click to hear some U.S. Americans
Also, friend me on my Myspace. Viva la vida!
Friday, August 14, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
i made some music
Contraband by Peter Loyarpánz
Click the link. I made it on GarageBand using stock bass and drum loops. I recorded guitar and violin parts with the MBPro's onboard mic and line input. Whoopdeedoo. Tell me what you think!
Click the link. I made it on GarageBand using stock bass and drum loops. I recorded guitar and violin parts with the MBPro's onboard mic and line input. Whoopdeedoo. Tell me what you think!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Jury duty
so I had jury duty, and almost made it onto the case. me and one other guy were the last ones left standing. one of the lawyers had a print out from a Wiki site, "How to Question a Jury" or something. whatever works.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
How I met Dave Eggers
It all started about a month ago, when Britt and I were walking at Crissy Field near the Golden Gate Bridge. These girls come up and ask us if we're a couple. "Yes," we said. They say they're interns at McSweeney's and want to take our pictures for this photo spread they're doing on couples. We obliged. We corresponded with them later by email and verified the paragraph they wrote about us.
A month later we go to a Dave Eggers book signing for his new book. Britt gets him to sign her book, spelling her name out "Brittany O."
"Like Karen O?" Dave asks.
"Yes," she says.
"Cool," he responds.
Then he sees me, and asks, "Don't I know you from somewhere?"
We're in the McSweeney's couples photo thing, we say. He flips out and says, wait for me, I'll be done in 10 minutes, and gives us the address of his office. He was midway through signing Britt's book, but we move out of the way and walk over to his nearby office, which happens to be in the back of a stationary store.
There, we sit around while everyone types away on their Macbooks. I checked out some stuff they had displayed, presumably from the superhero store in Brooklyn, like Time Travel products and different superhuman powers in physical form, like chemical elements. After about 20 minutes, Dave rushes in and whisks us past everyone and into his office in the back. Sweet!
He showed us the photo spread layout. It's a game where they show your pictures individually with a bunch of others on one page, and people are supposed to match you with your mate. The answers are on another page. He said they took the idea from Boston Magazine, but they don't usually do unoriginal things like that. Dave reassures Britt that they chose a good pic of her, and once I tell him I went to Northwestern, he tells me how Northwestern kids used to make fun of him and the other Illinois state school kids when they came to basketball games on our campus. I almost felt bad for him.
Next came the payoff. "Do you guys want anything? Take some books!" he says. We were surrounded by volumes on bookshelves, so I asked him to pick some. He chose "Bowl of Cherries" by 90-year-old author Millard Kaufman, and "The Convalescent" by Jessica Anthony, about a four and a half foot tall Hungarian butcher man, or something, both hardcovers. He also hooked Britt up with the McSweeney's editor, who gave her an assignment. Sweetness!
Finally, we ask, can you sign our books now? He obliges, writing, "with love and strength and thanks," in Britt's copy of "What is the What." After reading her friend's inscription, that the book taught him "it could always be worse," Dave says, "Valentino knows that better than anyone." In our new copy of "Zeitoun" he writes, "So good to know you two. Be Human."
So, Dave was pretty cool. Britt was surprised how young he looked, and I noticed how soft-spoken and humble he seemed. I was so star struck I forgot to ask him to get margaritas with us.
A month later we go to a Dave Eggers book signing for his new book. Britt gets him to sign her book, spelling her name out "Brittany O."
"Like Karen O?" Dave asks.
"Yes," she says.
"Cool," he responds.
Then he sees me, and asks, "Don't I know you from somewhere?"
We're in the McSweeney's couples photo thing, we say. He flips out and says, wait for me, I'll be done in 10 minutes, and gives us the address of his office. He was midway through signing Britt's book, but we move out of the way and walk over to his nearby office, which happens to be in the back of a stationary store.
There, we sit around while everyone types away on their Macbooks. I checked out some stuff they had displayed, presumably from the superhero store in Brooklyn, like Time Travel products and different superhuman powers in physical form, like chemical elements. After about 20 minutes, Dave rushes in and whisks us past everyone and into his office in the back. Sweet!
