Castro Halloween Clampdown

Well.

In an ideal world, I'd have left work at around 3:30 or 4:00 in order to avoid the traffic mess. But in reality, I got stuck at work until 7:00.

According to NextBus, F-Markets were not leaving Castro and Market, and few were leaving Fisherman's Wharf. So I walked to Embarcardero Station from my office (about a mile).

When I got out at Castro Street, there were scads of security in yellow vests to ensure that people didn't hang out on the platform when they got off the trains. There were barriers to define where you could and could not walk. No one leaving Castro Station was permitted to leave the station on the south side of the street -- everyone was directed to the north exit, where virtually everyone crossed to the south side, several in costume, and many more carrying cameras.

When I got to the surface, there were at minimum 20 police officers on bicycles preparing to ride down Castro. The streets were lined with police barriers (and police on foot) to ensure that people didn't try to jump into the street.

I tried to stop by Castro Cheesery to get some coffee (because I'm completely out), but they had closed early. So I continued toward 18th in order to go home.

But there was something going on in the intersection of Castro and 18th. There seemed to be a huge horde of people on bicycles (some in costume, some in street clothes, and a few in neither) swarming the intersection and blocking traffic. An horde of police on bicycles were pushing through them to force them to disperse. The intersection was so crowded that pedestrians couldn't even cross the street. I waited for about two minutes, and the blockage started to disperse. Eventually, I made it around the corner and got home.

I'll be interested to see if the police succeed in keeping people out of the street..

[UPDATE: Channel 2 just reported that (a) the cyclists were pretty much just that -- a bunch of bicyclists who showed up and started circling in the intersection; and (b) the police have pretty much succeeded in keeping people out of the street. Meanwhile, a helicopter has been circling overhead for the last half hour or hour. It makes me feel like I'm in Los Angeles....]

Auto-response road sign

From the BBC, via Boing Boing:

The Welsh on the bottom of this sign translates to:

"I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated."

The BBC story reports, "Swansea Council became lost in translation when it was looking to halt heavy goods vehicles using a road near an Asda store in the Morriston area...

"The notice went up and all seemed well - until Welsh speakers began pointing out the embarrassing error.

"Welsh-language magazine Golwg was promptly sent photographs of the offending sign by a number of its readers.

"Managing editor Mr. [Dylan] Iorwerth said: 'We've been running a series of these pictures over the past months.

"'They're circulating among Welsh speakers because, unfortunately, it's all too common that things are not just badly translated, but are put together by people who have no idea about the language.' . . .

"The blunder is not the only time Welsh has been translated incorrectly or put in the wrong place:

"Cyclists between Cardiff and Penarth in 2006 were left confused by a bilingual road sign telling them they had problems with an 'inflamed bladder.'

"In the same year, a sign for pedestrians in Cardiff reading 'Look Right' in English read 'Look Left' in Welsh.

"In 2006, a shared-faith school in Wrexham removed a sign which translated the Welsh for staff as 'wooden stave.'

Keeping Halloween out of the Castro? For real?

The official story: There is no Halloween celebration in the Castro tonight. The official San Francisco celebration is located at "Lot A and Terry Francois Blvd." (near the ballpark). The details of this event can be found at www.sfhalloweenfestival.com (live entertainment including Donna Sachet and Martha Wash, pie eating contest, "Summer of Love" stage, haunted house, and Much, Much More!).

According to the site, nohalloweeninthecastro.com, (aka "Home for Halloween") "There will be NO Halloween celebration in the Castro in 2008.

"As was the case last year, there will be NO Halloween celebration in the Castro in 2008 and the streets will NOT be closed. Traffic will flow normally. Bars and restaurants will be open for business."

The site even provides several videos to encourage people to stay away from the Castro:

Home for Halloween

According to MUNI, "There are no service changes planned for Halloween. There will be no Halloween celebration in the Castro in 2008. San Francisco Police Officers will monitor pedestrian and automobile traffic for any necessary public safety street closures." (However, they also remind everyone that today is also Critical Mass day.)

According to the signs posted on Castro Street and on Market at 17th, there is no parking permitted from 3 pm until 4 am. Which, to me, sounds like they intend to shut the street down anyway.

Of course, this might become a non-issue if all this rain dampens spirits sufficiently....

Tribute

Clark Sorenson, a San Francisco ceramic artist who specializes in urinals, has created this urinal as his tribute to George W. Bush.

Here is the description from his website:

"Just in time for the election, Clark Sorensen is unveiling his latest urinal sculpture - THE PRESIDENTIAL URINAL. This piece is a preview of Clark's up coming solo exhibit: "DOWN THE DRAIN - THE LEGACY OF GEORGE W. BUSH" Clark is holding an election night party to watch the elections results roll in and give George W. what he deserves - a good flush! If you are interested in attending this event please contact Clark - space is limited. This piece will be on display and in working order at Clark's studio until it joins his solo show in January 2009.

