Incredibly Reassuring

Top 25 Most Influential Bands

I tried to make a list of the most influential albums in my life, but I'm too busy today to research the specific albums. And some of these bands didn't have albums, so here you go, in chronological order:

1. The Band

2. Earth, Wind & Fire

3. Bruce Springsteen: Born in the USA 

4. Soul II Soul

5. Living Colour

6. Sade

7. Huey Lewis & the News 

8. INXS

9. REM

10. De La Soul: 3 Feet High and Rising

11. Colors Soundtrack

12. U2

13. Dag Nasty: Wig Out At Denko's

14. Fugazi

15. Tribe Called Quest

16. Native Nod

17. Choke

18. Tsunami

19. Shudder to Think

20. Ting

21. Team Dresch: Personal Best

22. Missy Elliott

23. Sleater-Kinney

24.  Black Star/Mos Def

25. Outkast

This hardly seems to cover it, now that I've made the list. Where's Nation of Ulysses, Slint, Codeine? Everything Calvin Johnson has ever done? The Shams, Dave Clark 5, The Monkees!? Lois/Courtney Love (the band), Mary Lou Lords, Heavenly/Marine Research? Jane's Addiction, The Smiths. ALLEN CLAPP! Simon and Garfunkel, definitely huge, especially Simon. Dog-Faced Hermans, Sufjan Stevens. The Minutemen, Sebadoh, Sonic Youth. Flaming Lips, Bikini Kill. Toulouse. Auto-Voles. 

Okay, I am going to revisit this, and re-organize it by stages of my life. 

Totally Inexplicable

Can someone please tell me what this blog post says? I don't have time this minute to re-post the photo, so you just need to go see it and then someone come back here and explain what is going on. Thanks.

Crimefighter Update 1

Every house on the street, plus all the houses on the street perpendicular to ours, have received my wack little flyer, both under their doormat and via email, if they are on our street listserv. Here's the tally of reactions:

Number of flyers posted in cars, including mine: 2

Number of calls from neighbors with questions, including the guy who was angry that the can men steal his recycling and that another neighbor called the police because his van was perpetually full of hoarded recycling: 1

Number of run-ins with bemused neighbors who are quasi-thankful for my efforts: 5

More updates as events warrant.

Taking A Bite Out of Crime

For almost as long as I have lived on this street, there has been a wierd phenomenon where cars that were left unlocked were rifled through. Money was taken, and sometimes stuff. I always figured that for a savvy homeless person or something. I figured that if you didn't lock your doors, you expected this to happen, and it did. On other occasions, crap has gone missing from front yards on our street, but the stuff that gets taken strongly suggests art students doing a crap harvest for some final project. 

Lately however, better stuff is getting taken, and its also being taken via smashed car window. Also, a neighbor's car was stolen. This is making a lot of people on my street very angry/annoyed, and has resulted in many email exchanges, although none, as far as I know, with the thieves. What to do about all this? has been answered many times, occasionally, but not often enough, in jest. One guy helpfully installed a video camera focussed on his driveway, and caught footage of a man looking in car windows with a flashlight while a Mercedes slowly traveled along. This was also witnessed by a guy who must be something of a night owl, because both times, it was 3:30 a.m. 

Other folks have expressed interest in a night watch, but not enough people have expressed interest to staff more than one night's shifts. Several people have done extensive research into the costs associated with hiring a private security company to patrol our street. IN ROCKRIDGE. $5000 a month is a number that has been bandied about. I know the value of my neighbor's Honda Civic was less than that. 

My response was classic Dre. I made a flyer, and passed it out to all the neighbors to put inside their car windows. It says:

WE ARE WATCHING. We have video recording you and your car, and have established a neighborhood watch to monitor your actions on this street. The police have been notified, and are working with us to stop further thefts. You are being watched and videotaped, and we will assist in the prosecution of any crimes committed in our neighborhood.

ESTAMOS MIRANDO. Tenemos grabación y video de usted y su coche, y hemos establecido un reloj de vecindad para supervisar sus acciones en esta calle. La policía ha sido notificada, y están trabajando con nosotros para poner fin a más robos. Se le ha visto y grabado en vídeo, y vamos a ayudar en el enjuiciamiento de todos los crímenes cometidos en nuestro vecindario.

I have handed out about 80 flyers and sent it to every neighbor on our listserv. Another 40 drop tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes. And don't worry, old friends, I will continue to remain vigilant against the Alpha Delt fraternity, lest they dare hold a party in this neighborhood. . .

I Am Very Busy Being Unemployed, Thanks

My absence from this page is due not to any actual busy-ness on my part. However, my mom visited last week, and my computer is in the room where she stayed, and the kids are drawn to her like little fireflies at all times, so I couldn't really sit down and think much. It was great to have her, especially to celebrate my 35th birthday, which was largely uneventful. 

