Category: Personal

If you have never eaten at this wonderful restaurant, do it. Do it soon! But go with a big group as the portions of food from the salad (the small Ceasar can feed 4-6 people easily) to the entrees (spaghetti and meatballs for six?) and even desserts (chocolate cannoli) are huge and served family style. Delicious but huge. I made the “mistake” of eating there last night with only one buddy. No room for a dessert course, strangely, but we did split a small Ceasar salad and the new Buca Per Due special of veal parmaggiano and baked maniccoti. Apparently it’s part of this chain, with nearly 20 locations in California alone; other area locations include Campbell and San Francisco. Yum!

Tony Todd shows up all over the place. He’s had a number of role in various Star Treks including a recurring spot as Worf’s brother on Next Generation, the older Jake on Deep Sapce 9, and the Alpha Hirogen on Voyager. When will he be on Enterprise? Two weeks ago I saw him as the Ancient Mariner on Xena. Last night I saw him as the Krypton-infected janitor gone whacko on Smallville. Now I’m watching an old episode of Homicide (an incredible cop show if you get Court TV) and his was the first guest name listed. Tons of movies, both film and TV. Cool!

Interesting, needs some thought – Amazon.com Web Services

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Not only did we get Into the Fire but there’s a new Southside Johnny release too. How lucky are we? Three songs you can listen to online:

• Passion Street – the trademark Juke horns are blasting on this one! A bouncy, rolling good time story song.
  

• She’s Still In Love – classic R&B guitar riff opening, then bass, then horns preceed Johnny’s vocals on slick, sweet love song, so reminiscent of the old Philly International sound that Hall & Oates only dreamed of capturing.
  

• No Easy Way Down – big time ballad, Johnny telling such a sad love story; a Goffin/(Carol) King cover song, must be from the early ’60s.

The album is titled Going to Jukesville:

John gives us this hyperbole himself: “That low moaning sound you hear is music fans the world over sobbing in relief with the knowledge that their long, lonely wait is finally over. A real honest-to-Betsy JUKES record. With horns on every G-damn song. Horns, horns and more horns. Horns til ya wanna hurl yer lunch up. Well, at least I do. Yes, it’s me; ole man Southside, fresh from slaving over a steaming 24 track Studer recording device, and I’m here to tell ya, this new hunk-o-plastic is about as Jukified as it can get without it being confiscated by the authorities.”

No doubleheader on the concerts, though, as the closest the Jukes will get to Mountain View is Los Angeles in early September.

One of the few things, I tell ya, that can make me long for those Jersey Summer evenings back in high school!

Country blues revving into a slow booming rocking country blues, simple chord pattern layered and layered, growing as the song goes along. A meditation on someone who gave his all on 9/11. Between Bruce, Steve, and Nils, who’s playing the acoustic slide guitar part? I’ll be looking for this during the concert! When the electric guitar and other instruments join in after the first chorus, a chill ran down my spine. Of the three songs out so far, this could be my favorite; listened to it three times without stop. Check out these lyrics (or the entire song):

and

Then walked into the darkness of your smoky grave

Tallent’s bass moves up the register to beautifully support Bruce’s near yodel on the line “I need your kiss.” Quibble: backing vocals mixed too high up.

Incredible, just why you love Bruce! Can’t wait to listen to Mary’s Place next Monday and the whole album in 15 days!

Early last month I commented on HP’s rumored plans to sell off their application server product line. They may yet find a sucker out there but don’t bet on it. CNet News reports today that HP has formally announced the “retirement” of this product line and plans to transition existing customers to BEA products. No one’s going to pay for this, and I quote myself, “skanky ass software.”

That’s right, BillSaysThis has a new cause: stopping the Bay Area Sports Organizing Comittee’s effort to bring the 2012 (Summer) Olympics here. Who needs the hassle, the headaches, and the expense involved? Only the elitist group of executives and athletes pushing the idea. And somehow their effort got through the first round of judging from the US Olympic Committee, leaving our area in the final four under consideration along with Houston, Washington, DC, and New York City. I say let them have it!

