HOMEPOKE: How to Make a Stick & Poke Tattoo on the Cheap & Easy

In another didactic video with Hyphie, Laura provides a detailed companion to the first stick and poke tutorial from her home parlor on Treat and 25th.

"Keep it local, keep it awesome" - #94110

The outtakes are here.

Tamale Ringwald Does SF Pride 2010

We had the good fortune of meeting a dude named Tree after a string of missed connections on Saturday night. We followed this head-to-toe whiteglitterfur unicorn to a big Pride rave in the dance space above 24th and Mission. We ran into many friends: Daniela's grocer, present + former Henrique lovers, besparkled Alan who was by far the best dressed, and our very own long, lost, crazyeyed Arabella (!!!!!). She's been living, working, and converting to Judaism in Berkeley with her girlfriend for the past year. Wild.

Dancing continued for hours. A drag queen later anointed Yoram with a tranny name (see vid below)! Others were just plain sassy. We boogied until we got shin splints and could no longer take the cancer flavor of Danish's disgusting watermelon gum. When it was time to leave, Laura and I learned the hard way that the giant orgy in the side room had spilled out and was taking place on top of our stash of stuff. I shimmied my jacket out from under a dude's ass and Laura eventually wiggled her bag free from another lucky guy's head. Glitter! BJs! Electronic music! The whole scene was pretty dead-on for Pride in San Francisco.

Next Laura, Henrique, Danish, and I tried to go to Delano's to get supplies to make delicious fruity juice. It's not open at 6am apparently! Instead we went back to Treat to make "BROmosas" and listen to the best/funniest Burner mix by DJ Shakti Bliss (omfg) with Charlie.

We caught a few ZzZzZzZzzzz then woke up in time to meet back up with the posse at the Knockout for the MEX-ARG game, though too tired to vuvu. My homie from pre-Pavement drinks was tending bar and boiling weenies (his secret to delicious dawgs: hot Anchor Steam). I confess to the narco-consumption of the following items during the game: one extra spicy bloody mary, one egg and cheese sandwich, one pint of root beer, one super veggie taco, and one and a half REAL MEAT "tube steaks." After the game it was all trazodone and slumbers for the remains of my Sunday.

Happy Holiday! Vamos Messi!


PS: BROMOSA RECIPE
- 1 40 oz. bottle of Miller High Life (luckily I already had one of these chillin for me in the Treat refrigerator - $2.25 out the door! Best deal in town!)
- 1 carton of Ruby Red grapefruit juice (must be RUBY)
Pour 1 part brew with 1 part juice into a glass Ball jar. Mix with a chopstick. Toast the night as the sun rises to DJ Shakti Bliss's mellifluous "Unicorns on a Soggy Night."

I Left My Heart in San Francisco (How to Make Stick and Poke Tattoo Part I)

Let the countdown begin: I am moving to New Orleans in five weeks. While am super excited to get rolling on my life's next adventure I sure am feeling sad about leaving this great city and all of my wonderful friends here.

Laura accepted my request for a stick and poke tattoo and we finally got down to doing it. It's a small heart above the "birthmark" on my right forearm - a tender token to remember my 2.5 years of Mission living. This was the first stick and poke for both of us. Laura poked the whole thing free hand (no pens!) over the course of an hour. It didn't hurt at all since I used to be a cutter (har har har)!

I shot a more thorough instructional vid with Laura and Hyphie this week. It's still "rendering" so I leave you with the "how to" of mine for now:

Calling All Shadrows

On Saturday afternoonI vuvuzela-ed over to Dolores Park with Daniela and her homeboys for some Pride Weekend sunshine after catching the sad (secretly happy) USA-Ghana game. Many lovely faces were present, including Andres, who was up from LA for the holiday. In fact, EVERYONE lovely was there EXCEPT Alex (he was too careless to make the drive up from LA himself).

To: Alex
Love: Your Fanclub (Andres, Daniela, Ruby, sorta Pete, BJ)

Berkeley, CA: Gold Soundz

Pete, Phillip, and I met up with my favorite DJ Jamie Jams and the Knockout crowd at Casanova on Friday night and took the BART to Berkeley for the Pavement show (!!!!!) at the Greek Theater. We met up with Hyphie and made our way to the edge of the bleachers for the best view over the standing pit. THE SHOW WAS MAGICAL!! I WISH I WERE THERE AGAIN RIGHT NOW. Malkmus and the band were as well-rehearsed as ever - every song was spot on. They played a great mix of tunes and the set was super long. The set design was simple and dreamy. The Greek was enchanting (it was packed but apparently not sold out - made me feel like an idiot for purchasing my ticket 5 min. after the pre-sale opened in January!!!!!!). Everyone I've ever met in the Bay Area was standing somewhere out there in the crowd. I pretty much cried and hollered the whole time. This music is super sentimental for me. It's the o.g. soundtrack from high school through college until now. I was freaking out so hard Phillip had to tell me to calm down for the sake of the dudes next to us.