"Clark's studio is in the mission district of San Francisco."

Westboro protest

westboro baptist church and me
Originally uploaded by Burstein!

Existential sign in a counter-protest to Westboro Baptist Church.

They were not amused.

Media Roundup III - local TV

Print story that includes the above video

Channel 11 slideshow

KTVU Channel 2 slideshow

KPIX Channel 5 raw video

KPIX Channel 5 news story

KGO Channel 7 news story (mislabeled as a review)

Brolin, Franco & Hirsch Hopeful ‘Milk’ Will Help Fight Against Prop 8

.

YouTube roundup

Sean Penn at Milk Premiere

Courtesy of Inside, Looking Out.


Emile Hirsch

Video by pearlgrrrl


Post screening

Video by musicmedia10

Non-embed-able video from gypsydancermacaholic

Media Roundup II

Gay.com has posted a dozen or so photos from the premiere.

Towleroad also has its own set of photos from the red carpet.

Also, Jenni Olson's blog, "Harvey Milk Movie News," includes a brief summary of the evening:

"Following the Hollywood-style arrivals, the sell-out crowd was greeted by SF Mayor Gavin Newsom who gave an electrifying introduction proclaiming: 'San Francisco doesn't just tolerate diversity, we celebrate it!'"

James Schamus responds to "Hollywood Reporter"

From Towleroad:

In response to the article I previously linked to regarding the marketing to date (or scarcity thereof) for Milk," James Schamus (pictured here with the Newsoms), the CEO of Focus Features, wrote this response (excerpt -- find the whole thing here):

"...if a journalist is to write about our marketing campaign, might he consider actually talking about...our marketing campaign? The trailer for “Milk,” for example (see it for yourself at www.milkthemovie.com) is, not just in my opinion, probably the most inspiring piece of movie marketing about genuine (as well as out) politics ever created. It has been the most explosively received and appreciated trailer in the history of our company, posted on hundreds of sites, and played and playing in theaters nationwide in front of more than a dozen movies.

"Following the debut of that trailer way back on September 12, our marketing campaign mobilized an early online media push timed to all four presidential race debates – the mornings after, we had specially commissioned 'Milk' ad buys on the political pages of the websites of The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio, The Huffington Post, and many more. Our banner ads and 60-second spots were all about the film and what it and Harvey represent. Speaking of which, beyond the trailer, check out the rest of our website; it's already filled with scores of stories from people across the country, linking their own lives to Harvey Milk's transformational politics"

I'm guessing that there will soon be television commercials galore and posters plastered on bus stops and billboards all over town.

Media Roundup

Huffington Post

"Van Sant said he had been talking about making this film for 18 years.

'He's an American hero,' Van Sant said. 'He's a great example of a man representing his community and his city.'...

"Gay rights activist Cleve Jones, played in the film by Emile Hirsch, said Milk would have been thrilled at the film but angry that the fight over civil rights continued. He pointed across the street, where hundreds were rallying against Proposition 8, a Nov. 4 ballot measure that would rewrite the California constitution to deny same-sex couples the right to marry.

"'Harvey would be angry,' Jones said, 'and he'd still be fighting.'"


San Francisco Chronicle:

"Supervisor Tom Ammiano was a friend of Milk's. 'This is about getting in touch with the grief process,' he said, then flashed an affectionately wistful smile. 'Harvey was a mensch. He could also be a diva. He would have loved knowing that Sean Penn would be playing him.' ...

"In an interview on Monday, Milk's campaign manager Anne Kronenberg, who is now a San Francisco public heath administrator, said, 'I just saw the movie yesterday, and I still haven't recovered from it. Gus (Van Sant) and the production team caught the era exactly. It's very accurate. What really comes across is that feeling of compatriots and being family that we felt.'

"Alison Pill, the 22-year-old New York actress who plays Kronenberg, said she 'knew vaguely about the story of Harvey' when she got the role.

"'Being out and being able to be gay has never been any kind of moral issue for the people in my life and my world,' she said. 'At the same time, working on the film reminded me of how much work there still is to be done. Look at Proposition 8.' Kronenberg and Pill walked the red carpet together."

[NOTE: All other articles I've found so far seem to be shorter versions of the Chronicle/AP story.]

Sorry, no spoilers

I'm not going to talk at length about the film itself because I'd rather wait until other people have a chance to see it without my biases ringing in their ears.

I will give you this quote from an article by Paul VanDeCarr, available on the film's website: "[Rob] Epstein tells me his documentary ["The Times of Harvey Milk"] 'was really about the "public Harvey," and Gus's film is going to show so many more dimensions to the "person Harvey".'"

I'll go along with that.

Let's just say that there are no big surprises. They cannot be faulted on their historical accuracy. All the places are authentic -- not just recreations, but the actual places where most of these events took place. They have taken very few liberties with history (and the few that they have taken are so minor that they are easily forgiven).

