I like year long naps

Seriously. It's been exactly a year since I last posted anything?

"Anonymous" has been keeping tabs on me, obviously.

Do I start posting again? What do I write about now?

Hrm.

PS. Good to see all my YouTube videos are still intact! Maybe I'll start there...

After a long time away...

I am back.

More soon...

A bolt out of nowhere

Two days ago, after the conclusion of an insane week, I decided I needed to chill out by myself.

I parked my dad's car at Fort Mason and walked along the Marina Green, shoulders down and finally enjoying being home, albeit briefly since I was due to fly back to Arizona the very next day.

I spotted a sliver of beach and walked along it, ready to practice some black & white / sepia photography with the Golden Gate Bridge looming in the background.

As I knelt and was pressing the shutter, this little kid bolted out of nowhere, running past me as his mom chased him with her own camera.

I thought where I was in my head these days: Life's been crazy. Work's been nuts. I have no time. Mental and physical fitness have taken a back seat. Quite a few stressors abound, to say the least.

But I think this kid put it all into perspective:

Why worry?

In one way, I wish I was this young again, getting the simplest high just from running along a beach, not even noticing some random guy with his camera sitting right before him.

But in another way, I realize it's not too late now to pick myself up. I'm still too young to be completely cynical and beaten with life. Nor do I have it even remotely as bad as billions of other people who are worse off than I am.

It's time to put life back into an upswing.

So cheers, kid. For reminding me to loosen up. And also being part of one of my favorite pictures I've taken thus far.

Burnout

Apologies for taking a posting break.

I'm not burned out from blogging.

I'm burned out from just about everything else.

Will be back when I get my gears running again.

Cheers.

Flashback Friday 39: Thompson Twin Deathmatch 2008

That's right. A Thompson Twin Deathmatch. Because it's Friday and I feel like picking on a vulnerable English band.

So let's just say, hypothetically, that only one out of the four following Thompson Twins tracks ever existed on this here planet. You get to choose which one, of course, but in doing so you're pressing the "Permanently Delete" button on the other three.

I'm not saying your pick would be the only song in existence. I'm not even saying you'd have to listen to your pick all the time. It's just that, again, hypothetically speaking, your pick would be the only Thompson Twins song you'd have ever known. Whether that's a tortuous scenario for you to imagine is entirely up to you.

So, which track would it be?

Exhibit A

Thompson Twins - Hold Me Now

Exhibit B

Thompson Twins - King For A Day

Exhibit C

Thompson Twins - Lay Your Hands On Me

Exhibit D

Thompson Twins - Doctor Doctor

Considering that these songs sound almost exactly the same, the decision might be difficult. Of course, if you think the Thompson Twins bite the big one and don't give a rat's ass that any of these songs ever existed, then you could say "none" and be done with your day.

On a side note, does anyone ever remember the third member of this group? He always seems forgotten somehow.

Have a great weekend.

Tales of a Prescott street lamp

Ok. So I lied. No tales. Just shots of a random street lamp in Prescott this past weekend.

Looking west towards Thumb Butte:

Looking east towards the moon:

If you couldn't tell, this post is my easy way out of writing anything of substance today. Please forgive me, as hump day is here. Enjoy it.

Same lamp, taken 10 months ago:

When is separatism legitimate?

I was thinking more today about my previous post where I congratulated the Kosovars on their newfound nation. Because whereas the US recognized Kosovo's independence, the Serbs and the Russians have been fiercely resistant. Now one can argue that the Serbs deserved their nation being lopped off, piece by piece, for all of Milosevic's crimes in the 80's and 90's. But to the Serbs, Kosovo is thought of as the cradle of their civilization. To them, there is no question that Kosovo is an integral part of their country and their identity, regardless that the majority of the current population is Albanian and not Serb.

