SXSW

Last week was SXSW, and it was exhausting and amazing. Everyone was lovely and everyone drove each other nuts, and I'm very glad we went again this year. We saw a ton of music but I remember very little of it. What I do remember is that this is the year that Mike's band really had their coming out. Here's a semi-crappy video I made of one of their loveliest songs. Hot tip: it includes some baby dancing.

Unbreakable, you say?

Hopefully other punctuation nerds will find this as amusing as I did.

Granted, I found it amusing in a club restroom late at night during SXSW.

Well this is happening

Teppi and I are going!

In case that is too small to read, Heidi is signing her new book in a few weeks. Hero worship oh yes.

Speaking of! Today I got to talk to a relative of John Steinbeck. She was wonderful. It was extremely gratifying. I may have pumped my fist at various points throughout the call. Job love.

Ga ga

Here are my admittedly terrible photos from Lady Gaga's visit to Google yesterday. After spending the last week seeing shows in Austin at SXSW, I just couldn't stay away. And Gaga is totally charming, in case you were wondering.

Don't we all know it

Situation Report

I am on a text message list for emergencies in SF - ostensibly for earthquakes, but they also notify me of road closures and storm warnings. I woke up to this text this morning, which had been sent at 2 a.m.

Subject: Situation Report - Tsunami Warning

Date: March 11, 2011

Event: Tsunami Warning Followed by 8.9 Earthquake in Japan

Prepared by Lt. Franey

At 11:42 pm Pacific Time, a Tsunami Watch was issued for the Pacific, Southeast Asian and Latin American nations, as well as Hawaii. At 0055 hrs. the Tsunami Watch was upgraded to a Tsunami Warning.

DEM is aware of the situation and has assembled an Incident Management Team. DEM has contacted the States Coastal Region who will provide an update to the local level around 0200 hrs.

As more information becomes available we will send out notifications.

The DEM Duty Officer Pager is 327-0543.

You can see why I find this concerning. What the hell is the DEM? Who is Lt. Franey, and why should I care? What does it mean that the Watch was upgraded to a Warning? Should I be battening down my hatches?

This was followed up by another message ten minutes ago.

Subject: Tsunami Warning

Due to the 8.9 earthquake in Japan a Tsunami Warning was issued at 0055 hrs this morning.

As a precaution the police department has closed the Great Hwy and NPS has closed Ocean, Baker, and China Beaches and Fort Funston. Estimated time of Tsunami arrival is scheduled for 0810 hrs. Minimal wave impact is expected.

Stay tuned to KCBS 740 am for updates.

So something is going to happen in less than 30 minutes - "minimal wave impact" apparently - but I have no idea what that means. Surely they realize that saying "tsunami" is a way to give much of the populace heart palpitations. Maybe because I am an innocent East Coast girl, I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. It seems like this is a "we're tell you just to tell you, nothing for you to worry about, go about your business" kind of notification. In which case I just peed my pants for nothing.

And now I will return to obsessively reading about people who were riding the subway in Tokyo when the quake hit, thereby simultaneously justifying and worsening my claustrophobia.

Catchup. Ketchup. Catch up.

Dudes, what have I been up to for the last few weeks? I don't even know. A lot of things. Having people over for dinner, going out to meet people for dinner, basically just stuffing my face with dinner. My brother was here, and we partied down. Tonight I baked chocolate chip cookies instead of packing for my trip this weekend. I feel a little ill now, honestly.

But my trip to Austin! I am pumped! Mike left today, and I join him on Saturday. I get off the plane and go right to our friends' son's first birthday party. How adorable is that? I have never been to the birthday party of a child I was not related to. True Story. And it turns out they're pregnant again! So that is exciting.

Speaking of babies, two other friends in Austin had babies this past Monday. They don't know each other, as far as I know. But their offspring were born at almost exactly the same time, which is weird. Last Sunday we had brunch with friends here in San Francisco who just announced they were pregnant, and it is going to be amazing to watch that kid get raised in this city, by two incredibly hip parents. Oh, and to complete the baby train, my college roommates are pregnant! They have been married for a while and it is not 100% a surprise, but it was still really moving - something about having lived with them, and now they're going to be moms. I'm not going to lie, I'm still in the phase where I'm tearing up when I think about it.