There's nothing in the film that you don't expect to be there. It felt like a lot of time passed over the course of the film, but the film itself didn't feel long.

Everyone knows how this film will be received in the Castro -- it's kind of an automatic hit unless it's really, really bad and inaccurate. So I guess my question is how it will be received in places where people don't already know this story, chapter and verse.

We were speaking with a volunteer usher in the lobby who is about my age (we were both in high school in 1978). She said she remembers hearing about the assassinations at the time. But then she said, "I understand that someone else was shot as well?" We said that, yes, the mayor was also killed. She asked, "Were they together as a couple?" We said, oh, no. Before she could ask more, I said, "If you don't already know this story, I'm not going to spoil it for you. The truth is actually stranger than you can imagine. You wouldn't believe me if I told it to you, so just watch the film and be surprised."

Event particulars:

I have no celebrity sightings to report -- only local celebrities that you would expect to see (Mark Leno, Bevan Dufty, Jan Wahl, Hank Plante, Tom Ammiano). We saw Tory Hartmann in the lobby. She does not seem to have aged a day since "The Times of Harvey Milk," and she looked FABulous.

Tickets were not sent out in advance (so that no one could create counterfeit tickets -- the tickets turned out to be huge, about one-third the size of a letter-sized piece of paper), so all tickets had to be picked up at Will Call in the parking lot behind/beside the Castro. A woman was walking up and down the Will Call line asking people if they had tickets they weren't going to use. I didn't have the heart to tell her that if I weren't using one of my tickets, I could have given it to at least five other people at my office alone, not to mention friends who would have leapt at the opportunity.

There was a sizable and vocal "No on 8" protest going on directly across Castro Street from the theater. This struck me largely as preaching to the converted, except perhaps for all the TV cameras that were in front of the theater pointed in their direction. The "red carpet" area was in the street in front of the Castro Theater, so the protest would have been in the background of virtually all TV camera shots.

Tickets turned out to be assigned seating (I didn't even know that the seats were numbered in the Castro). And our seats were right in front of the projection booth in the balcony. But I ain't grumbling about that. First, we got into the freakin' world premiere, so I wasn't gonna be picky about where I sat (something about "gift horses" and their mouths). Second, since there was no one behind us, that meant that when we got cramped in those tiny seats, we could just stand up.

My favorite moment of the evening: On the way out, there were small crowds hoping for Sean Penn sightings. One young woman kept asking, "Was it good? Is it going to win Best Picture?" Then she said, "I was in the parade scene. Did you see me? I was the one in teal."

And, yes, I got my three seconds of screen time during the "No on 6" victory party scene. My trombone appears first, followed shortly by me.

The film's web site has been expanded (that's where the lovely photos above come from), and it's no longer the bare bones "poster and trailer" site that was up last time I checked about a month ago. So you should check that out sometime. There is now a place for people to type in their own stories of people who inspired them.

"Milk" World Premiere Tonight

Gus Van Sant's movie "Milk" starring Sean Penn and Josh Brolin as Harvey Milk and Dan White, respectively, opens in limited release at Thanksgiving. It opens nationally in early December. And its world premiere starts in about two and a half hours at the Castro Theater.

The Castro is decked out with banners, lights and barriers (click on the pictures for a much bigger, more detailed version). There are police barriers on the other side of Castro Street as well. As I was coming home from work, there was a large crowd of people lining the street across from the theater holding "No on 8" signs and handing out flyers.

Even though the premiere is sold out, I'm assuming there will be a long line to get in. So I'm going down shortly after five in hopes of getting a half-way decent seat.

Tonight's event is sponsored by Levi's in support of Hetrick-Martin Institute, Larkin Street Youth Services, Point Foundation and the SF LGBT Community Center

For further reading, I have been sent this article speculating about why "Milk" is not being widely publicized as yet. [UPDATE: Read also Focus Features CEO James Schamus's refutation.]

[UPDATE: My thoughts on tonight's event can be found here.]

Saving Time FAIL

see more pwn and owned pictures

Daylight Saving Time is ruining the environment!

Robocall?

A few minutes before 6:00 this evening (I was in transit from work to home), we got a message on our answering machine. It sounds like it's possibly the end of a recorded message. The voice uses an upward inflection as if asking a question. The phrase is one of two possibilities, the best we can make out:

"...and the qualities of a maniac?"

or

"...have the qualities of a maniac?"

I'm guessing that it was a robocall, and probably one that I'm glad I didn't hear in its entirety.

Anyone else get any calls like this?

Eric Idle "The FCC Song"

Okay, so it's four years old. So sue me.

Fair warning: The "F" word is used about eleventy-four times in this song.


The FCC Song

Mary Gauthier "Mercy Now"

You Tube

Mary Gauthier (pronounced "go-SHAY") is playing in Durham, NC, this evening to help celebrate UMD's 25th anniversary providing services to the city's homeless and needy.

