what the world needs now is a new frank sinatra, so i can get you in bed

one of the benefits of working the the education field is the built in vacation that comes during the christmas-new year holiday time. with the exception of a cold that hit right around christmas day and lingered for a few days (hitting jp much worse than me), it's been a fine week+ off from work. jp and i took a short trip to tahoe for a couple of days. it was not only my first time up there, but once we hit the cross-country ski trail it was my first time on skis ever. a bit of falling down, well, lots of falling down....but that was ok. once i got the hang of it, i had a great time. next time i'll try downhill.

the rest of the week has been pretty darned slothful. a bit of work, lots of movie and "the office" (bbc version, series 2, via netflix) watching. idle hands may be the devil's plaything, but idleness is a good tonic for getting over a cold.

last night we went to see camper van beethoven & cracker at the independent. i haven't seen camper in god knows how many years. jp works with a guy who plays in both bands, so not only did we get comped tickets, but access to an upstairs area where we didn't have to get jostled and could actually see the stage clearly. camper were as good as i remember from way back...equal parts of a variety of musical styles that work in a surprising but cool way .cracker seems to have morphed from the more alt-country/blues of their origins to a sort of harder-edged, bluesier and more jam-band type of camper that seem to be as much a showcase for johnny hickman's guitar as for david lowery's songs. their set was shorter than the cvb set, not just in overall length, but in number of songs. and some of the songs went on for, well, a long time. and jp has to ask her colleague what was up with the computer that lowery kept checking on during both sets. was he im-ing friends during the set?

tonight it's off to a party to ring in 2007. here's to a great year.

all the young punks...new boots and contracts

happiness is a new pair of doc martens.


pain is breaking them in. ouch. thank heavens for moleskin.

we had some massive nights

it's december 21, solstice, the shortest day of the year. happy winter. the good news? the daytime only gets longer for the next 6 months.

i know people whose idea of fun is throwing stones in the river in the afternoon sun

why haven't i been watching the office more regularly? huh? the christmas special is hilarious. even better than last year's christmas episode. interesting piece on the office in the dec 11th issue of the new yorker. i'd post a link, but it'll expire soon. if only the new yorker was better about their on-line content.

how is it that i found news gingrich oddly reasonable on meet the press this week? it's like in early 2004 when i as listening to npr, heard a guy who's voice i coulnd't palce, but he was saying some interesting stuff. i just about crashed my car when he was introduced as al sharpton. i still don't trust gingrich to not be a nutjob (his recent take on the possible need to curtail free speech is very worrisome), but he was ok today. and also on meet the press? tom friedman? dude, the sunni-shia thing erupting in iraq isn't just the result of what happened during hussein's rule, it's not baed on a 30-year build up of animosity. how ridiculously shallow an analysis, but then, nothing i shouldn't expect from him. and timmy? would it have killed you to have someone from the dem, liberal or progressive camp this week?

the netflix queue has been revived...jp and i watched a very long engagement friday. yes, a touching love story, yes, very beautifully and inventively shot. but also? reminds me of 12 angry men, in that mathilde was the only one among her inner circle to not take the evidence at face value. also, like 12 angry men and name of the rose, mathilde proved her case by way of some basic deductive reasoning, marshalling the evidence point by point.

i also watched broken flowers, arguably jim jarmusch's most mainstream film. i liked how he made bill murray's road trip geographically anonymous. the device was clearly used to mirror murray's quest -- just like he wasn't sure exactly what it was he was searching for, you were never exactly certain where it was he was during the search. i would like to see bill murray break his recent string of playing guys who look like they overdosed on prozec.

had the occassion to met the lovely and talented leah and simon of a girl and a boy, thanks to going to see simon's band play. they're both cool people and simon's band is a kick-ass honky-tonkin' quartet.

and yes...today was an amazing day to be out and about...

they shifted the statues for harboring ghosts

morning at ft. point, the presidio...



after some walking and running at ft. point we got some breakfast at the grove cafe on chestnut st, and damn if i did't have the most amazing breakfast burrito ever. super flavorful and spicy mix of salsa, guacamole, egg and beans. get it with bacon, if you're meat/pork inclined. the staff are very friendly.

i got lost in all the lights but it was ok in the end

taken in jp's living room, the night of her hosting a party for her book club

tv party tonight!

it seems that lately i've been posting less than intermittently. it's not like i've got nothing to say or that i'm not thinking about anything. and it's not like i haven't been doing anything...like what?

well, beyond vacations and shows (written about), there's my yuppiefied acquisition of a new hdtv, a westinghouse 27". i feel odd about the purchase. for one, i've been on a binge (for me anyway) in terms of spending...an apartment in the city, the egypt and morocco trip, a new mac, a new tooth (titanium implants are expensive)...so it's been hard to save like i'm used to. i'm also not prone to profiligate spending on big stuff. i tend to blow my cash on food, drink, books and music. the pleasures of daily life.

that said, the tv is awesome, and watching a hockey or football game in hd is lightyears better than conventional tv. plus there's the fact that my last tv was so old it didn't have inputs for a dvd player. i had a radio shack rf converter box which required unhooking cables, and that resulted in me never using the dvd player which resulted in my netflix subscription languishing (i got netflix when with roommates, one of whom had a newer tv...but the tv stayed with her). plus, old tv was purchased second-hand from a friend while in grad school, for the low, low price of $50. after 9 years it was time.

the other problem i have with the tv purchase is the mere fact of buying it makes me feel like i'm some tv addict, as if i need it. at jp's book club party on sunday the discussion came up what tv size and cable service says about one's level of tv snobbery and/or time spent reading. i read enough (thanks in no small measuree to the bart commmute) and i'm hardly a tv addict. and i take with a grain of salt and a healthy dose of suspicion people who claim to watch hardly any tv. half the time i think it's said for effect, for status. that said, i felt like anything more than a 27" tv was ridiculous, and as it is i only had hbo because of a great new subscriber deal from comcast.

in any event, it's hooked up and i've got the hd service from comcast. and i'm slowly warming to it and not feeling sheepish for buying it. that said, i downgraded the cable service today, ditching hbo (though it'll come back when the sporanos returns).

i am, however, going to get a bit more serious about saving...the 403b will be opened soon, and lunches will be more often brought than bought. after all, i can watch a ball game while i'm cooking for the week.

