The Conical Glass

Ready for the scrapheap

2008-05-04T15:24:00.000-07:00

This is slightly embarrassing, but it goes to show what a drooling "Indiana Jones" fangirl I am: I had read that the trailer to the upcoming "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" was playing before "Iron Man," so I actually brought my iPod to the theater so I could close my eyes and play loud music during the trailer because I was afraid of spoilers. I don't want to know anything about the movie before it unspools onscreen in 3 weeks. I want to be surprised, just as I was when I saw the original "Indiana Jones" movie many years ago. I may not be a kid anymore, but I still have a childlike enthusiasm when it comes to this series. (Of course, I don't want to get too excited... as one blogger of my acquaintance pointed out, "I do have three words of warning we should all keep in mind. Star. Wars. Prequels.")

[Warning! Warning! Warning! If you are planning to see "Iron Man" and don't want to know anything about the movie's plot points, stop reading now.]

Anyway, I agreed to go with Joe to see "Iron Man" because it had gotten a lot of rave reviews ("Cartoon thrills for thinking people!"), but after seeing it, I honestly think I'm done with the whole comic book movie genre. I am so obviously not the target audience for "Iron Man." It's a movie for 14-year-old boys who are impressed with girls, guns and gadgetry. Seriously, the first hour of the movie is about a guy building a robotic suit, and the second hour of the movie is about a guy perfecting the suit. Ho-hum. Yes, Robert Downey Jr. does a nice job sending up his pre-rehab/jail reputation, but in the end the movie is just one guy in a CGI robotic suit fighting another guy in a CGI robotic suit, and I'm thinking maybe I should have gone into the city to see "a film that uses indigenous nonprofessional actors to tell a simple but transcendent story of daily life" instead.

I Sit Through The Credits So You Don't Have To: If you liked the movie, you really should stay for the credits because at the very, very end, the filmmakers include a scene setting up the sequel. I mean, wild horses couldn't get me into the theater for "Iron Man II," but there it is.

The adoption saga comes to an end

2008-05-03T18:52:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, I mentioned that the puppy was spending a few hours with some potential adopters. The good news is that they really liked him. The bad news is that they really, really, really liked him.

The Dad and his adorable young daughter returned Ace on Wednesday evening, around 9 PM. He had already submitted an application to the rescue organization, which would have to evaluate it and make the final decision. I tried to explain the process to him. Afterwards, I sent an email to the rescue group stating that they seemed like a perfectly nice family and I thought they would give the pup a good home.

Thursday morning, I got the following email from Dad: "I was wondering when we might hear from the rescue group. My kids are very excited about adopting Ace and we would like to bring him to our home as soon as we can." I responded that presumably, someone would contact him shortly, and mentioned that I had put in a good word for them. In the meantime, I had a tremendous amount of work to do so I kind of hoped myself that it would be sooner rather than later, since caring for the tiny pooping, eating and sniffing machine was a time consuming project.

Thursday afternoon, another email from Dad: "I hate to bother you, but I have still not heard from [rescue]. I'm actually confused... I would have thought that when you have a family ready to adopt one of your puppies, you'd want to jump on that and 'close the deal' so to speak. If for some reason she doesn't want us to have the pup then I'd appreciate her just telling us that we can tell the kids, but they're excited and its not really fair to keep them in suspense like this. Anyway, sorry for venting to you, but I'm a bit frustrated."

For any of you reading out there, here's a tip: adopting a puppy from a rescue organization is not the same thing as going to the store and buying a bag of oranges. It's analogous to adopting a baby -- anybody with functioning lady parts can make her own baby (with a cooperative gentleman involved, of course), but if you want to adopt or foster a child, you're stuck enduring home visits, interviews and reference-checking. Pretty much everyone involved is a volunteer, most of them with other jobs. It took about 2 weeks between the time I first saw Hobie and when I brought him home.

Anyway, I was dealing with about 10 other things that were stressing me out, and coping with a pushy puppy adopter was pushing me over the edge. I was caught in the middle. However, Joe and I determined that the family had to be the perfect match for Ace, since he was just as jumpy and impatient as they were.

Finally, late Friday afternoon, I got the word that they had been cleared to adopt Ace. They picked him up this morning. Incidentally, they are planning to rename him Scruffy, which is kind of cute and appropriate, I think.

One of my projects was attempting to house-train the pup, which I did with mixed success. He went about a week with no accidents in the house, always using the same part of the yard to do his business, so I slacked off a little bit in watching him like a hawk/keeping him confined to whatever room I was in at the time. Of course, then he had another accident, so I went back to monitoring his every step when he was indoors. This morning, we came downstairs to wait for Ace to be picked up and found the messy remains of an accident. I have no idea when he could have done it, since he slept in his crate all night and I thought I'd had my eye on him all day Friday. As Joe cleaned it up with a roll of paper towels and a spray bottle of orange-scented wood cleanser, I could only sigh fondly and think, He's someone else's problem now!

Swell

2008-04-30T17:43:00.000-07:00

The puppy has taken a brief field trip to a local family that is interested in adopting him. The big question: will he get along with their cat? I hope things work out, because I'd like to see him find his "forever home." I thought if I fostered a dog and helped him to find a home, it would help me get over my grief. I really do want to help homeless animals, and I owe a lot to the rescue folks. But after Ace is placed, I think I need to take a break from dogs for a while... I still miss Hobie so much, and Ace has been fun to have around, but he's also made me realize how rare and special my relationship with Hobie was. When this comic ran in the Chronicle a few months ago, Joe said I needed to clip it out because it seemed so appropriate. He was right; Hobie did complete me, and there's an emptiness now. I know someday I'll find a new companion, but it's not time yet.

One of my clients sent me an article she had written called "Finding a new best friend." It says: "Here's what I would like to say to anyone whose heart is aching: Believe in your fur angels. They won't let you pine for too long. They're interceding in pet heaven on your behalf to send you a new companion." OK, that sounds a little dorky (I'm not a big believer in heaven for either pets or humans), but it does provide me with some comfort. My new dog is out there somewhere and when the time is right for both of us, we will find each other.