I might have preferred a different video for this song -- I'm not in love with the added backing vocals. On the other hand, she has a look on her face that seems to say, "I can't believe that I'm standing on stage at the Grand Ole Opry. I really just can't believe it. I need to remember every second of this."

Mary also has established a MySpace page called "Sing Mercy Now."

"I am inviting musicians from everywhere to send in a version of Mercy Now in their musical own musical style and in their native language to SingMercyNow@gmail.com, and we'll post them up on the SingMercyNow Myspace page for the world to listen to. Who knows, we might lighten a few loads out there."

Woman in cow suit runs amok

A woman in Middletown, Ohio, was arrested on September 27th and charged with disorderly conduct.

The police received reports that the woman, who was wearing a cow costume, had impeded traffic, chased children and urinated on someone's porch (not her own).

Police initially advised her to go home. Heedless of their warnings, she continued on her rampage, and the police arrested her around 11 p.m. The arresting officer said that she smelled of alcohol and was verbally abusive.

According to other reports, she showed up in court still wearing the cow costume and told people to suck her udders. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 days in jail. She has refused to remove the costume while in jail.

Potted plant blog

A plant in a restaurant near Tokyo is writing a blog.

"Midori-san," a hoya kerrii (or "sweetheart plant"), has a sensor attached to it that interprets the plant's feelings and moods, and blogs the results. From a Reuters story:

"'We were initially interested in what plants are feeling and what they are reacting to where we can't see,' said Satoshi Kuribayashi, a researcher involved in the project at Japan's Keio University.

"The strength of electronic signals on the surface of Midori-san's heart-shaped green leaves, which react to light and human touch, are measured by a sensor attached to the plant, and this data is sent to a computer in the cafe.

"The computer uses an algorithm to translate the signal data, as well as other factors -- including weather and temperature -- to translate them into words, which are automatically posted on Midori-san's blog (http://plant.bowls-cafe.jp/index.php).

"'Today was a sunny day and I was able to sunbathe a lot... I had quite a bit of fun today,' Midori-san, whose name means 'green' in Japanese, posted on Oct 16."

------------------------------------------------------

Unrelated side note: Subtle "Spinal Tap" reference: If you follow the link to the BBC story, there is video that accompanies the story. I've never noticed before that, on the embedded video player on BBC news stories, the volume goes to ELEVEN.

McCain totally looks like....

see famous look-a-like faces

John McCain totally looks like Dr. Evil.

A Halloween short

The Tivo

ArieScope has put out this technological nightmare story just in time for Halloween.

Dar Williams tonight

It's Alright


As Cool As I Am

Dar Williams is playing at The Great American Music Hall tonight at 8 p.m. Shawn Mullins is opening.

Stop me if you've heard this one before...

Via Gizmodo:

A man in Phoenix came home and found Scott Boe, 24, in his home. Boe attempted to escape, but the homeowner restrained him and called the police. Boe had with him a bag containing "knives, a large pry tool and other tools that are used in burglaries."

Boe explained to the police that he had broken into the house because he needed to charge his cell phone.

SoCal Drive-Thru voting

YouTube

Orange County is testing drive-thru voting booths.

According to KTLA, "Voters in Orange County will be able to cast their ballots at an electronic drive-through polling station today in Santa Ana -- the last day to register to vote.

"In a parking lot outside the county registrar's office, drivers will be allowed to pull into a voting lane where their registration will be checked and then proceed to one of six electronic polling stations where they can roll down the window and cast their vote....

"Voters will be allowed to cast their ballots from 5pm to midnight. Voters can not register and vote on the same day."

"Yes on 8" parody

YouTube

Courtesy of World O' Jeff.

I try not to dip into politics too often here simply because political discourse often would violate my "Nothing Serious" policy.

But this parody of the "Yes on Prop 8" propaganda commercial hits the target pretty squarely while still allowing me to maintain the "Nothing Serious" promise.

But, seriously, this video needs as much exposure as it can get. Spread it far and wide.

You'll hear this again...Count on it.

Via Gizmodo:

I predict that you'll hear this story on "Wait...Wait...Don't Tell Me" and "The News Quiz" this weekend.

A pastor for the Church of Sweden has resigned after causing his church's IT system to become infected with a nasty, nasty computer virus. The pastor exposed the system to the infection through surfing the web for pornography. (The story does not explicitly say, but one presumes that the IT team, searching for the source of the infection, looked into the pastor's browser history.)

The Register reports, "The powers that be have not yet decided whether a righteous defrocking is in order in this case - a fate avoided by a pastor in Gothenburg who recently 'came under scrutiny for moistening post-it notes with his penis and sticking them up in an office' and was allowed to keep his job."

"Improv Everywhere" in my backyard...

Mp3 Experiment San Francisco from ImprovEverywhere on Vimeo.

...and I missed it. October 4th in Dolores Park (two weeks ago), and I never heard about it until today.

So it goes.

I didn't miss the Red Bull Soapbox Race in Dolores Park this past Saturday, but I didn't stay long at that one -- way too crowded, way too heterosexual, way too NASCAR. We came, we saw, we left.