we get wet and we corrode and we get covered up in rust

the rain that's hit us this week takes me back, oh, a few weeks ago...to the sunny gulf coast of florida...the in-laws of one of my brothers moved there a year or so ago, and this year they invited his side of the family down for thanksgiving. that extended into a short family vacation to clearwater beach. so while you dodge the rain and light your fireplace at night and keep warm with whomever makes you warmest...some images to remember what the sun looks like...

take a step up then a quick step back in time

saturday night at the red devil lounge was another installment of "touring through my musical past", this time with the plimsouls. yes, the plimsouls, up with big star on the top floor in my power-pop pantheon. the plimsouls, who had a so-called "minor hit" with "million miles away", thanks in no small measure to the song and the band being featured in the 1983 movie valley girl, featuring a young nicolas cage.

this version of the band features all but the drummer from the line-up that recorded everywhere at once, one of my all-time favorite records (it's one of the few albums i have where i can honestly say that there isn't a bad song on there). so it was peter case singing and playing guitar, eddie munoz on lead guitar, dave pahoa on bass, and bryan head on drums. peter's looking a bit more, eh, filled out than in years past, but then he's 52 (!), so these things happen. but his voice can still carry a loud power-pop band, and he and the rest of the band had the kind of energy i'm sure they did way back in the early 1980s. they played the hits and then some, including "how long will it take", "million miles away", "everywhere at once" and "zero hour". i wasn't the only one in the packed-house crowd singing along to every song...we were mostly a bunch of kids of the 80s who came out to see a band that (like big star), although they didn't last long back then, have left a lasting impression on us even after all these years.

ask me ask me ask me

some questions...

why does mccarran airport have free wifi (from whence i post, on a 2+ hour layover en route from sfo to the fla gulf coast on a red eye) yet sfo does not? sfo, which is after all the gateway airport (all due respect to san jose) to america's tech heartland? why is t-mobile's pay to play service all that's available?

why does mccarran not have more of the attractions of vegas? would it kill them to have a real casino here? (i wouldn't mind an hour of blackjack to kill some time) a strip club? (not that i'd necessarily go, just asking rhetorically). why do the slots not take coins, but tickets which you have to get from an attendant?

taken together, i guess what i'm asking is, shouldn't a city's airport more or less reflect the city, highlight its virtues (or vices)?

(update...6:45am eastern time, thanksgiving day) and guess which airport also has free wifi? tampa-st.pete. gavin....mayor mcdreamy...dude...talk to someone at sfo. let's get with the times.

ashes of american flags

i heard about this yesterday on npr's (well, american public media's) marketplace...seems that mothers against drunk driving are advocating for ingition interlock devices aimed at reducing the incidence of drunk driving. though madd's stance is for devices to be mandatory on cars owned by convicted drunk drivers, a reresentative from the insurance institute for highway safety (iihs) actually said that sobriety-check devices should be in all cars.

two things about this are unsettling -- first, to mandate devices on convicted drunk drivers sends the signal that the convicted are thus no longer entitled to the presumption of innocence. this is much like the laws enacted in many cities and towns that convicted sex offenders must register and announce their presence in a neighborhood, and/or that they cannot live within some proscribed distance from schools or playgrounds.

i know that convicted drunk drivers tend to be recidivst. however, there is some evidence that expedited treatment results in lower rates of recidivism. there are similar findings for sex offenders. in other words, treatment, not stigmatization and scarlet letters, are what a free society should demand of convicted criminals.

relatedly, i was troubled by an assertion made in the marketplace story by susan ferguson of iihs that all cars should have sobriety check devices. is it just me or does this violate a fundamental tenet of american society, that of presumed innocence? the country was founded on such priniciples specifically as a reaction to the encroaching police state of 18th century british colonial rule, principles which date back 5 centuries from that time to the magna carta.

ultimately this all comes back to (for me, anyway) the erosion of civil liberties we've seen with the enactment of the military commissions act and the proposed legislation to legalize the warrantless (and thus illegal) domestic wiretapping currently being conducted by the nsa with the full approval of the president. proof of how pervasive (and silly) domestic spying activities by the government have become is illustrated in a series of reports foia'd by the aclu documenting how legal, first amendment-protected activities have been entered into a pentagon database designed to track terrorist threats.

how are sobriety-check devices and sexual predator residence laws in the same league as habeas corpus and wiretapping? simple -- they are all symptoms of the same mindset that allows freedom to be curtailed in the name of security.

freedom entails certain risk. the fact is, no matter how hard we try, we will never eliminate the threat of a drunk driver on the road. we will never fully prevent sexual predators from acting out. we will never fully protect the country from terrorism. that's not to say we shouldn't try and reduce the risks -- no, we should demand that risks are reduced while freedom is protected. treatment for those types of crimes where there's some evidence that treatment works. legal forms of surveillance, monitored by an impartial court and subject to detailed review by congress. that's not to mention the plethora of port security and air cargo screening that the current congress and administration have inexplicably refused to ensure are in place, this despite it being a centerpiece of the 9/11 commission's findings.

freedom and security are not mutually exclusive. and eroding freedom for the sake of security makes us both less secure and more importantly less free.

no reason, just seems so pleasing

it's not often you get an opportunity to eat at a michelin guide 3-star restaurant on a day's notice, but that's what i did tuesday night, joining jp for an amazing dinner at the french laundry in yountville (napa). jp had reservations with a friend (for whom she did a huge favor...nice payback), but friend was unable to go. given that tables are hard to come by there, even more so after it was rated 3-stars in the michelin san francisco guide, i jumped at the chance. what kind of man would i be, not to want to join the girlfriend at a romantic and sumptuous meal in what's considered one of the best restuarants in the country.

from downtown sf it's a good 65-mile trek. our table was for 9:15, so not much rush-hour traffic to battle. got there in just over an hour, with time to spare and relax before being seated. our table was in a small room off the main first floor dining room, a table of 2 next to us and a table of 4 a few feet away. both were well into their meals.

after ordering wine and selecting from the choices in the evening's menu, we were given small appetizers, snacks almost. notable was a salmon tartar in a tiny cone filled with creme freche.

the first course was oysters and pearls, oytsers newburgh and caviar on a cream sauce bed. next up was a confit of squash and asian pears in a very light viniagrette -- light, tart, and (the pears) crispy, a good counterpoint to the richness of the oysters. next up was a return to richness, sea urchin formed to look like a tongue, served over an earthy base given nice texture by small chunks of celery root. it was very much a yin/yang dish, the urchin served cold over a warm base, the urchin soft while the base had a chunky texture.

