Bar#46 – Knockout

11/25/06

the knockout used to be the Odeon, a smallish bar in the outer mission right near where mission and valencia cross. the odeon used to host all these burning man events and other artsy fringe weird bizarre interesting events. but now it’s gone, and in it’s place is the knockout, a chill hipster-ish dive-ish bar that has that typical mission bar feel. it’s a pretty cool place to kick back and have a drink, but it’s pretty far out there, and definitley not as original or interesting as the bar it replaced…

the Knockout is at 3223 Mission Street in San Francisco

Bar#45 – Lush Lounge

10/27/06

my memory of this place is pretty vague. we had already spent most of the night at the Hemlock. we were wearing our Halloween costumes that night, but even though it was Halloween weekend, pretty much no one else was dressed up. hanging out in a bar while wearing a pink bunny costume was pretty random. i *think* that i remember the bartenders there being pretty nice… but maybe i’m just making that up. hrm, ok, maybe there really is nothing that i remember about this place… but at least the location is good… i’ll have to give it that!

Bar#44 – Hanaro

10/21/06 (dayum, i’m really writing this late!)

why did we end up here? i have no clue. there’s so many other bars to choose from. hell, whiskey thieves which is one of my favorites is just down the street. we had actually just been drinking at geary club down the street, and should have just stayed there. oh well. the bartenders here were all asian women who tried flirting w/ the customers to get them to buy drinks. apparently it actually worked on some people. the drinks here were also pretty pricey for a total dive. the one cool thing about our night there was that we got another group of people to sing along with us to the jukebox hella loud. yeah.. i doubt i’d go back.

Hanaro is at 939 Geary Street in San Francisco

into the unknown…

a couple weeks back, out of the blue, someone who used to be my boss emailed me and asked me if i was interested in switching jobs. he was creating a new startup and wanted to know if i was down to work there. he told me a little bit about the plan for the website etc, and it really sounded like it could take off. i was definitely interested…

…but should i take the job? on one hand, i loved my current job at consumerreview. working as a contractor, i had ultimate freedom, could take as much vacation as i ever wanted, worked as many or as few hours as i pleased, the people i worked with were hella cool, and the salary was damn good. if i took the job offer, i would end up working more hours since startups are always really hectic and also, after doing the math, it turned out that i would be taking a steep paycut. hrmmmm, the typical startup life… working more hours for less money… sounds good, right? but still… the thought of trying something new was really intriguing to me. starting a new company and new website from the ground up sounded really exciting. i struggled w/ the decision for a while… but the more i thought about it, the more i was tempted to go for it.

taking this job seemed like quite a risk… so many startups just dont make it. at the same time, their idea did seem like one that could really be successful. plus, if there’s ever a time to take risks, it’s when you’re younger. i wouldn’t necessarily be able to jump into an opportunity like this when i’m say 40 years old and have to worry about mortgages etc etc. finally after a little negotiating, i decided to go for it. i just couldnt pass this up.

so, here i go… off into the unknown. i’ve been working at the same company for the last 7 years or so, and i’ve become very comfortable w/ everything there… it’s time to push my limits and see what i can do in a totally brand new environment. wish me luck!

*v

Bar#43 – Geary Club

10/21/06

walking down the street we just randomly peeked into an open door and.. holy crap, there’s a bar in there. no sign out front at all. we wander in and the place is pretty small but pretty lively. the bartender was super nice and it really seemed like the kind of place that would be perfect for hangin’ out at and getting to know people. drinks were ridiculously cheap… our beers were 3$. they had a fun jukebox and the bartender would sing along to some of the songs. we asked the bartender what the place was called and she said that she guesses it’s called Geary Bar, but really it’s just no-name bar. there’s something really cool about a bar that has no name. if our friends hadn’t dragged us away, i would have wanted to stay longer…

Geary Club is at 768 Geary Street in San Francisco

Bar#42 – Rye

10/21/06

i had read a bunch of reviews about this place so i kind of knew what to expect… a slick looking space and a bunch of yuppies. when i walked in, i instantly noticed how large the place seemed with its huge vaulted ceilings. i also liked the exposed brick in the wall. but after being there a bit, the place just seemed *too* empty. maybe they needed some couches or something, but i just felt like i was in an empty warehouse or something. too much dead space. also, there weren’t that many people there either, so that made it seem even more dead. the bar itself was fairly small and i just kept having the feeling like some people had set up a makeshift counter in an empty building. ok, ok, obviously the place wasn’t just “thrown together”, but i just wasn’t feelin’ it. the drinks were pretty damn good though. i had a basil gimlet which although a bit of an odd combo, worked pretty well i thought.

