Iyow - in your own words

Hee hee, if I could do it over again, I would want to be Tina Fey when I grew up… though it seems I’m already grown up.

Oh well.

WASHINGTON – Super secret satellite photos taken in September of this year reveal greatly increased activity at the Putin Soul Simulator site in Northern Siberia, Pentagon sources revealed today.

The news comes after repeated claims by Kremlin spokesmen that Russia is abiding by the new anti-soul-simulator proliferation treaty signed last year in Chennai, India.

“Obviously, we now have to view those Russian statements with a high degree of skepticism,” said U.S. Air Force Captain Rick Pego. “At about 0600 on the date in question, that place was lit up like a friggin’ Christmas tree.”

Rosie O’ Donnell’s recent tanking of her own prospective show deal with MSNBC probably didn’t hurt her none. She continues to get top billing for every outrageous thing she says, and she’s already as rich as Midas.

It’s such a weird thing with modern media – the hype about an event that hasn’t happened yet (or won’t) can eclipse the actual event.

Why get tied into a boring old regular TV show with a boring old format when you can get blogged about for shooting off your mouth or just being yourself?

Some friends of ours – Cuts Caine & Jewels are debuting a downtempo trip-hop band in SF tonight, at Rosewood , 9:30 pm tonight, August 11.

Come check it out if you’re in the area!

The Chinese New Year, the Year of the Purple Boar began on Sunday, February 18, 2007. What’s special about the year of the Purple Boar? It closes the 12-year cycle in the Chinese calendar, making it a time for reaping benefits from past efforts. It should also be a time of peace. We’re two months in, but here’s a little background on what you can expect for the next ten months….
(Image linked from http://imprint.uwaterloo.ca.)

“Gung Hai Fat Choi!”
The traditional new year greeting literally means “congratulations on prospering in money.” But it generallyis used more like “trick or treat” on Halloween—except that kids who say “Gung Hai Fat Choi” may be hitting you up for lai see (cash in red envelopes).

What can you expect from a pig year?
The Year of the Boar is a time of fun and some licentiousness. Pleasure and enjoyment of the good life will be valued more than power and status. Pig years are a time to be close to the people you care about. Most people splurge a bit on extravagances this year and then scale back in the rat year.

The Chinese believe that the Boar year brings good fortune for intellectuals, financiers, and best of all for… women. While this is a time to enjoy, some cautions I feel duty bound to pass on—make sure your pleasures don’t yield pains to you or those you care about.

Kate was 26, just out of law school and working at a big law firm. She was a second generation Nuyorican who grew up in New York and spoke Spanish because her grandparents still spoke mostly Spanish and she’d studied it in school since sixth grade.

She worked as a first year associate lawyer and often stayed late at the office to draft documents for more senior lawyers and finish her assignments. Many evenings, she was the last person in the office and the cleaning lady, Rosela – a petite and plump Ecuadorian woman in her late 30s, with teeth that jutted out so much that it was difficult for her to completely close her mouth and with brassy highlights dyed into her hair – would often stop by Kate’s office to chat. Rosela had a wonderful sense of humor, and she often ribbed Kate about her long work hours (“these are the best years of your life, how are you spending them staring at books?!”). Rosela asked Kate to help her find a millionaire lawyer to marry and rescue her, or if Kate couldn’t manage that, Kate should find one for herself, have a whole minivan full of babies, and then hire her to live with Kate’s family in their big, beautiful mansion.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich acknowledged he was having an extramarital affair. I feel bad for the women who has tasted the seed of Gingrich. That must of been such a wretched experience.

I’ve long been a fan of Robert Moses’ Kin – a San Francisco-based modern dance troupe – for their committment to art that’s unafraid to address the philosophical problems of our times, without ever sacrificing the beauty and joy of dance and music.

So when I went to see them on Friday night in SF’s Jewish Community Center, I was happy to see my high expectations were delivered on – and more.

This is the rare modern dance company that can entertain and evangelize its cause even to non-dance fans. If you have the opportunity to see them, I highly recommend it. They are performing through Sat. and Sun, Feb. 17 – 18 8pm in SF; and at Arizona State University, Mar. 2 – 3; and have just returned from an engagement at Dance Amsterdam in New York last month.

‘All the necessary conditions to perpetrate a murder are met by locking two men in a cabin of 18 by 20 feet … for two months.’
— Cosmonaut Valery Ryumin

Or two women. Or a family in a station wagon for two weeks.

I’m strangely intrigued by this astronaut love triangle story, though it stops just short of tragedy only because nobody died (yet). Yet why all the handwringing about psychological screening of astronauts? This doesn’t seem to be a normative trend, like going postal. Sometimes, Stuff Just Happens.

My name is Sachie, and I’m a coffee addict. I love my cup of joe. I fill my stainless steel Zojirushi thermos with delicious home-brewed coffee Monday through Friday. Though our Cuisinart Grind & Brew is a pain to clean, it’s well worth the effort.

But on the weekends, I am free to roam. Brunch and strong coffee can’t be beat. Among the best in the city are Universal Café and Boogaloos (when you don’t need to wait an hour).

Expanding our coffee radius over the holidays, my husband and I finally went to Blue Bottle Coffee in Hayes Valley. It’s hip. It’s cool. It’s somewhat hidden. The lines are long. And the individually brewed coffee gives you a strong buzz. So strong, in fact, that it has led to inane arguments. And yet we still went back for more.

As for the best of the brews, this past weekend we decided to try Philz Coffee (the Castro location). I had heard about this place from a Mission hipster and was skeptical. But my husband insisted we give it a try. And I’m so happy he did. The coffee at Philz is transcendent. Brewed “one cup at a time” (like Blue Bottle) you need to wait for your coffee. I ordered mine with sugar and cream. Fantastic. I want to try every blend, but I don’t know if I’ll make it past the Tantalizing Turkish coffee with my current cardamom obsession.

The coffee is so good in fact that we gave it a shout-out last year. But when most of us are headed to work 250 days a year, sometimes we need a reminder to start the day with ‘the kind of thing that will get you excited about life’.