the main seafood course was 4 small bits of lobster, poached in sweet butter and served atop a curried basmati rice. the lobster was melt-in-your-mouth light, and the curried rice provided a nice balance of spiciness and weight. the next course was another choice, and the only choice where jp and i went different ways -- she had the quail..white and dark meat served in a light sauce with pearl onions and cranberries. i had the tete de cochon (head of the pig). the pork was served in a doughy shell, atop a spinach puree and topped by a quial egg, joined on the plate by a spicy carmelized onion.

next up was the beef, a cap of ribeye atop both a matsuzaki mushroom cream sauce and a veal stock sauce laced with ginger and served with tangerine slices. great balance of sweet, tangy, and spicy. the beef, like the lobster, just about melted on the tongue.

the dessert section started with the cheese course, a lord of the hundreds ewe's milk cheese, hard and tangy, sliced at the table atop small rounds of potato with a tomato marmalade. this was followed by a feijoa (pineapple guava) sorbet served with banana bread. the sorbet was very pungent and had a perfume-like aroma.

chocolate and hazelnut was the main dessert attraction -- a chocolate box was layered bottom-up with a white-chocolate brownie, chocolate mousse torte and hazelnut foam. that wasn't the end of the sweets, though. our captain surprised us with two extra treats from the chef -- in front of jp was placed a small vanilla creme brulee, and i got an eggless custard with meyer lemon. both were incredible, especially the custard. i need to try and make that. a plate of homemade chocolates was offered at the end. needless to say we indulged, despite being just about full.

for wine, jp went with selections from the sommelier -- he started her off with champagne for the oysters and confit, and a white wine that carried the lobster and urchin. a spicy barolo (i think) accompanied the quail and beef. since it was late and i was driving, i went with one glass (though i did sample jp's selections), a very nice pinot noir that was light enough to work with the seafoods and had enough finish for the beef.

all in all, a great dinner. it's hard to believe that such small portions will fill you up, but the richness and that there are 9 courses leaves you quite sated. the service was impeccable -- the wine steward made great choices, and the servers provded clear explanations of each dish as it was placed on the table. it is an expensive indulgence but well worth it. i'm not a serious, serious foodie, but i appreciate good food enough to know that this was not just a great meal but an amazing dining experience.

the devil will find work for idle hands to do

aren't three-day weekends the best? especially when the days are sunny. of course i have some work to catch up on, but i can do it from the comfort of a cafe (revolution? dolores park cafe?) and not cooped up in my office.

last night we went to books inc in the castro for a reading featuring stephen elliott, daphne gottblieb and mark pritchard. pritchard led off with an hilarious story about a guy who takes a job as an assistant in a women's self defense class. excellent stuff. gottlieb and elliott read challenging and moving selections from their latest books.

(update) -- mak pritchard writes about the night on sfmetroblog.

wednesday, we unexpectedly (thanks to free tix from one of jp's coworkers) saw the new york dolls. like when i saw mission of burma, they're one of those bands who i didn't get to see in their original days (maybe because i was a wee lad). it wasn't the original line-up (which would be hard to do given that, sadly, johnny thunders died a while back) but they did alright. david johansen looks a bit old. like OLD. but he sounded great. sylvain sylvain played a mean guitar and a good foil to johansen's glam theatrics. not the same as seeing them at cb's in their heyday, but still a good set.

this is what you want, this is what you get

hooray, a democratic takeover not only of the house but likely the senate as well! this almost makes up for the pain of the 2004 election. at the very least, even if legislation gets vetoed by bush, there'll be hearings and oversight. it also rids capitol hill of idiots and louts like santorum (PA-SEN), hostettler (IN-08), sweeney (NY--20), weldon (PA-07), chocola (IN-02) and pombo (CA-11).

in ballot initiative good news the south dakota abortion bill was defeated. in ballot initiative bad news the michigan anti-affirmative action proposal won, and won big.

(update) and oh yeah, the stem cell initiative passed in MO, as did a minimum wage increase.

and i did my (small) part for democracy, by getting jp to vote in a non-presidential election. now i have to hold up my end of the bargain and re-apply for citizenship. it may be that i'll be eligible to vote in 2008. i have a feeling that'll be a big deal election.

the word of the day is...

halloweening

i've got some creativity in me, but for whatever reason it doesn't extend to good costume ideas. so halloween for me is not so much about the getting dressed up. still, there's still fun to be had, like carving pumpkins. even if the pumpkin gets a bad case of mold and disintegrates in a matter of days....
then there are parties like halloween in the castro. a great idea, in theory...a civic thing where people get together, show off, gawk...and apparently, shoot each other. so sad. another account at sf metroblog and sfist has a list of accounts and discussion here.

jp and i got there early, like 7:30pm early, before the crowds kicked in. maybe some of the freakier costumes hadn't turned out yet, but i still got some good shots. we stopped into some place for a drink, and in that meantime the crowds swelled. leaving was a chore as there were some fenced off areas where you could neither enter nor exit. so off we went into the choked-off area of mass entry around 16th & market. it was totally like swimming upstream against a strong current. we missed the shooting by about 30-45 minutes. i'd be shocked if there's another attempt at doing the event, which is a shame. mass gatherings shouldn't have to mean mass mayhem. most of the people there were just having a good time and an asshole few had to leave a bad taste.

we're only making plans for nigel

delinquency in writing thanks to being butt-ass busy. suffice to say that it's been a good busy, as i actually really like my job. but that's only part of the busy. i mean, it's hard to blog about life if you're very occupied living it.

to wit...last weekend...saturday began at alamo square, getting scout out to play with other dogs. he seemed to enjoy it...
following that, we took a ride to baker beach, stopping first to get vietnamese sammiches at a place at 31st & clement. i don't remember the name of the place,only that it's at the corner of 31st & clement and that the sammiches are really friggin good.

anyway, at the beach...scout happy to be there, and some classic bay area scenery.
for the ride home we took the long way, swinging by the sutro baths and ocean beach.

have i mentioned this enough times? how much i love living here?

sexual chocolate

via sfist.


