big break but back if but briefly

internet friends! so i took a long break there from blogging for no reason whatsoever except that i am known for being "phasal".. you know, going through phases. i coined the term "phasal", even, as far as i know. should i continue now? now that i've become addicted to facebook? dude, i got like, 100 friends in 2 weeks and there's no greater high than that. i will eventually figure out the difference between myself and my business, as well as determine what platform best suits each one. i'm just glad i never really bothered with myspace or friendster cuz i can pretty much tell facebook will be around for a while. GAWD, though, do you get all these invites from linkedin and classmates and LOADS of other social networks? you know, i feel sorry for friendster. does anyone do that anymore? my word, i gotta figure out viral marketing and all that jazz, and again, differentiate between me and my company. booty boutique and i will, i suppose, be competing for face time. what a RAD problem to have, i am a lucky gal.

come visit me on facebook. when i get sick of that, i'll come back here. or maybe i'll interchange the two or.. who the hell knows what wild hair i'll get and where in the world wide web i'll feel the need to express myself.

that picture up there, you curious about it? it's cock-walking! goooood times! especially as opposed to cock-blocking, which is WAY worse, i hear.

fancy

these are the fanciest sunglasses i have ever owned. same day of purchase, i tried on my pair of $15 ross sunglasses in front of a pal, then tried on my new purchase and asked her which she liked better. she chose the ross sunglasses. sigh. but you know what, these glasses i swear are so lightweight and fabulous they tickle my face and make me kind of nervous and totally self-conscious. never has such magnificence rested upon my nose and wrapped behind my ears.

happynings

"I was hovering near the Yerba Buena Center for the Pretensious Arts one evening contemplating my next martini and why i didn't have one in my hand at that exact moment, when i ran into a group of women my husband knew from work. Sitting, I stared at one's stomach while trying to ignore the conversation and noticed she had on one of Kyra's buckles. I was like "Oh! You have a Kyra". She was all like, "uh, no...THIS is a BOO-TEE BOO-TIQUE". I'm like "yeah, Kyra. She makes great stuff. where did you get it?""Well, she let me into her home! We designed it together". And it's true - Kyra will make your dreams come true, all in a 3x3 perfect package that you can jauntily hang above your hoo-hoo for all to see and admire. I'm now trying to get her to make me a bustier completely out of buckles. We'll see how that goes."

that's a review from erin, aka lily z. she has some great reviews on yelp, i think. a very funny lady, that lily.

so hey, i haven't written much lately, eh? i've been very busy being on vacation, working, and sleeping. speaking of which, i just got even more validation for my ways. apparently the more you sleep, the more healthy and slender you can be! well, i half believe it because if it were really for real, i would weigh about 98 pounds because i sleep like a little bear who never ever gets the memo that spring has arrived. i just love it i tell you. my dreams are insane and intriguing and fabulous and i always want to see what happens next. i am pissed EVERY morning when my alarm cuts my crazy head movie off. it's extremely frustrating and sometimes i press snooze to try to get back to the movie (ok, every morning, 5 times) and then the movie changes to all crazy and morphs into a condensed drama that's more anxious because my subconscious knows it only has 5 minutes before the next snooze to stuff me full of "fun". but that part ends up not really fun, it's just anxious. waking up unnaturally is not healthy. but i guess the alternative for me would be waking up at 10:30am every day and that's not healthy, either. well, regardless, i am a bit sleep obsessed at the moment mostly because i don't get to have very much. the booty buckles are being peddled in shows for the next three weekends in a row. this saturday night at mezzanine..

next weekend at the mission bazaar..
and the following weekend at the capsule street fair in hayes valley..
yay fun work now bye.

belize

me, mamacita, papa john, and jimbo & michelle went to belize on holiday a couple weeks ago. we started out in belize city then on to ambergris caye a wee flight away. that's where we stayed, on the beach in a great 3 bedroom place. somewhere in there was a boatride back to the mainland for a rainy mayan ruins extravaganza, a boatride back to ambergris for more lounging, fun in and around all things watery plus a visit to sister island, caye calker, eating and drinking vacation-style (as if it might be going out of style), then a wee flight back to belize city. 10 days of unforgettable tropical adventures (& more for jimbo and michelle who loved it so much they stayed a few extra days). here's a couple favorite shots. this is papa john and two empties of the 12,000 bottles of water, i mean beer, that we drank..
here's some island kids happily posing for me when they thought i'd be buying a necklace from them. of course i didn't and they hated me two seconds after the shot. hey, if i would have bought a necklace from all the peddlers there, i could not have afforded any beer at all. i have my priorities, sorry kids. oh man they were ruthless, though.

they said it was the slowest high season they'd had there in 10 years. you can tell by all the white people-less photos in the full slide show. it was great, but it would have been nice for all the local sales folk to have had more people to sell to than just us.

i whittled the total photos down to 381 from my original 919. and that's without night photos, which i still don't know how to take. not bad for ten days, eh? you'd think the camera was in my face the whole time i was there but it totally wasn't. my face was mostly in the water, gazed fixedly at a scrabble board, shielded under a hat from rain, and sucking on belikin beer. all at once! belize is magic ;-)

parched and powerful

here's a kick-ass video of how your brain works. i personally dig it especially since it seems to advocate right-brainishness, which i am like, big into and am basically powerless against. now i can point to this genius and say, "it's a good thing, dangit, I RULE!" so there.
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229

here's some powerful stuff that's sticking with me for good, i think. in a good way. it's photos of people before and after death. these people all knew they were dying and the photographer interviewed them about what they thought and how they felt about it. i am moved and touched and provoked and introspected and extrospected and a million other things from this. i got the link from a blog i frequent, dooce. she got all kinds of crazy comments regarding that particular post. the subject apparently really churns people up. go figure, it's death! it's a big thing. big big thing, for sure.

on a lighter note, you wanna know another grrrrREAT thing? i can take off "drink a bunch of fucking water everyday" off of my list of things to do! apparently it's totally overrated! thank goodness because that has been one of the super dusty items, not marked off for so long that it's faded to blahland. now if only they can do the same for flossing one's teeth, i would be a very happy girl.

interviews and chilly views

a friend of mine, colin, had me on his radio show this past saturday night (dj: coleo, show: spicy meat parade, station: pirate cat radio, 87.9fm). it was my first interview and i was terrified for some days prior but with the encouragement and advice from a number of buddies, the experience and results came out much better than i could have hoped for.

here's the link to the show. it takes a minute or two to load (it's not downloading to your computer, though).

the interview, plus me playing guitar and singing, come on about two-thirds of the way through the mp3. colin plays/djs some great music up until that point but you can move the button to the 2/3rds point to get to the interview & skip the first part of the show, if you like. but it's really good and includes another singer/songwriter, drew piston, right before me. he's great.. sounds kind of like tom waits but more listenable-to.

in other news, i took a trip on my scooter down to burlingame a couple weeks ago. i wanted to kill two birds with one stone by using the drive as a photo opportunity plus as transportation to go hang out with my brother and his wife in burlingame for an evening of scrabble, snacks, and libations. it was way too cold to have gone on this mission, transportation-wise (and scrabble-wise, cuz i got whooped TWICE!).. at least i should have taken the bus.. but the photos i got were almost worth it, plus the food and company and libations were fabulous as always..

and lastly, a shot taken from felipe's window recently. i love this view..

jesus' vs. the bunnies kickball game, golden gate park, easter 2008

easter sunday was the 2nd annual jesus' vs. the bunnies kickball game. jesus' won. what does that mean? it was chilly out but i still wore shorts and just tried to move around a lot..
felipe was the grand master of the games, of course..
it was nice and sunny and we had a lot of beer and it was lovely. here's marteeen, cesarrr, and michael soaking up the sun..
you can see lots more photos here, if you like. you can also find a youtube video of the event, and if you look from there, i think you can find more incriminating videos of this and last years' games..

