Alexander Stuart

Sir Jonathan Ive is knighted by the Princess Royal. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA, courtesy of The Guardian. This photograph of British-born Sir Jonathan Ive , design genius of Apple (designer of the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad), being knighted yesterday by the Princess Royal (Princess Anne) of England, is from an article in The Guardian newspaper. Please click on this link for the article.

In honor of British-born Apple design guru, Jony Ive, being knighted by the Princess Royal (Princess Anne) of England today and becoming Sir Jonathan Ive, here is the post I wrote on July 26, 2011 about Hudson's seventh birthday treat to visit Apple and meet Sir Jony, who proved to be an exceptionally quiet, kind and humble man... Apple's headquarters with its wonderful address. Because we've moved so far away from LA and Hudson's friends in Topanga Canyon, we wanted to make sure that Hudson's seventh birthday - which happened this past weekend - was fun and extra-special this year. Given Hudson's love  of the W Hotel - and their kindness and generosity to him - we decided to take the family to the W San Francisco to celebrate (see a separate post coming soon above). Then I had a thought. Hudson also loves Apple and the astonishing technology he has grown up with and loves to explore so intelligently (he recently reformatted a Mac...

Photograph courtesy writingjunkie.net Listening to BBC Radio 1 from the UK on Sunday night, it was refreshing to hear two DJs talking about how incredibly cool Prez Obama is! Obama never seems to get much appreciation here. He is the Mos Def of politics! 

Despite today's falling stock price, I truly believe that many people - stock analysts among them - don't "get" Facebook. Facebook is in its infancy and too much is made of its "cool" factor. At almost 1 billion users, Facebook has far surpassed "cool" and is a worldwide utility, just as Mark Zuckerberg always envisaged it would be. LinkedIn, Google+ and others will never, to my mind, catch up (I exclude Twitter, because Twitter serves a different function), and the opportunities for monetizing Facebook haven't even begun. Advertising isn't necessarily the future source of FB's income - at least, not in even the traditional social media sense (and other car manufacturers last week were saying that General Motors pulling its paltry $10 million of advertising from FB and making so much noise about it, didn't "get" FB, either) - there are probably far more interactive and personal means for FB to influence people...

Illustration by S D Nelson, from Crazy Horse's Vision. Our children and we have been greatly enjoying a picture book, written by Joseph Bruchac and illustrated by S D Nelson , called Crazy Horse's Vision. It tells the story of a young Lakota boy named Curly who, after a brutal betrayal by the white men, sets out alone to experience a vision - something he should not have done without the aid of an experienced shaman. After days of fasting and seeing nothing, finally he sees a man on a horse, who tells him, "Keep nothing for yourself." He does not know the meaning of this vision, and it is some time before he learns it, but the boy becomes the famous warrior Crazy Horse - and the story is a wonderful tale of courage, silence and spiritual quest. The illustrations for the book are by the Lakota (Sioux) artist and writer, S D (Stephen) Nelson, and are done in the traditional ledger book style of the Plains Indians. The ledger book style of the Plains I...

Photograph by Alexander Chow-Stuart. It's hard to imagine that it is approaching a year since Hudson celebrated his seventh birthday with a trip to Apple to meet Jony Ive - Hudson, Apple and Jonathan Ive - and with a stay at his beloved W Hotel, this time in San Francisco - see Hudson And The W Hotel Hollywood: A Love Story:) I still love this LED fan the W San Francisco was kind enough to give to Hudson and Paradise, as part of Hudson's birthday treat. The fan lights up as it spins and reads "W Hotel" and also "Wonderlust." Simple but very beautiful. We have a different treat in store for Hudson this year...and for Paradise, too. But Hudson still loves the W with a passion, and sends special love to Sandi Baker at Starwood Buzz, the W Hollywood (the starting point of his love affair), the W San Diego and the W San Francisco.  We'd like to add the W Maldives and the W Bali to the agenda one of these days...and I believe a W Marrakech has a...

Facebook all-night hackathon - via Emily Price @mashable

Facebook hosts all-night hackathon leading up to IPO. Mark Zuckerberg speaks at FB HQ in Menlo Park - via Emily Price at @mashable http://mashable.com/2012/05/18/facebook-hackathon-pics/