July 2004 Archives

About a week after the Fourth of July we here in SoCal enterned into the Dog Days of Fire Season. I am now riding out the heat that should last well into October.

As a moderate pale green, I live without air conditioning in the house and car. Car - I don't have the $$$ at any given time to refresh the old school freon. House - I don't feel like paying for some SoCal Edison's executive's family August vacations to Alaska with a $350 electrical bill per month. I like our $23 / month summer electrical bill.

Scruffy is one unhappy hot pup. Ms. Jen is currently sporting a Marge Simpson-like hairdo in the attempt to be cooler, except it is not blue nor do I store my change in the updo.

But the backyard lemon tree is at its absolute happiest that I have seen it in the nearly four years that I have lived here, as it is bearing big, juicy lemons instead of bizarrely shaped lemons with no juice. This evening I plucked three lemons, juice still hot from the day's heat, and made Sangriade.

Ms. Jen's Sangriade:

The juice of 3 lemons
1/4 cup sugar (or more to taste)

Mix together in a jug or quart liquid containter. Shake or stir to dissolve the sugar.

Add 1/2 cup cold water
1 (750 ml) bottle of good red wine (pinot noir or cotes du rhone or Sangre de Toro or shiraz)

Shake again. Serve over ice.

Mighty tasty and refreshing.

Photo Friday : Mother

July 14, 2004 : Mom attempting to re-tie Rio's scarf at Dog Beach.

In the alley/back parking lot behind the squat run down 1950's five shop strip "mall" that houses the best Thai food in the whole of the state of Caliornia or the U.S. or Western Hemisphere depending on the critic (quite bizzarely in Norwalk of all places); there perches, swoops, and devores flies and other opportunistic insects is a whole clan of barn swallows. Colorful, chirpy, and cheerful, they light up every hot summer in that dingy alley that they call home.

If I haven't raved up Renu Nakorn yet, go. Drive down the 5 fwy or up it to the of what some Angelenos or Orange Countias would call the nmiddle no man's land of SoCal between the 605 and 10 fwy... go. Go for the best Thai that will ever delight your mouth. Go in the summer to see the barn swallows perched on the back telephone lines. Go for the beef larp, the papaya salad, and the sticky rice.

Photo Friday : Ocean

Views from the Seal Beach pier at 6pm on Sat. July 17th, 2004. Even though the Fire / Sun / Summer Season has started, Catalina Island, Saddleback Mountain and the San Gabriels were to be seen in the distance through the haze, humidity, oil platforms, palm trees, container ships (over 10 awaiting berth at the LA harbor), and homes. A beautiful but too hot day.

When I was 9 and 10, I used to "borrow" quarters from my mom after she left for work and I would ride the bus to Seal Beach to go to the pier , sunbathe (yes, once I did before I discovered white skin, black clothes and red lipstick), and visit with the seals (actually, I used non-bus quarters to buy bait fish to throw to the seals). Twenty five years later, the beach and pier are still a delight, but in 2004 no parent would let their 10 year old ride the bus to the beach and there are no harbor seals left, just stingrays. Lots of rays, as they breed at Seal Beach now. What happened to the seals?

heee heee heee... I am not at home. I am working the door taking $ from folks wanting to enter Alex's Bar. The regular door/$ guy, Johnny, is on vacation, and I am standing in or sitting in his place.

Here's the best part, after much talking about it, we have a wi-fi router. Alex has been vacilitating between making it a marketing point or just letting friends know about the Wi-Fi. I am voting that we give out the authenification code with a drink to get students and other folk in here rather than going to Portfolio. ;op

Boing Boing kindly posted and linked to this Tech News article about a new AT&T Wireless' 3G service roll out that will have unlimited internet with your wireless service for $25.

AT&T Wireless will launch its third-generation or "3G" mobile phone service capable of transmitting e-mail, pictures, and video at high speed in four cities -- San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix and Detroit, the sources told Reuters.

The company will offer the data service at a fixed all-you-can-use rate of about $25 a month to consumers and $80 a month to corporate customers, one of the sources said.

"We're on track to deliver the 3G services before the end of the year," AT&T Wireless spokesman Ritch Blasi told Reuters, but he declined to address the specific timing.

