dokken

So, for shits and giggles I'm listening to the Dokken LP I picked up in SF.

Wow.

I used to like, no, love this? What the hell was wrong with me? Well, in my defense, I was in middle school. So a better question might be: What were grown men doing writing this?

I mean, Christ, we thought we were being badass, we we're listening to METAL!!! People thought we were like, worshipping the devil and shit. And over what? A bunch of frigging love songs?

"I'm a hunter
Searching for love
On these lonely streets again"

Oh Dokken, I feel so retroactively betrayed.

muxtape update

Insomnia = update muxtape.

12 songs I dig, off the top of my head. I dare you to like a single one of them.

http://xjerryx1.muxtape.com/

(Cover songs muxtape still up for a little while at http://xjerryx.muxtape.com/)

the mr t experience

cnn is on the muhfuggin ball

Posted today:



Um, no shit, Sherlock.

over my head

This is a joke, right?

On Memorial Day, a day in which we honor those soldiers who died in battle, Christopher Hitchens decides to write an article about a waiter daring to pour wine during one of his stories? THE OUTRAGE!

This is the same Christopher Hitchens who promotes the war in Iraq with fervor, and then belittles anyone who doesn't see things his way. Really? On Memorial Day he has nothing to say to the families of the 4,083 soldiers who have died fighting the war he champions so regularly?

It's either a joke that I'm not getting, some sort of misguided parable, or Hitchens is somehow a bigger asshole than I've ever imagined. I didn't think it was possible, but I'm going with the latter.

Enjoy your wine, Chris. Slate, you must be very proud.

public transportation

Well, gas is $4 a gallon, whether the president knows or not, so I'm trying to figure out a way to prevent all my disposable income from going to filling up the ol' Saab. Maybe it's time to start taking advantage of the San Diego Metropolitan Transportation System.

So, let's see, I live pretty close to work, maybe I can start taking the bus. First let's see the route I drive every day.



Which translates to:



I realize it will take a bit longer by taking the bus, but we all need to make little sacrifices, right? So let me go the the SDMTS trip planner and see how they can help me get to work:



Oh yeah, that's totally gonna happen. An hour fifteen minutes AND $7 (!) AND I get to walk a mile (thanks for looking out for my health, MTS), compared to 7 minutes and maybe 75 cents. Where do I sign up?

San Diego Metropolitan Transit System: Making $4 Gas Look Quite Reasonable Since 1975.

out of the loop

Why am I just finding out that NoFX has a reality show?



Thank you, DirecTV DVR.

straight talk

A few days ago, Obama said this:

"I mean, think about it: Iran, Cuba, Venezuela - these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying, 'We're going to wipe you off the planet.'"

Read it again. I'll wait.

Okay, now can we agree that the proper response to that statement is "no doi"?

Growing up, when I would hear them testing jet engines out at the navy base, my first thought was always, "oh shit, they are launching the nukes. Prepare to die." Yeah, in retrospect, kind of dumb, but that fear of nuclear annihilation was instilled in us from as far back as I can remember. So that the Soviet Union was a bigger threat than third rate wannabes like Iran is obvious.

Except if you're running for the most powerful position in the world, apparently. "Straight Talk" McCain responded to this obvious statement with anything but "Straight Talk":

"Senator Obama claimed that the threat Iran poses to our security is 'tiny' compared to the threat once posed by the former Soviet Union," McCain said during a speech in Chicago.

"Obviously, Iran isn't a superpower and doesn't possess the military power the Soviet Union had, but that does not mean that the threat posed by Iran is insignificant.

Are you fucking kidding me?!

McCain agrees with what Obama said about the Iranian threat compared to the Russian threat, then turns around and implies that Obama said Iran was "insignificant", which he never did, unless you choose to ignore the phrase "compared to the Soviet Union". That may be "politics", but it sure ain't Straight Talk, which McCain is always being slobbered over for.

McCain is simply becoming a parody of Bush-type politics. Distortion, omission, fearmongering. It's quite clear that in the foreign policy arena McCain would be a third Bush term. Because the first two have worked out soooo well.

It appears sometimes "Straight Talk" is just a bad Dolly Parton movie.

san diego food tour '08: luche libra

My love for taco shops is well known. I have my own ranking system for them, with your Trujillo's and your Santana's at the top and your Adalberto's and Sombrero's at the bottom. One place that has never cracked the upper echelon, but is quite close, is Valentine's. So a few weeks ago I jaunted over to I-5 and Washington to get me some Valentine's, but it was no longer there. In its place was a funky spot called Lucha Libre Taco Shop. Of course I had to try it.

