Echo Park Sunday

Warm Sunday evening, lovely in fact!  When I close my eyes (during gaps in the noise from the traffic) I can imagine I am actually on an island somewhere, corona and lime in hand (that part’s true), breeze blowing through my hair (no mind it’s the oscillating fan), and the sound of waves washing up on the shore (I’ve stuck my feet in a bowl of water for verisimilitude).  I’ve been thinking of redoing the bedroom floor in sand, will save on cleaning I’m thinking.  Boleros playing, and I’m in Mexico more or less, hoping someone will walk up to me and try to sell me a grilled fish wrapped in tinfoil, I could do with one of those!  Would go quite well with my beer.

But no, I’m still in LA.  Still, it’s a nice place sometimes.  Walked down to the lotus festival this afternoon…some fine wheatpasting on the way, don’t know what it means but that only adds an air of delicious mystery to it all…Besides, mass distraction cannot be good, I’m quite against it!

And the lotuses on the lake!  Lovely, and got a photo I’m rather proud of…

And then off to Patra’s for pastrami sandwiches, almost as good as freshly caught and grilled fish on a Mexican beach!  The best part is the classy atmosphere, I mean, just look at the tablecloth!

Really, words do not exist to describe it.  Do they?  No, don’t think they do. Who would believe without the picture!  I asked where they had found such an amazingly beautiful pattern, thought it would look quite nice in my own kitchen, but sadly the workers didn’t know, though they did promise to ask the owner for me.

And Italy wins the cup!  Only four more years until the next one!

Golf hits an all time low

It has, it really has.  Three sad and simple words sum up the depths to which this noble pastime has fallen, they are the…hurts to say it…Cialis Western Open.  How much did the makers of cialis pay for that?  A lot.  Must have been a hell of a lot.  Shall golf be irremediably connected to erectile dysfunction?

On a lighter note it appears from the latest zoloft commercial that anti-depressant pills actually increase suicidal tendencies in kids under the age of 18.  Think it’s about time we flushed the lot of those pills down the toilet.

On a still lighter note Italy!  Que belleza!  Que emocion!  In the words of Univision commentator, “he lifted up his humanity and proved that man CAN fly!”  And that was just the first goal!  And there are fireworks tonight!  I love fireworks!  Exclamation marks of light against the darkness, and you can tell how much I love exclamation marks!

Canta y no Llores

Mexico lindo….so close!  Saturday evening and I should be at the beach…but Davin is still sick, our host Dawn is now sick…so here we are. I think we’re going to catch a movie, I don’t really care since I am still deeply depressed though sadly no longer intoxicated.  Too depressed to be funny at all. If I weren’t on a trip which always makes me think more than usual I wouldn’t even write.

Had a lazy day otherwise, everyone being sick…I have some photos to put up but am feeling supremely unmotivated. Last night there were a couple of coyotes living it up outside, I woke up and thought for a marvelous second I was home in Arizona and little and in the desert, but no, I knew I was in Vancouver when the 55 pound german bohemoth named Oz landed on top of me and started barking out the window.  Am very tired!

Last World Cup Game in Vancouver

my mourning period for Mexico is still not quite over, but I am feeling much better certainly!  We went to an English spot this morning to catch the game as did over a hundred other fans and therefore I did not care a bit that England is still playing like shit, though Ecuador played much worse…that shot by Beckham was incredible, and besides, I was regaling myself with bacon and eggs while singing God Save the Queen and something else quite catchy but seeming to have lots of syllables and no words and crashing my coffee cup down on the counter while chanting and clapping and jumping up and down the whole time.  And the match this afternoon, for pure drama it was brilliant!  I do love a good fight or two, means the teams have heart que no?  I was hoping for ot, but the damned dutch just couldn’t seem to find the net…still, England should be moving ahead nicely given all the red cards…and Figo’s probably out as well.  It was a noble head butt though, what possessed the man?

One observation…when Italy won earlier this week the Italians poured out of Cafe Roma en masse to celebrate in the streets.  And today when portugal won the Portuguese poured out of the Portuguese Club of Vancouver (of which i became an honorary associate member today) and shut down the street – even more of them present, it looked like a parade!  When the English won, they sang, jumped up and down, waved their arms around, but did they leave the bar?  No…they ordered another round.  I imagine many of them were planning a day of it.  I shall leave the deductions to you!

