against development or just an old stubborn woman...

ballard, a neighborhood in seattle, has a trader joes and a LA fitness. in between the two new structures is a little bungalow owned, until her death in june, by a mysterious old lady who refused a million dollars for her home. NYTIMES ARTICLE

modern uses for phone books

1. phillip seymour hoffman in happiness masturbating to randomly called women selected from the phone book.

2. testing your strength by ripping the phone book in half. as they become more obsolete and less used, therefore skinnier due to less advertising, this will become easier.

3. furniture

4. child seat

any more ideas?

with google on your iphone

who needs phone books? unless all the power in your world is down from an airstrike, i can't think of any reason to use a good old fashioned phone book. SFCITIZEN

erections against terror

appears that a failed war can always be propped up by sex. READ HERE about the US's new strategy against the Taliban.

i miss muni

muni diaries will make anyone who rode, or rides, muni smile.

READ HERE FUNNY TIME CRAZY LADY ON 1 CALIFORNIA

I hope a bus runs you over and you DIE!

my favorite arsonist

the porta potty arsonist has struck again. the seventh attack in the past two months. the police are unsure of his, or her, motives and SFFD has asked russian hill neighbors to "keep a closer eye on porta potties and report any suspicious activity to 911."

during the recession keeping an eye on portable toilets could be a refreshing break.

full story here

musica

i love emeryville

but the shopping mecca is hurting. anyone who grew up in the bay remembers when all those great stores likes sports authority popped up. driving over there with moms for new shoes was always a monthly highlight. now they are hurting. even the nytimes is noticing.

my first barbie

would be this. amazing.

it's a wonderful life

i want an old film projector and a screen. recession relieved by shameless 50s cinematic optimism.

musica

social graces

at dinner tonight a young man told a story. an interesting, although slightly standard, tale of cops and drugs. the typical elements were present: associate taking a rap, someone getting off, random family connections. the problem with the story was the length. dinner service was postponed as the young man continually repeated the itemized lists of illicit substances in the back of the datsun pickup. the intermission occurred while everyone sat down. as the story bled into dinner entire plates, possibly seconds, were consumed as he continued. the young man finished, but left out a obviously dangling part of the tale - what happened to the guy who was led off in handcuffs. once asked to clarify, he said "oh, the story gets really good from there." most of us shuddered thinking coffee would be cold by the time the second part of the second movement would finish. as he finally wrapped up he glanced around, paused for the moral of the story and said "to make a long story short."

humankind

on california street around 6pm a woman was parking her car. parallel parking. the street sloped downward and a car attempting to drive down california street honked at the parking car as it pulled around. i thought to myself, "why would this person, who assumedly parallel parks on occasion" find it at all appropriate to honk. probably not reasonable to expect people to treat others as they would like to be treated, but nevertheless i just hope that obama invests in green energy, international diplomacy and a little kindness.

hours later after crying through Milk, feeling great pride in San Francisco and enjoying the life of cabs and no parking i came home to this wonderful story:
Supermarket Defends Itself over Adolf Hitler Cake

fast pass beauty

2008 in fast pass.

chatting about san francisco with cara

me: do you know what kmel is?
Cara:no
me: 106.1 radio station
urban music
something you should know
just because you live here
now
Cara: ok, because I have a car with a radio?
me: no
just because you should know these things
Cara: not too much radio happens in my life
me: like the local radio stations
because such things are local and important
and foster community and mutual understanding
and someday when you meet some cute guy who is from san francisco
and he talks to you about
growing up
listneing to chuey gomez and renel on kmel
and the wake up show with sway and king tech
you will know what he is talking about
Cara: ok I get it
already
me: and he will be impressed
Cara: will he?
me: yes

centrist realist leftist dumbist

obama has taken a lot of shit recently. i've been on a siesta from intensive coverage of the campaigns, but it strikes me that much about obama's recent moves has been overblown. let gail collins do a better job than i.

The Audacity of Listening
By GAIL COLLINS
NY Times 7/10/2008

We have to have a talk about Barack Obama.

