geronimo creamed him!
2002-07-24

sound: kennedy

synopsis of trip to LA:

�we arrived in town wednesday night, and went to sleep right away....

�on thursday, we went to the griffith observatory and looked at the vast expanse that is Los Angeles. there is a lot of that place, and most of it was obscured by smog, which was actually kind of pretty. we went to 'new images' gallery, an up-and-coming new place with really awesome stuff by ed templeton, stacy peralta, claire rohas (who will be famous very soon - her work is incredible), and many other really good artists... we did some other stuff, but i can't recall.

�friday, mikey and christina arrived in the early afternoon. preparations were made for the party that night. a keg was bought, the front space at mel and luke's place was cleared out, and all the art was installed. i did some drawings spur-of-the-moment style and put them up, too. they are really good drawings of birds, done with sharpie. i am proud of 'em. the bands set up their stuff, and the party began at around 9pm. america made fried chicken (so good!), and Johnny Rad arrived with an entourage and wearing the nicest suit i have seen in a while. people got drunk really fast. i abstained (which probably was a bad idea, read on). Johnny Rad played, with luke on bass, charlie on drums, and another boy whose name i can't remember on guitar. they had only rehearsed twice. it was rockin', though. the breaks played second, and then the movies. both bands were good, but i was not in the mood. i got really pissed off - partly because will did not show up, and also because i felt stupid. i didn't know anyone, was in no mood to talk to anyone, and all these people were drinking and partying in the place were i wanted nothing more to do than go to sleep. i felt pretty trapped...

�celebrity citings: that guy from mall rats, the one who spends the whole movie staring at the magic picture: 'it's a sailboat!'... also: the dude form that 70s show (not ashton kucher, that would have been awesome), the one with curly red hair who is all badass and lives in the basement. he was kinda snobby. i did, however, get him cornered by this strange chemistry dude who told this story about some guy who drank 17 gallons of water in a day and died. he had told the story earlier, and then i saw him talking to mr. actor man, so i went up and said 'hey, you should tell him the one about the water, you know, the dude that died from the water?', and chemistry guy went into it. i looked at mr. actor and said ' you gotta hear this, it's a good one..." and walked away. apparently, in his drunken stupor, mikey went up to him and said 'i know about you and donna!', more than once. heh.

�the party dissolved into a handfull of people that would not go away. by one am i was ready to sleep. by two am i was really pissed that these people would not go away so that i could sleep. by three am i wanted to kill all of them, one by one, with my angry angry eyes. grrrr... finally, they left. peter and i slept, or tried to. enter major drama. no need to go into detail here, just to say that whiskey and beer makes a man mean, and makes two men really really mean. guh.

�that night, mel and luke slept in mel's car, and were woken up at 4 am by the police. they were arresting the car (not them) for involvement in vandalism (?). mel's car was towed away, not to be seen until monday... the weekend was peppered with discussion as to how the hell the car could have vandalized anything.

�saturday was slow. real slow. we ate brunch at the house of pies in hollywood (so many pies!!!), and then walked around for a bit. slowly. america decided that we should camp on the beach. slowly, we got back to mel and luke's, and slowly, we managed to get our stuff together to head out. we piled into andres' car and finally hit the freeway at 8:30pm. when we got to the campsite, it was full. we went to another site and america and andres pulled some story about how our friends had called, telling us to meet them out there... ward, the campsite guy, culdn't find their name, but took pity on us and sold us a site. rock. we showed up about five minutes before they closed the site for the evening. rock. we made fire, drank beers, and wandered onto be beach. we slept on the ground in sleepingbags. we ate donut holes in the morning, and headed to the beach for sun.

�eight of us were on the beach at peak sun hours, none of us had sunscreen on. we all were burned to some degree. i wore my underwear, because i didn't bring a bathingsuit. it was highly entertaining to wander around the beach in my undies. heh. we swam, hung out, watched a dead seal wash up on shore, and then went to Neptune's Nest on the PCH and ate fried foods. there was a crazy girl there who was horrbly obnoxious and reminded me of an old friend from high school. yargh.

�after food, we went to another beach, and gnerously lathered on the sunscreen (too late for most of us). this second beach was awesome - big rocks and caves - we had to maneuver around the rocks and waves to get to the other side of the rocks, and on the way back we almost got swept away - the tide was coming in and we were completely soaked. peter made it through with his ace-wrapped knee and one crutch like a fucking champ. we were all so proud.

�we headed home, through malibu traffic, and took a short/long-cut. we took topenga canyon road, and stopped at wendy's california trail, an awesome bar/restaurant that's austrailia-themed (for some reason). it was sunday, bar-b-q night, and there was an awesome singer playing, her name was christina something... we were the loudest people there, for several hours. six people drank four pitchers of beer. we sang along and shouted a bunch and even sang our own songs, it was really fucking fun. i wanted to stay there all night, if it wasn't for my painful sunburn and desperate want for a shower.

�we came home and slept like warm, slightly toasted babies.

�monday was, again, slow. mel had to go get her car... we went to eat and went to amoeba records in hollywood and i finally found that french rap cd i have been looking for for two years. sweet. i also picked up the yeahyeahyeahs and the new orchid and the new cherry valence records. it was difficult to not buy more, that place is so fucking huge.

�monday night, we flew home. home, to quiet, simple portland. home, to no smog and fewer cars and no true freeways. i like it here. i like that there isn't always something to do. i like that my friends are drinkers who do not go insane when they drink. it is comforting.

last night sam and sterling took us out to dinner - chicken fried steak at the delta, my favorite.

now, all i want to do is sleep, watch movies, eat icecream. like the good old days. like last week.