mccullochblog

FriscoStock

Apparently, it's been forty years since there was last a festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park where bands played after dark. The last time thousands of people gathered for such an occasion amongst the bison, the golf course and the polo fields at night, the Grateful Dead were providing the entertainment!

So there was a bit of an 'aura' about the Outside Lands Festival this weekend. It wasn't exactly the sixties (or free), but it was very very cool to wander into the park and hear a big PA system cranking out some Beck and Radiohead tunes.

Emma and I were there, of course, and loved every minute. Well, every minute except for when the sound cut out twice during Radiohead; when the fences around the arena started to collapse under the weight of the crowd; and when we handed over $18 for three slices of pizza. But apart from that, it was all brilliant!

Anyway, I thought you might like to sample a bit of the atmosphere of this historic occasion, so here are Beck and Radiohead for you, oh...and some people dancing in a tree.

Darren Huckerby is the new David Beckham

More than a few folks back in England will know Darren Huckerby. For years, he plied his trade in mostly the top flight of English football with 'Norwich City Canaries' (apparently, that's the name of the ladies team...but MLS is oblivious), Coventry, Newcastle and a few other clubs. Like me, you'd probably forgotten all about him of late.

Well, imagine my surprise then when a month ago Darren Huckerby popped up for a surprise Major League Soccer debut for the San Jose Earthquakes in a well contested 1-1 draw with Colorado Rapids.

Frankly the Earthquakes had had a pretty torrid season until then, and Huckerby's pace and skill had a palpable impact on his new team's performance. It was Emma and my first game of the season in MLS and both of us thought: "hmmm....he looks a bit good for this league".

Well, what do you know...four games later, Huckerby is running riot in MLS with four goals in as many appearances, including one in a defeat of David Beckham's LA Galaxy (ha ha!) and multiple 'assists' in an absolute trouncing of the high-flying New England Revolution.

Suffice to say, at that last game (we were there) Huckerby got the 10,000 capacity crowd at the Buck Shaw Stadium leaping out of their seats, and then - upon removing his shirt, revealing a multitide of tattoos, and generally pounding his chest - he promptly usurped David Beckham as the British hero of US soccer-loving girlies...well, in San Jose at least.

Anyway, have a look at this video to see the fantastic fourth goal versus New England, laid on, of course, by King Huckerby of San Jose. Now, who's this Beckham fellow again?

Joe Biden is Obama's VP....cutting edge commentary here.

I had planned to see as many Presidential nominees speak live as I could in the run up to the November election. In the end, a combination of work commitments, forgetting to track appearances, and most candidates not bothering to speak in public forums in Northern California, meant I only ever saw one.

Now, it turns out that that one, Senator Joe Biden, might just be President of the United States one day, or at least, VP to President Obama, maybe.

The funny thing is, I remember only one thing about watching Joe Biden speak at the Commonwealth Club of California, and that was that his entire bid to be (at the time) the Democratic Presidential nominee was based on his plan for ending the civil war / conflict / uprising in Iraq. That was it. He barely touched on another subject.

Oh, and I remember there were a lot of old people in the audience, which I suppose is a good thing, given that John McCain is VERY old too.

Splitting the old vote could be crucial in November.

Tempting fate.

Last week, Emma's football team, Sheffield Wednesday, were top of their league for one glorious weekend. Having seen their ignominious demise in the subsequent seven days, I know I'm taking a huge risk here.

However, in the spirit of "a faint heart never won a fair maiden" I proudly display for you here the top of the Ryman Premier League after one week and one fabulous, emphatic victory over Harrow Borough. We are top of the league!

NBC Olympic Coverage: Total Crap.

I don't rant often, do I? I mean, not a whole lot, anyway, but I really have to rant for a minute: The Olympics are NOT BEING SHOWN LIVE ON TV to anyone who lives on the West Coast in the USA.

There, I've said it.

The Olympics COULD be shown live by NBC, which owns the rights (having paid $900M for them) but INEXPLICABLY the Olympics are only being shown live on the EAST coast.

