Sunday, September 30, 2012
Ellen Hardcastle, Hank Green
So most of you should know how freaking ridiculous awesome my niece Ellen is. (She always remembers to be awesome.)
Well, her fist album—recorded in Ben Folds' studio—is out now and available as a CD or online via iTunes. Pretty awesome.
You may recall that Hank Green, one half of the famous Vlog Brothers, named his most recent album after Ellen.
In what I consider a stroke of genius, she named her album Hank Green.
Although now a Google or YouTube search on "Ellen Hardcastle Hank Green" is dominated with results from that other album. (the iTMS image came out a bit dark for some reason...)
She thought it was a cool idea and would generate some buzz from the Vlog Brothers, but now realizes she might be harder to find online that she previously considered. However, it is pretty cool to see the results in the iTunes Music Store.
Give it a listen. Give it a buy. All proceeds go to build a well for a village and school in Africa. Seriously. Ellen is that awesome.
Well, her fist album—recorded in Ben Folds' studio—is out now and available as a CD or online via iTunes. Pretty awesome.
You may recall that Hank Green, one half of the famous Vlog Brothers, named his most recent album after Ellen.
In what I consider a stroke of genius, she named her album Hank Green.
Although now a Google or YouTube search on "Ellen Hardcastle Hank Green" is dominated with results from that other album. (the iTMS image came out a bit dark for some reason...)
She thought it was a cool idea and would generate some buzz from the Vlog Brothers, but now realizes she might be harder to find online that she previously considered. However, it is pretty cool to see the results in the iTunes Music Store.
Give it a listen. Give it a buy. All proceeds go to build a well for a village and school in Africa. Seriously. Ellen is that awesome.
I love a parade
My favorite view:
Sunny sunday afternoon in the catbird seat of Harvey's. Open windows, parade of friends stopping to socialize, and a Mandarin and soda.
Sunny sunday afternoon in the catbird seat of Harvey's. Open windows, parade of friends stopping to socialize, and a Mandarin and soda.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Folsom 2012
I am still in the 2012 doldrums and am not as engaged and enthusiastic about most things as I used to be. This year Folsom held only a mild interest rather than being a capital-E Event for me, and so I was happy to volunteer with the Rodeo and serve beer to raise money for the Bay Area Chapter of the GSGRA.
Fun Todd and The Other Wilson (back from Seattle) hosted a lovely pre-Folsom Birthday Party Friday night, followed by a rather intense pre-Folsom Bearracuda (thank you Drew!)
Saturday night, Liam hosted another pre-Folsom party, after which most people went to Magnitude or another of the Folsom-themed circuit parties. Of those pics, which will not be shared, this is my favorite, and begs for a caption contest.
Isn't it embarassing when someone wears the same outfit to the party...
I called it a night rather early to prepare for a long day of staffing the beer booth. I will say, we Rodeo cowpersons have that shit DOWN. We had six or seven front liners, all certified to check IDs and serve beer at the Folsom Street Fair, and deft and adept others manning the pumps.
How efficient were we? For at least the second time, we were the highest grossing sellers. We went through 23 kegs (more had to be brought in repeatedly), and took in over $40,000 in sales and more than $2,000 in tips, making this our most profitable fundraising activity of the year (we get to keep 25% of the net).
Per state rules, everyone, everyone, must show ID, every time. And the ID has to be taken out of the wallet and we have to feel each one to verify its authenticity.
Or as I like to say to the endless line of scantily clad leather hotness: "You have to take it out and I have to touch it."
Fun Todd and The Other Wilson (back from Seattle) hosted a lovely pre-Folsom Birthday Party Friday night, followed by a rather intense pre-Folsom Bearracuda (thank you Drew!)
Saturday night, Liam hosted another pre-Folsom party, after which most people went to Magnitude or another of the Folsom-themed circuit parties. Of those pics, which will not be shared, this is my favorite, and begs for a caption contest.
Isn't it embarassing when someone wears the same outfit to the party...