I know, I know. You’re upset. You think the guy you fell in love with last spring is spending the summer flip-flopping his way to the right. Drifting to the center. Going all moderate on you. So you’re withholding the love. Also possibly the money.

I feel your pain. I just don’t know what candidate you’re talking about.

Think back. Why, exactly, did you prefer Obama over Hillary Clinton in the first place? Their policies were almost identical — except his health care proposal was more conservative. You liked Barack because you thought he could get us past the old brain-dead politics, right? He talked — and talked and talked — about how there were going to be no more red states and blue states, how he was going to bring Americans together, including Republicans and Democrats.

Exactly where did everybody think this gathering was going to take place? Left field?

When an extremely intelligent politician tells you over and over and over that he is tired of the take-no-prisoners politics of the last several decades, that he is going to get things done and build a “new consensus,” he is trying to explain that he is all about compromise. Even if he says it in that great Baracky way.

Here’s a helpful story: Once upon a time, there was a woman searching for a guy who was ready to commit. One day, she met an attractive young man.

“My name is Chuck,” he said, grinning an infectious grin. “I’m planning to devote my entire life to saving endangered wildlife in the Antarctic. In five weeks I leave for the South Pole, where I will live alone in a tent, trying to convince the penguins that I am part of their flock. In the meantime, would you like to go out?”

“I have just met the man I’m going to marry,” she told her friends. She had been betrayed by poor listening skills, which skipped right over the South Pole and the tent. Of course, after five weeks of heavy dating, Chuck flew away and was never heard from again.

A year and a half of campaigning and we still haven’t heard Obama’s penguins, either. It’s not his fault that we missed the message — although to be fair, he did make it sound as if getting rid of the “old politics” involved driving out the oil and pharmaceutical lobbyists rather than splitting the difference on federal wiretapping legislation. But if you look at the political fights he’s picked throughout his political career, the main theme is not any ideology. It’s that he hates stupidity. “I don’t oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war,” he said in 2002 in his big speech against the invasion of Iraq. He did not, you will notice, say he was against unilateral military action or pre-emptive attacks or nation-building. He was antidumb.

Most of the things Obama’s taken heat for saying this summer fall into these two familiar patterns — attempts to find a rational common ground on controversial issues and dumb-avoidance.

On the common-ground front, he’s called for giving more federal money to religious groups that run social programs, but only if the services they offer are secular. People can have guns for hunting and protection, but we should crack down on unscrupulous gun sellers. Putting some restrictions on the government’s ability to wiretap is better than nothing, even though he would rather have gone further.

Dumb-avoidance would include his opposing the gas-tax holiday, backtracking on the anti-Nafta pandering he did during the primary and acknowledging that if one is planning to go all the way to Iraq to talk to the generals, one should actually pay attention to what the generals say.

Touching both bases are Obama’s positions that 1) if people are going to ask him every day why he’s not wearing a flag pin, it’s easier to just wear the pin, for heaven’s sake, and 2) there’s nothing to be gained by getting into a fight over whether the death penalty can be imposed on child rapists.

His decision to ditch public campaign financing, on the other hand, was nothing but a complete, total, purebred flip-flop. If you are a person who feels campaign finance reform is the most important issue facing America right now, you should either vote for John McCain or go home and put a pillow over your head. However, I believe I have met every single person in the country for whom campaign finance reform is the tiptop priority, and their numbers are not legion.

Meanwhile, Obama has made it clear what issues he thinks all this cleverness and compromising are supposed to serve: national health care, a smart energy policy and getting American troops out of Iraq. He has tons of other concerns, but those seem to be the top three. There’s definitely a penguin in there somewhere.

gee ate

so the g8 is meeting in japan. hot topic: global food crisis. solution offered: discuss solution over extravagant 18 course meal. read here.

hillary is like...

1. the awkward girl in high school that always wanted your attention, and would never go away.

2. every bad female boss you ever had.

