summer 2011: warm-up


May 17th, 2011

for years i wondered if my blogging was a result of actually having something to say, or just something to do while sitting at a desk job for 8 hours a day. well, these past few months i’ve not been sitting at my desk job all day every day (shifted to working part time as needed), and i think the lack of posts here answers that question.  it turns out when i’m not stuck spending hours a day in front of a computer i do other things, like read the New Yorker and go for walks, and don’t just sit in front of my laptop. so that is the explanation for lack of posts.  it’s not because i haven’t been doing anything or reading the news or have commentary.  i’m just not as inclined to sit down and write about much if i’m not already at the computer.

moving on: last weekend was super fun. we went to see 2 live shows – Ezra Furman and the Harpoons (with Tristen opening) on thursday night and The Black Angels (with Sleepy Sun opening) on friday. Ezra was great, but he was sick and i think it showed.  always a good show though with great energy from the whole band.  i highly recommend their albums if you love singer/songwriters.  while i dig indie rock, dark and twisted psychedelic rock is higher up there on the list of things that my brain soaks up and rolls around in and enjoys. local SF band Sleepy Sun was a great surprise for an opening, and The Black Angels did not disappoint with their wall of sound. it was a challenge to keep my mind from wandering into the purple haze, but the crowd push from the mosh pit jolted me back every few minutes (who moshes at a psychrock concert? i thought we all just stood around with our eyes closed? people who grew up at gilman street, i’m guessing). + i love falling in love with the people on stage for a minute and that is why i love live music.

a string of birthday parties on saturday, then sunday we went for a hike up our favorite trail in Berkeley and cooked dinner and watched the Babies documentary with friends. while it was fun to watch and beautifully shot, i was slightly underwhelmed by this film. the small controversy when the film came out about whether it was appropriate for children to watch (some mommies thought seeing other babies pooping/peeing/breastfeeding was TMI for their own little ones) was much more interesting to me than the film itself.

and now we are gearing up for spring/summer.  with my new free time – the first summer i’ve had since 1998 that i’m not working full time all season – i have A LOT OF PLANS.  we shall see how many of them come to pass.

things that are for sure:

–Spring Training, this sunday in Joaquin Miller park in Oakland (if the world doesn’t end on Saturday!), because if your summer is a marathon of camping (disco or regular), mountain climbing, all-night escapades, road trips, festivals, and full days of drinking in the park with work days in between, you need to warm up so you don’t hurt yourself. this is a free all day picnic-party. the illustrious obi-j closes the show, but we’ll be there all day.

–spending a long weekend floating on a houseboat flotilla in the Sacramento river in June – i have lived in this state for 12 summers and i almost never get to swim. the Pacific is cold and surly no matter when, and the rivers and lakes are all a drive away. growing up in Michigan with a freshwater pond and/or river every 100 yards, this really makes me crazy sometimes.

–PRICELESS. July 1-4 up in Belden Town.  the best disco campout in the High Sierras for the 6th year in a row.

–Phish in Tahoe August 9 with a hiking/camping weekend beforehand. summer in lake tahoe + phish = guaranteed awesome.

the things that are definite maybe:

–New York City.  sometime before July 31, because i NEED to get to the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met.

–Burning Man. we have tickets. but if something a better use of time/money comes up (like a trip abroad this fall?), this could get bumped.

in the meantime, i plan to continue spending my days biking around town, going to yoga/keeping up the workout routines, and window shopping. and….that’s about it.

summer 2011: are we ready?

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thoughts from last night’s concert


June 10th, 2010

[the first opening band] is like Neil Young, as played by Ben Affleck. they are so *sincere*, and if there is even a hint of irony it is unintended. that could be a compliment.

2 girls in the bathroom with total 80s Flashdance getups on said (very loudly) they didn’t like Ezra Furman’s voice. “the music is OK but his voice is not very good. i just don’t like the way he sings”. they probably would have said the same thing about Bob Dylan in 1963.

Delta Spirit was just a bit too….plaid for me. we left before it was over.

