Recommended TV Viewing tonight! (And a great Web site)

Frontline: The Age of AIDS is a 2-part, four-hour show that will conclude tonight on PBS. (In the Twin Cities, it's on TPT-2 from 8:00-10.) I watched the first half last night, and it was excellent. They have also set up an awesome Web site that has lots of cool features- a timeline, an interactive world map, interviews- loads of information.

The US has handled the HIV/AIDS crisis so horribly. Reagan gave exactly one speech about AIDS. He first talked about compassion, tolerance, and education. Then he said he wanted all immigrants tested before being admitted to the country! In the same speech, Reagan heeded Special Assistant to the US Attorney John Robert's advice to not say that AIDS could only be spread through blood or sexual contact, since scientists had not "unequivocally" stated this. (Yes, that guy is now our Chief Justice, and yes, 99.9% of scientists were screaming that AIDS could definitely not be transmitted through saliva, mosquitoes, handshakes, coughing, etc.)

Our country continues to botch things, from refusing funding for needle-exchange programs and sexual education, to simply dropping the ball on advocacy and awareness- over 20% of Americans believe HIV can be spread by sharing a drinking glass!

While many people are under the assumption that AIDS is no longer a problem, that couldn't be further from the truth. AIDS is the leading cause of death among 25-44 year-old African Americans. Young African American women are 7 times more likely than their white counterparts to be HIV positive.

In South Africa, 5.3 million people (15.6% of the population) are living with HIV. This includes 30% of all pregnant women, while 33% of 25-29 year-olds are infected with the virus.

In the United States, 78% of the patients who need treatment are receiving drugs. In South Africa, that number is 23%.

In 2003, there were 14,000 AIDS deaths in the US, and 370,000 in South Africa.

90% of the 40 million HIV-positive people worldwide are not aware that they are infected!

Watch Frontline tonight, and check out the Web site when you get a moment. It makes me want to dedicate my life to AIDS advocacy.

Reality check

I'll write more about the City by the Bay later- lots of good pictures to post. Right now, I'm just trying to make it through the day. Our plane departed San Francisco at 12:30 AM, and landed in Minneapolis at 6 AM Central time. I had time to take a quick nap, then head to the library to work until 5:00.

A cute old Russian man came up to the desk this morning, and handed me a slip of paper. "Does everything look good?" Written on the piece of paper was "Your letter was horific and wonderful." I told him I was pretty sure horrific had 2 r's, and I pulled out a dictionary to double-check. He asked what horrific meant, and wasn't happy with my response. He seemed to be looking for something with more of a positive connotation. "Sir, are you thinking of the word 'terrific?'" Bingo. What a pain in the butt it must be to learn English.

715!

It would have been enough just to be sitting outdoors on a beautiful San Francisco afternoon, watching a baseball game in a beautiful park. The fact that Barry Bonds passed Babe Ruth for #2 on the list of career home runs was icing on the cake. It was a very exciting moment, and might be the only time I'll get a chance to witness baseball history in the making.

When Matt bought tickets to the game a month ago, I didn't think there was a chance we'd see the record-breaking blast. But Bonds slumped at the perfect time, hitting only one dinger between May 3 and yesterday (64 trips to the plate).

You've gotta check out a Giants game if you're ever in San Francisco. What a perfect location for a stadium. Well, it's time to catch a plane back to Mpls.

Mmmmmmmm...Twinkies

Deep fried, nonetheless! If you ever make it to the Santa Cruz boardwalk, you've gotta try one.

Barry Bonds didn't hit a home run today, meaning we've got a shot to see him pass Babe Ruth on the all-time list. Regardless of whether a doped up, armored creature who might be more machine than human deserves the honor or not, the game should be exciting.

San Fran

Having a blast visiting Matty & Joy in San Francisco. They've got a kick-ass, huge apartment 2 blocks from the water. The Golden Gate Bridge is to the left, and Alcatraz to the right. I can't imagine waking up in this location every morning.

We barely made our flight out here- got in line at the ticket counter 35 minutes before the flight was leaving. It's nice flying Sun Country out of the HHH terminal- no lines.

So far we've explored Alcatraz, which was really cool. It felt a little strange, though, because I already knew the layout of the island from playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 on X-Box. It has an Alcatraz level, and I had a strong urge to do some rail slides while we were walking around.

Matt and I are going to grab some bikes right now and explore Marin County. Good times...

