Prospero Ano 2008!

Taken en route to San Juan, PUERTO RICO!

Happy Holidays

Random

The Laugh-In at the Baker Beach Bonfire

Also known as National Ninja Day, the First Annual San Francisco Laughin AND GR's big 40th Birthday which they let him out of the hospital early just to make his own bash at Baker Beach.... ahhhh shucks! Thanks again to all y'all.

In 24 Hours Earlier this Month

The Warm Narcotic American Night

Way to much has happened in the not so distant past to catch up on this here blog, the most significant being that I spent the lion's share of my 40th birthday, December 5 - which happens to be National Ninja Day - at Highland Hospital in Oakland while the doctors figured out how to fix my broken funny bone. This was countered by the First Annual San Francisco Laugh-In which was held in conjunction with my birthday bash bon fire at Ocean Beach - a big HAHA LOL to all of you beautifully courageous supporters in attendance - y'all are the real superstars!

pics, videos and more words to come so stay tuned... might have to wait till after surgery on Monday... typing with one hand is LAME!!

Mans Best Friend

Outer San Francisco with MT and Tutuli

The Ultimate Rejection

Making my calls in order to drum up sales - that's what us sales professionals do. Called a woman from a theatre organization in San Francisco yesterday and she cut straight to the chase asking me:

Her: "Are you selling advertising?"

Me: "Absolutely"

Her: "Well, we're definitely not interested"

Me: "What if I could show you how cost-effective it really is and..."

Her: "Not even if you're giving us money and a Panda"

Me: "OK... Thanks for your time and take care."

(Alt Me: "How 'bout a drink of water and a moist TOWELETTE!")

People Sleeping Outside - UC Berkeley

Walking down Bancroft in Berkeley finishing up my third week in the trenches in the war on personal poverty - working it real hard in the real word. I passed this guy thinking 'take a picture' which I would normally do. Doubling back, I was conscious of not being constantly armed with my camera anymore and missing all these great shots every day. To see San Francisco from foreign eyes for the first time. Fantastic. To see people sleeping in the street is not.

Street - San Francisco's Mission District

Cal Santos' BIG Night Out in the Dub C

Tales from the Burbs

Lafayette, CA - An affluent suburban community like many others throughout the United States.
It's really home away from home but where is home really - where I was born, different places where I grew up, the city where I've lived the most or the place that calls out louder than all others? Or, the place where I'm staying right now thanks to my new roommates Deborah and Shea and calling home? It's good to be back in the San Francisco Bay Area with my extended community of friends, which more than any other place, now feels like home.

- Where did all of my free time go? Working full-time for someone else - Mon-Fri for more than 8 hours a day - is something I'm not accustomed to and now that the newness has worn off the harsh reality is slowly sinking in.
- It's amazing at how quickly South America suddenly seems so far away again.
- I missed summer, leaving Argentina at the end of a cold winter and then travelling for a month in torrential rains in Costa Rica and now returning to a beautiful and mild California fall, transitioning slowly back into winter.
- Ever notice that there is no term in English for people from the United States or US citizens? Like if you're from England you're English or if you're from Argentina you're Argentine. We just say "I'm American," which simply means I'm from the American continent or I'm North American, from the north part of the American continent. In Spanish, we call ourselves 'Estado Unidense' which literally means a US Citizen. But when out of the country and asked where I'm from, I just say California, never the United States. It's good to be Californian.
- People watch a lot of TV, everywhere in the world. But most of that TV comes from California
- I saw an unruly BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) passenger attack two other passengers. Just as the moment of truth had arrived and I was getting up to enact all of my Mixed Martial Arts training the attacker fell back into his alcohol induced stupor and I called the incident into the train operator. After assisting the local police in ID'ing the suspect and making the arrest I walked home in the dark crisp cool air reflecting on the potentially serious incident.

Reality TV

"It's the primary America we're in... There's this primary America of freeways and jet flights and TV and movie spectaculars. And people caught up in this primary America seem to go through huge portions of their lives without much consciousness of what's immediately around them. The media have convinced them that what's right around them is unimportant. And that's why they're lonely. You see it in their faces. First the little flicker of seraching and then when they look at you, you're just a kind of object. You don't count. You're not what they're looking for. You're not on TV." from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig

Cultural Commentary from the Entertainment Capitol of the World

'Slow Ride, Take It Easy'- Los Angeles, CA

As I still reel from creeping culture shock over these past three weeks since returning to my native Southern California, I'm amazed at how easy it is to revel in first world culture.

Southern California is on FIRE - literally! Currently there are about twenty-something fires out of control throughout the southland. I flip on the tube and the news flash says 'Breaking News - Lake Piru'. That's where I went to elementary school with Dave McCutcheon - Piru elementary. They are saying there's no current danger to the condor preserve behind the lake where they used to shoot the Dukes of Hazards and that Magic Mountain to the east is safe, reporting from News Chopper 2. I could go on and on about the southland fires but the media is doing such a good job there's really no need. I can say that over the course of the entire day the sky was blanketed in this smokey orange-filtered haze that changed the color temperature of the light dramatically. This is a once every-other-year type of natural disaster with the hot easterly Santa Ana winds, something that we SoCal natives are used to.

What's up with 'Cavemen' - the new comedy on ABC? I mean the Geico commercials were funny and the premiere episode a few weeks ago was... mildly entertaining, even borderline clever at times - "Eagle! And I just got this yesterday!!" says Andy, in reference to his Nintendo Wii golf game - but WTF?! I guess it has something to do with discrimination... the cavemen just want to be seen as regular people? But they're not regular people, they're cavemen! They just want to be treated like regular people. "Hope you like the smell of RUBBER!" was the best line so far in tonight's episode.

Even though the fires have tragically forced hundreds of thousands of residents and movie stars from their homes, it still makes for good TV entertainment news. Here in LA its hard to tell what's news anymore. "See John Travolta fly over the fires..."

Other current TV shows I've caught up with since I've been home: Dancing with the Stars, David Letterman (rerun with Jude Law hopped up on blow, Sara Silverman and John Fogerty), Carpoolers (on now), The Daily Show, The Colbert Report (the one where he announced that he was thinking of announcing whether or not he will run for the Presidency), CSI-Miami, a bit of South Park and... a whole bunch more that I don't have the time or energy to write about. [There was more to this brilliant social commentary but I came back to reformat this post and it went bye bye - oh well]

Did I mention that LA was on fire?!

Bathroom Sink - Los Angeles, CA

Cheesy Beef Melt... YUCK!

Thank God its Drive Thru and you don't have to be seen ordering this in person!