My dad – Dr. Stanley Feld – just started a blog called Repairing the Healthcare System.  Stan – a retired endocrinologist – has been deeply involved in trying to improve the healthcare system throughout his entire career.  He just sent out a note to a bunch of his email friends with his goal for the blog.

I have started a blog. It is called Repairing the Healthcare System. It is my view that the patient and the physician are the major stakeholders in the health care system. Without either, there would be no need for a healthcare system. None the less, the physician and the patients have little input into the dysfunctional system. You are going to hear a physician’s view of what went wrong and how to fix it.

In the coming months, I plan to describe the problems we face today, how we got there, and the solution to the problems. I will also critique some of the disinformation as well as misinformation in the media.

My hope is to promote understanding of the problems, and to activate the consumer (patient) and physicians. I would like to see them step forward and help solve the problems. We, in the United States have the best Healthcare System in the world. However, it is getting more difficult to access, navigate or afford this care.

There is a simple, innovative way, divorced from politics and vested interests, to transform this increasingly complex system into a functioning system for all of our citizens.

It will take interest, participation, demanding, and innovation by healthy members of society to preserve the ability and capacity to care for the ill. I also hope some of the ideas will stimulate innovative ideas and economic opportunities for some of the readers of this blog.

If you have friends who might be interested in reading this blog please pass it on.

If you know my dad, you know he has strong and very insightful opinions, especially about healthcare.  If you are interested in hearing a doctor’s view of both the problem and the solution, take a look at his blog.  If you have an opinion (and who doesn’t!) weigh in and join the conversation.

Today’s Paris Museum tour once again brought to you by La Vache and his new friend, Le Scary Badass Manhorse Sculpture About To Step on La Vache (Amy told me this is actually a Cesar.)

The Centre Pompidou was our quest today and it didn’t disappoint as it just moved up to the #1 position in the Feld / Batchelor Art of Paris in May competition. The experience begins with an amazing building that was the pet project of President Georges Pompidou, designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, built in 1977, and then renovated in 1999. 

My photo sucks – just go to the main page on the web site if you want to see a really beautiful picture of the Centre Pompidou.  Or – take my word for it – the building is awesome.

The exhibits were fantastic.  Ironically, the special exhibit was Los Angeles 1955 – 1985: Birth of an Artistic Capital.  Amy and I chuckled a lot on our way up that we had to go to Paris to see a bunch of LA art, but with the exception of a killer Irwin, a few Hoppers (Dennis), some Turrells, a Hockney, a couple of Ruscha’s, and a Diebenkorn, the vast majority of art was new to me. 

An hour later, we went down a few floors to see Le Mouvement Des Images.  As I wandered around, I realized part of the beauty of the exhibit was the way the museum flowed.  I’ve been in so many contemporary museums that felt like they stifled the art – Centre Pompidou definitely shows it off.  Near the end of the tour, I stumbled over a Moebius Strip which made me smile.  It’s by Max Bill and is called “Unendliche Schleife version IV (1960–1961).”

Artistically satiated but hungry, we decided to continue our quest for Mexican Food.  We’d counted four Starbucks on our way from our apartment to the Centre Pompidou and had seen a sign for “Tex Mex” across the street so we felt hopeful.  We traced our steps back to St. Germain where we found “Indiana.”

While the food was pretty good, the scene was completely bizarre.  I grew up in Dallas, so Tex Mex has a certain very specific meaning to me.  The food definitely was of the “Tex Mex” genre, but the art and posters on the walls were of Indians (Native American Indians ).  Headresses and feathers everywhere, along with a giant “Red Man Chewing Tobacco” sign.  There was even a poster that said “Cleveland” (which I presume referred to the Cleveland Indians.)  At some point Amy said “didn’t the Tex Mex people kill the Indians, introduce them to smallpox and alcohol, and drive them from their land?”  I imagine the scenery inside the restaurant was goofed up in the same way a Parisian bistro would be in Boulder, Colorado.  At least the food was good.

Mike Arrington just went to Spain and described virtually all my trips to countries where English isn’t the first language (ask me about my first non-trip to Versailles, trying to find a hotel in Paris by driving around the ring road around Paris – say – four or five times before realizing it was a circle, or getting mugged outside the Louvre.)  I hope this isn’t foreshadowing for my trip to Munich on Monday.

