Well that’s that, then. I’ve been waiting for this for two years!

http://www.ktvu.com/news/9358918/detail.html

So if you google my name now, 7 out of the first 10 links are actually about me. Not the top one, but still, I rule google. Yeah, I’m one of those, hide in plain sight, naked type ninjas.

Usually on Halloween, I’m dressed up and going out. But this year, well, there’s drama in the (closed) Castro, and it’s a Wednesday night, and I partied too much on the weekend… anyway I’m staying in. I was having a quiet secluded time alone, going through the mail, and saw my voter information pamphlet for Nov 6. Since that is shockingly near, I decided to open it and bone up.

Little did I realize how appropriate our candidates for mayor are for Halloween. I am not mocking them, by any means, as I completely adore my amazing city in all its diversity, liberalism, free expression and hilarity. But let me just call your attention to our candidates.

They are presented very diplomatically in alphabetical order.  So it’s not dramatic or startling to begin with Brown, who seems an amicable but unlikely candidate. His occupation is publisher of SF Bulldog, his promise is to fire all 61 department heads and other city “bosses”, and he closes his statement with “I believe in God, judgment and the SF 49′ers.” Hmmm. OK. Not the most realistic approach, imho.

Next we get to a one-issue candidate running on the most important issue in all of San Francisco. Homelessness, you ask? Transportation, education or revitalization? No. Nudity in Golden Gate Park. Davis says “This is a one-issue campaign to make Golden Gate Park clothing optional.” Ok. I’m all for nudity, but generally not as a mayoral platform. In addition, he talks about how he’s been harassed by the SF police and arrested multiple times. I don’t know if I’d put that in my bio, just to be safe. Although I might like to be naked in Golden Gate park and handcuffed by our city’s finest.

Not to dwell on the beautiful people (ha!) who want to be naked in the park, we next have Holmes, a juvenile probation manager with an obtuse mission who has notably distributed over 8.000 turkeys to low income residents (one would assume for Thanksgiving or Christmas). This doesn’t sound like a sustainable city plan, however. And then Hoogasian who is a florist and coffee farmer and wants to basically stop all city expenditures, reduce payrolls of city employees (like they’re the most highly paid folks), and justify every penny of spending. His domain name says more about his candidacy than his bio: unplugthemachine.org.

Next we have the unequivocable leader of the pack: Grasshopper Alec Kaplan, our local vegan taxicab driver. He promsies to be compassionate, tolerant, supportive, and loving, but I’m wondering if he just wants to live in the mayor’s house, since he’s been “residentially challenged” for 13 years. He also reminds us that “to impeach is patriotic.” I’m not thinking I’m interested in electing NOR impeaching someone named after an insect, however much I completely endorse his parting words that we should “smile, laugh, celebrate our wonderful existence, our fabulous planet; create / make Grassland model - beacon of mutual understanding, hope. Gratefully.” Argh. I even have trouble with poor grasshopper’s grammar. Evidently, English is his “third but only language.” And what does THAT mean?

Of course, we have legitimate and qualified candidates. I’m skipping away from alpha for a moment to summarize. Mayor Gavin Newsom is rerunning, and his primary competition is DA Kamala Harris. This is not, in itself funny, except the Harris is also our only candidate for DA. If one were to vote for Harris for mayor, who is DA? Just curious. Inquiring mind and all.

But most candidates seem weak at best. Wilma Pang is on a stable stand for quality neighborhood schools. We have a program director (Mecke) standing on a platform of “doing better”, a journalist (Wolf) on an obscure commitment of “participatory democracy”, and a doctor (Sumchai) whose first name evidently means “no killing” (thank goodness for her choice of profession!).

My favorites, however, have to be these two, coincidentally (?) alphabetically positioned on the same page. Michael Powers, the owner of the Power Exchange “adult sexual liberation experience”, is interested in making “our City more healthy, safe, clean and green.” I’m not sure how the shackles will help with that plan though, while I do enjoy imagining the redecoration of the taj mahal. What exactly would a civil wedding in city hall be like, and will the couple be able to say “i do” with the balls in their mouths? (I know I know, only one of them would have one. Don’t spoil my fun.)

And then John Rinaldi, a showman, who tells us that “Hi, my name is Chicken John and I’m running for Mayor because I have a vision for the future of this city.” Well then, he has my vote.  Especially with his parting words being so crystal clear, simple and direct (what a strong CTA!) “C’mon, it’ll be fun. Vote for me.”

Evidently, the ranked process of voting allows us to vote for choices 1, 2, and 3, and many of these candidates are only hoping for 2 or 3, to get a message across. But is that really the right way to go about it? Admittedly, I didn’t know that nudity in Golden Gate Park was a big concern, and now I am so educated. But still… some part of me (no matter how liberal, jaded or irreverent) still believes that our Mayor should be someone who can represent our beautiful city and our lives, not someone to be mocked across the nation.

Since I last posted… much activity.

