Top 12s for 2007

The end of the year. Time for reflection, shoddy resolutions that only last for the next month (which I can avoid seeing as how I've succeeded in sticking to my New Year's resolution of three years ago to not make any more resolutions) and of course the best of lists to sum up everything into one tidy bundle for popular consumption. It was an amazing year for me, professionally and personally. The new friends, experiences, activities, outings, movies, concerts, music and parties made the year fly by, while making it feel like 5 years in the making. To commemorate 2007, I give you the best movies, events and blog posts of 2007.

Movies: I've always been a huge movie watcher, but when I actually started keeping track of the movies I watch, it created a new way to judge, view and prioritize my movie watching. There's so many out there that the idea I'll be able to get to even a fraction in my lifetime is insane, but at least now I can know what kind of dent I've made. Here are the top movies I watched from each month this year. All told, I watched 182 movies this year. The month links link to the posts with the movies from that month.

Jan: Children of Men
Feb: Slam
Mar: Fast Food Nation
Apr: Amores Perros
May: La Haine
Jun: A Scanner Darkly
Jul: In the Bedroom
Aug: The Jacket
Sept: The Method
Oct: Darjeeling Limited
Nov: Rabbit-Proof Fence
Dec: Water

Events and Blogs: I'm always writing about what I do, and sometimes writing just to write. Sometimes I'll get done with an event or a blog and hope that never in my life will I have to repeat it. Other times, I'll return to it often for the joy I had doing it, or the fun I had writing it. Be it an event I attended or just a blog I posted, here are my favorites from 2007 complete with links so you can revisit them or see them for the first time...

Jan: Children of Booze
Feb: Grown Ass Men and Women
Mar: All Sorts of Randomness (or my City Circuit)
Apr: Don’t Drink Pear Vodka
May: Cocktail Stages of a Wedding
Jun: Dolores Spark
Jul: The Vicious Cutting of Rugs
Aug: Mementos
Sep: A Wedding in Time Saves Nine
Oct: Bringing Pumpkins Back
Nov: We Can See the Black Cat Changing Colors
Dec: 26 Fantastic Moments

My favorite non-event post of the year was Still Water. Off to a wedding tonight for the New Year's...hopefully it starts off 2008 with a bang. See you next year folks, unless I don't, and then I won't.

Birthday Bar Hop

So after a Thursday birthday, Friday night becomes the celebration. We begin with the long awaited pre-party at Topher's place. It starts out Sis, Hessica, Chaz and JG (otherwise known together as Jarles), Gavroche, VballKris, Topher, ChengJ and Marc. In addition to the drinks I have on the way up to the city, I polish off two more before we head down the street to the Bus Stop.

At the Bus Stop, we're joined by Z from HMB and Gavroche proceeds to get attacked by two girls, one of which tells me later she has a boyfriend. But apparently her boyfriend across the room says nothing about her throwing herself all over Gavroche (see picture)...We're there for two drinks, and upon leaving for 15 Romolo find ourselves face to face with a large contingent of rollerbladers in the middle of Union Street. We split up, throw ourselves in three cabs and take off for North Beach.

At Romolo we join JMill's party already in progress, complete with PandLVS, JoeMurph, PH, Mers, Whitta, Cat, McButter and Marga show up as well. Combined with the three cabs we bring, the bar is filled with an amalgamation of Crocker, SMHS, CSU and BHS kids. While here, a great many photos are taken, Amie complains repeatedly that she's ready to go dance and I get violently chucked from group to group being wished well. Amazingly, I manage to avoid excessive shot consumption. At around 12, JMill's party heads down the street to some club that involves people getting naked, the VS crew leaves for other parts and my group, now up around four or five cabs leaves for Fiddler's Green. It's at this point that I probably lost my glove.

We get to Fiddler's and it's the exact scene I was hoping for...good crowd, but not overcrowded, plenty of space to dance. At this point I've run into a Santa Claus, taken a picture with a Christmas tree, realized I lost one of my gloves and gotten repeated offers to enjoy a birthday gift courtesy of Jarles. Amie has introduced me to a girl, who I am still talking to on the curb outside the bar, without having any idea who she really is, where she came from or how I know her. I probably spend about 20 minutes, much to the chagrin of everyone around me, searching all over the bar for my glove. I'm really upset about that one.

By the time I'm on the curb getting in a cab with Hessica and Sis to go home, I'm having conversations that I remember nothing of now, and disappear so quickly I'm wondering if I was even there. All in all, the evening went exactly how I was hoping...a slow buildup to a heavy drunk, a wide variety of friends and family from past and present, a good mix of styles in the bars, dancing and no throwing up. That's what I call a perfect birthday celebration. For good measure, I top it off with a San Jose Sharks game on Saturday night.

