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."