He showed us the photo spread layout. It's a game where they show your pictures individually with a bunch of others on one page, and people are supposed to match you with your mate. The answers are on another page. He said they took the idea from Boston Magazine, but they don't usually do unoriginal things like that. Dave reassures Britt that they chose a good pic of her, and once I tell him I went to Northwestern, he tells me how Northwestern kids used to make fun of him and the other Illinois state school kids when they came to basketball games on our campus. I almost felt bad for him.
Next came the payoff. "Do you guys want anything? Take some books!" he says. We were surrounded by volumes on bookshelves, so I asked him to pick some. He chose "Bowl of Cherries" by 90-year-old author Millard Kaufman, and "The Convalescent" by Jessica Anthony, about a four and a half foot tall Hungarian butcher man, or something, both hardcovers. He also hooked Britt up with the McSweeney's editor, who gave her an assignment. Sweetness!
Finally, we ask, can you sign our books now? He obliges, writing, "with love and strength and thanks," in Britt's copy of "What is the What." After reading her friend's inscription, that the book taught him "it could always be worse," Dave says, "Valentino knows that better than anyone." In our new copy of "Zeitoun" he writes, "So good to know you two. Be Human."
So, Dave was pretty cool. Britt was surprised how young he looked, and I noticed how soft-spoken and humble he seemed. I was so star struck I forgot to ask him to get margaritas with us.
Monday, July 13, 2009
goings on
Life Digest has some catching up to do.
Pete and Britt spent a lovely July 4th weekend underneath, and above, the Golden Gate Bridge at Cavallo Point. This brownfield site was Fort Baker, but is now a fancy hotel/lodge/spa. The weather is surprisingly pleasant for its location on the edge of the Western hemisphere. My father paid, mother invited us. We dined at the restaurant on the grounds. Pete had foraged porcini salad and Point Reyes grass-fed beef, while Britt ate young greens salad with strawberries and wild boat salmon. Yum x 1000 = Murray Circle. Other members of Pete and Britt's casually dressed party of eight pissed off the waiter by trying to pronounce the name of a certain wine, and tried to keep their utensils even though they weren't supposed to, evidently.
This past weekend P+B went to Truckee and stayed with James and Tina. Britt read from the Twilight series while Pete and James hiked. Then everyone watched 16 and Pregnant all night, every night.
Planned is a trip to San Diego, hitting all the sites in between, including the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Hearst Castle, the Mystery Spot, and the Salton Sea.
Sail on!
Pete and Britt spent a lovely July 4th weekend underneath, and above, the Golden Gate Bridge at Cavallo Point. This brownfield site was Fort Baker, but is now a fancy hotel/lodge/spa. The weather is surprisingly pleasant for its location on the edge of the Western hemisphere. My father paid, mother invited us. We dined at the restaurant on the grounds. Pete had foraged porcini salad and Point Reyes grass-fed beef, while Britt ate young greens salad with strawberries and wild boat salmon. Yum x 1000 = Murray Circle. Other members of Pete and Britt's casually dressed party of eight pissed off the waiter by trying to pronounce the name of a certain wine, and tried to keep their utensils even though they weren't supposed to, evidently.
This past weekend P+B went to Truckee and stayed with James and Tina. Britt read from the Twilight series while Pete and James hiked. Then everyone watched 16 and Pregnant all night, every night.
Planned is a trip to San Diego, hitting all the sites in between, including the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Hearst Castle, the Mystery Spot, and the Salton Sea.
Sail on!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
other worldly films
A lot of movies have been watched at the Presidio Inn: Woody Allen's older films What's New, Pussycat?, Sleeper, Bananas, Mighty Aphrodite, A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, Celebrity, and Annie Hall. Also, his recent works Anything Else and Match Point, along with Vicky Christina Barcelona's crazy and/or confused females (plus one-trick pony Scarlett Johansson, so-so in The Prestige, a good film) and neurotic, paranoid, aging males.
