Ocean Plastic Is Turning Our Seas Into A Synthetic Soup

It was the morning after the storm the night before. As I stood on what the evening before had been a pristine picture-perfect beach, I could hardly believe my eyes. The beach was covered in debris – as if someone had emptied a garbage can and scattered the contents over the sand. There was plastic wherever I looked. Plastic cups, plastic toys, sections of plastic rope and tangled up in the seaweed which had also come ashore, more plastic bags than I could count. Slabs of polystyrene, plastic bottles and even a container large enough to be the proverbial kitchen sink. I was reminded of the quote by Sir Richard Attenborough, “There is no away – because plastic is so permanent and so indestructible. When you cast it into the ocean, there is no away.” 

Sky News in the United Kingdom has launched an Ocean Rescue campaign with a 45-minute film released on 25 January called “A Plastic Tide” that puts the ocean plastic problem into perspective.

“The ocean where life on Earth began is being turned into a synthetic soup,” the narration begins by Sky News science correspondent Thomas Moore, as he embarks on a journey to explore the immense problem of plastic pollution. He begins in Mumbai, India, where a city beach once used for swimming and playing is now completely covered in plastic garbage. Surprisingly, it’s not from direct littering, but from the ocean tide; every day brings a fresh layer of garbage, which could come from anywhere on the planet. No beach or shoreline is unaffected by this pollution. Due to the ocean currents and waterways that flow into those oceans, plastic waste that’s tossed in Australia or Japan could just as easily end up in Scotland or Nova Scotia.

Read more about ocean plastic and what we can do about it in my guest blog for TIPA.

Roger McNamee Free Super Bowl Tailgate Party Show At Sweetwater Music Hall 5 Feb. 2017

Roger McNamee, founder of San Francisco jam band Moonalice and acoustic duo and band Doobie Decibel System, will be performing at Sweetwater Music Hall on 5 February in a "Super Bowl Tailgate Party." For fans on the "Couch Tour," the show will be broadcast live, starting at 12.30pm PT, in HD, on the Moonalice website as well as to Moonalice's more than 420,000 fans on Facebook.

"My solo concert at Sweetwater Music Hall will begin at 12.30pm PT. Jason Crosby will join me for a Doobie Decibel System duo reunion, too," said Roger. The show is free, the food is great and I would love to share my music with you!!!"

Roger, who spent the majority of his career in the emerging tech industry and is a regular contributor to broadcasts like CNBC’s Squawk Alley, has returned to his roots as a musician. He described his inverted path to the stage in a recent interview, “Here’s how it worked. When I was in college, I was in a really awesome band called Guff.  I think we really had a real shot.  It was 1980 and we were playing really at the intersection of the Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa and punk, and it was a good time to be playing that kind of music.  We were a quartet and the guy who wrote the songs fell in love and ran away.  I had been supporting myself through all of this and I had all these student loans and then, suddenly, the notion of going off and trying the band thing without our core songwriter just seemed really risky.  So I went off and got a day job.  By a series of total miracles…it worked out really, really well!”

He elaborated, “What was weird is the fact that I was a musician turned out to be the key to it.  I got involved in the personal computer industry when it was just starting out, and the thing that was so funny was that everyone that was in that business was my age.  We all listened to the same music, we all liked the same drugs, and at the trade shows and conferences people would bring instruments and we would have jam sessions…and I knew more songs than everybody else.”

Chuckling, he continued, “So I was sitting there paying with Paul Allen from Microsoft and the head of R & D from Apple, and I got to know all these people as musicians, and if you know somebody from playing music you know them a lot deeper than from just a conversation.  I just…I was just really lucky.  I showed up in the right place at the right time.  The only place a hippie could be successful in business was the tech world.  Steve Jobs, bless his heart…famously said “Never trust someone who hasn’t taken acid.”  And that WAS the personal computer industry.  And that felt pretty normal to me, weirdly enough right? I’m not really a business person, but I did have a really lucky run in the tech world and that allowed me to get back to playing on my own, being able to play in bands. I’m blessed.”

Roger is the lead vocalist and plays bass and guitar with Moonalice, playing 90-100 shows a year since 2007. Moonalice has been a pioneer in leveraging technology to build a national audience and has one of the most engaged fan bases on social media with more than a half a million fans. The Moonalice Couch Tour™ on Moonalice.com enables fans to watch any show on a smartphone or PC without an app. Moonalice works with a group of more than 24 poster artists to produce a unique poster for every concert. In 2014, Roger and Jason Crosby (Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Susan Tedeschi Band) formed a duo, Doobie Decibel System that has since expanded to a band including Dan Lebowitz, Pete Sears and Jay Lane. A special version on the band will be performing at this year’s BottleRock Napa Festival.

