The Kicker

Since yesterday, it's snowed 2 1/2 feet at Tahoe. In the next two days, they're predicting 4-7 additional feet.

For a total of up to 9 1/2 feet of snow.

I wouldn't believe it either, but read this.

Great for skiing but not good for getting there. All roads are closed. It's raining in San Francisco. 130,000 people are dead in Asia.

2004, go away!

Tsunami Mayhem

They're saying the tsunami death toll may top 100,000. That's 30 times the deaths from 9/11 - so far. This is easily the worst tragedy I've lived through--it's absolutely horrific.

I gave some money to the Red Cross in Asia via Amazon.com this morning, and I recommend that you do too.

Fascinating Tsunami Graphic

Click here.

Kicking Out 2004

2004 was a bad year. Bush won. Iraq continues. A tsunami kills more people by the second in Asia. There was little in the way of memorable music or movies. My car was broken into several times. Michael Jackson appears to be headed for jail. The Redskins stink and Joe Gibbs calls plays like an old geezer. I worked for a criminal and a liar for most of the year.

It's time to move on.

But before we toss 2004 aside like the cheap, unfulfilling fling that it is, I'm rolling out the best of 2004, for me personally and for the rest of you folks too.

2004 Was a Banner Year for Travel
I went to Boston, New York, DC, Rome, Florence, Pienza, Siena, Pisa, Venice, Tokyo, Yokohama, Waikiki, Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Area 51, Tahoe, Rosarito, Santa Cruz, Capitola, Mendocino, Fort Bragg--and that's all I can remember off the top of my head. Amazing, amazing voyages.

2004 Was a Good Year Not to Go to Law School
I am pretty sure that I would hate life if I had gone as planned.

2004 Was a Good Year for the Red Sox
Too bad most of their fans are loud and obnoxious.

And now for my personal Best of lists..
(Note: not all these movies, films, music came OUT in 2004, but I experienced them for the first time this year)

Best Book
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. I was skeptical when I read the boring-seeming back cover, but I couldn't put this one down. What writing! It's everything a book should be, and covers up some questionable plot decisions--but I didn't care. The writing was just that good. If you've seen the movie (I haven't, but I've heard it's bad), give the book a shot.

Best Movie
Cold Mountain. I had no expectations for this one, but I really enjoyed it. There are a few overly stereotyped characters, but the story is very well done, and Jude Law and Nicole Kidman were outstanding. The Aviator was very good too, but I honestly don't think either of them were as good as last year's selection. But that's 2004 for you: sucky.

Best Music
Usher is the only bright spot on a dark, typhoon of a year. Burn is easily the best song of the year. Even though my car stereo was stolen, I haven't missed all the stinky music (except for NPR and my boys at KPOO).

Best Sports Moment
Peyton Manning's offensive explosion. This guy loves football and is unstoppable. It's a privilege to watch this kind of magic on television - and he calls his own plays!

Best Political Move
Dick Cheney's position on gay marriage. I hate the guy, but it was a stand-up thing to do, and took a lot of guts considering his constituency. That a Republican made this list shows you how wishy-washy national scale Democrats are - at least this guy says what he really thinks.

Best Girlfriend
Karla!!!!

more to come, as I think it up...

Doing the Puddy Thing

So last night on my plane ride back to Oakland, the woman beside me did not read, watch television, talk, or sleep. She merely stared at the moving map on the default JetBlue programming for six straight hours, pausing for one bathroom break and periodic snacks.

Remember that Seinfeld where Elaine and Puddy are on the 22-hour flight from Finland and Puddy drives Elaine crazy by staring straight ahead and doing nothing? I absolutely agree with Elaine- what a weirdo!

But not nearly as annoying as the lady across the aisle who puked upon landing.

Wes Anderson, Divider

So last night I went to see The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou in Silver Spring, MD. Silver Spring used to be quite a dump, but they've really rebuilt the place (it actually felt a bit like Tokyo, but without all the Japanese people), and the new movie theater was doing a lot of business. Waiting in line, it was a very diverse group--out of about 200 people in the lobby, I'd say it was 60% black, 20% Hispanic, and 20% white.