Rye is at 688 Geary Street in San Francisco

turning 30

8/13/06

dayum, this post is like 2 months late. i turned 30 this year. yup, 30. in my mind, that’s just insane. 30 has always seemed so old to me. like, your 20s are this nice in between age where everything is still ok, but 30 year olds… that’s straight up adult. 30 year olds are grown ups who are serious and have careers etc. i keep feeling like there’s some weird mistake.. there’s no way i could be that age. i’m still a young guy… right? so, as it got closer and closer to my birthday, i was really not looking forward to it. luckily, i figured out a foolproof plan to get through it:

1) avoid thinking about it as much as possible
2) spend the last 2 weeks leading up to your birthday having a blast in a foreign country (distraction)
3) arrive home on the day before your birthday and have a huge party (be sure to get really drunk)
4) spend your birthday recovering from the day before and celebrate all over again
5) home free! it’s all in the past now!

ok, i’m kind of kidding… well, partially.

my birthday celebration was hella fun. we rented this party bus that drove us all around the city. there’s something really cool about being driven around the city and being able to party it up the whole time. the bus had a soundsystem inside, natasha rocked her ipod, and everyone got trashed. we went to a bunch of bars, and also stopped by levis plaza for a little bit to have cake. the cake was bomb… but a damned security guard kicked us out of the plaza soon enough. we ended the night at the beach.

here’s some photos that i stole from natasha’s site:


i couldn’t have had too much to drink?

some more photos at natasha’s site

*v

Halloween is early

usually i leave shopping for a costume until within a couple days of Halloween. I’ll drive down to the Halloween superstore and spend some time frantically running around and searching through the leftover costumes and debris. this time, for once, i actually got a costume early. along w/ natasha and erica, i’m gonna be a pink bunny this year. pretty random.

Caryn’s friend Becky had a Halloween party last weekend, so i got to try out the costume. driving through the streets of sf, 2 weeks before Halloween, was pretty funny. lots of people yelled out and waved from their cars.

i called my brother only 45 minutes before the party and tried to convince him to go (how’s that for short notice?). despite not having a costume, he was able to throw something together at the last second.

Joey’s costume was pretty funny

*v

Indietronic – try #2

it looks like nobody was really able to download this mix when i posted it the first time. ugh.

so, i’m reposting it here with a new url which should actually work.

the new link is at: http://www.thisisvlad.com/music/

the tracklisting is still:

1. Metric – Monster Hospital (MSTRKRFT Remix)
2. Mystery Jets – The Boy Who Ran Away (Riton Re-dub)
3. The Futureheads – Skip To The End (Digitalism Remix)
4. Justice vs simian – We Are Your Friends
5. Para One – Dudun-Dun (MSTRKRFT Remix)
6. The Presets – Are You The One?
7. SebastiAn – Walkman
8. The Gossip – Standing In The Way Of Control (Soulwax Nite Version)
9. The Valentinos – CCTV (Bang Gang vs. Van She Tech Remix)
10. The Rapture – Whoo! Alright-Yeah…Uh Huh
11. The Gossip – Listen Up (ATOC Extended Mix)
12. Klaxons – Gravity’s Rainbow (Van She Remix)
13. Animal Machine – Persona (Para One Remix)
14. Young Love – Discotech (ocelot remix)
15. Bloc Party – Banquet (boys noize remix)
16. The Killers – Mr Brightside (Jacques Lu Cont’s The White Duke mix)

Indietronic

The kind of music i listen to is constantly changing. sometimes i’ll listen to a ton of indie stuff, then be into breaks for a while, then underground hiphop, then whatever. for a long time i’ve been really psyched on indie tracks with an electro edge, and lately there’s been a ton of those kind of tracks coming out. apparently, NME dubs this stuff “new rave” (how lame is that?) but everyone has their own name for it… i prefer indietronic. it’s all indie guitars mixed with hard beats mixed with electro mixed with an 80’s flair. I’ve been downloading shit like crazy from Pound for Pound and any other site i can find.

I recently downloaded a copy of MixMeister to mix some tracks together. now, after djing for hella years, mixing with anything other than vinyl seems almost like sacriledge, but i decied to give it a shot. dayum, it really wasn’t easy. unlike house etc which is pretty much made to be perfect for mixing, a lot of these songs were really tough. listening to other mixes, i noticed that so many of the transitions are just hard cuts into the next song instead of trying to make a long mix… isn’t that pretty much cheating? anyways, here’s my first attempt at putting something together. cut me some slack…. i’m still getting used to the software and to mixing this kind of music. if you listen to it, lemme know what you think…

the tracklist:

1. Metric – Monster Hospital (MSTRKRFT Remix)
2. Mystery Jets – The Boy Who Ran Away (Riton Re-dub)
3. The Futureheads – Skip To The End (Digitalism Remix)
4. Justice vs simian – We Are Your Friends
5. Para One – Dudun-Dun (MSTRKRFT Remix)
6. The Presets – Are You The One?
7. SebastiAn – Walkman
8. The Gossip – Standing In The Way Of Control (Soulwax Nite Version)
9. The Valentinos – CCTV (Bang Gang vs. Van She Tech Remix)
10. The Rapture – Whoo! Alright-Yeah…Uh Huh
11. The Gossip – Listen Up (ATOC Extended Mix)
12. Klaxons – Gravity’s Rainbow (Van She Remix)
13. Animal Machine – Persona (Para One Remix)
14. Young Love – Discotech (ocelot remix)
15. Bloc Party – Banquet (boys noize remix)
16. The Killers – Mr Brightside (Jacques Lu Cont’s The White Duke mix)

You can download the mix here or here. Neither of these links work correctly. instead, go here: http://thisisvlad.com/music/.

*v