pineappleweed

Now that I’ve gotten a few of the items on my list done, I have done a pass through the list revise some of the goals I’ve made. Starting from the bottom up….

First, it turns out I have actually watched a sunset over Golden Gate a few years ago, so that one doesn’t count as “Something New.” So, I’m taking #97 off the list.

“Go to a football” games seems to easy. I have actually never seen a pro basketball game, hockey game, or really any other pro sport besides baseball. So I’m going to revise #87 to “Go to pro sports matches for three different sports.”

#85, “Build something from Make magazine” seems too easy. I’ll revise that one, to three things from Make or Craft magazine.

#16 and #18, Visit the Exploratorium and Visit the Computer History Museum also seems too easy and too similar. I’m going to revise #16 to “Visit three science museums.” #18 is now open.

Similarly, #17, “Visit the Winchester Mystery House,” also seems too simple. I’m revising that to “Visit three fun things in San Jose.” (The most challenging goal yet. Zing!)

I have likely already finished #9, “Take photos of 10 murals,” by accident. I’m revising it to “Do three touristy things in the Mission.”

For now, this leaves #18 and #97 open. A few ideas have come to mind for those, maybe “Stay vegetarian for a month” or “Reach level 20 in an MMORPG.” I’m still thinking, though…

Now to catch up with some completely overdue updates.

Movies

The Godfather Parts I & II
The Castro Theater, San Francisco, CA, 9/6/08 and 9/11/08
The Castro played both of these movies for a week back in September. Both are on the AFI Top 100 list. I had seen parts of both films before, but I had never seen either end to end. They’re both excellent, and iconic in so many ways. I would bet that you could find a reference to every scene in the first movie in other movies if you were to spend enough time looking.

I really enjoyed looking for the oranges in the movies. Usually they’re an indication that something bad is going to happen. There’s a pretty comprehensive list here.

For the sake of completeness, I also rented The Godfather Part III as well. It was not very good.

Concerts

Mogwai
Grand Ballroom at the Regency Center, San Francisco, CA 9/8/08
I saw Mogwai five years ago (eep!) in San Francisco, and this show as just as good. The band’s tour diary summed it up about as well as I can:

The show was really quite good in San Francisco apart from the usual idiots who are afraid to keep their mouth shut for 10 seconds in case they start having an introspective tour of duty into their own minds and then nervous breakdown. I wonder at what point in our career they might realise that we’re playing a concert, with musical instruments, concentrating quite hard, trying to play well and that we don’t much have anything to say to, “Woooooo Hoooooo I’m alive!” or whatever ultimately pointless B.S. they excrete from their idiotic mouths. But anyway, we met some nice folks in San Francisco tonight but I think I’m glad I don’t live here because of the omnipresent aforementioned human urine scent.

Yep, that sounds about right. One of those screaming guys was right next to me during the show.

Cake
The Independent, San Francisco, CA, 10/10/08
This was a benefit concert for Prop H, the SF Clean Energy Act. The prop didn’t pass, but the show was still great. John McCrea, the singer, had a bit of a sore throat so couldn’t sing any of the higher pitched songs. The had me a bit worried at first, but there was nothing to be alarmed about. They don’t play from a setlist, so they just played the songs that he was able to sing. Their next CD should be out some time soon, and will be supposedly recorded using only renewable energy.

Magnetic Fields
Loews Jersey Theatre, Jersey City, NJ, 10/23/08
This must have been one of the strangest rock shows I’ve been to. It was comprised of two sets, and the audience was very quiet and polite for the whole show. It felt almost like seeing a concert of chamber music. They played very well, though, and I was taught how fantastic “Papa Was a Rodeo” is.

Documentaries

The Universe of Keith Haring
Roxie Cinema, San Francisco, CA, 9/15/08
Keith Haring has been one of my favorite artists for a long time, so I really enjoyed this documentary about him. One thing I learned was the sheer abundance of his work; he stayed tremendously busy right up until his death.

Graphic Novels

Ghost World
I’m a big fan of the movie adaptation of Ghost World, so I was really looking forward to the graphic novel. I enjoyed it, but it came across as a little mean. Maybe I’m less jaded now than I was when I first saw the movie? Or maybe the movie took some of the edge off of the graphic novel? Hmm.

V for Vendetta
I was fairly disappointed by this one. It’s interesting, but I actualy had a lot of trouble following what was happening. I think the setting for the story may have been more interesting than the plot with this one. I liked the movie, though, so take that how you will.

Well, that wasn’t so hard, was it? Only a little more catching up to do…

1001: This completes 2/100 for the AFI Top 100, 3/5 for Concerts, 1/10 for Documentaries, and 2/10 for Graphic Novels.

This past weekend, I went out to Salt Lake City, Utah, to visit my friend Rachel, who’s taking an extended ski trip through February and March.

The first day, we started off easy by seeing some of the sights around Salt Lake City. We went up to Snowbird and then took the tram up to the summit.

We learned two valuable lessons from this experience.

1. Frozen mountains are very very cold if you are not dressed for them.
2. It is very easy to spot tourists who are not skiing at a ski resort.

Next, we headed over to Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City and walked through the center of the LDS church. I was actually a little surprised during our walk through; the members of the church did not try to recruit us. In fact, they barely acknowledged us.

After Temple Square, we headed up to the Utah State Capitol, which was oddly devoid of people.

Later, we got sushi and headed into Park City for dinner at the Wasatch Brew Pub.

The next day, we went skiing at Alta.

I have to admit that at first, I was actually very nervous about skiing. I hadn’t been skiing in at least 10 years, maybe even 15 years. I wasn’t sure what level I had left off at, or how much I remembered. It all turned out fine. I took a class in the morning as a refresher, and was able to ski down some of the intermediate runs.

I even skiied in some powder! (poorly.)

In the afternoon, the weather at Alta was getting bad, so we left a little bit early. We went to a Mexican place for dinner, where I had a Utahn interpretation of a burrito. I liked it, but I think the SF variety tend to be better. (Granted, I’m spoiled by all the taquerias near my apartment in SF.)

Finally, on Sunday, we went skiing at Solitude. I went down more intermediate runs with Rachel, who was patient enough to go down with me. Before lunch, I went down some more of the intermediate runs while she did some of the totally awesome double diamond trails. After lunch, I was totally beat and only made a few more runs before heading down to the pub in the base lodge.

Overall, it was a great trip, and I’m really glad I went. The skiing had mostly come back to me, and I hope I get the chance to go again before another 15 years is up. Next up, Tahoe?

1001: Goal 7 is now completed.

Pic taken at cosi by k in October