This is me and Vern Rumsey at his show at 1-2-3-4 Go! Records. I had kept in touch with Vern on the phone (and FB) for 10 years, and he almost put out a record on my record label when I lived in Austin. I’d been meaning to get much closer with him, which I did in 2019.

Ellen was the guitarist for Nopes and is surreally gifted. This night she visited me and we listened to records. I played her my recordings of Zdrastvootie and also my favorite Unwound record (Fake Train).

This was from the debut screening of Ellen and Alex’s new TV talk show “Talk with Moomar”, which is a show where Ellen played an alien who would abduct Oakland musicians and then interview them.

Rizzy, Tommy, and Cole

Ian (who is an extremely gifted audio engineer) had become a soundman for Dildo Factory, and he showed me how the new PA system there could be controlled by a smartphone.

Deth of the Cool

Ian, in his recording studio control room.

Rizzy and Ian of Deimos Records, and also the band 2 Lazy Boys.

Dany

Mila

Marc

Ethan

Bopha and Josie of Rogers & Rosewater Soup Company. Bopha’s company feeds the homeless.

Josie and me

Josie

Jenny

Jenny and me

Chris Stroffolino, at his first poetry reading in 10 years, at Pegasus Books in Berkeley.

Me and Chris Stroffolino

This is saxophonist Ben Hartman at a show for his band Cheap Charms. Ben is insightful and tender, but I remember when I took this photo I was kind of ranting to him about how Ben’s other band Old Time Relijun (Olympia/PDX)’s frontman Arrington de Dionyso is arguably the last remaining contributor of “robust heterosexual male sexual energy” in American indie rock music. It’s a very frustrating but complex/loaded issue. I think a lot of the larger cultural developments of the last few years were very long overdue, but something important and vital has been lost, and it’s tragic.

This is Cheap Charms violinist Artur Friedhoff, who is from Barcelona, Spain. Professionally, he makes violins in his shop.

This is me and Shaun, who is the singer for Middle Aged Queers. I got interested in the band because of their name, and attended their debut live performance. They were really good. They were like indie rock compatible pop punk.

This is photographer Terry Gatechair, at a Nocturnal Habits (Justin Trosper and Sara Lund’s current band) show at the Ivy Room. It was really cool meeting him, and we seem to have the same music tastes.

Phil and Chani

Chani was “on Cloud 9” because of the Nocturnal Habits show. The band played a couple Unwound songs, during which I deeply wished Vern was playing bass.

It was great talking with Chani and Phil, because they are the same age as me, so they share my cultural reference point.

Ryan and Maria

Take the 10 most emotionally vibrant and critically intelligent people you know and pack them into one person, and that’s kind of how I feel about Brontez. My friendship with him has deepened me and expanded my consciousness.

This was at a talk Brontez Purnell and Sophia Wang gave in Berkeley talking about how their Brontez Purnell Dance Company got started.

Me and Vern Rumsey

I didn’t know these ladies, but they came to Vern’s show at Oakland.Secret and they were really funny and sweet. They appreciated Vern’s sense of humor, a kind of humor I generally don’t see in younger people.

This guy is the frontman for the band Perhapsy.

Olivia

Danielle

Ellen

Michael Bridgmon

I visited Jon as he was preparing to leave Oakland to move to LA to be with his girlfriend.

I met up with Tim Green before his show at The Night Light for the band Drug Apts he was playing in on their tour.

At Down at Lulu’s.

Marc is a really good DJ. If I ever get married, I think I want him to be the DJ for the wedding.

Forrest is a really talented film director.

Forrest and Luis

Luis

Luis and Shaun

Kelvin

This was my 39th bday party, my first ever large dinner party, and my last bday before Covid hit the world. My friend Erin unbelievably generously did the cooking and provided a lot of the chairs for the party. I want to have more brunch/dinner parties, but I can’t do that until Covid lets up.

Luis stayed after everyone else had left for my birthday, and we hung out for several more hours. It was really fun. I gifted him this ‘Hand to Man Band’ record, which I recorded and released on my Post-Consumer label.

Danielle convinced me to go hiking with her at the crack of dawn. We have a good hiking dynamic – we stayed mostly silent.

I had dinner with Olivia (Danielle’s twin sister).

Denney helped me move a ton of heavy stuff to my storage facility with his van, sort of as repayment for me making a music video for his band.

At a Moira Scar show

Martin Bisi came back to the Bay Area to perform a show in SF (with the “Martin Bisi Band” he organized, pictured here) for a festival called “How to Destroy the Universe”.

Ethan Port (who is a longtime member of the band Savage Republic) and Colleen, the organizers of the “How to Destroy the Universe” experimental music festival.

Me and Martin

Oakland DIY music celebrity BG (singer for the band undō) came late in the show. They said they had been playing (the game) Magic, “as I always am.”

Josie came over for dinner.

This is Mike. His record label is ‘Ratskin Records’, which releases records by many QTPOC experimental electronic musicians.

Ryanaustin

Malichi

Luis and I were having super animated conversations about music production and professional audio equipment.

Zose and Brontez had the really brilliant idea of having a punk music show at Steamworks in Berkeley.

I didn’t know Zose before I attended the show at Steamworks, but he and I got along great. He’s an incredibly sweet guy.

Dawn’s bday

Rizzy and Ian make a “Christmas Record” every Christmas, which I have extremely enthusiastically received the last couple years.