Autumn Souvenir

A short review of Friday nights Wilco show at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley will be up soon. In the meantime, check out this gem:

I disagree with the electoral college and firmly believe that the presidency should be handed to the winner of the popular vote. However, if this were to change, it needs to change NATIONALLY and not on a state-by-state basis. As you will see in the following article, there is a ballot initiative to have the Electoral College votes in the 2008 presidential election divided by districts. Forget about this happening, even if it DOES make the ballot, democrats are going to have to waste millions fighting this. THIS CORRUPTION MUST STOP! I e-mailed our governor tonight; I hope that you will do the same. Like the 49 other states, let the winner of California take ALL electoral votes. If this even makes the ballot, my residency in the great state of California will likely come to an end. http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/08/republican_move.html

Some nights just turn out perfectly. At about 545pm tonight, I was just about to turn off my computer at work, when I figured I'd check e-mail one more time. New message. From Craigslist. A girl named Jessica had an extra ticket for Daniel Johnston and was offering at face value. I replied immediately. For the next 30 minutes I sat starting at my phone. It finally rang and we decided to meet outside Bimbos at 830. Wow. I arrived at Bimbos with my digital SLR in hand. I figured it was a longshot, and I was just going to ask the bouncer, to avoid the possibility of having it taken away from me during the show (my Nikon D80 is like a member of my family....I can NOT leave it at coat check). The bouncer was really nice, but said nope. He told me to leave it at coach check since leaving it in the car could be risky. I felt more comfortable leaving it in my car. I took about five steps and the gentleman tugged at my shirt. "Promise to keep the flash off?" I was in. I watched th

At the very last minute, a kind person hit me via Craigslist and offered a ticket at face value. In about 90 minutes I'll be seeing Daniel Johnston for the first time. Something tells me that this is going to be a special show. Report later.

Somehow these two seem tied to each other. MENDOCINO Noreen and I took a day/night trip up to Mendocino. The four-plus hour drive up there on Sunday was outstanding (though eclipsed by the return trip). The weather was sweet, the scenery on 101 into 128 into 1 was breathtaking. Almost the entire 160 or so miles was amazing. We headed over the Golden Gate and into the long stretch of 101. When we hit 128 we were met with trees that seemed to create short tunnels. The trees that hovered over the car and shot up into the sky were gorgeous. It's a cliche, but it made me think of the environment. It helped me to understand the true need to preserve such beautiful places. When we arrived in Mendocino, we were greeted by the kind manager of the bed & breakfast and admired our room. We then trotted into town for massages. Hers was great, mine was a bit on the rough side. There were many comedy gold moments. Dinner was as good as one could imagine. We got back to the room and listened t

I discovered Daniel Johnston about ten years ago when Wilco covered "True Love Will Find You In the End". Most folks now know him via the heartbreaking documentary "The Devil and Daniel Johnston". He's playing in SF next week and I'm now doing everything possible to find a ticket. If you read this blog, and have an extra, please hit me up. Here's a great little video I just found:

Ya know, when I heard that Rove was stepping away, I thought I'd be thrilled and filled with disgust at the things he's done to harm this great country. While I am happy to see him go away (thought I'm skeptical that he'll really be out of the picture), this man has ceased angering me. I'm finding that the time has come to move on from these despicable people. I mean, we're only a little over a year away from an end to this fiasco, so why not start looking at what may be a bright future. I sincerely hope that a democrat grabs the presidential nod in 2008, but regardless of who wins the White House, nothing could be worse than Bush and co. (ok, maybe Guiliani could rival them). But this awful period in American history is just about over. And that's a good thing. Hopefully the Bush administration will for one second consider the damage they've done to this country and the world, and actually lighten up over the next year plus. I doubt it, but we can hope.

When I moved to Fillmore Street in January the first thing I needed to find was a local coffee shop. I would have settled for a Starbucks, I suppose, but I'm more inclined to find the independent shop. Much to my surprise, although I live on a pretty quiet part of Fillmore, just about 30 feet from my apartment sits Fillmore Grind. When I first visited, I was a bit turned off. The place is very unkempt, flies are usually buzzing around and the food and coffee are certainly not well organized. Then I met the owner, Mike. For the first six months or so of visiting Fillmore Grind, I didn't know his name was Mike. But I recently got the name. Given the rush to get to work, I usually only visit Fillmore Grind on Saturday's and Sunday's. Whenever I walk in, Mike immediately knows what I want: large coffee and a bagel with cream cheese and tomatoes. It's $3.75 total, but Mike would likely let me pay whatever I had on me. The music's often pretty loud, and it's alway

For my buddy Joel... twin killers DEERHOOF loma prieta LIZ PAPPADEMAS amtrak cresent SCOTT MILLER & THE COMMONWEALTH rumors JOSH RITTER unless it's kicks OKKERVIL RIVER gun UNCLE TUPELO jane, i still feel the same (demo) MATTHEW RYAN have you forgotten RED HOUSE PAINTERS it takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry (alternate take) BOB DYLAN '39 QUEEN the sniper at the gates of heaven THE BLACK ANGELS girl BECK the golden state JOHN DOE these days JACKSON BROWNE hickory wind THE BYRDS

I've never been a huge Pearl Jam fan, but I've always respected the way they've handled their careers. They've never sold out, took on Ticketmaster and chose art over money. If you haven't heard, the AT & T Blue Room, which touts itself as a hip place to watch various music festivals (yes, they're just trying to rope in more of the 17-30 market), recently streamed the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago. During Pearl Jam's set, Eddie Vedder made some pretty simple statements about George Bush. No, there weren't any f-bombs - just a simple change in the lyrics to make a point. AT & T censored the new lyrics. When the public went nuts and AT & T was fielding complaints from furious music fans, they capitulated and blamed the "gaffe" on the vendor. Now that's just hysterical. Ummmm, AT & T is one of the largest republican donors; they're Blue Room initiative is a huge priority at this mega-corp. and they just didn't notice

