The unbearable weight of being

It's been a heavy week, both on the home front and in the world. And since I don't really want to get into my personal woes, I'll focus on the news.

After reading about the U.N. workers who were killed in response to a Florida Koran burning, I felt such an urge to succumb to isolationism: bring all the troops home, forget globalization, and erect a 30' wall at the U.S. border.

But, alas, things aren't so great in North America either. Earlier in the week I wrote this email to a couple of friends:

In my sociology class in Las Vegas, we discussed how ridiculously low the official poverty line is in America. A single person is considered to be living below the poverty line if they are making less than roughly $10,000/year.

This [New York Times] article looks at how much people really need to make in order to have a minimum level of economic survey (their figure is closer to $30,000/year for a single person).

Now consider the fact that the most recent statistics show that about 14% of Americans live below the "official" poverty line. Meanwhile, the top one percent hold forty percent of the country's wealth.

And I don't know how President Obama can justify it when General Electric pays no taxes, but I find it scandalous that GE's CEO Jeff Immelt heads Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

(On the other hand, look at the Oval Office alternatives. What has our nation come to when the likes of Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, and Michelle Bachmann get air time as potential GOP presidential candidates?)

I HAD BEGUN TO THINK that we weren't really capable of dealing with climate change, but maybe we could at least lessen the problem with better nuclear technology. But watching the Fukushima mess in Japan is a reminder that we humans are mostly incapable of escaping the blinders we wear. We just have a really hard time dealing with the unknown unknowns as Andrew Revkin discusses here.

AND FINALLY: on the way to work earlier this week, I tuned in to Morning Edition midway through an interview about the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Listening to the guest speak, I made the assumption that he fit into a particular pigeon hole, namely the "liberal commentator." I took what he was saying with a hefty grain of salt until I learned that he was actually Neil Barofsky, the Inspector General for TARP.

So while news this week that the government actually made money on its TARP loans to the banks is good, we can't forget all of the other ways that the program failed to meet its objectives (for example, the utter failure to reduce the scale of the foreclosure debacle).

You can read Mr. Barofsky's op-ed piece in the Times here or listen to his NPR interview here.

It all circles back around... in a time of financial crisis, we took the best care of the people who needed the least assistance. Instead of simply stabilizing the banking system, we sent the perpetrators home with 100 cents on the dollar and big bonuses. The Republicans want to cut-cut-cut the spending that affects most folks but keep the huge tax breaks for GE and the rich.

And the world is so small now that when an idiot in Florida burns a book, people on the other side of the globe die for it. Go figure.

My Google story

My friend Jack sent me this Super Bowl ad (which is as close as I got to the game :-). The ad showcases Google but reminded me of how dependent we've become on the search engine. Which then took me back to a funny experience I had a few years ago...

I was at my old office in Beaverton, and a co-worker asked me if I had a certain computer cable. I knew I did but wasn't sure where I had stored it. So I sat down at my computer and started to type the name of the cable into Google. Then I remembered that I was looking for a physical item in the real world! I had gotten so used to using Google to find things that I had over-generalized its use.

(Video link)

This post, in turn, has reminded me of an article from the Las Vegas Review-Journal that I read not long after moving there. Unfortunately their online archives only appear to go back to January 2008, so I can't link to it. The article focused on how the casinos had seen a shift in their revenues, with most money now coming from slot machines rather than table games. And the change was no accident: the people who make the machines had worked hard to make them an increasingly immersive experience, one that people can't easily walk away from. The money quote in the article came from one avid slot player who told the reporter that she really didn't like to win anymore because it interfered with the flow of her game!

More angles on the Copenhagen climate talks

An aide to one of the delegations claims that the Chinese intentionally scuttled last week's climate conference. James Fallows comments.

MEANWHILE, Thomas Friedman writes about Denmark's own progress on cutting carbon emissions. And two researchers from the Netherlands, Gert Jan Kramer and Martin Haigh, argue that in order to head off disastrous climate changes, we need to not only focus on coming up with new technologies but also pay attention to how quickly they can be deployed on an industrial scale:

To combat climate change, the world's entire energy system needs a major overhaul before the middle of the century. But can we build new energy supplies that quickly? Some argue that with the right incentives we can see similar rates of change in the energy system as have been seen in information technology. So most of the debate focuses on how much the transition will cost and who will foot the bill. Here, we argue that cost is less important than the rate at which existing low-carbon energy technologies can be physically deployed. Because the scale of the energy system is so huge, it takes time to build the human and industrial capacity to achieve substantial deployment.

