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I went to Trader Joe’s for the first time ever on Sunday.  I know, I know, it’s shocking that I’d never been.  For years I’ve read their catalog which, for some reason, I always received in the mail. I found it amusing and in passing I’d always referred to the newsprint circular as “…like J. Peterman for food”.

Upon first entering I was completely overwhelmed.  Though I’m certain that had to do with the fact that I went at the worst possible time (Sunday early evening) at the worst location (9th Street). But I was really impressed by the selection.  I liked the prepared meals and salads and the fact that you could get vegetables and meats prepackaged in smaller portions.  But the thing I really liked was the prices.  At the checkout I was surprised that my two large, very stuffed bags of food only amounted to ~$60.  Comparable shopping experiences at Whole Foods and Bristol Farms routinely cost upwards of $150!

I haven’t tasted everything just yet but so far so good.  I will definitely go back but next time I’ll be armed with a shopping list and a sense of purpose.

Yesterday I went to Guitar Solo on Townsend to have the action taken down on my guitar. Guitar Solo has almost legendary status in the city because it is known for it’s acoustic guitar selection and even better Tech. I had stopped in before but never had anything done until yesterday. I must say I was not disappointed. The Guitar Tech, Dave, was a really great guy. He took it in the back and basically decided that he could take down the action but that there would still be issues because of the way that my guitar was constructed. Part of the conversation went like this:

Me: So what you’re saying is I should get a new guitar
Dave: Well…

Before you think he’s a shyster who’s just trying to separate a fool from his money I should set you straight. He’s right. My guitar is, to put it mildly, a piece of crap. I only bought it because it was a good starter and I always intended to upgrade to something better.

He explained that he might not be able to give me perfect results but that he would see what he could do. It was obvious that he had a real respect for the craft because he spent a lot of time in the back trying to make it as nice as possible. When he could have just taken my money and phoned it in. It seemed that he really cared whether or not I was happy with the end result. While he was at it I asked him to change the strings and pins. The pins, by the way, were nice wooden ones that he gave me a more than 50% discount on.

To my credit, I resisted the urge to buy any of the many guitars that I tried out while waiting for the Guitar Tech to finish. I really liked the Blueridge BR43 and the Wechter 5713. The Wechter was a small parlor guitar but it had a really nice sound and the back and sides was a gorgeous matte rosewood.

I’d highly recommend Guitar Solo. When small shops are getting crushed by mega chains like Guitar Center, it’s nice to see a local business that cares about quality and service. Oh, and the whole thing only ran me about $50 and that’s including the strings and pins.

Listening to music on the walk to work today I made a decision. And I’ve made up my mind so don’t try to convince me otherwise. I am officially boycotting any song that contains the lyrics “Can’t you see“. It has to be the most hackneyed non-original rhyming phrase of all time. I demand more, people.

That is all.

Saw Baby Mama last weekend. Extremely hilarious movie. I love it that smart, funny women are making waves on the big screen. Tina Fey is my hero. The only weak spot in the movie was Romany Malco who played Oscar the doorman. While I loved him in The 40 Year Old Virgin I really didn’t like him in this role. Tho to be fair, it’s hard to tell whether it was his acting or the writing. When Oscar says: “If you listen to DMX, the baby comes out goin ‘Ennngghhh!”… Sheesh. “Honest to blog” that is unbelievably bad dialog. But overall I really liked it. Amy Poehler was a riot and I loved seeing her and Fey together  on screen again.

Who among us has never accidentally typed the wrong info into a form? Forever more having to hit down arrow twice because you accidentally typed “uesr” instead of “user”. Well the nightmare is over! A quick googling produced an ever so useful blog post about Firefox Saved Form Data Frustration. It’s basically this:

Go to the form where the mistake is. Put your cursor in the text entry widget and hit down until the incorrect entry is highlighted. Now press shift + del … voila.

It was such an unbelievably awesome find I couldn’t not blog about it.

Earlier today I went to a pre-season SF v. Oakland game at PacBell. Today was a ridiculously nice day. The seats were in the lower level and the sun was really shining down. A fallen comrade has season tickets so who am I to turn down a free game?

Having formerly lived half a block from PacBell, I’ve been to many, many games. But every time I go I’m always amazed by the huge, albeit bourgeois, selection of food. Today, for example, I had a bowl that included Jamaican jerk chicken, black beans and rice. It was pretty damn good.

What happened with the game you ask? Oh, the Giants got their asses kicked when the A’s scored 6 runs in the 7th inning. But no matter, I had some frozen lemonade to distract me during the 8th.

Gasp! I’m not wearing Pumas today. I decided to opt for the other brother and buy a pair of adidas. They’re not 100% broken in yet but so far so good. At 15+ pairs I think it’s possible I may have bought every *good* Puma there is. Ok sure, that’s a lot of sneakers but it’s part of my uniform: Impossibly NorCal long sleeved shirt under short sleeved (threadless) shirt, jeans, Pumas.

I was starting to feel a little bad about my review of The Great Debaters. That is until I read this review on Vibe. I still very much agree with the sentiment. But this review echoes some of the same concerns that I had about the movie.

On Christmas day I went to see The Great Debaters. I had a vague idea of what the movie was about but I didn’t realize that so much of it would focus on James Farmer, Jr. I really, really wanted to like the movie (I did), but the ridiculously trite dialog and (sorry, Denzel*) inexperienced directing made it impossible.

One of the great regrets of my life is that I didn’t spend more time with Dr. Farmer when I had the chance. While I was an undergrad at Mary Washington College (now University of Mary Washington) I had the great honor of taking his Civil Rights class. He was 77 years old at the time but the man had a memory that was truly astounding. He was able to recount epic moments in Civil Rights history as though they had happened days ago, instead of decades. He told stories of the abject hatred he faced when he attended his first sit-ins. And of the unimaginable struggles he had to endure as one of the Freedom Riders. To be able to hear first hand accounts from someone who played such an integral part in the shaping of American history was a privilege that I will always treasure.

So even though I didn’t completely like the after-school-special-hollywoodization of Farmer’s tenure at Wiley college, I did respect the sentiment. If nothing else, it served to remind us of the sacrifices of those that have come before. SNCC, CORE, SCLC, Farmer, King, Wilkins…and so many more.

Dr. Farmer was one of the most remarkable human beings I have ever known. And with every success that I achieve I honor him and those who have paved the way.

*Note to Denzel: While I respect you and think you are one of the world's greatest actors, come on dude, even you have to admit that there were WAY too many arc shots at the end. I got dizzy for goodness sake. Oh, and you totally deserved the Oscar for Training Day, you were awesome.