David Lynch says so much more about what's wrong in our industrialized world in this little snippet than many do in an entire essay:



Get real, indeed!

Today in the SF Chron there is a fantastic article on the cultural significance and ease of preparation of that Korean staple, kimchee.

I LOVE kimchee. My mom, though Japanese, used to buy it when I was a kid, and so I honed my tastebuds on the ubiquitous King's Kimchee of supermarket fame. Now I can get 20 or 30 different kinds right outside my door on the outskirts of Koreatown. I even had some last night night with my signature winter dish of homemade sunomono and tempeh donburi.

Kimchee is so versatile -- classic with grilled meats, delicious with fried foods, but also superb in salad or soups (my husband particularly likes kimchee ramen). It is inexpensive, low in calories, and as a fermented food has probiotic benefits. What I like about the article is how it stresses kimchee is so easy to make at home. I have made many batches, and it tastes as good if not better (read: less salty!) than many I have bought at the Korean markets in my neighborhood.

This is the basic recipe that I use, but remember: the great thing about kimchee is that you can add almost anything to it, and adjust spice for taste.

Kimchee

14 cups coarsely chopped napa cabbage
3 tbsp salt
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup coarsely chopped green onion
4 tsp grated peeled fresh ginger
1 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
4 minced garlic cloves

Toss cabbage and salt in a large bowl. Weigh down cabbage with another bowl and let stand at room temperature for 3 hours, tossing occasionally.

Drain and rinse with cold water. Drain and squeeze dry.

Combine with remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving. Store, refrigerated, in Mason jars. It only gets better with age.

To speak of imminent things...

Nice article in The Economist about the major-label record industry finally waking up to the fact that they are a dying breed, and what they're doing to ensure that they're around until the last dog's dead. Surprising statistics, but stranger still is how this article takes a tone sympathetic to the big bads. I guess big business is the business.

My good friend Jon Stich does Lenny Kravitz. With a brush and while cherubs watch. In Vibe magazine, March.

And in the far flung future: my favorite Oakland bookshop, wee Diesel, A Bookstore, has secured the beloved David Sedaris to read, be bizarre and charming, and get hand cramps signing books on June 28th. I have marked my calendar and dusted off my Santaland Diaries.

I dislike doing laundry. In fact, I can see the fruits of my unhappiness as I type, and it isn't a pretty pile. My loathing of laundry isn't because I don't enjoy the work. No, it's the current process -- I hate that I live in an apartment building and don't have a washer and dryer; ergo, I am forced to go to the crackhead laundromat down the street or into the bowels of my building to contend with the neighbor who washes his clothing in Pine-Sol (remarkably, he seems most prolific right before I go to do a load) in this sad and lonely place:
























So, dreaming of the day when I buy a house and a nice little front-loading washer, my laundry hamper stuffed to the brim, I stumble upon something that not only feeds this hunger, but doubles as an affordable camping item expenditure AND is green t'boot.

I think I may be in love with the Wonder Wash portable and hand-powered washing machine. For real, yo. I am so buying this.

I feel so domestic!

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Announce European Tour

Since this tour is to support the new album, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, fingers crossed they're coming to the Americas! And not to bitch, but please not like the Grinderman tour with 2 measly dates on each coast that sold out in 30 seconds.

Am excited to hear too that the album features artwork by Tim Noble and Sue Webster. The album's cover definitely has the touch of their electric light work. Though I've never had the opportunity to see any of their work in person, I'm much more for their sculpture -- absolutely love their piece, Black Narcissus. Hope the sleeve will feature some more of their work.

Sorry, just slightly obsessed with this couple at the moment...

The Modest Heartthrob: Atonement Star James McAvoy's Tiny Flat and £1,000 Nissan Micra.












What happens when talented but relatively small-time actors, living somewhat normal lives, become crazy famous? Usually the opposite of this. Oooh, the irony of my admiration: I hate to contribute even more to the jibber-jabber around their lives, but it is worth noting, and applauding -- this is how you keep your sanity, by staying down to earth.

I've read that McAvoy and his wife, actress Anne-Marie Duff, are very much about living a simple and private life away from all the parties and exposure. Sure, I'll bet things around the car and flat may change -- may be inevitable at least for privacy's sake -- but if they continue to keep their heads about them and, as Duff says, their hearts "not up for public consumption" (and stay in the UK), I doubt they'll change much else and be able to keep their simple life. Hard to do when under constant scrutiny, but they seem to be approaching fame with a grain of salt, and they also seem so in love (Yes, I am a sop). If any couple is going to make it in the over-the-top world of international celebrity, I predict it will be this one. Respect.

