Happy New Year Beck

and to all my friends

i'm not hating but...

why wouldn't you just ride a BMX if you're going to be launching off mini-ramps...

it's like trying to 360 kickflip the Hubba Hideout 6 stair with a "bro'y" longboard...not cool, dangerous, and if you actually land it "why didn't you just use a regular skateboard?"...

is this a novely act? are all the spectators in on the joke...was there a giant cacophonous chortle after fixed gear man landed this (or judging by the picture, didn't land this)?

it reminds me of those photos i've seen of skier's riding handrails in suburban business parks...it just like, dude, ski's are for mountains not suburban sprawl thrashin'...

i'm not hating but...

and then there's all those fixie videos...like Mash SF



which is essentially an hour's plus montage of dudes riding really fast and then skidding, or riding around in circles backwards, or attempting to bunnyhop (cf. BMX)...whoopie right? and then a whole bunch of drinking and smoking and rebel rousing (which is the interesting part, but is more of a comment on SF (fading) youth culture than SF fixie culture)

i'm not hating but fixed gear bicycles aren't meant for tricks (aside from riding around in circles backwards which looks more Cirque de' soleil than Rad...and i'm not including "track stands" because they're pretentious...and then "skidding" is how you brake so it's not technically a trick)...i'm not hating but...

my brother rides a fixed gear, he loves it, he also says "they're retarded but super fun..." which i think is a great way of looking at the whole thing...i can deal with that perspective, for fun, that makes sense...but it's when dudes try to look all hard on their bikes, with that air of feined juvenilism that only urban dweller dudes in their late 20's can affect, do things start to feel a tad silly.

and i don't think anybody, let alone the fixie kids espousing the whole "it [riding fixie] keeps you grounded...your body becomes one with the bike...it's easier for city riding [??????]" explanation truely believes it...as if riding around the hilliest topos in the USA (San Francisco Bay Area) sans brakes is somehow conducive to safety.

and then

BMX is sort of the new thing (old) thing anyhow...i'm into that. BMX dudes can actually pull tricks, BMX dudes don't look like pussies trying to bunnyhop through the Lower Haight...BMX dudes tend to rove around SF in packs wall riding their way down Market yelling at tourists, it's all very The Warriors...and i love that movie...

hey James, i'm not hating on you...you are the coolest fixie kid i know, you ride your bike well and are super knowledgeable...the way you ride your bike is the antithesis of what i'm talking about here...

okay so maybe i'm hating a smidge...but not on you brother, not even on dudes who ride fixies per se...the dudes i'm hating on are the ones who try to pass off zero gear bicycle riding as an (shudder) action sport...

by the by, this post is apropos of nothing, no run-ins with douchy "outlaw" fixie kids adding fuel to the fire, a fixie kid didn't sleep with my girlfriend (i have none!)...nada, no instigation, i'm just lashing out on a Sunday morning...it's all old hat anyhow...

and now i'll leave you with FIX PUSH!!!


anyway, i'm in bed thinking about showering...happy new year!

Becca and Donny are pretty great

what a fantastic song what a fantastic song

let's parlay this into my top 12 songs of 2007 not necessarily recorded in 2007 (but mostly)...

Beirut "Nantes"


Grizzly Bear "The Knife"


Daft Punk "Too Long xx Steam Machine"


Band Of Horses "The Funeral"


The Cool Kids "Black Mags"


Radiohead "Weird Fishes/ Arpeggi"


LCD Soundsystem "All My Friends"


Arcade Fire "Keep The Car Running"


The Octopus Project "Tuxedo Hat"


Tegan And Sara 'Back In Your Head"


Devendra Banhart "Seahorse"


El-P "Smithereens"

...

roundup

i'm still in Concord (28 degrees!) but heading back to the City (annoying capitalization!) in a bit...

my brother is moving from the TL to the Western Edition...i'm helping him move tomorrow...i'm helping him move with anticipation and vigor...hurray for James.

