Sunset at Indian Rock

These days the sun sets here around 4:50pm. At that point, I'm usually done with work and have some time to kill before picking Jeffrey up from the Kidz Club after school program, so lately I've been driving to Indian Rock to watch the sunset before getting Jeffrey. This evening I brought my camera and took some shots. Unfortunately, the top of a tree is visible in most of them. But this time of year the sun sets right behind the Golden Gate Bridge, which makes for a wonderful sunset. Just a few weeks ago it was setting above the hills of Marin; soon it will be setting behind the city.

Biking in Tilden

I finally made some time to take my mountain bike out to the trails in Tilden Regional Park in the hills above Berkeley. Yesterday I began work at 6:30am so I could take a long lunch (2.5 hours) and go biking. It was perfect weather - 65 degrees and sunny.

I started out at Inspiration Point, on the east side of the park, and rode on the Meadow Canyon trail, which was a gradual descent into the valley. You can view a details trail map here. When I hit the start of the Gorge Trail, I was in the lowest part of the park. The Gorge Trail is really beautiful and lush, running beside a winding stream that connects the two lakes in the park. This was probably my favorite part of the ride. Then I began the long ascent up Curran Trail, which was fairly difficult but had some incredible views of the valley and stream below. Soon I completed the loop and it was still early and I was hungry for more. So I decided it would be a good idea to head up the Seaview Trail to the East Bay Skyline National Trail. Big mistake. It was one long steep uphill. It nearly killed me. Less than halfway up I knew it was a mistake, but I decided that since I'd come this far I had to go all the way. I finally made it to the top but I was completely exhausted and thought I might die at any moment. At least I had an amazing view of the whole bay and the valley and Mt. Diablo to the east. All from one spot. Pretty incredible. Riding the crest of this trail was very nice, but too short. Then began the descent down the Big Springs trail, which was just too steep and rocky to be much fun. I then came to the Quarry Trail which led me back to my starting point. This trail would have been a good ride, but by this time I was so tired and sore I could barely peddle. The ride was just under 8 miles, but since near half of it was steep uphills, it really kicked my ass! It was a much more intense workout than the 3.5 to 4 miles I've been running regularly.

I actually can't wait to bring my bike back out there. I'll just avoid biking on the ridiculously steep trails next time.

Friday Night in the City

I'm generally not a huge fan of stand-up comedy, but years ago I stumbled upon Marc Maron (MySpace) on some TV special and was instantly won over by his sense of humor. He's intellectual, very left-wing, dark, angry, twisted and self-deprecating... my kind of guy. I don't quite know why his humor resonates with me so much. He can come off as kind of an asshole. But a highly entertaining asshole. The kind of guy I'd love to hang out and drink with. If he still drank. He did a weekend at the Punchline Comedy Club in San Francisco and I met up with Pamela and her friend from NYC on Friday night to go see him perform. He did not disappoint. I was one ear-to-ear grin the whole time. I even got to chat with him briefly after the show. Good fun!

After that, we hung out at Pamela's place in SF for a bit before she went off to some DJ thing and I went to the Rickshaw Stop (a small club in SF) to hear The American Music Club, a great indie rock band led by singer/guitarist/songwriter Mark Eitzel.


Eitzel recently moved from San Francisco to LA and subsequently put together a whole new version of the band with only the other guitarist remaining. The show was the first on a long tour, and one of only two shows in the US. It was quite good, but the band hadn't had a chance to learn much old material, so 90% of the setlist was new material from their upcoming album. I would have liked to hear a few more old tunes, but it was great to finally hear them live at all.

Muir Woods and Redwoods

This past weekend involved two wonderful days of outdoor activities. Saturday we went tromping around Tilden Park again, which is full of great hiking trails through the hills above Berkeley. Then on Sunday we headed over to Marin County to explore Muir Woods, which I had never been to. I had heard that it was pretty great, but it surpassed my expectations. Located in the valley and foothills just south of Mount Tamalpais, it's quite large and extremely beautiful. It doesn't have the huge old growth redwoods that exist further north in California, but there are a lot of quite huge and majestic redwoods. After a short hike on the shorter main (and touristy) trails, we hiked a longer trail up in the hills towards Mount Tamalpais. This trail was stunningly gorgeous, winding across streams, crossing over small gorges on footbridges and over huge fallen redwoods. After winding up and up and up, we ended up on a trail called "Ocean View", which we hoped would afford us a wonderful view of the ocean. Unfortunately, on the part of the trail we were on, we were not quite high enough to see the ocean beyond the ridge just before the ocean. Had we turned left on the Ocean View trail, away from our destination, I'm sure we would have had the great view. But alas, it was time to head back to our car as we had already pushed the hiking limits of a 7 year old boy. I'm already looking forward to our next visit so we can see more of the Ocean View Trail.

