It's a big vote - take a picture

Next Tuesday, all of us Californians get to say who we want the next leader of the free world to be. With some very decent candidates to choose from (on the Dems side), and a lot at stake - the polling places should see a record turnout.

So, why not take a picture? Voting in America is an interesting, inspiring, and often super confusing process. Thanks to my friend David Cohn (aka 'digidave') I've learned of a cool nationwide project to document the voting process: http://pollingplaces.nytimes.com/

It's simple enough - take a photo of your polling place. For example, I have to vote inside a church. How crazy is that - I always thought state and church were separate. I personally think that a lot need's to be changed about the voting process. Hopefully, with the help of the New York Times, this project can shed some light on what changes need to be made.

Also, register to vote. There is no excuse - I will think less of you if you don't vote in this presidential election (although, the general election is more important).

Here's where you can sign up: http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_vr.htm

not a bad point....

Google Reader

I am still a puppy dog to this whole blogosphere extravaganza...but I'm learning to bark louder, day by day.

One tool that anyone can use to sniff out their favorite websites more rapidly (notice the dog theme continues...) is GOOGLE READER.

It don't even matter if you blog or not - this is an awesome way to check news headlines from all sorts of sources, at the same bloody time! Or you favorite "blogger", or band website for tour updates, or youtube channel....

You can share certain news/feeds/stories as well - which I have done over the right side of this page. (Which I call "Casting Out the Net")

Alright, I'm writing too much about this thing now....Maybe Google should pay me for this post...

"everybody's going to die" but not over the top rock n' roll!

This post is a shoutout to my friends and former roomates Mr. Divisadero and the Party Boy Lifestyle.

These dudes are badass. Plain and simple. Along with being good friends of mine, the group of 4 also plays extremely fun and over-the-top operatic rock. I'm not a music writer, but if I were - I would say their songs are a cross between the B-52ish zaniness and Queen-esque ballads...then again, I might just be ripping off my friend Jake from Crawdaddy Magazine.

I recommend giving them listen. They also released their first CD, which was about a year in the making, and it shows.

Music, CD info lives here:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=55892078

A YouTube performance clip, where Jack falls into the crowd, lives here (right around 01:30):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=KcyZNbLLWyE

O'Shea Bros - Copa Pinot Noir

hat

let's start with a book reco

Right, so I don't necessarily want this whole thing to be about book/film reviews...but while I'm still working it out, I thought I'd wax poetic on this book:

This book chronicles the day to day trek of its author, Rory Stewart, as he spends several months walking across Afghanistan. He made the journey almost immediately after the 2001 invasion by U.S. and coalition forces. In my opinion, the book should be required reading for Westerners. If you're going to "re-structure", or "regime change", while "bombing the hell" out of a country, you should have some idea of what's on the ground there. At one point, Stewart points out the historical context of his trek:

"The country had been at war for twenty-five years; the new government had been in place for only two weeks; there was no electricity between Herat and Kabul, no television and no T-shirts. Villages combined medieval etiquette with new political ideologies...All that had made Afghanistan seem backward, peripheral, and irrelevant now made it the center of the world's attention."

Aside from being a great read, the real value of Stewart's journey is that he makes Afghanistan such a reality to the reader. He is able to do this because of both his skill as a writer and the fact that he is on the ground the entire time.

Throughout the book, he refuses any sort of transportation, be it by jeep or mule. This is a particularly gutsy move when dozens of soldiers and ex-warlords try to persuade him otherwise; not to mention the expansive Soviet mine fields that cover certain regions of the country. He relies on strangers in small villages to invite him in every night, eating their simple food (oftern dry naan bread and rice). He trudges through waist deep snow at altitudes reaching 14,000ft. He sleeps in crowded rooms on the ground, where the only warmth comes from a small stove burning dung (I'm guessing mule crap). I think that the end result of all this is that one gets an insight to the Afghani daily life. Simply by walking and relying on the country's people and resources, Stewart knows more about the nation than most government agencies working in Kabul to re-build a new Afghanistan.

I highly recommend this book. And if you're worried about it being very dry - it's actually funny at times, and very concise. It is definitely one of the best travel books I have ever read (maybe calling it a ''travel'' book isn't fair...but oh well).