mushinnoshin

Whew. Sleep has been had. Clothes have been unpacked and washed. Cat litter has been emptied, cat fur has been vacuumed. Groceries have been bought. Mail has been sorted and mostly read. Next step I suppose is to tackle the daunting stack of receipts and asses the damage, to figure out how many times I’m going to have to sell my body on the streets to pay for this little trip. Anyway before I do that, here’s the brief on the balance of the week:

Wednesday continued:

• Batting zeros on the sessions for the day, hopefully Mike’s having more luck. Flush cache and redirect a symlink to a big de-normalized table “replicated” over scp? That’s your plan? Really????
• Staying in tonight for some much needed recoup. Food at the hotel bar, then we killed the evening in a roundtable discussion group hashing out clusters (that engine=NDB thing). Slow joins might be a problem, we’ll see.

Thursday:

• Better sessions this morning. But next time, give You Tube all three hours. And yes, I do like my SQL spicy, thanks. Sorry we’ll have to miss the “ice cream social”.
• ALCATRAZ! (related: what does it say about us that we both put a prison high on our must-see list?)
• I checked into the Cathedral Hill, Mike checked into The Monarch. I had actually looked at the Monarch previously in my research and had it as a High Maybe. Unless Mike tells me it’s a shithole inside, that might be my choice next time, if there’s ever a next time. My place was nice, but pricey. But then, pricey did include parking, so maybe on net I got the deal.
• The. Fillmore. Fuck yeah. I’m pretty sure I saw the ghosts of Jim and Janis in the balcony, watching DJ Shadow tear it up. Sorry Alison, I would have been just as happy to see the Decemberists, but I had to see the Fillmore. Close out the night with another Thai dinner and another Irish Pub.

Friday:

• Allright mister “I don’t know where we need to go, lets just drive around the East Bay ’til we find it”, I don’t want to hear any more shit about me getting lost. We’re even : )
• “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.” — I spent the early part of the day on a proper tour, complete with Dim Sum lunch, and spent the afternoon wandering on my own. I’m sure the racists paleos would disapprove, but some of us like salad. I wonder if Dorothy’s old tenement is for rent?
• Evening interlude at the Abode of Iyengar
• Wandered south from my hotel to Grove & found the symphony, the opera, a museum, a gallery. West to the library at Larkin, not quite to the Tenderloin — head north back to Geary and discover Little Saigon. Tasty lemongrass. But was the beer really Vietnamese? The bottle says it was made in Cali…
• Went for a cruise through Haight & Castro, but didn’t stop, didn’t want to hassle with parking and wanted to get sleep early to prep for Saturday…

Saturday:

• 8:15, arrive at the Zen Center. Today is absolutely today.
• Wander through “Lower Haight”, Page street to Duboce between Steiner and Octavia. Lunch on a panini and greens at a nondescript little cafe. No idea what it was called, it didn’t have a sign, but the food was mighty tasty.
• Woo-hoo! I fixed my camera! Now I can head back through the arts & city hall area for pictures. Then it’s off to Haight-Ashbury proper. Note to city planners: people can shop more if they don’t waste 30 minutes trying to park only to be constrained by parking meter time limits. Just sayin’.
• Mmmmm, paella…. and holy shit, wow, Cusquena Dark — Negra Modelo, you’ve been usurped.
• Finally found an internet cafe (meaning a place with terminals, not just wi-fi — for a nerd, I am remarkably laptop impaired). Why the hell don’t they list these things in the tourist guides? I could have saved a small fortune had I found one of these in Santa Clara.
• Wrap up the trip with a last night of bar hopping through Haight & Castro. As far as I know, I didn’t have anything to do with that highway collapse at 3 in the morning, but, well anything’s possible…

Sunday:

• Nurse hangover at a greasy spoon, then it’s off to the airport, and back to reality.

Allright. Time to dive into that pile of receipts. Pray for me. If I survive, I may follow up with deeper thoughts on a few high points. Almost every one of these bullets deserves a post of its own, but of course few will get one. I really do need to introduce you to Dorothy. Oh! And I’ve got pics! Time to finally make use of that Flickr account I guess.

Tired. Must get to bed. Just wanted to let you know I landed safely.

Time is short, and somewhat costly, but here’s the cryptic Cliff Notes version of the So Far. I’ll try to elaborate later on what I can remember…

Sunday:

- El Camino Real = 300,000 Korean restaurants in about a 15 block stretch.

- REALLY wish “The Metro” hadn’t screwed my reservation. Hotel Layne = Tenderloin = No Fucking Way = new reservation elsewhere.

- Partied with Mike at Pier 23 & Irish Pub. Let’s ask Zebra Girl — What Would Brian Boitano Do? Maybe the Coast Guard knows.

- Apparently Mason & Greary is the “Places to eat at 2AM when you’re shitfaced” District. 24 Hour Thai Joint = My Kinda Town

Monday:

- toured Berkely (town & campus). It’s like a whole town fashioned after Belmont Blvd. Actually the other way around, more likely. Californication of America. Fast Food Nation connection.

- Cafe Gratitude. I’m apparently Warm and Fabulous.

