Boom Goes the Dynamite(?)

According to this piece in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has come up empty-handed in an attempt to explain the mysterious sonic boom that shook windows in Santa Cruz on Wednesday morning.

Fosco vaguely remembers hearing his windows rattling around 9:15 Wednesday morning, but he was in the middle of snoozebar episode at the time and didn't think much of it (except to wonder why his complex's trash dumpster was being emptied on a Wednesday).

Making the story stranger, however, is the fact that residents in Orange County, CA reported a similar sonic boom exactly twelve hours earlier.

As this article notes, most explanations won't hold water:

• Not an earthquake: "Seismic stations around the Monterey Bay recorded a compression wave at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday, but the wave lacked the up-and-down shear that usually characterizes an earthquake. And, Oppenheimer said, it was moving too slowly to be passing through rock."
  
• Not thunder: "Even if lightning had been present, thunder is only heard over a few miles, Blier said. Reports of the shaking came from cities ringing the Monterey Bay, and seismic monitors in Big Sur picked up the event."
  
• Not aliens: "The National UFO Reporting Center in Washington state received no calls from the Central Coast Wednesday morning."
  
• Not a meteor: "A falling meteor compresses the air below it and creates a vacuum above. That pressure difference could create a sonic boom, but it's more likely to tear the meteor apart in the upper atmosphere. For the sound wave to hit the ground, the meteor would have to be large - and low. 'To have enough energy to create a shock wave to rattle things on the ground, somebody would have had to have seen it,' Giorgini said. 'It probably was not a meteor.'"
  

Which means that it must have been a jet, right? Well, except that:

"We reviewed all the radar data for flights in the airspace in Northern California around the time that people reported this boom," said Ian Gregor, FAA spokesman for the Western-Pacific Region. "There were several military aircraft operating but they were slow. None of these aircraft were going supersonic."

Which seems to suggest that whatever was flying so fast was not a commercial airplane. Nor did it show up on radar, which seems to suggest that we're talking about something military and secret. Fosco can only imagine! But what kind of secret military aircraft would be flying along the California coast twice in twelve hours (near some of the most populated areas in the United States). And why couldn't this jet couldn't be tested farther from the coast (over the open ocean)? Intriguing, no?

All I can hope is that this is some part of protecting CA from North Korean missiles...

Another Day in Paradise

Sure, the weather is nice here in California; but there are occasional drawbacks, as this frontpage of today's online Santa Cruz Sentinel makes clear:

Sigh. Even so, it's still better here than in Elkhart.

Luckily, anyone looking for some good news on a day like this can take comfort in this article about a rescued sea otter. Even though "Olive" the Otter was found covered in oil (probably from a "natural" source[!]), she is recovering well and will be released back into the Monterey Bay in another couple of weeks. While in the care of the Dept. of Fish and Game in Santa Cruz, Olive has been receiving a veritable spa treatment:

The young female, estimated to be about a year old, was treated with an olive oil bath and then washed intensively for two hours.
[...]
"She is eating primarily prawns and clams right now because they have the highest caloric content and she likes them," Jessup said. "She will be staying for at least another week, maybe two, before we send her back."

I'm a little jealous, actually. Not to mention that the whole thing sounds absolutely adorable. Aren't charismatic megafauna great?

Another Great Food Blog

On "Foodie Friday," you can eat fried chicken for breakfast even. Really.

Fosco continues to stumble across first-rate food blogs. Here's one for Bay Area readers: No Salad As A Meal. The photographs are beautiful (definitely John Mackey-quality). And while the reviews are SF-centric, you can still appreciate the restaurants vicariously.

Here's a great recent review: Thomas Keller's casual dining experience in Napa, Ad Hoc. Believe it or not, Ad Hoc offers FRIED CHICKEN NIGHT. Thomas Keller fried chicken? Um, as Liz Lemon would say: "I want to go to there."

N.B., while the above photo is of the buttermilk fried chicken(!) at Ad Hoc; it is NOT from No Salad As A Meal. Like I'm going to steal a pic from a blog in the same post that I recommend said blog? Trust me, the photos are much better at No Salad.

iPod Update (Now With Banjo!)

