Thank you for viewing / reading my blog posts! I appreciate it!

Sunday, September 21, 2003

That Erasure song got me started on a synth pop kick, having been a huge Joy Division fan in my youth.

I've been looking at cds by Kraftwerk, New Order, Style Council, The Jam, more Erasure, OMD, Level 42, Men without Hats, Bronksi Beat, and of course Depeche Mode.

As my friend Drew used to say "techno pop and disco!"
This is so cool. Erasure doing a cover that old Elvis Presley tune, Can't Help Falling in Love. Click on the song to hear it. You'll need Real Player to hear it.

This is one of my favourite love songs! It makes me cry every time I hear it.

This cover version is almost as good as the time I heard Bob Weir and Rob Wasserman doing a cover version of "Misty" in Golden Gate Park.
My friend and I went to see free Shakespeare in Golden Gate Park. It was a hot day, which is rare in that part of San Francisco, and I roasted my legs while sitting in the full sun.

They're like burnt and on fire right now, but I put some after sun lotion on them so hopefully I won't peel or burn. The sun was so hot today, and it's still hot at 8 pm.

Usually the fog rolls in on hot days, but not today. The whole city seemed be out enjoying the park, and it was great to see everyone out.

We watched "Love's Labour Lost", which was done with late 50's costume La Dolce Vita style. Everyone was good, except for the page who was played by a girl. She totally annoyed me for some reason. She was very cloying, and really not that funny.

Usually the pages are played by guys, and it's a different part when it's played by a guy. The page part is supposed to be a young boy in his teens, and most actors play it that way. This actor chick played it like a some 20 or 30 something chick, which was so off putting in a way.

I don't know. The rest of the audience seemed to like her, so maybe I was the only one who kept praying for a giant hook to get her off the stage. The critic at the SF Chron thought the performances were uneven, and for once he and I agreed.

At Sharon Meadow the local radio station Alice 97.3 put on their annual "Now and Zen" festival, which featured Liz Phair, Maroon 5, Seal and Duran Duran.

The music was so loud from Now and Zen, that we could hear it during the Shakepeare play. It was kind of annoying but kind of fun, because we had wanted to go to Now and Zen but decided we didn't want to pay that much money for the tickets.

I kind of felt that I got my wish. I saw free Shakespeare in the Park and I heard Duran Duran and Maroon 5, the two bands whose music I really like.

The music was so loud that you didn't really have to pay money to hear the concert. There was a ton of people sitting in front of the flower conservatory enjoying the concert, because the sound at that location was so clear.

I heard that Maroon 5 song they keep playing on the radio "Harder to Breathe" (they sound Bon Jovi to me), Seal's hits (saw him in concert a few years ago), and all my Duran Duran faves. YAY!!! And I didn't have to pay $40 to hear them.

My friend had seen them in their young and beautiful days, and we both wanted to remember them as those pretty young boys on that boat sailing on the ocean and not have that be spoilt by an older and I'm sure more weathered version of themselves playing their old hits at some kind of reunion concert.

Simon LeBon was beautiful and I want that memory of him preserved!

Friday, September 19, 2003

Here's a very interesting article on The Darwin Awards website, Stupidity should be cured — Watson.

The best bit from the stupidity story:

"If you really are stupid, I would call that a disease," he was quoted by The Times of London as saying. "The lower 10 percent who really have difficulty, even in elementary school, what's the cause of it?

"A lot of people would like to say, 'Well, poverty, things like that.' It probably isn't. So I'd like to get rid of that, to help the lower 10 percent."