2017

I went to Japantown to get some food for New Years but when I got to the Japanese market I saw that the store was packed and every cashier had at least ten people in each line.  I immediately turned around and went back home to the Richmond District.  There are a lot of Asian markets in the Richmond and I thought I could at least get some mochi at one of them. I went to New May Wah which has food items from all of the Asian countries but they didn't have what I wanted so I headed to New Seoul Market two blocks away.  I walked up and down the aisles and saw no mochi.
Japanese usually bring in the new year with traditional foods made from root vegetables, beans, eggs, chicken, fish, rice and tofu. There are probably some other things that I can't think of at the moment.
I had none of these good luck foods to start off January 1.  I wanted some zoni which is a clear broth soup with a piece of mochi.  Instead I had Krusteaz pancakes and a cup of coffee.  As I ate my breakfast I wondered how my luck will be in 2017.  I am hoping it will be a good year for coincidence.

Christmas Time is Here

 I saw a DHL truck pull up to the loading dock and went outside to see what the driver had delivered.  He was wearing a DHL uniform that consisted of the colors red, yellow and maybe another color. I asked him how his day was going.
"Great, just driving around on this nice day"  What a positive attitude I thought.  "I'm uneducated so this is a good job for me." He may not have an AA, BA, or even a high school diploma but somewhere on his route

he had found happiness and it showed in his demeanor.

While shopping at Grocery outlet the other night "I Melt With You" by Modern English  was playing in the store.  As I approached the check out line I heard someone singing along with the song.  It was a tall black woman.  "You must like this song"  I said.
"Oh yeah.  I do security in a store and can't sing along with the music they play so now that I'm off work I can.  It makes me happy. "
It may sound dumb but to find enjoyment in the small things in life are important.

At my job, there were several barrels in every department for the Toys for Tots program and also a food drive.  I saw a Ryder truck pick up the barrels the other day and realized it was too late to bring the food items I wanted to donate.  It seemed like a lot of the food people were putting in one of the barrels were reject food that they weren't going to eat. I grumbled every time I looked in it.

I once went to the Alameda Food Bank with my old roommate who used to work there and saw that someone had donated a huge supply of Red Vines.

As I rode the bus downtown today an Asian mother with her two kids got on the bus.  Each of the kids (a boy and an older girl) were carrying green shopping bags with handles that had "8-11" on them.  They were taking out toys and looking at them. The boy seemed to quite enjoy his toy microphone that lit up and the girl was examining a puzzle and then a Pictionary game that was in the bag. She was telling her mother how to play the game. They had come from an event in the Tenderloin where they were giving out toys to kids.
 "That's where those toys go" I thought.  Christmas is still a week away and I hope I can still find a barrel to donate some things.  I'll be sure not to donate any Red Vines unless they are taped to a DVD of a cool movie.

Never Scone Alone

Every visit to see my mom usually requires a lot of local errands before driving down. I go to the library and get a stack of DVDs and then across the park to Arizmendi where I get those cherry scones.  She has been experimenting as to which is the best way to serve them.  I enjoy them toasted for a bit. My mom liked them just as they are. She also tried microwaving one. That method wasn't my fave.
I asked her if she wanted to watch Wes Anderson's "Rushmore".  She said yes but she probably would have said yes to any movie except "The Armstrong Lie"
"I don't want to watch a movie about liars" she said.
After "Rushmore" was finished I asked her if she thought it was funny.
"yeah, but it's not funny like a Bob Hope movie"
Next time I visit, we are watching Wes Anderson's "The Life Aquatic"

Taking Advantage of Your Tax Dollars

A lot of my friends have asked me if I've seen a new hip show that is "sort of like X Files" and my reply is always no. I have only seen about four episodes of X Files and it was OK. Why would I want to watch a show that was just OK?  For someone who doesn't have cable I usually have the TV set to MeTV and still enjoy reruns of M*A*S*H and Columbo. I tried to talk to a friend about a Columbo episode with John Cassevettes as a conductor of an orchestra but they responded with a laugh and "Columbo?!" I  am generally about five years behind any type of TV program that is in the spot light.  I go to the library quite a bit.  Now that I am working I usually only go about twice a week.  Two visits ago I checked out "Finding Nemo"  I thought I'd watch that before seeing "Finding Dory" which got hyped as the best Pixar movie ever!  As I watched "Finding Nemo" I laughed about three times and wondered why the turtle dude was depicted as a stoner. The turtle never even ate any funny seaweed.  When it got to the end of the movie, the disc froze and I never saw what happened and I actually didn't really care.
 Most recently I watched "The Naked Island" directed by Kaneto Shindo about a family of farmers living on an island without fresh water and their struggles and triumphs. It was mesmerizing and it had no dialogue.  It made me think about Bela Tarr's "The Turin Horse" which was also about farmers and I don't think that film had any dialogue. I am going to return some things today at the library, and look for Gene Wilder movies and pick up my reserved copy of Michael Moore's "Where to Invade Next"  So the next person who asks if I've seen ... I am going to say "Have you read the new David Thompson book, the new Shepard Fairy book or watched Wim Wenders "Kings of the Road "disc two?"

