Oh my, it’s gonna be a good one this time!

backstory: i don’t really know why i started this apology stuff, but it was a regular feature in many of my posts in those days. i had a lot of guilt, i know that. and a lot of friends.

Well, the pathetic lack of communication on my end is inexcusable. Not keeping my web site updated is akin to kicking kittens.

Really, a wider area of blame must be cast upon me like a gill net. I am spotty at best when it comes to staying in touch. Do I have a phone phobia? Maybe, but what kind of lame excuse is that? Daniel W! Brenna C! TYR! Tom R! Lauren R! A tiny little partial list of people I have been neglecting.

Now I have co-workers, which means a rich, new realm of blame-gamery. I get cranky! I am impatient and swear, alot. I pass the buck. I level people with a withering gaze when the questions come too quickly. I freak out and wave my arms from time to time. I leave my coffee cup full of grungy evaporating brew. Eww.

Oh god, T, I’m six months past the Winky Bag return date. I am bad, bad.

Don’t be shy! If you need an apology from me, tell me! You can tap into the deep well-spring of guilt that constantly flows through me. Honestly, I feel kind of bad for just being on earth! Exploit it baby. You’ll feel better. By the way, why am I so guilty?–I was raised an atheist! I don’t really know, but part of it I think can be traced to my Grandma Dora and her knack for making her grandchildren feel like greedy freeloaders a good part of their lives. That’s all I’ll say–I am not stupid enough to trace my perpetual guilt to any family members still living.

Nora G is my friend. I’m ever so glad we are in the same town again. We have been living strangely parallel lives the past couple of years. I was a crazed fortune teller in her new film. My new roommate Courtney was the star. We have a lot of East Bay Mystery Time together. You have to come and live in the East Bay to find out more.

I went to Las Vegas with Doreen, Matt, Lisa, Jon, Mike, and Doreen’s bro and sis in law last October. We celebrated Doreen’s birthday. Jon, Lisa, Mike and I went to see the “…abysmal jiggle show” Crazy Girls. We stayed at the glamorous Paris Hotel. [picture missing]

These are the Dutch boys. They are friends of Danny and Alison. I took them to the Cliff House area and took this cute picture of them with my diposable Polaroid. The Camera Obscura is in the background. [picture missing] SPEAKING OF WHICH…

These are my cohorts in the FRIENDS OF THE GIANT CAMERA OBSCURA COMMITTEE. From left: Dave W, fireeater, showman, and progenitor of Suicide Club, which begat Cacophony which begat Burning Man; Tom R, tireless Camera Saver; and Chris DeM, mad scientist.

backstory: i got involved with saving the Giant Camera only a month or so after moving back to san francisco, summer 1999. the owners of the cliff house were going to trash it, and ultimately we managed to get the Camera registered with the National Registry of Landmarks. you can see a couple articles here and here — I still use my “save the giant camera” speech as a writing example for job apps. i have a little bloom of pride, looking back at this. i helped to launch a similar campaign to preserve the musee mechanique — the musee lived, but i don’t think i had a lot to do with that one.

Nora and me last Halloween. We were Giant Space Entities. A successful costume, and one in which I got to be rude to hippies. [picture missing]