haddadadad

Something I want to pay attention to! Thank you, Richard Simmons, for making the flight info more fun.

Richard Simmons Will Terrorize You Into Safe Flying gizmodo

Portland International Airport has free wifi. Yaaaay.

“everything has an end
except sausage
which has two ends
–danish proverb”

i had sweet cream ice cream today it was delicious and fat free and had rainbow sprinkles and a peanut butter cup mashed into it. waffle cup for the win.

SWINE FLU AAAAAH OMAAAAAGGGGGGGG

(4:09:50 PM) TheRunn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwgNMrs-i80
(4:10:32 PM) KGB1: am watching
(4:10:35 PM) KGB1: nurse came in
(4:10:38 PM) KGB1: white suit guy came in
(4:10:44 PM) KGB1: other white suit guy
(4:10:58 PM) KGB1: the basist is a girl hello
(4:11:22 PM) KGB1: AH EPILEPSY
(4:11:27 PM) TheRunn: hahaha
(4:11:32 PM) KGB1: bassist is lefthanded
(4:11:51 PM) KGB1: omg flying nun
(4:11:54 PM) KGB1: omg baby!
(4:12:03 PM) TheRunn: omg jason schartzman???

Houston was weather-oriented. Besides the temperature being warm enough for shorts and tank tops, we had a lot of rain. Coming in on Wednesday, it looked like it had rained. Thursday was a mfing thunderstorm with the anger of god all afternoon. The main highway roads lacked proper draining pathways and they literally flooded. A nice reminder that hurricanes hit the area on a regular basis.

T sent me to Glassell School off of Montrose. Holy moley. The facilities for clay (which don’t seem emphasized on their website) are vast and awesome. The building rooms themselves, warehouse style, are laaarge large large with a few wheels lying around and plenty of canvas-mounted and wooden-top tables. They have three or four electric kilns inside. THEY HAVE AN OVAL. For whatever reason I’m a super fan of those type of kilns. Outside are three hummer-sized gas kilns. Giant gas kilns are a happy place for me. They fit about four full-sized adults to give you an idea of their size. Too bad their deadline for residency is in a few days.



We walked around Montrose and had ourselves some Thai. Omnom green curry with tofu. We drove to Baytown afterward – when we got caught in the monsoon – and then headed to the Galleria. Holy mall. Holy stores. Holy waterfall.

Houston is nice. It’s a city… similar to Chicago, less ego. Ego in the sense of OURCITYISAWESOME IDKWHYANYONEWOULDLIVEANYWHEREELSE WHYWOULDANYONENOTLOVETHISPLACE I’VENEVERLIVEDOUTSIDEOFILLINOISGOBEARS. Weird considering I equate Texas with big-mouthed big belt buckle wearing racist asshats. It seems like this city is integrated – there are a bunch of people of a bunch of different backgrounds coexisting and acknowledging other people are around. I felt like the other two places were rather white but more importantly, segregated. Less so here. Spanish billboards are right next to English billboards. Again, sort of freaky. I mean, it’s Texas! I didn’t see many cowboy hats. Plenty of cowboy boots!

It was warm! WARM. My knuckles have almost healed. And so concludes our tour of the southwest.

12:24pm mountain.
yup. carrot juice takes like liquid carrots.

Monday we drove into Santa Fe. My pictures do not give justice to the environment. I was overloading on pleasant desert views with a mountainous backdrop.

The rest of the day we looked around the touristy part of town as our hotel is located within its depths. It was sort of vacant (it’s super cold for this part of the country: lower 50s in the day, around freezing at night brrr). The nutty shop signs and sculptures were awesome.



There are a zillion and one galleries here.

Please note: one of these galleries is the Chuck Jones art gallery, as in the guy that animated Bugs Bunny. I think I know why Bugs tended to take wrong turns in Albuquerque… he lived in the southwest. Sweet. Mom and I browsed the shops and galleries. I found a couple galleries that might like my type of work and a bunch of ones that most definitely would not.

