priceless v5

there is so much i haven’t blogged lately, but typing hurts (yes, still), and so does my brain.  taking off tonight for the annual Priceless party in the mountains.  i’m already ill, so i’m hoping that priceless is more like Time to get Well.  hey, it’s worked before.

happy 4th, y’all.  be safe, and do it good.

June 8 2010 - SF/CA Election Cheat Sheet + Why voting “No” is important

False Profit Cheat Sheet

A Prop 13, Seismic Retrofit – YES
CA Prop 14, Top-Two Primary – NO
CA Prop 15, Fair Elections – YES
CA Prop 16, PG&E Monopoly – NO
CA Prop 17, Insurance Persistency Discounts/Rate Hikes – NO

SF Prop A, SFUSD Parcel Tax – YES
SF Prop B, Earthquake Safety Bond – YES
SF Prop C, Film Commission Appointments – YES
SF Prop D, Public Employee Pensions – YES
SF Prop E, Costs of Protecting Dignitaries – ?
SF Prop F, Rent Increase Appeals – YES
SF Prop G, Transbay Terminal – YES

For full explanations visit False Profit.com

If you live in Alameda County, like me, go to SmartVoter for information about the Alameda County items on the ballot, specifically Measures A-D, which are minor, or visit the East Bay Express voter guide.

In general, I’m against voting for huge state measures at the ballot box (voters being swayed by commercials and misleading short summaries should not be making decisions; elected officials guided by experts should be making decisions, that’s why we pay them), and I especially agree with the Green Party - “When we can’t understand a proposition’s effects and side effects, we should usually vote No.”

To be clear: For those of you who don’t understand your ballot propositions and therefore just figure you won’t vote, NOT VOTING is not the same as Voting No.  VOTING NO IS IMPORTANT.  It keeps badly organized, faulty laws that people don’t really understand from being implemented.

tiny posts that somehow evolved into live-blogging american idol

• 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.

• i still listen to “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley all the time.  that song makes me so happy.

• 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.

• we are going to see Ezra Furman and the Harpoons again soon.  I can’t recommend this band enough. i am way more into Ezra than Lady Gaga (even though this little piece of Gaga reporting is awesome).

• 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.

• what is this, YACHT ROCK IDOL??
• this should stop…..

• 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.

• sunday was the 4th annual False Profit “Spring Training” outdoor party-picnic in the oakland hills.  i was there for 9 hours. it was super fun.  neva and i had a great time. aforementioned hot boyfriend also played a killer set.  lucky girl.

• 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.

Summer 2009: in bits and pieces

i haven’t done a ‘this is what i’ve been up to’ bulleted post since the end of may, which means this one covers June, July, and August. wow. so i guest that makes this a “Summer 2009″ who/what/where/when summary. much of this has already been referenced in singular posts or tweeted, but if i don’t summarize like this i lose track.

after the beautiful zimtrix wedding came JUNE:

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burning man 2008: american dreams

this post has been sitting in draft since september 16, 2008, and i have kept revisiting it, trying to finish, trying to think of what to say, so this is pretty fragmented and definitely incomplete.  now that we are definitely NOT going to burning man this year and pretty much everyone we know who is going is leaving for BM 2009 within the next 5-7 days, i think i’ve reached a time limit and feel like i should say something about last year. it did happen.

.::.

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nymphy

for the Midsummer Night’s Revelry party-within-a-party at Priceless, which was by all counts a raging success:

inspired by this:

i wanted to do more with body make-up to make me look really dirty (like this), but that seemed like a lot of work while getting ready in a tent on a 90+ degree afternoon.

more later on the dream.

rock bands and hottubs and bunnies, oh my

weekend was:

3:00 friday, left work, BARTed to millbrae with whit&nicole, jay picked us up and we went for yummy thai food dinner in palo alto, had pre-show drinks etc. on the sunny and grassy knolls @ google HQ which is right next to Shoreline venue, went to NIN/JA show, rocked out so hard i had neck ache for next 2 days.  two 90-minute sets, first NIN then Jane’s, both excellent in their own ways and i really hope it wasn’t the last time i see either of them. more than a little disappointed that there was zero on-stage collaboration, not even for an encore. perry farrell’s corset+custom clothing was super haute (can you believe he’s 50?), and dave navarro is still so HOT. jay’s got lots of linked footage on his blog.

saturday AM, woke up with neck ache and slight hangover, but got ready and picked up kelly and we drove the 2.5-3 hrs north through wine country to harbin hot springs to meet up with the current bride-to-be and friends.  spent sat-sun afternoon soaking in the sun and the pools, eating delicious foods, and pretty much just blissed out.  had a mini bride-appreciation ceremony-ritual next to the super cool cave-like waterfall underneath the roots of the giant fig trees, which we lit up with our headlamps tied to trees, other than that, no other “bachelorette” hullabaloo. it was a different experience being there without an obvious partner and did feel a little bit more defensive/skeeved out by the somewhat aggressive prowly types. definitely would never go there alone, not out of fear, but just….not as fun.

came back sunday afternoon, then went into SF for the evening and hung out in the mission and then with reagan & nicole in whit’s hot tub.  so much hottubing this weekend.

monday morning got up and went to china camp with jay and zach and hiked while they biked.  first time hiking with an iPod - and there was definitely dancing involved. i listened to fleetwood mac most of the 90-minute hike.  discovered i hike a lot faster to music and don’t pause/meander as much.  more aerobic. gorgeous sunny day with perfect blue skies.

later monday eve we watched “hank and mike“, a fairly twisted movie based on the premise that easter bunnies are real (not “THE easter bunny”, but millions of worldwide workers, kind of like postal carriers), with a very dark humor bent - kind of like “Elf”, but definitely, definitively, not suitable for children. in fact, not suitable for a lot of people. loved the overly evil corporate character played by chris klein.  the farcical opposite of FP-speak. better, and way darker, than expected reading the description. netflix it.

during the movie i also experimented with some new hair color and i now have EXTREMELY bright red hair. bordering on hot pink in the sun. not sure if i like it yet better than the other red - we’ll see how it fades. it’s an actual DYE that i used instead of a pigment, so if it holds up i’ll be super excited to not deal with the messy punk rock hair dye anymore.

i was all over the place this weekend - south bay, north bay, west bay, east bay.  i got a bit tired of driving around, but it was a good long wonderful weekend and actually felt like a little vacation instead of just a blur between friday and monday. 

this weekend:  ZimTrix wedding in the woods! yay!

dancing in the woods 2009

happy May Day!

come dance with me in the woods May 17 at Joaquin Miller in oakland @ Spring Training - Free day party! waterfalls! music! picnics! bay views! trees!

and then again july 4 weekend at the 4th annual best-disco-camping-party-ever, Priceless - tickets on sale today! and they *will* sell out! river! canyon! trains! music! costumage! art! trees!

i don’t intend to go to any of the other disco campouts this year…including burning man. so this is it!

saturday night

@alchemy with my twin, kamileon

double conjoined-at-the-waist corset by antiseptic fashion

earrings by kiyumi jewelry

airbrush by Icarus

Alchemy in the SFBG