The authors of this Nature article worry that even in Shell's fairly optimistic alternative energy scenario, "Blueprints," the rollout of new energy sources won't be enough to achieve the greenhouse gas emissions that are needed:

Even with all these policies in place, the CO2 concentrations achieved in the Blueprints scenario fall short of environmental ambitions. An even tougher goal of stabilizing CO2 concentrations at 450 p.p.m. — as climate science recommends — would require a largely decarbonized energy sector by 2050. Our best chance of beating the deployment laws requires efforts on multiple fronts, as Blueprints shows, but going beyond those optimistic projections remains an even more significant challenge.

One implication of the deployment laws is that more action is required on the demand side to increase efficiency and curtail consumption. The good news is that demand-side solutions are subject to different laws. In principle, everyone in the developed world could use less energy tomorrow. The bad news is that it has proven exceedingly difficult to restrain our appetite for more energy. No climate actions are easy and none of them is quick.

AND FINALLY, when I lived in Las Vegas, one of the issues that concerned me was the bureacratic hurdles that slowed the progress of solar energy projects in the state. And while I care passionately about the environment, I think protecting the desert has to be balanced with the impacts climate change will have around the globe. So even as I understand Diane Feinstein's motivation, I'm worried about the effects of her proposed legislation that would limit solar projects in the Mojave.

What happened?

I am finding it hard to believe that at this time ten years ago, I was planning a trip to South Beach to welcome in the year 2000, relieved and happy that I'd escaped being on call for any Y2K problems that might arise at work. And thinking about going platinum to welcome in the new millenium (I did).

I lived in San Francisco. It was a few short months before I bought my first home. The stock market was soaring. I was in love.

A year later I was single and still missing the man who'd also been my best friend.

And a year after that America was still recovering from the collective shock of 9/11. I was looking for a new home in Portland, feeling fortunate in a bad economy to be relocated to Oregon when my company closed up shop in the Bay Area.

In these past ten years I've gone to Australia and Germany twice each, England several times, and visited The Netherlands, France, and Italy. After a ten year hiatus, I returned to Mexico for the first time in 2007 and have been back many times since then. I've had some amazing trips and unforgettable moments with friends. I've loved again. And I've lost two special family members.

After moving to Portland, I eventually returned to SF. And then moved on to Vegas. And now I'm back in Portland. I quit my job before being clear about what I was doing next, and I'm still figuring it all out as I go. The economy is bleak once again, and each downturn we've had this decade has increasingly revealed signs that America's economic problems are fundamental and not the result of a simple boom and bust cycle. We've grown used to things that are unsustainable; we've become blinded to what's real.

I find it hard to believe that the aughts are coming to an end, that 2010 is around the corner, that this is the 21st century. Like many I know, I find myself thinking: it wasn't supposed to be like this, right?

I'm still muddling through. For the most part, we all are. But the problems we're facing together grow bigger and bigger: an economy that depends on China loaning us money, a climate that is gradually shifting toward one less hospitable, a creaking infrastructure that becomes increasingly vulnerable to collapse, near gridlock in Washington. More people. Limited resources. Technological solutions that have unintended consequences.

Hope and promise still exist, but shams and illusions and stubborness are obstacles in an interconnected world that loom larger than they once did when communities--and nations--were more self-reliant. We're all in this together yet still looking out for #1.

These thoughts are not meant to be wholly pessimistic, but where we turn down a new path--and whether we can muster the will to do so--are answers that I don't have, answers that I'm not seeing anyone offer.

LAST NIGHT I watched Ben-Hur, and afterwards I went to the web to research a simple question: what is the meaning of Christ's crucifixion? In an era of Google and Wikipedia, I've grown used to finding a quick, unambiguous answer to most questions. Last night's query was not such a case. And that reminded me of my general belief about the Bible, the one that's reinforced every time I stay in a hotel and open a drawer to leaf through the copy left by the Gideons. How does John 3:16:

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

coexist with all of the apocalyptic fire and thunder of Revelation? How does a God who so loves the world destroy it?