Today, Tuesday, was much less touristy and more people were active. While we did visit the Georgia O’Keefe Museum, we adventured to see active artists and living areas, not just crafts and fine galleries. Santa Fe Clay was the planned destination. That place is really darn cool. Upon entering, more clay tools than I knew existed took up a wall and a half. A couple shelves are dedicated to books on art in general, making forms, glazing, subjects of that nature. Many more shelves have glaze upon underglaze, available both wet and dry, catalogs from several companies for more. Some are just pigments! Sacks of materials for sale. Besides things to buy, there are gallery spaces that I was nervous to walk around with my backpack and the ~not-so-secret~ storage spots that I was super duper nervous to walk around with a pack. I took it off. I talked to a resident artist and the nice in-charge lady (HAH I’m not throwing names around so fucking deal) and we talked about how awesome Ron Kovatch is (okay… maybe a little). A few of his pieces are in their collection. Artist guy with no name showed us their kilns: three “normal-sized” electrics, one baby tester electric outside, and two outside gas kilns.

We accidentally went to Warehouse 21 while looking for Santa Fe Clay. We spoke briefly with a nice dude in the main office and wandered around. This place is a teen art center… not exclusively for teens but definitely for the youngsters. Work all over the hallways and rooms totally give the inspiration vibe. They have screenprinting, top-notch computers, painting facilities, a recording studio, and a working stage. I remember peavey and bighead speakers, but I didn’t notice the specific model types. The mural that saw us out:

People are friendly here: while I was out running, people smile and nod hello as they pass. Even the probably-homeless dude I noticed from across the way waved a recognition “s’up” and went back to his conversation. Most of the time people treated each other as equals. I say most of the time because while I was running I got catcalled from dudes in pickup trucks — at least they all had the same type of vehicle so I could prepare myself. No escaping the leering no matter where I end up I guess. I’m also still in touristyville, so the people in the area may be a bit friendlier than the norm.

Santa Fe is an odd place. A chunk of it is aimed toward tourists and another chunk is for active artists. Residential areas are sprinkled around it. They coexist, but I didn’t see how integrated and comfortable locals are with the set up. I dig the heavy Native American influence. I’m not sure who’s angry and who’s not. Outside of touristy spa land, it’s tough to tell. Reservations and casinos cover the sides of the highways. The majority of buildings look similar to pueblo dwellings I had only seen in social studies books, from the high class to the little shacks.

Not exactly what I expected from the southwest. Totally intriguing for sure. Definitely has a vibe different from the midwest.

Sunday.

After a lovely breakfast with the cuz, she showed us around Pacific Beach, drove through Mission Beach, and attempted to go to Ocean Beach — I love these names — but had to cut short our tour due to homework. Pacific and Mission both look like the beach towns in Delaware: a bit cluttered, a little worn, a lot of people, funny-named shops lining the main streets. After our good-byes, Mom and I headed to the main city. It was overcast.

I asked Chelle where we could find the gay in town, and she suggested Five Point and Gaslamp Quarter. We walked around the Gaslamp Quarter mostly and drove through random sections of town while looking for it. Most things are painted fruity colors and in different shapes. It makes for fun visuals.




There don’t seem to be a lot of fast food restaurants. At least, there aren’t many national chains. San Diego keeps it classy with the Hooters.



After walking around the shops of the area, we decided to head back to San Diego International Airport early. I was able to catch up on internet things there as they have FREE WIRELESS HUZZAH. The airport is nice in other respects: good food selection, nice people. The bad: not enough seating room or power outlets. The chairs are comfortable if you can get them.

We flew to Albuquerque last night and were waited on by Christian Bale-a-like-circa-american-psycho. He was super nice and gave me his number if I wanted to get in contact with an art professor he knows. I discovered the Jackie Earle Haley-a-like from the plane is actually a lot older when the lights came on. Still cool. Very friendly and has a Tigger jacket. Yes.

We got to our Albuquerque hotel last night in the wee hours and slept for ten hours. Hell yes. Next up: Santa Fe.

San Diego is a nice place with nice people. It looks to be very people-centric with lots of shit to do. All the clothing shops I saw were super pricey and very surfer-oriented like Quiksilver. Plenty of people were outside running or biking or skating, and the majority of the people I noticed were fairly fit. I didn’t get to see the older parts of town nor did I notice any thrift shops. Chelle did show us the nicer parts of the area, though. There was a clothing resale shop or two, similar to Plato’s Closet only more vintagey and upscale. The house trend is ranch-style and long with little or no yards. The geography has both flat spots and mountainy hills, and the shorelines are kickass. It’s a cute place.