Lately

The blog has been on a bit of a hiatus lately. This has not really been a conscious decision, just the way things go, I guess. I have also received a number of emails commenting on my lack of posts, which at least made me feel appreciated. It also wasn’t for a lack of material. September was a pretty busy month for me, filled with highs and lows. Among the highs:

• My first ever trip to Washington DC. I was there for four days for work and thought it to be a great city. Beautiful, colonial architecture (I think that characterizes it), a lot of bars, full of young people, and great energy. The monuments were surprisingly moving, particularly the FDR monument. Unlike the other more famous monuments, this is more of a sculpture garden where you walk through a series of sculptures that show images of American life during FDR’s tenure accompanied by one of his quotes. His famous quotes showed an absolute mastery of the English language and I could only think how far this country has fallen, as I tried to think of one single noteworthy quote from our current knucklehead president.
• After DC I headed to NYC for a long weekend and had a great sighting. While hanging with a group of friends at our old local haunt in the East Village, Natalia told me to look across the room and who did I see? The great Jemaine Clement (the bespectacled one above) of Flight of the Conchords. Quite the sighting. I wanted to join him in a rendition of “Hiphopopotamus”, but thought better of it.
• Soccer season has started and I'm playing in a 30 and over league for my second year. Great fun, although I've probably lost about 8 steps since my heyday.
  

Among the lows:

• My Ipod is dead after I dropped it.

• My car is starting to have mechanical problems.

• The Dodgers ruined my chances to enjoy postseason baseball.

• UCLA got hammered to a pathetic Utah team, ruining their chance at relevance…again.

Aside from these highs and lows, I haven’t blogged much because during any free moment I have, I am watching TV, DVDs actually. One of my favorite things about traveling to China is the opportunity to purchase DVDs for a low low low price. This most recent trip I picked up Season One-Three of the HBO series, The Wire. I have been addicted to the show ever since. I just finished Season Two last night, and without hyperbole, this is the best drama I have ever seen on television. Even better than the Sopranos.

The writing is superb. The characters are realistic and interesting, and the show is directed with a gritty presentation of the urban decay in Baltimore, Maryland. Its basically a cop show that goes into wiretapping and other facets of undercover cop work in great detail, but also does a great job of presenting the criminals (drug dealers and traffickers so far) as not just bad guys, but more as well-thought out business people working in a black market sub-economy of their own. My friends on the SFPD have also told me that it is the most realistic cop show of all time. I absolutely endorse it!

This weekend I am taking a break from The Wire and heading down to LA for the long weekend (Christopher Columbus- blah, Columbus Day off- sweet). I can only assume that there will be some blog-worthy events taking place, and am committed to updating here as soon as possible. Unless I get discovered while in Hollywood and end up as a comedy writer, which would probably mean no more blog. I’m not above selling out at this point.