Four things. Wait, five!

1. The smoking allowed in bars law in Portland must be changed. The last two nights I've come home and my hair smells. Normally it smells wonderful, but now it smells rather awful.

2. I used a Foreman Grill today. Do those even sell anymore? I was just cooking vegetables on it.

3. Visiting Pier One Imports the day after Christmas with your mother, who is on a mission for the last of the marked down red glass water goblets in existence, is a recipe for a meltdown on the daughter's end.

4. Lunch on Thursday with some guy I've been trying to meet up with for nearly one year. Persistance pays off? Hrmmm.

5. I forgot probably the BEST of the upcoming musical acts on its way through the Bay Area very, very soon. What a dolt I am. Anyway, it's gonna be a pretty amazing show, I hope.

Who: Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
When: January 5, 2007
Where: Bimbo's 365 Club
Whadda it cost me?: $20

Live tunes

Jan. 6, 2007, Sat, The Devil Makes Three, The Independent
Jan. 24, 2007, Wed, Pirate Radio, The Makeout Room
Jan. 30, 2007, Tues, Deerhoof, The Great American Music Hall
Feb. 4, 2007, Sunday, Ray's Vast Basement, The Makeout Room
Mar. 2, 2007, Friday, Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, The Great American Music Hall
Mar. 3, 2007, Sat, Clinic, The Independent
Mar. 7-8, 2007, Wed & Thu, The Mountain Goats, The Independent
Mar. 9, 2007, The Mountain Goats, Bottom of the Hill

P.S. Merry Christmas. My family is watching Talledega Nights and I snuck upstairs to see what secrets of music the internet held...

Bob Sagat would make this a little more tolerable

Tonight, Christmas Eve, is the first night I've stayed at my parents' house since I arrived in Portland on Thursday. They live in Murrayhill, a subdivision in Beaverton, Oregon. Murrayhill is a virtual outpost in terms of being located near things, places, people or amenities I like to visit. The place has a nice view, I guess, and enjoys the benefits of existing within a homogenous community (low crime and neat yards).

Tonight I volunteered to make my parents dinner. The materials were already purchased. All that was required of me was to slice and cook the stuff. The dinner was stir fry, and like the neighborhood, the meal was sterile and predictable.

During the meal my parents turned on "AFV", which is a version of the series Bob Sagat used to host in the 1990s, "America's Funniest Home Videos." I thought it was a joke that we were watching it, but I soon realized that my parents actually adore this program. At one point, they were laughing and pointing at the TV monitor when someone sitting down on a bench made it collapse. I wish I was kidding about this.

Anyway, the host of this program isn't half as dynamic as Bob Sagat, who despite his reputation of being "America's Favorite Dad" possesses a certain brand of vulgar humor that makes him admirable.



Finally, after many long minutes of agony, AFV ended. Now my mother is watching Ocean's Eleven. So the cycle of madness and bad TV continues...

Oh, yesterday I saw "For Your Consideration", the newest Christopher Guest feature film. While it's no "Best in Show" it's quite good and worth at least a cost of a matinee ticket.

Flash back

This is my mother in 1972.

Chanteuse

This is the beautiful and talented Joanna Newsom. She played three sold out shows in the city this week. Mon-Tues-Wed shows at that.


Here is another.

And on quite a different note, here is a photo of my chipboard model from studio.

Waiting for my tow

Yesterday I consulted with Nino at Karmakanix about the sorrowful state of my VW Fox. He advised me to arrange for a tow to the shop and they would take car of the problem over the next ten days while they are expanding the shop. I will be out of town after tomorrow, so the idea of having a fixed vehicle upon arrival home is appealing. On the other hand, leaving my car parked on the curb of an industrial and transient neighborhood for such a long period of time, where Karmakanix happens to be, is not so appealing. I suppose I will take all the precautions I can against theft - remove the CD faceplate and stow all my loose cds in the glovebox and activate my crappy alarm system.

I called AAA at 9:00 and customer service rep "Dee" readily handled my tow request. I am covered for 5 miles of tow (lucky me, Karmakanix is about 2-3 miles from here). Perfect! The process to request a tow is altogether too easy. It's pretty awesome. So I am just waiting for him/her to arrive with the truck. Should be here before 9:50.

The Fox shall be reformed!

steeeeeerike!