One more thing- I noticed clips of Nationals manager Frank Robinson crying at the bar last night. I thought there might have been a death in his family or something. Nope. It was related to former Twin Matty LeCroy.

Way to go, Lisa!

My good friend Lisa Stout graduated from Hamline University's law school on Saturday. Congratulations, Lisa! I am so proud of her- what an outstanding accomplishment. Jenny and I attended the commencement, and I snapped a few photos.

Here she is making sure her hair looks good:



Almost there...



The big moment...



Yippee!

How does your garden grow?

Pretty good, so far.

On April 23, we planted the following:

Plants- 4 cabbage, 4 brussels sprout, 2 green leaf lettuce, 1 cilantro, 1 basil.

From seed- one row green onion, chive, carrot, radish, spinach, half row of chard & mesclun (mixed salad greens).

Critters pulled out 2 of the cabbage plants, and did some damage on the other two. The basil and cilantro haven't been too happy about the cool, rainy weather, but everything else has thrived.

This past Saturday, May 20, we made another run to the nursery. We planted a variety of 5 tomato plants and 5 pepper plants. We also laid seed for another run of carrots and radishes, as well as lima beans, pole beans, cucumbers, snap peas, cilantro, and basil.

Here's an updated picture- barring any crazy weather/pests/diseases, we should have a nice harvest in a few months. The first batch of radishes are almost ready.

Sunday Ramblings

At some point I'd like to reorganize this blog a little- have a spot for links to interesting things I've come across on the Web, as well as somewhere indicating books, movies, and music I've recently checked out...but that takes work, and I'm not exactly an HTML whiz. In the meantime, I'll just throw that sort of stuff in a random blog entry.

A WHO report finds system fails the poor
This is one of those "No shit, Sherlock" kinds of things. However, in the quest for the almighty profit margin, I can't see the problem actually being addressed.

If you don't read the online comic Achewood, you probably should. I was a little disappointed with how quickly he abandandoned the story arc featuring Keith Moon's head, but maybe he'll return to it. (#1, #2, #3, #4)

I just finished reading Fantasyland, by Sam Walker. Walker's a writer for the Washington Post who went from having never played roto baseball to joining Tout Wars, considered the elite league in the nation. Walker tries to use his clubhouse access to lobby GMs on behalf of his players, dig for insider information, and give his players advice (and official team t-shirts), solely for his fantasy team's gain. It probably wouldn't be of much interest to non-baseball fans, but it's a must-read for anyone who's ever played roto baseball, especially Twins fans. Jacque Jones is featured heavily.

The MN legislature barely approved a stadium bill, which means we'll have outdoor major league baseball here in 2010. I can't friggin' wait! What wasn't very publicized is that the Hennepin County Library system snuck their way onto the bill, and will be getting revenue from the deal. (I have no idea about the specifics.) Oh yeah, the University of Minnesota got a football stadium, too. Of course, they haven't been good since the 60s...

Felize Cumpleaños a Mateo

Today is the 31st birthday of my good buddy Matt DiPietro. Since he's out in San Francisco, I won't be able to celebrate with him tonight, but I'll be out there in 4 days to visit, so I guess we can just postpone the festivities.

I've been friends with Matty for 13 years, lived with him on three separate occassions, attended the Telluride Bluegrass Festival with him four times...(the list goes on, but I won't attempt to replicate Skaar's impressive stream-of-consciousness trip down memory lane.)

I miss you, pal, and I hope you're having a steak the size of Texas tonight. Sometime soon we're going to have to take on Mount Sneffels again (and win, of course). Happy birthday!

Drive-By Truckers

I just got back from a Drive-By Truckers show at First Avenue. Good, solid southern rock and roll, complete with a three axe attack. The Lynyrd Skynyrd influence is definitely there, but the crunchy guitar evokes Neil Young more than any southern rock bands. The three guitarists all write songs and sing, but Patterson Hood is obviously the main creative force behind the band, and, overall, I'd guess Springsteen has influenced him more than any other musician.

DBT (which the crowd annoyingly chanted during the 2-minute break prior to the encore) songs focus on life in the south, but rarely mention anything remotely happy. Some of the song topics: incest, depression, divorce, suicide, meth addiction, forclosure- you get the picture. The song titles alone often tell the story: "Sink Hole," "Hell No, I Ain't Happy," "Your Daddy Hates Me," "Loaded Gun in the Closet." Hood does seem like the real deal, though, and I think many of his songs really are autobiographical. He sang about how rock & roll saved his life, and I believed it.

