The Captain

The Captain had an epic cruise last night around Vancouver. The ship was full of bounty and the crew was a bunch of merrymakers. Good times - arrrrgghhh.

Ratsilo

This is great! Oz's side project band has just put together a video. A great catchy song ! I really like it.

Oz is the dude with the accordion! Enjoy

The Black Angels

DubmasterC and I headed down to the see The Black Angels the other night. It's been a while since I've seen a rowdy drone pychedelic band so I was super looking fwd to watching them. I was not dissapointed - their sound was fantastic ... loud, mega-drony, hypnotic and beautiful. Quality band for sure. Of note the drummer (blond haired girl) was really great - fab drummer.

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I got talking the dude selling the merchandise. I asked him how he liked Vancouver, he responded "Beautiful dude, but it's stays light really late and it's freaking me out". Really? Is it that different from Austin, Tx? Guess so -- I remember being in England last summer and being surprised at the extra hour of daylight in summer.

San Francisco - "It's all in the report!"

Bob Weir's Friend & American Beauty

We met these nice people in Napa - both long time residents of the Bay Area. I took a picture of them and said I'd post them on my blog. Here they are - very nice people!

San Francisco

Headed down to San Francisco last week for a developer conference. Good times learning, good times hanging out with the Frisco Kid. The conference spanned the week, but come Friday night I caught the CalTrain into downtown SF and hooked with Frisco Kid ... and the good times commenced.

SF in many ways was the start of my North American oddysey. It's very dear to me. I've spent a lot of time there over the years ... every visit great, every visit unique.

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The weekend started with a stroll around Frisco Kids hood and tasty dinner on Fillmore. I've said it once, and I'll say it again ... you can't beat great American hangouts for authenticity. They have a gravity about them that you don't find anywhere else in the world.

Next morning we head up to Napa for wine tasting. Relaxed and refreshed we both had a super good time .. we met lots of people in the winarys and had good laughs with them. Napa is beautiful ... a lot like the hillsides of Spain or Italy. The winaries are beautiful - filled with palms, mind-blowing flowers and of course - grape vines.

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On the way back we stopped by Muir woods. Well, given that John Muir is my fave naturalist and nature writer ... we just had to. We strolled amongst the massive and majestic Redwood trees ... super beautiful - super old.

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Sunday we headed to Frisco Kids gospel church - Glide - quite the experience. He's got some nice friends down there .. all positive, all characters. After church it was time for lunch on the water front then over to North Beach for blues + beers ... great afternoon session hanging out the cool dudes of North Beach listening to wailing blues ... a few Anchor Steam's later ... it was time to head back to the airport and fly into the Pacfic Northwest and Vancouver