finally...the heim trip!
1:02 p.m.

ok, i'm still having issues editing photos..it takes forever.

so, here's a quick rundown of last week's trip before it's ancient history.

left here about 1:30 pm, got to ukiah right on time. stayed at the rodeway inn...motel 6 was a little cheaper, but oh well, it was a nice room. went to safeway for some grub, WOW! their safeway is so cool! hard to explain, but the lighting is like really low..the deli in particular, everything looked so yummy. tons of things we don't have here. a gal makin' sushi...i got a sammich and a salad. and a piece of pistachio cheesecake. the bakery is equally cool. i dunno, it's like the whole store is kinda dark, with like spotlights on items, makes everything look great.

called dylan from a payphone, my virgin mobile didn't work there, i was surprised.

went back to my room for the night. ate, read watched tv.

did some art with the split screen feature on my camera while watching the rerun of the project runway finale.

had to unplug the mini fridge, it was babbling like a brook.

was out of there by 8 am. had some traffic jam BS close to the city for like 20 minutes, i hate that. ooops, i accidentally took a turn of in petaluma, took me 10 minutes to get back on the highway!

was crossing the golden gate by 10:30. made this video heading into the tunnel right before the bridge:

went out to amoeba on haight, got some elvis costello reissues, the ones on rhino with the extra discs and the great liner notes. got paul mccartney's first album, been wanting to hear that for ages. got his latest too, i was just curious as to what he's up to. i really like it. funny, the one from 1970 was new, 13 bucks. got the new one for 4.99, go figure! got the yoko ono dance remix cd, i love that shit!

grabbed a slice at escape from new york pizza, then drove out to the sunset district. went down judah, stopped at other avenues, my little natural foods store i always go to.

was at the motel and in my room by 12:30. called dylan, ate. had a nice small room at the back of the courtyard.

here's a video tour of the room:

felt like a nap but i decided to walk 2 blocks and visit the zoo. man, i haven't been there since i was a kid. it's a pretty nice zoo.

zoo video:

they had LOTS of signs at the tiger area, you probably heard about those kids on xmas day, right?

got lots of great pics, animals, plants and flowers.

here's a restored doggie diner head across the street from the zoo:

went back to my room got ready. i should have gone down portola to market, but instead i headed north, and then downtown..got to market..parking is a bitch in the city! there was a safeway there with lots of room, but they have signs that it's patrolled and i didn;' want to take a chance.

turned north onto castro, up and down a few hills. found a place to park. had to read the signs a few times, when you DO find a place to park, it's easy to feel you aren't reading it right. i would hate to get towed!

walked up and down the hills down to market. found the bookstore. people milling around. seats set up in the corner. saw scott, went over and introduced myself. chatted for a minute. i got a seat in the front row, there were about, hmm, maybe 50 chairs set up.

scott came out and read from his book, talked a bit, and took questions. i was so close i could have kicked him in the shin! i should have taken a few pics during the Q&A but i felt kinda weird about it, so i didn't.

goddammm, he is a cutie!

anyhoo, after the reading people lined up at the info desk to get books signed. i looked around the store, i could have sepent some serious money there for sure!

the line got small and i got in line. there was a guy in front of me, the girl that works at the store was talking to him, and asked him to sign some of HIS books for them. it was kevin killian, who is a friend of dennis cooper's. i introduced myself. he knew me from cooper's blog, said i was a great photographer! that was pretty cool indeed! we had a nice chat, and i bought one of his books, which he signed for me. met his wife, dodie bellamy, another SF writer. killian is gay, but married to a woman, very interesting, right?

we took pics of each other, then i got up to where heim was. chatted for a minute, had him sign my book in the defect flap thing.

some people were going out for drinks, i could have got in on that, but, i dunno, i pictured all these people trying to all talk to scott at once, plus i was still worried that the car could get towed or something. so took a few pics of me and scott and said my goodbyes.

kevin, scott, and dodie:

autographed books video:

got back to the car, called the boy to say hi. drove out to cable car drive-in on geary and got an awesome burger. took some pics of the cool chairs there.

damn, i first went to that place during one of my early concert trips to the city, like, early 70's!

went back to my room, ate, read some of kevin's book. his stuff is weird and disturbing and very cool.

woke up pretty early the next morning. i didn't hit the bull this time, wasn't that hungry. was at the de young museum before 10 am. saw the gilbert and george show, wow, i was expecting to feel like, well, you see one, you've seen 'em all, but that sheer size of the work made it a very impressive show. i didn't see ANY signs about not taking pics, so i was careful and took some.

the museum has so much..i passed on the african art and most of the older stuff, concentraited on the 20th century stuff. wow, so much amazing stuff. took a few more pics,

then went up the tower again.

was a nice foggy morning. bought a book on the design and construction of the building. saw some people getting arrested way down on the ground. drove by there on the way out of the park. dunno what was going on, but i got a good picture, it's posted on my fotolog HERE.

was driving up 19th, heading towards the bridge, thinking well, i'm not gonna stop on clement and get food, i'm ready to go. of course, the next cross street WAS clement! i turned in, looked around, but decided to head out anyway. dylan had called me when i was at the museum, but all i head was music. later i got the call, he was asking me to get some lotus leaves or something at the viet market i told him about...oh well, next time.

was out of the city by11:30, made good time. a bit of rain as ai got closer to home. stopped in ukiah, got some dinner from the fabulous safeway. got gas and burger king in willits.

was home before 5.

ok, that's that. sorry it took so long. i'm gonna go look at computers today. i think i'm gonna join the mac people, been looking at the imac, it's giving me an iboner! the photo software looks great, and easy. and omg, they have this photo printing service, you pics what kind of book, hardcover, softcover, etc, pick the size and style, upload the pics and they print it! they don;t look like grandma-style brag books, either, some nice stuff.

but i'm just LOOKING today. been watching tons of tutorial vids at the apple site, i want to learn a lot before i make the change. plus, the transferring of files looks a bit complicated, or at least to me. but if i buy the mac here, i tihnk i can just take the old PC to the shop and they do it there....

ok, that's all for now, see ya soon!

xoxo,

MK