Yes, torture has ended, I took my last exam today and I also went bowling with some of my classmates and a couple of hopalong architecture ladies from the 9th floor. Our evening took place at Albany Bowl, the most reputable alley in the East Bay. When we arrived, a big party was just finishing up having some kind of wicked bowl buffet. There was containers of bbq pork, 3 picked over bundt cakes, cornbread and baked beans. Not quite the meal I would advise before exercise, but then again, this is bowling.

First game I scored an 83 and the following game was an 84. Highest mph was 15.05. I roll a slow ball I guess. However, I did manage two strikes and a number of spares (some following a gutter ball) during the course of the two games.

I am very sleepy right now. I just feel like I should be up because I don't have any homework to do. It is a strange feeling.

The Fox is still out of commission. The damn heat gauge is unconsolable, even after I added coolant. I suppose it will need to be serviced. I am rather pissed. That car gets treated so well....how dare it double cross me! Blasted radiator.

Tomorrow night I will attend one of the three sold out shows for Joanna Newsom at the Great American Music Hall. I am really quite excited.

Drippy pouring rain, hookers

Yucko, it's raining so much outside. By tomorrow, there will be a huge 4" deep puddle where my car is parked. My shoes always get soaked when I try to get into my car after it rains. I should park on the street more.

Yesterday was my final studio review for school. It went so so. I have a history exam on Monday for which I haven't studied one iota. I have the book open and next to me right now, which makes me feel at least a little better.

This afternoon, around 1:30 pm, I saw a peculiar thing while waiting at the ol' F bus stop. Across the street, in front of the corner store, was a hooker and her pimp. She was hella interesting. Decked out in a mini jean skirt and suede boots, she spared no effort in trying to get the attention of people driving past her. She'd halfway lean out into the street, and kind of motion to people with strange gestures and facial expressions. I found it altogether kind of groddy. I wish that kind of shit didn't happen 100' feet from my house.

I am feeling lonely and reluctant. I think it is the lack of a social life outside my studio that is the problem, but maybe it is just the rain.

4 days, 15 hours

In the past four days, I have gotten less than 15 hours of sleep. We are countdown 36 hours until our final review (Wed at high noon). I will likely not sleep because my list of things to do is enormous.

After the final review is over (12-6pm), I have another final to go to from 6-8pm, just to add insult to injury.

Persistance

Received today at 10:45 a.m. from suspect obsessive girlfriend/fling:

"Arik, did u tell any0ne and u better n0t lie t0 me *wedding d@y 9.20.06*"

The mystery of the bad grammer lady continues - the torrid event referenced in the earlier email was apparently a wedding. Perhaps something scandalous happened before, during or after the wedding between Arik and the crazy lady.

I felt bad having not responded to the message from yesterday. I began to weigh the pros and cons of texting her back to say this isn't Arik's phone. I kind of like being at the receiving end of drama so far removed from my life. It kind of riles me up to get these kinds of messages! But then I thought about pathetic Arik and this crazy lady trying to reach him with these ridiculous messages.

I wrote her back around 3:30 to tell her that this isn't Arik's phone. She didn't write back. Strangely, I hope that she begins to wonder if Arik is just lying to her about it being the wrong number. Maybe she will send even more enraged messages later.

I can only hope.

SMS gone awry

At 9:21 a.m. I heard a familiar "beep" sound from my cell phone during class. A text message had come in. Who would be sending me something? I don't really use text messages much lately.

This is the message I received:

"Did u tell any0ne 4real. and if u did i swear t0 g0d i will never4give u and never speak t0 u again *it began 9.20.06*"

My first reaction was worry. Did I screw anyone over recently? The number did not come up with any name I recogized. Just a 510 number. I couldn't think of anyone I associate with that would use the term "4real". Still, I worried. Then I shrugged it off. I couldn't think of anything that "began" on Sept. 20 anyway.

Everyone reading this, please send a kooky message back to whoever sent me this...and make it very confusing. That would be funny. The number is 510.672.9052

Mwahh hah hhhaahha.....

What happened today

Today in history class we learned about Dumbarton Oaks, designed by founding ASLA member Beatrix Jones Farrand. When I lived in Georgetown from 1997-1999, I jogged by DO nearly 5-6 times a week. It's on "R" Street, NW next to the weird Rock Creek spooky cemetary. Anyway, in my Georgetown days, I was aware of the importance of DO but only because it was the site where dignitaries met to discuss the creation of the United Nations shortly after WW2 ended. I had no idea it was more than a fancy shmancy Georgetown house.

Apparently, DO is also one of the premiere examples of eclectic private garden design from the early 20th century. Go figure.

