Groove on the Rubble

It’s official. Susie, Tim (her current roommate and our mutual friend) are now the owners of record of 3431 & 3435 22nd Street (at Fair Oaks and two blocks from Mission Dolores Park). We’re stoked.

It’s a two-unit building, built in 1959. The building has a giant two car garage and a giant flat roof that we’ll outfit with a giant roof deck. (Britton’s dad has already volunteered to head up the construction crew.) Each unit is about 1200 square feet, has two bedrooms, one bath and a formal dining room.

We’ve got a bit of work to do that we’re hoping to get done quickly (e.g., new roof, exterior paint, windows). I’ll post some before and after pictures on Flickr when I’ve got ‘em.

I was kind of surprised that there is one thing we could agree on, but in fact I found one: faith should not be purposely excluded from political discourse. (Note: Jerry initially said Christians getting involved in politics would be punished by God or something, but changed his tune and founded the Moral Majority in the 80s.)

How can you separate your spiritual beliefs from your political ones? Your morals and your values and your faith shape the way you think, right?

I appreciate the late Mr. Falwell’s efforts to empower his community to help shape the political landscape in the way they thought was best for them by advocating policies consistent with their faith. Born of that was today’s powerful and influential Religious Right.

That’s about where my agreement with and appreciation of Mr. Falwell ends. At the intersection of bigotry and intolerance, where he has set up his “Cup of Hatred $.50″ stand, is where our paths diverge. That’s where I get on the bus of humanity (I realize I’m wearing this metaphor really thin).

One of the defintions that Wiktionary has for humanity is “the quality of being benevolent.” So that says to me that humanity is the diposition to do good and to possess love for mankind. That’s my religion.

Practices of Christianity, Judaism, Islam and the like don’t mean much to me. Humanity does. I have faith in humanity. I believe that people possess love for mankind and want to do good for their community.

Judging by what he’s said throughout his successful career as a televangilist and political activist, I’d say Mr. Falwell is not a huge fan of humanity. Here are some of, what I’ll call, Jerry’s greatest blows to humanity (you can find a well-composed list in Mark Morford’s recent post on SFGate.com):

If you’re not a born-again Christian, you’re a failure as a human being.

I listen to feminists and all these radical gals — most of them are failures. They’ve blown it. Some of them have been married, but they married some Casper Milquetoast who asked permission to go to the bathroom. These women just need a man in the house. That’s all they need. Most of the feminists need a man to tell them what time of day it is and to lead them home. And they blew it and they’re mad at all men. Feminists hate men. They’re sexist. They hate men — that’s their problem.

Someone must not be afraid to say, ‘moral perversion is wrong.’ If we do not act now, homosexuals will ‘own’ America! If you and I do not speak up now, this homosexual steamroller will literally crush all decent men, women, and children who get in its way … and our nation will pay a terrible price!

Christians, like slaves and soldiers, ask no questions.

Where would humanity be if we–Christians and non-Christians alike–didn’t ask questions? Oh, there I go with my questions. Son-of-a…that means I’m not a like a slave or soldier thus not Christian thus a failure as a human being. Crap.

Susie and I went to see Vagabond Opera some time back at Amnesia. It’s exactly what it’s the name suggests and it’s loads of fun. Check ‘em out if you get a chance.

Check out Killing My Lobster’s YouTube channel. You can subscribe to the channel and be part of the “in crowd.” And you’ll get updates as we post more and more hilarity.

My current fav’ is “Diner Ladies.”

At long last, we’ve set a date and a place. We’re getting married on October 13 at St. Patrick’s Church in San Francisco. Woo-hoo!

For several years, NPR has been airing an independently-produced series called This I Believe. It’s a remaking of a 1950s-era series by Edward R. Murrow.

I found this one about belief in God by scientist Bill Nunan quite thought-provoking. I often have trouble reconciling my spirituality, which manifests itself as a non-traditional belief in a higher being, with my dedication to science and logic.

I like stuff that makes me question my beliefs.

Why? Because it’s the weekend of Holi. During this celebratory occassion one tradition is for kids to spray people with squirt guns and pelt people with water balloons.So as I innocently walk the streets taking my last sips of the Bandra vibe, my stomach is a flutter in anticipation of being ambushed by giggling kids. For I am certainly an obvious target in this neck of the woods.I’ve been hit once. A sniper caught me with a heater to the shoulder en route to lunch. I’ve been nearly hit four times. One well-planned tho’ poorly executed attack launched from a nearby apartment had one balloon nearly missing me to the front and two others grazing me to the back. “Suckers!”

When I agreed to do this thing in India, I had reservations about how much I’d actually be able to get done in a short three months. I like to TCB and creating a product management team is a lot of B to TC in a short time.

