I'M SOLD.

my first weekend in san francisco was a busy one, indeed. but it has served to prove the merits of this wonderful city & verify just how nice it is to have friends here. i've visited with more people here in two weeks than i would have seen in a month back in orange county. things, as they say, are sliding effortlessly into place. it's like watching my grandmother play tetris.

APPLES ARE ADDICTING

on friday, carlos asked if i wanted to go to the apple store; he had decided to get an isight in order to video chat with family back in oc... and with me. which meant i needed one too. and my ipod bit the dust... completely. so, i decided it was time to replace my old five gig with a shiny, new 20 gig. to be honest, i wanted to save the cash and grab the 15 gig... but i also wanted the dock, the case, and the headphone remote. so, in a matter of minutes, i dropped way too much cash on apple products. my ipod died after a year (it had replaced my first ipod; it also stopped functioning after a year.) and i bought another. talk about brand loyalty. it's hard to live without an ipod after it becomes integrated into one's lifestyle. pretty annoying and gross, but c'est la vie. a consumer, i am.

so i spent much time this weekend filling my new device with music... some old, some new, and much of it stolen from shane. he's got a taste for music you and i have never heard of... i've decided to make it my duty to study and devour what i've stolen as quickly as possible. i hate it when it feels like i'm listening to the same thing over and over again.

the isights seem to be handy as well. as you can tell from the pictures below, the image quality is incredible for a webcam. we found that the mounts that apple provide don't seem to be built to attach the device to any of their recent laptops which all have rounded edges. it works perfectly with my computer, on the other hand.

TRY THE WINE...

with all the wow being played in our apartment, we felt compelled to finally pull the cork from carlos's cherished bottle of warcraft III wine. it has aged gracefully on countertops and in cupboards since the release of blizzard's fps. it has survived the launch of the frozen throne, a move or two, and several late nights when a bottle of wine would've REALLY hit the spot. but now, it is gone. consumed by we who cherished it. and josh, this one's for you buddy.
[if you'd like to enjoy some wine, simply open the two images below and imagine your touching glasses with shane and carlos. all the celebration and none of the hangover. yippee! hic.]

INDIAN FOOD IN SF

i'm sure there's tons of ridiculously excellent indian food in san francisco, but i'd still like to take a moment to plug "lashore karahi." ricky, ivy, carlos, shane and i visited this place recently and i can attest to the quality of their food & service. it's also rather inexpensive. the five of us absolutely stuffed ourselves with excellence for around forty dollars. and the owner/chef zulfiqar haider (he goes by "guddu") was truly memorable. he hooked ivy up with some extra rice pudding as we were walking out simply because she guessed the secret ingredient. maybe you'll be able to do the same.

Lashore Karahi
612 O'Farrell Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
415.567.8603

DEALING WITH BERKELEY

on saturday, i took the boys out to berkeley with the intention of checking out a dealership show on campus. as we were driving into town, carlos mentioned that he hadn't been before. "berkeley's alright..." i said as we made our way up university.

once on campus, i caught up with jane briefly before she and the chrises played. the show -- my first live dealership experience -- was rather good, though i can't help but wish i'd seen them in a club setting first. regardless, they played well. the first few tracks were new, and therefore unknown to me. the focus, in these songs, seemed to be on the keys rather than on guitars...which is fine as i do like things that go bleep and pling. jane even noted that one song was about a virtual boy. how goddamn cool is that. i've also been told that many of the tracks on the new record "action/adventure" have game-related themes. neato, i say.

after the new, dealership played a few old favorites: toujours ta fille, green, for sale, & tv heart. carlos especially enjoy "ttf." shane commented that in some ways the band is pixies-like, which is no doubt a compliment. i -- the only one of us really, really familiar with band -- enjoyed it all and told jane as much after the show. i look forward to seeing more of her in the future.

afterwards, we wandered around the city. pizza was acquired at fat slice. then we made the usual and required visits to amoeba and rasputin's. shane and i were lucky enough to get ahold of copies of max tundra's "mastered by guy at the exchange." it's a crazy little record that slipped by us for years. now we know about it, and hopefully you'll take the hint and search it out. you'll be impressed. check out the lyrics! (click on the "i'm feeling flirty" link below the image of the album artwork.)

"berkeley's alright..." a bit of an understatement. it took me a few hours to remember why i love that town. but i won't soon forget again. the school, the people, the food, the shopping. it's all so fulfilling. if i didn't have the direct urge to experience city life, i'd probably be down for a transfer. in the future, maybe. if i'm lucky.

i could go on, but i'll spare you the time. for now, just take a look at a few pictures. yeah, that's dealership rocking in the background of those last two... check out the guy in front of the stage... if he looks like he's about to blast off, that's because he did. it was intense.



maybe next time i'll venture closer to the stage. mental note. less bunny, more lion. Posted by ryan at April 12, 2004 11:09 AM