Bagger?

I've been wondering about getting a bagger (big touring motorcycle) for several years now. The Goldwing was supposed to be the solution but it was just too old, clunky and just plain dangerous. I don't think I'm really going to buy anything but have narrowed it down to a Harley Road King, a big BMW GS (see photo), a Honda Valkyrie or maybe an old Motoguzzi Eldorado (or the new Guzzi touring bike)


Then I ran into a few articles about people touring on Maxi-Scooters like the Honda Silverwing and the Suzuki Burgman. These things are like riding your couch around. I've always said I would never own an automatic anything but I have to admit that I'm intrigued and have been scanning Craigslist. And that is always how it starts:

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/mcy/969644636.html

Jodie (spelled with an I and E)

OK, so the public outcry is overwhelming, "Post some Jodie photos!" So here you go everyone. Have at them: photo album link

Washington DC

Long time no blog. Did you miss me?

Work sent me out to Washington DC last month to support our the panel discussion with the FDA reps to get our drug approved. Theravance has been working on this thing for, what, 10 years now? How much does that cost. Sheesh. I was glad to be there and see everything work out well. The advisory panel voted 21 to 6 to approve. Nice. Now maybe the stock will go up and I can retire.

In the mean time, I got to spend some time in a city I've heard alot about but never visited. Jodie came out for a long weekend so we got to checked things out together. Awwww...


I've always heard about the great places to eat, the history, museums and monuments. Well, 3 out of 4 ain't bad.

It was great to see the changing of the seasons / leaves, something most East Coasters moan about ad nauseum in San Francisco. It actually does happen here on the west coast BTW. It is subtle and doesn't hit you over the head. You actually have to pay attention.

Some of the highlights were the Air and Space Museum where I was blown away by the two huge nuclear missiles in the lobby and the Mercury space capsule. Looking at the 2 ICBMs, first I was thinking that right here, this is what kept the world terrified, the potential annihilation of the human race and all that. Wow. Then the Mercury capsule. What a set anyone would have to have to climb into this tiny little box and and orbit the earth, traveling how many miles per hour, coming back through the atmosphere, in something that looked just a bit better than an homemade Airstream. Totally nuts.

The museums, 5 Guys burgers, Firefly restaurant, Eastern market, Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington monuments, bricks!, Calder.... check out the photos

Photo Album

Istanbul Wrap Up

So it's been a bit of time and I've shaken off the jet lag and am back at work. Things seem normal but there are those little things that you soak in that change the way you see the world. I went into my favorite little Gyro joint Friday night before the awesome Porchlight Litquake show and finally noticed the posters of Turkey on the walls; the Ataturk bridge, Ephesus... and began thinking that I had been coming here for years and never seen them, never had any reference point.

The guy behind the register had that Turkish B.O. smell that seemed to be the national odor, and I asked him where he was from. "I am Kurdish" he says, "but was born in Turkey" Not sure what that means. Can I say, "I'm English but was born in the U.S."? No, I didn't think so.

Then there was the cobble stone street last night and my mind flashed back to all those amazing little back alleys and those humid afternoons tromping over 1000 year old streets. So much history and culture and conflict. Who hasn't tried to own that place.

I was wondering if two weeks was a good amount of time to visit one city, too much or too little, but it seemed like a good relaxing clip to see not only the big stuff but to enjoy the small sites and hang out with old friends. It was just right. What a great trip. If you are headed that way let me know and I'll give you the low down on where to go and what to see.

(BTW, the photo above was from the amazing Cemberlitas Turkish Bath / Hamam, a must see that I visited on my last day)

Istanbul Photo Gallery

Los Cubanos en Istanbul

Look what happens after only a few days outside the US. Here I am kissing the beautiful Cuba flag. Damn you Yanquis!


But seriously, you guys know that I'm staying with my friend Claire and her Cuban husband, Ry. Well on this night he invited some fellow expats over and William (above) cooked up an amazing Cuban style calimari for us. From left to right below, Reinel (Ry's Dad visiting for the month from Havana), William, Denis and yours truly

Dinner!

