Things are sort of starting to settle down here. I’ve had another week of extraordinary busyness and some emotional upheavals on the home front (if I owe you e-mail, please be patient for just a touch longer).
I’m trying hard to focus on the positives, so here goes:
Favorite new bookstore: Bird and Beckett on Diamond (thanks to
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, who had her reading there last week). I managed to buy not only her book, but Blessed Unrest, which I’ve heard discussed on NPR and have been looking forward to greatly, and The Dream of the Poem, a book on Hebrew poetry in Christian and Muslim Spain from 950 to 1492. Anyone who’s read my series from when I was in Toledo in 2003 will know my fascination with this era.
Favorite new relaxation space: Watercourse Way, which Doug took me to one night. Oh my. We had the Moroccan-themed room with our own spa, sauna and plunge pool. It’s a gorgeous place, beautiful music. You hire rooms, pay by the person and then lock the doors. I couldn’t help but think it’s exactly what we need for those Friday night soaks,
. No more of this silliness where it’s women-only because we’re in the Japanese baths public space.
Favorite new band: this is a hard one, because I’ve just experienced three awesome groups. DeatHat, a haunting sound that would fit right in at Woodford; Klezident Evil, which plays klezmer and, yes, video game soundtracks; but for pure raucous entertainment, I’m going to have to vote for SmashUp Derby, who I saw today at the San Jose Pride festival. I rang
and
to play them bits of this: George Michael’s “Faith” vs The Cure’s “Closer”; Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” vs U2’s “Bloody Sunday”; and many more awesome LIVE mashups. I think my favorite was “Smells like Teen Spirit” with “Billy Jean” sung over the top of it but it’s a hard choice. There’s heaps of songs to download at their site. Go play.
Favorite new area of SF: Okay, this is really just an excuse to mention that we went up to SF to see Helen Lawson-Williams, who I went to primary school with, and who was in town for work. But we did end up wandering around Caffe Greco and popping into the Apple store up there, and checking out Chinatown and it was a lovely day out.