September 13, 2003

Finally achieved the point today where I had competing social engagements. One of them was to help Elaine (the chellist from last night's bonfire) move into their new home. Lucky for me, she ended up having that one under control. So, I ended up joining a merry foursome to go to a members-only event at the Yerba Buena. It was a talk/demo of some modern music centered around the koto by Miya Masaoka. This was layered over things like hissing insects and EEG sensors hooked up to azaelias - conceptually very cool. This would have been more than enough in my undergraduate days, when listening to a fractal waveform piped out of a 1970's era synth was All That and a Bag of Chips. But I think I've reached a point where "experimental music" unfortunately needs to incorporate an element of "sounding pleasant" for me to really appreciate it. That's probably a step in a good direction if I want to mesh well with Joe America. Anyway, the artist was apparently a master of the koto. But as far as I'm concerned, Mingus has got her beat - he can get a koto out of an upright bass (and he can sing).

In addition to that, I've spent some time at Berkeley for the past two days. Then tonight Anand, old friend from MIT, had a housewarming party. The house was in the Southwest Berkekely suburbs, which are largely unpretentious and quite lovely inside. Some crazy tile work in the john. But not a lot of solid social traction there. Good to see Anand and some other folk from MIT representin' though.

Woven throughout this tale was young Jesse Thompson. This is a guy Meredith met through Friendster. Now, I have severe issues with Friendster - mostly that it sucks people out of the real world and has people staring at a screen to do things that would be better accomplished face-to-face. But I guess it's cool that it helps you hook up with new people in unfamiliar places. I have a definite feel of connecting with people who are trying to push through to The Good Thing. I think that's a large part of what this trip is about.

Anyway, the main reason for bringing him up is that we had dinner on the way to the Berkeley party at a gucci pizza place. And I think we had better luck connecting with the waitresses there than we did with anyone at the party. Maybe our mood was wrong.

September 12, 2003

Yesterday was The Berkeley Juggling Club, which was a better experience than expected. Cool kids and there's a solid contingent of badass club-passers. Some of 'em into some good sustainable livin'. All of 'em have a generally great attitude. They were certainly patient with me trying to get in on patterns that were too much for my little juggling impoverished mind (I don't think I've done moving four-person patterns for at least 3 years now - the shame of it all!). Also got inspired to try to develop the contact juggling for my trip. I think it'll be really effective for people I meet in the hinterlands and who don't share any language with me. But I do suggest you check this scene out if you have the opportunity.

Afterwards, I met up with Silvia and her new boyfriend Kevin. Now, Silvia and I had a great talk before she left about how it would be silly for her to hook up with a boyfriend right away, as it would affect her early social networking. Then, of course, if they broke up, there might be some collateral damage and so on. But, what can you do? Kevin is a bang up guy, though. We had Sushi at Yoshi's, which is apparently pretty famous for being a cool sushi place with live jazz. Kevin had a mysteriously high bank balance for that time of month, so he offered to pay for all of us. After a token show at resistence, I happily accepted. Silvia, however, kept at him for some time. Of course, that's only a minor part of what makes Kevin cool - he has an excellent sense of humor and plays in several bands. But I was pretty psyched about free sushi.

Silvia also claims to have told some of her friends that I am "for hire" to come into your life and make cool things happen, which is absolutely the truth. My rates are quite reasonable. Spread the Word.

Just as I did last Friday with a different group, we went to Ocean Beach to find a bonfire crowd that Stig recommended. As before, we took some time surfing around. People are very friendly and chances are you can get some good stories if you just introduce yourself and act civil. I had my first random, "hey - I met you at Burning Man" moment as well as hearing some stories from Carl - a teacher at a Frisco school for children with special needs. These are the kids that the public school system can't really handle, so he has to. The first day he visited the facility, apparently several staff had to wrestle a girl to the ground who was repeatedly kicking a boy in the jimmie. The boy reportedly did not mind and simply gazed happily at his Stim Toy, which was shiny. On another occasion, a kid disrobed and smeared his own poop all over himself and then marauded around the school grounds until distracted by a teachers projectile vomit (which he induced). In those crucial seconds he took to chuckle at another's misfortune, several staff members were able to wrap him in a blanket, wrestle him to the ground and get him wiped off. Carl's friend said this gave him the right to refer to these kids as "Tards." You be the judge.

Unlike last Friday, this time we actually found the group we were looking for. They were a swell crowd - highlights included a writer, a chellist, a computer game music composer, a girl from Holland whose first language was Fresian and a girl in a hat. The composer started writing back when you had only the tool of Pulse-Width-Modulation on the PC speaker to work with. Bad Ass. Anyway, we sat around noodling on guitars for a while and chatted idly. Nice time. I suggest you check this scene out if you have the opportunity.