I want to extend many thanks to everyone that showed up and helped me ring in my 26th. It's always great to see a lot of people I haven't seen in a while, and continue celebrating with all the people I see regularly. The evening really was my idea of a perfect celebration, and it really means a lot to me that all of you came out, so again, I thank you! Hopefully we'll see y'all at 27.

26 Fantastic Moments

I really don't know how I got here. Growing up, I couldn't see past 25, and yet here I am, turning 26. Some things have gone exactly how I planned them, and some of my best laid plans have turned to shit in my hands. Some experiences I knew I would have I've had again and again, others that I never thought I would experience I have. I've known enemies and friends, girlfriends and lovers, family and colleagues. So what's the best? Can't answer that one for you. But I can give you 26 of the moments, thoughts or experiences in my life that have made me feel like I'm sitting on top of the world...(in no particular order)

1) Taking naps in the grass during summers in Iowa.
2) Skydiving
3) The first time I made love (thanks H.C.)
4) Hearing my Dad say he's proud of me.
5) Running a 4:40 mile in high school.
6) Winning my first 330 hurdles race.
7) My first time at Morton's.
8) Scoring a 770 on the English SAT 2.
9) First time I got h__ (thanks Wolf)
10) The moment I came clean about Essaygate.
11) Anytime I play Ultimate frisbee.
12) Winning a soccer game in a shoot out as a goalkeeper.
13) First time I finished We the Living by Ayn Rand.
14) Flowing with Topher and ChengJ.
15) Riding the metro in Paris.
16) My first house sale.
17) Giving a commencement speech at middle school graduation.
18) The days of 7am to 7pm high school.
19) My college graduation party.
20) DJing for KSCR
21) Talking a teacher from a B to an A- in a college feminism class.
22) Coaching my team to win a distance relay track meet.
23) Traveling in Japan.
24) Dancing in the street.
25) The moment I gave up worrying about other people's opinions of me.
26) The moment I'm in. This one. Right here. And now.

You Killed My Brother!

Always on the look-out for weird and insane things, this one comes from a largely unexplored forest region in Indonesia. Recently discovered, this rat is 5 times the size of a NYC rat, which means that it eats cockroaches AND your toes for breakfast. It brings to mind the quote from the original TMNT movie, "You dirty rat, you killed my brother."

My question is...what was this guy thinking when he picked this thing up, and how did he get it to look so domesticated? I want to put it on a leash, take it to a dog park and let it feast on all those toy lap dogs that I always want to punt across the room. That or let it loose late night in a bar and yell, "There goes Splinter!"

The Fall of a Bachelor

With New Year's fast approaching, the wedding event of the winter season is upon us in the form of Coach's New Year's Eve wedding. Never have I been more excited about my New Year's plans, and I do mean never. In celebration, we rode out to the city to help him celebrate Saturday night.

I start my evening at 3 in the parking lot outside the stadium with Gavroche, PR and Hessica for the Niners v. Bengals game. To the enjoyment of all, the Niners actually manage to pull off a win, which leaves me, slightly faded, walking through the parking lot after the game yelling, "Who dey?!" to every Bengals fan I see. We get out of the stadium, I head home, shower and head back to the city for the bachelor party.

The group is 9 of us, mainly high school friends of the Coach. I seem to be the only new blood, but there is the former throws coach (P), as well as E and Airel who I've met before. Somehow, following the 40 I had at the game and the rodka I had coming up to the city, I still manage to be convinced to take a shot of Patron. For those of you that know me, you know I'm not good at shots, let alone tequila, yet for this party, I manage to hold it down.

We leave from there and head to North Beach where we grab pizza. The only person that knows the plan right now is E, and I see why as we head to our destination. It's definitely a bachelor party. What's funny, is that as the group gets to the door (we've already all been cleared to enter by the head of the party), the girl checking our IDs keeps seeing all these Filipinos. She goes, "Daaaamn, you Filipino's roll deep!" Me, at the back with the Coach, responds, "Hey now, not all of us." She looks up and sees me, but before taking my ID goes, "hold on just a second, these guys are in a different group," to both of us. I'm positive that this is because they're all Filipino and I'm the only white guy. I point out that the guest of honor is right beside me, and we indeed are all together, and she lets us in.

The rest I leave up to the annals of time and your imagination, as some things are better left unsaid. Wish him well people, he heads towards marriage now like a man aboard a train without brakes. But his lady, EdeJ, she's fantastic, so I wish them all the best in their future happiness!

I read a quote today which I thought worth passing on..."Marriage is like a bathtub...it's not so hot once you get used to the water."

Up next...birthday celebrations!

Plastic Glitz

The broken fixture spitting cement mixtures
churns the newfound day,
while the cement sticks and breaks on bricks,
to rumble round the quay.
But the water spits and bubbles up,
to turn cement to sand,
and the rubble fades to leave a mess that slips right through the hands.