In the meantime, life goes on. Joe and I went to see the Swell Season at the Paramount in Oakland on Saturday. Since I was an early adopter of the duo (better known as "the guy and the girl from the movie 'Once'"), you'd think I'd have seen them on one of their other appearances around town before they became Oscar-winning superstars capable of selling out the 3,000-seat venue. But those appearances weren't conveniently here in the East Bay. Anyway, Glen, Marketa and their band put on a nearly flawless 2-hour show, which started off with Glen coming out on stage and played one song solo acoustic, unamplified. Even in the huge theater, it was easy to hear him, as long as every person in the room sat quietly and listened. Which they did. I didn't even see a single cell phone flicker during the entire concert. The audience was so rapt that Glen even commented favorably on it towards the end of the show. Sometimes I worry with "trendy" bands (and I think one that just won an Oscar qualifies) that the room will be full of people more interested in making the scene than paying attention to the music, but Swell Season fans, at least those in the Bay Area, obviously know how one should behave at a concert.

I'm also trying to decide who to root for on "Dancing With the Stars" now that my second-favorite twosome, Shannon and Derek, have joined Adam and Julianne in Eliminationville. I'm mesmerized by the hunkiness that is Cristian de la Fuente, the sexy Chilean actor I will admit I'd never heard of until DwtS. But will his arm injury (a ruptured tendon) cause problems next week? I might root for Kristi Yamaguchi, who has suddenly been thrust into an underdog position after a couple of low scores placed her below Jason Taylor for the first time. Really, I can't believe how hooked I am on this goofy show, but no matter how low I may be feeling, it never fails to cheer me up, and what more can you ask for?

I Love Eurovision!

2008-04-24T14:36:00.000-07:00

American fans of European sports like rugby or Premiere League football can almost always find a local pub to go hang out and watch the games. But pity the poor Eurovision fan. We are a lonely lot when we cannot spend the spring in Europe. We long for the saturation, Super Bowl level coverage the annual contest gets overseas. Sure, a lot of can be found online, but it's somehow just not the same. You want to be able to watch Eurovision with someone who understands how important it is.

Like a thirsty woman coming upon a desert oasis, I found Griet Verlinde's Eurovision blog over at Seattle's Stranger web site. Griet is Belgian, so he totally gets it, but he also explains the contest in such a way that even newbies can follow along. Every day, he's been posting three YouTube videos on the blog together with his commentary. If you're a longtime fan, you'll love gems like these:

The prize for most philosophical lyrics so far goes to the fantastic quote "if it ain't right, it's wrong" [from Norway's entry, by a singer named Maria]. Well, yes. Thank you. Which brings me to the realisation that unless I'm very much mistaken, I've not yet heard a single "Fire/Desire" rhyme in the contest so far. Fire/Desire rhymes are essential to Eurovision...

That, of course, made me nostalgic for the winning entry from 2005 (when I was in Sweden during Eurovision), Helena Paparizou's "My Number One" ("You're my fire/and desire"). If only I could spend every May in Europe!

Here are Griet's comments about Estonia's entry:

Girls in gold bikinis? Check! Girls waving Estonian and -- for some reason German -- flags? Check! Weird guys who can't hold a tune? Check! Eurobeat? Check! Slow-mo Riverdance? Check! Guy pretending to do unspeakable stuff to a piano? Check! Posters of cakes and is that an onion or a bomb? Check!

The final event will be telecast from Belgrade on Saturday, May 24 at 20:00 GMT, which is, if I'm not mistaken, noon here in California. Proper protocol for me would be to watch the webcast with a small Swedish flag to wave during Charlotte Perrelli's performance of her disco anthem "Hero."

Anyone want to adopt a cute puppy?

2008-04-22T14:10:00.000-07:00

This is Ace. Or Rascal. Or Angus. I'm not sure yet. I am fostering him for Wonder Dog Rescue. Linda had named him Rascal, and Joe immediately renamed him Adam, or Ace for short (in honor of Adam Carolla, whose nickname is the Aceman). Later, however, Joe thought he might look more like an Angus. I'll just call him Ace for now.

Linda has about a zillion dogs (only a slight exaggeration) looking for homes. They have all been rescued from shelters where they were at risk of euthanasia. I am so not ready for another dog, but Linda asked if I would foster a dog for her and I decided to try. I chose Ace because I figured I could work on training him, which would make him more adoptable, and the very fact that he's an adorable puppy (about 12 weeks old) means that he should be quite easy to place.

I'm taking him to the vet tomorrow to get his shots and make sure he's healthy (he was exposed to a couple of dogs with kennel cough).

Ace slept through the night in the crate, and seems very happy to spend time in his little "den." He isn't housebroken yet, which is presenting a couple of challenges, but I'm studying the topic on the internet and hope to help him figure out soon that he needs to use the yard and not the floor. He barks a bit when he hears other dogs in the neighborhood barking, but on the whole he is quiet and well behaved.

I feel that Ace's destiny lies with another family, and not with us, but I hope he finds a loving home, and that I can help him along the way.

Don't forget "Sarah Marshall"

2008-04-20T22:53:00.000-07:00

Joe has made a muxtape too, so give it a listen.

My record on comedies from the Judd Apatow factory is somewhat mixed: loved "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up"; lukewarm on "Walk Hard"; disliked "Superbad." "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" seemed to be more from the "Virgin"/"Knocked Up" school of grown-up raunch comedies, so I figured I should see it before all of the really funny jokes make their way into the popular culture, a la "Borat."

I'm not sure I agree with Richard Roeper that "Sarah" is one of the 50 funniest comedies of all time -- not that I've made a list or anything, of course.* It's got some laugh out loud moments, but it's mainly the bittersweet story of a young man's effort to get over the girl who dumped him and Find Himself. Jason Segel's Peter isn't a total loser; he composes the music for a popular TV show modeled on "C.S.I." (the scenes parodying the drama, which costars William Baldwin, hit the satirical target). However, he is given to spending days at a time in his sweatpants eating Froot Loops out of a giant mixing bowl, and he's definitely not as hot or successful as English rock star Aldous Snow, the guy girlfriend Sarah hooks up with.

If you didn't believe Seth Rogen could get the girl in "Knocked Up," well, I found Segel to be less handsome and charismatic than Rogen, who has a certain teddy bear cuddliness about him. But Peter is, like all the leading men in the Apatow-verse, a genuine Nice Guy. The Apatow flicks, as well as the recent "Definitely Maybe" (not an Apatow production), may be guy-centered romantic comedies, but what matters is that they're well-written with (mostly) fully rounded characters and storylines that entertain without insulting your intelligence. They're about as good as mainstream Hollywood comedies get right now. But now that we've seen a bunch of them, I would love to see an Apatow movie about a schlubby woman who hooks up with a babe-licious guy. Considering that Judd's next directorial effort will star Adam Sandler, I'm not holding my breath. And even though not everything Apatow touches turns to gold ("Drillbit Taylor," anyone?) you know that if he did produce a movie from a chick's point of view and it did poorly at the box office, everyone would say that female-centered rom coms just don't sell.