First, introduce the totally unfamiliar concept of product management to the entire organization and teach a team of people what it is in theory and show them how it works in practice.

Next, start changing the culture at the organization from running lots of little businesses, each with their own customers to running one big business with one set of customers (intellingently segmented, of course) and many different products.

Then, turn the focus from the internal “what we think is right for the business” to the external “what the market and our customers demand.” Putting the customer at the center of a disjointed business ain’t easy.

Finally, define a product strategy, define a flexible organizational structure and staffit with 30 talented folks to execute on that strategy.

Whew. We did it. I’m at the end of my three months and feel good about the team I’m leaving behind. They’re smart, capable, dedicated, have the support of the leadership team and have a well-defined product roadmap in place.

It was–and will continue to be bumpy, as transition always is but these guys will make it happen. I think they’re all excited about the challenge and I’m stoked to have been a part of it. It was a wonderful, memorable, educational professional and personal adventure.

I was honored to receive an enthusiastic invitation from my friend and colleague, Deepak, to attend his brother-in-law’s wedding. Deepak really set the bar high for this would-be wedding planner. Punjabi’s are known for throwing particularly fun and festive weddings and he didn’t disappoint.The wedding is a several-event affair. Unfortunately I had to miss the first–a Bollywood-themed cocktail party–because of a few unavoidable meetings (after all my purpose for being here is work). So I journeyed to Delhi for the other couple events leading up to the happy couple’s auspicious day (particularly auspicious if you’re in the event planning game because I think there were to be something like 10,000 wedding in Delhi on that same day).All of the events leading up to and including the wedding had a few things in common: celebratory friends and families, a holy ceremony, music, dancing and food.The first day’s event was a day time celebration with the groom, Anubhav, and his family. It was a traditional Punjabi-themed event complete with traditional singers and dancers. It was awesome. What happens is that the groom’s family gathers and the bride’s family comes to pay respects, offer blessings…and dance!The second event was that evening. Similar to the day time event, except in reverse: the groom’s family goes to the bride, Deepti, and her family for blessings, eatings and dancings.Then, wedding day, which is a pretty elaborate affair steeped in tradition. It was really cool to watch. We started with a family ceremony to bless Anubhav and prepare him for the wedding. He then boarded his white, bedazzled steed and we packed up the marching band and got to marching…all the way to the wedding locale. The marching band and dancing was so awesome. We’d walk a few paces, then we’d stop and dance. Walk a few paces, dance. Again and again. Best street party ever. Once we arrive at the wedding venue, the families greet each other–mother greets mother, father greets father, on down the line to brothers, uncles, first cousins, etc.The bride makes a much-anticipated and awe-inspiring entrance in full wedding dress and then she and her husband-to-be sit for about 1000 photos while the rest of us either look on, chit chat or eat. The actual wedding happens at a pre-ordained time, which in our case was about 4:00 am. It’s a subdued affair and after dancing, partying and feasting some of the onlookers had a bit of trouble keeping their lids open.A few interesting tidbits:

• The wedding was full of traditions that I loved. Like the groom’s sister, Depali, feeding the horse something sweet and tastey in return for her brother’s safe passage. Like waving money above happy dancing people to wish them prosperity. Like the groom having a “second groom”, who is a young boy from the family, to accompany and protect the groom. Like the families and friends of the bride and groom all wearing their families’ traditional turbans. It was all so cool and different and enchanting
• After wearing traditional shoes–which are leather with hard leather soles, and nothing else–all day, I have a new respect for my stilleto-wearing all-night-dancing friends. Wow.
• There were a whole lotta turbans to be tied, so in addition to the usual flower person, caterers, marching bands, we had guys tying turbans
• The wedding was an all veg, alcohol-free celebration. Fortunately, my host shares my fondness for meat and whiskey and knew exactly what was happening when so we take opportunistic meat and whiskey breaks
• I did my best to adhere to traditions–including the traditional dress for fun and assimilation. Ironically, at the wedding I was the only man besides the groom to be wearing traditional dress at the wedding.
• As I was taking the few paces between our in-the-street dance parties, someone said to me that I seemed like I was “part of the family.” That was awesome, and only possible because everyone worked so hard to make me feel like I was

The wedding was one of the highlights of my trip. Thanks Deepak and family. I really appreciate you opening your hearts and your traditions to me.

If it wouldn’t look so out of context in the U.S. and I could actually tie one, a turban would be my tied accessory of choice. As it stands, I’ll stick with the incumbent: a bow tie. I’m confident it’ll only take me 100 more attempts to get good at tying one.More turbans available in the Delhi set on Flickr.