shake it
like a polaroid picture
8.30.2002
t h r e e
...
My mom was here last week. One morning, I brought her over to my apartment. When we were coming in we noticed that somebody had shit on the front walk, just outside the gate. I had to clean it up.
...
Harper and I don't wear shoes inside the house.
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8.28.2002
Bubonic plague has forced the early closure of Donner Memorial State Park near Truckee.
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8.27.2002
What?!? No Mac version? (via timtate.org)
goodcompany: how is harper? how are you?
mhonan: i'm doing well. Harper has a knee injury which prevents her from doing Yoga, however. Yoga is her life. So that's very bad
goodcompany: how could that be bad? though I have never shared my life with someone who shares THEIR life with [yoga].
mhonan: It's very bad that she cannot do yoga
goodcompany: Ah.
mhonan: The knee injury is very bad
goodcompany: of course.
goodcompany: I thought there were just a lot of hippies on your couch all the time....or...i dunno actually what I thought...but I was trying to see the dark side of yoga.
goodcompany:I am much happier imagining there is none.
goodcompany: Will she recover? is it the result of trauma?
mhonan: http://europa.spaceports.com/~cholt/dark_side_of_yoga.html
goodcompany:ok so there IS a darkside.
goodcompany: "So saying, Sharan (a yoga instructor from the Oshiwara suburb of New Delhi) dipped his penis into a beakerful of sweet oil and sucked 150ml into his bladder, retaining it for several minutes before discharging it, and (to prove it was still pure oil) using it to light five clay lamps."
goodcompany: very dark side
mhonan: Wow. I didn't actually read the link... Just used google toolbar
mhonan: That is pretty dark
goodcompany:extremely.
Irony
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"Round up the usual suspects! George W. Bush's new "Healthy Forests" plan reads like a parody of his administration's standard operating procedure. You see, environmentalists cause forest fires, and those nice corporations will solve the problem if we get out of their way.
Am I being too harsh? No, actually it's even worse than it seems. "Healthy Forests" isn't just about scrapping environmental protection; it's also about expanding corporate welfare."
This complete 9/11 timeline is really an amazing piece of work. Draw your own conclusions. Start here. I tend to believe in incompetence more than, well, conspiracy fodder. Either way. It raises a lot of questions.
8.26.2002
Yeah but... It's Houston
At the heart of San Francisco's bid, it has been all about long walks along Fisherman's Wharf, a latte along the Embarcadero or a photo op at Coit Tower. ewwwwwwwww.... I hope not.
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Bob Barr was a racist, right-wing lunatic and the kind of guy who looks like he hangs out in gym saunas. Thank God that freakshow is gone. But Declan's right, he was a great voice for Internet privacy. Pity.
Interesting. The movie "fear dot com" doesn't own the fear.com domain name (which is about to see a bit more traffic). What a lost opportunity.
FoxNews sucks. via destinyland
The thing lost in all the should-we-invade-Iraq hoopla, is that we're already invading Iraq. We've essentially been at war with Iraq for, what, 11 years now?
8.22.2002
Here's the simplest thing we could do: identify 2 luddite members of Congress -- one Republican and one Democrat. Organize and defeat them in November. If Congress saw bad ideas cost seats, they'd begin to do something about their bad ideas.
Wow.
Angry too.
Mark Frauenfelder (Boing Boing), Plasticboy, and Ken Layne all blogged about GettingIt. (Layne and Frauenfelder both wrote for GI.)
So What's All This About Thailand?
I get that question quite a bit these days. For the last two years, we've been planning and saving. so I take it for granted that everyone knows what's up. Which is obviously, not correct.
On October 15, Harper and I are flying to Bangkok. We have open-ended tickets. I don't know when we will be back, but I expect it's going to be about a four-month trip. We won't be in Thailand exclusively. I expect we'll also be backpacking through Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Myanmar (Burma) is also a possibility, although I seriously doubt it. I'll still post here, particularly pictures, travel journals, etc. But not daily. I won't have regular Internet access, I hope. Still. I'll be here. Or there. Whichever. You get the picture.
