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.