True Colors

Friday night Andrea and I went to the True Colors concert at the Greek in Berkeley. The tour takes its name from one of tour organizer Cyndi Lauper’s best-known songs. A portion of the proceeds from each ticket sold on this month-long tour, goes to benefit the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest organization working for GLBT equality. The tour also provided a forum for other equal rights organizations, including PFLAG and the Matthew Shepard Foundation.

San Francisco-born comic Margaret Cho served as the host of the event and provided some of its best moments with her between-sets comedy routines. Almost all of her bits and punch lines are rated NC-17 — especially the lyrics to her hilarious rap song Your Puss which she performed with fellow comic Diana Yanez.

The tour’s two opening acts the Cliks and the Dresden Dolls were both really solid. The Cliks is a Toronto-based female indie-rock quartet that (according to my pal music critic Jim Harrington) should appeal to fans of the Pretenders. The Dresden Dolls is an over-the-top glam-rock duo from Boston which describes its sound as Brechtian punk cabaret. Jim thinks they sound like a mashup of the White Stripes and Queen — and I have to agree. The highlight of the Doll's set was an amusing and flawless cover of Black Sabbath's War Pigs.

Sadly, both openers overshadowed the next act: Deborah Harry. The New Wave icon, who turned 62 on Sunday (July 1), sounded okay, but her song selection was disappointing. Harry focused on her solo material, mostly including tracks from her new disc instead of her legendary work with Blondie. The best part of her set was the tune French Kissin’ in the USA, but there could have been many highlights with a fewBlondie tunes thrown in.

Rosie O’Donnell took the stage next and wowed the crowd with some stand-up material. Her humor centered around her sexuality, her weight, her time on “The View” and, of course, her battle with Donald Trump.

Andy Bell of Erasure

Following O’Donnell, Erasure entered the picture and a booming dance party started. Backed by three female singers, the duo of vocalist Andy Bell and keyboardist Vince Clarke gave the best set of the night. In fact, in my mind they just plain blew everyone else away. They sounded so good and there was so much electricity in the air during their set that I got chills. Seriously.

Erasure played several fan favorites like Blue Savannah, Love to Hate You, Chains of Love and Sometimes. Bell's voice sounded strong and clear and the classic Erasure tunes sounded better than ever. Even the new songs stacked up against the old ones. Proving that Erasure’s new disc Light at the End of the World is the band’s best release in years.

Lauper couldn’t match Erasure’s overall energy during her set, but she did contribute some good moments. For example, she delivered an energetic version of Money Changes Everything and a very funky rendition of She Bop. Lauper also brought O’Donnell back on-stage to add some solid percussion to Girls Just Want to Have Fun and then summoned the entire cast back for an uplifting show-closer on Abba’s Take a Chance on Me. All in all, True Colors was a truly fabulous concert!

Pride 2007

Last weekend was Gay Pride in San Francisco. I'm sorry to say that the last time I went to SF Pride was before I got Natalya :( To be specific, Andrea and I went to the Dyke March then. We were supposed to meet my pal Pati there and a funny thing happened along the way... It went something like this:

I called Pati on her cell phone when we got to the Castro (as planned). Keep in mind that when Pati and I talk on the phone we goof around a lot. We sing to each other and say "hello" in very affected ways.

Pati: Hello?
Me: Helloooooooo! Happy Pride!
Pati: Hellooooooo to you too!
Me: Hey there Patooti! What's shaking?
Pati: Helloooooo darlin'! (in a sing-song voice)
Me: So let's meet in front of the Gauntlet baby.
Pati: Okay -- see you there in a few minutes. Bye!
Me: Okay. Bye.

Andrea and I walked over to the Gauntlet and I didn't see Pati so I called her back.

