chase the light

I had to get up early this morning to pick up the car and head out to the Gorge for tonights concert. Can’t say much for the hotel I’m at but it’s home for the next three nights and it’s cheap. Just need a place to stay while I’m out site seeing. On the way out to The Gorge amphitheatre for The Black Crowes and Tom Petty I stopped in Snoqualmie for lunch. I decided to hike down to the base of the falls. After all my waterfall trekking in Australia paid off with some beautiful sights, I figured I’d give it a go. Yeah, it was pretty much straight down. Made a stop at the Wild Horses Monument to stretch the legs and hike up another incredibly steep hill. I’m going to be soooo beat having to drive all the way back to Seattle after the concert.

Anyway, Black Crowes, finally back together and playing again. Now, I’m a pretty big Black Crowes fan, but hell if they only played like three songs I recognized. One of the reasons I wanted to catch this show was, well I missed the L.A. show and it was going to be at The Gorge which kicks ass. (of course tickets for three L.A. shows go on sale when I go home, but whatev) Also, I’ve never seen Tom Petty. One more classic rock act to cross off the list. Both the Crowes and Petty were kinda… eh. No matter though, the Gorge is pretty much the best place ever for an outdoor show.

I left a little bit before Petty ended so I could beat the traffic out to the single lane highway exit. 20,000 people exiting a concert, some drunk, and a 2.5 hour drive back to Seattle with them is not my idea of safe. I stopped once back at the Wild Horses Monument. IT WAS PITCH BLACK. Looking up you could see the Milky Way going from horizon to horizon. I spent about 1/2 an hour trying various exposures to capture it. Finally got one. Barely got back to Seattle before the head nods started happening.

Special guest Mom The Blogger…

Woke up to a few clouds which finally cleared to bright sunny skies! Had breakfast, chatted and decided we would take one last drive to “the other side” to look for — what else? WHALES! Stopped by Lime Kiln and Phil spotted them heading south!!! The whale boats hadn’t even found them yet! WOW-we really weren’t expecting to see them! They were just cruising south quite rapidly…no time to play! We saw ( Capt. Phil sez) 4 females seem to be the first ones, 1 male and a juvenile, for sure, figure there were about 20 but counting black fins can be challenging! Chris was snapping pics and we kept scouring the water for their next surface. One of the males did a spy-hop —–way out of the water! Was fun to watch them and try to figure out where they would surface next. Just pulled up a rock and watched the spectacular picture before us…they are amazing animals. Besides seeing the whales, the water was soooo blue and the skies so clear we could see the buildings on Vancouver Island….much clearer than yesterday when we “made the loop” in the boat.

Once the “parade of whales” had passed, we too, like they, headed south to South Beach to see if we could catch them down there. It is a low lying rocky beach strewn with logs of various sizes and rocks of all shapes sizes but each one rolled smooth as if they had all come out of a rock tumbler… actually guess they had as they rolled through the water. Chris headed south, Phil north and I started sifting through the rocks to find some specimens to take home…..all of us spanning the waters for the —–big black fins! The elusive whales were gone again…no where to be found. We all enjoyed the quiet time on that serene peaceful beach. Finally decided we were all hungry and would head for the boat after one last glimpse of Cattle Pass. We could tell from the beach it had some white caps and was a bit “gnarly” compared to the time we went through it yesterday…..drove over closer and it was moving quickly-the opposite direction we had passed through it yesterday. Chris snapped some more pics and headed for “The Brewery” for lunch.

Chris’ plane was to leave at 6:35, so needed to get back so he could catch his flight. Had a chance to chat some more about the incredible animals we have observed. Checked out his pics and he got a full shot of one that is cruising just the top of the water….quite striking! Gathered up Chris’ things and headed for the plane dock. His plane arrived about 6:10. Six adults and 2 dogs got off the plane..the dogs were only on leashes so had view seats on their journey!!!! One other passenger boarded, Chris got on and they left at 6:20 – 15 minutes before the scheduled departure….no wonder we missed his landing!!! …when they get their passengers they leave-time or not!! Guess with a maximum of 8 passengers one can do that!. Since we missed his landing, we we prepared for his departure. Watching one of the other planes take off about an hour earlier, looked like he would be leaving right over us for some really good pics! The plane motored away from the dock out into the San Juan Channel and took off out there without winging back our way so missed his take off as well! Did get some pics of the plane motoring away. Was sure great to have him with us this past week!!!!!! Had a wonderful time! He survived all nights sleeping “on the kitchen table”…..he will probably have a really good nights sleep tonight on a “real mattress”. He will be in Seattle for 3 nights then home Monday morning. The concert tomorrow night is at a place called Gorge Amphitheater overlooking the Columbia River.. Pics look beautiful.