I did make the mistake of looking at this book, The Book of Ages, in a bookstore. This book has a list of all the important things that have happened when various famous people were a certain age. By age 35, many famous people had done many important things, and some of them were listed at "35" only because they had died at that age. Merriwether Clark committed suicide at age 35, for example. Van Gogh cut his ear off. These are things for which people are remembered, and so of course I had an existential mini-crisis about how I haven't done anything for which I can be remembered, and don't even seem on track to do, unless one of my kids turns out horribly terribly wrong and I have to sit behind him for a 6-month televised trial. 

Can't dwell on it though.

Other stuff: I have interviewed for one job FIVE times, with 10 different people. Hopefully I will hear about that this week, in which case I will be able to step up my car purchasing. That is to say, if I get the job offer, I will accept it, and then we will need a reliable car for my job-related use, and our family's comfort. Currently, we all wedge ourselves into a two-door 1997 Honda Civic that has no radio and no leg room. Its awful. So what car to get preoccupies me. As I have said before, I want the VW Jetta Sportwagon TDI (it's a clean diesel engine). Mr. Scobie alternately prefers a Prius (for the internal space) or something with 4 Wheel Drive and a third row, because of all of the trips to Tahoe we will no doubt soon be taking with all of our kids' friends piled in the back.  A friend has suggested the Honda Civic GX, which would require installing a Natural Gas pump in our garage. Since I have this kind of time on my hands, I have not only considered it, but I have read up on starting a Natural Gas filling station franchise.  JOB NEEDED.

Because its unlikely I will write another post immediately after this one, I will go on. The other new thing I am into is Kiva, which is an on-line community/non-profit organization that does micro-lending. I had heard about it awhile ago, and then read an endorsement from that incredibly hot African economist who Deborah Solomon interviewed in the NYT Mag yesterday. Wow, is she awesome or what? Probably not even 35.  Anyhoo, so then I went and checked out Kiva, and made one $25 loan. Loans go fast; apparently its competitive to make a loan because so many more people are interested in lending than groups can get loan recipients connected. Anyway it seems cool. Check it out. 

Finally, did anyone else read this "cautionary tale" in the NYT yesterday about how Japanese frugalness during their recession contributed to the economic malaise they suffered in the 1990s and still depresses growth? (or something. I am not totally comfortable with all these terms myself). What struck me was how all the of the things which are "bad habits" of the depression are actually sound environmental measures. Using gray water, driving less, drinking less, eating all the available food rather than throwing it out? Let me just say that is fucked up that those things would be discouraged in order for there to be an economic recovery.  Our reckless and wasteful lifestyle may be an "economic engine" but it surely means that we can only get through another couple of economic cycles before we are at a environmental end-times scenario. It seems like these things should not be irreconcilable. There must be ways to make money from re-couping gray water, for example. 

That's what's going on with me these days? How are you? Oh, and check out my cousin Zoe and the review of her dance company in the Boston Globe.

My Rare Attempt at Fashion Criticism

For two long weeks during my childhood, I wanted to be a fashion designer. Anyone who knows how I dress knows that I got that out of my system pretty completely. But I was so inspired by the TV show Rags to Riches, where a millionaire adopts five wacky girls, that I actually busted out my colored pencils for the first and last time in my life. It seems like they were always making their own clothes. One of the girls on the show wore clothes of her own design, and a very tight blonde ponytail. Another wore a terrible side ponytail. All of their, and my, designs involved bandeaus, and poodle skirts with peddle pushers underneath. But they, and I, may have also designed the dress Angelina Jolie wore to the BAFTA awards. If we didn't, then whoever did is seriously channeling Rags to Riches.

Meredith, help me out here. Am I wrong about this?

Overheard

Overheard one woman saying to another in the locker room at the gym: 

"They need to vote on this stimulus bill! Don't they know the polar ice caps is melting!?"

Wrong Answer

A sub-plot of the whole stimulus debate today concerns a staffer for Eric Cantor circulating a video that satirizes AFSCME, a labor union that has worked hard to push for the stimulus package. He did this, I guess, to undermine AFSCME. I put the video on this blog a while ago. I fail to see how a comic video accomplishes this goal, but whatever. (Here's a NYT piece about this drama).

This is about AFSCME President Gerald McEntee's response. Specifically he said, "Eric Cantor may think the greatest economic crisis in seventy years is a joke, but we don't. He should talk to the people in Virginia who are losing their jobs, health care and homes."

Now, that's a legitimate response, and true. But McEntee would have been better just going to the video. He should have said, "Hey, Cantor, we do take out the fucking garbage. We clean the streets, coach little league, file library books, give vaccinations, give driving tests, issue death certificates and put out your fucking fires. And unless you want those basic services to stop, you should support this fucking bill, asshole. Otherwise, local governments will just fold up shop, and your constituents will start asking you why the trash hasn't been removed." 

