I really should get out from behind this computer more often. I have so much fun when I do.

So I caught the Spinto Band at Amoeba today. Started out kinda liking them, then liking them, and finally really, really liking them a whole lot. Yeah, I even bought the CD. (Thanks for the enviro-friendly packaging, guys! I appreciate that.) I'm even thinking of going to see them at Cafe du Nord tonight. But since I saw them for free today, and will see them tomorrow with Arctic Monkeys for a mere $13 (thank you GAMH!), I kind of hate to pay $10 to see them tonight. Contrary to popular belief, I am not made of money. There is one guy on craigslist looking for a date to the show tonight. Maybe I'll look him up and at least save $2 on an advance ticket.

So March is my friend Kathy's birthday month (the official party was last night, plus drinks tomorrow on the actual day). She's Irish-born / Italian-adopted, so with St. Patrick's day in close proximity, she pretty much lays claim to March as an all-out excuse to drink the rest of us under the table. I'm a lightweight to begin with, so that's not hard. The thing that's killing me this year is, I said I'd meet for drinks tomorrow (her actually birthday) because the crew that works at the West Coast Since trading hours are EST, they start work at 5am and hit the bars by 2:15pm. Then I'm supposed to meet Larry and his 2 friends at the Hemlock Tavern at 7PM for a brew or two before the show. So I have to pace myself or I'll be under the table by the time the Arctic Monkeys come on. Yeah, it's not easy being me.        
    

Craptastic cell phone pic of Spinto Band at Amoeba

p.s. - oh, NOW you tell me!

Wow. Great show last night! I am really kicking myself now for missing them the last two times. (Yeah, I was kicking myself before, but even more now.) They used to open for the Lovemakers (gave Lisa & Scott a shoutout at the show last night). I've seen the Lovemakers four times with Larry since the first time we saw them open for Kaiser Chiefs at Slim's last March, but never with She Wants Revenge. The Kaiser Chiefs show was the first Larry/Ed encounter - which is way too long a story to go into now - but it turns out Ed hates the Lovemakers. He says they're the only band he's ever walked out on. (Which just goes to show, it pays to window shop [inlink]twisted,329[/inlink] when it comes to music buddies to compensate for anomolies like that.)

Anyway, when Larry started going out with Britta he took her to see the Lovemakers with She Wants Revenge at the Fillmore last November (without me, obviously, since they were just starting to get together). Then, they were going to see both again co-headlining at Mezzanine on New Year's Eve. But instead of going to the show, they broke up. In other words, I missed two great double bills for nothing!

All I can is, if I could go back in time, I would do things differently. Ok, that might not be at the very top of the list, but still.

p.s. - I'm really not heartless. Just practical.

Ok, I would not have phrased it quite this way, but apparently I'm The Window Shopper (Random Gentle Love Dreamer). Yes, I admit even when I'm in a relationship I have one eye open in case something better comes along, so that's probably what nailed me. But I've never cheated on anyone. That I can remember, haha.

Thank God my usersound is already appropriate. You'll just have to endure one more round from Dogs Die In Hot Cars. I promise I'll change it later. Maybe I'll grab a sound clip at the show tonight. Then I can spend hours transferring, converting, editing and uploading my clip. Great! (e:Paul) - could you please stop making this site so cool? I barely have time to keep up as it is. ;-)

p.s. - I think recent circumstances may have skewed my results somewhat. I wouldn't really call myself "random" so much as, um, noncommittal. Yeah, that's it. Then again, everyone's self-perception is skewed to begin with - including mine - so maybe that's it.

I'm finally getting around to finishing the Sunday paper. Here are a few tidbits from the "Pop Beat" column.

I'm compiling a list of my most memorable music moments of 2006. Right at the top of that list is the Lovemakers' Valentine's Day show at the Great American Music Hall, when, for their encore, the East Bay foursome pulled from its retro repertoire a dead-on cover of the spooky Cure classic "A Forest" that would have had black streaks of joy running down Robert Smith's powdered cheeks.

That's exactly [inlink]twisted,307[/inlink] what I said!

Oh, and (e:Jessbob)'s pal's the Spinto Band are playing a free show at Amoeba on Sunday. Anybody want to go? Oh, dagnabbit! You all still live 3,000 miles away! Can't I get anybody to come out here?

p.s. - wow, three posts in one day. Just like old times!

p.p.s. - I also suggested to dear John that we catch the [link=www.beniceparty.com]Be Nice Party[/link] next month, since I noticed it too late for tonight. Never hurts to have a wingman/woman.