The team in The Life Aquatic, however, was 100% white. It was strange--do only white people like Bill Murray and smarmy, self-smart films? I have no idea, but it was weird.

As for the movie itself? Pretty good, actually, probably the best Wes Anderson film yet.

It Can't Buy You a Glimpse of Peter Jenning's Car

But $20 in the right hands can get you some interesting stuff...read more here.

Topical News

1. The Washington state gubernatorial race may be decided by EIGHT VOTES!! Is anybody paying attention to this?

2. A girl is suing her school district for not letting her wear a Confederate flag dress to her high school prom. I'm not sure how I feel about this, as it's clearly racist but there's also free speech to consider. What's undebatable, though, are the ridiculous facts of this case:

a) The girl's lawyer's name is Earl-Ray Neal. With the hyphen! Who's ever seen a hyphenated FIRST NAME before! The South is always good for comic relief, I tell ya.

b) The girl had been working on the dress design for four years. Sugar, if it takes you four years to put the ol' stars n' bars on a dress, you've got problems even worse than your fashion sense.

Keystone Koppers, Part II

More from the San Francisco Park Police Station:

Thursday, December 16, 2004; 5:47 PM, Attempted Armed Robbery with a Gun, Cole and Fulton Street. A 24 year old Asian female having exited a Muni bus was walking to her apartment when her way was blocked by a black male in his early 20's, 6 feet tall, 175 pounds, with black hair and a small amount of facial hair and wearing a dark jacket. The victim told the police that the man brandished a black gun and demanded she give him her money and her purse. Victim told police she refused the robber's demands telling him she did not think his gun was real. The robber apologized claiming he was a hungry, jobless drug addict. He admitted the gun was fake and stated he never intended to hurt her. The victim only reported incident after being encouraged to do so by her friends.

Saturday, December 18, 2004, 06:25 AM, Auto Booster Arrest for Possession of Burglary Tools and Outstanding Warrants, 237 Downey Street. Officer Martin Loo responded to several calls from citizens complaining about a man on a kid's bicycle looking into their parked cars with a flashlight. The officer located the man and quickly dispatched him to jail on discovering he had outstanding warrants, drug paraphernalia and burglary tools commonly used to break into locked vehicles. This same man was arrested on Friday at Baker and Oak Street for breaking into someone's car but let go when that victim declined to press charges. Apparently the man has a difficult time grasping the merits of honest living.

The Thing That Should Not Be

At 5-9, the Redskins have a shot at the playoffs. It involves beating Dallas though, which has not been easy for the past few years, but it could happen. Which is terribly unfair, unjust, and absurd--but still I root for it!

Bonus points to anybody who recognizes the song title above...

Aviate

I made a rare appearance at the movie theater last weekend. Many of you who know me are well aware of my preference for DVDs, as they provide close-to-the-same video and audio enjoyment of a film without pesky loud other people and the social pressure to be clothed and with unlimited time out for bathroom and snack breaks at a fraction of the cost. A win-win situation by all.

But I hustled down to the theater on Friday to see The Aviator, the latest Scorsese film starring Leo. Now, I've never liked a Leo film before, and I hated Gangs of New York. But I loved The Aviator. It's a biopic of Howard Hughes, of whom I knew virtually nothing aside from the medical center. But he's a fascinating guy who lived an exciting life--never a dull moment. And, of course, he went crazy--some of the less believable scenes were the crazy scenes, but I think it's tough for Leo to pull off any role in which he's supposed to look over 15.

The true barometers of this film's success: it was three hours long, and I was surprised it was over--I was engrossed, and I generally can't stand long movies. Also, Colin Stewart disliked it, and if Colin doesn't like a movie it's gotta be good!

Finally, a comprehensive look at the Pop-Soda Dialectic

Here!

