no Coronavirus section! what is the world coming to?
i got my booster last night. was doing fine this morning, even had a strength training session w/ coach. but i have been non-functional all afternoon. mostly a bad headache and decided to take a long nap.
still not too much better, but there is some work that needs tending to ...
My local Regal Cinemas has the Godfather on the big screen for $5 in a couple of weeks. Plus the disaster that is Don't Worry Darling (pre-publicity tour though, the trailer looked super-intriguing) and also Jaws!
As I understand, with zero research....Olivia Wilde is the director and Shia Labouf was one of the leads. Apparently he was too much of a negative nancy for her to work with and left the project (unclear if fired, or quit). She then got Harry Stiles, the pop star she's dating, to replace him.
During this time, her former partner and father of her children, Jason Sudekis is in some manner of legal struggle with her about something.
1. Florence Pugh and Shia LaBouf were the original leads. Pugh expressed being uncomfortable about having to work with, and shoot sex scenes with an accused domestic abuser. (FKA Twigs, LeBouf's former girlfriend has accused him of abuse.) So allegedly, Wilde fired Shia, but Shia has been on a counter publicity tour and has emails + video of Wilde begging Shia not to leave AND that they got rid of Shia for "Miss Pugh" - yes the condescending way she was referred to by Wilde.
2. Harry Styles was cast as Shia's replacement - he's done some acting before, but early reviews have been overwhelmingly negative about his performance. He's also now dating Wilde.
3. In the middle of filming, Wilde was served with custody papers by her ex-Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso) for their two kids.
4. They're now on the pre-release publicity tour. Pugh has shown up to the tour late (she's filming Dune) and has given off an air of "I don't care" by carrying apreol spritz and not engaging at all with Wilde at any events, and then leaving early. At the same time Styles is giving answers like. he's a freshman theater student and poor Chris Pine (Cal '02) is visibly bored, rolling his eye and disassociating during these interviews.
The only thing I heard and I’m not sure it is true, is that Stykes is being paid more than Florence despite his inexperience. Which seems both wrong and right in terms of pay disparity between men and women in our society.
To play devil’s advocate though, he is a famous singer and thus has star power / ability to put butts in seats that a typical actor of his experience does not have. I think a famous female singer would also, if she crossed over to acting, get paid more than a typical actress at her level of acting experience.
Also there's now a crazy Zapruder-film type argument happening over whether or not Styles actually spit into Pine's lap before he sat down at a festival screening for the film. It's amazing how much time people are spending on this.
I wonder how much more you'd get from the Godfather on big screen - I mean, I'm still kicking myself 30 years later for not going to the 70mm run of Lawrence of Arabia in LA, but when I cast my mind back to the Godfather, I'm not sure it would make a massive difference
It would make a BIG difference; sure L of A would be a bigger difference, but Godfather deserves it as well - fucking great movie. And that TV show about making it was very enjoyable.
There are scenes where the wider shots - like the murders of Sonny and of Michael's Sicilian wife - would certainly have more of an effect on a larger screen, but I simply don't buy the idea that most films _need_ a larger screen. I think better sound makes a bigger difference for most films made after, I dunno, like 1960?
IMO current HDTVs and home sound systems are good enough that you don't necessarily "need" a big screen to appreciate the great ones (it also helps that the standard is now finally to have films all presented in their appropriate aspect ratios, unlike in the VHS days).
But almost all of them come off BETTER in a theatrical presentation.
Mrs Slug also has a beef with movie sound. Her hearing is fine, but she has difficulty when there's a certain muffle quality in the sound of speech in movies and TV programs.
I've also noticed that some cell phones produce a sound quality that is like throwing a cloth over a microphone; muffling the sound of a speaker's voice. I find it frustrating at times, especially when a person is speaking quickly..
Don't forget the final score of the 1920 game vs. St. Mary's - Cal 128, St. Mary's 0.
Since then, the highest scoring Cal game was the 1973 game vs. UW - Cal 54, Washington 49. That was until the 1991 game vs. Pacific - Cal 86, UOP 24. Cal had 12 TDs, 10 PATs (kick) and two 2 pt PATs. Rally Comm ran out of cannon fire after the ninth score, saving the last shot for the end of the game.
Honorable mention: 60-59 win by Cal over Wazzu in 2014, the game where Connor Halliday set an FBS record for passing yards (734) to Jared Goff's 527. Cal won because Wazzu missed a 19 yard chip shot FG with no time left.
Guests: The Athletic columnist and author Marcus Thompson II, Oakland Tech athletic director and former WNBA player Alexis Gray-Lawson, and Oakland Roots co-founder Edreece Arghandiwal. Musical performance by Oakland singer-songwriter Mara Hruby.
Through the decades, sports have both reflected and helped to shape Oakland’s culture and civic identity, with many wins to celebrate together. But the past few years have been tough for fans of Oakland’s major sports franchises. The Raiders picked up and left (again) in 2020. Our beloved Dubs took down their championship banners and hung them back up in shinier digs across the Bay. The A’s? Embroiled in a contentious Howard Terminal stadium debate that could possibly end with them joining the Raiders in Las Vegas.
In short, there’s a lot to unpack and questions to answer: What do sports have to do with the soul of a town? When major professional sports franchises leave a city, what springs up in their place? Can Oakland’s prep sports programs continue living up to their legacy of producing star professional athletes, in an era of cash-strapped school budgets?