Christmas was wonderful...Emma was the New Edition this year...she handled the Sakkis's with poise and charm and an indefatigable sense of humor (that laugh holy moly that laugh)...trust me, it can be rough sitting through my sister's Marisa Tomei impressions, but she done good, and how!...i speak for my parents when i say that Emma is welcome in their house for as long as my brother still likes her...hurray!

some stuff i recieved off the top of my head:

1. Yamaha PSR-S600 (holy shit!)

2. Trapped in the Closet chapters 12-18 (or whatever)

2. Fishing With Jon ("down on the waaaaater/ fishing/ with Jon")

3. Battlestar Galactica Season's 1-2.5 (zap!)

4. Kenneth Cole leather boots (saucy!)

5. Kenneth Cole slacks (brown and black) (savage!)

6. Barely Dead (rolling documentary) (harumph!)

7. 20th Century Eightball- Daniel Clowes (chong!)

8. Love and Rockets #6- Los Bros Hernandez (oy oy oy!)

9. The Complete Poems of Ted Berrigan (crotchity!)

...

i gained 10 pounds...stuff i've eaten since Monday:

1. biscuits and gravy (3 days in a row!)

2. pastichio (4 days going!)

3. two boxes of See's candy

4. approx. 25 sugar cookies, 10 chocolate chip cookies, 7 peanut butter cookies, 6 snicker doodles (hate saying "doodle"), 9 pecan sandies

5. 3 eggs, 4 bacon, 1 sausage, 3 english muffins, large fistfull hashbrowns, 3 cups orange juice, 7 cinnamon buns, 4 cups coffee (one meal!)

6. 1 Concord burrito and bag o' chips

7. lot's of Greek lamb, 6 dolmathas, 4 spanakopita, 4 pieces garlic bread, no brocolini or carrots, half carton of spumoni and slice of ganache chocolate cake (one meal!)

i thought my spleen was going to burst a couple days ago...my mom was going to take me to Kaiser...turns out it was gas, go figure!

here's a Myspace bulletin i sent out on Tuesday...


"----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: ONLYMERK!
Date: Dec 25, 2007 1:37 PM


my spleen may be exploding soon...i don't know, the left side of my torso is in extreme pain...maybe gas, maybe spleen explosion...i don't know, do you? should i be concerned? serious sharp pain in the intestinal area on my left side, below stomach heading into crotch area...hurts to laugh, cough and sit down/get up...what up though?

i'm also really full and have been since monday...been putting a lot of stuff in my body i don't usually eat/digest...gas maybe? but doesn't gas mean you're farting like crazy? i'm not doing that...

so, i'll be back in the city on thursday i think...

thanks for listening,
j"

my brother says i'm disgusting...

...

i missed my Megan but we had txt sex (tm'd)...i decided i'm going to visit Magie in St. Louis before she moves back to the Bay...Jay Slack is in town and i'll probably drink with him tonight or tomorrow...Brandon who i haven't seen in over a month (or talked to) invited me out for drinks (crazy rare) so i'm going to do that...


oh, i have a reading with Mark Linenthal on January 12th at 4pm in the Mission...Rob Halpern (that lovely lovely dreamboat) is curating...more details to come...

and then LRS and i will be driving down to LA with my brother and Emma on the 28th of January for a tag team reading at The Smell...thank you Josepsh Mosconi! more details to come...

...

...

A large mural that was created by some of graffiti’s earliest pioneers was discovered recently in a 10-story limestone building just as developers were converting it into luxury condominiums.

The artwork contains a variety of images and writing executed in spray paint, grease pencil, magic marker and whatever else was at hand - in silver, gold, pink and red. There are cartoonlike pictures of a bomber airplane, images of a heart and a cake, and several references to Quaaludes, a popular 1970s party drug.

…Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 - who helped pioneer graffiti as an art form by spray-painting entire subway trains in psychedelic colours - figure prominently on the wall. There’s also writing believed to belong to Jean Michel Basquiat. The stylistic words "Dead or Alive" strongly suggest that it is the late artist’s work. His tag, "SAMO," appears in the stairwell of the building.

Καλά Χριστούγεννα και Ευτυχισμένο το Νέο Ετος!

from the S.A.K.K.I.S brood...

...

i'm at home right now, i left work in a vomitory hurry...not sure what happend, i was working the warehouse when suddenly my stomach started bubbling off...i can only think of two possible causes 1. bad milk in my coffee...but i love International Cafe in the LH, i don't want to believe it...the hot middle age Ethiopian barista winks at me and calls me "sweetie" and "Mr. DJ"...and she freaking steams milk for my house coffee without me asking...love her...or 2. the 2 year old antibiotics i started taking last night to aid my body in beating the shit out of this lingering sinus infection...boo yeah!

probably the the latter huh...?

anyway, i'm at home for a second, i'm going to eat some tangerines and persimmons (which DO smell like semen) to try and settle my lower regions...

oh, and thanks thanks thanks to my brother's girlfriend EMMA
(okay, cheap excuse to repost that picture of me and Emma but it's sooo good)
for the birthday gifts...esp. the zines!...the goods pictured below...
Ecstatic Peace! sweet release #2 (this is Thurston Moore's label's zine...so obvious boner for me, and it came with a CD comp, score!...) and AVOW #17 and #18 and finally a neat little photographic zine called Selfless (#1 photos by David Potes 34/50) that i'm going to hang on my bedroom wall...

there's a nice little handwritten (actual ink) epigraph
ostensibly written by Mr. Potes himself that reads

it's not what i can do for myself
its what i can do for you.
dedicated to the fact of doing
something and not getting
anything in return

letting go of limitations
letting yourself fall into place.
shamelessly selfless.

...

couple random thoughts on rap music before i eat my fruit and head back to work...

is there anything less interesting than rapper's rapping about the illuminati...fucking snore...

if you write “birds are actually pretty fowl” you sound more like a rapper than a poet, yeah?

most rappers will inevitably say “I transform like Megatron” during a battle...

BUFFALO POETICS LIST GO AWAY!!!

help, in an evidently major miscalculation i thought i would subscribe to the Buffalo Poetics Listserv...call me crazy but i was bored at my deadend UCSF job and had time to kill, so i joined hoping to get in on some poetry drama/ conversation...so, it turns out that BPL is mostly an announcements forum (maybe that's unfair but i call em' as i see em')...and a mail bomber to boot, i get 25 to 35 new emails a day, yarg right?...(okay, the mailbomb issue might be a "settings" issue but still...)

i've tried to unsubscribe by the guidelines below no less than 8 times...

"You may leave the list at any time by sending a "SIGNOFF POETICS" command to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU."

to no fucking avail...day in day out 25-35 new mail bomb poetry announcements sent to my gmail...i want it to stop but no one is listening...i sent a myspace to Amy King but i don't think she checks her account anymore (Facebook traitor)...any suggestions?

unless i'm an idiot, "sending a 'signoff poetics' command" is a really roundabout way of saying "send us an email saying you want to quit the list" right? which i've done 8 times...ba.

recently read...

1. The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1- Alan Moore (better than the movie which was the worst but not as good as From Hell which i loved which was also better than the movie which didn't completely suck)

2. Archeology Of The Circle- Bruce Weigl (ugh for sure, lot's of Vietnam poems not done as well as Komunyaka that was worth reading only because i got some fun Cento's out of it)

3. Works and Days- Bill Luoma (thanks Brandon Brown for loaning me the best baseball/travelogue i've ever read...D. Hall suck on this and shit)

4. Moonshine #2 4 Translations of Augusto de Campos trans. Samuel Knights- i like Samuel Knights' translations of de Campos, they're pretty zany, i published some of them in Bombay Gin #32)

5. Poetray- Demosthenes Agrafiotis New Yipes Reader #23- Demo is my man so i'm biased...but, it's one of the more enjoyable New Yipes readers that i've read (i.e. no essays!)...lot's of visual work and airplanes and punk rock Demo style...if you missed his reading at NY you missed out...he fucking rocked the (ware)house...)