Mexico hurts my soul

Terrible day!  Mexico, god!  I swear Marquez was possessed by evil spirits!  He needs a limpia (traditional and ritual Mexican cleansing for the uninitiated), and I for one, would be more than happy to break eggs over his head and whip him with bunches of ruda (rue), though he’s not worth sacrificing a chicken for.

Davin is sick so I wandered the conference alone most of the day…I mustered up the courage to walk up to and talk to my first complete stranger however!  Davin has been doing the heavy lifting in that department because he actually likes talking to strangers, but I actually approached the swedish head of the international tenant union and engaged him in engaging conversation and it went over well, with me being half invited to a swedish reception later in the afternoon celebrating the returning of a stolen indigenous totem pole…the greatest threat to affable swedish-canadian relations for the past 10 years apparently! I didn’t go.  I almost repeated the experiment, high on my first success, with a guy on the street who looked exactly like Clark Kent, but proceeded to trip over a crack in the sidewalk and so quickly changed my mind.

So I also wandered downtown, here are some truly touristy photos but with artisitic merit I think though I might be delusional.

The above is from the financial district, as is the fountain below:

and the waterfront is lovely…ther are sea planes!  How cool are they?  I want to fly one…

And from the walk back in search of food…

And this very cool graffiti, I’m impressed, i though LA had a corner on the street art department…

Blame Canada!

Blame Canada!

What a day!!  Ghana wins??  The US and Italy tie with 9 and 10 men on the field??  I LOVE upsets and commotion…

So I’m off to Canada – Vancouver to be exact, that city that I have heard is full of hippies and where the gentle herb wafts through the streets – what San Fran used to be before the hippies became hipsters, the revolution was commercialized, and coffee started selling for 3 dollars and up.  Going to be the summer solstice as well, so I’m hopeful there will be plenty of madness and multiple drum circles…might find time to drift in and out of the World Urban Forum which is the real reason I’m there, but between the world cup and people watching and the clothing optional beach I’m not sure quite how much I’ll have to report on that front!

Since I think packing light is cool and am unorganized therefore pack at the last minute, I am sure to be missing some key items, I wonder what they will be?

Fuck it dude, let’s go bowling

Ah fuck it, Dude, let’s go bowling
Current mood: tired

That’s what I felt like doing at nine this evening when I was still in a meeting at work, if the Dude had been there he would have agreed.  People are talkers man, I’m not.  In discussions I make short comments right to the point when needed, and humorous comments wherever possible, and if there’s too much of nothing being said it makes me crazy.  I do write a lot, I admit, but you can just stop reading and not insult me, rather than having to wait for that deep breath long enough to edge a word in.  Some people never seem to breathe, it’s astonishing how long they can go for without coming up for air and giving you a shot at escape.

But back to bowling, I did go bowling this saturday. It is a thing I do once a year to raise money for my amazing non-profit organization, and I love it when I go, though I am truly terrible.  I was even playing in the bumper lane having a six year old on my team…she beat me needless to say, though she could hardly pick up the ball, and sent it spinning down the lane with the force of a whisper.  Still, I looked in perfect form!

Jose Esquivel took this picture and it’s awesome.  I’m keeping it for later when I’m telling lies in my old age…Look at the ball!  And the classic kitchy bowling alley!  And i’m just about to do that little kick to finish it off with flare, you can tell.

Favorite commentator quote of the day – “Ah, the Polish beauty!  Smile my love, the match is starting…Thank you!

Pull it together boys!

England!  Christ!  They look like shit!!  They’re like my TV when it goes all wavy and wobbly and a bit off…they just need a good smack to set em right.  Except for Terry, I could’ve kissed him.

Crouch has been nicknamed Mr. Roboto by the Spanish press.  That and Yorke squirting water down his shorts after the small accident are keeping me from breaking things.

oooh…Rooney’s on!

Goal!!  Mr. Roboto, I have almost forgiven you!  Goal! England finally looking like they’re playing in the world cup!  Goal!  But no…We win!  Trinidad and Tobago I salute you!

Sex, popsicles, and copa mundial!

