Almost Forgot

I've got some new photographs here. Hope you enjoy.

Top of the Mark

It was a bizarre weekend. Friday night I hung out with Casey, this girl I used to be friends with back in the Santa Rosa days, which was crazy in that I've not seen or heard from her in over ten years. I guess she did a google search, found my book, bought and read it from cover to cover in two days, and then shot me off an email, just to say hello. A week later, she was in the city, staying on the 14th floor of the Mark Hopkins - which is literally right around the corner from me, and it was great (and wild) to see her again after all these years.

Saturday I did some graphic design work for my job - a poster I've been laboring on - which is coming around quite nicely, and then watched the first season of Deadwood on DVD, which took a little while to get into, but I ended up really enjoying it.

Yesterday I watched football at my friends' coffee bar in North Oakland, hung out with a few of the old fellas, and dropped off some books for them to sell. I also spoke with two bookstores on College Avenue. It's weird to do the self-promoting thing, and I guess that's one of the advantages of going through a traditional publisher - they do this shit for you, but nonetheless, it's something I believe in, so I have to put in the work. Thanks though for all of you who've helped spread the word.

Finally, Things Kept Burning is now available on amazon and barnesandnoble.com, although both sites have marked it up significantly, so it's still in your best interest to purchase it straight from the publisher. In addition, I scored an interview at my job with Storm Thorgerson, one of my heroes growing up, and I can't say enough about how big this is for me. I even got an email this weekend where he signed it "Von Stormington" which I thought was great.

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.

Nevertheless

It's been hectic the past few weeks, what with the book launch and the new job, not to mention the opportunity to do things now that a few checks have started to come in from my freelance clients. In particular I went to the Brian Jonestown Massacre concert last Tuesday night at The Independent. I showed up without a ticket, though, and spent the first forty-five minutes out in the cold, waiting with all the other lurkers for someone to come by with an extra one to sell. Luckily, a guy who was travelling with The Tyde showed up at the last minute and was generous enough to get me in for free. The next thing you know I'm backstage with a vodka tonic rocking out with a bunch of guys that looked like Tommy Bradford from Eight is Enough, and the only unfortunate thing was that I didn't have any friends there to share in the amusement. BJM played for close to three hours though, and as always, it was glorious. Anton behaved himself despite some douchebags in the back heckling him, and when it comes down to it, they make beautiful music, and that's what the focus should be on. It's interesting that in a summer where I got to see Radiohead for the first time in five years that the two best concerts were The Walkmen and BJM, both evenings I went out by myself.

As a sidenote, Joel is back in the band, and he was in prime form. When someone heckled what he was wearing in the front row, he leaned forward into the mike and said, "Nice blow-dry, dude." The great thing is, I saw him in Union Square right in front of my office the next morning, walking to what I assume is his day job. He had headphones on, and when I said "nice show, Joel" he threw me the peace sign and said, "Right on, brother."

Anyway, I'm working a ridiculous amount of hours now, and we have a big gallery opening this Saturday night (it's an amazing exhibit, and if I had a few thousand dollars laying around I'd scoop up several photographs), which means late nights at the office the rest of the week, so updates here will be sporadic at best. Look for a new website soon dedicated to the book, thanks to my buddy Matt, who continues to be a cool-ass motherfucker. Also, I'm picking up some new photos tomorrow evening, so there might be an update early next week if I can find the time to sit down and bang it out.

With that said, thanks to all those who purchased the book (or plan to in the near future). The early reports have been nothing but positive, and I'm touched by your kind words, deeply.

p.s. Check out these photographs if you have a chance. They're awesome.