"Music Monday" continues...

For the past week or so, Fosco has been listening to these three albums:

1. Jack's Mannequin, Everything In Transit. Fosco has Oz to thank for this recommendation. Jack's Mannequin is piano-driven power-pop with some emo-tones. Both of their albums are great, but Fosco is really digging "Everything In Transit" this week. A song like "Holiday From Real" is a pure distillation of California summertime (which Fosco is missing during this rainy February)--not to mention that "holiday from real" is very much what grad school is about. You can't go wrong with a bridge like this:

Oh, California in the Summer
Ah, and my hair is growing long
Fuck yeah, we can live like this

Fuck yeah we can! (Wait, wasn't that one of Obama's slogans?)

But if you prefer raw emo-power (and what could be greener?), you should join Fosco in rocking out to "I'm Ready":



This is one of those songs that grows and grows and grows on you. I've been singing it in my sleep the last two nights. I'm ready, so don't stop.

2. Steve Martin, The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo. Yes, it's that Steve Martin. And no, it's not a joke. Steve Martin has written an album of banjo songs. And the stranger thing is that it's good--really good! Now Fosco is not really what you would call a "bluegrass fan"; but he does appreciate a catchy or charming song, even if it's played on a banjo. And Martin's written several good ones. There is the sweet and melodic "Pretty Flowers" which features a duet between singing thumb Vince Gill and Dolly Parton (who sounds absolutely amazing). A number of the tracks are instrumentals, including the comfortably danceable "Blue River Waltz." And Martin himself even sings (although not always that well), as on the comedic "Late For School" which provocatively rhymes the words "flamingo" and "Filipino."

3. The Gaslight Anthem, The '59 Sound. Fosco owes this one to Todd. The Gaslight Anthem is a rock/punk hybrid that one might describe as a cross between Bruce Springsteen and the Ramones. Their songs seems pretty straightforward, yet are surprisingly allusive--Springsteen lyrics, Counting Crows lyrics, and Charles Dickens are a few references that Fosco has noticed. Musically, they have two tempi: fast and faster. However, they can still write a sad and meaningful semi-punk song about death, like the title track (Fosco's favorite):

Well, I wonder which song they're gonna play when we go.
I hope it's something quiet and minor and peaceful and slow.
When we float out into the ether, into the Everlasting Arms,
I hope we don't hear Marley's chains we forged in life.
'Cause the chains I been hearing now for most of my life.

Did you hear the '59 Sound coming through on Grandmama's radio?
Did you hear the rattling chains in the hospital walls?
Did you hear the old gospel choir when they came to carry you over?
Did you hear your favorite song one last time?

As song lyrics go, these are really quite good. You can watch the video here:

Cleveland Rocks? Not So Much.

Fosco loves city rankings. He could look at a different list of city rankings every day (10 Pinkest Cities! 10 Worst Smelling Chinatowns! 10 Itchiest!). So naturally, he can't resist Forbes.com's ranking of the Ten Most Miserable Cities in the US.

But what do they mean by "miserable"? Here is the methodology:

We compiled our rankings by looking at the 150 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S., which meant those with a population of at least 378,000. We ranked those metros on nine factors: commute times, corruption, pro sports teams, Superfund sites, taxes (both income and sales), unemployment, violent crime and weather.

Of course, there are aspects of this method that we could disagree with (are income taxes really a good proxy for misery? Don't taxes often provide important, life-improving social services?). Even so, the resulting list does seem to be pretty face valid--after all, I think most people could name Detroit, Buffalo, Flint, and Cleveland as miserable, miserable places.

Here's the top ten:

10. St Louis
9. Miami
8. Buffalo
7. Detroit
6. Flint, MI
5. Modesto, CA
4. Cleveland
3. Chicago
2. Memphis
1. Stockton, CA

Fosco has visited seven of these cities and he can heartily agree with all of them, except Chicago. Chicago is something of a surprise, because it's actually a pretty great city. However, the weather is cold. And most Chicagoans have a punishing commute. And the Cubs suck SO MUCH ALWAYS. And corruption... well, we know a little more about that than we might like.