Well, is cold and windy tonight….will see what tomorrow brings……….

~Mom

And thus concludes Mom The Blogger’s contribution to this weeks posts.

Special guest Mom The Blogger…

What a beautiful day on the water!!! Left the slip at 9:05 and headed south to Cattle Pass in search of – orcas! The water was calm and no fog!!!! Quite different than yesterday. Not a lot of boats out. Cattle Pass was even calm and based on our Current Chart it should have been. Passing through the pass, we headed for whale rocks just off of Lopez Island. Came upon many Stellar Sea Lions and Chris began to snap pics! Lots of activity in the water. Phil says they live there because it is named “Salmon Banks” and has an abundance of salmon there. This is also a point where the orcas are often seen. Chris caught a great pic of a sea lion catching his dinner. The sea lion had the fish in his mouth, snapped it in two and threw it in the air. Chris caught the shot with the fish in the sea lion’s mouth!!! See pic…………Phil says he sent it to “fishy heaven”! We saw seals, dolphin, and cormorants. Chris snapped a great shot of several cormorants sitting on the buoy. Started listening to the whale boat channel on the radio, but no one was responding. We headed north up the coast of San Juan. Cruised and spotted the water for whales and any other critters that we might see, however, no whales in sight today. Wonder where they go…………….?????

Once we passed the lighthouse, headed for Mosquito Pass into Roche Harbor. The current was with us and was a pretty journey that took us into Spieden Channel. Reports on the radio of a minke whale up on the east side of Waldron Island, but still few boats talking. In the channel on the way back to Friday Harbor, the water was still calm, with a few tidal currents. As we approached Friday Harbor, Phil spotted The Pardys to the port side of us. Chris got a great shot of them with Lyn looking through her binoculars. As we pulled into the slip, our neighbor Brian and a couple of his friends came over to help take our lines as we came into the slip…a welcoming party!

Phil washed the boat off and Chris and I headed for the laundry and market. Barbecued hamburgers and corn and was actually able to sit outside to eat tonight.. seems it has been too cold or rainy the last few days to eat out. After dinner, Chris went to take some pics and I went up to a marimba concert that was happening in the park. To cap the night off, (which was cold by then ) we went up to get some ice cream!!!!! Cold—but good!

Was a GREAT day on the water!! Got to see lots of wildlife and was fun this evening viewing the pics that Chris had taken. When we get the boat to CA, want to pick three or four (which will be hard) frame them and put them in the boat to remind us of the beautiful sights of San Juan Island.

~Mom

Special guest Mom The Blogger…

Woke up surrounded by FOG! ugh….spoiled our plans to head around the island. Went to check out the whale watch boat to see if it had gone out and it was still sitting in its slip. Listened to the radio for other boat calls and few were – talkin’! Those that were all complained about the fog. We decided to jump in the truck and go look over to Cattle Pass and inspect the situation. The fog begin to dissipate inland, but by the time we got to the water, it was still really foggy. Couldn’t even see Cattle Pass. The whale boats had been using their hyrdophones trying to pick up the “whale talk”, but to no avail. Went over to the Cattle Pass Lighthouse and stood on the bluff but visibility still was not good. Decided our day to be on he water was lost, so headed for Westcott Bay to get Phil some —-oysters! Along the way, stopped by the lavender farm – was not a highlight after the whales but Chris snapped some pics. Inland was bright sun, blue skies and a few white puffy clouds …hard to believe it was so foggy on the coast. Got back to the boat and actually ended up sitting, relaxing and catching a couple of nods. Phil washed the boat down and was happy to get it cleaned up some. Went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant —much better than the one we tried last week. Walked the docks a bit and back at the boat the guys became very annoyed because the computer will not stay online. Has not be very cooperative of late!!!!

