i was happy in the haze of a drunken hour

red carpet brings this woman into perspective

2009-02-08T16:44:00.000-08:00

Somehow, despite being a voting member of the Academy, I forgot that tonight is the Grammy Awards. It's a bit too late to find company for the local NARAS chapter awards telecast (complete w/ open bar...a good recouping of my annual dues), so I'll watch at home instead. While watching the red carpet show on E, there was an amusing exchange between singer Duffy and E host Ryan Seacrest. The entire interview was very flirty (not just in the obsequious butt-kissing way of celeb interviews...Duffy was totally hitting on him), and at the end, while talking about her dress, she asks him "would you like to tap it", and he gave an eager reply of "yes". Hard to tell who was more surprised at the double entendre, her or him. She seemed to have meant to do it, it took him an extra beat to get it. And I laughed.

I forget who I voted for, but I know I'm looking foward to seeing Radiohead and the USC Marching Band perform together. Glad to see Radiohead breaking new ground, using a college marching band is a very origina--- oh...,wait.

if you're so entertaining, then why are you on your own tonight?

2009-02-02T10:54:00.000-08:00

via a google chat link from EC..speed-dating for smiths fans in new york. apparently, the women vastly outnumbered the men. the social-scientist/statistician in me suspects sampling error, as the population of single morrissey-loving guys ae either too gay, too celibate, or too reclusive to go to an event like this in numbers comparable to women. and funny how the comments section got thread-jacked by gwar fans.

EC also wants all bay area folks to demand that morrissey play here before or after coachella.

and now it's morning and we are the sleepyheads

2009-01-28T10:09:00.000-08:00

a few random thoughts as i'm home on a sick day. after three or four good fights against colds, one finally got to me.

* sad news that hershey's is closing the scharffen-berger plant in berkeley. no word yet on the cafe and gift shop, but you have to assume that there won't be any more factory tours since there won't be a factory. if you haven't taken the tour, do so asap. it's worth it for no other reason than the chocolate smell overload you get when walking into the factory (the pic to the right is from when i took the tour back in november, 2006...more here). note that hershey is doing this as they report better-than-expected earnings for the 4thQ of 2008 and projected growth in 2009. suffice to say, i won't be buying hershey's products if i can help it. not that i've bought their flagship bars lately anyway, as they are to chocolate like bud light is to beer.

* i left a comment on a muni diaries post about poop-flinging passengers that the editors thought enough of to turn into an anonymous guest post. a warning that the link to my post contains a pic that's probably nsfw.

* the secret to my fighting off colds this year? using a neti-pot at the first hint of a stuffed up sinus. it's lessened the sinus-related severity of this one (relative to how my colds usually go...though hasn't helped the fatigue or sore throat) and i'm pretty sure it helped me avoid the colds earlier in the season.

* finally, some good live music this week. first, friends the matinees and invisible cities (along with love is chemicals, who i hear great things about) play the rickshaw stop this thursday to celebrate the release of the new matinees record. if i'm in better shape tomorrow night i'll definitely be there. tonight i'd like to be but won't be at the knockout for the sleepover disaster's record release show. they played with my band a few months ago, and are good guys and a good band.

don't it feel like something from a dream

2008-12-29T19:41:00.000-08:00

At the risk of losing what few cool points I might have, I'm gonna own up to long-time like of Tom Petty. As such I was able to sit through twice the 2007 documentary Runnin' Down a Dream, directed by Peter Bogdonavich (short clip below).

One big thing that comes out in the film is the sincerity and decency of Petty and his band. They come across as genuinely nice people who are trying to do nothing but make good music while keeping their souls in a business that can eat people up (something I know from direct experience). And that's something that's always (for me, anyway) come through in his songs. His songs by-and-large aren't complex on the surface, but he's always had a great sense of melody (which makes sense given that he notes that Elvis, The Beatles, The Byrds (listen to the riff from "The Waiting"), The Kinks and the Stones are major influences). But there are more than a few songs where the lyrics have much more going on than is first evident. I've always admired his ability to say the simple things without making them sound trite or cliche. Even better is that the Heartbreakers are an excellent band. Mike Campbell is in particular an unsung rock guitar hero, something that is acknowledged by Petty and others on camera.

Among the things I didn't know before but makes sense when it's presented in the film is that when they broke, in the late 1970s. they were lumped in with new wave artists because what they were doing - stripped-down rock, shorter songs with a bit of an edge - actually does fit in with songwriters like Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello and others. His thing, though, was much more American and southern and bluesy so it's not that obvious how his early records fit in there at the time. And coming to know of later it's easy to see him pegged as nothing more than an FM-radio-ready artist, mainly because as producer Jimmy Iovine says in the movie, every song from Damn the Torpedoes sounds great on the radio. And that's not a bad thing.

What I'm realizing now is that the only thing separating him from Aussie songwriter Paul Kelly is the fact that one's from Gainesville, FL and one's from Adelaide, NSW Australia. Both are excellent songwriters who make the simple seem profound and have always surrounded themselves with crack musicians who've made the songs that much better. It's also remarkable the range of artists who like Petty...everyone from Johnny Cash (who were supported by the Heartbreakers on his Unchained album and who later recorded a version of "I Won't Back Down" that Petty thought was better than his on version) to Stevie Nicks (who apparently lobbied intensely to join the band circa "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around") and Dave Grohl (who sat in on drums on SNL right after original drummer Stan Lynch left) to Johnny Depp (who appeared in the "Into the Great Wide Open" video).

It's really remarkable that Petty's kept the core of the band together for so long. One thing that seems to have helped (despite the occasional tensions) is when they started branching out and playing with other people like Dylan, Jeff Lynne and others. Kind of like a married couple who see other people for a spell and come back energized about the relationship. There's actually a quote from Mike Campbell where he mentioned that the band were "quite bored with each other". Clearly that's a dicier thing to do in a romantic relationship (I wouldn't do it), but it certainly makes musical sense if there's a commitment (as there clearly is between Petty and the band) to keep the thing running for as long as possible.

It's also a very music-focused film - there's next to nothing about the personal lives of the band. I don't think Petty's first wife has any more than a cursory few mentions - his second wife has more screen time. Besides Howie Epstein's drug issues, substance-abuse issues are barely touched on and only Petty gets under the relationship microscope for a segment that covers his divorce.

Some other things I didn't know...

* They broke big in England well before the US, in part because people associated them with he new music scene more than the tired, bloated music of the time.

* No surprise that Petty's first record deal was a bad one, where he got next to no royalties and not knowing any better signed away his publishing. He fought that (and later the almost anti-trust-like concerted rise in LP prices that the record companies tried to foist on the people back in the early 1980s) with a real ballsy attitude, taking on the record companies

* Howie Epstein's had a bad drug problem that ended his life.

One thing I do know that was notably not mentioned was how Petty got some well-deserved flak for stealing the "rebel without a clue" line (from "Into the Great Wide Open") from the Replacements' song "I'll Be You".

The most striking scene in the film is a bit shot in the studio when Petty was working on a record by Roger McGuinn and shot down a song submitted for the record by the company A&R people, calling the song for the crap is evidently was, and saying on camera (in the interview shot for the film) of how the A&R guys had no idea of the depth of the artist (McGuinn) with whom they were working.

It's almost four hours in length, but it's well worth seeing. In particular, the early footage is interesting, and you really see how they were essentially earnest punk rockers who just happened to be from the south and as such seemed more cracker than punk. But really they were flying in the face of what was going on at the time, and were happy to spit in the eye of the business and go about doing their own thing in their own way.

these green thoughts, wondering what i'll learn

2008-12-24T08:35:00.000-08:00

which is the more engaging feud going on right now...jen vs angelina or cheney vs biden?

2+2=5

2008-12-23T21:43:00.000-08:00

One of the benefits of long plane rides is the opportunity to read for long stretches of time without too much distraction. For a recent cross-country jaunt to visit the parents and meet my 10-month old nephew, I decided to take on Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.

When I subscribed to The Nation I read her column, and I've seen and heard her on various talk shows and other appearences (including her amazing speech at University of Chicago, home of Milton Friedman, the lead character in Shock Doctrine).

The Shock Doctrine, all 460 pages (plus footnotes) was read pretty much on the flights and in the airports. It was as captivating as the press for it made it out to be. Rather than rehash the main points (as has been done in many reviews), I wanted to highlight a couple of other points that stood out.

There’s a sub-story in the book, one that doesn’t get as much (if any) attention – the interconnected web of unintended consequences and the complete divorce of the policy-makers from these unexpected results. A couple of examples....

* the shock-treatment in Russia results in the expatriation of a million Russian Jews to Israel, which then results in a new pool of cheap labor and occupied-territory settlers, which then results in the ability of the Israeli government to shut-out the Palestinians from coming to Israel to work which results in more poverty among the Palestinians which then contributes to more suicide bombings and other terrorism.

* the trumped-up Asian money crisis results in massive unemployment and poverty, which then results in a rise in human-trafficking, sending thousands of young women into forced prostitution (and generates dozens of treacly columns by Nicholas Kristoff...by no means as awful as the human trafficking but worth a mention nonetheless)

* the fragile cease-fire between the government and the Tamil Tigers is derailed by the post-tsunami beach-front land-grab in Sri Lanka.

The reconstruction and reclaimation efforts detailed at the very end are the true free, democratic market -- not the rigged system set up by the IMF, World Bank, multinational corporations, politically-connected oligarchs and the military-backed dictators who prop them all up. People deciding for themselves how to run their affairs, taking back the land that the government-business oligarchs are trying to steal from them. Whether in Sri Lanka, Thailand or New Orleans, it was heartening to see people refuse to give into the disaster capitalists.

It really is a stunning book by virtue of its giving the reader a truly trans-global perspective, both at 30,000 feet and at ground level.

It also reminds me that I need to be careful in my work-life of how I use the term “globalization”. We sometimes use it when talking about how it’s a legitimate imperative to increase the number of international students on campus…that is to give all students a broader perspective in a period of globalization. But clearly the term is quite loaded to people who come from countries where “globalization” is another term for the multinational corporate appropriation of domestic resources, a term that moreso signifies crony capitalism designed to benefit a select few.

i often dream of trains

2008-11-11T22:47:00.000-08:00

It probably has something to do with the fact that I'm going to see Robyn Hitchcock play this week, but a couple of nights ago, I had a dream wherein I was in Hitcock's living room (and I knew it was his living room because I saw it in the documentary Sex, Food, Death...& Insects), with a few other folks, and we were writing and playing songs with Robyn. And at one point he pulls out a toy megaphone and explains how the previous day he'd been playing with it, writing songs with it, singing into it in gibberish-German.

Not sure what it all means, but it was a very vivid dream.

in barlight, she looked alright, in daylight, she looked desperate.

