In transit

I am in San Francisco, at big dave's pad, and Mark Twain's musings about the weather up here spring to mind. It's pretty chilly.

Here's a picture of me and my pop taken on my stepmother's laptop. I took off from the Central Valley this morning.  It was very hot and there were a lot of particulants and smoke in the air.  Great to see my father and family and spend some time.  Usually I am blowing right through.

I have had to listen to the national orgy of pain and sadness regarding Michael Jackson on talk radio this morning.  Jeez, I had no idea he was so important in this world.  Greatest entertainer ever, I just heard.   They were trying to find an example of another figure who could elicit such a reaction on KNBR, the sports leader, and they came up with maybe Obama.  The Dalai Lama and Muhammed Ali came up a distant third and fourth.

Now I respected the Jackson 5 as a cool pop band with basically no emotional depth and feel the same way about his solo work.  Great dancer, definitely - but almost a Sal Mineo cartoon rebel pose that was so phony to me.  Always reminded me of a yappy poodle.  He also reminded me of Liza Minelli in some ways,  both totally vulnerable china doll types.  Always raked me like a fingernail on a blackboard.  What am I missing about the gloved one?  Have to wonder if his death would have caused such a major reaction if he had been a black man?

I wonder what outpouring the eventual demise of Dylan will elicit? To me, he is the major iconic artistic figure of my time.  He captures the feelings and nuances of human experience like no other.  But alas, no moonwalk.

Alberto Gonzales finally got a job today - teaching a political science course at Texas Tech. Wonder if any of his old buds pulled any strings for him?

Neighbors told me that they saw a large mountain lion in the field behind my house about three nights ago.  They said my dog really went off.  

Went to Sausalito to eat at a place called fish.  Had fresh local sand dabs.  On the way back we drove up  the dark twisting road to the Marin Headlands and watched the full moon between the bridge pylons.  Guess there was an eclipse.  Hundreds of photographers. Stunning, and I left the camera in the city.  Shit.