Lazy Dogs, Victory Warehouse, Tidal Wave Metal Fest

This was one of those days where you just feel antsy to clock out and get the weekend started. Don't get me wrong, I love my job...but there's definitely something to be said for cutting loose and lettin your hair down!

On this night, Andrea and I headed out to Victory Warehouse on 24th and San Pablo in Oakland to meet up with everyone and check out Sonny's roomie's band, Lazy Dogs. Love those kids. Good times.




After that show we all headed back to the house and somehow started up a spontaneous reggae dance party in Tar's room. So many different people, into totally different stuff, just dropping all inhibition and shakin what they got for a bit. Nice nitecap!!

Day 2: July 24th

Happy Saturday! Day 1 of the Tidal Wave Festival, a yearly free metal fest put on entirely by donations from fans and vendors! It's a 2 day event, of which I only got to see 1 day due to work today, but fun and full of friends, dogs, blankets and beer...the mild San Francisco summer day was absolutely perfect! The venue, The Jerry Garcia Ampitheatre was killer as well!

planning for the very near future

Last night was HSSV's Holiday Party at the Blue Pheasant. Why they picked that place is beyond me...the dishes were blah, the drinks were super overpriced, the place looked like tacky christmas pretty much....Oh well I guess when you work for a non profit you should expect those things. Besides all that, once everyone had a couple of drinks in them it did get pretty fun. Afterwards, a few of us went down the road to a divey bar with pool tables and shot a few games. Good times were had by all.

I'm looking around the area for an local tattoo artist to get to know because I have a lot of work in my head. I'm thinking of going to Adrian at Guru. I've heard good things.. Here's a sample:


I like how clean his lines are and the way he blends and fades his colors.

I'm planning on getting a Steller's Jay carrying a lantern and pocket watch...sounds odd but it will turn out...promise.


We went up to the Gestault Haus the other night again....just can't get over them liter German beers and vegan sausages!! Played pool..I lost..and Barrett actually was challenged to a game by an eccentric homeless fellow who had his own cue..pretty entertaining.



This was my downfall...


Here are some epic shots of serious plastic guitar meltdowns...
Noah and Barrett

James on drums

Shredding the gnar..you get extra points for getting loooooow...

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Coco






adopted in a matter of hours.

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I've adopted out about 15 cats and kittens on my own at this point! For the next two weeks I'm in customer service only though, probably because its gonna get crazy in adoptions.

President Bush is bold faced lying to us again. Google the latest National Intelligence Estimate and his response. Basically it says that Iran is NOT a threat and they have not had a nuclear program for YEARS. Bush is trying to claim that they are still a threat, despite this information.

We as a nation need some good luck right about now.

dark pictures and dark lives

So a week ago I drove up to the city to visit Nicole. She moved up to the Mission to live with the hipsters and Mexicans and work at being the best damn Lab Manager a girl can be. Jealous? Who, me?
KTF hopped a Bart and joined us in an excursion through the streets of the city, looking for a certain bar called The Gestalt Haus (It literally means "shape house") which is one of the apparent up-and-coming biker bars in the city. It was replete with a double decker bike rack inside the front door across from the pool table. A full bar of German Oktoberfest beer awaited us and holy god there was TWO vegan versions of German sausages. Now granted I am not one for sausages at all...but I had to try one and it was yummy. There were lots of dudes with one pant leg rolled up and dead animals on the walls too...




I went to the little girls room and found some art that looked as if it had come from Krink himself



We had a good time with our candy necklaces from the tender of bar. then it was off to the Bart and KTF and Nickel had to do their goodbyes


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A few night later Barrett and I had a date with Earthless in Oakland at like 11pm so we decided to head back to Gestalt to sample more vegan delights and liter beers

We then went across the Bay Bridge to this Gallery/Venue/Flop House to see Earthless play. We were first met by the impossible parking of Oakland city streets, driving around for a few laps before parking. Then greeted by fucking "guard" dogs. Two pit bulls guarding a car lot. I think one was pretty friendly. The other was more unsure. They were both very interested and wagging tails furiously...but as we know...that's not necessarily a happy sign, just a reaction. Such a misuse, it really made me furious. I took a couple pics, but as the night would prove to be, it was all too dark for them to show up. The inside of the "club" was odd. Art, multiple rooms, bathrooms with no tp, people dancing to old music, a small bar serving about 5 different things. Then we walked upstairs and into the wall of noise. I'm not sure how we did not hear this all from downstairs, but the venue room was damn loud. We couldn't even converse.

