarated and hopeful for the future, of literature, and of our environment.

Listen to the Show Here!

Download the Show Here! (Right-click, Save Target As) (Length: 1 hour, 25 minutes; Size: 10 MB)

Batman, Spider-man, and Rocco

Hello Everyone!
If you are trying to see Batman: The Dark Knight this weekend...buy your tickets IN ADVANCE! Do not go to the theater hoping to get in half an hour before the movie starts. You won't. If you are going to IMAX, you MUST go on line first and get your tickets, or you could be very disappointed. I saw many faces today turned away, so buy early.

The film The Dark Knight is excellent. Heath Ledger was disturbingly magnificent. We will review this film further after opening weekend. It's a must-see...so go for it.

Talk about another amazing thing...Camilo Villegas shot a 65 at The Open in Southport at Royal Birkdale. Not only did he shoot the low round for the tournament so far, but Spidey as he is sometimes called (for his ability to get into a position that would challenge most yoga masters while sizing up a putt) made 5 birdies in a row on the back 9...8 birdies total in a round on a course where many veteran players were trying to just make the +9 cut. And once again, Rocco Mediate is in the hunt, fresh from challenging Tiger Woods on a bum leg to 91 holes of pure U.S. Open golf.

Kudos to all. It should be a very exciting weekend whether your watching players hit knock down shots in horizontal winds at Birkdale or watching Health, Christian, Maggie, Morgan, and Aaron with Michael Caine running around Chicago...er...um.Gotham.

For those of you in the Pittsburgh area, why not join us for the 10th Anniversary of the release of the Harry Potter books at Borders East Side. the event is from 1-3pm on Saturday, July 19. It should be loads of fun: books, authors, trivia, spelling, games, and probably chocolate frogs!
See you there!
Peace,
Falcon and Dove

Harry Potter 7 Anniversary Party at Pittsburgh's Eastside Borders!

Can you believe that it has been almost one year since the 7th and final Harry Potter book hit U.S. and U.K. shelves? We were there 3 hours before the Witching Hour when we held our LIVE Podcast for the seventh book's release, and had over 600 people in attendance at Pittsburgh's Eastside Borders!

This coming Saturday, July 19th, from 1pm to 3pm, The Falcon and the Dove will be at the Eastside Borders again for a reunion party! As well as celebrating all of the Harry Potter years that have gone by, we will also be having a panel discussion of Women Authors and Conservation, featuring J.K. Rowling, Rachel Carson (author of Silent Spring), and Beatrix Potter (Peter Rabbit tales).

We will be reading excerpts from the authors' books, as well as discussing their histories and each of their roles they have played in the conservation of this planet. It will be a fantastic reunion and a learning experience for people of all ages, whether you know and love these authors dearly, or are just picking up their books for the first time!

We are very excited about this party, and we hope to see you there!!!

Sustainability Workshop #2 at Pittsburgh's Eastside Borders

Hello, Dove here! This week, Falcon and myself will be conducting the second in a series of Sustainability Workshops by The Sierra Club this Wednesday, July 16th, from 6:30pm to 8:30pm.

This week for the series, our workshop is called 'Who Says It's Too Late to Plant? Plants You Can Start to Grow Now for Sept. and Oct. Harvest!'

If you are in the Pittsburgh/East Liberty area this Wednesday, please join us at the 2-floor Eastside Borders Bookstore, in the same plaza as the FedEx Kinko's, and the same street as Whole Foods!

We are working towards an energy-efficient and sustainable world where the environment and human beings can coexist peacefully, and that is what these workshops are all about. It is our duty as individuals to do everything we can to make that happen. Thank you so much, and good luck!

iPhone 3G-a scramble to get, great to hold

Hello World Family,
Falcon and Dove decided that there was nothing else to do with a beautiful Friday morning but go stand in line waiting for the new iPhone 3G. Why not? It could be fun.

You meet lots of great people when you stand in line at 4 places to get an iPhone. It's like standing in line to see a popular rock band. You know if you ever see these people again anywhere, they will great you and you will great them like long lost family. It's just that way when you spend 7 hours together in line.

The AT&T stores that we visited in the Greater Pittsburgh Area ran out of phones early, but treated everyone with style, including cool bottles of water while waiting. At the big Apple store in the Shadyside section of the city, there was laughter, free Smart Water, and good conversation. Plenty of iPhones for everyone; it's just the waiting that was the hardest part. (Tom Petty reference completely intentional).

The iPhone 3G is awesome, especially for someone like Falcon whose cell phone was actually being considered for display as an antiquity. It was war-torn and beaten up, but worked everywhere...even in places others feared to try: tunnels, underground, and out in the middle of the Atlantic. The iPhone 3G has lots of applications for free downloads and Falcon and Dove have lots of icons on our Home Page now as a result. We can read newspapers, check stocks, get our horoscopes, and even turn our phone into a light saber, complete with sound effects...you choose the color of your saber. Check the weather anywhere in the world, book flights and vacations on the Travelocity application, and watch videos on YouTube. The sound is great now and it takes no time at all to download. Facebook and MySpace are a breeze, and Kyte will help you with your photos and videos to the Web. Oh yeah, and there's an iPod, too...almost forgot.

Falcon and Dove give this new iPhone 3G two claws up. Yes, the 2 year contract will put your costs on the back end, not the front like the old iPhone, but this one works better. It really frees up people to get away from their PC or laptop, and get outside and improve your quality of life. You still can't jog with a laptop, but you can with an iPhone 3G. This is portable computer access in your hand, and you can really leave your laptop at home (after downloading some important applications).

I think of this device as an investment. It is not bling. This is not a pair of shoes, a great handbag, or a fancy watch. It is a device that can give you access to the things you need the most, give physicians your records at the press of a button, give emergency information to personnel in case you cannot, and keep you moving. The price point is much more attractive than in the past, making this iPhone more accessible to more people around the world.

Bravo, Apple! Well done.
Peace,
Falcon and Dove

Hancock owns the world on July 4 weekend

Hello everyone!
We hope you had a wonderful holiday week. Many of you around the world have holidays during the first couple of weeks in July, so we hope wherever you are, that you are enjoying your special days.

Apparently, many of you around the world went to see Hancock, with Will Smith and Charlize Theron. Falcon and Dove liked it a lot: laughed, was impressed with the special effects and would give it 3 stars. It made a boatload of money: 186.7 million dollars since last Wednesday worldwide.

It did get poorly edited in plot detail in the last 40 minutes of the film... advice to director: just let the product run over 2 and a half hours. If it's important to the plot, keep it. Will Smith is pure money when opening in July, so have no fear. I got it (the backstory)...but a lot of people would have liked the background on these characters, and some of the period history could have been depicted in the film. That would have been particularly nice considering that the last time Will and Charlize were together was in beautiful Savannah in "The Legend of Bagger Vance".

Hellboy II is coming out this weekend, and should completely rock! The commercial spots have been hysterical: from public service featuring a long haired cat to American Gladiators and "In the Actor's Studio" interview.

We will be featuring some additional summer reviews shortly, so stay tuned...
Be safe, World Family,
Falcon and Dove