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April 26, 2004
pictures from san francisco (fixed)
megan posted photos from her trip here, she's moving out permanently within a few weeks, which is cool cause she's fun to hang out with, even if she doesn't like riding bikes. the 6th one down is me on ocean beach my first day here, nearly 3 weeks ago now.
here are some polaroids too, megan is a live journal geek, i'll be sure to remind her of that when she comes back to s.f.
so went to that party last friday, my trucker costume garnished much praise, no one thought my tattoo was real. rebekah got very drunk, since it was her birthday, so much so that she went to sit in a hot tub and got only her feet in before the heat made her dash across the lawn and vomit delicately into some bushes. happy birthday rebekah.
saturday worked, the best part of which was that i got out early enough to meet up with aaron, kristy, matt, and 2 of matt's roommates for 6.50$ all you can eat ethopian food, which is unheard of. we stuffed ourselves to overflowing, and had a weird talk about weird dreams we'd had. after that matt's roommates left, and matt, aaron, kristy and i rode through golden gate park, gathering firewood. if i only would have had a camera to document the spectacle that was aaron's bike loaded down with wood, it was a sight to behold. riding through the park at night was very fun, aaron told me that there are literally thousands of people living in hobo jungles in there, you could almost sense their presence.
we made it down to ocean beach to find it speckled with bonfires. unperturbed, we carried our bikes out on the sand, and proceeded to build a nice bonfire. looking out at the ocean and smelling the wind come in made me unbelievably tired, and quickly i pulled out my sleeping bag. we locked all our bikes together and i slept with my head on my shoes, hobo style, and had an amazing night's sleep.
i awoke first, to see the sun rising over the hills. sat and looked at the ocean, thought about how every time you look at the ocean you're reminded of all the times before in your life when you've done so, and how they all build and add on top of each other, to the point where i don't know how long i'll be stuck gazing over the water when i'm an old man, all the memories flooding back.
we rode back to aaron's, ditched our sleeping bags, and headed over to punk rock breakfast. the menu was the same as always, i'm excited for matt's house to start holding these events, i'm totally gonna help out.
yesterday, which was monday, i got out of work early again. had a nice long bike ride around the mission, the househunting goes poorly but i'm not that worried, aaron's house is so amenable to me being there it's a godsend, when aaron and matt moved here they were stuck living in a youth hostel until the found a place to live.
been hanging out with fuzzy dave a bit more, he's living in this house full of couples, a couple mafia situation as jenny used to say, and they're all nice but he thinks, and i agree, that he needs to hang out with me more, get more shows and bars and waterballoon launching parties in his life.
so today was my only day off this week, and it's been a good one. woke up early, rode around town a bit, then went to meet this lady felicia lowe. she's been a producer here in s.f. for a while, i got wind of her project from fuzzy dave's roommates. it's about chinese people who immigrated to cuba, and all the interviews are in cuban spanish, so she needs someone to transcribe and translate for subtitles. my skillset fits pretty perfectly, we had lunch and i'm gonna review some of her tapes, tell her what i think. i don't know how much she's gonna want to pay me, but getting something like this on my resume would be worth working for cheap, specially since it's sure to show on pbs.
so last thing was i was looking in bike shops for a new frame today, and ran into dave irwin from reno. he used to work with billy spaceman at college cyclery, he's living here now as well, looking for more bike mechanic work. he told me of other reno kids i know who are in the city, and i'm gonna try and get a hold of them this weekend, do some hanging out.
ok enough for now, gonna go to another bike shop maybe, or else just back to aaron's for dinner. hope all are well.
