Cab ride

I caught a cab this morning on 3rd and Geary.

I thought he might be Jamaican, but he’s from Nigeria. Twelve years in SF. By way of Boston and New Jersey, it turns out. No wonder I can barely understand him.

He guesses I’m Chinese, or Korean. Pretty good eye.

The stereo is on loud, and he turns it down. He asks me what kind of music I like. “This is fine,” I say. Pause. “What is it?”

Jazz. KKSF. “Listen to the words, they’re funny.” he says. And they are. Some song about shoppers, Natalie Cole asking if love is more fun than shopping.

It’s 9 am, and he rolls the dial over. Some Beethoven Symphony now, Eroica, I think. At the right volume to be peppy and energetic. Classical music needs volume, too, so when they hit the forte, you pay attention.

Construction on O’Farrell. I comment “Wow, they really are paving this road!” Yeah, the cabbie says, the mayor’s doing a good job. I like him, he’s a nice guy. He rode in my cab once, was really friendly.

“Are you married?” he asks. “No, I’m blissfully single.” He rants a bit about women, which is my all time favorite taxi driver rant.

He shakes his head. “Women are trouble. All they are good for is sex. And you give and you give…”

I start: “And what they want”

“But they don’t even know what they want. They don’t even know. Better off without them. Now where should I drop you? Left corner?”

Desire

Desire

I remember how it used to be
at noon, springtime, the city streets
full of office workers like myself
let loose from the cold
glass buildings on Park and Lex,
the dull swaddling of winter cast off,
almost everyone wanting
everyone else. It was amazing
how most of us contained ourselves,
bringing desire back up
to the office where it existed anyway,
quiet, like a good engine.
I’d linger a bit
with the receptionist,
knock on someone else’s open door,
ease myself, by increments,
into the seriousness they paid me for.
Desire was everywhere those years,
so enormous it couldn’t be reduced
one person at a time.
I don’t remember when it was,
though closer to now than then,
I walked the streets desireless,
my eyes fixed on destination alone.
The beautiful person across from me
on the bus or train
looked like effort, work.
I translated her into pain.
For months I had the clarity
the cynical survive with,
their world so safely small.
Today, walking 57th toward 3rd,
it’s all come back,
the interesting, the various,
the conjured life suggested by a glance.
I praise how the body heals itself.
I praise how, finally, it never learns.

“Desire” by Stephen Dunn from. New and Selected Poems 1974–1994. © W.W. Norton, 1994.

slightly hungover trot

Saturday morning. awake across town. board a bus, get home, change into shorts, shoes, and head out the door.

not hungover, but under-rested, not awake, a bit groggy.

ran a bit further than usual, still not that far. ran for 50 minutes in the park. pretty sweaty. partly cloudy.

remnants of the gay pride run from the morning.

walked home.

Land of the Dead

Saw this at Kabuki with e8. Saturday matinee. A grey, grey day.

we did lunch first at maki in Japan town. Somewhere in the course of conversation, e8 claimed to know what the word ‘monogamous’ meant. Since he had told me a funny story about sending a bottle of sake to two Japanese girls at a sushi place, I teased him about it. Just as he was shoving salad in his mouth, I said, “oh right… if by monogamy you mean sending two lesbians a bottle of sake.”

He froze. You could see this intense look of concentration as he tried to get his food down without spewing it all over the table.

The funniest part was later, when he related the story to mutual friends. He thought I said “if by monogamy you mean fucking two lesbians with a champagne bottle”. Which is far, far funnier.

Then we went to see Land of the Dead.

E8 paid, cause I left my wallet at home. So this serves as a reminder to pay him $35.

Howl’s Moving Castle @ Metreon

I saw this in February, but wound up going on a date to see this one at the Metreon, this time dubbed in English. Dubbing or not, this is not a great story, and I give it 2/4 stars.

Still, the animation is wonderful, with some really joyous bits of flowers and blades of grass and such attention to detail. Watching it a second time makes me realize that there is always something interesting going on visually, and how great the matte paintings in the backgrounds are.