Sawat-dii
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Did ya know that you can get all kinds of organic wine that isn't labeled as such? Indeed.
8.21.2002
"Much of this country really does not like San Francisco in the slightest." -- Mark Morford on the city by the fey.
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A Half Million Page Views A Month Might Buy a Cheese Sandwich
A few years ago, I left the secure bosom of motherjones.com to start a radical webmagazine, called GettingIt. It was quite an experience. One that I know I will never have the chance to re-live. We spewed money, we kept every freelance writer in the Bay Area knee deep in dollars. It was quite a thing, to start a web magazine in 1999. With the legendary R.U. Sirius no less.
Our money came from Internet porn giant Webpower, as did our publishing system, FutureTense. Of all the bad ideas I've stumbled across in my time, FutureTense was one of the worst. After GI folded, Jeff, our publisher, bought the site from Al. But the content was still all served from, and at the mercy of, FutureTense and Webpower. A few weeks ago, that archive went offline. Seemingly forever. All the work, everything we did, all those words, down the drain.
But not so fast.
Our Wunderkinder, Andy Baio, is all grown up these days. And he knows perl. Andy saved GettingIt's story database and republished the entire thing. And so, thanks to Andy, GettingIt lives. What's more, it looks better than it ever did, thanks to Andy's design (and the goopymart logo). Thanks Andy.
On to GettingIt
update: Also being discussed on mefi.
My Eco-footprint (the amount of land needed to sustain my life) is 3.1 hectares, compared to the national average of 9.7. But since there are only 1.8 biologically productive global hectares per person, this still means that we would need 1.7 planets if everyone lived like me. How do you do?
(via mefi)
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8.20.2002
This guy walks into a pub and half his head is a big orange. He says: 'I'll have a pint of lager, please.' And the barman says: 'Excuse me, I couldn't help noticing, but half your head appears to be a big orange.' And the boy goes: 'Yeah, had that for a while now.' So the barman says: 'How did that come about, if you don't mind me asking?' And the boy says: 'I was in this old junk shop when I found a lamp and when I gave it a rub this genie appeared. He offered me the standard three wishes, and I said: 'For my first wish, I'd like every woman I ever meet to fall madly in love with me.' So the genie waves his genie hands and suddenly there's women looking at me. Then the genie says: 'What will your second wish be?' I said: 'I'd like a wallet with £1million in it, and I can never lose it, it can't be destroyed, and every time I spend any of the money, it'll be replenished.' And the genie says: 'Your wish is granted. Now, what will your third wish be?' So I said: 'For my third wish, I'd like half my head to be a big orange.'--found on filepile
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you are an old man
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8.19.2002
Best. Movie. Ever.
(and it's starring me, yo!)
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Stern Grove
Every summer, in San Francisco, we have free concerts in Stern Grove, a beautiful wooded park on the Southwest side of town. The Stern Grove Festival has been putting on free concerts in the park for the last sixty-five years. It's pretty incredible.
Yesterday, we went to Stern Grove with a few friends. It was the last concert of the summer. Arrested Development was headlining (they're back together), and the Mahotella Queens were opening up. On a chilly, foggy day, 10,000 people showed up.
It was spectacular. The Mahotella Queens blew me away. I'd never heard of them, nor had most people in the crowd, but they rocked the grove. Three old women, shaking it like crazy. Arrested Development had the crowd on their feet the whole time too. Their new numbers were okay, but the crowd pleasers (Mr. Wendall, Everyday People, Tennessee, etc.) were a celebration. It was like a block party, 10,000 strong.
Funnily enough, the guy corraling the entire event is none other than Peter, Stern Grove's director of operations. I ran into him, and chatted him up briefly about the festival. I told him how much I liked the Queens, and how receptive the crowd was to them. "I think people trust us to bring in great bands," he said. "So they will still come out even if it is someone they haven't heard of, because they know it will be great music." Which, based on my experiences there, is completely accurate.