The evening will be hosted by Oaklandside's arts and community reporter Azucena Rasilla.
The Oaklandside Culture Makers, a quarterly series of live events launched in March 2022, is generously presented by Xfinity with additional sponsorship support from PG&E, East Bay Community Energy, Tidewater Capital, and The Oakland A’s.
More about our guests:
Marcus Thompson II is a lead columnist at the national online sports news publication The Athletic, known for writing on Bay Area pro sports, especially the Golden State Warriors and the NBA at large. He is the author of the national bestseller Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry, KD: Kevin Durant's Relentless Pursuit to Be the Greatest, and DYNASTIES: The Ten G.O.A.T. Teams that Changed the NBA Forever. The Clark Atlanta University product lives with his wife, Dawn, and daughter, Sharon, in Oakland.
Alexis Gray-Lawson was born in Oakland. She went to Oakland Tech where she helped lead Oakland Tech to their second state basketball title. Gray-Lawson earned a scholarship to play basketball at UC Berkeley. She was first on the Golden Bears’ career list for three-pointers made with a total of 148. She signed to play on the Phoenix Mercury WNBA team in 2011. In the WNBA offseason she played professionally in Turkey and Israel. Earlier this year, she received her doctorate in Educational Leadership and Curriculum. She currently is the Community School Manager, teacher, and Athletic Director at Oakland Tech.
At a time when sports teams are leaving Oakland, Edreece Arghandiwal is swimming against the tide. A first-generation Afghan-American born in Oakland, Arghandiwal is a co-founder and the chief marketing officer of the Oakland Roots Sports Club, a community-oriented professional soccer team that made its debut in 2018 and plays its home games at the Laney College Football Stadium to a growing contingent of adoring fans, often drawing capacity crowds. In May, the club announced it would also be fielding a women’s professional soccer club, the Oakland Soul, beginning in 2023. Arghandiwal is a graduate of Babson College and the University of California, Davis.
Mara Hruby (pictured below) doesn’t just play music—she lives it. Since the onset of her career, the Oakland native has poured her soul into her velvet confections, drawing inspiration from lessons that she’s gleaned in her personal life and funneling them into rich, organic compositions. In just a few years, the singer-songwriter—whose musical influences range from Patsy Cline to Curtis Mayfield—has become one of acoustic soul’s fastest-rising up-and-comers, gaining a loyal following. Hruby’s 2014 album Archaic Rapture reached the coveted #1 spot on iTunes Jazz charts within a week. Her work was described as “bridging the gap between cabaret-era jazz-pop and alternative soul” by NBC Bay Area, and the Huffington Post said Hruby’s effortless music “evokes a nostalgia for the sounds of Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.”
I've been trying my hand at sauces. This last week has skewed toward making the five French "mother sauces". I never knew that gently cooking flour in a pan was so difficult. I am having trouble keeping my white sauce between the "it tastes like raw flour" and "it's no longer acceptably white" stages. Also, my butter consumption has skyrocketed.
But my sister has been visiting, and we were remembering when our Mom was a French chef in a restaurant in Alabama, (I forgot that my sister was the worker in the kitchen for this!) I did the calligraphy for the menus, and the food was awesome.
Decades after reading it the first time, I decided to re-read Asimov's Foundation series. Almost finished the first book. Funny what I remember (obscure details) and what I don't remember (most of the plot!)
Interesting trilogy. Interesting characters as I recall - Hari Seldon, Hober Mallow, the Mule, Bel Riose, etc. The metal planet Trantor is either like Coruscant or the Death Star.
I recently finished the series for the first time, including the Robot series. The term “psychohistory” sounds a bit dated to me, so its frequent usage was a minor distraction. Otherwise, I thought the universe-building was really enjoyable. I wanted to experience the book before watching the series on Apple+, and I quickly found out that the first season barely gets halfway through the first book.
a colleague who's also into Bosch and Reacher loaned me Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby. Wasn't great, but the social sub-thread was interesting. more Reacher than Bosch, since the protagonists aren't cops and there's a lot of violence.
Reading Brick Morse's History of California Football written in 1938. I splurged on an autographed copy in excellent condition a few months back after raking in some cash selling a lot of copies of my novel at a book talk (BTW, check it out, it has two scenes at Cal football games during the '41 season https://www.amazon.com/Threat-Night-Uhka-Richard-Hourula/dp/B09246432V/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=). Excuse the shameless plug. Also reading the novels of Elizabeth Strout, one of our great contemporary novelists.
Coincidentally, I tried a beer last weekend that was a kettle sour fermented with wine yeast and fruited with cabernet sauvignon grapes. It was dry, crisp, and quite interesting.
Oh man, that is a complete crazy question for me, it depends on so many variables. Is it for dinner? What's for dinner? First course? Lunch? Hang out? PARTY? WHAT"S GOING ON??!?!?!?
Last night with pizza from Zachary's - garlic, bacon & cherry tomatoes, had a chilled Chianti, 2017, Buontalenti - very good for the $15.50 (no tax) I paid for it.
My house in the Berkeley Hills according to an HVAC consultant was a poor candidate for AC because of the plethora of windows and french doors. So I didn't bother. It was pretty uncomfortable in 2021. I eventually decided to sell the house (deal closed in June 2022) at pretty much the top of the market. Anyway I am now out of the red flag fire zone.
With each passing year I am very glad I had air conditioning installed in my house (in 2020). Used to be mostly unnecessary in Oakland, but these days it is.
