Lunamania

Here's a little something for you to get over that Wednesday hump day.
I'm listening to a lot of DJ Krush. The downtempo ambient breaks makes for an excellent chill factor. I read one review that described his production style as "dense". I agree--dense, but not crowded or heavy. The density factor is something about how each element of every track feels deliberate and contributes to the whole song. The intermittent rainfall sounds on Song 1 of his Zen album is a nice example of that thoughtfulness.

But that's not the song I want to post. I've been addicted to Danger of Love on his Zen album. That entire album is build around DJ Krush's collaborations with various artists and Danger of Love showcases Zap Mama vocals and groove. I could listen to it all day and night. Check it out when you're needing a 5 minute break in your day. Danger of Love, DJ Krush featuring Zap Mama.

Posted by at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The companion photoblog to Lunamania is now up and...well, it's up. We'll see if it actually grows legs and starts running. I'm still figuring out whether I want to use it to just share pictures w/friends (via password protected folders of course) or do the daily/weekly image thing. I suppose they aren't mutually exclusive. I also suppose this dilemma bores all but the most obsessive types reading this. Then again, I know all 4 Lunamania readers have obsessive streaks...

Anyway, click on the image in the sidebar to get to the site.

Finally, any attempt to "design" and code stuff always makes me want to sing the praises of all the generous tech-wizards out there. Photo Weenie must thank Quixotic Pixels for the design template and the php script for the feed to Lunamania and Elise over at Learning Movable Type for the php conversion tutorial. (Link back to Quitoxic Pixels is pending.) If you are a MT newbie, those sites are great resources.

Posted by at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

For some inexplicable reason I've recently received multiple requests in my comments section for the Cliff Notes to Life of Pi. Just fyi for all the high school students out there--my relationship to Cliff Notes ended decades ago. Is Life of Pi now required reading or on the SATs now?

Speaking of SATs and high school, I went to the APEN open house tonight and got to see some of the young women I used to work with from Alameda HS. I got to toast their under-age selves to celebrate their recent acceptance to various colleges. Nowadays, many colleges post acceptance notices online...soon the days of obsessively waiting for the mail will be over. I'm feeling old.

I rounded out my evening with another excellent meal by Eddie and a typically frustrating overtime Knicks loss. Hey, at least baseball is just around the corner.

Posted by at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Christine, Mijoung, the Knitting Monkey, Jack, and I embarked on a birthday (Happy Birthday Mijoung!) pilgrimage in hopes of gawking at the multi-ton migrating sea mammals in Mendocino. We sat in hours of traffic and then navigated twisty highway 1 in this seasons biggest rain storm. Jack expressed his disapproval by getting car sick on the 47th hairpin curve.

The 22 ft swells prevented all boats from going out to sea, but it most certainly did not deter us Whale Fest fun seekers. We didn't see marine life, but we managed to eat a lot of it. We put down our $5 for the local chowder tasting contest. Collectively we sampled 10 coronary inducing chowders. Yum! In addition to the chowder fest, we savored a sea food spread at Sharon's, a top-notch restaurant housed in a shack on a dock. Between meals, we took a puppy hike to the lighthouse. Once there I stood entranced by a live video feed of the spinning light. I need a DVD of that thing. It's more relaxing than...whale songs.

I lounged all weekend with good friends along the striking Pacific Coastline. Who needs whales and sea sickness?

Posted by at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Happy birthday to Lunamania! Happy birthday to Lunamania! La la la la la...you get the point.

That last pic was post #100. My, how we've grown! Under my benevolent neglect, Lunamania has taken 18 months to evolve into what any teen could have created in 18 minutes.

My 100th post birthday present to Lunamania is a Creative Commons license. Lunamania says, "You shouldn't have!" I say, "But I did." And you ask, "What kind of gift is that?" It's my two mouse click method of copyrighting this blog.

The rules of this blog are that you can copy, use, "perform" the stuff on Lunamania as long as it's not for commercial purposes; you give me credit; and you don't alter, transform, or build on the "work". In plain English this means, it is a no-no to sell my priceless pictures or immensely well-written blatherings, pretend that they are yours, Photoshop my pictures, or correct the grammar and punctuation in my entries.

I'll just continue singing...Happy Birthday to Lunamania. Now say hello to your latest ear worm.

Posted by at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Muir Woods usually evokes images of towering red trees and lush green trails. Last (and the first) time I went, it was drizzling and other worldly. I like to think of it as Rivendale during the rainy season. If you squint long enough, you'll catch Legolas galloping by.

The unintentionally blurry subjects are a result of the Bane of Camera Weenies, i.e. camera shake. I kind of like how my friends look like ghosts though.

Posted by at 8:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm thoroughly enjoying my Best American Science and Nature Writing of 2004 (see sidebar). For lazy weenies like myself, this collection is an easy way to read some good science and nature writing, and to flag writers to check out later.