My thought about the Bible is this: you can use it as a handy guide to pick and choose people to throw stones out. Or you can use it as a path to inquiry: what can I learn from these contradictions? How will I live my life? What kind of person will I be? It's an inquiry with no clear answers; with answers that mostly produce more questions. It's easier to throw stones or watch TV or vote "no." But too many stones and too much TV and too many "no's" give you a decade like the one we're now completing.

All of this was triggered by a couple of articles I've just read, one looking at President Obama's year of compromises and diminished goals (wasn't Reagan partially successful because he drew a hard line and then declared victory with whatever compromise resulted?), the other describing Tiger Woods' double-life as symbolic of so much of what's befallen us in these past ten years.

And before reading those articles I spent an evening having interesting conversations at a holiday party, mostly with people I didn't know that well. The contrast of the experience there and my thoughts at home about the wider world lead me to think that we humans are best in small groups. I haven't found a societal problem yet that hasn't been made worse by the sheer number of people on the planet.

A shopping center for another era

Dubai is struggling. Las Vegas and upscale retailers aren't as recession-proof as once thought. No doubt things will get better over time, but I suspect the luxury boom of the last decade is past its peak. There will always be rich people, but the strategy of selling high-end goods to the masses went too far.

With that said, the ritzy Crystals shopping center at City Center in Vegas opens today. Good luck.

The day has come: leaving Las Vegas

Two months and a day ago, I wrote a post about my plans to leave Las Vegas. The day has come.

I almost didn't move here in the first place; sitting in a San Francisco coffee shop and researching Las Vegas, I was ready to tell Victor that I didn't think it was a place where I wanted to live. And then I heard a song playing: the theme from the French movie Contempt, which I first heard when it was re-used on the Casino soundtrack. It was a song that I liked so much that I'd made it the first track on my "bedtime ZZZs" playlist.

(Music link)

"A song from the Casino sountrack," I thought, "It must be a sign."

I've since realized that it really was a sign. Unfortunately, a sign that I badly misinterpreted. After all, Casino opens with the main character being blown up, and his wife was practically a prisoner in their home. Hearing the song that day wasn't a sign that I should move to Vegas... it was a warning not to come.

So my reasons for coming to Vegas were suspect, at best, and the man I came for turned out to be a shady character, to put it mildly. LESSON LEARNED.

Still, I grew to love the desert, and I came to appreciate much about Sin City. There are so many great people here, and I'll miss them. But I'll also welcome them to Portland, and I'll see them again here (and everywhere else we crazy queens fly off to).

But it took coming to Vegas for me to make a decision about what to do with myself for the second half of my life. I've been nursing this feeling of being "in between" the past few years... at least now I know where I'm going.

I THINK I MUST HAVE BEEN a nomad in another life (probably a desert nomad considering how much I love the heat). Driving to Portland will mark my 21st move to a new home. I was just talking to my dad, and we agreed that I must like it since I keep doing it.

I'm looking for something, and maybe like the main character in The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon, I'm looking for exactly the opposite of what I think I'm looking for.

But today I'm getting on the road again. I'm leaving Las Vegas, without any regrets for coming, and having learned here again both the importance of friendship and of believing that I can follow my own path. And I'm going somewhere that I love, and even more than the first time, it feels like going home.

To everyone I love in Vegas, you will be missed, but I'll see you the weekend of November 7th to the 8th!

And to everyone in Portland, can't wait to see you... and I'm looking forward to the spring, lol.

As for you, Alejo, I'm looking forward to it all. :-)

Here we go. Ready. Begin.

Las Vegas visitor traffic still down

From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

Las Vegas visitor volume fell 3.7 percent in August, the 15th straight month the number of tourists coming into the region has decreased.

Almost 3.1 million travelers came to Las Vegas during the month, compared with 3.2 million in August 2008, figures released Friday by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority show. Visitor numbers have fallen 18 times in the past 20 months.

For the first eight months of 2009, 24.4 million visitors traveled to Las Vegas, a decline of 5.8 percent compared with 25.9 million visitors in the first eight months of 2008.

Room occupancy in August was 81.4 percent, down 6.9 percent from a year ago, despite various promotional activities used by casino operators to spur visitation during the summer months.

"Occupancy levels are pretty much back to where they were. They've stimulated a lot of people to come to market with very aggressive pricing discounts," Robert LaFleur, an analyst with Susquehanna Financial Group, told Bloomberg News. "People showed up and didn't spend anything much on the rooms so they're spending more on gaming."

