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06.29.04 the supreme court ruling against bush's post-9/11 power land-grab seems to be yet another indication that public opinion is finally starting to turn against the president's most brazen actions of late. the latimes seems to think (and i agree) that by and large, the public is coming out of the fog of war that it has lingered in since the world trade center attacks. the reality is, bush came out of 9/11 with his declarations of war and his black and white overtones, and it was hard for people to see the situation in any other context. but the slow-burning reality is that we are not at war. we're engaged in what has become a grossly extended exercise in retaliation and a staggeringly thoughtless quest for vengeance. it's sloppy and it's stupid and it's weak, and it's disgustingly un-American. it's about damned time that the media and the general public woke up and started to realize that. # two saturdays ago, i woke up with a hangover and a scab. i've been wanting more thrill in my life, so i suppose this was less about my own drunken stupor and more about the universe making my desires manifest. that is, of course, the way i would like to look at it. tuesday night i saw earlimart with kate and jen, which i had been looking forward to for some time. the girl's begged off early and left me to check out the last half of the show on my own. afterwards, i called realized i was near david's apartment, so i called him and we met for a drink at lucky 13. if you've never been to the lucky 13, you should go. it's the closest thing i can imagine to indie chic. thursday night, one of the new vendors i'm working with took my whole office out to dinner at cortez. i'd been recently with mark and rich, so i knew what i was in for, but i was pleasantly surprised by how much fun i had spending the evening with my new coworkers. i'm reminded again and again what nice people they are. still, i feel like i'm waiting to really click with them. on friday, jessie and i went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 — more moving and disturbing than i expected, but still one-sided the way so much of michael moore's work is. i liked the movie, but once again, i want the people who shouldn't like it to like it. because those are the minds i think we need to change. nevertheless, i was glad i got to see it, and i'm happy to know that the movie-going public is giving this film such great support. saturday night was my first ever pink saturday in the castro. i joined david and mitch and some of their friends for the evening, hanging around, drinking too much, pushing our way through the throngs of queers that filled castro street. i got to see my old school friend drew (the random cute boy in the moblog) which was great. drew is such a nice guy, it's good to know that he's doing so well for himself. sunday, kate and jen returned from their pride-weekend camping trip. we hung out and i met their new kittens, belle and fred (also in the moblog) and we went back down to the castro for a few drinks, including kate's favorite, the concussion slurpee at bar on castro. CJ met up with us, and along with his cousins from chicago, we headed down to the mission for mexican food and endless pitchers of margaritas. at this point, i think i'm ready to detox for a little while. but i've still managed, since we got back from south carolina, to get down to the gym at least four or five days out of the week, so in spite of the crushing hangovers, i'm feeling great, probably better than i've felt in the last 6 months or more. it's amazing how far you can get on so little. # 06.28.04 wow, apple really sucker-punched the third-party app market today. rss in safari, launcher style searching, and most of all, those weird widgets. i think ranchero software can hold their own against safari's rather anemic looking implimentation of rss reading, enough so that i have no shame in buying the latest version of netnewswire. the os-level search function is fantastic, and being completely extensible, could change the way people use their computers, without the overwhelming headache of switching to a meta-data enabled filesystem. i didn't think search could be made so integral without digging that deep, but it looks like apple will prove me wrong. but what does this mean for quicksilver? regardless of the developer's optimism, spotlight will probably mark the end of the line. but this is ok, because the level of functionality that spotlight will bring is spectacular and will only make computing better for everyone. but dashboard? this widget thing is lame. it's lame because it's an almost-exact copy of an existing third-party application. and it's lame because it's just...lame. i mean, who the hell cares? this is the kind of thing that has such a small segment of followers, it couldn't possibly bring anything relevant to the greater community of mac users. search folders in the finder/mail/address book though...that's cool. # 06.23.04 went with kate and jen to see earlimart tonight at du nord. we were supposed to get comped, but there was some mix up with the label or something, so we had to pay at the last minute. not that i mind paying to see these guys. i saw them last at the independent, and while i enjoyed the show overall, it wasn't terribly compelling. kate thinks du nord is a better space for a band like this, and i would have to agree. tonight they were right on. tonight they were tight, not like they were at the independent. probably it helped that it was 11:30 on a tuesday night and the club was half-full at best. who wouldn't be more comfortable? i like earlimart, because they have that melodic-dissonance intersection down right. it's the same thing i like about sparklehorse, only these kids make better pop out of it. (which is not to imply that they're better than sparklehorse, just more approachable.) tonight