Istanbul Photo Preview

OK, just a link but here are a few photos from the past amazing week of my time here. More, better, later...

photo album: week 1

Fınally in Istanbul: Rumeli Fortress

What perfect weather. It hit mid 70s today with a nice breeze. It's a nice change from, what I guess most people would call pleasant, the humid 80s of the rest of the week, sweat pouring out of everywhere till it wasn't even a salty thick sweat but a slowly running faucet of clear, tasteless liquid. I can only imagine what it would be like here in the dead of summer.

I'm trying to take it a little slower as the 8 plus hours of walking are killing my feet and there really is no need, I've got the time. I headed out on a short ferry ride to Uskudar this afternoon, lunch in a sea side park and then back and a bus to Rumeli Fortress, at the mouth of Istanbul. The Fortress is by far the best deal here so far, 3 Lira. The history is that in order to conquer Constantinople, after so many tries, the invading army built this place to cut off supplies and finished it in 4 months. Amazing. And it worked.

Today I climbed up and down the handrail-less ramparts exploring all the towers and buttresses. I guess they didn't have so many safety codes back then when they were pouring molten lead on people or chucking fireballs across the moats. I'm scared of heights and the tiny crumbly staircases really did me in. Needless to say, once on top, I took my time to relax and soak it in.

In fact it was at this spot, over looking two of the fortress towers, cargo ship entering the straights, that I snapped a photo. It hit me right at that moment and really sunk in that I'm somewhere completely different and not at all in San Francisco anymore. Welcome to Turkey!

Istanbul

It seems so surreal really. To think that I get on a plane, watch a movie, take a nap and wake up on the other side of the planet. I think it is just now setting in now, day 3. Dramatically different culture, styles, architecture, food.. Dark complected, dark hair, some dark eyes, surprising, to me at least, light green and yellow eyes. Tiny cobble stone and brick streets smelly little diesels cars and trucks driving too fast, reminds me of Argentina, and more Kebab places than I ever imagined.

So much history. The new mosque from Sunday's Bosphorus boat tour is ONLY 500 years old. The Grand Bazaar, the aqueducts, the city has been built around them, and evolved with them. The mosques are tourist destinations but this month is Ramadan and they are functioning mosques after all, listening to the calls to prayer while on the bridge between the new old old towns. My feet hurt, too much walking.

First Impressions

Not really sure where to start so I'll just post about what I'm doing right now. Here's a short vıdeo of yesterday's wandering around. I was in the old section of the city, a bıt later in the day and decided to take a short break.

Turns out it's Ramazan here in Turkey this month, their version of Ramadan, and I decided to hang out at the Blue Mosque for some of the afternoon to experience the Call to Prayer I was amazed and transfixed by the sounds and intensity. I tried to capture a bıt of this in the video from my camera. Not sure how well it turned out but you get the idea.

Turkey Bound!

OK, this is gonna be nuts! I'm headed to Turkey / Istanbul this Friday for 2 weeks and can barely sleep thinking about how much there is to see and do there. Not looking forward to the 18 hours of seat time but if you have an easier way to get there, let me know.

I'll be staying with a friend of mine that lives there with her family. She is right in central Istanbul. She is part of the British Consulate and usually ends up in amazing places like this so it is great to get invited to see the new digs.

So far the agenda look like this:

1) see some the the hundreds of cool Mosques: the Hagia Sophia, the Sehzade and the Faith Mosques

2) the under ground ruins - cities upon cities!

3) bad ass sultan's palaces - can't see that in the US (except maybe in D.C.)

4) Byzantium walls

5) amazing aqueducts

6) the underground cities of Cappadocia

Got to do:
Turkish coffee
Turkish bath
Hookah
FOOD!

Hanger One Tour

It's finally summer here in San Francisco, damn it hit 80 this weekend! Luckily I was headed to the East Bay for a nice breezy afternoon of Vodka tasting over at the Hanger One plant. Ed and I showed up for a tasting and found a that the San Jose Thunderbird club was there for the afternoon as well (see above photo). I've never been a huge fan of the original T-Bird but the 55 and 56 (no tail fins) don't hurt the eye. But give me a 1961 or 62 any day. Or maybe a hulking 67 to 69 with the suicide doors...

