Dancers at the Pacific Islander Festival

The Hair

This weekend at the Pacific Islander Festival I saw some fabulous hair. Not too many times you see this kind of 'do in San Diego.

Morning Walk to Windan'sea Beach

Sampson: The Dog that Makes Even Hagar Look Small

Baby Reggie's First Fetch Lesson

What Ever Happened to Debbie Gibson?

Debbie Gibson was one of my favorite pop stars when I was in fifth or sixth grade ("Electric Youth" was released in 1989; "Out of the Blue" was released in 1987, when I was nine and seven years old, respectively). She was in the New Kids on the Block and Tiffany era. I remember having a tape of her “Electric Youth” album – she has on a blue jacket and a black hat and also launched a fragrance called “Electric Youth” based on the success of the album. The Electric Youth perfume bottle had pink lightning bolts on it. I remember it clearly because I also owned the Electric Youth perfume. In addition to “Electric Youth,” Debbie’s hit songs include “Lost in Your Eyes” and “Only in My Dreams.”

Last night on the critically acclaimed SyFy channel (insert sarcasm here), I found out what happened to Debbie Gibson: she’s moved on to starring in C-list movies. Several of my friends and I watched in horror as she played a leading role in “Giant Octopus Versus Mega Shark” or something. The movie’s concept was similar to “Alien Versus Predator” but featured a Mega Shark - the prehistoric Megladon, a 60 to 70 foot shark species like a great white on steriods - and a Giant Octopus. These creatures have long been extinct. However, one of each of them was frozen in a giant iceberg which melted in the beginning of the movie, unfreezing them to reign terror down on airplanes, the Golden Gate Bridge and other people in the movie. It is so bad it received an 11% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average 3.3 out of 10 rating from the 18 people that reviewed it. I’ll try to erase this memory of Debbie Gibson and download an album on iTunes to remember her much more successful music career. Ouch. It could be more painful than watching David Hasselhoff sing, “Get In My Car.”

A Last Minute Trip to the Big Apple

After a busy week at work, Thursday late morning/early afternoon I was craving a change of scenery. After speaking to a friend who happened to be traveling to NYC, I decided I should check into flights and see if I could find a decent deal on last minute trip to New York. Although I’m typically a planner, around 4:00 p.m. Thursday afternoon I booked a direct flight to New York on JetBlue, found a place to board little Reggie for a few days and headed home to pack a (light) suitcase. The trip was short but great, as usual for my time spent in the Big Apple.

Here are some things I miss about the East Coast in no particular order: good friends and family, the smell of real trees (San Diego’s mostly got palm trees), seeing historic buildings, and temperature differential. People in San Diego have told me I would get sick of the perfect weather. I initially thought they were crazy but now understand what they were talking about. Not that I’m ready to leave Pleasantville yet, but it was nice to have a warm day followed by a cool and breezy night. And see a few clouds. Things I love about New York in particular: the Cogswell family, the energy of the city, great food, lots of interesting (and non-homogenous) people, culture, the buildings, the neighborhoods and the endless possibilities.

Two Routings in a Row

The UNC women's soccer team is rolling thus far in its 2009 season. The team opened the year with a 7-2 drubbing of UCLA and had a convincing 6-0 win this past weekend over #2 ranked Notre Dame in South Bend. Not too shabby of a start, considering the UNC girls have topped the #2 and #3 ranked teams in the nation 6-0 and 7-2, respectively. Hopefully they are able to keep the momentum for the rest of the year and play this well in the NCAA tournament. But for now I just have to say, “You go girls!”

Street Scene 2009!

This year year, Street Scene in San Diego was quite a show – Friday night featured the Black Eyed Peas, Modest Mouse, Conor Oberst, and Band of Horses. Jen and I made it down to East Village in time to catch most of Band of Horses. They sounded good live; the biggest surprise of their show was how grungy they looked. I imagined them differently but probably shouldn’t have. Modest Mouse rocked, as expected. They are one of my favorite bands and great live. However, although they played a great show, I was a bit disappointed with their song selection. The final act of the evening was the BEPs, and they did not disappoint. As previously blogged about, I’m a big fan of their latest album, “The E.N.D. (Energy Never Dies).” The BEPs played a lot of great tunes from their new album and some of their older favorites.

All in all, Friday night was a phenomenal musical experience. It took a little motivation to get back down there Saturday night because I wasn’t as excited about the bands. Further, I was still a bit tired from Friday’s show and running errands all day Saturday (I’m definitely getting old). Saturday night we caught the tail end of Of Montreal, then saw the Silversun Pickups, the Dead Weather, and some of Thievery Corporation. My favorite band was probably the Dead Weather; Alison Mosshart rocks. Overall, however, Saturday night was a lot less exciting than Friday night. On the whole, Street Scene 2009 was quite a show. If the National would have played again in 2009 (they played at last year’s Street Scene), I probably would’ve rated the overall experience “outstanding.”

A Low Key Night in Tribeca

One of the reasons it was low key is that the bartender shamed Jena and I into drinking gin. Jena very courteously asked for a light vodka drink to which the bartender replied, "Well vodka doesn't really taste like anything. How about I make you a gin drink that will make you like gin?" Given that we've been drinking vodka together for about the last decade, Jena and I are aware that vodka really doesn't taste like anything. That's probably why we like it. We're also not big gin fans, but being faced with this question in this chic bar, we both buckled under the shaming and accepted the gin drink. It wasn't too bad but I prefer the "Dark and Stormy" we followed it up with.

The moral of this story is: know thyself. And don't let a pretentious bartender talk you into something you know isn't your favorite.

Is Reggie Coming to Visit Anytime Soon?

Isa Cogswell in her Battery Park City/Tribeca sleek apartment.