Markie’s new drivers license

Weirdness prevails…

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You must think I haven’t changed clothes in five years. I did think about what to wear for my picture, but didn’t consult the 2005 license. Well, the 49ers tee shirt is the same. The blue shirt is a Polo Ralph Lauren shirt I bought last year.

I think the 2005 shirt is the food.com shirt that Tom gave me. I pitched it about a month ago.

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The DMV experience is a whole ‘nother story.

I had the car on Thursday to take the former kitchen and bedroom TVs to recycle. After dropping those off, I went to the DMV to renew my driver’s license. When folks reach a certain age, folks have to take the written exam again. I have reached such an age. I’ve been reading the DMV Manual that I got on line as a PDF; been a while since I took the test and it would be embarrassing to flunk, not to mention a waste of time.

It was pouring rain as I drove around the DMV parking lot for 15 minutes looking for a space. When I was able to park and go inside, I saw wall-to-wall people… I could barely get in the door. I heard the words, “Systems are down.” Screw that, I went home. Wait for a nice day, scooter to the DMV and take the test. (Turns out the systems were down statewide.)

The next Wednesday was sunny and nice cool, so I scootered to DMV… 2pm, wait for my number to be called… eye test – guy says my eyes are good!… picture… 3pm, in line for written test… oops, I have to take the motorcycle test as well… didn’t study for that. Passed the auto test with flying colors… the motorcycle test, flunked. Y’know they ask like what you do when you swerve. Well shit, you just swerve, it’s intuitive and only takes a second or less. Swerve right: press down on right grip, keep body straight, don’t lean, brake before or after the swerve, not during. Jeez!

Anyway, I downloaded the DMV Motorcycle Manual, read it and took the test again on Thursday. Aced it.

The Tablets Are Coming!

AppleWant to get a head-start on next year’s holiday shopping and get the hot gift for Xmas 2010 now? Well, you’re going to have to wait a couple weeks because it says here that it’s going to be the new Apple tablet computer (reported to be called the iSlate). Uncle Tom, who consistently scores highest marks among the Rectorati for finding kool stuff on the web recently sent out this link to a demo of things to come for mags and newspapers once the new tablets come out later this month.

But wait, don’t tablet computers already exist? Well, yes, tablet PC computers exist but if a quick perusal of tabletpcreview.com’s most recent “best of” list is any indication, they’ll soon look about as attractive as an old flip-fone in today’s iFone age. Assuming that tabletpcreview.com knows a thing or two about tablet PCs, comparing the state of the art in that category (and “still #1” according to their rankings) to what is shown in the Time magazine clip is like comparing apples to Calvados.
Continue reading “The Tablets Are Coming!” →

Summer Hours

lheure_deteThis morning I downloaded a list of critically acclaimed films from 2009.  First on the list was Summer Hours. HUH? I looked it up and found it was released in France in late 2008, and in America this past year. I don’t recall it ever playing in ATL, so I went to Netflix to see if they had it. But of course! Not only that, but it was available as a streaming INSTANT selection. So I watched it this afternoon…

What a simply charming and mesmerizing film! Oh the country estates! The wine! The smoking! The art! The great old Paris buildings! A film about families and life — so typically French — where you are immersed into the pure art of the film, never certain where it’s going, and often unsure even after it’s over. It’s a film where you can easily imagine yourself as one of the characters, enjoying life and family as we often never do in the same way in the US.

I can’t say I would place it as FIRST in a list of the best films of this year, but it would certainly be in my top 10. I suspect most (or all) of you have Netflix so I highly recommend you watch it. Or put it in your queue for the DVD when it is released this year. I am confident you will enjoy it.

THIS IS IT

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MEMBERS SCREENING: THIS IS IT
Saturday, December 19
Premiere Theater
Letterman Digital Arts Center

There are just a handful of seats left for our year-round members screening of Kenny Ortega’s This is It, presented by the Variety Screening Series. Kenny Ortega is expected to be in attendance.

The screening is on Saturday, December 19, at 2:00 pm.

MY TAKE – I knew nothing. This was a Variety Screening Series film and we were invited by the San Francisco Film Society. For the SFFS screenings I like to go cold because they are often on subjects that I might not choose to see. I didn’t know it was Michael Jackson.

