agaetis blogjun

2011-09-24T02:47:00.001+02:00

Estoy buscando la comida mexicana

2009-03-28T22:15:00.002+01:00

Another in an occasional series on adapting to life in Vermont:

Back when Howard Dean was running for president, I remember people voicing their concerns that he didn't have the background to govern a country as diverse as the US. I read one news report at the time that said that the population of Vermont was 96% white. I thought, "No, that can't be true!" Well, it's not. It's closer to 98%.

It's been a bit of a shock moving from Oakland to one of the whitest states in the nation. And I'm not sure what this says about me, but I think the thing I miss the most about moving to a less culturally diverse place is the food.

Needless to say, there isn't much Mexican food to be had around here. Because I grew up in Nevada and lived for so long in California, I kind of took for granted that there would be a Mexican place in every town. Even when I lived in Washington, all it took was a drive down South Tacoma Way to find it. But the closest thing within hailing distance that we've found here is a gringo-friendly burrito place in Middlebury. The nearest place we've actually eaten Mexican food is an hour and a half away in Albany, NY.

Rumor has it that there are a handful of Mexican workers in the dairy farms in the county north of us. Because so many are undocumented, though, it's not really clear how many there are. Nor is the population particularly settled, so none of the trappings of an immigrant community have followed them: things like ethnic groceries or taco trucks. God I miss taco trucks.

We do a reasonable job of making Mexican food at home, and we probably make it once a week or so. But there's nothing quite like a taco al pastor from the taco wagon, dripping with pastor juices and juice from those cute little limes that you can only seem to find at the taco truck. My cravings have gotten so desperate that I even went to Taco Bell in Rutland a few weeks ago. What's worse? I kind of enjoyed it.

So that's the state of things here in Vermont. There are certainly a lot of food-related benefits to living here, like knowing the farmer who grew your vegetables and being able to afford enough space to grow them yourself. I guess it's just up to Anne and I to turn those vegetables into Mexican food on our own.

Four Seasons

2009-03-15T23:25:00.002+01:00

When I lived in California, one thing that always drove me crazy was people grumbling about how California didn't have any seasons. When I found out that we were moving to Vermont, people would often say was that they were happy for us because we were moving somewhere that had "real" seasons. As an ecologist, I would argue that a region's climate is its climate, and you shouldn't try to shoehorn the weather into some preconceived notion about how the seasons should change. And by that reasoning, coastal California does have seasons, if only two of them: rainy and dry.

But now we live in a place with four, legitimate seasons. We moved to Vermont in the summer, which is pretty miserable. It's hot and muggy (though not as hot and muggy as places further south of us). The fall, by contrast, is great. The weather is cooler and drier, and the leaves are as dramatical as everyone says they are. Winter is great, too (if a bit long), especially because we can walk to work and don't have to drive in the snow too often. Spring on the other hand, is the biggest let-down because the part we routinely associate with spring (trees leafing out, flowers blooming, etc.) lasts about two weeks.

Of course, Vermonters aren't satisfied with having only four seasons. Oh no, that would be too simple. Summer is just summer, like everywhere else. The fall, on the other hand, gets subdivided into two distinct parts: leaf season (when the leaves are colorful) and stick season (when the leaves are gone but the snow hasn't hit). Oddly, winter, even though it lasts about six months, is just winter.

Which brings us to our current season. The late winter/early spring also has its own name: mud season. This comes at the point in the year when you're most antsy to get outside because it's starting to warm up (it was in the 50s today). But there's absolutely nowhere to go that isn't covered in knee-deep muck, or a hybrid of unmelted snow and knee-deep muck. Snowshoe and ski season has ended, but hiking is out of the question. So we Vermonters just grit our collective teeth and grumble about the fact that summer is just around the corner but that the corner seems to be constantly just out of reach, like something you can only see with your peripheral vision. In a month or so, the leaves will be back on the trees, and we'll be surrounded by a green of seizure-inducing intensity. In the interim, I'll try to appreciate this mirror-image of stick season and enjoy the fact that my down coat has (hopefully) been retired for another year.

Yo! Spring Beak!

2009-03-07T22:30:00.001+01:00

We Green Mountain Eagles have next week off for spring break, and every year around this time "Yo! Spring Break!" by Justin Time flashes into my head. What? You say you don't remember it? To be honest, I don't know why I do, because I only remember seeing it once or twice on Yo! MTV Raps at Roger's house. But I decided this year I would see if I could track it down, and thank you internets, I found the video on YouTube. I don't think you can say 1990 more convincingly without Dwayne Wayne's flip-shades.

Extra special kudos to anyone who can identify the hook that's sampled under the chorus. It's some classic rock staple like Foghat or BTO, but I can't quite place it.

Happy (belated) Darwin Day!

2009-02-15T23:30:00.000+01:00

I hope you all had a nice Darwin Day on last Thursday (2/12) celebrating the bicentennial of Darwin's birth. (And Abraham Lincoln's, too. What an odd coincidence.) I made cupcakes for my history of science class and we watched part of a NOVA video on Evolution that includes some entertaining re-enactments of Darwin's life, including Darwin wooing his cousin (ew!) Emma Wedgwood. Hopefully they'll remember the cupcakes when I make them read On the Origin of Species later in the semester.

Anne and I also went to a Darwin party that night at our friends Erin and Lindsey's house, where we feasted on finch wings (ok, they were chicken) and a tortoise-shaped cake and drank Captain Fitzroy's rum and Cokes. They probably didn't have Coke on the Beagle, but no need to deprive ourselves. We had a couple rounds of Darwin trivia and even played a rousing game of Pin the Beak on the Finch. I did ok with the trivia, but not so well with the beak game. Maybe next year....

The Rest is Noise

2009-02-08T22:48:00.001+01:00

I've been meaning to pimp a book that I read over the break, and I've finally gotten around to writing about it. It's a history of 20th century classical music called The Rest is Noise, and it's by Alex Ross, a music writer for the New Yorker. I've always been interested in "modern" classical music, but I didn't know much beyond Shoenberg's twelve tones and John Cage giving concertos of radios tuned to different stations. I read a flattering review of the book on Salon, so I figured I'd read it and learn a little bit more. One of the things I particularly liked about the book was Ross' ability not to just write about the way the music developed throughout the century, but to tie these developments to the social and cultural changes that accompanied them. For example, he has three sequential chapters in the center of the book that describe the way that the twin forces of government funding and censorship impacted the composition and performance of classical music in Stalin's Russia, Nazi Germany, and the US during the New Deal.

All of this would have added up to an interesting and informative book, but what really put it over the edge and made it blog-worthy was the companion website. Each chapter gets its own page with linked video and audio. So while reading about the dissonant sequence during the Rite of Spring that sent Parisian audiences into a frenzy, you can go to the website and listen to a clip of the same section. I thought this was a great example of using multimedia to expand on the printed page, and it really enhanced my reading of the book. I was even inspired to go out and buy a couple CD's of music that I'd read about in the book, and I doubt I would have done that if I hadn't had the music clips to round out my experience.

Happy Birthday Mac!

2009-01-29T02:50:00.007+01:00

Last Saturday marked the 25th anniversary of the first Mac, ushered in by that famous Super Bowl commercial. I've only been a Mac user for the past year and a half (or a mere 6% of the lifetime of the Mac). But at risk of sounding like a total fanboy, I haven't enjoyed owning a computer this much since my Commodore 64. If you want to wallow in fandom like me, MacWorld has some bite-sized features covering the history of the Mac over at its website. Anyone else remember Shufflepuck Cafe?

Dr. Evil and Aretha's hat

2009-01-22T04:55:00.005+01:00

Am I a horrible person for being unable to resist the impulse to blog about Cheney leaving the inauguration in a wheelchair? There's just something too poetic about the image of him being wheeled away, clutching his cane, while the vigorous, youthful Obama's stood on the Capitol steps to see the Bushes off in their helicopter. I can't say I buy the story about hurting his back while moving boxes, either. Maybe moving boxes of documents to the shredder, but I doubt he was actually hauling around his dishes. Perhaps a more plausible scenario is that the demon that was possessing him for the last eight years has fled back to it's hell dimension, leaving his body weakened and bent. OK, that was definitely out of line....

But what else can I say about yesterday's historic inauguration that hasn't already been said? That hasn't already been said by the New York Times alone, which included a separate section in its print edition today titled "President Obama." I wonder if this will become a permanent part of the paper. "Hon, I'll trade you the Business section for the President Obama section if you're done with it." Still, reading those two words together without an intruding "-elect" in the middle brought a big smile to my face.

My other major highlight of the inauguration (other than the obvious) would have to be Aretha Franklin's hat. The Queen of Soul got style.

Yet another piece of advice for the incoming president

2009-01-20T01:06:00.004+01:00

There has been a seemingly endless parade of advice for Barack Obama in the lead-up to his assumption of the presidency. The most recent bit I read was a detailed economic plan from Paul Krugman in Rolling Stone of all places. I heard the funniest (and probably grossest) bit of advice this afternoon on Day to Day. I particularly liked the bit about Johnny Depp, although I never knew he'd slept in the White House. On a related note, I'm going to savor the next half day while Obama's still Obama the idea and not yet Obama the actual president-who-has-to-do-stuff-that-I-won't-agree-with.

Crank fiends stole my medicine

2009-01-14T23:45:00.002+01:00

As an allergy sufferer, I've been a long-time fan of Sudafed. It's one of the few things that actually helps alleviate my symptoms without incapacitating me. Now as you probably know, the main ingredient in Sudafed and its generic analogues is pseudoephedrine, which can be used as a precursor in the synthesis of methamphetamine. Because of this, pseudoephedrine-containing drugs have been slowly getting harder and harder to obtain. Nowadays (at least here in Vermont) you can only buy them from a pharmacist (although you don't need a prescription).

I came down with a cold this week, and since it was mostly hovering around my head, I decided I would try to combat it in part with Sudafed. We'd run out, so Anne graciously went to the store the other night to stock up on medicine. Unfortunately, our local supermarket doesn't have a pharmacy, and our local pharmacy keep bankers hours. The best she could find was something called Sudafed PE, which had some non-meth producing antihistamine. It didn't do a damn thing.

Because getting lots of sleep is really the best way to fight a cold, NyQuil is another drug in my cold-fighting arsenal, and luckily Anne had also picked up a fresh bottle of it. I've been hitting the Quil every night this week, and I'm already feeling better. Typically when I have a cold, it only lasts a few days. As long as some redneck chemist doesn't figure out how to convert NyQuil into a controlled substance in the bathtub of his trailer, I'm hoping it stays that way.

There's always next year...

2009-01-06T22:50:00.003+01:00

I'm still coming to terms with the Vikings ignominious loss on Sunday. (I feel I use the words "ignominious" and Vikings in the same sentence far too often.) I won't bore you with my armchair general managing except to say that I was disappointed but not surprised by the outcome. Now that the NFL season is functionally over as far as I'm concerned, I guess I can turn my attention to the Premier League. I was happy to see today that my team, Fulham, has managed to stumble its way to the top half of the table. Skol Cottagers!

Local TV blackout

2009-01-04T16:29:00.003+01:00

My Minnesota Vikings have one of their biggest games in a while this afternoon, with their first trip to the playoffs in four years. Unfortunately, the NFL blackout rules apply in our home for a very simple reason -- we don't have TV.

Anne and I have always persisted stubbornly without cable/satellite TV. This worked out relatively well in Oakland. We could get most of the major networks (although the time that NBC moved its transmitter right before the Olympics was pretty annoying) plus a handful of local channels that showed things like Cantonese news and Cheaters. We figured this was entertainment enough, so we never plunked down the extra money for cable.

Things changed when we moved to Vermont. We could no longer rely on getting a signal with our set-top rabbit ears. I've heard rumors of getting PBS in Poultney, but haven't had any luck myself. Nevertheless, we decided to save the money and go without TV. Now it's not like we're those people who condescendingly say "Well, we don't watch TV" because the truth is we watch a lot of TV. We just have to watch it all on DVD. Like a lot of our neighbors, we are now devoted Netflix subscribers. This works out pretty well because it's about half the price of cable, and we get to choose what we want to watch. Especially now that Watch Instantly is available for the Mac, it's almost like having live TV coming into our house. OK, not quite, but it's getting there.

But that still leaves us in the cold when it comes to live sports. I had to "watch" the Vikings finally clinch a playoff spot against the Giants with ESPN's ridiculous Gamecast, and had to put Matt and Cascade through the same to watch their beloved Beavers in the Sun Bowl last week. If you think football is slow and boring, try watching it this way. Unfortunately, the local pub is closed on Sunday and Monday (prime football watching days), so I have seen very little football since I moved here.

[A funny thing happened to us shortly after we moved here related to our lack of TV. I got a call from AC Nielsen asking us to track our TV watching. I told the woman that we didn't have TV reception, so our data wouldn't be too useful. She seemed a bit bemused, but said to go ahead and complete the survey anyway. Now I've always wanted to be a Nielsen family and help influence which shows stay on the air and which get cancelled. I'm convinced that if I'd been tracking my TV viewing a couple years ago, Arrested Development would still be on the air. (Not that it would do me any good without television.) My stepdad suggested I fill out the form in the spirit of OJ Simpson: this is what I would have watched had I watched TV. Instead, I just left all of the time slots blank and sent it back. Anne and I were paid $20 for our trouble, which seemed like a pretty fair compensation.]

There's a big TV antenna on top of our barn, and if I ever get the motivation, I might actually try to see if I can get it to work. We went ahead and got one of the government-subsidized digital converters for our analog TV, so we're poised to have television in our home again. In the meantime, Anne and I will make the trip up to Rutland and the nearest sports bar to watch this afternoon's game. Skol, Vikings!

Embracing the holiday downtime

2008-12-28T22:21:00.000+01:00

So with the semester over and the holiday season upon us, I decided to revisit the ol' blog. It looks like my last post consisted of my indelicately comparing Sarah Palin to Fluff. Oh, what naive days those were.

I seem to have a binge and purge pattern with this blog. I'll write a fair amount when school isn't in session, then gradually taper off and disappear for half or more of the semester. I thought this fall would be different. But it wasn't. So I hereby decree (because a statement like this needs the weight of a decree) that if I fall off the blogging wagon again this spring, I will shut down this blog for good. There's no point in my taking up space in your RSS feed reader with my silent blog, for those of you still reading.

To avoid the fate of losing my one creative outlet (yes, I also need some more hobbies), I plan on banking some posts during the break. All of you suckers in the real world will surely be jealous to hear that we don't start classes until Jan. 20. Not that I will be able to get away without working at all until the 20th, but I should have a bit more time to write a few posts in advance, especially in the long-promised series on how Anne and I are adapting to life in Vermont.

Hopefully this won't be the last post you read until June!

Thoroughly vetted

2008-09-04T04:52:00.007+02:00

I hate to give the appearance that I'm obsessed with Sarah Palin, but I just listened to her speech at the Republican convention. It was the auditory equivalent of eating a jar of Strawberry Fluff. At least she calls snowmobiles "snow machines".

[Update Thursday AM]
I wrote the above when she was halfway through her speech and was waxing poetic about her family. (For someone who would prefer the "East coast media elites" not talk about her family, she sure talks a lot about her family.) After posting, I closed the computer and started getting ready for bed. At this point, the speech turned *mean*. Overall, I was (perhaps predictably) disappointed and frustrated with the slate of speakers last night, but I'll save that for another post.

The Olympic Handoff

2008-09-04T04:50:00.000+02:00

I started writing this post over a week ago, then ran out of steam. I hate to see all that "hard" work go to waste, though, especially because Iceland is featured prominently. The political conventions have been distracting, and I just can't keep up with the 24 hour news cycle. So here, for your reading enjoyment, is an edited, week+ late, postmortem on the summer Olympics:

Although I'm more of a winter Olympics guy (maybe it's my affinity for the Nordic countries), I was a pretty rapt follower of the Olympics the last couple weeks. Here are a few brief thoughts on the First Communist Olympiad.

First off, the Chinese proved to be highly entertaining hosts. It's tough to pick a favorite moment, but the top two would have to be the (allegedly) underage gymnasts and the opening ceremonies singer that was too homely for primetime.

Of course, I don't watch the Olympics to see the host nation embarrass itself. I watch to see all of the weird-ass sports no one in America plays. And the prize this year has to go to Team Handball. I had no idea before I watched it online that team handball was even played the way it's played. I assumed it was somehow a variation on the sport the middle aged men play in the racquetball courts at the UC Berkeley fitness center every morning. But it's not like that at all. Instead, it's like a hybrid between basketball (albeit with rules against traveling that are even more lax than those imposed on stars in the NBA) and indoor soccer. The best part for me was Iceland's captivating run to the final game in the men's tournament. Sadly, they came up short in the gold medal game against France, but it was still pretty cool that the tiny island nation mustered a silver medal in a sport that is (allegedly) widely popular in the rest of Europe (if not much of anywhere else).

Looking ahead four years, if the Olympic hand-off sponsored by London is any indication, I'm not optimistic for the upcoming games. For those of you who didn't see it, a key moment featured Jimmy Page playing guitar on top of an open-topped bus sided with neon umbrellas. David Beckham joined him to kick a soccer ball into the audience, apparently symbolizing ... something. I heard this portion of the ceremony previewed on the radio a few days prior, and the commentator described how it would be "impossible for it not to be absolute rubbish." As luck would have it, I caught this spectacle on TV (in the grocery store of all places), and it lived up to the billing -- it was absolute rubbish. Becks feebly kicked the ball into the first row of spectators, alarming an unsuspecting gaggle of Japanese visitors. Jimmy Page looked on, a bit bewildered by all of the flashing lights.

Luckily, the sporting events themselves always seem to transcend the setting of the Olympics. Here's to hoping the next summer games will be as entertaining as this year's and not absolute rubbish.

Piper at the Gates of Dawn

2008-08-31T17:14:00.002+02:00

Just as the afterglow of Obama's convention speech was fading, I greeted the McCain camp's announcement of Sarah Palin as their VP pick with a bit of bemusement. I felt a little badly for the Republicans, having to elbow their way into the media spotlight between the Democratic convention and their own, with the Olympics still a recent memory. I have to say that, while I was desperately hoping for Mitt Romney because he's always good for a laugh, I was kind of surprised by their pick.

The Republicans continuously harp on Obama for his perceived lack of experience. And yet they've chosen a vice president whose political experience is briefer than Obama's. I heard someone on the radio this morning attempting to defend her lack of experience in politics by saying that she's always "been interested in current events." I guess that means reading the newspaper qualifies you for the job that's a hearbeat away from the presidency.

That said, I think experience is a bit overrated. What's more important to me is leadership ability and judgment. I can't say much for governor Palin's leadership ability, although I do have to respect her for taking on the old guard of Alaska Republicans. But I really have to question her judgment after seeing the bewildering names of her children (Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, and Trig). Now, I've got nothing against Willow, as she was one of my favorite characters on Buffy (at least until the sixth season, although I don't think the last two seasons should really count. But I digress....) I find it particularly interesting that two of her children are in fact named after TV witches. Perhaps someone should start a chain email claiming that she's a pagan. I'm not sure if that's better or worse in the American public consciousness than being labeled a Muslim.

One final note: I think the Republicans are making a bit of a mistake if they've picked a younger VP to try to deflect some of the reservations people have about McCain's age. Choosing someone who governs a state that's younger than John McCain may just backfire.

This is not a blog about remodeling

2008-08-22T23:24:00.004+02:00

I promised before that this space wouldn't be taken over by remodeling pictures and stories (a remodelogue, if you will), but I couldn't resist this picture. My parents were here last week to visit and labor on the house. While Jack and I rebuilt our dilapidated porch, my mom and Anne repainted the kitchen. When we moved in, it was decorated with pink wainscoting below and (dark) blue and white striped wallpaper with a floral print above. Needless to say, it had to go.

With the wallpaper removed, Anne and my mom set to repainting. In the middle of the transition from pink to green, I couldn't help but notice the two colors together were reminiscent of the cover of one of the greatest albums of all time.

This fortuitous bit of rock and roll color concurrence was pretty cool, although as much as I love the Clash, the pink still had to go, and we now have a much more bearable, two-tone kitchen painted in green and white.

Back home again

2008-07-20T18:44:00.003+02:00

Just a quick note to say I'm back to hot, humid Vermont. I had a three-day layover in Iceland on the way home, and it was incredible. I've always wanted to go to Iceland, so it was a lot of fun to finally see it. In the next week or so, I'll be writing a post or two about the final days of my trip to Sweden, as well as my time in Iceland, but for now, I have some home improvement projects to tend to! For your viewing pleasure, I've added a few pictures from Iceland to my Sweden photo set on Flickr (now renamed Sweden & Iceland).

imeem

2008-07-11T15:06:00.002+02:00

I've been meaning for a while to pimp imeem, an online music service I've been listening to for a couple months. To describe it, the best analogy I can think of is that it's a hybrid of iTunes and MySpace. Users upload mp3's of songs, and then anyone can stream them or even buy them. If you're a registered member, you can also create your own playlists. In addition to this, there's a whole social networking side to the site. I'm not really into networking online, so to be honest, I haven't really played with the features. My guess is that it's similar to MySpace. However that works.

I should also add that part of my affection for this site stems from the fact that one of the first songs I looked for and found was "Vindaloo" by Fat Les, which I haven't been able to find on any of the major services. I like it because it's one of my favorite soccer songs, and it brings back fond memories of Anne and my time in England during the 2002 World Cup. That said, I logged in recently, and I could only listen to a 30 second sample of this song (see more below). I'll assume that the reason I can't listen to it in its entirety is because I'm not in North America right now. If I get back to the US, and still can't listen to the song in its entirety, I may have to rethink this review.

One interesting feature of this service is that you can basically listen, on demand, to any song that's been uploaded. As far as I understand, this contradicts the traditional model for online music (and both terrestrial and online radio) where the listener can't have the ability to predict what will be played at a specific time. (This is why DJ's will often say something like "Coming up, we have the new one from Santogold" while being deliberately cagey about when s/he'll actually play it.) This is also part of why you can't choose a specific song on Pandora.

imeem somehow gets around this by only allowing listeners to stream 30-second samples of some songs. Whether or not a full length version of a song is available depends on an interpretation of copyright law that I don't really understand. (You can, of course, listen to full versions of any songs you personally have uploaded.) However, in my experience (at least my experience before coming to Sweden), most songs seem to be unlocked and you can listen to the whole thing.