I am not a big fast food fan anymore (though I lived on the Taco Bell in high school). But dayum, I still get a hankering for Jack in the Box every so often. And, egad -- I just found a recipe for my creme de la creme of Jack-nasty, that edible crack, the Jack in the Box taco. I cry and rejoice at the evil of the internet.

Though, let's face it, this homemade version is loads better for you than the real thing. Gah.

Ha, here's something that would definitely get people out of bed in the morning. Hilarious, but if this were real, with the status of my bank account and the way I sleep in, I'd be bankrupt to Operation Rescue or summat in one snooze session.

Speaking of terror, so glad my government is still dedicated to protecting us from terrorists, even though we can't seem to protect the world from ourselves. Check that article title, BTW -- at press time it was "Disabled Spy Satellite Threatens Earth." Whatever sells, I guess.

Well, at least someone cares a bit about humanity, and doesn't want to blow me up.

Boy, we're really getting the hang of this genome thing, eh? Jeebus.

So very very close to the only thing my friend wants out of stuff like this: a plant that produces meat products, or more colloquially, a chicken bush. Really, that's all he wants.

Took the day off from my job yesterday as my friend James was visiting, and we took in San Francisco, where he is looking for a place.

Being cheap bastards with bellies full of calorific pub grub from the Phoenix and a hankering for James to really see the neighborhoods he is considering for an abode, we walked EVERYWHERE. From the Mission through the Castro to the Haight, and then over to USF where we took a bus to a Chinatown and then walked through North Beach to the BART. In the rain. And it was grand!

Also stopped in for fun at the fancy-schmancy San Francisco headquarters for Scientology. Okay, it was really so James could use the facilities and we could escape the rain for a while -- and he owes me bigtime for fending off getting a stress or personality test and not succumbing to getting my thetan on while he took his sweet time.

My impressions while I dilly-dallied around the 30 foot long display of the life of L. Ron: nice looking place, decidedly not intimidating yet strangely posh, but most important, quite warm and not wet! I'm not one for organized religion anyway, and Scientology to me is really no different from a lot of other religious organizations and their houses of worship, but I must say I did get a wee bit of a creepy vibe in there. Must be the Cruise effect.

***

I have another amendment to my best of 2007 post: I wrote a bit about Einsturzende Neubauten's 2007 album, Alles Weider Offen in regard to their unconventional (and totally rad) way of putting out their album themselves -- therefore screwing the record companies while rewarding fans with a product they had a hand in creating (this last part is so crucial to me, especially after hearing the abysmal new album from Bauhaus).

Anyway, I totally forgot to include this album in my tops for 2007! Such a good listen, harkening back to classic Neubauten. I have such immense respect for Blixa Bargeld and his effortless weaving in and out of different genres of music and spoken word. True talent!

I just watched Atonement. Oy vey, I am still weepy about it. Go see it, it is really well-done, but be warned it is very very sad. Pushed all my buttons -- class and injustice, war and the tragedy of wasting human life, true love that cannot be consummated...

And of course, a devastatingly handsome (and apparently super down to earth in real life) lead -- James McAvoy. Hot damn:














BTW, this guy's fully Glaswegian and you would never know it from his accents in his film roles. Almost always upper crust British, and more recently, American. Funny too that he's said that in real life English people couldn't understand him sometimes and Americans just couldnae get it at all, so since he's got such a hand at accents, he's toned his brogue down. Tragedy, because that delicious Scottish accent is something else!

Check it while he and fellow Glaswegian Craig Ferguson almost require subtitles for us Yanks.



Too bad the rumors about McAvoy playing Kurt Cobain are apparently false. Though I think I can live without him playing Scotty.

Just wanted to post this and say: what did I tell you?!

Remember that Japanese instructor I had in college who told me that the Japanese aren't great innovators but that they are experts at taking things other people create and making them better?

Got my first snow on this weekend, and mighty fine it was.















Heaven!

Hope this is the first of many skiing trips this season. May possibly learn to snowboard this year too! A friend has 4 snowboards, and a cabin and season pass in Tahoe, and has graciously offered to teach me and the hubby. Woot!