I Sit Through The Credits So You Don't Have To (it's time to bring back this feature!): Don't leap out of your seat when the credits roll or you'll miss a very funny trailer for a fake TV show. After that, not much of interest, although there is a pleasant Hawaiian language version of "Nothing Compares 2 U."

* A few of my picks for all time funniest comedies: "This Is Spinal Tap," "The Big Lebowski," "The Naked Gun," "The Producers," "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut." I honestly can't think of a single hilarious comedy starring women, although I can name two about fake women ("Tootsie" and "Some Like It Hot").

Muxing it up

2008-04-19T01:01:00.000-07:00

My friend Steve has been getting into something called muxtapes, and as I was listening to four versions of the Zombies' "This Will Be Our Year" (I really like that song), I thought, "Hey, I should look into this whole muxtape business!" Unfortunately, I quickly realized that it requires uploading MP3s; the trouble with our internet access is that while I can download an hour's worth of music in a few minutes, our upload speed is deadly slow. So I hope you will take the time to listen to my muxtape, because it took, like, 4 hours to upload all the songs. (OK, I'll admit, I wasn't uploading that entire time -- I got distracted watching "What Not To Wear" in the living room.) All you have to do is click on the first title, and it'll play through.

There's not a lot of rhyme or reason to the songs I picked -- I had to put Shearwater and Spoon on there because I'm so obsessed with them right now, but the rest of them are just songs I happened to notice as I was browsing through my iTunes library and thought, "Oh, that's a great song."

It looks like you can only mux 12 songs at a time per username. The page has an RSS feed, so if you subscribe to my feed, you'll presumably be notified if I decide to swap out, say, Kristin Hersh's "Under the Gun" for Beck's "Cellphone's Dead." Considering our sloooow uploading, though, I'm not sure how often I'll be re-muxing.

What the kids are wearing these days

2008-04-17T14:54:00.000-07:00

I love Kellogg's, honest I do. If it weren't for Kellogg's stock, I wouldn't be sitting in this house looking out over my beautiful, albeit leaf-strewn, yard. I eat Kellogg's cereal every single morning -- well, actually Kashi, which is a fully owned subsidiary of the big K. (They don't mention that on their web site, but it's true.)

However, the pride of Battle Creek has come up with the wackiest marketing idea since "Gerber Singles," a.k.a. baby food for adults: targeting the hip hop generation through licensed merchandise! Yes, what young gangsta wouldn't want to be clad in baggy pants decorated with the Corn Flakes rooster or a Snap, Crackle, Pop T? As Dave Barry would say, I swear I'm not making this up. The company is called Under the Hood, and they have a MySpace page, which seems to have been written by some 40-year-old who has spent a lot of time taking notes on "hip hop lingo" based on Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent's talk show appearances:

AIIGHT PEOPLE IT'S 2008 and it's time to represent!!!! After record breaking sales of our jeans hoodies and jackets we are excited to bring you SPRING 08' UTH STYLE. We will be showning (sic) our latest designs at MAGIC INTERNATIONAL in VEGAS! Trust me when I tell you this new stuff is totally OFF THE CHAIN!! Look for our advertizments in the upcoming issues of XXL magazine. We know we have the street credibility in our look,in our quality,and in our designs. Hey we know what you need to make that ohhhweeee impact when you step in the spot, so roll with UNDERTHEHOOD.com for the 08 and beyond!

I am so embarrassed for them. Though it would be really, really cool if my dad ordered some UTH merch and wore it to the Kellogg's stockholders' meeting next month. All ages can represent tha big K!

(Thanks to Brand New for the info.)

In other news, every season A.C.T. seems to produce some big, horrible farce. Last year it was "The Imaginary Invalid"; this year, it is Gogol's "The Government Inspector." If I had a dollar for every time someone in the enormous cast bumped into another person, walked into a door, or fell over, I'd have enough cash to afford to renew my season tickets for 2008-09. Which, thank goodness, doesn't seem to include any broad farces. NO MORE FARCES, A.C.T. Though come to think of it, it would have been really funny if Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky had been wearing XXL T-shirts with Dig 'Em, the Honey Smacks frog, on them.

How many times?

2008-04-14T20:42:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it's my insatiable appetite for novelty, but I don't listen to albums that many times before I kind of feel like I'm done with them. The number of average listens has gone way down in recent years. I always wonder if it's because I have a really good memory for music; to dredge up a random example, I probably haven't listened to Game Theory's song "Don't Entertain Me Twice" for a couple years now, but I remember exactly how it goes, and can almost "play" it all the way through in my head. I listened to Nirvana's Nevermind so often when it came out that I really don't feel the need to ever hear it again. Every song is practically imprinted on my brain. Ditto Roxy Music's Greatest Hits.

One of the interesting things about iTunes is that it keeps track of how many times you play certain songs or albums. I really like Kristin Hersh's Learn to Sing Like A Star, but I've only listened to it about 16 times. That seems kind of low considering how good it is. Most albums tend to fall into the 4-6 plays range, though.

A few weeks ago, I bought Shearwater's album Palo Santo, and ever since, it's quite literally been the only thing I want to listen to. I've played the track "White Waves" 27 times, which is already a new iTunes record. Even though I know every note by heart by now, I still want to hear it again. I'm a little worried that I'll wear it out, but for now, it's the rare track that I just can't get sick of. It's one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. The band has a new CD coming out on June 3, and I hope it lives up to the brilliance of Palo Santo. I'm going to see them at the Independent on May 19. The album has such a lush, gorgeous sound, I kind of doubt they can replicate it onstage, but I feel like I need to be there just to pay homage to this band that has become such a part of my life over the past month or so.

I'm curious, how many times do you play an album before you get tired of it or feel that you "know" it?

When the going gets tough...

2008-04-11T17:43:00.000-07:00

I'm not one for retail therapy, but I did buy something this week: a new set of flatware. I have long wanted something a little nicer than the mismatched set we've been using for years -- warning, kids! If you opt to run off to City Hall and get married, you don't get to select place settings! -- and this set was surprisingly inexpensive (about $100). It's simple, but has a good heft to it, and comes with some nice serving pieces.

I also finally got my clothesline, which is something I've always wanted. My mom put it up for me. It's good clothes-drying weather right now -- sunny and in the 70s. I'm ready to save energy!