Did I mention that all our hiking this weekend was done under clear blue skies and temperatures in the mid 70s? In November? Yes, living in California does not suck.

Here are a few photos. They do not at all convey how amazing this place is.

Trial-By-Fire Emergency (Step)Parenthood

It happened at roughly 2:30 pm - the phone call from the after school program at Jeffrey's school. He had bumped his head by running into a pole and apparently there was a lot of blood and though it wasn't serious he wanted to come home. So I rush off to pick him up. He's not happy, but not terrible either. There's two blood soaked band aids on his head and it just appears that it's just a big bump underneath. After we get home I call Stella at work and tell her what happened. While I'm talking to her I take the bandages of Jeffrey's head and see that it's not really just a bump - it's gash large enough, and deep enough, to require stitches.

At this point Jeffrey is terribly, terribly unhappy and just wants his mommy. The last thing he wants is to spend Halloween in the ER getting stitches. He's crying, saying that this is the worst day ever and saying he refuses to go, clinging desperately to the curtain in his room. Finally I convince him that it won't be that bad, that it needs to be done, and if he hurry we can be back in time to go trick-or-treating. Armed with a Harry Potter book, we finally head off to the Emergency Room so they can sew up his forehead while Stella starts the almost 90 minute commute to Berkeley from her school.

After waiting an hour for the initial consultation (reading lots of Harry Potter to Jeffrey), Stella shows up just as the clinician is interviewing us and deciding what's required. As I thought, he definitely needed stitches. After another wait (and more Harry Potter) we get into a private room where the doctor does things to Jeffrey's head that make me a little squeamish, and I don't typically get affected by stuff like that. But Jeffrey takes it all really well, with no crying at all! The local anesthesia helped a lot for sure. Everyone was very impressed with how well he accepted five stitches to his forehead. If only we had planned a Frankenstein costume for him for Halloween.

We did finally make it back in time to go trick-or-treating, which was totally crazy in the particular neighborhood we went to. They take their Halloween very seriously out here in Berkeley, I must say.

I guess this was trial-by-fire parenthood. Fortunately, I think I passed. But it proved to Stella that she needs to work in the same city that Jeffrey lives and goes to school. So after our lease is up here at the end of June, we will almost surely be moving to San Francisco.

Return To Ann Arbor

I know, I know... it's been too long since I've been blogged. What can I say? I've been busy. I went back to Ann Arbor last week to see Edgefest and visit old friends. I was a great experience. I'll do a separate post about Edgefest shortly and focus now on what it was like to be back in Ann Arbor.

I lived in Ann Arbor for about 21 years, other than the (almost) year I lived in Vermont for most of 1992. Now I've been in Berkeley for 3 months and returned to Ann Arbor to visit. I feel like I'm still trying to sort out the experience. On one hand I felt like I was returning to my home; It was so familiar and full of friends and acquaintances. On the other hand I also felt like a visitor since I was a guest in someone's house and my life is now 2500 miles away. Overall, it was a strange feeling.

After flying all night tuesday night, then renting a car wednesday morning, I made my way to Eric & Anica's house, just a few houses away from my old house. In my slightly sleep-deprived state, I really had to focus to not just drive to my old house, park in the driveway and walk inside. After a few hours of sleep, I met up with Stella (who flew in earlier Wednesday) to have dinner at Pacific Rim, my favorite Ann Arbor restaurant. Their seared tuna is outstanding.

The next day I paid a visit to the people who bought my house. There is a group of five lesbians living there and they were quite receptive to me visiting. Of course I had a legitimate reason - I had some info on the house that they needed. I had left it on the counter when I moved, but somehow it got packed and moved to Berkeley. The women seemed like a great group of people and they loved what I had done with the garden and seemed genuinely interested in maintaining it. It was also nice to catch up with a couple of my old neighbors who happened to be out when I went by.

The rest of my stay was a crazy whirlwind of avant-garde improvised music and seeing old friends. It was fantastic to reconnect with old friends and I felt very at home while simultaneously being aware that I was just visiting. It was an odd sensation - part of me looked forward to being back home in Berkeley while part of me longed to be home again in Ann Arbor. One thing that really struck me, however, is how small Ann Arbor felt. It was all so familiar that it made me more aware of how much I loved living in a new place with so much to explore. The BayArea, and even just Berkeley, is so much larger than Ann Arbor. There is an endless amount of new things to discover here and I love being in such a radically different environment. If only I could just move all my Ann Arbor friends here too. Then I would REALLY love being here.

From The Onion: Report: Swelling Hippie Herds Pose Threat To Delicate Freakosystem

(Thanks to Warren who posted this on MySpace...)

Report: Swelling Hippie Herds Pose Threat To Delicate Freakosystem

WASHINGTON, DC-The indigenous North American hippie population has expanded to the point that its teeming herds are endangering the planet's fragile freakosystem, warned a Department of the Interior report released Monday.