If you're not a Californian, you might be surprised to see two CA cities on the list. But here's what you need to understand: just as California is divided along a horizontal axis into NorCal (good) and SoCal (bad), the state can also be divided vertically into the Coast (good) and the Central Valley (bad). The Coast contains places like San Francisco, San Diego, and Santa Barbara. It's people are well-educated, attractive, and tolerant (for the most part). The Central Valley is like a little taste of Oklahoma. It contains cities like Stockton and Modesto. There is no reason to ever venture into the Central Valley. Ever.

You know what makes me sad? I'm sad that South Bend, Indiana is too small to be eligible for the list. Because, well, I think I know where it would place...

Pictures of 2008: Oz's Cousin's Wedding

Fosco recently realized that, by only blogging for three months last year, he never got to share tons of pictures with you from the rest of the year. So, for the next week or so, Fosco will offer a series of brief posts with some of his favorite pictures from his adventures in 2008. Check out the whole series here.

In September, Fosco and Oz spent a weekend near San Luis Obispo for the wedding of Oz's cousin Zac. We stayed in the coastal resort town of Morro Bay, which features an inexplicable giant domed rock in the center of its harbor (apparently, it's a dormant volcano! Who knew?).

The area around San Luis Obispo has some incredibly lush wine country and Oz's cousin got married on the grounds of the Meridian Vineyards. The ceremony was on a hilltop overlooking the vineyards, a small lake, and the sun setting behind the coastal mountains. Seriously. The reception was held on a large lawn nearby. It was magical. Here is the beginning of the reception, as dusk settles (yes, those are Japanese lanterns):

A romantic evening all around.

Buy Rand-McNally Stock

Reasonable people can argue about the outcome of our current financial crisis: either things will eventually return to normal or never be the same again. But thank goodness there are also unreasonable people who can provide us with much-needed entertainment during this crisis. And so we have Russian political science professor Igor Panarin, who is predicting that the US will break apart in a giant civil war in the year 2010. You can read the WSJ article here.

Now while Fosco doesn't need to be convinced that secession by several Southern states (goodbye Texas!) would indeed be a desirable thing, Professor Panarin's predictions are much nuttier. Here's a good one:

California will form the nucleus of what he calls "The Californian Republic," and will be part of China or under Chinese influence.

That would certainly make it easier for Fosco to get a hold of his favorite Chinese melamine chews. But really--China? China is going to assume control of the Western US? Has this guy ever been to California? Based on recent voting trends, it seems more likely to Fosco that "The Californian Republic" would fall under Mormon control--especially as Utah is predicted to be part of the same "Californian Republic."

How silly! You know, the only thing that seems more far-fetched than a China-controlled California would be...

Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls "The Central North American Republic."

Fear the rise of Imperial Canada! Fear it! They are coming for our Great Lakes! Although, come to think of it, most Midwesterners might not mind doing business in a stable and valuable currency.

Need more laughs? Here's the full map:

Actually, maybe the best part is the return of Alaska to Russia. Luckily, Alaska has someone someone who knows a lot about Russia.

So what does this mean? Well, Fosco is going to celebrate July 4th like a mofo this year, because apparently it will be the last one.

Monday Procrastination Tools

As if reading Fosco Lives! isn't procrastination in itself, Fosco has found several other things you could read today to avoid doing any work:

• From the Anchorage Daily News, read that Alaska's dropout rate is double the national average. Wow. Sarah Palin has done some great work.
  
• Does your sense of California superiority need a little deflating? From the HuffPo: "Can We Stop Pretending California is Green?"
  
• From Andrew Sullivan, read about The Mormon War on Gay People.
  
• From SFGate read a fascinating history by Oz's US Representative Jackie Speier about her ordeal at Jonestown. It turns out to be a really remarkable story.

Now go do some work. Or something.

The Foscovian Update: Still Here, Still Queer.

