shmusings

So I was Harry Potter for Halloween, using the same glasses I used last year for Waldo and the year before for Clark Kent. It's my new schtick.

Halloween night I went to a party called Le Petit Mort at the Sunshine Biscuit Factory in Oakland. It featured a bunch of bands playing murder ballads and similarly-themed music. Low key, but fun. I particularly liked GG Tanaka's set, expanding the murder ballad genre to include the Misfits, Guns n' Roses, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Sam the Sham, etc.

Last week I also went to a show. A one-man show featuring Rick Reynolds called Love, God, Sex (and Other Things I Don't Have). It was directed by Jason Alexander. Very funny, when it wasn't depressing.

Thanks to m0rn1ng5t4r for helping me find both of these activities.
 

I went to see Islands, Jemina Pearl (ex-Be Your Own Pet), and Toro y Moi last night at Bottom of the Hill, along with Lil' Mike and his girlfriend. Nice to get out to a show again. Toro y Moi was okay. One guy singing with a synthesizer and Macbook.

After his set I went to the bathroom and when I came back my friends weren't where I left them, so I wandered over to the merch table. Lil' Mike found me there and said that they had moved back because they expected the next band to be loud. Jemina Pearl was standing right there and overheard us. She said "yeah, we're really loud, and scary too." I said that if we stood in the back there'd be plenty of people between us and them, so we'd have ample warning to run away.

Anyway, their show was pretty good. Loud punk rock. A lot of fun live. The lead guitarist had big black x's on his hand, just like the guitarist in my band!

Islands was really good as well. Very glam. I've never been a huge fan, but I've liked what I've heard well enough.

Then this morning I was sitting in a coffee shop and they were playing Red Hot Chili Peppers' One Hot Minute, featuring a bunch of songs I haven't heard in a long time. I remember at the time that a lot of people were disappointed in the album, but I thought that the singles, while clearly a different style than the songs off their early albums like Freaky Styley, weren't bad. Certainly if you were a fan of Mother's Milk or Blood Sugar Sex Magik, I didn't see any problem with "Warped" or "Aeroplane" (let's leave "My Friends" out of the discussion). Considering the boring music the band has put out since, I wonder if those people have changed their tune in retrospect.

The rest of my Chicago trip was a bit slower. Friday, after meeting a current Booth student for coffee to talk about AG, I just sat in a Caribou Coffee location and read, worked, and surfed. In the afternoon I went down to the Harper Center with Squindy for LPF, but the booze didn't show up! Major down arrow there. Then we later went and got some food at Heaven on Seven and watched The Invention of Lying (after failing to get tickets to Where The Wild Things Are). The movie was okay. Some funny ideas, but fell too easily into generic romantic comedy territory when a plot was applied.

Saturday I finally made it to West Egg for brunch, with Squindy and another former co-worker (though he had never worked with Squindy). Then that night I met up with a college friend who I hadn't seen since she left Boston in 2001! She actually lives in Seattle now, so it was only though the magic of Facebook that we realized we were both in Chicago. So that was fun.

Finally, before flying out on Sunday, I had lunch with another former co-worker, baagarbilla. He actually lives in the Bay Area and I've seen him here a fair bit, but he was in Chicago for a wedding the night before, so why not? We had deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati's before heading to the airport (his flight was 45 minutes before mine).

Overall, I nice trip and it was definitely good to get away for a bit. And now I'm back at work.
 

I flew to Chicago last Friday and have been relaxing here for a week; heading back to SF on Sunday. It's been a fun time so far. Thanks to Squindy for hosting me.

We walked from south of the Loop to Old Town on Saturday, stopping along the way in Millennium Park, outside Cityfront Place (my old apartment), and Bandera (for their delicious dessert). Then headed to a alumni event at Whirlyball and, after dinner, went to Timothy O'Toole's (not that it's anything special, but I went there a lot when I lived here).

Sunday I met up with a bunch of classmates for brunch at Orange before more wandering of downtown (and spending some time in Gleacher).