6. Call- Liz Waldner (i love these tiny Waldner chapbooks, whatever happend to Liz though)

7. The Best Stage Scenes For Men From The 1980's- ed. Jocelyn A. Beard (i loved it, i devoured it, i think i should write more drama, i think i'm good at dialogue, who knows, maybe i'm not, but i think i am, i think i need to write a one act for "men in the 80's")

8. Blessing The Boats New And Selected Poems - Lucile Clifton (not even close to being as bad as i thought it was going to be)

9. Tiny Side 26- Lauren Bender ( i can't really remember anything about this chapbook besides the fact that it's gorgeous and displayed in my bedroom on a bookshelf next to my window...)

10. The Four Immigrants Manga A Japanese Experience In San Francisco 1904-1924- Henry (Yoshitaka) Kiyama (one of my first SPD purchases EVER...i think my mom bought this for me when i was 19 on one of our annual trips to the warehouse where she would allot me $150 to buy whatever books i wanted...natch my mom is amazing...anyhoo, this is posibbly the first American "graphic novel"...it's a great read if only for the "comic" depictions of SF at the turn of the century...and then it teaches you stuff about the Japanese immigrant experience to boot)

11. Sulphur #1- ed. Clayton Eshelman (the best lit journal i've read in a very long time...the Olson/ Dahlberg letter correspondance is worth the price alone...i don't know, i finished the mag at 5:30 this morning, Eshelman is a genius-editor, everybody should aspire to edit like dude...fuck, makes me proud to be a poet and stuff)

12. Drill #3- ed. Michael Slosek (another dusie from the Buff (CHI?) to SF transplant...i don't know if Slosek is still putting out Drill but i'm glad to have the issues i do if he isn't...highlights for me include Shuffran, Royer and Slosek himself)

...

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...

ugh...

my boy Ryan (Beck and my brother's roommate) was just hit by a car...(from my brother) "He was riding his bike along polk, when a driver decided to make a last minute right hand turn with out signaling. Dempsey hit the car, slid across the hood and across the intersection. He is 'ok', but thinks he may have broken ribs, and he is cut up a bit.

He got some of the plate, ALE302, and thinks the car may have been a Toyota Carola, or similar model of car."

i'm glad he's "ok" but goddamn, a hit and run?!...you know? i'm just saying, you fucking know?!

be well Demps...

...

8:10am

yahoo sports writers are funny

"Jamal Lewis, who ran for 163 yards in blizzard conditions Sunday, only eats free-range food."

...

7:54am

i just did 80 pushups and 200 crunches...i'm goin' to work today!

...currently listening to Bunny Rabbit "Saddle Up"...

An Island In The Moon

AN ISLAND IN THE MOON
ADAPTED FOR GARY PARRISH'S HOUSE BY JOHN SAKKIS
2005

Setting: An Island In The Moon
Characters: The Narrator, Suction The Epicurean, Sipsop The Pythagorean, Quid The Cynic (the three philosophers)

The Narrator (with a hangman’s noose around his neck): In the moon, is a certain island near by a mighty continent, which small island seems to have some affinity to England. And what is more extraordinary the people are so much alike and their language so much the same that you would think you were among your friends. (as the narrator introduces the characters each bows as his/her name is said) And their names were Sipsop The Pythagorean, Quid The Cynic, and Suction The Epicurean.

Sipsop (pointing at Suction): I don’t like his eyes.

Quid (agreeing): He’s a foolish puppy.

Suction: Hang names, what’s Pharaoh better than Phebus or Phebus than Pharaoh. Hang them both.

Quid: Don’t be profane.