2008-11-11T10:08:00.000-08:00

so john mccain...how are you liking sarah palin now? she certainly changed the game alright. we'll see about 2012. or hopefully not.

PHINALLY!

2008-10-30T08:23:00.000-07:00

What 28 years of waiting feels like...

the moment...

Phils win!

didn't anybody tell you, this river's full of lost sharks

2008-10-21T09:02:00.000-07:00

Another one for the "I really should have my camera with me all the time" files...Monday evening rush hour, 16th & Valencia, guy is standing in the middle of Valencia holding a McCain/Palin sign. That is mavericky, my friends.

help save the youth of america

2008-10-15T21:05:00.000-07:00

What popped into my head while watching the last debate between Obama and McCain.

Americans are hurting and angry and angry and hurting and hurting and angry.

I wonder how Joe the Plumber feels about being in a tug-of-war betwen Obama and McCain?

McCain scares me when he salivates over using a hatchet and a scalpel.

Didn't McCain vote for most of the Bush budgets that were pork and ear-mark laden?

McCain knows how to save all these billions of $$..which is funny given how much money Charles Keating cost the u.s. taxpayers in large measure thanks to McCain.

Again with the overhead projector!

Americans are hurting and angry at being reminded how hurting and agry they are.

Actually, McCain backslid on the torture thing, so stop giving him credit for it.

Schieffer is letting McCain get the last word much too often so far.

Schieffer is challenging them to get into a vebal pissing match on stage?

Does McCain really want us to believe that he wouldn't have gone negative if Obama had done the town halls? Nice that Obama finally (sort of) called him on that b.s.

Enough with the crocodile tears and the calls for repudiation. Get to something meaningful.

Here we go, ACORN. Forget that they are above board. Forget also, McCain, that YOU went to an ACORN meeting. Obama did a good job countering the ACORN issue.

Again, McCain gets the last word!

Nice question about the respective Veep nominees. McCain backed off of the "bridge to nowhere" lie but kept up the gas pipeline lie. And why is he talking about autism when Palin's baby has Downs Synrome? Nice answer by Obama..."she's a capable politician who's excited the base of the Republican party". Says it all in answer to a question about her qualification to be President.

Uh oh, he called the black guy "eloquent".

Nice eye roll by McCain when Obama talked about human rights and labor protections. Says all you need to know about GOP ideology.

And AGAIN McCain gets the last word. Did someone tally this?

And Joe the Plumber gets another shout-out, this time on health care. Again, this needs to be tallied.

McCain still hasn't learned how to smile without looking creepy.

"Senator Government"...funny from a guy who's been in Congress for two+ decades.

How could Obama have voted against Justice Bryer, who was nominated in 1994?

Niiiiice use of the Ledbetter Supreme Court decision and subsequent attempt at legislation.

Why no mention of Joe the Plumber in the Roe v. Wade segment?

"Health of the mother" is just a malleable trope for abortion extremists? Ok.

And AGAIN McCain gets the last word.

Is this the first question about education in any of the three Presidential debates?

Yes! Obama talks about student loan debt.

Sarah Palin's kid is not autisitic? Or at least the baby isn't. Is one of the other kids autistic?

At least Obama got the last word on closing statements.

Nineteen days to go (as of Thursday morning).. The election can't come quick enough.

my mind's gone loose inside the shell

2008-10-15T18:37:00.000-07:00

This is the nexus of middle class America, negative political advertising, and an economy that's in the crapper.

The next was a woman, late 50s, Democrat but strongly pro-life. Loved B. and H. Clinton, loved Bush in 2000. "Well, I don't know much about this terrorist group Barack used to be in with that Weather guy but I'm sick of paying for health insurance at work and that's why I'm supporting Barack."

This quote encapsulates how McCain and Palin's associative language trick linking Obama to Ayers has worked in the minds of some voters. It works in much the same way that it worked for Bush in getting people to think that Saddam Hussein was suporting al Queda (link goes to pdf) and might have had something to do with 9/11. All they (McCain/Palin) have been doing is saying that Obama associated with a known terrorist on a non-profit board, and people hear half the words and make the leap to "Obama=terrorist".

And these weren't hard-core conservatives in the focus group. They were "Reagan Dems and Independents. Call them blue-collar plus. Slightly more Target than Walmart."

This is a frighteningly fascinating look into how people process information, and that the skilled rhetoriticians who craft campaign messages know this and (in this case as with Saddam::al Queda) use the power of association to get low-attention voters, outright dimwits or people just looking for a good rationalization to make the link, all while keeping a plausible deniability of being able to say "Hey, we never said Obama is a terrorist". Perhaps the only saving grace is that the economy is bad enough that it even trumps the horribly misguided perception that Obama is some kind of Manchurian Candidate.

It's at once fascinating, disgusting and frightening.

you made me realise

2008-10-01T22:56:00.000-07:00

Random thoughts and observations from an evening featuring excellent Thai food and My Bloody Valentine.

* First, the menu at Basil Thai is good from top to bottom. How do I know? Well, our group of 10 ended up eating most of the menu. Lesson #1 - when leaving the ordering for the table to the one person at the table who is a professional chef, don't be surprised when you have more dishes than people. Given that we had one vegan, a few vegetarians and a non-meat eater who would eat fish or chicken, and well...we needed lots of dishes. I'm pretty sure we had just about everything on the appetizer menu. I know that the spring rolls, curry puffs and potstickers are quite good. Among main courses, a tip of the hat to the wok-fried scallops, the crispy catfish (with quite a spicy kick), the eggplant curry....damn, all of it was good.

* My Bloody Valentine are yet another band who I didn't see when they were first around. Given they've had a layoff of more than a decade, I'm sure nobody going to the show knew what to expect. Well, they might have if they read some of the reviews. In any event, what we got was a sensory overload of noise and lights. The band were sharp and powerful (especially the rhythm section) but they were loud. Real loud.

* What's sad is that MBV's records feature pretty melodies and layered sonic textures, yet when they play live at bludgeoningly loud levels, they obliterate the interesting subtleties in their music. The only plus to that is you don't just hear the music, you feel it. The bass rattles your midsection, the guitars seems to wash all over you. Combined with the sensory overload of the lights, you can almost leave your body...almost like the waves of noise and light might carry you above the crowd and let you float there. For the first time in a while at a show I zoned out and forgot about everything else...the people I was there with, the crowd of strangers around me, and was just...there. As a friend said in an email, "I felt I was on drugs without taking any - how cool is that!"

* The 20+ minute wall of feedback and noise at the end of "You Made Me Realise" sounded at its apex like a jet plane landing. It also went on about 10 minutes too long.

* The Councourse at the Design Center is a truly awful sonic experience. Really (see the yelp reviews). No band worth a damn should ever allow itself to be booked there again.

* Too funny...their old label head thinks that MBVs loudness is a one-trick pony, a crutch.

* Other things I remember...red, sparkly telecaster, stacks and stacks of Marshall amps, feedback, backlighting, fans in big silvery boots, long lines to go for the bathroom, for people who were going for a smoke, the ticket-takers handing out earplugs.

no woman no cry

2008-09-29T08:31:00.000-07:00

Reading this, which reports that Hillary Clinton and Dianne Feinstein will be working with Joe Biden on prep for his debate with Sarah Palin, I wonder if perhaps Tina Fey might be a better debate prep surrogate.

it's a dirty story of a dirty man...

2008-09-24T08:07:00.001-07:00

Irvine Welsh reading from his new novel Crime, this past Saturday at Edinburgh Castle...

"he was stuck in a skanky vortex of his own making"

there's that name again

2008-09-12T23:48:00.000-07:00

as i mentioned in this post, my band's got a show upcoming at mr. smiths in san francisco. it's this thursday, september 18. starting at 8pm. it's good music, good films...good times.

we also have a television appearance airing on saturday night september 18 at 11pm. it's a public access show called the collection agency (ignore the band listed as playing for september...it's us, not my first earthquake) and it airs on san francisco public access channel 29.

punchdrunk lovesick singalong

2008-09-12T23:19:00.000-07:00

if you have an itunes account,hurry and subscribe to the npr all songs considered podcast.

why?

radiohead, that's why.

there's a 2-hour concert up, taped very recently down in santa barbara. the gloriously obsessed folks at 58hours.com have the set list here.

so yeah, go get it. now.

my mind is filled with radio cures

2008-08-28T09:34:00.000-07:00

this song, telephone (link to mp3) by petracovich just kills me every time i listen to it. so tender, so sad, so direct. there's another mp3 on the website and more music at her myspace page.

hot soft spots on a hard rock planet.

2008-08-24T21:02:00.000-07:00

This was quite a week for music. Eight bands at three events, and while I liked some more than others, none sucked. Which is always good.

Wednesday night, a friend who I hadn't seen in a long time was singing back-up on a few songs at the record release show for Goh Nakamura, so I figured I'd go check it out. A bonus was that Scrabbel were playing as well. I hadn't heard of them until I got the email announcement for the show. So I clicked through their website and was instantly hooked by their infectious pop. The show was as good as I'd hoped. Scrabbel were charming and Goh Nakamaurah was outstanding. His songs are soulful and (especially on the new album Ulysses) you can hear the Beatle influence loud and clear.

Thursday my band hosted (but did not play this time) our monthly Vive le Rock night of indie music at Mr. Smiths. Our guests this month were The French Semester (from LA), Man Versus and The Lag.

The French Semester, friends of our drummer Carter, were outstanding. Crisp, tight, and energetic. The latest record, Open Letter to the Disappeared, is a solid collection of lo-fi, laconic pop that reminded me of their fellow LA bands Irving and (Irving spin-off) Sea Wolf (now with a song in a car commercial!). The theme of the night (for me) was cool instruments, and bassist Gil Disloquez's Hofner bass (strung for his left-handed playing...just like Paul!) made me want one of my own. And for only $349 at Musician's Friend, that just might happen.

Man Versus, who are based down in San Jose, brought out a good crowd and delivered with an excellent set. The most obvious comparison is Mates of State, thanks to the piano-heavy arrangements. MV's sound is more expansive, however. Next to the music, the coolest thing (following my theme for the show) had to be guitarist Jennifer Roye's bad-ass flying-V Gibson (like Gil's bass, strung to be played left handed) which she played through a Marshall head and cabinet. I mention this because you'd think, seeing that gear, that she'd be a total shredding rocker. Turns out a relative is, which is where she got the gear. And while she didn't fire up any 80's hair-metal riffs, her playing was excellent.

Sunday afternoon was the inaugural Rock Make Festival deep in the heart of the Mission. A gaggle of bands were scheduled. I managed to catch French Miami, Rademacher and Man/Miracle. Besides the music, a bunch of area independent artists, jewlery and clothing designers had tables full of good stuff.