~Mom

Special guest Mom The Blogger…

What an exciting day! We left Rosario at 9:30 and headed back to Friday Harbor. We could have been lost at sea, but Chris’ navigation saved and we were able to find our way around Shaw island. As we rounded the island, the hunt began for the bald eagle. Chris spotted one sitting high in a tree (without much foliage). Phil slowed the boat and Chris started snapping pics. Pass by him several times and he cooperated by just watching us – – as we were watching him! Then moved on and arrived at our slip at 11:30. Decided we were going “whale watching in the truck”. Got the radio, binoculars and my grocery list (as we needed to stop by the market) and headed for the west side. From the radio we knew they were heading south and approximately 50 whales. We went to South Beach first to no avail. We did see a large whale boat heading north and so we left to go to Lime Kiln to see if we could see them from there. The radio conversation led us to believe they were going south, so we went back to south beach and found them!!!!!

At that point they were headed north. Chris got some pics and then decided we would try to catch them further north so we went to Eagle Point and found them again and very close to shore! Was amazing to see them…so many. We could hear them vocalizing and breathing from where we stood on the rocks above the shore. Chris snapped many shots and then they begin to head north out of our sight where we stood. Soooo, back to the truck and headed to Lime Kiln to await their arrival. We could see them in the distance and then head on the radio where they all of a sudden turned left and headed offshore. We could see them moving away from the island. The radio guy said it was amazing as they “all turned at the same time and they were bookin'”! We watched them fade off into the distance.

We were all tired from our eagle and whale watching and decided to head back to Friday via Roche Harbor. Took a quick tour, snapped some pictures and as we left found the road to the mausoleum. Took a walk and found it back in the woods. Very pretty and different.

We are all tired and ready for a good night’s sleep. What a TERRIFIC and AWESOME day!!!!!

~Mom

After the flight from Seattle’s Lake Union to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands, I met up with my parents and we took their boat over to Rosario Resort on Orcas Island. I’ll let special guest Mom The Blogger fill in the rest…

We had made reservations a couple of weeks ago at the marina. The water was calm with little boat traffic. Chris snapped pictures along the way….by the end of the day he had clicked over 100 shots.

Upon our arrival at Rosario, we had to “hover” just outside the harbor to wait for them to get a sailboat in place. Is a tiny harbor with few slips thus the necessity for reservations. After lunch Chris and I went exploring up to the old Rosario Resort built by a Mr. Moran, mayor of Seattle in the early 1900’s. Found that Christopher Peacock, pianist and organist , does a concert at 6:00 nightly so will be able to see him. Roamed around the house and Chris took some photos of some special “side by side” chairs he had seen before. Not much furniture in place, but certainly had the old feel!! Checked out the restaurants and decided we would eat “in” instead of cooking on the boat.

Went back to the boat and Chris took off to take some photos and came back with shots of deer right across from the boat. So we grabbed some bread and went to feed the deer! Three of them…really tame eat right out of your hand. Black tail deer that live on the grounds. Phil and Chris saw a harbor seal, swimming around the docks and Chris got a pic of one on the way over. Went to dinner at the outside diner, but they had closed as it had started to sprinkle, soooooooo ended up inside and they opened the inside lounge a bit early..we got a lovely seat by the window with a gorgeous view of the channel! Quite lovely!

All of us a great meal, and then went to the music room for “the concert”! Phil had bought me a CD of his while he was here in January…so now I get to see him in person! He played a steinway piano built in 1900-one of the last- as well as the pipe organ. While he played he showed an early slide show of Mr. Moran’s photos and The Phantom of the Opera to highlight the contemporary music. He then showed us upstairs to where the organ is housed-it was originally put in as a organ “player piano” using the “rolls ” of music.
I bought a CD, Chris snapped some more photos and we retreated to the boat.