I recently procured Conan the Barbarian on DVD. So good.



Shhhh -- I still prefer the open steppe, a fleet horse, falcons at my wrist, and the wind in my hair.

Wow, what gives? Second post in a week about the softer side of normally wacky international relations introvert/part-time sociopath, and bane to environmentalists, my beloved Japan. What's up, my Nihon?

Awww, it's gotta be the international community on you for your current archaic and unnecessary whale-hunt, huh? Well, even with suspiciously-timed PR aside, I still gotta give you props.

This refurbished bicycle program for countries in need is so very cool. Japan is a country where you can hop off your bike and leave it unattended for hours with no lock and it's still there when you get back, or leave a $1000 mountain bike in Tokyo with a lock made out of what is akin to a rubber band to a Bay Area bike thief and no one steals it. But so many bikes are abandoned or otherwise discarded every year. I remember visiting with my mom in the mid-nineties and witnessing a garbage truck dump a whole fleet of perfectly good, but illegally parked, bicycles into its gob. I am so glad to hear there's a program to give these bikes another life, and help someone in critical need.

Japanese bicycles are bomb-ass too. I have a 21-speed Bianchi hybrid that often makes me feel like I'm towing a bus, but the ubiquitous Japanese bicycle has no gears, and those little things haul. And it's true what the article says -- the baskets are magical. I have two metal "saddlebags" for carrying groceries and whatnot on my bike, and I can never seem to fit as much as I can into one little front loader on a Japanese bike. I'll bet it carries grandma 5 miles to the nearest clinic no problem, and still has enough room for a bag of goodies from the market and pharmacy to help make her feel better. Proper.

Oh my, I don't usually go all slobbery over tech, but the new MacBook Air makes me WANT!

Damn you, Steve Jobs. DAMN YOOOOUUUU!

I've just gotten through listening to a leaked copy of Bauhaus' new album slated for March release, Go Away White.















Y'all ready for this?

First impression: There really isn't anything of the old Bauhaus. Which is not so much a diss, as it is a "to be expected" part of the experience. And while I also fully expected it to be a dud, I also really wanted to give it a shot. I'm a fangirl -- what can I say? But I suppose fangirls and fanboys are the harshest of critics, so for better or for worse, take it or leave it...

It's awful.

And you aren't going to believe this, but as much as I love to be right, that statement makes me truly sad, because I really, really wanted to be wrong.

I do understand why it's being touted as "stripped down." There are no inventive, broken glass and razors guitar assaults from Daniel Ash here, no fresh or ferocious drumming from Kevin Haskins, nor fierce or elegantly disquieting bass from David J. This isn't old Bauhaus, for sure, and that IS the big, fat, glaring problem. But not for reasons of sentimentality or old fogey-ness that you might think a fan of the old stuff would be carrying on about.

The problem with Go Away White in a nutshell is that the songs lack passion and intensity, and sound half-hearted, uninspired. No one is owning it. Some symptoms: the lyrics set their sights on something greater but are repetitive, pedestrian, and unsatisfying. Peter Murphy's voice has aged well, but punctuating songs with a bellow doesn't make his smaller range less apparent nor does it make mediocre songs sound more edgy. Backing lyrics are identical in their death-rattle drone on quite a few songs. Dreadful, boring instrumentation throughout. Instruments sometimes mixed so low and flat that only Peter's voice comes out clear. But that's okay, because there's really not a lot there: I would not be surprised if the drums, bass, and guitar were lifted from practice riffs out of a textbook.

So, what is this leading up to?

This is so bad. The album really hits home for me that David, Kevin, and Daniel have become merely Peter Murphy's backing band. I'm not kidding. I cannot believe this album was a collaborative effort, unless it was compromised to death.

The songs 'Undone,' "Saved,' and 'Zikir' -- among others -- sound suspiciously like rejects from a post-Deep Peter Murphy album: safe, pseudo-spiritual tunes for the adult contemporary set. 'International Bullet-Proof Talent' sounds amateurish, like musical weekend warriors jamming together in a garage for the first time and not quite hitting it. 'Black Stone Heart' has a bit of interest in it, with its mash-up of different sounds and styles, but still comes off insincere. The album is decidedly not avant garde, brutal, stark, potent...or memorable. While I didn't expect In the Flat Field I did expect some ingenuity, some spark, some life. Some Bauhaus.