It's a real gimmicky place, that gimmick being, obviously, lucha libre and luchadores. The place is crammed with pictures and gaudy shit everywhere. There's even a goldglittered booth you can reserve and be catered to by "waiters" in luchador masks. All of this should be highly irritating, but it's not. But if you do find it irritating, once you try the food, you wouldn't care what the hell theme they go with.

They have standard taco shop faire, but I haven't tried any of it yet, because the original items beg to be tried. I went with a "Queso Taco". Despite the name, it does have carne asada, but the cheese is fried and crispy. It's fucking amazing. One of the best taco's I've ever had. (Once again, I have to apoligize for my camera phone. The Samsung a900 does not have a very good camera, and makes fantastic food like this look utterly disgusting)

The other item I had is the legendary Tijuana Hot Dog. Bacon wrapped, grilled onions and peppers, kethup, mayo. $1.50. Glorious.

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if you're going to san francisco...

So, I'm sitting in the lounge at SFO (but since there is no wifi, this won't get posted until tomorrow, which for you is today, so, uh...i dunno), waiting to fly standby back to SD. I came here for a few days to clear my head and get away.

I was originally scheduled to leave at 2125h tonight, but I have an overwhelming desire to get home. Which is weird, since I really like SF and there's plenty of stuff to do. But I did most of the usual stuff I do (Amoeba, El Farolito, people watching, walking around the Mission and the Tenderloin), saw some friends I wanted to see, and the other stuff is touristy stuff that doesn't really interest me. SO, here I am, at the airport, in a wing which strangely enough does not have a Starbucks, and stranger still, the lack of such makes me irritated and somewhat anxious* **. So here's a quick recap.

Saturday, I went to dinner with a friend. We went to a place in the Mission called Weird Fish. Food was excellent, but the surprise of the night was fried pickles (sorry for the shitty photo, my camera phone, uh, how do you say...sucks balls. Trust me: fried pickles look like mojos and they kick ass):



Sunday that had something called the How Weird Street Fair on Howard Street. Howard = How Weird. Get it? I accidentally snuck in - there was a gate opened I walked through, only when I exited did I realize I was supposed to pay. Oops! The fair was typical SF wackiness, and I'm guessing I don't need to paint a picture for you to get the gist of it. Mainly it reminded me I don't "get" rave/techno/house/jungle/whatever. Among the scene I spotted a rather strange business. If your name is Adolph Gasser, that shouldn't be held against you, but it I still find it kind of creepy.



Here is the haul from the Amoeba/Rasputin runs. Dokken for a buck? How can I possibly resist. Schlong's Punk Side Story - one of my favorite albums - for a few bucks also perked me up.



I was stoked to see these cool Obey/Obama stickers. My stokededness waned when I noticed the Hitler 'stache and swastika. I'm guessing it had more to do with there being an easy target to deface, not necessarily because it was Obama. I mean, I used to black out some of Carroll O'Connor (or whoever happened to be that weeks cover...uh...model?) teeth on the front of TV Guide. Doesn't mean I had anything against him. He was just...there.





Typical Tenderloin sign-in-window.



Monkey business.



El Farolito, save my soul. Note, while I love El Farolito, it doesn't compete with San Diego burritos. But there is one aspect I do prefer, instead of guacamole, they just use sliced avacado, which owns.



What I didn't get to take a picture of:

Dude outside the How-Weird Street Fair, digging extensively in his nostril for gold, and then, not knowing (or not caring) anyone was watching, devouring his find with gusto.

Saturday night at a coffee place on Market, a homeless woman comes in with a large empty glass orange juice bottle. She heads to the cream/sugar bar, pours ALL of the half/half, ALL of the whole milk, and ALL of the lowfat milk into her bottle (like I said, it was large). She's not at all trying to hide what she's doing, but that's pretty much par for the course on Market Street. She screws the cap on the bottle, heads for a garbage can, sticks her head, vomits, and walks out casually. As horrible as it sounds, and it is admittedly pretty horrible, this is EXACTLY why I come to SF.

So while I had a good, "interesting" time, the need to get back home already is rather eye-opening. It makes me realize how good I have it at home.

Turns out, my head was already clear and I had nothing to get away from.

*I've developed a love-hate relationship with SFO. It's a pretty big airport, and it looks quite confusing. But once you're there, it's pretty easy to figure out. Signs are clearly visible and not confusing. I really dig the windows overlooking the tarmacs. BART Station in the terminal = very cool. But seriously, no free wi-fi? In 2008? And once you get past security in the international terminal (that's where Virgin America's gates are), there are only three restaurants, none of them remotely cheap, and only one of them serves any espresso. So the lines are long at all of them, and I had to forgo my second Americano. After being creeped out by the sheer number of Starbucks in downtown SF, I would have killed to see one in the international terminal.

** You may be wondering why I'm using footnotes on a blog. Well, I've been reading a ton of David Foster Wallace this trip.