For the first eight months of 2009, room occupancy levels are down 6.2 percent compared with 2008. The average daily room rate was down 21.5 percent in August, compared with a year ago, and 25.4 for all of 2009.

Domestic partnerships arrive in Nevada

Nevada's Domestic Partner Registry Act goes into effect today, allowing lesbians and gay men in the state to register their relationships with the state. From The Center in Las Vegas:

According to the Nevada Secretary of State's office, nearly 700 couples pre-registered their partnerships in the month-long pre-registration period ending September 24th in order to receive their certificates today. Many more couples are expected to file their forms today.

For GLBT couples, this opportunity represents the equalizing effect that state recognition offers for our relationships. We now enjoy many of the same rights and responsibilities in Nevada that opposite-sex couples enjoy when they choose to marry and share their lives together.

The Center sponsored multiple workshops to educate couples about their rights and responsibilities under the law—with hundreds of couples attending the seminars to be better informed about their choices and obligations. 27 couples registered one night, on September 14th at a Center sponsored seminar.

A special thanks to Senator David Parks for his hard work in sponsoring this monumental legislation and Secretary of State Ross Miller and his office for their commitment to making the process simple and accessible.

Thank you to all those community members and organizations, who organized, educated, lobbied and worked to make this law a reality.

And the Las Vegas Sun has an article about two women who worked to get this law passed:

Why do they love each other?

Carline, who is now 37: “She has the biggest heart I’ve ever met. I don’t know anyone who would take on all of that responsibility when she did. She was 18, she could have gone to college and only had one job. But she took three jobs and was with us. She’s always provided for us, making sure we have what we need. She’s always been there for us. She’s been really good to me and really good to the kids. She’s funny. She’s smart.”

Jodie, who is now 27: “She’s always there to talk to. We work well as a team. We get things done.”

Carline: “She’s a woman of few words.”

And then the whole scene dissolves in blushes and hugs....

Last spring Nevada’s Legislature debated a bill introduced by state Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas. It wouldn’t overturn Nevada’s ban and make us one of the four states with same-sex marriage. It wouldn’t provide federal recognition for same-sex couples. But it would make Nevada the 10th state with either domestic partnerships or civil unions. It would be a legal piece of paper for couples to show doctors and bosses.

Carline and Jodie consider themselves active in the gay community, but they don’t think of themselves as activists. As Carline says, “I’m a lesbian but that’s not the only hat I wear. I’m a mom, I’m active at my kids’ school.”

They also were among the couples who traveled to Carson City in April to lobby legislators to pass the bill.

We're getting closer...

to finding another Earth-like world. Astronomers have discovered about 300 planets in other solar systems, but they've just found the first one that's confirmed to be a solid body like Earth. The others have all been gas giants or of undetermined status.

This first extrasolar rocky planet, however, is unlikely to harbor life since its surface temperature is around 3600 degrees (even hotter than Vegas).

More from NPR. Thanks to my Portland buddy Jake for the heads up.

Leaving Las Vegas

Two years and a day ago I arrived in Las Vegas. I had been living in San Francisco, had muddled through a depressing spring and early summer, and then had met Victor while he was living in San Diego. He invited me to move to Vegas with him. I agreed.

I arrived that first day with excitement and hope for a new start, a feeling that was quickly tempered a few days later when I caught him in a lie... unfortunately the first of many. But somehow we made it through a year and a half, and when we split up, I thought that I'd stick around and make a life in Vegas. I was in school, working on my pre-reqs for a physician assistant program, and sticking to that path seemed like the way to go. (One great thing about moving to Vegas has been starting school and figuring out what to do with the rest of my life, no small thing.)

That was eight and a half months ago. While I've had some good times here, I've also spent a lot of time on my own, doing my own thing, unsure of where this path was leading. I've ran off to San Francisco for many a weekend; I was spending time with my old circle instead of building a network here. There have definitely been opportunities to do so in Vegas, and too often I've chosen to let them slide by. I'm feeling that now: missed opportunities.

It's been hard to invest the time and energy into being a good friend here when I've been so uncertain as to how long I was staying. That's been a mistake, because while I was here I could have just been here. And I've come to see how much I do need the support of friends, especially as I navigate my way towards a new career. I'm feeling the call of established ties and the desire to be close to those who know me well already.