Pushing It Through

Washington DC is probably going to lose the new baseball team. A mega-retard from the DC City Council, Linda Cropp, decided at the last second to add an amendment changing several conditions from those to which MLB had agreed--and nine other mega-retards agreed with her. Read the description here. Because of this, the baseball team is most likely not going to stick around unless they make a change, which is unlikely.

Now, as the son of an elected official, I don't pile on easily. But this lady doesn't understand the most important thing about local politics--a lot of times you just have to push something through. People will always complain, the price tag may often get too high, but it's almost always worth getting the deal done for big public projects. They're investments. Some examples:

1. In Washington, DC, there is no Georgetown Metro Station. Thus, it is impossible to get to/from Georgetown and parking is terrible. Many years ago, Georgetown residents bonded together and refused to let them put in a Metro stop--and it definitely has made things suck.

2. In Seattle there is no mass transit system other than buses. Therefore, getting around is slow and annoying. There have been several initiatives to put in a monorail system, but every time somebody complains and a neighborhood group gets upset and there are meetings and people get scared and nothing happens. So people continue to drive and take the slow bus and it just stinks getting around.

3. Boston put all of the highway downtown underground in what is popularly known as the Big Dig. Although largely financed by federal money, nevertheless this project has made downtown Boston a nice place again, with no highway jams or noise and plenty of open, pedestrian-friendly space. I was in Boston last spring, and the only time there was no traffic was when I was underground in the Big Dig. The project was over budget and took a long time, but it's a lot better and worth it.

4. California voters (myself included) just passed a stem cell initiative that will provide $3 billion for medical research. Not only will this create business and industry for California, this will make California a leader in the latest biomedical research, will almost certainly save lives, and may be instrumental in finding a cure for AIDS or cancer. It's expensive, but it's gonna pay off.

Baseball promises to revitalize a crappy part of Washington DC, restore the heritage of America's pastime to the nation's capital, and save residents a commute to Baltimore to root for a terribly-managed team. It needs to get done, and if they blow it because of stupid bickering over relatively small numbers, it'll be a tremendous mistake.

The Emperor Norton Bridge

The San Francisco Supervisors finally did something right--they're trying to rename the Bay Bridge the Emperor Norton Bridge. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Emp, he was a crazy failed businessman who declared himself US Emperor and regularly issued proclamations and printed money with his picture on it (which was accepted by SF merchants). Click on the link above for more.

In related bridge news, Arnold is trying to replace the architecturally inspiring renovation for the Bay/Norton Bridge with an uglier, mildly cheaper version. To which I say: don't do it! Nobody will remember a couple million saved, but everybody will curse driving over an ugly bridge.

A Guy I Could Vote For

The other day, John McCain said he has "no confidence" in Donald Rumsfeld due to the poor job done in Iraq.

"No confidence." Not "I think the Secretary of Defense has made some errors in judgment" or "recent events indicate that Mr. Rumsfeld clearly misevaluated the troop strength required in post-war Iraq," but "no confidence." Simple. Understandable. Correct.

That is enormous. Zero other Republicans, and few Democrats, have gone so far as to say they have no confidence in the Secretary of Defense. Sure, they might say it in private (how could you NOT say something to that effect in private after this war has been bungled), but only one guy has had the guts to say it on the big stage, and it's John McCain. Once again, McCain demonstrates that he puts what he thinks is right above toeing the company line.

Now I'm not sure that's what we always want in a president. Sometimes it's important to hold your tongue. But you've got to like a guy who won't apologize for bad behavior, who's willing to take another look at mistakes, who's looking for some accountability. I disagree with McCain on some things: he's pro-life and voted against Martin Luther King Day for some stupid reason. But I'm pretty sure I can count on him, the vast majority of the time, to do the right thing and stand up to corporate influences. Which is more than I can say for any Democrat other than John Edwards and Barack Obama.

Cross-Eyed Fool

So I'm walking to the car last night and everything is really blurry. I can't walk straight. My head hurts. It's like I drank a case of PBR, but I hadn't. I was mystified.

Then I realized--maybe I put my contacts in wrong?

