Swimming Blogs - Jeff Gustavson

I wrote a PoliSci 200 paper in 88 about how bowers vs hardwick ought to be overturned ...in 2003 Lawrence vs.Texas finally overturned it. In 2004, Mayor Newsom, disgusted by the hate spilling out of the State of the Union started marrying people in city hall..in the Chroniocle, they quote Bret Maling, a friend who used to be the dooeman at club universe...his boyfriend john had just recently died of AIDS when I met Bret in ‘95...John used to swim at the y and used to ride his bike to SF State which is how i knew him...I ghost wrote… more »

    “I want to be a good person” – Johnny Depp to Juliette Lewis in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, responding to the question “What do you want out of life.” “I’d like something in a menthol” – Mary Steenburgen in the same film “We can be together” – Paul Kantner (on the Jefferson Airplane LP Volunteers, released in 1969) “If you want to get to heavenOver on the other shoreStay out of the way of the long-tongue liarOh good shepherdFeed my sheep” – Jorma Kaukonen from the same record Next Sunday here in San Francisco, we will be celebrating… more »

Two weeks ago, I swam in the Pacif Masters Short Couse Yards championships, and my times were absolutely horrible…I chalked it up to too few times @ practice since my birthday (January 10th). I missed my flight returning from the East Coast and therefore missed Friday’s events (the 1650 and 200 freestyle). On Saturday I swam the 500 free and 50 fly. For the first time in my life, I vomited after an event…the 50 fly. I thought perhaps it was just too much Coca-cola. Later, I convinced myself that I had pulled an abdominal muscle, but decided that I… more »

“It’s my life – don’t you forget” – Talk Talk “Talk to people.” – Bruce Conklin So,onMarch 18th I went to see the report-back from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) @ the Palace Hotel. CIRM was started as California’s end run around Bush’s ban on the development of any more embryonic stem cell lines other than the sixty-some already established. Bruce Conklin, the founding director of CIRM from UCSF’s Gladstone Institute on Genomics spoke as did a woman from Stanford (where I’m hoping to go to Medical school). I did a brief internship, funded by the Elisabeth Glaser… more »

Here’s a link to my church: http://www.oldsaintmarys.org/     Celebrating 153 Years as California’s First CathedI go to Sat 5 pm. mass. The priest then is Father Shea, who is originally from Brooklyn as is my brother's wife's mother..I will post pics of the 4th largest city in the US soon... The only reason I know that little tidbit is because of 9th grade and watching he opening sequence to Welcome Back Kotter. The next year when John Travolta thought he could sing, the girls at my high school jammed the phone lines of a local radio station and got… more »

? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOIKzdrsOGc I WENT TO SEE Jane Fonda and Tom Hanks’ son in 33 Variations, a new play which was still in previews when I saw it…The best-acted play I’ve ever seen…The best written is Homebody, Kabul which is rumored to be being made into a film by Mira ---- I’m blanking on her last name, but she did Monsoon wedding and The Namesake and Salaam Bombay…. ? ? ? The best musical I’ve ever seen, though is “In the Heights” ? ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSTjRUMfOKI&NR=1 ? I have a lot more to say but no time right now and wanted to… more »

Well, Last week I filed the papers to declare my intention to run for SF City and County Board of Supervisors District # 6 in 2010. It's been a long road since my first stab at it in 2003 when I declared to run against Aaron Peskin for District #3... This time, however, I feel more on top of it.... I met with the mayor's seceratary the other day to set up an appointment with Mayor Newsom to see if I couldn't garner his endorsement.... "When I'm focused, there is not one single thing, person, anything that can standin the… more »

"I'd like to see Jesus and Mohammad on the road to Damascus today What do you think they might say? Would they fight with arrows clenched in their teeth, like Jews and Arabs today? Or would they walk and speak, like philosophers and thinkers?" - Paul Kantner You can't live in SF and not know that today is the beginning of the lunar new year (City College has the day off in its honor), But did you also know it is the celebration of the conversion of Paul on the road to Damascus? I swam in a meet today, and… more »

So, I made it back here to DC for the inauguation. The most important line to me in his inauguration speech was something about a renewed respect for science. But the most quoted line today was something about picking yourself back up and dusting yourself back off. Now, Emmett, in QAF (set in Pittsburgh, where I grew up) talking about Justin Taylor: "Justin's picked himself back up and dusted himself off..." In other Pittsburgh-set drama news, Jared Leto, who starrred with the woman who Meryl Streep termed "the incomprable Claire Danes" in the teen drama "My So-called Life", filmed a… more »

So, earlier this week, I went to see Yoko Ono at Stanford University, parked my car, a 2007 KIA Spectra, and couldn't remember where I parked the thing.So after Yoko's art performance, she was takin' questions. After,patiently waiting for my chance, the guy who was with her cut the questions off. I had dinner at McDonald's. Since I couldn't find my car, I wandered Stanford for two days with nothing to eat nor any money, I decided to hitchhike back to SF. I got picked up by a nice guy who was on his way to clean Mike's Ice cream… more »

This past October, I went to see the documentary Dream of Life about rocker/poetess Patti Smith. It was less of a traditional documentary and more of a visual collage of her life in the ten years following her husband Fred "Sonic" Smith's premature death. One of the more interesting sequences was her visiting her parents in her childhood home in Southwestern New Jersey. As my parents now live in New Jersey, I felt like I could relate. Although I was born, given up for adoption and adopted at six months of age in Pittsburgh, PA, my parents are both from… more »

Over this past summer, while at Pacific Masters Long Course meters championships, I befriended a young woman named Shelli who was swimming and coaching for Ladera Oaks. We got to talking and I met her Mom who was quite sweet. It was right before I was going to back East for my family reunion. I was full of excitement because I was going to get to see "In the Heights", the best Broadway show I have ever seen it would turn out, as well as go to a George Michael concert at Madison Square Garden, see a Yankee game in… more »

Like many people I suppose, I have been truly inspired by Dara Torres' comeback. I started following her story a little over a year ago and was transfixed by her dedication to proving the naysayers wrong. I have been training fairly hard the last six months after finally quitting smoking - a horrible addiction I had for thirty years. On July 11-13th, Pacific Masters Swimming held its Long Course Meters Championships on the campus of UC Santa Cruz, in a beautiful outdoor setting located on a hilltop above and with a spectacular view of the magnificent Pacific Ocean. My friend… more »