So my question is, what legitimizes Kosovar independence while so many other breakaway provinces get routinely ignored? Take Kashmir and Taiwan for example. The majority of the peoples of both provinces are in favor of leaving India and China respectively, and have been outwardly agitating far longer than Kosovo, but India and China maintain the provinces are fully integral parts of their nations and that they are going nowhere. As such, the US sits there and maintains that it hopes "a peaceful resolution can be produced." I'm not picking sides the Kashmir or the Taiwan issue, I'm just saying there is a certain inconsistency with US policy. Why is Kosovo recognized and not Spain's Basque Country, which before being known for rolling out ETA terrorists was brutally repressed by Franco for decades? Or Turkish northern Cyprus, which broke away after a coup ushered in a government that wanted to unify the island with Greece? If Iraqi Kurdistan says they've had it with the Arabs and are splitting off entirely, will the US have no choice but to support it? Will other nations? And whither Tibet?

It's an interesting question when it comes to international policy. Why was the Bush Administration quick to acknowledge Kosovar independence when he knew Serbia and Russia would be against it? Is it a jab against Putin (who in turn is threatening to recognize Georgia's breakaway republics)? Or is it that Serbia is mostly isolated and weakened and still carrying the moral baggage of the earlier bloody Balkan conflicts? Why not all these other wannabe states? Is it that the US has too much economically invested in their master nations and doesn't want to ruffle any feathers? Such as if Quebec seceded but the Canadian government refused to recognize it (hypothetically speaking), what would Washington do? Or how about Somiland's declared independence from Somalia? Or are nations not even bothered with Somalia anymore?

I could go on about this for hours, but I'll stop now because I need to go to bed. Who knew that seeing two flags on a freeway offramp would set off such an internal debate in my head...

Something is stirring

Taken by me on 2/16/08

Kosovo is planning to declare independence tomorrow.

And apparently someone at a freeway offramp wants the rest of Phoenix to know.

Congrats to the new guys.

Flashback Friday 38: On The Bus II

For some reason I thought I wrote more First Friday chapters on songs that I used to hear constantly while I sat on a school bus which had German flag stripes painted all along its length as it rumbled across some random far-flung desert island taking me to and from school, but I guess I only wrote one (Mr. Mister's Broken Wings & Kyrie).

Well, I guess it's time for Part II:

Joe Jackson - Steppin' Out

So I saw this video for the first time pretty much 5 minutes ago, which is surprising given how much I used to watch MTV once we moved back to the States. What black hole did this video fall into? I don't recall it being part of any 80's video weekend or countdown. I don't even remember it on TBS' Night Tracks, and you know they played everything. Have any of you seen it before or am I that out of the loop?

I will say that the video's unfortunately kind of lame. All about a maid's fantasies of being a rich socialite in an ugly dress dancing a pseudo-tango with some bored dude in a club. And did Joe Jackson just pick a carnation off a New York sidewalk and stick it in his mouth right there at the end? Nice. I can safely say that directors of 80's videos got one hell of a free ride.

As for the song, I'd liken Steppin' Out to be the sonic equivalent of wallpaper: you probably haven't thought of this track in eons, but as you were watching the video you were probably thinking, "Oh yeah, that song. By that guy."

The question is: Is Steppin' Out already in your iPod? Will it ever be in your iPod? Or are you still tripping that you always thought Joe Jackson was one of these guys?

Have a great weekend.

From the PMA Collection 4

Ismail Darbar (music director) - Chalak Chalak*

Chalak Chalak hails from the 2002 Bollywood movie Devdas starring Shahrukh Khan (arguably the biggest actor in Bollywood right now), Aishwarya Rai (arguably "the most beautiful woman on the planet" right now, and I emphasize arguably), and Madhuri Dixit (once the biggest actress in Bollywood who's currently trying to make a comeback).

But you can see this song isn't the typical Bollywood number about running through the tulip fields to find one's true love while playing hide and seek around a tree and then two dozen backup dancers appear out of nowhere while the girl sings ten octaves too high. It's about alcoholism and all of its addictive qualities and one's slow slide into depravity. But two dozen backup dancers appear out of nowhere anyway. And the girl still sings ten octaves too high. And the guys still manage to dance to dubious choreography, even though they're all theoretically wasted beyond all mental capacity. Such is the power of the Bollywood.