Anyway, Ed had suggested a we join his social group for a tour of Hanger One and i had no idea how small of an operation it is. 11 full timers work there! The place is set up on the old Navy Base on Alameda Island and takes up a fraction of the hanger 1 that they occupy.


They are a small batch distiller and use some tasty organics to infuse the vodka. I had never heard of a Buddha Hand Lemon before, kind of looks like a freaky alien embryo floating in the science jar. And the Lime was tasty as well. Then a nice catered lunch with the view of the Bay and the cars. A nice way to spend a sunny day in the bay.

Home Remodel Epic

The long awaited official photo journal of the painstakingly slow progress of my home remodel is here! Check it out

Baby O.G. Mat

Poking around some old slides and found this one. An old friend of my Dad's from the Air Force, Marvin Lam, and his wife. Not sure who I'm mackin' wit. Once a player, always a player I suppose.

Jetpack Future

OK, this just about had me falling out of my chair. I'm reading this article about an inventor who was demonstrating his jetpack at the Oshkosh Experimental Airshow and got to this line:

“People come up and go, ‘Is it safe?’ ” Mr. Martin said. “Safety is a relative thing. We think we have done a lot to make this by far the safest jetpack ever built.” But, he acknowledged, “It’s not a high bar.”

I'll be sure to note that as I am picking up pieces of Mr. Martin around the neighborhood. Safety is a relative thing. I guess I don't have much room to talk when I think of some of the stupider things I've done on a motorcycle. But it was funny watching the video and the turbines of his pack got too close to a tree.

Happy Birthday (Ben, me and Gramps)!

So this week I turned 41 and did some thinking about birthdays. I was thinking about my Grandfather, his birthday is the day after mine. At first I was thinking about the big stuff; where he was born, his family, his final years with Parkinson's, when he died... But it seemed what really made him the character that he was, were the little things. Like this photo of him and my grandmother, Mary Jane. Looking at his crazy black painted toe nails and the love in his eye. That cockeyed smile of his and dashing good looks. They looked like a couple of movie stars.

I think the thing that will always stand out the most is his crazy sense of humor. I never got the jokes as a little kid and only later did I appreciate his quite demeanor and brevity. He would sit, silently watching TV, for hours and then make an amazing one liner. I always wondered later as his Parkinson's took over, what was going on in his head. All those crazy thoughts and one liners in there, waiting to get out. The happiest I can remember seeing him was during one of our summer vacations when he took my brother and I fishing off the pier in Kenosha and he caught a German Brown Trout. That glow of a successful fish slaying as he skinned and gutted it outside the retirement home, telling us how he was going to cook it up that night. Or the time when I was living with the grandparents in Wisconsin and my first girlfriend and I were making out on HIS bed. He caught us, turned an amazing shade of purple and screamed as he stomped off. Not sure why I made it out of there alive. What the hell was I thinking? I guess you really don't think too far ahead when you are 16 and discovering the opposite sex.

I recently came across these photos that I think Rick scanned and sent to the AZ Kreidermans. I had never seen this one of him at his old factory job before. This is the guy I remember. Full of childish energy and mischief. Happy Birthday Gramps!

I posted the photos here if you want to see them all

Shadowlight Show

Amazing stuff, late in posting but totally worth it. Philip and I headed over to see the pre-production Shadowlight show at the Mission Cultural Center called Ghosts On the River. Shadowlight Performance is a modern shadow theater that combines amazing techniques of light and shadow in real time with performers, sounds, music... that combine for powerful storytelling. I was really impressed with the effects that could be created like the transposing of images, perceptions of depths, size and movement and how they could be used to help tell the story. I'm not doing it justice but check out some of the Youtube.com videos to get an idea of the amazingness. I have to say that the Ghosts On the River stories seemed a bit weak to me and I couldn't whole heartedly recommend that show.

The Five Stairsteps

We all get songs stuck in our heads. Today this is mine. The Five Stairsteps singing 'Ooh Child'. It has been on repeat for about most of an hour now. Twice.