3. a man

4.

how important is your porn

after eight months of litigation a san rafael man gave up his quest to get his voluminous porn collection back from the city. READ HERE

drugs can be really expensive

a little trip into the santa cruz mountains cost the county ten grand and the young man his car privileges. READ HERE

jogging notes

while stretching today on the corner of grant and california a tourist approached me. I was wearing shorts, running shoes, and one of those technologically advanced breathable shirts. He asked if i had a lighter.

the problem with the youth

an old man, one of the founders of the blackstone group (quite rich investment people), related this joke on charlie rose (who may be my favorite person on television).

did you hear about the teacher who asked his students: "what is the problem with young people nowadays? are they ignorant or apathetic?" a young man raised his hand and answered. "i don't know and i don't care."

judgment call

how often do you wash your jeans? does it depend on how much they cost? dry cleaning?

i have a popular pair of very expensive jeans that the salesperson told me to never wash.

my girlfriend has a pair of jeans that she hasn't washed in 3 years.

felicia thinks that not washing your jeans is gross.

i don't think she is a jean person, but more of a heels and skirt person. her judgment, therefore, holds less weight.

overheard

white guy to white guy:
"i can't wait until i get my ice pick. bedspring nigga!"

running questions

why don't people look back when i run up behind them on a quiet residential street? it seems like the street smart course of action.

why don't people move to the side when they do look back, notice me, and can see that there is no room on the sidewalk for me to pass?

viva obama

better than the obama girl. luchando!

80's child

does this description of hillary clinton at thursday's debate:

Mrs. Clinton looked like the Jennifer Grey character struggling to show up her favored brother in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”

feel dated to you? i thought it was perfect, but i saw the movie in the theaters. some have suggested that a more modern comparison would be appropriate. is bueller too old to be relevant anymore?

here is the article from alessandra stanley

things never change

a lot of talk about water boarding and torture recently. it might seem new and exciting, but apparently nothing ever changes in our dear country. a country which each one of us, including michelle obama and cindy mccain, is very proud of. new yorker article about "the water cure" and its use by american soldiers in the philippines at the turn of the 20th century.

debates moments to warm your heart

quayle v. bensen 1988 "SENATOR YOU ARE NO JACK KENNEDY"


carter v. reagan 1980 "THERE YOU GO AGAIN"


nixon v. kennedy 1960 "FIRST TELEVISED DEBATE"

debates thoughts

i woke up this morning a little giddy about the debate tonight. hoping that one of those moments that the older people talk about, reagan's amazing debate performance in '84 or JFK against Nixon in the 60's, might again occur. but, of course, it doesn't. the best debate moment i can think of in my lifetime was the soap opera make up al gore debate in 2000. otherwise, they have usually been pretty boring. well, cheney and edwards in 2004 was quite entertaining, but for all the wrong reasons. that was the night i realized that cheney really was too smart for his own good and could do incredible damage. maybe i should have realized that in the previous 4 years of the madness he and bush wrought on the country, but i didn't until i saw him look into edwards eyes and just tear him apart. but here tonight, once again, was a rather boring debate. a few good lines by hillary, the xerox one in particular, but overall it seemed like obama stood up and although i am severely biased, i think he looks better as each debate goes on: more presidential.

returning to the cheney/edwards debate in 2004, the format of that debate is something that I haven't seen this year. that old scary white man and the coifed lawyer were sitting across from each other, looking at each other when they desired or at the audience. clinton and obama, however, are always seated next to each other, and can't truly look face to face. many times tonight obama sat quietly looking down and taking notes as hillary spoke. it would be awkward, and possibly inappropriate to look down if the person across the table was making eye contact. i wonder if hillary would be able to say the combative lines she tried tonight if sitting across the table from a person she claims to respect?

it is like talking to somebody in the car, versus discussing something at dinner. a friend of mine once told me that the best conversations she had with her boyfriend occurred on long car drives. he, it seems, felt more comfortable talking about his feelings when he could look straight onto the road instead of into her eyes. for a while i thought that it might be a good idea to hop in the car anytime a serious conversation arose. that would waste a lot of gas. i believe there is a saying that if you can't say something directly to somebody, then you shouldn't say anything.