You'd think this would be enough to sate me, but in addition to our own rehearsals, there's upcoming shows by Calexico, Spoon, and My Bloody Valentine among others. And this without going to the Outside Lands and Treasure Island Music Festivals.

And of course, the September installment of Vive le Rock, featuring us, The Sleepover Disaster, and short films by Waylon Bacon. September 18 at Mr. Smiths.

despite all the amputation you could dance to the rock 'n' roll station

2008-08-17T21:01:00.000-07:00

The USGS runs a research project where they've put sensor-activated remote-controlled cameras in Glacier National Park.

Go to the page and you can see videos of bear cubs fighting wolves and dancing bears. No, it's got nothing to do with the Grateful Dead or Russian music or the circus. Just bears doing their tree rub thing, which makes it looks like they're dancing.

Try watching it and not smiling. But heed the warning at the end...don't dance with the bears.

big ol' jet airliner

2008-08-17T18:20:00.000-07:00

This piece in the New Republic (which I saw via TPM) dicusses how much longer it will be before airline travel becomes too pricey for most of us. The main problem of course is the cost of oil. In fact, the article contains this startling nugget:

Despite recent fluctuations, a growing number of economists are bracing for oil to hit or surpass $200 per barrel in a few years, and most industry analysts agree with Douglas Runte, of RBS Greenwich Capital, who told The Wall Street Journal in June, "Many airline business models cease to work at $135-a-barrel oil prices."

So what happens then? Does the joke commercial from a year or so back, where we have to pay for overhead storage and the bathroom, come true? We already have to pay to check bags on most airlines. The airlines even charge more for exit row seating now. So what's next?

Beyond the prices it's also the experience that has become dismal. Fewer flights means almost all of them are packed, even the red eyes. Packed flights are also more likely to create tense passengers. And going through secrurity becomes more annoying and demoralizing year after year. Shoes off, no liquids in > 3oz containers. This despite any solid evidence that anyone can bring down a plane with a shoe-bomb or a regular sized container of shampoo.

Now there's word that TSA can seize laptops and other data devices *without probable cause*, download the data and can take their sweet time getting the evice back to the owner. And the standards seem to differ at every ariport. At Lihue Airport in Kauai recently, I was asked to remove my digital camera because it looked too much like a video camera (I'll add that the TSA crew there were totally pleasant about it, so no disrespect to them). This was a surprise because I didn't realize video cameras were a problem in and of themselves. It's not that I don't appreciate security measures - I certainly don't want to be blown up mid-air. But please, can we get some sanity back into the process?

Between high prices, deterioriating services and annoying and just plain incomprehensible (and possibly unconstitutional) security processes, it's like the airlines and the government would rather we don't fly at all.

it's good to see you back in a bar band baby

2008-07-30T08:51:00.000-07:00

It's been said often that The Hold Steady, especially singer Craig Finn, look like the guys who work in the cubicle next you. That's certainly true when Finn takes the stage in a short-sleeved polo shirt and khakis. However, Finn has 100x the stage presence of people who try 100x harder to look the part of a rocker.

Last night's Hold Steady show in San Francisco was, as is always the case when they play (or at least the times I've seen them) a loud, unabashedly celebratory, communal event. They are one of those kinds of bands that don't so much play *to* an audience as *with* an audience. There is no fourth wall with them. While some bands, like The National need the fourth wall to make what they do work so well, The Hold Steady need to tear down that wall and get down on the floor with you to celebrate the love of the music.

Finn's songs are full of references to a recurring cast of characters, most of whom would be at Hold Steady shows with the rest of us. At least when they aren't in jail, rehab, on a drug-fueled vision quest in the Sonoma, or hanging out at the banging "camps down by the Mississippi" smoking meth or inhaling nitrous oxide, or getting wasted in Ybor City. They turn up in song after song throughout the band's 4 albums. The newest, Stay Positive, continues the musical integration of keyboard player Franz Nicolay to the point where you can't imagine most of the songs written as they were without his presence. He's almost become as dominating a musical feature of the band as Tad Kubler's guitar or Finn's lyrics.

Though I got to the venue in a bit of a bad mood, I came away from the show in a great mood. The band did a great job of covering all four records in the set. The recurring "Stay Postive" theme would sound corny coming from any other band. But when Finn sings it so earnestly with his band grooving tightly behind him, it's hard not to have his songs be among those certain songs that get scratched into our souls.

if you close the door, the night could last forever

2008-07-28T02:16:00.000-07:00

i hate stretches like this, when sleep doesn't come easy. the saving grace perhaps is that while work is busy, it's not as busy as it's going to get come late fall and into winter. also, I'm only 10 real days and 8 working days from vacation.

so since i'm up...

finally got around to watching the velevet underground documentary under review. not great, not bad. long-time fans will learn a little bit, novices will learn a bit more. it suffers from the total lack of lou reed's and john cale's participation, though it was cool to see mo tucker interviewed.

the hold steady are in town this tuesday and i can't wait. i missed them the last two times they were around. once i chose (unwisely) instead to go see voxtrot (liked the record, "eh" on the show, plus it was a second date that probably shouldn't have happened anyway). then last fall i was out of town when they came around, with art brut opening up. i'm really sorry i missed that one. this pitchfork review of the new record, stay positive, sums it up as well as anything else i've read. i expect the show will be the usual celebration of music and friendship and barroom camaraderie.

and how about this new song from the broken west? catchy. looking forward to the new album.

i don't have too many tv addictions, but mad men looks to be one. just now catching up on the first season (thanks to comcast on-demand). will need to dvr and catch up on season 2 asap. also on the horizon is the dvds for last season of the wire. kp and i cranked thru the first 4 seasons in a bunch of marathon sittings. i almost want to stretch out season 5 for a long while, if only so it won't be over too quickly.

damn. seriously, i gotta be up in three hours to go to work. tomorrow (well, later today) is gonna suck. hard. a shot or three on the snooze button may be in my all-too immediate future.

another uninnocent, elegant fall into the unmagnificent lives of adults

2008-07-26T01:14:00.000-07:00

To the loud drunk jackasses outside my window at 1am...

Look, I'm sure you lead a much more interesting life than I do. Well, at least tonight when it seems like all my friends had something to do that didn't involve me. That's fine, I accept that, it happens sometimes. I stayed in, read, watched the movie I just got "A Skin A Night", a documentary about The National as they recorded Boxer.

So yeah, that means I was at home and in bed earlier than I'd like to be while the rest of the city as out carousing.

And yeah I know I live in a neighborhood (Mission/Castro area) where I should expect some night time activity. I get that.

But still..keep your gotdamned voiced down a bit. I mean, you see those buildings that *surround* you as you walk down my street? They are residences. Houses, apartments. People *live* behind those windows. And some of us were trying to get to sleep before you.

To the gaggle of LOUD annoying jackasses? When you walk in a pack of 12 you are going to be loud. Don't try and talk over each other because then you're REALLY GOTDAMNED LOUD. Your voices all echo in the 3-story valley that is my street.

And you drunk girl (who sounded like a bit of a fatass). The neighborhood does not need to hear your cigarette and beer-ravaged voice yell LOUDLY, over and over "first base, first base, first base". I don't care if your two girlfriends are faux making out (or for real). Keep your damned voice down. And to her friend? Your joke about having "first base" as an interest on all your social networking profiles? Not funny. Especially the way you said it, in that annoying hipster cadence/accent.

I know it's the city, but have some fucking common sense and common courtesy.

subpoenaed in texas, sequestered in memphis

2008-07-20T23:01:00.000-07:00

it does seem i've sequestered myself from the blogging life for the last oh, 11 months or so. honestly not sure why. i suppose that for a few weeks i fell out of the habit and then just fell away from it altogether. and it's not like one less voice in the great wall of internet self-absorption is all that missed.

and not to say that this signals some return to regular posting, but this missive has come about because in catching up on a few other blogs i'd stopped reading, and getting to read a few new blogs, and in thinking about the microblogging that i guess i do on facebook (in the status updates) i got to wondering once again if there's something worthwhile i have to offer.

that is, does the world need more rants about how evil the fisa bill is or how great the national are or how great i'm sure the new hold steady record is, etc, etc. does the world need more navel gazing, or more personal life updates about my soccer-playing or my new music project or whatever else is going on?

i wouldn't mind posting more if only to keep my writing chops sharp. i've got a couple of scholarly writing projects that i'll need to finish in the next 3-6 months, so it's not like i'll just be number grinding guy at work. also, i've found that now firmly back into the music groove i want to keep up my creative chops in other ways (though my photography has fallen woefully out of regularity).

so anyway, yeah.

playing kiss covers, beautiful and stoned

2007-08-24T09:04:00.000-07:00

** update, monday 8/27...

good review of the show here. i'll agree with most of it save for the comment about sky blue sky bieng kind of sterile. yeah, it's mellow and precise, but it's a beautiful record. everytime i listen i hear new things in the playing and arranging that i didn't notice before. i'll agree that played live the band added some dynamic range to the sky blue sky songs, but that's the point -- i don't want to see a band recreate the studio versions when they play live.

in any event, a great show. they're such a solid band, full of amazing musicians playing songs that are superbly written and imaginatively arranged. the greek is a wonderful venue...clean sight-lines, good sound. it's quite a sight to see the lights reflecting off of the tree canpoy behind the crowd.