reminds me that i need to get to scharffen-berger for a tour, and get to the bittersweet cafe in rockridge as well. both of these places were mentioned in the very first issue of the east bay express i read upon moving to berkeley last year. a good start to my life in the bay area, i thought then.

eat to the beat

oh yeah, another season of top chef starts tonight started last week. sadly they've moved the show from the bay area to socal, but that shouldn't matter too much. it's reality tv that i can actually get into, since it's about something i have both an interest in doing and can do somewhat well relative to the people on the show. well, second only to america's next top model -- see, thanks to last week's improv class i found out that i can commit totally and unselfconsciously to being a super-model character. go figure (tyra...call me!).

peter pumpkinhead came to town, spreading wisdom and cash around

in the spirit of the season, jp and i did some pumpkin carving the other night. she went for traditional and happy and did a great job. i went for scary and got what looks more like "drunked up". still, it was fun and i ended up with some pumpkin seeds which need roasting. maybe with this recipe. anyway...the results...

pills and powders baby, powders and pills

Writer's With Drinks seems a good reward for a Friday night spent in after dental work (watching So I Married an Axe Murderer which wasn't as funny as I remember the last time I saw it (well, just half of it then)..nice shots of SF, but eh as a movie) and a beautiful Saturday spent inside finishing a now very late (our panel discussant hopefully won't be too harsh on me) paper that i'm presenting at a conference in two weeks...

October 19, 2006
This Saturday: other magazine presents Writers With Drinks!

The award-winning spoken word variety show Writers With Drinks is back. Is it erotica? Is it comedy? Is it two hours of trauma and nihilistic epiphany? It’s all of those and more! This time, Writers With Drinks features:
- Lisa Goldstein, award winning author of The Alchemist’s Door
- Tim Redmond, executive editor of the SF Bay Guardian
- Cynthia Heimel, author of Sex Tips For Girls
- Michelle Orange, McSweeney’s guest editor and author of the Sicily Papers
- Alena Hairston, award-winning poet and author of The Logan Topographies

Where: The Make Out Room, 3225 22nd. St. btw. Mission & Valencia
When: Saturday, Oct. 21, 7:30 to 9:30 pm, doors open 7:00 pm
How much: $3 to $5 sliding scale

open wide and say...

back in the spring i had a tooth extracted, a molar that had been root canaled some years back, needed redoing but wasn't structually sound enough to withstand another procedure. so out it came. today, in it's place goes a titanium implant (i wonder if i'll be setting off airport security alarms from now on), and soon over that a crown. below, the very cool panoramic x-ray taken of my mouth. the image is taken on a futuristic machine that makes a semi-circle around your head as you stand upright, holding onto handles while your chin sits in a chin-rest. the design is very sleek and space-age. like a scanner from a sci-fi movie.

help a brutha out

echoing what i wrote last march, you should be supporting kexp, probably the best radio station ever. their semi-annual fund drive is going on now...give some coin, get some stuff.

he was drunk and exhausted but he was critically acclaimed and respected

(updated below)

it was loud and crowded and there was some pogoing, a bit of a mosh going, some crowd surfing and it had the feel of a celebration...that's a hold steady show, in particular last night's show at gamh.

you've got craig finn's manic and alternatingly goofy and serious stage presence, complete with some of the best front-man faces around. but you want to watch the whole band...each of them have their own vibe...tad kubler as the slightly spacey guitar-hero (and stage-diver/crowd-surfer), galen polivka and bobby drake holding down the rhythm with fierce energy, and franz nicolay looking all left bank but swigging wine out of a bottle and pogoing at his keyboard. and at the end the band brought a ton of people up on stage to close out "killer parties", including one guy who was given kubler's guitar and did a great job with the last few chords.

what you get is a group of guys who like each other, like what they do, play great songs and have a blast doing it. a celebration of rock and roll. it's hard not to leave in a great mood.

not surprisingly the crowd was mostly guys. i came to the band a few years ago as i was nearing the end of a long period of reading mostly authors like henry miller, jack kerouac...and the hold steady are (to me anyway) the musical equivalent...a visceral guy's band (and not just because they're so power-chord heavy). in fact, if you read their label's band page finn uses kerouac as a point of reference for the new album. that's not to say they aren't a band women can like, it's more that, like miller, kerouac and sometimes vonnegut, they seem to unabashedly revel in being men but they do it (at least via finn's lyrics) in such a poetic way that you almost don't notice.

here's a taste of them live doing "stuck between stations", praise be to youtube. and hell, here's "banging camp"...and here's "your little hoodrat friend". and why not, here's "most people are djs".

(update)
some pics (not taken by me) are here, here and here.

i have too many stories, keeping it serious

wow, another thursday thru sunday of music, readings, firsts, and good times. not sure how long i can keep up this streak of excellent weekends, but for now i'm happy to have caught a great wave, and i'll let it ride until it runs out.

thursday's john hodgman-pogues doubleheader (in separate venues) was as good as i imagined it would be. others have already documented the hodgman reading (with video and photos) so well that there's no need for another run-down.

playing to a packed fillmore room, evidently their first time in san francisco in 15 years, the pogues were magnificent. they and the crowd were full of energy and everyone seemed to have a good time. poor shane, though. the ravages of hard living have taken a toll...he was bloated, walked slowly and stiffly...but he can still sing and he's a captivating stage presence. if shane is the soul of the band, spider stacy is the heart -- he kept the energy pumping throughout the set...the band and the crowd seem to feed off of him. it was my first time seeing them and given their potential for future touring it may be the last.

crowd highlights included the ridiculously drunk guy who at one point offered me a swig from his bottle of some whiskey (declined...don't know him, and the backwash potential was too high) and then about 30 minutes later same guy, by now 10 sheets to the wind, started harassing some woman. she held him at bay for a while, flipping him off an inch from his face and pushing him away. when he continued, taking off his sweater and offering it to her (no, really...wtf?!?!) a friend of hers tried to get between them. when that didn't take i moved up a step and tried to distract him. eventually he slithered away.

a short while after that some guy is making trouble with people to my right. a minute later he taps me on the left shoulder and asks me if he should go punch out the guy with whom he'd just had the brief spat. i told him that i didn't think it was a good idea. not sure what it was in the spirit of the night that made me the magnet for stupid drunk guys.

friday was the long winters at dunord, with openers what made milwaukee famous. wmmf were good...michael kingcaid's got a voice that can best be described as "anthemic" and they've got some good songs. the long winters were outstanding. brilliant songwriting, great musicians, soaring harmonies...they played 22 songs and not a clunker in the batch.

