Pacificapocalypse

You know that thing where you technically have a weekend, but you pack so much into it, it flys by and you blink and it’s over?
Yeah me too.
Last Friday night was Spamalot at the Golden Gate Theater which was hilarious; I mean come on JOHN O’HURLEY! Dude’s funny and I forgive him for Seinfeld which I loathe. Not a exactly a straight stage production of ‘The Holy Grail‘ but a good mix of the more popular Python skits and I was grateful that they didn’t try to have actors try and portray any of the actual Python cast.  So yeah, if you’re a fan of MP, you should go. Oh and court got some really cool Killer Rabbit slippers.
Ok so that was Friday night, didn’t get back home until midnight, then have to be up at 0600 Saturday morning because….

River Arts Festival!

In Sacramento no less. We picked up Kelé and hustled up to Sac. Set up the table and then I got to play photographer amongst the various homemade… crap. Hey no offense but most of it was garage sale quality. Court hawked her custom hula-hoops and Kelé had a bunch of knit stuff that was pretty cool, and there were one or two other vendors with neat stuff (Roger the depressed carved wooden spoon man being one) but mostly it was just okay.

Court sold I think eight hoops, which is cool (I think her demoing one in the aisle every once in a while really helped sales; that’s called marketing children) and more than paid for the material to make them, so yeah, this whole custom hoop thing may be a viable money maker… especially when a vendor is charging $60.00 for the exact same thing at…

Makers Faire 2009

Which we got up, again, at 0 dark 30 for. Court and Kelé were volunteering at the Bizarre Bazaar so we got there way early, which turned out to be a very good thing ’cause the place filled up quicky and we were able to score a pretty close parking spot. Too many cool things going on to go into in detail; suffice to say that crew from The Crucible were wicked cool as was Cyclecide.
I have a full photoset that I’ll get up later today. The Crucible had their E.R.V (Educational Response Vehicle) on scene; a converted 1960’s firetruck… no seriously, a real firetruck. Like Bradbury’s Firemen from Fahrenheit 451; a truck that shoots fire. Loud as hell; it set off car alarms for Christ’s sakes. So cool.

God Rest and Keep you Betty Mae Page

Betty Page
April 22, 1923 – December 11, 2008

I love the zoo.
Yeah, yeah I know, “zoo’s are cruel” whatever Peta dude, go suck down some organic Humus and let me get my zoo on. So last Saturday, we took a little day trip to the San Francisco Zoo. It was hotter than the hinges of hell and there was no way we were going to stay indoors. We still had Kaitlin with us and she couldn’t remember if she’d ever been before (the 12 year old female mind is…  a mystery of Bermuda Triangle proportions.)
I dig the Africa Savanna scene with the Giraffes, Zebra, Lesser AND Greater Kudu. Come on man! Baby Giraffes are awesome. The ginourmous Silverback Gorilla and all the primates. The birds and reptiles. I like the Tapirs and the big Black Swan. I dig the Penguins and the petting zoo with all the farm critters. I love them all.
The Zoo gets a bad rap I think. Yes, ok, I agree, the 1930’s architecture of some of the paddocks are horrific when compared to modern standards, but the new habitats are so much better and they never seem to stop improving. Ok, the whole ‘Death by Christmas Tiger‘ thing was pretty bad for the tiger and the guy that was killed (though in retrospect the two other guys involved come off as world class douchbags.) but I still think the Zoo serves a grand purpose – to allow people and families to see and learn about these animals that they might never otherwise get the chance. Besides. they *did* save those two bear cubs that were up for destruction, and got a nifty new Grizzly bear habitat out of it as well.
So all you naysayers can go fish.
It’s all happening at the zoo.

More pictures here.

Via Esquire.com:

The first thing they teach kids is that there’s a God — an invisible man in the sky who is watching what they do and who is displeased with some of it. There’s no mystery why they start that with kids, because if you can get someone to believe that, you can add on anything you want.

Really going to miss that cranky fucker.

An ex-co-worker and aspiring writer friend of mine, Chelsea Lin, stated this morning on her Facebook status that:

Liz Phair will make your eardrums bleed. Is ‘eardrums’ one word or two?

Which of course provoked me into the following exchange:

Me: Liz Phair topped out with “Exile in Guyville”… but what do I know? I was only there when the album (black, vinyl, lots of little lines – hole in the middle) was released.
You should listen to a little Polly Jane Harvey or Cat Power.
And get off my lawn you damn kids!

Chelsea: so she was performing only “exile in guyville” last night at the fillmore (i was covering it for spin.com) and i was not impressed… sacrilege, i know.

Me: “Not impressed”
Bah. Your prematurely jaded opinion is tiresome.
Next thing you’ll deny that the 80’s were, without a doubt, the crowning decade of human existence and the pinnacle of cultural and societal achievement.

And so Court and I got to talking; what exactly DID happen to Liz Phair?
“Guyville” was brilliant. Where did that brilliance go and why?
Court opines:

I don’t think (Chris) is talking about “exile in guyville” as being her best material, it’s more along the line of, Liz Phair was at her best at the time she wrote the album and her overall presences at that time. When that album debuted in 93′ she was willing to fully embrace her sound. I would say her second album, Whip-smart she maintained a similar sound but the influence from her Matador label-mates was far to obvious. With the move to Capital Records and her decent into commercial music success, the new glamorized shiny Liz’s sound comes off as vapid and indistinct. Now while she may, as you say make your eardrums bleed, it’s not because of raw passion or even a desire to perform… more likely its a production assistant turning a mic on to an obligatory 11. In short Liz Phair is dead. Lets hope for a resurgence of music not first filtered the digitized, then synthesized into catchy tunes for automobile, energy drink or tampon advertisements.

Brutal. I love it.

… and learning roller-coasters; ok I *think* WordPress can do everything I want it to do.
Now I just have to get it configured – end even with my very good friend, the internet, this may take some time.

Snarky comments about technology leaving old men like me in the dust are not appreciated.

And get off my lawn.