This 'n' that

We were dog-tired from walking around Disneyland! More photos from our recent trip can be found on qbear's web site.

Speaking of qbear, we walked down the hill last night to the Castro to attend fuzzygruf and Steve's sing-along, a warm evening of Christmas caroling with about 20 guys, including LJers bowlerbehrsf, biggersbetter, hotelbearsf, ricksf and dhbearguy. Gary played the piano marvelously and we enjoyed yummy cookies, brownies and baked ziti, plus the company of some very sweet guys, some of whom sang beautifully. Others sang well. All in all, a great way to get into the Christmas spirit, after the too-busy mood I've been in lately. (We haven't even had time to put up our tree, or see Return of the King.)

Got back home around 9:30, courtesy of bowlerbehrsf (we were not about to walk up that hill), and I started finishing up my UNIX shell scripting class homework, which was due at midnight. I had the scripts ready and debugged, but I still had to send e-mail to the professor telling him that I was done ... when the power went out! If he didn't get my e-mail by midnight, my grade would be reduced! Luckily Jack had the presence of mind to look out the window and see that houses across Portola still had power, so I called our wonderful neighbor keanubear and dictated the e-mail to him and had him send it. Thanks John! The power came back on around 11 p.m., but still, it was good to know that that class is over and done with.

And now, five questions from bigredpaul:

1. Tell me about when you feel most connected to the earth. Why?
Biting into food that evokes the taste, to me, of "earthiness" -- wild mushrooms, galangal, caramelized onions, game, beef, Greek olives, bitter chocolate. Foods abundant with umame. Getting my hands wet and dirty in black soil, gardening out back, planting flowers or herbs. Smelling the aromas of honeysuckle, pine, ocean breezes and rich, dark, decaying vegetation. Birdsong in the creaking trees. Cicadas buzzing. Peacefully viewing and savoring mountains, canyons, forests, lakes, with no evidence of roads, powerlines, or any other trace of humanity.

2. Play prophet for a moment. Based upon the current state of affairs in the United States, where will we as a nation be in twenty years?

I'd rather be pessimistic and be proved wrong, but it's hard to see that trends I deplore won't continue to get worse. More people will be illiterate and proud of it, and music and television will be even more crass and dumbed-down. The rich will be richer, and will use their riches to protect themselves and their class. A backlash to the movement of jobs overseas to cheaper countries won't be successful in stopping that movement, because profit will be glorified and other considerations (such as community interest) will be derided. Unemployment will rise, and working employees will have to put up with exploitative conditions that treat them even more like cogs in a harsh machine. The environment will continue to degrade, because there's money to be made in degrading it.

3. What is your favorite thing about San Francisco?
It's easier to make friends here than in other parts of the country that I have lived, and I appreciate that. (Although it could be argued that it's harder to make really deep friendships.)

4. How did you realize that you were = insert your favorite description of your sexuality here=?
Despite the fact that it's a cliche, I'm going to use the word "bear" to describe my sexuality, in that I'm a beefy, furry bearded gay man attracted to roughly the same.
I had never really know there was any sort of "bear movement", or that there were many other gay men who were attrracted to the same kind of men as I was, because I didn't get out much. Then, in 1991, I was attending a Monks of Doom/Mekons concert at the 9:30 club in Washington, D.C., and I noticed among the photos of upcoming bands a photo of the band King Missile. Chris Xefos, the drummer, was wearing a cap that said BEAR on it in a logo style. What was this? I'd often thought of the term "bear" to describe the men I was attracted to, and now here was a man who was bearded, wearing a BEAR cap. What was BEAR? Could this guy possibly be gay? Were there other men like me? I went looking, and found BEAR magazine, BEAR FAX magazine, bear clubs, the Bear Mailing List ... I realized I wasn't unique, and I wasn't alone. I was a bear.

Now, 12 years later, I'm not only friends with Chris Xefos, but I have met his roommate, musician Victor Krummenacher, who played up on stage at that concert with the Monks of Doom. It's a small world.

5. Describe your best friend in haiku.
A constant delight.
And why not? After all, he's
from Planet Cornball.