Aside from the issue of incomplete songs, I need to give one warning to potential users of imeem, the significance of which will probably vary depending on your personal preferences. The warning is that, from a design standpoint, the site is absolute ass. I'm sure you're familiar with how butt-ugly MySpace can be; well imeem seems to follow the same design principles. That is, it has none. There's no standardization in the design, except that all the things you expect to find like the controls, recommended tracks, and comments do tend to be in the same place on every page. But they all float ethereally above a user-selected background that is invariably made up of hundreds of tiny, moving bits. You also have to deal with ads of the "Someone in Poultney has the hots for you!" variety, but you're probably used to ignoring such impositions by now. At least I hope you are. (One funny side note, lately I've been seeing the same low-budget ads, but they're all in Swedish. Någon i Stockholm älskar mig? Jattebra!)

The visual experience of any given page will vary from one track to the next, although you can probably guarantee that it will be ugly, visually distracting, and have little or no relation to the music being played. I once listed to a playlist on a page that had a creepy vampire's head at the top. The head was partially concealed by shadows, and it would move about and flash it's teeth in a roughly ten-second cycle. The band featured in this particular playlist: REM. Because nothing makes me think of vampires (or vampyrs, perhaps) like "Radio Free Europe."

So with that warning, I encourage you to check it out. I think the main benefit of this site is it's on-demand feature. If you have a song stuck in your head and you need to hear it, this is the place to go. Or if you want to preview an album before going out and buying it, chances are someone has already put together a playlist of the whole thing. I think the site definitely has its merits, especially if you can let it run (hidden) in the background while you're working. Just try not to look at it for too long because it's guaranteed to give you a headache and make your eyes bleed.

I mentioned Pandora earlier, which reminds me to pimp an application that my friend JT turned me on to. It's called PandoraJam, and it lets you access Pandora in a separate application instead of using your browser. The coolest feature is that it will automatically save to your hard drive all of the songs it plays. The quality is only ok (64 kbs), but the music is free after all. You have to buy a license to get unlimited downloads, but the unregistered version will work in 10-15 songs stretches at a time. And the best thing about PandoraJam ... ? It only works on a Mac.

Sorry, I know I've promised I wouldn't let this blog go there.

A heavy metal country

2008-07-07T10:01:00.002+02:00

Continuing the Sweden travelogue, I think it's safe to say Sweden is a heavy metal country. This is in contrast to the US, which, despite a flirtation with hair metal in the 1980s, is decidedly not. Other heavy metal countries include Brazil (and most of South America for that matter), much of Scandinavia, and probably all of Eastern Europe. What do I mean by heavy metal country? Here are a few things I've seen since arriving here to give you an idea:

Posters advertising Iron Maiden's new greatest hits album in the window of mainstream music shops.

The pub down the street from my apartment offers "heavy metal" karaoke two nights a week.

Every time I walk by this same pub, they're showing not sports, but an Iron Maiden concert video on their TVs. Except the one time it was Black Sabbath.

A record store devoted entirely to death metal in a somewhat upscale neighborhood.

People (note the plural) unironically wearing Mötörhead t-shirts.

A guy with a mullet wearing a White Lion European tour shirt.

And a final confirmation that Sweden is a heavy metal country? I went into a hip hop and turntablist-friendly record store in the part of Stockholm where all the hipsters hang out, and the proprietor (who happened to be scratching -- ineptly -- a record while I was there) had long, blond hair cascading down his shoulders and back, and he was wearing a shirt for a metal band (Dimmu Borgir, if I remember correctly). When even the hip hop headz look like roadies for Saxon, you know you're in a heavy metal country.

NPR towns

2008-07-04T12:22:00.001+02:00

I just listened to the podcast of Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me! this morning, which broadcast live from Seattle last week. At the opening, the host quipped that, because of its coffee, bookstores, and cultural institutions, Seattle may be the "perfect public radio town." "With," he added, "apologies to Berkeley, California, and certain communes in Vermont." I had to smile because he'd just listed the last three places I've lived. (OK, so I don't live on a commune, but he needed the phrase for the sake of the punch line.) Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that I get all my news from NPR.

More blogs about buildings and food

2008-07-03T16:15:00.003+02:00

One of the most compelling reasons for subletting an apartment while I was here instead of staying in a hotel was so that I could cook for myself. This has saved me a lot of money given how expensive it is to eat dinner in a restaurant here. Nevertheless, self-catering is not without its challenges in a foreign country.

Fortunately (at least for my shopping comfort level) Sweden seems to have embraced the US-style supermarket model. This is in contrast to stereotypical European model where everyone goes to two or three different places each day to buy that day's meal. There are a couple cool market halls that fit that mold, and I try to patronize as much as I can. But for the everyday stuff, I go to a small supermarket a block away. Because of the familiarity of the supermarket model, I haven't had many instances of complications arising from cultural or linguistic misunderstandings. On my first shopping trip, I did have a bit of a mix-up when I inadvertently bought sugar that also contained pectin. But other than my tea having kind of an off consistency, that hasn't been too big of a disaster. I swear the picture on the front of the bag depicting the sugar being poured into a saucepan full of jam looks like it's being poured into a cup of coffee, at least when you're looking at the bag in dim light (which is a common feature of all the Swedish supermarkets I've shopped at).

Saturday, I did have a somewhat unfortunate experience at an outdoor produce market I like to go to. I got there right at closing time, and the fruitmongers were eager to get rid of their stock. Somehow, my simple request for a handful of green beans turned into a pound or more of beans, a leek, a couple heavy bags of plums, and a couple heavy bags of grapes. I tried to demure on some of the items, and did manage to keep from adding any berries or melons to my haul. Unfortunately, the guy was speaking very quickly in Swedish and seemed in a bit of a rush. My Swedish wasn't really up to the challenge of negotiating, and I got a bit flustered and speechless as I watched him bag up my fruit.

Needless to say, the cost was a bit more than I'd anticipated for the half kilo of beans I'd wanted to buy (although a bargain for what I got). When he told me the final cost, I tried feebly to negotiate, but I was stuck in Swedish because the fruitmonger was an immigrant who may or may not have spoken English. That and he was Middle Eastern from a country that probably hasn't benefited from our foreign policy, so my switching to English would probably have backfired anyway. I got him to reduce the price a little bit, but I'm still stuck with about 10 pounds of fruit that's probably going to go bad before I can eat it all. It's now Thursday, and I would say I'm about a third of the way through, though the grapes are holding up remarkably well in my fridge. The plums on the other hand are starting to turn. It's beginning to look like buying the sugar with pectin wasn't such a disaster after all.

Weekend highlights

2008-07-01T15:22:00.003+02:00

Last week was actually a relatively productive week work-wise, so when Saturday rolled around, I hopped out of bed ready to leap back into tourist mode. Here are some of the highlights:

I went back to the hip, happening Södermalm to do some gift shopping. I'll be cagy about what I actually shopped for because certain gift recipients might be reading this blog. But I can say that I had a fun time browsing through stores, lunching and snacking at cafes, and just taking in the streetlife. It helped that the weather was awesome this weekend. One place I made sure to go was a highly regarded record store, called Pet Sounds (but I won't hold that against it). It was super cool; in many ways it fulfilled my platonic ideal of what an independent record store should be. Oddly, there was very little Swedish-language music. Also, I made a very unfortunate discovery. New CDs here cost up to 200 Swedish kronor, or over $30 US (and rising daily as the dollar continues its steady decline). As cool as it would have been to buy the new Sigur Rós disc in Scandinavia, I think it's going to have to wait until I get home.

Sunday was given over to museum-going. I first checked out the history museum. And anyone who knows me well could probably guess where I headed first: the Viking room! In many ways, it was a typical "stuff in glass cases" museum, so I wasn't really blown away. But two things stood out. First, the staging of the exhibits was very artfully done. The lighting in the Viking exhibit in particular was quite artistic, for lack of a better word. Second, it was one of the most postmodern museums I've been to. (Which begs the question, can you use "postmodern" in a relative sense?) There was a hall in the back of the museum that was all about how history is constructed. It was set up to mimic an airplane terminal (an interesting choice), with each "gate" leading to a different room that posed a series of questions about historiography, like one room that asked "Whose are all these objects? Why do museum collections look the way they do? How are the objects sorted and how does this affect history?" Another room discussed how contemporary perspectives on what defines a family determine how historians describe familial relations in the cultures they study. I've certainly never seen an exhibit like that in a history museum. Although the museum also had the obligatory "attractions" (like "Sweden's oldest preserved garment"), it was pretty interesting to see a museum tackle these "how the sausage gets made" type of issues too.

After all that heady material, it was time to get outdoors. Fortunately, Stockholm has a great outdoor museum dedicated to the culture and history of Sweden. It's called Skansen, and I highly recommend it if you plan on traveling to the city. The museum is a large park filled with historic buildings from all over Sweden. In many of the buildings, there are people in period costume who will take the time to explain to you what the period they're representing was like. There are even artisans like potters and glassblowers making handicrafts by traditional methods.

Reading about Skansen and hearing it described, I was a bit worried it was going to be kind of corny and Disney-fied. But the reconstructions were pretty faithful (as best as I could tell), in large part because the historic buildings were actual buildings that had been moved from their original locations from around the country. There was also a section devoted to the wildlife of Sweden, where I got to see a brown bear, some moose, and some reindeer, among other things. Sadly, the wolverines were in hiding when I was there.

I had ambitions of checking out the art museum as well (mainly for its highly-regarded design exhibit), but I was pretty tired and it was already mid-afternoon. I still have a small handful of museums on my itinerary, although I have to be strategic about when I go to them because some have weekday afternoons when they're free. And when I do go, I'll be sure to write about it here.

I'll leave you with some photos from Skansen.

Friday night in Stockholm

2008-06-29T17:20:00.005+02:00

These past couple days were my first weekend here that wasn't a major holiday, so I was a bit curious to find out what Stockholmers do for the helg. It turns out one popular thing to do is go cruising. No, not that kind of cruising (although I'm sure that happens too -- I just wouldn't know about it). I mean the old-fashioned, American Graffiti style cruising. It appears car culture is alive and well in Stockholm. As evening fell on Friday, the street I live on came alive to the sound of car horns and squealing tires as a parade of classic, American cars cruised up and down the street.

I was a bit surprised to see people driving their American muscle cars from the 50s-70s with no apparent purpose in a country where gas costs ~$9 a gallon. That said, there were as many or more people parked on the side of the street and chatting by their cars than there were people actually driving them. I'm not really into muscle cars, but I did get a certain feeling of nostalgia for the good ol' U.S. of A.

There were a few things that stood out as unfamiliar, though. First, none of the cars had their stereos turned up very loud, and those that did were most likely to be playing some sort of rock. I didn't hear a single thump of hip hop. Also, the crowd had a decidedly middle-aged bent to it. It was definitely more Hot August Nights than Sideshow.

My personal favorite car? A big grocery getter station wagon from the 70s painted jet black with flames on the hood. It had some glittery stickers below one of the back windows that said "Remember the 70s". Hell Yeah! Actually, I was only four when the seventies ended, so I don't really remember them, but ... Hell Yeah!

Here are a couple non-scientifically collected statistics about the Friday night cruise on Sveavägen:

Approximate number of classic cars cruising up and down the street: 40
Approximate number of classic cars parked on the side of the street: 50
Number of trunk-rattling jams heard: 0
Number of songs that sounded suspiciously like "Doctor Doctor" by U.F.O.: 2
Number of Volvos squealing tires when leaving a stoplight: 1
Number of horns playing "La Cucaracha": 2

At home he feels like a tourist

2008-06-25T16:57:00.010+02:00

Last weekend I decided to take a break from work -- I'd been working for two days, after all :-) -- and took some time to play tourist. Saturday morning I grabbed my camera, some snacks (I can't afford to buy lunch in this town), and a guide book and headed toward downtown via some scenic side streets. Below is a picture of Johannes Kyrka (Johann's Church) and one of the aforementioned, scenic side streets.

I then passed through the city center, which was relatively quiet because it was a holiday. Saturday was Midsummer's Day, which is one of the biggest holidays on the Swedish calendar, reflecting the fact that Swedes are still in touch with their pagan past. Because of the holiday, a lot of shops were closed. Midsummer is a three-day weekend where Stockholm basically empties out as most people head to their houses in the country. Good luck buying a replacement fuse on the Thursday before Midsummer in Stockholm (long story)!

One of the first stops on any tourist's itinerary in Stockholm is the Gamla Stan, or old town. It's the site of the original village and still has much of its medieval feel (with the possible exception of the ice cream shops). For those of you unfamiliar with Stockholm's geography, the city center and my neighborhood are on the mainland, while most of the rest of Stockholm sprawls across a number of islands in the brackish inlet between the Baltic and a large lake (called Lake Malären). The Gamla Stan sits on one such island, just south of the city center. It's connected to the mainland by a handful of bridges, one of which passes through the center of the Swedish Parliament.

While there are a couple specific destinations on Gamla Stan, like the royal palace (Sweden still has a king and queen -- how quaint!), the main attraction for me was wandering through the narrow, cobblestone streets.

In my perambulations, I also wandered onto a small, adjoining island that once housed a few noble manors, but is now home to a church and some government offices. The centerpiece of this island is the statue of Birger Jarl, the founder of Stockholm. Any city founded by someone named Jarl (pronounced Yarrrl, or at least that's how I think it ought to be pronounced) has my respect.

In spite of my best intentions of getting an early start, my internal clock was still a little wonky from residual jet lag (for fans of William Gibson, my soul still hadn't completely caught up) and the fact that it never gets completely dark at night here in June. While I had hoped to beat the tourists, they quickly caught up to me, and after a couple hours it was clearly time to move on. Fortunately, most of the visitors seem to cram onto one street in Gamla Stan. You know the type of street I'm talking about because every tourist zone has one. It's lined with overpriced restaurants, gift shops (in this case selling trolls and Swedish flags), and ice cream shops. But by noon, the spillover into the adjacent streets was getting to feel a bit crowded, so I headed south to the island of Södermalm (literally "Southern Island").

Södermalm is allegedly the hip and up-and-coming part of Stockholm. You know the story: working class neighborhood gets "discovered" by artists and hipsters. As much as I aspire to be opposed to gentrification, it sounded like just the type of neighborhood I'd want to "discover" as well. Before I explored all of its hip offerings, though, I needed a snack that was more substantial than the cheese and crackers I'd packed. To the rescue came fried herring from a streetside cart. One of my favorite culinary explorations in any new country is street food. In part this is for practical reasons: I'm usually on a budget when I travel and street food is cheaper than restaurant food. Nevertheless, I think you can get a pretty good window into a country's food from what you can buy from a sidewalk kiosk. I walked up to a kiosk in a square on the north end of Södermalm and ordered the fried herring on a cracker. You probably know the type of cracker; they sell them in the US under the Wasa brand and they look almost excessively healthy. Anne and I call them "adult" crackers. Anyway, the herring was lightly breaded, fried, and placed on one of these crackers. It was then topped with marinated cucumbers, parsley, and red onion. It was heavenly, and only cost ~$5 US (a steal in this town where beer costs $10 a pint).

After my fishy snack, I headed to a cliffside walkway along the north of the island that overlooked much of central Stockholm. In the photo below, the black steeple toward the right is of Riddarholmskyrkan on the island where Birger Jarl stands watch. In the background is central Stockholm. As you can see, the city has a relatively low skyline. It reminds me a bit of Paris in terms of its density (lots of 6-8 story buildings), although it has a smaller population; it's about the size of San Francisco. The cranes toward the center of the frame suggest that Stockholm might be prepared to start growing up, but for now most of the high rises are in the suburbs. On the left of the frame, the blocky, brick building is Stockholm's city hall. (If you want to see a more complete panorama, you can check out my Flickr photostream, where I've set up a Stockholm album).

After enjoying the view, I headed to central Söder (as the hip locals call it, at least that's what my guide book says). Alas, almost all of the stores on the central shopping strip were closed for the holiday. There were still quite a few people out on the street (looking hip), even though none of the stores were open. At the southern end of the shopping district, the street opened into a big square adjacent to a bustling intersection. Here more shops were open, and I was able to get an (overpriced) espresso and some delicious (if also overpriced) carrot cake.

After my snack, I hopped on the tunnelbana (metro) and rode back to my place. Riding the metro is right up there with street food on my list of priorities in a new city (I'm a bit of a public transit geek), and this was my first opportunity to do so since I'd arrived -- it's actually faster to walk to the university than to take the metro because of the way the routes are laid out. Anne and I were in New York the weekend before I came to Sweden, and I can only describe that city's subway as dank and decrepit. The Stockholm metro provided a perhaps predictable (given Americans' perceptions of Scandinavian tidiness) contrast.

Kan du talar Svenska?

2008-06-25T09:50:00.002+02:00

Can you speak Swedish? You may be surprised at how much you can understand, given the similar German roots of English and Swedish. Take for example, this sign promoting a magazine article hyping the Sex and the City movie (which opened here last weekend).

The sign says "Läs Charlottas intervju med SJP från Sex and the City." Translated, this says "Read Charlottas interview with SJP from Sex and the City." (I love the use of "SJP" as well.)

But just when you start to gain some degree of confidence in your recognition of cognates, you pick up a newspaper and are completely lost. Well, at least I was when I bought one a couple days ago. So the two languages aren't very similar after all. I took a couple semesters of Swedish when I was at Berkeley, and I would say I picked it up even faster than I did Spanish. That said, I've lost quite a bit in the interim, and it's been a challenge regaining it. I did the completely nerdy thing of bringing the flash cards from my Swedish class, and although I haven't been too diligent with them, my review of verbs the other night was quite helpful.

Unfortunately, the blessing and the curse of living in a country where nearly everyone speaks English is that as soon as I show a lack of comprehension, the person will switch to English and there goes my ability to learn by immersion. Even the Palestinian proprietor of the cafe where I'm typing this switched to English on me (and then proceeded to tell me how terrible the politics are in the US -- I can't say I disagreed). So I've still got three weeks here, and my goal is to be able to get to the point where the person on the other side of the counter doesn't automatically switch to English as soon as I open my mouth. The colleague I'm working with is Danish, and he says it even happens to him, so I'm not overly optimistic, but I'll do my best.

Swedish snack

2008-06-23T15:27:00.003+02:00

My favorite way to embrace another culture is through the food. With that in mind, I prepared myself what was (to my mind) a very Swedish snack when I came home from work the other day. It started with a piece of whole-grain flatbread. The Swedes have a wide variety of bread-like products, many of which fall somewhere between cracker and bread. The one in the picture is made from rye flour and has a consistency somewhat akin to a thick, slightly stale, pita. I topped it with some butter and jam (lingonberry, of course).

And what better way to top off a very Swedish snack than with a piece of cheese and milk from a box.

Fotboll

2008-06-20T12:11:00.000+02:00

I've again wound up in Europe during a major international soccer tournament. Last time it was the 2002 World Cup when I was in England. This time it's the European Cup. This one doesn't get nearly the coverage in the U.S. that the World Cup does, so you may not have been following it. I was pretty excited to be here during the tournament because Sweden had qualified, and I remembered how nuts people were in England during the World Cup. Now, the Swedes don't really do "nuts", and they've been decidedly more reserved. Perhaps for good reason: their team didn't make it past the group stage after laying a turd of a game against Russia the other day.

Just like the last time I was in Europe in June, the NBA finals were also going on. And just like last time, there is absolutely no coverage of them. I happened to see that the Celtics mauled the Lakers in the final game, although the coverage was limited to a skimpy box score on the last page of the sports section in yesterday's paper. Which just goes to show, no matter how small the world gets, Europeans just can't be bothered to care about our sports.

Hej från Sverige

2008-06-19T15:15:00.002+02:00

Hello from Sweden! It's been a while since I've blogged, and I've done quite a bit in the interim, including finishing my first year at Green Mountain, buying a house, and flying to Stockholm to work for a month. Sadly, that means I haven't had any time to blog. I realize that may have caused some of you to question my priorities, but I have to do what I have to do.

The first year of teaching wrapped up pretty well. It was a lot of work. I had naively hoped that the final year of writing my dissertation would be the hardest I ever have to work again. Turns out I was wrong. But in spite of the workload of preparing six new classes, two with labs, I had a really good time. It only really dragged once the spring semester was finally over and I still had a grant to write and some research orders to make, which I didn't finish until a couple days before I left.

As for the house, it's ~150 year old house in the village, about a 5 minute walk from work. It's a pretty ideal location, and we got it for what I'd like to think was a decent price (and lower than just about anywhere we could have moved -- or at least would have wanted to.) The downside is it needs a fair bit of work, although most of it is cosmetic, and it's definitely livable. We were even able to accommodate for a weekend a couple weeks ago.

The previous owner really had a thing for flowery wallpaper, though, so we have our work cut out for us. The biggest project so far has been to replace the floor in the laundry room. I don't have much experience with construction but luckily it mostly required me to hone my destruction skills. I'm going to try not to turn this blog into "The Mark and Anne's remodel" blog, so I'll leave it at that for now, but you can anticipate some pictures in the future.

Last weekend, Anne and I headed down to New York to visit Larry and Camila. I was flying out of JFK, and it seemed like a perfect excuse to visit them, which we haven't done since we moved to the east coast. We had a great time. It was my first trip to New York and Anne's first since she was nine. I felt like we saw a lot even though we never left Manhattan. It was also cool to discover that, by driving to Albany and then taking the train, it's just about as far as Boston.

I arrived in Stockholm Tuesday afternoon, staying with Per and Martine (colleagues from Berkeley that I'll be working with while I'm here) last night. Yesterday I moved into the apartment I'm subletting for the month. It's a pretty ideal location, only a short walk from the city center and not too far from the University where I'll have an office. I'll have more to write once I settle in and start exploring a bit more. For now, I leave you with a photo from the terrace of my apartment. It's looking across the courtyard toward Sveavägen, a main north/south street in central Stockholm.