*****
Wilco! Tonight! Hooray!

...doing "Heavy Metal Drummer" at Bonnaroo...

you cast a long shadow and that is your testament

2007-08-21T10:31:00.000-07:00

yes, i did just post about joe strummer last week. but it's his birthday today (he'd have been 55), so why not. from streetcore, the last mescaleros album..."coma girl"...

she's got a new spell

2007-08-14T07:56:00.001-07:00

the beginning of a new relationship can be such a roller coaster of emotions. you meet someone special and the chemistry and attraction can be an overwhelming rush...conflicting parts of your brain and heart (and yes, other organs) are sending simultaneous signals to "speed up!!" and "slow down!!". you want the "speed up" instincts to take over because there's no endorphin rush like what romance can give you, apologies to runners and adrenaline junkies out there who swear by the runner's high or the thrill of hurtling down a mountain on skis or a bike.

at the same time, especially if you've been through a few relationships, you want to be able to take time and take stock and make sure it's right. you don't want to get in too far and too quickly for fear of getting hurt (again). however, too much taking stock and too much caution dulls the rush. and you can't really experience the thrills of romance if you aren't willing to risk the hurt. so goes the internal dynamic, at least for us overly-analytical types. and especially for us overly-analytical types who also happen to be pisces...ruled by both rationality and emotion, by both the head and the heart.

then there's the interpersonal dynamic, the process of getting to know the other person. that's also terrain filled with the rush of exploration and the pause to make sure everything is as perfect as can be. you want to always be putting your best foot forward, not putting your foot in your mouth. you want to make sure you're reading signals correctly and responding appropriately, while at the same time signaling what you want and hoping that's taken the right way. you want to show off your best qualities and mute the less desirable traits (and let's be honest, we're all imperfect). you want to be both accommodating to the other person's desires and at the same time you have to be able to speak up when there's something that you're not totally happy with. it's a delicate dance for sure, but the best way is to just be yourself and be confident that if you've worked on making yourself into a good person that those qualities will shine through and that you'll be loved for those qualities.

it's complex and complicated and layered. it's exhilarating and a bit nerve-wracking. you as much want to dive into the deep end as you want to tip-toe in via the shallow end.

but in the end it's worth it, so says this unabashed romantic. at the moment i'm feeling as alive and on edge as i have in a while, but in a good way. there's something at hand that's worth making sure blossoms. i'm shedding the internal caution and hyper-rationality that marked my behavior in my last relationship and letting the moment take over, and it feels good.

they say the stars can’t see their rays, nor can they count their numbered days

2007-08-13T17:10:00.000-07:00

sunday i finally got around to watching "let's rock again" a documentary about joe strummer and his last band, the mescaleros. shot in 2001 and 2002, it follows joe and the band as they tour japan and the united states. strummer passed away not long after the japanese tour and the recording of a final mescaleros record, streetcore.

preview clip here...

we see joe and the band on the road promoting their second record, global a go-go. in japan he is greeted backstage and on the street by people positively verklempt at meeting a true music legend. i know i'd have had a hard time not being a gushing idiot had i had the chance to met him.

we also see something remarkable -- a completely unaffected and blase joe, doing a cold call to a south jersey radio station to promote the album and the show in atlantic city. we see joe on the a.c boardwalk trying to drum up business for the show. we see joe sitting on the street and just hanging out with some kids who are presumably no older than his own kids...just chatting with them about music as if in fact they are his kids. joe *fucking* strummer doing what neophyte artists do to get noticed. that should serve as an object lesson to any artist who thinks he's too big to interact with the hoi polloi.

i'm not too much affected by celebrity death and misadventure. paris hilton in jail means nothing to me. however, i was upset when kurt cobain killed himself...though i sometimes wonder if he -- or rather his legacy -- like james dean and marilyn monroe, was better served by dying young.

with joe, though...his sudden death, at a point in his life where he was still making good music, still passionate about his work...any time i hear his voice i get a little sad. in fact, i stumbled on this clip for his version of bob marley's "redemption song" recently...

it affects me every time i watch it...i'll cop to getting a bit misty-eyed (and it's playing now as i finish this post, and well, let's say the room's a bit dusty). check out the comments, especially the oldest ones. you can see what strummer and his music meant to people. and this comment by zeke7777 speaks to the scenes i mentioned in "let's rock again" where joe is tirelessly promoting his show and the record -- "joe strummer was never bigger than his smallest fan."

joe was a true original, a true punk in the sense of living his values, even if the values cost him material goods. the clash really were for a while "the only band that really matters", because their music was so infused with politics and passion. joe never wavered from that combination. check out the voice-over that starts the clip. that was joe...idealism and passion, not afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve.

so hard to choose between conceit and rock

2007-08-13T07:55:00.000-07:00

the music spigot's been on full blast lately...lots of shows seen and yet to see, lots of records to get...

saturday kp and i headed to amoeba in the haight for an in-store by john vanderslice. like the national and spoon (see below) vanderslice is a guy who for some reason i just hadn't gotten into yet, despite the fact that his music is right in line with what i tend to like. after his set, during which he was warm, engaging and fun, i think i'll pay a bit more attention.

thursday was my friend sadie's band, invisible cities. awesome indie pop, moving from upbeat and charming to moody to arty to straight out rocking. the new album should be a good one.

the last time i saw yo la tengo was most likely back in the early 1990s. yeah, a long time ago. seeing them again at the kusf birthday show brought back memories of my indie rock college days. they were in good form, opening with a cover of the ramones' "sheena is a punk rocker", part of a set-long tribute to the year 1977. they also slipped in a fleetwood mac song, as well as jonathan richman's "roadrunner" among their own songs. all that and the bass player looked a bit like ricky from "better off dead".

two bands that i'm surprisingly late to the party on are spoon and the national. spoon i saw last year open for death cab for cutie. seeing them live i came away liking them more than i had just from hearing some songs now and again on kexp. for whatever reason not enough to buy any records, but enough to open my mind. then hearing some tracks off of ga ga ga ga ga something clicked and i bought the last few albums. got-damn if girls can tell isn't as good as the hype. likewise with the newest record. seriously, where have i been the last 6 years or so on these guys, huh?

kexp has been playing the national for a while, and again, like with vanderslice and spoon, i'd dig them on the radio but for whatever reason didn't move on it. then i went to see them play along with the broken west a month or so ago, and as i noted, i was blown away. i've been playing boxer and alligator almost non-stop as of late.

and upcoming? well this week is patti smith for sure, and possibly the magic numbers and then detroit cobras. not to mention wilco the week after next!

listen, do you want to know a secret, do you promise not to tell?

2007-08-07T16:10:00.000-07:00

** update...August 13 -- almost a week later and still no response to an email I sent to Sen. Feinstein's office. Shameful. I did get an unsolicited email fron Sen. Boxer about her sponsoring of legislation to prevent illegal spyware downloads. I'd like to know from Sen. Boxer how she could let her colleague vote for a bill with more pernicious spying capabilities than any software.

I can't begin to describe how disappointed I am in Democrats on Capitol Hill for capitulating to the fear-mongering and pressure from the Bush administration and passing a truly excereble piece of legislation, the update of FISA legislation. Twelve Senate Democrats, including one of my Senators, Dianne Feinstein, voted for it. Shame on you. Forty-one House Democrats voted for it (thankfully NOT my Rep. Nancy Pelosi). Shame on the 41 of you. Glenn Greenwald does his usualy masterful job of explaining why this is bad, so I won't rehash. Suffice to say that the party has control of Congress and thus the upper-hand in crafting legislation that would safeguard civil liberties without weakening security. All they had to do was pass that legislation and either let the GOP filibuster it or let Bush veto it and turn the "weak on national security" argument against them. As is the Dems now get painted as weaklings who bowed to pressure when things got heavy. It's like they forgot that they *won* in the fall precisely because people are fed up with current GOP policy in just about everything.

The legislation sunsets in 6 months. One can only hope that Congressional Democrats will grow a spine between now and then.

and you know when i'm down to my socks what time it is...it's business time

2007-07-25T14:21:00.001-07:00

got-damn, but flight of the conchords is just about the funniest thing on tv right now. this is but one of the many reasons why...

all the faces that we used to know, gone from the places that we used to go

2007-07-23T08:30:00.000-07:00

last week i was in miami for the first time since i left more than two years ago. the trip was one day's worth of work (well, 3 hours) and a few days of play. luckily my friend karen still lives there in her beachfront apartment, so i had an awesome crashpad.

walking around the university where i used to work and the neighborhood where i used to live, i was overcome by these odd feelings that were somewhat nostalgic and something else that i can't put my finger on. something a bit more complicated. it took me the better part of monday to figure out what was going on.

i left miami in such a hurry that at the time my only thoughts and emotions were of relief -- getting a better paying job at a university where the leadership wasn't dysfunctional, and moving to a part of the country that i knew would be a better fit for me. it was a month from the date of the offer until i pulled my car out of the driveway of my building and headed north and then west. i had no time to really reflect and process the move, it was all a flurry of finishing work, packing and goodbye lunches and dinners.

being back there after two years brought on a rush of emotions and thoughts to which i hadn't given much attention. it was a mix, some of familiar annoyance, thanks to the experience at the rental car counter in miami beach...the car jockeys taking 20 minutes to get my car after i'd finished the paperwork -- a reminder that half the people working in the customer service industry view their customers as annoyances. a similar experience at the versailles airport coffee stand bookended the trip, as the lady who took my order pretty much sneered at my gringo face.

but at my old workplace i had feelings more complicated than nostalgia...there was plenty of "what-if" mixed up in my head. what if i'd made it work better, published as i should have, gotten my personal life settled...would i have been happy, made better progress to tenure? maybe, or maybe not as the experiences of other friends made clear. one guy who published like a fiend is leaving, landing at a tenured gig in southern california. two other friends, who became a couple, are going to leave as she inexplicably did not get tenure and he may but they're both so disenchanted now it's a certainty they're gone.

this isn't to say i was unhappy. i do have an affection for my time here. i had a great apartment five blocks from the ocean and near lots of restaurants, bars, shops. the job was fine enough and my life had no serious complications or problems. after four years it became home, complete with favorite hang-out spots. all in all, it wasn't that bad. not that i'd want to go back and live there -- for me it's the quintessential "great place to visit but wouldn't want to live there" kinda place. sometimes it just takes a detached eye to notice the good things you didn't see at the time.

me, i've never seen dallas from a dc9

2007-07-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

i've got two trips already scheduled this fall, both in november. one is to louisville for a conference. getting from the bay area to louisville is a bit of a chore and the connections are mostly atlanta or dallas. nothing through chicago that matches my schedule. even delta doesn't swing me through salt lake, which would make sense. it is, though (for now), less expensive than i imagine, around $300 +/-.

next is to philadelphia over thanksgiving weekend. my folks will be home for that holiday and it also turns out to be the weekend of my high school reunion. but that means traveling over the thanksgiving weekend, the 7th circle of hell for air travel...well, at least for people like me who love to travel but have developed a great antipathy for the process of air travel. and to make matters worse, since it's peak time, the prices are nuts...it's a $500-$600 ticket no matter what i do.

teleportation can't come soon enough for me.

we expected something, something better than before, we expected something more

2007-07-14T11:41:00.000-07:00

my friend linh is moving to china for a year, so we had a bon voyage meal at farina. it's fairly new, in a very striking building on 18th st in the mission. after a little mix-up with their liquor license, they were open at full steam. and so we went...