But I wish I'd known about the Improv Everywhere thing.

Damn.

It's beginning to look a lot like...Halloween

I saw this giant blow-up spider on the front of a house on 18th Street near Noe and felt obliged to share.

It looks like it has lights inside, so maybe I'll try to get a nighttime shot later on.

Alison Moyet cancels remainder of US tour

This is disappointing.

I was very much looking forward to this show. I am famous for my inability to beat the ticket brokers (i.e., when I try to buy tickets for any show, traditionally the shows sell out in one minute or less).

Alison is about three months older than me, and I've followed her career since Yaz/Yazoo. In the twenty-five-plus years of her career, I've only ever seen her perform once. When "Hoodoo" came out in 1991, she did a tour that included lots of radio interviews as well as in-store acoustic performances. I was not able to see her show at that time, but I did at least get to see her perform five or six numbers at the (now deceased) Tower Records at Bay and Columbus -- just Alison and a guitarist.

I hope it's not another seventeen years before I get another chance to see her perform live. I missed the Yaz reunion tour at the Paramount earlier this year, so this was going to be my "make up" show.

Alison has posted the following apology on her forum:

Ah, a sad day indeed.

I regret to inform you that tonight’s Washington show is to be our last.

I have tried hard to keep this band on the road but we have been hit with bad luck at every corner.

Before leaving the UK, the storms that Houston suffered put such pressure on the promoter, coupled with the economic crisis, that they felt the show was untenable. Predictable lack of promotional funds has resulted in a poor turn out and the other Texas show and Phoenix followed suit.

For a project already heavily in a hole, the loss of that income, coupled with demurring from later show organisers has made it too insecure for us to continue. Having a band on the road, with all the equipment and the hotels, wages and travel, with no shows in the middle means we can no longer sustain and have been advised by our agents to withdraw.

I believe wholeheartedly in this show, in my band and in the support and love we have been shown by those audience members that have gifted us their presence. I am devastated not to be able to finish what I have started and am beyond sad to be letting down those of you that have waited so long for this to happen.

I would like to say ‘another time’ but in all honesty doubt now that that time will come.

It will be little comfort for those of you that have missed out yet again to have me say that the shows we did make were a true pleasure, that all be they small, the crowds that joined us were of the highest order.

I thank you dearly for making it there with me. To the rest of you I can only say... I am sorry.

Love always,

Alison xxxxx

TKTS booth reopens

Just like all construction projects, it took longer than the original estimates ("eight years later and nine times costlier than originally estimated").

But the Theatre Development Fund's TKTS booth in Duffy Square (the place to get reduced price day-of-show tickets to Broadway and Off-Broadway shows) is back open for business again.

The improvements: More windows; A huge set of steps for people to sit while their friends and family stand in line; Credit cards now accepted.

The NYTimes article has lots of pictures, as well as an interactive graphic showing just how complex the structure actually is.

And the webcam that shows Times Square/Duffy Square can be found here.

Tom Perkins's "The Maltese Falcon"

[Note: Only the first three minutes of the second video are pertinent to this post.]

Mystery solved. The mystery ship is "The Maltese Falcon," built by venture capitalist multi-billionaire Tom Perkins. It is the world's largest sailing yacht. It is 289 feet long and 42 feet wide, the masts are twenty stories (191 feet) tall, and it cost $130 million.

And it's attracting a lot of attention from tourists at Fisherman's Wharf today.

Just for perspective, the last photo below shows someone standing on the deck.

Nebraska child abandoment safe haven law

Heard on both "The News Quiz" and "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" this past weekend:

There are laws everywhere governing child abandonment and giving parents safe haven if they give their child over to a hospital's care.

Nebraska recently interpreted their newly passed "Safe Haven" law to mean that a child is anyone under 19 -- not 19 months: 19 years.

According to CNN, "Of the 17 children relinquished since the law took effect in July, only four are younger than 10 -- and all four are among the nine siblings abandoned by a man September 24 at an Omaha hospital.

"On Tuesday, a 14-year-old girl from Council Bluffs, Iowa, was abandoned at Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, just across the Missouri River from Council Bluffs. The case marks the first time a parent has crossed state lines to abandon a teenager in Nebraska, authorities said."

According to an Associated Press story, "The latest example happened Wednesday, when an out-of-work widower left nine of his 10 children at an Omaha hospital, saying he was overwhelmed by family responsibilities.

"Gary Staton went to Creighton University Medical Center to surrender his five sons and four of his daughters, who ranged in age from 1 to 17. He did not bring his oldest daughter, 18. . . .

"Todd Landry, director of the division of Children and Family Services, said the safe-haven law was designed to help children in danger, but none of the kids who were dropped off had been in harm's way."

[Ed: While I assume that the actual story underlying the father feeling it necessary to abandon nine of his ten children must actually be horrifying for the people involved -- the father as well as the children -- I still have to wonder why he decided to keep one.]