I was pleased that I didn’t miss much in my Japanese-only screening. I think the only part I really didn’t understand was Howl’s tantrum where he turns into Gel and slugs off. And because of the translation being so… weird, I’m not sure if I missed anything at all.

Yay me.

Fear of Pop

So, if you’ve been looking for new music out on the internets, there sure is plenty.

I went to Sweden a couple years ago and I woke up to the fact that tons of English-language music is performed or influenced by Scandinavian artists and producers. Annie is a new Norwegian pop singer with a thin airy voice and well-crafted songs that are both cheery and melancholy. The album is called Anniemal, and the downloadable track is My Heartbeat (mp3). I’ve downloaded some other tracks, and I think I might shell out for the album. It’s pretty good, and other people think so too.

Yes, it’s pure pop. I think pop has its place, and I just can’t listen to rock and roll all the time. C’mon, a few pop hooks now and then…

I’ve been getting my new music tips lately from Salon.com’s audiofile. Check it out.

UPDATE: Annie is coming to San Francisco! Who wants to go? July 1st.

Jetro Test

I took the 11th jetro business Japanese test on Sunday, with 6 other people in the suite of the Japan American Society in Chicago. The test site was on the 6th floor of 401 N. Michigan, across the strwet from the famous wrigley building. Almost better to be across the street from an architectural landmark, so you can see it every day, than in it, perhaps.

The test was hard. I had to randomly guess the last 3 problems, had no time to finish the reading. Part of that was fatigue–my brain getting tired of looking at stuff I didn’t actually understand. I felt that the first third of the test was not too bad, and doing the practice test the week before definitely helped a great deal. Section 1 of part 2: Listening and Reading was very quick and difficult.

The test was interrupted two times: as we started part 2, the tape started dragging and the speech became slurred. It took them 10 minutes or so to sort that out. And not much later, they had to stop and redo one of the questions because offire engines outside obscuring the tape.

I met a guy Mike who lives in Michigan, he lived in Japan and worked for Merrill Lynch. Now he works for an auto parts supplier which works with lots of Japanese companies. (Denso?)

I hope to get J2 level, but won’t be too surprised if I only get J3.

UPDATE: Looking at the score breakdowns(pdf) for past tests, it seems that not many people get to the J1 or J1+ levels. So I would be really pleased with a J2.

Longest Day of the Year

I ran with M. down by Chrissy Field, and it was indeed bright, the sun not even below the Golden Gate bridge line when we started.

Tons of headwind, more than usual.

I ran poorly today, huffing and puffing like crazy. What’s up with that?

Lots of pretty girls out running.

We did a couple sets of harder running on the way back. The first stretch, for about 100 yards, I could hear footsteps catching up behind me. A guy passed us when we slowed, and said “About time. You guys were killing me.” and trotted on. Well, right on.

The next stretch was too long and I couldn’t keep up with M. That finished up the run.

I gotta do some distance or something to vary things, because my body is hardly getting warmed up and then suddenly underperforming on these 2-3 mile runs.

Afterwards, shopping at Safeway.

Grant Park Music Festival – Ralph Vaughn Williams

So, I am having quite the day in Chicago.

At the tail end of my very relaxed run, I ran by the new music pavilion in Grant Park. Crowd was forming. I asked, and a lady told me the CSO was playing at 730pm. So I hustled to the hotel for a shower.

Came back, and missed the first piece cause I had to buy dinner. Walnut pear salad, shell pasta, cookie, Orangina.

the pavilion is gorgeous, especial late, all lit up. I didn’t think much of the second piece, but this last symphony–wow, powerful and emotional. and a great chorus and soloists.

It’s chilly now. but it was nice to eat my salad under the dusky sky, watching the kids wandering about and listening to this great music. Also nice to be able to use my phone to look up my own program notes 🙂

This pavilion is such a great temple. It’s dark now, and they’ve got blue lights on the pavilion.

It’s cooler now, and i’m huddling in my sweater. This is a long symphony.

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