Saturday, September 27, 2008

Fresh in SF

























I wanted you to see her square gold bamboo earrings, but she wouldn't move her hands.

They call that hair bump so many girls wear now a "hump". I remember first noticing the phenomenon when a lot of celebrities were doing it, most notably Gwen Stefani. This girl took the hump and made it her own. While all teenagers are all styley in their Old Navy, H & M kind of way, this girl is hecka styley. I think it takes a real sense of fashion and some guts to walk out of the house like that when you're in 9th grade, both of which I suffered a deficit of in my high school career. I didn't learn to say "Fuck it" until I was 30.

So you may think her hair is crazy, crazy, crazy. But you know you dig that hump.

Monday, September 22, 2008

From the Vault - Ski Week End







































And the credits were rolling. We were on our way home to enjoy the next half of our winter's end break, not skiing, not snowboarding, not sledding.

About the first picture: there must've been some friend of a friend of a friend breach, because somehow Elef made it to my Facebook photos.

Elef Neso (Orange County, CA) wrote
at 3:50pm on March 15th, 2008
How do you do that? Make shite look beauty?

I don't know, Elef, I don't know. I just do it.

I also don't know who on earth you are.

Thanks, man.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

From the Vault - Ski Week 2008, Point Reyes


















































I've been feeling nostalgic for the days of good pictures and good company, so here are some from the vaults. This is ski week, 2008. Grahme, Nate and I joined Chris at his mom's in Point Reyes. We planned to go camping somewhere off of Sky trail (see He went thataway, 3/19), but the weather kept us in, drinking beer and whiskey, playing games for 3 days.

Grahme's pack, unlike the rest of ours, did not hold headlamps and camp stoves. Grahme's pack had liar's poker, Slamwich, Boggle, Set and a bunch of other games I can't remember. So after a day's hike to where we wouldn't be camping, we got some food to make dinner, had dinner and then dug in.

I was a pro at Liar's Poker. Nate's Texas sized hands made him a Slamwich savant. Grahme and Chris also had good showings. We were all winners. Just like in children's league soccer. My 3-inch tall trophy is sitting on the mantle as I write these words. I also got the take away of a little insight into the world of men. Being the only girl in Boystown was fun. I don't know if they were trying to make me feel comfortable, but we talked about relationships a whole lot in between glasses of Jack and bottles of beer.

Today, today!


















Thank goodness for red lights. He looked away when he saw me with the camera.

There's more of that red stuff over to the left, but you can't see it. Go to 6th between Folsom and Mission to take in the whole mural. It's so cool. You've got all that geometry happening to the left and right, and then an explosion of grafitti in the middle. It's all grafitti, I know, but the style in the middle of the piece is more traditional.

I hope no one does anything to it. Our stupid kids who call themselves taggers who only scribble on notebook paper and the back windows of MUNI if they're brave enough like to show how down they are by writing "Toy" across pieces that they deem inferior - not art, not grafitti, not good. Silly little teenaged minds. Lots of fronts. Who they really are, no one knows yet. I hope they don't destroy this piece.

Good day in the city today. I saw a bunch of Miro pieces I'd never seen before in a place I'd never been when, really, I was only in town to look for boots. The ceiling was made of gross old squares of who knows what; some were stained. I felt sorry for the paintings. But I was happy to see the work. Alex called while I was at the gallery. He has a backyard now.

It was warm and hardly windy, even downtown. Thank you sweet jeebus.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

I'm a VIP - California Academy of Sciences







































My friend Grahme used to be my co-worker. Then he got this kick ass job at the new California Academy of Sciences. So even though the mention of his name yields shouts of, "Grahme who?!" or "He's dead to us!" I enjoy the perks. And I never shout those things. I'm afraid he'll hear them in his heart and then I won't get to do cool stuff like go to pre-openings of "the country's premier science museum," the first of its kind west of the Mississippi.

There were so many aquariums. And all of them had things in them that looked like rock-dinosaur-monster mixes. Really interesting sushi possibilities. The guys of Slanted Door are going to have a cafe there, so if you want $46 spring rolls made with dinosaur monster fish, go there. Best in town.

Opening day is September 27th. It'll be free and you can expect to see political celebrities like Gavin Newsom and Arnold Schwarzeneger. I'm not even going to check the spelling on that. After opening day, expect to pay $25 for your entry. For a little perspective, that is 50 Cliff's Z-Bars at Trader Joe's.

p.s. Sujata took picture #2.
p.p.s. I don't know why we're smiling like that. We weren't that happy. My shoes were kind of hurting.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Better Half, take 2

























I don't look twice at message tees. This guy brought his to attention after I moved off of his stoop so he could pass on by. Hello, here's my tee shirt. You know he almost got into it with some guy down on the Embarcadero over it. Walking along, "minding my own business with a friend of mine", he was approached by some other guy who asks him what he means by that shirt. Shirt guy says nothing. He doesn't mean a damn thing by it. It's just a shirt. But what do you mean by it? Are you trying to insult me? The man doing the asking was black and referring to the ugly and archaic insult relating black people to monkeys. Shirt guy's friend stepped in and cooled the situation down and everyone went on their own way.

Shirt guy was still frustrated and even a little bit angry about the whole mess, though.
"My wife is darker than that man was. I married an African-American woman ten years ago. Best thing to ever happen to me. Best thing. Too bad I didn't meet her sooner, when I was twenty."
"Maybe you wouldn't have been ready for her when you were twenty."
"I was in Vietnam when I was twenty. But you don't know what that was like."
"I'm glad I don't know what that was like."
"It's better you don't know what that was like."

We said those last two things at almost the same time.

The bottom of his mustache was yellow, from the smoking I'm guessing. I thought that was kind of cool. Not the smoking, just the record of it. Dandruff all over the shoulders of his brown beautiful monkey tee shirt. He kept telling me I'd break my camera taking a picture of him. Then we said goodbye and me and my friend got called in for a table for brunch and I forgot to order the beignets which is the only reason I wanted to go there in the first place.

Monday, September 8, 2008

I'm saaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiling!

























That's right. I'm one of those people. You're driving across the bridge on a nice sunny day. You're going to meet your friend for brunch. Inside. Where it's just okay. And then you see all those sailboats. "Who are those people?" you wonder. "How can people effing afford boats for fuck's sake?" And I am on that boat. That's right. That one right there. And I'll tell you how to afford it. Be friends with people who have boats or sailing club memberships because your cheap ass will never take the class or pay the dues because then you won't have money to buy milk for your babies.

That's not my (friends who sail's) boat. I'm in another boat that's really great and nice.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Stay sharp

















I walked by this shop who knows how many times without ever stopping in. A new friend who may now be an old friend brought me in for the first time last month. There are signs everywhere telling you that no photos are allowed so I won't put the name of the place down here so that I can remain safe and at large.

Now I buy things like this. I'm one of those people. I'd never categorized "people who buy cactuses and succulents" before. I didn't know it was so widespread. Now I'm part of this group. I use them to decorate my classroom. So far, two rotten young people have been injured as a result. I have also started bringing them into my private home. They look nice. One has tiny flowering vines and the other looks like a cross between a heart and a brain.

I know the shop has, as a matter of fact, some brains. I don't know about hearts, though. Next week.
 
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