I have started a new job at McCann Erikson (McCann Worldgroup) San Francisco, as a Senior Interactive Producer. It’s a great environment, great people. I have a great team… 3 people to manage and about a million others on each account. I think I’m going to like it here.

I spent the first week following around my predecessor, trying to learn how she does things and why. I feel pretty good about next week without her, but I am also a little aprehensive about all the unknowns that may appear. I thrive in chaos, however, so I think I’ll be just fine. Besides the fact that there are a lot of people here who can help me figure things out if I am unfamiliar with a particular McCann process. My cube-mate and I have decided to redecorate and have a “den” instead of a cube. With rugs and pillows and maybe some wooden animals.

In other news… I am making progress on my screenplay, although I did get distracted doing research on what songs were popular in 1875 (when the lead couple met) and also, how the hell to pronounce words in Salish, which is a native american language with less than a hundred speakers left (for the local tribe where the main character grew up). I have done more research on this, and while there’s always more to learn, I think I have enough to stop making excuses and get back to writing.

Last weekend I went up to Sacramento to train with a Texan megadan and I had a great time. We did jo kata, which were similar to work I’ve done with bo and hanbo and sword, but I had never actually done a whole set of jo kata. Fun. I decided I need to work on my sword ukemi some, and a friend says he has some good drills he can show me. (And we all know how I like a good drill.)

I started teaching kids class again two weeks ago. So far I have two students, a 12 year old boy and a 6 year old girl. They are adorable. Two more girls are supposed to start this Sunday and another boy on Nov 1. I want to have at least 6 regular students. They are so much fun.

I have a lot more energy at the new job… it doesn’t exhaust me. And yet there are two flights of stairs I go up and down a lot, and I’m training more, and teaching kids really gets my blood going. So I’m hopeful to get in shape in the next few months.

Tonight I’m going on a haunted house tour, and then Thai and Paul are visiting from LA, so we’ll be hanging out most of the weekend.

Here’s a video with which to leave you:

I saw my friend Kai and his son Ajani tonight; they were going to see a friend play the drums in a performance in the Mission and invited me to join them. Ajani and I are in love. Of course, he’s 6, but you know what I mean. I was happy to see him.

Before the musical performance, they showed an Oscar-winnning short, West Bank Story, which I *loved*. I’d never even heard of it (so busy working I guess) but I really thought it was spectacular.

Of course, the 6 year old had never seen West Side Story, and didn’t understand it was a spoof (or of what), starring Israelis and Palestinians (or what those are). It was fascinating, and afterwards the composer of the music in the movie answered questions for the audience, and I really felt privileged to have been invited after all.

Ajani raised his hand to ask a question of the composer, but his dad tactfully diverted his little hand and asked him what he wanted to know. His question was “Why were they so mad at each other?” Of course, the ultimate question. I sat attentively, wondering how his dad was going to answer. Kai said “well, they didn’t like each other very much from before the movie even started.” (This was not enough) “But why?”

So Kai thought for a minute and came up with “They believe in different things.” Ajani looked up at him for a minute and said “Like at school when some kids believe in the tooth fairy or Santa Claus and other kids don’t?” (How cute is that)

His dad said “No, not like that, much bigger. They have believed different things for a very long time, and it makes them very angry.” Ajani just said “I don’t get angry if kids believe in the tooth fairy or not.”

This is where he shrugged his little shoulders and accepted it as it is. The musical portion was starting anyway, and the drums were what he came for…

Hey…

I’ve been taking a Blue Bear Band workshop: www.bluebearmusic.org, and tonight is our showcase. My friend K and I are singing a whole set; 10 songs. It’s very exciting.

Of course, I’ve changed my clothes three times, nothing fits right, and I “warming up” my voice so much, it might be gone by the time I’m on stage. But I’m psyched. And it will be fun.

So let’s rock.

Random photos of my adorable actor brother… as found on the INTERWEB.

No, not menstruation period. Old-style period. As in 1800’s.

I was working on my screenplay yesterday (YAY! FINALLY!) and I realized that my main character was known to have sworn a lot (based on a true story thing). But I had no freaking idea what were swear words in 1875. So I looked it up. For your benefit:

http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-1865.html

Some of them almost made me piss my sit-down-upons!

Hey sorry it’s been a while. Don’t mean to keep you in suspense.

My BlueBear Band (with diva Kathy M!) is called “Chick Jagger,” and we’ll be playing Sept 17 at 10pm at the Red Devil Lounge. Be there!

More soon.

Where is my
prose of brilliance…
Where is my
moment of now?

Always
Forever away…
Ever and never
Artistic as Pollack
Concise as a Keroak or Burrough.

Who knows what
a girl can do
When she is
as drunk as Bukowski…
but estrogen-infested.
As full of hatred
as the classic men may be.

Oh if i had paints
or pastels or crayon.
I could write my temper
In a language that so many
would understand.

Instead I blog like a
post-pubescent
intellectual electronic
newfound artistic
RSS feed
Poet.

And I wonder
How would it differ
If I were male and rich and
Famous.

And beautiful.