Festive? Not this year...

Some years I'm up for Halloween...this year, I'm not. Not because I'm down, or in an anti-Halloween mood, but just because I'm tired. Fortunately, I'm tired because I've been busy. Also, I've been rather emotionally drained while recovering from the aftermath of a scary 30- minute period almost two weeks ago that required a trip to the emergency room. Luckily, despite initial appearances, nothing particularly serious happened-- no permanent damage, nothing chronic...just a reminder that my body doesn't tolerate quite as much as it used to. Most of the time, I eat fairly well (not too much meat, lots of salads, fruits and vegetables), but when I lapse for a week or two, my body rebels more than it used to. There was a time, years ago, when I could live off fried chicken, Mickey D's, burritos, pizza slices, and gallons of Coca-Cola without consequence...I couldn't imagine doing that now, even if I wanted to.

With Monday Night Football in the background right now, I'm reminded of how much more I would have enjoyed watching the World Series if Al Michaels were announcing. Or Bob Costas. Or Jon Miller. Sorry, but I'm not feeling the whole Joe Buck/Tim McCarver thing on Fox-- despite their experience and knowledge of the game, they just don't seem to convey the significance of the moment the way that Michaels, Costas or Miller do. When I'm watching baseball on Fox, every game seems like an inconsequential regular-season game between two teams long since eliminated from contention. And I'm no fan of interviews during the game, or the miked bases, or all the hidden cameras on the field-- I find it all too intrusive.

As a Stanford fan, the Cardinal's OT loss to UCLA on Saturday was excruciating...had Stanford won, it would have been a tremendous emotional boost for the football program, which is clawing back toward respectability after three consecutive losing seasons. If the Cardinal had beaten 8th-ranked and undefeated UCLA, Stanford would have been 5-2 with four consecutive Pac-10 wins; instead they're 4-3 and needing two more wins for bowl eligibility while having to face USC, Oregon State on the road, Cal and Notre Dame. But better to lose in OT than to have been blown out 56-3...

As a Bronco fan, I was ecstatic to see that Denver blew out Philadelphia 49-21. The final score gives no indication that at one point, the Broncos nearly blew a 28-point lead. I think the Broncos are finally seeing the Jake Plummer that they were hoping to see when they signed him three years ago. And in other news, offensive lineman Dwayne Carswell has been upgraded to fair condition after a serious auto accident at the end of last week...

Once again, way too many political matters to follow...glad that Libby got indicted, though I'm looking forward to more indictments. How much more do people need to see to be convinced that this administration is completely contaminated with corruption? And now, BushCo is banging the war drums for Syria and Iran. Nothing like a bankrupt nation digging itself even further into the hole and incurring the wrath of even more people...

If nothing else, the Governator is no longer seen as invincible, and his ballot propositions are in trouble. There is hope, after all...

Bill King, RIP; props to David Lazarus

The Bay Area has lost one of the finest sports announcers around in Bill King, who just passed away at the age of 78. Since he came to San Francisco in 1958, he has called play-by-play for the Giants, the Warriors, the Raiders, and the A's, among others. I've never been able to go to as many A's games as I would like, and I rarely get to see the A's on TV since I don't have cable, but listening to Bill King's broadcasts on KFRC provided me more than adequate compensation. Admittedly, I knew little about Bill King as a person, but I always got the feeling while listening to him that he knew far more than just sports. He came across as someone you could talk to about Lenny Bruce at the Purple Onion in the 1960's, or a Sonny Rollins album, or about great writers. In fact, KRON showed an old interview yesterday in which Bill King briefly discussed his love of opera with sports anchor Gary Radnich.

Many commentators noted that Bill King was masterful about bringing passion to the game without being too flamboyant, boisterous, or cheerlead-y. Indeed, you could feel the tension in a close game, or the excitement of witnessing a spectacular play, when King was on the mike.

By contrast, a lot of other play-by-play announcers that I've heard in sports highlights sound slightly unhinged and/or boorish-- "Hit deep to left...yeah, baby...GET OUT OF HERE! GET OUT! GO! YEAH!!!" That type of announcer is known as a "homer"-- that is, unabashedly plugging his team. I prefer the Bill Kings and Jon Millers of the sports world...I've taped memorable radio broadcasts of both of them (King when the A's won 20 straight in 2002, Miller when the Giants clinched the NL West in 1997 and when they ended their time at Candlestick Park in 1999), and am still impressed with how well they captured the emotions of the moment while remaining in control.

