sweeks

this weekend was pretty good times, got out to the Marin Headlands open studios, where there was a range of skills to check out. There was a fair amount of "Artist Stroking Self" style work, and by the end of the day I saw some work that was worth the look. The vibe was true blue Nor-Cal which I always appreciate, and of course the afternoon wrapped out with a distinctly SoCal snack (double double animal style) over at In & Out Burger. It's a strange phenomenon how people are drawn to the In & Out. It's not like their burgers are the BEST or, that the service is overwhelming, or that the costumes are super sexy, but there's something uniquely californian about them, that makes people just want to go there. Myself? I like a medium to medium rare burger, and I like it with swiss cheese, avocados, lettuce, tomato and pickle. I like ketchup, mayo, and mustard on there. I like raw or cooked onions, but typically i'll rock a no-onion burger. You aren't going to get swiss cheese, avocado, OR mushrooms at In & Out, so for me, it's not like the hand of God reaching down from the heavens and rubbing my belly, but sure. I appreciate a little IO.

One picture you may not have noticed on the line up was this picture of a car bumper with that hipster trucker chick, except it ain't a chick, it's a fat dude with a trucker's cap on. Well, aside from the fact that I think the sticker is funny, and subversive in a way that makes me laugh on the inside, is the number on the plate. I don't know what the prefix numbers were, but the last three, 957, those took me back to grade school. 5th grade. I had Miss Davis for my homeroom teacher. Good ol' June Davis. She was one of those sort of "bombshell" teachers you want to have when you're in 5th grade. You know the kind, blonde hair, blue eyes, the naughty suzy cream cheese style. Always wore the "nice" clothes, and drove a little sports car. Her license plate was JD 957. And the rumor was, (and i would suspect still IS) that she was having this on going affair with Mr. Brendle, the school principle. I had heard about it numerous times by 4th grade, and there were several times when I was in her class that it seemed the rumors could be true. Thing is, about 2 or 3 years back, i heard she was still teaching there, and I heard that she was still hot to trot over Mr. Brendle. Common sense would dictate that this is no longer possible. I mean, surely, if every single kid in every single class, counting forward from 1978 or so forward, was in on it, then SURELY someone would have found them out by now. Of course, there's always the story of "so and so, such and such's brother" who walked in on them in "the broom closet" or "the nurse's office" or "the teacher's lounge" 69'ing it on the couch, or table, or mop bucket. Anyway, I saw that license plate next to that sticker, and it just made me think of her. I never saw her when i was all grown up, but I wonder if i would think now what i thought then. I'm guessing I wouldn't. But I thought i'd share that little bit with you. I can't say as i've thought about her, and that ol' plate JD 957, in at least 15 or maybe 20 years, and there it is, walking down the sidewalk, i glimpse a small piece of the equation and i'm immediately back there. Remembering sitting in that class, and the local lunatic, Joey Connelly, (remember, these were the days when a good beating was the equivalent to a presription for ritalin) man that kid Joey Connelly. Always up to no good. Always in the principle's office getting sent home for another beating from his drunk ass postal workin' dad. Ha. And never for anything worth getting beat for of course. You know, trying to make pencils stick into the ceiling, or using those elastic band / paper clip hand guns that were so popular in the early 80s. (I imagine those are still popular, but most kids are on the pills now, so they tend to be nice to each other, or just bring real guns to class)

Lately i've been trying to use the D200 a little more for my pix, but it has a habit of stepping on my toes and not doing what i want when I want, which yields on marginal results, and therefore earns it's position IN the backpack instead of IN the hand, but one day i'm going to just sit down or walk around with it and just nail it. Somehow it doesn't make exposures in a way that is "expected" and no, I don't need a tutorial... It just needs to do what i say when i say it, and do so with results that are more befitting a camera that costs 5 or 6 times what the little A640 can do.

Something else has been standing on my toes a little, and that's the Photoshop CS3 Beta. I decided to just uninstall it today. It's been a fun little run, but the beta is simply too buggy, and too restrictive for regular use. I found that I was spending more time coming up with work-arounds than actually doing what i wanted to do, so i'm back to regular old CS2 and things are working smoothly and just as fast as ever, so I don't think i'm going to miss CS3, though I would love to have the full version when it suits my budget.

Anyway, the pix from today's post will give you another sense of how it is over here. It's not much like the city on the other side of the mississippi, but you know, I think this just suits me better. Sure, i wish a chunk of my friends from that side of the country were already over here too, but you can't have everything, and so far i'm liking what i have. Tell me if you can see George Washington's profile in the shadow on the bay alongside one of those pictures by the cliffs. I see it every time, and it makes me think of the good ol' american quarter.

Good Times

dTown | listening to Iron & Wine | 60˚ and sunny