The Stern Grove Festival is one of those quintessential San Francisco events. It brings the city together in a positive, joyful manner. But it needs help. Want to help it last another 65 years? You can donate, or buy a CD
Andre Torrez
Great post from Andre:And that's what's got me so bothered about people musing in their weblogs about projects they'd like to do. Stop talking about it and just build it. Don't make it too complicated. Don't spend so much time planning on events that will never happen. Programmers, good programmers, are known for over-engineering to save time later down the road. The problem is that you can over-engineer yourself out of wanting to do the site.
You can sit and document and outline and conspire with friends about how you're going to carry something out, but in the end you're just spinning your wheels.
Our Mardi Gras
(warning: nekkid people)
It's coming up
There's a great article in Pitchfork on Neutral Milk Hotel today. Please Mr. Mangum, sir. Can we have some more? (thanks rob)
Craig has a really good site, that I enjoy reading (particularly since the redesign). This essay he wrote over the weekend on his experiences using Photoshop is precisely what I like about reading weblogs: the personal narrative which reveals something useful, or insightful, to the reader.
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Suicide? Yeah, right. Still, good riddance.
Email exchange with a CNN employee:
From: Mat
Subject: The tapes
So... Any inside dish on those?
From: xxxxx
Subject: RE: The tapes
Lots....probably too much to even chronicle here. Great story though. The only good news is that all this is pre-9/11 and there doesn't seem to be a delivery system. Really.... just more scary shit on top of the other scary shit that we knew. Just more and scarier. For those who haven't seen them.
8.18.2002
SF Gate: Multimedia (image)
Beautiful
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8.17.2002
Clinic and The Apples in Stereo are two of my favorite bands. They're touring together.. No SF show.
8.16.2002
A Poll
So here's something I'd like to know:
1. Are there any laws you routinely break?
2. Do you deserve to be punished for breaking them?
Yes or no answers will sufice. Although if you'd care to elaborate, I'd love to hear about it.
UPDATE: dg pointed out that my comments tracked IP addys. So. I went in and turned that feature off (another great reason to have your own commening system, rather than one that's remorely hosted). So go nutty. Be honest. I'll never know. Update number two: Gosh. I assumed there were a lot more criminals reading.
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8.15.2002
I want one
Hmmmm.... Using California's energy crisis as a history lesson, I think it's safe to assume Bush must have friends in the water-trading business.
Got a Cannondale or a Marin? (we've got both) You may need to take it in and have some work done
8.14.2002
Cornelius is a freakin genius. And he's coming to Bimbos.
I just went back and looked through the old NetBelly posting history. The following is my first ever Blogger post: blog this test -- 3/10/2000 9:30:57 PM
.
Dowd's column, Cheney Stays in the Picture, is just brilliant. Or at least, very funny. The new one isgood toookay.
8.13.2002
I Y SF
These were all taken over the weekend.
click to enlarge, you daft troglodyte
I stumbled onto the parade, the "Festival of Chariots," which was billed to me as a traditional Indian parade. But I didn't see too many Indians, which is puzzling considering this city's ethnic makeup. It was almost exclusively Whitey. Every one of the "commanders," the guys with megaphones leading the Hare Krishna chants, was white. All the guys (gurus?) riding on the floats were Indian, however. Update: I just saw a flyer. The festival of chariots was put on by the San Francisco Society for Krishna Conciousness
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I am I
In a philosophical effort to come up with a city law that no one could ever break, conceptual artist Jonathon Keats wants Berkeley to legally acknowledge Aristotle's law, commonly expressed as A=A.
Go, go, Berkeley.
Bad idea
The 40 Watt is one of those rare places where I have lots of memories, and all of them are good.
8.12.2002
All new goopymart!