Thank you

2008-04-06T13:42:00.000-07:00

I wanted to give my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has posted a comment on Friday's blog entry or emailed me personally with their condolences. It was particularly helpful to hear from people who had gone through the loss of a cherished pet. Hobie's foster mom Linda posted this lovely remembrance.

I was supposed to be in San Diego with my parents this weekend but as Hobie passed away just a few hours before I was due to leave, I canceled the trip because Joe & I needed to be together. We spent the day over in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, visiting the de Young museum and Japanese tea garden, which are places that aren't on our normal itinerary and thus have no associations with the ordinary day-to-day lives we've lived over the past several years. Of course, no matter where you go, you can't run away from your sadness and empty feelings.

Sometimes life sucks and you just have to get through it one day at a time.

A good dog

2008-04-04T07:44:00.000-07:00

The last photo ever taken of Hobie: 2/26/08

I was not a dog person. I had never had a childhood pet, due to my family's frequent trips to visit relatives overseas. But being self-employed is sometimes lonely, and I thought it might be nice to have a dog, who would keep me company and get me out of the house a few times a day when he needed to go for a walk.

Joe and I visited a college friend of his who had two lovable Boston terriers. My dad had owned a Boston when he was a boy, and the more I read up on the breed, the more I became convinced that a Boston would be a good dog for me. I placed a notice on Craigslist asking if anyone could recommend a breeder or rescue group. A woman named Linda Beenau responded to my e-mail. She said her organization, WonderDog Rescue, had a couple of dogs available. She sent a photo of Hobo, and I wasn't sure I wanted him because he wasn't a true Boston. In fact, no one had any idea what exactly he was. There was probably some Boston in there, and maybe some chihuahua or bulldog. Hobo had been a stray and was rescued from an animal shelter. There was no way of telling how old he was or what his earlier life had been like.

Nevertheless, he seemed like a lovable, mellow dog, and the idea of adopting an older canine with none of that puppy wildness seemed like a good idea, particularly since we lived in an apartment and didn't have immediate access to the outdoors. We renamed him Hobie, and during our early weeks together, I wasn't sure I was cut out to be a dog owner. I took him to the dog park at Pt. Isabel and had to keep him on a leash because he wasn't under voice control; I didn't want him to run off and disappear. All the other dog owners seemed so confident, like they knew exactly what to do with their pets. I just felt that I had this willful little creature on the other end of the leash and didn't know if we would ever truly bond.

Before Hobie came home with us, Joe and I had purchased a comfy dog bed for him and put it next to our own. We tried to get him to sleep in it, but he'd just leap back onto our bed, no matter how many times we put him back on the floor. Eventually we gave in, so from the start, he always slept in the big bed. His preferred place to lie was right between us, in the center of his "pack." He usually woke us up around 7:45, and we called him our Hobe-larm, since we didn't need to bother with a regular alarm clock.

Despite the rough beginning, I grew to depend on his calm presence in my life. He slept in his dog bed or crate while I worked in my office. I never did take him back to the dog park, because he didn't particularly care to play with other dogs; he liked to take slow walks, sniffing everything in sight. The only thing that really got him riled up was a big yellow Lab named Miles who lived in our condo complex. Whenever he caught a glimpse of Miles, or even if we rode up in the elevator shortly after Miles had been in it, he would yap and bark and strain at the leash.

Maybe he just didn't like the idea of another dog on his property, and when Joe and I bought a house last year, we joked that we had really purchased it for Hobie. On nice days, I kept the sliding door in my office open and he could come and go as he pleased. He seemed happy to have his own yard. I wish he had been able to enjoy it for more than five short months.

On Monday, he seemed like his old self. I was cleaning and taking laundry up & down the stairs, and he bounded nimbly up after me; I remember wishing he wasn't always underfoot when I was trying to maneuver a big basket of clothes. Now, I just wish I had known it would be our last real day together. I want to hear his little nails clacking on the hardwood floors, and to watch him as he sleeps in the dog bed in my office. I want him to be standing by the front door when I come home from running errands, or wagging his tail with delight whenever we gave him a special treat like popcorn or a bit of pizza crust.

He was always there for me, and I wish I could have been with him when he died. On Tuesday morning, he wouldn't eat; he had a sensitive stomach and that wasn't so unusual, but by Tuesday night, he was having trouble walking and seemed disoriented. Wednesday morning, I took him to the vet. He had a high fever. They put him on fluids and had me transfer him to an emergency facility in Berkeley that could keep him for observation overnight. On Thursday, he went to see a specialist in Concord. They put him on oxygen and did further tests. He had an enlarged liver, and possibly a brain tumor that was causing the neurological problems. We decided to keep him in the facility overnight so he could stay on oxygen, and call Friday morning for an update. Instead, we got a call during the night that he had passed away peacefully. He always hated being confined in a cage, and I hope he was so out of it that he didn't feel too lonely and miserable. I wish I had been holding him close to me. Yesterday, I had thought maybe we could bring him home so he could end his life in the company of those who loved him, but it was not to be.

I've had many friends who have had to watch their dogs decline slowly, and finally make the agonizing decision to put their beloved pet to sleep. It's a small consolation that we didn't have to go through that; except for the last three days, Hobie was Hobie until the end. But after seven years, it feels indescribably empty and lonely here without him, knowing that he's gone forever. He was such an important part of my life, a true companion.

If you have a dog, I hope you will give him or her an extra hug today and think how lucky you are to have a cherished pet. I wish I could capture in mere words what made Hobie so special and so loved; he was just my precious boy, and even though the pain of losing him is intense, I wouldn't trade the years we spent together for anything in the world.

36 Hours in Berkeley

2008-03-29T21:20:00.000-07:00

The New York Times spent three whole days in Berkeley and they want to warn you: "Public transportation in the Berkeley area is limited, so rent a car."

Not only is Berkeley served by BART (three stops), but there are at least a few dozen AC Transit bus routes going through town. Plus, the city is small enough that you can walk most places you'd want to visit. Most importantly, though, THERE'S NO PARKING ANYWHERE. And every single side street is blocked by some kind of traffic calming device. To drive in Berkeley would reduce an out-of-towner to tears in no time.