There are a half dozen or so days a year in which it is needed. I would not have gotten it just for me, but seeing my infant daughter crying in her crib on a 100 degree day in 2017 caused me to call the HVAC dude
We need some new fuses. It seems like every summer there is a months long effort to get people to use less electricity. I get it, but can we not just permit the construction of new power plants do as to increase capacity?
Similar situation for me. It's still not needed for about 350 days out of the year, but for times like these when there are multiple days of 90-100 degree weather you really need that AC.
Same with my house and it used to be mostly unnecessary and a luxury in San Diego. First thing I did when I bought my house was install 3 AC mini splits: 1 in the living room, 1 in my room, 1 in my daughters room. My wife and kids are very happy.
Question about mini-splits: are they tied into a heat pump? Or are each of the mini-splits a heat pump in its own right? Not sure I understand how a mini-split works.
This is basically my house. No ducting and I had two gas space heaters. One in the hall way and one in the living room. I put the ductless mini splits in and removed the gas space heaters. Put up new drywall with my dad and painted. Now I have better heating and more wall space.
I believe you can tie multiple splits into a shared compressor/heat pump. Mine each have their own compressor/heat pump.
I got rid of all my natural gas heaters and now use my mini splits to heat and cool my house. They are great as each room can set their own temperature.
I see. There is some flexibility in approach, then. I surmise that mini-splits have an advantage over a central air/furnace system in that there's no big downside to system performance in closing off rooms from heating and cooling.
Americans are addicted to central air. I find mini splits to be much more efficient and practical than central air. It does seem like they are gaining in popularity.
Going to see Shellac tonight at the GAMH. They’re a post punk, noise band led by super producer Steve Albini. He’s produced Nirvana, the Breeders, Iggy and the Stooges, Superchunk, Jawbreaker to name a few. Anyway, last time I saw them, he told a story about mutual consent then immediately followed it up by saying, “this song is called ‘You Came in Me’.”
Turned on the TV while getting ready to go out. Not many folks sitting out in the bleachers at Dodger Stadium. Lots of open seats in the sun in the regular seats too for that matter.
The San Francisco Giants entered Tuesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers riding a high. A high that came from a five-homer win on Monday, featuring a multi-homer game from the newest Giant, Lewis Brinson.
Brinson led off the second game of the series. He saw one pitch from former Giant Tyler Anderson, who had faced 586 batters this year and given up just 11 home runs.
If you’re a fan of manufacturing runs, moving runners over, stealing bases, etc., Tuesday night wasn’t for you. Each run in Tuesday’s game was scored via the long ball as the Dodgers and Giants combined to hit five home runs, with the Dodgers coming out on top, 6-3.
After hitting two home runs on Monday, Lewis Brinson remained red hot, sending the first pitch of the game into the bleachers to give San Francisco an early 1-0 lead. Tyler Anderson sat the side down in order following the home run, but found himself in trouble again in the second inning.
After Anderson retired the first two hitters of the inning, Joey Bart and David Villar recorded back-to-back two-out singles. It looked like Bryce Johnson was going to drop a third straight single into left field, but Joey Gallo made an incredible catch to keep the Giants off the board and help Anderson escape the inning unscathed.
[MGolf] Bears finish in 10th place, 28 strokes behind Florida at the Fighting Irish Classic in Southbend. CU Buffs were 14 strokes better than Cal. Utah was 14 strokes worse.
The Coliseum is totally underrated within the context of a utilitarian, no frills stadium. It is not the stadium prized by major league sports franchise owners. But it served its community and it made it possible to house a pro football team (the Oakland Raiders) and attract an American League baseball team (the Kansas City A's who became the Oakland A's).
It also has great access and egress by automobile as well as public transportation service (BART). I know that John Fisher and Dave Kaval want to build a new stadium at Howard Terminal so that they can also leverage the project into a real estate deal, but the Coliseum site is totally underrated for its utility *even if you were to build a new stadium on site*. Howard Terminal is nothing more than a money grab with a forced assist from local government.
I agree. The Coliseum City approach makes way more sense on a number of levels, perhaps the most important of which is that it could be done ASAP! Fisher & Kaval are a pair of clowns
My first visit to the Murph was during the Pads magical 1984 season, on my cross-country baseball park trip with my Dad and Grandfather…I got a ball somewhere with Garry Templeton and Kurt Bevacqua’s autographs. Great success!!
I went back once more in the late ‘90’s/early ‘00’s for a game…watching Trevor Hoffman walk in for a 9th inning save opportunity as the loudspeaker blasted Hell’s Bells and the crowd went nuts remains a pretty cool moment in my baseball fandom.
Yeah, as a kid it was a fun stadium because we would run down those concrete spirals on the corners of the stadium. Great stadium to tailgate at because they had so much parking and space.
It was nice pre Mount Davis, in comparison to the other parks of the time. But even without Mount Davis it would still be bottom tier in comparison to other parks of the current era.
I do kind of like the idea of leaning into the urban decay aesthetic though, and also the cheaper tickets.
Btw, still the only time I tried to scalp into a regular season game and did not get in was a sold out A’s v O’s game in 91. Couldn’t believe it!
Yeah, when three rivers, riverfront, old Busch, the murph, etc. — Candlestick! — were the norm, the old Coliseum wasn’t bad. Even without the horrible mods, it’d still be super old today. And still be multi-purpose (with massive foul territory)
Growing up in the '80's in the East Bay, I always loved a good trip to the Coliseum/Arena...we'd often hit Sam's Hofbrau on the corner for lunch, and occasionally make a brief stop at the batting cages/Malibu Grand Prix....sigh - I sure do want those days back.