I guess I should inlink even if I'm only referring back to my previous post when continuing a story. Let me clarify.

"Break up" [inlink]twisted,326[/inlink] was a exaggeration. Here's the whole timeline:

Sunday 9PM: I respond to a m4w post on craigslist
Sunday 10PM: after a few rounds of email we decide to meet for a drink
Monday 6-8:30PM: aforementioned drinks, as described here [inlink]twisted,325[/inlink]

Here's exactly what happened after that. He sent me the following email from his "real" email account (previously he had used a generic account - common practice on craigslist before you meet face to face):

"It was fun to meet you. If you're really interested please send me your # so I can call you."

I responded, also switching to my real email account:

Hi John. It was great meeting you last night. It's uncanny how much we have in common - especially considering we met through craigslist.

From your ad I know you're looking for love and a LTR. I really enjoyed hanging out together and would be into doing that again. But I don't feel the kind of connection to be dating each other. I don't mean to make what may seem like a premature determination, but I've been putting off sending my reply for that reason, so I wanted to be upfront about it. Anyway, I do like you and would be interested in doing stuff together. Some guys who are looking for a LTR only want to focus on that. You don't seem like that type, but with your limited social time I could totally understand if you wanted to reserve it for finding that special someone and spending time with your current friends. But if you ever want to do something together, give me a call or send me an email!

Lisa
(with my phone number)


His reply:

Lisa,

Thanks for the nice note, I appreciate your candor. Yes, I am interested in meeting someone with an intimate relationship as the end goal.

That being said, I did enjoy meeting you and you seem very cool and together and I could see getting together from time to time for some laughs. Who knows we might introduce each other to the perfect mate! And as far as I know yo can't have enough friends.

So promise to call me if there is something going on or youre in the neighborhood and I'll do the same.

John

My point about screwing and chemistry is this. I would much prefer chemistry and good conversation any day of the week. That's ultimately what I'm looking for. But the difference I've seen between women and men is, even if there's no chemistry some guys will screw you until they get bored. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but don't be surprised when the chick is pissed six weeks later when you then tell her you're breaking up because there's no chemistry. Can you guys get that, or no? I thought it was pretty simple. It would be better to say upfront "I really don't see us together long term, but I could sure use a good fuck if you're up for it." See what I'm saying?

On the flip side, if there's chemistry but no conversation, hopefully at some point you both come to the same realization. But I agree if I ended up screwing someone I couldn't see having a certain rapport with, I should probably say something upfront about that too. Unfortunately that hasn't come up for me yet. I'll keep you posted.


p.s. -

Just so you know I'm not out to lambaste the male of the species (if that were the case I would have properly categorized my post with one of the many colorful categories created by hodown - which I have been dying to use - but my damn inherent sense of diplomacy won't let me until I have just cause) here's an afterthought.

I have to correct myself about women 'typically' not screwing a guy if there's no chemistry. I have seen some women who will screw a guy just to prove to herself she's worth screwing. I have no other words of wisdom about that, just an observation.

As long as you peeps are in (e:chat) withdrawal, maybe a brief follow-up to my craigslist drama could help fill the void. Ok, maybe not, but it's all I've got.

So, my Dear John email was well-received. Then again, maybe he's on myspace right now ranting about the b!tch who dumped him before a proper chem test could even be conducted. But somehow I don't think so.

See, that's one difference between guys and girls. I just don't feel it, so I'm not going to go there. Not because he's not "the one" - I'd be happy to screw a guy I might never want to carry a conversation on with. But just because I can carry a conversation on with a guy doesn't mean I'd screw him.

In other words, it won't take me six weeks of screwing his brains out to come to the sudden realization, oh wait! there's no chemistry here! sorry!

Yeah, that could really piss a chick off. Hell hath no fury for sure.

I made first contact with a guy I met on craigslist last night. First off, the pre-game was flawless - short, quick, to the point - just the way I like it. Three email volleys over one short hour and we had a date set up for the next evening. Anything longer than that is just asking for trouble. Besides, why should I type my life story when I can tell it to you over a nice beer in a dive bar?