Suction: I don’t think its profane to say hang Pharaoh. I’m sure you ought to hold your tongue, for you never say anything about the scriptures, and you hinder your husband from going to church.

Quid: If it was not for churches and chapels I should not have lived so long, there was I up in the morning at four o clock when I was a girl. I would run like the dickens till I was all in a heat. I would stand till I was ready to sink into the earth. Ah, Mr. Sipsop The Pythagorean would kick the bottom of the pulpit out, with passion, would tear off the sleeve of his gown, and his wig on fire and throw it at the people. He’d cry and stamp and kick and sweat and all for the good of their souls.

Suction: I’m sure he must be a wicked villain. A passionate wretch. If I were a real man I’d wait at the bottom of the pulpit stairs and knock him down and run away.

Quid: You would you ignorant jade, I wish I could see you hit any of the ministers. You deserve to have your ears boxed you do.

Suction (hair suddenly bursting into flames): No no he did not, I was only making a fool of you!

Sipsop (sung as a ballad): When old corruption first begun
Adorned in yellow vest
He committed on flesh whoredom
O what a wicked beast
From them a callow babe did spring
And old corruption smiled
To think his race should never end
For now he had a child
He called him surgery and fed
The babe with his own milk
For flesh and he could never agree
She would not let him suck

Suction: You think we are rascals and we think you are rascals. I do as I choose, what is it to anybody what I do? I am always unhappy too. When I think of surgery, I don’t know, I do it because I like it. My father does what he likes and so do I! I think some how I’ll leave it off; there was a woman having her cancer cut and she shrieked so, that I was quite sick.

Sipsop: They call women the weakest vessel but I think they are the strongest. A girl (pointing at Quid) has always more tongue than a boy. I have seen a little brat no higher than a nettle, and she had as much tongue as a city clark, but a boy would be such a fool not have anything to say, and if anybody asked him a question he would put his head into a hole and hide it. I am sure I take but little pleasure, you have as much pleasure as I have. There I stand and bear every fools insult. If I had only myself to care for I’d wring off their noses.

Quid: Goodnight. (exit Suction and Sipsop) (to audience): I think that Homer is bombast and Shakespeare is too wild and Milton has no feelings they might be easily outdone. Chatterton never wrote those poems. A parcel of fools going to Bristol—if I was to go I’d find it out in a minute. But I’ve found it out already—if I don’t knock them all up next year in the Exhibition I’ll be hanged (points to the narrator). Hang philosophy. I would not give a farthing for it, do all by your feelings and never think at all about it. I’m hanged if I don’t get up tomorrow morning by four o clock and work dear audience. Before ten years are at an end how I will work these poor milk sop devils, and ignorant pack of wretches?

The Narrator (to audience): Thus these happy Islanders spent their time but felicity does not last long. For being met at the house of the Parish these events would repeat endlessly as the moon in her orbit.

...

i am on a bus with other Greek-American diaspora...we are traveling through Utah...the bus is filled with muddy water...the bus is a stick shift...we are heading towards NYC...it has been a long trip...we are in an area that ends in "ville"...i say we must be in Queens...we stop at an Italian restaurant in the middle of an estuary...i am hooking up with this Greek girl named Nicole...her dad owns the restaurant...she is fron Queens...i am telling her how NYC is too big, how i'm a 'west coast boy'...my dad is there and he's being bossy...my mom is there but only peripherally...the owner of the restaurant takes us outside to show us our tables...Nicole and i are together...she's not as attractive as she was on the bus...she's kissing me and i'm feeling a little cornered...the tables are lined up vertically on a steep hill behind the restaruant...there are three tables, picnic tables...i look up and see Becky sitting at the middle table by herself...she sees me and we make eye contact...i can tell it's weird for Nicole that i'm just staring at this girl...Becky mouths to me "where are you sitting?"...i mouth back "with you..." and gesture with my hand for her to come over...

