I decided to stay close to home on Saturday rather than hitting the Dyke March and Pink Party. I just wasn’t in much of a mood for crowds. Instead, I had one of the best Caesar salads in the city at L’s Caffe and finished reading my first for-fun book since starting to study for the LSAT.

The Harlequin by Laurell K. Hamilton… I’m happy to report that LKH is finally giving us some plot that isn’t sex, sex, sex. This book comes the closest to capturing the tone and feel of her early Anita Blake books that I enjoyed so much. It’s not that she’s done away with the sex, it’s that it doesn’t overwhelm the plot… which features Anita solving a crime and fighting new monsters. It almost makes me want to go ahead and read the next book in hardcover. I won’t, but I’m glad to see LKH getting this series back on track. (See some of my previous Anita Blake series comments here and here)

Anyway, on to the big event…

Sunday morning I slept in until a reasonable weekend hour and made my way downtown without rush, which was a novel experience in itself. No rushing to meet up with friends, no being in charge of anything, no plans and no drama. I didn’t even care if I saw the whole thing. Even so, I still got to the Parade with time to spare. I stationed myself near the grandstand and was able to watch about 3 hours of parade. The weather went from gray and overcast to sunny and warm while I was standing there getting sunburned because I didn’t think I’d need sunscreen.

After the parade, I made my way into the Festival for a little while. I quickly came to the realization that without a radio in my hand or friends to entertain, I have no idea what to do at Pride. I wandered by some booths, had a couple drinks, talked to a few cute guys, then called it a day. In fact, I had time to go to the gym, do some shopping (groceries and new sunglasses), and head home for an early evening with Safeway sushi for dinner.

Anyway, there are a buttload (bigger than an assload, smaller than a truckload) of photos from the parade after the jump…
Read more »

Posted: June 30th, 2008 under Pride, San Francisco, books, queer rights.
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It took me less than 24 hours to read Blind Fall by Christopher Rice. I’ve read all four of his books (usually within weeks of publication) and it fascinates me to watch him grow as a writer. Blind Fall is, once again, his most mature book to date.

Before setting out, I typically know four things about Christopher Rice’s books and style. 1) Characters are going to die in gruesome ways. 2) There is a sadistic villain in the story. 3) Secrets from the past (often involving sexual orientation) will be revealed in ways that are important to the plot. 4) The plot and villain are going to be metaphorically connected to some aspect of homophobia and queer community demons.

In Blind Fall Rice delivered on all four. That is not to say his books follow a predictable pattern, but it reveals the kind of book Rice is interested in writing… and I’m more than happy to keep reading them.

The story revolves around a straight, orphaned marine who has recently returned from Iraq. After several months back at home John Houck decides to visit his old captain, Mike Bowers, who had saved his life and lost an eye during the war. On the fateful night of the visit, however, John arrives to find Bowers brutally murdered. The only witness to this crime, John pursues another man at the scene, Alex, who it turns out isn’t the murdered at all, but Mike’s partner. By the time they get back to the house, the body is gone and the murderer has covered his tracks.

Before you think I’ve spoiled you on some important secret in a whodunnit, I haven’t. The murdered is revealed fairly early in the book (first half, at least) while the real plot centers around the psychological journey of John and Alex as they try to avoid getting framed for murder and try to find a way to bring the killer to justice.

Rice has moved away from the overblown evil-mastermind and credibility-stretching conspiracy villains that marked his earlier works. In this novel, the villain(s) are sad, petty people with sad, petty motivations. Are they homophobic, too? Some are, some aren’t.

Rice is much more concerned with exploring the concepts of obligation, guilt, justice, victimization, forgiveness and integrity.

Most tellingly, however, I didn’t feel like this book was “about” a particular theme. Instead, I felt it was about these wonderfully developed, fully-dimensional characters who seem more alive than any of his previous creations. These characters have flaws and strengths, flaws caused by strength, contradictions in themselves, and blind spots they are aware of.

I heartily recommend Blind Fall to all readers.

ETA: Just found out it’s Chris’s 30th birthday. What do you know, I’m 30, too. There’s some kind of kismet going on. Marry me, Chris.