"'It does open a door to older children being left off,' Sen. Gwen Howard said during debate of the bill. But she added: 'I don't see that being a problem.'

"She acknowledged Friday that the lack of an age limit had become an issue but insisted it offers the state an opportunity to reach out to struggling families. 'We need to look at the bigger picture of what's going on with parents and children,' Howard said. . . .

"Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute and an opponent of safe-haven laws, said he's never seen anything like what's happening in Nebraska.

"'What we're seeing is the unfolding of a policy that wasn't well thought-out,' he said."

The Onion hits another nail on the head

From "American Voices" (the Onion's parody of a "man-in-the-street" news feature) "War For the White House" edition:


Palin Claims Innocence Despite Report
Responding to a report which said that she broke ethics laws in trying to have an Alaska state trooper fired, Gov. Sarah Palin said the report cleared her of unlawful or unethical activity. What do you think?

Charlie Wheadon, X-Ray Technician
"Well, she'd be able to address it more directly if the Democrats hadn't made truth so partisan."

Betty Hunter, Shoe Repair Person
"In my opinion, breaking ethics laws and then publicly lying about it is what gives her that down-home regular-gal charm."

Darick Keene, Retired
"Barack Obama is a Muslim."

Docked at Pier 35

As I was arriving at work this morning, I noticed this ship docked at Pier 35.

I have no idea what its name is or where it comes from or why it's here or how long it will be here. It appears to be flying a Red Ensign at its stern, but I can't see enough of it to tell which one (click all pictures to see a larger version):

It could be from New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, the Hudson Bay Company or any of several places that use the Red Ensign. Because it's not windy out, the flag hangs in such a way that you cannot tell what emblem is on the flag that would identify its origin. If I find out any more information, I'll pass it along.

[UPDATE 10/16: I went down during lunch and got enough information from spectators to do Google searches and find out that it is "The Maltese Falcon," owned by venture capitalist Tom Perkins. See my later post for further details.]

"I Love the Gays"

Out this week: Mandy Steckelberg's video for her song, "I Love the Gays."

I think that the resemblance to "Closer to Fine" is not accidental -- Indigo Girls are mentioned in the very first line.

And here's one of hers from last year, "Liberal's Just Another Word":

Facebook etiquette

Oh, what deep and wide moral dilemmas arise on Facebook.

Or maybe it's just a sign of my being a social doormat.

Let me explain.

Shortly after I joined Facebook, someone sent me a friend request. I didn't recognize the name, I didn't recognize the face. But we had something like six friends in common. Based on who those common friends were, I reasoned it must be someone I knew (or at least should know) from the Cosmique Krewe of Colour, so I accepted the friend request.

About a month ago, I received a similar friend request. I didn't recognize the name, I didn't recognize the face. But his profile was viewable by everyone in the San Francisco network, so I was able to see that he seemed harmless enough -- he's recently married, so probably not someone looking for dates; there isn't a ton of activity on his wall, so he's not likely to become a pest; what activity is on his wall is generally links to articles that I already agree with (like "No on 8"); the two friends we have in common are Mark Leno and New Conservatory Theater (i.e., not close personal friends, but people I support). I accepted that friend request, and I seem to have been pretty much correct -- no poking, not really much interaction at all, really. It turned out to be as harmless a thing to accept as I guessed it would be.

This morning, I received a friend recommendation from another friend. The person being recommended is someone whose name I don't recognize and whose face I don't recognize. This person's profile can only be viewed by their friends, so I couldn't really see anything other than their friend list and the fact that they live in the East Bay. We have no friends in common other than the person making the recommendation.

So here's the dilemma: If I write to my friend and say, "Who is this person you're recommending and why do you think we should be Facebook friends?" I'm afraid that I'll sound paranoid or untrusting or just a plain old jerk. But if I just ignore the friend recommendation, I fear that I might still come off looking like a jerk.

For now, I have opted to ignore the friend recommendation and just keep my mouth shut.

But on sites like Facebook, what's the standard etiquette when someone you don't know sends a friend request or when someone sends you a friend recommendation for someone you don't know?

Enquiring minds want to know.

Incentive to vote?

Are you on the fence about whether to vote this year?[1] This should knock you off the fence.

According to Ben & Jerry's website (confirmed by a Facebook event listing), this Election Day, they'll be giving away free ice cream to people who voted.

"Come to participating scoop shops on November 4th from 5-8pm, show us you voted and you'll get a free scoop of ice cream. Show us your "I Voted" sticker, a photo of you in front of your polling station, do the "I Voted dance" or just tell us you voted."





[1] It's called "irony." Look it up.

Research Triangle Nostalgia

A double dose of Research Triangle nostalgia in one clip: Arrogance appearance on Barney's Army.

Also available from Barney's Army: guest appearances by Xteens and The Fabulous Knobs.

