Clear and Sunny

Now THIS was a computer game. I hope that the piece I'm working on now for NutsOnline.com is half as compelling and memorable.






Lemonade Stand port for Mac OS X and PC. I think you Apple ][ people probably will need to scrounge a cassette tape.

Rosh Hashanah Girl

My friends Michelle Citrin and William Levin made this. Go team!

Chicken did it!

This just in from Chicken John's campaign headquarters or whatever he calls his bus or his loft or whatever. I am proud, or at least bemused, to say I have donated heavily to this campaign. Someone's gotta speak up for the San Francisco I moved out here to live in. It's not about winning, it's about giving a voice to things that need to be heard. Thank you Larry Bogad for waking me up to the power of political theater.

Hello world, this is Lev (suddenly Chicken's campaign manager and co-conspirator). I have some incredible news to share.


You, the great collective you of the Chickensphere, heeded our plea for help. We've spent the last 24 hours hitting up everybody we know, watching the total inch toward the magic number and wracking our brains about who to call next and how to make it happen. Aleta, Goddess of the Spreadsheet, worked like a Hero of Soviet Socialist Labor to get all the scraps of paper, checks, Paypal contributions and loose change together. And in the 59th minute of the 11th hour, you came through and brought us over the top, to a grand total of $26,371.21 in eligible San Francisco contributions for Chicken's race for mayor. That's the documented sum of money that we brought to the Campaign Office at 4:45 this afternoon.... you should have seen us, racing down Van Ness in the limo VW bus, folders crammed with arcane documents and forms, sweating, exhausted, Rob Levy driving like a maniacal cabby to get us there on time. We scrambled up the steps into the warren of offices... and met the press! Reporters from the San Francisco dailies were there, waiting for us like it's the Bay to Breakers finish line. Read in the news tomorrow, baby. As far as we know, only Tony Hall also made the cut, but he's Republican or Republican-like... so in reality, it's Chicken vs. Gavin on November 8!


So we're in, and all of a sudden its for reals. The papers are filed, Chicken is on an airplane to the Playa and we've got ourselves a mayors race.


Thank you so so so much to everyone who came out of the woodwork in the last few days, as well as all the supporters who carried us up along the way. We are deeply awed by the trust that you've given us to run this race. This has gone from whim to performance to drama to triumph, and it literally is all because of you. You've put your hard-earned ducats into the hands of Chicken John, and I hereby vow that I'm not gonna let him squander it on top shelf figs and imported liquor or whatever it was he promised to do with it. In the coming weeks, we'll be putting our secret plan into action. As they say, watch this space.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass schedule announced

Yessssss! Oct. 5-7. See ya in my backyard.

See the lineup here

Premature Burnination

I have been waiting for this to happen for years. Very sorry to have missed it. Nice touch, to do it during the lunar eclipse.

Burning Man's icon goes up in flames, 4 days prematurely

To hell with email

Apparently, email is like, over. Fine with me. My inbox is still full of crap I should have responded to a month ago. It's embarassing. Friends, I apologize.

Would I be better about replying to people if they wrote me through Facebook, though? I seriously doubt it. Now if we move into an MMO environment...okay. I will definitely respond to all messages delivered by blood elves.

Kids say e-mail is, like, soooo dead | CNET News.com

Robot Rocked

(Warning: frequent Burning Man references to follow.)

Okay, so as you know, I love a good film festival. Last night was SF360 Film + Club, the monthly hipster-night-at-the-movies put on by the San Francisco Film Society. (Last time I checked this crew was showing an R.Kelly hip hop opera with singalong components.) The film this month? Daft Punk's Electroma, which is doing a circuit of festivals right now in advance of a fall DVD release.

The Lackster and I showed up unfashionably early to Mezzanine and yet there was a very long, very hip line stretching all the way down Jessie Street, (bad pee smell and all). Amidst the shag haircuts and gold lame kitten heels I spotted Anne Cook and Jeremy Solterbeck. Jeremy asked if I was going to Burning Man.

We cruised inside and frantically snagged one of the dwindling supply of seats then hit the Chartreuse tasting bar. The stuff is made by three monks who jealously guard its recipe to their graves. Sadly, the promo gal was jealously guarding the supply and we were left to the tender mercies of the Mezzanine bar staff.

Here's the truth. I am not wise in the ways of Daft Punk. Sure, I've seen the Gondry video. But otherwise, I'm a total newb. I asked around.

Ann Campbell told me, "Basically, it all comes down to robots." Greg Hernandez told me "I just really love robots." And the SFFS rep who introduced the film called it "an important contribution to the sad robot genre."