i don't want to get hit by a bus

as some of you might know, we, being the US armed services, shot down a useless satellite that was plummeting towards earth. gail collins from the nytimes had some thoughts about the sattelite which was the size of a bus and contained thousands of gallons of toxic fuel. here here here

people

obama is damn close to knocking off hillary. if you want to help a little bit donate $25 to his campaign. almost one million people have donated, and most of the donations are small amounts. this is a movement by people. mccain wants obama to take public financing, but he wouldn't be saying anything if a million people gave him $25.
barackobama.com

best obama website

courtesy of tar art rat
barackobamaisyournewbicycle

Hip Hil

reaching out to college students.

i guess it is hard to look hip when you are running against the hippest presidential candidate since herbert hoover.

just passing time by calling 911

a hayward man was arrested today for making 27,000 calls to 911. he would call and make grunts and beeps, occasionally talking in a disguised voice. the reason, "because it was free." story here

no matter how boring wife swap gets exploiting christian parents, random people will always provide plenty of entertainment.

offal

while reading a story in the nytimes about the romantic implications of dietary restrictions a couple was mentioned. she couldn't eat wheat and found a chef companion that found it a challenge. she, in turn, broadened her horizons to include foie gras and offal. i had no clue what offal was, however.

it turns out that offal is the generic term for mammal organs. everything from liver to brains to intestines. the wikipedia entry has a wonderful breakdown of the different uses of offal throughout the world.

the wikipedia entry concludes with a useful warning:
The liver of the polar bear is unsafe to eat because it is very high in vitamin A and can cause hypervitaminosis A, a dangerous disorder. This has been recognized since at least 1597 when Gerrit de Veer wrote in his diary that, while taking refuge in the winter in Nova Zembla, he and his men became gravely ill after eating polar-bear liver

Father of The Bride II thought of the day

this is the 90's, people aren't growing old like they used to.

continued props to kittyhell

apparently many people that read kittyhell are angry that the host doesn't disclose where to find such treasures as the hello kitty converse high tops or the hello kitty boxing shorts. in response it appears that many people send him angry e-mails. he received enough of these messages to justify writing a response to the whiners:

It appears that there is a group of Hello Kitty fanatics that don’t like me because I don’t tell readers where to find the Hello Kitty items on my site. They write me emails (and sometimes leave comments) telling me what a horribly awful person I am. For example, here is the last email I received from one of them this weekend (which, scarily enough, is pretty typical of the ones I receive):

"What’s your problem not telling us where you get the Hello Kitty stuff on your site. It will only take you a minute to tell us, but you have to be a complete a**hole about it. I don’t know how your wife can put up with you. I think it’s utterly disgusting and you’re not fit to live on earth the way you treat us. You’re the worst person ever."

I’m going to find where those sneakers are whether you tell me or not, so you might as well. All you’re doing is being a pig about it. It’s no wonder you’re in hell, that is exactly where you deserve to be. I hope your wife makes your life even more hell. I’m surprised she hasn’t left you being as awful as you are.

You should stop blogging because it doesn’t help anyone because you’re too selfish to help anyone find the things on your blog. When I find those shoes, I’m going to email you to show you that I got them so you know that your being an idiot didn’t work. Do us all a favor and die.

Now, it may be just me, but usually when you find someone “utterly disgusting and not fit to live on this earth,” and you want them to do you the favor of just dieing, you usually stop visiting their blog. That way each day of your life isn’t ruined and you don’t feel compelled to write yet another email explaining how evil I am. Obviously this is not the case since I seem to get these repeatedly from several people.

Blog of the Month

of course it wouldn't be my blog, because i have a readership of about 3. the problem might be that i don't have an angle, a focus to my blog. something specific to write about such as pocket styles on high end jeans, might lead the weary to my truly interesting posts about the lack of leather in basketball shoes or and 1992 videos of SWV.

while in grade school i had a brief moment of obssession with kerokerokeroppi. for those unfamiliar, he is the frog in the sanrio family. i'm not sure if it was just his name, which i found quite enchanting in 6th grade, or the fact that there were some brief moments in life when sanrio trinkets just made me happy. although i believe sanrio markets almost exclusively to girls, i really enjoyed the small trinkets and big headed soft toys.

i can imagine that as an adult, however, that having a partner who is still obsessed with sanrio, hello kitty and leads an entire existence dependent on everything being "kittified," would be horrible. not surprisingly, there is a poor fellow who keeps a blog about his life in kittyhell. read it here. tenfootman blog of the month february 2008. the picture above is a hello kitty hard boiled egg mold.