DC and Ballmer

2008-03-08T17:45:00.003+01:00

We had an early spring break this year, and Anne and I took advantage of it to flee the snow and visit some friends in DC and Baltimore. Neither of us had been to DC since we were teenagers, and we'd never been to Baltimore. We spent a couple days with our friend Adam in Adams Point (no relation). It was a fun time. We walked a lot, went to a bunch of museums and monuments, and ate a lot of ethnic food, including some great Ethiopian food. One of the highlights (at least for me) was the Hall of Mammals at the natural history museum. I was happy to see a stuffed fisher in one of the dioramas. Like every other fisher I've seen in a museum, it was hungrily eyeing a porcupine.

After a couple days in the District, we headed up to Baltimore to spend a couple days with Steve and Margaret. I knew next to nothing about Baltimore except a few things Steve had told me and what I'd seen on the Wire. It was a pretty cool city, and it reminded Anne and I of Oakland. The Baltimore highlight was the American Visionary Art Museum, which is a collection of outsider art. It was really cool. The other highlight was the spicy Vietnamese soup that Steve and Margaret made for us. It was damn good, and it inspired us to buy big bowls for pho and those wide and flat spoons that I'm sure have a special name, but I don't know it.

It was cool being able to visit a couple cities that seemed far away and exotic just a year ago, but are now only an hour-long flight away. I'll leave you with a video that Adam recorded in support of our favorite presidential candidate. He's hoping for it to go viral, and I'm happy to do everything I can to help.

"Intellectual heavy metal"

2008-01-16T02:34:00.001+01:00

My favorite band and my favorite public radio show had a crossover event tonight when The World ran a segment on Bolivian fans of Iron Maiden. Apparently the band won't play in the country because of political instability even though they routinely travel to other parts of South America. The reporter (who has an incredibly cute way of saying "Iron") interviews a couple members of the band's fan club who've tried to raise money and corporate sponsorship to bring the band to La Paz, so far to no avail. If you want to listen to the story, you can find it here. (For the truly faithful: if you follow the link to the story, be sure to check out the glass-encased copy of the Soundhouse Tapes in the photo gallery.)

Compost happens

2008-01-11T01:55:00.001+01:00

Something I've been wanting to do for a long time is start composting. When we lived in Oakland, it seemed that half the trash we hauled down to the dumpster was vegetable matter. So when the City of Oakland started a municipal composting program, I was really excited. Unfortunately, they didn't provide the little composting buckets to apartments with more than 4 units. And because we didn't have much outdoor space, I was out of luck.

All that changed when we moved to Vermont and a 1.2 acre house, and I started a little compost pile within days of getting the boxes unpacked. I feel like we're diverting a lot of our trash away from the landfill now, and we only take out the kitchen garbage every couple of weeks.

Despite the virtuous feeling I get, I can't escape the nagging feeling that all I've really accomplished is to create a trash pile behind the garage. Maybe I'm just being impatient, but most of the things in the compost pile still look the same as they did when they left the kitchen. I've read a bit about carbon and nitrogen ratios, so I bought a rake to make sure we could put grass clippings and fallen leaves in the pile. I even bought a pitchfork so that I could turn the pile periodically. Things were starting to look up as winter approached. When I would turn the pile, the bottom layer looked a little more like soil than it looked like rotten vegetables.

Then December came. More to the point, then came one of the top five snowiest Decembers in Vermont history. Now I feel like I've created a frozen trash pile behind the garage. We keep adding kitchen scraps to it, but I doubt anything biological is going to happen until the spring. Luckily we won't be in a position to start a garden anytime soon. We did just have a bit of a warm spell and a lot of the snow melted, so maybe I'll give the pile a good turn this weekend. That should get things going!

Fall colors

2008-01-06T22:04:00.000+01:00

Because I had such a busy fall, I was pretty remiss in updating the ol' blog. Now that I have a little time before classes start, I'm going to try to post a few things before it gets crazy again.

Yesterday I went through our digital photos and posted a bunch to Flickr. Many of them were fall color pictures, which seem a little outdated as I look out my window right now, but I wanted to get them up anyway. Fall in New England definitely lived up to the hype. You can find a bunch on my Flickr site, but here are a couple of my favorites:

Secular humanists of the world unite!

2007-12-10T03:54:00.000+01:00

As you may know, I'm a sucker for the online personality quiz. Matt, Cascade, and Caden visited this weekend, and they suggested we check out the Belief-O-Matic quiz. This quiz purports to find the religious faith that's best-suited for you based on 20 multiple choice questions. No more grasping for meaning, because the internet once again delivers the goods! After you complete the quiz, it gives you a list of different faiths, and how well your answers fit each one. As it turns out, I'm a Secular Humanist, which basically means I'm an atheist, but that I think humans are inherently good (to contrast with the category "Nontheist," which seems like a more dour flavor of atheism). This wasn't particularly surprising to me, although I actually didn't even know this term until I met Anne. Apparently the "Secular Humanists" were frequently blamed by evangelicals in her hometown of all sorts of nefarious acts like removing prayer from school, higher taxes, and the inclusion of books that promote witchcraft in the school library. Seems like a group I would have common cause with, even if the name sounds like something that hasn't been in circulation since the Enlightenment.

Coming in a close second was Unitarian Universalist, which was not too surprising, either. After all, some of my best friends are unitarians ;-) I was brought up an Episcopalian, which this quiz lumps in with "Mainline to Liberal Protestants." Interestingly, this category came in 8th, below such faiths as Taoism and Neo-Pagan, whatever that one means.

So I realize that my recent blog activity would suggest I'm a poor dinner guest because I've brought up the two most taboo topics in consecutive posts: politics and religion. Hopefully you all derive some enjoyment from sorting out your political or religions quandaries from some of the personality quizzes I've linked in these posts. Where would we be without the internet, hallelujah! As for overlap between the two topics, if I'm at all representative, Dennis Kucinich has the Secular Humanist vote locked! (And in my own spiritual inventory, Mitt Romney's Mormons seem to have a distinct edge over JFK's catholics, although I have to say that Kennedy's speech wiped the floor with Romney's.)

For your reading enjoyment, here are my results with links to Beliefnet's descriptions of each faith:

1.	Secular Humanism (100%)
2.	Unitarian Universalism (96%)
3.	Liberal Quakers (84%)
4.	Theravada Buddhism (82%)
5.	Neo-Pagan (71%)
6.	Nontheist (70%)
7.	Taoism (64%)
8.	Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (62%)
9.	New Age (56%)
10.	Orthodox Quaker (54%)
11.	Mahayana Buddhism (52%)
12.	Reform Judaism (46%)
13.	Jainism (41%)
14.	Bahá'í Faith (38%)
15.	Sikhism (34%)
16.	Scientology (32%)
17.	New Thought (29%)
18.	Seventh Day Adventist (26%)
19.	Hinduism (25%)
20.	Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (24%)
21.	Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (22%)
22.	Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (17%)
23.	Orthodox Judaism (16%)
24.	Eastern Orthodox (15%)
25.	Islam (15%)
26.	Roman Catholic (15%)
27.	Jehovah's Witness (10%)

Who the hell is Mike Gravel?

2007-12-06T04:31:00.000+01:00

About a month ago, Salon ran an article that hit pretty close to home. It was written as an open letter to Democrats, addressed particularly to those of us watching the front-runners in the Democratic primary with a healthy dose of skepticism. It exhorted us to "stop lying to yourselves. You love Dennis Kucinich." Yes, he may be a bit of a wing-nut, and yes, in fact I have heard about the UFO thing. But the fact is, the author kinda had a point. There's no one else in the field of Democratic contenders whose values and policy positions so closely mirror my own. At least that's what I thought....

The article urged its readers to take any of the myriad online quizzes designed to help you choose a candidate and see for yourself if you don't get Kucinich every time. Granted, these are probably about as accurate as the ones designed to determine which character from Buffy is your alter ego, but I'm a total sucker for an online quiz, so I followed a couple links at the end of the article to, well ... see for myself. And yes, it turns out I do love Dennis Kucinich, who finished in first place in each of the four or five polls that I took.

That may be mildly interesting, but perhaps not surprising given my politics, which never seemed too out of place in Oakland. The author reported that she, too, was a big Kucinich supporter, at least as far as these quizzes were concerned. What was interesting was that in an aside, she mentioned that she kept getting Mike Gravel as her second choice. Who? I thought maybe it was a typo or an inside joke, but I'll be damned if I didn't also get Mike Gravel as my second choice in almost all of the quizzes I took.

Mike Gravel (pronounced with the emphasis on the second syllable, like Nobel) is a former senator from Alaska, and is apparently running for president. Although he's been flying well under the radar, he was invited to NPR's presidential debate yesterday, giving me my first chance to hear my man Mike in action. (This is also how I learned how to pronounce his name.)

Let's just say that he swept me off my feet. He certainly had far less mic time than the front-runners, or even Chris Dodd, but he put it to good effect. During a discussion of immigration reform, while most of the candidates said warm and fuzzy things about multiculturalism out of one side of their mouths while promising to lock down the border out of the other, Iron Mike launched into a tirade about how immigration is an absurd non-issue that is used by "nativists and bigots" to make political hay during election season. Sweet! Why haven't we been hearing more from this guy?!

To be honest, I really don't know where Mike Gravel stands on most of the issues, and I haven't had the time or energy to find out. The way I see it, the race will probably be long-decided by the time our primary rolls around in early March, and my vote won't matter for much anyway. But I figure I can still lodge a protest vote. I realize I already spurned Dennis Kucinich last time, when I voted for the Reverend Al Sharpton in the last, already-decided Democratic primary I voted in, but I think Mike Gravel may be my new love.

Thanksgiving and Christmas

2007-11-28T04:25:00.000+01:00

My mom and Jack flew out for Thanksgiving last week, and it was really nice to have them here. They even got to see snow for the first time in a while. I think they were happy that they were going home to Las Vegas and not looking forward to 5 1/2 months more winter, though.

Anne and I cooked the big holiday dinner for the first time (with plenty of input from mom). We tried to go completely local, which is relatively easy in New England where all of the Thanksgiving food traditions originate. We bought our turkey from a local farm, which involved a bit of driving in the snow last Tuesday to go pick it up. I think my parents thought it was a bit odd that we'd drive a half hour out of our way (which turned into an hour because of the weather) when we have a grocery store right here in town. But I felt it was important to support a local farm and to see where our food came from. Luckily the turkey was already dead and plucked. I'm not sure that I wanted to get that close to my food!

It's been a tradition for us to do Christmas during Thanksgiving because we don't always see this set of parents over Christmas. We got some pretty cool, practical things (sweaters, a Lonely Planet New England). I don't say "practical" disparagingly, because that seems to be what I look for in a present these days. Although I think my mom found the long underwear on my list a little *too* practical, so it looks like I'll have to buy them myself.

I also got an awesome book called Transit Maps of the World. It has maps and descriptions from (so it claims) every metro system in the world. Some systems have short, paragraph-long descriptions (like Seattle's now-defunct monorail), while others have multi-page spreads. What's interesting is that the book's focus is on design and information rather than the specifics of the transit system. It's a great combination of two of my favorite forms of geekery: maps and public transit. I've been poring over it ever since my parents left.

Is it a recession, yet?

2007-11-24T23:20:00.000+01:00

I guess that the recession is upon us, because I just heard on NPR that Jay-Z is seen flashing a wad of euros in his latest video. Here's an article about it from the BBC. I like the crack at the end about 50 Cent.

An embarrassment of riches

2007-11-09T03:34:00.000+01:00

A while back I wrote a post about how there are some bands that I will buy anything from the day it comes out. No waiting for critical reviews or listening to samples on iTunes. These are the bands that I know and trust to deliver solid records every time. The past couple weeks have seen two of those bands on my list put out new albums, and I couldn't be happier!

The first was the much-ballyhooed In Rainbows from Radiohead. (I paid £4, in case you're curious.) And yes, it's as awesome as everyone says. Of course they could record Thom Yorke farting into a paper bag and I would think it was the greatest thing I'd heard all year. That is except when ...

... Sigur Rós puts out a double-album! Their new album is one disc of cutting-room floor outtakes and one disc of live, acoustic versions of all your favorite hits, recorded while touring the far corners of Iceland. It just arrived today, and I'm in heaven -- even if I have to put up with abuse from Anne that all their songs sound like whales singing :)

I've had a pretty intense workload lately, especially since an online class I'm teaching just started up this week. It's nice to have new music to get me through the day!

The band is out on the field!

2007-10-30T02:55:00.000+01:00

Not much time lately to do anything but post YouTube videos, but I liked this one quite a bit. It's from a game last weekend between Trinity University and Millsaps College, and is probably one of the longest continuous plays I've ever seen in football.

Of course this play bears (no pun intended) a striking resemblance to the most famous play in my alma mater's history, which I include here for reasons of historical interest and to annoy my Stanford alum friends ;-)

A Mighty Wind

2007-10-19T02:10:00.000+02:00

I just got sent this ad from a colleague, and it's a hoot. I have some mixed feelings about wind power, but I thought the ad was really creative.

You know you live in a small town when ...

2007-10-02T03:23:00.000+02:00

Last weekend was the Poultney Rotary's annual chili cook-off. They printed the rules in the local paper, and I knew I wasn't in Oakland anymore when I read rule #10:

"Road kills, such as Opossum, Skunk, Raccoon, or Deer are not allowed as ingredients in preparing your chili."

Busy times

2007-10-01T04:58:00.000+02:00

As predicted, my bloggery has dropped off rather drastically now that school has started. Needless to say, they keep you hopping as a new professor. Things are going pretty well, although it's all I can do to stay caught up and still have some semblance of a life outside of work. It hasn't really been that bad, although I had my first grading dream this weekend.

We've done a couple photogenic things the last few weekends, so I thought I'd write a quick blog to share some of the pictures. You can find more at my Flickr site.

Two weekends ago, we went to Black Mountain. It's only about 30 minutes from here, and is in one of the easternmost ranges of the Adirondacks. The leaves were just starting to turn, so we got a little color. We also got some pretty incredible views from the summit. We could clearly see Lake George and, far off to the northwest, the high peaks of the Adirondacks.

Anne's mom was here for a week that spanned last weekend. She had a good visit, and it was fun to show her around our new home. I was able to slip away from work last Saturday, and we drove up to Burlington. It was only the second time I'd been there, and the first since we moved here. We had a really good time, and I was impressed by how much Burlington has going on for being the size of city that it is (~150,000 in the greater metro area, which accounts for one in four Vermonters). We went to the waterfront, the farmers' market, Church Street, and the UVM campus. Church Street is closed to cars and is four or five blocks of restaurants and shops. What I liked about it is that in many cities, a neighborhood like that would be over-the-top touristy. But most of the places catered to locals and college students, and we had a fun time shopping and eating our way up and down the street. As we were heading home, there was even a small crew of b-boys dancing for tips. (Ok, that was a little touristy, but they were probably the only breakdancers in all of Vermont.)

Yesterday we met up with my friend Brian and hiked up to Killington Peak. I went to grad school with Brian, and the vagaries of the wildlife job market have landed us about an hour and a half apart in Vermont. Anne and I met him halfway on Sherburne Pass and we hiked up to the summit of Killington Peak, which, at 4235', is the (don't laugh) second highest point in the state. The mountains may be small here, but they're steep, and we got a good workout and some good views from the summit. It was a little too cloudy to see the Adirondacks to the west or the White Mountains to the east, but we could see the valleys on either side of us quite clearly, as well as the Taconic Mountains, which separate the valley where Rutland lies from our home in Poultney. We got some good leaf color on the hike as well. Locals claim another week and a half before we hit the peak, but things are definitely starting to go. I'm not sure I'm ready for winter to be here!

Hope you enjoy the pictures, and I'll try to post again soon!

Editorializing at NPR?

2007-09-07T14:33:00.001+02:00

I woke up to this alarming headline as the top story on Morning Edition at npr.org:

Iraq Strategy Shits as Warring Factions Fail to Unite

In the time it took me to write this post, it was fixed to read "Iraq Strategy Shifts as Warring Factions ..." (emphasis added). I have to wonder: human error, or a not-so-subtle jab at the Bush administration's policy in Iraq?

First day of school

2007-09-05T00:09:00.000+02:00

After months of anticipation, I finally had my first day of classes today. Or should I say "first day of class," because I just had one lecture. It was ecology, at the bright and early hour of 8:00. Luckily my students seem like an attentive and engaged bunch. I hope that can last for a little while until sleep deprivation catches up with them (and me!). I'll confess to a little case of nerves before class, but I just reminded myself that being a college professor is what I want to do with my life, and I'm happy that I'm finally able to do it. I've got tomorrow off, then two classes on Thursday. Wish me luck!

The Vermont State Fair

2007-09-02T19:19:00.000+02:00

Matt, Cascade, and Caden came to visit this weekend, and we participated in one of those obligatory institutions of rural life: attending the state fair. Because Vermont is a farming state, the farm-related exhibits were much more conspicuous than at, for example, the Nevada state fair, where the midway rides seem to take precedence. Not that this fair didn't have a midway, where we were all able to point out the specific rides each of us had gotten sick on when we were younger.

Some of the other highlights included sheds full of dairy cattle -- including an adorable calf that had been born the opening day of the fair, pig races, lessons in composting, and tractors for sale. The "Fish & Game" hall included an exhibit from a trapper that had a bunch of pelts, including three from fishers. We also enjoyed looking at the prize-winning vegetables, artwork, quilts, etc. I think I might try to enter a photo in next year's contest. Caden particularly enjoyed the noisy midway rides and the petting zoo. And of course, what visit to the state fair would be complete without tucking into a big slab of fried dough?

This blog is not gay, this blog has never been gay

2007-08-30T03:42:00.000+02:00

Does it make me a bad person to find Larry Craig's recent outing so funny? Maybe it's his vehement and over-the-top denial, which nearly made milk come out of my nose when I heard it this morning on the radio. Or maybe it's just the pleasure of seeing another anti-gay crusader hoisted on his own petard (in a Minneapolis bathroom, no less). Regardless, Larry Craig has clearly cemented his position alongside Ted Haggard in the closeted homophobe Walk of Shame.

I've got gay marriage on the brain because they're set to debate making it legal here in Vermont. And Larry Craig's little tryst made me think of another reason to support gay marriage. If gay marriage were legal, perhaps it would keep randy old senators from having to hang out in men's rooms to get some. I've flown through the Minneapolis airport, and the thought of getting cruised in the bathroom by Larry Craig is just icky.

Montreal

2007-08-24T03:38:00.000+02:00

Beautiful! Amazing! Foodie paradise! Paris without the jet lag! With the string of superlatives that we heard before going to Montreal this week, it would have been hard for any city to live up to expectations. And while it might not have lived up to all the hype, we had a really fun couple days there.

We headed north on the train on Sunday afternoon, and our journey got off to a rather inauspicious start. The closest train "station" on the line between NY and Montreal is in Whitehall, which is a scrappy little town just over the border in New York. The station itself was a small shack with a cracked glass door in the hulking shadow of a boarded-up tenement, which made us a little nervous about leaving our car there for three days. In typical Amtrak fashion, the train finally showed up about an hour late, and we were off to the great white north. The train ride itself was beautiful, running along the western shore of Lake Champlain. In spite of a lengthy delay at the border, causing us to arrive about 2 hours late, we decided that it still beat driving to get there. Our first view of Montreal from the train was of downtown in the sunset across the St. Lawrence River. The compact downtown is right below the green hump of Mont-Royal, which makes a nice natural counterpoint to the development below it.

The central train station is probably the ugliest station I've ever seen. It's underground beneath downtown, and the platforms have all the charm of a dark, dingy parking garage. After meandering through the underground hallways connecting the station to the nearest metro stop, we were on our way to our hotel. I'm a huge public transit geek, and even though Montreal's metro isn't exactly the shiniest I've seen, I was really excited to be riding it. When buying our metro tickets, we also had our first foray into the French language. Luckily, I just repeated the phrase for "book of six tickets" that was printed on the ticket window, and the ticket agent happily produced them. It was a preview of the level of French that was going to be expected of us for the rest of the trip. Montreal is probably the first truly bilingual city I've been in. We did interact with a few people who didn't speak any English. But when we needed to do anything more complicated than buying a book of metro tickets or a bottle of wine, in almost every case, the other person offered to switch languages and then spoke to us in nearly fluent English. And there were a number of service people we interacted with who were anglophone, even in traditionally francophone neighborhoods.

Our first full day in Montreal was spent hitting some of the main tourist spots. We walked from our hotel at the edge of the Latin Quarter to Old Montreal, which has a lot of impressive old buildings and churches. The highlight is the Basilique Notre-Dame, which has a gorgeous interior. It's full of carved wood with an altar bathed in dim, blue light. The rest of Old Montreal was a treat to walk through and gawk at. It was a bit touristy, but touristy in the way the Latin Quarter in Paris is, rather than in a Fisherman's Wharf kind of way.

That afternoon we walked up to downtown, which was a bit overwhelming. There were some cool, old buildings on the campus of McGill University and in the nearby streets. But I needed to buy some teaching clothes, so we were obliged to head to Rue Ste-Catherine, the main shopping drag. The street is lined with shopping centers, popular stores like the Gap and Mexx, and big department stores, and we quickly discovered that it was not the type of shopping we were in the mood for. We grabbed a quick cup of coffee and a snack before retreating to the leafy confines of Parc du Mont-Royal. We ambled up into the woods and were quickly away from the commotion of downtown. We stopped and rested at the busy lookout in front of the Chalet du Mont-Royal with its panoramic views of the southern portion of the city.

After taking a brief rest, we walked down the east side of the "mountain" and headed into the Plateau. This neighborhood is one of the trendiest in the city, and forms the backdrop for most of the TV shows and movies set there. I knew next to nothing about Montreal before we left, but I could see why this neighborhood is so trendy just by walking around in it. It's made up of leafy streets with charming old row houses and lots of idiosyncratic little shops and restaurants. We meandered for a bit, then settled in for a delicious Italian dinner at Eduardo's (at the corner of St Denis and Duluth, if you're going). Many restaurants in Montreal don't have a liquor license, though if you bring your own wine, they'll happily open it without charging a corkage fee. Unfortunately, we didn't plan ahead, so we had to do without. We certainly didn't make the same mistake the next night. After dinner, we walked backed toward our hotel, stopping for a pint at a brew pub on St Denis near the U of Quebec in Montreal. That just about made up for not having the wine at dinner.