Attendees at the Sweetwater Tailgate Super Bowl Tailgate Party can expect an acoustic show with a of a range of original ballads as well as covers, like this rendition of The Beatles’ “Here There And Everywhere” that he recently shared via a live Facebook broadcast – and to take home memories of a jolly good time out as well as a commemorative poster by Moonalice art director, Chris Shaw.

Doobie Decibel System Over The Moon To Be Performing At BottleRock Napa

“I’m blown away. Everything about BottleRock is just amazing,” said Roger McNamee of Doobie Decibel System, whose other band Moonalice has been repeat act since the very first BottleRock. “These guys have something unique,” added McNamee of the event promoters, Latitude 38. “It’s something that fits the Napa community. The food is amazing and I’m not a wine drinker, but if I were, I think this is probably as close to heaven as you can think.” 

A special Doobie Decibel System Band will be joining a BottleRockNapa Valley 2017 lineup presented by JaM Cellars that includes Foo Fighters, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Maroon 5 as headliners.

The event will run in Napa Valley from May 26 to 28 and will include over 80 musical act​s, including Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Modest Mouse, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, The Roots, Silversun Pickups, and dozens more will perform at the 3-Day music, wine, food, and craft brew festival. Passes go on sale on Wednesday, January 4, 2017, 10AM PST

One of the most innovative and enjoyable festivals in the U.S., BottleRock Napa Valley features an unparalleled combination of the world’s biggest bands and artists alongside the hottest up-and-coming music acts. In addition to the three renowned headliners, the 2017 festival will showcase Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Modest Mouse, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, The Roots, Silversun Pickups, Band of Horses, Fitz & The Tantrums, Dirty Heads, Live, The Naked and Famous, The Devil Makes Three, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Gavin DeGraw, St. Lucia, House of Pain, Bob Moses, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Saint Motel, The Strumbellas, AlunaGeorge, Frightened Rabbit, Andra Day,Galactic, Charles Bradley&His Extraordinaires, Mavis Staples, Ani DiFranco, Bishop Briggs, Lewis Del Mar, Highly Suspect, Judah & the Lion, Elephant Revival, WarrenG, Bad Suns,Giraffage, gnash, The Staves, The Barr Brothers, Pell, Hippo Campus,Jessica Hernandez&The Deltas, Barns Courtney, HissGolden Messenger, The California Honeydrops, The Hunna, 888, Prinze George, Con Brio, La Santa Cecilia, The Shelters, SWMRS, Run River North, James Hersey, Day Wave, DREAMERS, HIRIE, Baskery, City of the Sun, Cobi, PARTYBABY, A R I Z O N A, The Heydaze, Parade of Lights, little hurricane, Marty O'Reilly and the Old Soul Orchestra, Josh Kelley, Jessica Childress, Corey Harper, WILD, Saint Mesa, Hibbity Dibbity, The Helmets, Pacific Radio, The Redwoods Revue, Doobie Decibel System, Troubadour 77, Silverado Pickups, Tracksuit Wedding, Secure the Sun, Serf and James, Kadin Yeahmon, Alec Lee, and the Napa Youth Symphony.

Doobie Decibel System at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2016

“We are very proud of this lineup. In addition to our amazing headliners, the lineup has something for everyone,” said Dave Graham, CEO of BottleRockNapa Valley and Latitude 38 Entertainment. “It's exciting to see BottleRock develop, from the performers, to our wine and culinary programming, our layout…we make great strides each year to elevate the overall event. BottleRockers expect an amazing experience and we believe they will be very happy with all the upgrades we are planning for this year’s festival.”

In 2016, BottleRockNapa Valley welcomed more than 120,000music, food and wine fans during its fourth annual installment in historic downtown Napa. The sold-out 2016 festival featured more than 90 performers on five stages including Stevie Wonder, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Florence + The Machine, and more. BottleRock Napa Valley also features its legendary Williams-Sonoma Culinary Stage, showcasing a unique mashup of cooking demonstrations with renowned chefs, celebrities, performers, and rock stars. Details on the 2017 culinary stage will be announced at a later date.

Get ready to get your BottleRock on and enjoy this taste of Doobie Decibel System treats to come from a show at San Francisco's Union Square in 2016, A special version of the Doobie Decibel System Band will be performing at BottleRock 2017!