mth - timshel!

shake itlike a polaroid picture

Shake it Like a Polaroid Picture
As previously noted, Hey-ya by Outkast/Andre 3000 is The Greatest Song In The History of the World. (Eat shit Bach, you hoser!) And it's ridiculously easy-to-play as well. These chords may not be exactly right, but after spending half an hour or so searching for a Hey-Ya tab, it took me all of about 5 minutes to figure out.

To wit:
G C
My baby don't mess around

because she loves me so
D E
and this I know fo sho
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. (and peep the video, while yr at it.)

4 commentslink to this item

Conservatory of Flowers Reopens

San Francisco's world-renowned Conservatory of Flowers reopened over the weekend(as was previously noted), and I was there to catch all the hot plant-on-plant action. Man, nothing spells e-x-c-i-t-e-m-e-n-t like a greenhouse opening. Wille Brown made two women cry, Nancy Pelosi laugh, and Tom Ammiano blush ("Tom, when you are mayor..." was that an endorsement? ). Now that's a mayor!

10 commentslink to this item

Yar! It Be Upcoming
Andy launched Upcoming.org, one of the coolest, most profoundly useful Web sites I've seen since Kozmo (and argue all you want about Kozmo, I have yet to see a cooler real-world application of the Web than to bring me ice-cream, movies, and pizza for pennies on the dollar) or Mapquest. But don't take my word for it, peep ~~this~~ these ringing endorsements (of upcoming, mind you not the late great Kozmo) from none other than Matt Haughey and Andre Torrez. Yar, yo. Yar.

commentslink to this item

Happy Birthday Rob!
YAAAAR!

6 commentslink to this item

San Francisco Days, San Francisco Nights
The weather has been unreal here since I've been back. Gorgeous days, and poster-art nights.

2 commentslink to this item

I love the Web...
Why watch a wind-blown weatherman, when you can peep Coastal North Carolina Webcams

commentslink to this item

I am, suddenly and seemingly inexplicably, unpopular
I've lost so many of my Friendster friends lately. Willie Brown, Muni, and The EndUp. Zeitgeist, The Fog, and Charlie Manson. Where did you all go? Was it something I said?

2 commentslink to this item

Clark's In!
Wesley Clark Will Announce Run for Presidency Today (UPDATE: it's official now)

Substitute the word "Southeast" for "Midwest," and Michael Moore could have taken the words from my mouth:
[R]ight now, for the sake and survival of our very country, we need someone who is going to get The Job done, period. And that job, no matter whom I speak to across America -- be they leftie Green or conservative Democrat, and even many disgusted Republicans -- EVERYONE is of one mind as to what that job is:

Bush Must Go.
(snipped)
I am sure there are things [Clark] and I don't see eye to eye on, but now is the time for all good people from the far left to the middle of the road to bury the damn hatchet and get together behind someone who is not only good on the issues but can beat George W. Bush. And where I come from in the Midwest, General, I know you are the kind of candidate that the average American will vote for.
At this point--particularly after watching the debates--the only decision I've made is that I'm undecided. Now, I'd vote for Frank Chu before I'd vote for Dubya. But I'm not middle America, and ultimately I just want the candidate who they can get behind and thus has the best shot at beating Bush, no matter who might be. Clark's entry, even if he doesn't get the nod, will energize the race and strengthen the ultimate Democratic nominee. And, of course, cut down on the pictures of our Top Bum in his flight suit.

1comment.link to this item

Goodnight Johnny
I am, as I have been for the last three years this week in September, back in the cradle. Back in the South. Back in Alabama. I woke up today in Montgomery in my mother's house. I'll sleep tonight in Macon in my grandmother's apartment. I spent the day driving Southern backroads, through Coweta county on state highways, past confederate flags and trailers and poverty shacks. Speakers blaring that demon voice.

I left Montgomery looking out for a record store, but didn't find one before I hit the county line. Normally I don't get all choked up when entertainers buy the farm. But this was a big one, up there with Joey Ramone and Kurt Cobain. I wanted to hear Johnny today. I wanted it bad. But with no CDs on hand and nothing but Clear Channel radio as far as the dial would reach, there was no way for the man to speak to me today.

But then, just as I was about to give up on Alabama radio which seems to be all about MTV-style hip-hop and horrid "new" rock, I flipped the dial to WEGL, Auburn University radio. And there. There I heard my old man sing to me. Delia. Good God. For an hour I listened to his words and music. I knew all the damned words. I heard track after track after track. Until the signal faded out. I franticly flipped around the dial, and was once again saved by college radio. By my old friend and Indie Rock 101 professor, Album 88, WRAS Atlanta.