I was dubious, as that has never happened in the 12+ years of contact-lens wearing, but I ducked into somebody's front porch and switched contact lenses just to be safe. Voila--the world became sharp again.

Weird.

The Midas Touch

Big shoutout to Midas this week. Unbeknownst to me, Midas guarantees their brake pads for life. Which means if you use your brakes a ton because you live in a city with zillions of hills, like me, or even in a place with zero hills, like all you poor Midwesterners out there, you save about $120 when you bring your car into the shop for repairs.

Think about it: brake pads aren't just any product. They're EXPECTED to wear out. It's like slapping a guarantee on sneaker soles or a toothbrush--very cool.

*This message was not sponsored by any company, and is the honest, unadulterated opinion of the moderator.

Vulgar Display of Power

By now you've probably heard the news: Dimebag Darrell, former Pantera guitarist, was shot to death at point blank range during a concert with his new band. Apparently the fan was yelling something about how Dimebag shouldn't have broken up Pantera and then decided to rush the stage and kill four people before a brave cop in the area came in and shot the lunatic.

Sick, sick, sick, and straight out of a movie.

Now, obviously Pantera shouldn't have broken up. They were an awesome band, and the above CD absolutely dominated during high school. "Stronger Than All" is one of those great ass-kicking songs that will always hold a special place in my heart, and it's too bad they decided to end the team.

Of course, that in no way excuses the crazy murdering fan. Seems we've had a lot of trouble with "fans" recently, the recent brouhaha in Detroit coming to mind. The Dimebag shooting surprises me in particular, because at nearly every metal show I've been to (and I've been to a few), a full patdown has been involved. I think they do that at rock shows and rap shows now too. And idiots like this guy still pulls this off.

I predict that in the next five years a major athlete will get killed at a game. Probably basketball or baseball, as it's easiest to get to the players (and nobody cares about hockey and NFL players have pads and helmets). There are no x-ray machines or patdowns at games - seriously, if you hate Kobe, what's to stop you from walking into the Staples Center and blowing him away?

Weirdest part of it--Dimebag was killed twenty-four years to the day after John Lennon was shot.

Does This Really Surprise Anybody?

This image totally sucks, so click here for a better view.

The sad truth....

The Dude Report Is In

Verdict: We Rouck!

The Dumbest Editorial Ever

I, along with several readers of this site, am a graduate of the International Baccalaureate program. Like almost all of my friends, I found this program challenging, intellectually provocative, and deeply rewarding. Also like almost all of my friends, I went on to a tough college and found it, on the whole, easier than high school. IB is a good thing.

This idiot article quotes a woman who says the IB program "promotes socialism, disarmament, radical environmentalism and moral relativism, while attempting to undermine Christian religious values and national sovereignty." Which is totally ridiculous. I haven't even recycled since last week's PETA disarmament meeting down on Comrade Vitalefsky's commune.

And who do you expect would publish such swill? Who else- Republican/Religious mouthpiece The Washington Times.

A Great Day for Sports

Today the Washington Redskins annihilated the New York Giants. Final score 31-7, but it wasn't that close. The defense was dominant as always, but the offense blew away the Giants' defense (FINALLY!) and it was really no contest. The Giants got their 7 off a kickoff return in which there was a blatant penalty, but it didn't matter. This was easily the most enjoyable Redskins game that I've viewed in three years.

Not to be overlooked was the halftime PIG (variant of HORSE) game played at the Duboce Park basketball courts. Despite not handling a basketball for over a year, I handily dispatched challenger Colin Stewart with my deep basket of tricks, including a left-handed hook shot from the top of the key and a granny shot from the corner (swish!).

I've Got the Heebie Jeebies

I cancelled my gym membership and now I can't sit still. I'm taking the longer, hillier way to work on my bike, I went for a two-hour hard ride over the Marin Headlands this morning, and I even went for a hated run with the dog last week- and I was dragging him by the end of it. I can't focus, I can't sit in one place--I'm bursting with energy!

