We went to San Francisco and visited Rudy. He showed us a nanogolf course that he built.

We went to the park by Crissy Field. The city has made it more natural, more of a wetland, it's pretty, and always exciting to see out over the busy bay. There were lots of para sailboarders. Kiteboarders?

Slug dug.

The strong wind sculpted class four gnarly compuations into the sand.

Then we went to see a concert at the Fox Theatre in Redwood City. One of the groups was Charlie Musselwhite and his Sanctuary band.

I’m a fan of Charlie’s from way back, I first saw him when I was in college. He came to our student party back then and I even talked to him a bit there — this was like forty years ago. At the time it made a huge impression on me, I was so thrilled to be talking with a Famous Entertainer and True Artist. Also a Blues Man.

Another time, in the mid 1970s, I happened to be staying up all night, and I listened to Charlie's album Louisiana Fog about a dozen times. To this day, some of those songs are etched for instant access in my memory. The brain codec. “Fell Down On My Knees,” comes to mind.

Charlie recently put out a great new album called Sanctuary, which I got from Rudy for Xmas. So in the lobby after the show, when Charlie is selling and signing CDs, I tell him I already got one for Xmas, but give him a piece of paper to sign anyway — which he isn’t all that happy about, given that the point of this exercise for him is to sell albums. He had a special home-made album for sale too, which I hadn’t realized, I probably should have gotten one of those. So here’s my big moment with the Hero Of My Youth, and I’m like, “I met you at Swarthmore College in 1966.” “Funny, I don’t remember that,” says Charlie in his Elvis-like voice, tinged with a bit of sarcasm I imagine, and moves onto his next petitioner. Oh well! It was a great concert.

I've been working on Mathematicians in Love the last couple of weeks and it's going well.

I wrote a funny scene yesterday. The narrator Bela is meeting up with his girlfriend Alma and her parents outside the Greek Theater at UC Berkeley right after Alma's commencement ceremenony. Alma's parents are from Santa Cruz…

****

“This is my friend Bela,” said Alma. “And these are my parents Gary and Sarah. Bela and his friend Paul have been letting me live in their apartment.”

“Yo,” said Gary Ziff. He had long curly hair hanging down like a welcome mat, a walrus mustache, and a Hawaiian shirt. I made him for a parrot head. Sure enough he lit up a joint, right there on the street.

“Gary,” said Alma. She called her parents by their first names. She looked very cute in her white graduation robe and mortar-board, which set off her dark eyes and intense features.

“Hey, we’re in Berkeley,” said Gary. “This is a party town. I used to come up here in high-school and freakin’ run wild. Want a hit, Bela?”

I waved him off. I was feeling buzzed enough from the wine, the emotions, and the weeks of over-mathing.

“I’ll shotgun you,” said Gary, rounding his lips and blowing a stream of smoke my way. “It’s my special Ziff-zone mix. I put termite powder in it.” I accidentally caught a pungent whiff and felt instantly dizzy. “Doin’ my job,” added Gary. “I’m an exterminator.”

“Make him stop, Sarah,” said Alma.

Sarah Ziff was a stocky woman with a short ponytail, her hair black with gray at the roots. She had a sweet doughy face behind her pointy black cats-eye shades. But now, hearing Alma’s distress, her mouth formed a fierce expression.

“Don’t. Ruin. The day,” she said to Gary, drawing back her lips to reveal teeth like corn kernels. She clamped her hand onto his shoulder and gave him a shake with each word.

“Whoah,” said Gary. He took a few steps back, did one more toke, then pinched out his joint and dropped the roach in his pocket. “Bring the band down behind me, boys.”

“I think it’s time to feed him,” said Sarah, folding her expression into sweetness again.

In case any of you don't know about it, be sure and check out “Wag”'s site on the The First Twins. There are insane complex comment threads on the blog. He's getting, like, a hundred thousand hits a day.

And the enterprise has the good effect of somewhat humanizing the First Family, after all, it feels better to think of them that way.

This image of Alien Jenna was created by Paul Mavrides to illustrate an SF story that Rudy and Rudy wrote for Infinite Matrix: Jenna and Me.

Today is Inauguration day, a very dark time in our country's history. Keep the faith, stay strong, don't give in. We have the right to say no to a corrupt and elitist government. We owe no fealty to a leader who behaves as if he hates us.

Here's the chimp poster once again, this time in larger format. Click the image for a larger view.

Resist.

You are not alone.