Posted: March 12th, 2008 under books.
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I decided to go crazy this weekend and shave off my beard. For the time being, my chin is as smooth as a baby’s bum. Not my bum, that’s hardly smooth. I should maybe use Nair on that.

Reviews have been mixed. I got comments ranging from “did you shave something?” to “why do you look different?” and “is that a new shirt?”

Now that you’re all fully up-to-date on the status of my facial hair, we can move on to less important matters.

I picked up the new Christopher Rice novel Blind Fall today. I’m only a few chapters in, but already I’m enjoying it. I’d marry that young author if I wasn’t scared of his mom. And if it was, you know, legal. 86 days and counting until the California Supreme Court must rule on the case, by the by.

My sister and niece decided to start blogging this weekend, then she encouraged the rest of my sisters to follow suit. I agree. You can’t let me be the only one spreading vicious rumors about the family on the intarwebs. Defend yourselves or I’ll tell everyone about the infamous family visit to Disneyland and the day of the thousand body fluids.

On a final note, there oughta be a law that if we have to put up with this daylight saving time nonsense, we should have a federally mandated holiday to adjust to the time change in the spring.

Posted: March 10th, 2008 under Mi Familia, books.
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This week I read The Logic of Life by Tim Hartford. I placed an order for this book on Amazon a few weeks back after seeing Hartford appear on The Colbert Report, and I thought he sounded interesting. Also, I needed to take a break from books about law school before beginning my LSAT prep classes (which begin March 17) but also wanted to live up to my commitment to reading as many nonfiction books as fiction.

Anyway, The Logic of Life follows in the tradition of Freakonomics, turning the science of economics to understanding problems on a personal, family, community and global scale. While the writing was casual and engaging, I don’t feel like I followed the author all the way through. My mind wandered a bit too often and rather than re-reading a section, I just kept on going.

Still, it wasn’t difficult to read, I think I just didn’t engage in the topic matter as well as I might have at another time.

Hartford turns to the science of economics to some interesting arenas, ranging from inner-city problems, racism, smoking or gambling addiction, global nuclear threats, and more. Hartford’s central conviction is that most of us are rational people, and that seemingly irrational problems like crime, racism, addiction, and more are the products of rational thought.

Perhaps the most interesting take-away for me, though, came in the final pages. Hartford, in evaluating the sum economic growth of human history, points toward a remarkable discovery that explains the boom of the past few centuries in human innovation. I’m simplifying, but he suggests that we can think of human innovation as a bank account with $10 that earns 0.1% interest each year starting at the beginning of human history. For years, it seemed that the interest wasn’t paying off by much, but suddenly we’re seeing massive, almost exponential growth. Because innovation comes from ideas, not products. When early man discovered the wheel, you could take the wheel away from him, but you couldn’t take the idea of how to make the idea away, and it soon became common knowledge. Nowadays, with billions of human minds sharing ideas at ever-increasing speeds, the potential for innovation is so much greater.

This leaves me with a much more optimistic view of the future. Yes, the environment and overpopulation are serious issues to contend with, but so is the exponential growth of human innovation, and there’s reason to hope that we’ll continue coming up with solutions to prevent a horrible dystopian crash back to sustenance-level existence for the majority of people on the planet.

Anyway, I’m thinking that I would do well to go back and re-read some of Hartford’s observations on cities and diversity as economic drivers, they would be especially relevent to the work I do, although the connection isn’t laid out in an easy-to-identify way.

Bottom line, if you buy into Hartford’s theories and follow his evidence, it will be harder than ever to buy into the conventional wisdom about irrational people and their motivations.

As an added thought - combined with the collective works of George Lakoff (Moral Politics, Don’t Think of an Elephant, etc.), I challenge anyone to go on believing that voters are irrational and that people “vote against their self interest.” If I wasn’t already skilled at seeing an issue from many points of view, I’d find it very hard not to after the education I’ve been getting from my last few years of non-fiction selections.

Posted: March 10th, 2008 under books.
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After being blown away by Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and Iron Councilby China Mieville, and then being incredibly let down by the simplistic and embarrassing King Rat(which was an earlier work, but the fourth one I read and quite horrible), I’ve been a bit wary about picking up his latest novel Un Lun Dun. the book jacket synopsis sounded more like KR than his other twisted world. So I dutifully waited until the paperback arrived… at least I wouldn’t feel ripped off as I might have if I’d bought hardcover price.