As I wrote in May, I wanted to use my birthday $$ to buy a Palm Treo 600 but due to my current cell provider's (AT&T Wireless) change in plans and service mid-April I was unable to do so. After a bit of a meltdown at the AT&T store, a lot of research, and a large meltdown on a AT&T outsourced customer service person, I discovered that the current AT&T plans would not work with how I wanted to use the Treo 600 PDA/Camera phone.

From CNN.com tonight:

Archaeologists find 300-year-old wine cellar

Eight glass bottles have been unearthed in a brick-walled space that may have been the wine cellar of a house dating from the close of the 1600s in Jamestown.

The big question is if they found the corks in tact and wine in the bottles what would the wine taste like after 300 years? A few years back a bottle from the mid-1700s was opened and apparently tasted like vinegar. Yet, 1843 Château d’Yquem is still prized in some quarters.

On the Left pop-up photo, we have three very Pampered Pups... three malteses with long groomed hair in a Volkswagen van as spied by me in Tustin yesterday.

On the Right pop-up photo, we have Mr. Scruffy McDoglet... a very punk rock maltese with short spiky hair that likes to dread up.

What I can't figure out is how do pampered maltese owners keep up with their dog's hair? I shampoo, condition (with Biolage, no less), comb out, and keep short Scruffy's hair, to no avail. Scruffy is active, mischievious, and happy. I can't imagine him with long fancy, Maltese hair. More like, I can't imagine my brother Joe and I keeping up with Scruffy's hair.

On another Pup note: Jon Katz talking about Dogs and his new book, The New Work of Dogs : Tending to Life, Love, and Family, on Fresh Air.

On Saturday evening at 7pm, I met up with Erika at the Standard Hotel in downtown LA for the "Sent" photo exhibition. Xeni Jardin and the SixSpace Gallery put together the first ever cell phone camera photo exhibit. It was wonderful.

The "Sent" exhibition will be up only this week at the Standard until Saturday, but can also be found online at the SentOnline site. The curators had printed out the photos of the invited cell phone artists and lined them up in 6 or so rows on one wall of the Burnette conference room. The online submissions were served slide show style by four monitors along another wall. Very minimalistic, but it showcased the images and brought their beauty into sharp focus.

After meeting Xeni and having a small chat with Darcy, Erika and I went downstairs to the outside patio. I looked up and saw a very tall glass building shooting up into the still bright evening sky in contrast to the calm Japanese aestethic of the patio. I had to take a few photos.

CNN.com reported the following yesterday:

U.S. officials have discussed the idea of postponing Election Day in the event of a terrorist attack on or about that day, a Homeland Security Department spokesman said Sunday.

No! The Constitution of the United States of America states that we vote on the first Tuesday in the month of November every fourth year. Our best way to combat terrorism or internal GOP corruption is to stand firm, stand straight, and stand tall by voting on Tues. November 2, 2004 regardless. Democracy is waged in all the little precincts all over the nation, democracy is not waged with fear.

To quote Mr. Paul Hewson (aka Bono) from his May 19, 2004 commencement address at the University of Pennsylvannia:

Me, I'm in love with this country called America. I'm a huge fan of America, I'm one of those annoying fans, you know the ones that read the CD notes and follow you into bathrooms and ask you all kinds of annoying questions about why you didn't live up to thatŠ.

I'm that kind of fan. I read the Declaration of Independence and I've read the Constitution of the United States, and they are some liner notes, dude. As I said yesterday I made my pilgrimage to Independence Hall, and I love America because America is not just a country, it's an idea. You see my country, Ireland, is a great country, but it's not an idea. America is an idea, but it's an idea that brings with it some baggage, like power brings responsibility. It's an idea that brings with it equality, but equality even though it's the highest calling, is the hardest to reach. The idea that anything is possible, that's one of the reasons why I'm a fan of America. It's like hey, look there's the moon up there, lets take a walk on it, bring back a piece of it. That's the kind of America that I'm a fan of.

In 1771 your founder Mr. Franklin spent three months in Ireland and Scotland to look at the relationship they had with England to see if this could be a model for America, whether America should follow their example and remain a part of the British Empire.