saturday jp and i took part in lit crawl, the closing event for lit quake. we arrived at casanova a bit late for phase one's travel writer session, but still heard a few interesting travel stories, including one from constance hale, who went to the same high school as jp and once held the same job. small world. wanting to see the phase two music writers session but finding it way too crowded to even get in, we instead went early to the make out room and secured a table right up front for the macadam/cage session featuring stephen elliot, michelle richmond, craig clevenger and michelle tea. elliott read an excerpt from his new book, my girlfriend comes to the city and beats me up, a passage juxtaposing a bdsm encounter with the dysfunctional family situation that seems to account for the guy being the sub. richmond's story was a tale of lust and the "zipless fuck" written for (but not about, she assured us) the barista who makes her daily morning au lait.

sunday afternoon, following the last soccer game of the season with one of my teams, a few of us made our way to zeitgeist. i'd heard lots about it, but hadn't yet made it over. we kind of stood out, not dressed in standard-issue hipster garb, but it didn't matter thanks to the amazing bloody mary (spicy, tangy.mmmm) and a tamale from the tamale lady (another first for me).

let's play two!

quoting the immortal ernie banks because tonight is a first-rate double-header...

seeing the pogues at the fillmore was already a definite. but then via the sf metroblog i see that john hodgman is reading at cody's (stockton st. downtown) at 7pm. meaning i can get to both.

i'll bet you think this song is about you

ahh, what a treat to have three straight days of good music, experienced in very different ways. thursday's billy bragg show was a close-up night with one of my all-time favorites.

friday night jp and i hit the lit quake opening night event, between the bridges. lots of bay area artists performed, reading briefly from some poetry or prose that inspired them, and then playing a song or two that was inspired by the literature. highlights were chuck prophet, lars ulrich reading from his dad's book of verse, and dr. frank portman's hysterical double-entendre song "i wanna ramone you" (if you speak french, you'll know from where the entendre comes). the performance art accompanying dan "the automator" nakamura's bit had a nice campy quality. mark eitzel's performance was unsurprisingly the most ethereal and atmospheric of the night. reminds you of the beauty that is american music club.

dr. frank's account of the night is here, and the litquake myspace blog account is here.

saturday was quite a different turn, the hardly-strictly bluegrass festival. i didn't get there until early afternoon, but that was enough to hear some good music (steve earle, earl scruggs, gillian welch and billy bragg), do some people (and dog) watching, hang with friends, and eat some kettle corn. the evidence...

sweep!

i'd never been to a baseball playoff game, and this was an exciting first time. fun game, good crowd and a clinching game for the series sweep.

bring the funny

oh, the caption possibilities...

(via daily kos)

you're my reason to get out of bed before noon

it was love at first sight. i had gone to see the smiths play, and the opening act was this guy who came out in a white t-shirt and jeans, and played solo with an electric guitar. i'd heard of billy bragg from reading the english music press, nme and the now-defunct melody maker, but hadn't heard anything by him. so he comes out, sings a bunch of songs in a style that marries folk and punk traditions and delivers hysterical and insightful between-song patter (commenting on his physique, he said he was going for bruce springsteen muscles but had only acheived bryan adams level).

the very next day i went to my favorite record store and bought everything i could by billy bragg. since that show i've seen him, i don't know, at least 10 times, solo and with various bands. i've never been disappointed by a billy bragg show, and last night's late show at gamh was no different.

he opened up with "sexuality", going right into "milkman of human kindness". between songs he complained about the blue angels interrupting his sleep, talked about goat herding and how billy goats attract nanny goats by peeing on their own faces, because that's how goats get their pheremones out there. the set was a mix of old favorites like "greetings to the new brunette", and some very new songs. he plugged his new book, plugged his hardly-strictly set and promied to be back on tour soon. closing out the night was "waiting for the great leap forwards", as always with new lyics, some seemingly improvised based on the night's between-song patter, and "a new england", with the audience singing the chorus.

it's nice to know that (as with robyn hitchcock) even after many, many years, the love is strong and enduring. who says i've got commitement issues?

gott ist tot

what happens when you cross the family circus with nietzsche? this.


I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain,
torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage.

(thanks, hogan)

24 hour party people

man, do i have a full dance card the next couple of weeks. it all starts this thursday and goes thru more or less until the 19th.

* first, billy bragg in the late show at gamh on thursday.

* friday is the a's-twins playoff game. i grew up in philadelphia, so not too many chances to see playoff baseball. go a's!

* if time allows me to get trans-bay and across the city, i might be able to check out some or all of elvis costello's set at the hardly strictly festival.

* friday night is the opening night event for litquake. david eggars will be there. so will lots of other bay area music and lit types. and hey, my countryman lars ulrich of metallica will be there. maybe we can chat about the band documentary that i so love.

* saturday is a full-day at hardly strictly, including another set by billy bragg, though sadly it conflicts a bit with a set by sally timms and jon langford of the mekons and gillian welch's set.

* saturday night is another movie night in the park, this one featuring young frankenstein.

* sunday, jp runs the san jose rock-and-roll half marathon. in addition to cheering her on, it offers an opportunity to see a band called inspect her gadget. it's a day with no downside.

* monday night 10/9 are two lit events, another progressive reading night as well as a special porchlight night tied into litquake.

* that wednesday starts the 6-week run of an improv comedy class i'm taking with bay area theater sports.

* thursday 10/12 is the pogues, with shane (yes, he's still alive) at the fillmore.

* friday the 13th, i get lucky with the long winters at dunord.

* and then on tuesday the 17th, the hold (fucking) steady! at gamh!

oh yeah, then that friday i get my pulled molar replaced with a titanium implant.

all this and i haven't even thought of what i'm wearing for halloween.

pet sounds

i've seen tourfilter in a few places the last couple of weeks, and it's pretty cool...will definitely save time and effort paging thru the free alternative weekly press ads to see which bands are playing and where. my list is here and along the sidebar.

disturbance at the heron house

what's that old curse, "may you live in interesting times"? (by the way, may not be an ancient chinese curse, as is the common thought).

anyway, things are pretty interesting these days, like the wheel are totally coming off the wagon of sanity.

i mean, in the last week we've seen a host of things that in and of themselves would dominate a news cycle --

* a national intellience estimate that pretty much contradicts most of what duhbya's been saying about irag.

