3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17...

San Francisco, CA - A warm and sunny Sunday morning, I should be outside right now...

The last couple days in the city have been pretty cold and foggy, a sign that summer is upon us in SF. This morning is a nice change.

Last Friday I saw this great band Zack introduced me to called Isis. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isis_(band) The band has a heavy rock sound and they tend to put its audience in a trance of sorts, by weaving together powerful near-industrial choruses with softer melodic in-betweens. Whats particularly spell-binding about the band is the way they shift the time signature in their songs. The song could start with a simple 4/4 time, then switch to 6/8, then 3/4, and after a while you just lose track and get bewildered. The band is so tight that they pull it off unblinkingly. Zack said that they will invariably slip into a 13/7 time, because its all about prime numbers. Isis sometimes had a sort of a jambandy approach with its frequent tangents, although its clear that their sound stems largely from bands like Tool. (A-)

Yesterday I went downtown to the Landmark Embarcadero theater to see "Das Leben Der Anderen" (The Lives of Others). The Embarcadero is my second favorite theater in SF. Its always showing great indie movies, its fun to drive down there, and they vaildate parking. They've got these beautiful movie posters on permanent display (pic).

I got down there a little early and took a bunch of pictures around Embarcadero One and Two. It was a little sunnier on that side of town, as is often the case.

The Lives of Others depicts the political and cultural scene of East Berlin in the mid-eighties, and the orwellian drama caused by the "Stasi", or secret police. While the film depicts well the clash between writers/performers and the abusive communist GDR, the film seemed more interested in character development, more interested in longing, loss, and love. Besides being well written, the cinematography was excellent, displaying the drab and grey East Germany of the time. Although it takes place in the eighties, at times I felt the film could have just as easily have been set in the 30's. Good score, great costumes, good acting, the film was effective, and I left the theater somewhat bummed out. I understand why the film won the academy award. (A-) The next film I want to see is the Tarantino/Rodriguez double feature Grindhouse.

Ok, its really nice out now, time to go for a run. More soon.

Andy