*sigh*...there really is so much to like. the staff are very friendly. when i called for a reservation, i was *called back* within a few minutes after leaving a message. and got a table for 2 for a friday at 7:30 on just 6 days notice. excellent.

on arriving, the hostess greeted us warmly and took us right to the table. our server, kate, was attentive and all smiles the whole time. the decor is very cool...neo-modern with some classic italian cucina touches. sitting in the dining room you get sweeping views of 18th st from the wall-sized widows. though it needs some sound baffling...it was way too loud...all that wood and brick...there's not much to absorb all the talking.

for better or worse though, what matters as much as anything in a restaurant is the food, and farina has a way to go, especially given the prices. i've got no problem spending $60/per person on this kind of meal (more bistro vs high end) , but it's gotta be much better than what we got.

overall things were too oily. as a general suggestion i'd say to the chef "ok, the amount of oil you want to drizzle over the salmon atop golden tomato? or on the anchovy? cut it by at least half. the amount of oil you put on the pizzeta? cut by half." and so on. i had a homemade ravioli stuffed with eggplant that was tasty enough, but again *swimming* in oil. it also took a while for the first course to come out, and by a while i mean longer than it should.

so i really hope they get the food tightened up because otherwise there's a lot to like about the place. the kind of place you'd like to see succeed, if only to make it easier to get a table at delfina.

pack it up or throw it away, nothing goes in storage

2007-07-11T10:55:00.000-07:00

for no particular reason other than a change of scenery, i've been thinking about moving. it's not that i don't like my apartment...i do. the building's well maintained and the propery management company are fairly responsive to maintenance requests. the apartment itself is good sized and the view is fantastic. the parking on my street is probably as good as i can get in sf. and as i've mentioned, i love living next to dolores park.

so why leave? well, again, change of scenery. lately there's been a rush of apartments in nob hill. sadly most are tiny, though a couple have promise. i have no idea if living in that neighborhood will be better or worse than where i am now. i know parking will be atrocious, and there'll be more fog, so less sunlight. the rent at a couple of places is lower as well...right now i'm definitely paying for the view.

mostly though, it's restlessness. a part of me gets antsy after too long in any specific situation. and since i really don't want to leave san francisco, what better way to satisfy my urge to roam than to just move to a different neighborhood?

whether that's enough to justify giving up a good apartment in what's right now probably the most desired neighborhood in the city, one that's close to some friends, places i like to go and my single favorite spot in the city...i don't know.

**update...10pm, wednesday...

ok, after having seen 4 places between taylor & mason and washington and pine (1 saturday, 1 sunday and 2 today [including one with an unbelieveably smug woman from a property mgt. company], seeing what parking is like at various times (horrible), seeing small places that while nice, are smaller than mine and no view...eh. no need to move. my place may be a bit overpriced but all things considered i have it good. the grass really is greener on my side of the fence.

do you really love me?

2007-07-04T10:13:00.001-07:00

sitting here on july 4, watching the last hour of the devil and daniel johnston. it's a moving account of a man wrestling with some serious demons. but the most disturbing thing to me is that while a few people in the new york & austin scenes seemed sincerely interested in helping johnston with his music and art, there was a "freak show waiting to happen" vibe going on at the live shows chronicled in the film. makes me wonder how many people were there almost hoping to see him melt down.

spend your summer thinking 'bout the apple...

2007-07-03T10:15:00.000-07:00

a while back i had a girlfriend whose dad was fond of saying on july 4th that "summer's over". while i'm not that fatalistic about what the day means, i am a bit amazed that the year is alredy half over. seriously, i feel like just last week was new year's day, and the other day was my birthday. so wha the hell have i been doing the last few months? besides drowning in work, that is.

first, there's been music. lots.

a few weeks ago i finally got around to watching the robyn hitchcock documentary "sex, food, death... & insects" shown on sundance. it's mostly the story of how his new band the venus 3 came together. it was also a view into his artistic process, one that includes both stellar musicianship and songwriting ability and an unmatched gift for improvisation.

i've spent a small fortune on cds and shows lately, mostly to good results (the less said about the disappointing voxtrot show the better). this last week the national/broken west show made me a happy man. i knew going in that i'd like the broken west. their record i can't go on i'll go on is near the top of my list so far for the year. their show was a bit more subdued than i thought it would be and at the start they looked like they'd just woken from a nap. but they finished strong and overall were good. kexp(**) plays the national quite often, but i hadn't yet gotten any of their records. so while i was more or less familiar with them, i wasn't totally sure what to expect. what we got was quite good -- layered guitars, keys and violin that made the slow songs rich and haunting.

upcoming shows include band of horses this week at gamh (if i can find tix on craigslist), and in august an incredible run that includes yo la tengo, patti smith, magic numbers, detroit cobras, and wilco. not to mention the new pornographers in september.

beyond that, it's been trips to pt. reyes, getting my knee healthy so i can get out and play soccer again (and shed some of the love handles i've built up while less active), and this last week getting over a nasty summer cold. no vacation this year (well, there was a plan to go to hawaii, but the break-up scotched that {oh yeah, so that's meant more dating...which is both fun and tiring}). with 80,000 miles in the bank at united and the saving of vacation time, that means a three-week trip very far away is possible next summer. at the moment southeast asia is high on my list, but i'm also intrigued by the idea of spain, portugal and a trek along the north coast of morocco. so many possibilities...

so yeah, summer's hardly over. still much more to do.

** (i should add as an aside that the possibility that stations like kexp might be forced out of netcasting thanks to the stupid and shortsighted decision by the copyright royalty board to increase royalty rates on internet broadcasts. i don't argue that performers should be compensated, but the fact is without the increase in listeners garnered by web radio, many artists wouldn't get as much attention and as a result sell as many records. the riaa and naras {of which i'm a voting member} are only seeing the issue as affecting the big webcasters like yahoo...the real impact will be felt down the line at the more shoestring budget stations, including many college stations. hopefully congress will pass legislation to make the crb's increase a bit more fair to low-budget operators who may serve a decent-sized audience but do not generate much profit, if any.)

i get good advice from the advertising world

2007-06-29T21:32:00.000-07:00

during the last few months i've seen commercials featuring songs from bands that i'd never have guessed would be selling their music. there was the feelies in a volvo commercial, and mates of state who actually appear in a wireless phone commercial while for the actor plays. what really blew me away was hearing a brand new wilco song, sky blue sky in a vw commercial. the record's just out.

the trend started when vw used nike drake's pink moon in a commercial some years back. that seemed to make it safe for left-of-the-dial music to be used to sell things. i'm not as purist as lots of folks in this trouser press discussion, and i certainly don't begrudge the right of anyone to use their music as they see fit. it's more just, well, surprise at who i'm hearing, even wilco, who've got a fairly high profile. some of these aren't exactly mainstream artists.

this site seems to be a fairly decent source of information for finding out the name of that song/artists you heard in a commmercial but couldn't quite place.

shameless self-promotion

2007-05-29T08:58:00.000-07:00

thanks to sfist for picking this shot...

...to represent monday may 28th's day around the bay post.

the carnaval parade was indeed a great opportunity for pictures. more later, when they're organized. for now, a few up on the flickr page.

***update...and on the tuesday may 29 round up as well..

anarchy for sale

2007-05-27T20:41:00.000-07:00

thursday night i ended up at the jello biafra spoken word endurance fest at gamh. for well over 2 and a half hours (!), biafra talked and talked and talked almost non-stop. he started with a few original poetry/prose pieces including a biting "die for oil suckers" which was what the title suggests.

biafra spent most of the night ranting about the current political situation, firing not only on bush but on "corporate democrats". by virtue of the dems wimping out on the war funding bill that day, biafra had good fodder for the performance. sadly he spent less time on that and the gonzales/d.o.j issues and too uch time rehashing stuff that frankly the audience should have or did already know. much of it sounded like things he's talked about many times, and much of it was dated. memo to jello...give your audience a bit more credit for being up on current events. we don't come to get a rehash of current events but for some original commentary by a guy known for cutting to the quick.

and in the height of bougie irony, mike and i drove up and found a parking spot right in front of gamh...him driving his late model audi sedan. like the man once sang...all the young punks, new boots and contracts...

we will laugh and talk about the village green.

2007-05-22T08:58:00.000-07:00

Though I am an avowed urbanite who loves living in a city environment, I also loves me my green space. Over the years I've been lucky enough (not by accident) to have lived within easy walking distance of awesome parks. Right now I live a block away from Dolores Park, a lovely piece of green with an amazing view.

It's a place with lots of opportunity for some good people watching and photography, something I try to take advantage of regularly. There's almost always something happening, like this past weekend when the Loyd Family Players showed up for an impromptu (for us) afternoon concert and stroll through the park....

My morning commute starts with a walk through the park to BART, and even at the early hour of 6:50am (yes, oy) there's a handful of folks taking their dogs out for a romp. Sometimes there's a fitness bootcamp group doing situps, pushups or some stretching. Very quickly I began to recognize the regulars for that time of day...I like the consistency of seeing familiar faces, especially that early in the morning...helps one to feel community, even before sunrise. And of course, the walk home is great -- on sunny days during the months where the sun sets well after the end of the work day, the park is filled with people, often with their dogs.

Community is a central part of Dolores Park, whether it's thousands gathering to watch the World Cup final or for a Cinco de Mayo festival or to see the San Francisco Mime Troupe or for Film Night in the Park or just to hang out with dogs and friends.

Another wonderful downtown green space is Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. I was lucky enough to live around the corner from it for a couple of years, and within a short walk for a few other years. I spent many a weekend day there, reading, napping, people-watching...it's my favorite spot in the city.

So I was pleased to find on Netflix a documentary about the park, Rittenhouse Square: A Year in the Life of an American Park. It's not bad, though seems to focus too much on girl-watching in the park, almost getting into dirty-old-man territory...it had an uncomfortable leering quality to it (I went to college with one of the associate producers, I wonder if I should write and tell him). That aside it also highlighted one of the best things about the park, the musicians who use it as practice and performance space. I think the people who've decided to cave into a small cadre of uptight nimbys who moved to the park without a clue as to what makes it great and now crack down on busking and playing need to watch the film to understand how vital a role music plays in the life of Rittenhouse Square.

It's these urban and downtown green spaces that add to city life, provide for a wonderful counterpoint to the fast pace and the concrete and steel that mostly defines being in a city.