Computers are our future

This 1969 informational video predicts integration of computers and the Internet into home life.

And predicts that gender roles will still remain firmly in place.

And even predicts multiple monitors and handwriting recognition tools (though I don't see any typewriter-style keyboards anywhere).

Life On Mars (ABC-US) Episode 1

In case you missed it, here's the entire first episode of the US version of "Life On Mars".

(Actually, I was at work last week when this aired, and, even though it's on my DVR, I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, myself. That pesky "paying job" thing keeps interfering in all the important things I need to do...)

[UPDATE May 2009: Apparently ABC has changed the stream attached to this link. It no longer shows the entire first episode, but only the first eight minutes of the first episode. I personally changed nothing and have no control over the content, so any changes have been wrought on the other end. I guess if you want to see the whole thing, you'll just have to wait until the DVD comes out.]

New Year's Eve

Possibly for the first time in my life, I have made plans for New Year's Eve.

Dame Edna Everage is coming to the Post Street Theatre from November 20 through January 4, and she's doing a New Year's Eve show.

When I first heard about the show several weeks ago, tickets were plentiful and very, very close to the stage, so I let it lie. When I checked this morning, the first tickets I was offered were in Row G about six seats in from the center aisle. I checked in another browser window, and I was offered tickets close to the outside wall. So I went ahead and grabbed the tickets closer to the center of the auditorium.

It's an 8:00 p.m. show, so it should be over well before midnight, leaving us free to go do what we do every other year -- go to the Embarcadero to watch the fireworks.

It's happening again....

Every year, someone says the same thing: "This is the last year that they're doing Fleet Week." But every year, it happens again.

The Blue Angels are buzzing the Wharf as I type this.

Every year, the first time they fly over, it scares the crap out of everybody. Because everyone has had a year to forget about the noise.

You don't just hear them coming: you feel them coming. The whole building starts to shake, like there's a really huge subwoofer hidden in the basement. The first time I ever heard this happen (in 1990 or 1991), I thought it was an earthquake.

So every few minutes, they swoop by over our building and back out across the bay or toward downtown (most years, at least one pilot gets into trouble for flying too low over the downtown area so that he's even with the windows of the upper stories). It will continue the rest of today, and will continue all throughout the day tomorrow as well.

And if I have to come to work this weekend, I'll have to force my way through the crowds of tourists coming to Fisherman's Wharf to watch die blaue Engeln.

Hmmm.....

Maybe I've just thought of a movie to watch ths weekend......

Brian Eno iPhone App

This is just plain cool.

In fact, this is the first iPod app that I've paid for (a big, bad $3.99).

Brian Eno has co-written (along wth Peter Shilvers) an iPhone/iPod Touch application called, "Bloom" -- "Part instrument, part composition, part artwork."

"Bloom" has two modes: "Listen" and "Create" (essentially, "Auto" and "Manual"). "Listen" mode produces spontaneously generated ambient music. "Create" turns your phone/pod into an ambient musical instrument.

Here's how it works: First, there's a low volume background drone. Whenever you touch the screen, it plays a note -- the top of the screen produces high notes, and the bottom of the screen produces low notes. Where you touch blooms into one of the circles you see in the photo. As the note fades out, the circle gets larger and fades out. Then, a few seconds later, it repeats the note (and redraws the circle). The note (and the circle) repeat at regular intervals, growing gradually softer over the course of a minute or two. Touch two or three fingers simultaneously, and you make a chord.

So if you play a sequence of notes and chords, the sequence repeats a cycle (and a pattern of circles on the screen). As you add new notes and chords to the sequence, the overall image and sound shifts over time as the earlier sequences fade out. The music is very akin to Eno's Ambient Music -- seemingly meterless, but not without organization, shifting textures.

The settings include a volume control, a sliding scale to increase or decrease the frequency with which notes repeat, a "Shake to clear" On/Off switch (just what it sounds like -- if you get tired of a sequence, shake the phone/pod like an Etch-A-Sketch to clear the screen and start over), a "Clear" button, a "Freeze" button (stops notes from fading out and freezes the existing pattern) and a "Listen" button to switch to the random note generation mode. There are settings for the color schemes of the visuals (default to "Shuffle"), plus a switch that says if the app stays idle for any significant time, it will start to repeat a pattern that you entered earlier.

It's an utterly fascinating toy. I spent most of my 45-minute ride on the F-Market playing with it this morning, and I had trouble putting it down when I got to work.

I also notice that the Apple Blog mentions that there is a free phone/pod app version of Eno's classic "Oblique Strategies" (a set of oracle cards that Eno created in the 1970s to assist him the creative process), and a quick check at the iTunes store confirms that there is, indeed, a free "Oblique Strategies" app. The oracle cards are chiefly intended as suggestions on how to get past creative hurdles. When you get writer's block, pick a card at random from the deck and follow the instructions: "Look closely at the most embarrassing details and amplify them" or "Turn it upside down" or "Cascades" or "Bridges (burn)". The phrases on the cards are intentionally open to interpretation, and they are not intended to give you instructions so much as ideas.

