The Nerd's Eye View

Last Thursday we discovered that Dave Chappelle was coming to San Francisco for not just one, but fifteen performances over a 10 day period! Tickets would go on sale, online only, on Friday morning and with some luck we'd be able to watch him right before going to Italy (Fri-Mon night). The tickets went on sale at 10a on the dot on Friday morning, and apparently sold out at 10:00:07. I have no idea how this could have happened, as the network logistics alone are staggeringly difficult. All I can say is that I'm contmeplating suing ticket bastards for conspiracy ...

Posted by Lo Fat Mo at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

My first major vacation of my adult life (as defined by the fact that I have a "job") is rapidly approaching, and I am filled with a sense of anticipation. The anticipation is shot through with outright fear - fear, I tell you! Now, usually I am not even remotely worried about travel because quite frankly, there's very little that can happen that can't be remedied. But before this trip I've been inundated with tales of Italian perils. Thankfully none of it is of the "losing a kidney and waking up in a bathtub full of ice" variety but it has been rather uniformly bleak. Mostly they've been warnings about keeping an eye out for pickpockets. Having lived in Egypt for several years I am not entirely unfamiliar with this sort of thing, but it's been awhile since it was a concern for me and with all these voices telling me to be careful I am a little worried. It doesn't help that I don't speak the langauge at all, mind you, but with this trusty phrase book I'm bound to be ok. Right?

Posted by Lo Fat Mo at 9:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm not sure exactly what happened, but all of a sudden someone realized that we live in California and turned on the heat. Outside. This is a pretty big shock especially since San Francisco summer weather consists mostly of fog and cold that make London seem like Club Med. I like the heat personally, but it was getting somewhat ridiculous. The air had taken to travelling into one's nostrils like a plasma, thin tendrils of highly ionized gas coursing a channel through the center of the nostrils. Outside, the warm air embraced the casual observer like a fat aunt and wouldn't let go. Luckily this is not the infernal heat of Arizona so there was some respite in the shade. Then as quickly as it started it was back to business as usual - at least in San Francisco. Just in time for my brother to visit on Wednesday.

Posted by Lo Fat Mo at 1:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Have you ever lost someone and had them return? I don't mean a lover, or something like that, but someone familiar who is part of the daily landscape of your life. My sister told me our long lost cousin has finally called to tell us he's married - to an Egyptian girl of all things. He's been incommunicado for almost 8 years now with even his own mother not knowing if he was alive or dead and now - here he is. It's odd and I feel conflicted about the whole thing.

Posted by Lo Fat Mo at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Surreal scene from my life: I left work the other day for a dentist appointment (oral hygiene kids, it's not just for finance majors anymore) and after being given a clean bill of health, decided I'd treat myself to a sugar-saturated drink from the corner store. As I crossed through a parking lot, I heard a car rolling up behind me and rather quickly too. I turned to berate the driver who seemed to have hit the brakes mere inches from my left hip.

As I turned, the door of the mini-van opened and like a clown car 8 or 9 plainclothes police officers popped out of the back. They looked like something out of a scene in any cheesy cop drama, with the flak jackets, and badges on metal lanyards around their necks. As I stood there they flowed around me like a herd of stampeding wildebeests and shouted at each other to "close the door!!" - so as to maintain the element of surprise I suppose. One of them blocked off the allyeway I was planning on cutting through and the rest kicked down a door yelling "Search Warrant!"

"I suppose I can't go through there," I said and the officious rookie blocking the way puffed out his chest as he instructed me to walk around the outside in case shots were fired. I half expected the Law and Order signe to play just then as a resurrected Jerry Orbach came around the corner.

Posted by Lo Fat Mo at 1:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

One of my favorite bands, Massive Attack, is coming to the Bay Area in September. Who wants to go? Tickets go on sale tomorrow. These guys practically invented trip-hop and are well worth the price of admission.

Posted by Lo Fat Mo at 3:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Thi should technically be under "The Annals of Sport" but I don't want to add a new category so here goes. Te World Cup Final yesterday was a hard game to watch. While these sorts of contests are always unfair, it seems doubly so that Italy came out at the top of the pile. With their uninspiring and opportunistic football, they are scavengers on the greatness of other teams. It seems to bear out the general trend to reward mediocrity - although now I feel that I am not giving the Italians their due. It's just that they don't make me love the game in the same way that other teams do, and in this case in the way that watch Zidane did.

Which brings me to Zizou himself: how sad is it to end on a note like this. If he hadn't orchestrated the solid defeat of Brazil and the dismissal of Portugal, perhaps then he could just fade into memory in the same way that Johan Cruyff had for so many people. Whlie the internet is awash of photos of the now notorious incident itself and the ensuing red card, it's much harder to find the more iconic image - that of Zidane walking, hangdog, past the World Cup trophy into the darkened tunnel of the stadium - and of course history. It's a sad thing to see a man so close to greatness and the school-boy-fantasy end to his career and to see it all unravel at the threshold.

Posted by Lo Fat Mo at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Impressions of San Francisco:

- What is apparently a flower wholesaler. It's rather odd to think about the business of flowers, and moreso to watch folks working in the early hours of the morning to prepare flowers in the same way that they would to make doughnuts.

- Hearing an odd sound as I was walking down the platform towards the front of the train. It sounded like a saxophone and I as I looked around I saw a cab driver, sitting in his car, practicing as he waited in the cab line.

- Looking out the window on the train, seeing two homeless guys staring at something bright white on the muddy ground under an overpass. They looked like kids who had discovered an earthworm on the sidewalk after a rainstorm.

Posted by Lo Fat Mo at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)