Sol

A great grey haze hovers about San Francisco throughout May. A June gloom that I am always in denial of waits around the corner. For some reason the morning fog seems to last all day until just before the sun sets during early summer. When you work in the bowels of the theater even small glimpses of light count for a lot. I ride to outdoor train stations to wait for the right train to come along. Look... how pretty.

California Academy of Science

The third Wednesday of every month is the free day at the Academy of Science in San Francisco. In an attempt to get my brain off of crazy operas and work for an hour or two, I went to check it out. This is a brand new museum with all sorts of innovative green technologies used. Everything from the insulation (scrap denim), the water systems, the heating, the light and the roof are built with eco-sustainability in mind. The lay out was very impressive.

There are lots of interactive booths that teach about ecology and carbon footprints, endangered species, Darwin, Dinosaurs, conservation... and so on and so forth (somewhere in Kansas there is a school board member vomiting at the thought of so much science in one place)

They have two big domes inside; one is a planetarium and the other is a spiral rainforest. After waiting in the line to get in to the building at all I was disinclined to wait in another line, so I missed both. Plus the planetarium has limited passes.

In the lower levels they have many different aquariums. They have a swamp with a white alligator. They have a tropical "coral reef", a California coast, jelly fish domes et cetera, et cetera. The aquariums were in good health and interesting but somehow lacked a certain finesse that the Monterey Aquarium has. The lay out seemed a little frenetic on a scientific storyline level, but aesthetically it was all very pretty.

The South African Penguins were neat;


It surprised me that there was a lot of it that was just basically a natural history museum with dioramas and taxidermy. One interesting part was that the room that the taxidermy happens is in full view, there's a big glass window for the public to watch dead things get groomed and stuffed.

I loved the living roof they've got. It's covered with native plants and acts as a temperature regulator for the entire building. Also it helps bring down the carbon footprint of the entire facility.

All of the science here was mostly geared at elementary level scientists (ages 5-13ish) and it was very well laid out. I honestly was a little underwhealmed and can't see paying the $25 admission fee for myself. However it would be a fun afternoon trip to take kids on.

Permanent Ink

My friends mostly seem to think I'm against tattoos. I'm not against tattoos.  I'm against ugly, thoughtless tattoos.  I'm against tattoos you can never cover or that you will regret sooner or later.  I'm against tattoos that make people think "what is wrong with you" or worse "I know exactly what's wrong with you".  It's true that I don't have any.  I've been unable to commit to any design that I would want to keep for the rest of my life, much less any acreage of skin that I would care to display it on.  There are just so many bad choices for tattoos.  There is what has become known as "the Tramp stamp" on the small of a woman's back.

It's a little sad that this particular part has become stigmatized as a slutty place to get tattooed because it's one of the few places that is unlikely to be subject to a lot of sagging as age sets in.  I cannot say I condone the fact that 90% of them seem to be thoughtless designs of a butterfly or a "tribal" design. 

I am against cartoons permanently inked on one's body when really a rub on transfer should have done nicely.  

It seems to be bad luck to get anyone's name on your body who is not your child, and bad taste to get your own name tattooed on ("who am I, oh yea it's written on my wrist")

Often there are many tats that people will tell you they got because "I was eighteen".  Meaning they wanted one just to have one, not because there was any particular meaning or love of the aesthetic. 

Getting a politician or a celebrity seems like you're a stalker or that you cannot think for yourself.  Wouldn't you feel like a schmuck to get a Nixon tattoo the week after his election and then... oops.  How about a photo tattoo of your favorite celebrity?  

What do you think Conan here is going to look like in another 20 years?

All I'm saying here is that there are so many options to get a bad tattoo that I wish people would really think hard about the how where and what of tattoos.

It seems to me that if one is going to invest hundreds of dollars on what should be a piece of art on your body there should be a Lot of consideration that goes into it. Sometimes it seems like people spend more time thinking about their daily outfit than their tattoo, and you can change your bad fashion choices.

I guess that's all I have to say about that today. This was actually a tangental rant brought on by a tattooed man I saw in San Francisco... To see what instigated this rant please check out Urban Hierogliph.

unexpected worlds

Just when you've tired of the world, you turn a stone, move a leaf... and you find worlds within worlds. New levels of creation hiding around the corner...

Questions...

Do Germans speak with British accents when performing Shakespeare plays in German?

An answer of sorts... no word on the Shakespeare but my friend in Hamburg tells me that he's working on a Johnny Cash show right now and they are performing it with a German dialect... he did think that doing it with American accents was a really funny idea... humm perhaps in the future.

Apples for the new Depression

Our artistic director picked our new season of plays. The hope in choosing a season is that you can pick works that are relevant to everyday life; plays that make you think (or that help you escape if that's your direction). The unofficial theme that he had in choosing them was "Plays for the New Depression" with the quick caveat "but we can't publicize that because it's too negative."