The only place in Berkeley that offers free, convenient parking is Shotgun Players, which is across the street from the Ashby BART station and is allowed to use its lot at night. New York Times readers: check it out! Now playing is "Mrs. Warren's Profession," a George Bernard Shaw play that was considered shocking in its day (the late 19th century and even into the 20th) because the titular profession is running whorehouses. If I hadn't known that going into the play, it might have taken me a while to figure it out, because everything is so heavily couched in euphemism. Something of an early forerunner of the Joan Crawford weepie "Mildred Pierce," "Mrs. Warren's Profession" is about the estrangement between mother and daughter when the latter finds out just how her mum has been paying for her fancy education. It's interesting to consider the fact that daughter Vivie's own profession -- she works as an actuary and studies law, and, she says, "when I'm tired of working, I like a comfortable chair, a cigar, a little whisky, and a novel with a good detective story in it" -- was nearly as shocking as the fact that her mom was a madam.

How times have changed: meanwhile, over a century later, Dennis Lehane (Mystic River) can pepper a script with about 100 F-bombs and it attracts an appreciative audience of grayhairs at a senior citizen matinee. (What was I doing there? Hey, no one asks you for proof of age when you buy those discounted tickets.) Lehane's noirish play "Coronado" is having its West Coast premiere at the SF Playhouse, a tiny theater tucked away in a second-floor space on Sutter St. The elevator wasn't working, which meant a lot of folks with canes were moving up and down the stairs very slowly. The play's first act switches back and forth between three couples in a Texas bar -- a pair of adulterous lovers, a father and his son who's freshly out of prison, and a therapist and his patient/lover. After a while, you start to realize that these seemingly discrete couples are somehow connected; the mystery unfolds before you in a most clever and satisfying way, as the theater's small stage makes an impressive transition from a saloon to a desolate plot of land in the middle of nowhere.

The five stages of "Dancing With the Stars"

2008-03-28T11:05:00.000-07:00

1. Disbelief: "That is the stupidest idea for a show I've ever heard."
2. Mocking: "These aren't even stars! Monique Coleman? Shandi Finnessey? Sabrina Bryan? Who are these people?"
3. Curiosity: "Paul McCartney's ex-wife with the fake leg is going to be on? Marlee Matlin is going to compete even though she's deaf? I wonder how that will go."
4. Anger: "Dammit, now they've actually gotten one of my favorite celebrities to appear on the show, which means I have to start watching it."
5. Acceptance: "Wait a second, this show is really fun and entertaining!"

The celebrity who finally got us hooked on DWtS was comedian and radio DJ Adam Carolla. I mean, we'd even watched the entire run of his home-improvement show, "The Adam Carolla Project." We had to find out if he could dance!

The answer: well, kind of. At least he was better than Penn Jillette, the tall, vocal half of magic duo Penn & Teller, a man with two impossibly large left feet. We made several phone calls voting for Adam and were extremely excited when he advanced. I suspect he will have to make almost superhuman improvement in the next week to survive further into the competition -- there are some really good dancers on the show, especially ice skater Kristi Yamaguchi and R&B singer Mario. But who knows, he might best Steve Guttenberg.

The thing is, even after Adam gets eliminated, I'm going to keep watching the show, joining the ranks of people around the world (local versions of DWtS are popular in over 20 countries, from Austria to the Ukraine) who have discovered that ballroom dancing is fun to watch. Plus, it's beautifully shot and looks fantastic in HD.

I suspect that the long-awaited release of Adam's movie "The Hammer" was somehow timed to coincide with his appearance on DWtS; it had played at film festivals in 2007, but no studio wanted to touch it because Carolla had insisted on playing the lead himself in the underdog story he created with writer Kevin Hench.

The movie finally got into a handful of theaters through a company called International Film Circuit, and, lo and behold, critics and audiences have been discovering its charms. Most of the reviews of "The Hammer" seem to have a tone of mild amazement that a film starring the former co-host of "The Man Show" is sweet and charming instead of crude and rude.

In "The Hammer," Adam plays Jerry, a just-turned-40 L.A. loser, a construction worker and part-time boxing instructor who was a promising fighter much earlier in his life. A couple of flukes bring Jerry to the attention of a boxing coach who invites him to an Olympic try-out. Jerry's powerful left hook knocks down some younger and seemingly stronger men, and he becomes a most unlikely contender. In a cute romantic subplot, Jerry woos a public defender played by Heather Juergensen.

One of the nice things about the movie is that Juergensen and Carolla seem like real people, and the supporting cast is equally authentic: for instance, Jerry's best friend is played by Oswaldo Castillo, a close pal of Adam's in real life who was one of the construction workers on "The Adam Carolla Project." The gym where much of "The Hammer" was shot, Pasadena's Bodies in Motion, was one of the construction sites Adam and Ozzie worked on together during their pre-showbiz careers. He may be an amateur actor with a heavy accent, but he's also funny as hell in the movie.

"The Hammer" is being held over for a second week in Berkeley, and is opening at a bunch more theaters today, so check and see if it's playing near you. If it helps his film get noticed, Adam's spins on the dance floor will have been worthwhile.

One final note about "The Hammer": It's rated R. I have no idea why. I don't even remember any curse words in it, though I guess there must have been a couple. In a just world, a movie like this would get a PG while "Saw" and "Hostel" and their sequels would be rated NC-17.

South by Southwest (to Palo Alto)

2008-03-23T18:41:00.000-07:00

Joe & I went down to Palo Alto yesterday to visit his dad and check out "North by Northwest" at the Stanford Theater. I've wanted to see "NXNW" for years, and have kept missing it (I believe its last local presentation was at the Cerrito Theater, but we were in Florida that weekend). And no, renting the DVD was not an option. Anyway, perhaps it was the years of build-up, and seeing that Cary Grant-running-from-the-cropduster footage during every Chuck Workman "great movie moments" Oscars montage, but I found it a bit disappointing, especially compared to other Hitchcock films of his Hollywood era (I'm partial to "Vertigo," which came out just one year earlier, and "Rear Window"). I loved the noir set-up, with Grant's ad man being mistaken for a spy, but the film just seemed a bit too long and convoluted, and Eva Marie Saint's character seems like a lesser blonde when compared to the likes of Grace Kelly and Kim Novak. Not that it was bad, mind you, I just don't think I'd call it a masterpiece.

We had lunch at Caffe Riace, which was, sadly, free of celebrities, but had a lovely ambiance on its outdoor plaza. A nearby couple was dining with their two poodles, which were dressed in tiny country club logo'ed tennis outfits and sitting in a pink baby carriage. A woman happened by at one point and started talking to them, I overheard the couple say they live in Atherton, which is an incredibly wealthy Silicon Valley community and the home of the most affluent ZIP code in the U.S., according to Forbes. If you're rich enough, I suppose, you can push your poodles around in a baby carriage without anyone laughing at you. Of course, I'm enough of a dog nut that I found it slightly adorable.

