I Missed the KFOG Concert. Sounds Like I Made the Right Choice.

5 reasons why I think it was a good thing that I ended up missing the KFOG 'Kaboom' concert:

1. Los Lobos headlined. Oh sorry, I had to answer the phone, 1982 was calling, and wanted to know why Los Lobos sucked so much. In 1982.
2. It screws up traffic. According to local sources, the whole thing makes traffic in an already traffic-challenged city that much more difficult. Feh, I say.
3. It happens on Mother's Day weekend. At least this year...and I haven't the energy to research whether this is typically the case. But regardless, what kind of asshat plans a concert on the eve of a day when we're supposed to show up and celebrate momhood???
   
4. It inadvertently proves that capitalism is viciously accurate. Last year represented the first year that KFOG chose to charge for admission to its annual fanfest, and it seems that interest hasn't waned in the slightest. Price elasticity y'all??
   
5. I was in LA when it happened. And sour grapes rule...
   

Muir Woods. Bomb-ba-laya.

So, took a trip to Muir Woods last weekend, the first since I arrived here in the Barbary Coast, and wasn't disappointed (well, maybe a little with the parking situation, but let's not quibble over details).

Pics to follow once I stop being lazy and watching John Adams on HBO every spare fucking moment.

OT: I'm Hoping That This Time Won't Be the Same

I'm hoping that this election won't amount to the same choice I have been forced to make since 1996: the least of two evils.

After Hillary's 'victories' in Ohio and Texas today, and McCain's inevitable assumption of the Republican throne, I have to admit that I'm finding even my usual glass-half-full outlook thoroughly challenged. I can only now imagine a McCain-Clinton national ticket that affords the Republicans yet another term in the executive office due almost solely to Hillary's divisive influence.

I'm not saying that Obama is some sort of panacea. However, at least his rhetoric (to assign it the most base level of import at it's critics' behest) is inclusive and progressive in its stance. In my humble - albeit correct - opinion Obama represents not only a solid and prudent choice for effective and deliberate executive leadership, but also the best chance that we have as a country to unite under a common perspective.

So, I guess we'll tarry on from here, content to watch the Democratic race play itself out. I'd like to be as diplomatic, pragmatic and forward-thinking as Dave Kos has been on the subject, but then again I'm not Dave Kos.

Here we go....let's see if the Dems do exactly what everyone expects us to do: kill ourselves before anyone else gets a chance to.

The Baker Beach Shoot

I promise...I'll finish the processing on these exposures soon...

My Motorcycle is Louder Than Yours. Thus, I Obviously Have the Larger Penis.

The sad, attention-hungry souls who ride their modified motorcycles up and down the Embarcadero and its arteries stimulate a range of emotions in me. Obviously based on my setup to this topic, the first and most prominent is a sense of pity and sympathy for the obvious longing that these socially awkward middle-aged men feel. But a close second for me has to be a considerable annoyance at the extent of the noise pollution this apparently insecurely-endowed crowd promulgates on the rest of us.

More soon on this topic...but for now, a message to all of you stage-3-mod-having-middle-age-crisis-drowning fools: I'm coming for you.

The Yerba Buena Shoot

Last week, I did something I've been wanting to do since I arrived in San Francisco: I took my camera, my brand new tripod (a Bogen-Manfrotto 055XPROB for my fellow camera geeks) and a warm jacket and headed to Yerba Buena Island to shoot some pics of the City at Sunset.

Yerba Buena is uniquely positioned for this very task. It's East and North of the City, so the sun sets perfectly behind the Financial District, and casts a warm glow around all of the landmarks that make the SF skyline one of the most beautiful in the world.

I took the day off from work, and headed over to the island around 4:00 so that I could find a spot and set up my shot before the sun started to set around 5:30. After driving around the island for a while, I found a great spot on the side of a road near the highest peak around, and got to work.

As the time passed, the sun dipped lower and the shots became more intriguing. I got some beautiful shots with :30 exposures, taken with a remote shutter trigger of course so that there was no chance of moving the camera (save the odd earthquake of course...).

Probably the first time in my life that I've taken pictures that I truly am excited about every time I look at them. Hopefully not the last. And with this City as my omnipresent subject, I'm sure it won't be.

For more photos from this shoot, click here.

OT: Dear Bill....