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April 23, 2004
librarians vs. truckers
that's the theme of the party we're going to tonight, still not sure which way i'm gonna dress. i assume that here in s.f. all the boys will dress as librarians, so i might buck hipster trend and dress as a trucker, mostly because i found a belt in the street so now i can sport my "country music" belt buckle, of which i'm inordinately proud of and found at a swap meet in vegas.
last night we took meghan to emoryville to catch her amtrak back east, she says she'll be back in a few weeks, odds are she will, unless her pseudo-boyfriend back in ohio, who happens to be an ultimate fighting contender, manages to whoo her back.
things are good here, the weather is amazing, al my fears of rain are not so bad, everyone says it won't start again in earnest till october, and by that time i'll be hopefully headed back south. aaron and i talked a bit about our latin american trip, there are many different thoughts on the route and plans we have, aaron is big on the whole "one way ticket" aspect, i could be into that as well. it'll be called the "how to disappear completely" trip.
got a call back on an editing job helping this chinese lady who went to cuba and filmed a bunch of stuff with her family, if she gets grants and it has some length to it i might jettison my serving job, or at least cut it back some, i pulled a clever ruse to get me out of there tonight by 9ish, something about looking for housing.
housing is my one vexation, yesterday went to look at a place in a good part of the mission, 'cept the landlord never showed up. i'm thinking of broadening my search area, i still really wanna live around the mexicans though. i need more patience i guess.
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April 18, 2004
figuring things out over here
so i'm sitting in matt's warehouse as he and his roomates are having a meeting. i had hopes i'd be able to live here, but i'm getting the feeling that that won't happen. which is ok. if it does i'm excited, if not i won't mind not having to share a room. it's the middle of the month still, so finding a place to live is hard right now, in a week or so craigslist.org will be flooded again with people in need of roommates, and i'll find one then. in a way it's stressful, i feel like i'm a burden on aaron's household cause i'm always there, but they all like me and i'm not around tha often, so it's ok for a while more. still, i'm excited to have a room of my own so i can at least hang my clothes up.
i've started working at the chevy's here. the money is so much better then what i was making, but in truth working there reminds me of a lot of stuff in reno that would do better in the past. plus they figured out that i'm competent at the job, and immediately have me evening shifts on thursday through sunday, which means i'd make the most money, but also that i would be working when aaron is off from his job. that's not cool with me, i came here to hang out with my friends and don't want to come home too late to see bands play and hang out. the other night i was supposed to see this band called hell's belle's, but got stuck at work till 12 at night. i made a bunch of money, but everyone was out doing stuff, and i ended up riding around alone for a while. riding around alone was good, but i feel like right now i want to be surrounded by friends, having fun.
so i'm gonna try and find something else to do. i know in advance that i won't make as much money, so i might stick on at the restaurant 2 days a week, but i think i'll feel better about myself if i can do something useful or helpful, especially if it has to do with spanish. i've been speaking a lot lately, the cooks and busboys all joke with me already, and the people in the mission district think it's rad too.
i've been examining the bay area music list with amazement at all the shows i'm going to see, a few in the near future are pinback, mirah, cat power, bloodhag, broken social scene, pretty girls make graves, plus a ton more. the summer is ramping up, i could literally see 2 or 3 good shows a week. seems like that will be one of the things i spend the most money on, and it'll be worth it.
matt and i are becoming good friends, it's neat that i've heard so many stories about him from aaron, and now we're living in the same city, and hopefully soon in the same neighborhoods. last night we went dumpstering up by aaron's house, found a ton of stuff, and rocketed down steep hills to the mission district. this feels like the life i should be leading right now, exploring and having good friends. i miss my friends in reno of course, and once i get a permanent spot i'll invite them to come up, but for now making new ones is great.
had a conversation with someone about the age or moment in your life when you can justify having a crappy job you don't really like because it enables you to live in a good city. i guess right now i'm kinda near that point, but at the same time i'm new here, and i guess it's only the 3rd city i've lived in in the u.s., plus i know i'll only be here till around october, so i guess i could accept haivng to work 5 or 6 months at chevy's so that i could stay here. how much better would it be though to be doing something cool and living here? that would rule.
anyways, think i'm gonna ride back up to aaron's house, find out how his weekend backpacking trip in big sur went. they left on friday afternoon, i was so close to blowing off my job and going along, mostly glad i didn't though, made a bunch of money that night, then sat. i went to the only independent pirate supply store in s.f. so weird, and so rad. it reminded me of brook walker a ton, i wanted to hear the scurvy bastards playing in the background so much.
be well all.