Rabid Peter Murphy fans will probably like this album. But for fans of the Bau, don't bother except to complete your archive (looks like collectors will be able to get it in limited edition white vinyl). This is very much a vehicle for Murphy, and a disappointing one at that. But even so, the responsibility for this unimaginative and spiritless outing lies with all four members. Sad.

When: Sunday, January 13, 2008
Where: game night
What: citrus vodka cherry Jell-O shots

It's good to be a big kid again.















Even if it involves Jell-O shots that you could use to blow fire.













Yep.

I love the Bay Area for many reasons. Beautiful weather, interesting folks, progressive politics, lots o' rock/art shows, delicious food. But for all the good things here, the one big load of crap is our powers that be and their seriously misplaced priorities around crime.

The latest incredible story: An intruder breaks into a home in the Haight because he is being chased, and the police do nothing for the apartment dwellers when they call 911. The intruder just continues to stay in the apartment until someone goes outside and drags the police there and they arrest him. Luckily, this intruder wasn't violent, but HELLO! This kind of situation really makes you feel helpless.

There are so many more examples. The whole of People's Park in Berkeley. The fact carjackings in Oakland aren't news until a politician gets jacked in his state car (which, by the way, was a red Dodge Charger with 22 inch rims -- which is a whole other rant). Oakland residents are lauded for citizen patrols to counteract drug dealing and other crimes the police don't have time for, but people who inevitably have to defend themselves run the risk of ridiculous prosecution and receive no back-up. It really makes one feel a little unnerved.

I'm lucky I live in a fairly safe neighborhood -- though I think we're safe only because we're an up and coming restaurant destination for uppity San Franciscans on the edge of a wealthy enclave; ergo, we get a high police presence. So while people get murdered in West Oakland on a regular basis, the meager amount of cops Oakland has are dispatched to allow yuppies to discuss how edgy they are to be eating in my neighborhood after dark (true story overheard as I was following some total tools on my way to Walgreens). Economics, baby, that's what it's all about. But where money is, thugs will come.

I run the gamut in my mind between 1) feeling hopeless and thinking the Bay -- and particularly my beloved Oakland -- is a ticking time bomb where it's just a matter of time before it is my turn, and 2) that we're not particularly crime-ridden for a city of our size, and keeping your wits about you will make things turn out a-okay. It's probably somewhere in-between. The problem is that the thugs are brazen, mostly stupid, and totally random -- and they can be because very often police don't show up until literally hours after something happens and then have "no suspects" for any crime. Hell, we don't even have a forensics department to take fingerprints! That is just wrong.

I don't know all the answers to fix the problem, but I do know we need more cops and less BS from the (police unions, politicians, anarchist groups, or whatever) around hiring those officers. We need these officers, especially for neighborhoods where people are shot in broad daylight on busy corridors. There is no excuse for that to be happening as often as it does. We also need more stepping up from the police around what they consider "petty" crime -- drug-dealing, breaking and entering, muggings, car theft, etc., because these are the gateway crimes.

As I was driving home tonight I saw 4 bicyclists laughing and having a good time while waiting to turn at the corner of 51st and Shattuck at 12:30 at night and for some reason my hope was renewed in the power of people to make Oakland a better place.

Wingsuit flying:



Wow. I wish I were just a wee bit more brave.

Speaking of baby steps and the Wal a few posts ago...

Some students in plastic-burnin', whale-harpoonin', but charmingly portmanteau-lovin' Nihon have come up with shibukasa.

Taking advantage of a "community currency" system already in place in Shibuya Ward, a group of university students in Tokyo has started a project to reuse discarded plastic umbrellas.

The system behind "shibukasa" — a portmanteau word combining Shibuya and "kasa" (umbrella) — is simple. When one returns a shibukasa — which can be identified by a sky-blue umbrella logo — to a cafe or other store that keeps them, the borrower will receive Earth Day Money, which is accepted at some establishments in the ward.

If you know Japan, you know those ubiquitous little umbrellas for 300 yen that litter the trains and clog the umbrella bins -- and you also know this little thing these students are doing is a good thing indeed. Love the Earth Day money too -- keeps people involved until it becomes second nature. Baby steps, baby steps.