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Sorry. We 're looking for a Libra.
J. says: Are we in San Francisco or what? Look at requirement #3.
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Don't forget: meteors tonight.
R.I.P. Mikey
I first saw Widespread Panic when I was a junior in high school. They were local boys, Georgians. The band was a four piece at the time. They were playing at Center Stage Theater in Atlanta. I went with a couple of friends. It was the first time I ever took acid at a concert.
Over the years, I watched Widespread grow up with me. They added new members, and became more and more popular. Today, they sell out venues like the Greek here in San Francisco, too big to play the Warfield. I never could have guessed it that night at Center Stage, so long ago.
I'm not much into jam bands. I've seen the Dead several times, and various splinter groups. I got into that scene for a few years (around the same time I was into acid, curiously enough) my senior year of high school and the beginning of college. But it didn't stick. Widespread, on the other hand, did. Like I said, they were Georgia boys, local heroes. I liked their music, and I liked going to see them play. I liked to watch them grow. This was the Allmans to me.
I became friends with one of the band members through Harper. She and his wife are best friends. We went to their wedding, they came to ours, and we always visit when the band is in town. I began to feel like the band was a part of my extended family. I keep up with them in the papers. I look for news of them, news from The South. I've seen them more than any other band, by a longshot (Mike Watt and Pavement are distant second and thirds). Michael Houser's guitar (like the Beatles below) is an old familiar friend.
I never knew him, I never even met him, but he touched my life, again and again, throughout the years. His battle with cancer just ended over the weekend. We were in a room together when we were young and the world was before us both. He went on to stardom, while I went to California.
Goodbye Mikey. God Bless. I will miss you.
Memorials may be sent to: The Michael Houser Music Fund; Athens Academy; PO Box 6548; Athens, GA 30604.
More: Athens Banner Herald, NY Times (AP story), Rolling Stone
I remember in high school, these mark knopfler prank call tapes were huge.
The Beatles
I grew up with Rock and Roll. It wasn't anything new to me, my parents listened to it. I had rock and roll lullabies. You did too.
My parents were into different genres. My dad was a rock guy, while my mom prefered folk. But they came together over the Beatles. They saw them play live in 1964 at Fulton County Stadium. They had the original Sgt. Pepper album. With the cutouts even. One of our first cassette tapes was some bootleg Iranian number with about 20 hit songs on it.
I used to sit alone in my room listening to it, over and over again, on this red plastic panasonic tape player. Headphones on. I listened to that tape at my grandfather's apartment (who died when I was eleven) constantly. It's ione of my main memories of childhood. I always heard the Beatles when I was a kid. It's probably one of the reasons I still love pop so much today.
And today, when I listen to the Beatles, I'm amazed at how fresh their music still sounds. How relevant and current. I'm still surprised by the Beatles sometimes ("That's a Paul song? really?"). But mostly I like to listen to The Beatles because it's like checking in with an old familiar friend. How ya doin? I'm still here.
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8.9.2002
I know you're out there, Mr. Avery...
Kool Bobby told me so. How the hell are you?
You love WHAT?!?
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8.8.2002
Andre needs a logo.
Too easy (via Peter)
Screw you, Joe
I was seduced by a cartoon character. Joe Camel to be precise. Mine was one of his first seductions.
In 1988, when I was 15 years old, I began smoking socially, in a blatant attempt to seem cool. I smoked only occasionally, and had no brand loyalty. But one day, while flipping through a Sports Illustrated magazine, I came across an ad for a free Joe Camel T-Shirt. It was one of the poisonous pachyderm's premeir appearances. I lied about my age on the entry form, and mailed it in. Within weeks, a Joe Camel T-Shirt was waiting for me in the mailbox. The mailbox at my school. My high school.
The shirt came with a passel of "Camel Bucks," coupons you could exchange for everything from Camel-branded cigarette lighters to Camel-branded pool tables. If Camel made any effort to verify that the gee-gaws they shipped were going to adults, it wasn't exactly foolproof. I started hoarding Camel Bucks, as did all of my smoking friends. Getting more bucks was easy, you just smoked more Camels. I'd been played.