Our next day was far less ambitious, with the revised goal of getting me some good teaching clothes at a second-hand clothing store or boutique on the Plateau or the further-north, gentrification-fringe neighborhood of Mile End. Mile End was pretty fun, and impressed us in the way it wasn't quite as postcard-cute as the Plateau.

My shopping ambitions were met (at least partially) early on when we stumbled upon a store in the basement of an old warehouse that sold cut-rate jeans. The store (called Jeans, Jeans, Jeans, appropriately enough) was a confused jumble of pants, T-shirts, and sweatshirts. There were about a dozen people in the store (which is about 11 more than we'd seen on the street outside) and nearly as many employees to help guide them to the right pair of pants. I came away with two new pairs of jeans (luckily GMC is the kind of college where I can get away with teaching in jeans), and we were on our way to second breakfast, which actually became lunch because the pants-shopping was an unanticipated detour. Anne and I were both pretty hungry when we rolled into the cafe, so I was very excited to see on the menu the regional dish of Quebec ... poutine.

I've been wanting to try poutine (aka gravy fries) ever since I first visited Vermont in 2003. They were a bit harder to come by in Burlington than I was led to believe, so I had to wait until this trip to get it. Poutine first came to my attention when, during the 2000 presidential campaign, George W. Bush was informed in a segment of a Canadian comedy show that the leader of Canada, Prime Minister Jean Poutine, was pulling for him to get elected. The president, even then demonstrating his iron grip on matters of foreign policy and diplomacy, thanked the prime minister for his kind wishes.

So there I sat, with a plate full of the fabled gravy fries in front of me, and let me tell you, it was even better than I could have imagined. Now I don't know if the poutine served up by Le Cagibi (nee Cafe L'Esperanza) is in any way authentic, but do I know that it was delicious. I was kind of dreading something that resembled biscuits and gravy, but with french fries substituted for the biscuits. What I got instead was a flavor explosion, with the requisite fries and gravy, along with vegetables, spices (rosemary and mustard stood out), and topped with cheese and grated cabbage. I think it was lacking in the required cheese curds, but that was just as well.

The rest of the day involved meandering through the streets of the Plateau, wandering into whatever store caught our eye (like the Mexican grocery!), and stopping off at little clothes stores to find me some nice slacks. (No luck, although I did get a cool hat made from Alpaca wool. And did you know that second-hand stores are called friperies? How French is that?) We went out to dinner that night in the Village, the "gay neighborhood" of Montreal. It stretches for about 15 blocks, full of clubs, bars, and restaurants, prompting Anne to comment that it "out-Castros the Castro." After an unrushed dinner (apportez votre vin!), we went to a jazz club then headed back to the hotel. Our train left around 10 the next morning, so we went straight from the hotel to the train station. The train arrived in Whitehall yesterday afternoon, again two hours late. We were quite pleased to find that our car was unharmed.

Overall, I had a great time in Montreal. It was a bit smaller and lower key than I imagined, but in a good way. I felt like the scale was closer to Seattle or maybe slightly larger, but certainly nothing like Paris, and it was a very walkable and attractive city. Nearly everyone we interacted with was friendly and nice, and didn't mind that our French is abysmal. I think part of the reason I feel so positively about our trip was that I was desperate for some "city time," since it's been a little over three weeks since we left the Bay Area. We did a lot of the things we like to do that are hard to come by around here like ogle cool architecture, eat ethnic food, and see live jazz. I was, however, reminded of how much cheaper things are here in Vermont while we were away (and the fact that the US dollar is tanking against the Canadian dollar was no help). Hopefully we'll be heading to Boston once Matt, Cascade, and Caden get settled and we need our next city fix. But we'll definitely be going back to Montreal before too long.

Uninsured

2007-08-17T04:41:00.000+02:00

Effective yesterday I joined the ranks of those without health care in this country. My coverage from Berkeley expired, and my insurance from my new job doesn't start up until September 1. And no company offers short-term insurance in Vermont. Believe me, Anne and I both searched high and low. So that means I go without, because signing up for insurance with another company will take 30 days to take effect, and then I'll have to pay for coverage for at least two weeks longer than I need. For those of you savvy health insurance consumers who might be thinking "can't you just COBRA your Berkeley insurance?" I say "think again!" Berkeley's student insurance doesn't offer any continuing benefits. So I just need to make sure I don't get sick between now and the end of the month (or if I do, make sure it happens while we're in Montreal next week), and everything will work out fine. Keep your fingers crossed for me....

A New Car!

2007-08-11T21:16:00.000+02:00

Friends and long-time readers may remember that Anne and I went carless a while back. As you might guess, moving to a rural area has made that lifestyle choice untenable, and one of the first things we did on landing in VT was to go car shopping. As it turns out, there are very few cars that meet the criteria we were looking for: small, decent gas mileage, all-wheel drive, manual transmission relatively inexpensive. In fact, now that Toyota no longer makes the Matrix with AWD (and never, it turns out, made it with a manual transmission), we were left with only one choice. I'm pleased to announce we're now the proud owners of a Subaru Impreza.

We wound up buying it new because 1) it was the end of the model year, so we got a good deal, and 2) we didn't have the luxury of doing a lot of shopping for a used car that we liked. I realize that new cars lose most of their value the minute you drive them off the lot, but if past experience is any guide, we're going to own this car for a long time so it doesn't seem like too big of a loss.

As much as I rail against car ownership, I have to confess that our new car is really fun to drive! A few revelations after upgrading from a 1983 Toyota Tercel: it has a fifth(!) gear, it doesn't rattle at speeds over 60 mph, it has cruise control AND air conditioning. And unlike my Jeep, it doesn't overheat under certain operating conditions like driving forward or backward. I feel like an oil tycoon driving my fancy new car.

We're still going to apply some of the approaches we developed while we were carless, like walking more and taking public transit. Well ... we're going to walk more. Transit is a little hard to come by around here. It's not like the Yorkshire Dales where you can ride in the back of the mail truck if you need to get somewhere. We live close enough that I can walk or bike to work (as long as it's not snowing), and we're trying to get as much food as we can locally so we don't have to drive to far away grocery stores. Luckily Vermonters are really into the buy local ethic, so we should be able to do it once we get a routine. I feel like I'm certainly compromising my values a bit by getting a new car that doesn't get very good gas mileage (24/29 mpg according to the sticker). But I think we'll be happy to have all-wheel drive in the winter, and if we treat it well, we should be able to get around in it for a long time to come.

The Woolite Cooler

2007-08-10T04:31:00.000+02:00

Four or five years ago before a trip abroad, I bought some travel-size packets of Woolite. The packets were in a bag that was stapled shut by a small cardboard label used to hang the bag on a display rack.

When I got the Woolite home and pulled off the cardboard tag, I discovered a hidden drink recipe. I don't know who wrote it or how it got onto the inside of my travel Woolite label, but it was quite a serendipitous find. However, as much as I was intrigued by the mystery recipe, I was reluctant to try it because it included raspberry liqueur. I wasn't sure it was worth buying something I was sure would taste like cough syrup just to make a drink I found on a package of Woolite.

Even though I never made the drink, I've kept the recipe all this time on the off chance that I would eventually make it. Last night, Anne and I were strategizing our post-move restock of the liquor cabinet, and we decided now would be the time to try it. So I bought a bottle of raspberry liqueur on the way home from my office this afternoon and we made it tonight to celebrate another day of diligent unpacking.

The drink, which I have dubbed the Woolite Cooler, was pretty good. It was a bit tart, and it would probably be better with a homemade sweet and sour mix, but overall it was a keeper. Yes, it tastes a little like cough syrup, but in an "I could drink quite a few of these" kind of way. I think it's a keeper, and I'm glad I held onto the recipe for so long.

So if you want to make your own Woolite Cooler, here's the recipe:

1 shot white tequila
1 shot raspberry liqueur
1/2 shot sweet & sour
1 shot cranberry

My label didn't have any directions for mixing/serving the drink, so I mixed it with ice in a shaker then strained into chilled martini glasses. I'm curious to hear any variations you might try. Enjoy!

First week in Vermont

2007-08-07T13:13:00.000+02:00

We've been here for close to a week now, and things are starting to come together. The house we're in is cute, if a bit small. It is, however, half-again the size of our apartment in Oakland, so I can't complain.

So far my general impressions of Vermont and Vermonters are very positive. I'm particularly happy to report that the stereotype of Vermonters being cold and aloof has been completely untrue. Everybody's been exceptionally friendly, and some folks are even quite chatty. I think a lot of the friendliness has been what you might expect from a small town, but it's gratifying that we're finding it in a place with a reputation for being reserved. One particular example -- when our moving truck arrived on Sunday, our neighbor showed up and helped us unload it, then later that afternoon while we were starting to sort through the boxes and assemble furniture, he showed up at our backdoor with dinner for us. (BBQ pork sandwiches, potato salad, and zucchini cooked with onions. Mmmmm.) I thought that was really nice and welcoming.

One other experience I'd like to relate, which I'll file under "quintessentially Vermont" only because nothing like it has ever happened to me before, happened earlier that same afternoon. We walked down to the store to get a veggie to go with our dinner (this was before we knew our neighbor was going to surprise us and spare us from cooking). There's a grocery store in town, but we live about three quarters of a mile out, so we were going to stop at the little market on the highway that's closer to us. When we got there, we were sad to see that the store is closed on Sundays (welcome to living in a small town!), so we were going to have to walk all the way to the grocery. But then we noticed that some people across the street from the market had a produce stand set up in their front yard with all sorts of veggies including some tasty looking greens. We walked, but there was no one around so we weren't quite sure what to do. Then we noticed a dry erase board on a table with the prices listed, and next to it, a cardboard box with "Make your own change" written on it. Sweet! We gathered up our selections, paid our couple dollars, and headed back home. I don't think I've ever seen a produce stand on the honor system before, but it showed up at the right time for us. Anne called it the Produce Stand of Requirement.

In general, things are going well. We're slowly unpacking boxes, and I started to get moved into my new office yesterday. It'll be nice to finally have my own office! (If you've seen pictures of the campus, I'm in the building with the bell tower.) A couple days ago, we took the plunge back into car ownership and bought a Subaru Impreza. (The Subaru is the state car of Vermont, we've been told.) We need to drive into New York and pick it up today, then drive down to Albany to return our rental car. Grocery shopping is one area where Vermont, at least the part of Vermont where we are, falls short, so we've also mapped out our ethnic grocery options in Albany. We'll be well stocked with masa and fish sauce after today!

Overall, things are going well. I've been busy enough that I haven't had much time to miss the Bay Area. I'm sure I will, but Vermont has been pretty cool so far.

We're here!

2007-08-04T22:34:00.000+02:00

Just a quick post to say that we've arrived safely in Vermont. We got here late Wednesday night (actually Thursday morning, east-coast time), and we've been getting settled in since then. The truck with the rest of our stuff arrives tomorrow. We just got our DSL hooked up, so I thought I'd write a quick entry to tell you all we're here. I promise more (including pictures) soon!

Soccer comes to America! (again)

2007-07-24T06:56:00.000+02:00

I had decided not to address David Beckham's debut on my blog. But when I logged in to post the entry I wrote about taxonomy (see below, it's fascinating, honest), I just couldn't leave well enough alone. Since just about everything I write about on here lately other than moving to Vermont is either about music or soccer, it seemed that I had to say something. And since I actually spent the time to watch an exhibition match that featured the LA Galaxy, I should get something out of it (even if you, my loyal readers, don't).

So unless you live under a rock, you undoubtedly know that David Beckham has arrived in the US to save soccer. His first game was an exhibition by his new team, the LA Galaxy, against the British powerhouse Chelsea. It's a bit of a cliche to say it, but Chelsea are like the Yankees of soccer. I was actually surprised with the scrappy play of the Galaxy, but things fell apart for them in the second half when Chelsea started emptying their bench. With fresh players who were still better than most of the Galaxy's, their victory was inevitable (although the 1-0 final is a moral victory for the Galaxy.) Overall, the game itself was pretty dull. As Anne put it, no one who tuned in was going to be converted to being a soccer fan after that game.

But who am I kidding, I wasn't watching the game because I cared about the final score. I wanted to see David Beckham take a corner kick. Because he has a bum ankle, he didn't start, but he did come on in about the 75th minute. The highlight for me in the final minute. Finally, the Galaxy had an opportunity for a corner. Pretty-boy Landon Donovan usually takes the corners for the Galaxy, so it was really interesting to see how this played out. Landon picked up the ball and set it in the corner, then looked up and saw Beckham jogging toward him. He then trotted out onto the field, while Beckham took his position, adjusted the ball, and made the kick. I really had to wonder what was going through Landon's mind at that moment. The two possibilities to me are that he was as excited as a little puppy to be David Beckham's water carrier, or he was resentful that there's a new -- much brighter -- star in town. Judging by the look in his face for most of the game, I guess the latter.

On a related note, we rented the documentary "Once in a Lifetime" the evening after the game. It's about the New York Cosmos of the old NASL and how they spent gobs of money on star players (most notably Pele) and made the US a soccer-mad nation very briefly, even selling out Giants stadium a couple of times, before the whole thing collapsed through overspending and mismanagement. The film itself wasn't great, but it was an interesting history lesson, especially given the arrival of Becks on our shores.

Are you a lumper or a splitter?

2007-07-24T06:45:00.000+02:00

There's a philosophical divide in the science of taxonomy (the study of the classification of organisms, for example why humans are Homo sapiens in the family Hominidae and wolves are Canis lupus in the family Canidae). On the one side are the lumpers, who prefer to classify organisms into larger groups based on substantial differences, resulting in fewer species overall, while the splitters prefer to use minute differences to classify living organisms into a greater number of separate groups. My explanation is a bit of a caricature, and it's not truly correct to say that all taxonomists fall into one or the other groups, but it is an apt enough description to be useful in describing an important debate with far-reaching implications. For example, the determination of whether or not a group of animals is a distinct species rather than just another population of a species with a larger range can have a critical impact on the degree of protection it receives. (You can google "Preble's jumping mouse" if you want to see just how controversial this can be.)

Another, equally serious area where this debate rages is in my music collection. I'm currently in the process of digitizing all of my cassettes, records, and CDs and importing the tracks into iTunes. Because one of the main fields on which iTunes allows you to sort your music is the genre, I've taken it upon myself to apply a genre to each album that I enter into my digital library. I'm getting most of the data about each album from an online database (the CDDB) so that I don't have to enter the title of every last track. Genre is one of the fields that you can get from the CDDB, but I've been pretty disappointed by the results. First off, you can get some strange, sub-, sub-genres. (Did you know that both the Chemical Brothers and the Crystal Method ply their trade in a genre called "Big Beat?"). Clearly, the splitters are in charge at the CDDB. But I don't find it useful to have a distinct genre for every third album. On a more practical note, the information is uploaded by users, which means it can be very inconsistent. On more than one occasion, I've queried the database for double albums where the first and second CDs in the set come back with different genres. For these reasons, I've decided to enter my own genres, which means I have waded headlong into the murky waters of the lumper/splitter debate.

Interestingly, I think I'm philosophically more of a lumper when it comes to my music. I say "interestingly" because I think I'm more of a splitter (at least to a point) in the realm of biology. I think where I fall in both arenas hinges on practical arguments. In biology, I tend to favor anything that emphasizes greater conservation, and the splitter philosophy tends to take this into account. (I'll save its shortcomings for another day; you'll have to enroll in my conservation biology class to get the low-down ;-) ) In my music, I think it makes more sense to have larger groups. I often think "I'm in the mood for X" when I'm gazing at my CD collection, waffling over what to play, so it makes sense to have some way to divide the music into different groups. But I also feel strongly that the music shouldn't be balkanized into many separate little subgenres. I may think "I'm in the mood for something electronic," but I doubt I'll ever think "I sure could go for some Big Beat right now."

So with my philosophical underpinnings set, I'm categorizing my music as I digitize it. I'm through the K's, and although I'm relatively happy with the categories that I've come up with, I'm also noticing some worrying trends. For example, nearly a fifth of the music seems to fall into the maligned "Alternative" genre. This is probably because Alternative has become my default for anything that doesn't quite fit anywhere else, including, but not limited to, bands that you might think of as traditionally "Alternative" like REM. (Careful readers may note that although I'm going in alphabetical order, I've skipped ahead for a few bands.) And I don't even want to get into what to do about bands that play more than one genre within one album. For example, Steve Earle's "The Revolution Starts Now" got categorized country -- even though it's probably more of a rock album -- because he has a bit of a twang in his voice and one of the songs is a duet with Emmylou Harris.

A few of the more vexing problems beyond the preponderance of Alternative music have been determining what is "Rock" and how is it different from other genres, and is "Classic Rock" a legitimate category? (Provisionally, I've decided no.) What about "Progressive Rock" (also no) and "Space Rock" (a tentative yes). What about "Trip Hop?" (Another tentative yes, it may only have a couple records, but where else do you put Massive Attack and Portishead?) Is Hip-Hop/Rap destined to be a catch-all, or should I subdivide it?

So my system is still a work in progress. I've been adding genres as I go, which also means I have to go back and fix the metadata for some of the albums that I added earlier on in the process. I'm curious to hear if other folks have had to deal with this, and what you've ended up doing.

Let's all move to Iceland!

2007-07-16T21:41:00.000+02:00

This article in the Guardian confirms what we already suspected about Iceland: its citizens are the happiest in Europe. (It kind of reminds me of how the Bhutanese government tracks Gross National Happiness.) I guess not seeing the sun for six months, doesn't seem to bother them.

The Big Move

2007-07-16T07:41:00.000+02:00

A couple days ago, I checked out a book from the library, and the due date was after the day we're going to move. It really brought home how soon we're going to uproot ourselves and head for the east coast. I've been thinking a lot lately about life in the Bay Area, and how happy I am to live here. It's definitely going to be hard moving away from all of this, although I'm excited about the new opportunities we'll have in Vermont. It's been a challenge to conceptualize life in Vermont while we're still living here. In honor of the nine years we've lived here, here's a (by no means comprehensive) list of things I'll miss about the Bay Area. (I promise a "things I'm looking forward to in Vermont" in a future installment.)

My neighborhood
I can walk to just about everything I need, including two great groceries, three coffee shops that aren't Starbucks (and one tea shop), a movie theater, and Fenton's ice cream. There's even a cobbler.

Diversity
I'm moving from Oakland to a state that's 98% white. 'Nuff said.

Ethnic cuisine
Which goes hand in hand with ethnic diversity. Thank god for our copy of "1,000 Indian Recipes."

Live music
To be fair, it's not hard to find live music in Vermont, but I think live jazz or hip hop are going to be hard to come by. I guess I need to get into jam bands.

Running at Mountain View cemetery
I don't even like running that much, but it's a pleasure in a place that was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.

The UC Berkeley library
I think Harvard is the only university in the US with a bigger library.

The setting
It's become a cliche to say this, but San Francisco is really a beautiful place to stick a city.

The Parkway
The best movies theater in the world.

Oakland
Most diverse city in the nation. Home of the A's, Raiders, and Warriors. Birthplace of the Black Panthers, Gary Payton, and hyphy. And my home for the past nine years. As if you couldn't guess, I hella love Oakland.

A big weekend for soccer

2007-07-14T03:15:00.000+02:00

David Beckham's arrival last night was just the prelude for a huge weekend of soccer. For starters, there's the quarterfinals of the men's, Under-20 World Cup. The U.S. is playing against Austria tomorrow. Tomorrow evening is the third place game of the Copa America between Mexico and Uruguay. Then, on Sunday, there's more U-20 World Cup and the final of the Copa America between Brazil and Argentina. Argentina is probably the best team in the world right now, and if you haven't seen Lionel Messi's goal against Mexico in the semifinal on YouTube, you have to go watch it. Now. (Sorry, I'm at home with my dial-up, so I can't link to it.) Good thing Anne's out of town, 'cause it looks like I won't be leaving the house.

Blasts from the past

2007-07-12T23:26:00.000+02:00

We went up to Reno last weekend to see the family one last time before we head off to Vermont and to empty a storage unit full of my old stuff. My mom put a lot of my things in there when she moved to Vegas 10 years ago, and I felt it was about time to clear it out. Luckily I was able to pawn some of it off on my cousin and nieces and donate some of it to charity, leaving us with just enough stuff to fit in our rental car. Some of the treasures I found were:

Star Wars toys and Transformers
I was able to pawn these off on a 6-year old cousin. Hopefully he appreciates the Transformers now that it's the movie du jour.

A wooden elephant on wheels
I've had this thing since I was an infant. It was one of my favorite toys when I was a kid, and I was really happy to rediscover it.

A bunch of old coins, including a pile of pesos from before Mexico devalued its currency about 10 years ago. I think each peso is worth about 1/10,000th of a dollar now.

A Re/Max realty poster signed by the 1980(?) Oakland Raiders. Cliff Branch! Sweet.

A bunch of football pennants, including one from the (USFL) Oakland Invaders.

Leggos!

Osmium bear

A big pile of books, including a bunch of role-playing games. I have an incredible urge to play some Dungeons & Dragons right now.

A stuffed pterodactyl.

A bag of shredded money I bought at the US Treasury on a field trip to Washington DC when I was in seventh grade.

A lot of the things were in the same category as the last one, and I didn't feel too badly getting rid of them. But I still managed to keep one box of keepsakes plus the Leggos (of course) and some books. I imagine there's still some stuff I can get rid of (anyone need five years worth of Mad magazine?), but I see what's left having a bright future sitting on a shelf in my basement.

Scooter

2007-07-03T04:43:00.000+02:00

It looks like Scooter Libby won't be wearing an orange jumpsuit after all. Bush's commuting his sentence today reminds me of the Jarvis Cocker song: "Cunts Are Still Running the World." How much longer do we have to deal with this clown?

