Rockcrowd Fest 2011 - Concert #5

Falling behind on Rockcrowd Fest!  But still going to get this one up before the next.  On May 19th, Mary and I went and saw Shawn Mullins at Slim's. We started it off with a little playing in Dogpatch, including an early dinner at Hard Knox (which was rough considering I had a late lunch.)  The highlight of the Dogpatch experience was the Mr. & Mrs. Miscellaneous ice cream.


Slim's was a new venue for us.  Mary and I have learned while we do enjoy the sitting - we are not huge fans of shows where people are eating burgers and other grub mid-performance.  It is just sort of bizarre. Also, the crowd was older and ... well obnoxious.  But oh well. Moving on.

The show was wonderful.  Shawn Mullins is one of my favorite storytellers.


He started with this story:


And ended with this one:


Crowds be damned - I love listening to this man play.  And we'll see him again to fix the crowdwoes - no worries.  It is fun to fix "bad crowd" experiences.  Our next Rockcrowd performances is one of those: Iron &Wine. We've only seen him once and it was a horrible view at "Hardly Strictly Bluegrass" surrounded by cellphone talkers, etc.   We left early.  Now, we are going to the beautiful Warfield with pretty good seats in the midst of a chill week. ROCKCROWD!

#justsayin

Duh. This will be the story through the series.  (And yes - this blog just went from a music-theme to a sports-theme - deal.)

Oakland A's

Despite having lived in the Bay Area nearly 5 years (I know right?!) and being a huge baseball fan, I had yet to make it to an A's game.  Well, due to a fantasy pitcher infatuation and a bizarre but lovely weather pattern, Mary, Sam and I headed out to the game today. Yes I wore a Maddux Cubbies jersey, which rocked - because I didn't get the grief I get at a Giants game (despite the fact that the A's opponents were the White Sox.)



My new baseball love, Trevor Cahill, unfortunately did not pitch a gem - in fact it was his first loss of the season (and to the Southsiders no less . oy) but we had a wonderful time.



We also learned how to get Sam to fulfill the doctor's request that he consume more calories, especially protein and fat.



More pics in this Flickr set.

Rockcrowd Fest 2011 - Concert #4

Rockcrowd Fest's 4th concert was by one of our early favorites.  The wonderful, fun energy of Rhett Miller.  More people are familiar with him as the lead singer for Old 97s, who we'll get to see in August at Outside Lands (of course I just noticed they are playing up in Petaluma on 06/03 ... hmm. Rockfest growing??)

We started off the concert with grabbing a Mission Burrito, since the venue was close to the area.  We headed to El Castillito @ Church and Duboce - while not being officially in the Mission - it gets cred for being old school, authentic, damn good (and close enough.) Wet Pastor Spicy, Yes



We then headed to the Swedish-American Hall above Cafe Du Nord. The venue definitely has an old school, mason-viking hall feel to it: a big open space with lots of folding chairs. We thought it was kind of hokey place, but Rhett said he very specifically picked it.  At first we sat on the floor, but then we noticed that the balcony while further away would give us a nice perspective and the ability to move around. The small crowd and no-alcohol venue produced what had to be my first secondary-pot-free SF concert , which was nice - because SF can have some serious skunkweed. The experience was quite intimate. While waiting to get in the show, we saw Rhett come out and just go for a walk - he gave us all a nice wave+smile. Once inside, we were able to explore around the cute little hall and look out the windows.



The concert was pretty incredible. Rhett, solo with a guitar on a red stage.  He belted out somewhere around 30 songs. He told us wonderful stories (by the way, don't tell children "shush!" when they are singing.)  While I greatly dig the new album, The Instigator will always hold a special place for Mary and I and our relationship developing in Chicago. We saw Rhett play a tiny morning set inside the Chicago Apple store one morning early in our "figuring out how much we loved each other" time. He has this raw intimacy in his songs, singing and arm-windmilling guitar playing.  I look forward to many continued years of listening to Rhett Miller.

Plannery Day

It is a day for geeking out on planning for me.

Planning Survey 2011  Every year Heather amazes me more and more in the accomplishment of this thing. I have had the pleasure of watching as she has single-handedly (well - with constant assists from the many great peeps in this community) turned this from a nugget of an idea to a global accomplishment that grows at an exponential level.

Also, Gareth Kay is coming by the school to share/play with some of the students.  I tend to walk away from his brilliant insightful discussions with a remarkable enlightenment about how to further prepare the students and my entire class structure shifts. (I'm just glad I'll have a whole summer to prep!)

Good Night, Dad

UPDATE: He is done with the procedure and fine. They need to run more tests, but he should leave ICU today. w00t!



Tonight, my dad is going to sleep in a hospital.

Normally, this isn't a strange statement to make - as an anesthesiologist, he's spent many a night there. But tonight it is as a patient.

I'm not so used to that. Not at all.

However, when I skyped with my dad about 3 weeks ago, he informed me that he'd had a minor stroke (making me 2 for 2 on genetic parents with strokes while relatively young.) A little later, I hear from my brother that he'd suffered another minor one. Now he has just had a third one that while not severe, it definitely is a significant occurrence. He is going through a serious procedure tomorrow to investigate what is going on exactly.

This is freaking me out a bit. My dad, as a father, a physician and a person who follows regular exercise and good eating and other lifestyle practices has always been a paragon of health for me. Most of my views of how to take care of my physical self trace back to his guidance.

Anyway, I didn't get to speak with him tonight. So:

Good Night, Dad. I love you.