- campus tour guide knew not BSD Unix. I wanna go anyway. Hatch crazy scheme to do college Thorton Mellon style.

- missed the boat to Alcatraz, rescheduled for Thursday. On a related note, I’m really fucking sick of the 40-60 minute drive back & forth from here to Frisco

- tourist cliche time at the Golden Gate, and at some observation tower. Crooked Lombard Street is awesome.

- yes, the O’Farrell IS still around. Not a part of town to whip out camera though. See Tenderloin above.

Tuesday:

- Oh, right. MySQL stuff. engine=NDB: very cool

- reception and parties that were indeed Free As In Beer

- Blue Collar, heavy Latino bar in San Jose. Also, why do we have a hotel safe? To protect The Ultimate Cheeseburger.

Wednesday So Far:

- deep stuff on privacy vs data-mining. Yesterday Mike wondered why Google needed to bother swiping our cards…

- I sorta miss sleep. What was that like again?

to be continued…

Thought I’d pass along this event info that I received via South Nashville’s 16th District Listserv

Sudanese Community and Women’s Service Center – A Taste Of Sudan

Please join us for A Taste Of Sudan!

This event, sponsored by the Sudanese Community and Women’s Services Center, will feature live music, Sudanese cuisine, and a handmade clothing sale. The event will take place on Saturday, April 21, 2007 from 4:00-7:00 pm at Glencliff High School, 160 Antioch Pike. Click here to get directions to this event.

The Sudanese Community & Women’s Service Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering Sudanese refugees and immigrants as they resettle in Tennessee and transition from tribal culture to American life. The center provides English Education classes as well as sewing and parenting classes and a vital link to the Nashville community.

Cool. I hope to swing by for a bit if I can. I’m curious to try that Sudanese cuisine!

Well, except the Madame herself of course, her fate = not so good.

I think that was the most packed I’ve ever seen TPAC. I don’t know if it was sold out, but it was damn close. The show had to start a little late because it took so long to get everybody through the ticket takers; when I got there at 7:45 the line into the tier section was backed up down the stairway, which you discovered after fighting the orchestra level crowd just to get in the front door. Very nice to see Nashville come out so strongly to support the opera — the question of course is where the hell have you been all season? Maybe I should take credit. Eh, probably not. Anyway, we didn’t get the accidental physical comedy that treated the Thursday patrons, but it was a wonderful show all the same. Their immediate and thunderous ovation was very well deserved.

On the side, here’s the basic plot: American military man goes to another country, takes what he wants without regard for anyone or anything, leaves starvation and suffering behind, then comes back a few year later to do it again, causing even greater tragedies. Metaphoric, eh? And we wonder why the rest of the world hates us. Obviously they hate our freedom.

Yup. Halfway to 70 today. Although I think I’ve decided that maybe I should only count those birthdays that are Fridays. Seems to be the goth-y thing to do. Which makes me, what, 7? Allright well that does sound better, but maybe I’ll wait & start that plan after securing my alcohol for the night.

Ha! And a commenter on Nashville Cream teaches us a cool new word:
Paraskevidekatriaphobia — a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th.

• Tuesday night was round two of the South Nashville Planning Meetings. We got a little deeper into the details, first taking an approval survey based on various pictures of roads, buildings, etc., then breaking into groups where we poured over a map of the area taking notes of likes, dislikes, and ideas for change. Some good & unique ideas came out of the process but the dominant consensus on the biggest issues seems to be: get rid of that damn racetrack, and run off at least some of the seemingly hundreds of Buy Here Pay Here car lots on Nolensville Pk. Sadly I think between contractual issues and NIMBY-ism we’re going to be stuck with both. Unless we resort to more, ummm, street-level tactics.
• I’ve never listened to this Imus guy, in fact I’d never even heard of him before this controversy. I had some vague rambling thoughts about the situation, but basically they would fall somewhere into a triangulation between the excellent pieces by Lesley, Dork Nation, and Aunt B.
• Soup continues to involve and improve though changes the last few weeks have been minor. Added a 1/2 teaspoon of oregano. Added carrots — last week used two carrots & no potato, this week one carrot & one potato. Started waiting to put the peppers, squash, and zucchini in during the last two minutes so they retain more crunch.
• JL Kirk & Associates = Asshats. Since it’s also true that King & Ballow = Cosmic Douchebags, let the record reflect I’m merely expressing an opinion.
• Sad news — RIP Kurt Vonnegut. Never my favorite author among his peers, but still quite a good one.

Oh, and a poll —
DJ Shadow at The Fillmore, or
The Decemberists at The Warfield Theater?

For both artists, I know little of their work but enjoy what I’ve heard. I’m leaning towards Shadow if only for the chance to visit The Fillmore. And I may not have to choose: it seems The Decemberists are doing two shows. But it’s questionable whether I can make the other one.

Dear Amazon.com Customer,

We’ve noticed that customers who have expressed interest in The Goth Box also ordered An All-Star Tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd.

My head hurts.

… I might have posted this photo from Saturday’s Nashville Zombie Walk…

So I survived the weekend as the Nashville Is Talking guest blogger. And this post scored me a Quote of the Day! I’m honored. And tired.