Return to the Freudian Evening

For those who were keeping track, back in the end of May, my partner-in-crime Yumiko and I attended a show at the Great American Music Hall. That concert had three bands performing and the main headliner was Voxtrot. Well, of course, the band that I wanted to see (and encouraged Yumiko to see as well) was Au Revoir Simone, and they were the first opening band. With that, they played six, if not, five songs. A tad bit of a let down.

Well, in the end of July I received an email from Yumiko notifying me that Au Revoir Simone is playing again in San Francisco. This time, at a venue named Bottom of the Hill. The lineup was them along with Oh No Oh My and the Morning Benders. Due to the wording on the website, it was hard to tell if Au Revoir Simone would have been the opening band or not. After some research, Morning Benders are a local San Francisco band, and Pitchfork Media mentioned Au Revoir Simone going on tour with Oh No Oh My (and they’re based out of Austin, Texas). So, it came down to either of these two being the headliner. When we got there, we discovered Au Revoir Simone was the headliner.

Bottom of the Hill is basically a dive bar that happens to have a stage. It reminded me of Sacramento’s Blue Lamp, for those who know what I am talking about. We didn’t really pay attention to the Morning Benders or Oh No Oh My; we got drinks and sat in the outside portion of the bar. We realized that this evening was going to be a late one because the website said doors open at 8:30pm and the show started at 10:00pm, and there were two bands (as mentioned) to lead up to Au Revoir Simone.

We walked inside when Oh No Oh My were wrapping up their last song and they closed up shop. It took a while for Au Revoir Simone to start, which I thought was weird since they rely solely on three keyboards and a small xylophone. It was about 12:20am when Au Revoir Simone began playing their music.

With having the main spotlight, they could (and did) play a lot of their music, unlike the unfortunate experience of six songs like last time. Of course, their latest album The Bird of Music, was what they played the most of. However, their first album, Verses of Comfort, Assurance, and Salvation, was touched on a couple times. I was really excited when they played my two favorite songs from that specific album: “Through the Backyards” and “Stay Golden,” which also happen to be the first and last song on the album. Kind of weird.

Their performance went for about an hour, and I think they played pretty much everything of their latest album. My only concerns about their performance dealt with technical issues. For such a small amount of things to work with (keyboards and speakers), they had to keep telling their roadie to tune things or crank something up or turn something down between each song.

Since Bottom of the Hill is such a small venue, I was able to see the band up much closer. I wasn’t as freaked out this time by seeing the one member who reminded me of my mother when she was young and not married with children. This person looked like somebody else. So, I calmed down.

Bourne Out of My Mind

Kyle and I just finished watching the latest installment of the Jason Bourne series: The Bourne Ultimatum. I decided that this is my favorite cinematic trilogy. Now I know the Lord of the Rings fans have their pitchforks ready and the Star Wars freaks have their nooses ready as well, but I can take them on; I just got done watching Jason Bourne flee out of probably twenty-five scenes where he should’ve died (and keep in mind, no force or silly rings were needed to make these happen) so, I am ready to take on anything that moves!

Last Friday we prepared ourselves by watching Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy back to back. I must say, I am pretty pleased I did that because not only were there so many details that spawned from the first one that bled into the second one, but the third movie took on so many plot points from the first two; they were all fresh in my mind.

What is really interesting to note is the major differences between the films and the novels they are based on. Now, I know that many adaptations tend to become extremely altered where readers become absolutely disgusted by the movie. The screenwriters, from what I gathered, did their best to put the Jason Bourne character in a modern setting; a post Gulf War (I) scenario. The original trilogy, written by Robert Ludlum, had the protagonist living in Cambodia with a wife and two children; a fighter jet blazes through and bombs the village that he and his family live in. You can probably predict it, but the wife and children die; the protagonist wants revenge and signs up in some top secret US military project called Medusa and becomes a killer. Jason Bourne is another assassin who gets killed in action and the protagonist ends up taking his name. The rest of the story deals with Bourne finding out the clues to the village bombing, recovering from amnesia, taking on Carlos the Jackal, and other government paranoia induced situations. And, of course, all of this takes place in the 1980s.

Quite the difference, but I like the approach that the screenwriters took with Jason Bourne. They were very smart about how to put him in a post-9/11 world. The Bourne Identity (the first to be released) came out the summer after September 11, 2001, and the story did its best to not tread into that territory. As the rest of the trilogy unfolded, there wasn’t much holding back on current topics. The Bourne Ultimatum, they put it right out there that the CIA is out of control with their power and how they will not hold back at all in order to preserve American freedom (even if that means sacrificing American liberties… and American lives).

That’s what I have for now. Next movie stop: Superbad.

