You know those jacked up shopping carts you get every once in a while at the supermarket? You know the one--turns to one side, doesn't turn at all, takes all your might just to get it moving from a stand still position. Don't call those carts buggy, call them feature-rich.
We've talked about DJ Shadow before but I haven't seen the guy in years. Well, Wednesday night was the local premiere of his forthcoming movie, In Tune and On Time and i was lucky enough to be on the guest list. I'd assumed I wouldn't be going because, as you read below I was to be a father to a brand-spanking-new daughter that day. Well, wifey is cool enough to understand that no new baby means this hip-hop-head-in-daddy-clothing can still make it to the flick. Ring, ring Hasan's in (we daddy's need to stick together ya know) and we meet at the Lumiere Theatre in the heart of San Francisco (one of about four hearts Frisco's got). Oh, they changed the theatre to the Embarcaderro? No sweat..cab it up town and $7 later we're at the end of a mondo line. We're on the guest list so I'm not worried about the fact that the wind is turning my face into stretched leather...the view from the base of the Transamaerica Building makes up for that. What I do worry about was the fact that they stopped letting people into the theatre with a line of only abut 20 of us left.
As we stood in disbelief, DJ Shadow walked out to personally apologize to us. I called "Josh" and he turned to look at me. "Who the hell are you", he thought. "Steve's Pizza", I said. "No waaaay! Doooope!" We caught up a bit, he signed a poster that he grabbed from a nearby box ("The least I can do about this ") and we were off to walk to North Beach where two latte's from Greco awaited Hesh and I. On the way we saw Chief Xcel from Blackalicious ("Davis?! No way, right on"). Davis holds a special place in my heart for the connections and memories made there. It oughta hold a place in all hip-hop heads minds as well as some of the best hip-hop around today had its genesis there.
Written while listening to Fevered from the album "Logic Will Break Your Heart" by The Stills
So most of you know that we're waiting for #2 to come out. And by "come out" I mean we had a scheduled C-section. And by "#2" I mean our daughter, hitherto to be referred to in the somewhat less objective Sophie (a working title). So we're scheduled to have this kid on May 26th ("Is 8:30 good for you?") enjoying the predictability that my wife's pelvic geometry brings to the birthing process. Well, it turns out that a lot of people were having babies on May 26th. So many, in fact, that the nurse from L&D (Labor and Delivery for those playing the home version) called us @ 5:50a.m. to give us the news. Mind you, #1 (or "Luc" for the sticklers) was at his grandparents' house so this was a chance for us to have an interrupted morning of sleep, the first in as long as I can remember. Thank you Mrs. Nurse-from-Stanford-Hospital, thank you for not giving us that morning of sleep...and with such terrific news too! ("I'm afraid we have no beds for you. No, I don't know yet when you can be rescheduled. Yes, I realize you're upset. No, I will not stick this phone up my [bleep]."
So we were bumped unceremoniously. No coupon for a free C-section or an upgrade to First Class (think wet nurses from Baywatch for my personal image of what that might look like). A new time of Monday @ 12:30 was given. You can be sure to get the updates here if you're interested. If I am conscious enough I may even post pictures/ movie clips.
OK, it's the only DVD player ad I can ever recall seeing, but still...it's the best.
Dream Sequence (Intro) from the album Later That Day... by Lyrics Born
In these extremely digitized times it becomes easy to take books for granted. I had a history teacher in middle school who, when the new textbooks arrived, spent the whole class teaching us how to open them correctly for the first time to ensure they'd provide years of service. At the time I thought Mr. Highpants (as he shall be called for his most distinguishing characteristic...and because I can't remember his name) was a complete nut. In retrospect, he was just keeping it real. God bless your Mr. Highpants.
Written while listening to Ani DiFranco shred on MBE on KCRW.
"Broken down by region, this unusual guide features 70 aerial photographs; a fold-out map of North America showing major flight paths; profiles of each region covering its landforms, waterways, and cities; tips on spotting major sights, such as the Northern Lights, the Grand Canyon, and Disney World; tips on spotting not-so-major sights such as prisons, mines, and Interstates; and straightforward, friendly text on cloud shapes, weather patterns, the continent's history, and more."
Written while listening to Last Song On Blue Tape from the album "Son Of Evil Reindeer" by The Reindeer Section
Written while listening to Spanish Grease from the album "Verve Remixed" by Various Artists
Written while listening to P.S. by Film School
Read it all here.
"But, based on its track record, we give Google's revolution a shot. After all, the company managed to solve the biggest problem vexing the Internet: simply finding stuff. Not lost, hidden documents tucked on a server in Budapest, but ordinary stuff. Remember how much search used to stink? Remember the days where Web-site rankings were dominated by pages with spamlike banks of keywords at the bottom? Remember when a clever page was one that hid its endless repeated keywords in white text on a white background? Remember RealNames, whose business existed principally to sell companies a spot in search results for their own name, because otherwise it might not show up? Google washed all this muck away -- we've never met anybody who didn't adopt Google as their search engine the day they discovered it. (In fact, we once said we'd pay for it.)"
Written while listening to Jimmy T from the album "David Axelrod" by David Axelrod
Written while listening to How To Be Dead from the album "Germany 1990" by Snow Patrol
Written while listening to Country Gentleman from the album "Primitive" by Ambulance Ltd.