I heard in Johnny Cash a singer who sounded more contemporaty than musicians half his age. Who was equally comfortably covering gospel standards, Nine Inch Nails, Simon and Garfunkel, The Beatles, Wille Nelson, and old Irish folk music. I listened and listened and listened, and when I heard him sing a song by my fellow Montgomerian Hank Williams, I lost it.

I have few heroes. Johnny Cash--Southerner, American, Badass--was one of them. If the Man in Black never made you cry; you're a heartless SOB. Johnny's exactly where he always wanted to be, with June and Jesus. But we're left here all alone. I'll miss the Man. I wish I'd seen him. God bless you, Johnny Cash.

4 commentslink to this item

Shut Up! Shut Up!
"If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it’s clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation and I will not trust the Bush administration again." -Bill O’Reilly on GMA, March 18, 2003, as quoted by Utne Reader, September 2003, p.16 via ilepilefay

commentslink to this item

If I lived in London...
I, too, would throw eggs at David Blaine.

5 commentslink to this item

Conservatory Reopens 09-20-2003
The New York Times had a great piece on the Conservatory of Flowers over the weekend:
It has all the markings of a fairy tale: a glass palace, a mysterious past, water lilies big enough to support a real-life Alice in Wonderland, and carnivorous plants known to consume creatures as big as rats. But the most fantastic element of all is that this sparkling structure is real - and that its doors are about to open to the public.

After years of restoration, San Francisco's Conservatory of Flowers, the oldest public conservatory in the Western Hemisphere, will reopen Sept. 20. Known as the jewel of Golden Gate Park, this 19th-century greenhouse was heavily damaged in 1995 in one of the most violent storms the park has ever suffered.

Initially, the cost of restoration was thought to be prohibitive, and fears that this shimmering temple to tropical plant life might be gone for good prompted many, including the National Trust for Historic Preservation, to offer their support. Nearly $25 million later, it's done.
I've been riding my bike past that magnificent glass palace for years now, without ever going inside. I can't wait to check it out.

commentslink to this item

Bush Administration Accomplishments
1. Dismantle Al Queda
2. Bring Osama Bin Laden to justice
3. Bring Mullah Omar to justice
4. Bring Saddam Hussein to justice
5. Create jobs
6. Improve the economy
7. Resolve North Korea nuclear crisis
8. Move Israel/Palestine peace process forward
9. Decrease nation's dependency on foreign oil
10. Vacation in Crawford!

commentslink to this item

Please (don't) Kill Me / Vote No on Traffic Circles
I walk, I bike, and I drive around the neighborhood, and I don't think they're safe. People just think, 'Oh, I have the right of way,' and go ahead. It gives people a false sense of security.

My neighborhood is an experiment. That is, the city has put experimental traffic circles in on Page Street. The circles are intended to "calm" traffic. They're endorsed by the Bike coalition, and have been sucessful in other locations.

Now, I'm normally a Bike coalition, traffic calming, kind of guy. But these things, the way they are now, are deadly. i've had close encounters in the new circles as a driver, a cyclist, and a pedestrian. I've witnessed numerous near-misses, as cars fly through the circles oblivious to pedestrians crossing at the opposite side of the intersection. THe circles would be fantastic if they had stop signs or better pedestrian signals. But they don't. Apparantly, according to the Bay Guardian article (above), the circles came about as some sort of Faustian bargain on emissions reduction, and now it's either circles or stop signs, but not both.

That's bullshit.

The Bike coalition is dead wrong on this issue, clearly hasn't studied it (at least not in any way other than the abstract, a radar gun and an intersection observer are all it would take to dispell any notion that the circles benefit anyone other than drivers), and has shown an utter disregard for its consituency in favor of popular political theory. Fortunately, it isn't up to the bike coalition as to whether or not the circles stay; it's up to us, the residents of Page Street.

Please don't kill me. Please vote no on the traffic circles.

3 commentslink to this item

Bring 'Em On
Iraq Coalition Casualties

3 commentslink to this item

Matt Gonzalez: Mayor of San Francisco
Regular readers will notice a newish design element on the site: the Matt for Mayor button at the top left of the window. It has confused some, befuddled others. Am I now a politician? Officially, that is? No, it is not I. I remain, eternally, 1-T. The Matt in question is chairman of the board of supervisors and district five representative Matt Gonzalez. Matt's got my vote for mayor of San Francisco, and he should have yours too. He's a Green with a track record as one of the city's best supes, he wants to bring tital power to San Francisco, he's going to save our precious neighborhoods from pottery barn blight and he's loved by deputy sheriffs because he's a crime fighter, like Batman, Spiderman, or even, um, Aquaman. Best of all, he's not a replicant.