Chris did some cleanup for us on the computer and we looked at his photos from the day. Lots of beautiful scenes. He just got back from taking a great shot of the milky way….pretty amazing!

~Mom

And there ya go, Mom The Blogger…

Oh Neko you’re So Fine, You’re So Fine You… So, Rock n’ Roll girlfriend was playing a benefit show for the Seattle Zoo. It was a one off, so I was dying to go. The only problem was that it ended up being sold out, and the only place you can buy tickets beforehand are at the Zoo or at some markets around Seattle. Basically screwing any out-of-towners.

Hung aound Seattle most of the day seeing sights. Then caught a bus up to the Zoo knowing full well I was going to be standing on the corner ticket begging. Took the bus that the zoo website tells you to take but it doesn’t take you too the main entrance. Which I found out later had the big line to get in. So the line at this side entrance had less than 100 people and I thought I was going to be screwed. They let the line in and no one had extra tickets! DAMN! Just then three people walked up looking all around and I beg “extra tickets?” And they said yeah! Score! Fortunately I was able to squeeze my way up to the front through all the beach chairs, blankets and picnic baskets.

She opened with Favorite and right after her cover of Bob Dylan’s Buckets of Rain it started pouring. I was completely unprepared for rain in my jeans and a flannel shirt and no umbrella. Friggin’, it’s the middle of summer and it’s raining. Shame on you Seattle. Neko started laughing nervously as she was singing as everyone started scrambling for cover right in front of her. She said she wouldn’t be offended if we left. I found a tree in the back and watched from there for about 1/2 an hour until it let up a bit and then when back to front where everyone was now standing huddled together. Good time. Then it reeeeeally started to pour and my teeth were chattering so I had to leave. Caught the same bus back and had to walk a little to the hotel. Ah… warm.

[“TWIN CINEMA”]
Pop masters New Pornographers are in town for their new release “Twin Cinema”. Tonight they did an instore [LINK] at Tower Records on Sunset, then the Galaxy Theater tomorrow. The NP’s are like a big bag of Halloween candy. One song’s a Snickers, one’s Twizzlers, one a Butterfinger, another a roll of Smarties. It’s all confectionery goodness. Neko isn’t playing with them on these instore appearances. Oh Neko. Wherefore art thou Neko? Oh, you’ll be in Seattle on Sunday? Ok.

A few years ago, George and I were sitting at Damiano’s on Fairfax one late night and Trent Reznor walks in and goes to the back room. Hmmm… interesting. Then sometime last year we’re at the Viper Room to see Riz and his band Anyone play and there ya go, Trent Reznor comes walking in to check out the band. Earlier this year, and a first by any band, he released The Hand That Feeds and Only as Protools and Garageband multitrack files on his website. He wanted to put the songs in the hands of his fans and let them hack away at them by remixing them and screwing around with them as they see fit. Then Steve calls me up and asks if I want to hit the Nine Inch Nails show at the Hollywood Bowl in October. Man, it’s very Nine Inch Naily ’round ‘ere. Trent and I have become very close, he just doesn’t know it.

So, my take on The Hand That Feeds [LINK] was that is was too fast and not evil enough. You could actually work out in the gym to the original version. I wanted something more Sabbathy with creepy shit coming in and out of it. A couple of years ago Steve and I, and Matt also, caught Marilyn Manson at San Jose State’s arena and we joked the whole show how under the stage there was a giant Evil Machine?¢‚Äû¬¢ that when fired up would produce copius amounts of evil. Whenever Marilyn Manson got particularly heavy and grindy sounding we would look at each other and yell stuff like, “You hear that? That’s evil… pure evil! They’re really cranking the Evil Machine?¢‚Äû¬¢ right now!!”. I think we laughed through the whole show at how insanely good Marilyn Manson actually was. Of course now when I try to describe what’s lacking in a song I sometimes say it needs more evil. “Hey, have you heard that new Cold Play song? Yeah, it’s cool and all, but it could use more evil“. So here’s my take on it being more evily and heavy with less Jane Fonda. A vintage Evil Machine?¢‚Äû¬¢ can go for huge amounts of money on EBay so I did my best with what I had.