Prideful weekend

2007-06-25T23:31:00.001+02:00

This past weekend was SF Pride, and it marked the first time Anne and I actually made it to the parade. We only stayed for the first hour, but it was pretty fun. It wasn't nearly as crowded as I'd feared (one of the main reasons we've never gone before), although the BART trains coming into the city when we were heading home were pretty full. Some of the highlights: Dykes on Bikes, who always open the parade, the people covered in balloons, and Gavin Newsom, grinning and waving from the back of a convertible. I'd never seen him in person before. He's every bit as slick as I'd heard. And that hair!

We left in time to get home for the CONCACAF final. In case you missed it, the US won, 2-1. It was a very tense game, especially during the last few minutes. It would have been a little less tense if Damarcus Beasley hadn't clanged a shot on an empty net off of the crossbar as time was winding down. I don't know about that guy.

We also went into the city on Saturday to cash in some free tickets I won from the SFJazz fest. We saw Ojos de Brujo and Carlinhos Brown. Ojos are a collective from Barcelona, and they reminded me a bit of Ozomatli if you replace salsa with flamenco as their traditional music touchstone. They were pretty good, and I think I'm going to get their CD.

What, no Fleetwood Mac?

2007-06-21T00:33:00.000+02:00

Yesterday Hillary Clinton's campaign announced its official theme song. After online voters chose from among 10 campaign-vetted choices, the results are in and the official song for Hillary '08 is: You and I by Celine Dion

I'm not sure how much more the Clinton campaign can descend into farce at this point. Or maybe it just underscores what a farce our political system has become, when a bland, Canadian crooner (crooness?) is enlisted as warm-up music for the left's front-runner. At least it shows she's got the middle-aged, white lady vote sewn up. My confidence in her ability to clean up Bush's messes wanes by the day.

During the report I heard on NPR yesterday, they played clips of a few other contenders, including "Beautiful Day" by U2 and some patriotic rocker by Shania Twain. One of the odder choices on the list was the Police's "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic." You know how it goes: "Every little thing she does is magic" Alright, maybe promising a bit much, but I can see where they're coming from. "Every little thing she do just turns me on" Whoa! That's a little ... icky. I'm not sure that you're supposed to be turned on by your president. Unless it's Barack Obama. Hot!

Here's the complete list:

KT Tunstall - Suddenly I See
Shania Twain - Rock This Country!
U2 - Beautiful Day
The Temptations - Get Ready
Smash Mouth - I'm A Believer
Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way?
McFadden & Whitehead - Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now
The Police - Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Celine Dion - You and I
Tina Turner - The Best

The Final Four

2007-06-19T21:12:00.000+02:00

Regular readers know my affection for international soccer tournaments. Which is why this past Sunday, I peered through the grainy reception of Univision to watch Mexico and Costa Rica battle it out for a spot in the semi-finals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. It was a slow, ugly game, which Mexico won in extra time. Costa Rica managed to have two(!) players sent off with red cards. It wasn't the best game I've seen, but it was nice to have meaningful soccer on TV.

For those of you not familiar with this (ahem) storied tournament, the Gold Cup is the biennial tourney among all of the national teams in the CONCACAF region (North & Central America and the Caribbean; motto: At least we send more teams to the World Cup than Oceania). The semifinals are this Thursday, and will feature the US against Canada (they play soccer there?) and, in the other game, Mexico against the tiny island protectorate of Guadaloupe, which doesn't even qualify for World Cup play because FIFA doesn't recognize it as a nation (it's still a French colony). Guadaloupe prevailed over Honduras in the late game on Sunday with the help of a goal from 42(!) year old midfielder Jocelyn Angloma, a native Guadaloupean who's played for the French national team. (Small piece of soccer trivia gleaned from the ever-reliable Wikipedia: Thierry Henry's father is from Guadaloupe.)

So this Thursday's games have all you could ask for: home team rooting interest (U-S-A! U-S-A!), players who grew up playing soccer on frozen ponds (Canada), the team that more people who live in America support than the US team (Mexico), and a plucky underdog (Guadaloupe). Also, you get to brush up on your Spanish, because as far as I can tell, none of the games are on an English-language network. My fearless prediction is that the US and Mexico will face each other in Sunday's final, and that even though it will be played in the US, it will be virtually a home game for Mexico, as is the case any time they play here. (Virtually everyone in the capacity crowd for Sunday's game in Houston was wearing green, red, and white.) But you never know. They Canadians may surprise us, and never estimate a team from the Lesser Antilles with nothing to lose.

New toy

2007-06-13T23:57:00.000+02:00

I finally took the plunge into digital photography when I used some graduation loot to buy a Nikon D40. It's been a lot of fun. I like the fact that I can experiment with different settings without having to worry about preserving film. And I also like the instant gratification you get with having digital images right away. I realize this isn't a revelation to most of you in the digital-camera-owning public, but it's pretty cool to me. One thing I like about the digital camera is that I'll be able to add pictures to my blog more easily. No more scanning prints like I did after our vacation last summer!

Here are a couple samples of the digital goodness that is to come. The first is actually a picture of the new camera, which I took with the iSight camera in the lid of my laptop. The other is the first picture I took with my new camera. Of course it's of Lucy.

A mosquito, my libido

2007-06-11T03:41:00.000+02:00

Have you noticed that each decade gets linked to one or two particular kinds of music? When you think of 50's music, you think doo-wop and early rock 'n' roll. For the 60's, you think psychedelic rock, and for the 70's it's classic rock or disco. Sure, there was a lot of other music from each of those decades, but those seem to be the genres that each decade is stuck with. But what about the 90's?

This was on my mind after we had a little music swap with Dan and Kristina. I burned them a copy of "Return to the Inner Experience" by Sky Cries Mary, which prompted Dan to make the comment that they sound like the "zenith of 90's music." That got me thinking: "what exactly is 90's music, anyway?" I think everyone has an idea of what constitutes 80's music -- it invariably is the sonic equivalent of hairspray and bright, primary colors. Interestingly, I can't think of an equivalently unifying theme for music from the nineties. It's interesting that there isn't even a subset of music from the nineties that's called "90's music" that I'm aware of.

When I think of music from the nineties, I think of grunge, in part because I lived in the northwest during it's overdose-ridden decline, and in part because it was so ubiquitous in the early 90's. The nineties also strike me as the point where hip hop crossed over into the mainstream, for better (A Tribe Called Quest, Doggystyle) and worse (Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer).

One genre that really rose to prominence in the nineties, which seems a little quaint now, was electronic music. Do you remember when electronica was the next big thing? At one point, I saw an article in Time or Newsweek saying the future of music was electronic. It seemed like only a couple months later, the Chemical Brothers were getting knocked off the charts by N'Sync and Britney. Anyway, musing about electronic music brings me back to Dan's comment. Sky Cries Mary combined a bit of the grunge ethic (they're from Seattle, they play distorted guitars, and they draw their influences from the early seventies), a bit of hip hop (this one's a bit of a stretch, but they did have a DJ who was, for the most part, buried in the mix), and of course electronic music. I've not seen any compilations attempting to tie together the 90's as a concept (not that I've really looked), but I can naively hope that any such compilation would include SCM. Compilers of "NOW That's What I Call Music By Bands That Played My College Once!" take note.

Here is a list of bands that popped into my head while I was thinking about this post and that I probably haven't thought of in nearly a decade:

House of Pain
Blind Melon
The Spin Doctors
Ned's Atomic Dustbin
Orbital
The Screaming Trees
Moist

If you can't get enough of the 90's, and you're a fan of lists, you should check out Pitchfork's top 100 albums of the 90's. True to their raison d'etre, there's a lot of indie rock -- I hadn't even heard of some of the bands in the top 20. I do, however, wholeheartedly agree with their pick for no. 1. Check and see if you do, too.

Speaking of lists, here's the super-dope 90's mix that I put on my CD player while writing this post:
Sky Cries Mary - This Timeless Turning
Soundgarden - Down on the Upside
The Beastie Boys - Check Your Head
A Tribe Called Quest - Beats, Rhymes, and Life
The Breeders - Last Splash

Last weeks in the 'O'

2007-06-05T00:09:00.000+02:00

The move to Vermont is coming up soon (just under two months), so Anne and I took some time this weekend to cross a few things off of our "Things to do in the Bay Area before we leave" list. Saturday we headed down to Jack London Square to catch a movie. OK, so they have movie theaters in Vermont. In fact, we'll probably be able to drive to Rutland and the nearest multiplex in less time than we sat waiting for the bus to downtown. But one thing they don't have in Rutland County is Everett & Jones, home to some of the finest barbecue in Oakland -- possibly the world, but I'm trying not to be too parochial -- so it was a must-visit before we leave. They serve up the traditional meat and three (except that it's actually only a meat and two), and I had a huge pile of ribs slathered in their special bbq sauce, some greens, and a side of yams that could have doubled as a dessert. Anne managed to eat half a chicken. We were feeling a little loagy when we got to the theater. (We saw "Knocked Up," which was hilarious.)

Saturday we crossed another outing off of our list when we went to dim sum in Oakland's Chinatown. (Have you noted a strong bias toward eating on our list?) We'd never been to Legendary Palace before, but I'd say it delivered. My all-time, dim sum favorites, the pork bun and the fried red bean dumpling (I don't know what it's called, but it's heavenly), were particularly good. It was a nice, sunny day so we walked home via Lake Merritt.

There's still quite a bit on the list, although Thai temple breakfast is going to get checked off next Sunday. I'm a little more concerned about the live music-related items because they depend on bands we like coming through town. But I know that live hip hop is going to be hard to come by in Vermont, so we'll make an effort to go see a show before we leave. And of course, there's nowhere quite like Yoshi's, so we've got to try to make it there as well.

I'm really looking forward to starting my new job this fall, and I think living in Vermont is going to be fun. But as far as I'm concerned, there's nowhere quite like Oakland, and we're going to try to enjoy living here as much as we can over the next couple months. Any recommendations for must-sees from current or former Bay Area residents?

A new beginning for New Beginning$

2007-06-01T21:39:00.000+02:00

Our local brothel has closed. The other day, I noticed a For Lease sign on the roof of the building, indicating the neighborhood prevailed in its efforts to run it out of business. I'm a little sad to see it go because it added some character to a stretch of Broadway dominated by car lots.

New Beginning$ advertised hot tubs and massages for "Men Women Couples" and "Private Tubs For One Or Two." That might seem innocent enough, if it weren't for the opaque glass windows and a metal security door leading to a dimly lit staircase. That and it was the only "spa" in our neighborhood with a bouncer posted out front. (And yes, the dollar sign is part of the name.) Even though it's been cited repeatedly over the years for drugs and prostitution, it wasn't until recently that its massage license was revoked. Here's a bit from an email sent to our neighborhood group about the public hearing:

Not only were the massage parlor's employees providing sex for money, but there was testimony that streeet prostitutes bring their customers to the hot tubs. The owner had no ideas of how to prevent this; asked whether she required a sign-in sheet, she replied Yes, "but they never give their right names anyway." (At least the previous business owner, who still owns the building, said in 1991 that she only allowed women to come in with "one boyfriend a day"...but no, she could not help it if a woman has 7 boyfriends in a week.)

I love the bit about "7 boyfriends in a week." I'm sure it was all perfectly innocent. Anyway, now it's gone, ending all prostitution in North Oakland for good. Or at least moving it back to the seedy motels along Broadway and Macarthur where it belongs. Not that I liked having a brothel in our neighborhood, mind you, but it did let me feel a little closer to my Nevada roots. And let's be honest, it's going to happen somewhere. It might as well be a place that couldn't be mistaken for anything else.

Brush with fame

2007-05-29T22:51:00.000+02:00

We went up to see Anne's mom in Brewster this past weekend. Anne threw her a surprise birthday/retirement party, which went really well. She didn't suspect a thing, and all sorts of people came from out of town to wish her well (including my parents, who came all the way from Vegas). The party was on Saturday afternoon, so we flew up early on Saturday morning. And on our flight from Oakland to Seattle was none other than Gift of Gab from Blackalicious!

I first noticed him when we got into the security line in Oakland, and I was pretty sure it was him, but not certain. We confirmed it was him after overhearing him talking music with someone he met at the gate in Seattle. The two of them met up with someone else, who I think was DJ Shadow. I'm assuming they were all going to the Sasquatch Music Festival in George. A little later, I saw him head off to the food court on his own. I kind of wanted to go up to him, but I wasn't quite sure what to say. "Excuse me ... Mr. Gab? I'm, like, your biggest fan." This is probably my closest brush with fame (except possibly when Krist Novoselic's dog licked my face), but I figured he didn't want to be bothered so I left him be. A friend of a friend, who is a huge Cure fan, once found himself in an elevator with Robert Smith and dropped an "I'm your biggest fan" on him. I didn't want to be that guy, so I just let Gab go about getting his breakfast.

There's still room up here on the bandwagon

2007-05-14T19:37:00.000+02:00

Things aren't looking so good for Your Golden State Warriors after last night's game. It's been a great run, and I'd hate to see it end Tuesday night in Utah. So for a little extra inspiration, here's a picture of Baron making a sick dunk over the head of Andrei Kirilenko in Game 3.

PhinisheD

2007-05-11T01:05:00.000+02:00

It's finally done. I took my dissertation over to Sproul Hall this morning and turned it in. There was a woman in the office who filed just before me who had the widest, most absurd grin on her face. While she was waiting for them to print her receipt, she would periodically bounce up and down in her seat. I can't say I'm that excited, but I'm not a naturally effusive person. Nevertheless, it's really nice to have that big monkey (fisher?) off my back.

After getting all of the paperwork squared away, I headed over to Telegraph, grabbed a slice of Blondie's pizza, and (predictably) went to Rasputin's to reward myself with some impulsive music purchasing. (Proving that I'm still stuck in my post-punk rut, I got New Order-Substance, Echo and the Bunnymen-Porcupine, and Public Image Ltd.-Second Edition.) Now I'm sitting at my desk trying not to think of the handful of papers I have to grade and the talk I have to give at a workshop in Arcata next week (and which I haven't started writing).

It's nice to be done, and I'm happy I'll be hanging around the Bay Area for most of the summer. The last few months, I don't feel I've had as much time to appreciate living here. I'll be getting started on some of that appreciating tonight over beers at the Triple Rock. It'll be my first (and second, and third...) guilt-free beer in a while, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Taking on Big Green

2007-04-26T04:34:00.000+02:00

As a follow-up to my last post, here's a link to a slightly more polemical articulation of the point I was trying to make yesterday. The author zeroes in on the Sierra Club committing just the sort of consumption-first compromising I was lamenting.

Earth Day and the governor's Hummer

2007-04-25T05:24:00.000+02:00

I've been thinking a bit about The Environment lately. Granted, I'm always thinking about the little 'e' environment because ... well, that's what I do for my day job. But it seems recently like The Environment has suddenly gotten trendy, and I have pretty mixed feelings about that.

Last Sunday marked yet another Earth Day. I had intended to post a Happy Earth Day blog, but the fact is that I had trouble motivating. I've been pretty cynical about the concept of Earth Day ever since I saw the huge piles of trash generated by Cal's Earth Day celebration during one of my first years here. If, as the saying goes, "Earth Day is everyday," I'm not sure about the need to commemorate it once a year. After all, ecology has taught as that the earth is impacted by long-term and cumulative effects of human actions, not the fact that we rode our bikes to the Earth Day concert instead of driving. It's kind of like Christians who only go to church on Christmas and Easter. But I digress....

So The Environment is suddenly the issue that's on everybody's mind, and after decades of research and publicity, people are finally waking up to the reality that humans are major drivers of climate change. So why am I so cynical now that public acceptance of one of the political issues that's most important to me has reached critical mass? For starters, public opinion polls have consistently shown that people do care about the environment, and it bothers me that suddenly The Environment has been given legitimacy because the major media have started reporting on it slightly more intelligently. (For which I think Al Gore is rightfully given praise. Say what you will about him, he's persistent.)

But let's accept for a moment that environmentalism has, in fact, recently achieved greater mainstream support. Why should I have reservations about this? I think in part it's analogous to that feeling you get when your favorite, underground band gets discovered. It somehow cheapens the experience of listening to their music knowing that a lot of other people are now, too. But that's a pretty silly reason to stop liking a band that you enjoy listening to, and it's even sillier when it's about caring for the environment, an issue everyone should care about. I'd like to think I'm mature enough not to hate on people who just recently started caring about the environment, but to push the music analogy a little further, I'm concerned there's something deeper that's going on: When your favorite, underground band gets popular, is it because they sold out? That's what I worry is happening with the environmental movement.

Our own governator was on the cover of Newsweek a couple weeks ago touting the environment. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy when politicians embrace the environment as an issue, and even happier when it's a Republican. (After all, the conservation movement is all about being conservative.) What I've heard of his argument seems to be that we can have our cake and eat it, too. To brutally paraphrase his latest talking points about the environment, he argues that the environmental movement is too negative and proscriptive (true) and that we need to look for more positive ways to adjust our lives to protect the environment (true again). But his positive adjustments seem to involve not changing the way we live our lives but just doing the same things with better products. He pimped his ride into a "green" Hummer, and now he's saving the planet, too. I think it relies a bit too much on technology and too little on changing human behavior.

Maybe he has a point, though. If he's proven nothing else in the past couple years, he's proven to me that he's a much more astute politician than I gave him credit for. And he knows that technological innovation will always outpace changes to human nature. If the old argument was that we had to each cut our consumption in half, not a lot of people would get on board. And those who did were probably living in a tree somewhere, anyway, so their contribution might be negligible. But if he says we can save the planet by only reducing our consumption by 10% each, maybe a lot more people will change their habits a little, and the net result is a happier planet. That's certainly my hope, even if I do worry that it cheapens the message a bit. (If you're interested in a slightly more rigorous examination of consumption and the environment than my back-of-the-envelope math, I encourage you to calculate your ecological footprint. It's fun and educational.)

So, maybe my favorite underground band has blown up. As long as those of us responsible for educating the next generation of environmental stewards can keep the movement from selling out, maybe there's a bit of hope yet. Happy Earth Day.

Bike Rage II

2007-04-20T05:10:00.000+02:00

My personal bike rage incident, continued from last time ...

The incident in question took place last fall. I was riding home in the dark, which is typical for that time of year, so I had my blinking headlight turned on. I was riding down a residential street a couple blocks south of the Rockridge BART when a pickup that was facing the same direction as me pulled out of a parking spot ahead of me and attempted to make a U-turn in the middle of the block. Of course the road was too narrow, so he was at a right angle to the street in the opposite lane as I approached. I slowed down, but he didn't seem to be moving, so I (foolishly) assumed he'd seen me and was waiting. But as I got closer, he suddenly put the truck in reverse and backed into my lane. I slammed on my brakes and stopped just in time as he came to a stop completely obstructing my way.

To understand my frame of mind at this moment, we need to step back to my morning commute just a few weeks before. A half-block from the scene of my incident with the pickup, some woman in a Saab ran a stop sign and came within inches of running directly into me. Then, when I gave her a piece of my mind, she had the gall to yell at me. Although her windows were rolled up, reading her lips wasn't too hard, especially with her accompanying hand gesture. That she had the audacity to curse me out after almost running into me just infuriated me more. So, on this chilly fall night, when this truck nearly ran into me, something in me snapped. I cut loose with a stream of obscenities, and I even coasted closer to his driver's-side window. I'm not sure what I was hoping to accomplish with this. He looked at me and started speaking, but his window was rolled up. With the incident involving the slag in the Saab fresh in my mind, I assumed the worst, so I started giving back as good as I assumed I was getting.

Me: You $%$&!@!, watch $^!^#%@! where $$%&#&@! going!
Him: (inaudible behind window) wom wom wom wom
Me: $%#%!$!@!!
Him: (slowly rolling down window) wom wom wom ...eally sorry. I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there. Are you alright?

Well ... didn't I feel like an asshole. Traffic was starting to back up behind us on either side, so I sheepishly muttered something about being ok and rode around the back of his truck. In retrospect, I wasn't particularly conspicuous in the dark (on a poorly lit street) with nothing but a little flashing LED to light my way, and I sympathize with the guy in the truck.

I'd like to think that since then, I've been chastened and had a cooler head during my commute. But that probably isn't true -- especially during my evening commute when my blood sugar is low. Nevertheless, I would hope I could stop short of physical violence if I had a run-in with a minivan driving soccer mom from Redwood City. I'm no fan of mobs, which is one of the reasons I've never participated in Critical Mass, and maybe that will be my saving grace.

Bike Rage

2007-04-18T05:35:00.000+02:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about how my life is going to be different next year. One of the big differences associated with small-town livin' is going to be that I'll probably live close enough to work to walk. This means no more bike commuting. I'll miss the exercise and the feel of the wind through my hair, but I can get these things by riding my bike recreationally. One thing I won't miss is dealing with traffic while riding my bike.

Bike-car interactions have been much in the news around here these days because of an incident that happened during Critical Mass at the end of March. For those not familiar with it, Critical Mass is a once-monthly, anarchic bike ride through San Francisco (with a companion ride in Berkeley/Oakland) to raise awareness of cyclists and to argue for increased bike safety. It's more of a concept than an organization because it's decentralized (you don't have to be a member to ride) and the routes aren't announced until just before they start. In fact, you may have a Critical Mass in your own town.

It's an organization that I'm generally predisposed to support. As a cyclist, I have had more than my fair share of boneheaded drivers doing boneheaded things that have put me in physical danger. Anything that 1) raises awareness of cyclists and 2) shoves a big middle finger skyward toward a car-obssessed culture is worthy of my support. Unfortunately, as is typical of any radical group with no central organization, Critical Mass, too, gets its share of boneheads.

So back to where I started, last month during Critical Mass, a woman from Redwood City driving a minivan (can you picture a person more culturally in opposition to a Critical Mass rider?) got caught up in the ride and was soon surrounded by slow-moving cyclists. What happened next is a matter of great speculation. Eyewitness accounts vary, but most of the stories have the woman hitting one of the cyclists (accidentally by many, but not all, accounts) and things quickly escalating. The end result was the woman's car was dented, scratched, and had its windows knocked in. And of course, her children were terrified.