Maybe 100... Say What

McCain for President! Vote Republican! Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran!

progressive nebraska

nebraska was the last state to hold onto the electric chair as its sole method of execution. it was a strange, because with all the problems with the various methods of execution employed in this country, nobody was discussing the electric chair. that was because everyone knows that the electric chair is a horrible and unpredictable way to kill people. that is why every other execution state has switched over to lethal injection as its primary method. however, there are still 9 states which maintain electric chairs as secondary methods of execution.


today, finally, in 2008, the nebraska supreme court found the chair violative of the 8th amendment. now the question is which uncruel and usual punishment they will adopt? the picture on the right is from an execution in florida in 1999. the florida supreme court ruled that lee allen davis, the executed man, suffered no pain before his death. hopefully, progressive nebraska will lead the way for other states to remove the electric chair as even a back up method. story here

arts channel

i occasionally find myself watching the arts channel on tv. i'm not sure that it even exists in san francisco anymore, but it used to be in the 20s and would feature everything from dueling harmonicas to opera. it was like mtv for old people. but old mtv with just music videos. a few years back i happened upon a black and white classical piece, which propelled me into learning more about franz schubert. the formal title of this performance is Piano Trio In B-Flat Major, Op.99, D 898: Allegro moderato. a few years back the numbers op.99 and d.898 were explained to me, but i have no idea today what they mean.

people's records detroit

last night there was a fire in the forest arms apartments on second and cass in detroit. a wonderful old apartment building built in 1905. most important to me, considering i had no friends who lived there, the basement of the forest arms was home to people's records, undeniably detroit's best record store and where i cut my teeth digging. the owner of people's, brad, said that the store was a complete loss, as thousands of gallons of water made their way into the basement and vinyl and water don't mix. brad plans to continue operating, building the business again from nothing.

thousands of records are lost. hundreds are homeless and the hippie chick who ran the corner coffee shop won't be smiling today. a lawyer who died in the blaze apparently started the fire in his 4th floor apartment.

people get ready

vote please

the cover of time states "why young voters care again." my question is "when did young voters care?" never in my lifetime did the youth care much, but then again all i could ever vote for was a bush or a clinton. so the excuse was either that the vote didn't matter because we were still in the haze of the wonderful clinton years, or kerry just wasn't inspiring enough.

what i love about the time article is the picture of the republican kid at berkeley that tops the story about the youth voting tidal wave. i think he has a fanny pack on. and is it just me, or do republicans like to stick out their chests more than democrats? or maybe it is just this kid, who looks like such a republican ass.

so the kids name is alexander marlow. i googled him and it turns out that he writes for the conservative paper at berkeley and also apparently hates danny glover. read a wonderful article by this young conservative who probably evokes reagan's name at every meal. here.

si se puede

you know when scarlett johansen, JOHN LEGEND and kareem support obama that something is right. just perfectly right. yes we can.

what happened to leather

i bought basketball shoes last week. it was my first purchase of shoes for a specific sport since my tennis shoe purchase during the summer of '06. as a great fan of chauncey billups and with little direction about what i wanted, except a desire to stay at or below one hundred dollars, i bought mr. billups' signature series adidas shoes. what surprised me was that the shoes were made out of plastic. now, i am no expert on the current selection of basketball shoes, but during my short search for a pair i noticed a sad lack of leather. i thought that shoes should be made out of leather, at least shoes that aren't "breathable" or made out of something else for a better reason. but plastic that looks like leather? i thought that was for, well, cheaper shoes. i remember that basketball shoes used to be made of leather, but maybe i just didn't know any better. it was the mid 90s that i was buying basketball shoes and i think i cared more about who was wearing the shoes than what they were made of. i guess the only change now is that i care about who is wearing them, but i also want them made out of leather.
but nevertheless, i paid a hundred dollars for a pair of shoes that were made out of plastic. i'm thinking of returning them after i used them today and got a blister. but then again, i guess if all star 3 time champion chauncey wears them, they should work for me. i wonder if adidas makes his out of leather, and then sells the rest of us plastic.