The band consisted of three guys playing guitar and singing, a pedal steel player who looked bored out of his skull most of the night (I don't think he helped his bandmates polish off the big bottle of Jack Daniels they were passing around), a bearded drummer who looked like a cross between Levon Helm and Matisyahu, and a female bass player. The bass player annoyed me for much of the night, because she had this weird, twitchy way of nodding her head to the beat- it almost looked like the was having seizures. I was also struck by how she looked a little out of place at times. The guitarists would often turn and point the necks of their instruments out over the crowd, and there was something extremely phallic/masculinely sexual about the whole thing. Rock & Roll is dominated by men, and maybe I'm just guilty of discrimination, but it always strikes me as odd when I see a female playing bass/guitar/drums in a rock band. Maybe future generations won't feel that way, since more and more little girls are growing up playing an instrument other than piano or violin. Or maybe rock & roll will always be a boys' club. Or maybe I'm just a closeted misogynist.

Parts of the show were borderline creepy, as we could hear Patterson's influences come through, clear as day, in certain songs' vocals. We heard The Boss, Tom Petty, Jeff Tweedy, Neil Young, Don Henly, Mick Jagger, and more.

The only downer was the fact that there were three young jackasses right in front of us for much of the show. They were smoking cigarettes non-stop (and security never called them on it), so we had smoke in our face all night. They kept bumping into us, and, between the three of them, took about 50 cell phone-camera pictures of the band.

Drive-By Truckers played for over two and a half hours straight, which was damn impressive. They're the kind of band that doesn't chat between songs- there was usually about 2 seconds between the end of one song and a guitar riff kicking off the next. If they come to your town, I highly recommend checking them out- well worth it- heartfealt vocals and wicked guitar solos.

Calling the Library

Do me a favor, ok? When you call up the the library, looking to put a few books on hold, have your card in front of you! Is that so difficult? Do you try and buy things online without your credit card? Do you go to the liquor store without your ID? It seems like half the people that call the library act surprised when I ask them for the barcode number printed on the back of their library card.

Of course, I don't know if I have any friends who use the public library, so what do you care? I know my brother, my mom, and, of course, my librarian friends are regular users. Shannon Gahagan used to check out quite a few books from the St Paul Public Library, but I only see her about once a year nowadays. I wonder if any of my peeps in Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, L.A., San Diego, Phoenix, Denver, Des Moines, the Twin Cities, or D.C. even have library cards...

Hyland! Caruso! Caruso! Hyland!

CSI: Miami, which is broadcast at 9 PM CDT on CBS, will feature my good buddy Mike Hyland sharing screen time with David Caruso tonight. Nice work, Mikey! (And sorry for the strange pictures- I only have access to a few at work.)

Cubicle Decorations

I haven't had much to write about in recent days. I was cleaning out my work computer, and came across some pictures that I uploaded to Flickr. They make me smile whenever I see them, so I decided to post them. When I got back from my wedding (Playa del Carmen) and honeymoon (Belize) in February, this is what my desk at work looked like. Sometimes working with a ton of women has its advantages...

DVD Commentary

While I don't do it very often, I really enjoy watching movies with the director (or anyone else involved in the making of the film) commenting over the video. Twice in my life I've been so captivated by a movie that, upon completion, I've immediatley started it over with director commentary (Donnie Darko & Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). The Special Edition DVD of This Is Spinal Tap (released in 2000) might have the best commentary of all time, as David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel, and Derek Smalls watch the movie and make smart-ass comments throughout.

I have seven seasons of The Simpsons on DVD, and I've watched about 20 episodes or so with commentary (eventually I'll get through all of them). Matt Groening has done a great job on the DVDs. There are always 3-6 people commenting on the episode (Groening, the show's writer, director, producer, an animator or two, and one or more of the cast members). My only complaint is that the show goes by so quickly, and they often get off on a tangent. Sometimes I wish they'd pause the video, and just keep talking. You end up learning a lot about the process of creating an episode, from pitching a show idea, to writing a script, laying out a storyboard, recording the dialogue (including possible guest stars), developing an animatic (a very rough, black & white animation of the entire episode with voice-overs), to the finished product. Some of the really obscure references are explained, you hear about how much Dan Castellaneta gets into character (the "I am so smart! S-M-R-T!" was an unintended ad-lib), and Conan O'Brien even joins in on commentary for episodes he wrote.