I had big plans for a big vid where I was going to interview a ton of fanboys and fangirls about the show but I was honestly so enthralled with the tunez that I could only muster a few clips from the set (you can hear me drooling on the audio).

Stick and Poke Bloopers

Outtakes from the stick and poke vid ("how to" vid coming soon!):

used this as a distraction

China Camp State Park, CA: Making Campfood with Hyphie

Behold the next installment of "____ with Hyphie." Believe me, roasting thoroughly cooked weenies with a crisp outside crunch is harder than it looks. I know this because I tried it myself with less success!

China Camp State Park, CA: SUMMER SOLSTICE OGGACHAKA

Samantha's "tambo" - a spirit pole with another name that I don't want on my blog!

Last night we gathered in the Marin woods along the San Pedro Bay for pagan rituals and Christian baby sacrifice on the longest day/shortest night of the year. Samantha and I booked the site late one Monday night a few weeks ago when we were feeling particularly inspired by "nature." Plans unfolded from there. The final roll call included Henrique, Laura, Shrimp, Jared, Katie, Seth, Samantha, Phillip, Pete, Steve, Hyphie, Vivek, Melinda, and yours truly.

China Camp is conveniently located just past the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin. The temperature stayed in the high 50's all night so we hardly needed sweaters/kimonos. We roasted beer "battered" weenies in the fire pit and toasted the night with lambic. Supper of course invited a pack of paunchy raccoons who were eager to feast on our spoils. This didn't bother me because the raccoon is my "spirit animal." Nature boys and girls among us slept without tents under the stars. The warm solstice air was a pleasant departure from prior camping experiences in relative tundra-like conditions. The only buzzkill was the friendly (fascist?) park ranger who put a damper on our laughter and music (2 tambos! 1 bongo! 1 drum! 1 accordion! 1 mini guitar! 1 wash board! 2 maracas! - am I forgetting anything??) around eleven o'clock. The dynamic of conversation sure changes when outdoor voices are reduced to shouting whispers.

This morning we woke up refreshed and made it back to the city in no time flat!

Homie Come Home!

My super-homie and room mate Samantha is finally home tonight after a week on the AIDS Ride. 7Duncan hasn't been the same without her - fangirl signs are a MUST!

Bolinas, CA: Hi Nature! Good to See Ya Again!

Jared, Jared, Henrique, Laura and I took Coco on a day trip to Bass Lake on Sunday. It was super fun, even for the city kids among us. The highlight was a tie between the rope swing (check out Jared's Greg Louganis skills!) and a fellow bather's insane American flag bikini. The lowlight was when we ravenously stormed the Marin City IGA in search of sustenance (rock bottom is scarfing down soggy deli sandwiches at the CA lottery stand near the automatic doors). I think Pachamama is the only real match for my boundless energy.

I'm working on improving my vidz skills. It appears that the key to making a pretty movie is NOT including the original audio. Gah!

You Know I'm Gunna Miss You

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Weekend Update

This weekend was (mostly) fun and summer-y:

Kram, Henrique, Samantha, Laura, and I met up with Hyphy and co. at the monthly Art Murmur in Oakland on Friday night. I'm not wild about going out in Oakland because the bars close too early and one losses a lot of time going to/fro on BART. That said, Art Murmur is fun if only for the lax open container/public urination rules. It's also fun because it's such a scene with inevitable run-ins with long lost friends. Afterwards, I jammed with Kram and then we went to a "90s" hip-hop night. I am so pissed about this that I am going to save my rant for a time when I can afford to raise my blood pressure.

I spend Saturday practicing being still for many hours at the Korean bath house in Japantown. Imperial Day Spa is a great no-frills place to spend the day alone relaxing and working through issues. I went to Debaser at night and it was just what I needed.

We went to SF Indie Mart at the Parkside on Sunday. It was like Etsy and Dolores Park exploded onto the sidewalk. Items that decidedly need to go away: mustache crafts, Burner fashion, ANTLERS. I did however but a really rad crystal ring after a few bloody mary dranks. I'm going to charge that badboy so hard when we go on our Solstice 2010 glamping trip! After Potrero we went back to Treat Suite for a killer jam session (though I didn't jam, I just drank). Christy is a badass drummer!

See you on the 21st, Pacha!

New York, NY: Always Raving

Shrimp, Lauren, Kati, and I met Machine aka Brolan at one of his homie's parties in the downstairs room of Gallery Bar on my last night in town (morning of departure). At first I was skeptical because I HATE house music but then it got late and the resident DJ made it c-c-c-crunk. It was like being at a rad show in SF except 20 ZILLION TIMES BETTER because there were ZERO Burners there - only normal, all-walks-of-life New Yorkers (not even LES-ers) getting funky. Also! What a coincidence that the guest DJ was 94110.