I called it a night rather early to prepare for a long day of staffing the beer booth. I will say, we Rodeo cowpersons have that shit DOWN. We had six or seven front liners, all certified to check IDs and serve beer at the Folsom Street Fair, and deft and adept others manning the pumps.
How efficient were we? For at least the second time, we were the highest grossing sellers. We went through 23 kegs (more had to be brought in repeatedly), and took in over $40,000 in sales and more than $2,000 in tips, making this our most profitable fundraising activity of the year (we get to keep 25% of the net).
Per state rules, everyone, everyone, must show ID, every time. And the ID has to be taken out of the wallet and we have to feel each one to verify its authenticity.
Or as I like to say to the endless line of scantily clad leather hotness: "You have to take it out and I have to touch it."
ok, draw
Troy had some of the fun people over for game night. And thanks to a certain sister, it did at one point turn into a Pants Off Dance Off!
The game of the night was Pictionary, but the team-submittted kind not the controlled-board-game kind.
Poor Dave, who really doesn't get out much, drew this out of the hat. Categories included "famous person" and "gay things," and while same-Sister put this in as a famous person, I think it could go either way.
No pun intended.
For the uninitiated: Suppositori Spelling.
Dave had to be told who Suppositori is, which for the team guessing is never a good sign.
The game went like this:
[stick figure]
Team: It's a man!
[curly hair added]
Team: It's a woman!
[nods yes, but then line crossed through the stick figure]
Team: It's not a woman! It's a drag queen!
Wilson: Suppositori Spelling!
Holy crap. 15 seconds. My first thought was [Groan! There are a gajillion drag queens.] So I just started naming them. First one off the top of my head was Suppositori Spelling. Spaz (her AKA) is a friend actually. And also a friend of the SIster who put her name in the hit.
Winning sketch:
Which was promptly mobile-uploaded and shared with Spaz.
Because it looks just like her.
Bonus: I was selected to sketch the final challenge for the lightning round. The category was Gay Things.
And they were [this close] to getting it!
Unfortunately, "Anal Bleaching" is a real thing.
This advertising poster caught my eye as I walked by and I had to send it to Troy.
That boy needs to clean up his act, so to speak.
The game of the night was Pictionary, but the team-submittted kind not the controlled-board-game kind.
Poor Dave, who really doesn't get out much, drew this out of the hat. Categories included "famous person" and "gay things," and while same-Sister put this in as a famous person, I think it could go either way.
No pun intended.
For the uninitiated: Suppositori Spelling.
Dave had to be told who Suppositori is, which for the team guessing is never a good sign.
The game went like this:
[stick figure]
Team: It's a man!
[curly hair added]
Team: It's a woman!
[nods yes, but then line crossed through the stick figure]
Team: It's not a woman! It's a drag queen!
Wilson: Suppositori Spelling!
Holy crap. 15 seconds. My first thought was [Groan! There are a gajillion drag queens.] So I just started naming them. First one off the top of my head was Suppositori Spelling. Spaz (her AKA) is a friend actually. And also a friend of the SIster who put her name in the hit.
Winning sketch:
Which was promptly mobile-uploaded and shared with Spaz.
Because it looks just like her.
Bonus: I was selected to sketch the final challenge for the lightning round. The category was Gay Things.
And they were [this close] to getting it!
Unfortunately, "Anal Bleaching" is a real thing.
This advertising poster caught my eye as I walked by and I had to send it to Troy.
That boy needs to clean up his act, so to speak.
random sighting
Labor Day weekend was wonderfully hot and sunny in SF, but there are so few bars with spaces to hang outside. The Eagle has yet to reopen, and we weren't feeling El Rio, so Skot Land and I thought we'd try late afternoon at the Lone Star before Sundance. I haven't been to the Lone Star in years, and their afternoon cocktail price point means I won't be returning anytime soon. There is only so much beer bust a bear can bear.