Pati: Hello?
Me: Howdy. Where are you?
Pati: In front of the Gauntlet.
Me: No you're not. I'm standing here and I don't see you.
Pati: I swear to you — I'm in front of the Gauntlet.
Me: Then why can't I see you?
Pati: If you want your cell phone back you need to find me.
Me: Huh? What are you talking about?
Pati: You left your cell phone in my car and I'm trying to meet you to return it.
Me: But I'm talking to you on MY cell phone.
Pati: Wait a minute -- do you have long red curly hair?
Me: No Pati. But you do you big idiot!
Pati: Oh no! I'm not Pati. I just have her phone.
Me: Huh?
Pati: This woman with red curly hair left her cell phone in my car. I gave her a ride to the Dyke March but I don't know her.
Me: Oh — so you've been answering Pati's phone...
Pati: Well yeah. I was hoping that I could figure out a way to get the phone back to her.

Needless to say, Pati got her phone back that night and we both had a great big laugh about the ordeal.

a lesson in determination

We just returned from a trip to Michigan to see the family. Took the kids to a water park one day and Natalya had a blast of course. One of the pools at the park had 3 basketball hoops. Natalya grabbed a ball and her mom and jumped into the pool to shoot a few baskets. Natalya and I spent about 90 minutes total shooting baskets throughout the day. During that entire time she never made a basket. Never.

(Natalya & Cousin Joshua in the pool)

But my girl didn't get discouraged. She never wanted to give up and she never stopped having fun. I have a new appreciation for what a special little girl she is and am thrilled that I'm continuing to learn from her approach to life and living.

got brownies?

natalya and i made brownies the other night for her to take to school. she was a big help! :)

OM

natalya gave us a buddha for our backyard for mother's day. we planted the flowers and rocks around him. kinda peaceful looking isn't it?

and so it begins...

I started my 21st (wow!) season at Shoreline Amphitheatre last weekend. Our opening show was headlined by Brad Paisley -- he's a popular country artist. (Hey I just work the shows I don't book 'em). Anyway, let's just say that it was an eye-opener of an evening for me. This popular country cross-over stuff frightens me. Case in point: before Brad takes the stage the music of AC/DC is blasting through the venue and all of these cowboy hat covered heads are banging to Back in Black. Then the lights go down and Brad takes the stage and the crowd switches to country mode and they're all singing along with the guy who writes "tears in my beers" songs like Two Feet of top Soil:

Yesterday I thought that I was low as I could get
I had hit rock bottom ever since you up and left
But this morning when I saw you with somebody else
Well needless to say
Thats when I started sinkin' even lower
And as far as where I'm at today

Theres two feet of topsoil
A little bit of bedrock, limestone in between
A fossilized dinosaur
A little patch of crude oil
A thousand feet of granite underneath
Then there's me

Amusing but not my cup of tea...give me Back in Black any day and ROCK ON!

mother's day 2007

natalya did a portrait of me for mother's day this year. and she told me that she loved me "more than a potato chip." i'll take that as a compliment :)










here's a photo taken on my first mother's day
with natalya (2003). we've both grown a lot
since then.

another milestone achieved

Natalya has officially mastered a two-wheeler! Needless to say, she's feeling very grown up now. The day this picture was taken it was about 90 degrees outside. When Natalya got dressed for school she ran downstairs and grabbed her winter fleece jacket to wear.

Me: "Natalya it's going to be really warm outside today. You don't need a jacket."

Natalya: "Yes I do Mom. I need to wear the jacket to protect people from seeing my cute clothes."

Me: (making a mental note: don't ever tell Natalya that she looks cute in her clothes.)

playdate

got dreams?

Yesterday morning I told Natalya that she could ride her bike to school (I throw the bike in my car and she rides from the parking lot to the classroom). She replied "oh Mama you're the best! You make my dreams come true!"

And Miss Muffet makes my dreams come true as well — she's going to be an awesome basektball player! Here's a picture of her playing while her proud mom looks on :)

girls just wanna have fun

I love this pic of Natalya and her pal Yarden playing with shaving cream at Camp Rimon. Those two girls really know how to have a good time!

perhaps it was a premonition?

