Am I in another country?

I wish I could let you hear the insane "Iraqish" noise that happens in Oakland on the 4th of July. It really begins in May and goes until September but it has it's climax on July 4th. I'm not sure where all these people get their fireworks--
which are quite professional.
We're not talking sparklers here.
I would guess that at least every other house has something to send off into the air, blow up on the ground or shoot..Hopefully not AT someone.
Seems like people should be licensed for this stuff. And it is illegal of course but that never stops anyone.

Then, July 5th I took my dogs out for their morning walk and as I climbed to the top of a hill I spied out of the corner of my eye, a red fox. He saw us first obviously and began to run down the hill into the canyon away from us. I imediately looked for my dog Gabe. She sat and just watched him go. I couldn't believe she didn't chase him. Maybe it was a "I know your not a domestic animal" thing. So strange because Gabe will always chase.
Anyway. We watched that fox for awhile--Gabe and I. While the other 3 dogs sniffed around and ate goat poop. Completely unaware. He ran on a trail stopping every 30 feet or so to look back at us.
I like that kind of dichotomy about Oakland.

Sound Down

So Kimm and I have been watching the first season of the L word.
We don't have cable so we rely on our friends to tape stuff for us that is culturally relevant in some way.
We enjoy watching straight girls kiss and make-out and that hasn't really been done on T.V. before.
Anyway, we've decided we like it best with the sound off.
Katherine Moenning is pretty hot. Jennifer Beals still has that nice ass. AND it's got goddamn Pam Grier! I wonder how they got her on the show? I can't imagine what Guinevere Turner must have said to convince her...

SF Pride Parade 2006

Remember Josie Cotton? "Johnny are you queer?" Here she is performing with a cute dancer on the main stage at this years Pride Parade Festival.
Saturday night we went to the Dyke March. We succesfully partied at a friend's house before hand. Marched. Danced to the Whoa Nellies (Fun SF band fronted by ex-Elvis Herselves). Ate like pigs. Then went to another party. Crashed at friend H and N's place. Got up and went to the Civic Center to troll around and buy "M" Brownies--This year we got lucky and also got a "M" pound cake! We'll put that in the freezer and save it for a river trip in August or September.

HOT

It's so focken hot here today.
Do you like how I changed that ONE word in the last sentence? I haven't seen that version and I'm running with it.
Memories of HOT Redding nights:
I would swing on the swing set after dinner when I was kid. I'd watch the sky get darker and the night would fill up with good smells of orange blossoms and mimosa trees.
Later when I was older I'd run around barefoot with my friends thru the neighborhood at night and toilet paper peoples houses. We were never afraid of creepy perv's.
When I was 16 or so I'd jam with my band in my girlfriends parents garage in the outskirts of town near the lake. We were so far out there no one complained about the sound.
While I was in my college freshman year. I would sit in a small group of girls by the pool side of my bestfriend. We'd try and out-attitude each other.

Kris--Or--All my best friends die on solstices

Here is a photo of Kris and I and our friend Nancy from our days at "the BYU". Kris is in the red shirt looking adorable. Nancy has the peace sign. I of course am the one in the back looking miserable. Today is year #4 without Kris.
I miss her everyday.

We used to sing along to "Los Angeles" by X in her kelly green volkswagen bug. Screaming at the top of our lungs.
We had so much fun together.
As Exene says in the song Los Angeles--"She found it hard to say goodbye to her own best friend". That's still how I feel about Kris.

Mark...where are you?

Listening to Memphis Minnie

This is Kimm with our hot friend Mark. They tried on all our wigs a few weeks ago and posed for this picture. I love this one because they look all Kentucky. Mark was supposed to come stay with us this weekend but he hasen't shown his handsome face yet. I s'pose we should call him...
Doesn't Kimm look a little like Martha Stewart in this photo?
So what's with this weekend anyway? Memorial day weekend? Well I'm not the proud Amerkan type so I think I'll celebrate it by buying the new Minutemen dvd "We Jam Econo." Aren't we required to LOVE the Minutemen in this country?? I sure do. The BAND that is.

I SOOO suck at this

It's been more than a month since I posted..Geez, I really suck at this blogger stuff. And I haven't posted one picture of my art. I did name this "My unseen art" a year or so ago. Well lucky for all of us the goats are back at my favorite open space and they've almost finished eating everything. Next they will cross the street and eat everything at the other open space. Hopefully I'll come across some fresh skulls when I get back there. Seem's every year there are several goats that die on the job -or maybe they get shot-who knows..this is Oakland.
Anyway, soon I'll post some art photos. With or without skulls.

These are the good times...

Listening to Decline and Fall of Western Civilization.

I remember when I was younger and I didn't have responsibilities. Yes I had a job but If I wanted to call in sick--I could. I didn't own a house. I didn't have a girlfriend. I only had one dog. My life was simple. All my furniture matched. I remember thinking.."One day I'll have a real life with responsibilities. These are the good times". Thank god those days are over.

