Friday, July 20, 2007

Not ANOTHER Crazy Dream

They just keep on coming. This one was around 4:40 this morning during what must have been a pre-earthquake before the 4.0+ quake shook us awake like an angry mother trying to get her kids up for school.

It started as an anxiety dream where we moved to a new house and the neighbors were part of the Gotti family. In the course of many strange occurences, all the Gotti kids were having a sleep-over in several bunk beds that all started careening across the bedroom floor, tipping and breaking and traveling in manic fashion. Suddenly, it became part of a Broadway musical and the kids all started singing "Rock & Roll High School." Stagehands came running and patched all the split wood with duct tape. The bunk beds continued ka-lumping across the floor. The kids kept singing, trying to hang on. The last chorus, they all sang in unison, "Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap! Rock & roll high school!"

And my bed shook me awake, the windows rattled, and a bottle of shower gel fell into the shower stall with a thud. If you're going to be awakened by an earthquake, make it a musical event.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Local Yokels

Are you wandering around Oakland, wondering what to buy or where to hang out? OaklandGoods will steer you straight.

You can't enter the Oakland Mormon Temple unless you're a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--but you can download some Temple wallpaper for your computer decorating scheme.

Steam Trains in Berkeley?

Do you like photographs of modern architecture in San Francisco? So does Le Blog Exuberance.

Politics in Contra Costa County? Check out Halfway to Concord, featuring a photo header of the Mt. Zion quarry behind my childhood home.

Do you think the Marin County Civic Center, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is totally awesome? Here's a photo essay of its design and construction. Why not check out the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, while you're at it? Would you have liked to ride the rails through Marin at the turn of the century? It would have looked like this.

Attempting to remodel your home in the Bay Area by yourself? Misery loves company:
1oldhouse.blogspot.com
47ranchdressing.blogspot.com
casadecrepit.com (check out the "Crimes Against Victorians" post--very Bay Area)

Coming in September: ArtCar Fest fever--catch it!

Monday, July 16, 2007

When Stevie Nicks was Queen

Long ago, in 1983, the reigning queen of pop music did not lip synch, kept her drug use under wraps for most of the decade, made sure her shows were entertaining and had some pretty killer big hair (presumably all her own). I never really got into her shtick because she seemed so "mannered." I liked talented control-freak Lindsey Buckingham better. But in hindsight, I've come to appreciate the greatness that was Stevie Nicks. Now you can too. Check out that 80s energy emanating all around the stage.

(The best Stevie Nicks video on YouTube was taken away from us so you'll have to settle for this "Solid Gold" appearance. Definitely second best, at best.)

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

I had this crazy dream...

...don't you hate sentences that start like that? And the dream usually is crazy--crazy boring! No one wants to hear your dreams--that's how it is. But I really did have this crazy dream last night and I'm going to type it here for posterity. Sometimes dreams just scream for attention, you know?

I dreamt we were looking for another rental apartment to move into and a young couple offered to show us theirs. It wasn't too impressive, but we were friendly with them as we looked around. The man and woman who lived there were musicians (I'm kind of a musician too) but they were not friendly at all. In fact, they were pretty snotty towards us, not making any effort to be kind or even polite. Later, we returned to the apartment while they were out, to give it one last look-over. I noticed from all the memorabilia, posters and photos on the walls that they had been in Toad the Wet Sprocket. I yelled, "They were all snotty to us because they had been in TOAD THE WET SPROCKET?!"

See? Ca-razy! Needless to say, we didn't take the apartment. Besides, the washer/dryer were coin-op and I can never come up with enough quarters.

Note: any similarity to members of Toad the Wet Sprocket is entirely coincidental.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Important Ukulele News

This Friday, July 6th, The Tatami Mats will perform "Dark Side of the Uke"--a ukulele-only version of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon." Why is this happening? It's the second anniversary of The Knockout at Mission and Valencia in San Fran., 10 p.m. start time. Too rich for my blood, but I'm always up for some ukulele orchestrations. May the spirit of Don Ho be with them.

source