Then Monday through Wednesday were spent at museums, as I visited the Shedd Aquarium, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Art Institute. Also enjoyed dinners at the Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Company and Cafe Iberico, and brunch at the Bongo Room. Yum! And tonight I'll actually be attending TNDC at Harry Caray's Tavern.

Fun time so far, and several things still on the to-do list before I leave on Sunday. Whee!
 

I realized that I never posted my favorite films of the '90s, and haven't posted a song for IYDLTSIDLY in a while (partly because of the disappearance of SeeqPod). However, for now here's a reading/watching update:

The Court Jester - Classic Danny Kaye comedy that I quite enjoyed. Slapstick at it's finest. There's a fine line between hilarity and Three's Company, but Kaye can walk it.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold - The story of a family, told from the point-of-view of their already-murdered daughter. It was okay.

Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl - Read in preparation for the upcoming Wes Anderson film. A fun story that made me hungry.

Private Wars by Greg Rucka - The second (and so far final) novel of Queen & Country, continuing the story started in the comic series about a British spy and her compatriots. It was okay, but like with the first novel, I didn't enjoy it as much as the series. Tara Chace is still a great character though.

The Twilight Zone: The Original Stories - No, Twilight Zone doesn't refer to a new store in the mall catering to teenage girls, but the classic '60s television anthology series, which was among the best television shows ever. This book collects 30 short stories that were the bases for TZ episodes. 16 of the stories are by either Richard Matheson or Charles Beaumont. Also featured are Ray Bradbury and Ambrose Bierce. I'm only a little more than halfway through, but I'm enjoying it so far.
 

Oh LJ, how I've neglected you. I'm so sorry. Can we still be friends?

So I didn't tell you about the Black Francis show at Hotel Utah, a little bar a block from my place. It was pretty awesome. Just Frank Black and a guitar, and Eric Drew Feldman (of Pere Ubu) on piano for part of the night. Long set too. Really good, except for 2-3 obnoxious older audience members who decided that they were Black's buddies and were trying to have conversations with him.

I've also read some books since we last talked, specifically:

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott - Apparently Scott's 1819 novel started a revival of interest in the middle ages, which continues to this day. A lot of things here that I've seen in later stories. Strangely, Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe is a relatively minor character in the book.

After the Quake by Haruki Murakami - Set of short stories all set just after the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Often the quake is somewhat randomly inserted into the story though.

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin - The second book in Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series; I read the first back in March. This book has a little bit more of the "normal" fantasy trappings, as a few unexplainable (i.e., magical) things happen. Some of the plotlines stand still, but it still kept my attention for the nearly 950ish pages. Definitely will read the third. Unfortunately, I have no idea when or if the series will finish. While the first three books each came out two years apart, the fourth came out five years after the third, and four years later there's still no release date for the fifth book. Apparently the series will run seven books.

Finally, I watched Wonder Woman, which was fun, and The Conversation. It's Coppola's paranoid thriller, featuring Gene Hackman as a surveillance expert. It also features a young Harrison Ford, one of the few film appearances of John Cazale (Fredo from The Godfather), and Embarcadero Center, where I used to work!
 

Time for another quick update.

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol - The title sounds depressing but this is actually a pretty humorous Russian novel in two parts. Unfortunately the second part is unfinished.

Gideon's Trumpet - Made for TV film from 1980 starring Henry Fonda as Clarence Earl Gideon, about the Gideon v. Wainwright case which established the right to have a court-appointed attorney. Jose Ferrer plays a lawyer, so you know it's gonna be good. There's also a great scene in which the Supreme Court justices deliberate among themselves whether to issue a writ of certiorari to bring the case to the SC.

Blow-Up - Stylish '60s film about a photographer who, while developing his photos, realizes that he's captured a murder. Interesting, though it takes a bit of time to get going. Herbie Hancock does the soundtrack, which features "Bring Down the Birds," the song which later provided the famous bass line for Dee-Lite's "Groove is in the Heart."

Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling - Novel about a spoiled rich kid who falls overboard while on a ship and ends up on a deep-sea fishing expedition. Character development ensues.