**Update...the Chronicle gets into the act, singing the praises of Dolores Park.

whatever happened to my rock and roll

2007-05-19T09:20:00.001-07:00

if you're in need of new music suggestions and don't have time to comb through the excellent mp3 blogs like gorilla vs bear, my old kentucky blog and others i've listed to the right, the podcasts from kexp, kcrw and salon are awesome.

kexp, subject of frequent raves from me, has probably the best podcast lineup of any radio station or otherwise music-centered, web-based enterprise i can think of. there's a song-of-the day feature, a live set archive and others.

santa monica's kcrw has long been known for an excellent variety of programming, especially when it comes to music. in the stone age (pre-web, podcasts, etc) you could find vinyl and then cd releases of in-studio sessions, often by the artists in question as a b-side or extra track to a single. like kexp they have a bunch of podcasts, though with much more variety, given that they don't just do music (note the links to lots of npr podcasts). the today's top tune podcast is as strong as kexp's, and thankfully there's not much, if any, overlap.

the salon audiofile song of the day is another eclectic source, and somehow, magically, there's almost no overlap with kcrw and kexp.

i took out a loan for my patient soul

2007-05-14T23:27:00.000-07:00

to say that the last month or two have been crazy is actually understating the case. work was super busy, but that was expected, not only because of the workflow cycle but because the analyst who works for me was on maternity leave. it took up most of my mental energy -- the rest of my time i almost felt like i was on auto-pilot. beyond that, however, it's been a period of personal ups and downs (and now downs again), friends getting married, some minor knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus, a weekend at the ballpark (hey, the phillies were in town), some good live music...you name it. seems like just yesterday i was in tahoe, learning how to downhill ski.

and now, finally, the pace slows. only somewhat, though. the personal ups and downs shift a bit to down, as jp & i are done. if i were a better diarist i could write something worth reading that does the relationship justice and resonates beyond my own sphere the way good diary writing does (c.f. david sedaris, etc). as with any relationship i come away having learned something about myself, where i am right now, my capacity to open up, how i am received, etc. and now, beyond the emotional fallout, i've gotta find an emergency foster home for ernie, and then find an apartment where i can keep him. san francisco landlords are in the main surprisingly not pet friendly. it's a shame, as i have a great apartment with a great view and on one of the few streets in san francisco where parking isn't a total and complete soul-sucking pain-in-the-ass. oh well.

there has been plenty of good lately, though...a decent show by fountains of wayne, and i was there only 4 days removed from the knee surgery, though probably not the best thing to stand for a couple of hours. i hate to say that i'm dissappointed in the new record...doesn't grab me the way the last few have -- they can make a cute video with demetri martin, but it doesn't take away from the fact that "someone to love" is a mail-it-in song by their standards -- there's a few good songs on the record, but overall...bleh. last week was black rebel motorcycle club..good show, and i love the new record. upcoming is voxtrot (though sadly playing *the same night* as the hold steady. what's worse is the bands play game and slim's respectively -- the "sister clubs" should have tried to stagger the shows. having seen the hold steady twice in two years, i'll probably opt for voxtrot. it's a shame there even has to be a choice.

in other good good good music news, there's a new wilco record out! it's more mellow than i'm used to from them, and they've taken the jam-bandesque ethos they adotpted while on the last tour and put it to record. still, the songwriting is top-notch and i love that the band continues to follow their own muse as it takes them.

so now...onward. it's too late to put together any kind of summer adventure trip, may have to wait until fall. or next summer. asia, i think. so this will be the summer of little adventures. and of moving. ugh.

say it ain't so

2007-04-09T16:00:00.000-07:00

from the program of the conference i'm attending...

<...> Communication & Outreach Committee (closed meeting)

alright then.

you'll never change you're no better than the weather

2007-04-08T12:32:00.000-07:00

thursday as i was walking home from bart, the sunshine of the day very quickly gave way to a heavy fog, the first one we'd had in a while. call me crazy but on nights like this, when a thick and heavy fog steamrolls across the city, i feel very lucky to live here. yeah, i love a sunny day, but there's something darkly romantic about the fog, and when it blankets what's arguably the most beautiful city in the country, well...i may shiver a bit from the chill wind, but it's worth it for the way it adds an extra something to my step.

that said, the weather i'm facing this week in chicago is seriously cold. colder than what a foggy night in san francisco will bring. cold as in snow was falling early this morning. cold as in my plan to go to the cubs game on wednesday ain' gonna happen if it means sitting for 2-3 hours in 40-degree weather.

i filled the whole front page with the catchiest words i could find

2007-03-29T21:17:00.000-07:00

like all good dopey slackers i'm a regular daily show viewer. like most people, what i love about the show is that underneath the snark and satire are real nuggets of truth. it's possible that since the famous cnn moment the show's been a bit too taken with itself, but it's always worth watching. and yes, stewart was unfair to the dems in the run up to the 2006 midterm elections by harping on the false theme that the democrats had no plan for governing. maybe it was stewart's attempt to show that his satire can cross party lines. usually, however, there's a pretty solid factual basis for the snark.

so it was disappointing to see how, on the march 27 show, stewart took on the congressional debate over funding for iraq. somehow stewart let stand the g.o.p. talking point that the dems deliberately loaded the bill with pork. no, most of the spending in the bill was catch-up funding because the outgoing 109th congress couldn't see fit to pass the necessary spending bills.

and also? why would any self-respecting talk show have dennis miller on anymore? he may be a friend of stewart's but at this point he's become a loathsome, misogynist, unfunny jerk whose stock in trade has become grade-school insults of democrat politicians. his march 27 daily show appearance was particularly awful. i know stewart has to pander to the guests a bit, but he's never been afraid to call guests on their own bullshit. too bad he didn't puncture miller's bullshit balloon. at least he and colbert took some nice shots at miller during the bump between the shows (video not available right now).

this boy's exhausted

2007-03-16T01:05:00.000-07:00

(updated, monday march 19)...ok, maybe not so much. thankfully all is well and i've recovered my gem. funny how that made for my best night of sleep in a week.

****
so after 7 months i think i might be single again ('m honestly not sure...i mean, i hope not though i guess, if you don't know, then you are), and sadly it's not of my choosing. no details here as i'm not about laying that much bare. suffice to say that it's something i thought could be worked out, as working things out is part of any relationship if you really want the relationship to last.

obviously the main reason i'm sad is because i thought i'd found someone who i clicked with on enough levels -- tempermentally, activity-wise, politically, and so forth -- that it would go a long way. and that's tough to do as the years pass. for those of us past the age of 35, there's an aphorism about dating:

single people over 35 are like parking spaces -- the best ones are almost always taken and most of the rest are handicapped.

i thought i'd gotten exceedingly lucky and found a gem of an untaken space.

so now i not only don't have the hard-to-find gem, but i've got to start circling the block again. trouble is, i don't know that i've got it in me right now. i'm not sure that i can face another round of first-dates, some blind, some not. yeah, there's a certain rush to it, but it can also get soul-crushing real quick.

why john edwards? because...

2007-03-15T09:27:00.000-07:00

i was on his bandwagon early, even in the face of hillary and obama mania.

there were good reasons initially --

* his work on poverty, work that was more than a campaign slogan but an actual effort.

* the tone of his current campaign, which has stressed action and doing, rather than calculated talking.

and then he stuck behind his blogging team when the wingnut-driven storm blew up. the women eventually resigned, but edwards did stand behind them and refused to fire them.

and now, this...

in the wake of assinine comments about homosexuality by joint chiefs chair gen. peter pace, hillary and obama each refused to repudiate the sentiment behind the comments. the gutless wonders wouldn't say right off what should have been said.

edwards, though, said the right thing.

right now he's the sleeper candidate who, even though he announced first, lags behind obama and hillary in the polls. but polls now don't mean a thing. and while hillary and obama snipe at each other and play it safe to the point of seeming to lack conviction about anything but getting the nomination, edwards is out there saying what he means, standing for something, most all of it good.

a ticket of him with obama as the vice presidential nominee will be a formidable one against what looks to be a weak and pandering gop field.

today is a birthday, they're smoking cigars

2007-03-13T01:15:00.000-07:00

i'm not one to use birthdays as any major milestone from which to take stock of life, and this won't be any different. though i will note that thinking back to a few years ago, i was at a job which i knew i wanted to leave and in a city in which i didn't particularly want to live. now, those things are much better. oh, and this isn't a troll for b-day wishes.

on any given birthday you might wonder if it's a beatles kind of birthday, or a smiths or blur kind of birthday, a replacements kind of birthday, a fugazi type of birthday or maybe a cracker type of birthday. i went with the sugarcubes. for no apparent reason other than that song's lyrics are as oblique as i'm feeling about this particular one.

sure, life in general is good, though thanks to an unexpected and unpleasant event over the weekend things could be better. and to quote westerberg, i do kinda wish that "there weren't quite as many candles that {I} had to blow". but life is ok, if for no other reason that i'm in good health (creaky knees notwithstanding), living in a beautiful city, doing good work in a job i love, playing some soccer, learning some improv and acting, and after a couple of years out here i've built up a fairly decent social network. so setbacks aside, things could be much worse. i know how good i have it.

so yeah, today's the day. i'll make of it what it is.

call me "king of the mountain"

2007-03-06T17:42:00.000-08:00

so back in december i had my first ever time on skis, a nice cross country session up in tahoe. this past weekend jp & i were able to (thanks to a work thing that fell through) go to tahoe again for the weekend, and this time i tried downhill.

we stayed in the town of truckee...
...at the truckee hotel, and skiied at northstar. the hotel was rustic. take away the electronic appliances in the room and i'll bet the feel was very much like late 19th/early 20th century. the room had a sink, but toilet and bath facilities were shared. and the stairs? very steep. but it was clean, comfortable, right downtown and close to the mountain. traffic up was a bit heavy around sacramento, so even a 2:30pm departure meant a 7pm arrival.

saturday morning we headed to northstar. jp rented skis from the good people at tahoe dave's, while i'd get it at northstar as it was included in the lesson. the rental operation at northstar was incredible -- you walk in and fill out some info at the computer -- height, eight, skiing level, etc. after getting the form printed you get boots, skis and poles in fairly short order. a very well oiled machine.

the conditions, i'm told, were optimal -- cool temps in the high 30s and with no wind. there'd been lots of snow lately, somewhat calming the fears of a totally dry winter.

in addition to it being a busy weekend (thanks to the great conditions) northstar was also hosting a van's snowboarding competition. free rockstar energy drinks for everyone! if it weren't that i was there to ski and not spectate, i would have taken lots of pics. as it is, all i've got is this empty half-pipe...

jp's been skiing since she was about 9 years old, so she took the morning to do some more challenging runs, including some black diamonds. meanwhile, i was in an adult beginners class lead by a very nice grandfatherly guy named bob hill. he was kind, patient and funny. he led us through some very basic stuff, progressing to some turns out of a snowplow. for those of us who have been on bicycles, turning means sometimes a heavy lean in the direction you turn. imagine my surprise at the counterintuitiveness of the ski turn, which means you lean in the opposite direction that you want to go.

anyway, i got the hang of the basics and did ok on the wimpiest of the bunny slopes. after lunch we tried the next level of easy runs...
...i did ok, pretty much snowplowing the whole way down, but never falling, doing a few small turns and feeling pretty good about it. so after a few runs there, we tried the next level up.

oh boy.

the first run out i somehow got us so far to one side that i think we ended up on an intermediate trail filled with lots of boarders. there were a few steep drops and some narrow chutes. i made it all the way down, falling more than a few times. by the end of the run my heart was racing and i was sweating more than i thought possible on a cold winter day. still, i wanted more...

so we went back, but this time making sure to cut to the right parts of the trail. there was more falling, some major speed that i didn't think i could control. but we got in a few good runs and despite a few falls, most of which were on purpose (thankfully playing goalie in soccer has helped me learn how to fall sideways) i didn't break or sprain or tear anything. the last run was the village trail, in lieu of the gondola. i was nice and leisurely, a great way to end the day.

well actually, the best end to the day came at the bar, with a few margaritas and some calamari. no lie, i was still all amped up on adrenaline as we sat down. it took a drink or two and some plain old sitting to calm down. it was a good amped up, though. a physical *and* mental tiredness that comes from total exertion and concentration for a long period of time.

some random observations...who decided it was a good idea to tell snowboarders that it was ok to sit in the middle of trails -- dude, if you fall down, either get up and keep moving. if you're hurt, call for help. if you're waiting for slower friends to catch up, get the hell out of the middle of the trail. and who decided it was a good idea to make cellphone calls at the end of a trail, right in the middle of gates that people are trying to use to get to the lifts or the lodge.

all in all, a great day. i don't know that i'll ski enough to get as good as jp, but i'd like to get to the point where i can paralell and turn without snowplowing. and i need to learn the "hockey stop" or spray stop. it looks cooler than the "snowplow and fall stop" i do now.

gimme ten seconds, i'll think of something to say

2007-02-21T15:50:00.000-08:00

of note of late...