It's rare that I find myself siding with the suburban mom in the minivan, but I'm afraid the good folks of Critical Mass (at least the ones at Polk and Gough at the time of the incident) did not do us cyclists any favors. Cyclist-motorist relations are already tense in the city (less so in the less congested East Bay), and regardless of who was in the wrong, this has only made things worse. The SF Chronicle has been deluged with letters weighing in on the topic, with most people criticizing the ill-behaved cyclists. Which got me to wondering: Am I just another one of those ill-behaved cyclists?

You know how mellow people are sometimes the most vulgar, aggressive drivers? That's me on my bike. Only it's worse because the stakes seem so much higher -- there's little separating me from the car or the pavement. I've certainly fantasized about giving a beat-down to drivers that have cut me off or almost run me over, even though I haven't been in a fight since I was eight. I don't know how I would react in a situation like the one during the last Critical Mass. Would I have jumped in? I know that my instincts and my better nature may not be trustworthy in that context. I'd like to think that good sense would prevail, but in my next post I will offer as Exhibit A an experience I had last fall while riding home from school that might suggest otherwise.

Swearing in English

2007-04-13T05:15:00.000+02:00

I'm not the most diligent Harry Potter reader. I usually get caught up with each book just before the accompanying movie comes out. So with the Order of the Phoenix coming out soon, I decided it was time to get reading. But this post isn't about Harry Potter. It's about swearing. (yeah!)

I love how we share a language with the English, and yet we don't. I realize that this isn't particularly ground-breaking, everyone knows the English call an elevator a lift, but what really intrigues me is how different our two languages (dialects?) are when it comes to swearing. The English seem to have a much broader array of swear words and insults. They also seem to swear more, but maybe it's just the movies I watch. Anyway, the Harry Potter books are littered with English slang, and one word that keeps coming up is "prat". I love this word because it has such a solid, Anglo-Saxon bite to it. It's the type of word you can hear an English person muttering under his breath after the prat in question has left the room. I'm not sure what the American equivalent would be; probably something like "punk" or "tool". I was sharing my amusement over this word with Anne, and we got to wondering, what is the female equivalent of a prat? "Bitch" seemed a little too coarse, and the only other female insult I could think of was "slag", which is definitely not right. We were stumped, so if you have an idea, I'd love to hear it. Also, for the record, "git" appears to be stronger than prat, because it's only been used once so far, and it was in italics to emphasize the venom behind it. As yet, I have no data to say where "wanker" falls on that scale.

Back in action

2007-04-11T07:19:00.000+02:00

After a lengthy hiatus, my blog is back in action (at least for now). It's been a pretty busy couple months, what with dissertation writing, teaching, and job hunting. As many of you probably know, the biggest news around here is my new job. Anne and I will be heading for Vermont at the end of July so I can start at Green Mountain College this fall. I'm very excited because it's just the kind of job I was looking for. I'll be doing mostly teaching, and I'll have a lot of chances to develop my own classes and get students out doing field work. It's a little scary to think I'll be a professor in charge of my own classes in just five months, but I guess there's no point putting it off any longer.

One of the interesting side effects of getting a job has been an intensification of my dissertation writing. During my interview, the dean of the faculty told me there was a pay difference between instructors (w/o PhD) and assistant professors (with PhD). That lit a bit of a fire under me, and I've been analyzing data and writing feverishly since I got back from my interview. I just turned in a draft of my last "data" chapter to my advisor today, so I thought I would turn my writing attentions to my long neglected blog. Not much to write about today except the new job, but I've got a few ideas kicking around that I'm hoping to dribble out while I'm revising. We'll see how that goes....

The trashiest show you're not watching

2007-02-21T19:32:00.000+01:00

Clear your calendar for tonight at nine and plant yourself in front of a TV tuned to the CW, because One Tree Hill is on. The last few weeks, Anne and I have gotten seriously (and a little sheepishly) sucked into this show. We're both suckers for teen soaps, so we've intermittently watched it since it came on the air a couple years ago. Now, with the Beauty and the Geek lead-in, we've become regulars. You know the cliche about how some shows are so bad, they're good? Well, if you like teen soap cliches, you'll love this one. Imagine the bastard love child of Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place fostered by Dawson's Creek. If you've not seen this show, you're seriously missing out.

In the first episode we saw during this recent phase, a pregnant girl got hit by a car leading to a chain of events that saw the driver beaten to death and the killer's father taking the blame. Meanwhile, just down the street, Lucas, this show's Dawson, collapsed from a heart condition and entered a dream world where his mom's dead boyfriend showed him the scene of a murder that we're being led to believe was committed by the guy who took the blame for the beating death of the drunk driver I mentioned earlier. This same murderer happens to be Lucas' dad, but refused to acknowledge him for many years. Follow all that? Well, there's no need to. Just watch and get sucked into the wild mix of over-the-top melodrama and angst-wracked, teen soliloquizing. All of the teenage characters are played by actors who are about 25, none of them seems to live at home, and the villains and heroes are painted with as broad a brush as possible. Oh, and one of the female leads is an avid record collector, which is HOTTT!

I can't say if we'll continue watching it after this week's final episode of B&TG (although America's Next Top Model fans take note -- when your favorite cat-fight comes back, it airs right before OTH), but we're enjoying it while it lasts. And if I still haven't convinced you, here are three words that describe the final moments of last week's episode: "Sex tape revelation." Enjoy!

Once More With Feeling

2007-02-16T21:59:00.000+01:00

Warning: for my first post in a couple weeks, I'll be channeling my inner geek. You've been warned.

We don't often get out on weeknights these days, but last night the Parkway had a Buffy mini-marathon, so we had to go. This was the second or third of the Parkway's monthly Joss Whedon nights, and the first we'd been able to make it to. They showed "Once More with Feeling," "Tabula Rasa," and "Hush." (And if that means anything to you, then you would have fit right in.)

It was of a lot of fun to see Buffy in a larger than life format, especially in a crowded theater. But it was also an interesting cultural experience because the Buffy-night really brought out the geeks. When the opening credits of the first episode rolled, Anne leaned over to me and whispered "I feel like I belong!" There was a huge crowd when we arrived an hour before it started, and we were actually worried we weren't going to get in. The show had sold out about 15 minutes before we got there, and some people had gotten in line over 2 hours earlier. Luckily, they managed to find room for us and maybe 20 more people. We were in a row of chairs up against the back of the theater, and we had to use a box that Anne found in a hallway to hold our pizza and beer, but at least we got in.

Here are some highlights, mainly for my Buffy-geek readers:

Everyone hissing when Michelle Trachtenberg showed up during the opening credits.

During Anya's solo about bunnies, someone pelted members of the audience with stuffed rabbits. It was a little Rocky Horror, but I can't complain because we came away with a nice, plush Peter Rabbit.

The scene in "Hush" where Giles uses transparencies to describe how they're going to deal with the Gentlemen. I think it's my favorite scene in all of Buffy.

The guy in the Sunnydale High shirt standing next to me in the food line casually telling a friend that he'd "come with two Willows."

Making the switch II

2007-01-31T05:47:00.000+01:00

Today's release of Windows Vista has me reflecting on my first few months of Mac ownership. No, this is not going to be a (assume conceited voice) "Macs are far superior to PC's" post. (College roomies: I know exactly which voice you assumed in your head when you read that sentence ;-) ) But Microsoft's new operating system got me to thinking about computers in general, and I remembered a while back promising a follow-up post about my experience with my new Mac after I'd had it for a while. So here it is.

I hate to be the glassy-eyed disciple, but I have to say that I love my Mac. Some of what I love about it is that it's a laptop, and some of what I love about it is that it's a newer, faster computer. That means any opinions I have about Macs in general are colored by these uncontrolled variables. That said, I am really happy with the Macintosh operating system and how well all of the parts integrate. For example, today I got an invitation as an .ics file via email, and when I opened iCal later today, the invitation had magically appeared there. Granted, I've never used a calendar program before, so this may not be as shocking as it seemed to me, but the way the Apple Mail and iCal talked to each other behind my back was pretty startling and cool.

Another thing I really like is how transparent the operating system is. It's a snap to open the Terminal and do things on the command line that in many cases have a 1:1 correspondence to tasks I could do with the various GUI utilities that came bundled with the OS, just with more options. I've been analyzing a lot of data lately, and I've really appreciated UNIX's tools for searching, chopping, and moving information in text files.

As for Mac's much-touted stability, I can say that I've had few problems with crashes and weird behavior. Most recently, I've had a frustrating experience with a new external hard drive that I got for backups. I accidentally unplugged the cable connecting the drive to the computer before ejecting it, which incapacitated the drive beyond the abilities of the disk utilities that came with the computer to repair. After a 24 hour cooling off period, the drive seems to be willing to cooperate again, but I'm going to be treating it gingerly until I can be sure that I can trust it. Other than that I've not had many odd behavior issues, although they have happened, most frequently when I've been using MS Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, I'm afraid. Speaking of PowerPoint, I just started using Apple's equivalent, Keynote. I actually like it a little better. Some of the things that I'm used to doing in PowerPoint aren't quite as easy with Keynote, but overall I think it's an easier to use program. I especially like how easy it makes lining up objects on a slide. It's amazing how a minor little feature like that can be so exciting. Of course, most people (probably including many Mac users) don't use Keynote. Fortunately, it has an export to PowerPoint feature so I don't have to worry too much about formatting issues when giving talks at conferences.

Speaking of compatibility, my main concern coming in to this purchase was that I be able to continue using Microsoft Access because that's where all of the data for my dissertation, as well as some of the code for analyzing those data, resides. The Boot Camp option wasn't really a viable one, because it requires you to reboot into Windows. The major limitations are 1) the Mac and Windows drive partitions can't communicate, and 2) you can't simultaneously use programs that require different operating systems. To the rescue comes Parallels, which is a really nifty program. It's basically a virtual machine for running Windows (or any number of other operating systems) on your Mac. The catch is that the Windows machine is self-contained and acts like a completely separate computer, so you can't seamlessly use Windows programs within OS X. But if you're running XP (and presumably Vista), it's relatively easy to set up shared folders that you can use to transfer files back and forth. Unfortunately, I only have a copy of Win98. File transfers can still be done, but I had to take a crash course in networking to figure out how to set it up. Now that it's set up, though, I've got a system I'm relatively happy with for working with Windows.

Some of the things that come with OS X I'm not too excited about. The Dashboard and its associated widgets I haven't found too useful except for maybe the calculator and the widget the tells me the weather in Stockholm. (It's cold there right now -- I probably didn't need a widget to tell me that.) [OK, so I promised I wouldn't use this post to criticize Microsoft, but how ridiculous is it that for Vista they completely ripped off the idea of widgets, then didn't even bother to hide the fact that they ripped them off by giving them the absurd name of "gadgets"?] I'm getting to tolerate iTunes, especially as I get to use it more, but I still miss MediaMonkey which was a much better database. And the Mac versions of some of my more commonly used programs like Word and Endnote are a little touchier than their Windows counterparts. But those are minor quibbles overall.

One side note on Mac culture: It seems that a MacBook is THE fashion accessory these days in San Francisco. Anne and I wanted to meet one day after work in the Mission, but our favorite coffee shop had been converted into a bike messenger bar, so we needed to find an alternative spot. We searched (Beau will appreciate this) on Yelp for coffee shops near 16th and Valencia. The place we found seemed like a reliable spot (I've since forgotten the name), although some of the reviewers were put off by the density of hipsters. We decided to ignore the warnings and meet there anyway -- we were going to a play nearby, and you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a hipster near that intersection. I got there first and settled into a comfy couch to do some work while I waited for Anne. When Anne plopped down next to me on the couch, she looked around and started chuckling. A couple Yelpers who had been most critical of the place had mentioned how you needed a Mac laptop to fit in there. Sitting on the couch across from me were two people working on Macs, and to Anne's right were two more. Probably eighty percent of the computer users in the coffee shop were using Macs, and probably ninety percent of the people were hipster tools. Who knew I was so fashion forward? Actually, as much as I hate to admit it, I do kind of like the cachet that comes with owning a Mac, but at that moment I was deeply embarrassed. I could almost smell a backlash building.

Well as you might guess from the length and tone of this post, I'm quite happy that I made the switch. Most of the things I was used to in the PC world have a (sometimes better quality) analogue in the Mac world, and I've been able to work around most of the things that don't. Having Parallels has made a world of difference, and if I ever get ahold of a copy of Windows XP, it might be even better. I won't say that I endorse switching for everyone -- it's a bit of work to learn a whole new operating system, even one that's pretty similar to (and easier to use than) Windows, and finding and setting up the software you need can create some headaches. But with only a few exceptions, I've been blissfully happy with this computer, and if that makes me a glassy-eyed disciple, well so be it.

One less car

2007-01-18T07:19:00.000+01:00

Last weekend we went up to Mt. Shasta for some snowshoeing and hiking. We also dropped in on my great aunt and her son (my cousin once-removed?). It was a nice time; the weather was great and we got some amazing views of the mountain, both from the climbers' camp on its flank and from a few miles down the valley at Castle Crags. What made this weekend particularly noteworthy was that it was our first out-of-town excursion since we got rid of our car a couple months ago.

Some of you may remember that I got rid of my beloved but terribly unreliable Jeep about a year and a half ago. From that time up until last November, we got by with one car: Anne's 1983 Toyota Tercel. Luckily, her car -- like all Toyotas -- was incredibly reliable. It was the anti-Jeep in that respect. Also, not having a car didn't prove too much of an inconvenience. I ride my bike or the bus to school, and Anne takes BART most days (now every day). On weekends, we never needed to be in different places where at least one of them wasn't served by transit.

Every year since the Tercel turned 20, the state has been sending letters enclosed with its registration renewal offering to buy it, the logic being that it's in the state's interest to invest the $700 (don't ask how they arrived at that figure) they would spend on the car to get a potential polluter off the road. We always demurred, thinking that we would get rid of the car after I graduate and we leave the Bay Area. Well, last summer the stakes were raised because the car didn't pass smog. Now we had a dilemma. Although the state would provide some assistance to get the car to pass smog, it wouldn't cover the whole cost. Also, we weren't sure of the logic of using the state's money to repair the car only to retire it (and pocket their $700) ten months later. While we were weighing what to do, the state upped it's offer and promised $1,000 for retiring the car. Apparently a known polluter is of greater value than a suspected polluter. After dragging our feet and getting extensions on the registration as long as we could, we turned in the car at the end of November. (I say "we", but really it was Anne who put forth all of the effort here, including a few valiant trips to the DMV.)

We've been able to get around on public transit and bike without altering our lifestyle much. Luckily we live in a neighborhood where you can walk to most anything you need, although there are a few places that are more difficult to get to now (including, sadly, the Parkway, which we haven't visited since before we unloaded the car). With the exception of a couple interminable trans-Berkeley bus rides, we haven't been greatly inconvenienced. Which brings me to this past weekend.

When we got rid of the Jeep, we realized the big sacrifice we were making (other than the subtle pleasure of riding everywhere with the heat on full blast) was that we would no longer be able to get away easily in the winter without the four wheel drive. Last winter, we limited our winter adventures to places that are relatively easy to reach on the train (Truckee and Reno), but Mt. Shasta was out of the question. Ironically, getting rid of our remaining car has freed us up to head to more remote places. It somehow seemed fiscally irresponsible to rent a car while we still owned one, but now that we don't own a car at all, it's an easy decision to rent one to go away for the weekend. Which is how we were able to head up to one of our favorite places in California for a weekend of playing in the snow.

I must say that I'm really happy with our decision to go car-free. In fact, it's been oddly liberating, as if not being tied down to a vehicle makes us more free to move about. (It certainly helps ease the mind that we're not paying for gas, insurance, or the inevitable parking tickets for forgetting to move the car on street sweeping days). Obviously it's not for everyone. My mom, for example, would be confined to her house if she tried to get by without a car in Las Vegas, but it's worked out reasonably well for us living in an urban area (relatively) well-served by public transit. Depending on where we end up next year, we'll probably have to buy a new car when we get there. But I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

The Decemberists Rock!

2007-01-12T08:01:00.000+01:00

I've been hearing a lot about the Portland band The Decemberists lately. It seems that everything I read about them makes liberal use of analogies to all sorts of seventies rock and folk icons, but then makes pains to say that the group's aesthetic is firmly rooted in the 19th century. (I've read the "They draw influence from the 70's ... the 1870's" gag at least three times.) This rambling list of influences is invariably followed by talk of pirates and murder ballads. All of this definitely piqued my curiosity, but it made it hard for me to know if I'd like their music or not. I've heard their songs on KEXP, but they never stick with me, leaving the impression that (assuming the hype is earned) they were one of those bands that require multiple listens to appreciate. Unfortunately, I'm cheap, so I'm wary of buying anything new that doesn't grab me right away. What if multiple listens later, I just think it sucks? Well opportunity came a-knockin' when my mom gave me an iTunes gift card for Christmas. With this free money, I downloaded their newest album last week. And now I am a Decemberists fiend.

I've been listening to the album continuously since then. It's a bit more indie rock than what I usually listen to, which prompted Anne to tease me that this album -- coupled with the new Neko Case CD that I'm still listening to incessantly months after buying it -- means I'm currently in a "pussy music" phase. (In my defense, I also used the gift card to get the new Mastodon album.) But let me tell you that even if they write songs about Civil War soldiers and a man who married a crane, The Decemberists still rock. "When the War Came" has a crunching guitar riff that proves that the heart of grunge still beats in the Northwest, and one section in the middle of the epic, second track boasts a Moog solo that channels Songs From the Wood-era Jethro Tull. If this is pussy music, then I'm guilty as charged. I just can't get enough of it.

Resolutions

2007-01-10T05:23:00.000+01:00

Last year I broke with tradition and actually made a couple of New Year's Resolutions, then posted them on this blog. Having them in a public place made me more diligent about keeping them, so I thought I'd try it again this year. But before I make this year's, I should review how I did in 2006.

The first resolution was to exercise more. I actually managed to do well on this one, at least for a while -- I got to the gym four or five times a week for the first five or six months of the year. Most importantly, I'd put on a few pounds since college, and I was able to shed those. Things kind of fell apart the second half of the year, though. Although I bought a fall semester membership to the gym, I don't think I went once. Good thing the memberships are heavily subsidized by the university. I'm glad all of those fee hikes are going somewhere.

My second resolution was to write more. Of course, I write a lot of academic stuff: grant applications, papers, etc., but I had in mind something a bit more creative. Well, I don't know what I was thinking. I enjoy writing, but it's never really been a habit, and it certainly didn't become one in the year I started writing my dissertation. I did manage to keep up this blog relatively well, which I should be happy about, but that was about it. I think that tells me that it's important to have a plan of action before making any resolutions. Which brings me to...

My 2007 resolutions:
1) Start going to the gym again. This one I'm optimistic about. Since I don't know where I'll be after the early part of this summer, I figure all I have to do is match last year's performance and I'm set. So far I've either been to the gym or gone running nearly every day of the past week. (Special side note: as far as I'm concerned, New Year's resolutions don't start to count until after Epiphany.)

2) Play the guitar more. This is an explore-your-creative-side resolution that has a slightly higher chance of success than last year's because I've actually been intermittently in the habit of playing the guitar since I was in high school. In fact I have two guitars sitting at the end of the couch. I actually bought a new acoustic guitar last summer, and was pretty good about playing it for a while. Now that I've resolved publicly to do it, maybe I can keep it up. So next time you're over, I'll be taking requests. As long as it's a song by Iron Maiden or the Grateful Dead.

Back from vacation

2007-01-05T03:49:00.000+01:00

I've been neglecting my blog a bit since we got back from the holidays. For a couple days, I was still recovering from the Fiesta Bowl. Then last night, I had the noblest of intentions to write something about visiting our families over Christmas. Unfortunately that was pre-empted by the season premiere of Beauty and the Geek (and is it just me, or does the CW/WB/UPN have the best reality shows?) Anyway, as you can see, I was much too distracted to write anything.

Well, here I am, sick of writing cover letters and needing a little break, so I guess it's time to tell you all about where Anne and I were over the holidays. We've fallen into a pattern over the past few years of seeing one of our families for Christmas and the other's either the week after or in January. This year, it was my family's turn for Christmas, so we headed up there on the train the Saturday before Christmas.

(For those of you who are interested, we did manage to hold Hobbitfest II a couple days before leaving. The menu was virtually the same as last year, although I had a beef pie instead of lamb. I'm way into the grass-fed meat after reading The Omnivore's Dilemma.)

When we're in Reno for Christmas we always do Christmas Eve dinner with my parents then head up to my aunt and uncle's on Christmas to have dinner with my mom's side of the family. It was great to see everyone, and we even got to see my mom because she came up from Vegas this year. The only drawback was that the smoking ban in Nevada apparently doesn't extend to my parents' house, so I started to develop a respiratory complaint that would follow me the rest of the trip.

The morning after Christmas, we caught a plane to Portland, where we rented a car and, after making a brief stop to visit Sarah and her kids, we headed for Eugene where we met Anne's mom and aunt. We spent the next couple days at her aunt's house in Marcola, a tiny town about 30 minutes outside of Eugene. There wasn't much to do, but she does have satellite TV, including a set in the guest bedroom. I'm really glad we don't have a satellite because I would watch TV all the time. I saw a lot of European soccer and also VH1's countdown of the top 20 metal bands of all time. (Iron Maiden placed a respectable third.) The only drawback of our time there was that her five cats predictably exacerbated by respiratory issues.

Our next stop was in Aberdeen, where we stayed with Franz and Ann. (Franz is the German fellow who gave a toast at our wedding.) They live on 17 acres of land outside of town, and it's always a treat to stay there and wander in the rain (because it's always raining) through the Douglas fir and hemlock surrounding the house. My aforementioned respiratory complaint peaked while we were there, so I also slept a lot.

We came home on the 30th, and after getting cleaned up immediately headed out on the town. We decided to economize this year on Christmas gifts, so our gift to each other was dinner and a concert that night. We went to the new downtown Oakland location of Breads of India for dinner, then headed to Yoshi's to see McCoy Tyner in concert. Yoshi's is one of the coolest places on earth to see live music -- it's a Japanese restaurant / jazz club -- and the concert was great. (How could it not be when there was a living legend on stage?)

