Long Distance BFF.

I have a lot of friends. Some I'm really close to, others are just slightly above acquaintances.
Most of my close friends are the other musicians I choose to play with, mostly because I'd rather play music than have a night life. After reading Jessica's post earlier, I thought I'd write about someone who's made a huge impact on my life, but also someone I don't see too often. My friend; the amazing Mike Peterson.



It was sometime in ealry 2005. I don't remember the exact date, forgive me. Our friends in Cowboy Killer had just flipped their van outside of Sacramento while heading out on what was to be their first tour (incidentaly, their last one too.) Matt called us and asked if we would want to save their northwest tour by jumping on board and we all us the T.O.D. van. Biaggio and I had just been up there for the first time a month or two before that and had a blast, so it was an easy "Yes!"
I don't remember where we played at the first night, though I'll say it was probably in Portland. The 2nd night, we were to play in Seattle at some place called "The Asshole Castle" which turned out to be a house (naturally, I don't think anyone would name their bar or venue such a thing.)
Admitidley, I was in a bad mood for one reason or another...and not exactly thrilled about playing at a punk house. I'm sure laughing out loud at the Orange with Black Bats painted drum kit didn't make me look too friendly and neither did the fact that I approaced everything in the house like it had v.d.
We were first to play and our set went pretty well. After taking our gear down, I went outside for a cigarette.
I'm sitting on the porch, enjoying my smoke, when this crazy looking fucking lumberjack mountain man walks up to me. We make small talk, but no mention of him performing or anything. For some reason, he strikes me as a really nice guy despite the fact that he looks like he could go insane on someone for crossing him.



A couple of hours later, I'm outside partying when my friend Dan runs over and practically shouts "Hey! You've gotta go inside and see this!"

I went in and had what they call a "religious experience" when I watched SEAN play! Mike was laying it in to the Orange with Black Bats painted drum kit! In between songs, he slammed beers and pounded joints! I couldn't believe THIS GUY was fucking shit up so hard on THIS DRUMSET! His partner in crime; Luke is the shit too, but that's obvious when you listen to or watch them. These guys are one of my favorite bands ever! Moving on...

Since then, I've gotten to know Mike very well. I've stayed at his house, got to know his (now ex) wife, met his Mom, and have partied the baby off with everything under the sun with this guy!



He teaches drums to people of all ages at the fabulous SEATTLE DRUM SCHOOL.



He has the best decorated house in the entire tri-state area!








His cat, Ralph is awesome too!



He's my hero for several reasons, including the ones listed above, but also because he's toured the world, has great taste in music and drums, HATES RUSH!, loves to party, and has a weird sense of humour! All things I can relate to!



Another thing about Mike, is that he makes everything! Ever seen a saw blade clock? Ever known someone to put one of those circular submarine windows in their "saloon" that they've built themselves?



Not to mention the cool things he makes for his friends! Apparently, he was out one night, saw some poster and decided that the guy on the poster looked like me! So he took the posters and pasted one on a painted piece of board, gave me cowboy boots and a wiener, put a hook on it, and gave it to me. He has another that he has pasted on the bottom of an empty 12 pack box.



So much for my first contribution to Topical Thursday. Me rambling about one of my favorite people that you'l probably never meet. Unless you want to take drum lessons in the northwest, go to a SEAN show, or see The Accused on tour!

Best friends...

...are the people in your life who can go away for weeks, months, even years...and upon your next meeting, everything is like you were hanging out yesterday.

I love my friends. A lot of them are the best.

sb - bff

my sisters - lana & zeina.  

my mom is pregnant with me.  i wonder if she knew that her 3 daughters would be such good friends on top of being sisters... it's like i was born with 2 guaranteed bffs... i find that lucky.  

these are my best friends

I met Biaggio, Rob, and Catherine on New Year's Eve of 2004. They are the funniest people I know, we have done a whole lot of partying together and have been on many crazy adventures. Catherine and I lived one block away from each other in San Francisco, but we didn't know each other then. Biaggio is Rob's band mate and Catherine is his girlfriend. They play in an instrumental two piece band, Times of Desperation. Since then we have been everywhere together; every scary part of every ghetto in the latest hours of the night, and tons buildings we judged as structurally unsound in the event of an earthquake. I wonder how many hours we have spent in Biaggio's van together? Most recently they played at Skinner's opening at 111 Minna in San Francisco. It was wonderful to see so many faces from Sacramento there. We went on tour with them in the Northwest, it was my first time in Seattle. We drank absinthe, took pills every day, smoked a million joints, and slept in the van and on the ground. I hope we move away soon, Sacramento is a poisonous place where no one ever gets tired of anything.