murals of the mission

me and michael went to community thrift store on valencia in the mission last week to pick up some nonsense. he calls it "the magic thrift store" because before heading there, he meditates on what it is he's in need of and every single time, he'll find just what he needs. community thrift is on the corner of mission and clarion, & clarion alley is where i took these shots of some super rad murals..



there's LOTS of great murals in the mission. if you're ever 'round those parts, keep your eye out for them. you can even take a special tour just for that purpose!

fun with a camera phone

looking out from casanova's on valencia street between 16th and 17th in the mission..
sunset along the walk/bike/jogway looking east, along the great highway, ocean beach..
bird perches on the great highway at noriega st..

bucklevelution

the oldest known belt buckle dates back to the 12th century and was excavated in perth recently. cool, huh?! it's made of copper alloy..
now check out this "complicated mechanical buckle for men" coming soon out of switzerland..
i cannot imagine how that would work. and most men i know would definitely be intimidated by it. i wonder how much it costs. thanks, quent, for those links!

and thanks to jennieB for sending me the link to these $18,000 buckles. wha?!well, we've come a long way in buckleland, haven't we?

yay sun

here's a shot of the cool wave sculpture at the children's playground in golden gate park..
and in front of the conservatory of flowers in golden gate park..

it was eery and overcast on sunday when i took these photos. same weather or better than it's been for a while, on the inside and outside of san francisco, it feels like. i just came out of a two-week fog of nasty assty flu. TWO WEEKS. that was a long time to be sick. ah, but now it's sunny and warm and i'm healthy and life is much better. i hope it stays this way for a while.

whole day out

i've been sick with the sick-ass flu for 7 days now. i've been getting out a bit anyway, though. like yesterday i went to the beach to walk with tim and karms.

people were out in droves enjoying the sunshine..
and the sunset..
karms loved it as always, of course..

and the neighborhood was inspiring to shoot at sunset, as well..we had such a lovely time and we ran into some friends, one of whom mentioned she might be interested in buying my camera. i know, i know, i was sooo excited to get this camera when i did but i've found it's too big and cumbersome to take everywhere and i still haven't really figured out how to use it properly. so i'm itching to get rid of it and get a little convenience camera again. oh, the grass is always greener on the other side.

this shot from the corner of 45th and noriega..
and this shot from ocean beach..

..reminded me of the reason why i voted for obama: 2 hours before i was to head to the polls, stevie wonder left me a voicemail saying, "hi, this is stevie wonder, and.. i just called. to say. i love you.. and i'm here to urge you to vote for my friend, barack obama.." i was totally on the fence until that happened.

we ended the day with take-out from a new, fabulously-named restaurant right across the street from my old house on noriega at 46th..

i talked poor tim's head off all day being that i'd been cooped up for so many days without too much other-human contact. after my 68th television reference, i started to get a little embarrassed, though. like how i'd learned so much from watching every episode consecutively of A&E's intervention. so fascinating, that show.. no, really!

in other news, i have a favorite new site to recommend for shits and giggles: hot chicks with douchebags. glorious with very well-written commentary.

file pile breaks

i had a lovely time the other night hanging with laurel, allison, sarah, and the concentric circles of folks whom those bright stars seem to attract with the greatest of ease. for hours we discussed politics (is mccain really gonna win like dan predicts, or will my dream come true that hillary will be prez with obama as vp then in 8 years obama takes over or maybe halfway inbetween they switch up?), relationships (hmm..), preschool (can mike really tell which kid shit his pants by smell alone?), work (ahhh), and who knows what all else that the orbit room's endless supply of continental gimlets helped conjure up from the depths of our excitable minds and souls. we took photos, too, but as usual, my nighttime photography skills suck soooo bad and nothing came out really worthy of keeping. i did get this shot of the laundromat next door whilst out on a smoke break, though..

better than nothing. i should really get out more during the day so i can get some decent photographs already. i'll make a note of making a point of trying to do that relatively soon. and i'll tie a ribbon around my finger to remind myself to check my notes.

in other news, i was fryin' up a freaky frozen trader joe's chicken patty thing the other day and i look over to see..

..maya and gertie trying out their doggy gimme gimme please gimme telepathy on me. but it didn't work probably because of the glass inbetween us or maybe because i'm a rapacious chicken patty hoarder (or last morsel of food left in my house protector). they were probably so tired after this unsuccessful session which left me with a happy tummy and all of us with a porch o' drool. maybe next time, bitches. that's what i call them, bitches, because they are female dogs. i say it in the sweet high-pitched voice-for-pets-and-babies, though, and then maya will bruise my leg with her wagging tail and gertie will blow wet stuff out of her nose like she does every second and a half anyway. loretta says, "you just don't like gertie, do you?" and i say, "well, she blows wet stuff out of her nose onto me if i get close to her, so what's there to like?". i don't tell her that hello, why do you think they're called pugs? they're repugnant little completely unlikable creatures! awe, but i still am nice to gertie because she's my neighbor and jesus says love thy neighbor and i do want to go to heaven.

there's a whopping record 237 belt buckles to choose from on the booty boutique website now. i don't believe there's ever been that many but i just can't stop making belt buckles, it's so addicting.. especially when it rains every single day and it's freezing and there's nothing else to do. except "file the pile", the new mantra i came up with to help me tackle paperwork challenges. if i repeat that fun phrase enough, i actually get some left brain business stuff done, too. i'm declaring this weekend "file the pile" weekend. it's kind of working so far. ttfn!

special needs

cousin kelli's in town. here she is at lefty o'doul's near union square the other night..

i had never been to lefty's and i was pretty impressed. there's a long bar for alcohol on one side, a big tommy's joynt style cafeteria food buffet on the other side, and a piano bar in the front! one stop shop. the piano man looked just like kevin spacey, it was hokey and fun, especially when kelli donned my scooter helmet and danced around the bar declaring herself as "special needs"..

we also got to enjoy dancing atop the sir francis drake hotel at ever-cheesy and fabulous harry denton's starlight room where i think i was impregnated by a giant man named alojuon on the dance floor and where kelli unsuccessfully tried to get an admission fee discount by showing the bouncer her special needs helmet. so many highlights of that evening, including getting an elevator attendant to show us the ancient secret speakeasy room/floor that requires a special key in the elevator and is located in between floors. that was super cool elite.

a couple days before this adventure i had the pleasure of spending the evening with the inimitable felipe and anthony, who discovered they were wearing matching underwear so of course i had them drop their drawers right there in the bitter cold outside of the homestead and pose for my camera phone. they are such good sports..

in other news i've seen both "no country for old men" and "there will be blood" and i highly highly recommend the latter. i'm still thinking about it. fucking daniel day-lewis was phenomenal.

some fun

haaaaay, i had some fun! last weekend me and laurel went to see paulie's band, if ever, at the house of shields downtown..

the band was great. the experience was strange and a bit surreal, in a good way, in that the bands play in this tiny upstairs area where everyone is kind of stuffed in there. i had never been to house of shields before and definitely recommend it. the place has been in business since 1908 and feels like it - lovely, tiny tiles everywhere and lots of wood, high ceilings and wee nooks, expensive, hoity and cozy.

then we took off to attend a nutty house party and rode around in the night on my scooter. here's laurel.. ..tipsty-texting as i come out of the convenience store, where i spent far too much time figuring out how to spend the $10 limit it took to use my atm card. you can choose some very interesting items in that situation.

later in the week i got to hang out with the famous jennieB and reap the fruits of my ever-kicking-more-ass neighborhood. we visited the stupendous city beer, where we drank the deeelicious beverage of heaven, saxo beer, then headed on down the street to an incredible new wine store/tasting room/bar called terroir. that means soil in french, jennieB wine connoisseur tells me. we met the hip and rough and tumble HANDsome (and quick to mention taken) owner, dagan, and his mesmerizing helper, luc, who served us a platter of mouth-watering cheeses, quince and toasty french bread on a giant wooden cutting board. we drank an '03 p.frick reisling from the alsace region of france, and an '03 s. babinet (cab franc - anything from that region apparently is the bomb). sweet mother mary of jesus i was one freaking happy camper upon returning home with a belly full of all that goodness and a worth-it empty wallet. i'm going back monday.

the engines

the booty site has been updated with almost 100 buckles..

and it's kinda more streamlined now. i'm so happy. and tired. i deserve a beer. i will go buy one now..

ahhhhh...