I also apologize to folks who were expecting to see Aishwarya writhing about like a minx, being the most beautiful woman in the world and all. Because she's not in this song. But here - I'll throw you a bone. Now that you're happy, Madhuri plays a dancing girl (aka. hooker) in a brothel that Shahrukh's character, Devdas, frequents and imbibes in more than his fair share of the Indian version of Southern Comfort. She's obviously got the hots for him. But he's got the hots for Aishwarya, who's some lower class chick who married into an upper crust family but there's some issues lingering in the background and then it all comes to a head with yelling, deceipt, crying, and death. And so there you have it, a Bollywood love triangle set in the 1930's, featuring classism, sexism, and alcholism. A 3 hour movie explained in one paragraph. I think I just founded a new Cliffs Notes empire.

You can also see in Chalak Chalak, which plays later in the movie, that Devdas' alcoholism is taking its toll while he pounds the bottle with his buddy, especially at the end of the song when he decides it's an opportune time to walk away and cough up some blood. You know he's doing it to get the girls' attention. Plus, in the 10 short seconds between minute 2:37 and 2:47 of the clip, you are treated to facial expressions that Shahrukh pretty much uses in the dramatic climaxes of Every. Single. Damn. Movie (if you've watched them, you know it's true).

And...well....I think I've explained way the hell more about this song than I needed to. I simply featured the song because it went with the flow of the rest of the CD, not because of anything to do with the movie itself. And I guess I could have just written the previous sentence from the get go and have been done with this post ages ago.

I'm not the most logical person, obviously.

* Chalak Chalak appeared on PMA 2

Starting shots of the week...

Today I went on my first historic home tour since I moved to Phoenix, which was really cool, but I'm going to expound on that later.

Today I also ate a cajeta-filled churro at La Tolteca's bakery, which was more than incredible and I want to eat another one right now, but I'm going to expound on that later.

After doing both of the above, I decided to wander around downtown Phoenix with my camera, which I am known to do from time to time. Here's a sample of what I took (can you tell I don't feel like writing much?)

The Chase Tower is the tallest building in the entire state. Kind of hard to believe, but it's true. I was driving along 3rd Avenue when I came across this twisted sign on the side of the road. Of course that meant jumping out of my car with my camera and trying to figure out what to do with it. Enter tallest building of Arizona. And a plane which has just taken off from Sky Harbor.

While I was taking shots of the historic Post Office building (built in 1936 in Spanish Colonial Revival style), an employee walked out, smiled, and asked how I was enjoying my trip to Arizona. I told him I lived here. He looked a little confused, like why would a resident Phoenician be wandering around downtown with his camera?

Anyway, the Post Office building is soon going to be used by Arizona State as a student gathering space, which should be interesting. The downtown campus of ASU is bringing a lot of changes. Whether that means downtown Phoenix retains its character or becomes overrun by a train of cheesy college bars remains to be seen...

The Westward Ho is one of my favorite buildings in town. It's currently a senior home, but it used to be one of those grand hotels of yesteryear (when it was completed in 1927 it was the tallest building in Arizona until 1960). I think they occasionally give tours of the inside, but I've never been on one. I might have to look into that. The Downtown Phoenix Public Market takes place in its shadow, and usually by the entrance you'll see a bunch of seniors hanging out in their wheelchairs. Why they hang out on the sidewalk, I don't know (none of them appear to be smoking), but whatever.

I took this shot on the Margeret T Hance Deck Park. You probably can't tell, but Interstate 10 is directly under me. Kind of crazy, eh? I'd actually never been here before so it was cool just to wander around on foot. Also, walking instead of driving allowed me to be slow enough to see that one of the buildings right next to this park is the Great Arizona Puppet Theater. Who knew there was one? I didn't.

Anyway, as for the shot above, I sat there on the footpath with the camera on, waiting for colors to do something crazy. But they didn't. Just some orange and that was about it.