Pudd'nhead Wilson and Other Tales by Mark Twain - Three Twain stories, two of which are related, were in this book. Is Twain the first American author who actually wrote fiction well? He certainly didn't think so!

Red River - John Wayne leads a cattle drive in this 1948 film, featuring a young Montgomery Clift as his adopted son. I enjoyed it.
 

As some of you already know, I have recently enrolled in a band workshop at the Blue Bear School of Music. In general, the workshops bring together "students" to play the various instruments for a ten-week class, culminating in playing a show at Cafe du Nord. My specific workshop is part of their Great Bands series, focusing on Radiohead and David Bowie. So we're doing mostly songs by those two artists. I'm one of two vocalists.

It's so much fun. The class is Wednesday nights but some of us are getting together tomorrow morning for extra rehearsal. The instructor is Bill Spooner from '70s/'80s band The Tubes, who is really good at picking apart the songs to help us learn. We'll put on the CD and he'll be able to pick out exactly which chord is being played. I don't mean whether it's a major or minor, but that it's A minor or D minor. It's pretty impressive. But strangely, I don't think he has perfect pitch. At our last rehearsal, he asked the keyboardist to give him an E to tune his guitar. Not sure how he can pick out the chords, but not tune on his own. It's also pretty cool to have him say, "back when we toured with Bowie, he played this song and it's really cool, we should do it."

Anyway, the performance is the week of September 21. Come!
 

So I was sitting in Burger Joint eating earlier today, and while chomping away I was watching the USA vs. Canada men's softball game on the TV, and I learned some new ways in which softball differs from baseball.

First a review of the obvious:

1) Softball has a larger ball.
2) Softball pitches are thrown underhand.
3) Softball has a fourth outfielder.
4) There is no elevated pitcher's mound in softball.

However, I have learned two more:

5) In softball, the players cannot field at all - really, I saw so many dropped balls and missed catches and grounders. Not all of them had game consequences, so they weren't all errors, but it was pathetic to watch.

6) In softball, it is apparently "better for the team" to hit a double than a solo home run. Yes, one of the commentators said this (well, the closed captioning did, the TV was muted). A US hitter doubled and the announcer said "he could have hit it over the wall, but it would have been a solo shot, which would have been bad for the team." What? It's obvious that a home run is better with others on base than not, but no one was on base and the batter couldn't do anything about that. How is a double ever better than a home run? Crazy people.
 

Last weekend I went to see Porgy & Bess at the opera house, which was pretty good. I dunno, it's obviously a landmark in American music, but there's not much else to say about it.

Other updates:

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie - A Hercule Poirot mystery that breaks an existing (until then) convention of mystery stories. Very enjoyable.

Up - I'm pretty sure you've all seen this new Pixar film. Yeah, it was good. Next.

Inland Empire - Another weird mystery from David Lynch. Better than Lost Highway, but still not his best.

Maps & Legends by Michael Chabon - A collection of non-fiction essays from the novelist, mostly about fiction. I enjoyed it, but it's clearly not the best introduction to Chabon.

Gaslight - The 1944 American remake of the 1940 British film, this one directed by George Cukor and starring Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, and Joseph Cotten. Really good suspense movie. I've added the original to my Netflix list. This is also apparently Angela Lansbury's screen debut. She's 19!

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson - Adventure novel set in 18th Century Scotland by the author of Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. It was okay, not as exciting as I'd like from a 19th Century adventure novel.
 

It is.

Haven't updated in a while, thanks mainly to work. Starting Thursday the 11th I worked very late every weeknight through this past Thursday, and worked 6-8 hours each on Saturday and Sunday too. Fun.

But the night before it all started I went to see Neko Case at the Warfield. Great show as usual. She now has homemade films that are vaguely related to the songs playing behind her, which was interesting. However, while her newer albums are still great, the farther we get from Blacklisted, it means she plays fewer songs from that amazing album. She only played three at this show ("Deep Red Bells", "I Wish I Was the Moon", and "Lady Pilot") and nothing pre-Blacklisted. But either way, still great.