The SJ Mercury News ran their lead editorial yesterday pushing the effort. Followed that up today with a completely biased top of the front page article that was little more than a disguised editorial. (Note: BillSaysThis has a policy against linking to the SJMN until they change their policy regarding online article availability.) At least today’s article makes clear the reason for the newspaper’s cheerleading: Tony Ridder, Chairman of the company that owns the paper, whose office moved to San Jose a couple of years ago, is co-chairman of BASOC!

Here’s the Letter to the Editor I wrote them this morning, though I have serious doubts they’d run it:

In your “The place to set Olympic records” editorial yesterday, the Mercury News plays cheerleader for the BASOC effort. Today’s paper, with a front page article on the bid, makes clear why your newspaper is supporting the effort: Tony Ridder, chairman of Knight Ridder, is co-chairman of the organizing committee. Well, I’d like to ask a question of Mr. Ridder and his colleagues on that committee: Whose approval did they get before making this effort to bring crowds, traffic, and high prices to our area? According to Gamesbids.com (the BASOC website appears to be offline at the moment), the “Public guarantees balance ($250M)” and I’m really interested to know where that money’s coming from when governments at every level are cutting budgets to the bone and eliminating important services.

Today’s article states that two of the key factors are “enthusiastic support of the greater community” and “adequate financing and government support.” I don’t recall voting on any initiative nor do I remember the Mountain View City Council giving approval even though one of the major new facilities required will be located here. I was in Los Angeles when they hosted the Olympics and except for a few elite, wealthy folks who ran the Games, there was little or nothing pleasant about the experience; I am not the least bit interested in repeating the experience here. I’m willing to put my time on the line in opposition but your paper has never written anything negative about the bid or mentioned any groups opposing it.

That’s not surprising given Ridder’s position running BASOC, is it? Nor is the cheerleading voice of today’s article. How is the San Jose Mercury News giving its readers fair and balanced coverage of this major issue? It isn’t. Tony Ridder should remember the lessons of Randolph Hearst and stop using his newspaper to promote his causes. I call on him to resign from the committee and to get our community newspaper’s coverage back where it needs to be.

Bill Lazar

I’m going to get my crank on over this issue, believe you me. I’ll be exploring ways beyond letters to the editor and posting to this website to stop this waste of money and threat to what remaining quality of life we have. Have ideas on how to do it? Contact me (email’s over there on the left)!

to last Sunday’s article and says Atkins is A Diet Rich in Partial Truths. “The solution is not to go from simple carbohydrates to pork rinds and bacon, but from simple carbohydrates to whole foods with complex carbohydrates like whole wheat, brown rice, and fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes in their natural forms.”

For the first time in seventeen years, I have a date with the Boss! No real hassle getting tickets either, we showed up just before 9:30 at Tower Records, and one of the employees came out five minutes later and held a little drawing. The Sweet One got the seventh place in line and by 10:10 we had the shiny pieces of paper that the greedy monopolists at Ticketmaster were good enough to sell me for only a $9.90 per ticket service charge:

The good folks at Compaq Center, soon to be HP Pavillion, at San Jose show the view from our seats:

Jon Pareles, writing in the NY Times, has an excellent album preview and interview: Bruce Springsteen: His Kind of Heroes, His Kind of Songs.

The Times also has Life on E Street: From Sessions to `The Sopranos’, short updates on each of the E Streeters.

Big Brother 3 is a ridiculous load of video crapola but somehow the Sweet One has become addicted to it. Maybe I can deprogram her this weekend. Keep a positive thought!

Juicy new MySQL – MySQL 4.0 In A Nutshell

For all us old fogies who won’t be up at 11 p.m. this Sunday nigh (7/14), don’t forget to set your Tivo to record Storytellers. The Man with the Golden Hair will be the featured performer in support of his new solo release, Dreamland. Check out the video of his new song Darkness Darkness on that last link. Not bad, though there’s no huge and cool guitar solo, Plant continues his fascination with North African culture and shows no fear of putting his aging mug front and center.

Annoyingly Yahoo! Music went right into the video of the new Linkin Park song “PTS.OF.ATHRTY at the conclusion of Darkness Darkness. As if I want to listen to this crap. Hitting the skip button got me the Eminem video Without Me; is he lobbying for the Robin role in Superman vs. Batman?

FYI, Plant says he has no problem with Cadillac’s use of “Rock and Roll” in its current advertising campaign.