So many people out there are really wack. It scares me how many wack-ass people I probably pass by every day. But sometimes it is entertaining to think about how many of the seemingly normal folks on the subway with me, or who are making my food, or you know, doing other important things like handling my tax return at the IRS or my prescription at the pharmacy are this type of special.

Man Cuts Off, Microwaves Own Hand

Man Who Hid Knives in Pants Stabs Self

Men Haul Roommate's Corpse to Store to Cash His Social Security Check

Bill Would Ban Swearing in Bars

I know California needs it, but I am sick of rain that comes at you sideways, and circling the block to avoid parking by a tree. I am also tired of fearing for my life when I walk or drive, as people in the Bay Area are so spoiled rotten that they don't know how to drive in any weather but sunny, cloudless sky.

Ah, hell, they don't know how to drive in that either, but at least when it's sunny I'm not fighting rain and cold and wind and can get out of the way of their lack of skills a little faster...

So boo to cold sideways rain in my face. But on a positive note, yay for thugs staying inside while I traipse in the street in my bitchin' raingear, and yay for more snowpack -- avoiding drought aside, I'm stoked that I may get my first skiing of the season in next week.

And what other time do the waves get big enough for folks to surf the Golden Gate Bridge?

Ex-Sierra Club head Adam Werbach hired to "green" Wal-Mart.

First reaction: WTF? Wal-Mart, that anything but sustainable, community-raping, evil den of buy-more-stuff-to-fill-your-empty-heart?

But then, one stark reality:

I was a typical San Franciscan, very disconnected from Middle America, and, I tell you, now I'm turned off when I hear people use the expression 'fly-over states.' I mean, I love my little Bernal Heights neighborhood, I love having Progressive Grounds Coffee right up the street, and all those things. But the thing that was most educational to me is that this isn't the dream everyone has. Democrats, Republicans, conservatives, it is America out there, and right now what they want is to have parking to do their shopping all in one place, to have strawberries for $2 in February. And if the public demands, a retailer will provide. You say you hate Wal-Mart? Well, the American public has chosen this place; they like Wal-Mart a hell of a lot.

Okay, so Werbach would also make a great politician. But it is true: people love Wal-Mart. And no amount of maintaining that they are a hellmouth of evil is going to change that. Hell, even if they had children sacrifice goats to some archaic god at noon in the food court and had terrorists publicly molest the elderly and infirm in the pharmacy y'all just know most people would put their blinders on and continue to buy the Wal's cheap-ass Chinese crap and then complain about lead poisoning and the export of American jobs. That's how we humans work.

So, as much as it pains me to say it, I think Werbach is doing more good than harm by partnering with the devil.

The "greening" of America's biggest retailer -- even if it is selective and I suspect merely to help their bottom line -- cannot be denied as a very good thing. Analyzing and implementing where they can cut down on fuel and electricity would make huge dents in carbon emissions around the globe and possibly cause a ripple effect among their suppliers and distributors. Marketing organic produce in 4,000 megastores increases the demand for this type of farming. And bringing the concept of global warming to the "red states," as it were, is a tasty proposition. With a glass-half-full mentality you could almost say they would be creating demand for things (in this case, good things) people never thought they needed before. And lookee there -- isn't that the Wal-Mart way? Everyone's happy.

This still doesn't mean I advocate shopping at Wal-Mart. Though I can understand the sentiment this might promote, it in no way means if you can't beat 'em join 'em. There are certainly still glaring problems with Wal-Mart, the biggie being their tendency to make money off poverty. This starts with stores that are more often than not opened in economically depressed areas with employees who make the lowest possible wages and are denied affordable healthcare (and are therefore often subsidized by taxpayers), and ends with catering to a customer base largely populated by the poor, the elderly, and the chronically un-or-under employed.

The in-between in this poverty clusterfuck? Exploiting sweatshop and child-labor to fill their stores with low-quality crap. This leads to the other big bad no-no of supporting Wal-Mart -- the horrifying cause and effect of its supply chain. From the loss of domestic jobs to the sweatshops that are a direct result of supply and then demand of toasters or sweatpants or what have you for $4.99, the suffering that exists because of corporate and consumer greed is appalling.

I'm not trying to invalidate all the criticism Wal-Mart gets, but in this crisis we collectively face, being negative is not a winning strategy. The whole system is broken, and we've all got a moral charge to fix it.

We're all hypocrites somehow when it comes to sustainability and the like, so I acknowledge the importance of baby steps, especially with the Big Bad. I remain a Negative Nellie about Wal-Mart's actual motivation and investment in becoming more "green," but I'm on board with seeing what happens.

