Hello River Tuesdays

Tuesdays are the only days both my roommates and I have off. We've been going to the river almost every week, enjoying the heat in the refreshing water. On this particular day, it started dawning on us that summer is on it's tail end.

There's always a colorful crowd there. This time there were three bros lamenting the fact that they didn't bring "brewskies", and a group of very fowl mouthed children...

Duck faces:

Super Mario Bros parasite flowers:

Don't let your beer float away while cooling it in the river:

Aaand the lovebirds, of course:

Stinson Beach

Such a lovely day for the beach... sandcastles, skim boarding, reading in the sunshine, playing in the waves, eavesdropping and people watching.

Nathan buries his daughter.

Then she buries herself

Lola preferred knocking over sand castles to making them, and quickly became obsessed with the ocean itself, not wanting to leave it's side.

Do You See What Eye See?

The human brain is fascinating; we can create the image of a face in almost anything we see - clouds, rocks, trees, abstract art. This is called Pareidolia. 

I found two old fig trees in a park which instantly caught my attention and drew me in. I started seeing faces in almost every gnarl and knot I looked at. 

Ol' V-Face Turtle Mouth.

Snarly Toothed Gnome Getting Eaten By His Own Mustache.

Ghostface.

Shrunken Pumpkin Head

Platypus

Caved in Pill Face

Cow With Fish Eyes

A Very Surprised Elephant

Lola seemed drawn to it as well.

State Fair Daze

The place where all your people watching dreams come true - the California State Fair. This was our second time this year, but this time it was just the two of us and we didn't have to play a show... so it was a lot more relaxing.

The best things in fairs are free, and luckily Nathan has a love for observing humans as much as I do. Sheep people, horse people, the hall of infomercials, motocross dudes and chubby little kids licking their sticky fingers all throughout. 

Licking Mini Ponies

While we were sitting on the grass, I noticed how torn up my legs were from blackberry bushes. My knee wound from the time Nathan accidentally and drunkenly scraped me across a brick wall just magnifies the damage.

After a day of sunshine and laughter (and urban fries to wash it down), we headed back towards our car just in time to see the fireworks from the parking lot. They were setting off all the car alarms.

Fair flashback to a week and a half ago:

This was after we played a show in front of bro dudes gnawing on turkey legs, sweat oozing families chowing down a plethora of friend things, and a good amount of our friends cheering us on. The PA system was spiffy, the crowd applausey, and the stage gigantic (though it was too hot to utilize it). They promoted us as "GOD EX" but Nathan made it a point to repeat our real name "GOD SEX" a couple of times, just for good measure. We played with Backseat Lovers and Brothers Nunez, which was an absolute pleasure!

River on a Day Off

Nathan and I both happened to have a Tuesday off from work and originally planned on going to Woods lake, but decided to save that for another time and went to the river instead.

Nathan has a secret spot under the cover of a blackberry bush trail and a weeping tree.

This is the man I fell in love with.

The water was on the cold side but still pretty perfect. We sat in a shallow turn out on a bed of rocks and drank beer. Later we picked about 5-6 cups of black berries, and baked them into a pie back at Nat's house (delicious)

Later that night we went to karaoke at Old I because our friend Nick was in town. I won a candy bar for singing my heart out to Roy Orbison!

Nat and Nick duetting

35mm Film and a Very Pretty Boy

This is what takes up all my time, in case you were wondering.

E S S // Departing Friends

 My brother played at the Townhouse with his new project, E S S (mainly pronounced "ess"). It is much darker than his previous music project, Ellie Fortune, in which his songs were mostly delicate and folkish as he alternated between an angelic falsetto and a voice deep and brooding but still gentle. In E S S he explores the latter vocal style, adding elements of a dark growl and hardness. The band accompanying him adds a fullness rather than a flare, each instrument creating a new texture, almost as if they are all elements of the same instrument. They feed into each, becoming their own entity. The result is a darkness that engulfs us into itself; we have no choice but to succumb to the power and intensity of it's black beauty. 

It's definitely an outfit I have never seen him step into before, and I am excited to see where it takes him.

After smoking cigarettes with some friends, it was time to head back to the party where had previously been at our dear friends Dave and Laura's, for their moving-to-Oakland party.

Laura's boy and my boy, and their love for one another.

 Their apartment had the pure, clean beauty of being almost moved out.

Nathan got David a present:

A frisbee, since Dave's previous one got engulfed by the sea while they were playing their avid game of beach frisbee while camping.

What a gorgeous couple.

Outside, we made friends with a cat. He was big and fluffy and put up with all of us taking turns holding him.

We fed him the meat of a bear, and yelled to some bikers about it.

"A cat is eating a bear, when will you ever see that again?!"

Baby Crystal! She reminds me of a cat.. maybe it's her love of kitty meow meows shining through.

Watermelon Dress

These two -

- brighten -

- my life!

Antiquing with Bachelorettes

I met the bride-to-be, Madeline, and her bachelorette party on the jam-packed streets of a Sacramento Bastille day/Second Saturday. We watched waiters participate in a foot race, gypsy fire dancers twirling flames, and parades of zombies. We then headed over to Scout Living (1215 18th St.) to drink beers and indulge in good company.

Pictured above: fun, or in love?

Scout Living is a collective; my neighbors Alan and Serene have a section of the shop devoted to their extremely charming merchandise. Angela and I spent a good amount of time in said section, fawning over everything.

Cute glasses, knit ties, the list goes on.

I saw this adorable mobile and brought it to Angela's attention. She turned around and instantly made this face, almost crying out of pure joy and delight.

Silly girls.

Afterwords we walked to Simon's, running through sprinklers like little girls along the way. Here is the happy bride-to-be holding a new pet cat that was bought for her: