Annalog

Summer came and quickly left again — short, sweet and reserved for memories. From the look of the brown-leaved trees throughout the Bay Area, it’s hard to tell fall has come. Leaves don’t turn brilliant colors out here on the West Coast. The rainbow of reds, oranges and yellows are mere memories of fall road trips through New England now. I took a walk through Berkeley one night and came across dead twigs and crunchy leaves here and there. The only sign that fall had come — small reminders of summer.

When the Treasure Island Music Festival ended Saturday night, hoards of people streamed out of the gates and toward buses to shuttle them off to San Francisco. After a day of euro pop and dance music, concert-goers were still hyped up and ready to get down, but night slowly overtook the island and the other-worldly glow of concert lights soon faded.

When the World Trade Centers were attacked on September 11, 2001, I was too young to really comprehend the gravity of what had happened. I grew up in the aftermath of the attacks, matured in an era supposedly marked by healing. During Jon Stewart’s first show after September 11, The Daily Show host remembered the day Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. I wondered: What will I remember of September 11th, 2001 in 40 years? Watch Jon Stewart’s response to the attacks.

The barrel rooms at Robert Mondavi Vineyards are cool and dim. Beautiful French wood barrels harvested from forests owned by the French government — each store around 30 gallons of wine. New barrels cost about $1000. After they’ve been used, the barrels go for about $5 each.

I’ve just discovered yet another cool way to integrate my life — blogging from my iPhone. So now my “mobile device” Twitters — feeding to my Facebook — and publish blog posts from the road. Next step: making Twitter feed to this blog — simple enough just as long as the WordPress theme allows it.

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I photographed the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the Fox Theater in Oakland last Thursday night. Queen Sea Big Shark and Yacht opened the concert. Karen O released a cloud of red metallic Ys (seen above) during the first three songs of the YYYs set.

Since Michael Jackson’s death was announced last Thursday afternoon, I have a new found appreciation for his music and his dance moves. I’ve tapped my feet to “Beat It” in the BART station and attempted to Moon Walk. I have been a proud card-carrying member of the iPod generation the last few days, listening to Invincible and HIStory almost nonstop. Guess it’s going to be a while before I can get through his whole discography. (more…)

The new iPhone came out Friday, and everyone, even to Steve Wozniak, managed to get in line to get their own. The buzz about the newest Apple product has been a little insane—trending next to #iranelection on Twitter and dominating Tech sections in newspapers. But it is the newest communication devise, so it would stand to reason that people are talking a lot about the sleek new “phone.” (more…)

Oh, how I enjoy summer. I took a long time waking up and getting ready this morning before heading to San Francisco on the BART. I’m still new to Muni, but I managed to get onto N Judah heading toward Golden Gate Park without too many hiccups. My initial mission was to get a photo near the UCSF campus, but that ended up falling through, and so I walked all the back to the Civic Center BART, stopping to look into small shops along the way.

The World Cup comes to South Africa in just under a year. The media buzz has started. Tourists are getting ready to flood into the country still hurting from apartheid. How will visitors react to the still blatant disparities in this developing country? Concerns about xenophobic violence in townships around the country threatened the country’s prospects of hosting the games last year, but fears were quelled after the brief outbreak cooled.  (more…)