So I can tell right away he's practical and realistic - which might sound boring but scores very high with me. I get to the bar first, which lives up to it's description, so there's another point in his favor. I do a quick walk-through and don't see anyone matching his description, so I order a beer at the bar. A table full of bike courier types taking full advantage of the all day Monday happy hour immediately call me over. I can't understand a damn word they're saying, but there's much fuss over the scarf I wore as my identifiable feature (red carnations being out of season). So I'm thinking I must have walked by him after all, and hot damn! these guys may be drunk but they're darn cute! Although much younger than the guy I'm supposed to be meeting, so no such luck.

I reluctantly disengage myself and grab a booth at the back of the bar to wait. Mr. Practical shows up right on schedule within the 15 minute window he gave me. He gets a beer and the life storytelling begins.

I won't even go into all the unexpected commonalities we turned up over two beers, like moving here from Boston 4-5 years ago, working for rival tech publishers - which gave us the context to appreciate and the ideal positioning to launch into the Internet age. Seriously, if you weren't in the thick of it at that time there's no way to describe it.

Oh yeah, and this is for (e:Paul). When one of the IDG companies he worked for went belly up in the dot com bust, he bought their assets - including two $100k Sun Servers - for a mere $1,000 total to start his own business. Sorry - he already resold them so I can't get you any deals.

Plus he has a Border Collie he adopted from the SPCA. 10 points for that.

So it's like, Bingo!, right? But there was no chemistry - from my side anyway. Is that too much to ask for? He seemed to be into me - walked me to BART, kiss on the cheek, maybe we can catch some live music later this week - all that. Or maybe he's just more realistic than I am. I just don't know any more. If only there were some DIP switches to make that part work it would be so much easier.

So now I have to write the Dear John email (yeah, his name really is John) in response to his email asking me for my phone number. I'll tell him I enjoy hanging out with him, but I don't feel a romantic attraction which I know is what he is looking for. But if he's interested in doing things together as friends, I'd be up for that.

Sounds harsh - it's not like he's butt-ugly or anything, so can I really know I'm not attracted to him this quickly? I once talked to another craigslist guy who was trying to get over his ex. He told me she wasn't at all his "type" physically, so he was surprised he fell for her so hard. I told him attraction is a subjective thing - when you grow to like someone/something, your impression can change too. Maybe the first time you looked at sushi you thought "that can't possibly taste good!" But after trying and liking it, all of a sudden when you see sushi you think "my god! that looks so delicous!" He got that.

Still, since we're talking about a men for women posting I'd rather go on the record with how I'm feeling right now. If we do continue going out and he turns out to be sushi - or I become more realistic - there's always the option to update later.

Back to the bingo board.

Like the first comment says - someone went through a lot of trouble to very accurately depict the Simpsons intro with real life actors.

Happy Monday everyone!

I just got back from the SFSPCA Bark and Whine Ball with Ron and Sammi. OMG, it was so much fun. Ron made a hat for Sammi and painted her nails to match. She looked so cute! I can't compete with that.



Oh yeah, I must've passed that editing test 'cause they hired me. Woo hoo!

I think I'm the only one in my family, besides possibly my Dad (which is ironic, since he's a minister) who has never given up something [inlink]decoyisryan,13[/inlink] publicly for Lent. Yeah, when I was a kid we avoided eating meat on
Good Friday. At least for breakfast and dinner. You were on your own for school lunch.

Anyway, I thought it was kind of funny when my siblings adopted the practice when they got older. I'm like, did I miss something? Maybe we did that all along and I just forgot? But I don't think so. I remember when my brother visited me in SF for the first time and we went to the Arnold Arboretum in Golden Gate Park and saw these gigantic asparagus-looking plants. It was Lent, and he had given up asparagus. What are the odds? And who the hell gives up asparagus?

I also remember going to my other brother's church the first Sunday in Lent. It must have been for my nephew's First Communion. Anyway, the minister gave an interesting sermon. She suggested, instead of giving up something for Lent - denying yourself something you enjoy - why not "take up" something you've been meaning to do. Get in touch with old friends, volunteer, meditate, read, write. That struck a chord with me, the eternal "be what you are, not what your aren't" person.

This probably doesn't help [inlink]decoyisryan,13[/inlink] at all. But if it were me, I would only give up something I thought would be beneficial to cut back on long term. Otherwise, maybe consider taking up something.


My brother and the giant asparagus