BACK TO:

[Journal Menu]

[Home Page]

[email]

[100 Books]

[Other Sites]



Here In Oakland

Art & Life


   


Under here.

June 8, 2012

Something Like That
Friday. Another early to bed, arise in the morning with the alarm day without awakening in the middle of the night (I don't think), so we should be well rested unless Wednesday and yesterday's drag ass nap extravaganza has something more in store. Pretty exciting stuff if it wasn't for the form it takes.

To breakfast and back on what is another nice morning, a Friday, a weekend ahead. Opportunities for photographs, I'll have to check the calendar. Nothing like the Gay Pride parade coming up next weekend, but still, it's the Bay Area, things of interest must be going on out there somewhere. It's written in the lease.

Yesterday was indeed, as I so leadenly described, a tired, worn out, less than alive all the day long affair, we'll see how it develops today. I won't say “starts out” as I think a nap is in order at the moment. We're concerned, but we won't make any judgments quite yet.

Later. An hour's nap, yes indeed, setting out afterward only to watch the bus pull away as I rounded the corner at the bottom of my hill. OK, I knew the time was tight from checking the nextbus app when I set out, but I wasn't all that enthusiastic about another trip downtown or I would have run that last twenty yards before it left, so I crossed the street instead to sit by the lake and watch the people threading their way through the geese as they were passing me by. My, my. More than a few geese feeding off the grass, tolerating the people well enough, but only moving out of their way when pressed.

Thirty minutes of this and the next bus was due to arrive, so back to the stop to take the bus downtown for a strawberries and sour cream crepe out at a table in the City Center. Believe me, I tried to think of something else. I was hungry, but nothing came to mind, not even ice cream could make a difference. I still find this rather strange, a totally new experience, no problem finding things I wanted to eat in the past.

Not experiencing the burned out, tired, not able to sleep of yesterday though, just a complete lack of enthusiasm for all things Oakland, which can be a problem when you're living in Oakland. A walk up Telegraph before a dogleg to Broadway and the turn on Grand to sit at the Webster stop, the nextbus app saying the bus due in ten (long) minutes, voices shouting somewhere in the distance.

Shouting? A high school nearby, celebrating on a Friday? No. There's a high school on 27th, but that was way too far for shouts or voices to carry. A peek around the corner at Webster to notice a crowd out in front of the AT&T building carrying picket signs. CWA? Culinary Workers of America? In front of AT&T? Ah, Communication Workers of America with a bone to pick. Pictures, my friend, courtesy of the phone company.

I didn't take many and not with much enthusiasm I admit, I was still suffering the nothing in Oakland is appealing conceit - can't sleep, what to do with the afternoon - but still, I did take photographs. I was asked on two different occasions if I were taking pictures for AT&T. Nicely, but was I? No. Not AT&T, not for any of the local news outlets, but for a web site. Oh. OK.

A bus then on to the morning café (time had increased the appetite, but was still leaving it unclear as to what I'd eat) to sit outside at a table with ice cream, an apple turnover and coffee. Problem solved. The ice cream was palatable, the turnover dry but for the apples and the coffee was coffee, take your time and drink it when the temperature is not too hot.

With that, a passing bus, a walk up the hill to sit here at the computer. Maybe a short lie down to see how that might develop, some guitar later, not enough time spent yesterday for comfort, and then, well, what do we ever do during the afternoon? Some news, a mystery program of some kind at six if it's not too Italian and then, well, to bed and apply a better rested imagination to the problem tomorrow.

Later still. A brief lie down on the bed for a minute, extended itself into what became a real go to sleep two hour nap. I wonder. Crosses over from annoying to making me wonder what's really afoot. Let's see how the head pulls together over the next twenty minutes, how long it takes. Probably not a good idea to have sushi and sake later. Or is that obvious?

The news is playing in the background. It sounds more weird than it usually does (are those people really saying all that crap?), more weird in the sense it seems to be coming from outer space, aliens jabbering incomprehensibly of things that make no earthly sense. Might be a good sign, I'm somehow interpreting it without the usual main stream media filters in place or a really bad sign (interpreting it without the usual main stream media filters in place). Acid has a similar effect.

Evening. A bearable Italian police procedural, playing along with it for the hour and a half on the guitar. The riff we're doing this week is a little more complex than I realized yesterday and it will take time to get it tight. Best not to slack off.

So, sitting here doing little, the world seems to be somewhat back in place. Hard to say how it would feel if I'd been out running around or had headed down the hill for sushi. Even I knew better and prepared spaghetti with clam sauce instead. I don't do that very often, that clam sauce can sit up in the cupboard for weeks, usually when I'm more hungry than usual and I'm not willing to go out for something else. After dark. Or something like that.

This really is disjointed and difficult to read. You seem every bit as fried as you've said.

Something like that.

The photo up top was taken at the San Francisco Carnaval Parade with a Nikon D4 mounted with a 70-200mm f 2.8 Nikkor VR II lens.


LAST ENTRY | JOURNAL MENU | NEXT ENTRY