It was foggy and misty last night which is a favorite time to go on aimless walks and take photos. My friend Mark and I covered huge stretches of Noe Valley to the border where Twin Peaks begins and nobody was out. It felt like a ghost town (and I’m not mad at that). Saw some beautiful houses and amazing views of city lights and it reminded me that I really need to get out of the Mission more and familiarize myself with areas I wouldn’t normally hang out in.

best sign ever

right-wing store front

realtor sign


firehouse


east of Twin Peaks

and back to my neck of the woods

I went to LA for 4th of July weekend and it was fun. Before I even set foot in LA though I experienced a rock nerd miracle – Bob and Mark Mothersbaugh were on my flight sitting in the row in front of me! and I freaked out bigtime. Like I gasped and was frozen when I spotted them. Guitar tech saw my reaction and knew right away that I knew who they were, and humored me when I asked him about recent gigs such as when they headlined the All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in May and gave me Bob guitar picks when we got off the plane. I wanted a picture so bad and felt lame for not asking considering that I knew that Mark enjoys dorking out for pics with fans. For a little background on why Mark is a personal hero of mine you can read my review of their SXSW showcase here.

Anyway, I was able to enjoy myself in LA and here are the photos to prove it, but at the airport on the flight back, my plane got delayed 2 hours and after de-boarding the plane, I had to wait forever at the bar where they played “Freedom of Choice” over the speakers. WTF? LA, why do you have to be such a motherfucker?

Finally uploaded my camping photos from Sequoia National Park. Some of these came from my friend Brian and also my cell phone. As usual, you can hit the right arrow on your keyboard to advance to the next photo.

My friend Alexis, the one who gave me the Hitchcock inspired piece that hangs in my hallway, has some new works showing at Park Life tonight at 7pm. She told me her new stuff was inspired by Ed Ruscha (one of my biggest crushes ever) in the sense that this time she uses her distinct aesthetic to spell out phrases. For example:

It’s Happening Now

She got a nice write up on sfgate.com here and Fecal Face paid her a studio visit and I highly recommend checking that feature out to get a good sense of what an awesome person she is and why I and many others adore her. Remember how I complained that I want more science-fiction with a feminine touch? Alexis has done that before:

Her stuff keeps getting better and better and I’m proud of her. If you can’t make it, you can check out the set of her new works on her flickr.

I’m back from a fun and scenic camping trip in majestic Sequoia National Park. i’ll upload pics later, but for now here are two videos of my friends warring & retaliating with stupidity. brian aims rocks into the pet door of young’s tent early one morning and then young and gabe collapse brian and kelly’s tent early morning after they made bear noises in the middle of the night and shook our tents to scare us. War never ends.

We picked a rough weekend for camping.

Young: what the hell. it’s supposed to snow saturday and sunday
Young: with thunderstorms
Audrey: i’m screwed
Audrey: my sleeping bag is like 45
Young: i’m glad i have a super warm one
Audrey: i’m not
Young: i’m gonna go to target and buy a pancho
Audrey: can you buy me a pancho too please
Audrey: i’ll pay you back
Young: no, i want you to get wet and cold
Audrey: i’ll die
Audrey: and you’ll live the rest of your life with guilt
Young: good, we’ll leave your body out so the bears won’t get to us
Audrey: i hate you

Young: do you have hand warmers?
Young: i’m gonna get some warmers for myself. and then call you from my tent and let you know how warm i am
Audrey: i hope you don’t have any “accidents” this weekend
Young: if i do, you won’t be able to get home
Audrey: i know how to drive
Audrey: when i get home i’m going to pull one of those “leap from the car, drive it into the bay’ moves
Young: you wouldn’t dare
Audrey: i’m going to buy a helmet and knee pads just for this purpose
Young: hahahaha
Young: i’m going to buy a big steel pole and set it up right outside your tent while you’re sleeping. nature will take care of you
Audrey: I’m going to dress you up as sexy female bear when you’re sleeping and see what happens

I’m officially going to kick of summer by camping in Sequoia National Forest with 18 other people. I’ve never camped with that many people in my life –I hope there will be enough food for everyone. And by everyone, I mean me.

Completely unrelated, I’m hoping that threatening people with smothering makes a comeback.