Something about the 70s sound, the woman's deep sultry voice on lead vocals, the tight strong backup vocals and I guess the general 'up with people' vibe:

Dining Room Remodel

OK, so I never posted any photos of the work on the living room. Well there is still time I suppose but this seems more relevant. I've put some serious time in this weekend doing a final sanding, touch up plastering and installing some outlets into the dining room. I've tried to stitch together a mosaic to show some of the work.

1) the doorway into the bedroom is now gone (raw sheet rock in center of photo)
2) new ceilings (gone are the acoustic tiles!)
3) new power outlet on the far left floor of photo (run from under the house)
4) new data drop far left floor (OK, I'm a geek alright)
5) removed the light switch in the middle of the room (still need to plaster over hole)
6) roughed in the new light switch location on the right (need to run cables and install box)
7) SO much plaster (over 2 gallons) and sanding, by far the worst room in the house
8) FYI, all those boxes in my storage room (formally the living room) are my new kitchen cabinets

So that leaves a few things that I'm going to try to finish up in the next two weeks:

1) wash all the walls and ceilings with Pinesol / water to get rid of dust
2) 3 coats of primer paint on the raw sheet rock
3) primer paint the entire room in general
4) install new overhead light and electrical box
5) paint the entire room
6) install bookcases (fabricate heating vent and intake)
7) breath and then dive into the kitchen work!

So far, so good.

Cardboard Tube Fighting League

OK, so I'm just starting to catch up on my old posts but here was a fun one. I ended up taking the dog up to Corona Heights dog run and watched as people started to show up in these odd outfits. That isn't that uncommon in SF but it seemed as if something was up. Turns out it was a meeting of the Cardboard Tube Fighting League. Silly, playful fun.

Cardboard Tube Fighting League

Tucson Wedding Trip: The Day and Misc.

Ben and Lisa's Wedding Day Photo Gallery

Tucson Wedding Trip: Damn You Red Worm!

The morning started out with a nice swim and breakfast at Hacienda del Sol. All very pleasant really. I had no idea of the Mezcal insanity to come. Damn you Red Worm (Gusano Rojo)!

We all showed up at the wedding rehearsal at 11 AM, the hot sun pounding us into submission, a pretentious wedding planner pushing us around in her awful faux Channel get up and our group slowly melting into the courtyard's astro turf. OK, maybe I'm more sensitive to the heat than most. We had a good time and a taste of the excitement to come the following day. I just couldn't believe that the time had gone by so quickly, from engagement to wedding day.








Then off to the wonderful Poca Cosa for an excellent lunch sampler. I heard the most comments about the Tamale and the Chocolate Mousse with Mexican Chocolate. Among other things, I enjoyed the Bistec with Chipotle smoky salsa. But the gifts from Ben and Lisa were fantastic. Each one very carefully selected for that person. Obliviously alot of time & thought & money went into each one and it really showed. Thank you!

After lunch, part of the group then went off to a day spa and some went to play golf. I had never tried golfing before and was looking for a great opportunity to give it a shot and this was it. I teamed up with Bob and Betty, both experienced golfers. We were playing in teams of four and playing best ball. So the best shot out of the group each turn would be played by everyone in the group. It made it go much faster. Something I was worried about being the new guy, slowing everyone down. I think out of the 9 holes, 5 shots per hole, I made 5 really good ones. Not bad for a first timer. The last one was one of the best when I had to tee off and clear a dry river bed. It almost landed on the green. Nice.


So the insanity. That started as the group reconverged at Blanco: Tacos and Tequila.
I was shuttling some folks around so I came in on things as they were already in motion, and by motion I mean bottles of Tequila an pitchers of Sangria. I was rehydrating from spending the day in the sun but the guys were pell mell into the madness. Rev. Bryan was 'discussing' how our server needed to be this tall to ride the ride... etc. Needless to say he was cut off from his last round of Mindbenders. It soon became apparent that I was going to have to sort this out as Ben was staggering around crying and telling folks he loved them.


