Glancing Blows

Adultery Fridays

It's a rainy, horrible, no-good day in SF.  We can't complain much, though, because it's been gorgeous up to now, California desperately needs the precipitation, and the skiiers/snowboarders have gotten the fuzzy end of the lollipop this season.  Today was a great time, however, to bake some bread, light up the Merlot-scented candles on our hearth (our fireplace, tragically, doesn't work...#firstworldwoes, I know), and learn a little bit more about totally drug resistant/extensively drug resistant tuberculosis.  Yummy.  Take a look at my new post on the matter over at the Foreign Policy Association.  And kids, the next time the doctor tells you to take all of your antibiotics (or other meds), for the sake of a safe and drug-resistance-free world, do it.

Glancing Blows

Glancing Blows

Link Day

First, heartening news from the Obama administration!  Secretary of State Clinton announced yesterday that the US government would do more to protect and promote the rights of LGBT(QI...and so on) people around the world.  In remarks to the UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Council, not to be confused with the UNHCR, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees...it gets me every time) Secretary Clinton said: "Some have suggested that gay rights and human rights are separate and distinct, but in fact they are one and the same."  Despite President Obama's caginess on his personal stance on gay marriage, this administration has done a lot for gay rights in the US and, with hope, now abroad as well.  I love you, Hils & Barry!

The SF-based music blog Positive Destruction put together a list of their 15 fave (local) albums of 2011, which include a bunch of sample tracks.  Take a listen--you might find something you like.  Oh, and if you haven't checked it out already, Turntable Kitchen's November Mixtape is pretty awesome.  Come for the surf-canyon-electronica-pop blends, stay for the Eurythmics cover.  Now that I've moved my turntable up from Ojai and (re)cut my teeth on a kickass show from The National (pictured above), I anticipate that this will be an expensive year, music-wise. 

 Courtesy of Pajiba, here's a beautiful series of photos of paint dropped into water.  Jellyfish-explosion hybrids.

I thought I had a bit more than that to share, but with Mercury in retrograde, I can barely focus on anything.  I don't go in for astrology, but after I read up a bit, these past few weeks make so much more sense.  I was contemplating getting checked out for ADD.  There's one more week of this nonsense, so look out.  FYI, I can't really tell if I'm joking about all of this or not. 

Glancing Blows

Glancing Blows

I know I've been out of commission.  There were friends, fish, camping trips, drives to the Southland, and lots of turkey in the way.  Things'll normalize soon.

Glancing Blows

Glancing Blows

Adultery Fridays

New post at Foreign Policy Blogs, on World Pneumonia Day. 


It's another cold, rainy Friday in SF...Although I belatedly realized that the building has turned on our heaters, which would have saved me a lot of shivery, two-blanket grief, as a Southern Californian, all I can say is that it's icky.  And unnatural.  OK, it's not that bad.  I did spend a good portion of yesterday outside at the Wave Organ.  Which is awesome.  If you can find it.

Glancing Blows

Halloween in Lo-Fi

There are Hipstamatic/iPhoneography haters out there.  That's OK, I get it.  I don't own a lomography camera, I haven't taken an actual film-film photo in a long while (though that will change soon...I'm going to gather up my old Minolta from Ojai on my next trip down the coast), and it's kind of cheating to use a program that does it all for you.  It's also a ton of fun to use apps like Hipstamatic.  And it requires some expertise, as you will see from the washed-out, weirdly lit, and otherwise amateur shots below.  I'm getting better at it.  However, on Halloween, when everyone (/many adults) have had a bit too much to drink, have spent too much time sweating their make-up off, and are fighting a food/sugar coma, it's better to do things old-school.  With an iPhone.  No hi-def, ultra-pixelated for us.  Haven't you seen the 30 Rock with the HD camera (sorry, no link, go watch episode seven, season four)?  So, in closing, I don't care.

In the following images, you will see two Jeff Lebowskis (with Caucasians), a number of characters from Wet Hot American Summer, views from a Russian Hill rooftop, a one-percenter lurking in the background ("But I have yacht payments!"), a jeans-into-jorts incident, a honey dadger (she don't care), and Egon Spengler, Ghostbuster.