If you fear that I have caught the baby fever, please let me ease your mind. I have not. I have been running regularly and lifting weights and doing all kinds of other things that are good for me, all while drinking as much beer and wine as ever. I don't know exactly what that has to do with not having baby fever, but it does.

I recently bottled an altbier, which was not at all a good idea to do alone. By the time I was done our kitchen was covered in a sticky sheen of beer up to the ceiling, but the brew itself was tasty. I made this label.

Currently in the keg we have an IPA, to be tapped when we're back from SXSW. I am probably getting burned out on hosting parties, but first I feel like I want to throw one for this IPA. Maybe another grilled cheese shindig.

To wrap up other people's news (see: string of baby announcements), my brother got into grad school. He's still waiting to hear back from a few other programs that he might like better, but I'm super pumped for him. As of Monday he is a temporary resident of Las Vegas, where he will spend the next few months alternating between a few days a week lounging by the pool of his apartment and the other days camping in the desert where he is tracking tortoises. So he moved from the Australian rainforest to the frozen tundra of my parents' house in Pennsylvania to the Nevada desert. He is a lot more combobulated than most people would be in his situation.

Music has been much in my life lately. Mike had a show, then we saw Prince (ahhh it was so good!), then the Concretes (fulfilling a college dream), and today I scored us tickets to an Animal Collective show up in Petaluma in April. Not to mention the fact that as of this weekend my life will be completely taken over by SXSW, which means dawn to dusk to dawn live music. Thank god for margaritas.

Ok, enough for now. That's all the gossip that's fit to type.

Casteller

After Terlingua, does anyone want to go to Tarragona, Spain with me to see the castellers? I'm not sure I actually want to be a part of a human castle, but I definitely want to see one.

Casteller from Mike Randolph on Vimeo.

Terlingua

Today the NYT has a story about a fashion photographer cum homesteader in Texas. Unlike the usual embarrassing Home section stories about 20 somethings who learn to farm and all that (cough cough), this dude sounds like the real deal, and the paper doesn't screw up the execution with attempts to make this sound like the Next Big Trend. Dude not only bought himself land in the desert and built a home, but the's also befriended a longhorn named Benita, constructed a bike-powered washing machine, and put together a flame thrower. A flame thrower!

The article links to his blog, which is an entertaining read. I don't really want to throw away everything I have and move to the desert, but I sort of do. I sort of really do. As long as I had company, and occasional access to really good food, I think I could pull it off. And to be near Terlingua, oh hamlet of the mellifluous name! We have friends of friends that own the Starlight Theatre, which Mr. Off the Grid mentions in a recent post. Terlingua, I'm coming for you.

Happy International Women's Day

Gawker made fun of Newsweek's article on Hillary Clinton, but I actually thought it was pretty good. If Tina Brown puts more focus on women's issues, rad.

And Hil came through with a solid yay-ladies piece herself. On Kiva I only ever donate to women-owned businesses. Sometimes I am like, Maybe I should give a dude a chance. And then I am like, Dudes have had plenty of chances. And then I think, Well, many dudes have, but probably not this dude. And I decide, Seriously though, this lady is rocking it.

Ladies win.

Holy crapamoly

Some dude put a slide in his penthouse apartment in NYC. I'm sorry, correction: he actually used the slide to connect two penthouse apartments. I cannot even imagine how much this kind of thing costs. Even if I was rich enough to afford this, I still don't think I'd do it, at least as long as hunger/disease/war exist. But I'd really really want to.

I love my job

Just got an email with this subject line: Steinbecks, please meet Genevieve.

Yes, as in son of John.

#Winning

Eyeballs

Holy crap, eyeballs are crazy. Check out what they look like close up. It gives me the heebie jeebies.

Did you know they were this deep?

And this gross?

Sweet baby jesus.

I agree

www.thebestpictureontheinternet.com/