Big Mean Dogs=Bad Owners

listening to Sleater-Kinney " I want to be your Joey Ramone"
Our nice neighbors little dog got into our mean neighbors yard with their two big mean dogs. Those two big mean dogs were trying their hardest to kill that sweet, small and nearly blind dog. I heard it and climbed a ladder to see over the fence to find out what was going on. After I saw what was happening I screamed for Kimm to come and help. She kept the dogs at bay with our hose and I ran around the corner to the mean neighbors house to get them to call off their dogs. Both of their cars were there but no answer at the door. Kimm finally jumped the fence with a blanket and wrapped up the little hurt dog and handed it over the fence to me. Poor little thing. If I hadn't heard them that dog would be dead. It didn't seem to be bleeding. Maybe just really brused and possibly broken or cracked. I hope not. We got him back to our nice neighbors. Still can't figure out why if our mean neighbors were home how they could let that commotion happen without doing something about it? And how did that little dog get into their yard? Kinda scary because we have 4 little dogs. Knowing their dogs are capable of that is frightning. I'm making sure our fence is dog proof so that never happens.

BAD STUFF

Here is a picture of a Montery Pine that fell onto the back and roof of my neighbors house on tuesday. A big gust of wind knocked it down. The rain has saturated the ground to the point where it won't hold up trees anymore.
This is just one more shitty thing to happen to us or those we know well. Our friend Walt lost his home in January when the rains flooded the river in Lagunitas. THEN: Tedd commits the unbearable. THEN: We have little or no work because of the season. Etc...Etc..... Those windows are not broken. I can't believe they didn't break! That is one of the owners in the foreground. She is in shock! This doesn't show the damage on the roof. There were SO many holes punched into the roof by big thick branches that you can't see in this picture! Kimm scampered up there with all the slick pine needles to help them put on the tarps afterwards. Then on Friday they got about 6 tree guys over there and they got that whole tree off of the roof and cut it down to the stump. Brave guys. They didn't break one petal off of any of our neighbors flowers! Those kids were good!

Stonefox

There was this band from San Francisco in the mid-late 90's called Stonefox. They could not be touched. 4 girls on guitar and mics and 1 guy on the drums. Hard - Driving - Sweating - Sex Rock Punk Metal. They were just so good. Sooo Good.
I'm listening to this C.D. I got from my dear friend Tedd's collection. I am the biggest Stonefox fan and I didn't know about this! "Really Burnt" on Man's Ruin. It's their first album "Burnt", with several live cuts. Show's I know that I was at because I was a junkie. I saw them all. I stalked one of the guitarists after I saw her get off the bus one day in my neighborhood. She lived right next door to Mission Delores. The balcony of her studio looked out onto the graveyard of the Mission. I spent many days walking my doberman Isabelle underneith that balcony.
Good Times--Good Times..
Thank God for this band!
I also got a well worn Stonefox t-shirt from Tedd's t-shirt collection. I'm not sure I should ever wear it.

Tedd ruins our lives lately

Listening to KUSF
It's been a long time since I wrote anything. Our good friend Tedd committed suicide in Febuary and I didn't feel much like writing after that. This is a picture of Tedd in better times. He was one of a kind. No one knew he was in any kind of emotional pain. But like my mom said, "Sometimes you can't know what's in peoples heads". Pretty simple but true.
We played music together in a band called Yusakuta that was together from '97 to '01. He played bass and I played guitar. We played lots of shows and had so much fun. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't be playing in the band I am today. I wouldn't know the SF friends that I still have. I wouldn't have all the great memories that I have. He used to be counted on to come to all our shows. Now he won't be there. In ten years I wonder if I will feel even worse than I do now. It's hard to explain that.
I'm going to his place next Sunday to help his boyfriend and best friend among others to clean out his stuff.
I really miss that guy.

WORK!!!

Listening to Damian Marley

Where is the work? February is always slow for us. We are waiting for someone to call and give us a good job. In the meantime we are painting the bedroom a calming off white. And today we are going to start sanding the floor in order to refinish it.
It's HARD to stay calm when you are slowly running out of money.
Have to try and keep my cynical attitude in check. Reggae helps. All the tings dat go along with jahs music help.....But I'm going to need more of that soon and that means I need more MONEY.
vicious circles.

Much Visitation

Listening to Muddy Waters
There has been much visitation this weekend. We had 7 friends come over on saturday and 2 on sunday. Luckily the 2 on sunday ate the leftovers from the 7 on saturday. I was unable to see my friend from up north because of all this friendship. Well, you gain some and you loose some I suppose. I hope my good northern friend will forgive me.
I really tied one on this weekend. It was the first party we had at our homestead here in maybe 4 years. Kind of a last minute thing. I'm glad we finally got our balls together and did it. We have a lot of anxiety between us about such things
if it's not one person loosing their mind ...it's the other.