TenFootMan Endorses Obama

After a vote of one to zero for who to endorse in the democratic presidential nomination race, Barak Obama has won the important endorsement of TenFootMan. Senator Obama has consistently shown that he is a real person with two hands and one brain which he controls himself. Additionally, he has a fairly steady jumpshot and he's a lefty. Senator Clinton, however, has never proven herself to be a real person with an actual beating heart. Her laugh is frightening and she can't make a layup. Vote Obama on Tuesday!

poor detroit and poor kwame

seems like the darling mayor of detroit did it again. now after the reports of dead strippers at the mayor's mansion were silenced, the scandal involving city SUVs being given to his wife subsided, he has come back with perjury. seems that he lied under oath about sleeping with an aide. lying under oath is bad, might cost him his job, the city of detroit a lot more money than the millions already paid out in the settlement of the case where it appears he lied, and his license to practice law. the best part is that he got caught because of text messages. 14,000 text messages detailing his affair which he adamantly denied under oath. story here.

camel walk

i always wanted to learn how to dance like james brown. now that i got the supa man dance down, i can move to the boogaloo and soul train.

the bounty

today my mother and i received our first box from capay organic farms. i convinced her to join a Community Supported Agriculture program or CSA and every two weeks a nice man will deliver a box of fresh, local and organic produce. for more information check out their website: farm fresh to you. i have to say that i am completely sold on this whole organic, slow food, local movement. i buy only grass fed beef now and am searching for pastured chickens. michael pollan and the omnivore's dilemma is to blame. also his new book, in defense of food, is a great companion piece.

library updates

the last couple of weeks i have spent at least 5 days per week in the ucsf library in the blumenthal asian collection reading room on the fifth floor. the corner of the library on parnassus has wonderful views of the ocean, golden gate park, and the marin headlands. it also is home to many sleeping med students and many sleeping homeless people. initially i thought that the homeless people would bother me, but they seem to be some of the most respectful and courteous people who enjoy the faux leather chairs scattered around. no, it seems to be the students who are the worst offenders of the loosely defined group of manners known as library etiquette. obvious offenses such as talking are somewhat commonplace. but the group of 4 men in their early 20s who sat down, hooked up their computers and proceeded to intermettently talk for the better part of an hour were impressive primarily because the guy that did the most talking spoke in a whisper loud enough for the entire reading room to hear. the older asian man who is often there i enjoy quite a bit. he keeps to himself and always thoroughly wipes down the table where he sits. he did, however, cause a little angst the day that he decided that he needed to rip his tissue paper into perfect rectangles. they were very neat rectangles, but the sound of rip after rip i wouldn't exactly consider polite. the young woman who sat down next to my friend, popped in her headphones and proceeded to violently bob her head to whatever wonderful song she was listening to was laughable. then there is, as my friend likes to call him, Typey McTyperson. he is famous for not only his earphones blasting music loud enough to hear across the room, but also for his typing which has the finesse of a baboon and elicited a command from another studious young woman: "you can't type that loud in here, go outside the reading room."

ninety two was a great year

and i will stop with the videos shortly, but these will always be worth listening to.

don't do it

cocaine blunts and hip hop tapes top song of 2007:
UGK feat. Outkast - International Players Anthem
its a banger, and a great video.

strange strange video

i have always liked the song 'tres equis' by cypress hill off their first album (self titled). on a whim i searched youtube for the song and this is the only match. it is described as: Mariachis MC a ballroom dance contest. Contestants vie for a backstage pass. you will notice however, that the dancing and the mariachis are completely spliced together, and where is the backstage pass. with the addition of cypress hill, which as a weed obsessed rap group has little to do with ballroom dancing or mariachi bands, this video becomes something quite unique.