* i'm liking the band the broken west. chalk up another great find from kexp, who have given the band lots of spins lately. the kexp fund drive is upcoming. it's a great station that deserves your ears and your dollars.

* speaking of music, apples in stereo hit the independent soon, and i'm happy about that. sadly i'll miss the long winters at the independent, as i'm in a wedding that night. well, not just in a wedding, but officiating it -- i'm a "minister" in the universal life church. nothing else to it (for me) but that i'm legal to perform wedding ceremonies and sign a marriage license. it's an odd experience, being thisclose while a couple says their vows. very touching to be asked. back to the long winters, at least i did see them at du nord in october, so i don't feel too bad, despite that they give good show. (yes, i meant to drop the 'a').

* not just sad, but borderline tragic (if i may be allowed some melodrama) is that due to being in chicago for an academic conference, i'm going to miss robyn hitchcock at slims. his show last year was very good, and like billy bragg, robyn's someone i don't mind seeing again and again and again. via netflix, i have storefront hitchock right now, and while good, just isn't the same.

* my camera was busted for a while, the lens wouldn't extend. after ~~a few viagra~~ sending it to the canon repair facility for an under-warranty fix, it's back and good as new. and just in time, as it got in some good work during president's day weekend. sunday we went to the sap tennis open finals, with relative unknowns (well, to me) andy murray and ivo karlovic playing what turned out to be a very tense and even match. two sets went to tiebreak. murray's a quick-footed player who relies on speed and precise shot placement. karlovic is a 6'10" booming server who makes too many unforced errors that his wins on service cover up. if he gets the rest of his game a bit more solid, he'll win a few tournaments.

monday we did a nice trek on the trails around muir beach, heading (waaaaay) down to pirate's cove. a good hike followed by some beer and split pea with mint soup at the pelican. we had the good furtune (dumb luck?) to have gotten going early and thus not caught up in the traffic hold ups that probably resulted from the tour of california bike race stage going from sausalito to santa rosa that day. as we were driving to muir we could see folks claiming space to watch the race go by.

you've been undressed by a man with a mind like the gutter press

2007-02-08T18:35:00.000-08:00

there's been a bit of a tempest in a teapot in the political blogosphere centering on the john edwards campaign and his hiring of amanda marcotte and erin mcewen, bloggers from pendagon and shakespeare's sister (respectively). like many bloggers (me included) their language has been at times, eh, colorful. saucy, you might say.

the right-wing noise machine, in an attempt to smear edwards, has focused its atttention on the hirings, demanding that edwards fire them. to his credit, edwards stood up and said no, and apparently reversed a decision to let go marcotte and mcewen.

the most striking thing about the reaction of the right-wing bloggers and advocates like michelle malkin and william donohoe (head of a conservative catholic group) is that those chattering the loudest represet some of the worst in hateful speech on tv, radio and the internet. glenn greenwald has led the way in documenting how vile these people can be. i linked to but one post of many that greenwald's done on the subject. digby (in the post linked above) and media matters has also covered the issue pretty well. (update, 2/9, 8:06am...the ohio for john edwards blog culls a bunch of donohue's greatest hits as collected by media matters) in addition to the hypocrisy, greenwald, digby and media matters challenge the press to do a bit of their own research, to not simply take the word of right that the only the left are screeching madmen. google's a helluva tool, man.

this also brings up the issue of the maturation of the blogosphere, political and otherwise. i think this may represent a change in the calculations of some bloggers and how they deal with profanity. i wonder if there might be a toning down of the profanity by some bloggers who see a stint on a presidential or other high profile campaign as a part of their future. since i don't hold those aspirations i take a few more liberties. but only when it serves a purpose. this isn't some prudist crusade, as a trip through my own writings will show.

i do believe, however, that higher profile bloggers and diarists who post to daily kos ought to take a moment and think about whether the profanity hurts or helps the argument. blogs are sometimes read by people a work -- a huge headline with FUCK in it tends to jump off a screen. political blogs can be great tools for high school civics teachers to use to provide examples of how public participation in poliical discourse has changed over time, from the hyde park soapbox to the philadelphia publik houses to the internet. do we really want to be party to inculcating kids into a world of political discourse that's even more shrill and nasty than the heated partisanship of 19th century newspapers?

in other words, just because you can do it doesn't mean you have to. there is some honor in the high road, and you can make your point just as effectively.

lastly, what to do about the immeidate situation of the hypocrisy and smear tactics of the right wing hate machine? well, in the same way that it's best to knock down the schoolyard bully and to punch a shark in the nose, edwards and the rest of the dems in the race and the netroots writ large need to launch a sustained attack on the right-wing hate mongers -- from broadcasters like limbaugh and hannity to pundits like coulter and bloggers like malikn and reynolds. the left needs to frame the story to the mainstream media that these people are not purveyors or arbiters of civil discourse but are in fact a large part of the problem. arguably, it's limbaugh who started filling the cesspool - remember that he made his bones with a barrage of anti-liberal and anti-clinton screeds.

whenever edwards is asked about it he ought to respond with a comment to the effect that reporters should spend some time reading powerline, malkin, lgf, instapundit, etc. his bloggers should regularly post links to blogs that document the hypocrisy, and they should do their own digging as well. each of the dem candidates should echo this strategy until the mainstream media finally begins to show the petty haters for what they are.

remember, mccarthy went on and on until someone finally questioned his decency and showed him to be a naked emperor. it's time to disrobe the emperors of hate and hypocrisy.

vehicular douchebaggery

2007-01-30T19:07:00.000-08:00

i've about had it. people, please....when the light is red, you shouldn't be going through the intersection. i don't know if i'm just getting more sensitive to it or if it's a real phenomenon, but as of late i notice more and more people in san francisco running red lights and exhibiting general vehicular douchebaggery.

cases in point...

today, right before 6pm, corner of 18th & dolores. a bunch of cars are lined up to turn left from dolores onto 18th. at the yellow a couple sneak through -- understandable. one guy in a silver something or other (4-door sedan of some sort) hesitates for a moment and then plows through a full 5 seconds *after* the light changed to red. again...before he goes through he hesitates. people, when it comes to going through a red traffic light, if you have to think about for even a split-micro-second? don't fucking go through the light.

not five minutes later i'm crossing church street at the steps by the bridge over the muni tracks, at the 19th st. stop sign. car goes through and i stride into the intersection, because it's a stop sign, right? the next car will stop and see me, no worries, right? of course not. the driver did stop, but clearly not for a long enough time, and clearly didn't look to the right. i almost got plowed. to be fair, i wasn't at the crosswalk, but about 8 feet in front of it. and it was getting dark and i wa wearing a dark jacket and dark pants. but still...people...look carefully before proceeding through a stop sign. that and the red light thing are basic drivers ed stuff.

and it's not just these examples. not a day goes by that i don't see a couple of people going through red lights. shit's getting out of hand in what i thought was a town where some basic civility was more the rule. last august the chronicle noted a "scary surge in traffic deaths". recently, there has been some press about the problem with market & octavia mainly drivers making an illegal right turn from market to the freeway on-ramp at octavia.

beyond better enforcement, what's the solution? cameras at intersections? bleh. more police presence? eh. how about people just don't be dicks behind the wheel.

run the money changers out of the temple

2007-01-26T08:37:00.000-08:00

wow. the us senate isn't normally a place for firebrand speeches and high drama. sure, there's been a caning (though by an interloper from the house), and in the last congress harry reid shut the place down in a canny move, but usually it serves as a venue for measured and polite debate.

which makes this speech by ted kennedy this week such a spine-tingling event. the hairs on the back of my neck were standing at attention when he hit the money quote, accusing republicans in the senate of having disdain for the working poor (check the reactions of the woman sitting behind kennedy's left).

he was a bit uneven on meet the press last sunday (maybe it was too early for him?), but damn, the speech on the minimum wage was all populist hellfire and brimstone. i can only hope that other democrats take note and get some spitfire and spine.

it reminds me of the movies marty made about new york

2007-01-20T16:57:00.000-08:00

as i mentioned a while back, i saw and loved martin scorcese's latest film, the departed.

in this piece in the washington post, stephen hunter speculates that scorcese might win a best director oscar for the departed, but that he doesn't really deserve it for this film, and that if he does win it'll essentially be a career award given under the guise of honoring work on the one film. hunter calls "the departed" the "least scorcesesque" of his films, that it seems like an homage made by a grad student film-maker.

hunter's first reason that it's not scorcesesque? well, it's not set in new york. seriously. that makes it not a marty movie. location. and also? well...