I Wiki the Fool!

The concept of proper citations and appropriate bibliographies is something that will never go away for any form of non-fictional writing (or fictional in some cases). I remember in my high school and university days, understanding and fulfilling the works cited format was something everyone needed to do.

For the past few years something has been created that has brought up debate for academia professionals and writers: Wikipedia. I will not go into an introduction about what Wikipedia is because I know everyone who has ready my site has probably visited Wikipedia on more than one occasion. The revolutionary thought behind this site is that anyone and everyone can contribute and edit entries onto it.

Breakthrough? Yes. The main downfall of this idea is that it creates a sense of discredit, according to scholars and professors. Their thought is that Joe Schmoe can log in and write what he thinks is the truth and then everyone will read that and take it in. There could be a Tucker T. Washington, from Smalltown, Alabama, who dislikes John Kerry and therefore logs onto Wikipedia and edits the entry about Kerry and says he is a pansy and lost his virginity to a head of lettuce. Some high school student will then write that in his politics paper. And many problems will arise.

I remember when Eric and I lived together, he would mention that Wikipedia was a constant debate amongst his fellow faculty members on whether or not they would allow students use it for providing information on essays. It came down to individual decisions; simply, it was up to you to decide if you want your students to use it.

My friend’s sister told me that she read an article that said that 75% of everything on Wikipedia was bullshit; of course, she wasn’t able to provide the source of the article. I asked if she read that on Wikipedia; she gave me dirty look.

Aside from the idea that everything on the site can be challenged, some conservatives believe that Wikipedia is too liberal. Yes, the site that defines true democracy, that is, anyone can contribute to this overwhelming source of information, is too liberal. So, conservatives have made conservapedia.com, which is too serve as the true source of knowledge. One can be enlightened or one can be amused by reading this site. I will allow you to decide. Here is an excerpt from the entry on George W. Bush and the topic of Economic Issues:

“Though the liberal media continues to disparage Bush's handling of the economy, they often neglect to report the many aspects of the economy that Bush has improved. For example, during his term Exxon Mobil has posted the largest profit of any company in a single year, and executive salaries have greatly increased as well. This is due to changes in the stock market that lead to a record high in 2006. Corporations show profits growing by double digits growth.”

And on Family, the writer of the Bush entry wrote:

“George W. Bush is a member of the United Methodist Church, and many people feel that George W. Bush's faith is sincere and profound. The Faith of George W. Bush, a non-political book by author Stephen Strang, made the New York Times best-sellers list.”

Of course, the page doesn’t layout that the Faith of George W. Bush was published the same year as Fahrenheit 9/11 and a documentary was made of it and released the same week as Moore’s film was released for rent.

Going back to Wikipedia, many people realize that its credibility may be open to debate and its credibility can be unsteady. Well, the university I work for has created a program (via the computer engineering department) that can track its trustworthiness. Basically it tracks entries by who wrote them and then monitors how many edits it encounters. So, the less edits the more credibility that contributor has, and the more edits, than, obviously, the lesser credit you obtain. The program then does color-coding based on the hits the site receives, and the amount of changes involved.

So, now it may seem that Wikipedia could develop reputation. And the reason I say this is because this weekend I read this article about Wikipedia being edited by some notable sources. The Independent wrote:

“The chance to rewrite history in flattering and uncritical terms has proved too much of a temptation for scores of multinational companies, political parties and well-known organisations across the world.

If a misdemeanour from a politician's colourful past becomes an inconvenient fact at election time then why not just strike it from the Wikipedia record? Or if a public company is embarking on a sensitive takeover why should its investors know of the target business's human rights abuses?”

The article unravels that a website has the capabilities of screening all the editorial changes on Wikipedia and can trace it back to their original sources. Many of these sources were the CIA, FBI, churches, and corporations. Here is a brief list of what this new site found:

Exxon Mobil and the giant oil slick

An IP address that belongs to ExxonMobil, the oil giant, is linked to sweeping changes to an entry on the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989. An allegation that the company "has not yet paid the $5 billion in spill damages it owes to the 32,000 Alaskan fishermen" was replaced with references to the funds the company has paid out.

The Republican Party and Iraq

The Republican Party edited Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party entry so it made it clear that the US-led invasion was not a "US-led occupation" but a "US-led liberation."

The CIA and casualties of war

A computer with a CIA IP address was used to change a graphic on casualties of the Iraq war by adding the warning that many of the figures were estimated and not broken down by class. Another entry on former CIA chief William Colby was edited to expand his cv.

