Back to the Grind

I had a great weekend, first hanging out in Rockridge, my old stomping ground in North Oakland, and then later Saturday afternoon, attending the opening of the Beatles retrospective. My housemates made an appearance at the show, as well as several old and new friends, and the scene there was pure comedy. I was supposed to take pictures of the eccentric art patrons, but that got boring quickly (not to mention that I felt awkward walking up to complete strangers to ask if I could take their photograph), and at a certain point I found myself more concerned with drinking and grabbing under cover shots of the crazy hairstyles and hippie-era flowered shirts, not to mention the Depeche Mode and Duran Duran impersonators, which, with a few Vodka Tonics, became quite the obsession. Later we went to the Bow Bow, where a random assortment of old high school friends had gathered, which became, in a weird way, an impromptu book opening party. Serg, Dave, Craig, Erik, Mario, Ann, Dave's new fiancee, Jennifer, Taylor, and Ted were all there, and everybody was so kind and interested in what's been going on, and they were all legitimately happy, for me, and in this way, I just let the glow of the evening take over. The best part was that my buddy Nick, who I've known for two decades, and who I hadn't seen in two years since he's been living, first in Taiwan, and now in England, drove from Sacramento for the gallery opening (he's in the U.S. for two weeks), and he got a quick, twenty-four hour window into my world, which meant a lot in that he's one of the few friends that I allow such close access to, and just seeing his smile when each new character dropped in and demonstrated their absurd brilliance, not to mention how well he got along with Jennifer, Ted, and Taylor, made everything all the more glorious.

Sunday I was pretty hung-over, but even that was okay, in that, thanks to Tara's generous Netflix gift certificate, I had Quadrophenia, Herzog's Stroszek, and Noam Baumbach's first film, Kicking and Screaming, to watch while I vegged out in bed, getting up only to grab some Korean barbecue at lunchtime, and then later, a watermelon smoothie down in Chinatown when I began to feel dehydrated.

This week I'm back to the grind of hustling the book, while also drawing up plans for the next project. In the meantime, check back in a few days. Hopefully I'll have completed the photography update by then. I have several new shots that I'm excited to reveal, and hopefully you'll dig them as well.