[SOUNDWALK VIDEO LINK]
Yeah… just not that into sound artists all that much, but I gave Soundwalk [LINK] a shot. A little too “experimental” for my taste. I guess I was searching for something a little more whimsical. Everyone seems so serious. At one of the gallery stops, some people were writhing around on the floor to ambient music. All serious and stone faced. It would have been much cooler if they had been writhing around and laughing like mental patients or something. But no, this was serious art this writhing. We must writhe stoically to honor the memory of writhers before us who paved the path for our writhing lifestyle. Unfortunately the one thing that intrigued me didn’t seem to be working, the above musical thing. Looked cool though.

Earlier in the day I had Dim Sum with Lynn, Vicki and Steve. I realized I’d never actually done Dim Sum before. We went over to The Empress Pavilion [LINK] in Chinatown. It also seems to be the highest rated [LINK] Dim Sum place in Los Angeles. Since it’s not really a menu item but more of a way of eating it was good fun and great for picky eater like myself. I’ll try anything, but I won’t like most of it. Everything was great though and was so inexpensive.

1. Mr. Muffet’s nightmare / swimming with stars / that were underground / in dreamtime.
2. My romeo / in the river / stickley pricks / its a-mazing!
3. Mozopolis / killing time / melting L / elaborate systems underground.

What the hell’s an Exquisite Corpse? [LINK] Well… it’s a game developed during the surrealist movement in the 1930’s. I remember playing it as a kid in art class at school. Art classes, remember those? Yeah, art was actually taught in schools at one time. Anyway, it’s a collaborative way of making art that has found its way online. The basic idea is one person starts a drawing, the next person gets a tiny sliver [LINK] of the previous image [LINK] and continues the drawing, then the next, and the fourth person finishes it. Most of the time you end up with a very cool collaged image that is usually very uncanny with its connections, be it colors, themes, etc. Other times it’s a complete non sequitur. Each person also provides a name to their slice to contribute to the title of the piece. And the “Exquisite Corpse” name comes from that very thing. The four above are a few of the ones I’ve contributed to that have completed. On the first one I did the bottom piece with the Australian theme. Second one the the third part that is of an arts and crafts movement theme. The third corpse I did the first section with the city theme. Click ’em to take a closer look. I have a few more that are in the corpse cooker that I’ll post as they wrap up. To get the what, how, and who, or sign up, follow the breadcrumbs . . . . I love the fact that almost every finished corpse could be its own Fillmore poster [LINK].

Gotta love the web and overnight delivery services, they go hand in hand. Back in December I went to New York. Great time, great food, great sights. But the thing I remember the most… that pastrami sandwich from Katz deli in the Lower East Side. My God! Everything I’d ever heard was true! Yeah, there are a few naysayers about Katz, but they’re the same kinda people who think White Castle’s better than In-N-Out. I went to Katz one day and it was so good I went back the next day. I even tried to figure out a way to get another so that I could take it on my Jet Blue flight. Since they don’t feed you, that would have been the ultimate, but I couldn’t pull the timing off. I even ate the pickles that came with it. I HATE PICKLES! I never eat pickles. I hate vinegar. What’s up with that?

A good pastrami in L.A. can be found at Sorrento Italian Market on Sepulveda in Culver City. Good as it may be, it’s no Katz. So katzdeli.com and UPS to the rescue. My God, can you imagine a Pastrami sandwich from Katz overnighted to you from New York. I was in. To make it worthwhile I bought a four pound slab of meat and a loaf of rye bread.

All I can say is… mother f’er that’s good!!! Though I had to put it together, it was right on. At first I cut the slices to thick, then didn’t cut the fat off, but once I figured it all out it was spot on. The slices were WAY to thick on the first one. I had refer to my reference image of the real thing that I took back in New York [LINK]. Yep, too thick. I ate all those pickles. Me. I ate pickles. That’s messed up.

After a horrendous year of no sleep, months of doctor exams, a neurologist’s pokes and prods, a general facial paresthesias, blood lab work, ECGs, EMGs, EEGs, having to go to sleep hungry because of fasting before a test in the morning, gadolinium contrast agent shots, a couple of MRIs, including an IAC MRI (internal auditory canal), both times being stuck listening to the live semi-acoustic version of “Hotel California” while the big ‘ol magnet thumped, sputtered and clunked right outside my headphones and head coil… there is fortunately nothing “structural” in my brain. Saying they’re going to look for something “structural” is just the softest way a neurologist can say “it” without having to actually say “it”… I was prepared to be writing something very different. I feel like I aged ten years since last summer and unfortunately I think it shows. But no matter. The really bad news I had prepared for never came.

Here’s the very first photo I shot with my new camera back in September, which at the time was to take my mind off of the crazy seizure like things and the buzzing and shooting sensations my brain was sending out and down my body. I also took four months off of work after Polar Express wrapped so I could start dealing with all this and do a little traveling. Ya know, just in case. Which was probably a mistake anyway because all it did was give me the time to think about it 24 hrs a day. Literally, because I was not sleeping at all. So, hooray for doctors, nurses and imaging technology!

I still remember the first really big desktop scanner I used was about 15 years ago. It was this big honkin’ Agfa Horizon flatbed scanner [LINK]. I stuck my head in it and scanned it a whole bunch of times. For two weeks afterwards my cheeks, eyelids and forehead did nothing but twitch. And a lot! It even says not to do that right on the thing, but come on man, ya gotta! So I’ll make it easy and just blame that scanner for the past years scare. Oh, and caffeine for the heart palpitations. So instead of actually buying Starbucks coffee, I’ve been buying Starbucks stock instead and it’s working out much better for me. No more skipping and stopped beats. When I have coffee, soda, or iced tea I feel like that spider that’s hopped up on caffeine, all freaked out and no plan whatsoever [LINK].

That’s not Lee Marvin, but it is Jules. She was my roomate in college and did a nice turn in a supacool flash blowout photo from tonight’s Cinespia. Although it doesn’t really look much like her with the jutting chin and all. Her chin does no jutting in real life. It just does normal chin things. Fortunately all these years later she hasn’t held a grudge against me for turning the power off on her computer while she was typing her term paper. That one incident, to this day, has made me double check that whatever outlet I connect a computer to MUST NOT BE CONNECTED TO A LIGHTSWITCH ON THE WALL. Ugh. We were also both at home when the earthquake hit San Francisco in 1989. I remember the radio’s batteries were dead, we had no candles, and when we tried to go to the Safeway near Bernal Heights it was closed because all the front windows were blown out and the glass was all over the parking lot. Mission street, all the way to downtown, was a parking lot and all the electric buses were stuck in the road, some in mid turn. You could even see the fires in the Marina across town. Then when we got back we heard the bay bridge had collapsed from my parents and while we were sitting at the table playing cards the hardware store across the way blew up with a big fireball. What a weird night.

Anyway, nothing like that happened tonight. Her sister Leah was also there, and I remember a picture of her that Jules had in her room while at school and she was wearing something blue. I think it was a fuzzy blue sweater. Bizarre the things you remember. So whenever Jules is talking about her I think “blue” to this day. Tonight’s cinema treasure, Point Blank with Lee F-ing Marvin! Don’t make me slap you around. Cinespia in it’s 4th year has become a little unwieldy in its size.

Another year, another bunch of people running around in motion capture suits. Alex was in from Barcelona and I got to hang out with him Friday night and Ben was in from Australia and we hung out Wednesday night. So good to see friends you can’t just call everyday. Imageworks once again had their drawing classes, although there were a couple of plants being seat fillers when the crowd wasn’t big enough. Michelle and Andrea acted like they were drawing but it kinda looked like they were balancing their paychecks. I bought some software called ZBrush [LINK] that everyone’s been raving about. They had a Mac version and a show special, so I splurged. Don’t expect nuttin’.

I forgot to charge my camera batteries before leaving the house so all you get is cute goat photos at the OC fair’s petting zoo.

