A Mighty Wind

After the dark, depressing rains of Saturday, Sunday was much sunnier. In the morning, qbear and I trekked to Costco with special guest keanubear, who was probably astounded at how many DVDs and books we bought. Honestly, John, that's not a usual shopping spree for us. But heck, if you're going to be spending $200, then spending $300 isn't much worse. Anyway, we're wrapping up the DVDs and books (including the complete Far Side hardcover set!) and will be putting them under our Christmas tree. Now we just need to forget what we bought for ourselves between now and Dec. 25, so we'll be surprised.

In the late afternoon we went to the Lone Star, where we hung out, enjoyed a drink, and saw plenty fo folks we knew, including fellow LJers iberianbear, biggerzbetter, sinnabor, ricksf, and theotherdon, who I tried to say hello to but it was too noisy and he didn't hear me. As we were leaving, wonder of wonders, we ran into mamoosh, who was in town briefly. Also think bearsgonewild might have been there, but I don't know him by sight well enough to be sure. Someone who looked like arkanjil was also there, but again, not sure if it was him.

Talked with biggerzbetter about a number of things, including weightlifting (which I'm starting to get back into, after stopping for more than a year). My philosophy of it is that the goal is to increase your strength, endurance and energy so that your body is healthy and you have the ability to do the things you want to do. The "looking good" aspect of weightlifting stems from the increase in muscle size and tone and the resulting robust health; thus, emphasizing bulk without also doing cardio and increasing energy and endurance is just a one-sided approach, going for appearances without the strength to back it up. It's hard work. If you just want big pecs without the strength of naturally built pecs, do what women do and get implants.

(The last time I was lifting regularly, we were moving from our Castro apartment into our Diamond Heights house two miles away, and I had the strength and energy to move more than 40 carloads of small items by myself, saving us a few thousand dollars in moving expenses. Not sure if I'd be able to do that now, which is one of the reasons I'm trying to get back into shape.)

After the Lone Star, we grabbed a quick bite and then went to the Warfield for the A Mighty Wind concert. Based on the pseudo-documentary comedy movie of the same name, the concert featured the same musicians (Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Parker Posey, etc.) as in the movie, along with non-musicians Bob Balaban and Jennifer Coolidge. It was an absolutely side-splitting time. We loved the movie and soundtrack CD, and we loved this concert, in which the three folk groups (The Folksmen, Mitch & Mickey, and the New Main Street Singers) never once broke out of character. At the end of the movie, Harry Shearer starts living as a woman, and so he did in this concert, playing bass for the Folksmen in drag throughout. The banter was hilarious, and the songs were humorous, gently satirical and often poignantly beautiful. Best time we've had at a concert in, perhaps, ever.