Young: oh, nevermind. i just read his email again. he just said that it’s a 6 person campsite and that we’ll have to hide you under a blanket when we go through the gate
Audrey: haha
Young: but seriously, we have to hide one of you
Young: since patrick makes 7
Audrey: did you tell brian patrick was coming
Young: yeah. he knows. that’s why he suggested putting you under some blankets
Audrey: i’ll put you under some pillows, if you know what i mean
Audrey: like Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Young: what do you mean?
Audrey: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/176/433975265_1b1c32da91.jpg

//photo by jeff luger

Remember that footage I took of Deerhunter back during Noise Pop? There was a song they did that I’ve never heard before that I really liked. My friend Jesse, who incidentally is the third person in the last month and half to compare me to an old man, ripped the audio from my video, played it for others and miraculously located the original version. Nice one, Sherlock! And it hasn’t even been released yet. It’s a cover of a Tears for Fears song called Famous Last Words and it rules, although I agree with him that his vocals were actually sweeter live. Anyway, I’m not going to pilfer audio from Jesse like he does from my site (kidding), so here is the direct link to his Secret Deerhunter song entry on his site where you can listen and download:

This was hanging on a tree outside when I came home this evening:

My friend Serg describes below to me what a 220volt electrical shock feels like, in case you were curious. I suspect 220v was also the culprit in frying my memory card in England and erasing my pics.

On a similar note, he just uploaded a podcast of thrash metal records he’s picked up recently. You should download it and embrace your inner hesher. He claims it’s a 666mb file and I don’t think he’s joking.

Tracklisting
1) The Misfits – Bullet
2) Violator – Thrash Maniacs
3) Bonded By Blood – Feed The Beast
4) Warbringer – Hell on Earth
5) Death Angel – Thrashers
6) Annihilator – Schizos (Are Never Alone) (Part I)
7) Evile – Burned Alive
8) Municipal Waste – Beer Pressure
9) Municipal Waste – Guilty Of Being Tight
10) Municipal Waste – Mind Eraser
11) SSS – Hammerhead
12) Sodom – Obsessed By Cruelty
13) Overkill – Kill At Command
14) Violator – United For Thrash
15) SSS – Thrash With A Small Moustache
16) Vio-Lence – Serial Killer
17) Micro Chip League – New York (Dancefloor Cut)

We had a gathering of food and drink at my friend Elias’s house to welcome Corey to San Francisco. Serg got a pork shoulder from that La Gallinita butcher shop in the Mission (the one with the pigs cooking pigs artwork painted outside) He smoked it for 7+ hours for pulled pork sliders and it was delicious. I was put in charge of decorations so I printed cutouts of those joyous cannibal pigs and stuck up where ever there was blank space on walls. Sorry to my vegetarian readers for the offensive imagery, but cannibal pigs artwork on butcher shops is just too absurd and amusing to me. I also hit up the mission dollar stores and got random flags of mexico, puerto rico and argentina as well as party balloons/streamers. Good times, you can read Serg’s recap on Grocery Eats

After an afternoon full of drinking, food and rock band dorkery the evening reached new levels of retardation as it usually does when Elias hosts a food & drink party at his house. I don’t know whose idea it was, I think maybe Lydia, but it was decided that The Many Facets of Roger album cover needed to be recreated and I was put in charge of photo and art direction. Too bad we forgot to take the sheet down for the back cover.

Camera purge! Kristy’s b-day at the Fairmont Hotel, Cal Academy of Sciences, Serg’s Warehouse Party and misc crud. Not pictured is all the awesome comedy I saw this month because of SF Sketchfest. Do you know how much i love this city? Yeah…you do.

I can’t stop laughing at this video footage diane got from karaoke. My friend EJ is half-Mexican and everyone’s giving him shit for not being able to roll his RRs during La Bamba.

I love it when he gets pissed and yells ARRRGHRIBA ARRRGHRIBA in Brian’s face.

The 5th Annual Tamale Day was epic this year. Lots of tamales, beer, the de la Hoya/Pacquiao fight on PPV, Rock Band funnery, and quality time with good folks. After most had left, somebody an idea to deep fry a tamale and the night had officially reached Level: JackAss. I watched as dudes proceeded to deep fry random things they could think of such as cookie dough, rum balls and a serrano chile pepper. Str8 comedy. Many thanks to Serg and EJ for putting this together as usual.

my friend alexis offered this piece to me for my birthday present awhile ago and i recently got around to picking it up. it’s now hanging in my hallway and one of the first things you see when coming into my house. it was a for a show she did for the giant robot store called “at the movies” and it was inpired by alfred hitchcock’s vertigo. gah!!! it’s perfect for me.

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