carrug island

one of the reasons i think the t.v. show "lost" was so popular is because i believe within all of us is an island of private thought. a construct of all of the sacred dreams and desires we carry around separate of our connection to others. this place, which i have named "carrug island" appeals to me very much.
it's my place of escape, and a land where a boy may be king. still featuring a restored castle from original inhabitants of centuries past, now open to guests as a kind of museum, winery and b+b. there is also a football field nearby (and when i say "football" i'm not talking about the american offering) which hosts world cup qualifying and exhibition matches from around the world. just to the south of it is the little hamlet of carrug where one can grab a pint of local ale while listening to folk music or spoken word. further south one may choose to stay in our 5 star international accomadations with all modern technology and convenience.
of course the biggest event each year is the vintage moto gp, whose road course challenges riders from all backgrounds and which circumnavigates the island. after the race you may find some of the riders hanging out at the igloo club and dancing the night away. all of this fun does require an organization, and you'll find our three building headquarters and offices down on the southeast side of the island. when we take a break from the busy planning, we like to head down to the gourmet hot dog stand below on street level.
of course there are other attractions and amusements including the carrug peaks, with an still active volcano, and its unusual desert valley below. a large greenhouse cultivating some of our more delicate fruits and flowers, and even a circus show to rival cirque du soleil's. and too there is always the beach. never far from our gaze, it's beautiful blue reminds us that we are always close to life.

warm toast

friday afternoon i got a call from my old friend jim, asking if i would like to be his guest that night, along with his brother and another friend at a show on polk street. with little time to plan i shot out of work, and waited for them to swoop by and pick me up. we parked and went looking for a place to get a quick bite to eat. and we stopped here.


as i gazed up at the sign i had to laugh, and felt i would be remiss if i didn't capture some imagery from the place and share it here. inside it was an updated take on the urban diner theme, clean and contemporary. typical of the style it featured counter service and booths looking out on the intersection. the food too was what you would expect, although i can only vouch for the fries. my companions orders were more substantial and they looked tasty with big portions.
outside on the sidewalk in front of the entrance i spotted this little stamp in the cement which is so indicative of san francisco. you see the names of the street on each corner in the city, and they are designed in the event that an earthquake levels all recognizable landmarks as it did nearly 106 years ago. as you wander through the horror of that aftermath, perhaps you may at least have a sense of where you are.

the spirits pay us
visit and bring the bubbly
which comes to a head

a chair for the bubbly

we had some friends over the other night for a birthday party and i decided to use the get together as an excuse to pop open a bottle of champagne that's been sitting in our refrigerator for the last 6 months. as we sat around the table talk turned to that great contest dwr hosted a couple of years back where they invited folks to create chair models using only the materials found on a champagne cork. you can see some of the examples here.
without noticing, my friend jess, who happens to be a furniture designer began fashioning his own postdated entry. the result can be seen above. i think it is a very elegant and regal design, and i like the accompanying cork side table. in fact the more i look at it the more it draws me into this little scene, and invites me to sit down with a very small glass of champagne. you may find me holding court here soon :^)

we sit at the round
table our discussions go
on infinitely

love emptied out as
we take all we can get for
it is our portion

take me to the bridge...

seven

seven turns a corner, as morning wakes again
"time to get up and earn your keep" says the watcher of all men
so seven splits the alley and turns to head uptown
he moves with quick precision, though the world sees him a clown
past civic center, curving market, seven walks his path with ease
he moves on by the castro as the flags wave in the breeze
he walks now through the mission, and knows he's nearly there
then passes 19th avenue, moving without care
he breezes through a doorway, and takes his place in line
then moves up as the people disperse and then recline
at last he's at the counter, the man says "yes, señor?"
he smiles and holds his hand up "i'll have the number four"
the man he nods at seven, and then begins to work
and then two minutes later he serves him without irk
he slides a warm plate over, across the counter top
and seven takes it from him as he pays the man called "pop"
and now he finds a table, near the window looks outside
and seven is in heaven as he now completes his ride.

coach attles reminding us we're all golden and we always got '75!