San Francisco, of course, will always be home, but it can be a bit too much sometimes--too many things to do, too many friends with tempting offers--and I'm hesitant to try to be a student there, lol.

Portland is home, too, and a bit more low key and easier to manage. And since my top choice for school is there anyway, it seems like the way to go.

Today I'm just trying to decide when: do I stay and complete another semester at UNLV, or do I move sooner?

Either way, I'm leaving Las Vegas in 2009. It's just a matter of when.

Then, again, now, and when

Hmm. Today is a strange nexus of my childhood, my young adult life, where I am now, and where I'm going.

I returned last night from a weekend in San Francisco and at the Russian River. So many memories of so many days and nights gone by. I was at the River from Saturday until Monday; Sundance was on Sunday. It was always one of my parties; there are few things I love more than dancing in the sun surrounded by good friends and beautiful men.

At one point early on on the dancefloor Sunday afternoon I was dancing within fifteen feet of my college boyfriend Lance, my first post-college bf James, my ex-husband and current wingman Tommy, and the two men I dated when I returned to SF from Portland, Anthony and Justin.

I was also surrounded by friends who I've danced with for over fifteen years, and the DJ, Phil B, told my friend April that he loved how we were all out together after all these years.

The mid-nineties: the best of times... one of those magical moments when you make a circle friends that last forever.

But there were new good times over the weekend as well, though reality sank in back in Vegas. Classes have started at UNLV: do I stay here for another semester, or do I move on to Portland where new opportunities are waiting? And when and how do I start cleaning up all of the messes I've made?

And childhood... how does that fit in? Driving home from UNLV, on a 100 degree day, planning a Friday happy hour with my friend Ricky, I was ready for a beer. I remembered being a kid and watching Dallas and noticing that when JR came home from Ewing Oil, he'd make himself a drink. And I thought, "When I'm grown up, that's what I'm going to do. Come home and mix myself a cocktail."

But while I love them, somehow a drink has never become part of my post-work routine.

(This Heineken sure is good right now, though! :-)

So you know you live in Vegas...

When you go to bed, set the thermostat at 80, and still feel cool under the covers. :-)

Ahh....

Just had a refreshing, post-cardio swim at 1:30am. One nice thing about summer in Vegas. :-)

Almost as much fun as sneaking into the municipal pool at this time of night to go skinny-dipping when I was a kid! (Shhh, don't tell anyone.)

The beginning of summer, and pride

It's summer. It's summer because it's hot. It's summer because it's hot, and I heard a song I liked on the radio. It's summer because it's hot, and I heard a song I liked on the radio, and that's how I knew it was summer as a kid: I opened the windows and enjoyed the heat and turned the radio up loud.

I listened to Casey Kasem's Countdown. I listened to my 45s.

And life was good.

One of the few things I love about Vegas is that it's hot in the summer, and that activates my inner Stonehenge. In the summer I was free from school, and that made the milestones that marked summer all the more important.

Memorial Day Weekend.

The heat.

Pool season.

Wheat harvest.

Freedom. To do nothing. To open the windows and blast my music. To run around in as few clothes as possible (my friend Brian would wear his swim trunks for days in a row, even sleeping in them).

I loved my first decade in San Francisco, but one thing that was always difficult was the disconnect between my internal sense of the seasons turning and the external reality of a cold, foggy June. An August/September summer just isn't the same.

I want it hot, and reliably so, and I want to hear pop hits. I want to be free.

JUNE IS ALSO PRIDE MONTH, and this year is the 40th anniversary of Stonewall. I've been thinking of Pride's gone by...

1988, Stonewall 19. My first Pride. I went to San Jose Pride earlier in the month. A week or two later, I arrived in SF early to march with the Stanford contingent. I was outdoors from sunrise to sunset, and I got the worst sunburn I've ever had. I remember making eye contact with a boy on a float as it passed by. I made out at The Stud with my friend Matt. It was all magnificent.

1989. I was dating my first James. We had broken up for a week (not the first time, not the last). I went to SF with my friend Andrew, and we went to one of the first nights at Pleasuredome, the nightclub that was to become my all-time favorite. I also went to Santa Cruz Pride (once was enough).

