monday haiku

saw review on yelp of
k f c and they said it
was greasy. morons.

upcoming and interesting

so, there are a lot of cool shows coming to fresno and the area in the next month and beyond. this is great news for me, as i haven't been to a show in ages and have missed hearing live music.

nov. 1 - the generationals & el olio wolof @ audie's olympic. i've never heard of the generationals, but they have a pretty cool sound. sort of reminds me of old motown, but not totally. anyway, i'll be at this show without a doubt because it's el olio's last fresno show ever. i don't know why it's their last show, but whatever. i love their music, and will be there to give them one last cheer.

nov. 5 - the dodos and rademacher - my love for rademacher is well documented, so it shouldn't be too surprising that i'm interested in going to a show of theirs. really, i'm pumped to see them open for a big, touring band. and, several of my friends are really into the dodos, so that's good for them. this shows in visalia @ howie & sons pizza, where i've never been, but i hear decent things about the place.

dec. 18 - the grouch and brother ali @ the cellar door. brother ali has got to be my favorite hip hop artist. i love his cadence and vocals, and his lyrics are amazing. this shows a ways out, but that gives you time to save up the $22 for tickets. also, it's @ the cellar door, so it'll be a great, intimate venue.

swings at the big fresno fair

college kids on the dope slope

do you wake up early. i do.

do you watch kopi & the great day crew? me, hell no. i hate that crap. but, this almost makes me want to tune in. almost.

our friend malcolm sosa, from rademacher, and his new band college kids on the dope slope will be on great day tomorrow morning. they'll be doing a few songs.



if you like more sensible time slots and share a dislike for kopi, you can also hear this band on the view looks good from here, fresno podcast. we're scheduled to record with them thursday evening and you'll be able to download after that.

thanks clawson & redline

if you've ever read this blog, you should know that i really like to shop local when i'm able. today, i needed to get some things done, and it really paid off, in my opinion, that these were local shops.

first up was clawson motor sports. a while back they became the licensed victory dealer & service department for the area. i was happy about this because the previous one was down in fowler, and if i could avoid driving a bit of distance to get service done on my bike, great. and, clawson is right around the corner from one of my jobs so it usually makes it easy for me to get it over there. anyway, last week my headlight was having issues. it turned out that one of the two bulbs, the high beam one, was dead and if you tried to use it the fuse would blow. this would mean no headlight at all, which is illegal. i generally run with the high on for more visibility on my bike, but was fine running with just the regular until i could the other fixed. but, i didn't know why the light was out, and i didn't realize it was a blown fuze due to the other bulb. i took the bike into clawson, but unfortunately they didn't have the bulb in. they didn't know that at first, and had the bike in for a while which caused me a labor charge. anyway, they ordered the new bulb, which came in yesterday, and so today i went by with the bike to get the bulb changed. i'd already paid for the bulb, but i knew i'd be paying a little more labor for the install. i waited as the work was done, and when the finished, the service rep comped it. when they said it was zero i was a bit confused, because i was counting on the labor charge. the rep nicely explained that it wasn't my fault they didn't have the bulb in the other day, i paid for labor then, so she didn't think it was fair/right for me to pay the labor again. super nice! i already planned on bringing the bike back there for future service, but this really seals the deal.

after clawson, i figured i would run one more stop before home. the other day i lost a little ball that goes on my earrings, basically locking it on my ear. i hit it while taking off my helmet, so i wanted to replace it. i had originally bought these rings at redline tattoo and piercing, so i figured they would have the replacement ball i needed.



anyway, i arrived at the shop, and they were hanging out, talking and waiting for customers like often seems to be the case at tattoo shops. i explained what happened, and the owner (i'm assuming) told the piercing guy to just comp me a replacement. sweet. the piercing guy searched for the right sized ball, and not only gave me one that he thought was the right size, he also gave me two others that were a little bigger and may stay on better. free. since i was planning to pay for the part, i gladly accepted them for free, and tipped the guy a few bucks out of thanks. that made him happy.

all in all it was a great afternoon. now, i'll get ready for my next local experience over at...the local. that's right, it's almost time for pub quiz at landmark tonight.

.22 fresno

.22

.22

.22 is much higher the .08. in fact, it's just under 3 times higher than the legal limit to drive.

.22 came up in two stories that i read today.

the first was about a student, a young man that was shot by the fresno police. his bac was said to be .22. now, this isn't a precise science, and his bac may not have been exactly that when the police shot him.

i haven't commented much on that story because i know the guy. i saw him about 3.5 hours before he was killed by fpd. at the time, he seemed to be in good spirits, we joked about some things, he said by and walked off with two other people i know. a few hours later, i received some phone calls about the situation. as i think about it now, i still have a lot of questions about what happened, and we'll never fully know what went down. i doubt the veracity of the official version, although i don't doubt that this young man made some terrible decisions that involved drinking and holding a weapon in the presence of fpd. this young man is now deceased, and there are seven officers on paid leave. at least chief dyer is concerned about the number of shots his cops let fly into a neighborhood filled with children and right next to a school - 63. i mean, he's not expressing his concern that officers fired under questionable circumstances from 70-100 feet away, but it seems he's at least concerned that his trigger happy cops dumped so many shots in a school zone.

the other story went down much differently. this second story was about one of fresno's finest, one of the boys in blue that also had a .22 bac. this officer was driving a giant weapon drunk, and was simply arrested. he's now on modified duty.

that arrest happened on the heels of another fpd member being involved in a dui hit & run. that cop was cited and released to a "responsible adult." the article doesn't say the bac, and i wonder if they actually gave a breathalyzer or just did field sobriety tests. the end result, another cop on paid leave.

so, when it's all said and done, we have 1 dead, and 9 cops on leave. all involving alcohol. but, good old jerry isn't pushing for alcohol to be made illegal, or telling his officers not to drink. or, maybe he is.

corin hoggard day

it's time for my annual proclamation...

corin hoggard day at the fair!



friend of this blog corin hoggard will be at the abc 30 booth of the big fresno fair on saturday, october 9, 2010 from 6-8 p.m. slanging pictures, shacking hands, kissing babies, and whatever else. if you're a c.h. groupie or follower, why not stop by and say hi to the man, the myth, the reporting legend corin hoggard.

then, go enjoy the rest of the fair.

i-sleep pro black noise

snl featuring brian cranston was alright. it had some moments, but in general it wasn't that stunning. however, one of the last things they did was a spoof ad that cracked me up.



love it. it almost reminds me of tracy morgan asking, "ooh baby, do they have buttermilk?"