In a bow to safety - and, given the main activity a bit of irony - I'm taking Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner service up to Los Angeles today to hit the L.A. Auto Show with wingman Steve/rexsteed.

The service is suprisingly frequent, even on the weekend. I leave Oceanside (the station is about 5 blocks from the condo) at 11:25 a.m. and get into LA Union Station at 1:15 p.m.

This evening, leave L.A. at 7:15 p.m. and get home just after 9:00 p.m.

Given the weather today (imagine any number of scenes from "2012"), and the related drama on any paved surface south of Santa Barbara I'm very glad this alternative is available. :>)

I sold my house in Denver Colorado today. It sat empty and unrented for over a year. It's a bittersweet feeling: I bought the house for $750,00 and am selling it for $715,000, even after putting over $100,000 of improvements into it. I have to take out a $50,000 loan to cover the closing costs and the loss in value. I never thought I'd have to *borrow* money to get rid of a house, but I'm upside-down, and I owe more than the house is worth.

In 2005 at the height of the housing bubble, a realtor thought I could get $1.2 million for the house. Instead, in a whole year, I only got one insulting offer that was about half of that. This was my first attempt at buying a house, and it was an expensive lesson: cars are for driving, and houses are for living in. Don't expect either to go up in value, but enjoy it if you are lucky to have one.

On a bit of a whim I decided to catch the Coen Brothers' latest, "A Serious Man" last Friday night.



We know that in the Coen Brothers' world, things don't come easy. People struggle; they suffer. And the good ones face the whims of fate, as well as indignities from the stupid, the venal and the lazy.

"A Serious Man" doesn't disappoint in any of these. But ...

... it is dark. Inky, neutron-star dark, in a way no previous Coen film has been. Concurrently it is completely human and great fun. I loved it.

Things you will see:

* What it's like to go through one's Bar Mitzvah completely - and I do mean completely - wasted.
* Suburban Minneapolis, circa 1967 re-created down to the tiniest detail. Inside and out. I have no idea what magic+torrent of money was required to accomplish this but it's effing amazing.


_________________________________


Hillcrest Friday Night Lights ...





... and somewhat tangentially, books and other stuff around the house.







_________________________________

Happy Thursday, everyone. How is your week going?

Text/notation partially from the source page:

Taken by my good friend Steve Carrasco (rexsteed here on Flickr and also on Livejournal).

Edit 12/4/09: In the year since Steve started earnestly pursuing photography as a hobby, his work has been recognized as "something special", and with good reason.

This photo, taken the weekend Steve helped me move to Cocotero in PS, marks the time Steve lsbels as the beginning of his photography muse. It's also where I mark the beginning of our friendship ... after "meeting"(ahem) on ICUII the previous summer.

I'm proud and happy to have been there "from the beginning".

I had forgotten about the upcoming legal challenge to Prop 8 that will be heard next year. Check out this article in the American Prospect:



http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=gay_on_trial

This is more than state-by-state incrimentalism, nor it is an arcane legal challenge like this year's debate on if Prop 8 was an amendment or a revision. Instead, this is the whole tamale - finally, a legal case that will reach the US Supreme Court to decide if homosexuality is part of the human condition, or merely a random sexual fetish. Read the article... this is the only action on gay rights we will see in 2010, since all of the oxygen in the room will be consumed by positioning for the upcoming midterm elections.

Master Thor took me to the Musee Mechanique in San Francisco last weekend. This is my first attempt at posting video from my phone. Let's see how well it works out!

http://www.patrickkellogg.com/movies/Dance.3GP

This one is a country dance. It's supposed to be moving, but instead just ate my quarter. However, I thought I'd include it because the puppets look so cool

http://www.patrickkellogg.com/movies/Pixieland.3GP

This one's for naylandblake. I was a little upset at first that the cabinet was so dark that my phone couldn't record what was going on. But now I think that makes it more wonderful... you can see that *something* is moving, but it's hard to tell exactly *what*

http://www.patrickkellogg.com/movies/Sea.3GP

Finally, a moving amusement, in more ways than one. Whoever thought it would be interesting to craft a tragic scene with puppets: notice comes from a ship that someone has died (or maybe everyone on board), and the dancers continue to swirl around each other inside, unknowing