One of the fun things about visiting Joe's dad is seeing all the new technology he's accumulated since our last visit. He is an early adopter and always buys stuff the day it comes out. This time, he had an Amazon Kindle, which unfortunately didn't seem to be working (at least I couldn't figure it out -- I don't think he's used it much yet), and one of those super-thin Mac laptops that the ad shows being slid into a manila envelope. If I traveled a lot, I would definitely consider getting one of those because it's so light. As for the Kindle, since I'm such a dedicated library user, I can't see spending $400 for an e-reader, but it would be cool if a lot of out of print titles were somehow made available for the Kindle. Not sure how that could happen, but really, if you could download, say, the collected works of Lenore Glen Offord (a rather obscure mid-20th century mystery author my book group will be reading next month), that would be an incentive to buy it.

Before heading home, we had dinner at Darbar, where we got enough Indian leftovers to last us a couple days at least.

New challenge

2008-03-20T17:21:00.000-07:00

I've chosen two projects for this challenge: the aforementioned Battle of the Books in Columbus, OH and Bridges to Beautiful Cultures in Alameda, CA. If you're reading this, you have probably already donated (thanks!), but with the help of a friend, I have a new plan underway that should fully fund these projects. You may as well stay tuned and find out what it's about. Details to follow...

WE DID IT!

2008-03-19T10:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I challenged my readers to help buy books for a local schoolteacher who had placed a request on DonorsChoose.org. She needed $344. I figured if my friends could come up with half of it, I would match the remaining $172.

Well, I woke up this morning and the request had been fully funded... plus, I still had an additional $95 in my purse that I'd collected at my book club last night. I was able to apply that money to fully fund the teacher's second project.

I'm stunned and delighted that so many people out there wanted to help put books in kids' hands... and to do it in under 24 hours is amazing!!! I can't thank you enough.

But perhaps you don't check this blog every day, and you're sorry you missed out on this opportunity! Well, thanks to my friend Janet I-D, here's another teacher in need, in her hometown of Columbus, OH. Mrs. K teaches math and science and facilitates a reading group for fourth and fifth graders. She writes: "Many of the students have no way of getting to a public library and can not afford to purchase the books we read. They truly enjoy reading and love the discussions and projects." Unlike the other two projects, which were for an in-school library, this one will give low income students their own books which they can take home. What a great gift for these kids! Help encourage their love of reading my donating today! I've kicked it off with my promised $172 in matching funds, so we just need to raise $404 to complete the request. That sounds like a lot of money, but after yesterday, I believe it will happen!

Donate to this project

Let's help kids read!

2008-03-18T08:54:00.000-07:00

The local schools have been in the news here lately due to budget cuts. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has demanded a 10 percent cut across state services to help reduce a state budget deficit, and it looks like class sizes will be getting bigger and programs like music and sports will be drastically reduced or eliminated. Oh, and if you think you can avoid the problems by home-schooling your kids, think again.

These days, a lot of teachers have to resort to private donations to afford things like basic school supplies, audiovisual equipment -- even books! I was browsing the DonorsChoose.org database -- that's a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that matches givers with needy classrooms. The title of this post, "We Love Mysteries!," caught my eye, because, well, I love mysteries!

Reading teacher "Ms. F" is looking for $344 to buy books for her students (grades 3-5). "Our stock of books is sadly deteriorating after years of use," she writes. "Having their hands on books is what these kids need, since many of them come from families who simply cannot afford to buy books whenever they want!" She notes that the kids love reading mysteries, but also wants to "include more genres and more topics to motivate struggling readers."

So far, Ms. F has raised... $0 in the 5 weeks this post has been up at DonorsChoose.org. By the end of this week (March 23), I would like to fully fund Ms. F's request. I will match every dollar you donate. Every day this week, I'll check back in and see how the challenge is going. It will be really, really embarrassing if it's still $0, so please don't disappoint me. Even $1 or $5 will help.

Did I mention that DonorsChoose.org is a Charity Navigator 4-star charity, and that every DonorsChoose project must meet stringent eligibility requirements to make sure that your donation will go directly to help students?

Help fund this project!

Edited to add: I have no way of knowing who is donating; the people I thanked in the comments are the ones who let me know that they had given. If you do donate, you should receive a thank-you from the school.

Also, as I mention below, if my readers donate over $172 to this request, I will add the rest of my matching funds to another Ms. F project.

We're going to need a bigger broom

2008-03-13T22:06:00.000-07:00

Updates:

Me vs. the leaves: The Tree Guy came back yesterday with his Trio of Tree Dudes to trim everything in sight except for the squirrel-harboring oak. The Tree Dudes climbed ladders and chopped and sawed; then they toted away the branches, and blew away the leaves with a leaf blower. For 10 minutes, until the leaves started to fall again, the backyard looked wonderful. I started fantasizing about buying my own gas-powered leaf blower. Sure, the city council's threatening to make 'em illegal, but it's a small yard; it would only take, like, 5 minutes a day to clean! Who would notice the noise? Instead, I went out and bought a big wide push broom. Then it rained last night and the leaves got all soggy. Ugh.

TiVo woes: I am furiously knocking on wood, but since friendly & helpful Luis, whom I am starting to think of as our own personal Cable Guy, made a couple trips over to our house to install new cable cards, there's been no macroblocking.

Apropos of nothing: Hey, you can listen to Eliot Spitzer's hooker's music at AmieStreet.com! No need to pay .98; just click on the little arrow and you'll get a free preview. Of course, if you really want to hear the whole thing, then you can pay .98. It'll take Ashley a lot of downloads to earn the equivalent of one night with the Luv Guv.

Leaf me alone

2008-03-11T16:18:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, the brick in my backyard started attracting a cover of leaves. I thought this was a bit odd, since aren't leaves supposed to fall in, well, the fall? I swept them up and put them in the green trash bin, which is for organic waste (it's composted).

More leaves fell. More sweeping. More leaves. At this point, I figured something had to be wrong; I was also starting to feel some empathy for gardeners who use leaf blowers, which I have railed against for years. Maybe the big oak tree in the backyard had some dead branches that needed to be removed. I called a tree guy.

