Mary found out that our family friend, Zak had an open studio. We checked out some new pieces of his we hadn't seen before (not to mention plenty new things noticed in piece I had seen.) It was great as usual.
We decided to trounce around the Mission some while there and since it was a beautiful day. For lunch, we found the scrumptious Balompie Cafe. Yum. Seriously, Yum. I ordered the Salvadorean Sampler and asked the server to chose the "types" for my Papusa, Yuca & Pastel.
I think I ended up with a Spinach, Mushroom Carrot and Cheese papusa, the Yuca fried with carne and my pastel was pork. Mary really dug her fish and Sam his papusa.
Sam needed a piece of pizza to supplement his lunch. Then we headed to Mission Delores Park and watched the energy, including a drum band and a giant snake being placed on children. Afterward, we finally had our first Bi-Rite Creamery experience. It did not disappoint! I had the Brown Sugar with Ginger Caramel Swirl and loved every lick.
What the Cubs and Giants have in common: After a home game, it is hard to tell who won based on post-game crowd reaction.
What is different: With Wrigley, you assume the Cubs have won With San Francisco, you assume they have lost.
Today, I thought the Giants had lost the game given the shuffle on the streets. Turns out the won an exciting 1-0 game in the bottom the tenth. I can't wait for some Wrigley partying this summer!
Today, I found something better than swimming. Mary signed Sam up to try out kayaking to explore whether he would want to do some kayaking camps this summer. There is a day camp around Richardson Bay and an overnight one in Tamales. He really enjoyed the taste he got today.
So, did we . We went ahead and rented a few kayaks and did a little poking around the bay with our friend Linda. I am sold. Considering we have free kayak storage at the complex and can launch from here, why not? So for my birthday, we are going to get the Angel Island Skills Package.
There are many lovely things about our recent move, but one of our favorites has been the pool access. We have a big indoor pool and 2 outdoors. So far it has been a bit chilly for the outdoors, but we have dug the indoor with its spa and sauna.
I actually see my childhood as Pool and Post-Pool. It helps that post-pool started with 6th grade and the move to ESA/middle school. And to be fair, we had a nice 2 years during post-pool at Peppertree Apartments with pool access, where Anthony and I played absurd amounts of our own version of water volleyball that was more focused on a verbal exchange rather than the ball we tried to hit back and forth as many times as possible.
I'm just so glad we are able to give Sam more regular access to free swimming. The pool is a great place for comfortable creativity.
We recently had a date night on Wednesday, and we made a quick visit to Rick's Wine Cellar in Corte Madera. We had a nice Springtime White Flight with some delicious Gruyere. This place is a new favorite of mine. It is a highly approachable wine bar/shop for novices like myself. It's not easy being a wine novice when you live in between Wine Country and San Francisco. Highly recommended to people looking to taste some tasty wine, but don't know much about it.
A small sample of the small handful of people who follow this blog have made comment to me on my lack of blogging.
It is simply a part of what has been a remarkably busy time, and is no way an indication of my future blogging habits. I strongly believe in blogging and will keep doing it until I die.
Yes, I have been e-mailing more, Facebooking too much and even twittering for the department. I want to create more videos and I just spent some time talking with students regarding building conversations for the department. But, blogging is my personal communications investment: a savings account.
Much of the time invested into the Web these days is about helping "the machine learn." Which is great, and I'm all for it. However, I'm still "in this for me." Flickring and the blog are where I put my stories and memories for myself and my loved ones for now and decades to come. So, while 50% of my fortune cookie fortunes from the cookie of plenty encourage me towards the new ... I still love this blog for emptying my brain and can't wait to read it for years to come.
This week, we got tickets to Outside Lands music festival here in San Francisco in August. (Let me know if you are going.)
The headliners are remarkable: Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band and Beastie Boys. (I am pretty sure somewhere in my 17th year I said "Wouldn't it be great if Pearl Jam and Beastie Boys did a concert together?") I mentioned on the blog before when I was thinking of heading to Bonnaroo last year that Pearl Jam Ten is "the best" and "my favorite" album of all time, but I didn't really explain much (more just a twitter statement to the fact.) I think I'll take a bit of time to explain my relationship with Pearl Jam.
Now, I realize how silly this is. I mean Pearl Jam is one of the most popular bands of all time and I have always been teased for my affinity to all things popular. I am not a good critic to say the least. My taste in music has always been too eclectic to find a niche. But Pearl Jam has served a unique place in my life.