Diebold and the dubious voting machines

Voting-machine company Diebold apparently excised long paragraphs detailing the US security industry's concerns over the integrity of their voting machines, and information about the company's chief executive's fundraising for President Bush. The text, deleted in November 2005, was very rapidly restored by another Wikipedia contributor, who advised the anonymous editor, "Please stop removing content from Wikipedia. It is considered vandalism."

The Israeli government and the West Bank wall

A computer linked to the Israeli government twice tried to delete an entire article about the West Bank wall that was critical of the policy. An edit from the same address also modified the entry for Hizbollah describing all its operations as being "mostly military in nature".

It seems that Wikipedia may hold more power than one thinks, Oh, 75% of Wikipedia is pure bullshit. Apparently that is true now since many powerful entities are erasing content as we speak to better themselves and those they represent.

They Come in 3s

It’s only Wednesday, and already, three important people have left my life. Monday morning I found out that my head head head boss UC President Bob Dynes is resigning. Then I went onto Google news and the first article listed was about Karl Rove resigning. Then the Internet Movie Database announced that Merv Griffin died at age 82.

I felt this void inside of me. I mean, how am I going to get my fix of California tax dollars being spent on some scandalous action, or the typical Republican spin and how Democrats in office mean terrorists will win, or the next best thing after the Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy?

It is truly a week of mourning.

Getting a Master's in Moving

You wouldn’t believe it. Last week I somehow pulled myself out of reality (hence my absence from writing). Where did you go, some might ask. Well, it was the world of moving that I went into. And my god, that was a long visit, and I hope I won’t have to visit that little realm again for quite some time.

I will save you the details on the hell I went through, especially it being a one-man show for most of the week (my housemates had already moved out by the time I arrived back from DC). But I will focus on the weekend after my return from the capital.

So, I returned from DC a week ago Thursday and came home to an empty house… literally. There wasn’t much left except for my belongings (and secretly some stuff left by my other housemate). Friday I went to work and was suffering from jet lag and overall exhaustion. I went home and began to pack what I could. I received a notice that my landlord wanted to have the carpets cleaned Monday at some point, which meant that I had to have my items out by the end of the weekend. I realized that I had to at least get my large items (bookcase, couch, desk, etc.) out; my smaller things could just be boxed up and placed in my car or the garage. Come Saturday, I came to the realization that I would need to obtain a truck of some kind.

When I was in college, I felt that I knew many individuals that owned a truck. However, times have changed and now I don’t know anyone personally that has one. Saturday morning I got on the phone with the local rental services: Enterprise, Hertz, and Budget. I struck out with Enterprise and Budget since they closed by 2pm that day and were closed on Sundays (and they didn’t have any trucks at the given moment). Budget had trucks but they were reserved (and that didn’t help me). Then I thought of my grandpa because he has a truck. The only catch is that he and the rest of my family live in Sacramento. I called him and told him the situation. He said it was fine but the only catch was that he and my grandmother were leaving for a wedding anniversary party at 3:30pm. At that point it was barely 11am. I told them I would hit the road right now!

I made it to Sacramento at about 2pm or so and stepped in to chat it up with my grandparents. I felt that I couldn’t just grab the keys from them and dash. I was there for maybe a half an hour before they kicked me out.

I love my grandparents to pieces; they have helped me out in various times of my life but there’s a catch to all of this. They sometimes do things that will either drive you crazy or will simply amuse you. The conversation I had was more on the amusing side.

Aside from the usual “what’s going on in your life right now” conversation one would have with somebody, my grandparents tread into two topics with me. They either want to know how I’m coming along with graduate school and having a girlfriend. I call these the “g-spots.” They tend to switch up these topics where one conversation will be about graduate school and then the next time I talk to them will be about a girlfriend. Well, this visit revolved around the ladder.

“So, Peter, are you engaged these days?” my grandpa asked me this absurd question. I was slightly perplexed. Usually there’s a whole preamble that leads to an engagement; there are certain requirements to have an engagement happen like being in an actual relationship. You don’t get engaged like it’s buying a house. There’s work involved. Plus, the attachment of “these days” made it sound so topical. These days is usually used to follow such questions as “where are you working…” or “where are you living…” but “are you engaged these days” just left me a bit confused,

“Uh…no, I am not engaged these days.” After my response, my grandma did her part for the conversation.

“What was the name of that girl you dated in high school?” I just rolled my eyes when I heard this. We have had this conversation (at least three times now), but, nonetheless, I said her name “oh yeah. What’s she doing these days?”

“She’s going to grad school at UC Davis.”

“Oooh! Grad school? How come you didn’t go to grad school with her?” look how sly my grandma is. She managed to combine both g-spots into the same conversation.

“Well, she’s doing her thesis on health and nutrition of minorities in California. And I don’t really know anything about that.”