Unmasked

Listening to Jimmy Reed
Well it seems they have unmasked the person who is appearing in public as J.T.LeRoy. He is a she- a 20 something woman from SF. And it also seems probable that the writer who writes as J.T. is actually a 40 year old woman ex-rocker also from SF. See what happens when you give up the rocknroll. But who doesn't appreciate a good hoax? Wish I could come up with something that good to make some extra cash.
This picture of me is taken in Volcano, Ca. last spring. Some friends and I went a-shootin with bb guns. That was a nice little get away.
I'm noticing that my body is just falling apart. I'm still looking pretty good for my 39th year but I have so many aches and pains. It's just not fair to grow old. I now have some kind of water on the knee and SEVERE pain in my rotating sholder cup thingy.
I think someone needs to shoot me with a bbgun to stop my whining ways.

My new bass

Listening to Drunk Horse

I got a new bass recently. An Ibanez Iceman ICB200. It rocks. It's a re-issue. They do that with cool old guitars these days. Mass produce them in Korea and sell them over here for big bills. The most famous person to play an Iceman was Paul Stanley of Kiss. Although he played guitar. Mine looks the same but bigger! I have a pretty nice Ibanez SR810. If I compare the two basses it's like comparing a corvette to a jeep. The Iceman being the jeep. The two sounds are so different and they both play so differently but that's what I wanted.
Kimm was a little put off when I brought that thing home. She didn't understand why I needed TWO basses. When I brought it to it's first show in Dec. I broke a string on my "corvette bass" during the first song. So I swung up my new Iceman and charged thru the set. Now I think she understands.

Maya

Listening to the blues.

It's a nice name for our friends baby. She's just arrived and they named her ...finally. Welcome Maya! Her mom was in 3 different bands with me. She's played drums and done a lot of singing. We both have a lot in for the Butthole surfers, Pixies and Velvet Underground. Now she's twice a mom.
Some of us have grown up.

I'm lame at this

Listening to Camioux

I wish I was better at this blog thing. I could never keep a diary as a child and now as a grown child I can't keep a blog.
This is a picture of Santacon 2006. God was mean to Santa this year and allowed it to rain uncontrollably. I like how in this picture the rain looks like snow. It never snows here. BUT IT RAINS...and here it is now outside the door. I can see it falling. I guess I won't be able to sit in the hot tub.
Kimm and I are off today but we have a lot of work to do around here. So she's taken off to the thrift store. It's all good. She needs a little fun after working so hard all week.
We went to visit her brothers in Placerville last weekend. We took up late x-mas presents. It's always fun to see her nephews and nieces. They love to play with our dogs -so we don't have to find things to talk about. Kind of the way I like to play with kids... Bring the dogs in to keep them occupied. I know that sounds bad. They are great kids--really. And I really like her two brothers and their wives. I guess the older I get the more I realize that I have I*S*S*U*E*S.

Unseasonable Weather

Listening to: Elephant Man

This is a picture taken about 5 days ago from my front porch. If you could see past these trees you would see down this hill are the flats of East Oakland. Beyond that is the Bay and across from the bay is South San Francisco. Then of course beyond that is the Pacific ocean. We've had these brillant sunsets and near 80 degree tempatures for the last 9 days. It's very unseasonable. Usually in November the daytime temp. is around the high 60's. Even then it's not so bad. This is why I LOVE living in the bay area. It never gets colder than 30 degrees. And it would be rare to even get that low. No snow, not too much rain--especially over here in Oakland. Lot's of sun. I couldn't live anywhere else.
Kimm and I are taking the dogs to Sibley Park today. It's an ancient inactive volcano. It's pretty cool. You wouldn't really know it was a volcano unless you spent sometime looking closely at the terrain. You can just make out the ridge surrounding the park. When walking on the trails you are in the center of the volcano. We haven't been there in a long time. The last time we were there was more than 3 years ago. It was the day after we got Mill's our rat terrier. The day before that we got Gabe our basengi mix. and the day before that our doberman Isabelle died. She dropped dead on a walk with myself and our little dachsund mix Jasper. Probably from a heart attack. She was a month away from 10 years old. She was my first dog and my best dog. I love my new doggies but Isabelle was special. She's buried under our orange tree.

Hopefully I can keep this up

listening to: The Pretty Things

So this blog will be dedicated to the art I throw together in the empty fields and city/county parks of Oakland, Ca.
No one ever has a chance to see it or knock it over except the kids who are skipping school to smoke weed.
Also included as a special bonus is info on my unheard music. Most recently it's "Mutton". Mutton is a three piece band rising out of the estrogen of my last band "Hazy". We are Mike-drums/vocals, Chris-guitar, me-bass.
We rock and roll.
We have a show Dec. 17th @ Edinburgh Castle as referred to in this fabulous flyer I've made. There is much frantic practicing as time draws near.
Last but by all means NOT the least will be the daily accounts of my meager existence with my girlfriend Kimm and our slew of animals.