If you get a chance, read this week's Annals of Medicine article entitled "An Error In the Code". It doesn't appear to be online, but if you have the magazine, don't miss this article. It's about a very rare disorder called Lesch-Nyhan. I really can't say anymore because it's almost impossible to describe this syndrome, but the story really made me appreciative of what I've got. Here's a little bit on the syndrome: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/lesch_nyhan/lesch_nyhan.htm

ELTON JOHN - TUMBLEWEED CONNECTION Drug Rug - Drug Rug Brian Wilson - Smile Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left Daniel Johnston - Welcome To My World Dr. Dog - Easy Beat MIA - Arular Willie Nelson - The Complete Atlantic Sessions John Doe - A Year in the Wilderness

The Atlantic Monthly | July/August 2003 The Texas Clemency Memos As the legal counsel to Texas Governor George W. Bush, Alberto R. Gonzales—now the White House counsel, and widely regarded as a likely future Supreme Court nominee—prepared fifty-seven confidential death-penalty memoranda for Bush's review. Never before discussed publicly, the memoranda suggest that Gonzales repeatedly failed to apprise Bush of some of the most salient issues in the cases at hand by Alan Berlow ..... On the morning of May 6, 1997, Governor George W. Bush signed his name to a confidential three-page memorandum from his legal counsel, Alberto R. Gonzales, and placed a bold black check mark next to a single word: DENY. It was the twenty-ninth time a death-row inmate's plea for clemency had been denied in the twenty-eight months since Bush had been sworn in. In this case Bush's signature led, shortly after 6:00 P.M. on the very same day, to the execution of Terry Washington, a mentally retarded

This post, written by RJ Eskow, originally appeared on The Huffington Post Once again, the Administration is pulling the old magician's trick of misdirection, this time in the Pat Tillman case. And once again, the press is falling for it. Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Myers focused on "what they knew and when" -- to borrow the Watergate phrase -- rather than the core issue at the heart of the Pat Tillman matter, which is this: Pat Tillman was almost certainly murdered, and fratricide is not "friendly fire." Yet a Google News search on the terms "Tillman" and "friendly fire" yielded 1,044 hits today, all from the last 24 hours. That's after the facts behind the fratricide are widely known - and after a number of clues that suggest the entire command structure, from the White House on down, concealed a murder from the public and took no steps to investigate it. There's your story. Friendly fire is commonly understood to mean the accidental d

The following democratic Senators voted YES on the wiretapping bill. Enjoy your vacations you sell-outs. While you're sitting on the beach, take some time and flip through the United States Constitution. Evan Bayh (Indiana); Tom Carper (Delaware); Bob Casey (Pennsylvania); Kent Conrad (North Dakota); Dianne Feinstein (California); Daniel Inouye (Hawai‘i); Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota); Nancy Mary Landrieu (Louisiana); Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas); Claire McCaskill (Missouri); Barbara Mikulski (Maryland); Bill Nelson (Florida); Ben Nelson (Nebraska); Mark Pryor (Arkansas); Ken Salazar (Colorado); Jim Webb (Virginia).

That's right folks, the democrats have cowered to the president again. The vote was 60-28. I have not seen the roll call yet (and I've looked everywhere), but I am infuriated. Why did we vote in the democrats? What have they done for us? They've passed the funding bill. Now they've passed the unconstitutional wiretapping bill. Our democracy is caving before our eyes and the democrats are helping to make this happen. I am without words. I MUST see which democrats voted in favor of this. When I do, I will post. "Americans need to understand that there are coldblooded killers who want to come to our homeland for death" --George Bush, 9/3/07 (that might not be the *exact* quote as I'm translating from what I'm hearing on the TV behind me) STOP WITH YOUR SCARE TACTICS YOU MORON! I can't believe that the democrats allowed this to happen. Let's hear what the presidential candidates have to say about this. Unreal.

Oh, I'm sure it'll all change by years end, especially since I've yet to fully absorb some of the records on the following list (plus there's a lot still on the way), but here it goes: 1 WILCO - Sky Blue Sky 2 LIZ PAPPADEMAS - 11 Songs 3 JOSH RITTER - The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter 4 ARCADE FIRE - Neon Bible 5 SCOTT MILLER & THE COMMONWEALTH - Reconstruction 6 MARK OLSON - The Salvation Blues 7 OKKERVIL RIVER - The Stage Names 8 THE GOURDS - Noble Creatures 9 DOLOREAN - You Can't Win 10 LCD SOUNDSYSTEM - Sound of Silver

I was fortunate enought to see Senator Edwards speak in San Francisco today. He spoke at a medium-sized club during the lunch hour. The place was packed from wall-to-wall with about 300 people in attendance. Although he seemed a bit rushed and only spoke for about 20 minutes total, Edwards' vision for America is almost precisely what I'm looking for. Sure, he didn't have the time to explain *how* all of his proposals will be carried out, but what he talked about had a strong impact on me. Yes, he talked about the basics such as universal health care and ending the War In Iraq (obviously both HUGE issues, but we've heard this from all the candidates), but he hit on some new points that grabbed me. For instance, he proposed that the minimum wage should be hiked to $9.50. If you've ever read Barbara Ehrenreich's fantastic book "Nickle and Dimed", you'd probably agree with him in a heartbeat. With conviction and a slight hint of anger (which was perfec