...

blegh...

still sick and losing money by the day cause i can't work...

still watching an obscene amount of TV/movies...

found a neat illegal website last night...

watched:

Pirates Of The Caribbean part 3 (a million times better than part II but still too long)

The Golden Compass (i liked it, good stuff to fall asleep to)

The Mist (okay)

Music And Lyrics (i loved it! such a good movie!)

had dreams about NYC last night, about visiting Meg
...i think i'm going to take a trip to the East Coast sooner than later...money is tight right now but WTF right? i miss that girl, i miss her a lot right now...

i've been running my space heater for 3 days straight...egads!

i finally threw away that issue of VICE i'd been keeping in my bathroom for the last year and a 1/2...only the SPD catalog and Rain Taxi remain...oh and The Complete Poems of Raymond Carver (BARF!) that i'm currently reading while on the pot...i have like 135 pages to go, and i've already read 150 pages...

i'm really sick of being sick, i'm at that point, it's boring...i want to see my friends and lovers and family...i had to miss A Christmas Carol with my mom and dad and sister and brother on Thursday...i had to miss a video premier last night at D-Struc...i've had to miss work...i miss that SF scum-fuck infested air...i miss drinking and smoking and laughing...boo effing hoo ay?

right now i'm listening to a song on my itunes by Roscoe (Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve Remix) called Trials of Van Occupanther and wondering what the hell it is and where the hell it came from...does that ever happen to you, songs just appear on your itunes? it does to me anyway...

i think the phrase "quit acting like your shit don't stink" is extremely offensive...it's too tactile for my sensibility...

...am i the only who thinks Outkast was all downhill after Elevators? "me and you/ your momma and you cousin too"

today i think i'll lay in my bed watching bootleg box office winners blowing my nose raw with cheap toilet paper because all the Kleenex is gone...you?

...

i am sick

today i watched a documentary about Scrabble called Word Wars...i've never played Scrabble but i still liked the movie.

today i watched the third episode of The Wire Season 4...The Wire does quotidian better than anything on television...only The Wire could make 'paperwork' a main character...

today i'm in the process of watching Entourage Season 3...i'm on episode 5 as i type this...i like Entourage when Eric is the main character...Vincent Chase is boing.

i've read blogs all day other than that...and a lot about the baseball steroid report.

how do you prefer your Jenny Lewis?

The Wizard


or

Rilo Kiley

after LRS my top 10 Science Fiction movies/TV

1. Blade Runner (Director's cut)

2. Alien

3. Solaris

4. 2001: A Space Odyssey

5. Escaflowne

6. The Empire Strikes Back

7. Existenz

8. Akira

9. Terminator 2 Judgement Day

10. The Fly (Cronenberg)

TV

1. The X-Files

2. the new Battlestar Galactica

House Press <3's Cidar Sigo, and so do i...

House Press is thrilled to make available Cedar Sigo’s Expensive Magic. With precision and elegance, these poems carry the reader through Astoria, the slums of Paris, through London, Abyssinia, and Tangiers. As poetry at times both terse and lush, the poems create a strange world threatening to spill into violence, but holding fast to those people the poet loves. Cedar is an exceptional talent, and we’re happy to have him in our company.

This is the first book in the House Press Bay Area poetry series. A reading will be held in January in San Francisco to celebrate the book. For more information about the series, please write to Michael Slosek at mslosek at fulbrightweb dot org.

Expensive Magic may be bought at www.housepress.blogspot.com for $6, which includes shipping, or by check.

...

"I'M NOT TOO KEEN ON THE RAVE SCENE"
—JEFF GOLDBLUM

Molotov's=synergy...yeah!

one of the reasons i like drinking at Molotov's, besides that it's half-a-block from where i work and two blocks from where i live, is all the little hoody ass ballers from the neighborhood (Haight and Fillmore, obligatory 'what what!') playing pool and drinking Pabst with all the grimmy ass local punk rock kids...it's like, synergy and shit yeah? it's like, The Wire Season 1 meets The Filth and the Fury...yeah!

ey yo, Stephanie Young!!!