What a surprise! I was never into Pop music or Michael Jackson and he has been out of sight or embroiled in court cases for at least 10 years… not making music. Here, he is totally on form as Ebert describes, and the singers, dancers and musicians in the cast are the world’s best. The film shows that they put out a world wide casting call and over 2500 auditioned. The dancers were most impressive. They and MJ were in perfect union through impossibly difficult moves, stops and starts. I thought of La Danse, a story of behind-the-scenes at Russian Ballet – I haven’t yet seen it, but Jon Carroll wrote about it – this dancing has to equal or surpass ballet. Awesome. And the hot blonde guitarist… also awesome as she jams with MJ and he says, “This is your time… hit your highest note.” Another revelation – through this show and the Q&A with Kenny Ortega, I realized that when Michael sings about love, he’s not singing about boy-girl or man-woman, he’s singing about mankind. This was a profoundly moving experience.
Continue reading “THIS IS IT” →

What a Night

A dark road, Inglorious Basterds and Quentin Tarantino

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SFFS YEAR-ROUND
MEMBERS SCREENINGS

The Film Society is pleased to invite its year-round members to the Variety Screening Series.

These screenings have extremely limited seating and are for year-round Film Society members only (no guests, sorry).

Inglourious Basterds with director Quentin Tarantino expected to attend
Monday, December 7
6:15 pm pre-screening reception
7:15 pm screening
Stag Theater at Skywalker Sound
Skywalker Ranch Rd, Marin County

So said the invitation, I responded and we were awarded passes to attend. Hadn’t seen Inglourious Basterds, but it’s been in theaters for a while and on my list for a while. I’m also eager to see Skywalker Ranch, George Lucas’ famed center of creativity. Carol arranged to get off work at 4, and we left the house at 5.

That’s all the address they gave, and there’s no “directions” on the Stag Theater website, so we got a map to Skywalker Ranch Road. The Google Map said 29 miles, about 41 minutes in light traffic. Get off 101 at Lucas Valley Road, go 7.8 miles to Skywalker Ranch Road. That sounded easy enough. The traffic was fairly heavy but moving so we turned off 101 with over a half hour to go that 7.8 miles. We figured Skywalker Ranch is a pretty big deal and lots of people work there, so it should be well marked. Continue reading “What a Night” →

November Weekend in Reno

Saturday, we drove to Reno encountering NO traffic. We were going to go on Friday, since C was off work with the pink eye, but it rained in SF, snowed in the mountains… not a lot, but enough to require chains at the higher elevations. I didn’t want to be a part of that!

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The day was beautiful, sunny and mild. We stopped at the In n Out Burger in Auburn for lunch. At Crystal Springs, just above 5000 feet, we found snow on the side of the road. How exciting is that? It got deeper as we went up — Donner Pass is 7415 feet elevation — but not much more than a foot anywhere.

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The snow had disappeared by the time we got to Reno, midafternoon, and the sun ruled the day.

We helped Brian do some stuff and went to an Italian place downtown for dinner that was pretty good, but not very good. How could I not mention food. Continue reading “November Weekend in Reno” →

Sue Berard

Susan Crampton Berard - September 21, 1934 to November 21, 2009
Susan Crampton Berard - September 20, 1934 to November 21, 2009

[View some more photos of Sue at this Picassa album.]

Sue loved good food.

Of course Sue loved her family, and she loved Cohasset, Mass (where she grew up), and she loved her work with the Society for Hematopathology, and she loved puzzles and card games (especially Bridge), but she really loved good food, and she loved preparing and serving good food to those people she loved.
Continue reading “Sue Berard” →

Dinner Club SF

Eric and Alison aren’t the only ones having fun. We just have ours closer to home.

Last week, we celebrated Dinner Club, a sometime get together at a local restaurant — or home — to have a nice meal and good fellowship. Marc and Carol and Paula and John and Carol’s colleague, Sarah gathered at Heaven’s Dog, the latest of the Charles Phan restaurants in San Francisco. Leslie usually attends, sometimes with Tate and sometimes with Rick and sometimes with both, but she was not available on this evening.

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The light on Market Street was amazing as we turned south to get to Mission Street.
Continue reading “Dinner Club SF” →

The Rest Of The Story

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I know you all are waiting breathlessly for us to post our adventures in the “Wild West” of China. It is coming, but it may be a little while as we both attempt to catch up with our regular lives…

When the newest stories and pictures are posted, they will be organized in chronological order BELOW (sorted by date of the experience), just as the Shanghai stories were. So you will have to scroll down to see if there are new China stories — they won’t appear above this article.

If you’d like to start at the beginning, go to Eric and Alison China Journal and then follow the links above each story to the next article.

The Latest Posts are:
Doorstep To The Moon 2
Doorstep To The Moon
Osman
Raisins in The Sun 2
Raisins In The Sun 1
Two Day Train (posted 14 Oct)
More Monday Memories (posted 08 Oct)

Thanks for all your feedback!