We settled on the back patio when a random guy looked at me askance and said, "Nashville?... Hardcastle?...."
Lordy, he knew me when I had just come out in Nashville and before I moved to SF 16 years ago. What a memory! (He himself moved to Texas the year after I moved to CA).
A big home town shout out to John Mays!
We settled on the back patio when a random guy looked at me askance and said, "Nashville?... Hardcastle?...."
Lordy, he knew me when I had just come out in Nashville and before I moved to SF 16 years ago. What a memory! (He himself moved to Texas the year after I moved to CA).
A big home town shout out to John Mays!
mission chinese
It may be smothered in hipsters, but Mission Chinese is oh so good.
Shouts out to super fun time with visiting Nashville family Josephine & Giles!
Shouts out to super fun time with visiting Nashville family Josephine & Giles!
pssssst
Well, that explains the leak. And it looks like I need a while new set of treads. I think I am due for brakes too. This'll be cheap...
haystacked
I had to chuckle at myself after tidying up the apartment after the crazy fun Rodeo weekend. Even "cleaned up," my apartment still bears the marks of what I'm going to call rodeo flotsam.stuck in transition
This is why I will never get another set of transition lenses. because they don't transition back.This is after coming back inside my office for five minutes.
I'm like Ray Charles trying to work Excel.
forgotten at Amnesia
This month saw another great set from 77 El Deora...
this time with Kitchen Fire at Amnesia in the Mission. I hadn't heard Kitchen Fire Before but loved their sound.
As with the show in Oakland, Pam sat in for Jen and really rocked the vocals.
During the 77 set, Margaret, lead singer of The Patsychords, treated us to a couple of songs. The Patsychords are Patsy Cline tribute band in the Bay Area and are a thriving beat in the Bay Area Americana scene.
As I sometimes do, I took a new friend/date to the show. I do have a "no one under 30" rule for dating (which admittedly is at times more of a "guideline" than a "rule") and T+ is above the bar at 32. However, this still might be a bit young.
After Margaret's numbers and thanks from the stage, T+ turned to me and asked, "Who is Patsy Cline?"
I should never play poker as it seems that any thought I have plays immediately across my face. I can tell this because his rapidly following sentence was "Please don't hit me!"
Shocked I tell you! I was shocked! But it also is an opportunity for some beautiful education. It must be nice to discover Patsy for the first time. We'll make a plan. And then go walking after midnight.
And as always, love to Mau and J9.
this time with Kitchen Fire at Amnesia in the Mission. I hadn't heard Kitchen Fire Before but loved their sound.
As with the show in Oakland, Pam sat in for Jen and really rocked the vocals.
During the 77 set, Margaret, lead singer of The Patsychords, treated us to a couple of songs. The Patsychords are Patsy Cline tribute band in the Bay Area and are a thriving beat in the Bay Area Americana scene.
As I sometimes do, I took a new friend/date to the show. I do have a "no one under 30" rule for dating (which admittedly is at times more of a "guideline" than a "rule") and T+ is above the bar at 32. However, this still might be a bit young.
After Margaret's numbers and thanks from the stage, T+ turned to me and asked, "Who is Patsy Cline?"
I should never play poker as it seems that any thought I have plays immediately across my face. I can tell this because his rapidly following sentence was "Please don't hit me!"
Shocked I tell you! I was shocked! But it also is an opportunity for some beautiful education. It must be nice to discover Patsy for the first time. We'll make a plan. And then go walking after midnight.