Busdriver - Casting Agents And Cowgirls

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...

last night was pretty great...pretty diabolical...

went over to Roxy's for some R&R...we ended up lighting black candles and giving each other massages to the Satanic psychedic musical stylings of Coven ("Witchcraft Destroys Minds And Reaps Souls"...ha!)...

you ever had a massage with a Satanic Mass droning in the background...it rules! (making "horn" hand sign)

i'd never heard of Coven but suspect they've been a pretty influential band...their bassist is named Oz Osborne and they have a song called Black Sabbath (Coven predates both Ozzy and Black Sabbath), they have another song called For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge which is also the name of a Van Halen album, Mix Master Mike used the back cover of Witchcraft Destroys Mind's And Reaps Souls for the cover art to his 1996 album Muzik's Worst Nightmare (coincidently Mike has also collaborated with Ozzy Osborne of Black Sabbath)...all of this from a cursory look at the vinyl sleeve...i bet there's a lot more.

anyway, i've been introduced to two neato bands in as many days...13th Floor Elevators and Coven...one of the perks (of many) of hanging out with Roxy is that she's really into the 60's as an aesthetic (no hippy)...which means that she not only dresses very very well but also listens to insanly arcane music...on vinyl to boot, i mean, if you know anything about me you know i'm a total vinylophile...so, yeah, material perks ay? i mean wasn't i JUST saying how i'm into girls who sport 60's vintage? let me answer that, yes i was...

...

yesterday and last night

i watched Razor, the new Battlestar Galactica movie...i liked it (because it's new BSG) but didn't like it (because it wasn't really BSG)...watching the commentary it sounded like Ronald Moore wasn't very happy with the final product either...sounded like they had lot's of good ideas that for one reason or the other didn't pan out...the original idea was to intercut the story lines from the first Cylon war to the present (roughly right after Season 2.5)...they didn't do that and instead opted for a much more linear shape...not a good decision.

and then i ate gumbo and nuts and cheese and nutella and peanut butter and an apple...

and then i napped...

and then i woke up and met up with armand on his lunch break, he grabbed a slice from Mythic (gurp...) and i grabbed a beer from Molotov's (yum...)...

Armand went back to work and i went to play records at D-Struc...

drank beers with my brother and Sylvia and listened to Curtis Mayfield at D-Struc...Sylvia asked me and my brother to model (!!!) for some D-Struc fashion show...i said hell yeah...

Roxy came by and we went back to Molotov's...Nicole was there and she told us all about Dave Chapelle's 12am-4:30am set at the Punchline...holy shit, 4:30am?!

i started freaking out in the bar a little bit but Roxy massaged my neck and i felt better...

Emma, James and Tory stopped by and we talked about Hannah Stouffer and her dad...Hannah is great and will be showing at D-Structure as soon as she gets back from Miami...and then i tried to convince Tory to hire me and my brother as HEAT spokespersons...check out HEATISCOOL (Tory's company) on the blogroll...

Roxy and i went back to her place and drank red wine in front of a fire, an actual fire (!!!)...and then Roxy introduced me to 13th Floor Elevators...

now i'm thinking of going to work today...i think Armand is working again so it would be cool to spend the afternoon with him...and now i'm going to smoke a smoke and drink a coffee...

love

what i've been up to all week

tonight.

i'll be DJ'ing at either Edo or D-Structure for the Lower Haight block party...6pm on...

