Overheard in my house

The ranch on my pizza makes me feel like I'm eating a salad.

- Aaron

Who knew Snake Diesel had so much to say?

and he says it all here

SF Vid

Check out this video.

From the email I got about it:

Amazing old video of San Francisco. This film was "lost" for many years. It was the first 35 mm film ever. It was taken by camera mounted on the front of a cable car. Look at the ladies dresses and the old cars alsoThe amount of automobiles is staggering for 1906. The clock tower at the end of Market Street at the Embarcadero wharf is still there ( the Ferry Building ). This film, originally thought to be from 1905 until David Kiehn with the Niles CA Essanay Silent Film Museum figured out exactly when it was shot. From New York trade papers announcing the film showing to the wet streets from recent heavy rainfall & shadows indicating time of year & actual weather and conditions on historical record, even when the cars were registered (he even knows who owned them and when the plates were issued!).. It was filmed only four days before the quake and shipped by train to NY for processing. Amazing but true.

Where dem bloggers at?

As Rihanna asks us, where the bloggers at? And by bloggers, I mean blogger and by blogger, I mean me.

• The M.I.A. we all love (and missed) is back and pissing people off with this poignant video.
• NPR, seriously? If you're going to extol Nicki Minaj as "the first woman in several years to penetrate hip-hop's hyper-masculine mainstream," please do not also put her in a pop music and cultural phenomena category with a 16 year-old kid who has to cancel his concerts when middle school girls get out of hand (and inspires blogs like this).
• Republicans hate it when the government mandates health care, but they love mandating certain medical procedures for pregnant women, even if that woman was impregnated through rape or incest.
  

Overheard in the neighborhood

Woman carrying yoga mat to other woman carrying yoga mat: No Way! I could go get pregnant tomorrow.

Other woman in response: Do it!

More old things that are new again

• San Francisco sandwich guide. I couldn't find it online, but the hard copy version has a note on page 14 about Arguello market, our fabulous little neighborhood grocer. World-famous turkey sandwiches are made there. They really are delicious. This one makes the list because it really just lists out the best sandwiches in SF, many of which we already knew about.
  
• Anthony's cookies. A dear friend brought me far too many of them today and I was reminded of how good these cookies are. They kind of melt in your mouth and then you taste some other spice or flavor afterward that is also really delicious.
  
• Just when we all finally stopped making jokes about Ricky Martin being gay, he actually comes out! I read about here first and was a little touched to hear what he said. It seems like something we all knew, but I think that it's probably a bigger deal than we realize since he couldn't come out and tell the public who he really is. I'm happy for him.

Hello Wheels, Gail Reid's book and other (new and old) discoveries

New exciting things:

• John Shaw's band in Austin, Hello Wheels
• Gail Reid (my friend Rose's mom) came out with the book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Low-Cost Startups this past month. You can find her blog here.

Old things that I've rekindled my affections for:

• Google Reader. Some of my more intellectual friends were singing its praises this past week and it reminded me of the days B and I would share articles and links with each other in the most efficient way possible. It's pretty awesome. If you also use it, let me know so I can follow you if you share interesting bits, or avoid you if you don't.
• Comforts' Chinese Chicken Salad
• The polenta recipe in B's New Basics cookbook. I made this recipe this week and the leftovers never seemed to get old. Polenta is delicious.
• Four Tet. I was never a huge fan, but this song makes me like him again.
  

hurts so good

I've been waiting for She and Him to put out more... por fin!

Other places you can review on Yelp

- Churches
- Golden Gate Park
- The tennis courts at my high school

Funny

Can you really review a prison on yelp? check it out here.

Also, Julia's YouTube debut

Overheard in my favorite café

Man to his friend: I really like my neighborhood, but it's getting a little too bro-ed out, so we're thinking about moving.

His friend: Do people say douchbag anymore or has bro taken its place?

Man: I've been saying bro since I was a kid.

Overheard in the Mission

Girl to her friend: You know how on Jersey Shore they talk about how in groups of hot girls there's always one girl who's kind of gross and not hot at all? They call her the grenade. I'm really afraid that I'm the grenade.

Her friend: No, like I think that poncho just isn't very form fitting so you can't really see that you're hot.

M.J. at Summer Jam, Obama on the text

For those of you who may not have quite the love affair I have with hip-hop, the title of this post is a line in Jay-Z's song, "On To The Next One" on his newest album, The Blueprint 3.