I actually remember buying the Pearl Jam tape at Raccoon Records (Eric, I'd give you $50 for that shirt now) in late '91 or early '92. I was buying a gift bundle of tapes for my girlfriend Loula; she gave me a list of music she was excited about at the time (again, I can't take credit for finding things musical.) When she played Ten for me the first time, I remember being blown away. It was so damn beautiful and right. I'd watch Pearl Jam on the Headbanger's Ball shows I taped for her (she didn't get MTV in her city) and couldn't believe there was someone like Eddie Vedder out there. (I'll get to what I mean by that in a bit.)
The momentum picked up. There was the phenomenal appearance on SNL. Pearl Jam "Alive" on SNL
And then the Unplugged performance where Eddie wrote PRO-CHOICE!!! on his arm. Pearl Jam "Porch" on Unplugged
Of course, it is popularly understood that Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain were the unwilling cultural icons of the grunge/alternative scene and a hero of all us "Gen X youngsters." I appreciated Cobain but could never get attached to him. But in Vedder I saw what I wanted.
Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam and their music combined the anger/angst of being a teenager and much music of the time, but the positivity and playfulness that was so much a part of my DNA that I could never let go of it.
You see, this album TEN was playing out during the time in my life where I had just failed tenth grade. My failing was the strange thing to many people, because I loved learning, was incredibly participatory in class and had no behavioral or what is now called citizenship problems. Basically, I was happy, playful and enjoying my life. But I also carried this intense anxiety about school work. I couldn't connect with it. I knew I had something to offer, but the school system wasn't designed for me to take advantage of it. Furthermore, it was not designed to catch someone like me.
Anyway, Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder helped me deal with that. When you attend a college prep school and fail a year and have to repeat, it can be devastating to your self-worth; I didn't understand any other accomplishments but academic ones. So, my failure was crushing and depressing and sleep-depriving ... BUT for some reason I had this remarkable self-confidence and playfulness that prevented it from pulling me too far down. Some of the most popular lyrics in all Pearl Jamdom just really hit what I was feeling:
"Is something wrong?" she said Well of course there is "You're still alive," she said Oh, and do I deserve to be? Is that the question? And if so...if so...who answers...who answers...?
I, oh, I'm still alive Hey I, oh, I'm still alive
The individuality of life always seems to win out in Pearl Jam/Vedder music.
After I failed, many teacher told me how disappointed they were ... but the freaky thing was they weren't disappointed in me, they were disappointed in themselves as educators. Which I never understood until I became an educator myself. So, we had a lot of people who were angry, disappointed and upset, but it was more because of missed opportunities. There was an appreciation of life, but a frustration of decisions and distractions which kept it from being fulfilled.
This theme continues in Eddie Vedder's music from the personal story of Christopher McCandless...
If you haven't seen Body of War, I'd recommend it. If you have a Netflix account, you can watch it right now on Instant Play. (If you aren't angry about this war, think about the loved ones of Staff Sgt. Gary L. Woods Jr., 24, of Lebanon Junction, Ky., Sgt. 1st Class Bryan E. Hall, 32, of Elk Grove, Calif., Sgt. Edward W. Forrest Jr., 25, of St. Louis, Mo., Cpl. Jason G. Pautsch, 20, of Davenport, Iowa., Pfc. Bryce E. Gautier, 22, of Cypress, Calif. - They died last week from a suicide truck bomb - average age less than 24.6)
Anyway, this is already longer than most people (including my future self) will want to read. But when I was listening to music that spoke to me at that critical stage in my life, everything was either too heavy to be appropriate for my playfulness, too light to be appropriate for my anger, or not enough of both. Thanks to Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder for helping me empathize with who I am.
Oh and here is the funny Outside Lands video about the line-up:
Today, Sam and I celebrated what can be a difficult day for me by being dudes together!
We had a Dudelicious day. From playing to boat-riding to card-playing to Monster vs Aliens 3D IMAX to hanging with a couple Swedish dudes eating Mexican to dude fighting ... there was even a dead thing!
We started with their salted almonds and tasty bread, then a flavorful mushroom soup, moved to a spring roll with fun Asian accoutrements. For our main dish, we split a spinach salad, Indian curry and a side of polenta. For dessert we had a chocolate pot de creme; you won't find a picture of it ... it was gone before we had the chance! You can still check out the chocolate pudding from last time we went though.