You see enough of these Allen creations and the scenes start to overlap -- i.e. the part in Celebrity where Kenneth Branagh interrupts his young muse's theater practice, finding her in the sights of another man, and the scene in Anything Else where Jason Biggs follows Christina Ricci to theater practice, and finds her in the arms of a rival. But, eh... if repetition is the worst thing I can say about such a vast catalog, so be it. Maybe he's just trying to get his point across. Not sure what his point is, maybe that love takes time, and luck, to work.
Also, I finally saw Alex Cox's Repo Man, after multiple people including Mike Sherman recommended it. The film is based on a hypothetical: what would happen if Emilio Estevez's bad-ass, Men At Work slacker character were charged with repossessing cars, not collecting trash, and there were aliens. Harry Dean Stanton swears like a sailor, pouring his heart into his role as Estevez's mentor. Perhaps The Wendell Baker Story could have used more cursing, but that's another blog.
Repo Man is up there with Brazil and Time Bandits in its futuristic-yet-trashy, surfy, surreal, damn-near-gritty Magic Realism. They aren't apocalyptic, a la Six-String Samurai. Perhaps that's because no one ever really got their shit together enough to cause a catastrophe. Maybe it's that apocalypse is too easy. Isn't death by a thousand cuts -- paper cuts, in Brazil's case -- scarier, and more realistic? There's just an overall sense of something having gone wrong, and one man (or, in Time Bandits, a few little men) left to salvage whatever's left. The soundtrack is classic punk rock, with the LA bands Circle Jerks making an appearance, and Black Flag claiming territory. I read that David Lynch is considering the sequel to Repo Man, called Repo Chick or something. Hopefully Emilio Estevez is in it. What a dreamboat.
You see enough of these Allen creations and the scenes start to overlap -- i.e. the part in Celebrity where Kenneth Branagh interrupts his young muse's theater practice, finding her in the sights of another man, and the scene in Anything Else where Jason Biggs follows Christina Ricci to theater practice, and finds her in the arms of a rival. But, eh... if repetition is the worst thing I can say about such a vast catalog, so be it. Maybe he's just trying to get his point across. Not sure what his point is, maybe that love takes time, and luck, to work.
Also, I finally saw Alex Cox's Repo Man, after multiple people including Mike Sherman recommended it. The film is based on a hypothetical: what would happen if Emilio Estevez's bad-ass, Men At Work slacker character were charged with repossessing cars, not collecting trash, and there were aliens. Harry Dean Stanton swears like a sailor, pouring his heart into his role as Estevez's mentor. Perhaps The Wendell Baker Story could have used more cursing, but that's another blog.
Repo Man is up there with Brazil and Time Bandits in its futuristic-yet-trashy, surfy, surreal, damn-near-gritty Magic Realism. They aren't apocalyptic, a la Six-String Samurai. Perhaps that's because no one ever really got their shit together enough to cause a catastrophe. Maybe it's that apocalypse is too easy. Isn't death by a thousand cuts -- paper cuts, in Brazil's case -- scarier, and more realistic? There's just an overall sense of something having gone wrong, and one man (or, in Time Bandits, a few little men) left to salvage whatever's left. The soundtrack is classic punk rock, with the LA bands Circle Jerks making an appearance, and Black Flag claiming territory. I read that David Lynch is considering the sequel to Repo Man, called Repo Chick or something. Hopefully Emilio Estevez is in it. What a dreamboat.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
life digest 060109
All kinds of surprises are happening around 541 Lake. Yesterday, the hydrant got knocked off by an errant minivan across the street. Pete and Britt had a primo view of the action as crowds grew, cars were confused, and firefighters moseyed on over to put out the water.
Today, Pette and Britte made their merry ways to San Bruno, natch, to celebrate Michael's birthday at BJ's Brewhouse. Pete had the Porter homebrew with fish and chips, sharing the avocado roll appetizer with Britt, who ordered one massive "Classic" baked potato. She ordered it without sour cream or cheese, just bacon. It arrived no bacon, and no sour cream, just cheese. Natch. The place got some pretty bad Yelps though, so the couple was prepared.
Pete reads Lolita, while Britt suffers Atlas Shrugged.