1990. SF. I think this was the first year that Oracle Corp. had a group marching in the parade.

1991. I had just moved to SF; I think we had a party at Club Fabu. The first Pink Saturday?

1992. In SF, but my memories are vague.

1993. Uh, oh, vague again. My last SF Pride before meeting Tommy and "the new era." :-)

1994. Tommy and I celebrated SF Pride and flew to NYC the next day with Bette and Andrew for Stonewall 25. Now that was a week! We saw none of the Gay Games... but we went to a lot of great parties. Everywhere we went the streets were filled with gay men and lesbians: leathermen in chaps at the theater, boys on the subway, girls in the streets. Everywhere. Tommy and I stood on top the WTC and climbed to the crown of the Statue of Liberty. We danced in a gothic cathedral and on an aircraft carrier. Nights to remember...

1995. My friends and I danced all night, changed clothes, and rode the Club Universe float--the last float in the parade--in what was definitely my wackiest SF Pride ever. And this, the most memorable of all years, also included our first San Diego Pride. Our first zoo party: one of the best evenings with my Joy Luck friends ever! Where is the butterfly egg?

1996. SF, but a strange year. Not with Tommy, but not without him either. I think I hit Long Beach Pride as well.

1997. Jamie and I missed SF, instead spending a glorious week in Puerto Vallarta. But we went to San Diego Pride with friends from SF and Madrid.

1998. SF and San Diego with Jamie. Very good times.

1999. SF and San Diego with Jamie. More good times.

2000. San Jose Pride with a new group of friends. Then home to Kansas for a family reunion, missing most of SF Pride. Returned for Pleasuredome Sunday night; much awkwardness seeing Jamie. The beginning of a long, rough period...

2001. SF Pride. Way too excessive, though memorable. But long-lasting consequences.

2002. My first year in Portland. Marched in the parade with the Panorama float, but had a strangely lonely afternoon. Too many friends working that day...

2003. I missed Portland pride, home with a cold. But had a really fun Vancouver Pride with my friend Alex. (Or was that 2004?)

2004. Another vague year... not sure if I went to Portland Pride or not...

2005. Missed Portland Pride and what I think was the first warehouse party. Was in Los Angeles for Andrew's 40th.

2006. Back in SF, and a fun weekend celebrating pride. And back to Portland for the craziest Pride there ever! If only I hadn't lost my rental car... twice!

2007. Believe it or not, my first LA Pride at the end of the AIDS/LifeCycle. And then SF Pride... my absolute rock bottom during another difficult time. So over SF by this point. And then I met Victor at San Diego Pride.

2008. San Diego Pride with Victor. Some good moments, some very bad ones.

2009. Stonewall 40. Portland Pride... what a wonderful trip! So many good friends to see again.
Everything was just right and in balance. And a last minute trip to SF today, back to where it all started. :-)

UPDATE And to top off 2009, Tommy and I headed to San Diego for Pride. A very fun weekend... the highlight was our janitor grift... we pretended to be janitors to get into a sold-out party Saturday night!

StorageOne Self Storage in Vegas

So I rented a truck from Budget's office at StorageOne Self Storage at 3375 S. Fort Apache Blvd. this morning. I arrived back at 2:55pm to return it, only to find a "Sorry we missed you - back at 2:40" sign.

The guy who rented me the truck walked in around 3pm and proceeded to sit down and eat his lunch. It's now 3:11 and he still hasn't unlocked the door.

Niiiice customer service.

Another razor thin margin

This time in the Henderson mayoral race. Democrat Andy Hafen won:

With all of Henderson’s 15 vote centers reporting by about 9:40 p.m., combined with the early vote, Hafen won 9,700 to 9,655, according to unofficial figures from the Clark County Elections Department. That was 50.18 percent to 49.88 percent -- or a razor-thin difference of 0.24 percent.

Two hours and forty-five minutes...

And no intermission. They don't make bands like Fleetwood Mac anymore! Awesome concert!

(Video link)

Fleetwood Mac tonight!

I saw Stevie Nicks years ago in the Bay Area but am going to see the whole gang tonight at the MGM with my friend Shanti.

(Video link)

(Video link)

My brain feels like this sometimes...

It's the new Frank Gehry-designed Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas.

Obama back in Vegas, stumping for Reid

The President was here tonight to give a speech at a sold-out Caesar's Palace fundraiser for Senate Majority Harry Reid.

Amazingly, I didn't go!

Seriously, the tickets were only $50, but what I really wanted was one of the $2400 VIP tickets, and I just didn't feel like stopping by an ATM. ;-)