We had a pretty low key New Years, having gone out the night before, and I've been spending the time since then trying to get back in the working mood, which has been helped by having a couple postdoc / job application deadlines next Monday. Speaking of which, I should probably go.... Next: New Year's Resolutions, 2007 edition.

Comments on MSN Spaces

2006-12-21T02:40:00.000+01:00

A little while back I lamented the fact that Microsoft's new and (ahem) improved blog site was flawed by the fact that you couldn't post a comment to someone's blog if you were using Firefox. Well Microsoft must have felt the heat, because it seems to be working now. In trying to resolve this problem, a little, anonymous, bird who works in the belly of the beast was kind enough to give me a freebie, tech support call. It turns out that tech support doesn't cover such a problem, but the friendly fellow on the other end of the line pointed me toward the support site for Windows Live. While (re)entering my complaint, I decided to navigate over to Roger's blog to try to recreate the problem so that I could address it more specifically. Lo and behold! my brief, off-color comment was magically added, and I have since been able do this at other friends' sites. Now I can't add my name or my blog's url, but at least I can write comments now.

I'd like to take credit for pushing Microsoft to fix this, although I have a hunch that this blog doesn't have quite enough pull. I'm just happy it's working, albeit clumsily. Kind of like the rest of MS's products.

Now I'm that old guy who listened to classic rock when it was new

2006-12-20T07:03:00.000+01:00

I turned in my grades last Friday, so another semester of teaching is behind me. Every time I teach, it occurs to me how my pop culture radar is less and less finely-tuned, and that I'm definitely not the same age as my students any more. There was one particular incident this semester that really cemented for me that I've moved beyond that "slightly older peer" stage.

During the evolution unit, we talked about a branch of evolutionary biology that marries evolutionary theory with developmental biology (the study of how organisms develop from fertilization through adulthood). The classic example of this is how vertebrate embryos superficially resemble each other during their early phases of development. Anyway, this evolutionary / developmental biology subfield is often abbreviated as evo-devo. I made a crack during discussion about how I couldn't help but think of the band Devo whenever this topic came up, and I was met with universal silence. It wasn't my best material, so I shrugged and moved on.

The way my teaching schedule worked this semester, we would have an hour discussion and then all walk upstairs together for the lab. While we were heading to the lab room, I started thinking about my Devo comment, and it occurred to me that the blank looks I got were not the same as the "that was a pretty lame joke, Mark" looks that I'm all-too familiar with. So before I started my pre-lab lecture, I came right out and asked my students if they knew who Devo was. The response was the same roomful of blank stares I'd gotten earlier, although some of them were tinged with a mild sympathy, as if they saw the "I'm over thirty" anxiety I was feeling. "You know, 'Whip It'," I tried. Relief, as many heads started nodding. That behind me, I was able to press on with that week's lab. Nevertheless, I was struck by the fact that one of the pop cultural touchstones of my childhood was just a foggy, VH-1-cultivated memory for them. (They probably also don't remember when VH-1 was a soft rock version of MTV.)

Anne tried to reassure me that Devo is a somewhat obscure reference, but I refused to be mollified. I started doing the math and realized that the bands of my youth, Metallica, for example, were about as contemporary to these college sophomores as Led Zeppelin was to me. Yes, today's classic rock was new when I was in high school. I instantly regretted following that line of thought. (And apologies to everyone who reads this who also went to high school around the same time.) One of the things that I like about the prospect of spending my career working in a college is the constant infusion of youthful people. I just don't know if I'm quite ready to come to terms with the fact that I won't necessarily be eternally youthful, too.

Mike Patton on All My Children

2006-12-13T20:26:00.000+01:00

I just heard about this hilarious clip from All My Children. In it, the protagonists are trying to convince rocker "Zarf" to shill their line of cosmetics. He's not buying, so one of them (I kid you not) launches into a minute-long discussion of her love for Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle), which wins over "Zarf" (I feel I have to put his name in quotes every time). "Zarf's" reaction to the mention of Mike Patton is almost as awesome as hearing this much time given over to him on a daytme soap. As a super-awesome follow-up, when I mentioned this story to Anne last night, she informed me that "Zarf" is now the first transgendered character on a daytime soap opera, having made the switch to womanhood recently. (For Anne's sake, I should add that she only found this out by reading about it in the Chronicle.)

My mom the deacon

2006-12-13T04:18:00.000+01:00

The fall semester is almost over, and not a moment too soon. My students have their final tomorrow morning, and I have a Swedish final on Friday. This has been the hardest I've worked since coming to Berkeley, and I don't like it one bit. (Roger once told me I was "a slacker at heart," and I have to agree with him.) One consequence of having all this work -- and the consequence of particular interest to my blog's readers -- has been my piss-poor job of keeping up on my blog. I just noticed that my last post was nearly a month ago. Now, I don't want to be one of those people whose every post is a tale of woe about how I don't have time to post to my blog. This lengthy preamble serves to introduce that I've gotten a bit of a backlog of things I've been meaning to write about, which I'm going to try to dole out over the couple weeks before we leave for Christmas. The first thing I want to write about is our two trips to Vegas this fall.

A few weeks ago, we did the annual trip to Vegas for Thanksgiving. I always like seeing people's expressions when I tell them that's where I'm going for the holiday. The look I get is usually an odd mix of excitement ("I'm happy for you because you're going to the Entertainment Capital of the World!") and confusion ("Who goes to Las Vegas for a family holiday?"). I love seeing my mom, and she knows her way around Thanksgiving dinner, but neither Anne nor I are particularly crazy about Las Vegas.

But I digress .... What I really want to write about was our first trip to Vegas this fall, back in mid-October. After years of studying and preparation, my mom was ordained as a deacon in her church, and we flew down for the ceremony. I was really happy for her because it's something she's been working hard at for a long time -- taking classes in the evening and enduring interviews and examinations from clergy members for the past six to eight years. It was like she spent that time going to seminary in night school.

Just to clarify in case you, like me, are kind of fuzzy on the role of a deacon. The deacon, at least in the Episcopal church, is a parallel position to the priest. While the priest is the spiritual leader and runs the church side of the things, the deacon's duties have more to do with outreach and the social justice side of the church's ministry. Also, deacons don't tend to be paid by the church, so my mom is going to keep her day job.

A lot of my family came to town, and there were about 80-100 people there all told. Anne's mom even flew down from Brewster. The ordination itself was a full church service, and the coolest part was that the bishop of Nevada presided over it. For those of you who don't follow episcopal news, she is now the presiding bishop of the entire Episcopal Church USA, so it's pretty cool that she chose to make my mom's ordination her last act as bishop of Nevada.

The ceremony was really nice; Anne and I even got to participate by carrying the bread and wine down the aisle before the communion. This was the first time I'd been in a church for a while, so I was happy that all my years of going to church as a kid helped me wing my way through the service. How would it look to the bishop if the deacon-to-be's son bumbled the wine handoff or stood and sang when he should have been kneeling and praying?

The next day, Sunday, we went to the church on our way to our flight. Although we had to leave before the sermon so Jack could drive us to the airport, we did get to see my mom in the full outfit reading the gospel for the whole church. Although church is all about the spiritual experience, I don't think it's telling stories out of school (church?) that my mom's somber appearance barely concealed a wide grin.

So although I'm no fan of The Vegas, I was more than happy to make a special trip (and to go to church twice in the same weekend) for my mom's ordination. Things seem to be going well for her in her new role -- she's already been roped into the search committee for the new bishop. It seems that institutions are all the same in that respect.

Vinyl blowout II

2006-11-15T03:28:00.000+01:00

If my lengthy travelogue didn't bore you the other day, this post is the concluding episode of my record-buying spree. I've listened to all of the records I got, and I've decided to write some quick comments on each of them. I should preface by saying that most of my choices were informed by two books I read recently. The first was a history of post-punk by Simon Reynolds. Post-punk refers to the (mostly British) music from the late 70's after the very first wave of punk had run its course, and it's a progenitor of the American alternative scene in the 80's. The other book was a history of Impulse! Records, which was a jazz label best known in the 60's for being the home of John Coltrane. A lot of the music Impulse released at the time was strongly influenced by Coltrane, both because the musicians were influenced by his style and also because he had a lot of sway in terms of which artists got signed.

Ornette Coleman - The Great London Concert
Ornette Coleman was one of the originators of avant-garde jazz in the late 50's, and I've wanted to have something by him for a while. Anne and I saw him in concert a couple years ago, and the show was incredible, especially considering he's an septuagenarian. The proprietor of The Groove Yard pointed me toward this double-live album as a good example of him at his mid-60's peak. The first side of record 1 is an atonal suite played by woodwinds, which is as weird as it sounds, but not quite as bad, and the rest of the album is him and his band blowing away. It's pretty out there, but worth a listen.

Keith Jarrett - Fort Yawuh
I picked this one up on a whim after reading a little about it in the Impulse! Records book. It's a live recording of a five-piece band fronted by pianist Keith Jarrett. It's a good mix of experimental improvisation with some pleasant, mellow moments on the piano. It seemed pretty refined after listening to the Coleman record.

The New Wave in Jazz
I was hoping to find something by Albert Ayler after hearing him on an internet radio station. There wasn't anything at the record store, but the owner did find me this compilation of "new black music" (again on Impulse) that included a track by him, as well as one by Coltrane and another by the equally experimental Archie Shepp. It's a pretty good record, with some experimental moments that don't really lose sight of the underlying song. Also, Bobby Hutcherson plays the vibes on a couple tracks, which is really cool.

Herbie Hancock - Headhunters
I'm not really sure what it would mean for a record collection to be "complete," but I know mine got a little closer after buying this record.

John Coltrane - Kulu Sé Mama
I told myself I wouldn't get anything by Coltrane when I went into the store because we already own a lot of stuff by him. This trip was all about expanding my musical horizons. But who was I kidding? I couldn't resist the dozens of Trane records on display at Groove Yard. I was interested in exploring some of his more experimental music after he disbanded his "classic" quartet with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones, and the owner of the store pointed me toward this one. The title track is a slightly jarring, 17-minute epic with his quartet plus about five other musicians, including Pharaoh Sanders. The interplay between Trane and Sanders along with the spoken word bits lend it a "this is experimental jazz" air. What's interesting is how the other musicians push things in directions you don't hear on some of his other records, but the sound of Coltrane's horn remains distinctive. The other side is two good tracks that he recorded with his quartet that sounds similar to the other stuff he was recording around the time of A Love Supreme.

The Grateful Dead - Live Dead
This one caught my eye right as I walked into the store. It's a double-live album from 1969 when the Dead were at their trippingest peak. A classic.

Johnny Cash - American V
If you haven't heard any of the records that Johnny Cash did with Rick Rubin just before before he died, you should definitely check them out. This is the latest and it's full of songs about impending death. Kind of a downer, but Johnny Cash's gravelly voice is captivating.

The Cure - The Head on the Door
To say the Cure have been prolific would be an understatement. Although I was looking for "Boys Don't Cry," I was content to find this one. It's the predecessor to my favorite Cure album, "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me," and is, like most of their 80's output, very good. I find whenever I buy records/CDs that were released before I started collecting music, I stumble on songs that I recognize ("Oh, that song!") but had no idea what they were called. "In Between Days" and "Close to Me" fit that description on this one.

David Bowie - Low
The Simon Reynolds book I read kept referring to this album as a touchstone for a lot of the post-punk bands, so I felt I had to get a copy. It's an interesting mix, with side one consisting of short rock songs that sound a lot like early-seventies Bowie, but with a quirkier edge. The second side is all synthesizer-driven instrumentals, which isn't as bad as it sounds, and clearly shows Brian Eno's influence.

David Bowie - Station to Station
I hadn't planned on buying two Bowie albums, but when I saw this in the $1 clearance rack at Amoeba, I had to get it. My tolerance for disco rock must be increasing, because I kind of like this record.

R.E.M. - Life's Rich Pageant
We had a conversation with Dan and Kristina the other day about who brought which music into our relationship, and Anne got credit for most of the R.E.M. I must say, though, that I really like their early stuff, before Peter Buck learned to play the mandolin. This is one of the last records the band did for IRS, and it's got a lot of peppy songs; it sounds like they're actually having fun playing them. "Oh, that song!" moments: "Just a Touch" and "Superman."

Sleater-Kinney - All Hands on the Bad One
It's a shame I didn't discover how great this band is until a few months before they broke up. Ah well, at least they recorded a lot. This is a great record, and it has one of the coolest song titles in punk rock: "You're No Rock & Roll Fun." If you, like me, waited a decade too long to start listening to these guys, drop whatever you're doing right now (no, I mean it) and go out and buy this or another or all of their albums.

Killing Joke - What's THIS for...!
These guys put out a couple of great proto-industrial rock albums in the early 80's, then turned into a crap, industrial-dance band. This is one of their good ones, which I remember fondly from the KUPS record archives.

The Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food
Another Brian Eno-connected record. This is the first Talking Heads record I've ever bought, but I'm happy I got it.

Gang of Four - entertainment
This band is one of the post-punk heavyweights, so I was eager to get something by them. They sort of set the stage for the discordant, white-boy funk that bands like the Talking Heads perfected. Also, they were unapologetic Marxists, which of course earns them points from me. After listening to their first album, I can see why it's considered a classic. It's one of those records that sounds vaguely like a lot of other records you might know (Interpol springs to mind), only a lot less polished.

Echo and the Bunnymen - Heaven Up Here
I've heard these guys were briefly considered the other U2, before U2 became, well ... U2. It's no surprise after listening to this record, which sounds remarkably like U2's first album. Luckily, "Boy" is one of my favorite U2 records, and this one is equally likeable, if not quite as distinctive.

The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat
I had a feeling my first Velvet Underground record would be full of "Oh, that song!" moments. I also thought it would be full of laconic songs about heroin. Neither of those turned out to be the case. There's as much screeching feedback on this record as anything Hendrix put out, with Lou Reed's (laconic) vocals drolly rolling over the top. I like it, although it's not quite what I expected. On a related note, we just rented the first series of the British sketch comedy Little Britain this weekend. One of the sketches features two guys named Lou and Andy. Lou is a guy with shaggy hair and buck teeth who is constantly looking after and being frustrated by his overweight, wheelchair-bound friend, Andy. Andy doesn't actually need the wheelchair and constantly exploits Lou's good nature. It's a recurring sketch, and the gag gets old after the second or third time you see it, but I still chuckled every time it came on after learning from the commentary that the characters were modeled on Lou Reed and Andy Warhol.

Why you haven't heard from me lately (among other reasons)

2006-11-09T07:15:00.000+01:00

Although I haven't been blogging very much lately, I have had some spare moments to lurk on my friends' blogs. And although I've tried to adhere to proper blog etiquette by leaving a periodic comment, I've been thwarted by MSN Spaces' recent makeover. Since Windows Live launched, I've had some technical difficulties with posting a comment on any MSN-hosted blog while using Firefox on either a Windows PC or a Mac. (And for those of you whose blogs aren't hosted by MSN, I really have no excuse.)

I find this a little annoying. So annoying, in fact, that I contacted Microsoft to see if they could resolve the problem. Astonishingly, within 48 hours of submitting my complaint, I got a reply from MS tech support. "Nadia" clearly felt my pain:

I am Nadia and I understand that nothing happens when you click on the "Add" button to add a comment to your friend's Blog entry. I know how inconvenient this may be for you.

She then proceeded to give step-by-step instructions for how to optimize my browser. I diligently followed the steps, but sadly to no avail. Although my browser was now "optimized," clicking the "Add" button to add a comment still had no effect. Within a day, I got another email from Microsoft asking my opinion of my technical support experience. I tried to register my displeasure at not having my problem resolved while also making every effort to show that I appreciated "Nadia's" efforts.

Unfortunately, dark inertia set in after that, and I never bothered to follow up. Now I can't seem to remember where I found the form for submitting a complaint to tech support. The other day I tried to track it down, but couldn't find it. So if any of you have any ideas for how to work around this problem, I'd love to hear it. (The comment posting problem; the problem of not finding the form is just abject laziness on my part.)

For the record, the post that started me down this path was one that Roger wrote about a month ago. It was about hair metal (in fact he wrote two in a row!) so how could I resist? For what it's worth, I merely wanted to point out that if you're going to go to the trouble of tattooing a picture of Randy Rhoads on your back, you might want to make sure his name is spelled right.

As an unrelated postscript, I'm sure you've already heard one of the first pieces of fallout from yesterday's elections was the canning of Donald Rumsfeld. Although I won't miss the way he's bumbled through our invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, I will miss his unique manner with the media. This afternoon NPR compiled some of his finer moments that are definitely worth a listen.

Vinyl blowout

2006-11-06T07:20:00.000+01:00

I finally finished all of my lab work and fellowship applications, so I was able to relax this weekend. Anne and I went to the movies yesterday for the first time in what seems like months (we saw Borat, which was awkwardly hilarious) and then I went to the Cal game (we beat UCLA 38-24, Go Bears!). This morning we went to Oakland's Dia de los Muertos festival in the Fruitvale. The only thing that's mitigated my enjoyment of this weekend is the sheer ineptitude with which the Vikings are currently playing against the sheerly inept 49ers. [Update: Since I wrote that last sentence, the Vikings have been utterly embarrassed by the pathetic 49ers and are probably slinking back to the Twin Cities as I upload this to my blog.] Otherwise it's been a great weekend. But all of this pales in comparison to the time I had on Thursday when I rewarded myself for finishing all of my lab work by going on a record-shopping spree. I've been saving some money I got as an award at a conference last winter just for this occasion. I took the entire day off on Thursday to travel to a couple record shops in the East Bay and the city to spend it.

Luckily, none of the local record stores open before 11:00, so I was able to have a leisurely morning. I had a big breakfast and then studied a little Swedish before heading to Saturn Records. This store is a small, musty, used record store in Rockridge about a 5 minute bus ride from my apartment. In many ways it's the platonic ideal of the used record store -- frumpy and old, like it's merchandise. There's just one problem. If a store can be said to have an attitude, this one does. As just one example of the "too cool for school" attitude that permeates the store, on my only previous visit I was disappointed to see that all of the heavy metal was filed under Spinal Tap. Well, I wasn't disappointed on this trip. I was greeted by a diffident clerk who was listening to Carole King at an ear-splitting volume. It took me a few moments of hovering in front of her counter for her to look up from her computer and acknowledge me so that I could check my bag. It's not like she was overrun with customers on a rainy Thursday morning. I was there for about 20 minutes, and only one other person came in. But, in spite of our rarity, we customers were treated with jaded detachment. It almost seems too easy to draw a comparison to the record shop in "High Fidelity," but put Jack Black behind that counter and you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference.

At this point I should confess that I dislike virtually all forms of shopping. One of the very few exceptions is shopping for used records, which I think is one of consumerism's greatest pleasures. Because a store's stock is constantly changing, you never know exactly what you'll find. It's like a treasure hunt for music. Since I don't DJ, my main goal is just to plug holes in my music collection. I always have a mental list of things I'd like to get, but the best part can be the surprises. Although I rarely have the patience to rummage through a disorganized rack of shirts to find the ideal, if slightly irregular, dress shirt for under $20, happening upon that rare Iron Maiden bootleg can make my week.

Because of that, I'll put up with a lot of crap when on a record hunt because the shopping itself is inherently rewarding. And here is where Saturn Records really let me down. They didn't have a lot of things I was looking for, and the few things I might have considered buying weren't particularly economical -- most prices started around $10. After a bit of hemming and hawing, I decided I'd have better pickings later in the day, so I retrieved my backpack from the indifferent clerk and headed out into the rain.

My next stop was Groove Yard, a store that I pass every day on my bike ride to work but have never been to. It specializes in jazz, blues, and soul, mostly jazz. Our jazz collection was in need of some new material, so I was excited to check this place out. Also, it has a sweet name. It did not disappoint. It had a ton of records to choose from, with at least a couple dozen records each in the sections for jazz giants like Coltrane and Miles, and even a record or two from some pretty obscure artists like Archie Shepp. The clerk/owner was very helpful and knowledgeably answered all of my questions like "What's the best first album to buy from artist X," or "I like artist Y, who else should I listen to?" And the best part is he answered them without the least bit of condescension. I left the store happily with five new records, and I could have easily bought half a dozen more if I hadn't been trying to stick to a budget.

It was lunchtime, so I headed toward the Rockridge BART and looked for somewhere to eat. I settled on Ben and Nick's, which is the sister restaurant to Cato's, the world's greatest bar. As I settled in with my beer, looking at my stack of new records, I decided this was shaping up to be a very excellent day indeed.

The next stop was Mod Lang, which is a small, independent music shop. It has a good selection of new CD's, mostly indie rock, and a respectable selection of used records, too. It used to be on University Ave., just a few blocks from my office. Sadly, it moved to El Cerrito about six months ago, and I hadn't been to it's new location until Thursday. It was a little disconcerting getting off the BART at El Cerrito Plaza because I felt like I'd been transported to the suburbs. The first stores that greeted me were a Starbucks and a Jamba Juice, and it took some poking around to find the record shop tucked away in a back alley. The store itself was relatively unchanged, although the interior is a little more sterile than it was in the century-old building in downtown Berkeley. The selection was just as good, though, and I came away with five more records.

I decided that I should cap the day with a trip to the Mecca of used music stores: Amoeba in the Haight. I probably could have gone up to Telegraph to go to Rasputin's and the original Amoeba, but it was a special day, so I made the trip into the city. The store in the Haight is a converted bowling alley, making it one of the biggest music stores I've ever seen. The selection, however, isn't quite what I remember from my last trip there. The front room that used to be devoted to jazz, blues, and world music is now a used DVD showroom, so everything else has been compressed into the remaining area. Also, although Amoeba's reputation as a used CD store remains unchallenged, I think the fact that everyone shops there means the vinyl section is pretty picked over.