Pre-Mt. Davis was a 100% different feeling, never ever saw a Raiders game there, lots of 80's and 90's games of the A's - was it perfect? No, but there was something to love.
Some of us are so old that we remember the pre-BART days. Used to take the AC Transit 57 from a few blocks from my parents' house and get dropped off near the right field bleachers box office. One special bus was waiting there after the game. Miss that bus and you had to wait out on Hegenberger for whenever the next regular bus happened by, which wasn't often.
no Coronavirus section! what is the world coming to?
i got my booster last night. was doing fine this morning, even had a strength training session w/ coach. but i have been non-functional all afternoon. mostly a bad headache and decided to take a long nap.
still not too much better, but there is some work that needs tending to ...
Hope more sleep helps!
I got my booster yesterday and expected to be dead today, but so far so good.
atoms
Are they enough? apparently not, because there's another one in the world. (go congratulate him)
Ha, clearly not enough! Thanks Terence :D
little boy or girl atoms?
Girl
I did!
DBD AV Club
My local Regal Cinemas has the Godfather on the big screen for $5 in a couple of weeks. Plus the disaster that is Don't Worry Darling (pre-publicity tour though, the trailer looked super-intriguing) and also Jaws!
I read that the 3D treatment of Jaws came out really well.
Can someone summarize what all this drama is about for Don’t Worry Darling? I’ve seen a few previous and I agree that the movie looks intriguing.
The explanation in football terms: https://twitter.com/ErinMPeyton/status/1567297420572114945?s=20&t=UmwGe9WFkYmgd-LIfymcpw
As I understand, with zero research....Olivia Wilde is the director and Shia Labouf was one of the leads. Apparently he was too much of a negative nancy for her to work with and left the project (unclear if fired, or quit). She then got Harry Stiles, the pop star she's dating, to replace him.
During this time, her former partner and father of her children, Jason Sudekis is in some manner of legal struggle with her about something.
Not quite right.
There's like 4 separate things going on.
1. Florence Pugh and Shia LaBouf were the original leads. Pugh expressed being uncomfortable about having to work with, and shoot sex scenes with an accused domestic abuser. (FKA Twigs, LeBouf's former girlfriend has accused him of abuse.) So allegedly, Wilde fired Shia, but Shia has been on a counter publicity tour and has emails + video of Wilde begging Shia not to leave AND that they got rid of Shia for "Miss Pugh" - yes the condescending way she was referred to by Wilde.
2. Harry Styles was cast as Shia's replacement - he's done some acting before, but early reviews have been overwhelmingly negative about his performance. He's also now dating Wilde.
3. In the middle of filming, Wilde was served with custody papers by her ex-Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso) for their two kids.
4. They're now on the pre-release publicity tour. Pugh has shown up to the tour late (she's filming Dune) and has given off an air of "I don't care" by carrying apreol spritz and not engaging at all with Wilde at any events, and then leaving early. At the same time Styles is giving answers like. he's a freshman theater student and poor Chris Pine (Cal '02) is visibly bored, rolling his eye and disassociating during these interviews.
The only thing I heard and I’m not sure it is true, is that Stykes is being paid more than Florence despite his inexperience. Which seems both wrong and right in terms of pay disparity between men and women in our society.
To play devil’s advocate though, he is a famous singer and thus has star power / ability to put butts in seats that a typical actor of his experience does not have. I think a famous female singer would also, if she crossed over to acting, get paid more than a typical actress at her level of acting experience.
Also there's now a crazy Zapruder-film type argument happening over whether or not Styles actually spit into Pine's lap before he sat down at a festival screening for the film. It's amazing how much time people are spending on this.
I wonder how much more you'd get from the Godfather on big screen - I mean, I'm still kicking myself 30 years later for not going to the 70mm run of Lawrence of Arabia in LA, but when I cast my mind back to the Godfather, I'm not sure it would make a massive difference
It would make a BIG difference; sure L of A would be a bigger difference, but Godfather deserves it as well - fucking great movie. And that TV show about making it was very enjoyable.
There are scenes where the wider shots - like the murders of Sonny and of Michael's Sicilian wife - would certainly have more of an effect on a larger screen, but I simply don't buy the idea that most films _need_ a larger screen. I think better sound makes a bigger difference for most films made after, I dunno, like 1960?
IMO current HDTVs and home sound systems are good enough that you don't necessarily "need" a big screen to appreciate the great ones (it also helps that the standard is now finally to have films all presented in their appropriate aspect ratios, unlike in the VHS days).
But almost all of them come off BETTER in a theatrical presentation.
I'd buy that
maybe this just means I'm increasingly deaf
Mrs Slug also has a beef with movie sound. Her hearing is fine, but she has difficulty when there's a certain muffle quality in the sound of speech in movies and TV programs.
I've also noticed that some cell phones produce a sound quality that is like throwing a cloth over a microphone; muffling the sound of a speaker's voice. I find it frustrating at times, especially when a person is speaking quickly..
Not all deafness is the same said the man who hears sound and words being spoken but often can't recognize the words.
Since 2000, Cal football scored the most points in a quarter against which opponent?