April 28th 1984. Twenty one years ago a group my friends from highschool went to see the Scorpions and Bon Jovi at the then fairly new Pacific Amphitheater. It was one month before highschool graduation and we were so freakin cool, oh yeah, you know it! The Scorpions were riding high on their albums “Blackout” and “Love at First Sting” and Bon Jovi was enjoying their very first hit “Runaway”. Chick band was all was thinking when I saw them. Turns out I was right. The amphitheater was eventually closed down because of the noise and traffic problem for the surrounding area but now during the O.C. fair they allow concerts. Anyway, I saw tickets for the show were going on sale and UFO was opening, who I also liked a lot. The last time I saw UFO was August 2nd, 1981. 24 years ago! Iron Maiden opened for them with original singer Paul Di’Anno, which became his last show with him in the states. So, I get to see two bands that I used to love in highschool on one night. Did you know if you buy a ticket to one on the concerts you get free admission to the fair? I didn’t. Bastards. There went 8 bucks. UFO was cool. Ran through most of hits except for Rock Bottom. The Scorpions came out and it’s almost like nothing has changed. Too funny. But, if you want to know how to be a current member of the Scorpions, here ya go. Scream a bunch of stuff into the mic that’s unintelligible because of your german accent, run around really funny in funny pants, as a guitarist occasionally hold your guitar like it’s giant penis and point it at the audience, during fast parts line up with your fellow band members in a line and rawk out while the crowd screams a lot, wear a hat because you’ve gone bald, show up at the wrong entrance and roll down your limousine window to get directions from a guy with an orange flashlight, if you’re not an original member of the band you can wear a Scorpion’s tour shirt like you’re a fan boy, if you’re said member and of look like your of american indian descent, you can wear a feather in your hair that occasionally flops forward and looks like a miniature diving board… oh just watch Spinal Tap for all the correct moves. One comparison that would be funny would be to weigh the crowd from 1984 and this crowd tonight. The beer bellies and implants alone would probably add 25%. Not saying I didn’t fit right in.

I was looking for something to do tonight after sitting inside all day working. So I thought I’d go over to the L.A. Arboretum and shoot some photos. Checked the website, they close at 5pm. It was 4:30. So that’s out. After searching around a bit I found out the California Philharmonic does outdoor concerts during the summer called Festival on the Green. And it’s tonight, and it’s at 7:30, and it’s at the Arboretum! What a weird coincidence. Tonight is all music from movies. Ah, excellent! I thought I’d actually try and see if anyone’s around and see if they might be up for this. Even if it is last minute and we had to leave right away. First call, sleeping. 2nd call, husband said she was asleep because she worked the night before, 3rd call, sister was in town and was asleep so couldn’t commit to going. How weird, I call three people and all can’t go because of sleeping. Why’s everyone asleep at 5pm on Saturday?

So I grabbed a blanket, went to the bank, ate dinner then headed over to the Arboretum where I discovered this thing is way more popular than I imagined. It was packed, but with room to grow. So, maybe I’ve been to too many rock concerts or something but unless you’re sitting right up next to the orchestra it’s never loud enough. As nice as it is, classical music doesn’t belong outdoors. It belongs in a perfectly tuned concert hall where the sound wraps around you and you can actually hear the horse hair scraping along a violin’s strings. That’s what sends chills down your spine. Not the theme from Lawrence of Arabia coming from one direction getting blown around by the slight breeze and some 20 year olds bored by it all and throwing a frisbee around in front of you. They were finally asked to stop by some event people. So two nights in a row I’ve been annoyed by people being idiots. The dry humpers last night at the movie and now the distracting frisbee throwers at the classical music concert. Why go out for entertainment? I’ve got Netflix, 50gb/34.6 days of music/12675 songs in my iTunes catalog, a refrigerator full of Guinness and Coronas, and every imaginable restaurant that will deliver right to my door.

The breakdown of the audience was all the rich folk up front and mostly over 50, and all the regular folk and young hipsters behind the castle moat in the back on the hill. See the pictures. There were peacocks running around through the crowd though. That was cool. Especially the part were the music would get all quiet and the peacocks would start squawking really loudly. That was funny. Another reason classical music belongs indoors. I don’t think you’d hear the peacocks squawking over Black Sabbath. It was nice out though. And there’s my completely random free association review of the Festival on the Green. Tomorrow, the Orange County fair and the Scorpions and UFO at Pacific Amphitheater. Rawk! Oh and Siggraph next Wednesday afternoon if you’re trying to assassinate me, or just plain avoid me.

