San Francisco

Back home in 旧金山

Most U.S. cities have transliterated names or at least phonetic approximations in Chinese, i.e., New York sounds somewhat like “New York”. Similar phonetic names exist for Chicago, Los Angeles, etc. But San Francisco has a unique name: 旧金山, which translates to “Old Gold Mountain”. This isn’t simply a nickname, but the official Chinese name, as it appears on my visa.

It is good to be back home, though there always more I could have done on such an overseas trip, both personal and work-related. But now it’s time to pick up where things left off here. Lots of work to do, lots personal projects…and hopefully all the construction and drama at CatSynth HQ will wrap up in about a week.

Midnight Monday: Cat in the Window

No, this is not Luna. This black cat, featured in a holiday window display at Macy’s in San Francisco, did bear a strong resemblance.

Macy’s and the San Francisco SPCA have a longstanding program that features adoptable animals (cats and dogs) in the store’s holiday window displays. You can find more info at the San Francisco SPCA site.

Upcoming Shows: Saturday, Sunday and tonight!

In the midst of everything else going on, I have three upcoming shows, including two this weekend:

Saturday, December 6, 8PM
:plug4: headphone festival
5lowershop, San Francisco.

The headphone festival returns. I will be performing ofter electronic music, with a playful bent. It is a “headphone” event where people live at the venue as well as those listening online will be using headphones. For those who are interested, you can also listen live online on Saturday. visit http://www.deletist.info/plug4.html or http://www.leplacard.org for more info.

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Sunday, December 7, 7:30PM
Musicians Union Hall, 9th St @ Mission St, San Francisco.

SIMM Series Outsound Year End Blow Out Show

Polly Moller/Amar Chaudhary duo
CJ Borosque/Matt Davignon duo
Conure
Rent Romus, Philip Everett, Pete Martin, John Vaughn
and more guests! solos, duos, trios, and the Outsound SuperSize Ensemble.

The mission of Outsound Presents is to raise public awareness of sound and unique events not otherwise made available by presenting public performance, co-op promotion, and education throughout the year. Donations from this evening will be used to support Outsound’s future programming efforts…

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And a bonus show, tonight:

Thursday, December 4, 8PM
Luggage Store Gallery, 1007 Market Street @ 6th Street, San Francisco
Outsound Presents Ad-hoc experimental freeform improv.

Ad-hoc experimental freeform improv like dude whatever jam, followed by Chris Skebo (trumpet)/Luigi Marino (computer)/Karl Evangelista (guitar)

Marriage Equality (aka "No on 8") Rally, November 15

On Saturday, demonstrations were held throughout the country in support of marriage equality and against the recent passage of Proposition 8 here in California (as well as similar measures in other states). Of course our local event in San Francisco was one of the more prominent.

It was an exceptionally warm and sunny weekend here, considering that it’s the middle of November. It was already getting hot when people started gathering at City Hall ahead of the 10:30 start time.

And the crowd grew rather quickly.

Indeed, it was hard to see the speakers, or hear them. In that sense, it was a bit frustrating and gave the event a sense of poor planning. At the same time, it was great that the crowd was so large. And it was worth it to be there in support of my friends and all the other people whose marriage rights were taken away. This is part of the way to win them back.

Some more colorful banners, playing on the California and U.S. Flags (we featured the “rainbow Bear Flag” in a past Wordless Wednesday).

After a while of standing in the heat and attempting to listen to speakers, we all decided to march from City Hall along Market Street towards the Castro District.

That is where my participation ended for the day, but this is too important an issue to simply end at a street corner…

Election Day

Well, Election Day is here.

Here is our sample ballot and voter guide for the City and County of San Francisco, California:

Yes, it is a tome! One actually has to read and study in order to do a good job with today’s civic duty. And maybe that’s not a bad thing. The rather large size is mostly because of all our local and state-wise propositions. We have 22 local propositions. Most are very mundane, but we have some “interesting” ones, like naming a waste-water treatment plant in honor of the outgoing president (yes, the “George W Bush Sewage Treatment Plant”).

We also have 12 state propositions, including the most profound:

Those of you with us here in California, please use to your sense of reason and fairness, rather the fear and prejudice, when you consider Proposition 8.

And of course we shouldn’t forget that national election today:

Luna is joining us in absentia:


[click to enlarge]

Her boarding place is not far from our polling place, so I’ll pay her a visit after voting…

Unlike many other civilized (and not-so-civilized) countries, Election Day is not a holiday here in the U.S., and so some of us have to go to work. That includes me, as well as the construction crew here at CatSynth HQ. Making Election Day a holiday one of those things we question every four years and then never do anything about.

UPDATE

Well, the deed is done. It was actually a long line when I arrived late this morning. It seems that they temporarily ran out of ballots. It was a chance to talk to some other people from the neighborhood while waiting. I think all of us in line nearby worked in computer software. And indeed most of the line appeared to be a “blue demographic.”

I did go visit Luna afterwards. It was a wonderful moment of peace and calm amidst the current intensity and excitement and anxiety. I will remember that as part of this day.

Now there is nothing to do except await the results…