By the end of my sophomore year, in 1989, I was a pack a day smoker. During my freshman year in high school I was a promising track athlete; I was a starter on the varsity team; I even placed in the state in one of my events. The next spring, I quit the team after just a few weeks, unable to keep up. I wouldn't exercise regularly again for another eight years.
My friends and I used to joke that we were saving up for "Camel Iron Lungs." But by the time I graduated from college, I wasn't laughing about it anymore. I coughed too much and suffered bronchitis for months out of the year. I had begun to worry about my health, and the history of heart disease in my family.
In 1997, RJ Reynolds dropped Joe Camel in a firestorm of bad PR. But he didn't go away. He still stopped by my apartment every day, as soon as I woke up in the morning, all the way up until last year.
Today is my one-year anniversary as a non-smoker. Joe and I finally parted ways. Yet there are those, among my generation, who he still holds in sway. And among them he will live on, until they go to their premature graves.
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"Some nights I lay in my bedroom and I listen to 'There Is a Light That Never Goes Out,' and I cry. I cry and cry and cry. I cry like a little bitch, man." -- Morrissey is apparently quite popular in East LA, according to this intriguing article in Spin.
(BTW: I came to the site looking for Spin's list of the "top 40 metal albums of all time," of which, I've owned about 33, at one point or another.)
This article on Argentina is one of the saddest I've read yet. In addition to saving our own economy, Dubya and company must do something to help stabalize the world economy as well, if we are not to become a global Argentina.
The Perseid meteor shower happens on Monday and Tuesday.
Last year, I tried to photograph a meteor shower for the first time. I wound up with a buch of pictures that looked something like this. Try, try again.
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There's a new documentary TV show on a pediatric ICU in Arkansas. Although it's really different from the place where Harper works, many of the stresses and issues are identical.
Ha! Go suck on, um, something else, SoCal. We're the champs in this sport!
8.7.2002
Well. I guess maybe we're not going to get to see Bonds break Aaron's home run record after all.
Here's my BlogTree genealogy. What's yours?
"The best placement for an angry manifesto against the rich and powerful is not Mother Jones, but the Op-Ed page of The New York Times" -- Maureen Dowd, in a smart column on Al Gore. (and before getting your [x] in a [y] over the quote, read the entire article.)
From Annalee:Hello! Please come to my going-away party (I'm heading off to do my fellowship at MIT), which I'm going to celebrate at a lovely fundraiser for Other magazine. It's 4 bucks to get in, but nobody will be turned away for lack of dough. Mostly, the money will cover paying the Jon Sims Center for using their space.
JIVE DANGEROUSLY
* a benefit for Other Magazine * The Magazine For People Who Defy Categories
Come to the Jon Sims Center for the Arts (1519 Mission St. @ 11th St.) for a night of provocative performances and strange phenomena, including:
+ New Wave band Feelings On A Grid + DJ Ouchy, DJ Joel Schalit (from Elders of Zion), and DJ Melanie + lesbian bedtime stories with Shar Rednour, Carol Queen and Michelle Tea + cock-fighting + strippers, including clown strippers! + spooky tarot readings + a tutorial on how to have the least safe sex
possible + an independent video room, including award-winning show kittypr0n + special treats
Come support the magazine that refuses to put you in a box!
Friday, August 9, 2002, 9 PM to 1 AM
$6 or $4 dressed up jive style - all proceeds benefit Other Magazine
The attachment to a weblogger is a rare type of social bond. Even if we have never exchanged e-mail, something about the familiarity of their lives makes them more like an acquaintance. Stanley Milgram calls this type of person the "familiar stranger," like the person you see every day at the train station; despite the fact that you might never have exchanged words with them, their absence still makes you feel uncomfortable, or sad. In the same way, when a blogger I read goes on vacation, or simply disappears, I feel like I've lost a little part of myself.