So I might have to try the "Oblique Strategies" app later as well.

"Found" submission

I have submitted four things to "Found" magazine in the last month or so.

The most recent one (and the most colorful one, literally) I found this morning. I can't make out the name on the back entirely ("Sister Mary Keven"? "Sister Mary Reven"?)

This was on the sidewalk on the street where I live. It was very, very damp when I found it, but it doesn't seem to have suffered terribly from being on the sidewalk. Which tends to make me think that it had not been there very long.

It's more than fifty years old, so I would assume that it's of enormous sentimental value to whoever lost it. Otherwise, it wouldn't (a) still exist and (b) be in such good shape. Maybe I should post a notice at the old folks' home across the street?

Netflix finally did it.

I have heard rumors for several months that this was going to happen. In fact, Netflix announced it in April.

But today I got the official e-mail notification from Netflix.

The price of memberships for rental of Blu-ray discs is being raised in order to offset the higher cost of Blu-ray discs.

How much of an increase?

$1 per month.

I'm okay with that. They could have done much, much worse.

"Life On Mars" review in SF Chronicle

Tim Goodman reviewed "Life On Mars" in today's Chronicle.

"ABC's remake of 'Life on Mars' is surprisingly great, its pilot living up to the lofty expectations of the original. Not many observers following the ill-fated path of this remake would have put odds on 'Life on Mars' being anything less than a full-fledged disaster....

"The American version is impressively loyal to the original as it switches out Manchester for New York City, but most important, it works on its own as an intriguing, exceptionally well-cast pilot....

"The British original was rife with delicious cultural references that went beyond the gold mine that is the '70s. For example, the series reflected on whether Sam was having an existential crisis, frequently referenced 'The Wizard of Oz' and made judicious jokes about technology. (Here's hoping the American version uses the same restraint - one or two per episode at maximum.) No doubt ABC believed that 'Life on Mars' was a perfect import because New York (and America) in 1973 held storytelling arcs that went above and beyond the premise.

"They certainly nail the pilot - O'Mara is wonderful, Keitel comes on like a lion and Imperioli, who was added late, could end up separating himself wonderfully from his 'Sopranos' legacy, which is no easy feat....

"And yet - you knew this was coming - there are certain worries. With only 16 episodes in England successfully wrapping up Sam's journey, will stretching it out for American television doom it? ABC will want the network standard of 22 episodes for five seasons, at minimum. That may be asking for too much delayed audience gratification, but the pilot does create a lot of room for optimism."

More "Life On Mars"

Two promo videos: a two-minute trailer, and a two-minute scene from the first episode.

Notable things:

(1) Some dialog and shots are recreated from the BBC series. So it sounds like (at least for the first episode) they're sticking relatively close to the source material without falling into the "Coupling" trap (i.e., re-shooting the British scripts without any adaptation). The sideways shots of Sam lying in the street appeared in the opening credits of every episode of the BBC series, so those shots are almost iconic, in a way, if you know the original.

(2) Is it possible that Glenn Fletcher has been inserted into the first episode? That would be good foreshadowing for a later episode. (In the BBC series, this character shows up in the second episode of Series 2 as someone Sam knows in the present day and also runs into in 1973). It sounds like he says, "Ready, Glenn?" just before they knock down the apartment door. (No, I don't remember all the characters' names, I went and looked up the Glenn Fletcher episode on the BBC site. Really, honestly, I'm not a total fanboy, I'm just an anal-retentive accountant with what I like to think of as "a reasonable memory for details.")

(3) I notice one "Wizard of Oz" reference in the trailer. The BBC series was full of such references (not the least of which was Gene Hunt repeatedly calling Sam, "Dorothy").

Through the magic of YouTube, for comparison, here's a clip from the BBC series containing the "Don't ever waltz into my kingdom acting King of the Jungle" scene, mirrored briefly in the trailer:




So here are my humble predictions and recommendations:

If the fine folks at ABC have done their jobs right, (i.e., if they've found the right mix of replication of and adaptation of the original series), then people who are not familiar with the BBC series will get hooked. People who have seen the original will almost certainly draw comparisons to the original (and, when the scripts are so similar, it's almost impossible not to do so). I kind of hope that Jason O'Mara and Harvey Keitel (and their interpretations of their characters) are different enough from John Simm and Philip Glenister that direct comparisons become difficult or meaningless.

I believe that the real point at which this series either fails miserably or succeeds wildly is the moment when they start to diverge from the BBC series. As long as they're adapting other people's writing, they're constricted and constrained, so the real test is when they have the opportunity to create new material that flows naturally from the same source.

But the series needs to last long enough to reach that point -- that is, if no one watches early on, then the show will be canceled after only a few episodes. So I will be watching Thursday night in hopes that the show gets the chance to prove itself on its own terms rather than as an adaptation or remake.