The film was an interesting, if sloooooooow, look at identity and tinkering with it. Two robots are on a road trip through the California desert and other surreal places -- a lab where they get false latex faces painted on, a town where everyone looks the same, sand dunes, salt flats. It does not go well for our robot heroes, although they look sexy in their bedazzled leather Daft Punk jackets. "I want that outfit for Burning Man," Jesse sighed.

The sound was awesome. It wasn't Daft Punk music but it was heavy on vibrating, pulsing sounds and the occasional acoustic ballad. Not a film to watch at home...it does help to have the room shake. In a way, the piece was a reverse Gondry film, with the visuals -- the monotony of the road and rolling desert dunes -- driving the soundtrack rather than vice versa.

The unavoidable problem for this viewer (and many, many others in the room) was that the "action" was all set in Inyo County -- which looks a hell of a lot like the roads, tumbleweed-dotted expanses and, er, playas at a certain festival in Nevada. A guy behind me was getting restless with the desert imagery about 60 minutes into the film and started grumbling "Burning Man, Burning Man..." And truly, it is kind of hard not to let your mind drift off to Pershing County as you watch a robot set himself on fire and walk across a hard packed salt flat.

Schmulik correctly guessed that the film was shot near Death Valley, not Gerlach, but knew that "especially before Burning Man, a lot of Burning Man comparisons are happening." No doubt screenings in, say, France, are less confusing.

After the film, the chairs were cleared and people rocked out to the Robot Rock DJs. Yours truly had to go before Dandi Wind, Riot in Belgium and others took the stage but there was some pretty high energy for a Monday out on the floor. A monthly to watch.

More or less cross-posted to SFGate.com's Culture Blog

Jewels of Elul

Today is the 3rd day of Elul, a month that many Jews use to spiritually prepare for the climactic high holidays that come at the end (Rosh Hashana starts September 12, get your apples and honey basket here!)

I was asked this year to contribute to a book of inspiring Jewish ideas, one for each day of Elul. I'm in some pretty serious company - today's jewel is by Matisyahu, and they are forthcoming from the Dalai Lama, Deppak Chopra, Rabbi Harold Kushner and so on. I don't know when mine will go up, but you can read them as they're posted, or order the free book, here.

Jewels of Elul

For once and for all

The wedding will be in Vladivostok in early February. We'd love to have you! With temperatures in the low negative 60's, we figure the guests will be numb enough to not even notice that we can't afford a sit down dinner. (Thanks, Bill, for the idea!)

I should need cheering up more often

Meteoric

Just back from watching for the Perseid meteors to streak across the sky. Sadly we didn't get on top of this until the last minute and couldn't get out of town. We walked around Ashbury Heights looking for a dark patch of sky, and then went up to Twin Peaks, where a fairly sizeable band of people had gathered. Unfortunately a lot of idiots were also there, watching the show from their cars and turning their engines on and off to take advantage of the heat, I guess. It was annoying. I saw 5 meteors and then we headed back.

Bill is tired and going to sleep. I'm popping in and out of my backyard trying to catch a glimpse, but between the big redwood and the bright as hell lightbulb on the wall that I can't reach, I think I'm doomed. I'm really glad I saw a few!

Run, Chicken, Run

A stainless tomorrow

I finally threw out my beautiful collection of Naglene bottles from various institutions today. I have been meaning to transition to some non-bisphenol-A containing product for months, but Jason Pollens's piece on Jewschool finally made me bite the bullet.

The thing I don't like about these stainless steel bottles - well, the two things - are that A. I can't dangle a tea bag in there, and B. I can't sling it on my finger and hike all day with it. The tiny little loop in the top of these newfangled klean kanteens and Sigg bottles is great but not if you like to hike with your finger through it all day. And I don't want to get the sport bottle attachment because it's plastic. Which means i may as well be using the Nalgene.

Someone alert me when Sigg puts out an alterno-top.

Harding har har

My American History teacher told us impressionable youth that Warren G. Harding was the worst president in American history. Of course, that was more than, er, 6 years ago.

Debating monikers for Harding was just one highlight of last night’s “Homage To A Dead President,” a merry memorial for the late scion of scandal held by the San Francisco Appreciation Society. Yesterday was the 84th anniversary of Harding’s death at the Palace Hotel and a great excuse to raise a glass.

Thanks to David Katznelson, seen here in a moment of heartfelt grief for the late Harding, for an awesome event. You can read my full writeup on SFGate.com at some point later today.

Grab my nuts

Great news, it's National Grab Some Nuts day. I recommend the roasted almonds, no salt.

Hey, let's grab some nuts today - Slashfood