In Un Lun Dun, two young girls find their way to a magical alternate version of London (think Neverwhere, Coraline, MirrorMask, Harry Potter, Doctor Who, etc.) named UnLondon, where things discarded or obsolete in London find a home (rubbish, old bus conductors, broken umbrellas, ghosts, etc.) and magic meets with science.

It turns out Zanna is the schwazzy, or “chosen one” destined to save UnLondon from the smog, a poisonous cloud that is getting stronger and stronger. But almost from the beginning, things begin to go wrong, and the prophecy doesn’t seem to be working out. Her friend Deeba seems to be the only one noticing.

The book isn’t as strong as the Bas-Lag novels, but it’s definitely more mature than King Rat.

What made this story work was Mieville’s skill at turning the world upside down in terrifying and believable ways. In Perdido Street Station, he taught me to be terrified of moths. In Un Lun Dun, he convinced me that broken umbrellas and windows can be deadly. Next time there’s a big storm in town, and I see those broken umbrellas littering the street, I’m going to be seriously worried about where they disappear to after the sun comes back.

Spoilers ahead… Read more »

Posted: February 16th, 2008 under books.
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I picked up I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell at the Border’s bookstore in the Detroit airport. I’d finished my previous book and was pretty desperate for anything that didn’t involve some Faux News blowhard trying to convince me that rich people are just more awesome than I am. I decided this book looked like an easy read which promised some frightening insights into the straight man mentality.

Internet author, binge-drinker, shameless womanizer, and self-confessed asshole Tucker Max shares true stories of random sex, blackouts, ruthless mockery of anyone he deems ugly or stupid, and more body fluids than is right. Sometimes the joke ends up being on him, but most of the time, he’s laughing it up at the expense of others.

I don’t know how to feel about this book. On the one hand, Max is contributing to a sexist perception of women as objects, makes dangerous binge drinking sound fun, and perpetuates a culture of cruel bullying. On the other hand, he can be fucking funny, and he seems to be aware of the fact that he’s an asshole. And let’s face it, I’ve certainly fallen for smooth-talking bad-boy assholes like him before.

Anyway, don’t start with the book. Start by visiting www.tuckermax.com and reading a few stories. If you like them and don’t hate yourself afterward, try this book.

Posted: February 12th, 2008 under books.
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No particular reason for the graphic, I was just bored and inspired to play by the You Suck at Photoshop tutorials.  

You know, no matter what happens in tomorrow’s Super Tuesday primaries, I just hope that we’re able to stop fighting amongst ourselves and get back to the usual partisan bickering.

For the sake of logging the books I’ve read, even though I’m not much interested in writing reviews, in the past few weeks I’ve finished Watchmen by Alan Moore, Law School Confidential by Robert H. Miller, and I’m slowly working my way through Moral Politics by George Lakoff. Every time I read Lakoff, it fills my head with crazy, heavy thoughts that take days to sort out.

Also, loosely on the topic of books, boss lady and I somehow ended up discussing The Secret today. She’s a fan. I’m not. The less said on the subject, the better.

Posted: February 4th, 2008 under books.
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Well, this will be a short review. I’ve already said that Kim Harrison is someone I read for pure escapism, but I’ll admit, she’s growing on me. For a Few Demons More is, in my opinion, her best book to date. It feels like she’s finally going somewhere with the story and I trust that she has an arc in mind. This is the fifth book in her Rachel Morgan series.

Harrison found new ways to torment and torture Rachel Morgan, but I still feel that our plucky narrator is the least interesting character in the series. She has some sort of big breakthrough about her relationship with Ivy toward the end of the book. I honestly couldn’t tell you exactly what that breakthrough was. Something about commitments maybe. Who cares? This book was plot-heavy and less concerned with the character growth.

A whole lot happens in this book. Major plot threads are wrapped, others are advanced in significantly new ways… this is not a book you could just skip if you’re trying to thumb through the series. One complaint, the introduction of a new character in the last two chapters (a psychologist with the FIB) seemed heavy-handed and an obvious set-up for a future plot-line/relationship.