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April 16, 2004
art that i just learned about
so my new friend rebekah showed me this webpage, documenting the art of this bulgarian/french/some european nationality couple who's art is wrapping trees and buildings and stuff in fabric. i would like to see some of their work in person.
started work yesterday, same damn corporate restaurant. then i went over to matt's living space, helped frame some more walls. there is some small chance i may get to live there, which would be so ideal i dare not mention it again for fear of jinxing it. still, my hopes get up so easy.
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April 15, 2004
a minor setback, but more importantly, national high five day, and my latest article
so yesterday i found this excellent room right in the part of town i wanted to live in, with roomates ranging from columbians to argentinians to spaniards. i went over at 7, when the person who was leaving the room said to, and she'd already given it away. perhaps i could have browbeat her into giving it to me, but i wasn't in that mindset, plus the other person who she's given it to (who didn't even speak spanish) showed up right then with the deposit. in hindsight i wish i'd been more forceful, but that's not my nature so much, so i guess there was no chance of it anyways. still, this room hunting is annoying, i have to keep checking craigslist 5 times a day, which is hard cause i'm not into screwing with the internet at all right now, believe it or not, i'd much prefer to be out in the streets riding around or at the climbing gym.
still, yesterday was good times, matt and i rode to the top of bernal hill which overlooks the city, then we got some food at a neighborhood cafe. i really like sitting on chairs outside of these cafes and restaurants and looking out at the streets, watching all the people walk by. matt and i did some framing of walls in the post office he and his roommates are converting into a living space, that was good fun, we're having a work party tonight, gonna throw up some more walls and maybe tack up some drywall.
one funny moment yesterday was sitting in front of the bart station across 16th from matt's house, watching all the crackheads do drug deals. matt was playing his bongo drum, so they left us alone, it seemed like they enjoyed having a rhythm to their weird, cracked out days. he said that some evenings he goes out at 9 or 10 pm, and 6 crackheads will circle around him and dance. he said it must be a sight to behold from across the street, i called him the pied piper.
start work today, gonna see how it goes, then decide if i want to look for something better/more lucrative.
so the real important part of this post is to remind everyone that it's national highfive day! get your high five on!
also, here's a link to my latest article in the news and review. it's about water rights in south reno, i could pun and say that it's a very dry article, haha, but it will do good work it it causes people to look more at how much water golf courses waste.
Posted by bendan at 09:41 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 14, 2004
keeps getting better
went and joined the climbing gym in the mission district today, it's a rad gym, totally gonna meet people there to go climb outside with. then went to a bike store, found a good frame, not sure though, still might just want to buy a whole new single speed road bike. hung out at matt's house, matt is aaron's best friend from ohio, he lives in the most ideal situation possible, a post office that he and 8 other guys and girls are converting into living space, right in the heart of the mission district. wish i could have got in there so bad, but no joy. however, i did get a call from this house of 4 mexican guys right near matt's post office, station 40 it's called, gonna go visit the mexican guys tomorrow at 11. it would be 450 a month before utilities, which for s.f. is rad. on the phone, the guy said they had another girl interviewing tomorrow, but that i might be better cause i was latino. that made me feel really happy, that they couldn't tell on the phone that i was white. i would love to live somewhere and speak spanish all day.
aaron's roomate darby cooked rad vegan mushroom risotto, and her friends brought over irish whiskey, so it's a good evening. i start work on thursday, still thinking of scrapping the restaurant jobs for a gig bike messengering, still have time to think about it. gonna see at least 4 shows this month, and next month even more. life is very good.
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April 12, 2004
totally happy and busy and rocking out
so yesterday we woke up early, kristy (aaron's girlfriend who lives in this house as well), me, aaron and megan from ohio (who's moving here now she thinks, which is rad cause it adds to our summer crew) rode our bikes over to the golden gate bridge, then hopped in a minivan owned by the park service and shot across the fog shrouded bridge over to marin. in marin we met up with a bunch of volunteers and spent a few hours clearing yellow broom off of a hillside overlooking the city and the bay. the yellow broom is this shitty invasive plant that's killing off this cooler indigenous plant, which is the only plant this certain type of butterfly feeds on. for me it was totally fun to rip all these plants up, we used weed jacks and cleared the hell out of them. it felt good to do something good and physical after tons of wasting time in reno waiting to move here. after that, aaron, megan and i screwed around climbing trees and having balancing contests until kristy got off, then we drove the minivan up to the muir woods. that woods is full of redwood trees, damn old ones, plus it's where they filmed the ewok scenes of star wars. we walked on paths through the woods and talked about star wars and all types of stuff, it's funny when i get into some fantastic natural setting and end up discussing american pop culture. that happened in the sahara desert as well, i don't know why we don't just walk around quietly and drink it all in.