...

sitting in a bar that is Moloto'vs and The Sundownder at once...it's a pool bar, we're all up to our chins in water drinking Pabst...Everyday Caitlin is there but she's also an Indian girl...she tells me a story about how her family looks at her like she's crazy because she rocks her "sari with black chucks on the way to the Ben Sherman store"...and then i order a Pabst from the bartender who has a giant cricket in a jar full of formaldehyde resting on a shelf behind her...the grasshopper in the jar wakes up and starts moving around...suddenly i get the back story of the grasshopper...he chose to hibernate in the jar for 1 year...he was supposed to stay asleep but when the bartender bumped the jar he woke up...he is very upset because he doesn't know if he's been in the jar for one day or months or what...he knows that he has to stay in the jar for exactly one year and not a day early...he starts to get paranoid...he starts to bash his head against the glass...back to ordering from the bar, i say "pabst please" and she says "6 dollars" and i go "what the hell, how is a Pabst 6 bucks" and she goes "i'm going to give you a Bud and a shot for 6 bucks" and i say "i want a 2 dollar Pabst though" and she says "the Pabst is warm, i'd rather charge you 6 bucks for a Bud and a shot then serve you warm 2 dollar beer"...i feel like she's pulled this shit before...i explain to her that because i just lost my job i can't afford a 6 dollar Bud combo, i'm playing all of this up, opening my empty wallet, sob story...she says "okay fine" and hands me a can of Pabst...i wade over to another part of the bar, chin deep in water, water is getting into my can of Pabst...Brandon shows up and immediately says "i can only stay 5 minutes..."...the guy bartender brings out a contraption that looks like a Naked Luncheon Hooka pipe...i say, "what's that for?" and he says "for the Ebola..." i say, "who has Ebola?"...he says "i do..." and then he coughs and i start to feel very uncomfortable...skip to: i realize i'm going to jail for the rest of my life because i'm in the mob and the "feds" have busted me...but suddenly i'm Pauli from The Sopranos with long white hair and a long unkempt beard...i look like Anthony Hopkins from Instinct...i call Armand (who is also in the mob) for a sitdown...i say "you're gonna want to sit down for this"...he does...and then i say "the feds caught up to me, i'm probably going away for the rest of my life..."...

quick update

i don't work at UCSF anymore...

now i work for Empire Distribution...

it's the opposite of UCSF in that i'm on my feet for 9 hours a day (in a good way)

i don't check my myspace or blog for 9 hours of the day because i have nothing else to do (in a good way)

i get to see results from the work i put in (in a very very very good way)

it's not admin (oh fuck me lord in a good way)

i don't work with bullshiters (yes, yes in a good way)

i get to play my ipod on my ipod ghetto blaster as loud as i want (uh huh, in a good way)

i work with good friends (lovely lovely in a good way)

i work with amazing product, amazing apparel, amazing designers, amazing fill-in-the-blanks (go work for some geriatric psychiatrists and you'll see this is clusterfuck in a good way)

i'm feeling like i have my life back (in a good way)

they fired me two days after my birthday which was the same day i buried my bestfriend so i'm really glad i don't work with people like that anymore (obviously in a good way)

i'm about to go shoot pool with Roxy at Wazema (yes lordy in a good way)

so, bye bye UCSF, and hello long overdue feeling of self-worth and acomplishment (in a much needed "johnny's back" good way)

xoxo-john

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thanks Everyday C.

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last night was weird

pool with armand in the TL

cab to Fly alone to visit steve

spot friends in the back

beers with tory and justin and charlie and marie eve

spot cute girl with large tattoos in booth

play pool with some mexicans

meet tory's friend april

spot cute girl in booth again, smile

i'm drunk so i gesture for her to come over

her name is ------ and she works at the sushi place across the street

we sit and chat and then we kiss and then she leaves and i'm back with tory and justin wondering if that just happend

we go outside to smoke

a car full of women pulls up and shouts something at us

we can't understand but it sounds like "do you guys know where we can find some cheese curds?"

we point to the liquor store and say "milk?"

back at home watching project runway and laughing everytime tiki barber says "i have a giant ass"

asleep

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The Truth/ Clip 4 video premier 12/1/07 @ D-Structure

some photos from the super fun video premier last night that i was DJ'ing at...

photos by Tory "the stag" Treseder

D-Structure Icer Air Kickoff (couple months ago)