It's Your Favorite Foreign Foodie

I am working as an archivist and much of the job involves entering data.  When I got my work computer which was a fairly old laptop, there were a pair of lousy computer speakers that came with it.  When I receive an email notification from Lee my supervisor, I hear a two note sound that goes something like "bee bwoh".  When I play music through them, they sound terrible.

My co worker Dan had a receiver and two JBL monitors at his workstation. He quit last week and I took over his sound system.  I was listening to a Beatles mix I made from one of their recent releases. It was the soundtrack to a Cirque de Soleil show.  I knew that it was remixed. I was listening carefully to background sounds that I had never really heard before then I realized the left channel on the amp wasn't working. There was no switch on the amp to make it play in mono. I turned off the music.  It's when I have quiet time to myself that my mind gets interesting ideas.
"If me and my co workers formed a band what would the name be?  Then it hit me. "SteveLee Dan"

Dan had left a bunch of Jolly Rancher lollipops and I thought I would go get one.  He kept them in the freezer to protect them from critters.  Beyond the ice that was forming around the freezer door was a green apple treat.  Next to it in a zip lock bag was one of Dan's burritos that he made.  He had failed to eat it before he left.  I think I'll eat it for lunch on Monday but I better bring a PBJ just in case it sucks.

Crouching Dragon Smoking

I was walking down Clement St. and on the sunny corner of 8th Ave. I saw two Asian kids crouched down on the sidewalk. One was holding a magnifying glass about five inches above the pavement and the other kid was watching the object below the lens.  I thought they were trying to burn insects but as I passed by and glanced down I noticed there was a cigarette butt under the focused beam of sun. I think their parents must have been in the produce market.

On 9th Ave. I ran into my friend Bob. We both enjoyed music, guitar playing and DVDs from the 700 section at the library. Eventually we started talking about Springsteen's "Darkness on the Edge of Town" box set and the song "Adam Raised a Cain"
He though it was too long and the guitar solo had no ideas. I defended its raw and emotional guitar solo. Which is about the point where he veered off to the library.

I crossed to the other side of Clement and visited my friend Robin at his model shop.  He is always working on something cool. He needed help shooting a video of him airbrushing the fins from a Godzilla model. I adjusted the framing and pressed play.
I was also curious if he had sold an item on Ebay for $14,000.
He told me it was bogus and the buyer said his kid was messing around with his computer.  You need to do two steps to finish a transaction on Ebay.  His kid must be really smart and beyond things like a magnifying glass.

Donde Amigos Carne

Whenever I go to a screening at the SF International Film Festival I always run into someone I know.  If the event is at a theatre where I used to work, its always fun to catch up with old coworkers or get new tips on cheap restaurants in the neighborhood. I was heading to the Castro to see a film. I found a good parking spot and walked down a hill to the theatre.
My friend Mark was working in the box office and I asked him if he had watched the DVD I lent him.  He hadn't but said he would watch it this week.  It was Ozu's "Tokyo Story" Then I asked him if he knew of any good places to eat. I didn't want to eat a slice of pizza which is usually my go to meal.  I thought he recommended  "Tacos Tacos"  but when I got to the area where he said it was I only saw "Taco Club"  and it was in the same location as a burrito place that I never really liked.  It had to be "Taco Club".  As one of my other friends said, "How can they mess up a taco? It's just grilled meat on a tortilla"  I walked up to the cashier.
"Dos carnitas tacos"  I said.
"How many tacos do you want?" asked the short Latino cashier.
"Two"  I said.
He then instructed the tall round cashier who was working his first shift how to ring up the order and use your finger to slide to the next screen on the monitor.
When my tacos were ready they were brought to me by the same guy who I saw making them.  They had a nice looking green salsa over the carnitas and came with a small lime wedge.  The tacos were great.  I left T.C and headed over to C.T.  (Castro Theatre) to watch a screening of a silent horror film with a live music score.  I ran into someone from the Asian Film Festival who was standing in front of the box office.  She was wearing blue shoes.
"Are those Famolares?" I asked.
She looked sort of embarrassed.  Her shoes had cool stripes on the side like K-Swiss.  I had a plain brown pair in the 70s.  She was waiting for her friend and when she arrived she took off as if the organist was playing the final measures of "San Francisco".