The latest blog posts from mahnamahna.net.
Sometime in 2021, my wife (who grew up in Denver) squealed while reading news on her phone and said to me, "Oh my God, Trey Parker and Matt Stone are buying Casa Bonita ," to which I replied, "What's Casa Bonita?" Well... Casa Bonita has to be one of the craziest, most bonkers dining experiences available anywhere in this world. A fine Denver institution [1] that my wife remembered from birthday…
Carleen and Matthew, August 2024. I received word earlier today that one of the biggest hearts to ever beat on this earth has stopped. Let me tell you about my dear friend and mentor, Carleen Hemric. I met Carleen in 1988, when I, an eight-grader, was assigned to her English class at Pershing Junior High in San Diego. She was unlike any teacher I'd had before. She was older than most of them, for…
I am here to testify that Cuban jazz pianist Omar Sosa (far left in the photograph above) and his Quarteto Americanos blew the proverbial roof off the dump at the Freight in Berkeley last night. Omar has Bay Area connections , and he and his band seemed ecstatic to be here. Their performance was freakin' exuberant. They radiated pure joy. It was splendid to experience.
For all the usual reasons, I have of late resurrected my daily meditation practice. This requires a meditation timer. The Android app I've used for this purpose for years recently betrayed me, so I crafted my own replacement. I'm calling it Taimā . Here is its story. For years I used an open source Android meditation timer that is no longer available -- the author didn't keep it up-to-date with…
My maternal grandmother is still alive and kicking at 98. For decades, she has had, in her home, a clock that chimes the Westminster Chimes . Alas, those chimes are electronic and sound a bit like a Commodore 64. Every time I visit her, I cringe when her chimes play, but I am always reminded that I like the idea of hearing chimes every quarter hour. In fact, it was 17 years ago -- when my phone…
I did a lot of Supreme Court Watching here in 2024 , and then skipped it entirely in 2025 because I found the topic too depressing. It was no less depressing this year, but I took a different approach, hoarding browser tabs for this roundup of the term's best Supreme Court reporting and analysis . If you want to understand why it is not hyperbole at all to brand this Court both rogue and racist,…
A no-cameras policy was in fact being strictly enforced, so this is my one surreptitious shot of Dylan performing. In my teens, I fell in love with the music of the 1960s -- the decade prior to the one I was born in. Despite this, I've never been much of a Bob Dylan fan. I have immense respect for his body of work, but I've never felt particularly moved by any of it. Meanwhile, friends who are…
I always figured that seeing Alabama Shakes live would verify my suspicion that band leader Brittany Howard is an absolute fucking force of nature. Saturday night I had that suspicion confirmed first-hand. This was a banger of a show! I was praying they would perform " Joe ," the most soulful song about unrequited love I've ever heard, which, according to setlist.fm, they haven't been playing much…
Echo & the Bunnymen rocked the Masonic Auditorium in SF last night. It was a splendid show, with especially memorable performances of "The Killing Moon" and "Ocean Rain." Lead singer Ian McCulloch was clad in a black trenchcoat and sunglasses, and spoke to the audience a fair amount between tunes, but between his incredibly thick Liverpool accent and a boomy mic, most of what he said was so…
Anthony Daniels recounted at some length how he wasn t particularly interested in portraying a robot until he saw this concept painting by Ralph McQuarrie. I don't usually document trips to the movies here, but this was a special treat. This year's San Francisco International Film Festival (the oldest such festival in the world, we were told) closed out on May the Fourth with a screening of The…
When we saw TV on the Radio at the Fox last fall , SF-based Mild Universe opened. I wrote at the time, "Made me wish we were in a smaller room, full of people who came to dance ." Last night I got my wish. Mild Universe bills themselves as an "indie-dance collective that fuses 90s house influence with disco, soul, and post-punk." They make unabashed feel-good, foot-stomping music that is unlike…
Oakland's beloved and venerable Grand Lake Theater celebrated its 100 year anniversary earlier this week. Owner/hero Allen Michaan opened the place up for free architectural tours this weekend. The highlight for me was seeing what is behind the big screen in the main auditorium. The theater was originally built for vaudeville, and much of the original stage equipment still exists, as does a warren…
The Orinda Theater is having cover bands show up and rock the house this season; we saw When Doves Cry do Prince proud on Friday night. The vibes were really great, and there was a lot of dancing in the aisles.
Friday night we saw Noel Paul Stookey perform at the Freight in Berkeley. He was the "Paul" of Peter, Paul, and Mary. The man is eighty-eight years old. When I was a boy, my parents had more Peter, Paul, and Mary in their vinyl collection than any other act. Not all of PP&M worked for me, but what did work really sunk into my soul, including some tracks on their for-kids album Peter, Paul, and…
I am, of late, besieged by political spam text messages (mostly fundraising pleas) from Democrats running for office at all levels, all across the country. I received 50 such spams in January. This is more than a minor annoyance. As many as six times a day, my phone buzzes in my pocket not because someone I know wants to tell me something, but because a Democrat -- usually someone I have never…