Rob shredding his drums apart.

This is Biaggio in our friend Mike's saloon in Seattle. His house looks like a gold rush museum.

This is Catherine after some Absinthe.

Looking related.

Rob using his Argus and it's matching light meter in Portland.

In Seattle.



The boys in the saloon.

Biaggio, Rob, and I in a basement somewhere.

BFF - Jessalyn

March 2007.
Java Lounge. Sacramento, California.
Photograph courtesy of Jeannie MacDonald.

Jocelyn Jade & Jessalyn Joy:
born 10 days apart in the month of January,
both spent their earliest childhoods in the city of San Francisco
& from the moment they found each other in the
foothills of the Sierra Nevadas eight years ago, inseparable:
you are my twin star

am i human

BFF

Alex

Terra

Debbie

Vi

Erica

Aram

some of the people I love and trust, and who inspire me endlessly

Tough Love Since '01

2 days ago - graciela.

My best friend, Mimi, moved away to Hawaii on my birthday.

BFF -- St.Ofle

Summer - Jessalyn

That was the summer I woke on the solstice to find teeth under my pillow. I asked if they were yours. You patiently explained that they could not be, opened your mouth wide to show that there were none missing. After tea and toast I cut my hair very short, long chestnut curls covering my tanned feet and the speckled bathroom tile. I mailed half of my locks to Anna and the other half I buried with the teeth on the left bank of the river. Before you left you gave my sister a silk bag filled with plum stones and said to her, 'Thank you.' To me you gave the third of the salt lessons : say what you couldn't say, say what you couldn't say and move on.

am i human

Summer - Michelle

White Wine Sangria. Yum.

(let me know if you want the recipe!!!)

SUMMER

La Garriga, Spain

Summer

summer HOLGA st.ofle

Underground II

I'm probably breaking some rule now by posting a second time in one day, but I realized after my previous post that this is the 20th anniversary of Tienanmen Square. Amazing how things have changed in two decades, and how an underground movement has surfaced so massively. Thousands of people came out for a vigil, and the pictures are outstanding for a country that still puts down any movement it considers dangerous:

versus

Underground

Simbarashe thought it would be a cliche to take pictures of the NYC underground for this post, but I did it anyway, not in the least because I spend a great deal of time down there. I was going to make a collage, but Photoshop and I are not as close as I thought. So here are a few (mostly unadulterated) shots:

(semi) underground

st.ofle -- underground

(RUN) UNDERGROUND

bored in Finland pt. II (run) from chelsea wolfe on Vimeo.

sb - UNsafe

I can't even imagine how these Palestinian children would respond to the topic of 'safe.'  I can only imagine it would break our hearts into a million pieces.  I can only hope with our current administration that things will get better...

I found this photo on this blog http://a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com/

love.s

Where do you feel safe these days? (Patricia)

SAFE- Sapphire Cordial

I used to be scared of everything. I was afraid to live on my own, to take risks, to let go of old habits.  I always knew this was unreasonable, but was so used to living this way that I didn't know how to adapt. And in a way I didn't want to. 

Living in a small town and seeing only the people I had known for years made me feel safe, and safety is a nice feeling, but only to a point. Without any challenges, I soon grow lethargic and my life becomes repetitive. It took me a long time to come out of my shell, and I still have a long way to go, I'm sure. 

One day a few years ago I was riding with my mom down 80 West, and we were discussing this. 

She pointed out the flower bushes growing in the highway median. She told me to imagine how they must feel, bombarded constantly by speeding cars, unprotected from the elements, sprayed with chemicals. But they weren't shying away or withered. They were blooming brightly and their branches were winding around and overtaking the manmade dividers, unhindered by their surroundings.