The tree guy, who had maintained the tree for the house's previous owners, looked up and pronounced the tree healthy. He said it wouldn't need pruning again 'til the fall. "Look at that," he said, pointing to a brown clump far up in the tree. "That's a squirrel nest."

Yes, it turns out squirrels are to blame for my leaf woes. They have been chomping branches in order to gather material for their nests, in the process killing them off and causing brown leaves to tumble to the ground. The tree guy seemed sanguine about it, with kind of a "whaddaya gonna do?" shrug. I guess I'm in for a summer of sweeping.

The previous occupants had a couple people come in twice a month to do the gardening; I am going to try to do it myself, figuring that it'll be a nice, healthy thing to do, and hopefully 15-30 minutes a day will keep it under control. So far, I've tried going out with a set of clippers to cut away anything that looks like it doesn't belong. Still, the greenery is growing larger and bushier by the day; I stand alone against the onslaught of plants and squirrels, pruning shears in hand.

Shouldering the burden

2008-03-10T11:37:00.000-07:00

About a week and a half ago, I started experiencing some excruciating pain in my right shoulder. It hurt pretty much all the time, but especially when I was on the computer, so I wound up sending an email to the clients I was working with at the moment telling them I had to take a few days off. I spent a few days taking tons of ibuprofen and lying in bed a lot -- about the only time my shoulder didn't hurt was if I was lying down on my left-hand side.

I went to see my doctor, who diagnosed me with a pinched nerve -- and it turns out the best thing to do is to rest and take ibuprofen, which is exactly what I was doing. A few days later, my shoulder felt OK. However, the experience was pretty scary; as a self-employed person, I'm really vulnerable to anything that could prevent me from working. There's no one around to pick up my slack.

Needless to say, blogging fell by the wayside while I was recovering and then trying to catch up on work.

If you are reading this after spending more than 1 hour in front of the computer without moving anything other than your arms, get up and do some of these exercises (especially the pec corner stretch, which was recommended to me by a massage therapist who treats a lot of heavy computer users).

Let's learn a new word: macroblocking

2008-02-26T13:05:00.000-08:00

Joe and I got our first TiVo several years ago, and I was immediately hooked. I've never been one of those people who just sits down to watch TV -- I'm only interested in watching specific shows, and with TiVo, all I had to do was set a season pass and every single episode of "The Daily Show," "Monk" and "The Simpsons" would be captured for me by the magic box. Plus I could fast forward through the commercials, something that has made it well nigh impossible for me to watch anything that hasn't been TiVo'd. Unlike with a VCR, you can start watching a show that TiVo is recording while it is still recording, so you can turn on "The Daily Show" at 11:10 PM and finish watching it at 11:30. What a time-saver!

Last year, when the monolith came into our lives, we upgraded to a high-def TiVo recorder. Everything was perfect for several months. Then we moved and switched to a new cable TV provider. I'm not sure if it's the cable card, or the TiVo, or the signal strength, but lately we've been experiencing macroblocking, which you can see here and read about here. Macroblocking means the picture gets distorted and the audio drops out for a couple seconds. When it happens again and again and again, it renders a TiVo'd show pretty much unwatchable. We've been having the problem both on high def and regular TV shows.

Joe called TiVo, which claimed no knowledge of this problem, which is obviously b.s. considering how many web sites you find when you do a Google search for "tivo macroblocking." Most of the posts seem to be from last summer. I also found some recent posts on TiVo's own forums, though they don't use the term "macroblocking" (more like "jerky picture & sound").

There seems to be some speculation that the issue stems from using certain manufacturers' cable cards in the HD TiVo, so right now we're trying to get someone from the cable company to come over and swap out the cards. It's pretty maddening not to know whether or not a TiVo'd show will be watchable or not.

It's possible that we may need to rethink our TV options because our cable company, which is municipally owned, may be getting out of the telecom biz. If that happens, I'd give serious consideration to subscribing to Dish Network or DirecTV instead of cable; that was never something we could do in the past when we lived in a condo, but it's viable now that we have a house with plenty of room for a south-facing dish on the roof. And unlike Rog we wouldn't have to worry about snow on the dish! Still, it would suck to be out the money we paid for the new TiVo just one year ago, since it wouldn't be compatible with satellite service. We'd presumably have to get whichever DVR the provider offers, and it probably wouldn't be as nifty and user-friendly as TiVo, but at least the dreaded macroblocking presumably wouldn't be a factor.

Yesterday, we TiVo'd "Oprah" (luckily, there was only a wee bit of macroblocking) because Valerie Bertinelli was going to be on to discuss her new book, and we wanted to hear the promised dirt about her cocaine use and her marriage to Eddie Van Halen. I grew up watching Valerie on "One Day At A Time" and never missed her TV movies, which always had sensational names like "The Seduction of Gina" and "Shattered Vows." Lately, she has been back in the public eye as a spokeswoman for Jenny Craig. Valerie is so sweet, enthusiastic and bubbly, she seems like the kind of person you'd love to have as a friend.

Of course, "Oprah" being what it is, there was a lot of talk about Valerie's weight loss; she even provided a tour of her fridge and freezer. She used to be addicted to frozen jalapeno poppers, and she keeps a box in her freezer to prove to herself that she doesn't need them anymore. Now she eats 10-calorie Jell-O with fat-free whipped topping instead. People who talk about losing weight on TV always carry on about how delicious their new lo-cal snacks are. C'mon, you can't convince me that Jell-O is as delicious as jalapeno poppers (and I say that as someone who has never eaten a jalapeno popper). Will Valerie be able to sustain her weight loss and stay away from the poppers? Based on photos, former Jenny spokesgal Kirstie Alley seems to have regained some of the weight she lost. Losing is hard, but keeping it off is harder. Just ask Oprah.

Oscar! '08: Attack of the Montages

2008-02-25T13:13:00.000-08:00

Every time the Oscars are on, I find myself wishing that the ceremony will start with that song Billy Crystal always used to do: "It's a wonderful night for Oscar! Oscar, Oscar! Who will win?" Much as I adore Jon Stewart, Billy really was the best Oscar host, wasn't he?

Last year I made the mistake of attending an Oscar viewing party which obligated me to sit through the entire thing. This year, I looked forward to TiVo'ing it and fast forwarding through the commercials and dull parts, but we're having issues with our TiVo (more on that later, perhaps) and were obligated to -- yes -- sit through the entire thing. At least we could mute the commercials and read the Chronicle Pink Section during the musical numbers that weren't from "Once."

