Tales of a Texas Ramblin' Man

My days are flying by in Oakland California. I swear I just got here yesterday. What's funny is sometimes the only thing thaqt reminds me of time is when the bills are due again and I feel like I just paid one a few days ago. Remember when you were a kid and a summer seemed like an entire year. Remember that feeling like the school year was never going to end. Those were great fuckin days. Now a year feels like two months...and the bills keep coming in...stupid bills. I just got my Pixies tickets in the mail, and I am stoked. The Pixies are one of the bands I never grew out of.
I woke up this morning and had mimosas with my roomates. Then I went to the Berkely flea market with my friend Prozack Turner who is a fuckin awesome rapper. I bought some crazy Bono shades, and five new records. I got a live Bill Withers album(how you gonna front that shit?), a Rolling Stones single with Far Away Eyes and Miss You (sweeeeeeeet),the Police (Syncronicity), a Stray Cats import, and a Robert Gordon album with Link Wray (you have to like rock-a-billy to understand) Now I am going to hang some of my stuff at the Liminal Gallery for a show they are putting on tonite. To all my peops in Texas don't let the heat drive you insane...go swimming you lazy @&$*%(@)!_!!! peace homies...

Well Oakland is awesome. I have been working doing some interior design stuff (ie: construction). We just built a deck, and I put a skylight in two weeks ago (among various other things.) I also work as a mover. I made $60 in and hour and a half today. Yesterday was my first bartending shift at The Ruby Room (and uber-hipster bar in West Oakland.) It is a red and black bar with a super rad jukebox. The owner almost only hires Betty Paige/Suicide Girl type chicks to bartend, but somehow he liked me enough to give me friday happy hours. I was kind of skeptical, because training on Wednesday and Thursday the girl barely sold anything (Thursday was a $32 dayshift) I came in expecting the worst seeing as I'm new and I'm not a hot chick, but I had a three hundred dollar happy hour and made $51 in tips plus my hourly of seven something. Not bad for a white guy. The other cool thing is one of our door guys is a top dog with the bike gang East Bay Rats...so I got hella back. I have been to a shit load of art events, and I am already getting to the point where at any given time I generally know more people in the room than most of the peops I know who live here. Maybe I should become a promoter or something. I was in my first art show a week or so ago and my piece sold. I have my first music show tomorrow where I have to play for two hours. I practiced today so long that my fingers hurt. I am in the process of painting my room blue with a light blue stripe. My loft is already a Kermit the Frog green with a light green stripe. My huge curved wall will be a cream color so I can make art on it without distraction of some other color. Our gallery is well on its way to being done. The recording studio gets started next week. In other news I may start working with a guy who owns a gallery...which will be great. I got to sneak onto Berkely' s campus today and burn my first screen since I got here...I had the biggest smile the whole time. I didn't realize how much I missed it. You never know how much you really love something until it isn't available. I may start a band out here because I know lots of musicians, and it would be fun to play again. It seems in my short time I already know a few club owners, some gallery owners, and lots of people from art collectives around Oakland. Things are pretty hot in Oakland right now. I feel like it is what Brooklyn was a few years ago. Good things are happening, and nobody is stuck up yet. Everybody supports each other.