QotD: Your fantasy restaurant 2006

If you could open any sort of restaurant, what would it be like?

It would be like a cross between a dim sum place and a sushi boat place only instead of just a couple pieces of nigiri on a price-indicating little plate, there might be something from any number of cuisines. Little slice of roast beef with fresh grated horseradish, mac & cheese, spanish olives, gyoza, gnocci, fresh hot bacon, a little artichoke with aioli, a crab claw with hollandaise, tsukemono pickles, ramekin of soup, wedge of cheese.

The plates would indicate price and the wait staff (drag queens, punks, and perky goths) would bring around the hot food and serve really excellently mixed cocktails.

After 10pm about half the food would be desserts.

It would be called "Cameo".

(and if you open it, I get to eat there many many times for cost!)

A good reason to work up a sweat 2006

I loves me some Lord Loves A Working Man and 12 Galaxies is one of my favorite venues to see them in. If Joe & I aren't completely wiped out and have in fact safely returned from the aleatoric roadtrip, we may just see you there...

Check out Lord Loves A Working Man LIVE
 On KZSU Radio 90.1 FM
 Wednesday, Juy 26th at 9:00 PM
 and live on the web @ http://kzsulive.stanford.edu/
 (See video at http://studio.stanford.edu/ )

 Then on Sunday:

 "Something Old, Something New"
 A Night of Soul Music With
 Ubiquity Recording Artist Nino Moschella
 Lord Loves A Working Man
 & DJ 4am
 
 Date: Sunday, July 30th 2006
 Location: 12 Galaxies,
 Address: 2565 Mission Street (@22nd), San Francisco,
 CA 94110
 Time: Doors 8pm/ 9pm Show
 Cost: $8

 Event Description:
 NINO MOSCHELLA, the newest sensation of Bay Area based
 soul label Ubiquity Records, brings his powerhouse
 vocal stylings and his talented band to grace the
 walls of 12 Galaxies.

 His impassioned brand of neo-indie soul captured on
 his debut album "The Fix" has been garnering large
 amounts of critical praise and airplay. The
 influential music blog Music For Robots calls his
 Ubiquity recordings "absolutely fabulous...a record
 that Steve Wonder should be making in 2006." It also
 caused DJ Mag to label his accompanying EP "Single of
 the month" and state, "Cut from the same cloth as
 soul/funk legends Stevie Wonder, Prince, Betty Davis
 and Sly Stone, 29 year old, multi-instrumentalist Nino
 Moschella is what they call in A&R circles "a right
 f*cking find".

 Hosting the evening and also performing is San
 Francisco's own 9-piece 60's style Soul group LORD
 LOVES A WORKING MAN. Rooted in the sounds of Stax and
 Muscle Shoals, LLAWM captures the spirit of the horn
 driven groups and Southern soul shouters of a by-gone
 day. Known for keeping their audiences dancing,
 romancing, and working up a sweat with original songs
 and some rare covers, they pay respectful homage to
 the tradition while infusing it with their own passion
 and spirit.

 Rounding out the evening will be DJ 4am, a favorite
 soul and sound collage vinyl spinner of the late night
 club scenes of the Hush Hush, Element, and Alpha
 lounges.

 Lovers of soul and funk music should not miss this
 chance to experience these new artists who will be
 providing a rare live listening experience that
 satisfies the appetite for sounds of the past as well
 as sounds of the future.

 For more info or music samples please visit
 www.myspace.com/ninomoschella
 www.ubiquityrecords.com/nino_moschella.html
 www.lordlovesaworkingman.com
 www.myspace.com/lordlovesaworkingman

Newsflash for the airline industry: 2006

"Cheese food" is not an entree.

QotD: Midway Through 2006

What's one thing that you hope to do or accomplish before the end of this year?

Visit Asia!

Thailand is looking highly probable.

Addington's Presidency 2006

I encourage you to read this New Yorker article by Jane Mayer, "The Hidden Power: The legal mind behind the White House’s war on terror".

She very clearly lays out a portrait of the fundamentally different approach to legality, as it applies to the executive branch, taken by the current administration. For George W. Bush, checks and balances, indeed legal precedent itself, can be bypassed at will under the blanket excuse of "fighting the war on terror".