“I see. She was really cute. Have you talked to at all her these days?”

“No.” Actually that’s a lie; I bailed out on a visit from her back in late June.

“Is she dating anyone now?”

“Um… I don’t know.” Eventually the conversation digressed elsewhere. I later talked about moving and how when I get back to Santa Cruz I will need to find someone to help me move my large items. My grandpa chimed in at this point.

“You should get a pretty girl to help you move!”

“Why would I need a pretty girl to help me move? All I need is someone who has legs, hands, a pulse, and maybe a mouth.”

“Oh, I don’t know. It would make the move more fun.”

“Well, I’ll see what I can do.” I left shortly after that.

I got back on the road and hauled ass to Santa Cruz. When I arrived, it was already the early evening. I began calling people to see who could help me move. I wasn’t experiencing the best of luck since it was Saturday evening and apparently people have lives. Most people were either out of town, already committed to something, or just didn’t pick up. Since I had the truck I went ahead and started moving my smaller items to the new place. I also managed to get my full size bed moved out by myself. I eventually called it a night.

Sunday morning arrived and I knew that day was the day that I had to get my stuff out. Monday was the carpet cleaning day. So, I went through the phone list again and see who could help. Still no response. In the meantime, I did what I could. I had my long couch that I was going to give to my friends Ryan and Ben, who live in Sacramento. This operation made sense since I had to take the truck back to Sac, I would swing by their apartment and drop off the couch as well. With the couch, I thought I would be able to move the couch out of the house by myself. I slid it out of the living room and got it down the stairwell, but when it came to the doorway, it became not so maneuverable. The ceiling was at an angle and therefore the couch wouldn’t budge when I tried flipping vertically. It’s hard to describe the operation but lets say it just simply did not work. All I could think was that we got the couch upstairs. But how?

Knowing that I had other stuff to move, I had to get the couch out of the entryway and back up the stairs. This became a major problem. Due to gravity, the couch really wanted to go back to the entryway. I tried pulling the couch up, and it would somehow start slipping down the steps. I would then pull it back up and try to get it at a resting stop so I could flip it vertically and therefore move it back in the living room, but it would still slip down. I felt like Sisyphus (from Greek mythology) who had to push the rock up the hill in the underworld but by the time he would get it to the top, it would slide back down and he would do this over and over for eternity. At one point, I had my back against the couch (to prevent it from sliding) and I was on the phone calling people asking for their help with the couch. No such luck was provided. Long story short, I got the couch up eventually and made some goodwill runs.

I tried round two with the calling people for help moving, but this time I tried my friends in the bay area. No responses for a while, but then my friend Yumiko picked up. She agreed but then followed it with:

“But I don’t have my car.”

“…I’ll pick you up.” Much hesitation but I needed to get someone to help. I drove like a madman over highway 17 and made it to her place in just under an hour. She lives in Oakland. We got back to Santa Cruz and we were pros at moving my desk and bookcase out. I bought her lunch and then we did the couch. I will save you the details on how we got it out, but it truly was a two-person job. The truck was loaded with rope and bungee cords, so the couch was going nowhere.

Yumiko volunteered to come along with me to Sacramento (the second trip in 24 hours), so it was nice to have someone to talk to. We met up with Ryan and Ben first, obviously, so we could get rid of the couch. We then got dinner with them and then we trekked over to my grandparents’ house. On the way over, I told Yumiko the conversation I had with my grandparents and especially the part about having a pretty girl help me move. Yumiko mentioned that it was a good thing I brought her along so I could please them. We arrived with the truck and went inside. I introduced Yumiko to the grandparents and I could just see them light up. We had a brief conversation but it was already after 9pm and I still had to get Yumiko back to Oakland and myself to Santa Cruz. We left and my grandma followed us out.

“Goodbye Peter, come back again so we talk some more, and be sure to bring your lady friend too.” Both Yumiko and I just laughed at that “Yumiko, be sure to keep my boy safe!”

We all got home safely. I was incredibly happy to get the larger things out of my house, and I was grateful for having Yumiko help me. I thought it was funny that we ended up spending almost seven hours in a vehicle together, so there was a lot of talking. I spoke with my grandparents later in the week and they kept asking me about Yumiko.

“So, did you and your lady friend make it back safely?”

“That was nice of your lady friend to help you with moving.”

I figured that they couldn’t remember her name and, at the same time, they convinced themselves that Yumiko was my “lady friend,” although I never introduced her in that way. But knowing my grandparents, they’re convinced and are probably spreading rumors. This will benefit them since they sometimes go into the other g-spot topic about me: is he gay? That topic, I’ve heard through the grapevine, comes up every once in a while, but of course, never to me.