I don't know if it's the most but we scored 35 points vs Grambling State in first quarter in 2015.
also against Baylor in Tedfords first game
That was a beautiful day in Cal history! Halfback pass for a TD on first play if I recall correctly
These are both the correct answer. Cal scored 48 against St. Mary's - but that was in 1920.
Don't forget the final score of the 1920 game vs. St. Mary's - Cal 128, St. Mary's 0.
Since then, the highest scoring Cal game was the 1973 game vs. UW - Cal 54, Washington 49. That was until the 1991 game vs. Pacific - Cal 86, UOP 24. Cal had 12 TDs, 10 PATs (kick) and two 2 pt PATs. Rally Comm ran out of cannon fire after the ninth score, saving the last shot for the end of the game.
Honorable mention: 60-59 win by Cal over Wazzu in 2014, the game where Connor Halliday set an FBS record for passing yards (734) to Jared Goff's 527. Cal won because Wazzu missed a 19 yard chip shot FG with no time left.
https://www.californiagoldenblogs.com/2014/10/5/6909931/cal-60-washington-state-59-utter-insanity
EAT IT MORAGA!
Oaklandside Culture Makers on 9/22 may be of interest to people here
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-oaklandside-culture-makers-tickets-371726442797?aff=odeimcmailchimp&utm_source=Oaklandside+newsletters&utm_campaign=ba787c7b95-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_09_23_08_47_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8612bcc0f3-ba787c7b95-333577678&mc_cid=ba787c7b95&mc_eid=6929726b0d
About this event
Guests: The Athletic columnist and author Marcus Thompson II, Oakland Tech athletic director and former WNBA player Alexis Gray-Lawson, and Oakland Roots co-founder Edreece Arghandiwal. Musical performance by Oakland singer-songwriter Mara Hruby.
Through the decades, sports have both reflected and helped to shape Oakland’s culture and civic identity, with many wins to celebrate together. But the past few years have been tough for fans of Oakland’s major sports franchises. The Raiders picked up and left (again) in 2020. Our beloved Dubs took down their championship banners and hung them back up in shinier digs across the Bay. The A’s? Embroiled in a contentious Howard Terminal stadium debate that could possibly end with them joining the Raiders in Las Vegas.
In short, there’s a lot to unpack and questions to answer: What do sports have to do with the soul of a town? When major professional sports franchises leave a city, what springs up in their place? Can Oakland’s prep sports programs continue living up to their legacy of producing star professional athletes, in an era of cash-strapped school budgets?
The evening will be hosted by Oaklandside's arts and community reporter Azucena Rasilla.
The Oaklandside Culture Makers, a quarterly series of live events launched in March 2022, is generously presented by Xfinity with additional sponsorship support from PG&E, East Bay Community Energy, Tidewater Capital, and The Oakland A’s.
More about our guests:
Marcus Thompson II is a lead columnist at the national online sports news publication The Athletic, known for writing on Bay Area pro sports, especially the Golden State Warriors and the NBA at large. He is the author of the national bestseller Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry, KD: Kevin Durant's Relentless Pursuit to Be the Greatest, and DYNASTIES: The Ten G.O.A.T. Teams that Changed the NBA Forever. The Clark Atlanta University product lives with his wife, Dawn, and daughter, Sharon, in Oakland.
Alexis Gray-Lawson was born in Oakland. She went to Oakland Tech where she helped lead Oakland Tech to their second state basketball title. Gray-Lawson earned a scholarship to play basketball at UC Berkeley. She was first on the Golden Bears’ career list for three-pointers made with a total of 148. She signed to play on the Phoenix Mercury WNBA team in 2011. In the WNBA offseason she played professionally in Turkey and Israel. Earlier this year, she received her doctorate in Educational Leadership and Curriculum. She currently is the Community School Manager, teacher, and Athletic Director at Oakland Tech.
At a time when sports teams are leaving Oakland, Edreece Arghandiwal is swimming against the tide. A first-generation Afghan-American born in Oakland, Arghandiwal is a co-founder and the chief marketing officer of the Oakland Roots Sports Club, a community-oriented professional soccer team that made its debut in 2018 and plays its home games at the Laney College Football Stadium to a growing contingent of adoring fans, often drawing capacity crowds. In May, the club announced it would also be fielding a women’s professional soccer club, the Oakland Soul, beginning in 2023. Arghandiwal is a graduate of Babson College and the University of California, Davis.
Mara Hruby (pictured below) doesn’t just play music—she lives it. Since the onset of her career, the Oakland native has poured her soul into her velvet confections, drawing inspiration from lessons that she’s gleaned in her personal life and funneling them into rich, organic compositions. In just a few years, the singer-songwriter—whose musical influences range from Patsy Cline to Curtis Mayfield—has become one of acoustic soul’s fastest-rising up-and-comers, gaining a loyal following. Hruby’s 2014 album Archaic Rapture reached the coveted #1 spot on iTunes Jazz charts within a week. Her work was described as “bridging the gap between cabaret-era jazz-pop and alternative soul” by NBC Bay Area, and the Huffington Post said Hruby’s effortless music “evokes a nostalgia for the sounds of Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.”
Obama wins an Emmy.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/4/2120730/-Barack-Obama-just-won-the-Emmy-that-has-forever-eluded-Trump-Cue-social-media-meltdown
Tory Leadership, ladies and gentlemen
https://twitter.com/NoContextBrits/status/1567448734421721090
apparently she's also - and I know this will come as a shock, brace yourselves - a gigantic asshole.