So the fading sights of burned-out neon lights
lurk lonely in the past,
and the dimming wits of plastic glitz
bring the future soon to pass.
But the future moments, as they come,
become neon lights once more,
and the fractured fragments of now and then
become tomorrow's whore.

A Joint Bday/Going Away

When you can't find any nights to celebrate a Late Za Birthday/Early Me Birthday/Za Going Away Party, there's only one thing to do...get hammered on a Monday night and call it all three. And that's what we endeavored to do. With Hessica as my driver (Home, James!), Za, Gavroche, T, McButter, Jacks, Marg, Glass and a few others descended on Skylark. We start during football at T and Za's place, getting green and watching the decoration of the Christmas tree, and the lighting of the non-denominational Menorah. I'm already in fine form when we leave the apartment, and an entire j on the way helps matters along.

At first, I feel like an idiot. I've picked the Skylark as our venue because I've heard some good things about the Monday night festivities there. T is skeptical as she claims the last time she was there it was like a Mission Marina. We walk in, and there's no one there. I mean, the bartenders and djs and a few people are there, but it's pretty empty. T views this as a vast improvement.

As the night moves on, the place starts to fill up. And then comes what we came for. I had been told about the Monday Skylark night by a guy that works at the Shack named Hopper. Apparently, they didn't have anything on Monday night, and he approached them about throwing a party. This is also the same bar that the Shack's anniversary party was held. But the beauty of Monday night at Skylark is the reggae themed music and the ability to sit in the back and smoke. I asked the bartender who said, "You can't smoke in a bar. But this is reggae night. We turn a blind eye." Let me just say...the ability to smoke a j in a bar is both a blessing and a curse...you don't have to go outside to do it, but as a result, you sit there and chain smoke which can lead to some incoherency issues.

And the evening ended with some of those issues...next up...the office holiday party, where last year I had to drive someone else back from the restaurant.

Thursday Night Trouble

It all starts with a holiday office party serving drinks made of lemon juice, vodka (or gin) and champagne. Picture agents, all in their 30s and 40s, pounding these surprisingly ridiculously strong drinks in the office. Now imagine that starting at 3pm. By the time I leave at 5, I'm 3 deep, have a very healthy buzz on, and hear that the party went til about 7, complete with one assistant spitting on the carpet and proclaiming "I need something for my nose." Unfortunately, one can't stay for everything in life, and I had a club run to get to, so I'll have to hope she gets drunk and starts spitting at the next party.

I make the club run and meet up with Za, who's invited me to the SFJC.Center for their Hanukkah party. I walk in, can't find her, but that's never stopped me before, especially when I find bars of free beer and sake shots. I've downed two by the time I find her. The atmosphere is sweet...the place is crowded, everyone keeps shooting sake and the dj is keeping things moving. At one point, following an awkward conversation attempting to explain my Jewish heritage, we get out on the dance floor. Then a slow song comes on and I recreate middle school by asking a girl to dance. I don't remember the last time THAT happened. From the look on her face, I don't think she remembers either. I felt like some sort of antique.

By 10, Za is plastered, McButter is playing den mother and I'm furiously pounding water to get back into tip top shape. I get home at 11 and after seriously considering doing all manner of things that may or may not have gotten me in trouble, I decide on the water and bed course of action. An excellent decision as it turns out.

Get a Room, Or Bowl Already!

One thing you have to say for McButter...even if the plans are late, changed ten times and never quite finalized until four hours before, the result is still going to be fantastic. The idea last night was to give Za a bit of a surprise birthday party, so it's McButter, Jacks, T and myself. We met for dinner at Colibri, a Mexican place on Geary by the theatre district. This place is known for two things...a vast selection of tequilas and margaritas (I tried the Margarita Centenario which had Gran Centenario Reposado, described in the menu as "smooth and mellow, select ten year old blue agave plant, aged in new oak." yummy!) and making guacamole fresh for each table. It was phenomenal. The service, however, was not so stellar, but I came for the margaritas, not the service.

We then head to the "next event" as we keep calling it because Za doesn't know what we're doing. On the way there, we almost die as my mind wanders and I hear "go Adam" coming from the backseat. So I start to go and hear "go Adam, go" as I run a red light, through the intersection and on to the other side. Turns out what I was only half paying attention to was actually saying, "Don't go, Adam" even though I wasn't planning on it, the warning turned into an order in my head. Fortunately, no large trucks, unseen cars or police officers are anywhere in sight.

About halfway there, Za knows where we're going, but I don't think it lessens her enthusiasm as we head towards the Presidio bowling center. We meet up with Kat and her roommate there, and upon arriving, we are treated to perhaps the most infuriating set of circumstances I've ever seen...