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tonight’s musical menu = delicious


June 9th, 2010

tonight’s musical menu:

amazingly hand-crafted electronica elaborately woven with organic sounds driven by undertows of dance-able bassbeats followed by live poetic raw guitar+vocals music that will make you dance, laugh and maybe cry? honestly, using only current music being made in my circles of friends, i couldn’t have scheduled a better music menu for myself if i tried.

unrelated but musical note:

  • i learned this morning that Metallica’s “Unforgiven” = length of my commute to work if i drive the car.  i bought this song as a cassette single when it came out, and listened to it hundreds of times.  remember cassette singles? 1990-1991 was a really weird year for me for reasons i won’t go into here, so it makes sense that i *totally connected* to such a lame song. oh, metallica.  so much cheese for such a hard rock band.
  • the fact that i just tagged this post “ezra furman” + “metallica” + “ill gates” + “sh1pwr3k” speaks volumes about my current and life-long musical tastes.

(concert resume has been updated)

(concert resume: n. A complete and comprehensive list of concerts that one has attended. Often casual conversation between fellow concert goers.)

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tiny posts that somehow evolved into live-blogging american idol


May 26th, 2010
  • there are certain songs that when i hear them on the radio, in my head it gets replaced with the high school marching band/jazz band version (i was in band from grade 6-12, was 1st clarinet and played sax also).  i am not enjoying the HS jazz band version of China Grove in my head right now.
  • last night i resuffered the dream that i wasn’t passing calculus again (IRL i got an A), and this time (the nth time) i noted that the lack of achievement in that respect directly correlated to lack of hooking up with the boy i had a crush on, who is also usually in the dream.
  • when we were in europe, there was, in Prague, a clash with some local street vendors over a purchase. someone made a deal they shouldn’t have, and then they tried to force jay into paying more for it afterward.  i got very nervous and freaked out and sort of ran away, especially when more appeared out of the shadows and we were obviously outnumbered. i slipped into another shop and then down the street while J&J worked it out.  i was randomly thinking about this last night and in retrospect, i should have probably stood with them, as most men will not do anything to a woman, and the situation probably wouldn’t have escalated and then dragged out the way it did. especially not on a crowded tourist street. if i would have been the one to forcefully say “WE ARE LEAVING RIGHT NOW”, what would they have done? or maybe that’s a stupid idea.  more to the point is the fact that i run away when scared.
  • WARNING: i am currently typing this while watching the American Idol finale, so there are going to be tweet-like comments interjected into this otherwise totally cohesive blog post.
  • last night i watched the Biggest Loser finale.  i have watched the whole season.  i enjoy this show.  it teaches people things that are hard to learn.  losing weight is hard.  nutrition is not complicated, but it isn’t necessarily intuitive either. i was really rooting for Cheri to win. oh well. footnote: i think Australia’s Biggest Loser is better (which you can, um, find somewhere on the internet), particularly because of the mini-nutrition seminars . and motivating yourself to exercise?  that’s a whole other animal.  i like BHJ’s approach.
  • i also watched the last 1/4 of the Dancing with the Stars finale.  i’ve only seen about 1/20th of this season. it’s not that i’m not impressed;  it’s just superfluous.  as is this American Idol thing.
  • this AT&T ad with the orange silky looking things is very rip-off of Christo.  oh, wait!  there at the end of the ad there is some fine print that says Christo had nothing to do with it.  interesting.
  • who sold David Bowie’s music to Lincoln commercials?  fuck.
  • this ad where the girl eats KFC on the bus to help her ignore the loud talking cellphone guy?  i’d be just as annoyed if someone sat next to me eating a bucket of KFC.
  • oh, Xtina! hot.
  • oh, wait. this is boring.
  • where was i?
  • ok, so on April 30 i went to the ER with neck/shoulder pain and then on May 4 jay crashed really hard on his mountain bike. we are both currently recovering and doing mostly well, although we do both complain like a couple of senior citizens about aches and pains. i am repeating this as a way to explain all of the television watching referred to above. there’s not a lot to do when you’re on painkillers.
  • i really don’t care that Simon Cowell is leaving American Idol.  i’d rather see Billy Idol in his seat anyway.
  • tonight we went for momos at the Cafe Tibet on University in Berkeley. and then i had an incredible eggplant dish, although next time i’d rather have the wild rice than that weird cinnabon-textured bread ball thing. never had a momo?  they’re little steamed tibetan dumplings filled with all kinds of delicious things. you’re missing out.
