"Our government should work for us, not against us. "

In case you missed Barack Obama's monumental speech at the Democratic National Convention....or you just want to watch it again and feel empowered for a change....here's the speech in its entirety.

Livin' la vida local

During the past few years, I've spent part of my summer in Paris. This year, however, I couldn't do it logistically or financially. But I realized that -- in some ways, anyway -- I can live in my own hometown in a similar way that I can when I'm in Paris.

So I took the metro to the local farmer's market on Saturday (the open market at the ferry building downtown) and loaded up on produce and goodies...then made a feast for myself at home of local dry-farmed tomatoes (the most amazing tomatoes you'll ever eat!), fresh basil, mozzarella, garlic curd (from the local Spring Hill Creamery...garlic curd sounds weird, but it's delicious), olive oil, and balsamic glaze. The result? Delicious.

I live in a cool city, too, and there are lots of local things to enjoy. For now, if I'm missing Paris, I can just turn on TV5 Monde and pretend...

A little night music

I just finished reading a news story about the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) and a judge's ruling earlier today about "fair use." The case in question: a 29-second YouTube video of a dancing toddler that had a Prince song playing in the background. The record company said it was a copyright violation; the creator of the offending video said it qualified as "fair use."

In this case, the judge ruled in favor of fair use and not the record company. And thank goodness....because at this rate, we might have to start wearing special earplugs to avoid accidentally overhearing music that we didn't pay for...like, from that open car window, for instance.

I like this statement from the court:

"A good faith consideration of whether a particular use is fair use is consistent with the purpose of the statute. Requiring owners to consider fair use will help “ensure that the efficiency of the Internet will continue to improve and that the variety and quality of services on the Internet will expand” without compromising “the movies, music, software and literary works that are the fruit of American creative genius.”

And not just American creative genius, I might add. The issues of copyright are challenging, and that's why my own downtempo music podcasts focus predominantly on artists and labels who offer Creative Commons-licensed music as much as possible...except in a few cases where the musician or the label gives me permission to include their work.

Curious? Check out my latest podcast episode. (There's only a brief voiceover intro followed by 50 minutes of uninterrupted music, then a summary of artists and track names at the end.)

There's a lot of great, independent music out there that's not signed with the big labels, so some of this brouhaha can be avoided altogether....

MuniMe

It's been awhile since I've had to take the Muni Metro system during rush hour, but today I needed to go downtown at the height of the commuter hours. And with the increased use of the transit system over these past few months -- that is, with people finally figuring out that public transit is a saner option than driving a gas-guzzling automobile around the bay area -- I was hoping that Muni was stepping up to accommodate the growing masses. You know, decreasing the time between trams, increasing the number of cars attached together during heavy commute hours...making the system more tolerable, rather than a chiropractor's dream come true. I'm a huge advocate of using public transit, having used it most of my life--I'm practically a cheerleader for trains, trams, and buses. And I want San Francisco to rise to a higher standard. (Think: Zürich.)

Here's a photo of what I was greeted with today when I entered the metro station....mind you, the tram cars were already full with passengers on arrival...let's hope there was a good reason for this.

Electionitis

On Tuesday in California, we're having the second primary election so far this year. I'm not sure why we're having another election before the November election -- why couldn't they consolidate them to save money?

The star of the show this time seems to be a big, nasty ballot measure that's supposed to wipe out all forms of rent control in the state. I guess some political groups decided that it wasn't enough to have the highest cost of housing in the country, so they're trying to push through a ballot measure to enable the costs to go even higher...even faster.

We've got other ballot measures to sort through as well...there's always one for "affordable" housing and city workers' pension plans and near-identical regional politicians running against each other and keeping the Photoshop artists very busy doctoring up their images on the flyers and posters. And anyway, why am I often voting on things like workers' pensions, which should be decided on by my elected officials?

Another election, and still not the big one that we've all been waiting for since November, 2004.

Whatever happens on Tuesday, I'll be relieved when I stop getting a mailbox full of electoral propaganda every day and the annoying, pre-recorded phone blasts (with poor audio quality) in my voicemail. Here's just a sampling of what I've been tugging out of my mailbox and dropping into the recycling bin lately.

meet me @ casablanca

Last night I went with my friend Alain to a little cafe that we saw on Polk Street: Casablanca Café. You can almost miss it when you walk by: it's next to an North Beach-style coffeehouse between California and Sacramento streets.

The café is a small operation run by a friendly Moroccan man and his wife. There's only a few tables, a small bar area, and a deli counter that separates the cooking area from the eating area. It's not "upscale" looking.

Only the man was working last night--which means he waited on tables, poured drinks, and also did all the cooking. We settled into a corner bench with some pillows, drinks, and appetizers, and just waited patiently. And the wait was worth it! Alain ordered chicken tagine with prunes, and I ordered lamb tagine with lemon, artichoke, and olives...both were delicious, and cooked fresh for us while we waited.

Casablanca Cafe is no frills, but the food is good....and it made me feel like I was in the 10eme arrondissement in Paris...or perhaps in Belleville. If you like Moroccan food and you don't mind visiting a small place that doesn't have waitpeople...and you want a bit of authentic ambiance in a distinctly urban environment, then check it out: 1609 Polk Street, San Francisco.

And now ...for a little music

Enjoy this 10 minutes of psychedelic chillout from Aleph Zero Records. This is Shulman live on stage in Tel Aviv. I love watching musicians play live on stage alongside laptops. Nice little video....too bad it doesn't fade out at the end.