Earthless proved to be really good...but I was so tired we had to drive back...more for next time!

lifeblood in a glass pitcher and a guitar

WHOA I have been slacking! There's been a lot going on for sure. Here are some mandatory puppy pictures:


Bryant and Lillian



The sweetest little blue slate colored chi puppy. It was sleeping on my shoulder.

Poe likes to sit on the computer monitor and kind of "supervise" things.

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Hunter came up to visit for a couple days last week. There is little work in Temecula if you're a sane, so we're trying to get him interested in the Bay Area. We spent time in the city, hangin out in San Jose downtown and over in Santa Cruz. He and Barrett probably spent the majority of the days over at the skatepark, but hey, I hear its awesome if you're into that.
Here are some *also* mandatory Zeitgeist pics

Travel Scrabble can sometimes hurt your brain, as Hunter is so perfectly demonstrating



the walls are scuzzy, graffitti'd, comfy.



oh no...what to do, what to do?



The red truck in the corner has asked you nicely.



everyone loves the Tamale Lady.....mmm bean and potato..damn this bar is great.

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I also said I'd post a picture of this for Nicole.
"The little shot glasses look like soldiers lining up for battle....look!"

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The following day Nicole, Barrett, Hunter and I went over to Santa Cruz. We had burritos at Planet Fresh with their buddy Mike from T town. Smoked Tofu...mmmmm.
The boys went off to sip pbr and pass some certain things from the left hand side. Apparently there was a late night bike ride, some bum sightings, and a gopher/cat fight.
Nicole and I had tickets for the Matt & Kim and Against Me! show. Against me is one of her favorite bands but she had lost faith in them recently due to a botched "new music" show. They redeemed themselves.....tenfold. We were drunkenly standing on chairs and singing in no time...

Matt and Kim being happy...its what they do



they have this totally infectious energetic viral upbeat thing going on. really good.



fucking Against Me!







I will be seeing them again.
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This week was ultra hectic at work. Today I trained in adoptions. It was actually a nice change from what I'm normally seeing. Its much less raw, demanding, sad with a touch of hope, and much more interviewing, marketing, and a touch of appeasement. It creates a balance. Sometimes its nice to deal with nice people.

this bastard, however, eats kittens

three day weekends start on monday

Since I am one of the lower totems on the pole at work, my normal days off fall on Tuesday and Wednesday. This week since we're celebrating labor....I got Monday too. Lots of time to work on things around the house, read, go to shows and stuff like that.

On Sunday, Barrett, Jami and I drove over to Ben Lomond because Dead Meadow was playing a little show at this creepy place called Brookdale Lodge. It was built in 1900 and is rumored ro be one of the most haunted places in California. I don't really believe in that, but it did have this eerie feeling in its many antiquated rooms and lounges.Totally pretty though. Dead Meadow was filming a video that night and had asked everyone to come in masquerade. We didn't, but got right up close anyways.













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Yesterday, Nicole, Frank, Barrett and I went to The Counter in Santana Row, this gourmet burger place where you can make a custom burger from like a million toppings and choices. Their veggie version is vegan and made in-house....really really good, but the price is totally gouging. Normally I wouldn't be caught dead back in Santana Row, but I had to try this sandwich.
From there, we drove up to the city to go to Zeitgeist to spend our afternoon off drinking with a couple hundred friends. It was so packed.

Frank lookin desperately for a table

After a pitcher or so, we were able to sit and broke out the Travel Scrabble!

I would have felt kind of awkward, but its totally commonplace at this bar to bring your own nerdy games, its like nowhere I've been. The people on the other end of the table had brought their own Boggle, the table behind us was all wrapped up in some board game with cards, screaming at each other. We are such huge nerds but it was so much fun. After a couple games, we put it away and started playing Bullshit, a card game. We were like 4 or 5 pitchers deep, except Frank because he was driving, and were literally calling every play as BS at the top of our lungs.

It was a total mess.

around 9 or so it was burrito time and the end of the evening...good day for sure.