  • fruit, vegetables, yogurt, eggs, cheese, beans, lentils, rice, nuts, coffee, wine.  all as organic as possible. moderate: soy/tofu/fake meats, popcorn, tater tots. avoid: bread, pasta, sweets. never: meat or fish. that is basically my diet.
  • this dreadlocked Idol finalist reminds me: not long after we first moved to California, i went out in L.A. wearing baby blue corduroys and phish t-shirt in matching baby blue. we got made fun of by some LA bimbo at the door of a club. i was indignant.  do you ever look back at photos or remember versions of yourself and wonder who that person was?
  • this Idol finale is watching people sell out in real time.  it’s terribly sad.
  • ok i will admit i still have a soft spot for bret michaels.  esp after Apprentice.
  • despite being laid up for a couple of weeks, both jay and i have been trying to get back in shape. that’s a weird term, “in shape”, but you know what i mean.  to feel better. to live longer. to look hotter. me, since December, him, the past several months (i don’t know exactly). i haven’t lost much weight (i don’t think i had much to lose, but let’s not discuss that here, ok?) but jay has.  my boyfriend looks hot.  the larger point is that when you start really paying attention to your body it’s fascinating, all the fluctuations in energy,hunger, weight, satiation.  it’s easy to get obsessed.  the funny thing is it’s also easy to fall off the wagon.
  • 2 dudes from Foreigner were on a local program last night singing “Feels Like the First Time” acoustic.  i was pretty impressed, actually . it was way better than this Chicago number on Idol.
  • oh! yes, jeez i knew i was forgetting something.  saturday night i went on a bus party for a friend’s birthday.  the rest of that story is fairly unpublishable. except at the end we all sang “Don’t Stop Believing” really loud from the shores of Treasure Island while some people did gymnastics in their underwear on a wet lawn. i am not making that up.
  • in wanderlust news, i have the following in mind between now and mid-September: Utah, Chicago, Chile, Peru, Burning Man, Bali. we shall see how many come to pass.
  • i guess i can just come totally clean now and admit i’ve also been watching the 2010 Giro d’Italia.  i feel like there’s nothing lazier than laying in bed watching other people do sports.  the bike races intrigue me though, and there aren’t tons of really annoying commentators or guys with light pens or beer commercials.  it’s very simple: ride bike fastest.  through incredible scenery. i like that.
  • dude, Paula Abdul is totally wasted. i also can’t believe what she is wearing.  who made that atrocity? and it’s like NEON fuschia too.  file under: “i was high when i got dressed”.
  • i heard a punk rock version of Billy Joel’s “my life” on KALX yesterday, and it was great. i wish i had looked to see who it was, actually. on the contrary, these group sing-a-longs in Idol make me want to hurl. i can’t believe this isn’t over yet.
  • Janet’s surrogate is looking good. except it sounds a lot more like Michael than Janet.
  • Obama was here in SF yesterday, and even here in the “bluest city in the nation” there was a whole crowd of protesters, everyone from central valley tea partiers screaming (with good cause) about the state budget debacle to environmentalists wanting to know what Obama was doing fundraising when the entire Gulf Coast is in a state of emergency. retort: you need Dems in office to deal with oil reform. i have no idea who you need in office to fix California.
  • some days i feel highly dysfunctional on a lot of levels.  today was one of those days.  this blog post is making me feel better.
  • i have no investment into which one of these humans win idol.  oh, wait….well now that it’s announced i guess i was sort of rooting for the girl.
  • and that is probably the most i will blog in a while.

the end.

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god never speaks in his own voice


May 26th, 2010

- Ezra Furman & the Harpoons , “I dreamed of Moses”
http://www.last.fm/music/Ezra%2BFurman%2B%2526%2BThe%2BHarpoons/Banging+Down+The+Doors

I dreamed of Moses
He wanted to put my hair into cornrows
I said, I thought you were born way before
Those came into fashion

He said, Don’t be silly
Your dreams never follow the chronology of history
And the purpose of dreams is still quite a mystery
Even to me

So I pulled up a lawn chair
Took of my sword and shield and I laid ‘em right down there
He braided my hair in the shade of a bare branch
Of a beautiful sycamore tree

You people are singing to me
‘Cause God never speaks in his own voice, you see
You people are singing to me
And your song says what it says

I was born for singing
At the top of my lungs over church bells ringing
And bringing confusion to those disillusioned
By fighting against the mainstream

We were born for dying
Short time to prepare for long time in the sky and
No matter what you believe you must admit
Some things are not like they seem

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