Lunamania

Ichiro now needs 5 hits to break George Sisler's 87 year old record of 257 hits in a season. The Mariner's have 6 games left in their season and 3 of those are against the A's this week in Oakland. Yes, I'm going to tomorrow's game. We have seats right behind Ichiro! I could witness baseball history. EXCITE!

This situation presents a sports fan conflict. Last night, Eddie and I found ourselves rooting for an extra inning (in a 5-5 9th inning tie) because Ichiro was on deck. Tomorrow is "Asian Night" so I'm guessing there will be other A's fans struggling with torn alliegances. What is Asian Night? I don't know, maybe it just means cheap tickets behind Ichiro. Oddly, earlier this month Italian Night got me and Roz free tickets to a Giants game. Hmm...time to do more research about these promo nights.

Posted by at 5:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had a great time spinning at a fundraising party for Mimi Kim's new project--Creative Interventions. I'm told the site is not up yet, but be sure to visit in a few weeks.

The party was at a usually deserted bar in downtown Oakland. Mimi managed to pack the place this weekend to bring in some much appreciated business. If we ignore the large painting of a bloody person with their face buried in someone's crotch, the set-up was great. Big sound system, secluded booths for the chatters and separate dance floor for the freakies.

I got about 5 different requests for "some Michael Jackson--from Off the Wall or Thriller." I was happy to oblige, but was beginning to wonder if there was some stealth fan club gathering. And this being the west coast, I got some 2Pac requests, but then as I was talking to one of the requesters, she said she was visiting from Bushwick! But I gave her some California Love anyway.

The crowd was great and seemed to like the music--we had to turn the lights on at closing to get folks to leave. And thanks to an immigrant rights organizing training happening a few blocks away, I got to see a bunch of familiar faces from New York--a little Sweet Sessions flashback.

I'm itching to spin again, but am wondering if I'm too old. I think I threw my back hauling crates and was pretty much non-functional all day Sunday.

Many thanks to everyone who came to support!

Posted by at 6:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I exponentially increased the number of critters in my charge this weekend. The population of Lunamania will soon rival India--or more realistically Rhode Island.
With the help of our punny friend Steve, the Compost Monkey established the Wriggly Ranch. The Ranch spans of a grand 24" x 16" (or thereabouts) of prime downtown Oakland real estate. It's the new home for approximately 1000 compost worms (chauffeured by Steve via ziploc baggy from San Francisco .) Please don't offend them by mistaking them for Ye Lowly Earthworms. Compost worms are somehow special and their 'castings' aka poop, are fertile potting/gardening soil. There's even some Wriggly Ranch irrigation system that allows for harvesting of 'worm water.' From what I gather, worm water is like Red Bull for plants.
I cannot believe I have a compost bin. It is so Bay Area. In fact, Alameda County runs some 1-800-worm type number where you can talk to what I imagine is some Berkeley-ite worm lady. And the county subsidizes the cost of composting bins. I'm having a moment of "how did I become a person with a compost bin?"
Anyway, I'm not that interested in the composting process, but am wondering if my growing attachment to the worms is alarming.

Posted by at 6:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Lunamania hobbles along under the benign neglect of her blog author/mayor/Master of the Mania. I think I need to just post more indiscriminately. Of course, that implies that posts to date have been carefully selected for their quality content.
When in doubt, resort to a list. Things on the Lunamania Agenda:
-- Yes on Prop.72. Work is busy, but great. I'll attach a fact sheet or two later. And those last 3 sentences will probably generate some search hits. Weird.
-- Magnolia cupcake recipe. Speaking of weird searches. Apparently, people are directed to Lunamania when they google or otherwise search for the recipe. Sorry that it's actually not on this site. Perhaps I'll attach a link.
-- What's the 411? Mary J. Blige. I think everyone should take 50 minutes out of their day and listen to this entire CD--even the interludes. I guarantee it will make your day.
-- The Genesis spacecraft. This is the one imbedded in a Utah desert after a crash and burn re-entry attempt that involved two Hollywood stunt helicopter pilots and a failed parachute. It's like they shot the thing into orbit and didn't realize they had to account for it's landing. It's too weird.
-- Photoshop. Need I say more?

Posted by at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've decided to pare down my hours as a language access attorney and have accepted a job as the elections coordinator for the Asian Pacific Environmental Network. So I'll be splitting my week between two employers, but you'll all be excited to learn that I STILL get to walk to work. Location, location, location.

Flipping to non-lawyer mode for the duration of this election is a good thing (cue Martha.) Even better that I'm not stumping for Kerry per se, but working with a progressive group that has grander plans to build a local base to impact the '06 mayoral and city council races. The long-term goals appeal to the strategic planning weenie in me.

This brand of electoral work feels oddly like coming full circle back to the Bay Area and California--home of the evil ballot initiative and my initiation to the fine art of precinct walking and multilingual voter registration drives. Now if only I could find a way to rope Lisa G. and Zak into this campaign, it'd be a blast to the 209 past.

Actually, if only I could find full-time functional employment that allows me to read, write, and do no evil. The occassional chocolate donut and proximity to bubble tea would be welcome perks, but aren't deal breakers. Is that so much to ask for?

Posted by at 6:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

No, not the Whitney Houston classic, but the Zhang Yimou, Jet Li, and Maggie Cheung movie that was released in Asia 2 years ago, but only made it to this Hollywood-centric cinema wasteland of a country last week--courtesy of Asia-phile Quentin Tarantino.

OK, I'm being too harsh. Hollywood did bring us Angelina Jolie in a white full body pantsuit in Tomb Raider II. And, Quentin Tarantino brough us...

If you're in need of some quality air conditioned time, go see Hero! The scenes are gorgeous and while some say 'it's just like Crouching Tiger...' those people generally cannot to be trusted to see past the acrobatic Chinese peoples. They probably mistook Guo Jing Jing in Athens for Michelle Yeoh in Crouching Tiger. It's a totally different movie folks.

Posted by at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)