..ahhhhh

since last we spoke i discovered booty boutique got the december 31st mention at mighy goods. awesome!

the only other thing that has happened besides being completely immersed in glues and tiny shiny things, cameras and this computer, is that i went to breakfast with my buddies brian and adam..

let me look into my filofax to see what else might have happened since last we spoke because i know i did more than buckle mayhem, clean the hell out of my apartment, and watch my giant television..

dang! just business and more business. i need to have some fun already. i'll try to have some of that before my next post but i sure can't promise anything. unfortunately.

well, as gary sinise said: "careers, like rockets, don't always take off on schedule. the key is to keep working the engines." lo, i worketh the engines, tho it is not quite quite memorable on a day to day basis. sigh.

happy new year!

since last we spoke i had a birthday and birthday PARTY, and so did jesus. plus it's now a new year! the birthday party was super and i have zero photos from it. you'll just have to trust me. i asked santa for a non-xmas to be spent in a vegetative state and he granted me that because i'd been such a good girl all year. the band had an end of year show this past saturday and the famous jeff wilson and steve shotts added their glorious banjo-ness to the mix to make it all the more special. quite an epic show went down at giordano brothers in north beach, to say the least. i have zero pictures from that, too, though you can see tiny youtube snippets here, here, and here. here are the fellas practicing in my kitchen the night before the big show..

that may have been even more epic in that we consumed 30 tecate's, played loudly until 2am with zero neighbor repercussions (i love my neighbors), and were falling over stupid at the end. goooood times.

here's my brother, quent, me (and my new haircut!), and quent's wife, linda, hanging out for the new year at their place in burlingame..

we played scrabble and pigged out, drank like fishies, and watched quent's new massive HD TV, which was really quite spectacular. even more rad was that i inherited quent's previous ginormous tv which now takes up two-thirds of my bedroom.

i've spent nice vacation in freezing san francisco, mellowing out and making 75 new belt buckles (which will be uploaded to the booty site by the end of this week), cleaning the fuck out of my house, introspecting and socializing. all my very favorite things in the whole world.

lastly, here's a photo of my fellow holiday homebody neighbors, loretta the uber-gardener..

and her cat, frida, the infamous bird murderer..

i hope your holidays were all you could wish for and that yours and my new year bring all the very best of the best to you and yours and mine. our motto: great in '08!

it smelled like candy

i received in the mail the best birthday card ever from my brother, jimbo, today. here's the front..

and on the inside it says:
She rarely
passed gas,
but when she did,
it came out
pink and glittery,
and it smelled
like candy,
and people cried
when it
went away.

Happy
Birthday,
Sis

jimbo had bought that card last year and forgot to send it to me, and he's mentioned a couple times throughout the year how excited he was to send me "my card" when my birthday came around again. i can see why and it was well worth the wait. i read it to my church-lady mom (not jimbo's mom, my birth mom.. jimbo is my brotha by anotha mutha) over the phone and she said, "well" in that special way she does, kinda like dana carvey's church lady but much more precious and sweet and only slightly disapproving and disoriented. of course i tell her un-church-like things sometimes just to hear the "well".. it starts off in a normal tone and goes for a while and ends up way up a couple octaves. oh it's worth hearing, i tell you. i really want to get a spycam and videotape my mom doing some of the stuff she does and then totally exploit her on youtube. she would NEVER do any of it if she knew there was a camera on her, though. she gets extremely self-conscious around cameras. dangit! i'll have to figure something out.

to end this most thought-provoking post, here's a camera-phone photo for you, taken of a rather fancified vespa that was parked beside the shopping cart corral outside of trader joe's south of market today..

take a left at buck and winnie

last week was spent with family in vegas.. with some of the family members who i hadn't been able to see for thanksgiving and whom i won't be able to see for christmas. it was grrrREAT. we had lots of adventures, we walked a GREAT deal and drank a great deal more, played a load of scrabble in our time share apartments and went to a bunch of shows. we had AWEsome food wherever we went, it seemed. we even tried to gamble a bunch. well, slots anyway... but we were all officially ninkumpoops when it came to the main vegas attraction of gambling. whah? vegas is like sushi. i like EVerything but the raw fish, which is supposed to be the point. but i don't care! cuz i LOVE sake and edamame and california rolls and tempura and miso soup! very much! and in vegas i loved that mainly i got to hang with my family and secondly that i got to see lots of shiny, shimmery things..

i didn't much give a hoot about the gambling part but it sure was fascinating to be in the midst of. and surreal. i made a conscious decision not to be completely appalled at the ridiculous obnoxiousness of vegas in general.. forgot about all them starvin' people out there in the world. gimme another steak and drop another 5 in the slots, whatever! hey, for family, anything.. and for novelty, of course. and photos. it's like when you go to a skanky bar that's horrible in every single way and you have the best time ever? i think it's like rebellion. in this case, ok, it's also for a little bit of a trashy fix. my brethren trailor park people were all about in vegas like a nice, amerka pbr or a warm pig in the blanket. it was an interesting feeling overall, no doubt.

i had my camera on the whole time and took loads of photos but i'll say, it was difficult because a lot of the shenanigans went down at night and it's difficult to take photos at night. so i only ended up with about a quarter of the shots that were salvageable. you can view the rest here. and if you wanna skip viewing the album and just see the best photo from the trip? it's this one of my mom, HAND'S DOWN!!

thanks for giving

i went to indiana and illinois for thanksgiving last week. i think this particular vacation was jam-packed with every bit of wonderfulness a person could possibly handle.

here's my nieces lauren and maddie. well, they're my cousin's kids but same difference in this family, pretty much.
i so enjoyed hanging out with all the generations. this vacation was, like, magic. i couldn't have asked for more. i feel very lucky. the weather was totally dynamic.. within the span of five days it was super warm then freeze-yer-balls-off cold. the days were perfect, every one of them, and seemingly totally different from each other. i got to hang out with so many people and catch up, bond, laugh and laugh some more, lots of serious talk, life stuff, silly stuff, special stuff, every stuff! it seemed like there was enough juicy things going on to keep things interesting but not so much that it was detrimental for anyone. at least for now. it was vibrant and alive. full, joyous and festive. everyone seemed to be in a real place, present and at an honest point in life. it was like all the planets aligned. was i projecting? maybe some of both. here's my aunt's side yard. i took a jog around the neighborhood one day and totally zoned out on all the LEAVES everywhere and just the fact that i was in a neighborhood, in a place with real seasons, in the fall.. and the streets were flat and there was grass and big old houses.. it was like the twilight zone but in a good way. here's another niece, little lydia..
she was a handful and a half. and cute as a button, just like all of them. oh the overload of cuteness almost killed me. i'm only now halfway through the south of market crack addicts who poop on buildings whom i've decided to kick in the nuts in order to balance everything out.

speaking of cute, i think my grandma takes the cake. here's me with 86 year old still-kicking-ass-in-scrabble-and-crossword-puzzles grandma brown, the matriarch of the mish-mash of goodness that i am fortunate enough to call my family..see the full midwest thanksgiving photo album here.

one of the things

"one of the things about art is, you give people an excuse to take some time to be quiet and pay attention to something. and maybe under the guise of enjoyment, think about important things in life."

