oh, saturdays

I thought today would be a pretty typical Saturday. Turns out it wasn't at all! First, I went to volunteer at the SF Food Bank and just when I was having a great time and decided to come back on a regular basis, the food bank workers came in and announced that a couple of photographers from the NY Times were there to take pictures. They took pictures of us boxing up apples. Apparently grocery stores reject produce that is completely edible but aesthetically unpleasing and the food banks snatch it up. I thought the apples looked delicious.

The second unusual thing that happened was my espresso from the cafe in the title photo of this blog. It was incredible, entirely notable Blue Bottle espresso, prepared to perfection. I sipped it while reading Fitzgerald and came across this quote from Gloria Patch that I identify with immensely at the moment:

Everything I do is in accordance with my ideas:
to use every minute of these years, when I'm young, in having the best time I possibly can.

Lastly, I was running in Golden Gate park and smelled something, um, chronic. That's not so unusual. In fact, I probably smell that every time I go to the park. What was so unusual though, was that it was coming from a middle-aged man who was walking with his middle-aged wife and what looked like his teenage son. THEN, he passed it to the boy! They were just sharing a joint walking down Stanyan along the park like that's completely normal. Whatever brings a family together, I guess.

The day's not over and I can't even imagine what else this city has in store for me...

picture of the day

This picture came from a slide show about an architect who designed an apartment as one giant scavenger hunt involving hidden clues in furniture and walls, poems behind wall panels, and that even forced the children's friends to crack the code seen in the picture. So awesome.

sometimes the NY Times really pisses me off

Yes, I admit it, I am an avid reader and general supporter of the NY Times. It's my national news source, as well as my way to pretend I know about current arts and cultural events. Yet, progressive and compelling commentary on social [injustice] issues it has not done well lately.
This morning I woke up to a story on how, despite all the silly hubbub of an economic recession (who needs jobs anyways?!), super rich assholes, pardon me, people, are still spending tons of money!! Thank Gawd. Whoo..I was really worried there for a second that with all the job cuts, inflation, foreclosures, and ridiculous spending on war instead of social programs, the wealthiest 1% of the population wasn't going to be able to buy their $10 million + apartments in the city. I think my favorite part [please read sarcasm] of the article was when one of these random richies had this thoughtful and articulate response to the subprime (generally not the million-dollar home) market crisis:
“I don’t want to sound harsh, but the people who were buying million-dollar houses with a combined household income of $70,000 or $80,000 were the ones who were chasing easy money,” he said.

Wow. He's really been living under a rock hasn't he? First of all, this is NOT the issue with the rise in foreclosures; I don't see too many people getting booted from their million-dollar homes. Second of all, if this was the issue, at some point it is the responsibility of the bank or mortgage company to say, "Yo, hold the bus. Your income doesn't support this kind of loan!"
Lastly, as another random richie stated, recession doesn't really affect him. Could it really be that they just don't notice having to spend a little more on food, gas, and a roof over their head?? Unfortunately, for something like the other 98% of the population, we are no longer having our caviar and eating it, too.

At least the NY Times can somewhat redeem themselves with stories on Appalachia.