Gabriel heads off to college soon, at Loyola Chicago. On Sunday, she went shopping on Haight St. accompanied by her mom, boyfriend, older brother and his girlfriend. They ate at Citrus Club, which everyone more or less enjoyed, after the wait, and ended at Crepes Express. Britt says the servers aren't very nice there and she didn't like her latest apple-cinnamon crepe. Pete liked his alright, though the whipped cream was rather cheapy and melted quickly.
A&E
Though Pete and Keith dug some of the soundtrack, Pete and Britt concur: "Don't see Medicine for Melancholy." Bad stereotypes of racial identity and dialogue, weak acting, shaky camerawork and too much silence do not balance out the filmed-in-SF fun factor, says Pete. "The NY Times review was on point when saying the film doesn't do the identity-politics discussion any favors. Instead, the movie details what it's like to be a guy trapped in your own notion of what a particular skin color means," Pete adds. "It's not pretty."
Today, Pette and Britte made their merry ways to San Bruno, natch, to celebrate Michael's birthday at BJ's Brewhouse. Pete had the Porter homebrew with fish and chips, sharing the avocado roll appetizer with Britt, who ordered one massive "Classic" baked potato. She ordered it without sour cream or cheese, just bacon. It arrived no bacon, and no sour cream, just cheese. Natch. The place got some pretty bad Yelps though, so the couple was prepared.
Pete reads Lolita, while Britt suffers Atlas Shrugged.
Gabriel heads off to college soon, at Loyola Chicago. On Sunday, she went shopping on Haight St. accompanied by her mom, boyfriend, older brother and his girlfriend. They ate at Citrus Club, which everyone more or less enjoyed, after the wait, and ended at Crepes Express. Britt says the servers aren't very nice there and she didn't like her latest apple-cinnamon crepe. Pete liked his alright, though the whipped cream was rather cheapy and melted quickly.
A&E
Though Pete and Keith dug some of the soundtrack, Pete and Britt concur: "Don't see Medicine for Melancholy." Bad stereotypes of racial identity and dialogue, weak acting, shaky camerawork and too much silence do not balance out the filmed-in-SF fun factor, says Pete. "The NY Times review was on point when saying the film doesn't do the identity-politics discussion any favors. Instead, the movie details what it's like to be a guy trapped in your own notion of what a particular skin color means," Pete adds. "It's not pretty."
Thursday, May 28, 2009
ben fong-torres and us
The former Rolling Stone writer gave a great speech at the SF State Journalism school graduation.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
tone generator
Brian and I were talking about a simple music maker that anyone can use online. Ours would have looked like a radar screen, with a revolving straight line that played the notes that you place onto the screen. Some of our ideas were that you could place little chickens on the thing to make a chicken sound, and other ducks that quack and other things beyond regular musical tones or rhythmic beats. I guess placing an object closer or farther from the center would regulate its pitch, timbre or volume. It could also be 3-D with objects placed over one another for some reason (pitch/tone/volume) and far below some water to put the tones underwater (use your imagination).
Then Brian finds this, which is also pretty cool, and a lot simpler:
I've had some fun with it.
Then Brian finds this, which is also pretty cool, and a lot simpler:
I've had some fun with it.
Monday, March 23, 2009
LOL Cool J (courtesy of CansaFis)
So M. Albert Flury is in town and CansaFis we met, who related, at great merriment and laugh-making to all, his latest foray into comic mischief, whereupon I undertook to remember and re-produce for my readers such here:
LOL Cool J:
Q: What's Chris Brown's favorite hip hop group?
A. (backwards) saeP deyE kcalB
LOL Cool J:
Q: What's Chris Brown's favorite hip hop group?
A. (backwards) saeP deyE kcalB
Sunday, March 22, 2009
food for thought
I was wondering if eating can make you hungry, and found that it can. Evidently, eating breakfast also helps you lose weight. Who knew? Maybe I can eat off my lawschool/girlfriend pounds :)
Thursday, March 12, 2009
spring break
it's never too late to blog my spring break. so far, i've played hours of New SMB for DS, beating the game once and proceeding to unlock level 4, a couple warp cannons and shortcuts, and catch many golden coins. I plan to continue getting the coins, as they are something I can accomplish without the aid of a walkthrough. This way I still feel I am accomplishing something cool while preserving some sense of curiosity and discovery.
