Instrument

A Good Day C.Clark (buy the record) It’s always pretty after an...

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:43:00 -0500

A Good Day

C.Clark (buy the record)

It’s always pretty after an apocalypse

So we strolled past the flowers

planted by the Bloods and Crips

And they chose white lilies

‘cause they’re such wacky kids

It was a good day

Damn right!

It was a good day

Almost all the hypocrites and demagogues

were gone

Like the sacramental moment

in a last poet’s song

Bayard Rustin came back

just to bitch-slap Farrakhan

It was a good day

Damn right!

It was a good day

Burned to the ground

we knew it would

Burst into bloom

healthy and good

So we struck that match

and went back to sleep

Lee Atwater was on the corner

turnin’ tricks

Clutching the failed box set

of his heartfelt blues licks

He said

“I think I like the ghetto better

when it was sick”

It was a good day

Damn right!

I gotta say it was a good day

Raised to the ground

we knew it would

Burst into bloom

healthy and good

Bayard Rustin smiled and went back to sleep

Good Morning America

Good Morning

I had this dream...

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:01:43 -0400

I had this dream...:

that Obama would win Ohio if Matt made a website. He made that website, folks.

Video

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:28:41 -0400

Haight & Fillmore, SF, CA

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:35:02 -0400

Haight & Fillmore, SF, CA

Banh Mi

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:57:00 -0400

Andy introduced me to the wonders of the Vietnamese sandwich (banh mi) on my trip to Chicago last fall. I have sought them out around the Bay Area since coming here, but yesterday, a confluence of ingredients and hunger led me to attempt my own. Here is what I did. Made two sandwiches.

2 baguette rolls. I got and froze a bag of 30 of them from Safeway for $3.68 a while back
0.5 cucumber, seeded, and julienned
1 block of pre-fried tofu (“Hawaiian style” is what I had; this is half the package)
1 scallion, chopped up
healthy amount of cilantro (don’t leave this out!!)
0.5 tbsp chili paste
soy sauce
sesame oil

Toast the rolls. While that’s going, chop the tofu into some kind of bite-sized morsel. Then dump the cucumber, scallion, and tofu into a bowl. Put in the chili paste, pour some soy sauce over it, and add a little drizzle of sesame oil. Of course, real Banh Mi have mayo, but I don’t keep that in the house, hence the oil. Also, it should probably have carrots, but I don’t like carrots. Toss the stuff around. Put it in the roll. Eat. Tastes pretty good.

DC will do that to you.

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:32:04 -0400

As I got off the train on my home tonight I looked down to see a woman’s foot with a tattoo of the DC Flag! harDCore, indeed. Though sadly, she was not. It is a testament to the insane degree to which tattooing has flooded the mainstream that a woman as conservatively dressed as she was would have one at all…but nonetheless, I got that odd rush of nostalgia for home.

“Flashlight,” Fuzzy (1994). It’s weird to...

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:33:02 -0400

“Flashlight,” Fuzzy (1994).

It’s weird to feel nostalgia for bands you didn’t know when they were around. It’s also weird to feel some kind of connection to people when you don’t really have one. Here is a study in both of these oddities: I never knew Fuzzy in the mid ’90s (though I may have seen them; apparently they opened for the Juliana Hatfield 3, which I believe I saw around that time). Nonetheless, there is enough cultural capital amassed in this song/video and my brain for a fairly strong resonance. As for connection, well, my friend Em plays in a band with Hilken & Winston, both late of Fuzzy. I have meet both of them on several occasions. Yet, I’m sure neither of them remember me. Fame—what’s your name?

Love → Building on Fire

Sun, 11 May 2008 13:50:00 -0400

Sunday, 27 April 2008

Long Island City, NY

photo: E. Arkin

Sunday, 4 May 2008

San Francisco, CA

Seen near Memorial Glade, UC Berkeley. I don’t know...

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:34:00 -0400

Seen near Memorial Glade, UC Berkeley. I don’t know either.

the sole decoration in my office at work. no cheezy poster swag...

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:46:00 -0400

the sole decoration in my office at work. no cheezy poster swag from various NASA missions, thanks. For Andy, who I think is the sole reader of this here site.

edited to add: I lied. above my officemate’s desk, there is also a Monet poster from an exhibition at…The Art Institute of Chicago

Dear Bayard Rustin,

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:18:52 -0400

Thanks.

Julia Nunes covers Spoon’s “The Underdog” with...

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:38:55 -0400

Julia Nunes covers Spoon’s “The Underdog” with ukulele & melodica. Not bad.

You know what's awesome?

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 03:17:32 -0400

Drinking beers and listening to Rachmaninoff play Chopin, that’s what.

Looking back, I can’t believe I actually made it.

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:40:27 -0400

Looking back, I can’t believe I actually made it.

Inbetween illnesses, Ian P. & I biked the Marin County...

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:39:56 -0400

Inbetween illnesses, Ian P. & I biked the Marin County Headlands a few weeks ago. That small outcropping of trees is where we were headed, as viewed from the Golden Gate Bridge.

14 days to go

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 02:32:53 -0400

until baseball season begins. I am excited: San Francisco is offering me a new set of teams to follow. I kind of lost interest in the Yankees after they turned into a total monolith and I lost my ability to afford to go. However, I’ve always been a fan of Joe Girardi, so maybe my interest will be renewed. But I kind of doubt it. Alright Giants, gimme what you got. $10 seats? I’m in.

Protestant Skies, as my friend Lila used to call them. The Bay,...

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 02:52:08 -0500

Protestant Skies, as my friend Lila used to call them. The Bay, viewed from atop Campbell Hall in Berkeley.

Church St MUNI, 12 jan 2008. Who loves the Castro?

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:34:47 -0500

Church St MUNI, 12 jan 2008. Who loves the Castro?

Title of the Month

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 13:26:48 -0500

and it’s the first! But, I can guarantee there will not be a more amusing astrophysical paper title than this one: The Persistence of Memory, or How the X-Ray Spectrum of SNR 0509-67.5 Reveals the Brightness of its Parent Type Ia Supernova

i was going to talk about 3rd Bass

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 01:29:31 -0500

But, sadly, I can’t embed the “Pop Goes the Weasel” video. That song is far cleverer than it has any right to.

Instead, I will indulge my well documented obsession with Fugazi. This video distills all my best memories of going to all-ages shows in the DC area between 93 and 98 or so. Incidentally, Amy Pickering was the vocalist for the Fire Party, a seriously underrated mid-80’s Dischord band. If you ever come across their self-titled record, pick it up. They sound a bit 4ADish, but as you can tell from this video, Pickering was not a wispy Elizabeth Fraser devotee.