- tim o'brien, from the documentary, bluegrass journey

and that's what happens when i look at this photograph..
and this..
i stop and think about how awesome it is that people would buy MY booty boutique belt buckles and wear them in a funky outdoor mountain WEDDING! i am ecstatic. and kinda horny now, too, thank you very much. art rules! photos by kurt foeller.

great article on booty boutique!

check out what the fabulous lorraine sanders has to say about booty boutique in her super cool sf indie fashion blog! lorraine is also a writer for citysearch and tells me that there'll soon also be a similar article on booty boutique up there! i'll let you know when that happens. how exciting!

Y.O.Y.

who needs sex when you got JETS?!

so i'm swimming at the Y and the jacuzzi is located right there beside the pool on the same level, just feet away from my lane. can you imagine my disturbance to look up every three strokes and see an old guy with a half grin on his face, right there, staring at the lap swimmers while.. i know his hoohah is right up against the wall of the jacuzzi and the jet. he's all with his arms nice and relaxed, propping himself just so there. just a gettin' off and watching all the splashing go by. well how pleasant for him! oh my fucking god. i was totally grossed out and jealous at the same time. there really should be a rule about that kinda stuff, don't you think? i mean, i'm no prude but.. shouldn't people who do that in public have to be good looking?

taking the cake

have you ever seen anything so wonderful? any other combo of such gloriousness? ok, besides maybe a betty crocker cake with icing and candy sprinkles..

too bad i am not a precious japanese hipster, as i can kinda only see these adorning those chics' feet. dang!

goods

here's an interesting shot of a corner of the new sports basement on bryant near 16th street..

we were there last week buying stuff for this past sunday's treasure island international triathlon.. .. that's me coming up on the finish line, can you believe it?! the triathlon, well, it was a biathlon ultimately, because the swimming part was cancelled. because last wednesday, a ship crashed into the bay bridge and spilled 58,000 gallons of oil within spitting distance of pirate's cove, treasure island, where we were supposed to swim! so we just biked and ran. it was fun. i placed 18th out of the 32 women in my age group (the 35-39 age group). now i'm psyched enough to buy a real road bike soon. for the race on sunday i used my city bike, which slowed me down a bunch. well, that was the last triathlon of the season so there's plenty of time to get ready for something in the spring. i needed a new hobby like i needed a new hole in my head, but i think this one just replaces some others that i have OhDeed on of late. well, we'll see, we'll see.

lastly, can you beLIEVE this?! COWBOY SNEAKERS!

i want them badly but alas, i am saving up for a new bike. maybe you can get them for me for christmas! i am a size 7. they are at shoe pavilion.

love thy neighbor

my neighbor, rico, passed away on halloween. perfectly healthy until july 4th when an appendectomy resulted in the discovery of a giant intestinal tumor. he suffered greatly between then and october 31st. he fought and fought and had much chemo, but lymphoma got the better of him in the end. rico lived directly under my booty buckle studio. if you're a frequenter of this blog, you might remember him. he was always so good to me. he was a dear, dear soul and a very special friend. i miss him very much. i was fortunate enough to get to know more of rico's enormous family while hanging out at the mortuary for rico's... i don't know exactly what it would be called.. a viewing service session something? catholic... this past weekend. i learned a great deal of interesting family history. come to find out rico's family has inhabited our street in almost every building for the past 30 years. they spread out a bit throughout south of market and some bought houses in neighboring towns. i met lots of folks who used to live right here in my apartment! rico's parents will be staying in his place now. i requested for nostalgic purposes that they play random music really loudly every now and again and at really random times. oh, and if possible, could they might turn the tv up obnoxiously loud during a football game and scream at the tops of their lungs at it. they said they would. we made rico a little alter outside his door soon after we heard the news. his family was very touched to know his neighbors adored him so. RIP, dearest rico.

the same morning of the service, i photographed my new neighbors, paul and anabella, having a jam session on the back porch.. they replaced lovely christopher a little while back. he moved back to hawaii where he's happy as a lark, i hear. christopher was very fond and quite the aficionado of the ukulele. above is little anabella testing out my new ukulele right where christopher and i used to hang out. ah, the circle of life. and paul is a great musician, too. i ofttimes hear great things coming from the other side of the wall. one morning i awoke to the most beautiful live version of pink floyd's wish you were here coming from the other side of the wall.

i wish YOU were here, rico. now's a good time to revisit the tibetan book of the dead (in 5 parts on youtube).

on a larkspur

our band, back40, had a fabulous time playing a halloween / neighborhood / housewarming party on saturday in larkspur, up in marin county. the neighborhood (near dolliver park) was all thomas kinkaid-y and perfect and you know, the streets were built around redwood trees so there's trees IN the streets! it is almost too much goodness for the eyes to behold. i did not want to return to my soma homeless poop building after that experience, to say the least. yeah, some dude pooped all over the front of my building a few weeks ago and it's still there. and it's even rained a few times since then! back to the party: we played on a big back deck surrounded by every kind of tree and vegetation..

there were loads of beautiful smart funny wonderful precious children there..

.. and on breaks i hung out with them and we made up songs with all the little instruments we gathered. GAWD that was awesome..

i sure like this time of year. it brings good things, i think. praise jesus and pass the pie, please.

nothing gold can stay

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold,
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
- Robert Frost

warning

faves

new stuff i have or want or am reading about or obsessing over.. or some combo thereof:

art

these 4 greeting cards beautiful enough to frame, by anahata joy katkin at papalicious.com. i'm not sure i like anyone enough to actually write in these and give them away! they will probably go up on my wall:

bag

plastic sleeping bear shoulder bag with adjustable soft strap, my absolute new favorite accessory, by blue Q bags. it's rainy season and i may get wet riding around on my scooter, but now my stuff won't! this could quite possibly be the cutest thing i've ever owned..

toy

the liberator pillow for female orgasm. ever since i saw a photo of george clooney walking around with one.

jewelry

anything by kathy kamei

book

this is your brain on music, by daniel levitin. i just ordered it. i heard him speaking on the radio and i was so mesmerized i just sat on the edge of my bed and listened. that's pretty unusual for freaky-ass multi-tasking maniac like myself. but break down how we physically experience music and i am all ears.

movie

a history of violence. on dvd so you can watch all the special features. delicious thought-provocation that just keeps going for days after viewing.

article

tear-jerking real-life bay area folk making the world a better place news article about the gardener's foundation. a first generation immigrant gets inspired at his son's graduation from college and begins a scholarship program. get out your hankies. and your wallets!

screen saver
i'm a total sucker. may even have to purchase one of these screen savers..

quote

punctuality is a virtue of the bored" - evelyn waugh

that means there's no bored people in all of california

symphomaniac

i happened to respond first to a first-email-reply-first-get extra free ticket from sarah to see the san francisco symphony with her on friday night. they were playing chopin's concerto #2 for the first half, then saint-saens' organ symphony #3 for the second half. i have never been to a symphony before, except at indiana university once because my roommate at the time was a clarinet player. unfortunately t'was a sucky experience for me because if i recall correctly, i was extremely hungover from a theta beta phi thigh fee fi fo phum party the night before, therefore making it more like torture than a cultural or enlightening experience.

now i was ready to shine a new light on the whole thing and.. I GET TO HANG WITH SARAH, too?! too awesome. so we meet for a fancy drink at jardiniere before the show & eat fried olives for the first time..mmmm! have you tried fancy fried olives? strange and yummy and fancy beyond fancy.

we then go and get seated in the beautiful auditorium made obviously just for the symphony with all it's high-tech shiny sound reflection gadgets everywhere and dangling microphones and wall o' organ. we had orchestra seats at far right musician feet level & our main view was of the profile of a stand-up bass guy who was kinda sexy & donning some fine shiny lace-up shoe-boots. well, that was more sarah's direct view. mine was of a velvet-clad cello player whom i shan't describe in further detail for i will certainly burn in hell for the thoughts i thought whilst sitting before her.