DBD Cooking Academy
had g.oso's breakfast burritos on Saturday. Excellent, highly recommended.
They were fantastic.
GO, what's on tap for this weekend?
I've been trying my hand at sauces. This last week has skewed toward making the five French "mother sauces". I never knew that gently cooking flour in a pan was so difficult. I am having trouble keeping my white sauce between the "it tastes like raw flour" and "it's no longer acceptably white" stages. Also, my butter consumption has skyrocketed.
hahaha - sorry, that's mean of me.
But my sister has been visiting, and we were remembering when our Mom was a French chef in a restaurant in Alabama, (I forgot that my sister was the worker in the kitchen for this!) I did the calligraphy for the menus, and the food was awesome.
DBD Book Club
Decades after reading it the first time, I decided to re-read Asimov's Foundation series. Almost finished the first book. Funny what I remember (obscure details) and what I don't remember (most of the plot!)
Interesting trilogy. Interesting characters as I recall - Hari Seldon, Hober Mallow, the Mule, Bel Riose, etc. The metal planet Trantor is either like Coruscant or the Death Star.
I recently finished the series for the first time, including the Robot series. The term “psychohistory” sounds a bit dated to me, so its frequent usage was a minor distraction. Otherwise, I thought the universe-building was really enjoyable. I wanted to experience the book before watching the series on Apple+, and I quickly found out that the first season barely gets halfway through the first book.
Show, not so good.
I am about a third of the way through The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez.
Enjoying it so far! Very well written and thoughtful piece of sci-fi, for someone (me) that is not really into hard sci-fi.
a colleague who's also into Bosch and Reacher loaned me Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby. Wasn't great, but the social sub-thread was interesting. more Reacher than Bosch, since the protagonists aren't cops and there's a lot of violence.
13/19 WB...did I do that right? ;-)
Reading Brick Morse's History of California Football written in 1938. I splurged on an autographed copy in excellent condition a few months back after raking in some cash selling a lot of copies of my novel at a book talk (BTW, check it out, it has two scenes at Cal football games during the '41 season https://www.amazon.com/Threat-Night-Uhka-Richard-Hourula/dp/B09246432V/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=). Excuse the shameless plug. Also reading the novels of Elizabeth Strout, one of our great contemporary novelists.
Currently reading:
City of Devils by Paul French - the two men who ruled the underworld of Shanghai
Heat 2 - Michael Mann
How is Heat 2? A lot of people think he is going to adapt that into a movie.
Lady, why are you so interested in what I read or what I do?
If you don't want to talk to me that's ok, I'm sorry I bothered you...
(i've barely cracked it - gonna finish City of Devils first)
What is your current favorite wine grape varietal?
Merlot
Hard to say. probably the pink-ish stuff in the box.
I think we have the same palate. a nice cold rose!
my wife and I got a $1.99 merlot a decade or so back. hmmm, this is pretty good. who's the vintner? Charles shaw? and basically just two dollars.
the second hand spins longer than it should have.
oh...[lightbulb emoji]
Red: shiraz
White: riesling
Coincidentally, I tried a beer last weekend that was a kettle sour fermented with wine yeast and fruited with cabernet sauvignon grapes. It was dry, crisp, and quite interesting.
red: Zinfandel/Primitivo. I am trying to embrace Cabernet Sauvignon, but it's not quite clicking.
white: Chardonnay, followed closely by Viognier. Anyone know a good CA viognier?
Sculpterra....Paso
White Zinfandel? 😳😬😱
oops, meant Chardonnay. I had Zin on my mind still from the "red" comment. I'll edit the comment.
👍
red, I guess
with an ice cube
You're killing me... is this on purpose?
<this is a white>
I can only be what I am
Shiraz
However, I prefer Aussie's version of shiraz, not American petit sirah (same grape)
Petite Sirah is different from Syrah:
https://www.city-vino.com/blogs/blog/syrah-v-shiraz-v-petite-sirah/
Oh man, that is a complete crazy question for me, it depends on so many variables. Is it for dinner? What's for dinner? First course? Lunch? Hang out? PARTY? WHAT"S GOING ON??!?!?!?
just keep telling us what wine pairings you are having w/ dinner and what dessert your kids made!
Last night with pizza from Zachary's - garlic, bacon & cherry tomatoes, had a chilled Chianti, 2017, Buontalenti - very good for the $15.50 (no tax) I paid for it.
Weather
My house in the Berkeley Hills according to an HVAC consultant was a poor candidate for AC because of the plethora of windows and french doors. So I didn't bother. It was pretty uncomfortable in 2021. I eventually decided to sell the house (deal closed in June 2022) at pretty much the top of the market. Anyway I am now out of the red flag fire zone.
Currently 91, forecast for 110 today.
It's so weird to work in Fremont but live in Berkeley now. The commute is literally a 30 degree difference in the afternoon/evening.
I did that commute last time I lived in the Bay Area....it blew.
It does. But you can time it so its only 45 minutes, and lickily its not an everyday requirement
Beautiful bluebird days in the PNW, mid-70s and clear.
Another hot day in San Diego.
With each passing year I am very glad I had air conditioning installed in my house (in 2020). Used to be mostly unnecessary in Oakland, but these days it is.
Yeah same here in Burlingame
I find it interesting that you need AC in Burlingame. I would think that you're in the fog belt, even if you're over the hills from the Pacific.
