Stinson Beach

Drove up to Stinson yesterday (Dec 28). Gorgeous & warm, clean & crisp from all the rain, plus huge waves. Also found a massive chunk of beached whale carcass which was a little gross... We were wave hunting. Started at Fort Point to watch the surfers under the Golden Gate Bridge, then Stinson, then all the way up to Point Reyes with plenty of deer, reindeer, cow and horse sightings along the road.  Fun day!

Weekly World News

Gotta love it... As seen in the checkout line at Safeway.

LA

Roof of The Standard for drinks with J9 and Tim on Thurs before Christmas. Knapp called right when we were talking about him-eerie!  

Sharks!

Went to our first Sharks game at HP Pavilion last night. Awesome!! They beat the Ducks 4-2. We were up in the Hitachi skybox thanks to Kevin, and brought Jason along as well. Great company as well as a great game. Last time we saw them was when they were still playing at the Cow Palace - only been to the "Shark Tank" for shows... I believe the last was Queensryche!

NSSN

Not So Silent Night w/Hot Hot Heat (who were GREAT), Death Cab (who were good but not as good as at the Warfield a few weeks back), and White Stripes (who kinda sucked).  Thanks to Mary for the tix and passes - she always takes great care of us!

NSSN

Ran into quite a few folks we hadn't seen in ages at the show, incl Scott Perlewitz here, Adrian Moreira, Amy (Rose Frager's niece), and Jayn.

tiki hut

Boo!

Tuesday

Went to Mary's Stoli promo at Jillian's, them to Spud's 50th b'day party at the Tiki Hut in North Beach. His band, Drifting Sand, played their surf music, and we ran into a lot of Live 105 old timers incl Richard Sands and Steve Masters.

Singapura kitty

Went to visit the Singapura kitty at the bookstore on Valencia on Sunday after brunch with the Bachelors at Las Ramblas.

death cab!

Death Cab For Cutie at the Warfield - fabulous! First time we've been to this venue since we moved back, though we've seen a million of shows here (NIN, Mission/Wonderstuff, Michelle Shocked, Radiohead...). HUGE thanks to Mary Nite for the tix.

living legend

Wow-went to see Dr. Stephen Hawking lecture at the Paramount in Oakland last night. As Thomas said when I asked him if he wanted to go a few weeks ago, it was kind of like our parents having the opportunity to see Einstein-how can you let that pass? The lecture itself, on The Origin of the Universe, was very short-just 20 minutes or so, and expectedly superficial as a result. But "the Hawk" is very funny, and the Q&A bits at the end were insightful and entertaining. Unfortunately his new blink trigger was a little on the fritz, so it wasn't as interactive a Q&A as usual. Instead of taking a lot of questions from the audience, he selected a few from recent interviews, including one that came very close to answering mine (which guest appearance were you more excited about: Star Trek or the Simpsons?) - he "still thinks the Simpsons is the best thing on American TV." Despite the incredible difficulties in communicating, exascerbated by the tech issues with his infrared blink switch, Hawking still managed to squeak out a little spontenaiety. When asked how he felt about Bush's plan to get to Mars by 2010, he said, "Stupid." At which point we all laughed uproariously and missed the second part of his answer. His assistant David clarified: "actually he said we should send *robots* because we wouldn't have to bring them back and it would be cheaper, not *politicians*." Hawking tosses out: "Maybe."

Clive Barker

Met him at Booksmith on Haight earlier this week. Super-nice guy!  There to promote his new art book, "Visions of Heaven & Hell", and let us know about an upcoming gallery exhibit & sale in LA - finally, I may have a shot at getting a piece of his originl art!

Reno!

 

Sweet & Viscious

Met Ollie & mate Ian for a lovely Saturday afternoon cocktail in the Bowery.

NYC

Look familiar?

bye London

Rosemary is sad to see me go back to the States.

4 Tisbury Court, Soho

Was still able to find it instinctively from Picadilly tube after 20 years.

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Falafel Palace

Actually it's Palffy Palace, in what is now a music conservatory and used to be a private residence. Gorgeous baroque sort of room, great meal.

best sign

No guns, no dogs, no ice cream.

Kafka Street

 

Prague is pretty quiet

Outside of the tourist track.

eek

Ministry of something-or-other (or at least that's what it looks like) in Nove Mesto : definitely not the sort of place you want to be summoned to.

rooftop view

From the top of the Aria Hotel.

palace courtyard 2

 

St. Vitus

The family cathedral up at Prague Castle.

snausages

 

robots in Wenceslas Square

 

random decorated buildings

 

KFC

18th century KFC.

Old Town Square

And the astronomical clock which was not really as interesting as expected.

Stare Mesto

 

Charles Bridge

Just around the corner from our hotel in Mala Strana.

good morning Prague!

View from our hotel window Monday.

art exhibit?

No, just a depressing display of modern travel at Stansted security.

Electric House

Went to see "Nochnoi Dozor" member's screening, though we missed the first half hour due to a combination of waking up late and Maryann totally underestimating how long it takes to walk from her house. We liked what we saw, though, sort of Crow meets Matrix meets Prophecy or something. Went upstairs at the house after to lazily read the papers and have brekkie.  

cool bar

Beach Blanket Babylon in Westbourne Park. Terrible name, awesome building with lots of cool details and little warrens all over.

sometimes a hill...

Notting Hill actually is a hill-or at least more so than New York's so-called Murray Hill which is barely a gentle slope.

Rough Trade

Cool! They still have a record shop here.

Kensington Gardens

Taking a nice break for a nibble and chai tea latte here in Kensington Gardens, where there are quite a few people despite it being a little overcast today. Last night, after meeting up with Graham at Paddington for sushi on his way to Heathrow to go out on tour with the Bloodhound Gang, delivered Michele back to St. Pancras for her train. I met up with Maryann Bowers at Soho House for drinks.