my ADD goes into overdrive at this point and obviously a little before, triggered as it sometimes is by the white trash gone west got free and exposed still culture challenged self conscious late bloomer complex.

so here's the unavoidable ADDream before me and i better just run with it - i'm old enough now that i know when it's coming on and i can decide whether to beat myself up or embrace the madness. so i'm sitting there and the brain's going nuts and you know, i thoroughly enjoy the ride. these things go something like this:

"hmm, it feels kinda like a jail in here. or a gladiator ring or maybe a gigantic confessional booth. what are all these empty seats? they coulda brought in a bunch of orphans like in "finding neverland". wow, that's a big piano with a real big piano-maker's insignia on the side.. was it donated for advertising? oh, i can't wait for the massive organ to be played. i got a thing for organs. where does the organ player sit? oh, my god, the outfits of these people. fuck, the symphony needs to channel funds.. ALL funds for the next year into getting stylists and hairdressers because this do it yourself shit and old lady hippy afro mayhem is out of control and hurting my eyes for chrissakes! but look at that chic, she's kinda hot, actually, and she has on very sexy high heels. she's the only one with sexy heels up there! i wonder if she's banging any of these stand up bass guys. i hear it's like a soap opera behind the scenes. hmm, she does look very posh all decked out like that and wailing on the violin. rrrrROW! i wonder if a majority of the musicians are foreign? they all look like they're from berkeley or a different country (i know, same thing). oh, my god, the sexy piano diva from argentina.. they may as well call it a "porniano!" holy tori amos i feel like a voyeur at this woman/instrument masturbation session! lordy, this is terribly intimate, her all flipping her frizzy hair and makin' love and stuff with the ivories (i know, rock dudes do that kinda thing all the time with their axes but hey, this is my world at the moment). the first chair violin guy is up there getting the rockstar treatment, as he should, and i notice he has on a red tie and everyone else has little or no color. i ponder that in too many ways to explain, as we're getting into a mix of my two worlds of music and fashion and that's overboard and seeing live music just makes my eyes and ears battle each other like the fucking DICKens already. is that somebody snoring behind me? well, we're at the early show and there are a load of white hairs here. yeah, somebody's snoring. that's kinda sad. ew, i think my pits stink. i didn't wash this sweater, did i? i hate when i do that. dang, i can't see the flutes or any of the wind instruments! rrrrr. i want a french horn. i miss the french horn. awe, the poor trumpet player and tympany players have to wait like 12 minutes between their little parts to play. that must suck ASS! i sure wish they would all rock out more. all of them! more dynamics. get up outchyer seats! oh, how absolutely PRECIOUS all the violin sticks synchronized dancing in the air like that! totally mesmerising. darling italian conductor. i think he's wearing tightie-whities. why do they let the less attractive folks sit on the outside closest to the audience? i hate myself for thinking it and now writing it, but let's face it, i'm cro-magnon like most, right? we need "show" business, people! i wanna see some hotness! oh my god, that guy in the bleachers between the organ pipes and the triangle player is actually rocking out to this music! wow, i wonder about him. a lot. and stare. a lot. ooooo, look, a bassoon?! oh i want one of those. oooooh, and the french horn, that delicious sound, so soft, luscious, and soothing.. i played that in junior high, i forgot! in the all-county band! awe, man i want one now.. i know i could pick it back up after a couple "how to play french horn" google searches. i want every one of those instruments up there. i want a house and to buy every instrument in the world and put them in my house and learn to play all the instruments and make crazy recordings forever and ever and have parties and play with all my friends and instruments. that would be awesome! ew, who let a stinker?"

i think the chopin piece was too light & subtle which led to most of the above head ramblings. the saint saens piece was very dynamic and sucked me in and all over. nice! i hope to visit the symphony again. that combination of head rambling and smart & rich folks' culture was a healthy combo for me. it was invigorating. lively. i think now that i have gone through my new thing routine, i'll be able to concentrate and enjoy it more on a different level. hooray for wonderful fabu uber thought-provoking beautiful and kind friends and double hooray for new experiences. i'm a lucky lucky girl ;-)

stuffy nose banjos & buckle ho's

oh, the hardly strictly bluegrass festival was sooo nice as always. even though we were sick with colds, we hauled our fannies out yesterday for a wee bit of twangin' good times. this band in particular was quite stellar, the steep canyon rangers..

and here's a photo of sick boy all wrinkle-toed in the tub later on. we're on the mend, though, and i selfishly say it was all worth this photo anyhow..

p.s. i didn't win the banjulele on ebay but at least i still have my camera and buckles to play with. awe, man..

WANTED

i want this banjulele soooo bad


and if i win it on ebay, i'm gonna play this song, minus bernadette's trumpet part, of course

bikes and birds

me and fani, her dad and cesar all rode in critical mass yesterday. fani's dad started cycling at age 48, which was 14 years ago or so, and he's an avid cyclist now. and he's just cute and sweet as all get out. the ride was having its 15th anniversary and it was a blast as usual. the best part was when the front of the pack took off up the south van ness @ division on-ramp to the highway! they made it a few hundred yards before dozens of motorcycle cops all flashy-loud and dramatic forced them to turn around and come back down. that was a truly crazy thing to witness.. my jaw was on the ground while somehow whooping and hollering and laughing and cheering all at the same time. how did all those motorcycle cops get to these guys so fast and come at them going the wrong way on an entrance ramp that only goes one way? they are really good. ok, so actually the very best was right when this was all happening, one of the "participating" bicycle cops was riding up near us and i saw he had an ear-to-ear grin on his face. what a moment. it's like seeing the regular cops hanging out and chit-chatting with the fetish gay cop-dressed folsom street fair guys. that fair is happening tomorrow, by the way. i might have to check it out since it is right on my doorstep practically. well, half a block away plus my street is completely blocked off the whole day. i like the sf police.. i've had only great experiences with them & they always seem really cool. anyway, so i realized the cops have all these bike cops riding along with the critical mass people plus i think they have a civilian-looking infiltrator up in front of the pack and he's probably equipped with a tiny earpiece and mic to alert the cops of where the mass is heading. there was a helicopter overhead the whole time to ensure things like this are nipped in the bud. it's quite a collaboration of sorts, it seems. here's a shot at the beginning of the ride near justin hermann plaza..

i decided today to upload pictures directly into blogger instead of linking from my server because i found out all the blogger and google folks who bought blogger have a running stream of photos that are being uploaded to blogger real-time showing on screens in their offices. it's worth checking out the stream, which blogger recently put up so the public can experience the entertainment, too. be careful, it's kind of addicting.

so, hey, wouldn't you like this view out of your office window and have bird buddies hanging out looking at you while you talk to clients?

i know i would! except they poop right there, too, which might get distracting.

inspiration

so beautiful a water and dirt stain i discovered atop my refrigerator from a leaky plant pot that i actually hauled my ass up on TOP of the refrigerator to photograph it. very precarious and very worth it. then i cleaned it up.

here's a great picture sent to cesar from his friend, fausto. this is from somewhere in russia. dos vadanya!

lastly, i recently saw an awesome flick called the future we will create: inside the world of TED., which totally blew me away and made me all teary. all these great minds get together every year for a few days and present to each other some groundbreaking shit in/from the realms of technology, entertainment and design. in a world that can get a little down-ish this was a great upper, no doubt about it. i would love to attend TED, but it's like 5 grand to attend so maybe i won't be able to go for a while. but you can visit the TED site to see for yerself what i'm talkin' about what was shown/said ..

yay, nice world today.

cole valley girl

today i participated in the cole valley street festival, which i do every year and which is always a real hoot. i always meet interesting people and get a suntan, as well as get some booty buckles onto the best folk in san francisco, like these two youngsters..

and here's a great band called pixie kitchen playing on the street a little ways down from where i was peddling my wares..

i was also a direct neighbor of the Booksmith bookstore (haight st.) booth which housed a different author every hour to sign books. it was super cool. what a treat. it was cold and windy a good part of the day, then in the afternoon the sun shone through and everything was all aglow. cole valley rocks.

yays! and nays.