It was touching actually. I just get worried about whatever it is in Tequila that makes you go insane. You'll be fine up to a point and then, BAM, insane. So things got sloppy drunk and I kidnapped Ben and brought him back to the farm for containment, thinking the rest would follow. Most did and Bryan K. showed up with two 30 packs of Miller. Then Cheryl brought out the liquor cabinet and the real descent began. I looked over at one point and Rev B. had the bottle totally upside down and was chugging like it was a 2 liter of Sprite. Serious. I thought he was gonna have an aneurysm or something so I kept an eye on him. But to be honest, he seemed fine. Ken had slipped into a delirium and passed out on his face behind the shed at some point. Then Ben gave in to the evil, vomit squirting out his nose, and called it a night.


Seeing that things were winding down, I headed back up the hill to the always lovely hot tub with two bottles of wine intending to forget some of the night as well.

Tucson Wedding Trip: BBQ and Beer

The guests began to trickle in Friday morning. We were in good shape; stocked with beer, meat and beer. We had the tent, tables and chairs in place. The sun was beating down on us like an angry nun but as the gathering hour of 6 PM showed up, things settled into a nice simmer. Ben man'd the Alaskan sized Q,


Mark had the bar and the Rev. Block (yes it's official, check out the card issued from the Universal Life Church below) and countless others made side trips for supplies.



Everything went off as planned. Lots of beer, brats and conversation. Kids frolicking about, cupcakes, strangers meeting and of course beer drinking contests. No one was hurt and we all managed to get to bed at a decent hour. Well, I think so at least because at that point I was slumming in the hot tub at my well appointed retreat; the Hacienda del Sol (for photo reference see Beefcake posting)

Tuscon Wedding Trip: Hot and Smokin'

Seems like only yesterday that Ben and Lisa announced their June 8th wedding date but here it is right around the corner. I'm playing the part of the Best Man and have been doing my best-est job. I arrived in Tucson Wednesday night with a bit of a dilemma. I had wanted to treat myself a bit on this trip and toyed with the idea of getting a bad ass convertible Shelby GTH Mustang but it would have meant changing my flight to fly into Phoenix, the 1.5 hour drive to Tucson... OK, no Shelby but at the VERY minimum at nice Mustang convertible to enjoy the warm desert nights. Please no Chrysler Sebring... I rolled the dice and booked a car through Hotwire. $300 out the door for what would normally cost about $8xx. OK, so guess what I ended up getting?


Yeah, what a total piece. I took me 10 minutes to figure out that I had to set (and break) the lame trunk divider up to allow the top to retract. Ughhhh.... So Ken says he's headed to Phoenix the next morning to pick his brother up at 9 am. OK, I'll drive us and swap this thing out. We leave at 6 am and will be back at noon. No one the wiser. Got it. We'll it didn't exactly go as planned but I got the Shelby GTH. Just a little sob story but no more $$. Nice. Day 2 and I have a bad ass ride.


This thing is a monster. I took it for a spin at questionable speeds, let's just call it 100+, and it's like driving a slot car. Ben and I took it out last night, racing up Mount Lemon on some tight switchbacks and long straight aways, hanging it out all the way, skittering across the road as the tires gripped and hooked up. It just sticks and goes like hell. The feeling as the rear wheels would begin to slip out from behind you at about 60 in a tight corner, gently ease off the accelerator and feel it tighten up and pull into line again... just breath taking. Dropping your foot hard on the gas, having it down shift into passing gear as you are approach a hill, then the suspension slamming down hard as you hit it and finally the strain of the seat belt holding you in as you crest over the top, the front end of the car getting light and less responsive... not knowing if it's a blind corner ahead or a stalled car. I'd love to have one of these but there is no way I should. I guess I'm in that spot in life where I still like to have stupid, reckless fun but know better. Weird.

BTW, here is the history on the original Shelby GT350 H and the new Shelby GT-H model I was stress testing

Getting ready for tomorrow's BIG BBQ Meet and Greet. Hot sweaty fun!