Gavin Newsom is our local Kennedy (or so we keep hearing) and like Kennedy he has plenty of cash in his coffers. Also like Kennedy, he doubtlessly has his sights set on higher posts. Governor, Senator, President; the mayor's office is a mere stepping stone. Shoulders as strong as Gavin's are wasted on mere metropoli. Everyone assumes that this race is Newsom's to lose. It's Newsom or nobody. And that was true, when his main competitors were Alioto and Ammiano. Now, I like the A-team as well as anybody, but neither of them has a shot against Gavin Newsom. No way, no how, not going to fucking happen. Enter Matt Gonzalez.

Gonzalez' last-minute entry has some progressives in aflutter, afraid he'll further split an already fractured ticket. But if the cradle's already broken, giving it another kick isn't going to hurt anything. Ammiano and Alioto were already divying up the city's hardcore lefties before Gonzalez entered. And guess what? There weren't enough of them to beat Newsom to begin with. To beat Gavin, you've got to appeal to voters outside of your immediate base. And the only candidate among the three major progressives who can do that is Gonzalez. I would love to support Ammiano, and normally would be suiting up to throw my weight behind yet another Quixotic campaign. But let's face it, were Tom going to be mayor, it would have already happened. His tremendous write-in success a few years back says more about voters' disatisfaction with Willie Brown than it does Ammiano's electability. To put it bluntly, Tom Ammiano will never be mayor of San Francisco.

Gonzalez, on the other hand, actually has a shot, he alone can take the fight to Newsom. He's still behind Newsom, Alioto and Ammiano in the polls, but it's early and he hasn't been in it long. In the end, however, it may all come down to sex-appeal. Have ever before two more visually stunning men battled for the Emporership of our fair whatever? I don't know. I'm not a history buff. But damn, those boys are fine. And in the end, we all know that elections are nothing more than a beauty contest. Newsom may have the money, the machine and the momentum. But the ladies love cool Matt.

UPDATE: -- Gonzalez' kick off party, the great mayoral debate, bike coalition endorsement, at the Rotary club.

3 commentslink to this item

And You Thought Capp Street Was Representin'
San Francisco History - The Barbary Coast, Chapter 2. Hounds and Harlots
During the first six months of 1850 approximately two thousand women, most of whom were harlots also, arrived in San Francisco from France and other European countries and from the Eastern and Southern cities of the United States, principally New York and New Orleans. Thereafter they came on every ship, and within a few years San Francisco possessed a red-light district that was larger than those of many cities several times its size. Moreover, it was at least as cosmopolitan as the remainder of the population; it has been said that by the end of 1852 there was no country in the world that was not represented in San Francisco by at least one prostitute. In October 1850 the Pacific News announced that nine hundred more women of the French demi-monde, carefully chosen from the bagnios of Paris and Marseilles for their beauty, amiability, and skill, were expected, and in the same issue delicately informed its readers that in the mines Indian women were available “at reasonable prices.” Unfortunately only fifty of the French women arrived, but that was a sufficient number to cause considerable commotion among the miners, who were naturally eager to determine for themselves if the ladies were as adept in the practice of their profession as was popularly supposed. Most of these accomplished courtesans were attended by their pimps, whom they called macquereaux, a designation which the forthright San Franciscans soon shortened to “macks.” These unsavory gentry are still so called in San Francisco, although the red-light district was officially abolished some twenty years ago, and the city now, of course, has no prostitutes.

2 commentslink to this item

Still No Power to the People
Krugman has a great column on electricity deregulation today:
There is a theoretical case for a deregulated electricity market. But making such a market work, it's now clear, requires at least three preconditions. First, it requires a robust transmission system, yet the recent blackout made it clear that we have now created a system in which nobody has clear responsibility for the transmission network. Second, it needs a watchdog agency with adequate powers to prevent and punish price manipulation; FERC doesn't have those powers. Third, that watchdog must not be an agent of the very companies it's supposed to be policing. Enough said.

3 commentslink to this item

Want to link me? Insert the following code somewhere in your blog's template: <a href="http://www.honan.net"> <img src="http://www.honan.net/images/emptyage.gif"> </a>