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November 01, 2005
it's difficult, although i don't know why
it's been really difficult to get back into bloggin mode after a couple of weeks off...now i understand why i can be reading a blog that's going along rather nicely, then there's like a 3-4 week "interruption", and then things are back to "normal". i can totally undestand how that happens now! i'm having that problem. at first i was blaming IPHOTO, but now i understand that everything in that fkn program is organized according to date, and that you avoid importing duplicate picts via some pop-up window, and really the only thing i can blame for not sharing the trip picts is myself. i seem to be having great difficulty forcing myself to work at the computer when i could be knitting and making myself a new bag for the upcoming year. however, i don't have any of those picts today. today i have picts of the weekend, in which i'm including halloween(cuz i'm on vacation, and it's my blog, and i can just go wit it like that...).
so; last friday adam was playing out solo for the first time. it was at the sf ccac building(at least that's where i think i was) in conjunction with an art show. nathalie and i rode our bikes. now i know the weather wasn't the most clement, but it was invigorating to ride in. i haven't really ridden my bike in about a year, and it was good to be on it. my bike (i'm actually on my second or third bike by now) has been my main source of transportation since the spring of 1990. there have always been times when i've been really into walking places, and i don't ride the bike everywhere, but i realized this is the longest time i've gone without riding it at least once a week in the past 15 years. falling down those stairs really threw a wrench in the works in so many ways....THE POINT BEING that i will most certainly not go too long again without riding my bike. it was so much fun!!!! especially cuz my "new" bike (which i've had for about 8 years at this point; thank-you peter verdone!) is a small frame for someone just my size=lotsa control! oh, wait, yeah...we went to see ADAM!
despite some initial anxiety on my part, i had a really fun evening, and enjoyed talking with a buncha folks. i also really, really enjoyed listening to adam play out. his own music is kinda quiet and thoughtful, and i think it can be difficult to capture people's attention with something like that...whereas listening at home is a wonderful etherial kinda experience....
saturday i spent the day running errands and knitting. in the evening i went to a party at travis and eva's house. i didn't take very good blog picts though...i'm just not in the swing of things digitally yet...
i did take this pict of my pre-party libation. i made this cranberry drink from a mag recipe, and it makes a seriously rad drink mixer!!! i brought that bottle in the picture as a gift. i put a little on the side for myself (gotta take a test run or 2!), but it wasn't a very pretty bottle; an old plastic water bottle thing.
i had a great time at the party, which may be why i have little to no pictures of the event or it's participants. i know i didn't get picts of lisa and isaac(which i thought of after getting dropped off), but i coulda sworn i had one of travis as shaggy. i just know it's not on my camera now. travis had the best huge hair!!!! i did get this picture of eva of wonderland
and of the decorations (the skeletons as represented by the green blobs in this pict, were making me crazy cuz they were flicking on and off at a very fast pace)....
and, of course, pictures of food
on sunday i went to the very halloweenie matinee ofTHE CORPSE BRIDE
at first i was a bit frightened b/c there were so many kids in the theater. however, everyone was well behaved and/or engrossed in the movie. it was a sweet film, with a great soundtrack(much debate among the mcgordroys about this) and an aesthetic that i found myself absorbed by for so many reasons. i mean the characters, in a similar manner to NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, have that stop motion look of my childhood favorites(which all happen to be christmas shows) like RUDOLF THE RED NOSED RAINDEER, SANTA CLAUS IS COMIN' TO TOWN, NESTOR THE LONG EAR'D DONKEY, and that one with the heat miser.... plus the way color was used reminded me of THE COOK, THE THEIF, HIS WIFE, AND HER LOVER... not to mention that whole victorian/goth thing just really appeals to my new england sensibility....(ok, take a look at the library i went to as a kid, as just one small example of what i'm talking about with that last statement...
there's a lot of this type of archetecture in northampton, along with other types, of course, but the existence of these buildings, amongst other things, had an affect on the evolution of my sense of aesthetic)
i went to the film with neil, and then we spent the rest of the day running errands together. when i got home, i did some more obsessive knitting, watched the simpsons, and then went to bed.
on halloween i made most of a new bag (which i'll show picts of soon;yup-yup picts of the creative stuff are coming soon!), and baked some amazing cherry almond cookies, along with some MORE knitting, all while watching a harry potter marathon. i went to the castro THING with lygia and sean in the evening. we had a drink at lygia's house before we went out. i had lygia take this pict of sean and i because i'd seen a bunch of this type when i was back east looking at childhood photos.
so, it was a good thing i had that drink at lygia's. i thought i'd be able to take some pictures of the amazing costumes i'd seen while walking around. NOPE. it was a friggin MADHOUSE!!! i don't know why i don't remember from year to year how out of hand it's gotten there. basically market was shut down from either church or sanchez(we came up noe, so i'm not sure which it was; i'm assuming sanchez) to collingwood, and another two blocks on either side of each of the cross streets(that includes at least sanchez, noe, hartford, and castro streets for you non-san francisco folks; yup, 16 blocks). it seems like halloween has become san francisco's mardi gras. i ran into at least 2 other penguins, but i couldn't get out the camera fast enough, and i couldn't keep the camera out for fear of dropping it when swept up in human tidal waves. crossing into market street from the end of noe(where there were screens and a "dance area" was set up) was one of the most intense experiences i've ever had in my life. i was literally part of a human ocean. i had very little ability to do anything, but float and try to find a "current" that was going in the general direction i wanted to go in. eventually it thinned out a bit, and there were enough gaps in the crowd that navigation was at least attemptable. here's a picture of me on castro street, on the north side looking down the hill at the mileay...
my very first halloween we went to this event, and it took up about 4 blocks; it was primarily on castro (with IMPROMTU bands playing, i might add), starting at castro to 19th, and then collingwood to hartford on either side. this thing is friggin' huge. we almost got caught up in this "parade" that may have been paddywagonned, knowwhatumsayin?
at the time i wanted to join in, but sean and lygia said "no". now i'm glad i listened to them.
ok. this is officially a book with an abrupt end. coming soon; photos of the newly re-opened de young museum!
Posted by Meagen at November 1, 2005 07:45 AM
Comments
raindeer, like rainman, knowwhatumsayin?
Posted by: meagen at November 1, 2005 09:41 AM