the pleasure of your
company fills this glass to
hold and toast once more

bar-a i d

one of the nice things about having a garage, is that you can put stuff in it. and of course this also means the reverse is true as well. and lately my bride of 15+ years has been taking some of this stuff out. tweaking and fine tuning her kitchen area, our old squirrel made its first appearance back the other day. and then i spotted this. a relic from our honeymoon, we picked this up one day walking through the city of vancouver. it's pressed tin, with this great graphic and typography layout, and a rotary dial for thumbing through all of the different cocktail recipes, most of which i've never heard of.
but that doesn't really matter, because it's endless fun dialing your way through and discovering the secret ingredients for such chemical creations as "gertie's garter" and the "ward 8" (make sure there's grenadine in the house first) and although we're not planning on opening a bar any time soon (although there is one in the garage too) it's just a lot of fun having this little novelty around. when i think about the internet, and all that's available, and i'm sure so many hipsters probably already have some app that would shame our little tin friend, it's alright. because more than anything it reminds me of what was. cool couples shaking and stirring while bossa nova records played in the background. maybe they smiled as the ashtrays filled up and they watched their kids running through the long days of summer backyards. and they drank to forget the pain and agony of memories of a world at war.
(oh, and if you hadn't already noticed- the word "aid" on this guy has a little kerning problem. and if you noticed it, you may have fun giving this little game a whirl as well :^)

the evidence of
rendezvous emptied into
vanished consciousness

matchbook stories 05

one of the things i really love about our new matchbook collection is this intersection of history, art and often times cartography. latest case in point is this recent discovery in our ash can of treasures. the steak block restaurant no longer exists as such. a little detective work led me to the conclusion that it now operates as a mexican eatery known as "caso robles" or oak house roughly translated.
and although i was supplied with an address on the cover of this matchbook, it did not seem to match up to anything on google maps. but as i took a closer look at the tiny illustrated map inside the cover i began to put the clues together. the alignment had changed over the years and old peralta blvd had become mowry avenue. this was confirmed by an additional sighting of a later matchbook version turned up here on ebay. and as i looked closer at the architectural details i became convinced this was the place.


and this is what i love. the mystery of this long forgotten dining locale revealed through the artist's hand on a crude map. interestingly to me as well, this little haven happens to be a block from my old neighborhood. it was there that my wife and i first settled in a little cottage and i would regularly walk right past it on late night walks with my neighbor and bosom friend. and although the laughter of the old place has faded and the conversation may have turned to espanol, i am again reminded that i am back where life was lived for me here so long ago, and is again.

hangar one

i was sitting at my desk the other day, when i spotted this heading our way. so bizarre to see it coming out of the east. we never saw them when we lived up in sacramento. and it made me think about the glory days of the original airships. i wondered what it must have been like to be in a farm field somewhere in europe, and then to look up and see this giant silent monster bearing down on you.

this one belongs to the hangar one vodka people and has been on a 30+ city tour. the blimp is housed nearby and must have been heading back to home base the day i spotted it. i understand that they book flights back and forth between sf and la. how cool. i wonder what it would be like to float up there suspended in the sky...

we shoot the bull while
the glass between us empties
and time's strands wind down

raise a pint

time now to share one of my favorite new presents found under the Christmas tree this past year. 4 shiny new drinking glasses featuring marvel superheroes. i think my family must have known the loss of my old captain america glass and sought to replace it with some bonus companions! and i am very grateful for the gift, although i initially wondered about the criteria for this selection. most popular? biggest money maker? it certainly seems to me they might have done the distribution a little differently. perhaps a 50 year anniversary of the fantastic four for beginners? which could then be followed by a charter member avengers set in anticipation of the un-released film. and how about putting the wolverine into a set of other x-men?
but then i suppose this logic would eventually lead you into some questionable territory. i mean, i can see a world war 2 set with cap and bucky and maybe 2 more members of the old invaders group, or perhaps sarge fury and dum-dum? but if you try and group these heroes by their supporting characters, you might find yourself with thin choices. (who really wants a rick jones or thunderbolt ross glass?)
and this whole line of thought reminded me of the release of empire strikes back in 1980. back then the merchandising machine was just building up steam, and burger king won the rights to distribute special collector glasses for the film. each week a new character was featured on a collectible drinking glass available when you purchased a soft drink. our family didn't make the weekly trip to bk as some did, and so when we finally got there i was pretty excited at the chance to score one of these. i hoped for boba fett, and would have been happy with luke or the droids. but as fate would have it we ended up showing up on lando week. sorry billy dee. i sure didn't appreciate you then.
but i do appreciate these new additions to the cupboard, keeping the kitchen and kool-aid rations safe from evil doers. excelsior!