Just once I wish someone would just call the bluff of these Republicans and say, "Yes, we do all the work. No, a twenty-three year old banker should not make more than the President of the United States." It's really time for some good old-fashioned populism. McEntee's a brawler, he should act like one.

Allison

Most of my readers are friends and family who know one another, so a couple of people have asked about the new commenter Allison. By way of introduction, Allison and I went to high school together, at which time she went by Claire. I don't know why, other than there were literally 5 Allisons in our class of just 55 girls. There were also 3 Karas. I think Allison would agree with me when I say I have almost no memory of having any class with Allison/Claire or engaging in any social activity with Allison/Claire.  I should say, Allison/Claire has no knowledge of my memory; she probably would attest to the underlying truth of that statement. So yeah, its a little wierd that Allison's a regular commenter on my blog. Also, we diverge on certain topics which are dear to me, so that makes her an even less likely regular. That said, I really appreciate that Allison comments on my blog at all, along with Anonymous the Neighbor, Anonymous the Cousin, my sister, and my mother in law.  Bloggers LOVE comments. It fuels the enterprise (at least, on blogs that don't take advertising). So if you have even the slightest reaction to something I write, please share it. And then jump over to gringosenica so that Carl and Angie know that the gringos en America are following along with their adventures. Thanks!

Annoying

According to a reliable source (my husband), these little jammies have been recalled. We've had at least a half dozen of these little fish since our first son was born, and I just tossed out two of them that were in the tub. 

Normally, I just live with, as Peggy Orenstein calls it, "the toxic paradox." I don't think I would sleep at night worrying about all the stuff that could be poisoning us. But then, every time you turn around, a new little piece of junk has been recalled. It's all stuff you were looking for a reason to throw away, so its galling to be told that the crap was causing you harm the whole time it was lingering in your atmosphere anyway.

What's Up With Me

If you wander over to Fungus Everything, you can find out more about how we spent our weekend. This is the best picture I got of my homies. Our camera sucks. Add to that, every time I pull the camera out, my kids bum-rush me to look at the pictures I haven't taken yet. 

Oakland Grody

For some reason, I decided to trek* around Lake Merritt today. Lake Merritt is a natural estuary that works like a bladder for the San Francisco Bay, meaning that its job is to clean the gross stuff out of the bay and send the water back out into the world cleaner than it entered. No matter how hard Oakland boosters try to defend this "lake", the fact remains that it is gross, a little smelly, and the surrounding area is covered in goose poop and meandering homeless/junkie-type people (not inherently the lake's fault). The grodiness of it today was heightened by the guy who was jogging with a quart of Half and Half in one hand. So, not going back to trek around Lake Merritt again any time soon.

* I use "trek" here to mean "try running, but ultimately just walking fast"

Bay Area BS

It's been awhile since I ragged on my region, but the bad weather in the rest of country made me feel like I should remind my friends why they don't live here. People are crazy, is why. The balmy weather makes these people barely tolerable. Four examples:

1. I was at Target today, which has mechanism that runs between the escalators to bring your shopping cart to the second floor. Handy. Two GENIUSES had put their carts on the cart-scalator with their babies still in the child seat. And I mean babies. Like twin eight-month olds. The store staff were yelling at these two women, and another woman and I were so surprised, we were literally standing there with our mouths open. The signage is clear, in English, Spanish and illiterate (a picture of someone doing this with a red circle and bar across it). 

I realize that this is just universal stupid, not Bay Area-special brand of dumb.

2. My next example will be in the form of a short poem:

If its yellow

let it mellow

doesn't apply

at the Y

3. My sister reports seeing, during a recent trip to SF, graffiti from the window of the train that read, "Ira Glass." Now either Ira has a really ill-conceived viral marketing plan or liberals now tag West Oakland. I can't say. Neither is a good idea.

4. People in Berkeley have a tendency to turn everything into a Free Speech zone. Or rather, the whole town is a Free Speech zone and you have no right to be free from other people's speech, even where it might endanger your life. For example, there is a particular overpass on Highway 80 in Berkeley which is particularly attractive to people with "something to say". Here's a picture of it. It's dangerous to protest or whatever up there, because drivers slow or stop and look up to read your dumb-ass sign, rather than minding their business on the road. If you scroll down on that page I linked to, you will see a hideous statue which was recently added at one end of the overpass. It's huge, and, let me say again, hideous. And very distracting even when there aren't people with Free Mumia signs up there. But what's interesting to me is that the figures in the statue are holding empty signs that are not just blank, they're empty. EXACTLY.