YAY!
i haven't laughed this hard in a coon's age:

NAY.

riding my bike through the tenderloin and happening upon a wet street when it hasn't been raining. know what that means? well, occasionally - and i wish i had a schedule of this but i still would get caught unawares anyway - the streets & sidewalks of the 'loin are hosed down because it's a crack/homeless haven and folks just do all their business all over the place and it's a health hazard after a while. so the city hoses it down and since the neighborhood is slightly hilly, all the water and refuse and who knows what all else just runs on down to the flatlands, which happens to be MY bicycle route. you can imagine my utter disgust when i end up riding down one of these wet blocks/streets and all the "water" is just splashing up all over me and my bike and my bag. and it's pointless to go back the way i came or try another route because i am always in a hurry and gotta be some place. this would be one of those times where ignorance is bliss. dang.

YAY!
my favorite neighborhood beer store, city beer store!

it's inspirational, that place. truly.

NAY.

arriving home on my scooter late last night i find a homeless man asleep in my spot alongside the front of my building. ok fine, i think, you can sleep there, i won't bother you, i'll just park on the street tonight. i come out this morning and glance over at my spot and that guy had gifted us with a lovely spray of diarrhea all over my parking spot and the front of the building.

YAY!

for my favorite online writers, katy st. clair, dooce, most anyone in my family's email updates, dan savage, & rob brezny.

NAY with a little bit of YAY! -
solely for sick and twisted entertainment purposes..

armless man delivers fatal head-butt a yesterday in the driveway of a house in snellville, georgia. "Police are investigating the death of a man who collapsed after he was head-butted by an armless man in a fight over a woman..." no need for comment.

another YAY! and NAY. for the same reasons as the above..

do it herself

this is a pretty cool and entertaining site for the DIY folks. that over-used acronym blows as most do but i am a DIY-er so oh, well. DIY is Do It Yourself. or as i like to say, "rig it up". or as someone once described as "white trash ingenuity". that's my favorite description. although it's so hip to DIY now that you don't gotta be po no mo. is nothing sacred anymore? ah, speaking of po i recall in high school when i salvaged an antique working refrigerator, painted it blue and put it in my bedroom. to house my doughnuts.

i remember i used to have a toolkit/box that was called do-it-herself. the handles on all the tools were baby blue.

i just bought a dremel today which is the coolest little gadget of all times. you can sand, cut, polish, clean, grind, sharpen, and drill with it. i think you can engrave, too. i got it from the best hardware store in san francisco, discount builder's supply. i wish i could live there.

other great DIY sites include readymade magazine, make magazine, and here's a place where you can find all kinds of do it yourself resources online. woo hoo! you can take the girl out the poor house but you can't take away the built-in macgyver that comes with having to figure out how to make and get what you want with a near-empty wallet.

and some fun pics from cafe neon in the western addition..

tasking and multi-tasking

so i've been addicted for quite some time to this american life, playing episodes while i make buckle after buckle in the booty studio. it keeps me going. but sometimes i catch up with all the episodes and then feel quite lost.. npr is great but isn't as sure of a bet. takes more energy to choose what to listen to. kalw kicks ass. bad timing for burning midnight oil but 92.7's fernando and greg of a morning cannot be beat. ahhh, but now i have discovered radio lab! very interesting, very thought-provoking, entertaining and mind-blowing. give a listen if you ever need help bringing in the wee hours whilst playing with glue and little shiny things.

and here's my multi-tasking niece, paige..

what a cutiepie, eh? ;-)

nice pussy

my neighbor, loretta, was down to one of her original three 16 year old cats as two have kicked the bucket recently. she decided to get another cat to keep the cat-last-standing company. bring in frida, the uninhibited. frida and the old cat hate each other so frida tries to make friends with the rest of the building in order to have somewhere she can hang out and not get bitched at by some old washed up, territorial, psychotic cat. frida is extremely friendly and loving and this would be so perfect if i liked cats at all and if almost every one of my friends wasn't allergic to them. i like to keep my back door open for air and this is just an open invitation to frida to make herself at home in my apartment..

no matter how much i shush her out, she'll soon saunter back in and call my place her own. i like her. she's the kinda pussy that just doesn't take no for an answer. kill 'em with kindness! persistence pays! good mottos to remember, thanks, frida calico. now get outta here and quit licking yourself all over my carpet!

oh-LAH!

i went to spain to visit cesar for part of july and august, a small piece of his regular summer vacation (!)..

mostly galicia (northwest), asturias (central north), and madrid (central). we hung out at the beach a bunch (and i got tan for the first time since high school!), toured the countryside

checked out a million cool towns from a million different angles

..and pretty much didn't let up the whole time. this was the second vacation in my life that was so long. THREE WHOLE WEEKS! the first, only, and other time was 8 years ago when i went solo to spain and italy. of course this was loads better because i had an in with the locals!

ok, i must say first and foremost that the spanish wine, albarino, kicks all other alcohol's butts in the whole world, even though i haven't had all of them in the world but i'm sure it's true. plus the coffee... ahhhh, the coffee was sooo deeeelicious, mmm, with churros, of course.

i was in awe over the fact that no one in spain walks with a beverage in their hand. no one! and the coffees are little. i always wanted to order 4 of them to make one extra large but alas, i was blending in so one little one just had to do. me american, want mas!

all the famous seafood for my poor little midwestern-bred gringa pallet was a different story. let's just say i wolfed down a great number of cheeseburgers when i came home. to balance myself out. AWE! terrible typical american but what can i say, i didn't even know what a fish was until i was like, 20. or led zeppelin or pink floyd or pretty much anything else at all but that's another story.

i was so lucky to receive full-on history lessons throughout the trip from cesar, the history teacher, the grand highlight of which was during our adventure through santiago de compostela where cesar lived and studied art history in college. who ever gets THAT opportunity?! me.

i can't count the times we were treated like the king and queen of spain by cesar's amazing parents and friends. we stayed at everyone's homes throughout our tour and ate wonderful home-cooked meals, all while i hand-gestured and spanglished my way through many conversations. i think i did pretty well all things considered. that combined with all the spaniards' broken english made for lots of great free language lessons for us all! i cherish the small town extended-family party where folks nearly lined up to check out the exotic gringa and practice their rusty english on. i felt like a superstar and i shan't forget that ever, for sure.

oh, and all the summer fiESTas in all the little towns! they celebrate every kind of food and alcohol and will have a party for any reason. well, not just a party, but a four day long extravaganza with ear-splitting music 'til sunrise, food and beer and games and every generation seemingly never needing a wink of sleep.

in my quest for fitting in i ofttimes put my fancy new camera straight into my unassuming purse and it got shit all over the lens.. the price i paid for wanting not to get yet another bill that was "just for tourists", aka, over double the real price. but it worked and i blended in, i know because people would talk to me in spanish and i would nod and i swear they thought i was one of them. victory! until they saw me with a plate of pulpo in front of my scrunched up face..

much to the chagrin of my observant host, i mostly wide-eyed my way through spain obsessed with the people and their attire, the shops and their wares. oh, the shoes, all the shoes, the clothes, the people all dressed up, all of them, all the time! no sweatpants in the dang country, no skanky gap t-shirts and white sneakers. everyone wakes up there and puts on accessories and heals! how do they walk on all those cobblestoned hilly streets? it's an artform.