Princess Britt helps me all the time. All of our wrists hurt.
Break has gone well, with wonderful weather and many walks. I visited Menlo Park, where I ate at Hobee's, and picked up some fresh lemons and oranges. Back in SF, I drank a lot of good coffee and got together with friends. Sunday night dinner, with Keith and Arie, was pan-Asian themed, with fish, rice, light salad, Sapporo, soju, instant miso soup, broccoli and cauliflower, and Polly Ann's mango and coconut popsicles from Richmond New May Wah Supermarket. We then watched Waking Life.
On Monday, Britt aced her midterm, she claims. More importantly, I defrosted the freezer, even though this is the kind "you don't have to defrost." Years of ice caked on the elements formed a formidable foe, but I attacked with metal spoons, knife, and can opener, assisted by pots and pans of boiling water, and succeeded in defrosting the lower half. A partial victory, but one I relish. I quit when an ice chip flew into my right eye.
Lukashenko, moonlit trust walks to Starbucks and back, stargazing, and a couple books (White Teeth, Memories of My Melancholy Whores) as well as the BBC version of White Teeth fill my nights.
Off to experiment with bike routes to school!
Princess Britt helps me all the time. All of our wrists hurt.
Break has gone well, with wonderful weather and many walks. I visited Menlo Park, where I ate at Hobee's, and picked up some fresh lemons and oranges. Back in SF, I drank a lot of good coffee and got together with friends. Sunday night dinner, with Keith and Arie, was pan-Asian themed, with fish, rice, light salad, Sapporo, soju, instant miso soup, broccoli and cauliflower, and Polly Ann's mango and coconut popsicles from Richmond New May Wah Supermarket. We then watched Waking Life.
On Monday, Britt aced her midterm, she claims. More importantly, I defrosted the freezer, even though this is the kind "you don't have to defrost." Years of ice caked on the elements formed a formidable foe, but I attacked with metal spoons, knife, and can opener, assisted by pots and pans of boiling water, and succeeded in defrosting the lower half. A partial victory, but one I relish. I quit when an ice chip flew into my right eye.
Lukashenko, moonlit trust walks to Starbucks and back, stargazing, and a couple books (White Teeth, Memories of My Melancholy Whores) as well as the BBC version of White Teeth fill my nights.
Off to experiment with bike routes to school!
Friday, March 06, 2009
Journalism for dummies
Step 1: Don't do this:
Step 2: Copy edit, or at least read, the story you post from AP as your lead story for the day.
Step 3: If you can't do step 1 or 2, maybe you deserve to go bankrupt.
Step 2: Copy edit, or at least read, the story you post from AP as your lead story for the day.
Step 3: If you can't do step 1 or 2, maybe you deserve to go bankrupt.
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
TV Guide
We got a hotel room in the Marina's Cow Hollow Motor Inn last night for a little vacation. The place is old school, with yellowish flower print wallpaper, hanging lamps, and green 7-Up soda vending machines with both Canada Dry ginger ale *and* Diet Canada Dry. Dinner was a trek. We crossed the street for Amici's "east coast pizzeria." The pepperoni, sausage, sauteed mushroom, bacon and garlic puree was a tasty treat. Good thing we skipped the Grove. The next morning we witnessed a great waterfall coming down onto unsuspecting outdoor seating.
For kicks we watched mucho TV, from the Cosby Show and Fresh Prince to J. Lo's Enough, the Colbert Report, Sex and the City, Futurama, the Smart Guy, South Park (smug pollution episode - how apropos), Wife Swap (not the Steven Fowler episode) and of course the Girls Next Door. Then I saw Pres. Obama's speech to the troops. Why so serious?
For kicks we watched mucho TV, from the Cosby Show and Fresh Prince to J. Lo's Enough, the Colbert Report, Sex and the City, Futurama, the Smart Guy, South Park (smug pollution episode - how apropos), Wife Swap (not the Steven Fowler episode) and of course the Girls Next Door. Then I saw Pres. Obama's speech to the troops. Why so serious?
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