On Thursday, Shiaw-Ling and Candace did us the great favor of babysitting Neil and Kelly so that Peter and I could check out the new Morton’s in San Jose. As we were discussing the menu, I told the waitress that I was skipping dessert at Morton’s in favor of a slice of the Charlie’s Cheesecake…
A Day at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center
Neil, Kelly, and I just got back from spending the day at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center in Santa Cruz. It had something for to pique everyone’s interest. Neil found a science computer quiz a Jeopardy-style quiz game, and a scavenger hunt. Kelly found jigsaw puzzles and a crafts room where she made herself a…
Storytimes of Silicon Valley
Regular readers of this blog are aware of Kelly’s book obsession. When I complained to Peter about having to read her the equivalent of the collected works of Dr. Seuss each and every day, he suggested I find a storytime to take her to, where I can have someone else read to her for a…
Master and Margarita, the mini-series
Michael Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita is a weird story in which the devil, in the form of a mysterious foreign visitor, Woland, and his small cadre of capricious associates, including a gigantic black were-cat, and a demon named Azazello, wreak havoc on 1930s Moscow. The title characters are Master, a writer whose unpublished novel has…
Charlie’s Cheesecake Works
Yesterday, I finally bought a cheesecake (as well as a package of bite-sized cheesecakes, called “Poppers”) from Charlie’s Cheesecake Works in Almaden. The store (and bakery) is located next to my favorite thrift store, the Unicorn Thrift Store, and Charlie’s Cheesecake Works will give you a free sample of their cheesecake–as a popper in the…
Bush Hatred as a Projection of Fear
Yesterday, Peter hypothesized that the widely vocalized dislike of our current president has less to do with factual knowledge than with our need to focus our fears about terrorism onto someone, anyone we can blame and hate in its place. When I think about it, his theory makes complete sense. After all, if someone you…
Gimme Shelter
I recently watched Gimme Shelter, the documentary about the 1969 concert at Altamont (near Livermore) where a member of the audience was fatally stabbed by a Hell’s Angels member/security guard while the Rolling Stones were playing. Certainly, if you have any interest in popular music or the 1960s, you’ve heard about it. Gimme Shelter does…
Brand New at The Warfield
Brand New is one of the more complex modern bands I like listening to. I got hooked to their dancey angst songs on their first album, “Your Favorite Weapon.” So when their second album, “Deja Entendu,” came out, I happily bought it and found out they’d changed. It took a few listens for the album…
The Deification of Cesar Chavez
The fact is, we all know exactly why we have Cesar Chavez day, and it has everything to do with his ethnicity and politics, and very little with his actual accomplishments. We started down this slippery slope when Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday became a holiday.
The Giant Diaper Pin
One of the pieces of art I have always looked forward to seeing at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco is a sculpture I dubbed “The Giant Diaper Pin” the first time I saw it. I encountered it first at the Legion of Honor, right outside the cafe, while the new de Young Museum…