adrian is rad

I was listening again to NPR’s story about Brinkley, AR and the Ivory Billed Woodpecker (and the associated “Lord God Bird” song by Sufjan, I’ve posted about it before) tonight. It got me thinking (and I’ve thought before…

The SF Peninsula isn’t changing. I mean, it is, but it isn’t really. What am I doing here? There are places like Brinkley, serious small town America, that are changing irreparably and getting closer to extinction. Maybe I should plan a week next year (or in the fall) to drive around small town America, staying in small inn’s and talking to locals. Hopefully even catching some local music. It wouldn’t be exciting or crazy like vising NYC is, but it’d be pretty cool. It’s not like I Cache River National Wildlife Refuge and the Big Woods has been called America’s Amazon.

I’m serious about this. Let me know (here or offline) if you’re interested.

Last night I saw another film at the SFIFF: Bunny Chow (official site, wikipedia).

[Note: the film is named after a food popular primarily in Durban by the same name. Despite the description, it’s not a sandwhich. It’s hollowed out bread filled with curry.]

It’s a South African film (so I have an immediate bias) about three comedians and a random fourth guy who travel to a primarily music (but also comedy) festival together. It’s also about the comedy business and different approaches to women.

It’s a good film. It’s was a bit here-and-there, very conversational and, though it had an obvious plot, seemed like you were just watching friends hanging out a lot. I found it engaging. On the negative side, though I did laugh, I thought a film about stand up comedians would be funnier.

I’m fairly used to listening to various South African accents, but Gumbeaux had a hard time, he said. There were some parts that had subtitles even for English in the film (the Zulu and Afrikaans were obviously subtitled). I think the film could use subtitles throughout for American audiences.

Last night I saw Jonathan Richman perform live accompaniment to the 1921 Swedish silent movie Phantom Carriage at the Castro Theatre.

I haven’t been to the Castro Theatre in a couple years and as I went in and saw the beautiful molding and ornamentation in the theater, I remembered how amazing that place is. There was an interesting mix of people milling around and finding their seats: Jonathan Richman fans, silent movie aficionados, indie movie people, etc.

If you’ve never seen a silent film with live musical accompaniment, I’d recommend it. It’s usually a pretty good experience. The semi-improvisational nature of the music adds a lot of excitement to the movie.

The movie itself is pretty complex for the time. The plot’s based around a Swedish folktale. The idea goes that the last to die in a year that has bad things has to spend the rest of the year being Death’s carriage driver. It employed a few techniques that I was surprised were employed then, including non-linear story telling and some fairly good special effects techniques for the ghosts.

On now onto the music. I’d seen Jonathan Richman before. He’s really quirky live and has a lot of charisma and stage presence, so I was really curious how it’d end up when these things were taken away. The set up was Jonathan on (nylon string) guitar and pump organ. Other players were two hand bell players, a trumpet/ baritone player, a bass clarinet/ saxophone/ flute player, a violinist and a cellist. I thought their accompaniment was really good and all the players were very talented. It worked really well with the movie. The main characters had motifs and there were parts were these two motifs were almost colliding when two characters were talking or arguing. A daring move was during certain particularly intense moments in the movie there they left it completely silent; I think it paid off.

View the full photo album.

Update: I’ve noticed the bad justification to the text next to the photos. I have tried to fix it, but it’s stubborn. Sorry!

This Thursday’s My Name is Earl is going to be the TELEVISION EVENT OF THE CENTURY: Laugh N Sniff. You buy this week’s TV Guide which has a special card in it and at certain points in the show you scratch so you can smell what’s going on in the show! It’s like Smell O Vision! For the masses!

I have purchased my copy of this week’s TV Guide; I’m not missing this opportunity.

I was totally right. I saw one of those minature personalized license plates yesterday and bought it. It was pretty excited. I never see “Adrian.” My roommate said that “Adrian” had to be in the top 50 most popular names. How to resolve this? The Social Security Administration to the rescue!

Their site will show you top 20, 50, 100, 500, and 1000 names for any year back to 1880 (1880’s most popular names? John for boys, Mary for girls). In the year I was born, 1980, Adrian was the 115th most popular male name with 2,387 total Adrians that year.

The top 10 names from that year:

1. Michael
2. Christopher
3. Jason
4. David
5. James
6. Matthew
7. Joshua
8. John
9. Robert
10. Joseph

You can also check out the fads, how a particular name changed in popularity over a period of time.

After the jump how “Adrian” has varied since my birth year.

(more…)

Hi. I don’t know if we’ve met. I’m Adrian and I’m crazy.

Last week’s triathlon training.