As I was walking around in D.C. last weekend with my dear friend Scott, I asked him if he thought President Obama and Jay-Z really exchange text messages. After all, Scott did work for the Obama campaign. From there, we opined on possible texts between the two. This begins a (hopefully) weekly post on President Obama's text messages to Jay-Z.

• "Man Jay, Scott Brown sure is giving Kanye a run for his money when it comes to putting foot in mouth."
• "I know everyone thinks I'm being a wimp lately. People need to realize that I'm not a countryman, I'm the country, man." (courtesy of AP)
• "Hey, is Beyonce available this weekend? I'd love it if she could teach Michelle some of her dance moves."

Overheard - Obie dinner edition

you're such a speciesist.

Gawker is better than facebook

I started reading Gawker pretty regularly. It's so great it makes Facebook seem very boring, if it wasn't already. Hearing about how everyone is super excited that finals are almost over this year made me realize that it's really time to give up.

I like to read Gawker at work, especially. Normally I just check NY Times for the news updates, but whenever I mentioned some piece of news, like unemployment rate changes or the healthcare bill, no one would acknowledge my comment. So many things are off limits for discussion, I think that people just like to talk about celebrity gossip and sports. Luckily, Gawker is great for both. I broke the news on every Tiger update there was a couple of weeks ago. The only problem was when they asked me where I read it. Then I would wait for NY Times to update their "sports" blog and send the link around. They respect my news if it comes from there or SF Gate even. Except that no one respects SF Gate. Not even SF Gate.

Feliz día de Acción de Gracias

Here is an email from my Spanish host mom. I wanted to share it because she's so sweet - she emailed me on a holiday she doesn't even celebrate because it's one that means a lot to me and my family.

Feliz día de Acción de Gracias., En estas fechas tan familiares me acuerdo mucho de mi hija americana. Un fuerte abrazo y recuerdos a todos los tuyos. Que disfrutes este día y seas muy feliz en todo lo que emprendas. Con muchísimo cariño. Tu madre española.

California Love?

Not too surprisingly, UC students have been protesting the 32% tuition hike UC Regents approved last week with huge demonstrations involving drums and chants about injustice. It's a tough situation undoubtedly: students who are barely scraping together the money for tuition in addition to all of the other college expenses could be overburdened by the increase, while the state of California is floudering financially and slashing spending anywhere possible, including of course, higher education.

A study my sister worked on is cited this article from UC Davis' The Aggie saying that, "Nearly 90 percent of Californians are "very concerned" or "somewhat concerned" about student fee hikes." Yet, 56% said they would not be willing to pay higher taxes to deal with the state budget problems. So who do they want to pay for it?

Personally, I agree with this view of the situation outlined by Ian Ayres for the Freakonomics Blog - the people who should pay for it are the ones who have the money. If you can afford the higher tuition, you'll pay it and if you can't then you'll get help. The UCs are high caliber schools that still are not that expensive, relative to private institutions. The wealthier students will pay the tuition, the poorer students will get financial aid and the ones in the middle? That's where I think the burden will be placed and where some kind of assistance is needed... manna from heaven sounds like a good plan.

BeyonceBeyonceBeyonce

amazing video. I can't get enough.

Twitter is only good for finding food

So Twitter is really only good for finding food, right? Scream sorbet is my favorite to follow. They seriously have amazing sorbet that doesn't use any dairy. The best part of their sorbet though is that it actually tastes exactly like whatever they claim it to be. Hard to explain, just try it. I'm in LA right now where the Kimchi taco truck tweets their location and then everyone swarms. I want to try them while I'm here, but I don't want to have to drive really far. Maybe they will be around the corner this afternoon or something.

What else is Twitter good for? Please, tell me if you know.

Happy Halloween!

Why do people say that? It's not a particularly joyous holiday, but it's fun to say it since everyone is so excited to dress up.

It says a lot about a person what they dressed up as throughout their lives, right? Maybe not one year in particular, but all the years together do.

Here are mine(not necessarily in order... if my mom read this blog, she would correct me) :
- clown
- gypsy (i know, totally un-pc, but i didn't know better)
- witch (not too scary)
- little red riding hood
- mime
- Charlie Chaplin (full on, no talking, waddling with cane)
- Phantom of the Opera
- Princess Leia
- Marilyn Monroe
- figure skater from the 80's

and this year?