participation
with the Master Creator
is transformation

favorite things 16

one of my favorite things on a saturday morning without commitments is cooking breakfast. now breakfast itself is my favorite meal, and saturday is the pinnacle breakfast day. today was the first time i'd done one in the new place and as i stood here putting it all together it occurred to me. although i have my routines and have whipped it all up in many locales this one felt different. the new kitchen, the light coming through the windows. i was re-orienting myself. i immediately wondered how many breakfasts lay ahead here.
one of my most favorite parts of this whole ritual is the quiet time i spend here preparing the food. sometimes i'll rise before everyone else and start stirring quietly. i prepare the coffee first. and once everything is on the stove i like to pull out my old church hymnal. in between flipping the sausages and french toast i'll work my way through a few of the old familiar numbers. and this is very good. it reinforces all that is good in serving and creating, drawing me closer to the Master Creator and Servant. time spent here compared to the rest is very short. but sweet, like the french toast. today we don the beret.

the tale of alfie

a few weeks ago i was finishing up lunch when i heard some commotion coming from the shop. one of the guys had seen something moving around under one of the work benches. as it was october he thought perhaps someone was playing a little pre-halloween joke on him. you know, like one of those displays people put in front of their house that move as you approach. turns out it was not a joke, but in fact a real live white mouse in our very own shop! a brown mouse may not have caused as much interest i think, but his color combined with a seeming devil may care attitude as we watched him run back and forth through the shop raised our interest.
in fact he seemed to not be bothered by us humans as we edged ever closer to him. we began to speculate on his origins. there are apartments near the auto shop, and perhaps he had been someones pet and gotten away from his home. the other theory, which stretched the imagination, but gave him greater credential was that he was an escapee from the nearby reptile emporium that stocks "feeder mice" for large snakes and reptiles. although connie's was only about a tenth of a mile away, this certainly seemed to me at least a difficult distance for our intrepid little traveler.
wherever he came from, he provided increasing entertainment over the next several days. even as we speculated where he had come from, we all began to devise a way to capture our new house guest. i bought a live mouse trap that was basically a teeter-totter tunnel which would close a door when the little guy moved past the center fulcrum. he didn't seem interested. we left out peanut butter for him each night to make sure he stayed around. and i even cut the bottom of a paper cup and placed water inside for him. we attached a large funnel to a broom stick to try and trap him in the open but he escaped. i placed peanut butter in a cardboard box turned sideways outside my office window and waited until he was inside and then tipped the box right side up, but the little guy jumped out as i did so. we were all beginning to feel this mouse had outsmarted us all.


and still he kept up his game of hide and seek, showing up all over the shop, running along the ceiling and peeking out from under shelves and doorways. finally his daring got the best of him. we trapped him between cases of oil where we'd baited some of that irresistible peanut butter. the owner of the shop, mrs. b asked me if my kids would like to keep him as a pet. i thought of my wife's reaction and told her i'd think about it. meanwhile she picked up a really nice cage for him. by now he had become like a mascot around our shop. we put his new place together and got a kick out of watching him interact in his new home.


well, we did end up taking him home. although it was agreed that he would stay in the garage. my daughter named him "alfie" and they all took turns reading him a bedtime story that first night home. alfie turned out to be a tame little guy once he got used to his new apartment. although i always wondered how he would adjust to life back on the inside. the other morning barbara went outside to take the blanket off his cage and found him dead. i don't know if it was the cold, disease or if alfie just gave up as he had become a prisoner again.


my kids however, were also devastated. their new little pet, home less than a month was now gone. and so, we had ourselves a little funeral. i fashioned a suitable coffin for him out of the bottom of a pop secret box. (he loved popcorn and peanut butter) and we laid him to rest filling the box with flowers and notes. the kids all cried and i said a few words. we dug a hole at the base of one of our red apple trees and then laid a few more flowers on top. alfie, we hardly knew ye. and then just yesterday as my son aaron and i were playing catch in the backyard we watched as a white butterfly flew past us both, alighted right on the flowers above alfie's grave, paused there for a moment and then flew away again. so like alfie.

knowing that although
difficult days are ahead
we are not licked yet