Report: Swelling Hippie Herds Pose Threat To Delicate Freakosystem

December 9, 1998 | Issue 34•19

WASHINGTON, DC–The indigenous North American hippie population has expanded to the point that its teeming herds are endangering the planet's fragile freakosystem, warned a Department of the Interior report released Monday.

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Earth In Crisis: An Onion Special Report

According to the report, over the past 20 years, the wide-ranging, largely migratory hippies have more than tripled in population, insidiously infiltrating nearly every other U.S. subculture while venturing far beyond their natural Vermont and Colorado habitats.

"Due to the species' lack of predators, willingness to live almost anywhere and rabbit-like breeding habits, the hippie has become the most prevalent feature on the American countercultural landscape," Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt said. "If we do not soon find a way to thin their herds, they will overwhelm every other subculture on the continent, potentially leading to freakological disaster on a mass global scale."

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A herd of hippies grazes in a field near Burlington, VT.

Experts say the hippie-related environmental damage has largely been the result of their sheer numbers. Long regarded as a mere nuisance species, the hippies have grown over the past 10 years into one of the most populous in North America, numbering close to 20 million. Further, because of the hippie herds' normal daily cycle of waking, bongo-playing and large-scale grass consumption, followed by a brief period of torpor and then aggressive nutritive replenishment, their freakological impact is enormous.

"Each summer, the hippie herds migrate north to Boulder, wiping out 80 to 90 percent of the hummus supply of the regions through which they pass," National Park Service director Roger Kennedy said. "In certain parts of Colorado, by mid-August, the patchouli reservoirs are entirely drained."

The burgeoning herds–identifiable by their dreadlocked hair, hemp jewelry and distinctive tie-dyed markings–have greatly affected the quality of life of people living in these areas of high hippie concentration.

"They're everywhere," said Linda Hewson of Albany, NY. "Last night, when I went to take out the trash, I found one of them foraging through my garbage cans for Dead bootlegs. I shooed it away, but a bunch more came by later scavenging for discarded twirling sticks."

"My property is overrun with them," said Vallejo, CA, resident Patrick Davis, who said he is considering moving if the problem gets worse. "They even set up a bead-vending stand in my backyard."

First introduced into the cultural landscape in the early 1960s, the hippie, or homo habilis VWbus, was initially applauded by freakologists, who believed they would be beneficial in curbing the growth of the then-ubiquitous Establishment Type. When the crisis passed in the early 1970s, the hippie population was reduced to a fraction of its former size, creating room in the American freakosystem for numerous other subcultures, including punks, new-wavers and goths. Social developments of recent years, however, have caused the hippies' numbers to balloon once more.

A 1985 photo of an Olympia, WA, meadow sparsely populated with hippies. By 1996, the meadow was destroyed, its topsoil stripped clean by migratory hippie herds numbering in the thousands.

"For some time, it was believed that the extinction of Jerry Garcia and the dispersal of The Grateful Dead would have a suppressive effect on the size of the hippie population," Kennedy said. "Surprisingly, though, exactly the opposite has happened: The herds have grown, diversifying and spreading out. In the past, if the Dead were playing in Chicago, the entire hippie species would be singularly concentrated there. But today, you could have a herd of hippies at Red Rocks to see Phish while, at the very same moment, an equally large herd is massing in Ann Arbor for a Widespread Panic show."

Another reason for the hippie explosion, environmentalists say, lies in the differences between the current crop and the more mature, "old-growth" hippies of the 1960s. While old-growth hippies were a gentle species that was considered a mild annoyance at worst, the new breed, they say, is a hardier, more insidious creature which seems to thrive in virtually any environment.
"We're seeing these young hippies in the malls, in fraternities, on Madison Avenue–all kinds of places where hippies were once considered non-indigenous," said Alfred Meijer of the Nature Conservancy. "Years of cross-breeding and exposure to television have produced a hybridized, consumer-culture-bred hippie that can adapt to literally any environment, countercultural or mainstream. And unlike the old-growth hippies, which at least were anti-materialistic, the new ones are voracious consumers, swiftly depleting their habitat of all resources and purchasable goods."

Though most experts agree that the vast herds must be thinned, they are divided on how to go about it. Some are calling for the hippies to be spayed and neutered and then placed in designated preserve areas, where they would be free to roam peacefully and play hacky-sack. Others suggest more extreme measures, advocating the use of large, headshop-shaped traps to lure the hippies. Once inside the traps, the hippies would be poisoned with super-adhesive, cyanide-laced Guatemalan blankets and sweaters.

"Whatever we do, we must do it soon," Babbitt said. "If we don't, we are dooming our children to live in a world overrun with backless apron dresses and bare feet. And that is a fate we can ill afford."