cesar and i had fun comparing the u.s. and spain the whole time. their completely illegible road sign symbols and whack road system, no s.u.v.s anywhere in sight, ever.. no starbucks (except madrid) or wal-mart (well, i didn't tour the east or south of spain..). it all balanced out in the end, i think. well, we have a much more diverse-looking crowd anyway, culturally speaking. plus it's cheaper here. but fuck - they give you dinner with every drink! the tapas culture i could live off of reeeeal nicely. a little tiny dinner with a nice drink. does it get better than that?!

what a treat. here's the whole spain web album, if yer interested.

no teeth!

this week and weekend had me on the phone no less than 5 hours with my new web server folks. and double that much uploading and i'm only halfway done. holy crap what an adventure. plus my computer has been crashing no less than 5 times a day. plus i come home this morning to find my new scooter had been violated and knocked over and all broken up. aesthetically, anyway. thankfully my neighbor had righted the poor thing upon finding it laying there outside our building and before i returned home. but it's still running well. don't drink a massive cup of peet's coffee then come home to innumerable and hours-worth of problem-solving on a sunday. i thought i would surely die of a massive heart attack. but the server problems are on their way to being fixed and worse violations could have befallen my precious scooter, so i am wont to count my blessings. the blessings being too that i got to hang out with the fabulous courtney and melissa on friday night..

.. and the sexy felipe and marteeen..

..plus a band from philly or was it l.a., called teeth who had played earlier in the night to a sold-out crowd at cafe du nord. they were staying at a woman named tinkerbell's house where we ended up for late night tecates and cookies. felipe and i were prompted by the band's name to concoct our own song called "no teeth!". you had to be there but i swear, it was really funny, although the band leader wasn't terribly impressed when we presented it to him.

biggest news of late is my new camera! a canon eos rebel xt. i haven't the foggiest yet how to use it but i did manage those couple of photos above on friday night. my other camera was total crap with night shots so already i'm just TOO excited about my new toy, regardless of how many years it will take me to figure out. i'll probably just get it when i have to break out the duct tape to hold it together.

i also got to hang out with my greatest friends, sarah and amy last night in the east bay. we had a lovely time and went to see a really awesome movie called knocked up. it's by the same folks who made 40 year old virgin and i HIGHLY recommend both of those movies. fabulous dialogue. a belly-laugh a minute, at least. just classic.

here's another shot, taken by dear renee gonsalves, of back40 at our cd release party at the knockout last weekend (on lucky 7/7/07):

doily sleeves and new cds

last night back40 had an amazing cd release party. here we are posing in front of taqueria cancun, next door to the knockout where we played. we had to pose here because it had the most light..

as you can tell, i dressed up like a girl for once and i liked it so much i may just have discovered a new style for myself. we played the best show ever and we're very proud of the cd. woo hoo!

i think we'll be selling them on cdbaby soon.

speaking of babies, here's a recent shot of carla and baby zuri. dang, she's so cute..

I love U. tah.

me and cesar went on a big 'ole camping trip over the last two weeks in june. mostly in 100+ degree weather utah. and that's fahrenheit, eh? AHHH! but we quickly acclimated & sort of masochistically started to like it. specifically we were in arches, canyonlands, capitol reef, natural bridges & escalante reservoir/petrified forest. we also hung out in the tonopah motel (NV) on the way to utah, and the clown motel in the same town on the way back (biker and pet friendly, thank goodness!). the clown motel was right next to the tonopah miner's cemetery, 1902-19911. we loved that very much. way cool with its makeshift headstones of wood, railroad ties and hammered metal signs. did i mention we got pulled over by 2 of the 14,00 tonopah sheriffs and somehow weaseled our way out of any trouble whatsoever that night? heh.

then in california we were at mono lake, mammoth lakes, june lake, and yosemite (mostly tuolumne meadows). it's pretty cool to get an appreciation for the vast wonders of northwest america through the eyes of a well-traveled european (that would be cesar) who has the perspective of what's out there (& not) in the rest of the world. whatdya know, the u.s. national parks really are home to some of the most spectacular wonders of all. we gringos can kind of take this for granted. apPARENTly because most of the people we ran across in the parks were from other countries. we were always guessing from where exactly, based on their accents. lots of germans and eastern europeans, if our guessing was correct.

here's a shot from arches national park..

.. from our camp in the bright and early morn at canyonlands national park..

.. overlooking the canyon at dead horse state park (if you remember where thelma and louise commit suicide).. there's a sad story there about some corralled horses being left for dead, too..

we ran across a lot of solo guys apparently roughing it sans 4-wheels for long periods of time, travelling from way far away to way farther away. one guy we met at natural bridges state park was tim dolan. he was riding this crazy recumbent bicycle from the east coast to west (he's from san carlos, by the way). you can find him on www.crazyguyonabike.com. can you imagine? lots of guys were on motorcycles, too. we loved thinking about all these epic hikers, bicyclists and motorcyclists on the trips of their lives. we start scheming on how we can get ourselves into a big-ass bicycle road trip across some vast lands somewhere, like scotland, ireland maybe... hmm..

here's glorious tuolumne meadows..

one of our adventures in tuolumne has to do with coming across a crazy woman in a wetsuit (.. in yosemite!) restrained & handcuffed by two rangers in one of the most gorgeous, remote & serene areas of the park at sunset. how insanely surreal for us to end our day of blissful hiking to the top of lambert dome. a man came up and told us the lady had come out of the water and attacked him (he, holding his child, for chrissakes), biting and tearing his clothes. he kicked her in the chest & took her down, had to restrain her for 1/2 an hour while his wife had to run for help. wow! later we invited these two guys camping next to us over to enjoy our fire and we find they're hiking the entire pacific crest trail, mexico to canada. one of the dudes, wearing a skirt by the way, has hiked 4,000 miles in 15 months. double wow. no, triple.

here's cesar in the relaxing & cozy 105 fahrenheit (40.5 celsius) rock womb of capitol gorge at capitol reef national park..

here's a shot along the "extraterrestrial highway" - highway 375 in nevada..

and along the same highway..

here's cesar making one of his famous cesar salads at cathedral gorge..

here's a view from highway 12 and the dixie forest..

here's yet another of cesar's picnic's extraordinaire (i am totally addicted)..

last but not least, here's cesar dancing a jig in some canyon place that i started to get confused about the names for (some scenic road - scenic was an understatement, of course, near capitol reef)..

that says it all ;-)

feel free to view both photo albums of the whole trip here (album 1) and here (album 2).

mama

my mama came to visit! here we are, john me and mama, outside the legion of honor, in front of rodin's thinker..

just outside the legion of honor is a little memorial to the holocaust. very simple and powerful..

we walked alllll along the lost coast trail at land's end, which is right there near the legion of honor..

..so very beautiful. so wickedly windy, as are all the days, it seems, in san francisco of late.

we took mom and john to biscuits and blues to hear some music and they let me get up and sing a song to my mama..

that was awesome. what a nice time, what a nice family i have. i'm a lucky girl ;-)

for fritts' sake!

ok, since we last spoke, things have happened. not much, but things. poor 'lil blog has been neglected again. hey, somethings gotta give when you get a dude and when your contract job turns out to be nevereverever ending. in this case it's pretty much amounted to the sacrificial blog and friends. and the buckles to an extent. it's not been too bad, though. actually, i must thank my lucky stars. i signed on at my old old job in november as a contractor mainly, looking to staple some stacks of papers and maybe rearrange powerpoint slides. but somehow i've now ended up working for some big whigs, like REAL big, and it's been really cool. i like the guys a lot and it's for a good cause, renewable energy. kind of exciting and you really can't beat the fabulous people i've been working with across the board, plus the insanely magnificent views from our offices beneath the golden gate bridge, well, they are just the greatest. sigh.

the buckles, though, yes, not quite as much time to spend on them but almost. the very best thing in buckleland that's happened recently? i got BEST OF SAN FRANCISCO 2007 in the SF Weekly! so exciting. do you know what a big deal that is? i think it's a big deal. i'm very happy.

anyway, a few shots of stuff that's gone down lately -here's felipe competing in a 3-legged race in dolores park..

here's some friends dressing up, i mean down, at a party..

i went to florida to surprise me mum for her birthday a couple weeks ago. here's me and jimbo there playing monopoly (justin and mom not shown here.. mom kicked our ASSES so bad. she's so awesome)..

here's a really big half of a purple head just sittin' there in golden gate park..

not long ago a beautiful hike in land's end led us to a fabulous beach where we picnicked while balancing our behinds on little wobbly rocks and watched the waves crash against the rocks.. just when you think it can't get any better, right?..