Saturday: 2.0 miles bicycling -> 0.9 miles swimming -> 17 miles bicycling -> 3.2 miles running

Sunday: 22 miles bicycling (Old la Honda, 2000 ft elevation gain)

Monday: 3.5 miles running

Wednesday: 1.0 miles swimming

Thursday: 3.5 miles running

Totals (and the goals in parenthesis):

• swimming: 1.9 miles (2.0)
• running: 10.2 miles (10-11)
• bicycling: 41 miles (15-22)
• brick: one triathlon (at least one brick)

I don’t know if I can keep this up. The running is starting to become a real problem, like a joint pain problem. I think I’ll try to just keep up this week.
Goals:

• swimming: 1.9 miles
• running: 10.0 miles
• bicycling: 15 miles
• brick: at least one

Here’s the playlist of tonight’s show. I am a bit sick and loopy, but I think the music, at least, didn’t suffer.

There’s just so much good music out there right now. I’ve been picking about 1.5 hours too much music for my show pretty regularly.

I got multiple calls asking about the One AM Radio track, “Lest We Forget”. It’s a good track. (And it’s streamable at his myspace.)

I Once was Canadian, KZSU – 4/25/07 (mp3)

The 50th San Francisco International Film Festival starts later this week. Here are some of the ones I’m interested in seeing.

Bunny Chow A South African comedy. Despite the description, “bunny chow” is not a sandwhich and is not popular in Johannesburg (it’s a Durbs thing)

Phantom Carriage A classic Swedish silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jonathan Richman

The Old, Weird America: Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music About the second best collection of American folk music and its effects.

Audience of One A documentary about an SF preacher that gets divine instructions to shoot a film and he goes about doing so on 70mm film.

Ghosts of Cite Soleil Documentary about Haitian gang rivals and rappers.

The Monastery Documentary about a former university librarian who wants to turn his ancestral home (a castle, actually) into a Russian Orthodox monastery.

Bamako An allegory about the Western World’s influence on Africa.

Third Monday in October A documentary about the heated battle for middle school president in a variety of schools in three states.

Once A rom-com (as I call them) about two Dublin musicians. I just love Irish musicians, alright?

Emma’s Bliss A German film about a man with terminal cancer and the woman whose pig farm he crashes his stolen car into.

Aqua About two swimmers in different parts of their careers. Minimalist and apparently good cinematography.

Eagle Vs. Shark quirky and compared to Napoleon Dynamite. I’m intrigued.

Rocket Science From the director of one of my favorite movies, Spellbound this is a feature film about a stuttering kid who joins the debate team to win over a girl.

Off the news wire:

April 21, 2007

Menlo Park, CA – Adrian took the prize by a narrow lead in the first annual Adrian Classic sprint-distance triathlon. Adrian held off competitors to take first place in the first running of this tough race.

The course started at the scenic Stanford pool with a 1600 yard (0.909 miles) swim. Then competitors cycled 17.5 miles around hilly Portola Valley, ending in Menlo Park. They then ran 3.2 miles around Menlo Park.

Adrian took the lead at the beginning and never let up. “I’m just glad I could hold them off,” Adrian said. “I think I had a strong swim leg and I really just held on after that.”

“I have to say, the hardest part was the Gauntlet.” What’s come to be known as the ‘Gauntlet’ is part of the run leg where the competitors have to dodge gypsy-moth caterpillars hanging over the route from trees overhead. “After the Gauntlet, though, I was home free.”

A spectator at the finish line who asked not to be named said about Adrian “He looked like shit.”

Twice yesterday this happened at two different social functions:

Dev/ Kyle: Hi, I’m Dev/ Kyle.

Me: Yeah, we’ve met. I’m Adrian.

Both of these people I’ve interacted with a few dozen times. Do I look different? Why are people not recognizing me?

Which reminds me of a pretty great story. At some point Natalie Portman, who went to the little brick schoolhouse up the road was at an MIT party. She was milling around outside. My friend Will was waiting outside for people so that they could all leave. He’s there; she’s there. Both milling. So he walks up to her and says “Hi, I’m Will.” She apparently grunts and doesn’t shake his outstretched hand.

This was in post-Phantom Menace, pre-Attack of the Clones period; there had been a young Anakin but no grow Anakin yet. He had this intricate plan in which he’d bust his butt and get the Anakin part for Attack of the Clones. On the first day of shooting, she’d introduce herself to him, her male co-star. “Hi, I’m Natalie.” He’d then yell “Oh, we’ve met!” and storm out.

Needless to say, this plan did not come to fruition.

I have interesting friends.

At an engagement party/ shinding tonight.

me, to the engaged: Congratulations!

him: you don’t look fat!

I forgot to post my playlist from this week’s show.

Also, here’s the mp3
I Once was Canadian (KZSU) – 4-18-07 (mp3)

I really liked the last set: Andrew Bird->Sigur Ros->Adem.