Here's an interesting thought. Astronomers and physicists have long pondered the size of the universe--Is it growing? How do you measure it? Is it finite? Is it infinite? What are the implications of an infinite universe? I'm an escapist. So I like the idea of an infinite universe and its requisite infinite alternate realities.

At this very moment, two of my dear friends are engaged in a grueling Scrabble match in Manhattan. One is gloating over her win-win track record. The other is quietly plotting her next triple word score move. If we accept the idea of an infinite universe, it contains infinite variations of each life and reality. This means that in some alternate universe, there is another Scrabble game happening where the score is flipped, mirths is a recognized scrabble word, and players spend less than 10 minutes per turn. How we tap into that alternate universe is a problem that has yet to be solved. But it's nice to think that in an infinite universe, there is an alternate me loafing on the beach, or playing Scrabble with my friends, or playing Scrabble on a beach!

Posted by at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of my co-workers has planted this terrible ear worm.
Rad, Smoosh.

The music is just what you can expect from a suburban Seattle garage, unless those words make you think of Curt Cobain, Nirvana and white people in need of a bath. Smoosh is less grunge and more...well, tween white girl pop. A friend aptly described them as "the indie Olsen twins."

The NPR interview (link above) is priceless. There's something completely absurd and fall-out-of-my-chair hilarious about the soothing NPR voice asking 10 and 11 year old sisters, "So, when did you begin your artistic collaboration?"

Posted by at 5:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ok, that title just opened the door to the millions of nasty Asia-phile, lesbian fetishers on the www...
Anyway, the NAATA Asian American Film Festival opened this Thursday. I got to see Alice Wu's Saving Face. I'm always cautious about expecting too much from anything that has a lot of "queer Asians being ostracized from the Chinese community" stuff going on in the blurb. I was also still recovering from the L Word. My trepidation was unwarranted, Saving Face was GREAT! It was funny, compassionate, and had some good "aaawww...isn't that cute" moments.

The cast (including the h-o-t Joan Chen) were there. The two younger lead women were not that interesting--although they look cute on screen, but Joan Chen has that mesmerizing heavy actor presence. I've noted her seat number and plan to stalk that chair every time I'm in the Castro Theater. A bunch of us were hanging out on the curb afterwards when Alice Wu (the director) walked out. I turned to be star struck and she walked right over and said, "Thanks for coming to see my movie! It's great to see everyone here." She was so friendly and sincere that for a second I thought maybe she knew someone I was with, or that I had met her before. But no one knew her. She was just a very kind director of a pretty cool movie. It's been bought by Sony and will be released in late May. Go check it out.

Posted by at 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Earlier this week my good friend began a 3 week in-hospital chemo treatment. She's a pretty incredible character and according to up to the minute reports, the hospital room is turning into a party and it looks like she's on her way to becoming a star amongst the cadre of Filipino nurses. I'm relieved to hear she's in good hands and eating cheeseburgers while undergoing chemo. That said, my anxious, hospital-phobic nature has induced a semi-permanent knot in my stomach. Not that she needs me around to get about or anything, but for my own selfish reasons, it'd be nice to be over there.

But, I am here. Here in Oakland after a lovely day of non-stop meetings and conference calls. But even in that blur of a day, I can count on my co-workers to come through with a surprise Snickers bar during hour 3 of my 4.5 hr marathon of calls (YES!) and the well-timed blasts of select tracks from terrible pre-teen Smoosh CD. No you're eyes are not deceiving you, the artists are really thanking their ELEMENTARY school.

Posted by at 12:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This weekend I savored every minute of my non-office time and ran around seeing friends and watching questionable TV shows.
I finally saw Million Dollar Baby. I think Chris P was disappointed that the "surprise" ending did not involve revelations that Hillary Swank was a transgender person. But hey, she did that movie already. I enjoyed the requisite tub of popcorn, the matinee price--yes, there are theatres that still have matinee discounts, and the previews for Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Oh and Million Dollar Baby was pretty good too.
The weather finally cleared up and my Martha Inspired Monkey and I commemorated the release of that homemaker cult leader by mucking around the "garden." The Monkey weeded, mulched, landscaped what looked like an entire forest, planted some fuzzy moss, and moved the 200 lbs of decorative rocks the previous owners thought would look stylish scattered all about. I replanted my rosemary twig and moved my snail riddled mess of mint. I happily put my compost soil to use. It's so rich that I fully expected bionic rosemary and mint by the end of the evening. Alas, it seems that I'm going to have to wait a little longer.
In line with the East Bay lesbian theme, we spent the rest of Sunday cooking dumplings and watching the L Word. I swear they have the costume designers from Charmed working that show, but minus the camp factor. The only thing lesbian about that show is the lack of any self-deprecating humor. At any rate, it was definitely an experience and the company was excellent.
Now it's back to the grind...

Posted by at 10:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A couple of months ago, Elaine and I made one of those "when people who don't live in New York come to town" pilgrimages to the re-designed MOMA. I had such a great time roaming around a space dedicated to the spectrum of Things We Should Take a Moment to Appreciate.