So first, there is nothing better than a popsicle de limon after a bike ride on a hot day…the best part is they turn your tongue green, there are certainly not enough foods in this world can do that

Just look how happy it made my mouth.  I tried cropping this so it was just my mouth – a nod to the Stones you know – but as a close up it was just gross.  Lime fresh and nicely chilled, though, for those who’d like to kiss me.  Sadly, I do not have the lips of Mick Jagger, but I do think mine are just as nice in their own special way.

Second, Copa Mundial!  What a day!!  Even though I had picked Japan to win and they made me mad as hell, those three Aussie goals did make my day adrenalintastic, the Czechs looked good – except I wish they could try a little harder NOT to be be offsides all the damn time – and Koller!  I’m sacrificing a goat and a bottle of the best rum for you, get better!  I survived working right through the third match which I will watch later this evening with immense pleasure.  It is suddenly a joy to wake at 5:45 am…but will this month permanently change my internal clock?  I woke up this morning before the alarm – a minor miracle!  If I suddenly become a “morning” person, will I still be the same me?  What an existential dilemma!  Stay tuned for developments.

Lastly, I took a little trip through my junk mail folder this afternoon to make sure there was nothing in there I wanted and wow!  There seems to be a lot of demand for magic pills that make you skinnier, and therefore get more sex…and I guess if they don’t work, you have to go for the magic pills that give you amazing and frighteningly long-lasting sex, and to ensure you are having sex you invest in the multiple dating services for BIG dates.  If you don’t need sex, or alternatively need a little additional guilt over sex, you can join the Christian dating service (and christians, I’m joking! I know we really just need to have sex to procreate, don’t worry!).  If none of these are your style, you are invited to watch other people having sex.  As a last resort, there seem to be a large number of people in foreign countries desparately seeking Americans to enter into complicated cash transactions which will make you rich (they have clearly picked up on the fact that we are not the brightest people on the planet), and then you can buy sex.  We seem to be a trifle single minded as a nation…glad to know I’m not alone!!

Opening Ceremonies

Opening Ceremonies

I want to be in Munich!! This is possibly the craziest thing I have ever seen…woke groggily up in the middle i think – helps keep it surreal which I can only suppose was the effect aimed for, also the only station showing the uninterrupted version is entirely in Korean so I have no idea really what the fuck’s going on except what I can see and that makes no sense…so many men with leiderhosen!! Not that I mind a man in socks up to the knee and leather shorts!  And were they cracking whips – what were those things?  And those boxy metal things they were hitting on their knees later on?  It looked like they were…well, you know, I know you thought it too…And the crazed models…why is everyone wearing such crazy things on their head…And wait a minute, that’s not grass!!  It’s plastic and there it goes and…red grass?  Oh, not grass either.  Breakdancers!  Wow!  Now they’re showing over and over some contraption with flowers and with what looks like some kind of effigy hanging by the neck…And the women brought out like wedding cakes – they’re STILL hanging somehow above the crowd.  Good thing they kept the speeches short…ahh, the leiderhosen are back!  Ooh, and flags!  Ooh, and inspirational music in English!  I’m clebrating the day!  Nice to see Pele again!

How am i supposed to go to work, and when will i find time to shower??

My heart is breaking…I WANT TO BE THERE

I went in to work early this morning…have been wasting a lot of time at work and been generally unmotivated – results inevitable but not pretty.  Sadly I forgot my keys and my coworkers arrived in their own sweet time damn them.  I thought about going in front and watching the action in front of the methadone clinic but I decided I loved life too much for that, so I spent some time sat out in back, playing with the digital camera and resting my feet like so…

I like my feet, though faulty genes gave me joints that are going to need some work later in life – see how my big toes scrunch inwards?  That’s no good…still, they enjoyed the downtime.  I actually got a nap in this afternoon as well, when 6 of us piled into Bobby’s old bronco to head to a meeting and I got to lie down in the back, it was just like old times!  The world looks entirely fantastically different when lying flat on your back (keep it clean children!), downtown is much more impressive when staring up. All I needed to complete the day were some cookies and a nice glass of milk after my nap, sadly, adults don’t seem to be appreciated as much as five year olds.  Nor can they climb trees or fly kites without some comment.  So i’m going to ask God, or the Devil, if they could reverse time in my case and send me backwards, as soon as the world cup is over!  As it is, can hardly wait for tomorrow!