May in California

After a rough year or so, I made it back to California to see my people. I had coffee with an my friend Nazey my first day after helping my brother, Rick, change some light bulbs in a really great old church.

Rick and I then drove to Reno and saw my Grandmother Josephine Brown, who is ninety-four and as Neil Young put it in Heart of Gold (the film) "living in the moment". She is a wonderful and beautiful person and I am incredibly blessed to have her in my life. She seems to be OK with things which is all that actually matters.

After Reno Rick and I went wandering and camped in this ratty old spot pictured above. Not being a man known for his great sense of aesthetics, it suited me fine. I spent an afternoon shooting pictures of bugs getting it on while Rick fished.




Next we rolled into Placerville and met up with my friend Neda. I spent a few days with her and her family, which was awesome. I foolishly didn't take any pictures, but like I said, it was awesome. Neda has really kick-ass kids, Eli and Jamie, who were an absolute pleasure to spend time with.

Neda and I stopped by Body Tribe Fitness in Sacramento and met Chip Conrad who owns the place and I did a light kettlebell workout. Chip showed me a couple of leverage club movements which I'll definitely be working with. He has a great gym, very pure and primitive, which is also an art gallery. If you find yourself in Sacramento, stop in.

I got on the Greyhound (which is always, always an ordeal. 2.5 hours of Greyhound occupies the same amount of ordeal space as a whole day flying. Do you remember that fine member of the US government who said that water boarding was 'like swimming'? He also said that riding the Greyhound was like 'being chauffeured by a trusted parent while you played in the back seat with your friends') and went back to SF and met up with Kathy Harr and we went and saw a cool gallery opening of paintings of glacial ice and video of rushing water with sound design by my friend Steve Dye. The visuals were by Joan Perlman and I want the video as the walls to my bathroom. They were really nice.

I spent the weekend with my other brother, Greg Dale which was excellent. He had it in his head that he needed a new guitar, and well, better him than me! So we went and saw Fat Dog and he got a sweet Harmony. It's a cool one- Fat Bog put a pin bridge on it, but it's all ladder braced- weird. Sounds completely awesome, looks gorgeous, and is certainly unusual.



While remaining on the subject of this post- which is awesome, beuatiful things and people if you hadn't noticed-(with a brief descent into Greyhound for contrast)- Our friend Angela Decenzo and her daughter Araya came over on Saturday and we all talked and went out for barbecue. Angela is a really incredible photographer who you should come up with ways to support so she can quit her day job and just make amazing pictures. Buy some pictures, get her to take pictures of you and your life, and pay her heaps of money for it. She's totally worth it, and is recently engaged to a really good guy. Congratulations. Araya, on the other hand is a total loser who is graduating from high school with a 4.0 and getting massive scholarships to attend UC Berkeley in the Fall. Congratulations to Araya as well. Given that these scholarships only go so far, just consider this adequate reason to marry that guy (or girl) and pay her Mom to take pictures of it. Serious.



There's much more, but that's all for this dispatch. Tomorrow I'm setting up my microphones again and then it's time to press 'record'. Until then....