...it's not set among the Italian American Mafia subculture, and its characters seem by far a cooler lot than Scorsese's typical crew of hotheads and sociopath outsiders who yearn to belong and start killing when they don't. Nor does it have the hypnotic intensity that Scorsese brings to his typical film, that sense of hyper-realism that takes on a nightmarish clarity. It doesn't have Scorsese's old friend and collaborator Robert De Niro (who was off making his own film, "The Good Shepherd"), thus vacating a fat old-guy role for Jack Nicholson, who brought a different and distinctly non-Scorsese tone to the piece.

ok, where to start?

as a parallel example, i'll note that one of my favorte u2 records is zooropa. it is their most un-u2sque record, one reason why i love it so much (not that i don't love the band). they claimed pop would be a departure, but it was a tepid attempt at not being u2 and it ended up being a tepid u2 record. zooropa was just them making a record -- it didn't seem like they were thinking about being or not being u2.

what does this have to do with this review of the departed? well, hunter misses the point about what makes the film so good. it is precisely because scorecese doesn't wallow in stock scorcese-isms that the film works. it's a tight and unnerving story about lies and betrayal and people not being true to themselves, themes that scorcese has gone back to time and time again. i don't agree that it's as clean and striaght-up as hunter claims. moreoever, i defy you to find another director who could have taken the story (adapted from a korean film, infernal affairs) and made it as tense. who else could have gotten such fantastic performances from leonardo dicaprio and matt damon? yes, nicholson was not like de niro would have been in the role of frank costello, and what's wrong with that? why does hunter assume that scorecese must have de niro as his lead heavy? why can't scorcese move beyond being scorcese and bring different actors into his orbit?

does the departed deserve an oscar? well, the director's guild nominees are usually a good place to look at for the director's oscar, and for the dga award scorcese is up against the directors of babel, little miss sunshine, the queen and dreamgirls. i can't imagine that in a field so diverse (assuming the oscar list is similar) that a scorcese win would be thought of as cheap. maybe it is a career nod, but it's well deserved for the film in and of itself.

what i get from hunter's review is that he so much likes the scorcese of taxi driver and goodfellas that he can't accept that scorcese can make a good gangester movie without falling back on personal cliche. like the u2 who made zooropa didn't seem to be trying to be u2, the scorcese who made the departed seemed unconcerned with being scorcese. he just wanted to make a very good, tense gangster film. and he did.

you've got a head full of traffic, you're a siren's song

2007-01-16T22:59:00.000-08:00

a few random thoughts...

ok, so 4th & 10 you go for it, but 4th & 15 you punt? WTF? you're down 27-24 with under 2 minutes to go...andy reid, don't you remember 4th & 26?

peter o'toole's interview on the daily show recently (pt. I, pt. II), was, well, odd. he was either out of it or totally having fun with jon stewart.

much better was the hold steady on letterman. got-damn that's a great fucking band.

oh, and also? during the bush interview on 60 minutes sunday, nice of correspondent scott pelley to use the gop semi-slur "democrat" when it should be "democratic" (when referring to the political party). a moment of lazy journalistic toolery in an otherwise decently aggressive interview.

what am i looking forward to this week? colbert and o'reilly on each other's show thursday night. i'm looking forward to seeing o'reilly squirm and pretend to like it.

finally, a word to comcast. and i say this not just as a subscriber, but as a stockholder. look, guys...i get it that you offer phone service as well as cable and broadband. but do you have to send me a mailer every friggin' week? i see the commercials more often than erectile dysfunction ads. and though i'll grant that the el moolah comcast ad is pretty funny, it's more the mailer issue -- how about you send a few less mailers and either lower my rates or pay out a dividend?

one hand on this wily comet

2007-01-12T10:10:00.000-08:00

huh...right here, in the san francisco early evening sky...a comet! (via sfist)

no one gives it to you. you have to take it.

2007-01-07T13:12:00.000-08:00

finally got around to seeing the departed, and wow...just wow. it's been a while since a film left me speechless upon leaving the theatre, but this one did.

it's tough to write too much without giving anything away, so i'll just say that leonardo dicaprio gives his best performance ever. he was great in basketball diaries and very good in catch me if you can. but here he's grown up and finally can carry off an adult role convincingly, without looking like a kid trying to play adult. the rest of the main cast -- matt damon, martin sheen and alec bldwin are very good, and jack nicholson is, well, jack nicholson.

scorcese makes great gangster films, and this is among his best.

done is good, but done well is so much fucking better

2007-01-06T00:41:00.000-08:00

indeed i took in the stephen malkmus show at bimbos. he and the jicks were very good. i didn't ever get to see pavement so this would have to do (well, until they get back for the reuinion tour in 5 or so years...hey, if sebadoh can, right?). anyway, with new drummer janet weiss of the late great sleater-kinney they played a good set, mixed it up from his solo records, expanded some arrangements, got into some extended jamming. still, there was something kind of detached...hard to put my finger on it. good show, it just didn't grab me the way i had expected it to. maybe it was the tuning issues that made it so that between just about every song there was a long tuning break? it was apparently the first night of a west coast tour...i'm sure by a few shows in the music and the tech stuff will all be going smoothly. and hopefully malkmus will shave off the god-awful pornstache.

but for real? the surprise of the night was st. vincent. i haven't heard of annie clark, but from the first note i was hooked. it doesn't hurt that she has the whole winsome indie waif thing going, but that's not what it's all about. she's an inventive guitar player and has a unique voice that borrows a bit from both bjork and billie holiday, among other places. first three songs were devestating -- she sang about paris burning, offing an unfaithful lover and begging a guy to marry her. it was as captivated as i've been by an opening band/artist that i'd never heard of. check out the songs on the myspace page, read her blog, read what gorilla vs. bear has to say about her here and here and here.

later on i'm gonna turn the heat to 10

2007-01-05T13:15:00.000-08:00

the place to be tonight? bimbo's 365, for stephen malkmus.

the place to be sunday? my living room at 1pm for the eagles-giants playoff game. e!a!g!l!e!s! eagles!

in between? not sure. it's suppsed to be sunny (though a bit chilly) this weekend, so maybe a hike. but for indoor time i've got the office (british version) special show, aired after series 2 from netflix.

there's also a book i need to finish reading and then get a review written. and a couple of paper proposals.

yeah i'm calm, yeah i'm kicking television

2007-01-04T07:58:00.000-08:00

my television vices are few. staples in the tv diet, beyond baseball, soccer, hockey and football are movies (netflix, ifc, sundance or hbo {when i subscribe}), and just a handful of shows -- meet the press, daily show, colbert report, pardon the interruption, and the sopranos (the reason i'll pick up hbo). over the years i've had things come and go...seinfeld of course (but not friends) went the long haul, from beginning to end, same with nypd blue (when on his game, bochco could write with real verve). i came a bit late to west wing but when i got it i loved it (ditto re: sorkin and writing).

some things are more ephemeral -- lost lost me after the first season. for a while i was with survivor, but the bloom wore off that rose in fall of 2005. i did watch the amazing race this past season -- mostly it's because jp's into it (gotta be a good boyfriend) but it was worth watching on its own, if only to laugh at rob and kimberly and imagine what that household will be like in 15 years.

anyway, every year i check stuff out, to see if anything is worth the investment. this year i went with studio 60 on the sunset strip (i'm a sorkin fan, you know), 30 rock (tina fey and tracy morgan were the best thing about snl save for will ferrell) and friday night lights (not sure why).

studio 60 and 30 rock are each set behind the scenes of late night sketch comedy shows, but that's where the similarity pretty much ends. 30 rock is actually set at nbc, and studio 60 at a fictional network. studio 60 is a one-hour drama, 30 rock a 30 minute sitcom. studio 60 is shot all dark and shadowy and takes itself seriously, 30 rock is bright and shiny and farcical.

initially studio 60 disappointed me. it was a show about a comedy and it wasn't funny. the characters took themselves waaaaay too seriously. but i stuck with it because well, sorkin usually delivers, from sports night to a few good men to west wing. after 4 or 5 episodes in it hit a good stride -- things are a bit lighter and sorkin's started to draw out the characters a bit more, and they're getting to be likeable. though matthew perry has pretty much put chandler behind him playing matt albie, it's hard not to look at and hear bradley whitford and not see/hear josh lyman -- his danny tripp character here is too close in style and the organizational hierarchy to the west wing senior staffer lyman. there are trademark sorkinisms -- the "walking and talking", the fast-paced and specifically timed screwball comedy dialogue, the male buddy tandem (jed &leo:josh & sam:danny & matt:simon & tom {d.l. hughley and nate corddry}). i hope nbc gives it some room to breathe and grow. though west wing was good almost immediately, it was the second season where it really took off and absent sorkin's drug meltdown who knows...the 4th and 5th seasons might have been better.

30 rock is sharp and funny. tina fey can act just well enough for the character (c.f. jerry seinfeld), tracy morgan is hysterical and alec baldwin is fantastic. there are throw-away lines that kill...it's sometimes a bit obvious but it works. give some credit to exec producer lorne michaels for skewering his own golden goose.

friday night lights looks like a one-season wonder for me. the first episode was fun -- in a football crazy texas town a high school football team with big expectations loses its star qb and pulls out a stirring last-minute victory. the football scenes are very well done and realistic, kyle chandler is very good as the head coach, connie britton is not just hot but plays a great coach's wife. but the team has pulled out three improbable last minute wins and the scenarios are already heading into "hit me over the head" obvious territory. it's fun and fluff and melodrama but it's going to get old very fast. then there's the big problem with doing a show about high school sports -- the kids do have to move on with their lives. so you can't get too attached to the student characters. new ones may come, but you know some character situations will either get recycled or outlandish. i'll also lay even money that either/or/both the coach and wife end up with an infidelity thing that resolves with everyting more or less ok. there's already lots of drinking, lots of sex...there'll be a student death soon (hell, there was a paralysis in the first episode). i'm in the middle of the buzz bisinger book that inspired the show (the town and characters are not at all like in the book - all it shares is that it's set in west texas and revolves around high school football) and the film (starring billy bob thornton as the coach) is high up in my netflix queue. but the show goes soon.

this is already long, so i'll save disucssion of the office and comparisons between the brit and us versions for another time.

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

2006-12-31T14:43:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-22T12:30:00.000-08:00

happiness is a new pair of doc martens.

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

we had some massive nights

2006-12-21T15:14:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-17T18:07:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-16T16:51:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-15T16:50:00.000-08:00

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

tv party tonight!

2006-12-15T15:38:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-12T10:35:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-03T15:00:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-22T20:45:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-21T09:58:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-15T12:19:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-10T10:23:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-08T09:29:00.000-08:00

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...

2006-11-07T09:27:00.000-08:00

halloweening

2006-11-02T08:58:00.000-08:00

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

2006-10-30T22:23:00.000-08:00

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

2006-10-26T15:55:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-25T13:05:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-24T21:46:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-21T10:48:00.000-07:00

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...

2006-10-20T00:08:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-19T15:05:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-18T08:09:00.000-07:00

(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

2006-10-16T10:59:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-10-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-10T11:19:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-10-08T17:41:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-07T10:32:00.000-07:00

oh, the caption possibilities...

(via daily kos)

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

2006-10-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-05T14:07:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-03T21:49:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-03T18:56:00.000-07:00

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)

2006-09-28T10:20:00.000-07:00

(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

2006-09-24T12:29:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-22T17:24:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

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.