Most Americans, even those who follow politics closely, have probably never heard of Addington. But current and former Administration officials say that he has played a central role in shaping the Administration’s legal strategy for the war on terror. Known as the New Paradigm, this strategy rests on a reading of the Constitution that few legal scholars share—namely, that the President, as Commander-in-Chief, has the authority to disregard virtually all previously known legal boundaries, if national security demands it. Under this framework, statutes prohibiting torture, secret detention, and warrantless surveillance have been set aside.

"Few legal scholars share"? How about few Americans who have any knowledge of 20th century history?

And how's this approach working out for us? Well, there isn't much evidence it's done any good at all:

Not a single terror suspect has been tried before a military commission. Only ten of the more than seven hundred men who have been imprisoned at Guantánamo have been formally charged with any wrongdoing.

Indeed, it appears to have done us a great deal of harm:

As for the Administration’s legal defense of torture, which Addington played a central role in formulating, [historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.] said, “No position taken has done more damage to the American reputation in the world—ever.”

How can we tolerate torture as an acceptable practice by a civilized nation? Why hasn't every church and veterans organization been speaking out against this monstrosity along with the ACLU? And how can anyone with a shred of patriotism stand by and let our nation's values be trampled in the mud like this?

Bruce Fein, a Republican legal activist, who voted for Bush in both Presidential elections, and who served as associate deputy attorney general in the Reagan Justice Department, said that Addington and other Presidential legal advisers had “staked out powers that are a universe beyond any other Administration. This President has made claims that are really quite alarming. He’s said that there are no restraints on his ability, as he sees it, to collect intelligence, to open mail, to commit torture, and to use electronic surveillance. If you used the President’s reasoning, you could shut down Congress for leaking too much. His war powers allow him to declare anyone an illegal combatant. All the world’s a battlefield — according to this view, he could kill someone in Lafayette Park if he wants! It’s got the sense of Louis XIV: ‘I am the State.’ ”

Didn't we fight a war a couple hundred years ago to get rid of that attitude? And I certainly don't think the architects of that war and the resulting legal structures would have approved of the "signing statement", as a weaselly alternative to vetoing a bill with which the President does not agree.

Do read the whole article. It gives a good precis of events of the last 40 years as they relate to the rise and strategies of the current power holders. The small details of the character portraits also underscore that classic distinction between the patriarchal strong father model of the conservatives and the egalitarian statesman model of the middle of the road or liberal approach to governance.

I thought they hired the smart people 2006

I got one of those periodic emails indicating that someone I don't know is interested in my Orkut account. This is usually due to some dude saying "Whoa. You're female? I like to date girls who are female!" and figuring that's enough for us to get started with.

Thus I decided to kill off my Orkut account. (MySpace, you're next.)

So I went to Orkut.com and I tried to log in for the first time in I don't know how long. Unfortunately I don't remember my password. Fortunately, it implies I can now log in with my Google account. But when I do, it wants me to associate my Google account with my Orkut account by logging in with my Orkut account. You know, the one I don't remember the information for?

So I try to use the "Forgot your password?" feature of Orkut.

It redirects me to Google's account password management.

Yes, that's right; I can reset my Google password over and over and it will make no difference because it's the Orkut password I need.

*sigh*

I never would have thought of this, but ya gotta try it 2006

Step 1. Come to the Castro

Step 2. Go to Naia gelato on Castro between the theater and Cliff's Variety

Step 3. Order their Whole Grains flavor

Wow. Damn!

Fresh wheaty bready niceness in gelato form. This joins Winterland's goat cheese and bacon gelatos on my 'unexpectedly amazing' list.

More, more! 2006

I've traveled more than lots of people I know, but I've barely started to see the world:

create your own visited countries map.

That's a misleading map of the U.S. up there too. Here's what I've really been to more than the airport in:

create your own visited states map.

(Thanks to Esther Dyson for the linky goodness to this cool map generator!)

Classic Bar Books 2006

A while back, after purchasing a lovely set of books from Amazon which are facsimiles of very old bar guides, Joe wrote:

I love the Bon Vivant's Companion. Under "Temperance Drinks" is
Lemonade, which they recommend making with a little bit of port.

The Bon Vivant's Companion or How to Mix Drinks