And as always, love to Mau and J9.
disco semaphore
I love Flagging in the Park. They don't do it very often and when they do I often can't attend. But it is a great group of people and a beautiful experience, and a lovely way to spend a sunny Sunday in San Francisco and to celebrate life and the struggle. Here are scenes from the August event, with music from good friend and great DJ Christopher B.
the other one rings the white house
It has taken a year for the the renovations for the offices of my new department to be completed. There were budget and code reasons for some of the long-awaited issues to be resolved, and 11 months after the move-in we finally got the ID security locks installed. For the first week or two after we had the ID entry system in place, the suite doors were unlocked during business hours. However, security is a serious concern the offices should be kept to approved proximity access. What we were waiting for to finalize the entry issue was the installation of phones in the hallway so visitors could call in for entry. The suite has two entrances down the hall from each other so we needed two phones. When, finally, Facilities informed us that they could install the phone lines, they noted that there would be yet an additional delay while they ordered the actual phones. They only had two phones in stock that were the same color. We would rather have it operating now than waiting for our Princess Phone Colors of Choice to be delivered from 1964 where they were last seen.
We said we'd take what they had.
The phones are red.
I'm totally cool with the red phones. I'm in the office that is the first door within the building's first door, and considering the many tales of laptops, phones and iPads disappearing, I am happy to have the doors locked.
Our leader posted a department directory in the window, but you would be amazed how many people peer above the directory and knock until someone hears them, oblivious to the names, numbers or actual phone. Seriously, they claim not to notice either the phone nor the instructions/list.
But the Big Red Phones cracked me up. Every time I pick one up I want to say "This is the President, launch the missiles!"
However, there are those other red phones which are even more iconic. It was suggested I come up with something to direct people to pick up the damn phone to their right to call in for access. As is my way, I thought the red phones could also use some commentary. My solution:
I posted Batman without comment, and intended it to come down at the end of the day. My bosses, however, love it, and we all feel much safer knowing that the Dark Knight has our backs. Or rather our fronts. Batman stays.
Oh, and the other office door with the other red phone? Where do you think it rings?
We said we'd take what they had.
The phones are red.
I'm totally cool with the red phones. I'm in the office that is the first door within the building's first door, and considering the many tales of laptops, phones and iPads disappearing, I am happy to have the doors locked.
Our leader posted a department directory in the window, but you would be amazed how many people peer above the directory and knock until someone hears them, oblivious to the names, numbers or actual phone. Seriously, they claim not to notice either the phone nor the instructions/list.
But the Big Red Phones cracked me up. Every time I pick one up I want to say "This is the President, launch the missiles!"
However, there are those other red phones which are even more iconic. It was suggested I come up with something to direct people to pick up the damn phone to their right to call in for access. As is my way, I thought the red phones could also use some commentary. My solution:
I posted Batman without comment, and intended it to come down at the end of the day. My bosses, however, love it, and we all feel much safer knowing that the Dark Knight has our backs. Or rather our fronts. Batman stays.
Oh, and the other office door with the other red phone? Where do you think it rings?
I say tomato
The harvest season is in full swing and I still feel all sorts of appreciation and neighborhood happiness at the weekly farmers market two blocks from my doorstep. The tomatoes are amazing and I wistfully think of the summer tomato festival in East Nashville every summer. I've been making meals out of a tomato, balsamic, great big fresh leaves of basil and a little mozzarella. Omigawd.
The tomatoes also make for some pretty pictures:
The tomatoes also make for some pretty pictures:
hard pressed
I've always loved trains and even railroad tracks. There's a full southern novel I could write around that.
In the first house I few up in, the train ran behind our house and I would run to the window at every horn sound. My parents' house now, the one I really grew up in, is much further away, but in the clear Nashville night you can hear the rumble on the tracks and it comforts me as I sleep.
There is a profound relationship between me, my grandmother, and the trains. And their horn sounded a final farewell as both her final husband died, and she herself was lowered into her final resting place.
At my cousins' house, the Big One, the train runs along the very front of the property, down the hill, past the creek. Mom would tell me stories of she and the cousins as children putting pennies on the tracks and saving the smooth, pressed results as treasures.
I've always wanted to do that.
I took the day after my birthday off as a personal all-for-me day, and in the late afternoon warm sun I sat placidly with my book and a coffee in Jane Warner Plaza in the Castro (AKA the Promenade) enjoying the blissful afternoon, some peace, and the light parade of people. PeeDee joined me for a sit, and we watched the historic F-Markey cards pulse by on their routine.