I also managed to finish a few books during this time:

Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch - In summer 2006, my roommate in Seattle read tons of sci-fi and fantasy books. At the end of the summer, he donated all the books to the little library in our apartment building, except for the debut novel by Scott Lynch, The Lies of Locke Lamora, which he gave to me because he thought it was really good. And it was. I wrote about it here. This book is the sequel and it wasn't as good. Very familiar, and the tricks don't work as well the second time. Not bad really, but not impressive like the debut. The third book comes out this summer and I probably will check it out, but I'm less excited about it now.

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut - Vonnegut was a very silly author (see also Joseph Heller, Douglas Adams, Tim Robbins). Sometimes this works for me (see Cat's Cradle, and see also Catch-22 and Still Life with Woodpecker), but many times it does not (see Slaughterhouse-Five, and see also The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Another Roadside Attraction, and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues). Not sure if it's something about the books themselves or my mood that has the most affect on my opinion, but unfortunately, this fell into the latter category.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carré - Classic spy novel of the cold war, taking place mostly in the divided Berlin. Not a spy novel in the James Bond sense, as it is much slower moving. I found it interesting but not fabulous.

I also watched The Cat Returns last night, which is another non-Miyazaki Studio Ghibli film, vaguely related to Whisper of the Heart. It was amusing, but far from Ghibli's best (even among the non-Miyazaki films).

Had a nice weekend, despite having to work from home a bit on both Saturday and Sunday.

First, Friday night was Opera at AT&T Park with a bunch of friends. The opera was Tosca, simulcast from the opera house on a huge screen on the scoreboard. We sat on the third base line. It was quite nice. I went last year too, but it seems I didn't write about it (last year it was Lucia di Lammermoor). Unfortunately, gimpy ho and a few others missed the entire first act waiting in line for food, that wasn't even good when it got it. Luckily, at least two of the three had seen the opera before.

Saturday evening gimpy ho and I went to McAfee Coliseum to see the A's host the Orioles. The Orioles were destroyed, so that wasn't so good. But we had great seats and it was fun nonetheless. After the game there was a free Jordin Sparks concert in the stadium, but we decided not to stick around.

Sunday night, after finishing up work, I watched Wild Strawberries, the 1957 classic from Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. An old doctor travels across the country with his daughter-in-law to receive an honorary degree at Lund. Along the way, he has dreams and flashbacks which make him revisit his life and realize his mistakes. Very good.

Neko on Wednesday!
 

Had a good week at home. I arrived Saturday night and immediately went to dinner with my brother and sister-in-law. Then we went to see Terminator Salvation. The movie was okay. Some major plot holes that annoyed me, like how did SkyNet know Kyle Reese was important, and how could we possibly believe SkyNet's plan the way it was explained at the end. Great use of Schwarzenegger though.

Sunday we went to Nationals Park to see the Nationals play the Orioles. It was a good game, but the O's lost in the end. Interestingly, the visiting mascot (the Oriole) was present, and was an important factor in the president's race. For those who don't know, at each Nationals home game there is a (scripted) race between people dressed as the four presidents on Mt. Rushmore. Teddy Roosevelt always loses. Every game. The other three split about evenly I'd guess, but Roosevelt never wins (strangely, I expect Roosevelt would have actually been the most physically fit of them all except perhaps Washington). Anyway, in this game, Roosevelt had a huge lead, but then stopped to get into a fight with the Oriole. Funny.

Most of the days during the week were rather lazy, except Wednesday when I drove up to Baltimore to see another O's game, this time at Camden Yards, against the Toronto Blue Jays. As an added bonus, Squindy came to the game as well. This was another good game, with the O's winning in extra innings.

I also saw Star Trek on Tuesday. I don't think it's as great as everyone has been saying, but it was very good. Probably the fourth best Star Trek movie (behind II, First Contact, and VI). The actor who played McCoy (Karl Urban) was spot on! The others were not as perfect, but it's notable that really only Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scottie had personalities in the TV show. The others didn't really get them until the movies. The Kirk allergic reaction and Scottie in the water tubes sequences were really annoying though. And I can't decide how I feel about the "thanks to the time travel, we're now in an alternate timeline" thing. On the one hand, it's a great way to start over without having to worry about what came before (though why not just do a full reboot; I expect Land of the Lost isn't using a similar explanation for why the new film doesn't match up with the TV series, for example), but on the other hand it's a great way to blow off old fans and say "all those episodes and movies you watched... well, they don't count". Either way, I hope if this film spawns sequels (which it will) that they just ignore the whole time travel thing and move along as though this is the only way it's ever been.

