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.

//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:

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.

right arrow to advance

sometimes i owe my frienemy Young money for taking care of camping stuff or when he puts dinner on his card. most of the times, it’s just easier to direct deposit the cash into his checking account since we both have the same bank, so these obnoxious memos for the transactions always come up on his bank statement.

click

young got a pair of rats as pets. yeah…wtf

(11:26:35 AM) audrey: where is your rat sleeping
(11:26:43 AM) Young: in their cage in the middle of my apt
(11:27:02 AM) Young: i’m gonna bring them over and have them play on your bed
(11:28:43 AM) audrey: i’ll put down a trail of cheese leading to my toilet bowl
(11:29:03 AM) audrey: and then they’re getting flushed…bigtime
(11:29:36 AM) Young: you’re rude!
(11:29:46 AM) Young: n o brulee for you!
(11:30:21 AM) audrey: rats
(11:31:10 AM) Young: rude and not funny
(11:32:32 AM) audrey: once i flush your rats they can meet Splinter and learn martial arts
(11:32:44 AM) audrey: in the sewer
(11:32:52 AM) Young: and come back and kick your ass for flushing them down the toilet
(11:33:02 AM) audrey: i don’t think so
(11:33:11 AM) Young: big time