No debate? There goes my Friday!

- Yes, it seems that I have achieved a certain level of blogging fame. That level where you're asked to review a product or service. I guess it's a sign that I've finally made it. Why, just a few days ago I received an email asking me if I'd be interested in reviewing...what's that? A BOOK ABOUT URINARY TRACT INFECTIONS?!?? OH MY GOD. Um, no.

- So McCain's calling off the debate on Friday so he can zoom back to Washington and save us all? REALLY. Maybe the time to act was a few years ago when he failed to vote on deregulating the banking industry.

Any way you cut it, this is a smart play for McCain. Right now, Obama seems to be pulling ahead in the polls, and everyone knows McCain is more comfortable in the town hall setting than the structured debate setting. This way, he gets to look good by appearing to care more about Depression II than some stupid political race. Either way, too, Obama looks bad. If he says, "Oh yay, let's fix ur economeez," then he's just a big copycat, and if he says, "NO, let's debate, stupid!," he looks like he doesn't care. Smart move on McCain's part.

- Note from reader yesterday (and you know who you are): "no updates for two days, full of fail." OH GREAT. Just what I needed, ANOTHER JOB. Look, sometimes there won't be updates every other day. I've had a cold, nothing interesting happened, etc., etc.

- Yesterday on the train on the way home, I encountered Daisy and Nick from The Great Gatsby, I think. This couple gets on wearing tennis clothing - and I mean, like tennis clothing, like the ur-tennis gear, with the white skirt and the striped sweater and everything - and carrying rackets. Then the guy pulls out a little silver flask and they both hit off that. This is a little after 5 pm, so that's cool. Daisy pulls out a cigarette and is holding it as they get off the train, right by the Dolores Park tennis courts, and disappear back into whatever alternate reality they stepped out of.

- And finally, today's Sign of the Apocalypse: Vanderbilt is ranked for the first time in 24 years. This guy thinks they can finish 9-3 or 8-4. Yes, that could happen. Now, where my Rapture at?

Treasure Island Sunday. Full of win.

If there was a better place to be yesterday than the Treasure Island Festival, I'm not sure where it was.

The weather was just about perfect, it wasn't too crowded, there were short or no lines for almost everything, and the sound was fantastic. You couldn't ask for a better outdoor music festival.

That's Will Sheff from Okkervil River doing his thing. As you can see, we were pretty close to the stage. Super Hot Irish Girlfriend took this shot. I'm a big Okkervil River fan and one of the best live shows I saw last year was their set at the Independent. Their set yesterday didn't do as much for me, but SHIG disagreed and thought it was fantastic. Maybe the new songs just haven't grown on me yet.

I'm not sure who the brooding guy in the background is.

Personally, I thought that Spiritualized had the best set of the day, which may seem a bit odd, because when you think Spiritualized you think heroin and dark motel rooms, not bright sunshiney weather and plastic cups of Heineken. Still, for whatever reason, their set was killer.

I was excited to see Vampire Weekend, and they were pretty good.

I mean, they played all their songs well, but maybe didn't seem that excited or something. I don't know. They were good, but not great. Hey, who's complaining? Oh, right, me.

There was the usual outdoor festival kind of food and drink. Beers were $7, which is less than at a Giants game, so fine by me. There were also smallish cups of some indeterminate white wine for the same price. At one point, some guy walked by us and knocked over SHIG's wine and kept on walking, no apology or anything. "I wish you could buy douchebag insurance," Tom said. We all thought that would be a fine idea. Then, you'd be reimbursed any time a douchebag messed up your day.

That was a very minor glitch in an otherwise ideal day. I probably had one or two too many $7 Heinekens, and my face got totally sunburned and now I look like a bloated badger, but I can't wait to go again next year. As SHIG would say, "A++++++++ WILL DO BUSINESS AGAIN."

The funniest thing I've seen so far today

A total Girls Gone Wild-type blonde chick sitting in Civic Center plaza reading a book (!) with her face all scrunched up and HER LIPS ARE MOVING AS SHE READS.

I guess I do need Twitter for shit like this, huh?

Dad, where did you put the crank?

- You wanna see a cool blog? Of course you do. Only in San Francisco.

- As far as I can tell, no one was murdered in the Mission last night. AWESOME. Looks like the murderin' went down in the traditionally murder-happy Tenderloin instead.

- So what if I check out Cheerleader of the Week? Is that so wrong?