I dropped the requisite art history 101 in college after learning that slide projectors and darkened auditoriums at 9:40AM were a snoozfest. My resulting ignorance of all things artistic meant I saw one of Monet's Waterlily paintings and my first thought was, "Elaine, how is this thing SO BIG?!" It's a good 15 ft long. Second thought was, "Kinda blurry, no?"

What I love about the MOMA is that despite my art history drop out status, I was able to take a minute to really think and appreciate elements of good design in daily (and less frequent) encounters. On display were the iconic NY subway signs, the first generation iPOD, those salt and pepper shakers that Julie gave to Elaine and Yukari, and a large helicopter. Kewl.

I took my camera and proved true the photo adage that if lucky, 1 roll of film will yield 1 good picture. Pricey ratio and I'm pushing the definition of "good picture." Oh well--yay for digital. The MOMA's walls are all white and the light in each space is shaped by blasts of natural light and the hues of whatever is on display. Photo weenie fun, but tricky. This picture is an illustrative reminder that I have yet to fully understand white balance.

Posted by at 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Was just reading the news before calling it a night and saw this--Eddie Chung Chou Lee was found stabbed to death in Daly City. This article in today's Chronicle says the he was wearing women's clothing and the police are investigating it as a potential hate crime. *sigh* The Bay Area engenders a false sense of security, but this is a brutal reminder that it's never really safe for the queers--even more so for the gender queer. So sad...

Posted by at 9:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight, my Carnivorous Monkey and I made our annual trip to our Asian dyke optometrist and then treated ourselves to a meal at Limon. A Peruvian joint located at the old Slanted Door space in the Mission, Limon is frequented by the now typical Mission crowd--a.k.a. young white people. If I ignore the exploding bottle that splattered red wine all over my favorite white shirt, it was a nice meal. I had an appropriately fatty duck in duck jus accompanied by potato gratin layered with duck confit. Duck, duck, duck! My Monkey Date had a porkchop that came with mushrooms flavored with bacon. Bacon, bacon, bacon!

It was a good meal, but I'm basically a chowhound, not a foodie. I would be just as happy eating my 3 entrees for $15.99 special at Yummy Guide while watching Chinese soap operas.

Anyhoos, it was nice to leave work at 5 and have a leisurely evening. I think I'm going to go do some crossword puzzles now.

Posted by at 9:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Privatization of social security, special elections in California, the ongoing occupation of Iraq...there is so much outrage in the world that I would like to believe some simple pleasures are sacred. Al-b has alerted me that the editors of the NY Times are out to dash my modest hopes...check this (scroll to the bottom of the article.) Some ill advised people are going to end Circuits and replace it with a health and fitness section?!! The "dot-com/high-tech" boom is over? Circuits isn't a dot-com section!!! It's my weekly David Pogue fix! What is the matter with these people? What have I done to deserve this?

OK, deep breath...perspective...

Speaking of what have I done to deserve this--My colleague and I were checking out the Governator's home page the other day to read up on his judicial appointments. We were appalled to find the page surrounded by links promoting the DVD release of Predator and streaming video documenting Arnie's make-up transformation into the Terminator. What has California done to deserve this? It's like a bad dream.

Anyway, I'm taking matters into my own hands. I'm writing a letter to the NY Times and threatening to cancel my subscription! And, I'm going to Sacramento to be in a pain in Arnold's Hummer driven agenda! Ahh...If only such a sense of self-important outrage were enough to keep Circuits alive and send Arnie back into the movies...

Posted by at 11:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I love tech nerds. I aspire to be a full fledged gear weenie in my spare time. Alas, for the moment I have to be content with being a non-profit tool. Over the last 48 hours, I've spent an inordinate amount of time pimping myself to foundations and not enough time doing actual policy work--whatever that means. Welcome to the world of begging for money.

I spent the weekend amongst great company in a cozy cabin overlooking Emerald Bay/Lake Tahoe. This was week 2 of Lunamania's snowboarding adventures! My little crew hit the slopes on the CA side of Heavenly and Alpine Meadows. Having tried Heavenly, Squaw Valley, Kirkwood, and Alpine, I declare myself borderline obsessive and fully versed in the relative annoying factors of each resort. Generally, snow resorts have a high number of over-privileged Type A parents going turbo on their children. Ski spots also exponentially increase the probability of high tension moments between significant others. All that said, my vote goes to Alpine Meadows for price ($39), overall chill atmosphere and NO LINES! Kirkwood is a close second with a relatively low obnoxious factor and a fun little ice skating rink.

I wish I had pictures to post from my trip. You'll have to console yourselves with a completely unrelated pciture of the jellyfish living in the Monterey Aquarium.

Posted by at 10:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I'm happy to spread the Escapevelocity love. I've added my favorite kimchi loving Houston resident to the Lunamania sidebar. Check it out and drop some comments.

Posted by at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)