* more evidence that condi rice overlooked serious warnings about a possible bin laden attack on u.s. interests, and it's possible that this was intentionally withheld during the 9/11 commission investigation.

* senate majority leader bill frist says that the taliban (!!) should be included in the political process in afghanistan.

* and now, the gift that looks like it'll keep on giving for weeks to come, mark foley's indiscretion and the stunning ham-handedness of the gop leadership's response.

all this has rendered iraq, iran and north korea to virtual sidebars in the news.

and oh yeah...congress just tossed the magna carta overboard, and trod all over one of the primary grievances that the colonists had against the crown during the revolution.

this is a time for action (there is no time)

(updated with time stamp bump)

I received a nice letter from Sen. Feinstein, nothing yet from Sen. Boxer. The proof of course will be in the pudding of today's Senate debate. Sens Feingold, Kerry, and Dodd have so far spoken out. Hopefully my Senators will stand up.

Do what you can to make your Senators, Dem or GOP, stand up. Call their DC offices now. Ask to speak to as top-level an aide as you can get to, preferably the aide responsible for homeland security issues. In a polite way, demand that they stand up for the Constitution and vote against this bill. Ask nicely if the Democrats plan to filibuster to delay passage for more reasoned negotiation, to take the bill out of the political hopper.

Froomkin, Greenwald and others are right -- this is a defining moment in American history. This is where the Constitutional rubber meets the road.

******
The bill to legalize torture actually has a chance to pass through Congress before they adjourn over the weekend. The fact that a bill this bad is even being debated is a sorry moment in the nation's history. There are numerous things wrong with the bill, as indicated here.

So what now? Well, it's time for action now, because there is no time. Congress adjourns over the weekend, and in 6 weeks an election will be held to send to Washington the 110th US Congress. We cannot let the 109th Congress pass legislation that will allow the US to become as morally bankrupt as those nations such as Iran and North Korea, those who are regularly demonized by the President.

The Senate is the best bet, as the minority party can hold up legislation via filibuster. What I have done, and what we all must do, is to write our Senators and ask for leadership. The Democrats in Congress are once again scurrying to the corners hoping not to be noticed so that they might not piss off the electorate and thus take over Congress.

Well, guess what? As the Lieberman example shows, people are pissed off and people want opposition to current administration policy.

So here's the letter I've written to my senators,Boxer and Feinstein. Use as much or as little (or nothing) from it as you like, but send a letter. Send one today. We need action and we need leadership.

****
Dear Senator Boxer -

I write to you very vexed and very concerned. I read story after story about the detainee-torture bill going through Congress right now. The absence of strong Democratic opposition to this prenicious, mendacious, immoral, and most importantly, unconstitutional bill troubles me greatly.

Where are you?

Where is Senator Feinstein? Wher are your colleagues, Senators Reid, Clinton, Obama, Feingold, et al? Where are the people who we look to for leadership, who must stand up and prevent this bill from becoming law?

Where are you? Why are you silent? Why have you abdicated leadership on this most vital of issues? Why are you allowing the Republicans to once again run roughshod over the legislative process, bullying a bad bill through to use only as a political wedge in an election year? Why are you afraid to fight?

Do you not realize that you earn more emnity and disgust by staying silent? Do you not relaize that as your silence on the matter grows louder day by day that you make it harder and harder for people to support you?

Hear me and my fellow concerned citizens now - stand up and fight this bill. And fight the NSA warrantless wiretapping bill. Stand up and fight or know that you will face a fight in your next election. Remember the lesson of Joe Lieberman -- those who do not stand up and listen to the people, those who do not then go and protect the people no longer deserve the support of the people and no longer deserve a position of leadership.

Leadership means taking risks. Stand up and fight now and you will earn more respect than by your current strategy of standing mute.

This bill is antithetical to everything it means to be an American.And I write from a unique position, as a non-citizen but legal resident. I am troubled by the fact that I can be detained on the say so of the President, without due process and any rights of habeas corpus. You represent a state with many people like me. At the moment we may not be able to vote. But we can work on campaigns, and we have citizenship applications on file. We will remain activists and we will become voters, and we will remember who stood up and took the lead and who sat mute and cowered in the corner.

So I ask again -- where are you?

Respectfully,

(me)

maybe it sounds mean but i really don't think so, you asked for the truth and i told you

the much discussed bill clinton interview on fox news sunday is as remarkable as advertised. the interview was supposed to focus equally on the clinton global initiative and whatever else came up. two questions in, chris wallace used the cowardly "some people say" device, this time saying that fox news viewers wanted him to ask about clinton's failure to get bin laden. clinton goes after wallace on every front -- the factual basis of the assertion, as well as the disingenuous way the question was asked, and that it violated the spirit under which the interview was supposed to be conducted.


watch closely clinton's body language -- he leans forward, getting right in wallace's face and space, doing it deliberately to put wallace on the defensive, which happens all too easily. democrats in congress and on the campaign trail should take note of what happens when you confront the bullshit and those who try to shovel it -- they all of a sudden look weak and small. maybe it's too much to hope for, but it would be great if this were fox news's army-mccarthy moment, the "at long last sir, have you left no sense of decency" moment that shows the emperor to be naked.

as always, crooks and liars does a great job hosting the video, and they also have a full transcript posted.

kids don't follow

huh. well. here's something to get my mind of off the torture legislation stinkbomb.

paul westerberg's got a new album, and surprise surpise, it's the soundtrack to the new animated feature open season. crazy. this from the same guy who wrote "gary's got a boner".

you could hear a song or two, including "love you in the fall" on the lost highway records site, but they make you register. bah.

so, go instead to kexp's streaming archive and put in 9/22 5:06pm as the date/time, or to the aol music page for the "love you in the fall".

as ross raihala speculates in the st. paul pioneer press, how freaky would it be to see westerberg nominated or even getting an oscar for this? could happen. the academy likes poppy tunes from animated films.

