Lunamania

I spent the entire weekend eating, singing, eating, and then eating some more. Montana Monkey and I had some serious korean food on Friday. That's right--serious. Warding off bird flu is a serious matter. This was followed by Nobuko's excellent birthday dinner on Saturday. Yes, excellent--despite being in the Marina. Althought it was a Peruvian dinner, I feel I channeled the curative power of kimchi by talking about making kimchi. Being in San Francisco means dodging loads of hipster white people all the time, but the Marina has the heightened annoyance factor of being built on landfill. So I'm fighingt a constant fear of the Big Earthquake on liquid soil and then being stuck in some building with hipsters. Being Halloween weekend the hipsters were out in force--apparently they like to wear togas. Peoples, Halloween is not a frat party. Luckily, we soon fled to Jaguar on Telegraph to get our song on. There were no togas here--just lots of men w/gel in their hair. Mijoung pointed out " that's Jaguar w/3 syllables"--korean norebang all the way. Boyoung and I got our Mariah on and 2 hrs later...we got our Mariah on again.
I woke up this unexpected end of daylights savings time morning and scored an extra hour. It was a much needed hour to build up an appetite for Way Too Much Dim Sum. Then we were off to discover an excellent froggy meal at Chapeau. Mussels, duck confit, caramelized onion tart, and profiteroles. Rock on. Writing about my decadent weekend makes me want to fast for the next week, but it is the best holiday of the year tomorrow...big plans are in the works.
All this gluttony makes up for the fact that some asshole stole my NY Times this Saturday.

Posted by at 9:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My misguided geekdom led me to attempt a late night upgrade to Movable Type v.3.2 There not a soul in this entire galaxy and beyond who can tell me WHY I would want to do this--either late at night or at any time of the day. The benefits fo an upgrade? Who the hell knows. But the weenie in me decided this would be a most interesting project to undertake while drinking some scotch and fighting sleep...despite explicit warnings on several websites to never attempt this dangerous task under such conditions. For those of you who really care--absolutely avoid any MT manuals. They are quite possibly the most poorly written tech manuals ever. Instead, turn to Learning Movable Type Well, there's my appreciative shout out to the blog-nerds.

I know no one sincerely missed my blatherings this last week, but there are so many things to blather about while I wait for the Bush cronies to be indicted.

First, Sheryl Swoopes a 3 time MVP player of the WNBA and Olympic gold medalist asserts that she likes girls. Excellent--despite the Olivia cruise shirt. And just adds more mystery as to why the Bay Area lacks a WNBA team...Then, George Takei, finally comes out. OK, so maybe Sulu of Star Trek is not as glamorous as the first woman to have a Nike sneaker named after her. Who's next? Queen Latifah? Mike Piazza? Condoleeza Rice?

Second, a semi-obsessive informal poll of friends reveals that kimchi is the answer to Bird Flu. Mijoung informs me that kimchi is what shielded the entire nation of Korea from SARS. Well, to be accurate, she said that it was something in the fermentation process that boosts our immune system. My co-worker hypothesizes that eating a bottle of kimchi will also ward off mosquitos. I believe kimchi can also repair broken levees and conjure chicken wings on demand.

Finally, I am declaring the following dates official Lunamania holidays. Nov. 18th--opening night of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Nov.13th--unveiling of H&M in San Francisco. Well, in order to take advantage of optimal shopping hours and to accomodate work schedules, this can be a floating holiday to be taken any day of that week. And yes, I am aware that in this entry alone there are at least 2 somewhat positive references about evil sweatshop empires...but Swoopes is so cool and the H&M mens department is so much Euro fun.

p.s. I'm testing a new spam filter and will allow comments to be posted unapproved. I'll be taking bets on who gets to me first--free toner cartridges or online poker ads.

Posted by at 11:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lunamania maintains a delicate animal to human ratio of 3:2. With the Monkey around, I am generally able to maintain an aura of two legged, opposable thumb superiority. However, it's a fragile ecosystem over here and now that we are approaching day 6 of Monkey's Montana retreat...Yes, the animaux are catching on that they outnumber me. I'm noticing more fur balls, louder and increasingly incessant demands for food and attention, and sense they are caucusing to take over the essential tools of my existence in this house. I anticipate that sometime this weekend I will awake to Jack (pictured above) hogging the computer, Hamachi brewing coffee, and Tamu sleeping under the covers. I am being extra careful to make sure they remain sequestered from the 1,200 compost worms of Lunamania. I can't have them getting any ideas about organizing mass protests against their dank living quarters and food scrap meals.