Its such an odd time right now. We've got the bank system collapsing. I've had my phone service sold out twice over, my car insurance was Century 21, then it was AIG (for about 4 months), then it was very quickly "Century 21" again, and this week that was sold by AIG to yet another company. My bank turned into another bank... my credit card got sold to another credit bank... it's all getting so frustrating. I hardly know who I owe money to anymore.
The News is quick to tell us to run and hide in a cave because of the deadly swine flue that has thus far killed far less than the regular flu and is "responsive to tamaflu and other flu medications".  If they're not telling us that we're all going to die from the flu or terrorists they are telling us about how bad the economy is.  They tell us this with fingers in the air pointing this way and that, sparse bits of true analysis and nobody is really ready to say the "D" word.

We're in a "slump" a "resession" a "tough time"... whatever.
For what it's worth I'm starting to truly understand the abstractions of the Great Depression. The songs are making more sense, the plays... and also my grandparents. In some ways we are becoming them. Now we can understand why they knew 50 ways to re-use a coffee can. We're going to get old and give everybody a hard time about "all that waste"... We're becoming coupon clippers, mold scrapers, and "it's not totally rotten just cut out the bad bits" ... as an environmentalist it's not such a bad thing, but still it's a shift that is not to be ignored.

This week I cut up a full bag of apples to use in pies, apple sauce and cobbler. At the end of it all I held my sticky hands over what amounted to a huge pile of apple leavings. So many cores and peels that would normally go to the compost heap were too multitudinous to just "throw out". So I carefully seperated out all the cores from the peels and put them in seperate compartments of the steamer. I steamed them until the juices dripped down to the bottom pan making a weak apple juice. Then I took the top steamer of peels. When I baked my cobbler I laid them all out on the baking pan... apple chips.

There was hardly anything left for the worms outside. I felt better but also melancholy from realizing the luxury I used to have; being able to just toss old peels without a second thought.

Reading

You know that feeling you have for the radio when you get dumped? Suddenly you realize that every song is about love or heartbreak. I find myself listening to nothing but 24/7 classical and NPR because it's safe. I've been feeling like that with all printed media and news sources these days. I don't want to hear about the next thing I'm supposed to be freaked out about, I don't want to hear about the crappy economy because I KNOW. Yes, my bank account and I are well aware of the economic slump. It seems like there is just so much conflict in everyday life that I can't even read fiction these days.
All of the books on my "to read" pile have been gathering dust.
All I do these days is draw.
Obsessive compulsive doodles, graphic weirdness... I guess it's a way to work my brain without giving me another thing to worry about. If the hero will survive or not is just one more problem my brain doesn't care to deal with these days.

U2; No Line on the Horizon

Finally I have finished my review of No Line on the Horizon, the new U2 album that I think is fully worth the time. It is an album that is much like the Joshua Tree in the way that it is a journey. Bono said that this album is "a more meditative album on the theme of pilgrimage" I believe that is the best nutshell description of it… now for the longer song by song description;

1.No Line on the Horizon
Best Lyric; I know a girl, she’s like the sea/ I watch her changing every day for me/ one day she’s still, the next she swells/ you can hear the universe in her sea shells.

Time is irrelevant, it’s not linear…

Strong throughout, great lyrics, the instrumentation is hot, catchy lyric, it’s a travel anthem

2.Magnificent
Best Lyric; This foolishness can leave a heart black and blue/ only love can leave such a mark

Somewhere between The Joshua Tree and the better songs from POP is this song. Catchy, lyrical, vague in a grasping way.

Edge shows off his signiture 16th note riffs and a fine solo. While Larry drives the beat on in a steady journey.

3. Moment of Surrender
Best Lyric; At the moment of surrender of vision over visibility I did not notice the passers by and they did not notice me.

Somewhat lacking, seems more like a B-side. The lyrics are somehow reminescent of my junior high poetry. Bono has some interesting vocal lix in here though. It’s an ok song but not one I’m going to scream “Oh Yes!” if they play it live.

4. Unknown Caller
Best Lyric; I was lost between midnight and the dawning/ In a place of no consequence or company
It sounds like morning. The sun comes up, the birds start to sing, the world comes alive… the feeling of nature is juxtaposed with a more marching technological chorus; it’s beautifully evocative. It’s the feeling of travel alone, jumping out into the unknown, discovery… the simple beginning grows into organ music, french horn, guitar solos… full sound that burgeons out into the world.
This song grows on me more every time I hear it.

5. I’ll go Crazy if I don’t go Crazy tonight
Not going to choose a “best” for this song;

It’s lyrics are too sing-song, the chorus is like a bad movie soundtrack… it very well could end up on some obnoxious Oprah pick movie in the midst of a montage. The melody is repetitive and simplistic… I can’t even begin to say how much I hate it.