The verdict: the best book in a series that continues to grow on me.

Posted: January 24th, 2008 under books.
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I just read Firebird by Mercedes Lackey. There aren’t a lot of books by Misty that I haven’t read yet, but that just means they are nice surprises when I finally do pick them up.

Overall, I thought it was a delightful fairy tale. More saccharin than some of her larger works, but no less grounded in realistic characters (despite the magic and talking creatures). I love Misty’s way of giving her heroes enough “flaws” to be accessible. In this case, Ilya is the too-smart-for-his own-good middle son of a Tsar with too many sons, attractive, privileged, a decent fighter and hopelessly optimistic. He’s also a rather shameless womanizer. In most fantasy stock characters, the shameless womanizer would either be the evil villain, an idiot and a fop (maybe with hidden depths), or would be forced to learn a valuable lesson at the hands of a feisty woman warrior who can match him as an equal. None of these things really happen with Ilya… although he does change by the end of the book, it’s not one of those “Oh my god, women can be good for more than just bumping uglies” conversions.

Firebird feels like a test run for her later Five Hundred Kingdoms series. Some of the same elements appear - the fox, the traditional fairy tale elements, etc. For example, Ilya must show kindness on his journey to a bluejay and a fox, which later reappear to help him save the day.

A light book, but a worthy read. Happy to have added it to my collection.

Posted: January 21st, 2008 under books.
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My latest read, The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama, is obviously both timely and a little biased. When I added the book to my giftmas list several months ago, I almost wish I’d simply run down to Modern Times and purchased it instead.

There’s no way for me to assess the book without reviewing the policies and politics of the man who wrote it. Truthfully, I’m both more and less impressed with his politics than I was before reading the book. Less impressed because as much as I agree with him about the need to find compromise and end partisan bickering, I’m worried about where he will draw the line when push comes to shove. Some things, like basic civil rights, should be so fundamental that there is no room for compromise - but as we’ve already seen with ENDA, any opportunity for compromise will be exploited by the fundies and the moderates.

More impressed, though, because he seems to genuinely believe in the change he’s talking about. He respects people of strong opinions (”idealists”) and people of moderate opinions (”realists”) on both sides of the political aisle. It’s rare for someone to be able to respect “both” sides of an argument - but someone who recognizes that it’s not so much “both” as “all” sides of an argument and recognizes that there are kernels of truth in all viewpoints (from the extreme to the moderate) is practically unheard of.

I also like his answer to the gay marriage question - that while he isn’t supportive, he acknowledges that he may very well be wrong on the issue when history makes its final decision. To me, that signals a willingness to engage in honest inquiry and debate on the issue. Once we make that hurdle with our political leaders - making the issue about reason and logic instead of knee-jerk emotion and religious dogma - the battle is more than half-way won.

Anyway, the book is well written and surprisingly accessible. I think I expected a book thick with policy wank-iness, but instead I got a book speaking of complex political questions in as straight-forward and honest a manner as you can imagine. When he doesn’t know the answer, he says so. When’s the last time you heard that from a politician.

I don’t know that I agree with him on the subject of how regulation can impact small businesses - he’s far too comfortable accepting that as a “realistic” counter to regulation law whereas I see it as a red herring used 99% of the time to benefit huge corporate interests by raising the spectre of Ma and Pa General Store. I think he realizes that, but I also think he’d be swayed by a handful of small business owners complaining that new wage laws, insurance requirements, etc, will “put them out of business” regardless of the actual scope of impact those  laws would have.

On the other hand, Obama’s take on globalization - from the impact on American unions and labor market, foreign policy, education, and technology - is probably the most practical and realistic assessments I’ve heard. Granted, it’s not a topic I’m widely read up on (silly to pretend otherwise), but he certainly manages to find a road somewhere between beating the drum for unchecked free market forces and the gnashing teeth and wailing in fear about the ruin of America’s working class.

I’m still voting for Kucinich in the California primary, but Obama is my second choice. As for the book, yes, read it. Absolutely. Even if you plan to vote for Clinton, Edwards, or (gasp) a Republican, the ideas are worth knowing and sharing.

Posted: January 17th, 2008 under books.
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