Anyway, all of this recalling of old times made me think about something rather remarkable. When I was in 7th grade, the rage of fashion was to have collegiate sweatshirts. People would wear Harvard, Penn, and Columbia sweatshirts. It was all very well intentioned, although I bet most of the people ended up at state schools when we graduated high school. Anyway, my sister and I got two such sweatshirts, which we shared. The sweatshirt I got was a Georgetown University sweatshirt - it was navy blue with the school's seal on it (with the eagle, not the Hoya or bulldog). The one my sister had was a Berkeley sweatshirt. It was white with blue and gold lettering and had some scrolls on it or something.

It turns out I went to both of these schools! I never even remembered this coincidence until today. Something about those sweatshirts...

Thinking about DO and that ratty old sweatshirt, I recall how much I like the environs of DC. Not particularly the social atmosphere, but in general the whole weird assortment of people, places, landmarks, diversity, politics and shenanagins. Berkeley is much different, but not worse or better. Just different, and more Asian people.

Frisbee toss

After almost three months hopeful suggestions that it might do us some good to throw a frisbee around, my classmates FINALLY relented. Saturday Dec. 2 marked the inaugural LA 101 frisbee toss. Sunday there was another frisbee event, this one held out in front of Boalt Hall, where there was more room for our athletic maneuverings.

There were several findings from these two activity-laden days:

One, I am bad at throwing frisbee uphill.
Two, my classmates like to dive, even when not necessary.
Three, none of us are that great of frisbee players.
Four, frisbee induces smiles.

I think that as long as the weather permits, we will have somewhat regular frisbee tosses around 4:00pm. So far the frisbee crew has included myself, Nat, Sam, John, Tim, Nicole and Chris. The others will be won over in time, although I don't suspect any of them are really that great at frisbee.

Booking and tow

I returned home around 1:30am. I have been walking home from school lately, but today was different. It being a Sunday, I aimed for convenience and drove to school. Headed down MLK, I spied what appeared to be three police cars in front of my apartment. Terrible thoughts ran through my mind? Robbery? Homicide!? Then I remembered I have very little that would be worth stealing...certainly not a robbery. Maybe a suspect was being chased and he ran into our complex's back parking area and now he's hididng behind all my landlord's shop equipment. Heavens! What is going on this Sunday night anyway? People should be asleep.

Then I saw it: a shoddy late 90s Cadillac Seville was pulled next to the curb and some frightened woman was standing on the sidewalk next to four officers. Apparently, her boyfriend was already in the back of one of the police cars by the time I got home. Soon a fourth police car showed up. He must have done something kind of stupid.

Now I am sitting in bed listening to the tow truck pull that car up onto it's back end...(screech, clunk, clunk, whirrrrrr, beep-beep-beep). On its way to the ol' impound lot, no doubt.

Song

This is a good song:

Peacocks, The Mountain Goats

The Mountain Goats have planned a tour along the west coast in March. They will be in SF on March 7 and 8. I hope to go on the 8th, but I may be in Portland to celebrate my mom's 60th. Here is a good site with a lot of their mp3s. I don't think Peacocks is a featured track, so you might need to search a little further yourself. It is worth it.

Here is a group photo from Thanksgiving!


From left to right we have: Katherine, Mike, Pedro, Miz E, Jean Paul...we've all been drinking a lot of wine and Maker's Mark by this point.


Yours truly carving the bird. It is actually very easy.

Slightly improved

So as most of you know, Google bought out Blogger a whiles back. Today I upgraded to the new version of Blogger that is supposed to have more bells and whistles. But it looks exactly the same and works exactly the same as far as I can tell. The only difference is that now my gmail address is posted on the banner. Gotta figure out how to remove that...

In other news, I went to see Borat tonight as a break from our studio toils. Sacha B. Cohen put his face into some serious ASS for that movie. He must have nightmares about filming those scenes.

Life at Wurster plods on. Tomorrow there is more serious work to be done at school but I stay optimistic because there are only numbered weeks now until the end of Fall 2006. Rest in peace.

Our Mexico City trip is still in the air due to funding debacles. I am somewhat hopeful Walter will cancel the trip, even though it would be fun to go. Planning a trip like this so last minute just would add to the s-t-r-e-s-s-i-n' levels!