6. Get on Your Boots
Best Lyric; women of the future hold the big revelations… you don’t know how beautiful you are.

Strong track! It’s catchy, it’s all filled with girl power and makes me want to put on some tall stomping boots and dance around. It’s flattering (“you don’t know how beautiful you are” repeated over and over) It’s positive and sexy and fun and I cannot wait to hear this one in concert. Am I wearing sexy boots to the show? You betca I am!



7. Stand Up Comedy
Best Lyric; stop helping God across the road like a little old lady

I am still undecided about this song. The tune is fairly familiar U2, but it seems a little more complex somehow, the lyrics are all over… usually when I feel this way about a track it’s because it’s a new format, a new lyric, just something that is somehow foreign. I felt this way about Thom Yorke’s solo album until I had heard In Rainbows and went back to it. After hearing this a few more times I think I’m going to like it. Right now it seems a bit dischordant…

8. Fez – Being Born
Best Lyric; head first, then foot, then heart sets sail

Ah a Passenger’s track meets an Achtung Track… eerie instrumentation meets the Edge and Larry driving a flying car through the desert. An odd buzzing whirrs through the headsets. I Love this track. It’s a journey in itself.

9. White as Snow
Best Lyric; who can forgive forgiveness where forgiveness is not?

This is by far one of Bono’s best poems. It’s the searching for Grace, the coming short of it, and looking again. The music has a vague hamered dulcimer feeling, quiet piano… but still played with guitar and bass. Bono’s vocal work is longing and lilting, as Irish as it ever gets within the pop music format.

10. Breathe
Best Lyric; the forest fire that is fear so deny it, walk out into the street, sing your heart out!

This is quintissential U2. It’s got that heavy rhythm with soaring guitar and vocal work; it’s going to be amazing in concert. The lyrics are vague, but have enough catches that you can latch your own meaning onto that everyone will think they know what it means. It is independence, freedom, a brave journey into the ether… I love this track.

11. Cedars of Lebanon
Best Lyric; I’ve got a head like a lit cigarette/Unholy clouds reflecting in a minaret/ you’re so high above me, highter than everyone/ Where are you in the Cedars of Lebanon?

I’m still not sure of what I think this one means. Clearly it’s a story of someone far from home seeking truth. There are images of war-torn places, there are decisions to stay or leave… and the enigatic lyric that closes the album;
“Choose your enemies carefully ‘cos they will define you/ make them interesting ‘cos in some ways they will mind you/ they’re not there in the beginning but when your story ends/ gonna last with you longer than your friends”

I Think it’s a song about choosing your battles, and choosing the noble path in life, but still I admit I’m not solid on it.

Happy Earth Day!

I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do. --John Muir

Easter in the Castro

Lately posts have been few... I've been in tech, I've been swimming in a blue mess of my brain... I've been curling up in my own shell. It's not something I reccomend. 

Today was Easter and San Francisco is not to be outdone for any holiday, especially holidays that allow for dress up.

 I though it would be a good idea to see the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence up close and perhaps check out the"Easter bonnet" and "hunky Jesus" competitions.

This is Dolores Park in San Francisco's Castro district;

(Poem store; made me laugh because my best friend and I have a running joke about how people are always trying to sell you bad poetry in SF... I was tempted to buy him a poem today but I'm poor and there was a line)



I found that although I wore an outfit that my Grandmother would have been horrified of (tall black boots with my summer skirt and a black top and cardigan) I grossly underdressed. I would have been much better to have worn bright yellow with blue hair... alas, perhaps next year.
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are a tongue in cheek community service group... really think of them as the rotary club, but in neon habits and white face drag make-up. (Really, I just learned about them, their website is lots of fun if you're interested)



I left long before the "hunky Jesus" competition started... which in all honesty sounds like it's in good fun, but perhaps is still a little too disrespectful for my taste, so I'm not sure I would have actually enjoyed it as much as those around me.


I made a few rounds about the park, talked with a sister about how she made her habit (ah yes shop talk), watched a good drag/lip sync act, a girl rock band and then the polka group started...   The slight searing on my un-sunscreened shoulders and my lingering anti-social mood finally got the best of me when confronted with  "oom-pah oom-pah-pah" ... such is the power of polka.  However a day in a sunny park with drag queens and easter bunnies is a good way to cheer up.

Color on the BART

My friend Shaggy and I saw this lady on the BART, crazy embroidered and beaded tunic and all. Our favorite was the button hat.



We asked her why she was wearing such an outfit. Apparently she was going to a Nick Cave concert.


Got to love Berkeley.

Ouroboros

There are times,

          there are times,
you get stuck in your head,
and all you can see there is blue and there's red.

The red sweeps over with passion and wants,
while the blue tries to swallow with sorrow.
Blue haunts your dreams and the back of your head.
Sometimes life is just blue and just red.