Hi folks – haven’t made a post in a while but a lot has happened — I moved to Noe Valley! Don’t worry, I’m working on a post about the move and will be sure to give a virtual tour of the new home. I’m headed out of town on business again and will be getting back the Monday after next, so posting will be even more sporadic until then.
Thanks for your patience!
A couple months ago, Joseph recommended the new Yeasayer album, and over the weekend I saw them live at the Fillmore in the City. Last week, he recommended Gorilla Manor, the debut album of the band Local Natives.
And it’s practically the only thing I’ve listened to since then. It’s an incredible debut album — one in which all the songs are good. Other reviewers have name dropped these names, but it’s fair — the vocal harmonies are reminiscent of the Fleet Foxes, and the instrumentation reminds me a bit of the Arcade Fire or Grizzly Bear. And unlike some of the other artists I’ve highlighted here, these guys know how to rock — just listen to the end of Sun Hands or Shape Shifter.
I’ll spare you from having me list out all the tracks I like from this album (the first six tracks are strong, plus there is a cover of the Talking Heads’ Warning Sign), and instead highlight one in particular – Who Knows, Who Cares. There are some songs that I immediately connect with on a deeper level; songs that are so compelling to me for reasons I can’t always explain. 41 by Dave Matthews Band, There There by Radiohead, The Predatory Wasps of the Palisades by Sufjan Stevens, Sæglópur by Sigur Ros, The Trapeze Swinger by Iron & Wine, All My Friends by LCD Soundsystem, all come to mind. I have a feeling that Who Knows, Who Cares will join that list. Maybe it has to do with the feeling of when I first listened to it — cruising down 280-South with the sunroof open, the California sun streaming in, the green hills surrounding me. By the time the song entered its final moments, I could not help but join in at the top of my lungs.
Local Natives – Who Knows, Who Cares
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With this album, summer has arrived.
(Hey NC friends — Local Natives is playing on May 4th at the Local 506 in Chapel Hill. Please check them out!
This weekend has featured unusually horrible weather, much in contrast to the reports I’ve been hearing from Chicago, North Carolina, Washington, D.C., and New York. If this keeps up, I’m going to ask for a refund. It’s April — we shouldn’t see rain until next January!
Last night Luke and Dora hosted an ‘Iron Chef’ style dinner party — they announced a special ingredient at the beginning of the week and all the attendees make a dish featuring the ingredient. I discovered that they are experimenting more with flavors rather than typical ingredients, and this week’s theme was sesame. Other dinners they have done pomegranate (a great success), lime, and a few others. I didn’t know what to cook, but I ran into Wendy’s roommate Noelle at work (they dropped Dan off on their way to Santa Cruz for a half-marathon race) who recalled a black sesame tofu recipe in this month’s Women’s Health. Perfect! I’ve never cooked with black seasame before. I seared the tofu with the sesame seeds, then sauteed asparagus, shredded carrots, asian eggplant, and red bellpepper. The sauce was made from the juice of a fresh squeezed orange and some soy sauce (couldn’t find miso). I haven’t seen Luke and his (now) fiance Dora for ages, which is embarrassing because I live so close to him now. Simon and Jess were there, as well as Amy and Patrick, two of Luke and Dora’s friends. Amy is a first year law student at Stanford, she met Patrick at Arizona while both were doing an MFA program. Really cool people! Great senses of humor, very bright, and fun. Great conversations over great food — one of those where you seamlessly transition from laughing at a YouTube video of two angry camels in a car to discussing the fundamental underpinnings of modern absurdist humor. After leaving Stanford, I find that I’m craving that kind of mental dynamic range.
The following day featured rain, rain, wind gusts up to 20mph, and rain. For lunch I tried a potato leek soup recipe that my friend Forrest made last weekend. I haven’t cooked with leeks before, but this recipe made for a nice hearty meal. Felt great to actually cook again, for real!
I think the Iron Chef idea is a cool idea for dinner parties. I’m looking forward to hosting a night in the new house!
Some great news — I’ll be finally moving up to San Francisco at the end of April! Some readers will know that I’ve been talking about doing this since December, but now it’s official. I’ll be living at 4272 26th St., near the heart of Noe Valley. My roommates will be Dan and Troy. One of the hardest parts of this decision was the roommate situation, because there were 4-5 of us looking to move but places to accommodate that are hard to find. I feel incredibly lucky to have Troy and Michael as roommates and they are among my closest friends out here, it just couldn’t work out. Fortunately, Michael found a place a few blocks away in Noe Valley, so we’ll still be close by.
Noe Valley has a leisurely feel, with 24th St. being a great avenue of restaurants, cafes, stores, and bars. I also happen to already know several people in the neighborhood, so it’ll feel more like a real community — something that was missing after moving off-campus in the suburbia that is Menlo Park. There is an Apple shuttle stop a couple blocks away, and because Noe Valley is in the south part of the City, the commute to my building at work is ~50 minutes. Noe Valley is also one of the sunnier neighborhoods in San Francisco, because the Twin Peaks shields it from much of the wind and fog that rolls in from the Pacific Ocean.
The place we’re renting is actually a full home (really well maintained by its owners), with a backyard and small deck. It has a nice kitchen with a six-burner range and Sub-Zero fridge, which Dan and I are excited about because we both enjoy cooking. A bonus feature is a partially finished attic space too. Can you spot another cool feature of the house from the picture above? It has solar panels! There’s a web interface too apparently, so it’ll be cool to see how effective it really is, not mention it will help mitigate some (if not all) of the electricity bill. The only downside is that there is no dedicated parking, but fortunately street parking in this part of town is pretty easy.
We’re scheduled to move in near the end of April, and I’ll sure to post some more pictures once we’re settled in. I’m looking forward to all of you coming to visit!
The view from outside the house towards the Bay.
A few weeks ago the Engineering Entrepreneurs Program (EEP) crew from NC State came out for their annual Silicon Valley visit. I participated in the EEP my senior year of undergrad, and I credit it in fundamentally changing my educational and career direction; indeed, it is the reason that I turned down a fellowship to Georgia Tech and came out west to Stanford. Every spring break, a group of motivated students and mentors come out to visit Silicon Valley, meeting alums, visiting companies, and meeting people of influence. I actually met my current manager while on the 2007 trip!
I usually give the students a tour of Stanford (they stay at the nearby Stanford Terrace Inn), and this year I was able to join them for a couple of Apple-related events and dinner at the Dutch Goose, where Amit and I learned the story of Danger first hand from its co-founder, also an NC State alum.
The group this year was terrific — passionate and motivated, and more diverse — more and more majors and expertises are being represented in the program. I really enjoyed talking with them and hope to see more of them out here soon!
Side note: I re-read what I wrote during the 2007 trip, and it’s pretty amusing: I not only called Joseph ‘Joe’, but I also misspelled his last name. To be fair, I didn’t know it until later. :)