It's hard to describe the little island I live on. One of the local bartenders wrote this song. It's at least 1/2 a stanza too long to listen to if you don't live here.

Alameda, Alameda, you're the jewel by the bay.
Full of life, full of spark, from Webster Street to Park,
From Crab Cove out to Harbor Bay.

Island City, oh, so pretty, surrounded by the sea.
You're the best in the west, Alameda
You're the grandest place to be.

The sun smiles down on Neptune Beach and Crown.
Children play by the shore.
Trees so green can everywhere be seen.
Who could ask for anything more?

Alameda, Alameda, it's a fact that's plain to see.
You're the toast of the coast, little city with the most.
You're the only place for me.

So pure and clear the atmosphere.
Blue skies stretch out for miles.
People ride from far and wide, to see our beautiful isle.

Alameda, Alameda, our jewel by the bay.
Over bridge or the by ferry, I will cross the estuary.
And in your arms I'll stay!

Listen

So, between the mini-vacations to [c]secondlife[/c] and [c]there[/c] plus my usual loitering around the 'strip, I've been spending a fair amount of time directly or indirectly with (e:paul) lately. Now he's actually crossed over to my dream state in kind of a weird way. Maybe I shouldn't admit this but I've had (e:strip) dreams before, and that didn't alarm me. But this is different. Apologies to all the dream diarists out there that I can't remember details of the dreams themselves, but the thing that was weird is the formatting of the dreams. In the lower right-hand corner of my imaginary field of vision was a fixed, semi-transparent, scaled-down userpic, kind of like the station ID logos you now see watermarked on all the TV stations. Except this was (e:paul) 's blinking eye userpic. I can honestly say I don't remember ever having a dream formatting issue like this before. It was freaky and comforting all at the same time. I have no idea what it means.

Not surprisingly, quite a few people biked to the Green Festival. Between 9AM-1PM we valet parked over 200 bikes.




(low-res cell phone pix)

The SF Bike Coalition organized the valet parking. I didn't realize this before, but all major outdoor public events in San Francisco are required to provide attended bicycle parking. Cool!

There were seven guys and me on the morning shift. These guys were serious bikers. One guy works for the Santa Cruz Hub for Sustainable Transportation and travels all over the place with his Brompton folding bike. I have to get me one of those.

I bike mostly just to get somewhere, and to get the hell outside. I haven't changed my biking style much since I was a kid except now I'm allowed to ride in traffic. It's a wonder I haven't gotten myself killed, come to think of it.

The Green Festival was super crunchy. I think my favorite exhibitor was the guy who makes stuff out of recycled chopsticks.

I "heart" midi.

Happy Together / The Turtles

::DOWNLOAD MEDIA::

Historical note: I'm busting out the seven midi's originally in this post so IE won't crash. I'll string 'em along in a midi-of-the-month plan so too many won't show up in the same journal listing display. Wanted to keep this one here where it started. Moved Brandy [inlink]twisted,29[/inlink] back to an unpublished post I horded from October. Am I over thinking this?

So much for unchained melodies...

Not everyone living in the South is a conservative. My Dad's been sending this around to his Dem buddies (most of them also native NYers, though):

The Republican National Committee announced today that the Republican Party is changing its emblem from an elephant to a condom. The committee chairman explained that the condom more clearly reflects the party's stance today because a condom accepts inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks, and gives you a sense of security while you're actually getting screwed.

I must be moving through the seven phases of grief. Is gallows humor one of them?