Enjoy the Beefcake. The First One's Free

So I’ve debated weather to do post this for awhile now and figured that I should just go for it. We are all friends here, right? OK, whatever.

So the masses of you that read this blog regularly have probably been wondering, maybe even aloud and daily, “Mat just isn’t posting as often as he used to. I hope he’s OK. Maybe he’s busy doing something?” Yes, the truth is that I have been keeping myself very busy with two rather large projects.

One is an ongoing big, big project of remodeling the house. I’ve finished the living room and am now in the dining room prepping, painting, re-sheetrocking and replastering. This is gonna go on for awhile but I have just about finished the first Living Room post and photos. Stay tuned and curious.

The other big project is something that I’ve been putting off for sometime as well, like for 20 + years. I still remember the days of chugging a Coke and having a Butterfinger Big Bar for breakfast, thinking, “Someday I’m going to exercise and eat right… but not today. Later.” Well later finally hit me as I got so sick and tired of looking at my saggy white ass and being tired all the time. I realized it wasn’t going to fix itself so I needed to do something about it.
That was the hard part, what to do. I half assed a plan and gave it a good shot about five years ago. I told myself that I would give it 3 months of working out and eating well and see what happened. It went OK but I stopped seeing results after about a month and gave it up after three. In retrospect it was clear that I had plateau’d and needed some help to get past it. Anyway, frustrated I lapsed back into a not horrible diet and no exercise (this is supposed to be a before photo but I'm too embarrassed to post the real one).


Flash forward to almost three months ago. Starting the new job recently gave me a fresh start on things and I figured I’d throw getting healthy into the mix as long as I was changing everything else I was doing anyway. I was talking to a co-worker about it and he said, guardedly, that he had felt the same way a few years ago and bought into this infomercial DVD work out plan. He warned me it seemed TOTALLY cheesy but I had to trust him. He repeated this several times so I knew it must be really bad. Well, it did, in fact the kind of thing that I, and most of you, spend our entire life laughing at and avoiding. It’s called Power 90. I decided to go for it anyway. Not much to lose.

OK, all that said, I feel like I need to post some photos cause it actually did work. It isn’t anything really unique or groundbreaking but it gave me the structure that I needed to get moving. Basically work out for 90 days, 6 days a week, for 30 to 50 minutes a day (alternating cardio and lifting). Also eat good food 5 times a day (no white anything – bread, sugar, cream…) lots of vegetables, no processed fast food and lean meats. The results are that I’m down to 165 from 182.5 in 73 days. I missed 2 days and had a couple of meals I shouldn’t have but in general stuck with the plan about 98% of the time (total guess). I’ve got tons of energy and am in the best shape of my life. It feels great but kind of weird when I look at myself because it has been so dramatic and so quick. I’ve still got 2 weeks to go and am having trouble sticking with it cause I feel like I’m where I want to be. So it makes me realize that I’ve got to figure out a new life that incorporates a way of living that supports this lifestyle to make it really stick. Old habits die hard for sure. I’ve got 40 years of them to work through but this was the first and maybe the hardest step. Enjoy the beefcake!

S.F. Heat

It's this hot in San Francisco!!

Some kind of heat wave is here in S.F. for the week and the cats are just melting. I actually had to turn the bedroom fan on and have been sleeping with the windows open.

Favorite new old song / were they serious?

So between coats of paint on the living room walls and ceiling (I know, I know, I'm working on the posting), I had a few minutes to search the web and found my favorite new old song. Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra signing "Some Velvet Morning". I had to do a few things to pull it out of Youtube.com but here it is in all it's 70s, sideburned and mustachioed glory. It makes me wonder if they were really serious when they did this or did they know that it was over the top hokum? Wearing all black, riding a black horse across the beach and staring pensively off camera. Anyone?

It's a Mystery! (or Grace's 7th Birthday)

March brought me down to LA for Easter and Grace's 7th birthday. As usual, Mandy had planned out an excellent party. The theme was Mysteries, you know like Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes. So treasure hunts, pin the tail on the (?) convict and Mersham pipes were the order of the day.