This bowling place has like 15 lanes. All of which are packed. It's a younger, drinking, carousing type crowd, and for the most part, all is well in the bowling world. But then we are treated to two couples who break all rules of both bowling and public decency. In the middle two lanes of the venue, we have four people that apparently missed it when their parents' talked about being considerate to others. Here we are in a bowling alley where all the lanes are jammed and there's two people each on these two lanes. Are they bowling? Not really. They've come to the bowling alley on this fine evening to make out and look into each other's eyes, and make us wait for a lane while doing it.

On the left, we have couple number 1. Couple number 1 is a clean cut looking couple, a cute girl and a guy with some sort of wrist splint on his non-bowling arm. Problem is, they really came to talk. When she does get up to bowl, about every ten minutes or so, she half-heartedly throws the ball into the lane before sitting back down and waiting another five minutes or so before taking her second roll. Mid-game, she disappears, leaving her broken wrist boyfriend sitting and looking at the lane. Lucky for her, he waits until she returns to take his turn so she can watch him. The final two and a half frames of their game takes close to 40 minutes.

On the right, we have couple number 2. Couple number 2 is a couple that looks like they were absolutely made for each other. I can tell because I got to watch them coo, flirt, kiss, hold hands and hug each other for a good 30 minutes. Bowling? What moron comes to a bowling alley to bowl?! They come in, sit down, put their beers on the table, hold each other's hands and look into each other's eyes. For fifteen minutes. Before rolling their first frame. Jacks points out, "it looks like their sex might only last ten minutes...they need to make the date as long as possible." I, at this point definitely under the influence, start taking pictures with my flash on of the happy couple in an attempt to make them uncomfortable. It doesn't work. They don't notice. It's still twenty minutes before their next roll. At this point, it's lucky we get a lane because T is ready to knock out the girls and castrate the guys. I can't say I'm far behind her...I mean, I wasn't taking pictures because I thought there WOULDN'T be a confrontation...

Finally, we get a lane and squeeze in two games of speed bowling. I manage to follow spares and strikes with gutter balls. It reminds me of Home for the Holiday's "par par bogey bogey par par" line. Sure, the strikes are nice, but they don't really help your score if you follow it up with nothing. I record the 2nd highest score in the first game, and the highest in the second game, but it's little consolation as my team falls to the other team in both rounds...there's no "I" in team and I feel like I let them down. Luckily for all involved, no one gives a shit who won, so we all win! Here's some pictures from the evening, including some of the couple obviously not there to bowl. Up next...I celebrate my Jewish roots with a party at the SFJCC.

Happy Birthday Momz!!

So maybe you've seen her at the bar...maybe you haven't. Or maybe, when you did, she was already passed out on the barstool. There's only so many reasons that you can call someone "Pass Out ___" but no name rings better in the phrase than hers. Up until now, life as a Cal grad has satisfied her. In the future, it could be med school. But either way, one thing is for sure...the girl we all know and love as Momz will continue partying and passing out well into the future. So raise your glass people, and send out a little toast and birthday salutation to Momz or -amie...she probably deserves it!

Idiot Executives

(for the full text of this blog, see the Evolving Music blog)

Read an interesting article this week in Wired. Actually, the entire magazine was phenomenal and prompted me to order a subscription, but one article jumped out. Examining the current state of the music industry through the eyes of Universal Music Group's CEO Doug Morris, author Seth Mnookin prompts a series of new perspectives and questions surrounding the idea of where exactly we are now and where we are likely to go in the future with regards to music rights management, distribution and artist promotion. All of which, obviously, are keen topics in the mind of MixMatchers.

Morris is an industry ancient. If it weren't for the fact that the past several years have seen him hammering other companies over rights to use and sell the Universal catalog with great success, he'd be a dinosaur. But he has. He's been very busy, limiting who can use the Universal catalog and when, making YouTube sign an agreement with regards to the licensing, he's engaged in a lawsuit with Myspace, and he has even gotten Microsoft to give Universal $1 for every Zune music player sold because they could be used to play music that wasn't directly paid for by the listener.

So why's he involved in all these digital disputes at the moment? It boils down to the record industry turning an ignorant eye in the 90's to the idea that the huge profit margins on CDs and the public's willingness to buy them couldn't be eradicated by something as non-tangible and silly as a, um, what was it called again? Oh, yea, mp3. When you look at this period in time, it would be easy from an outside perspective to see clearly and rationally that the record labels didn't want to go digital for fear of losing the justification for the large profit margins created by CDs. So rather than get out in front of the mp3 movement and attempt to control its direction, record companies dug in. The obvious initial example is the first assault on Napster. When Apple launched the iTunes store, they were only able to get major labels to sign on because when you break it down, Macs are a small percentage of the population, so how much could they possibly damage the sale of CDs? Of course, this is before the Windows iTunes was released....I doubt Jobs told the execs THAT when he was pitching for them to sign up and let him sell their music on the web.

Article continues here.