Post dump: I forgot to include three more awesome things that happened in 2007.

1) Learning about Kiva, a nonprofit that partners with microloan institutions to allow individuals to loan money to small businesses in the developing world. You don't have to have a huge stock portfolio or wads of cash to do this -- you can loan as little as $25 at a time. Through the power of the internets and strength in numbers, a woman in Samoa can get the $650 she needs to expand her sewing business, or a man in Ecuador can get the $425 he needs to buy a refrigerator for his fishing business, directly from people like you and me.

This is so great, because not only can individuals who might not be able to afford $650 at one pop help someone become self-sufficient or contribute to making a current business more successful, but there is a connection that you don't get from giving to large institutions: you get email updates about the project you are funding! I highly recommend that EVERYONE check this organization out.

2) Finding two pairs of brand spankin' new slip-on Vans -- one pair of classics in turquoise canvas, one pair bright yellow suede with racing stripe -- in charity shops within days of each other and 2008. When I became obsessed with Vans I cannot pinpoint, but I am amassing quite a collection. Just gotta check my burning desire for the unattainable Hosoi Sk8-Hi. Sigh.

3) Receiving the best Christmas present ever: this sweet tactical flashlight. Thank you, monkey!

Welcome welcome 2008!
























Already sorta started with a bang -- as I ran down the steps of the YMCA in downtown Oakland on the eve of 2008, an impeccably dressed older gentleman stopped in his tracks and remarked how much I look like Cher. Yep, 2008 is definitely attempting to bring it.

Soooo, on that note, let's take a look back on 2007 for the moment, shall we?

First off, a big shout out to Rod at b(oot)log for: 1) posting the best Canadian Pride bootleg site around, and 2) hosting contests for CDs and other schwag -- that people actually win! Just got the Buck 65 CD that I won in the mail. Cheers Rod!

Onward...I like lists. And I really like tops-for-the-year lists. But because of my status as out of touch in 2007, or maybe my shame for past list-making (or is that curmudgeonly respect?), I have decided to go a little light this year. But a list shall go on!

1) Shows

Xiu Xiu, April 22, 2007 at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco, hands down. Best. Show. Ever. Ever ever. My long and rambling review may help you see why.

2) Reads

Most of what I read in 2007 was released pre-2007, so heaven help me, the landslide winner is Ken Follett's World Without End. I ate that book alive.

3) Records

Hmmmm. I didn't pick up a whole hell of a lot of new! right! now! in 2007, but Grinderman's self-titled debut album (but can you call it a debut, really?) got a lot of rotation, as did Kanye's decadently addictive single and video and British/Sri Lankan artist M.I.A's second album, Kala.

Check the sociopolitics and amazing use of samples that make up my favorite M.I.A. song, 'Paper Planes' (from Kala):



4) Films

Nothing absolutely made me hyperventilate, but as far as blockbusters go, Summer '07 was good to me: I liked The Bourne Ultimatum, Rescue Dawn and Stardust. The recently released film version of Philip Pullman's book The Golden Compass was a surprise winner for me too. Still want to see La Vie En Rose, Eastern Promises (mmmm, Russian mobster-muscle Viggo), and No Country For Old Men. But I think my local video store creating a whole section for The Criterion Collection is probably my best film related news all year.

5) Tee-Vee

I don't have a TV, but for what it's worth Dexter almost makes me want to buy one, and Project Runway gets my ass to the gym and on a cardio machine with an idiot box. Love these two shows.

6) Weird News

I got a lot of mileage out of hater Larry Craig's meltdown, as did a lot of late night talk show hosts...

Senator Larry Craig is now saying that his constitutional rights were violated when he was arrested in an airport's men's room. Craig was furious. He said, 'When I got to a men's room, I do the violating. --Conan O'Brien

...but I think there are weirder things.

Early looking forward tos for 2008: the talented Mr. Stich's portrait of Lenny Kravitz for Vibe magazine (hopefully this will be the first of many illustrations!), another trip to Japan (?), meeting a good online friend from London in the flesh in February, my honey finishing school, The Dark Knight (and Christian Bale in black rubber once again), and a possible move into a house with yard, and therefore, more BBQs and parties. Whee!

Bring it, 2008. Bring it, indeed.