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

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

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

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

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

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?

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...

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

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

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

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.

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.

i took out a loan for my patient soul

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

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

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

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

(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...

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

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"

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

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.