.. and then it DOES! like bay to breakers and pure mayhem along with 60,000 other completely fabulous morons, just like me and cesar here..

here's a view of the golden gate bridge from near the wave organ, out beyond the marina green..

here's a shot of my dude, my city, and my new scooter!!..

as belinda carlile says, ooooo heaven is a place on earth!

here's me, covi, fanny, and cesar drumming in this big drum tent at carnival last weekend. we were very accomplished drummers as far as we were concerned..

and last but not least, by any stretch of the imagination, we took a trip to the san francisco national cemetery in the presidio on monday, memorial day. have you ever been? it's magnificent, breathtaking, really really powerful. and strange as all get out. totally un-capturable on film. you must go..

everybody's got it different, right? like the cats underground in the photo above. fighting and sacrificing and hero-ing.. then there's my friend, fritts.. he's so lucky to be alive, by the skin of his teeth he's here still with us, thankful as fuck he cheated death and grateful therefore for every breath he takes, able to enjoy life to the fullest having knocked on death's door, right, fritts? then there's folks who are haunted, and that's every bit as valid as any other life on earth or 6 feet under, because haunting happens.. we don't know why, but we try to have compassion and strength. lots of love to all of us - beyond the grave, thinkin' bout it, fighting it, accepting it.. we're all in it together. lots and lots of love. and hugs.

barely boring

well, sheeit, i ain't posted in a coon's age, now, have i? not too many photos lately - oh but my little camera for which much love has been lost by it's dissolusioned owner could partially be the reason.. i just haven't been inspired. goddamit i need a new camera! but i also equally if not more so am dying for an equally pricey scooter or motorcycle, plus a road bicycle, you know, a speedy one with skinny tires with which to zoom over bridges and up/down and around bay area mountains. i cannot decide so i am not buying anything. gawd, i want THIS motorcycle like nobody's business..

i can't help but continue window shopping, though. it doesn't help that i have zero time to even go check out this thing or anything in person. actually it's good cuz i save money and my granny who makes rugs out of bread bags and washes plasticware for reuse would be proud.

so anyway i've only taken a few photos over the last couple weeks. here's jerra at the kickball game 2 sundays ago,

which, by the way, was a total hoot if you count the easter egg hunt for plastic eggs filled with totally unmentionable adult things. i've never seen such enthusiastic egg hunters.

here's felipe dancing with himself at club booty last saturday..

and our favorite bartender, chuey, from the same night..

of COURSE a lot more happened between the last post and now besides kickball kings covering cajones and bareley-clad late night revelling.. like 40 bazillion hours of work that was just far too fabulous to catch on film, i mean my camera card, plus lots of gorgeous jogs along the water, bike rides to the beach, backyard birthday parties with beautiful babies and beer, and of course, the continuous belt buckle bonanza that makes up the better part of brown's booty biz brio. and lots of besos. aw no you di'int! that's right, i've heard it before, brown gets blog-boring because of boys. well, i agree, at least as far the naked bloggy eye can see..

brandi carlile

yesterday i get a last minute invitation to go see a belinda carlyle show. woo hoo, i think, i love the 80's! well, i get to the great american music hall and it was not our beloved we got the beat queen but BRANDI carlile, someone who i had never heard but hey, what the hell. lo and behold this 25 yr. old chanteuse blew me OUT the door with her utter brilliance and soul..

she even made me cry on her last encore song which happened to be a cover of one of my favorite tunes, leonard cohen's halleluja. FUCK she was so great. only two other singers have made me cry and that was our local noelle hampton (but maybe i was drunk) and then the great patti griffin (both of those at the fillmore, so at least now i know it's not the venue). oy. speaking of patti, this brandi was like a mix between our dear patti griffin, the indigo girls, kt tunstall & melissa etheridge. i had to cringe when she had the little out-of-breath smoker rasp flavors of ms. etheridge as i really don't like her, but since brandi is only 25, maybe she'll have the good sense to continue more in the direction of pretty patti and leave the raspy etheridge stuff behind. if she does, i can see an incredibly bright future for this girl. oh my but she is so hugely TALENTED! it's nice to be entertained and not intimidated, too, critical as we musicians can be. nice big AHHH for you, brandi, thanks for the inspiration and touching my heartstrings. live, at least. don't know what her recorded stuff sounds like, but it must be decent as she recorded her latest album with none other than t bone burnett!

crash only

phil and i participated in the san francisco critical mass on friday evening. you know, the last friday of every month at around 6pm when an insane number of bicyclists congregate at justin herman plaza & ride, along with police escorts, through the city completely blocking traffic, hooting and hollering, some with sound systems pumping loud dance tunes, some dressed in costumes, some still in their work clothes, all smiling and responding to the honking-in-support blocked cars as well as the unsupportive honking ones? it's a spectacle and has been going on forever and takes place worldwide in lots and lots of cities. yes, saving the planet one pedal revolution at a time. i liked hearing a snippet of an interchange between one not-so-happy driver and a cyclist.. the cyclist was saying "hey, man, just think if we were all in cars!". makes sense.. that guy would still be stuck in traffic either way and more people would be dead from road rage. and less people would be so physically fit and happy. and much much more. critical mass has a pretty fucking good statement to make, for sure.

a load of cars were honking at the intersection of guerrero and cesar chavez as we rode by, all bazillion bikers.. those cars must have had to wait forever.. that's when phil yelled "have your baby in the car!". probably didn't help with the general biker vs. driver ongoing rift but made me almost crash laughing.

here we are riding along san jose avenue where we nearly crashed taking self portraits..

the route is always improvisational and this time we almost got on the highway!..

during the ride i did drop my now-ancient camera in the middle of mission street near silver avenue, actually. at least FOUR cars rode over it and not one wheel even touched it. phil heroicly rescued it finally and lo and behold, nary a scratch could be found on the damn thing.. even the duct tape was still in place holding the battery compartment together! when i watched all those cars drive over it, i was secretly kind of hoping one would crush it because i have been so frugal about getting a new camera that this would be the only way outside of being a victim of theft that i think i'll purchase a new one. i guess since going through this potentially tragic time together, though, we are more bonded. me and the camera. or at least that will provide me with an excuse for a good long time to come for STILL not getting a better camera.

there was one guy dressed up like jesus and toting his cross under one arm while he steered his bike with the opposite hand. i think that was in early celebration of easter. speaking of which, this sunday, april 8th, is the kickball kickoff game of the season! it's jesus' versus the bunnies. i'm not joking. barring any unforseen circumstances prohibiting my attendance, i will be there all bunnified and DEFinitely toting my little duct tape camera. oh, i am really really REALLY looking forward to that ;-)

booty boys

we had a nice belt buckle photo shoot this weekend, care of the fabulous ruby! here's the insanely gorgeous derrick...

super sexy felipe..

and lucky me inbetween the two most spectular buckle models of all times..

i'm beside myself with happiness over the fruits of our labors. we'll soon incorporate lovely shots from our shoot into booty marketing mayhem..