I decided to go on a classic foreign language DVD binge recently, and started with Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon. Kurosawa's no longer living, so he obviously doesn't contribute to the commentary track. Instead, a film scholar talks over the video, pointing out an incredible amount of interesting things about the way the movie was filmed, how shots were set up, insight into the actors, script- you name it, he talks about it. For a classic, influential film like this, it makes the movie-watching experience so much more enjoyable. Since Rashomon is in Japanese, with English subtitles, you can actually listen to the commentary, and follow the dialogue at the same time! ood stuff.

Crabapple Trees Everywhere

The weather was great Sunday, which was just what the doctor ordered. We had a very busy day. First we made our way over to Powderhorn Park for the annual May Day Parade. I'm ashamed to say that I've never attended this event, and we didn't have time to stick around for t0o long, but it was really cool. I managed one photo, before my camera batteries zonked out:

From now on, I want to make this festival a priority- it's a very cool community gathering. Since we were heading out to Waconia for a party at my coworker's house, Jen and I decided to stop along the way at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. I'm pretty sure my mom brought me there when I was younger, but I don't think I really appreciated it when I was a kid. It's an incredible place- simply enormous. There were an incredible variety of tulips...


...and also beautiful crab apple trees in bloom everywhere.


The smell of lilacs filled the air, and it was a neat little outing. We'll definitely be heading back later in the season, when we have an entire day to explore. While heading to the party, and on the trip back to the Cities, we noticed crab apple trees in bloom all over the place- incredible, vibrant, flowers of many colors. These trees line both sides of 47th street, half a block from our house. How come I've never noticed this before? There must not have been many in our old neighborhood, and I think they only bloom for a short while. Spring is a wonderful, albeit painfully short, season in Minnesota!

I used to be good at mini golf.

Seriously- I used to be pretty darned good. We used to frequently head out to Putt Putt, right off of 494 in Bloomington, and I would usually get a few holes-in-one, and par (2 strokes) most of the rest of the holes. I remember one night in particular, where there were 5 guys and 3 girls. Somehow I got stuck with the girls, and the foursome of guys had a big bet going (this was right after graduating high school, so "big" was probably $5 apiece. Since I wasn't in their group of golfers, I wasn't allowed to participate in the bet. I proceeded to have the mini golf game of my life. I can't remember the details, but I think I aced 10 or 11 holes. It's possible I set a course record, but the ladies really didn't care all that much. They weren't taking it too seriously, and weren't even really keeping track of their own scores.

Now, I'm not positive if that's the last time I went mini golfing. It would have probably been the summer of '94, and it does seem like it's been about 12 years since the last time I stepped on a course. Well, I should have pulled a John Elway, and gone out on top. Jen and I hit Adventure Gardens Mini Golf, located in the big park in Richfield on Portland Avenue this evening. Putt Putt is long gone, and Bullseye Mini Golf closed when I was in junior high. Adventure Gardens is a 5 minute drive from our house, so we decided to try it out. Big mistake for me:



Jenny golfed pretty well. She got 7 pars and three birdies. I was simply atrocious. I beat her score on exactly one hole (#15), and tied her on 5 holes. For those of you keeping score at home, that means she won 12 holes! I ended up with 1 par and 2 birdies (and the birdies were gifts- they came on holes that really should have been labeled par 3). My total score was 70, 27 strokes over par. Why couldn't I have suggested something else for us to do? Now I have two choices: try and erase this debacle from my memory (anyone have Dr. Mierzwiak's number?), or sneak off to the mini golf course when Jen thinks I'm working, and recover my game. Ah, screw it- I'll just wait another 12 years before I get back out there.

Bike Commuting, Vikings Cheerleaders, and Cool Links

The weather is perfect for bike commuting, but I haven't quite taken the plunge yet. While it used to take about 40 minutes for me to get to work, I'm afraid it's going to take more than an hour from the new place. I need to get a pump to bring on the commute, since my mini pump is shot, and getting a flat 30 minutes from home is a distinct possibility. Until I get up the gumption to pedal my arse to work, I'll keep driving the trusty '89 Dodge Caravan.