- From the Sports Desk, we've got Vanderbilt going for 4 wins on Saturday, Lincecum lost the Cy Young last night, Chelsea - Man U on Sunday, and an early-season already must-win game for the surprising 49ers. WHEW.

- Your father's Ryan O'Neal. Your mom is motherfucking FARRAH FAWCETT. You are destined to be one of the BEST-LOOKING PEOPLE IN THE WORLD, right?

Wrong.

Talk about losing the genetic lottery. Also, I thought doing meth with your Dad was pretty much restricted to the tralier-park-in-Bullhead-City-Arizona-type crowd. Guess not.

- Happy Friday, everyone! Have a good weekend. I'll report back from the Treasure Island Festival on Monday.

Why California government is like 5th grade

Every year, the ugly spectacle that is the California budget process grows more and more ridiculous. The usual strategy is to cobble together some kind of ridiculous farce that puts off any hard decisions for another year, do it a couple of months late, and then pass it on to a governor who signs it with an air of resignation.

Meanwhile, everyone knows it's a farce and a sham and we all pretend everything's OK and go whistling away to buy new Caltrans trucks and maybe build another 3 or 4 prisons. It's the equivalent of realizing that you can't pay your Chase Visa bill and going and getting a Capital One Visa with a Hello Kitty design and a 1% cashback program and using that to pay your Chase bill and then smiling and going "See? Fixed it!"

Except this year, it's EVEN MORE FIFTH GRADE THAN EVER.

Here's how it's going down:

1. Nobody did anything for 2 months after the budget was due.

2. Somebody said, "Hey, wait, we gotta have a budget! Let's get to work!"

3. This past Sunday, the legislators in charge slap together their normal Ridiculous Farce Budget that puts off all the problems for another year. YAY! PROBLEM SOLVED! NOW WE CAN GO BACK TO MAKING LAWS ABOUT SMOKING IN PUBLIC! YAY!

4. But mean old Herr Schwarzenegger says "NEIN! VILL NOT SIGN BAD BUDGET!"

5. Oh crap. But hey! It's OK! We have enough votes to override you! So there! WE WIN WE WIN WE WIN!

6. Herr S.: Not so fast! If you override mein veto, I vill veto all your other bills! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Seriously, I sympathize with Herr S., but how fucking fifth grade can you get? That's not statesmanship, that's playing keep-away with $107 billion dollars.

Here's where it really gets good. The legislators and Herr S. sit down this afternoon to figure out how how to get their gym clothes back or something. But Herr S. leaves the meeting early!!! Why?!? Why would he do such a thing? Probably to personally perform surgery on a puppy that's dying, right?

Wrong. He went to Fresno TO SPEAK AT A BUDGET RALLY.

OK, this is going to be hard to type because I just tore my eyes out and I can't see the keyboard, but let me get this straight. THE GOVERNOR LEFT A BUDGET MEETING TO GO SPEAK AT A RALLY ABOUT THE NEED TO GET A BUDGET.

Fuck, dude.

In a related story, get ready for Great Depression II! I'm gonna be a gangster! What are you gonna be?

I am Duct Idaho Palin

Get your Palin name here.

Learn not to burn

Collected by Valleywag at 18th & Mission:

I have to admit, I LOL'd. A few years ago, there was a similar tag I saw in the Panhandle, with the Man logo and "Welcome Home" on the top and underneath, in much smaller type, "LAME-O."

Ahh, Burning Man, the annual ritual in the Nevada desert that divides us all into two groups: those who go to Burning Man and those who love to talk about how retarded it is. Can there be no detente?

True confession: I went, a few years ago. If you haven't been, it's pretty much exactly what you think. It's very dusty and there are a lot of people on drugs and people act weird and introduce themselves by "Woodchuck" or "Spacegirl" and there is very loud techno music all the time, 24 hours a day, everywhere.

But you know what? Once you get past the inherent goofiness and just resign yourself to it, it's not bad at all. There's some cool art to see, and people from all over the place, and everyone's into just hanging out, and there are none of the Mission vs. Marina social barriers we have to deal with back here because everyone's pretty much dressed the same, which is in neon fake fur and goggles, and it's not immediately apparent whether the person you're talking to would be someone you'd talk to back in the real world or not.

That being the case, once was enough, for me, anyway. I'm not into deprivation.

I realize I'm like 2 weeks late with this post, but the sidewalk graffiti just got me thinking about it.