i got shivers hearing them play. i like them because they're predictable and beautiful. they closed with the track liked on the right. # 06.22.04 thanks to commentor todd, i've discovered the BEST transit/planning geek site ever! sf cityscape has tons (tons!) of information on bay area transit and urban planning, including expansion plans, pipe dreams and (it appears) gossip and rumors. super-rad. # 06.21.04 riding this bus this morning, i saw a poster notifying passengers of a series of meetings regarding the new Central Subway project. i know its geeky of me, but i get pretty amped up over big community works/public transit projects. and what a time this is for me! san francisco is building an impressive new east-span (i.e. the ugly side) of the bay bridge, as well as a pretty big third street expansion of the muni line. then, once the third street project is complete, they will start on the new Central Subway, which will run underground from bryant street up to china town, with stations at moscone center, 3rd and market, another station at union square and a last stop in chinatown. how cool will that be to see? i mean, that's some digging! # now, i can appreciate the hygienic benefits of brushing and flossing after every meal. i don't particularly care to take it to such extremes, but still, i understand that we should. and i'm ok with people brushing their teeth at work. i keep a tiny toothbrush and tiny toothpaste in my desk drawer for those post-pesto-lunch moments or whatever. but flossing? there's nothing more disgusting (well, ok, there are a lot of things more disgusting, but i want to focus here) than walking into the bathroom at work to find someone's hands in their own mouth, strings of floss hanging out, while they make that vaguely creepy banjo-plucking sound. sorry. gross. # 06.20.04 i give you: moblog! special bonus: the longest sidebar in internet history. more more more! # 06.16.04 # 06.15.04 new mp3. you love franz ferdinand. trust me. # guess who got a new toy today? i'm giddy over low-res photos! anyone have any use for a slightly used phone? you can take your pick - t68i or t226 anyone? # 06.14.04 anyone want a gmail account? i'd hate to deprive ye' # 06.13.04 a somewhat silly, sentimental little article over at the times, inspired by that new tom hanks movie that looks so heartwarmingly dreadful. the article's cute fluff. # 06.11.04 this is hysterical. it's a statistical analysis of pitchfork reviews, compiled and used to make a song that is, statistically speaking, going to get a really good review from pitchfork. but it's not radiohead, so obviously it wont get a 10. (thanks jeremy) # tonight was a radiohead cover night at 111 minna, the weird bar/venue/gallery space in the vaguely south-of-market part of downtown. it was interesting to hear local bands covering some of my favorite radiohead tracks (one band even brought in some horn players to help them achieve a frighteningly life-like rendition of national anthem). but the clear breakout moment — and i don't say this just because my friend was guesting on guitar, or even because i have a wee crush on the keyboard player — the highlight of the evening was desoto reds. i've seen these guys before, and they're a lot of fun; adding their quirky twist to my favorite radiohead tracks really exciting. they send my little heart all a flutter by playing palo alto, which is one of my favorite b-sides ever, as well as a very inventive cover of creep that the band referred to as creepola, for it's surprisingly effective polka edge. fun! update: i forgot to mention last night what a star-studded event this was. frank chu was there, and although i didn't ask, i have a feeling he didn't have to pay the cover. on a related note, has anyone in sf been to the 12 galaxies bar yet? do you think they had to get frank's consent for the name? maybe he's getting royalties. # 06.09.04 did anyone catch pj harvey's performance on letterman monday? i just saw it (thanks tivo!) tonight and she was awesome. she sang the letter from her new album uh huh her, which i just picked up. kick. ass. # as if you couldn't have guessed this one: it looks like the itunes 4.6 update (supposedly only adds airtunes support, so not it's not exactly a mission-critical update) breaks hymn-decoded Music Store files. it seems to do this by checking an id-field in the decoded files id3 tag, which seems easy enough to fix. there's no utility for cleaning decoded files yet, but i presume it's only a matter of time. # well look at that: a power-brick sized wi-fi device from apple. sadly, i have no real use for this, but it's pretty cool that they have packed a base station, a repeater, a wireless printing hub and a streaming audio portal into such a tiny little package. # we're back from the balmy carolinas, a fabulous five day adventure in which i met jessie's sister, brother-in-law and adorable niece, and got to spend a few days in the company of the always adorable brent. and i feel like i just spent 6 days away from home too; sun-burned, jet-lagged, and oh-so-ready to sleep in my own bed again, reminding me how much i enjoy san francisco. it's fun to get away, but it's more fun to come back home. # 06.02.04 jessie and i have been asked to open for the guns 'n roses reunion tour, so we're packing our ukeleles and hitting the road for the next six days. while we're gone, enjoy the sights and sounds of the sparky infestation over at jessie's blog. # saw the shins tonight at the warfield, and let me just say, it's an amazing show to see. the guys are a lot of fun to watch, and their live sound is fluffed up, played into a slightly higher, looser range than the somewhat dense pop sound of their albums. that and, well, the music is just makes you want to jump up and down, for christ's sake. # « May 2004 | archive index | July 2004 » built with movabletype |
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