I count myself among your biggest fans. Not just before your presidency, but during. And arguably even more so after. And that is why I felt it important to write to you today, as one of your biggest fans, to say that I think you are severely fucking up on behalf of your wife.

I registered to vote in the same year you became president: 1992. I registered on the day of my 18th birthday, and on that day I began campaigning for you in my town of 158,000 largely Republican, Reagan-loving voters. I was mocked, debated, shouted at and chastised, but I stuck with it. I believed in what you were doing and in what our cause meant.

To my delight, you won the presidency. And to even greater delight - you were a fantastic president. You helped to spark my deep interest in politics. You made me believe in the system. You gave me hope in the process of democracy.

Over the last few years, that spark, that belief, that hope has been tested for me just like it has been for the majority of Americans who didn't vote for Bush in 2000 (and the sane among us who didn't vote for him again in 2004. Shame on you all btw. Again.).

But now we're entering a new election season in which the field appears wide open on both sides of our intractably polarized two-party system. There is hope - albeit a cynical, almost defeatist hope - in the air. People are buzzing again about politics: from the Ron Paul re-love-utionists to the Obamaniacs and the Huckabeans and even the McCainaanites. And you Bill, are killing my buzz.

Why go on the attack? Why go negative? Why do everything that you made us believe you were above? How can the man who assembled the Clinton Global Initiative be the same one who debases himself with coy, slanderous attacks against a young, aggressive hopeful like Barack who seems to embody the same ideology for which you and your wife once so forcefully argued?

I want to be clear, Bill, that I am not advocating a vote for Obama (though I am increasingly leaning that way...just for full disclosure's sake). Rather, I am appealing to you as a fan, a believer, an arguably naive idealist who has always been a big supporter of you and your cause.

Maybe some Dr. Phil-like comments will help? Let's try. Hillary is not part of your legacy - that stands on its own. She is not you - you don't owe her anything. Forget about all of that Monica stuff, or being the first husband and wife team to occupy the nation's highest office (that's spooky anyways, right??). None of that matters. All that matters now is that you maintain your dignity in the face of a tempting opportunity to use your cachet to help your wife win the presidency. Face it - just like we all have to - that's really not a good idea. But that's better saved for another post.

So Bill. Please. For me. Let it go. Rise above. Be the statesman you deserve to be at this point, and just let things play out and let your wife's campaign rise or fall based solely on her own merits and ability to compete in a contentious race. You did it. If she's half the man that you are she should be able to as well.

(Image credit: Ashley Cecil, 2006)

Something's In the Air...

...and it's MacWorld 2008 at the Moscone Center.

Seems like the entire tech community has descended on The City to see Steve-O present the latest in Apple wizardry, complete with a rather strange finale in a song by none other than Randy Newman.

The 'real' Steve Jobs didn't disappoint the hordes of Apple fans in attendance at his keynote address, announcing a new software update for the iPhone (which your humble author is thoroughly enjoying btw), a revamped version of Apple TV (calling it 'Take 2') which includes a new video rental service, and of course, the piece de resistance, the new Macbook Air, the world's thinnest notebook computer. All this to the delight of attending Mac fanboys and doting tech journalists alike.

But Fake Steve Jobs (infamously played by Forbes senior editor Daniel Lyons) was not to be outdone by all of the hype surrounding Apple's triumphant storm into the city by the bay, and in judo-like fashion chose to roll with the punch, rather than try to block it. Fake Steve loyally followed all of the hype and hilarity in the runup to MacWorld, including an entertaining picture of one of the Real Steve's most dedicated fans:

Naturally there was a dude in the front of the line playing Guitar Hero on a MacBook and being very solemn about the whole thing. You knew there would be, right?

(Photo Credit: The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs)

Gotta say, I feel bad for all of the losers that are hooked on Apple products; the poor pathetic great unwashed geek masses who are willing to wait in line for the latest techno-hype that will be outdated in a matter of months, only to be replaced by something more expensive with an even shorter shelf life. I also feel sorry for the sad, sycophantic journalists who hungrily lap up the Real Steve's every word, looking for clues on what the prophet himself wants them to write, in the hope that they can join the likes of Walt Mossberg in receiving a coveted prototype of some future in-apple-vation.

Sad. So sad. Mostly because I can't join all of them until Thursday because I have f@#king meetings all day tomorrow.

See you Thursday boys...save me a seat!