Finally a positive one, let’s hope the rumor is true. From Yahoo! Finance InPlay today:

“2:24PM Sun Microsystems rises on upgrade rumor (SUNW) 5.23 +0.18: Trading floors are buzzing with talk that a tier one broker is about to upgrade SUNW today; while we can’t confirm this, we’re hearing that the analyst believes the stock is cheap and that recent results have been strong.”

Pool. Jumping. Now. – 99 degrees or higher right here in MeltingMountain View.

Update Two minutes is all I need to be refreshed. Every office should have a pool!

46 concerts in 46 days. He brings the band to San Jose August 27.

MUST HAVE TICKETS!

Eerie how closely in step these two averages moved today:

When I was a kid, we used to joke about the heat in the Southwest, places like Arizona. We’d say, in an old Jewish man’s voice, “It’s hot…but it’s dry heat,” as if that made all the difference. Now garret down in New Mexico, he’s suffering from heat and wildfires, though at least they finally did get some rain. And my dad missed playing in a club golf tournament last week because it was so hot and humid; he says six out of nearly 100 players showed up because, damn it, they weren’t about to miss a day on the greensbrowns. But this week we’re getting it here, with record temperatures of 107 in Gilroy (35 miles south of here) and 101 in San Jose (10 miles south of here on Highway 101, oddly enough), though it was a mild 94 here in Mountain View. Today it’s supposed to be…warmer. At least I have a pool out back for cooling off. No A/C, but a pool. Thrilling.

It’s been awhile since I paid money to watch a movie a second time (hello, you knew it was LOTR) and this film is definitely worth it. Seeing it again I got to focus on more of the details and the acting and I appreciated them even more.

A good example of what I mean is the relationship between Bourne (Matt Damon) and Maria (Franka Potente). There’s no condescension or simple arrogance in the way he talks to her, even in moments when they’re in extreme peril such as sitting in the battered little car outside the Paris train station with two dozen cops about to descend. More: Bourne is no superhero, just amped up with advanced pharmacology and serious training, so although no one who goes up against him in a fight can beat him, he never resorts to cartoonish violence either. The two times he goes up against other Treadstone operatives show this. Okay, I would have used a little less volume on the sound effects reinforcing the punches. Very European feel, even apart from the fact that it’s set there, with the old, small car of Maria’s, the friend’s farmhouse, and the in-city car chase.

Doug Liman constantly foreshadows and refers back giving the film a holistic quality and keeps the plot driving forward, relentlessly, very little exposition (such as the scene when Jason and Maria stop for dinner on the drive from Zurich to Paris) and even minimizing the romance, just enough to show us that the two are forming an intense bond. I’m amazed that this is his first big budget film. Maybe this is where screenwriter Tony Gilroy’s experience on films such as Armageddon and Devil’s Advocate comes in.

The odd thing is that Robert Ludlam, who wrote the briliant novel on which this film is based, died in March, 2001, yet is credited as executive producer. Must have been one of those contractual things.

Best film released in the first six months of 2002

Forbes.com: Uncharted territory – Laszlo Birinyi Jr on why stock market technical analysis makes pretty pictures rather than investment advice.

History in a Nutshell – don’t look at this Flash presentation if an Israeli perspective on the 20th century history of this region gives you high blood pressure.

Worshipping the Sun – something you would need to do to create an analemma; click through for a beautiful NASA photo [via Mike Gaston].

Web buddy Phil R, he of the ingenious Archive Script Generator, asked for a reminder when the second new Boss track was available. Despite the odd filename, it’s here. And title song The Rising can be heard as well.

What do I think of Lonesome Day? It’s good, got interesting lyrics, and some nice guitar work; decent but not a killer. But it is part of a general trend I’ve noticed lately regarding Bruce’s music: it’s slower. Even the older songs, when played in concert, seem to get this treatment which to me dates back to the Human Touch/Lucky Town releases. This newest tune feels like the band is playing at 3/4 tempo though The Rising doesn’t feel quite so off-pace; Max’s drums are more rigidly tuned and the acoustic guitar doesn’t come as high in the mix. And what’s up with so much acoustic guitar anyway? Does Patti have to be heard playing it on every song? If the order of release of these two songs had been released, I would have been in the dumps two weeks ago.