What can one accomplish being afraid to live?

Safety is an illusion anyhow. At any moment I could get hit by a car, my house could get broken into, I could get held up at gunpoint, I could have a brain hemorrhage and drop dead . Or those things could never happen. To live in fear accomplishes nothing.

Every time I drive through Davis now, I notice those bushes and I remember how fucking much I love my mom.

Safe - Michelle

The other day, I told my roommates that every time I go to the top of the stairs, to run down to my bedroom, and it is PITCH black down there, my heart leaps into my chest and I get really freaking scared. They both replied JUST TURN ON THE LIGHT SWITCH DUMMIE! Which obviously I do, every time, before I actually go downstairs. But first, I have a mini panic attack, because how am I to know if it is on or not before I go to the doorway and look down. Anyway, my point is I am scared of the dark and I am 28 years old. Even in my own house, and even when I am not alone. Most of the time I feel safe, but sometimes, not.

Safe- Jessica/Rob

Safety is an illusion. When you least expect it a stranger can cut your window screen and enter your home or force you into their car and drive away. Everyday there are stories of missing people all over the world, they just disappear. Some of them show up, some of them don't, and some bodies are never found. I like to scare myself, I imagine myself in dangerous situations when I am alone, in the shower, when I leave my window open at night. I indulge in my fears and find it fun and inspiring.

I listen to acidcop's giallo terrore, and savor the feeling of heightened senses. It's a soundtrack to an old Italian horror movie complete with glass shatters, unearthly screams, murders, climaxes, moments of extreme tension and eerie melodies. It makes my pulse race and sends my imagination into overdrive.

Now what?

I think I lost the key to my safe, which has all my important documents in it. Now I can't do my fafsa. I may have a hard time getting that driving permit, which I had planned on getting today.

Safe - graciela.

Moped safety regulation for the Metropolitan Area of Casablanca

safe - st.ofle

I think people house the idea of being "home" more than items or places sometimes.
I say this because it is human to associate the idea of being home with the idea of being safe.
Safe to me has a nasty edge to it, and people call that complacency.
I don't particularly like feeling safe

but when I do, here's where I do it.



(Polaroid of my bed)

SAFE

Safe?

Safe - Jessalyn

You cried when you met me at the restaurant because parking had been so hard. I held your slim fingers and kissed their nails across the table. You swam with me when the lake was cold and deep and you didn't want to. I wrapped you in a towel and fixed you tea, kept my arms around you until you stopped shivering. You read Don Quixote and I read my horoscope. Every blonde hair trapped on my pillow I saved. When I found lavender on my doorstep in the afternoon, I knew it was from you. Ivory soap is still the safest scent in the world to me.

am i human

A REVIEW, & OTHER THOUGHTS ON THE WORD "SAFE"

What the F Brussels Airlines.
Two places come to mind when I think of where people like to feel most safe - in their homes, and when they're on an airplane.
I have no problem flying, I actually enjoy it (looking out at the wings and thinking about how people thought to put this heavy machinery together that can actually lift off the ground?? magnificent), and I've been flying a lot lately, so it's been fantastic to find companies like Scandinavian Airlines which are incredibly efficient at what they do. Organized, to the point, comfortable.
Taking Brussels Airlines to Spain the other day however was a disconcerting experience from start to finish - the chaotic check-in desk, the security people making fun of what I was wearing as they patted me down, the flight attendants coming in and out of the plane and cockpit in hushed, confused voices, the baggage workers having a yelling argument outside the windows as they loaded up the plane.
And you know people, the passengers start to look around with shifty eyes, they start to get hostile and stress each other out even more.
Anyway. Yes, I was already in a bad mood when I arrived to your place of business BrusselAir (how could I not be after only one hour of sleep and having to leave Paris?), but you are a huge FAIL when it comes to being good at what you do. Sorry.


(Air Baltic is not a FAIL. They are great.)

ok and

Safe. mmm I don't think about this word much. A similar concept maybe is to be at peace or "content". I feel that way when I'm on a good path and my future makes sense. I feel it when I achieve something I've been working towards. And most of all I feel it when I get to fall asleep next to the person I love. Beds are incredibly safe, beautiful places.

Self Portrait.