I've been walking home from school the last three nights. It's been nice but I kind of fear for the safety of my valuables as MLK Jr. Way is not the most secure of streets in Berkeley. The journey has been pretty uneventful, except for when I finally get within a half block of my building. The last few nights, a young guy has been hanging out on the corner of Prince and MLK looking like he is up to something. I have no idea what that something is (or was). But, if he insists on doing it on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at 2:15 a.m., then my deductive reasoning leads me to think it might have some legal implications. C'est la vie.

Thanksgiving interrupted

Yesterday, with Jean Paul and Pedro in the car on the way to our friend Mike's house, we encountered this scene:



We had to turn the car around on Telegraph Avenue and go around the blocked off area. We had a nice dinner at Mike's and later checked the paper.

This is what we found:

OAKLAND
A family dispute ends with 3 killed, 2 in custody
People dive from windows to escape gunfire after holiday gathering turned violent
- Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, November 23, 2006

Click to ViewClick to ViewClick to ViewClick to View

Three people were killed and another wounded when a North Oakland holiday get-together turned deadly Thursday afternoon. Two men were taken into custody in connection with the shooting.

There were nine people, including a child, in the third floor apartment at 5321 Telegraph Ave. when gunfire broke out shortly before 3 p.m. One man and two women were killed and another man shot, while another man suffered a broken back when he leaped from a third-floor window to escape the bullets.

Oakland police described the incident as a family dispute gone horribly wrong.

"There was an ongoing disturbance within the group,'' which had started well before the bloody Thanksgiving shooting, said Officer Roland Holmgren, an Oakland police spokesman. He declined to elaborate on the dispute or say what connections the shooter or shooters had to the victims, whose names have not been released.

While two men were arrested, Holmgren would not say whether both men had been directly involved in the shooting.

The hail of gunfire and the heavy police response sparked near-panic in the sprawling Keller Plaza apartment complex, which sits in the shadow of Highway 24. Police SWAT teams, searching for the armed suspects, banged on doors and sent residents at home for a holiday feast scurrying out onto Telegraph Avenue with only the clothes on their backs.

About 200 people were evacuated from the apartment complex, according to a Red Cross volunteer. While most were allowed back Thursday evening, the apartments around the site of the shooting remained off-limits as police investigators continued their work.

"The police told us to get out of the building and just handed us a blanket," said one man, wrapped against the evening cold. He declined to give his name.

Helicopters circled the apartment complex as police armed with assault weapons shut down four blocks of Telegraph Avenue and moved people a block away to Shattuck Avenue as they searched for the shooters. SWAT team members, including snipers and a hostage negotiator, finally tracked at least one of the suspects to another apartment in the complex, which he had barricaded against police. But after talking with the negotiator, the man surrendered without incident. At least one of the men was taken out of the complex in handcuffs shortly after 6 p.m.

Red Cross workers were on the scene to assist displaced residents. Buses and cars were rerouted. Onlookers, at least one of whom carried a paper plate filled with Thanksgiving turkey, stood on street corners and watched the police activity.

Police Lt. Kenny Whitman said several handguns were recovered at the scene. "It was a family dispute," Whitman said. "It wasn't a robbery, and it wasn't drugs."

The names and ages of the victims and the suspects had not been made public as of Thursday evening. A spokesman for the Alameda County coroner's office said that the names of the victims were being withheld pending a "police hold" on the information. The wounded man was taken to Highland Hospital with what Whitman said was a "grazing wound.''

E-mail Steve Rubenstein at srubenstein@sfchronicle.com.

Happy Thanksgiving

Toast the cornucopia and pull those yams out of the oven. 'Tis Thanksgiving and entitlement to take the day off!

All of my studio mates have promised NOT to step foot in Wurster Hall tomorrow. That said, I brought as much work as I could home. Hopefully I will be able to work on my clay model while the cranberries are sim sim simmering.

Roommate Pedro and old classmates Jean Paul and possibly Pete are headed to our good friend Mike's house at 37th and MacArthur for a little holiday cheer aroun 5:00pm. It's kind of a potluck, hence the cranberries. The meal will be followed by an episode of heavy drinking (pending how full we are).

What is going on for your Thanksgiving? Hopefully, family and friends.

Pictorials

This is Doyle Drive of the Presidio-Crissy Field area. Imagine if this elevated highway was brought below into a tunnel and earth was filled around it. How would you design the space above this underground freeway? This is our final studio project...


This is the enormous German chocolate cake we ordered for our aptly-themed happy hour earlier this month. Stilgenbashen is a wordplay on our Professor's name. She LOVED the cake. We scored brownie points for that one! Um, I mean "cake" points.