welcome.
crazyknee.com is:
a personal Web page launched Nov. 1, 2000,
the day Leanne had ACL/meniscus repair performed
on her right leg. Hence the "crazy knee."
This page will be updated in some weekly way.

27 october 2002 . 11:59 pm PT
San Francisco is dejected. Why why why why did we let that 5-0 lead on Saturday turn into a 5-6 loss? I wanted to celebrate in the streets. Instead, as the Giants lost again tonight, we laughed our guts out at Killing My Lobster's latest comedy show. Laughing eases the pain. Pain aside, my favorite moment of this series was little Darren Baker's near catastrophe at home plate. Those 3-year-old batboys sure are cute, especially when they're about to be run over.

Earlier in the week, I came upon this secret slide. It's like hidden in my neighborhood! You can get some killer air on the drop here:

I'm also here to hand out a late congrats to the ever- studious Mark/Counterirritant for WINNING the 826 Valencia Spelling Bee. Pulsatile!

Now that's what I call a good story: Man dies from wife's bites. She "wanted some" but he was sick. So she "started tearing at his flesh with her teeth, pulling out huge hunks." Apparently there's a 911 tape with him screaming, her biting. Oh yeah, and she uses a wheelchair. Whaaaaaaa?!

Ryan Adams, in concert! He covered "Wonderwall," "Like a Virgin," "Brown Sugar" and slowed down the Strokes's "Last Nite" with new lyrics about a spaceship. He kept saying what a sad sorry bastard he was (which he is), but he was fun-knee too. And what great boots he wears! Recommended.

What else happened: People built contraptions and tried to make them fly. The weekend's big anti-war rally brought in Devo, and our on-the-scene reporter claims they rocked out for peace. I test-drove my Halloween costume ("dripping with sarcasm"), and it was a success.

"Ikiru" means "to live," and it's also the title of this 1952 film I saw at the Castro. Director Akira Kurosawa (best known for blood-drenched epics like "The Seven Samauri and "Ran") creates a moving black&white portrait of an old man who finds out he has a few months left to live. The dying bureaucrat finally realizes how most of his life he's only been pushing paper, except for a few moments of selfless love for his son, the son who now wants him out of the house. Oh, sad sad. Any day we could drop dead. It happens -- read up on the sniper (thank god you're done) and the others like him. We all want people to cry at our funerals, we want to make some passing change. And you do! I promise. Here, watch Ryan's fun-loving "New York, New York" video. It's an excellent song, and will take just over four minutes of your time. The video prominently features the wondrous World Trade Center towers. Think about that: you never know where this day will take you.

20 october 2002 . 10:22 pm PT
Barry Bonds can just smack those balls out of the park without breaking a sweat. Too bad his homer at the top of the 9th couldn't ease our deficit against the Angels. Can anyone explain the Anaheim rally monkey phenomenon to me? Ah, nevermind, I've got it cleared up thanks for trying. Here's a "revealing" interview with the Rally Monkey himself.

Why am I talking about monkeys? I should be talking about the next It band: Hot Hot Heat. Yes! These Canadians are, uh, hot (and it can't hurt that they stole a bass line from the Strokes on "Oh Godamnit"). Seriously sweet album, all pop dance punk (whatever that might mean). Their web site rox as well.

In other music news in my teeny universe, I finally have the new Beck album. I feel much much much much better. Complete. In tune. Yeah, in tune. Also make sure to read all about Miss C's close call with Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy. The rock gods walk among us, they do. Occasionally.

14 october 2002 . 12:22 am PT
I had no idea literary parties (and free vodka) could be so much fun! I truly experienced a Litquake on Saturday. All day long, Bay Area writers took 10-minute turns to read poems, do stand-up routines, share a chapter from their award-winning novels, to talk about love, or diamonds, or Indian massacres. Rock star Stephan Jenkins read (not too smoothly) a JT Leroy piece; Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) delivered a new short story (so! delightful! I have a new literary crush. Of course, he's married. I mean, I met the wife at the VIP afterparty ...). Yes, Crazy Knee was on the VIP list -- Bookmarks was a Litquake sponsor, so, of course we went to the party at Backflip. Mr. Dave Eggers was there. Wendy (after many of the free vodka cocktails) tried to convince the now-engaged superstar (!) to write his next book for left-handers. This would entail printing the book from right to left, from the back to the front. I don't know. Dave sure didn't know, but we can forgive him. Irvine Welsh was the draw at the afterparty party, and he's definitely got that Scottish accent down. Heh. Marvelous. There are a few incriminating pictures of me and Dave floating around. I'll see if I can get my hands on one.

Just saw Bright Eyes in concert. He plays poems. So many depressed mod kids at the show, too, wow. Here's a Q&A with Conor Oberst, the guy who puts the Bright in the Eyes.

Start thinking, start planning: NaNoWriMo. It's almost time.

Look, I'm hiding (photos by Wendy, who better get her own website soon):

06 october 2002 . 11:22 pm PT
Today was for bluegrass music in the park, all free, with corn on the cobs and Coors Light. It wasn't all fiddles on Speedway Meadow: Chuck Prophet threw down some rock and roll (I strongly support buying his "No Other Love" album. It's for your listening pleasure.) Today was also Kettle Corn Appreciation Day. Kettle corn rules. And in case you were wondering, there was no overnight camping. Strictly bluegrass.

Last week I dragged my roommate Wendy to the final screening of "Lawrence of Arabia" in 70mm. That's 3 hours and 40 minutes of joy, baby! There is nothing nothing nothing like this kind of movie making anymore. I'm a bit too overcome to talk about it, much less make sense in writing, so I'll shut up. But it's not a film to see on video. You need the big wide screen, so that when the man in black first appears out of the desert, a mere speck of a man and horse, you have to squint, in your plush seat, peering into the dust with Lawrence. What a sad and amazing man.

I've been on a role with my reading choices of late, so the other day I finally succumbed to the thousand-page tome "Infinite Jest." This morning I woke in a sweat, in a dream, in which DFW and his novel had overtaken my waking life in magical and illuminating ways. I'm pretty certain I was obsessed, in my dreamstate, with the howling fantods. (And I'm only on page 63. Hoo boy.)

Hearty congratulations are due to my former colleague, Lara Zeises, as her first novel hits the shelves this week. Sure, it's young adult fiction. But weren't you once a young adult, who read novels? I should hope so. And this one is a Delacorte Honor Book (which is a very good thing). Take a chance, and read the first chapter of "Bringing Up the Bones."

01 october 2002 . 11:53 pm PT
My cat is scratching at my arm as I type this. I find myself talking about the damn cat all the time, to my roommates, to strangers, to people on the Caltrain during my long ride up and down the Peninsula. Despite my best intentions, I'm obsessed with this cat, this skittish feline. I'm one of *those* people.

I must run along now, because I'm nearly finished with "Among the Dead" by Michael Tolkin. It's my first BookCrossing.com book! This means the book was FREE and I found it in a COFFEE SHOP and the book's path around the world can be TRACKED online. Sure, this book's crossing began in SF ... I'm just an early steppingstone ... but the next reader will have the benefit of my markings (stars, arrows, muted post horns) next to exceptional passages. (For more info on BookCrossing, read Whitney's charming report, and try it out YOURSELF to become PART of the MAGIC. I assure you that when I return this book to the wilds, I will set another one or two good reads loose.)

The dark and engrossing book I am currently reading takes full advantage of the ALLCAPS FOR EMPHASIS option.