...and heaven knows i'm miserable now

i am close to feeling physically ill because of the latest news on the "compromise" on the torture legislation going through congress. the details are better explained here, here, here, here and here. good discussion here. more disgusting update here.

suffice to say that lindsay graham, who was so convincing in his earnestness last sunday on meet the press, caved like the smarmy party-hack with the walter mitty backbone that i've generally taken him to be. john mccain, saint john mccain of the straight-talk express, has once again sold his soul to aid in his quest for being the gop establishment candidate heading into the 2008 presidential nominating season. i don't know if i can take it if jon stewart allows mccain on for another love fest. it makes me sad to see stewart suck up to the craven and phony likes of mccain, to be suckered by the bullshit.

and the democrats? where have they been? why are they allowing the gop to play offense on this, backing the dems into the same corner they were in in 2002 wrt the iraq aumf? (.pdf file) where are reid, pelosi, feingold, boxer, clinton, rangle, emmanuel and obama? who will stand up? the times and the post have weighed in against the bill in strongly worded editorials, but will this be enough?

it's citizen action time -- call your representatives in the house and senate and implore them to oppose both this bill and the coming legislation on warrantless nsa wiretapping. make it clear to democratic candidates seeking election that you will not vote for them if they don't stand up, either in chamber as the incumbent or on the campaign trail as the challenger. enough is enough.

(update): here's where the dems are...standing idly by, claiming to wait for the gop implosion. yeah, that tactic worked well in 2002 and 2004. keep at it, guys. one nugget that came out of the 2004 election post-mortem is that voters went with bush because he made it clear whee he stood. even undecideds felt this way. and here, in light of that, we *still* have party leadership who refuse to take the fight to an unpopular president and gop-led congress. ugh.

once i had my heroes

good lord, my ears will be ringing for a week thanks to mission of burma and 50 foot wave. first of all, i don't know under what rock i've been living, but 50 foot wave are kristin hersh's band. yes, the kristin hersh of throwing muses. who knew? i didn't.

50 foot wave were in some ways a bit like the muses, but louder. i know they played at least one old muses song, if not more. the new songs sounded like kristin hersh songs, but with a heavy dose of old-school angsty post-punk. i've always known she can play a mean guitar (listen to the chord and tempo changes on any muses song), but she was doing it fast and loud too. just as impressive were her full-throated primal punk-rock screams. this from a woman with a 15-year old son. mindblowing.

the burma set was loud. LOUD. LOUD. and energetic. for old guys, they can still bring it and they looked like they were having a blast. roger miller's starting to look a bit like dutch actor jeroen krabbe...odd resemblence.
it was an interesting crowd -- some were clearly MoB fans from way back, before the break-up. some, like me, came of age after the break-up but got to know of them when they still mattered as an arty post-punk band and as a result probably haven't seen them live. and then there were clearly some people who looked like they might not have been born when MoB started back in 1979. it was a crowd in the know, as all the old stuff got good response, not just "revolver". roger's tour diary on pitchfork is a good read.

i'm always a bit leery of seeing bands like this...those gone for a while, have reemerged and playing live again -- will there be anything in the tank? is there still inspiration to draw upon? the leeriness comes from having seen a few 60s bands on reuinion tours (don't ask why, it just happened), especially when it was one guy with hired sidekicks. always felt forced and by-the-numbers, seemed as canned as a vegas revue.

then a number of years ago i saw a buzzcocks show in NYC (albeit with the smiths rhythm section). still, they were amazing, and i felt then like a part of my musical upbringing had been properly put to rest, that i'd seen a "heritage" band, a band i had to see, who came back and did it right. same with MoB last night. no disappointment at all -- i can say that i've seen one of the more influential american bands of the punk/post-punk era playing at a high level, full of inspiration, no matter that it was 23 years after they more or less broke up.

avast ye scoundrels!

today be international talk like pirate day! so grab ye some grog and a scabbard and plunder and pillage! then tonight find ye a wench or a matey and haul some keel together. every pirate needs some booty!

take me out tonight where there's music and there's people who are young and alive

a big tip of the hat to leah for the idea to go see the california shakespeare theater. on friday, a clear, crisp and cool evening, we saw the last preview of as you like it in the beautiful bruns ampitheater. susannah schulman was radiant and energetic as rosalind. the calshakes experience is a great way to experience theater...you can bring your own food and to eat beforehand in the picnic area or in your seat in the theatre. we had a nice bottle of pinot noir, some hummus, havarti, a baguette and chocolate. and you've gotta love that the company has dan bakkedahl on their advisory council.

this weekend also will feature two soccer games, that is if whatever the hell is going on in my right groin allows me to move well enough (it did today in the first game, hopefully no issues on sunday). this despite a knee that's repsonding positively (so far) to twice doing 1 mile on a treadmill at a 10min:30sec/mile pace. after you've celebrated enough 29th b-days, unexplainable shit happens.

upcoming? well, new music from the hold steady, with a show in october at gamh. the long winters will be at dunord a few days before the hold steady show. and also? mission of burma. no shit, they're still around and touring. 9/20 at gamh.

please, please, please, let me get what i want (or: ok, comuter, pt ii)

the macbook pro (15", 2gig processor, upgrade to 1g ram) seems to be where i'm headed. leaving the dark side of windoze and heading to the light.

(update) -- ordered. plus i get a 4gb ipod for $20 after rebate. so now i'm 'doze at work and cross-platform at home. but then i've always been a multi-cultural, pan-ecumenical, non-sectarian kinda guy.

mashed potatoes, gravy and cranberry sauce..wooooo!!

it was a long two weeks without the daily show. but if the time off helped them recharge the batteries enough to bring this kind of funny (from the 9/12 show) then the wait was worth it (link loads large (9 minute) .wmv file, the little richard thing comes at about the 4:15 mark):

thanks to the amazing blog crooks and liars for the video. john amato does great work.

o.k., computer

bah. my home computer (desktop mutt system built by a friend, in which i've replaced sound & video cards and added a 2nd hd over the years) seems to be kaput. the os hard drive failed (but it was about 8 years old) and now i can't get the cd-rom to boot the windows cd. something motherboard related.

so on days i don't drag my work laptop home i'm now sans connectivity, which feels so weird.

more importantly, however, i need to think about the next step.

new machine? most definitely. laptop or desktop? laptop almost certainly, and i'll get an external hard-drive thing to plug my 200GB drive with all my files (photos, writing, mp3, data from research projects, email) and maybe use that as a back-up drive.

now the question...mac or pc? i like the idea of a macbook (because, yes, i want to be just like the guy in the mac vs pc commercials with john hodgman)

i've already had a couple of folks sing the praises of mac, but i've heard good things about the toshiba satellite laptop pc.

