System of A Down Review up

hi. a few weeks go i shot pictures and wrote a review of System of A Down at the Fillmore in SF. I don't think i know many SOAD fans, but i am pretty happy with the review. The review is now online here. Since they butchered my photos, you can view those here. Thanks.

oops

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one would think i learned back in '99 not to cut my own hair, but i guess i am doomed to repeat some mistakes. i wish there was still a barber in my nieghboorhood so i don't have to go all the way into the financial district to get a decent haircut. it was that laziness and reluctance to go to a pro that caused me to do this to myself. i left it by the way.

parklife

in the television world, so i hear, when your show is put on hiatus that usually means your shit has been dropped. in my world, when my four year relationship is put on hiatus, it means i have trouble sleeping at night.

tar and i are taking a break. actually we've been taking a break for a month now. in the mornings, when the fresh air is breezing through my apartment and i can hear the sounds of the neighborhood kids walking to the nearby catholic school, i think this is a good thing. we've been together for almost four great years, but we've gotten pretty lazy with our social lives, developing watching-TV-instead-of-going-out-type habits. we needed a reset, a chance to grow outside the relationship.

i've spent a lot of days here, what with no jobby job. my dreams and fantasies of freelance work paying the bills haven't quite materialized. now i might have to choose between doing things i love, taking photos and writing, and getting a "job" that pays "money" and hopefully has "benefits".

i try not to let the stench of failure overwhelm my stuffy little apartment, but some days it feels like a prison cell, but with all my stuff and a spotty WiFi internet connection. there are days when all i do is think. by late afternoon, i break out of this dump and go for walks around my neighborhood.

in the movies when you live in an ethnically diverse neighborhood like mine, whites like me fit right in and say things like "con permisso" when you are trying to get through a crowded sidewalk, or "salud" when the old man on the steps sneezes. when the lady at the local market sells you some tortillas, you say "gracias" or even "cuanto cuesta?" if you are feeling adventurous.

i don't feel especially welcome in the my neighborhood. maybe it was a recent afternoon in the aisles of the local produce market where an older gentleman exhaled "pinche juero" under his breath as i walked by. in case you weren't invited to the spanish slang party when you grew up, he basically called me a "fucking honky." i can't really take offense to what he said, because i am kind of a fucking honky when it comes down to it.

those that know me, i would think, could say that i am pretty upbeat in the face of adversity. i don't mean to sound so negative about my life and times. i've always found that once i complain about some shit, the intensity of the situation eases and i can move on. so i complain a lot.

for the past few days, i have been fucking around with my computers. i have an older spare computer that i intend to use a fileserver and backup for my photo files, so naturally i loaded linux on it. i also have a 24 port switch an old employer donated to me after the bought some new switches. all i want is for my win2k box to talk to my lnux box. because i don't have a router in the mix, i want the linux box to also serve DHCP. but after 3 days of reading every tutorial on the internet, swapping out hardware, etc. i still can't get them to ping each other. i've done this before. why is this so maddening? part of the problem may be that i get my internet connection on my win2k box via WiFi, so i am running two network interfaces, each trying to go to its own network. if you have any idears, don't be shy.

in other news, i shot pictures at a System of A Down show last week. You can view those here. i also wrote a review for synthesis.net, but they haven't posted it online (it's out in print). as soon as it goes up, i'll post the link, dog. i am an unstoppable multi-dimensional threat, ready to dominate the media. yesterday i shot photos of a hotel workers protest here in SF. these people have been without a contract since august and were locked out of their jobs for 51 days last fall by 14 of the largest and most successful san francisco hotels.

finally, as i was eating my granola in soy milk (that's what all californians have for breakfast) this morning, the new backstreet boys video debuted on VH1. it ain't no "i want it that way" but it's pretty good, reflecting a matured look and sound for them and stuff. AJ looks like a media stereotype terrorist from an 80's action movie.