Shrimp and I closed the party then took our sweet little time getting back to Lauren's. My best friend found out she missed her AM flight back to SF after 2 hours on the A train to JFK. Ouch. Party on!

Gap '93 Resort

Last I checked Doomberg sez no P-funks indoors starting 4/03. Eh-hem

Shrimpdress

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New York, NY: Homeostasis

I finally figured out how to make these youtube vidz directly through the Flipcam software. They aren't as "high production" as the iMovie vidz (see "Homeroast!" and "Getting Fried with Hyphy") but the resolution is much better. It takes 5 seconds to slap clips together with this software. I'm pretty much sold.

This visit was such a lovefest - words can't even do it justice. I love/hate that I don't think about San Francisco for a second when I am in New York. This makes me feel better about moving soon. It also makes me question myself because I really do love San Francisco when I'm there. I guess it's just a fact of being a person who LOVES LIFE.

Some adventures are missing (shooting vidz all the time sort of gets in the way of "being present" - ha!) but here is a little "just the facts" tour of some scenes from my visit home. I only wish I remembered to take some footage of my beautiful sister's high school graduation:


One afternoon I took a walk with Lauren from my house to her house. We stopped for a nostalgic brew at Local 187, my home during the great World Cup 2002 summer.




Next there is a tour of my grammar and high school. Lauren, Sasha, and I went back for a farewell reception for one of our teachers. We took the opportunity to relive some important elements of our years there.




The following footage is of the poorly-lit Frying Pan, which was the first stop on and endless night of drinking with Claire, the ultimate champ. It's amazing how uncharted that space remains. Where else would you find a moldy fruit platter below the DJ booth on the bottom floor of an old ship? I guess this is why the yuppies drink on the doc.




Heather, Nikki, and I spend the night at the Russian bath house in Flatbush. It was VERY relaxing. I highly recommend it. It's hard for me to relax but this did the trick.




Here is a vid from a night of kicking it on the sidewalk and on the fire escape with Rosie and Masha. This clip runs on a bit too long but I think it captures the best of NYC's hot and sweaty summer night.




I went to see Marina Abramovic with Heather. Absolutely amazing. I was a real hater going into it but it was truly a special experience. It "changed" me! (also I know there is a typo in the opening credit. I made the clip when I was flying home on zero hours of sleep and no ADD rx).




Alex Taylor took me out for a schnazzy dinner at Commerce in the Greenwich Village around the corner from our beloved Chumley's (rip). We then went for a few whiskeys at Kettle of Fish, which is sort of a mess but a good place for a pre-subway cocktail, and I iced Lauren's bro at Daddy-O. Alex and I high-tailed it uptown for a 2am tour of the Whitney Biennial. I don't care if it's corny but the Whitney has always been my favorite museum.




New York is huge but I always run into friends on the street! I found Nick DeMarco (of 94110)smacking on a Mister Softee on Broadway and Spring! I caught Austin riding his bike home from the ferry!




I spent Memorial Day with my long, lost friend Lina Marin (2 intense 2 blog!) and Claire and Nazli. We met Sandra (♥) and Samantha then schelped out to Bushwick for a BBQ at Leslie's house. What a treat to see my starni Dee Dee on her way to Paris and finally meet famous Emily. Masha, Nikki, Heather, and Meg came too.




On my last night in the city I went over to Alex and Hannah's new pad in Prospect Heights for a dinner party with Katie and Elana and miscellaneous (not miscellaneous, really just Aidan and Blake) Vassholes. Hannah cooked us a delicious dinner, which she more or less instructs us how to create on this video.




xx!

Millerton, NY: How to Glam Camp in the Country

We spent Memorial Day weekend glam camping at Sasha's country house in Millerton, New York. Having moved through a zillion apartments in my life, it's really the only land in the world with which I have any continuity. Sasha and I used to come up for the weekend when we were kids to frolic around in the fields. It became the site of our summer parties as we grew into teenage degenerates.

This year's opening weekend upheld the Millerton tradition: I think we maxed out at 17 bodies sleeping in the guest house with a few Boston dudes in a tent outside plus whomever else crashed in the main house. I pretty much boogied for 36-hours straight only stopping to kick Tyler's ass in a heated game of lawn tennis and for an occasional dip in the pool. We iced bros and had massive bonfire. The Source Vol. 2 and like music was on heavy rotation. Darby and co. prepared multi-course candlelit feasts for 30. We kept it pretty glamorous despite the odds (elements! bros! sloppiness! "root"!) against us. Everyone loved (or hated!) the tambo by the end of the weekend.