Thursday, October 25, 2007

Mr. Incredible

I'm off to San Diego in a couple of days. I hope that the smoke has mostly cleared by then, but in any case, from the news reports I've seen, the downtown and waterfront areas weren't too badly affected by all the fires. I get there late Saturday night, with lots of time to get ready for the Baja Ha-Ha kickoff costume party on Sunday night. Due to popular demand, I'm
resurrecting Mr. Incredible. For those of you who've forgotten about him, are still trying to forget, or never had the pleasure, here he is in all his glory!
The Baja Ha-Ha race starts on Monday. Here's a link if you want to check out what the Baja Ha-Ha is all about. http://www.baja-haha.com/ The 'Can't Believe We Cheated Death Again' party in Cabo is on November 8th, and assuming that I actually did cheat death once again, I'll be flying back to San Diego on the 9th for a week of sailing classes with Bonnie at the local J-School. We'll be back in Seattle November 17th.
With all the plane flights and airport down time, I should be able to catch up on some reading. I plan on taking Atonement, by Ian McEwan, and 1491 by Charles C. Mann. I started the year off reading like crazy, but for whatever reason, I haven't read a whole lot for the last few months. One book I did read in the last couple of weeks is On Chesil Beach, by Ian McEwan. It's a short book, more of a novella really, but what a delicious read! The story is centers on the painful wedding night of an English couple in the bygone era of the early sixties, a few years before the "sexual revolution" of the late 60's and 70's. It's a story of love, lost love and lost innocence. It certainly isn't a happily-ever-after story, but it is remarkedly well-told, and one I'd heartily recommend.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Musical Weekend

One of the many things I liked about Bonnie when we started hanging out together was the fact that she loved the same artists that I did, even though she'd never heard them or heard of them before she met me. She absolutely loved Greg Brown, Fred Eaglesmith (especially the train songs), Paul Kelly, Chris Smither, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Terry Allen, and almost any other male artist I played. For some reason, she wasn't so impressed with my taste in female artists, but I guess there have to be some disagreements just to mix things up. In any case, we managed to see two of our favorites just a few days apart. Last Thursday, Fred was playing at my favorite Seattle musical venue, the Tractor Tavern. Actually it was more like Fred "lite." He appeared with a drummer, a bass player, a guitar player, and himself. In spite of the fact he had no mandolins, no fiddles, no Washboard Hank, and only played a couple of train songs, he put on a pretty good show. He was in fine humor, and unlike the last couple of times I saw him, didn't insult his fans too badly. He kept up a patter of dumb jokes and stories between songs that sometimes made me think he really wants to do stand-up, but all-in-all, a good time was had by all.

On Friday, we went to Portland to see Greg Brown at The Aladdin, an aging neighborhood theater that couldn't survive the competition from the mega-mall cinemas. He too put on a pretty good show, even though I thought the sound was a bit muddled, making it hard to follow his lyrics. He didn't play much that I was familiar with, but he's such a prolific writer that it's not surprising he's got lots of songs I never heard before.

While in Portland, we visited two old friends I hadn't seen in years, and a good friend of Bonnie's whom she's known forever. We had a couple of great meals at interesting restaurants. One was at Andina in the Pearl District. They advertised their food as Nuevo Peruvian, but no matter how it's labelled, the lamb shank I had was one of the best restaurant meals I've ever had. The other memorable meal was at Toro Bravo, a Spanish place that had interesting tapas, paellas, and other good food. I'm sure there are out-of-the-ordinary places to eat in Seattle too, and I don't eat out a whole lot, but I haven't been anywhere in Seattle that compares with those two establishments in Portland.

Portland is a great city that in many ways is more liveable than Seattle. It's more affordable, it has light rail transit, the scenery is great, the traffic isn't nearly as bad as Seattle's, and there's nothing in Seattle that compares to the Pearl District. But it's also 100 miles from salt water, so I'd have a lot harder time satisfying my boating addiction. When I find the perfect place to live, I'll be sure to let you know.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Home for a while

For a change, I'm home for more than a few days. It's kinda nice to have extended morning net-surfs; to watch the talking heads on cable TV; to catch up on reading; to have the occasional nap, and to see my kids and friends.

The news of the world isn't particularly good. Iraq, Burma and Sudan don't look good. North Korea looks a bit better. The US dollar continues its slide. There was even a brief blub on NPR this morning saying that the dollar had affected the illegal drug trade, making Canadian pot more expensive than its Mexican counterpart to American consumers. I'm surprised that the dollar isn't even lower, given the budget deficit, the trade deficit (not to mention the Bush brain cell deficit), the price of oil, and the never-ending war in Iraq.

Global warming continues with record setting-shrinkage of the Arctic ice pack, and on the other side of the world, an early start to the brush fire season in Australia. Permafrost in the Arctic is thawing, releasing methane into the atmoshpere as the biomass in the previously frozen muck melts. I fear that the tipping point has already been reached and that there's not much that can be done to stop global warming from accelerating beyond what most scientists predict. I used to think that my generation would be spared most of the effects of climate change, but I'm not so sure anymore. It's easy to be a pessimist at times like this. A pessimist is right most of the time, and he's happy when he's wrong.

On the US front, Obama can't seem to get any traction against Hillary. I'd take Obama, Edwards, or Richardson ahead of Clinton any day, but I have to admit that inspite of my visceral dislike of Hillary, she's better than anything the Republicans have to offer. Maybe the polls are wrong. I've read a couple of articles on the polling errors caused by reliance of pollsters on land-line telephones, and I'd like to think that Obama's support comes from the younger crowd who often don't even have land-line telephones. Both Megan and Caroline have only mobile phones, so they and people like them will never be polled. But I also have to admit that Obama hasn't fulfilled his early promise of a different sort of politician. I just hope that next year when I get to vote for the first time (unless I end up in Guantanamo, I should be a US citizen sometime this fall), I'll get to vote for someone I believe in. I'd hate to have to make the choice between the lesser of two evils, or some wag once said, the lesser of two weasels.

Bush vetoed an extension of S-Chip, a government financed health care program for children. It's only the second or third veto he's ever used, so it's hard to believe that fiscal responsiblity is his prime motivator. There is enough support in the Senate to override the veto, but support is weaker in the House. I hope the veto is overturned, but I do have some problems with the bill. The extension of benefits will suppposedly be financed by a federal tax on cigarettes. Even though smoking is a filthy disgusting habit with no redeeming social value, as a former smoker I have a lot of sympathy for those who do. Smokers are disproportionally working class (OK, white and black trash) who don't have much of a political constituency. As a result, the ever-increasing taxes on cigarettes are extremely regressive, hitting the people hardest who can least afford it. If healthcare is going to be financed by sin taxes, at least jack up the price of booze too. That way, chardonnay and cabernet aficionados will pay their fair share too.

My schedule for the next few months is starting to fill in. Next week is music week, with Fred Eaglesmith appearing in Seattle at the Tractor and Greg Brown at The Aladdin in Portland. At the end of the month, I'll be in a sailboat, racing from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas. Following the race, Bonnie and I be taking a week of instruction in sailboat racing (yeah, I know it's ass-backwards) in San Diego.

In the meantime, it's good to be home for a while. I may even find the time to finish my blog on Matthew. (I know you're all thrilled about that)