I ate alone at the Spar last Sunday morning. I was still up and wanted Bethany to join me but she wasn't answering her phone.

This is this really nice girl Megan who sells produce she grew herself, outside of the thrift store Dumpster Values on Sunday mornings.

Bethany called me while I was eating at the Spar, saying she wanted to meet afterwards and get some coffee. We ended up going to the coffee shop she used to work at and had gotten fired from because the new management sucks. She is a really amazing barista and when I heard she had gotten fired I picketed the business all by myself on a Friday afternoon. I had the moral support of my friend Peter and also this guy Guido who is from Buenos Aires. The Christian bikers who happened to congregate outside of the business also supported me that day.

Bethany tends to have a messy apartment so we really see eye to eye on that front.

We don't have a sexual relationship but I often find myself waking up at Bethany's place.

We went to this surprise party that Kate threw for her long-time boyfriend Bruce. They are both from Western Pennsylvania, I think from a real rural area. Kate is 22 I think and Bruce just turned 29. Bethany was real nervous about going to the party because Thea was probably going to be there. Thea has recently broken up with Peter and Peter had found Bethany really special, which hurt Thea's feelings. Bethany conducted herself extremely well at the party, making especially good friends with Kate and Heather. Heather is 31 I think, has three kids, and works at the coffee shop I have applied to work at. Heather had noticed at one point while talking to Bethany that I pulled away from their conversation when they were talking about body stuff. I explained to her that I figured they wanted to have 'girl talk'. She said that's a non-issue when around 'femmy guys' which I guess I am one of. Heather is extremely charming and she disperses it omni-directionally (everywhere at the same time). Kate is also extremely charming but with her I found it is most potent in the few brief moments I have been alone with her. One time she kissed me on the cheek after I prepared an alcoholic beverage for her, and it gave me goose bumps. The week after the party Peter arranged a meeting between Thea and Beth, and they saw that they were both great people, that there didn't need to be tension between them. At one point towards the end of the party, Heather and Kate and Bethany got together in the yard, and then left to go on some kind of spirit journey as the moon was quite full. Things got really quiet with it just being guys left, and one guy even said 'It's so lonely now.' Bruce just sort of laughed and said 'The women get naked and they run away.'

Bethany has a much smaller music collection than I do, but she really loves music. Her best friend last year had ran away with half of her CD's. She still says he's her 'other' though.

This night I got 'dressed up' which I never do. I don't think I tend to look scuzzy, but I don't tend to try very hard to look snazzy either. In contrast, this gay young man Robbie who I am friends with always looks fantastic. It 's an unusual dedication and it is rarely pulled off well.

I took this photo of Josh Brown and Robin Dietz immediately after we ran into each other in front of the venue I had organized a show for them in that night. They told me that they had just decided to get married and that I was the second person to know. Josh was probably the most masculine guitar slinger in Santa Cruz indie rock (whatever that means) before he left for Los Angeles to be with Robin. Josh is so fucking cocky that he can be really hard to talk to. Sort of like it's hard to feel friendly with him other than this distant but comical way. Robin has a very acidic sense of humor and I think that is one of the hinges of their good relations with each other.

This is Carrie, Robin's 16 year old sister. She is in the band Foot Foot with Robin and Josh.

This is Calvin Johnson, this French girl Melanie who is cutting a record for K, and this other guy.

I recently spent a day with the famous Dennis Driscoll. Dennis used to live in Olympia and has had his music put out by K. He is definitely one of K's superstars. I would say that Dennis has a famous personality. It's hard with musicians and actors to sometimes tell if their personality (as concerns interpersonal relations) is more constructed and performative than the average person's. With Dennis his eccentricity seems totally effortless even though many people find him very amusing (some might have other thoughts though). Dennis and I have made plans recently to start going through all of his old recordings (which are on many different formats) and eventually compile them into a two-disc album. I like spending time with Dennis because he makes me feel like I am worthy of the attention of a bona fide superstar.

This is Jennie Gruber of the Santa Cruz band The Most. I missed their performance at Le Voyeur but caught them in the bar of that venue afterwards. I noticed her because she was wearing a Gross Gang shirt. The Gross Gang were an amazing Santa Cruz band that I had made a record for that never got put out. I gave her and Ryan (her bandmate) some money and bought them shots of tequila.

Ryan Laplant of The Most. He plays guitar and Jennie plays drums. They both sing. I was struck by how mature they were. They were also very kind, which I know is an individual quality but is also something I tend to associate with Santa Cruz. Something else I've noticed that is alarming to me is that since moving to Olympia I have had no desire to dance at shows. I still dance a lot in private to music on my stereo but at shows here dancing seems a more extroverted activity than I am comfortable with. When I danced in Santa Cruz it was a very internal, personal process. Sort of like a form of psychiatric therapy.

This last Friday there was a record release party for Old Time Relijun's new record '2012'. I forget the name of the band that played first. They were mostly from Portland. The show/party was held at the K Records temple (which was a synagogue in its former ownership). From what I understand, the amazing studio is still in the old building but the warehouse of products has been moved to the bottom floor of the temple. The main room of the temple (for worship) seems to not be used that much except for the occasional show.

The second band that played was called 'The Old Ladies'. One of the members of the band (playing drums for this song) was Arrington's daughter (Arrington is the leader of OTR). I don't know the nature of Arrington's relationship with his daughter, but he was clearly very proud of her and she probably has taken inspiration from his impressive body of work with OTR. Her band had just formed and I think this might have been her first band. There is something really amazing about seeing young children play music (especially for me rock music). These girls were surprisingly confident and told some funny stories while on stage. If I found out they were going to play again I would definitely go see them.

Old Time Relijun finished the show. They played very well. I have seen this band with three different drummers and each incarnation has been very different. I think for me the biggest change though has been seeing them in this current incarnation (with Jamie Peterson on drums) only in Olympia, where I have not been dancing. As you can tell from these photos I was sitting on the floor during their show. The woman in the left of this frame was someone I recognized during the show as someone I had communicated with on Friendster. Before I made that connection I first noticed her at the show as the most beautiful woman in the room. I am helpless with women that look like elves. You can't see that from this picture though. I also was kind of intimidated by her particular brand of confidence at the show. I think to a certain degree young women have confidence at the expense of making the other people (or just men) feel unconfident. When I am in the presence of this kind of personality I get angry at myself because I can't 'act natural' around them and think I could fool them into them thinking I was cool or something. My friend Bethany is extremely attractive, perhaps the most beautiful woman in Olympia, but her age (almost 31) I think dictates that she is comfortable speaking directly with people. Although I have recently had a fight with her, I have noticed in the large amount of time with her that I can speak to her directly and that I feel very comfortable in her presence. Almost 'cool' actually, especially since she is so 'cool' and doesn't use that against me which she definitely could. Maybe sometimes beautiful women just decide they want people to approach them for who they are and not what fantasy they could inhabit.

I met this guy, Brian Frye, at the show. He had with him the new Edirol R-1 miniature recorder which I have been eyeing for a while now as something I might want to buy as a backup recording device, like something I could just have with me at all times and record shows I stumble onto accidentally. I gave him two of my PBR beers that I had brought to the show, and he turned out to be a really nice person. He had gone to art school but then went to law school, and was now working for a judge here in town.

In a month or so Drew Adams is going to come up here so we can mix his solo project. Drew is definitely a connoisseur of beer. Like he has actually bought fine beers over the Internet. While the selection of beer at the nearby supermarket is not the 'final word' on beer, it is definitely an impressive selection. All that you see in these photos is beer.

Copyright Nicholas Taplin 2005