bah. like i need this annoyance in my life right now. well, ever.

just beat it (please)

so at about 12:15 i'm crossing dolores street at 19th, at the entrance to the park. in one of the spots between the crosswalk is a grey hummer, and the guy in the truck is blasting michael jackson's "dirty diana".

an hour or so later, after getting some mangoes, key limes, a very cool vintage jacket and a brown tie at idol vintage, a morning roll from tartine, and getting my chocolate graham fix at bi-rite, i walk by the intersection again to get home.

dude is still there...and the song selection has moved to "beat it".

some days are sulky, some days have a grin

the grin...
for various reasons pretty much all good, i haven't gotten much sleep this week. tuesday night's reason had to do with the brian jonestown massacre show at the independent. i hadn't seen them live yet, just on screen in dig!, the fun but apparently disavowed by bjm founder anton newcombe documentary about bjm and the dandy warhols (**). newcombe's reasonable objections aside it did nothing to make me not want to see them play. the non-musical highlight from the show had to be when an audience heckler asked "where's hollywood?", referring to ex-bjm matt hollywood. anton's response was to tell the guy to take the 5 south, or maybe catch a bus. it was two joel gion shows in 8 days for me, as his other band the dilletantes played at the syd barret tribute.

sunday two weeks ago was also all about the grin, as paul kelly played along with the waifs at great american. paul came on wearing a blue shirt with white polka dots, very festive. looked in good spirits. as the set went on he informed us that it was his last night on tour.

the set-list, as far as my foggy memory goes included midnight rain, they thought i was asleep, every fucking city, when i first met your ma, down to my soul...josh from the waifs joined for how to make gravy and vicky then joined the two of them for to her door.

i'd never seen the waifs nor even heard any music (odd for me, to not know of a band this good) and I was quite impressed. the women have fantastic versatile voices and vicky's harmonica playing was awesome, the band are amazing musicians, the songs are very good. I love "discovering" new bands...even ones that can play two almost sold-out nights in san francisco and have been around for years. the highlights of their set for me were the song about salmon fishing on the southwest coast of australia, and the finale, a great version of paul's from little things big things grow.

also worth ginning about is new music from the hold steady, heard already on kexp. i went on a buying spree a couple of weeks ago, gettin a mix of newish and oldish including the long winters, thom yorke, calexico, band of horses, the raconteurs (yeah, yeah, the last three have been out for a while...i was on vacation and busy) and a couple of others. and i still don't have all that i want. so sue me, i'm greedy.

the sulky...
my desk-top hard-drive containing my windoze os seems to have finally fried. thankfully i long ago bought another drive for files. though now i have to decide if i should finally ditch the desk-top and get a laptop. would probably be easier than to keep repairing that machine.

why do you fail me once again, muni? seriously, of the last 5 or so times i've taken the muni j line, there've been 2 power outages and one capricious shutdown for no apparent reason. i'm not going to turn this into the j-line version of the n judah chrnicles, but suffice it to say that it may be that i do the rest of the j-line's riders a big favor if i were to avoid it. i'm carrying some bad j-church mojo lately. moreover, it kept me from from getting a quick and needed power nap before heading out tonight to see old crow medicine show at slims. that i'm seeing them belongs in the grin side of the ledger. i'll just need a second and third wind to get thru the night.


** speaking of warhol, the upcoming two-part american masters (pbs series) film devoted to his life is on my must-see list.

"when you coming home, dad?" "i don't know when, but we'll get together then...

I don't know him personally, but my heartfelt condolences go to Josh Marshall, founder of the political blog Talking Points Memo, on the sudden loss of his dad a couple of weeks ago. Josh's moving tribute to his dad made me think a bit more about my relationship with my dad, as Josh and I share the experience of having a step-father raise us from a very young age and of thinking of him as "Dad" despite that a biological father is alive and well (and in my case living still in Denmark). This is not at all a slight to my biological father, but when I think of or speak the word "dad", I am referring to my step-father, the man who raised me. My father, the man in Denmark who gave me life, is a good guy who remarried and raised a great daughter and had a good career in the Danish government.

But it's my dad who I thought about upon reading Josh's post. My dad unblinkingly took in his new wife's 5-year old son, and without pause raised me as if I were his own. He had a son from a previous marriage and he and my mom produced two more boys. I'm a hard-headed and opinionated person, and so is my dad. We butted heads when I was younger and there were times I silently cursed him. All the while he would say "someday, you'll see I was right". And as time went by, he generally was. He's influenced me in many ways, mostly good, some not as good.

For better or worse I'm a product of his upbringing. Because of him I like to cook, I'm a die-hard Phillies fan (the sound of a baseball game on the radio is the essential sound of summer to me) and I'm literate in current events thanks to dinner table discussions where you'd best come prepared. There was always a newspaper in the house and the news on tv. I grew up watching him read voraciously. I could go on, but I assume that you get the point. He didn't give me physical life, but he's had a hand in making me the man that I am.

Josh wrote that due to his mother's untimely death and his dad's health problems, the call that came heralding his dad's death was not unexpected, that it hung over him "like a bird flying over me as I made my way in life". That was yet another part of the story that resonated deeply with me - about 10 months ago I got a call from my very upset mom. My dad had been diagnosed with bladder cancer. The good news was that it was caught early and through aggressive treatment he has essentially been cured without losing his bladder or any other organs, or without having to have arduous chemotherapy. That it was bladder cancer was especially troubling as that's what killed his dad. But that was 20-some years ago and it wasn't detected until way too late. Still, my dad is 71 and has some other health issues and having had a cancer scare (and it runs in the family) he's susceptible to more. Though I hope he lives a good long time, I know that a sudden call may come one day, and now I live 3,000 miles away on the opposite coast (also like Josh).

So not to get all maudlin and lose my snarky cred, go read Josh's post about his dad. Think about what your pops means to you. Like mothers and daughters have a unique relationships, so do sons and dads. So sons, think a bit about the man who raised you. If it's been a while since you had a chance to tell him what he means to you, do it. Today.

scenes from a holiday weekend

i loves me my three-day weekends...this one was memorable for lots of relaxing, lots of good photo ops...from candids in the park on saturday morning...
...to a sunny day in oakland at the art & soul festival
dogs played a big part during the weekend...
...and the san francisco mime troupe was on hand for some entertainment...
...meaning a chance for more candids