Another announcer I really enjoy is Bob Murphy, who does play-by-play for Stanford football and basketball. He's another older veteran who brings both passion and decorum to the proceedings. I don't if anyone can do a better job of conveying the pressure of a close basketball game, down to a single free throw ("Stanford up 67-64 with 8 seconds to go, still a one-possession game with Hernandez at the line. He puts it up....SIXTY-EIGHT!").

Item #2 for today: I wanted to gave a big thumps-up to David Lazarus's article in the San Francisco Chronicle today (available online at www.sfgate.com). He addresses the catastrophic state of health insurance in the U.S. today, and his recommended solution is rather atypical for a business writer in a major metropolitan newspaper:

"I've written repeatedly how a single-payer health-care system could provide universal coverage for all Americans at a long-term cost to taxpayers well below what's now paid annually by employers and workers...Single-payer systems are the norm in virtually all other developed democracies. While far from perfect - long waits for treatment are a frequent complaint - such systems ensure that any citizen can receive care from any doctor in any hospital...There are no co-pays or deductibles, no private-sector premiums soaring year after year."

Spam, spam, spam, spam...

I'm ready for the spam...I'm sure those who are sending me hot stock tips and information about pool and spa supplies are reading my posts in depth.

I am glad that my Broncos won decisively today in Jacksonville. After Denver got trounced 34-10 in Miami on opening day, I never would have guessed they'd be 3-1 three weeks later. Here's hoping for something more than a first-round playoff loss this year...

Now, on to the real happy stuff:

Twenty years ago, I started my freshman year at Stanford, hoping that I might become a civil rights attorney, or a Democratic officeholder, or a public policy expert of some kind. I certainly didn't anticipate playing music for a living.

I thought that, barring freakish circumstances, my life would be like that of millions of others: go to school, pursue a career hopefully of my own choosing, continually adapt to new technologies, build satisfying personal and professional relationships...

What I didn't anticipate was the potential need to grow my own food, make my own clothing, and find my own water for drinking, cleaning, and bathing, as if I lived in rural Massachusetts in 1830.

Two years ago, anyone who talked about the End of Oil (that is, petroleum depletion) was either ignored or dismissed as some Luddite alarmist. Now, the End of Oil is in the mainstream press on a regular basis: how will cities survive, how will we cope without cars, how will suburbia fare, how will agriculture work, et cetera...

Having read James Howard Kunstler and a piece by Tim Holt in today's edition of www.sfgate.com, I'm politically restless, yet again. Look at what we're facing right now-- consumer confidence is dropping like a stone in anticipation of natural gas price hikes, and people are already cutting back on their driving with gas at $3.00 a gallon. Even Dubya is pushing for gas conservation! And the shit ain't even close to hitting the fan...

Of course, there have been those who have been pushing for conservation and renewal energy for decades, but again, most of them have been either dismissed or vehemently disparaged in the style of Eric Cartman: "No one wants to hear your commie fag tree-huggin' hippie crap! This is America, beeyatch!"

The whole propagated myth of American invincibility is the ultimate triumph of consumer culture: no limits, unbridled freedom of mobility, perpetual abundance of bigger and better goods...the culture of advertising, of course, is nothing other than the creation of Fantasy Magicland, and those who have never bothered to contrast reality with Fantasy Magicland will be the people likely to suffer the most emotional trauma from having to make the necessary adjustments to a world where Perpetual Abundance no longer exists.

Any politician who fails to sell the Fantasy Magicland vision to voters doesn't have a chance. We want our politicians to assure us that the future will be nothing but Onward and Upward, yet we despise politicians as liars and crooks.

Although many people are nervous about the immediate future, I think there's an underlying belief in most that it'll just be a temporary downturn-- you know, "business cycles" and all that. What isn't figured into the equation is the absence of one key resource on which our entire civilization depends...

You're not going to convince me that a nation of nearly 300 million people will be able to make a rapid adjustment (could be 5 years, could be 30) to life without adequate supplies of petroleum-- not only the supply of gas will be affected, of course: we're talking about fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, and countless other necessities.

So you can either drink (or similarly abuse) yourself to death, or further indulge in Fantasy Magicland, or you can start to seriously consider other ways to exist. Even greater political vigilance is required: the overwhelming majority of politicians are fully bought and paid for by corporate interests, obviously, so the only solution is voter vigilance. I don't know what else to do about that.

On the plus side, I just signed up online to join the Solar Living Institute's e-mail list. I might make a visit up there soon (it's in Hopland, California, roughly 100 miles north of San Francisco). They have classes related to renewable energy (passive solar energy, food cultivation, and permaculture, for starters). Check out www.solarliving.org. We are going to have to prepare for life after car culture viability-- might as well prepare for some alternatives.