Is it smart to take a donut from a crackhead?

Here's my strange/funny story from last night; I went to the Lamplighter to see Carpenter play. The Lamplighter is in gas town on Abbott St., just off Hastings Street. This area is notorious for the amount of crackheads, and general poverty and fucked up-ness. After the show ended I started walking home and within a couple blocks i'd been called baby by at least 2 women asking for cigarettes, and I dodged a handful of zombie crackheads. As I get to the 7-11 by Tinseltown this female crackhead walks towards me and asks "can you spare some change?" and i tell her "sorry i don't have anything". She sticks her hand out towards me and says "then here you go...", my first reaction is to simply say "no thanks". But then she says "it's a donut", and after hearing one of my favorite words, without it realizing it, i was suddenly accepting a donut from a crackhead! After a quick thank you i continued walking down the street, looking at my hand that was now holding a donut and asking myself "are you really going to eat that?!". It didn't take long for me to decide that I shouldn't eat it, and at the end of the block there was someone asking for change and insted i offered him the donut, which he accepted.
The lesson here kids is DON'T TAKE DONUTS FROM CRACKHEADS.....and the other lesson is I really need to get my snack addiction under wraps because this episode shows that i don't use my head sometimes when it comes to donuts (and other tasty snacks)

Random Things

--"Between Planets" by the Jesus & Mary Chain might very well be one of the greatest songs ever written. I could listen to this song every day over & over again and still be floored. I have been awake for less than 2 hours today and have already played it (and sang along with it) 3 times. Hells yeah!

--Local boys Go It Alone released a new LP/CD called "Histories" on Rivalry Records. This record is really fuckin' good! Super intense music with great lyrics. I'm stoked to be putting on the record release show on June 30th.

--Tonight i'm going to see Teenage Head and the Tranzmitors. The 1st Teenage Head LP is a classic slab of Canadian punk rock, from the first generation. When they play "Ain't Got No Sense" tonight i might very well lose my mind.

--Sometimes you meet someone really interesting but you don't really get a chance to get to know them. But then the stars align and you get to spend time with them and you find out that this person really is amazing. This doesn't happen often enough.

Pictures from San Francisco

For some strange reason I really slacked on getting these pictures developed. But anyhow, here's some pictures from my recent trip to San Francisco.
I've always found SF to be a beautiful city. Sure there's alot of concrete jungle, but it's also a city surrounded by water, has parks and trees everywhere, and you'll often find yourself at the top of a hill with an amazing view. In the middle picture in the distance you can see the bay bridge leading to the east bay. The bottom picture is Valencia Street in the Mission district. The area has been gentrified quite a bit since i first came to visit in the early 90's, but there's still a certain charm to the Mission. In this picture you can see Muddy Waters, one of my favorite coffee shops.
One day i wandered around the North Beach area which has a history with the Beat writers, and then later was home to some of the first punk venues in San Francisco. This is the area with City Light Books, which has put out books by many authors including Jack Kerouac, and right behind the store and just before China Town there is Jack Kerouac alley way. The alley is short but has some amazing wall paintings that i couldn't get pictures of because of all the people posing for pictures.

After looking in the bookstore i wandered around Broadway and suddenly found myself standing underneath the infamous "On Broadway" club sign. The building housed not only the On Broadway (main floor) but also the Mabuhay Gardens (on the top floor), 2 of the earliest venues to host punk rock in the bay area (along with Tool & Die, the Deaf Club an
d others). Yeah i know it's pretty nerdy, but i was stoked to stand outside this building and think about all the amazing shows that have happened here (pick up the book "Fucked Up and Photocopied" to see some of the flyers for shows that happened in these venues.)
One of the 3rd day of my trip i drove out to Sacramento with my friend Devon who lives out in the East Bay. We went out there for a show, but first we stopped at a Krispy Kreme. Devon got 2 donuts, i got a six-pack. I was so stoked to be eating Krispy Kreme again, I guess that might explain why i look so serious in the picture. So anyways, all we really saw of Sacto was old Sacramento, which was alot of tourist shops and candy shops. Guess which part i liked.










One of the famous parts of SF is Fisherman's Wharf. I rode one of the trolly cars down to the wharf early in the morning. Chances are you've seen pictures of the SF trolly cars, they were in Rice-A-Roni commericals, and pretty much any other picture/advertisement for this town. I rode standing up, on the outside foot board, holding onto a pole for dear life. It was kinda scary, thought i was going to fall off at one point. As soon as you get to the wharf you hear the sounds of the sea lions barking and off in the distance you can see Alcatraz. These are the only reasons i go to this area.






So there you go, some of the pictures i took. I've got pictures of SF from other trips i've taken there, so that's why there isn't alot. If anyone wants to see bigger versions of any of these just let me know and i can email you a copy.