Finally, I watched The Hudsucker Proxy while I was there. I enjoyed it a lot. A good-guy business school graduate ends up working in the mailroom of a large company and finds himself promoted to president when a) the former president commits suicide, b) the board decides they want the stock to tank so they can buy the former president's shares, and c) he makes a fool of himself in front of one of the board members. Definitely good marks for the Coen Brothers on this one.
 

Heading back to Maryland this weekend, so I wanted to clear out the vault before then.

Point Blank - 1967 cult classic starring Lee Marvin. Not really sure why it's such a cult classic. I mean, it wasn't bad but nothing special, though some parts were hard to follow.

Torn Curtain - Alfred Hitchcock film from 1966 starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews. Newman is a scientist who defects to East Germany because the US withdrew funding for his project. Definitely suspenseful at times, but I found it very hard to sympathize with either protagonist. And the twist was really obvious. Andrews' character (Newman's fiancee) is useful in the first part as we see the plot through her eyes, but once things are revealed to us before they're revealed to her, she becomes superfluous. After watching it I learned that it's one of his least-regarded films, which goes to show how amazing Hitchcock was that one of his worst is still decent.

Witness for the Prosecution - Billy Wilder directed this great 1957 adaptation of Agatha Christie's play about a man accused of murder and his defense. Charles Laughton stars as the aging defense attorney and is very good. Great twist at the end as well. Highly recommended.

Vanishing Point - Another cult classic from 1971. Basically a feature length car chase across the Western US. Lots of fun.

Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes - Very famous novel in two parts, the first published in 1605 and the second in 1615. As you probably know, it's a parody of novels of chivalry. Quixote is insane and believes himself to be a knight who fights giants and saves damsels. Interestingly, in the first part his squire, Sancho Panza, is mostly a fool who believes Quixote's lunacies. But in the second, he actually fools with Quixote. Apparently, some time between 1605 and 1615, another author published their own second part of Don Quixote's adventures, which Cervantes makes fun of throughout his "legitimate" second part. It was enjoyable, but overlong.

The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie - I have now read all of Rushdie's novels. Yay. I liked this one. It's about an Italian man who arrives in India in the 16th century to tell Akbar the Great a story involving Renaissance Florence under the Medicis. Many other historical figures are involved as well. There are quite a lot of ideas in here, and some are somewhat unnecessary to the main plot, but they make it a very rich story.

So, as many of you may already know, I have mono. It started almost three weeks ago when I was having headaches and low fever, then about a week ago my tonsils began to swell. Last weekend and early this week were pretty bad with the swollen tonsils and pain when swallowing or speaking a lot. I don't seem to have the fatigue-related symptoms that most people associate with mono though.

On Tuesday I began taking a steroid (Methylprednosolone) which seems to be keeping the swelling under control and Tylenol is fine for the pain. Yesterday and today my throat has felt nearly normal actually. I only took Tylenol this morning as a precaution and haven't taken it since. It's not completely normal-feeling, but I wouldn't describe what I feel as pain. Certainly nothing worth taking Tylenol for. The Methylprednosolone runs out tomorrow though, so we'll see what happens then. I'm also taking Acyclovir which is actually a drug to fight the cold sore virus but apparently there's been some (though not a lot) of evidence that it works on the related Epstein-Barr virus (which causes mono) as well. And I'm taking Nexium to counteract any potential stomach-related side effects of the Acyclovir. And I'm trying to have a protein shake a day. And, finally, my doctor recommended acupuncture to activate my immune system. Whee.