There are a half dozen or so days a year in which it is needed. I would not have gotten it just for me, but seeing my infant daughter crying in her crib on a 100 degree day in 2017 caused me to call the HVAC dude
But But But, y'all are gonna blow the fuse of the Bay Area!
We need some new fuses. It seems like every summer there is a months long effort to get people to use less electricity. I get it, but can we not just permit the construction of new power plants do as to increase capacity?
Similar situation for me. It's still not needed for about 350 days out of the year, but for times like these when there are multiple days of 90-100 degree weather you really need that AC.
Yup. I get it.
Same with my house and it used to be mostly unnecessary and a luxury in San Diego. First thing I did when I bought my house was install 3 AC mini splits: 1 in the living room, 1 in my room, 1 in my daughters room. My wife and kids are very happy.
Question about mini-splits: are they tied into a heat pump? Or are each of the mini-splits a heat pump in its own right? Not sure I understand how a mini-split works.
I bought a house with no ducting and a single gas heater. Took out the gas heater and put in 3 minisplits with a single heat pump. Worked great.
This is basically my house. No ducting and I had two gas space heaters. One in the hall way and one in the living room. I put the ductless mini splits in and removed the gas space heaters. Put up new drywall with my dad and painted. Now I have better heating and more wall space.
I believe you can tie multiple splits into a shared compressor/heat pump. Mine each have their own compressor/heat pump.
I got rid of all my natural gas heaters and now use my mini splits to heat and cool my house. They are great as each room can set their own temperature.
I see. There is some flexibility in approach, then. I surmise that mini-splits have an advantage over a central air/furnace system in that there's no big downside to system performance in closing off rooms from heating and cooling.
And more efficient.
And more efficient.
Americans are addicted to central air. I find mini splits to be much more efficient and practical than central air. It does seem like they are gaining in popularity.
SO MUCH COOLER!
Another overcast, humid day in the mid-Atlantic.
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
Trump ordered a nuclear reactor be built on the moon in the waning days of his administration. No really. He did.
https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/memorandum-national-strategy-space-nuclear-power-propulsion-space-policy-directive-6/
maybe he got the screeners for For All Mankind and thought the Russians were beating us there.
SPACCCCCEEEEEEE FORCE ORCE ORCE ORCE orce orce
He probably watched the Netflix show with Steve Carell and John Malkovich and thought they needed more to do.
Stacy Abrams trails Kemp by high single digits as her campaign momentum struggles
I may not like Kemp, but he has played the politics of the state well and remains popular in Georgia. Very hard to unseat a popular incumbent.
Steve Bannon to surrender to face sealed NY indictment
DBD AV Club
Going to see Shellac tonight at the GAMH. They’re a post punk, noise band led by super producer Steve Albini. He’s produced Nirvana, the Breeders, Iggy and the Stooges, Superchunk, Jawbreaker to name a few. Anyway, last time I saw them, he told a story about mutual consent then immediately followed it up by saying, “this song is called ‘You Came in Me’.”
Elsewhere in college
Name the only NCAA college football team based in Canada
Simon Fraser?
Correct. Simon Fraser plays UBC in football in the Shrum Bowl. When UBC hosts, they play Canadian rules. When SFU hosts, they play American rules.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrum_Bowl
Wow, that’s gotta be a lot of extra practice baggage for Simon Fraser to have to deal with.
PRO
Turned on the TV while getting ready to go out. Not many folks sitting out in the bleachers at Dodger Stadium. Lots of open seats in the sun in the regular seats too for that matter.
Probably lots in the left field side, especially up near the top where the afternoon sun is.
Padres get a much needed comeback win last night against Arizona.
I watched the last inning or two last night. Alfaro with 2 career ABs against Ian Kennedy (FIK), both are walk-off game winning singles.
Mets gotta Mets. They lose and no longer are in sole first place for the first time since June 2.
https://sports.yahoo.com/mets-falter-again-8-2-015152108.html
heh. And they lose Scherzer for 15 days. Yankees only 4.5 above the Rays and trending downwards. Pads also trending downwards as well.
Bruce Allen will testify to the House Oversight Committee vis-a-vis Dan Snyder's fuckery in DC.
https://twitter.com/MarkMaske/status/1567134077760708608
A's lose to Braves 10-9
Sigh.
They had a significant comeback based on a power display but came up just short.
Giants win 1 pitch, lose 235
https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2022/9/6/23340359/giants-dodgers-recap-max-muncy-lewis-brinson
The San Francisco Giants entered Tuesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers riding a high. A high that came from a five-homer win on Monday, featuring a multi-homer game from the newest Giant, Lewis Brinson.
Brinson led off the second game of the series. He saw one pitch from former Giant Tyler Anderson, who had faced 586 batters this year and given up just 11 home runs.
He did this to it.
GBBR
GBBR
Max Muncy’s big night leads the Dodgers over the Giants
https://www.truebluela.com/2022/9/6/23340521/muncys-multi-homer-night-dodgers-giants
If you’re a fan of manufacturing runs, moving runners over, stealing bases, etc., Tuesday night wasn’t for you. Each run in Tuesday’s game was scored via the long ball as the Dodgers and Giants combined to hit five home runs, with the Dodgers coming out on top, 6-3.
After hitting two home runs on Monday, Lewis Brinson remained red hot, sending the first pitch of the game into the bleachers to give San Francisco an early 1-0 lead. Tyler Anderson sat the side down in order following the home run, but found himself in trouble again in the second inning.