While shopping at Amoeba, I did come to a realization about shopping for used records that confirmed a growing suspicion of mine. When I started collecting records after discovering Recycled Records in Reno, a lot of people still listened to music on vinyl. As a consequence, I think that records weren't all that rare, and basic principles of supply and demand kept prices down. (Most of the records at Recycled Records were $3.50.) Nowadays, it seems that the only people who listen to / buy records are collectors and DJs. This drives up prices, especially in the Bay Area where a lot of people are into music (and it seems like every tenth person is a DJ.) (Another Bay Area factor is obviously the higher rents.) While I was able to find some good used options after a bit of digging, what was most striking about Amoeba's record section was how much of their vinyl was new, still in the shrink wrap, and obviously aimed at collectors. There were reissues of classic albums (I actually got a couple) and a lot of bootlegs and rarities. As one example, the only thing in the Smiths section was six copies of a collection of b-sides and demos called "Boyfriend in a Coma." Pink Floyd had a huge section, but most of this consisted of multiple copies of four different live bootlegs, all of which seemed pretty shady in terms of production values.

In spite of this, I was able to find a half dozen records I liked and could afford after poking around the recent arrivals and clearance sections, bringing my total haul to 16 new additions to my vinyl collection. Overall, it was a great way to spend my first day off in ages. Once I've had a chance to listen to them all, I plan on regaling you with reviews of all of my new finds.

Why I love Oakland

2006-10-27T03:45:00.000+02:00

This afternoon, I was riding my bike down Broadway on my way home. I passed Oakland Tech high school, and it must have been lunchtime because there were lots of kids milling around the school and at the fast food places across the street. As I got closer, I noticed a fire truck parked on Broadway in front of the school and a police cruiser on the paved area in front of the main entrance. There was a big crowd of kids on the front steps of the school, and I though "Uh oh, something bad just went down." But as I pulled past the front of the school, I realized what the commotion was all about. Next to the police cruiser was a bright red fire department sedan, and both cars were tricked out with hydraulics! The back end of the police car was jacked up with the trunk open, and I could have sworn I heard some trunk-rattling beats coming out of it. I wish I'd had a camera, because in a city with a horrible relationship between the police and its poorest residents, this was one of the coolest public relations displays I'd seen or heard about. There probably aren't many other places that would do that to a police car and take it to a high school. Just one more reason to love this city!

This is why I don't wear my hair down

2006-10-24T02:51:00.000+02:00

A Nice Weekend

2006-10-12T06:33:00.000+02:00

Last weekend got off to a good start. On Friday I learned that I have until the 24th to finish all of my lab work. This is considerably better than having to be done by this Friday, which I had initially thought, and would have probably killed me. Couple that with the A's sweep of the Twins, and the weekend was off to an auspicious start!

On Saturday, after working for a while in the lab I went to the Cal football game against Oregon. I was prepared for a close, but good game because both teams were ranked (Cal #16 and Oregon #11). It turned out to be a blowout, and it didn't take long for the chants of "Over-Rated" to rain down on the visiting fans. Cal won 45-24, and at times it didn't even seem that close. Not that I'm complaining, though. I still remember a game the year we went 1-11 and I stood in the rain and watched us lose to USC by a similar margin. Saturday's game was also a sellout, with approximately 72,000 people in Memorial Stadium. It was pretty cool to be in that environment, with everyone riled up about the biggest game so far this year.

Halftime was a great mix of the academic and athletic when our newest Nobel laureate, George Smoot, led the crowd in a cheer of "1-2-3 Go Bears!" He had one of the biggest, goofiest grins I've ever seen. I can only imagine this has been the best couple weeks in his life. Favorite quote of an evening hanging out in the student section with all the undergrads -- blonde, slightly drunk sorority girl to friend, regarding Dr. Smoot getting the Nobel last week: "He proved the Big Bang actually happened! How fucking cool is that?!"

Sunday we went into the city for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, an annual, free concert in Golden Gate Park. This was the sixth year, and we've gone to the last four. It's gotten bigger every year, so much so that the crowds are getting to be a bit much. But rather than fight the crowds milling among the five stages, we decided to park at one stage for the afternoon. I went over a little early to have coffee with a friend of mine who worked for me on the fisher project a couple years ago. She was in town visiting a friend, but had chosen this weekend so she could go to the concert. Anne, Matt, and Caden joined me a little later. (Sadly, Cascade had to stay home and study for her orals, but I hear that it was a productive day.) We got there in time to see the end of Hot Tuna's set. We then sat through Richie Furay. We'd never heard of him, but Matt figured out midway through his performance that he had been in Buffalo Springfield. After listening to him play for about 45 minutes, I understand why he's probably the only member you haven't heard of. We were a little bummed to have to sit through a bunch of recycled licks and even a song or two about Jesus while missing Richard Thompson playing on another stage. But we were happy not to fight the crowds only to have to turn around and come back for the main attraction, which included a Living Legend.

The last band to play on the Arrow Stage was the Waybacks. I'll confess to only knowing one of their songs, and that one only because Dan emailed it to me last week. But I was still pretty excited for their show because I'd heard good things about them, and more importantly, Bob Weir was playing with them. Well, it turned out that my not knowing any Waybacks songs wasn't a liability because they played mostly Grateful Dead covers (is it technically a cover if Bob Weir is on stage with you?) with a few other classics thrown in. Bob was definitely showing his age, and I thought their cover of Kashmir was a little ambitious -- I don't know if Bob Weir ever had the vocal range of Robert Plant, and he certainly didn't on Sunday. That said, and in spite of any vocal shortcomings, it was great to see a Living Legend. Also, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings joined them for a couple songs, including a rocking version of Casey Jones and the encore of Like a Rolling Stone. It made up for the fact that we missed her show the night before. As we filed out, we walked by the main stage where Emmylou Harris (another Living Legend) was singing like an angel.

One of the things I like most about HSBG is checking out the crowd. Although it's not quite as racially mixed a group as a typical Bay Area gathering, there are still people from all walks of life. Near us we had a couple yuppies drinking Belgian beer (Chimay, no less), as well as hipsters, lots of people in fleece and Tevas, just about as many hippies, and quite a few people who looked like they lived in the park. Matt sagely observed that this last group was probably the closest in spirit to the audiences the Grateful Dead played for when they were getting started.

It was nice having a (mostly) guilt-free weekend, where I didn't think (much) about work. The A's getting clobbered in the first two games of the series against the Tigers and a jury summons arriving in the mail yesterday have tempered my enthusiasm a little, but I'm still feeling relatively relaxed as I head into the home stretch with the lab work.

IRON F#%*&IN' MAIDEN

2006-09-13T07:18:00.000+02:00

A new Iron Maiden album is always a momentous event for me because I've been an unapologetic fan since middle school. When their new CD, "A Matter of Life and Death," came out last week, I went out and got it the day it hit the stores. I'm usually a cautious music buyer, and I'll wait until I've read a couple reviews, listened to a few tracks, and even gotten a personal recommendation before dropping my hard-earned dollars on a new CD. But Iron Maiden is the rare band that I trust enough to run out and buy their albums the day they come out. In fact, I actually prefer to listen to the CD with virgin ears completely unspoilt by anyone else's opinion. There are only a handful of other bands that I cut this kind of slack. (For the record, they're Radiohead, Sigur Ros, and Ozomatli, although the last group is on thin ice if they keep sounding more and more like Santana.)

As for the album itself, I'm happy to say that although the band members are all getting a little long in the tooth, they can still bring the TRUE METAL goods. It has all the things you'd expect from Maiden, including 8+ minute epics, galloping bass lines, and air raid siren vocals. There's even a bonus DVD with a "making of the album" documentary that's not really necessary, but I just watched it this evening and was hanging on its every word. It definitely stands up well alongside their other two "reunion" albums of the 00's. (And if you didn't know that Maiden ever had any sort of reunion, thanks for reading this far.) I'm listening to it now, and it's still bringing a dopey smile to my face after numerous spins. I'm happy there's still new music out there that can do that.

Still alive

2006-09-10T02:10:00.000+02:00

I apologize that my blog activity has been a bit inconsistent lately. It's probably going to be that way for the next month because I've got a ton of work to do. I need to finish all of my lab work before the lab packs up in the middle of October to move to Sweden, and I have a big fellowship application due at the beginning of next month. If I get it, then it will pay for my entire two-year postdoc, so needless to say, I'm spending a lot of time on it. Also, I start teaching on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to it because I always enjoy teaching and it's been a while since I've done it, but I hope I don't short-change the students while I'm madly trying to write a fellowship.

Anyway, I just thought I'd write a quick post to say I'm still alive and to explain why I haven't responded to anyone's emails recently. We're in LA right now for Anne's cousin's wedding. It's the first time I've worn a tie in a long time. I'm looking forward to a couple hours of partyin' and drinkin' to take my mind off of work for a while. This afternoon we went to Venice, which is very close to where we're staying. I don't think it's quite what Anne's mom expected, but it was an interesting cultural experience for her. Well, I'm off to finish getting ready for the wedding. Hope to post again soon....

Making the switch

2006-09-05T07:57:00.000+02:00

Our desktop computer is about eight years old and is still running Windows 98. Because of its age and its size, we've decided that it's not really worth the trouble to schlepp it all the way to Europe, so for the past few months I've been researching getting a new laptop. One of the major deliberations was between getting another PC or making the switch to a Mac. In theory, Macintosh computers have a lot going for them. But I've used Microsoft-compatible computers since my family replaced our Commodore 128. (I still remember what a big deal it was when DOS 6.0 came out.) Anne has also been a Windows user for years, so for both of us, the transition wouldn't be easy. Also, I use a lot of data analysis software that only runs in Windows (or in at least one case, DOS, if you'll believe it). And more importantly, the program that I probably use the most, Microsoft Access, isn't available for Macintosh. But with the new Macs running on Intel chips, it's getting easier to run Windows software on a Mac. I've been peppering all of my Mac-owning friends with questions about being able use Windows on a Mac. Unfortunately, asking someone who owns a Mac about Windows is kind of like asking the kids handing out "Socialist Worker" in Sproul Plaza to explain capitalism. While the fact that people who own Macs are so slavishly devoted to them is a definite selling point, these conversations left me feeling like I wasn't getting the full story.

Well, this past week -- after quite a bit of deliberation -- we got a new computer, and you are now reading the blog of the proud owner of a new MacBook. It was a tough decision because I know I'm setting myself up for some compatibility-related difficulties. Anne was also a bit leary of learning a new operating system. But, being the diligent list-makers that we are, we came up with some pros and cons:

Pros:
Stability and ease of use of the operating system. Also, the OS is built on top of Unix, which is a pretty geeky thing to get excited about but which will make my life a lot easier with all of the programming I'm proposing to do for my postdoc. Using Unix also means lots of free, open-source software.

Compatibility is less of an issue because the intel processor means you can install and run Windows, either by re-booting into Windows or through an emulator like Parallels. Because the processor is the same, emulators run a lot faster than they did on older Macs.

If we got the computer before the middle of September, I could use a student discount and get free iPod Nano.

The computers just look good. The unfortunate corollary is a tendency to emphasize style over substance. Luckily, I think the Mac manages to do well at both. (I'm a little less convinced about the iPod because I think they're grossly overpriced, but you can't beat the free price we paid for ours.)

Cons:
No Microsoft Access. I've invested a lot of time and energy into learning this program, and the database I have for my dissertation has a lot of code that would be impossible to port to another db program. This is probably the single biggest thing I deliberated over, and I'm still a little nervous that I won't be able to use Access to the best of its abilities.

General software compatibility issues. Let's face it, it's a Windows world.

Cost. Apple computers cost more than PCs, sometimes quite a bit more. That said, the MacBook is much more competitively priced than it's bigger, badder cousin, the MacBook Pro.

Learning a new operating system.

All told, I think the pros outweighed the cons (obviously, or I'd be typing this on a new Dell). I think that most of the pros were kind of geeky reasons, so it took a little convincing to sway Anne. But I think my enthusiasm eventually won her over. It's still not completely set up -- we don't have internet access because we didn't spring for the USB modem (we just have dial-up at home) and our neighbors are all savvy enough to password protect their wireless networks. (Even the guy whose network is called "NOTYOURINTERNET". OK dude, I get the picture.) In fact, although I typed this entry using TextEdit on our new computer, I still have to transfer it to our other computer to post it to my blog.

As for compatibility, today I just downloaded a beta version of a program called CrossOver Mac that promises to do away with the need for rebooting or running emulators to get Windows by replacing all of the code for Windows system calls with equivalents that run on a Mac. In fact, reading about the development of this program may have been the most significant factor in swaying me to Apple's side. From what I've read, the version for running Windows software on Linux that's been around a while longer works relatively well with some programs, especially MS Office Suite. I'll keep you posted.

So far, I'm pretty excited about the new computer. I've not had much time to play around with it, but the few things I have done have worked out pretty well. It's amazing all of the Windows keyboard shortcuts I took for granted, but I'm starting to learn their Macintosh equivalents. Now that I own a Mac, I'll try not to become one of those smug Mac owners who disdains PC's and the people who use them. I'm relying on my friends (especially those of you who work for Microsoft) to keep me in line so I don't get carried away. I'll let you know how the transition goes.

Why I'm looking forward to moving to Sweden, vol. 1

2006-08-25T17:14:00.000+02:00

The new single from Iron Maiden debuted at #1 on the Swedish music charts.

A Scanner Darkly

2006-08-24T06:59:00.000+02:00

Starting a couple weeks ago, Anne and I began shaping the consumer choices of millions of Americans. About six months ago, a database sequestered in a bunker somewhere in the Midwest deemed our household to be demographically desirable, and we were asked to join a consumer panel for A.C. Nielsen (the same company that does the TV ratings). After a couple-month wait for an open spot on the panel, we were sent a small scanner that we use to record all of our purchases. You know the set top boxes that record what TV shows you watch? This is a lot like that only 1,000x more intrusive.

The scanner is a small, hand-held device with a key pad and an infrared reader at the top. Everything we buy that has a barcode on it (groceries, CD's, camping gear ... anything) gets recorded. Also, many things we buy that don't have one also need to be recorded. For those, we have a 1/2" thick binder full of printed barcodes. For example, if I buy a bag of green beans, I open to the page of vegetables and scan the barcode printed underneath "Beans, green/string." I then enter the weight of the beans and the price per pound. There are also little barcodes to indicate if the beans were loose or bunched, and if they were organic or not.

If this sounds like a pain in the ass, that's because it is. We spend about 20 minutes after every trip to the grocery store scanning in our purchases. And the corner store where we buy most of our produce doesn't have a computerized inventory system, so every item on the receipt is called "Grocery." This creates a bit of a challenge when you have to scan in the weights and costs of each bag of fruits and veggies when you get back home. As for the veggie box we get from the farm, well, the weights and prices we enter for those items are basically a fiction.

Now I don't want to sound too down on the scanner. I do like the fact that our purchases may influence big food companies and grocers to sell more organic food and craft-brewed beer. Also, we earn points for scanning our purchases and transmitting the data back to A.C. Nielsen regularly, and the points can be redeemed for all sorts of stuff from a catalog. (We've got our eyes on the AeroBed.) Of course, if we were paid an hourly wage for our scanning time and then went out and bought the same items in the catalog (and scanned their barcodes, of course), it probably works out to us getting paid about 50 cents and hour, but nevertheless, at least we have something to strive for.

So, if the next time you're standing in the store looking at the beer cooler and wondering why all of the Budweiser has been replaced with Anderson Valley beers, you have us to thank.

Lassen

2006-08-22T08:01:00.000+02:00

This past weekend, we got one last bit of summer vacation before school starts for Anne and I get ready for my final push of lab work before the lab moves to Sweden at the end of September. We decided to go to Lassen because it was on our list of "things to do in California before we move away," and Anne hadn't been but had been hearing me rave about it for years. My family often stopped there on the way to the Humboldt County coast for summer vacation, but I hadn't been since high school. Throughout our stay, I had periodic flashbacks to previous visits to the park. Even though I'd been there three or four times with my parents, the trip that seemed to stand out the most in my memory was the time I went with my eighth grade science class. In particular I remember Roger and I listening to Devo and Bartok with Mr. Langdon in his car on the ride up, learning how to tell a ponderosa from a Jeffrey pine ("gentle Jeffrey and prickly ponderosa"), and singing "America the Beautiful" Ray Charles-style with Larry from the top of Mt. Lassen.

I played hooky on Friday so we could arrive before the crowds (such as they are -- luckily far, far fewer people go to Lassen than Yosemite, even though it's roughly the same distance from San Francisco). We got there in the early afternoon, which gave us enough time to set up camp and go for a short day hike to the aptly-named Paradise Meadow. The next day, we took a long hike that left from our campground and looped through the backcountry on the east end of the park. The trail visited at least a dozen small lakes, one of which we stopped at for lunch and a swim. We got back to camp just in time to duck into our tent with our post-hike beers as an afternoon thunderstorm passed overhead. The next morning, we packed up early (for us, at least) and headed to the park's two main attractions: Mt. Lassen and Bumpass' Hell. The trail to the top of Mt. Lassen is relatively short because it starts at 8500', just 2000' below the summit. It was pretty hazy from the top, but we could still clearly make out Mt. Shasta to the north as well as the coast range on the far side of the Central Valley. After coming back down from the summit, we ate lunch and then headed to Bumpass' Hell. From the top of Mt. Lassen, there's not much to indicate that it's an active volcano, but Bumpass' Hell is full of gaseous vents and bubbling mud pots that prove this it's still a very geologically active area. Anne had never seen anything like it before, so it was a lot of fun to go there with her. Overall, the trip was a lot of fun. It was really cool going somewhere with Anne that I remember fondly from my childhood and having it live up to all of the hype.

Brewster

2006-08-10T06:42:00.000+02:00

The last leg of our Washington adventure was six days in Anne's home town of Brewster. It's always nice to go to Brewster because there isn't much to do but swim in the pool and look at the Columbia out the living room window. That sounded nice to us because we were in the mood for a little down time after all that hiking. But before we could get into full relaxation mode, we had company to entertain. The day after we arrived, Sarah and Jason, and their daughters Emi and Mia, as well as Eric and Theresa and their baby Nathaniel, came to visit for a couple days.

The visit with friends was really nice. It was the first time I'd met either Nathaniel or Mia. I'm never quite sure what to do around babies, but at that age they're primarily interested in mom, so I wasn't called upon to do much. I was amazed at how much Emi had grown, and she was very eloquent and a lot more interactive than the when I'd last seen her a year ago. We spent a lot of time hanging out at the house and swimming. We ordered take-out Mexican food one night, and grilled burgers another. Everyone had garden burgers, except for Jason and I, who had real hamburgers made from nearly a pound of ground beef. It was a bit much, but I was still a little protein-deficient, so I savored every bite. We had one adventure into town while the company was there. We went to the Mexican grocery, and were saddened to learn that their baker that made the delicious empanadas had moved to California. We bought some doughnuts in lieu of the empanadas, and I got a tamal, then we strolled up and down the length of main street, briefly stopping at El Campesino clothing store, before we headed to the park. After eating our doughnuts and hanging out on the grass for a while, we were satisfied that we had "done" Brewster so we headed back to the house to swim.

After the company left, we mostly hung out at the house, with the exception of a couple trips to Pateros to go to the bakery. (Notice the critical role that bakeries play in any vacation that Anne and I take.) Anne got roped into going through some boxes in the closet of her old bedroom, and that kept her occupied for much of the rest of our visit. The sorting had the air of a geological expedition as each subsequent box came from an earlier era in Anne's life. While Anne sorted, I kept her company while playing with Legos, playing "God Save the Queen" on the songflute (which is similar to a recorder, but -- if this is possible -- somewhat more shrill), and reading all about the 1986 World's Fair in Vancouver. Do they still have World's Fairs? Most of the contents of the boxes she was able to divert to the yard sale pile, but there were definitely a few keepers amidst all the old class papers, clothes, and drawings. One of the best finds was a sweatshirt that she made while she was in 7th grade. Unfortunately, I couldn't persuade her to model it for my blog, but I assure you that it's beautiful. We had one more outing the last full day we were there because I wanted to go back and get a Mexican wedding shirt I'd spied when we were in El Campesino with our friends. It's a sweet shirt with embroidered pumas on the front and a big embroidered puma on the back. I haven't had a chance to wear it yet, but I can't wait to.

Our trip home was relatively uneventful. I always like the flight from Wenatchee to Seattle because the plane flies relatively low so you get really impressive views of the Cascades. Also, Horizon serves free beer. Back in Oakland, there were some delays on BART, so it actually took us a little longer to get home from the airport than it did to fly from Seattle to Oakland. But we got home eventually, where Lucy was very happy to see us.

We had planned this year's vacation partially with the intention of doing something cheaper than our trip to Brazil last summer. That part definitely worked out well, especially for the three full days on the trail when we didn't spend anything. We also got to spend a lot of time with family and friends, which was a real treat. The backpacking trip was great because it was something we'd wanted to do for a while. Neither of us had been out for that many nights before, so that was a fun challenge. All in all, it was a really nice vacation that served as a good reminder of what a great place Washington is.

Go team go!

2006-08-10T03:07:00.000+02:00

Sports analogies in politics are always a shaky proposition. They can alienate voters who aren't sports fans with jargon, and they can also betray the fact that the speaker doesn't know a thing about sports but is trying to speak down to the "everyman." In his concession speech last night, Joe Lieberman somehow managed to do both with one of most strained and awkward sports analogies I've ever heard:

I'm a sports fan, so I'm going to use a sports comparison, and as I see it in this campaign, we've just finished the first half and the Lamont team is ahead. But in the second half, our team -- Team Connecticut -- is going to surge forward to victory in November.

Yikes! I like the way he apologizes for the analogy before launching into it by proclaiming himself a sports fan. (Though of which sport isn't clear. It's probably not baseball or hockey. I don't think they have halves in cricket, either. Maybe soccer?) I doubt that leaving the Democratic party and running as an independent is going to be a very effective game plan for your team, Joe, but you're the coach. Perhaps you shouldn't have kissed the president in the preseason.

Update: Imagine my glee when I came home and discovered that toady's Bad Reporter covered the infamous kiss at the State of the Union. Do you think I qualify as an "eagle-eyed liberal blogger?"