First and last time I go to Comic-Con. These are so not my people. Although Chewbacca and R2-D2 were there. The amount of acne and male virgins that were walking around this place was second to none. Registration was funny in that they just hand wrote my name on the badge. Kinda like “Hello, my name is… Chris” I even had 4 or 5 pairs of booth boobs look at my name tag and say “Hi, Chris”. Weird. “Um, hello”. Sometimes I despise San Diego. It’s not nearly as laid back as everyone thinks it is. Everytime I go I’m sitting in my car going nowhere fast. The downtown area is a gridlocked mess. It took me and hour and half to find a parking spot. I kid you not. I gave up and was headed towards the freeway onramp when I finally found an $8.00 lot with parking. Which is a rip because they charge you less farther away from the convention center so then you have to take the trolley. Which costs 2.50. So, now it’s 10.50 to park, when you could have parked withing walking distance for a flat $10.00. It gets better. The lowest denomination bill I have is a 10. I put it in the ticket machine and the ticket costs $2.50 but the maximum amount of change the ticket machine will give back is $5 bucks. WTF? So the only way to get around this is to buy two round trip tix for $5 dollars so I can at least get $5 bucks back. Some girl showed up at the stop and I tried to just give her the ticket since it’s paid for anyway. She looked at me like I was up to something and she declined because she was going someplace else. Jeez, I give up.

The trolley finally arrived and I got to the convention center two hours after arriving in San Diego. There was a guy dressed up in black duct tape to look like The Matrix or something. I didn’t shoot photos of any attendees because I was to embarrassed for some of them to actually point my camera at them. I did get to meet Eric Joyner [LINK] finally. I’ve been following his work for a few years. Haven’t quite found the right piece by him yet. There were some great displays of “The Corpse Bride” and the “Wallace & Gromit” movie. Can’t wait for either of those. I also stopped by to see Anne Marie at Mad Yak Press [LINK]. I’ve known her for like 10 years and she lives like 200 yards from me yet I never ever get to hang with her. She gave me a free comic [LINK]. That made me happy after all the hassle. After I left, I tried to stop by Balboa Park, but again, couldn’t find parking. So I hit the road only to sit in Sunday night traffic from Del Mar to Irvine. Argh. So in the immortal words of Anchorman: “I’m Ron Burgundy, go fuck yourself, San Diego.” OK, it’s really not that bad, but still.

After I got to Irvine I stopped at a furniture store and bought a $7000 dollar couch. Yeah, you read that right. Only it wasn’t really that much, that’s just the msrp. See they were having this sale and, and… long story short my couch died so I needed one. Basically I bought a sofa I’ll have till I die. A piece of life furniture. None of this Ikea crap you throw away everytime you move. I’m guilty of a few things from there, but I am now the proud owner of a Stickley Mission Style Bow Arm Sofa [LINK]. It’s on order from the Stickley factory in Manlius, New York. It will be hand built and delivered here in about 12 weeks. All quarter-sawn oak with the forest green leather. A good synopsis of the history of the Stickley name [LINK]. They even have funny corporate videos with goofy classical music [LINK].

During Polar Express a couple white boards were used for something other than mathmatical equations and code. At work, and every other place I’ve been, there tends to be a bathroom problem with guys. The apparatus that allows us to pee standing up can be very unpredictable. For example, lets say you have a squirt gun and point it a friends face, but when you pull the trigger it hits them in the hand. That’s sorta what it’s like. Then you have to compensate by moving it in position or by standing in some weird sideways position to hit the target. The most common target being a cigarette butt in the bottom of a urinal. Anyway, the above photo should help illustrate the various bathroom inhabitants at work. “Shy Guy” is some dude who lines the stall with toilet paper so no one will look through the cracks at him. We’ve never been able to figure out who it is. Click the image to see the detail.

It might help to know this is near the parking exit of the Screen Actors Guild and not Crawford Ranch. Speaking of Bush… [LINK].