The Meetup crew: Fishfucker, kirkaracha, zia, mathowie, poorhouse.
Not pictured: vacapinta (left out by request) and emptyage (behind the lens)
I went to the Metafilter Meetup last night at Frjtz. I had a good time, even though I was only there for a short time. (I spent the first twenty minutes sitting outside by myself while everyone else was inside, then I split early to go see 100 Foot Wednesday. Which was sold out. Bummer.) Still. It was interesting to meet posters, and I thought it was hillarious that almost all of us were freelance or worked from home. How else do you have time to stay current? I heard they closed the place down.
Four people yelling "Cheney is a crook'' were taken out of the ballroom by security during the vice president's remarks on corporate responsibility.
8.6.2002
I never thought I'd say it... But here are a few naked people I don't love (thanks geoff!)
I uploaded a new wallpaper image from Elk.
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I Y my bicycle
I needed to go to the bank to deposit a check (why do we still use checks that can't be electronically deposited somehow?) and I decided to ride my old city bike instead of my new(ish) road bike, for nostalgia's sake. I used to ride it to and from work every day. But lately, I ride my road bike almost exclusively. Even on errands around town.
When I started off, I noticed how clunky it was changing gears. How hard it was to accelerate. How much more work it was to make the wheels on the bike go round and round. I had to stand up to accelearate to the speed I wanted to be at. "Bicycle," I thought, "you suck."
And then I hit a downhill section and began to coast a bit. And without thinking about it, I did something that's I can't really do on my road bike: a bunny hop. Followed by a wheelie.
"I love you, bicycle."
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Hey pilers. (I know you're out there. Or I suspect. Maybe hope is the word I'm looking for.) Check out this track from my friends Michael Sweeney and Rob (on drums). They've just recorded 11 tracks and are putting together a demo and full album. I've heard the whole thing, and Sweeney is a phenominal songwriter. Both in terms of his words and the music. Here's a live acoustic version of another one of the songs.
It's Candlestick!
(go, go Matt Gonzalez!)
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8.5.2002
The Middle East is in utter chaos. The economy is in tatters, which--of course--means that people in Iraq have to die (nevermind that we've pretty much been continuously at war with Iraq for the past 11 years. This time, we mean it, yo). And if all that weren't bad enough, there's a plague of freakin' locusts terrorizing the West.
And so where's Dubya during all this? Where's the commander and chief of our great nation? What's he doing to reassure us that, no, it isn't the end of the world and yes things will go back to normal, and hey, don't worry, we're on it, making sure that you can sleep soundly without fear of war or economic unrest or biblical plagues?
He's playing 18 holes of golf in Kennebunkport.
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Things fall apart; the suburbs cannot hold
There's an excellent article on the political leanings of the professional class in The New Republic. Although I wasn't too enamored with page one, where the writer gets all Enron with the numbers, page two is really fascinating. It seems to me, however, that if the Republicans were to nominate a competent, tolerant, politician who rose through the ranks of the meritocracy rather than being "born on third base, thinking he hit a triple," they could easily sway this class. Thank God they all hate McCain.
8.1.2002
Paul O'Neill is about to O' Neidd a new job.
Thanks, folks, I'm here all week.
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"It's called the nursing reinvestment act, but it really is the patient reinvestment act."
Tired of wasting valuable processing time in the fruitless search for extra-terrestrial life? Try YETI@Home instead.
New York saves rock and roll? It's an increasingly oft-heard opinion. If it is to be saved, it sure as hell isn't gonna be here in the City By the DJ. I'm dismayed to see, however that NME described my beloved yeah, yeah, yeahs as "total wet dream," saying of live show "For the rest of your life, swear you were here, at the very epicenter of this generation's Year Zero (According to this article in Shout). Because, you know. NME is the rag I love to hate, yo.
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