The obvious answer is to find a new gym. Sadly, my last, thief-ridden gym was about 40% the price of everywhere else. For good reason. Still, I'm gonna take December off to think things over and go bonkers indoors.

Keystone Koppers

After my windshield was smashed last year, I reached out to the SFPD, specifically so they would shake down the thugs who live at the bottom of my street and throw household objects at passerby (I've personally been the target of an orange, a half-consumed Coke can, an unopened container of yogurt, and an empty bottle). No arrests so far, but the cops have taken the extraordinarily safety-conscious step of putting me on their weekly email list, in which they detail all the crime in the area over the last week.

These reports are pure genius. I don't know who writes them, but she could definitely do a better job with a novel than, say, Tom Wolfe. Some of my favorites are below.

In the immortal word of Dave Barry, I am not making this up...

Monday, November 22, 2004 1:12 AM Burglary Hot Prowl Arrest: 560 Scott Street. While a single female was sleeping safely in her apartment a desperate cat burglar broke into her apartment and stole her backpack full of the sleeping victim's personal items including her checkbook. As the burglar was making his getaway on the apartment building fire escape, he awoke an armed and dangerous resident in the apartment below the victim's. The awakened apartment dweller immediately grabbed his semi-automatic handgun and at gunpoint placed the burglar under citizen arrest. When the police arrived to take custody of the burglar, they asked him what he was doing on the fire escape, the cat burglar relied; "I was trying to figure out how to let the ladder down quietly." The police on searching the stolen backpack found victim's checkbook and address. The sleeping victim was gently awakened and her property returned to her.

Monday, November 22, 2004 4:03 PM Possession of Marijuana for Sale Arrest: Stanyan and Haight Street. Park Plainclothes Officers observed a drug dealer checking out his inventory of pot and relieved him of his hallucinogenic stash, cash and trash. Another dealer of the countless dealers booked at Park Police Station goes down in flames.

Tuesday, November 23, 2004 11:50 AM Auto Theft, Possession of Stolen Property, Narcotics Violations and Felony Parole Warrant Arrest: 1669 Haight Street. Our dynamite duo plainclothes Officers Matt Gardner and Bob Duffield teamed with the legendary Haight Street beat Officer Dante Giovannelli responded to a report of a man being passed out at the wheel of a parked vehicle for several hours. Prior to arriving at the man's location they checked the status of the parked vehicle, which came back as stolen. On their arrival they found the man slumped over in the driver's seat. They awoke the man who claimed the car belonged to "friends", but he could not remember their name or address. Further investigation uncovered that this sleeper was a fugitive wanted on a no bail felony warrant for parole violation. The man had in his possession a large quantity of methamphetamine and marijuana. In the process of recovering the stolen vehicle the Officers also discovered a large cache of stolen property. In an accommodating spirit the Officers made sure the sleeper would have plenty of time to catch up on his slumber in the slammer.

Thursday, November 25, 2004 4:45pm Attempted Robbery, Arrest Made: 600 Block of Stanyan Street. An early New Years celebrant entered a local grocery store and was not deterred by the fact that he had no means to pay for libations. Alas, he did have a backpack and concealed four expensive bottles of champagne and, needing something to go with it, chocolate-milk inside. After he exited the store, a security guard attempted to place him under citizen's arrest. The subject lost his party spirit and repeatedly struck the security officer in an attempt to get away. Store employees came to the aid of the guards and were able to detain the jerk until police arrived. The guard suffered only minor injuries.

Sunday, November 28, 2004 5:20p.m. Felony Drug Arrest: 1800 Block of Haight Street. The same astute plainclothes officers were once again offered drugs for purchase which they accepted. Yet another unlicensed pharmacist was removed from the street.

Why I Love America

All of my Christmas shopping was completed today, in under an hour, from my computer.

I paid a total of $1 in shipping from 3 different sources.

The Europeans can whine about the US all they want, but until they give me the December 24th guarantee I'll stick to the land of Amazon.com for holiday shopping, thanks!