However, on my way back to my car, I crossed the lawn and came across a fairly new-looking paperback book. Just sitting there on the grass. I looked all around to see if anyone looked like the owner.

Nobody.

I then stood there and debated. The book looked and felt really new. It had a bookmark to begin Chapter 3, so it was obviously being read. But if I left it there in the grass, and the owner didn't remember it for a few more hours, the sprinklers would go off and the book would be ruined.

Talk about a moral dilemma.

What would you do?

Bollywood, Interrupted

I was forwarded this little snippet by a friend just a little while ago:

Brilliant? Retarded?

You make the call.

Flashback Friday 37: Sing Like You've Been Kicked In The Balls

I thought I'd continue with the theme of showing the #1 song from 20 years ago this week, but then it turned out it was this:

Tiffany - Could've Been

Um, yeah.

Anyway.

Let's look at the #1 song from 25 years ago this week instead:

Men At Work - Land Down Under

So among the inane things that I perpetually wonder about, I wonder if Australians hate this song. I wonder if they want nothing to do with this stereotype-inducing fluffy karaoke classic. Or do they get wasted and scream this offkey in bars every night because they think it's the best. song. ever (because it is)? Who knows. I did see MAW perform this song at an equestrian racetrack, which was kind of cool and kind of sad simultaneously.

But Land Down Under is nothing but chump change compared to what was #1 this week, 30 years ago:

Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive

THIRTY years ago! Damn, we're old.

From this video you could also pretty much see why these guys perpetually since in falsetto. If I wore tight pants like that I'd be crumpled on the floor crying for mercy.

So...which of the three songs would you rank best? Would you put all three on your iPod? Or none?

Have a great weekend.

Welcome to Phoenix, tall man

This guy shouldn't be too hard to spot around town. My money's on catching him sometime post-game at Lo-Lo's. Apparently the Suns love eating there, although personally I've never seen anyone famous there while my face was way deep into yet another plate of chicken and waffles.

If you haven't concluded already, my celeb sighting skills in Phoenix are pretty much non-existent. I run into Alice Cooper at Safeway late in the evening and that's about it. Maybe my aversion to almost all of downtown Scottsdale has something to do with it. Shaq could be partying with Paris Hilton at Axis-Radius tonight and I'd have no idea.

Alas.

When Will The Wounds Heal?

I'm not one who usually quotes from the Wall Street Journal or ever blogs about politics, but this article really summed up what I've been thinking the past couple weeks about how all the pseudo-ties between the disparate demographic groups that make up the Democratic party are unraveling at a very quick pace...

Whatever else yesterday's voting may have done, it did a good job of laying bare the divides within each party. More than that, it may have exacerbated the splits.

The Democratic fight between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton seems certain to continue, and it is showing a clear divide between whites and blacks, between Hispanics and non-Hispanics, between women and men, and between older and younger voters.... The problem for Democrats is that the race is opening up the kind of sensitive divides that go to the party's very identity as an institution that unites races and genders.

The racial split was glaring in Georgia, where exit polls showed that roughly half the Democrats who voted were African-American, and that some 80% of them voted for Sen. Obama. And it wasn't just Georgia. In New York, a much different kind of state, roughly six in 10 blacks went for Sen. Obama over Sen. Clinton in her home state.

The flip side of the black-white split is the white-Hispanic split. Hispanics are starting to consistently back Sen. Clinton. In the electoral crucible of California, for instance, roughly two-thirds of Hispanics went for her, exit polls showed.

There also is a less glaring split within the party between men and women, with women going for Mrs. Clinton, and older women showing more enthusiasm than younger women. Older Democrats generally are tending toward Sen. Clinton, younger ones toward Sen. Obama.

Will be interesting to see how all this pans out. I think the reality that the alliances that make up the Democratic party are hanging by the thinnest of threads needed to be exposed for the party's own sake. There was a palpable tension in my polling station today; dozens of people in line from the different demographic groups described above, sizing each other up and predicting who one another was going to vote for. All Democrats!

Seems like wake-up calls like this are just what the doctor ordered...