garbage in...

Yeah, I live in Oakland, and yeah, there's a flippin' GARBAGE STRIKE of some kind going on. I didn't realize how unsettled that would make me, how much I rely on my garbage being picked up. Not just for hygienic reasons either, but there is something emotionally stabilizing about having your REFUSE carted away, out of sight and out of mind. When it stays with you, piling up, smelling, attracting flies, you can only feel bad about yourself, about your life, your waste, your cavalier attitude toward recycling, your garbage, your conspicuous consumption on display for all to see. What? They've been picking up the garbage in the more affluent neighborhoods of Oakland? I am shocked and astonished. No, rich neighborhoods are treated just the same as the poor. Must just be random bad luck. But we love living in the City, don't we. So what if suddenly we're NYC in the '80s with mountains of garbage waiting to take over?  Let it happen. Let it unseat the clowns who allowed it. We'll see. Tomorrow they're gonna take another stab at hauling away my detritus and absolving me of my weekly sins. And I pray to Waste Management (Inc.) that they do.

I don’t really know how to tell you all this, but it seems that all these many years, and I’m talking about 40 or so, I have been tying my shoes the wrong way.  And while this is indeed sad, at least I now have the joy in knowing the correct way to do it, courtesy of this guy: See I was just innocently looking for some replacement shoelaces for these way cool Puma’s I got a while back. And wouldn’t you know it, the many, many, many, many retail establishments in downtown San Francisco seem extremely lacking in the the speciality shoelace dept. So what better use of the flippin’ internetweb, no? If it wasn’t built for finding shoelaces, what then?
And in my exhaustive (and fruitless search. I gave up after about 4 minutes) I came across the shoelace king. The expert. Who goes on at length and breadth about shoelaces and their history and all kinds of in depth info you’d expect from a pathologically anal retentive person. But he did describe a problem I could relate to, that of the shoelaces coming undone often. This undoing has me really up a tree when it comes to my new Pumas. I was this close to not even wearing them any longer, as during my daily jaunt down the corridors of San Francisco power, I’ve got to stop once, twice often three bloody, bleedin’ times to tie the suckers. And if your as stout and non-flexible as myself, the quick stop to tie the shoe is not the prettiest picture you can imagine. But the dude, the shoelace king says, the whole reason your laces are coming undone is because you are making one, simple and easy to correct error. And I’ll save you the time of trying to decode his ultra-detailed diagrams on the subject by telling you the secret: When you initially cross your laces to begin tying them, stop. Reverse. ie: switch which lace was on top, then tie them normally. And viola! Instead of tying the much maligned (rightfully so) “granny knot,” you have tied the virtually indestructible and certainly un-undoable reef or square knot. And it works. I now Puma the length of the Market Street corridor and back with nary an awkward, fumbling stretch midway to retie the damn, but good looking sneaks. In fact those suckers are still tied right now!  And it works on kids too!

After reading The Road and living to tell the tale, I seemed inured to anything in a similar vein. So we popped in Children of Men, a film I had been wanting to catch. Really liked that one, excellent tone, directing. A lot of subtleties, suggested back story, character development, a lot of action and bonus: gratutious pink floyd album cover references! Another BLEEEEEK vision of the future but after the Road seemed like a pleasant day in May. OK not really. A pretty nasty world there and well rendered. I went as far as to pick up the book by PD James to see what was what. And while I was there (the bookshoppe) (something I just realized I really don’t like doing on line) I grabbed McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses and await another transformative experience.

But the bigger news round here is our full-fledged support now for HBO’s Flight of the Conchords. Approached it skeptically at first, a little too much hype for the skirb. But damn it is a gem. Dudes from New Zealand are the boooomb. They say “flippin’” a lot in this show, as in “I’m the mother-flippin’…” And each episode can be gone over many times to unearth more and more funny stuff, esp. the music video type vignettes that are part of each one. Not last week, but the one before, I think episode 2, had a couple absolutely perfect songs, including a rap parody which is destined for extreme fame. Critics are falling over themselves right now to praise the show, not wanting to be so woefully off the mark as they usually are, so I’ll just say “watch it, TiVo it, learn it.”  I wish I could be as enthusiastic about our old friend, Entourage. Man the first two seasons were spot on, but this season is serious lacking. It seems forced, too aware of itself, tense. The characters talk too fast, try to get everything in. Kevin Dillon who's was one of the best things from last year is my least favorite character now. But I'm sure it can be saved. Or  not.  Maybe its run its course.

Thursday night was a last reading of Kitchen Sink writers, as you may know, the mag is no more. The last issue (sanskirb) is out right now. The event reminded me of the old band days at the E.Banana where the only people in attendance were those who'd just played or were about to play. The reading was done mainly to the other writers who were reading, and a few beloved family members who graced us literally with their presence. Goodbye Kitchen Sink. You were the only ones with either the cajones or the lack of judgement to publish me, and I will miss the platform, the great cover art, the nice paper, etc.

My god, can it be true that this Amy Winehouse person is kinda sorta good? I mean to look at her its kinda hard to take her seriously, but F is onto her and I'm hearing the songs all the time. Plus she's anorexic, weird looking, British and jewish! What more could you axe for?  Two songs what came on the ol 'pod the other day that are worth mentioning: Soundgarden's "The Day I Tried to Live," and the Dirtbomb's "Get it While you Can." Each nothing new, but who puts on Soundgarden anymore? or the Dirtbombs? And yet two flippin' xlnt songs  that are now in tight rotation. The Dirtbombs also do a cover of Eno's King's Lead Hat so points for that as well.

Sometimes it is just plain good to live in the Bay Area. Not to rub anyone's nose in it or nothing, but I was having a rather idyllic moment last week, the family and I sitting outside at the Hog Island Oyster Co, down at SF's Ferry Bldg marketplace. F. has got herself a really serious oyster jones all of the sudden. She was turned on a month or so ago and can't seem to get enough of them. Me? Oddly, I'm not wild about 'em.  Which is strange because I tend to like stuff like oysters: sushi, straight liquor, mussels, crab, espresso... The oysters are good there, they have many different kinds, and fun to eat or slurp, its just after about three I seem to have had my fill. F on the other hand never seems to have had her fill and keeps asking the servers, "how many oysters do people eat?" hoping the answer will be "one hundred." But anyway, sitting outside a marvelous view of the Bay Bridge and Treasure Island right in front of us, eating the oysters, drinking the drafts of fantastic Fort Bragg beer, people on the promenade walking their dogs, skating, eatin the crazy high end food that's avail everywhere, you gotta stop and reflect on how lucky it is to live here and be able to partake of some of this stuff.

Yesterday the kid and I found ourselves trapped in an Apple Store with nothing to do but fondle a couple of iPhones for hours on end. Jeeeeze, now that is one slick little number there. Too bad I hardly use my cell phone, and that my ipod holds 30 gigs, and I can't really think of why I need to surf the net while sitting somewhere, etc. But I would like to just have it and fondle it and work the damn controls which was a ton of fun. I love the flipping through the album cover art as a way of seeing your collection. Just like we used to do with our vinyl so its all come round now hasn't it?

Upcoming excitement for those on the "right" coast (sort of):  skirb and family will be making a rare appearance in Pgh Pa next week for a week or so of visiting fun and excitement. You gonna be there? We'd love to see you. I hope to catch a lot of yinz in the ‘burgh, maybe at the Cage, maybe at the O or Mineo’s or sumpin like that there. We may or may not blog from the formerly steel city, but in case we do not, have a good couple of weeks OK? And drop by 35th Ave in Oakland and see if the rats have taken over the giant garbage piles while we were out. Thanks.