Category: New York

what I have been up to

Luis Villa2 Comments

Lots of people I saw in Boston were asking ‘what have you been up to’ instead of the usual ‘sounds like things are good from your blog’ :) I guess I’ve been a little quiet here about me, personally. So some updates:

  • School is generally good; the first two years ended up being very successful (low honors first year; high honors last year.) This year I planned to throttle back to have more time for outside projects, so I am taking fewer credits than ever. Unfortunately, I seem to have chosen those credits poorly so I am doing more work than ever. Hence, not much time for outside projects :/
  • Will spend the summer studying for the bar; location TBD (since Columbia throws me out of housing a few days after graduation.) Yes, the bar is hard. Not that hard- Columbia alums pass the California bar at a 90+% rate. But obviously no one wants to be in that 6-8% so of course everyone studies like crazy. That will be me.
  • Have accepted a job at Orrick Herrington Sutcliffe starting early fall ’09 in their Silicon Valley office. I look forward to it- excellent firm, excellent people, probably will not implode in the next year. :) Current plan is to work about 50-50 on startups and technology licensing, but obviously the economy may dictate a different balance. Silver lining of the economy may be more time for pro bono projects, of which I obviously have a long list I’d like to work on.
  • Am not getting married at GUADEC. ;) Probably a low-key family-only affair followed by big, fun parties in Miami and Boston (or New York?)
  • Krissa and I are trying to enjoy NY as much as possible before leaving, which includes lots of live performances (Jazz at Lincoln Center, ‘In The Heights’, Deblois, Nutcracker), lots of eating (Caracas Arepas, dinner at a not-so-expensive place with Steve Martin and a guy who looked a lot like Paul Simon at the next table), and lots of family visits and East Coast travel (I’m in week two of a six week stretch with family or travel every weekend- all four-plus parents, Summit, and a lecture at Duke.)
  • Krissa is good- loving her job still; enjoying NY; looking forward to going home to California. Currently in Turkey biking with her mom, else she’d have been in Boston and in Durham next weekend.

So yeah, life is good. Crazy, but good. Not sure I’d have it any other way.

Apologies to everyone who I said I’d see this morning at Summit; unfortunately I had to change my train to a pretty early train and overslept, so pretty much ran from hotel to train. Next year…

spring ’08 new york diary

Luis Villa5 Comments

For a whole variety of reasons (birthdays, my brother’s extended visit, decision to leave NY post-graduation) Krissa and I have been making a serious effort to enjoy New York over the past few months. I’ll take the liberty of treating the blog as a personal diary (sorry casual readers), and put here a list of some things we’ve done since December ’07:

  • theater: we saw a puppet show about a Norwegian Jew who died in the holocaust. I’ve been curious about professional, ‘adult’ puppetry since the use of puppets in Being John Malkovich, and when I saw this show reviewed, I knew I needed to see it. Well worth it- really interesting use of the form. We also saw Patrick Stewart as Macbeth; really incredible despite our not-so-great seats.
  • flamenco (x2!): for my birthday, I was given tickets to two different shows in the New York Flamenco Festival. Really incredible shows both- Eva Yerbabuena had tremendous technique and presence; and Son de La Frontera was uniquely interesting.
  • jazz: I was unfortunately sick, so I couldn’t enjoy it fully, but we took in a very good show by Marcus Roberts at the utterly incredible Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Also went to Smoke a couple times- lots of fun to have a good jazz club less than a ten minute walk away.
  • museums: we finally went to the interesting Transit Museum. It needs an investment to make the signage and layout more modern, but still, really interesting stuff in understanding the growth of the city. Nice to take in while attempting to tackle The Power Broker. Also went back to the MAD for their ‘Extreme Embroidery‘ exhibit- I think MAD may be my favorite, quirkiest New York Museum.
  • Brooklyn: after not going to Brooklyn pretty much since moving here, I’ve gone three times, once for a party and twice for cultural events.
  • food: we’ve eaten well. More visits to Pukk and Caracas Arepa Bar– our favorite cheap-ish places in New York. On the non-cheap side, the highlight was a meal at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, lovingly detailed by Krissa. It was her 30th birthday, and truly a joyful, wonderful meal.

And now, a picture of that last dinner, in pre-processed form:

summer internships at SFLC

Luis Villa1 Comment

Passing on an announce for other tech-interested proto-lawyers:

The Software Freedom Law Center is currently seeking legal interns to join the staff this summer.  Applicants should have a demonstrated interest in software freedom and should be conversant in legal and technical concepts related to free and open source software, but no specific prior course of study or technical proficiency is required.  First- and second-year applicants will be considered. Internships are unpaid.

To apply, please send a resume and cover letter, in a free and open format, to
SFLC’s Executive Secretary, Ian Sullivan (sullivan@softwarefreedom.org).

(HT: Aaron Williamson)

only in new york

Luis Villa3 Comments

NYPD @ Times Square, by Web Phenomenon Joi Ito, used under CC-BY

Had a drink with a friend after my patents exam today. There was a van with a loudspeaker outside.

The goal of the van and loudspeaker were to remind everyone that a murder had taken place there the weekend before, and that if they had any tips, they should call the police.

I almost want to give the cops credit for this method of detective work, except for the little detail that the crowd at this bar is a little different at 5pm on a Wednesday that it is at 2am on a Saturday, which is when the shooting occurred. Oops.

Notes from NYLS Amateur Hour

Luis Villa5 Comments

I’m spending today at a conference on user-generated content at New York Law School. Some notes from throughout the day. As usual, these come with the disclaimer that these are not direct quotes (unless I indicate them to be with quotes); as such you should not cite them as the words of the speaker, but rather as my paraphrase.

  • You’d think with all the conference-hopping I do, I’d have been in the same room with Clay Shirky before now. But no.
  • Surprising amount of Real Lawyers here, as well as what looks like about 1/2 of the NYLS student body. They make me feel slightly underdressed.
  • The head of the UK’s IP office called yesterday to back out of his keynote; opening speaker points to this as evidence that this is a brutally live topic.

Rest will be below the fold.

Continue reading “Notes from NYLS Amateur Hour” →

still not forgotten.

Luis Villa4 Comments

Not much to add to what I said last year.

I interviewed a couple weeks ago at a firm whose lobby overlooks the hole, and had some time to ponder it. The site is still powerful emotionally, even six years later, and I think it’ll always be emotional to some extent or another- as it should be. But I’m glad to see some leaders trying to make us look to the future again, even here in NYC, where it is so tempting (and so easy) to focus on the mourning and the pain and the past.