The following day we enjoyed a nice Sunday Easter brunch and the Haute Dog Easter parade in Long Beach. Check out the photo gallery here

Birthday and Easter photo gallery

Sunday in the Park

San Francisco usually gets the rap of being cold all the time. Drizzly fog and greyness. And generally this has some truth to it but last Sunday was the exception. Warm breezes, spring fragrances, naked people playing in the park and non-stop techno beats. What I'm getting at is that we get so few days of luxurious warm weather that when one comes along, Dolores Park explodes with activity. Usually along the top edge, there is an ocean of thong wearing Castro-ians, down towards the middle reaches, picnics and dogs and then some Frisbee and soccer in the plains. Everyone is smoking weed and drinking beer and dancing to some booming system near the playground. It was so good that I headed over to the new boutique ice cream shop to pick up a snack. Check out the dark chocolate and coconut macaroon ice cream sandwich. Damn straight!

Spring in SF

I guess technicaly it might not be spring but both of my plum trees in my yard are lighting up with blooms of tiny white petals. An explosion really. and damn I had to post something cause I'm sick of looking at that crazy haircut situation, which has grown in quite a bit BTW

Hair Fun

So I have this thing that I do when I jump into the pool. I always take a quick leap and while in mid air I try to stop for a split second and think, 'What the hell am I doing?" I don't know how cold the water is? Am I ready for the shock? Then realize that I'm pretty committed at that point and here it comes. Well, I've never really liked my hair, ever. I've done a few things with it over the years and it basically always sucks. Thin, flat and stringy. So if it's not going to cooperate, screw it. It's gone. Here is the before shot. I hadn't had a haircut in about 7 months. It was about 8 to 10 inches long I guess. I decided to just start cutting before I thought about it too much. You know, just jumping in. Oh, also, enjoy the nudity.


Here is the part where I've committed to cutting it. I actually took a second here and realized what I was doing. Trying to think if I could pull off leaving it like this. It is San Francisco after all.


and at this point I realized the comb over wasn't going to work. I've always thought that the comb over was wasted on the old. Any reason why the youngsters don't try it? Basically shave the center part out of a perfectly full head of hair and comb baby. Anyway, it seems kind of stinky and I decided to finish the job.



So here it is, my scalp. It's OK I suppose. Easy to take care of but it doesn't leave you with many hair options. And it seems like cheating a bit. Not much imagination required for that 'concentration camp' look.

8th Annual Bring Your Own Big Wheel Event

OK, so I'm getting all viral and shit but could anything be more San Francisco: childish, pointless, (most likely) drunken mayhem. An annual event of careening idiots in banana costumes, riding Big Wheels down Lombard Street. All set to the thrashing beauty of Motorhead's Ace of Spades. Check out the video and let's check it out Easter Sunday. Good timing too, after those skull cracking bricks, we will rise from the dead like zombies, like Jesus... oh wait, that blasphemous, like San Francisco. Enjoy (PS - Ben - bachelor party idea?)

Old Wallpaper

Not much more exciting than the old wall paper I found lurking under a million coats of old paint. Hard to believe this stuff ever went out of style. Hold on, hold on... ahhhh

House Finds

Have you ever taken you house apart and found old stuff? Stuff people forgot in the walls or things that just stood out as old. Taking apart the closet area of the house, I found an old SF Datebook / Pink Section in the wall dated March 1 1959. So what was going on in March 1959 in SF?


Looks like there is a interesting double feature, Hoodlum Girls "Thrill Mad, Without Shame, Wanton and Dangerous " or Teen Age Jungle "Violence and Vice". Haven't heard of those movies but amazingly you can get them still and on DVD even.


Or maybe a dark, philosophic movie like Ingmar Bergman's, "The Seventh Seal". I saw this recently at the Castro Theater so it caught my eye. I couldn't imagine what it would have been like to see this when it first came out back in the day. It got a "jumping out of the seat" review. But if you actually read the review, it does review anything. Just a very short description.


It looks like the always popular Jack Benny is in town. Wouldn't want to miss that. And then there is that Disney cartoon. It's in Technarama 70! Who knows, it might take off.