It's been over a week since Fosco last blogged (did anyone win the betting pool?). But that doesn't mean that Fosco hasn't been thinking, Dear Reader. He's been thinking up a mess o' somethin'! And what thoughts have been rattling around in his gigantic gourdic cranium?

• Just like my third grade teacher always said, California seems to be the likely location of the coming apocalypse (although I think she meant it more eschatologically--and no, that doesn't mean what you think it means). And while all those insatiable wildfires were nowhere near Fosco's beloved Bay Area last week, the local media didn't lose an opportunity to remind us Northern(ish) CA residents that our doom is imminent, whether from a nearly overdue "tectonic time bomb" or our own giant flaming holocaust. The End is near! Whee! Even so, I'd rather die in a flaming crack in the earth than from getting lung cancer in a casino boat while losing my social security check in the slots.
  
  But seriously, if you want to read about the SoCal fire experience, check out my friend Ted's blog.
  
  
• Hey, did you hear that Dumbledore is gay? Fosco had known this for years, ever since he was fellated by the wizard in a Minneapolis airport mensroom. Even so, Fosco isn't quite sure what to feel about this whole story. To some extent, he'd rather let his friend Ted do the blog work for him (thanks again, Ted. At this rate, Fosco Lives! will eventually just be one big hyperlink to your blog). Fosco would like to raise two questions about the story that seem worth considering:
  
  1. Does a gay Dumbledore make up for Rowling's repulsively heteronormative epilogue to the seventh book ("Seventeen Years Later..."), in which everyone is happily married (heterosexually) with kids?
     
  2. What is the status of an extra-textual author's statement about a character? Could Dr. Seuss (from beyond the grave) tell us that the Lorax is gay? Would we have to believe that?
  These are the problems that a gay Dumbledore raises for me.
  
  
• Fosco was planning to spend most of this month in a blissful Jimmy Eat World coma. See, they're one of Fosco's favorite bands and the last three albums have been amazing. The previous release, Futures, obsessed me for several months. Plus, the first single ("Big Casino") from the new disc was the soundtrack to Fosco's September (because it rawks). But here's the thing: the new disc is TERRIBLE. With the exception of "Big Casino," there is no song on the disc that this Jimmy Eat World diehard fan ever wants to hear again. Fosco is sad.
  
  So what has filled the musical void in Fosco's month? Things have been a bit weird, to tell you the truth:
  
  • Radiohead's In Rainbows, which upon first listen sounded inaccessible and boring, but really gains by repetition. And I'm not just saying that because I paid £5 for it. Good tracks: "Reckoner," "All I Need," and "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi."
    
  • a short but excellent Bach chorale: "Heilig, heilig" (BWV 325). Bach is usually too boring for me, but I like the calm this month.
    
  • a trance track: Agnelli and Nelson's "Wear that Dress." Trance is great for driving and paper-writing. Really!
    
  • "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want," The Smiths. I could revive a different Smiths song every month and be happy. Well, actually, sad. I wear black because that's how I feel inside.
    
  • Bruce Springsteen, Magic. I've mentioned this one before.
    
  • an amazing work by my blogpal John Mackey called "Kingfishers Catch Fire." It is seriously one of the most amazing compositions I've heard this year. The CD comes from Japan, so it might be easier to hear it streaming on his website (under "Works" on the main page). The first movement is gorgeous, but the second movement knocks it out of the park. I've been listening to it a lot in my car.
  
  
  
• Has anyone else noticed that the New Yorker section "The Critics" has become the Harvard Faculty Lounge? I suspect that it's the influence of longtime New Yorker contributor (and Harvard English prof) Luke Menand. In addition to reviews by Menand, Fosco has recently run across reviews by Professor of History Jill Lepore, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History Niall Ferguson, and the (oddly-titled) Professor of the Practice of Literary Criticism James Woods James Wood. Their ambition has lead them beyond traditional academic publishing and I, for one, welcome our new Harvard overlords.

You Can't Get There (At All)

The ultimate California Adventure (at least today) appears to be driving. Fosco found all of these stories in his evening read-through of Santa Cruz and San Francisco newspapers:




If you're planning to drive in CA this evening, well... just don't.