common

common has been through many years in the hip hop game: he changed his name, he sobered up, he released an electric album, he still wears good hats. his new album, be, just came out. the first song of his i ever heard, however, is still my favorite. soul by the pound (thump remix) from his first album 'can i borrow a dollar?' this is of course a remix that was only available on 12" and cassette.

chronicles of dating

a friend of mine has very lightly engaged match.com for occasional tuesday night entertainment. the stories tend to be typical - exaggerated height, sheer boredom, bad style. but tonight the bar was raised. the message she received was typical: "we seem like a good match for each other... i'm young at heart although a bit older than you are looking for." i was confused as i read through the forwarded message, as it seemed quite typical. it was signed and included a bunch of contact options (phone, AIM, etc...). the post script is the only reason this otherwise standard overture makes its appearance in between common and oscar.

P.S. Sorry about the pix in my ad (no clear face pix). I'm a fairly public figure in a sensitive field and can't circulate unblurred ones. If you reply thru my e-mail addy, I can send you a couple close ups of my eyes to fill in the blanks a bit, if that would help.

oscar peterson passed

oscar peterson died on the 23rd of december, 2007. i had the chance to see him a few times in his later years, in montreux and in oakland, and he was amazing. peterson's long time bass player in this clip, niels henning orested, passed away in the summer of 2005, a week before i saw peterson in switzerland. what always amazed me about peterson was his hands and how they were incredibly large and just slid all over the piano making fluid wonderful jazz. this is a clip of peterson, orested and martin drew from 1985 at the berlin philharmonic. ray brown, a bassist, part of peterson's original trio and a man who i wished was my grandfather also passed a few years back. he will be featured in another post shortly.

burr grinder and me

the grinder happened. i obsessed for the last couple of days, realized that i had a $50 starbucks card from christmas, headed down to ghiradelli square, avoided many toursists, parked in front of a t-shirt stand (only $1.99 for a I heart SF tee) and purchased a $199.95 burr grinder. it is the solis from baratza. tell me if this is backwards. i grind my coffee in a two hundred dollar machine and then brew it in a $15 stovetop bialetti. now i think i must go out and purchase a $1000+ espresso machine.

in my defense i was at a loss for what to do with my starbucks gift card. i don't drink their coffee and i don't like supporting them, so i figured that i might as well use it for the grinder. of course there was a $50 burr grinder. (see post below)

little schneider on the bench

DSC03310, originally uploaded by PourLeCorps.

watching jeff's little brother play JV high school basketball got me real nostalgic. all i wanted to do was get out there and play basketball again. not in a pick up game, but with a real coach in a competitive setting. i wonder if this feeling ever goes away or whether this is what fuels all the support and yelling and madness around professional sports by guys who never made it past junior varsity high school sports.

boy waiting in line at h and m around the 23rd of december

DSC03123, originally uploaded by PourLeCorps.

photo credit: me
comment by ariel: that boy is ugly
reponse: why do people have to be good looking in photos (my pride slightly hurt because i have been secretly admiring my photo for the last couple of days)
ariel: because they should be

super fresh

so blue bottle coffee won't grind their beans for you when you pay over $14 a pound for their coffee. the women said that it was because they want their beans super fresh when they are brewed. a few days earlier i read that they believe that only a burr grinder should be used for their coffee. such grinders cost at least $50, but provide the only acceptable grind because blade grinders make inconsistent grounds.

this begs the question that i have wondered about since i bought my first turntable or ate my first classy meal or bought my first organic local produce. how fresh, how much quality/ how little vibration is enough? i've met people that claim that they are as happy spending a night at the motel 6 as they would be at the 4 seasons. but that just can't be true when everything is so much nicer at the 4 seasons (ignoring the expense of course). is it all rationalization because nicer things cost more, such as the burr grinder, or take more effort to get, such as the local produce at the farmers market.

i guess i need to cut it off somewhere. because once i decide to buy the burr grinder i think to myself: don't i need to make sure that i am getting the best quality/value burr grinder? i guess the best solution would be for blue bottle coffee company to just grind the beans for me, because i don't really mind if they are a little less than super fresh when brewed. but then i think, maybe i do and i am really missing out on the super fresh if i don't grind right before i drink my morning cup.