anyways, came back to s.f., which included a good uphill ride, and had dinner at a friend's house. i cruised back here and showered and got all dressed up, cause i was going to a party at alec's house. alec is from reno and played in a bunch of reno bands, now he has a band called doctor gogo, which rules. the party was alright, i'm not used to house parties that much, but met some new folks, ate a bunch of good hummus, and drank some free drinks. i rode home and crashed out about 1.
this morning we all slept in, then went and had punk rock breakfast in the mission district. the breakfast was 1 dollar, cause all the food was dumpstered, and there were tons of punks there. after that we went to a park and watched burningmanesque skits by drag queens all dressed up in easter regalia. we made many jokes about easter being cooler then christmas, cause it reminds one of zombies and vampires, or at least it reminded us.
then i rode my bike around alone for a few hours, riding down mission street it totally reminded me of a mexican city street, all the signs in spanish. i totally want to live there, sent emails on a few houses today, gonna follow up tomorrow, there were some for 470 or so including utilities, that's pretty cheap for here. i don't really care what type of place i live in, i'm sure i'll hardly be there at all, just to cook and sleep. i made a point to ride up the steepest hills, gotta get my exercise after all the food i'm eating, aaron and i realized we're totally hungry more when we're around each other, maybe we just keep asking the other if he's hungry, which reminds us that we always are.
we made a big old dinner of vietnamese style fried rice, drank a bunch of beer and gin and those terrible Sparks alcoholic drinks, then we got out the water balloon launcher. first we climbed over and the neighbor's roof, but we were laughing and making a ton of noise, so we busted out of there just as they started yelling out the windows at us. after that we shot balloons down the street until we almost hit a pedestrian, then it was time to run back inside.
some people went to sleep but aaron, kristy, and rebecca, a cool girl who teaches elementary near stanford and i weren't tired, so we went riding bikes on a food gathering mission. we didn't find anything but a bag of cereal, but it was so great to ride around at night, doing bicycle ballet and singing songs out loud. we got back to the house a little bit ago, ate some cereal, cleaned up the kitchen, now we're all going to sleep.
tomorrow gonna see about finding a better job, i start at the fake mexican restaurant on thursday, and i got 2 ok shifts and 2 crappy ones, but seems like there might be better opportunities, something less corporate and more san francisco. not getting my hopes up though, the restaurant will definitely pay the bills.
i can't believe how happy i am here. riding around today and screwing around with all aaron's roommates, who are becoming my new friends, i'm so glad i decided to come. the summer is gonna be so good, we're planning trips up to oregon and down to santa cruz to visit erich, and i'm thinking about getting a single speed road bike to tear all around the bay on. aaron and i are working on convincing airielle in idaho and erich in santa cruz to move up, i want steven to as well but i think he's set on alaska, if we can get him up here for another night of mayhem we might turn the tide though. i'm so glad to be surrounded by friends and so much to do. gonna see 3 shows later this month, at least, and who knows how many next month. this is what i wanted, and it's totally workng out, and i feel so much better it's ridiculous. hooray for moving.
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April 09, 2004
s.f. is very good
the modest mouse show was really fun. no one rocked out as hard as the 7 of us did.
went for a walk today with aaron's friend megan who's now my new friend, she's visiting from michigan, but thinking of moving out here. last night we all encouraged her and steve also to move here. it will be a memorable summer.
today walking along the north beach reminded me of this pome by edna st. vincent milley that jenny sent me:
Paris April 1, 1922
a mile of clean sand
I will write my name here, and the trouble that is in my heart.
I will write the date and place of my birth,
What I was to be,
And who I am.
I will write my forty sins, my thousand follies,
My four unspeakable acts.....