On the West Coast - home of such backwater, TV-hating cities as LOS ANGELES, SAN FRANCISCO and SEATTLE, we are watching world records get set, gold medals won and history made THREE HOURS AFTER IT HAPPENS.

Can anyone tell me why a TV Network would do this?

In an age when results are instantly available on the Internet, and three-hour-old news may as well be three-week-old news, surely NBC is totally undermining the friggin point of the millions they have paid to earn the right to entertain us!

Does NBC really think I'm going to stay up, sitting on the edge of my sofa, to watch Michael Phelps swim at 10.30pm when he ACTUALLY won his latest gold medals three hours earlier?

Well, they're bloody wrong. I'm off to bed.

Farewell Bay Meadows (hello pig racing)

I'm not a regular reader of the Burlingame Daily News (despite it being free) but for some reason I picked up a copy on Friday evening and was enthralled by a wonderful piece of local journalism recalling the history and demise of the last remaining horse racing track in the San Francisco Bay area.

The piece confirmed something I'd heard about before: that after seventy four years, Bay Meadows race track will close after this week's final race meeting coinciding with the San Mateo County Fair. I was so moved by the terrific write-up of the old track's history (SeaBiscuit famously won there twice during the depression) that I resolved that Emma and I simply had to be there to wave the old track goodbye.

So off we trotted -  with hundreds of other nostalgic Bay Area residents who'd seemingly had the same idea - and what a day we had! As this little video will show you, there really is something to be said for "Beginner's Luck"

Now...as I mentioned, it was also the San Mateo County Fair this weekend. I could tell you about the livestock show, the arts and crafts and the fairground rides but really words won't do justice to the star attraction...so here it is for you to enjoy: Pig Racing, San Mateo-style.

Tricky Beggars!

I work from home occasionally. I'm often pretty productive too, except when the Hummingbirds swoop down and hover tantalizingly close to me just outside my study window. I usually watch for a few seconds - mesmerized - then I remember that I keep meaning to take a picture of one of the little beggars to share with my brother. (In return, he sends me badgers and peregrine falcons).

Anyway, those little Hummingbirds always bring a smile to my face, so I thought you might like to see them too....

p.s. Capturing them on video is my next challenge. I suspect I'll be less productive that day.

Old Fashioned

Is it just me, or did the newspaper headlines of the past week seem unusually morbid and doom-laden? All the tales of beheadings on greyhound buses, murdered honeymooners and genocidal bombings were enough to make anyone turn to booze. That, or to stop watching television.

What better time then for some old-fashioned, good-natured entertainment? And what better entertaiment than getting together with a few lads for a steak and a couple of bottles of red wine? Yes, within minutes of convening with some like-minded souls at San Francisco's House of Prime Rib on Friday, the world's woes were forgotten amid tales of hunting, grandfather's gun collections, outlandish travel stories and of course hastily-assembled plans for future pub crawls and trips to Vegas...assuming our wives allow them. Ah, what a breath of fresh air!

Admittedly, the mixture of Fat Tire, Pilsner, Zinfandel, Cabertnet Sauvignon and Fat Tire (again) didn't sit too well with Saturday morning, but I had a good hangover remedy handy...a visit from eight overseas guests, some of whom I hadn't seen for....ten years!

Did you ever grow up surrounded by people called "Auntie" and "Uncle" and "cousins", only to find out in your teens (or perhaps a bit earlier) that you actually weren't related to them at all? Well, those were the 'relatives' who came to visit yesterday...EIGHT of them...one auntie, one uncle, two cousins, two wives and two kids! The whole clan is connected to my mum's best friend, Miep, so you can imagine the answers to the 100 questions we were posed will be getting straight back to mum as soon as they all get back to Holland.

I know we're going to hear more about answers to "Are you ever going to go back to England?" and "Do you want to be rich, Dave?"

Anyway, it was a fantastic family reunion / BBQ, and the perfect tonic. To maintain the good vibes, I've resolved not to watch any news or TV this week, well, not until Monday at least.