Franklin was deeply, deeply distressed by what he saw. In Ireland he saw how England had put a stranglehold on Irish trade, how absentee English landlords exploited Irish tenant farmers and how those farmers in Franklin's words "lived in retched hovels of mud and straw, were clothed in rags and subsisted chiefly on potatoes." Not exactly the American dream...

So instead of Ireland becoming a model for America, America became a model for Ireland in our own struggle for independence.

When the potatoes ran out, millions of Irish men, women and children packed their bags got on a boat and showed up right here. And we're still doing it. We're not even starving anymore, loads of potatoes. In fact if there's any Irish out there, I've breaking news from Dublin, the potato famine is over you can come home now. But why are we still showing up? Because we love the idea of America.

It is the responsibility of the Government of the United States of America, be it the Dept. of Justice or the Dept. of Homeland Security or the local police, to make sure that each and every citizen of the US who registered to vote can vote on Tues. Nov. 2, 2004 at their local precinct. If not, then we have to find a new name for this space, because we won't be America.

Photo Friday : Cool

The Alkaline Trio Bus : Dusk Sky in Ventura

Thanks to Bucky Boston, Nolan, and the Alkaline Trio gentlemen for the photo pass to Wed. July 7th's Warped Tour stop in Ventura.

Today the US Postal Service returned my rent checks and the torn envelope they went out in back to me in a plastic bag with a letter, that said:

July 7, 2004

Postal Customer

Re: Damage Mail

Dear Sir/Madam:

I apologize for the condition of the enclosed envelope you mailed at the Plaza Station in Orange, CA on or about July 6, 2004. [note: actually July 3rd]

Apparently, someone put "human excrement" in the collection box which covered approximately 37 pieces of out going mail. We have bagged each piece of damaged mail and returning it to you. Also, I have enclosed a 37 cent stamp so you can re-mail this item.

I recognize these are bills so you can copy this letter for your creditors. I'm requesting any late fees not be assessed to you for this was out of your control. If your ceditors need further information they can contact me at xxx-xxx-xxxx, [note: number x'd out by Jen] Monday thru Friday.

Again please accept my apology for the condition of your mail.

UGH!

Other than the local USPS customer service manager's inability to spell and grammar check his letter, the worst/repelling part of opening the large white envelope was the sight and smell of the enclosed plastic bag with the brown stained remnants of two rent checks. I entertained the possibility of taking a picture of it and posting it here, but decided to reproduce the apology letter instead.

How to explain this to the landlady? My other two big questions are what idiot decided to put shit in the mail box over Fourth of July weekend and why did this person think it would be a fine thing to do?

Whenever the tube bird feeder in the backyard runs out of seed, there is at least one male house finch who will sit on a perch pecking the plastic for over 10 minutes at a go, as if the pecking will fill more seed into the feeder...

...goes to the Oak Tree that is just left of the Main Stage area, if you are facing the stage and watching the bands.

This particular grand, old california canyon oak, at Oak Canyon Ranch adjacent to Irvine Lake, stretches our over 100 feet in every direction and provided shade for over 300 people most of the day on Saturday. At past Hootenannies, many of my friends spent most of the day parked on blankets or towels under this tree. Long may it live!

...goes to the Oak Tree that is just left of the Main Stage area, if you are facing the stage and watching the bands.

This particular grand, old california coastal oak, at Oak Canyon Ranch adjacent to Irvine Lake, stretches our over 100 feet in every direction and provided shade for over 300 people most of the day on Saturday. At past Hootenannies, many of my friends spent most of the day parked on blankets or towels under this tree. Long may it live!

About 2 or so weeks ago, I was reading Tom Coates' Plasticbag and made a silly comment (due to lateness of the hour and the glass of Sangre de Toro I was drinking). Tom sent me an invite to Gmail and requested the following:

I hope you enjoy it - and you'll probably find in a couple of weeks that you can invite some people as well. Could I ask that once you've give a couple to friends and family, you give the last one to a complete stranger who says something funny on the internet?

Thanks!

Tom

Thank you, Tom! And he was right, after two weeks on the Gmail system, I now have invites to give out.

So, my faithful readers and folks who just tripped in via a search engine, make a good funny comment or tell a good funny story, and I will give a few Gmail invites out.