Month: April 2014

Conference in Williamsburg, Sqoop, and Big Data Connectors

Yesterday  – April 24, 2014 – I had the privilege of presenting at the Virginia Oracle User Group (VOUG) annual Oracle Conference on the James, or OCOJ for short.  The “James” is the James River right there in Williamsburg, Virginia.  I promised my audience I would publish the Power Point slides, so here they are:

Yesterday could not have been a more glorious day. The Doubletree Hotel in Williamsburg is really a conference center, with a variety of beautiful meeting rooms and great skylights and large glass walls.  The room in which I presented was unusual in that it had one door that led directly outside.  The hotel propped it open and the beautiful air flowed it, it was remarkably refreshing.  I particularly enjoyed it, given the many snow days we’ve had this past winter and even into the spring.  The air was fresh and the temperatures just perfect, what a great day.

I was definitely in with some illustrious company – other presenters throughout the day included Mary Gable, David Mann, Craig Shallahammer, Greg Mays, Scott Poteet, Bill Myers, and Oracle’s own Bob Bunting as well as Robert Freeman.  The legendary Tom Kyte (of Ask Tom fame) was the keynote speaker.  Brilliant talent was on display everywhere.

For more information about VOUG, visit their website here:  http://www.voug.org.

Here’s a copy of the full conference agenda:  VOUG OCOJ Conference Agenda.

Thanks to one of my great audience members who took the photo.  And a huge thanks to Linda Hoover for making the entire event possible – thank you Linda!

Margriet Sjoerdsma: Tribute to Eva Cassidy featuring Dan Cassidy

Eva Cassidy fans, listen up – there’s something interesting going on in The Netherlands, it’s an Eva Cassidy tribute CD and tour by Dutch vocalist Margriet Sjoerdsma.  And there’s an important twist with the live tour:  it features brilliant violinist Dan Cassidy, Eva’s brother.  Check it out here:

I just learned of this tour this morning.  If you happen to be in Rotterdam tonight, you can check out their live performance at the Lantaren/Venster theater.

Or tomorrow night at the Junushoff.

Margriet’s official website lists upcoming shows here.

Here’s some more video, this was taken during the making of the CD:

Dutch news site Muziek Theater Paradijs published an article on April 15 about the tour:
* Here is the original Dutch version of the article
* Here is the same article translated into English using Google Translate.

Margriet does a great job and the stamp of approval from Dan Cassidy, a brilliantly talented musician in his own right, is a strong endorsement.  Some of you may recall that Dan Cassidy performed in the past with the legendary Eva, Larry Melton, Todd Bauchspies, and others.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted something here at Skere9, but it’s not for lack of material, it’s just really busy here!

Best wishes to you all for a meaningful Good Friday.

Beware the seating chart at the Strathmore in Rockville, MD

This is a bit of an unusual blog post for me.  I generally use this space to highlight brilliant talent and showcase creative genius.

But I’m going to use this forum warn any potential visitors about the online seating chart for The Music Center at the Strathmore, which is located in Rockville, MD.  The venue is generally great and if you have an unobstructed view, you’ll be fine.  However, a few seats have partial visual obstructions, and these are not indicated on the online seating chart.  So depending on where you sit, if you’re not careful, your vision of the show may be blocked rather significantly.

I learned this fact the hard way this past December, when I attended a performance of the Three Irish Tenors.  Four of us attended, and we purchasd the tickets in two separate blocks.  One of the seats was Box 23, Seat 1.