Posted by at 11:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My parents and grandma have been in town the last 10 days, the Retreat Monkey is in Montana, I flew to LA and back, and Jack is looking woeful and neglected. All this means I am a tad disoriented and lacking interesting things to report.
I do have a tidy list of non-work related things to do and comment on:

1. I've marked November 18th to go see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
2. I will not see the Chronicles of Narnia. The stealth marketing aimed at a Christian-rock audience is creepy and objectionable not for the target audience, but for the stealth factor. The strategy's analogies to coded appeals by wing-nut politician to racists, homophobes and sexists is wick-wack. I have no isssuuues with C.S. Lewis importing his Christian values into this cool myth. I'm actually kind of bummed I won't see the movie since the Narnia books are what introduced my to the fantasy and eventually sci-fi. It's the stealth part that I don't appreciate. Many of the authors in sci-fi and fantasy have strong religious backgrounds that I imagine serve them well in crafting parallel worlds where we can imagine alternate settings and outcomes for the big issues of the day. Nothing wrong with that--until Disney tries to code the religion for money making purposes and crap-o-la in general.
3. I just realized that this entry and the previous one focus on movies.
4. Since I dedicated the last two entries to random movie related thoughts, I should probably not be so cheap and actually see a movie soon.
5. I need a life.

Posted by at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Despite what my my self-induced, thrill seeking mis-adventures may imply, I place high value in my personal safety. This means I sport a helmet when I bike, wear a seatbelt even when I'm in the backseat of a car, and refrain from wielding power tools while under the influence.

All those safety precautions did not prepare me for an evening at the movies in Jack London Square. Last night, the Just Returned from LA Monkey and I decided to cash in our free movie ticket stub (granted to us after our last mis-hap at this same theatre) to see Corpse Bride. After munching my requisite popcorn while watching this stunningly mediocre movie, we strolled into the front lobby of the theatre.

I watched four little kinders practice their dance moves while waiting for Bathroom Monkey to come out. As we were about to step out of the doors, Always on the Lookout for a Deal Monkey noticed that they have parking validation. Before we could explore this tasty option we heard an uncomfortably close gunshot. I turned to look out the door as a bullet shattered the glass door. I thought to myself, "Hm, someone is shooting bullets into the theatre lobby." It was very odd.

There were a flurry of shots and glass everywhere. Monkey and I scrambled to the wall that ran perpendicular to the entrance. We wedged ourselves into the corner and were soon joined by two women and a man who instructed me to "keep my head down!" When I hear people say that on TV, I think, "dude that's so only something people say on TV." Since we live in a country where for the most part people only say things that are said on TV, we say these things in real life too. At any rate, it was actually good advice since of the 5 of us I was the dumb character who was peering out w/my neck craned. Don't ask why.

The shooting stops and this chunky white dude stumbles in streaming blood from gashes in his arms and shoulder. He's screaming that he's been shot and asking for the police. There's another guy lying on his back right outside the theatre. As the manager calls the police, I realize the 4 little dancing kids are nowhere to be seen. Frankly, I'm kind of relieved. I figure that if I don't see them bloody in the lobby it means they're hiding someplace safe. It takes the cops a couple of minutes to arrive. Meanwhile one of the women we we were hiding with is staunching the flow of blood with reams of paper towels that don't seem to be accomplishing much. Monkey notices the guy has a gun stuck into his waistband. I notice the woman who was checking tickets is crying uncontrollably.

The whole scene is calmer than one would expect in the aftermath of a shootout. Things only get rowdy when the manager calls for an evacuation of the entire theatre--people start demanding their money back. The staff were too stunned to deal. We're still roaming around dazed and a bit reluctant to step out into the dark. I'm not sure what exactly we were waiting for. Then I saw one of the dancer kids. His bright yellow shirt now had a thick stripe of blood. He was crying and tried to run outside when a cop stopped him. They were a little group of 4 and they were hysterical trying to locate one of their band. The kinders were eventually re-united with their friend and their mothers, but I couldn't stop thinking about how just minutes before they were dancing in front of those glass doors.

Posted by at 9:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)