After taking sick days Monday and Tuesday, I worked part-days from home the rest of the week, but I'll be back in the office on Monday as mono's pretty hard to spread. It's not airborne; only spread through saliva. Plus, many people are immune because they've already had it (apparently mild cases are often misdiagnosed as flu or strep when you're a kid, so a lot of people don't even know they've had it).

Yesterday was my birthday so my dormouse and I went out to Harris' steakhouse (we love steak, I need protein). Then this morning we went to Stack's for brunch, where there was a surprisingly short wait.

And now I'm just taking it easy, trying to get better and hoping that the improvements I've seen over the last week are real and not just caused by the steroid.
 

Time for another reading/watching update.

The Little Friend by Donna Tartt - I read Tartt's first novel, The Secret History, a few years ago, here's her follow-up (10 years later). I enjoyed the story about a little girl growing up in the south while still dealing with the repercussions of her brother's murder years earlier.

Heat - A mid-90s film I somehow never saw, with an amazing all-star cast: Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Jon Voight, Ashley Judd, Val Kilmer, jailbait Natalie Portman, Dennis Haybsert... plus a bunch of familiar faces who have had small parts in other films. Oh, and Henry Rollins acts. Anyway, DeNiro is the leader of a band of thieves. Pacino is the cop hunting him. But as the cat-and-mouse game plays out, we get insights into both of their lives as well. Quite good, though long.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See - This sucked. Some interesting stuff about 19th Century China, but the plot was ridiculous and boring.

Hulk Vs. - Marvel recently released two animated films on one disc: Hulk Vs. Thor and Hulk Vs. Wolverine. Neither was great, but both were fun animated action films.

G.I. Joe Resolute - Speaking of animated action films, this new G.I. Joe cartoon just aired on Cartoon Network last weekend. It debuted online in 10 minute segments, but I waited to watch the whole thing on air. It was enjoyable, definitely capturing the feel of the '80s cartoon but with a bit more of an adult theme.
 

For real this time. We're getting to the point where I actually saw some of the movies in the theater when they were first released! Surprisingly, this was the easiest decade in which to pick exactly 10. Other decades I had 6-7 obvious choices and then a whole bunch of ties, or I had 12-13 really good films. I had no problem cutting this one down. Anyway, here they are, in chronological order, as always.

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Das Boot (1981)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
The Right Stuff (1983)
The Princess Bride (1987)
Wings of Desire (1987)
Die Hard (1988)
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Do The Right Thing (1989)
Glory (1989)
 

Time for another update on my recent book readings and film watchings.

Carnacki, The Ghost-Finder by William Hope Hodgson - Collection of early 20th century short stories, all featuring the same protagonist, who is a hunter of ghosts and other paranormal phenomena. Sometimes they're hoaxes, sometimes they're real, but all the stories are told very similarly, even including the story within a story nature (it's Carnacki recounting his adventures to his friends), so it was pretty repetitive.

Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami - I loves me some Murakami. This short novel is about a young man who's in love with a woman who seems asexual until she suddenly falls in love with an older woman. Wackiness ensues.

The Witchfinder General - Vincent Price as a British Puritan witch burner during the English Civil War who earns the enmity of a young Cromwellian soldier when the soldier's wife's good uncle is tortured and killed for as a witch. It was okay.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde - A mystery/adventure that takes place in an alternate Britain where everyone is obsessed with literature (and other things are different too). It was okay, but I probably won't be reading any further entries in the Thursday Next series.

Three Kings - I saw this Gulf War-related film when it first came out (actually, shortly after, when it was shown at Brandeis). I liked it at the time, but re-watching it this weekend I wasn't as impressed. I think the fact that we're back in Iraq has an effect on the context.
 

Had a pretty nice weekend. Friday was Squindy's last day of work. We had a party in the office, including vodka shots and shotgunning. The original plan was to head out for karaoke after, but that kind of fell apart so I just came home.

Saturday Gimpy Ho and I had Italian date night. We watched the half or so of The Godfather (which she hadn't seen), then went and got Italian food at Farina, and then returned to finish the movie. A good time.

Then today we went and just chilled in Dolores Park and then Gimpy Ho is coming over soon and we're going to make dinner. Nice, low key, and fun.