I've always wondered what would happen if you put a penny on a muni track. The modern cars have rail brooms before their wheels, but the antique cars do not.
Two cents had never bought this much fun.
In the first house I few up in, the train ran behind our house and I would run to the window at every horn sound. My parents' house now, the one I really grew up in, is much further away, but in the clear Nashville night you can hear the rumble on the tracks and it comforts me as I sleep.
There is a profound relationship between me, my grandmother, and the trains. And their horn sounded a final farewell as both her final husband died, and she herself was lowered into her final resting place.
At my cousins' house, the Big One, the train runs along the very front of the property, down the hill, past the creek. Mom would tell me stories of she and the cousins as children putting pennies on the tracks and saving the smooth, pressed results as treasures.
I've always wanted to do that.
I took the day after my birthday off as a personal all-for-me day, and in the late afternoon warm sun I sat placidly with my book and a coffee in Jane Warner Plaza in the Castro (AKA the Promenade) enjoying the blissful afternoon, some peace, and the light parade of people. PeeDee joined me for a sit, and we watched the historic F-Markey cards pulse by on their routine.
I've always wondered what would happen if you put a penny on a muni track. The modern cars have rail brooms before their wheels, but the antique cars do not.
Two cents had never bought this much fun.
Friday, September 28, 2012
comfort sweetness
Clever and delicious. I know I sdaid I was taking it easy this year, but clearly not. I really need to carve out some protected time for relaxing, therapeutic, quiet fun stuff. Like puzzles, creative play, and baking. How genius are these? Peanut butter and jelly sandwich cookies.
Read the story and get the recipe from The Sweet Tooth blog here.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
inconceivable!
As You Wish: Little-Known Facts About The Princess Bride on Its 25th Anniversary
daily dose of WTF
last month Kevin took Kelly and me on another fun Mystery Date. This time it was to the Bearracuda/Midnight Mass mashup event Church. The music and the performance was a complete mess, but as we do, we all had fun. We loves our Peaches.
We met for drinner and drinks beforehand, but Kelly and I were on time, which meant we were a good hour early, and set off wandering the off-streets of the near Mission for a dive cocktail. We were not disappointed with the Bulleit/PBR specials at a little hole in the wall.
The best though, was spotting this at eye level on someone's stoop.
Our daily dose of WTF. Which I kind of loved.
We met for drinner and drinks beforehand, but Kelly and I were on time, which meant we were a good hour early, and set off wandering the off-streets of the near Mission for a dive cocktail. We were not disappointed with the Bulleit/PBR specials at a little hole in the wall.
The best though, was spotting this at eye level on someone's stoop.
Our daily dose of WTF. Which I kind of loved.
when shadows fall
I love summer in SF, but it usually comes in September/October, when the earth's tilt toward winter makes the daylight hours ever shorter. On the rare evenings I have free and manage to get home in time for a walk, the twilight comes earlier and earlier. But still, an early twilight walk around Buena Vista is still slightly magical.
WAR walking
When wifi was new, WAR driving was thing. Driving around with the laptop scanning for wifi access points and mapping the neighborhood and noting the wifi names. When we wifi were few, we had a lot of fun with wifi names (after all, only other geeks could see them). And we all left them unlocked to share the access communally. Today networks tend to be locked down.
Now in most of SF you can see a dozen or more wifi networks from your phone. My friend thought it was funny to name their home's wifi network "Male Brothel and Day Spa." Then he saw this while he was taking a walk in his suburban neighborhood and had to share. Which is why we like him so much.
Now in most of SF you can see a dozen or more wifi networks from your phone. My friend thought it was funny to name their home's wifi network "Male Brothel and Day Spa." Then he saw this while he was taking a walk in his suburban neighborhood and had to share. Which is why we like him so much.
leftover funny
I am finally going through the blog backlog. This came across my Twitter feed during the Republican National Convention and I still think it's funny.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)