I love Christopher Moore’s books.  While A Dirty Job is nowhere as good as his all time best (Lamb : The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal – a book David Cowan turned me on to five years ago that resulted in me reading – in order – the other five books Moore had published up to that time), it’s still a riot.  Moore is – in three words – “one twisted fuck” – and his writing reflects his immense creativity and deeply warped sense of humor. 

Moore’s books take place in an alternate reality that is a minor sidestep from the planet we inhabit.  Most of the backdrop is earth and normal civilization, yet there are a few characters that are just a little bit off.  In A Dirty Job, you almost believe that Lily is a normal goth teenager, Charlie is a normal beta male, Minty Fresh is a normal seven foot tall black dude that wears green suits (and he prefers to be called “Mr. Fresh” thank you very much), and Audrey (who we meet late in the book) can make bizarre animated 14 inch tall “squirrel people” out of random animal parts and a few other things.  Oh – and be careful around Sophie’s dogs.

While this book ostensibly takes place in (and below) San Francisco, I was pondering the slight shift from reality as I finished this off at 2am in an apartment in the middle of Paris.  Tonight – as Amy and I went in search of Mexican food (a near impossibility in Paris – we thought we found a place – but it turned out to have vanished in the middle of the night to be replaced by an Indian restaurant, which we nonetheless thoroughly enjoyed) – I suggested that maybe the “death merchants” really did exist.  She just looked at me funny.

After listening to I’m The Decider,  I decided I wanted to go find something on the Stephen Colbert 2006 White House Correspondent’s Dinner Roast.  So – I went to del.icio.us, clicked on my Bush tag, and then clicked on the YouTube link I’d tagged.  Imagine my surprise when I saw the following:

Last week there were a series of back and forth posts between Fred Wilson, Jason Calicanas, with comments from Dave McClure and a bunch of others about whether or not YouTube was legit or if they simply stole content.

YouTube’s Copyright Tips page is extensive and does a great job of describing the rules of engagement for copyrighted material.  I have no idea when this appeared – if it’s recent then someone at YouTube appears to be paying attention to this debate.

I then wandered over to Google Video and quickly found the Google Video version of the Colbert 2006 Dinner Roast.  It’s got C-Span info and links, including a link to purchase the White House Correspondents Dinner DVD all over it, so presumably it’s legit.

Interesting.

I’m a huge Beatles fan.  I love mashups.  I love covers.  I love watching politicians get roasted.  So – how could I not love “I’m The Decider” – especially since I’m sitting in an apartment in Paris.

Paul Kendrosky’s pickup on Joey Ramone’s affection for Maria Bartiromo made my head spin around in circles this morning.  The full interview is in the Financial Times / Arts & Weekend section.

The Boulder Daily Camera (our local daily newspaper) has started aggregating the best blogs from a series of local Boulder business bloggers.  Matt Branaugh – the business editor at the Daily Camera – made this happen and is working on a bunch of other cool and progressive blog-oriented things.  There are plenty of experts talking about all the different things going on with local newspapers – I’m certainly not “an expert” in this area, but I do know that Matt is breaking plenty of new and interesting ground and I’m happy to be one of the locals that he calls on for help and advice.

Today’s stop on the Paris Express Museum Tour For Bloggers is brought to you by l’elephant.

Note the Mona Lisa in the background on the right and the dude selling water for one euro a liter on the left.  Who said the French aren’t entrepreneurial?

Amy and I spent the lunch hour +/– 1 at Musee d’Orsay.  Like the relatively new J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, I find the architecture much more interesting than the art.

Musee d’Orsay is a beautiful building – both inside and out.  The current exhibit is Cezanne and Pissarro 1865 – 1885. While Cezanne and Pissarro were undoubtably two of the key artists of the second half of the 19th century, I find their art only slightly less dull than Dutch Masters.  Of course, it’s beautiful, but there are only so many trees, streams, gardens, and people that I care to look at.

We did manage to find some startling Van Gogh’s in a room full of them.  Yum yum.

And – this being Paris and all – there were a fabulous collection of Impressionist works, especially some great ones by Monet.

Lunch at the cafe was very tasty.