Florida State 68, Stanford 61

I am in mourning. My Stanford girls lost to Florida State last night. And they lost at home. It's so painful! I wouldn't feel so bad if we'd (yes we'd) played a good game. But we didn't. We pretty much sucked. This is really testing my resolve to not see loss as disaster.








Stanford center Brooke Smith wipes her eyes after Stanford was upset by Florida State 68-61 during their second-round game in the NCAA women's basketball tournament.

loss & luck

As we head into basketball season's March Madness where one loss means you're out of the tournament — I've been thinking about loss and luck in general. I certainly had my share of losses and luck in 2006. And it's still difficult not to initially view every loss as a disaster — but I'm working on it :) Here's a little something from Elizabeth Bishop:

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost
that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day.
Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant to travel.
None of these will bring disaster.

Even losing you (the lovely voice, a brilliant smile) I shan't have lied.
It's evident the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like
(write it!) like disaster.

i met a REAL rock star...

The coolest thing happened last week: I finally met a real rock star! What do you mean by 'real' you ask? I mean the guy who invented the Apple iPhone!!! How cool is that?

I saw this guy at a Stanford game playing with what looked like an iPhone and thought to myself "that looks like an iPhone". But then I thought that it couldn't be an iPhone because nobody has an iPhone yet (except for Steve Jobs er -- and this guy).

Anyway, it turns out that the man who's been sitting in front of me at Stanford games for the past three years or so is the one and only Scott Forster. Not only did he create the iPhone, he created Mac OSX as well. A true genius and a true rock star in my book!

crime scene?

I found two of Natalya's Barbie dolls sprawled out on the floor this morning -- so far I haven't found any witnesses to the heinous crime.

who's your daddy?

So I'm laying in bed this morning cuddling with Natalya and listening to a CD: Lisa Marie Presley to be exact. At one point I looked at Natalya and asked, "did you know that Lisa Marie is Elvis Presley's daughter?"

Natalya looked at me with eyes wide and replied, "you mean OUR ELVIS?"

You gotta love that kid of mine :)

happy valentine's day

The Yahoo! billboard in San Francisco.

the agony of defeat

No. 8 Stanford Women's Hoops Upset By No. 21 California, 72-57 Stanford's winning streak is ended at 17 games.

Pinch me -- am I dreaming? No. It's a nightmare! That's right folks. My Stanford Women's Basketball team LOST to Cal on Sunday. I'm still recovering. I think I'm in the angry stage of grieving now.

How the f---k could my girls let this happen?! The Stanford women haven't lost to Cal in six years. And this is their first loss in the Pac-10 Conference this year (now they're 11-1). I know. It's still a respectable record for the season -- but lose to Cal? Unacceptable!

Freshman Center Jane Appel fights for a rebound

dental trauma

My little daredevil had an accident at school the other day. Natalya and her friend Ori were on the same swing playing "spider" (I still haven't gotten a straight answer about what this game entails) and Natalya fell off. Then Ori fell on Natalya and her teeth ended up in his head. Ori's head is fine. Natalya's teeth are not.

After two hours at the dentist Natalya now has "splints" on her front teeth. Turns out that the four teeth in the front (on top) were all injured and lose. Ouch!

She's feeling very grown up because "it's like I have braces like the big kids" and couldn't wait to show her pals at school. Thank goodness she's such an optimist!

We have a special mouth wash to prevent infection and will go back to the dentist in 10 days. The dentist thinks that the main two front teeth will fall out within six months on their own. She's trying to save the other two because the roots are still quite long.

Hopefully we've made our one and only trip to the "Dental Trauma Room" at her dentist's office. :)

fame

the other day natalya and i were in the car chatting about her singing talent. we discussed what it was like to sing in front of an audience "like Madonna" (yes. that's my daughter!) anyway, she thought for a moment and then declared that she didn't want to sing in front of a lot of people because she "might get stagefreaked."

by the way: Natalya has changed her stage name from Sydney Wicked to "Vicky Hartbrask". (don't ask -- I have no idea where she gets this stuff from).