After Anderson retired the first two hitters of the inning, Joey Bart and David Villar recorded back-to-back two-out singles. It looked like Bryce Johnson was going to drop a third straight single into left field, but Joey Gallo made an incredible catch to keep the Giants off the board and help Anderson escape the inning unscathed.
Muncy ownage of the Giants continues...
Get it out of the ocean!
GBBR
GBBR
CAL
Go Bears!!!
[MGolf] Bears finish in 10th place, 28 strokes behind Florida at the Fighting Irish Classic in Southbend. CU Buffs were 14 strokes better than Cal. Utah was 14 strokes worse.
https://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=team&tid=25813
[MSOC] Cal (0-1-3) earns their third tie in a row, this time 1-1 against the previously undefeated UC San Diego Tritons on the road.
https://calbears.com/news/2022/9/4/mens-soccer-cal-comes-back-to-tie-ucsd.aspx
[WSOC] ICYMI: Cal ties #14 Pepperdine 1-1 on Sunday @ home.
https://calbears.com/news/2022/9/4/womens-soccer-cal-earns-tie-against-14-pepperdine.aspx
[FH] ICYMI: Bears lose 3-2 to the Hoosiers at home in OT. Bears fall to 1-3.
https://calbears.com/news/2022/9/4/field-hockey-cal-falls-to-indiana-in-overtime.aspx
Coliseum
The Coliseum is totally underrated within the context of a utilitarian, no frills stadium. It is not the stadium prized by major league sports franchise owners. But it served its community and it made it possible to house a pro football team (the Oakland Raiders) and attract an American League baseball team (the Kansas City A's who became the Oakland A's).
It also has great access and egress by automobile as well as public transportation service (BART). I know that John Fisher and Dave Kaval want to build a new stadium at Howard Terminal so that they can also leverage the project into a real estate deal, but the Coliseum site is totally underrated for its utility *even if you were to build a new stadium on site*. Howard Terminal is nothing more than a money grab with a forced assist from local government.
I agree. The Coliseum City approach makes way more sense on a number of levels, perhaps the most important of which is that it could be done ASAP! Fisher & Kaval are a pair of clowns
Truth!
A cousin and kindred spirit of the Oakland Coliseum and once beautiful stadium is Jack Murphy/Qualcomm stadium.
That stadium was A Song of Concrete and Asphalt.
RIP to a relic of a bygone era.
My first visit to the Murph was during the Pads magical 1984 season, on my cross-country baseball park trip with my Dad and Grandfather…I got a ball somewhere with Garry Templeton and Kurt Bevacqua’s autographs. Great success!!
I went back once more in the late ‘90’s/early ‘00’s for a game…watching Trevor Hoffman walk in for a 9th inning save opportunity as the loudspeaker blasted Hell’s Bells and the crowd went nuts remains a pretty cool moment in my baseball fandom.
Yeah, as a kid it was a fun stadium because we would run down those concrete spirals on the corners of the stadium. Great stadium to tailgate at because they had so much parking and space.
Eh, less beautiful than Oakland says I. (Not that Oakland is amazing...)
It was beautiful in its own right and often beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
It was nice pre Mount Davis, in comparison to the other parks of the time. But even without Mount Davis it would still be bottom tier in comparison to other parks of the current era.
I do kind of like the idea of leaning into the urban decay aesthetic though, and also the cheaper tickets.
Btw, still the only time I tried to scalp into a regular season game and did not get in was a sold out A’s v O’s game in 91. Couldn’t believe it!
Yeah, when three rivers, riverfront, old Busch, the murph, etc. — Candlestick! — were the norm, the old Coliseum wasn’t bad. Even without the horrible mods, it’d still be super old today. And still be multi-purpose (with massive foul territory)
Growing up in the '80's in the East Bay, I always loved a good trip to the Coliseum/Arena...we'd often hit Sam's Hofbrau on the corner for lunch, and occasionally make a brief stop at the batting cages/Malibu Grand Prix....sigh - I sure do want those days back.
I saw the bugs bunny ball basket come up out of the ground and back down. I also saw Herb Washington as the designated base stealer.
Lord Almighty, you are dating yourself. Did you also see Charlie O?
Get off my lawn, you young whippersnapper!
I probably did see Charlie O, but I think it made no sense to me and wasn't memorable.
I was there for Charlie O games (orange baseballs!)
Does that make me old, huh, does it?
(Shit, it does!)
I do. And was telling a young ‘un just last week about the pre-Mt. Davis days.
And Billy Ball. Which drew a blank stare. I thought it was as known as, say, Run TMC, but guess I was wrong.
Billy Ball,
A's baseball,
Billy Ball,
You blew that call!
He's gonna score
Just you wait and see!
Why is everybody tryin' to pick on me?
Pulling double steals,
Playing the hit and run,
Decoying the catcher
It's crazy but it's fun!
Pre-Mt. Davis was a 100% different feeling, never ever saw a Raiders game there, lots of 80's and 90's games of the A's - was it perfect? No, but there was something to love.
A's games pre-Mt Davis it was nice. You could see the EB hills behind the OF and also see BART go by.
Some of us are so old that we remember the pre-BART days. Used to take the AC Transit 57 from a few blocks from my parents' house and get dropped off near the right field bleachers box office. One special bus was waiting there after the game. Miss that bus and you had to wait out on Hegenberger for whenever the next regular bus happened by, which wasn't often.