A couple interesting reference transactions in the past few days:

A big bearded fella came up to the desk, and said he wanted a printout of all the new Vikings cheerleaders for the 2006 season. I offered to show him how to do it on one of the public workstations, but he asked "Can't you just do it for me?" Absolutely. I found the page on the Vikings Website, and told him I could print out the list (headshots and first names), and that it would cost him 10 cents per page, for a grand total of $1.10. "Huh? Last year they gave it to me for free." Tough to come back from that one, but I just said "I guess that was your lucky day. We have to charge you for printouts." If this was a fifth-grader needing an encyclopedia article for a school project, I'd be willing to waive the charge, but for a list of Vikings cheerleaders? Sorry, pal. He grudgingly agreed to pay, then told me he works at the Dome, and likes to study up, so that he knows the cheerleaders by name. Sure, or maybe he's some sicko perv- what do I care? (We don't judge at the public library.) He then spent a good 10 minutes telling me about how the cheerleading tryouts work- no one is guaranteed a spot for the following season. They have open tryouts, and politics abound. Fascinating.

A woman came in yesterday, carrying a list of extremely obscure book titles, and acted shocked when the library didn't own a copy. When there are only 12 libraries in the entire country owning a book, odds are we're not one of them. One of the books she wanted was supposedly titled Castonados, written by Max Plank. When I couldn't find anything close to that, she said, "How about another Plank book? Fire from Within." When I searched that titled in WorldCat (an interlibrary loan database searching library catalogs across the country), I found a book written by Carlos Castaneda. Hmm...Also, it turns out Max Planck was a German physicist who is credited with inventing quantum theory around the turn of the century. We put in a request for Fire from Within, but she couldn't figure out what Mr. Planck's name was doing mixed in with her notes.

Finally, here are some fun links:

A live action Super Mario Brothers skit from some college in MA. Good stuff!

Mike Gordon, Phish bass player & Leo Kottke jamming partner, set up his own Web site, which, not surprisingly, is very strange. He has a link for the only music video Phish ever released, the Gordon-directed Down With Disease, which MTV largely ignored, although Beavis and Butthead did get ahold of it. It's actually not as bad as I thought it would be...

My buddy Tim got a gig writing for a new online music magazine, and they just posted his first article. Check it out!

Jamba Juice on my Brain

[Quick note- while I mention The Sopranos here, no spoilers]

Does anyone else have an unexplainable desire to go to Jamba Juice today? For anyone who didn't watch The Sopranos last night, they name-dropped Jamba Juice about 10 times. The product placement has been pretty constant this season. But, wait a minute: in reference to A.J.'s new job, didn't Tony say that Blockbuster was the "first stop on the the shitbird express?" Would a company really pay to have their brand trashed like that?

Apparently, HBO doesn't accept money for product placement. The Sopranos execs claim that brand names are written into scripts solely to make the scripts more realistic. However, some Jon Fine fella says that HBO must be getting something out of it- free use of vehicles, etc. Not having to rent a vehicle for a scene certainly would lower production costs, but what about Nestle, Snapple, Jamba Juice, and the dozens (hundreds?) of other brands that have been mentioned on the show? Do these companies provide the sets with free snacks & beverages? If so, that's definitely product placement- HBO just receives goods instead of cash. But, what if these brands are written into scripts simply to make the dialogue more like real life?

I find this a very intriguing topic of discussion. The constant mention of FedEx in Cast Away drove me crazy, but I've talked to people (well, at least one person) who thought it was absolutely essential to the plot.

On the other hand, it also bugs me in movies or tv shows when people say "gimme a beer" or "I'll take a pack of smokes," and the bartender/sales clerk knows exactly which kind they want. Clerks was a great movie, but every time a customer asked for cigarettes without identifying a brand name, it bothered me. I also like it when movies/shows develop their own fake brands (Quentin Tarratino's Red Apple cigarettes, for example).

I guess when I feel like a brand name fits into the flow of dialogue, it usually doesn't bother me, even if I suspect the company paid for the mention. While I've been noticing it quite a bit recently on The Sopranos, it usually fits in fairly seamlessly. I would still like to know how many of the products just happen to be written into scripts, as opposed to the show receiving some sort of compensation, though. Anyone have connections at HBO?

On a completely unrelated noted: check out Washington's horrid new state tourism slogan: "SayWA!" I'm pretty sure it barely beat out "Wha' Happened?"