I will write the names of the cities I have fled from,
The names of the men and women I have wronged.
I will write the holy name of her I serve,
And how I serve her ill.
And I will sit on the beach and let the tide come in.
I will watch with peace the great calm tounge of the tide
Licking from the sand the unclean story of my heart.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
i'm excited to live near the sea again.
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April 07, 2004
ok, one last post from reno
rachel sent me this, good commentary on weird albums.
Posted by bendan at 10:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
goodbye reno
so many times i've left knowing i'll be back, this time i'm hoping not, at least for years or so.
aaron taught me a trick once, you take a file and make a horizontal notch in your thumbnail when something big in your life happens. then you get to watch the notch grow out, and when you look at it or feel it it reminds you of why you made it. i notched one last night, and i'm sure i'll look at it in a month or so when it's halfway grown out, and think about this day. fingers crossed that i'll be happier then i've been in a while, making new friends and forgetting troubles. wish me luck.
Posted by bendan at 09:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 04, 2004
friends in Portland
it's sunday morning, i'm in drew's little apartment, waiting for drew and krista to come back over here from her house so we can go climbing. it's been a lot of fun being up here, can't believe i hadn't made it up in the year i've been back from my latin american trip. i hung out with billy spaceman 2 nights ago over in the northwest of the city, really good to see him, he seems so happy to be here, he just got his oregon drivers license, and says he has no interest in moving back to reno, especially since his folks don't even life there anymore. i know i'm not making an error moving to s.f., but still there are a lot of unknowns, so it made me happy to see someone do a city move and flourish in it.
also get to meet some of drew's new friends, i really like meeting friends of my good friends, cause you know in advance they'll be good people. the coolest person i've met is nick from n.y., who went to school in savannah with the chapterhouse kids in reno. he's a videogame animator, and as luck would have it, he's moving to s.f. at the end of the month, so i'll have even more new friends down there.
we've all been doing a lot of hanging out, eating in good restaurants, drinking beers, and walking around the city. i remember my friend jenny andersen saying of portland that she wished she liked it just a little more, i think cause she would then consider moving here. i feel the same, on the way up i was hoping i wouldn't get here and decide that i'd prefer to be here as opposed to s.f., but after hanging out up here, i'm really excited about moving ot the bay area. i'm sure i'll be up here visiting, but i think i'm making the right choice. my biggest disappointment is that i won't be living in the same city as drew, but tickets from oakland up to here are 100 bucks round trip, so i promised myself i'd be up, plus he and krista seem down to come visit the crew in s.f.
tonight we're going zoobombing, i could preface it but instead i'll describe it later. tomorrow i get back into reno at 11 or so, then off to the editing room with owen, then i go into hyper pack and get ready mode. i'll see as many reno friends as i can, then i'll be gone.
so i was gonna write something on here about how i'm surprised and think it's strange what's been in here after reading over the kinds of stuff i've been writing in the last month or so. i guess some of the stuff i'm putting up here would better serve me in my own private journal or in letters, though sometimes it felt like this was the best or only way to get those thoughts across. in truth the first bit of this year, aside from the israel trip, has been not that great for me. and i hold myself accountable for the majority of that. so now i'm moving and really excited about it, and i hope i'll soon be writing about good new adventures and friends. i'm still feeling bummed at times, more then i'd admit, but slowly it's getting better, and i have my friends to thank for a bunch of that, cheering me up and listening to me try and figure stuff out. i felt so shitty when shannen and i broke up because i'd lost my best friend, but i've realized that i have tons of really good friends who've always been here for me, and always will be. so thank you again to all my friends.
ok, enough sappyness, man, that's what i was talking about getting away from earlier.
so had a good talk with billy from the reno chapterhouse kids, he's moving up here to go to art school. we got to talking about jawbreaker, about our favorite songs and all that stuff. it spurred me to start working on a list of songs about drinking after a breakup, just for fun of course. there are tons out there of course, right now i can only think of "kiss the bottle" by jawbreaker, "polar opposites" by modest mouse, and "tell your brother" by the murder city devils, of course. please throw some comments with other songs, i'd dig that.
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