Opening the Opening

Ha Ha! 

The "Poets on Paper" opening was pretty fantastic. My class ended at 3:50pm, in Merced (123 mi from SF) - I rode my bicycle 7mi from campus to my house, sweating profusely as it was somewhere about 101 fahreneheit - packed a couple of last minute things, got in the car and set out on HWY 99, cruise control set on 65mph, and ac set on 2.

The opening was set to begin at 6:30, and I left Mercytown at 4. after a lil traffic in Castro Valley, I finally crossed the Bay Bridge right as the introductory movie treacle for Cindy McCain began. Oh, very terrible! So I switched to KALX, the UC Berkeley radio station. The gentlemen dj began talking about how the music would get all the 'playa dust' out of listeners' skin (playa, as in Burning Man, as in, the most hippie thing I've heard on KALX in at least a decade). 

Rolled up to the gallery, Canessa, which is in North Beach, apparently once on the edge of Yerba Buena Cove. I missed some people I'd like to have seen. Clayton Banes, for example. He's such a nice guy. So, I got in there, got to chatting with w/Brent C. and a fella that I recognize from Moe's Books. He had a nice Blue Oyster Cult t-shirt, and I asked him whether he was a fan. Sadly, no. I didn't think I could properly describe why BOC is essential. and important listening for the poet, thought I wanted to. If you're out there, email Mrs Maybe and let's chat about it.

Scott did a great job hanging our Typewriter Drawings - they looked real good. Also, a few of the panels (as you can see from the photo) have asterisks which are hard to see from a distance, and it was real great to see people get real close to the work. It made the work make even more sense in the gallery, fortuitously enough. 

Had a nice chat with Earle and Sandra, about riding the train through the Central Valley. A nice chat w/Brent about pragmatism and utopian drawing and architecture, and w/Megan about a writers' retreat at my house, and the word "upthrusty."

Afterward, Scott and I drove home, listenting to that Slavoj Zizek on the radio. Pretty interesting, and has that ol' E. Euro Intellectual voice that makes 'em slobber in the Bay Area. 

We had burritos and talked about how much San Francisco has changed since the 80s/90s. Makes my writing pretty much always in the grief zone.

So, funny to be doing visual art. I'm so glad Scott goaded me into it, and sort of surprised that it's not exactly horrible.

-Jared