So, snowed-in Midwesterners, freezing New Yorkers and DCites-who-are annoyed-to-be-called out-by-Obama-for-a-snow-day-when-he-has-the-Oval-Office-temp-at-like-72, revel in the common sense of your neighbors, and enjoy the seasons while you still have them.

Some Good Finds For You

I came across a few things I thought might interest you. First, John Legend caught Barack Obama admitting to Beyonce that he knows a little bit of the "Single Ladies" dance, although, he says, "I didn't do like Justin and put the whole outfit on." Compare this to Bush (42) not knowing what a grocery scanner was . . .

Second, Mos Def has a new single for free download, ahead of new album in February.  I can't say I'm enamored of it but I will give it a few more listens because its Mos Def.

Finally, some news you can use. There are 153 calories in a bottle or can of regular beer. There are 25 calories in an ounce of red wine. Granted, no one drinks one ounce of red wine. It's not possible. But a regular glass is about 3 ounces. So I am adding a late New Years' resolution: less beer, more red wine. 

Pope Benedict Is Spoiling for A Fight

In a rare turn, Pope Benedict makes news twice this week with belligerent words and deeds that seem intended to start a fight with somebody. Who that is, isn't clear, though. First of all, the Holy See is p.o.'ed at Obama for repealing the ban on funding family planning. Time Magazine reports: Vatican Slams Obama Over Abortion. I just cannot imagine that Obama gives a rat's ass. (sorry for the language, mother in law). I can sort of imagine Obama thinking, "Oh, you're mad at me? Well, let me tell you Father, I won."

And in other, more schismatic news, Il papa reinstated four excommunicated priests, all of them very very conservative, and at least one is a Holocaust denier. While this may be intended to infuriate liberal Catholics, I think it will actually land with a resound thud. Most of us liberal Catholics think the Church is so batshit crazy that we've stopped noticing the Church's efforts to roll back modernity. You want Latin mass? Go for it, I won't be at church this Sunday anyway.

WTF: Children's Apparel Edition

Li is having a major growth spurt. This is less of a problem in the daywear component of his wardrobe, as we've managed to keep only slightly behind his size as he's stretched out. But for some reason, he's wearing a size 4 pajamas when he should be in a size 6. So while I was already on Amazon looking at mushroom books, I thought I would check out what they have for boys' PJs. Strangely, a majority of the items available in Boys Sleepwear are ROBES. Whu? How many little boys out there are cinching up a robe each morning before they saunter out of their beds for a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios? I can think of almost nothing less plausible than a five year old in a bathrobe.

Still Got (Almost) Nothing

This weekend was a blur of parenting because Mr. Scobie has a trial coming up. These days, though, the kids are easily placated by treks through mud in search of fungus. As you may know from the Fungus Everything post yesterday, we did an organized hike with a mycologist on Saturday. Yesterday, we hiked through Redwood, and saw not only many awesome new fungi, but also literally hundreds of thousands of ladybugs that "overwinter" in the Park. Here are some photos: 

It would be creepy, except they are all ladybugs, and they don't fly very fast or care very much about the people watching them. Very cool. If you want to see them, let me know and I will hike down there with you some day this week.

I Don't Have Much

I posted over at Fungus Everything today, but can't really think of much to say here. Enjoy.

The Right Job for Me

Deciding to leave my law firm was a big decision, because it was more a career choice than a job choice. The place I worked was great: interesting clients and co-workers, feel-good area of law, flexible, family-friendly, all that. I just didn't want to be a labor lawyer anymore. And I left the firm before knowing what it is I want to do because I felt like working there didn't give me the "space" to figure out the answer to that question. Well, now I've got nothing but "space". Here are some career choices I am mulling, and a few I am not:

Not Mulling:

1. Mom, Stay-at-Home: This is among the most boring/hard jobs out there. Children are extremely hard to rear, as some of you can attest. And like a "real" job, it leaves you no time to do anything but raise children. At least at an office job, you can shower in preparation therefor. You can take a walk around the office, get a Snickers bar, stop at the mailroom to check your box, and also surf the internet unlimitedly (if you have that kind of job). When you are home with kids, there are no showers, no Snickers bars, no mail, no internet. Blech. Not for me.

2. Blogger, Full-time: As I said the other day, when you don't have to sit at a computer all day, there's nothing that makes you want to sit at a computer all day. 

3. Lawyer: Blogger, Full-time. 

4. Truck Driver, Long Haul: Similar to 1, except you have to be away from your kids ALL the time. 

Mulling: 

1. Bounty Hunter: Classes are forming now. I think I would be a pretty good bounty hunter. Only unlike men named The Dawg, I would talk people into turning themselves in. As long as they will stay on the phone with me.

2. Consultant: I am researching what this actually is. But I think it would be perfect for me. 

So far, that's all. I am open to further suggestions. Any ideas?