Help Transfatty Please

Patrick O'Brien is a brilliant artist in need of your help. Anything you can do would be greatly appreciated. To see an article about his amazing work, please click here. Also, if you're interested, here is his portfolio. Thank you in advance.

The Walkmen

As a birthday present to myself, I attended The Walkmen concert last night. Since it was a Monday none of my friends could make it out, but that didn't stop me from having one of the most spectacular evenings in quite some time. Got there early to ensure that tickets were available, then spent the next three hours drinking in various watering holes in the Tenderloin, which is always an eye opener for craziness, especially the fusion of junkies, dealers, trannies, Indie rock kids with wavy Garfunkels, and of course Kathy, the beautiful Korean bartender, who after questioning whether I was even 21, dropped my license in a pitcher of water and spent the next 2 hours giving me free Ketel Ones straight up and telling me how she wanted to have a white baby with my blue eyes. Afterwards she explained who I should contact in Chinatown if I wanted to bet on tonight's game 3 of the NBA finals (ask for Woo Woo in the Little Buddha Bar - you tell him his niece sent you).

To make a long story short, the concert was exhilarating - in fact nothing short of magical, especially when they played The Rat and the whole Music Hall was singing along to the hook:"When I used to go out, I would know everyone that I saw \ Now I go out alone if I go out at all."

And of course the surprise of knowing all these people felt the same way I did, how these words were addressed to me in this moment - as I didn't know a soul there, but as the girl next to me kept crashing into my shoulder while dancing, I didn't mind at all, because she had reached that point where she let everything go, she gave in to the tribal pulsations of the drums and wanted to be snatched up to a higher state, and for an hour and a half, we both transcended that level of euphoria.

I hate forgetting key moments of my life, when the memories are there but too faint to still flash before your eyes (of course certain chemicals tend to do this), but this morning, at 3:00 am, as I stumbled along the forty five minute walk from the Tenderloin, as the trannies were calling from across the street, as this crackhead named A-train was mumbling in the alley, as the fog horns echoed from the ships in the great Pacific, and as the pastries were being prepared in small little Chinatown bakeries - so fresh I had to duck in to one for a quick blueberry muffin, I glowed with every step, I heard the words to every song in my head, and as I nestled into bed a few minutes later, I knew this was why I came to the city, to experience catharsis like this one night at a time, and as my eyes became heavy, and the visions still danced in my mind, I looked up to the sky and whispered to myself, take me all the way.

Moving to the City

Hello. This will be my last entry for awhile, as tomorrow night I'm packing the computer and driving to San Francisco. I'll have one or two additional trips to make during the week, but I plan on living there by the 10th at the very latest. Since my birthday falls on Sunday, I'd like to be in the city Saturday night with all my old friends around, perhaps even visit Candy and Folson at the Bow Bow.......This past week I wrote a series of short scripts for a design agency where I'm doing some freelance work. We're parodying self-help gurus, and I can't wait to see the finished result, as it promises to be hilarious...... I also finished two books recently, finally having a chance to check out Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (I had only read excerpts of it from Thompson's other classic, The Great Shark Hunt, and of course watched the film). I also read Carver's Where I'm Calling From (again), hoping it would inspire me to finish a story I've been laboring on for almost three weeks now.............. Yesterday I had one of those brain freezes that only now, twenty-four hours later, I can finally laugh about. I went on this long afternoon walk and forgot I had set the alarm in the house. For some reason upon my return my mind went blank. It was hot and I was thirsty and fuck, the beeping started and I was like, oh shit! I tried typing in assorted numbers but couldn't for the life of me remember the password, or how many digits it contained. When the alarm actually went off, that's when all hell broke lose. Phyllis, the crazy woman across the street, started peaking in the window and banging on the door. The security company called twice, followed by the cops, and every time they asked a question to verify my story, I of course felt like they were laughing at me. Then a friend of my parents called to make sure everything was okay. I kept trying to get a hold of my mom but the main line was busy and her cell number went straight to voicemail. The alarm stopped for sixty seconds and then went off again. Neighbors everywhere began to step onto the street. Finally I logged onto the internet and found my mom (that's why her number was busy). She gave me the password, I ran and entered it, and the pounding stopped, fifteen minutes later. I even had the number written in my wallet but dismissed it in my panic because it seemed too short. Needless to say, for the rest of the evening I remained indoors, embarrased to explain to the neighborhood that I had merely forgotten the alarm code. I ended up catching four episodes of Law and Order SVU (which is my favorite) and then The French Connection late night. For some reason though I was wired and didn't crash until 5:00 am. Since this was my last chance to watch television for the immediate future, I was content though.......Finally, here's a few things to check out if you're in the mood for inspiration. This is my friend Shari's new portfolio. She's an awesome designer with an interesting body of work, and I hope to have a chance to collaborate with her soon. Also, I highly recommend Amanda Church's paintings. As you can see, her stuff is simply beautiful (she is responsible for the artwork on the new Mogwai album). In addition, I love this photograph taken by Laura Burlton. It represents everything I appreciate about experimental photography. Finally, if you're in a Radiohead mood, you'll dig this animation. Along those same lines, this motion graphics piece is also pretty cool. Anyway, that's all for now. Hopefully by the time of my next update, I'll have some information on how you can purchase the new book. Cheers, and thanks for the support.

Albany Landfill

I made a trip down last Saturday to my new apartment , and then - after visiting a friend in Marin - I spent the late afternoon hiking along the cliffs of the Albany Landfill, where not only is the view of San Francisco and Alcatraz majestic, but there's a cool - albeit strange - collection of art right along the water's edge. I also stumbled across this theatre troope in the middle of the trees performing Shakespeare's The Tempest, although when I first saw this crowd of devils and fairies - surrounded by 300 people in this circle, with all the satanic artwork built into the landscape and thousands of wind chimes next to these crazy shrines, and this guy's tent overlooking the Pacific Ocean with a sign that read "Please don't disturb the hermit, he talks to God." I really thought I had stumbled into the final scene of Rosemary's Baby, and might not make it out of the woods alive.