adrian is rad

Some people took sausage and wrapped it in bacon and slathered it in bbq sauce. Does anyone really need to ask why this has gotten some attention?

I found this article about transitioning White House style interesting.

It has fun quotes, like:

In the West Wing, Mr. Obama is a bit of a wanderer. When Mr. Bush wanted to see a member of his staff, the aide was summoned to the Oval Office. But Mr. Obama tends to roam the halls; one day last week, he turned up in the office of his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, who was in the unfortunate position of having his feet up on the desk when the boss walked in.

I’m once again heading to SxSW, which happens in a month and change. The preliminary list of bands is dizzying. I’m looking forward to it, though.

It’s Motown’s 50th anniversary this month. Popmatters put together a good list of their 25 top singles. It includes a streaming music player. On my other blog, I put together my favorite Motown songs from 1959, their first year.

People who know me may be wondering why I haven’t posted much about the Steelers, given that they’re in the big game.

Don’t worry: I’m excited plenty. I’m wearing my 86 jersey right now. I find it almost cruel that they’re making me wait two weeks between the AFC Championship and the Super Bowl.

In a related topic, Scott referred me to an interesting NY Times slideshow of alternate Superbowl 43 logos. I think I like two retro designs, this one and the one below, the best.

Headlines like that (on the front page of today’s Palo Alto Daily News) always make me laugh, even if they do have some reason. They remind of Onion-style headlines of the “Oxygen Still Necessary for Living” type.

Martin Van Buren was an interesting president, not particular for what he did—after all, his main presidential legacy was the Panic of 1837 (does that look familiar to anyone?)—but for who he was.

He was:

• the first president to be born an American citizen.
• the only president to not speak English as a first language. (he was raised speaking Dutch). [1]
• the first president from New York.
• one of two people to have been the Secretary of State, President and Vice President. (the other way Thomas Jefferson[2])

[1] Imagine the backlash today about such a person: how unamerican can you get?

[2] Awesome band name that I came up with in 11th grade and recorded a total of one song (in German) with: DJ TJ and the Founding Fathers.

I saw a few movies in the last few weeks.

Gran Torino I’m a big fan of later-era Clint Eastwood films, especially Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River, and Unforgiven. They tend to have these great conflicted characters. Gran Torino is no different. Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a retired auto worker and a Vietnam veteran living in a Detroit neighborhood that is becoming a Hmong neighborhood. Kowalski is set in his ways and doesn’t like his new neighbors. Hilarity ensues! Not really–but what unfolds as he gradually becomes involved in their lives (and they in his) is a pretty great story. It has still got me thinking.

Milk I’ve done my civic duty as a citizen of San Francisco and seen this movie. Sean Penn is good (of course) as Harvey Milk in this biopic. Gus Van Sant tells the story well. What stuck with me is that I didn’t know that Milk reluctantly got into politics and it was fairly late in life–he was already into his 40s.

Kenny This is an Australian movie about a guy who rents and services portable toilets. I got it because they had the following quote on the back of the box: “The Citizen Kane of romantic comedies about sewage.” Everyone puts hyperbolic quotes on the back of movie boxes but I thought I’d want to see a film whose makers were willing to put that quote on the back of the box. It was hilarious. Besides being laugh-out-loud funny for much of the film, the characters were also pretty endearing.

Here’s the trailer:

Nice sign, though.

View Larger Map

The other day I was reading in the Juri Commons, the odd, slanted mini-park between 25th and 26th, Guerrero and San Jose, reading when the little map in my head made the straight-line connection to the slanted building at 24th and Capp near where I used to live. I remember talking to someone that suggested it might have been an old railroad route.

I looked into it more and found a cool graphic depiction of the route through the Mission, SoMa and Noe Valley, and some history. It used to be the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad which was later acquired by Southern Pacific. It’s essentially now Caltrain but they added the shortcut tunnels through the hills that made this Bernal cut, as they called it, obsolete. It seems the tracks were taken out sometime between 1906 and 1942–probably in stages.

There are some sites with some cool vintage photos, like this one with Harrison Street tracks, this one of the depot at 3rd and Townsend and this one already linked above.

What I did over the last week was walk along the path, at least in the Mission part. There are still a lot of remnants in angled buildings, rights-of-way and oddly shaped plots. I made the map above. You can see in the satellite view many of the angled buildings. I also took some photos which you can see if you click the placemarkers on the map.

Juri Commons

I’m not an activist. I have opinions about things, sometimes even strong ones, and I support some charities and volunteer time (though I suppose music DJing is activism in a certain light), but I guess I’m not programmed to be the type to be moved to work in an activist manner.

So it’s a little weird that today I joined an activist group, the San Francisco Bike Coalition. They’re very vocal in local planning, organization and transportation decisions. That’s fine, but given that I spend a non-zero amount of my time on a bike in this city, I appreciate that they make my life (and those of other cyclists) easier (e.g. free bike valet at events, working for more bike storage on public transportation) and safer (both by awareness and getting bike paths and lanes put in).

With the Steelers playing the Cardinals in the Superbowl, let us remember that they were, for a season, the same team.

(Let us forget, though, that they were horrible.)

View Larger Map

I did my first long bike ride in a while yesterday and certainly my first new route in a long time. It mostly hugged the water around the bay and coast of San Francisco. It was based on the SF Chronicle’s “Outer Limits” ride. It ended up being about 27 miles.

It was a gorgeous day yesterday. Warm, but not hot, clear, even out by Ocean Beach, and there were some gorgeous views throughout. I also went through a number of parts of San Francisco that I’ve never seen before: the Presidio, Seacliff, Land’s End, Lake Merced and parts of the Marina.

I also missed some turns, went the wrong way and blew a tire (while riding without a spare for the first time I can remember) and so I almost got stuck out on the Great Highway (among all those ghosts). It’ll be better next time.

I’ve never seen this bridge near China Basin/ ATT Park up before.

This came up in conversation yesterday and I did have a definitive answer–not that there is one, necessarily.

September 1, 1939 or December 7, 1941

After a lot of lead up, September 1, 1939 directly caused a war, one in which many countries declared war on others.

December 7, 1941, on the other hand, only brought one country into the war, but it probably changed the outcome.

I think August 6, 1945 is significant, but, I think, more for the Cold War than the WWII.

And, honestly, you’re just being a contrarian if you say July 7, 1937.