Favorite moment: Every year, it seems like I bitch about those endless Chuck Workman montages, so I have to say the Salute to Binoculars & Periscopes made me guffaw. That was one of the few things that really bore the stamp of the "Daily Show" writing team that went west with Jon (along with the "Gaydolf Titler" joke, which I believe he'd previously used on "TDS," and a little riff suggesting Cate Blanchett is such a versatile actress that she had even played the pit bull in "No Country For Old Men").

Second favorite: Marketa Irglova gets called back on stage to finish her acceptance speech! Since I was an early adopter of "Once," I was really excited to see "Falling Slowly" win. I kind of figured it would, since the three "Enchanted" songs must have split the Disney vote and no one saw "August Rush." It almost makes up for the year Phil Collins beat Elliot Smith and Aimee Mann.

Best dressed: Katherine Heigl. There were so many red dresses at the Oscars, but she stood out. That's what glamour's all about.

Worst dressed: I've seen it on a couple best-dressed lists, but Cameron Diaz's dress looked like a bunch of randomly folded pink fabric to me. I'm sure everyone else will say Diablo Cody and Tilda Swinton, but I'm grateful whenever someone wears an outfit that looks like they picked it out themselves, as opposed to a high-priced stylist's cautious choice.

Worst shoes: Joe is always asking me which color shoes go with whatever pants he's wearing, but now that Daniel Day-Lewis has worn brown shoes with a black tux, all bets are off, and from now on I'm just going say "Eh... whatever."

Biggest disappointment: I'll admit it, I was hoping "Juno" would pull off an upset. I know, I know.

All in all, a pretty meh year. I doubt many moments from Oscar '08 will show up in future "Greatest Oscar Moments" montages.

Very Carrie

2008-02-18T16:34:00.000-08:00

It seems like it's commitment enough to have season ticket packages to two theaters (ACT and Shotgun), but Joe & I made a mini-commitment to Berkeley Rep last year by purchasing a three-ticket subscription. For our final play, I'd picked Carrie Fisher's "Wishful Drinking," since it's a one-person show, and y'all know how much I love those. Plus, who doesn't like Carrie Fisher? She's funny and self-deprecating and has been remarkably open about her own substance abuse and mental health issues.

Berkeley Rep has been promoting the show for months now with "CARRIE FISHER IS COMING TO BERKELEY REP!" ads, posters, mailings, etc. It's obviously paying off, since our Sunday matinee was sold out. However -- and I swear this is true -- before the show started, I overheard a woman a couple seats down from me say, after looking at her program (which has a head shot of Carrie on the cover), "Oh, Carrie Fisher's in this?" I suppose some people just file their season tickets by date and set off with no idea what they're going to see. Still, I found it a bit odd.

"Wishful Drinking" is by no means a polished piece of theater; as solo shows go, no one's going to anoint her as the new Spalding Gray. Basically, "Wishful Drinking" is two hours of Carrie talking to the audience -- about her crazy celebrity upbringing, "Star Wars," marriage to Paul Simon, etc. The main problem with the show is that I can't imagine that anyone is as interested in the life of Carrie Fisher as Carrie herself. For instance, she begins the show by talking about the incident in which a friend of hers was found dead in her home, and raises the house lights so audience members can ask her questions about it. Now, I consider myself a connoisseur of celebrity gossip, but I didn't recall this episode at all. It's not even mentioned in her Wikipedia entry. Are there really people out there who are dying to find out every detail?

Luckily, the show really gets going when Carrie dissects the love lives of her parents, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, with the helpful visual aid of an easel filled with photos. Since a lot of her "Star Wars"-era fans had not been born during the tabloid frenzy that ensued when Eddie dumped America's sweetheart for Elizabeth Taylor, Carrie suggests we think of Debbie as Jennifer Aniston, Eddie as Brad Pitt, and La Liz as Angelina Jolie. Another highlight of the show comes when Carrie discusses her experience working on "Star Wars," with lots of pokes at George Lucas (wonder if he'll come down from Marin to see the show?) -- for instance, he refused to let her wear a bra under her costume because "there's no underwear in space." She then brings a life-size "Princess Leia sex doll" onstage, and picks an audience member to come up to examine it to see if he can figure out how, uh, it "works."

The show is often very funny, and a must-see for anyone obsessed with celebrity gossip and/or Princess Leia, and as for whether or not it counts as "theater," who really cares? Berkeley Rep presents a lot of classic and challenging work, and if they want to make a buck or two by bringing a real-life celebrity to town, I have no problem with that. Tomorrow is the official opening night, and it'll be interesting to see what our local critics have to say.

One distraction: Even though the set has a chair and a chaise longue on it, Carrie doesn't sit still for long, and when she paces back and forth across the stage, it's a bit alarming to see how graceless she is. She is only 51, but moves haltingly, like someone much older. She hasn't recently had a hip or knee replacement, has she? If she had, I'd think she'd have worked it into the show.

iTunes Meme

2008-02-17T21:33:00.000-08:00

Everybody's doing it! I don't have as many songs in my iTunes playlist as Rog & Steve do, but it would apparently take over 3 whole days to listen to everything, which is a pretty good chunk o'time.

Total length: 3:02:01:12 (1093 songs)

First and last songs (by title):
A.M. 180 - Grandaddy
1020 AM - Spoon
Odd bit of convergence there...

Sort by time - shortest and longest:
Droplet, Apples in Stereo (13 seconds)
Mahler's Symphony No. 9 in D Major: I. Andante comodo, the San Francisco Symphony (30:31)
Non-classical: The Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton, Beck (10:36)

Sort by Album - first and last:
A-Z, Colin Newman
Yours, Mine & Ours, the Pernice Brothers

Sort by Artist - first and last:
Aimee Mann
The 88

Top five played songs:
All The Things That Go To Make Heaven And Earth, New Pornographers
Direct Hit, Art Brut
Sugar Baby, Kristin Hersh
Car Radio, Spoon
Metal Detektor, Spoon

Find the following words. How many songs show up?
Sex: 1 (Museum of Sex, Robyn Hitchcock)
Death: 12 (all but one of them from Death Cab for Cutie)
Love: 52
You: 118
Home: 4
Boy: 14
Girl: 20 (most of them because of Spoon's Girls Can Tell)

First five songs that come up on Party Shuffle:
I Don't Wanna Waste Your Time, Over the Rhine
Not So Fast, The Lodger
All The Old Showstoppers, New Pornographers
You Got Me, Tris McCall & The New Jack Trippers
Kim Wilde, Charlotte Hatherley