This is Bryan Willis.  He is a professional playwright.  I have a rabid hunger for conversations on out-of-body experience, and I think have developed some tools in my life to identify the people, from all walks of life, who can provide me with this gratification.  I was in Evergreen's communications building one night, I think working on a recording class project.  I exposed my Freudian Id to Bryan.  He said I shared traits with the main character of a play he was putting on here called 'Northwest Passage'.






I wouldn't say Robbie is my best friend, but I think I respect him more than anyone in Olympia.  He's the first 21 year old I think I've ever met who is not just a fully functioning adult, but has really refined tastes and developed perceptions.  He is also without fail the best dressed person in the City of Olympia.  For this night, and this night only, he covered a room in the back of Yes Yes with photos from his life as an exhibit.






























This is Jim.  He's really nice, and reminds me of my Godfather, Lewis MacAdams, who is a poet.














If I'm up early, or still up, once in awhile I have breakfast at The Spar diner.  I always have the same thing (I don't eat eggs).  I have this French toast platter where the bread sandwiches Canadian bacon, which I love.





I'm not sure if there has ever been made a photo book of pictures of waitresses, but I think it would be a good idea.  Being a waitress must be one of the hardest jobs in the world.  Waitresses in diners especially seem to be expected to provide a maternal comfort to their customers that is hard for me to dissect.  I've been in a lot of diners, and especially if you go there the really weird hours, you get a lot of these super loner type guys who go there all the time, same time every day, and the waitresses are like the only female figure in their lives.  The maternal energy is often really strong and forceful, even in the young women.







This is Scot Whitney.  He is the in-house director for the Olympia State Theater, the only professional live theater venue to my knowledge in Olympia.  I interned for him last quarter, doing sound design research.  It's funny how all male directors I've met talk the same, regardless of what they're talking about.  It definitely behooves a director to be both extremely articulate, and really passionate, like cheerleader passionate, at the same time.  A lot of times people who have been trained in academic environments to be articulate sort of step back from their immediate emotions when they're making a point, but a director needs to really sell you on something so that you feel it in your gut.






Wendy is from Minnesota, and works in the third floor office of the Communications building.  It has not passed my attention that nearly all of the interesting Evergreen students work shifts in this office.







This is Domenica.  She's Aerick's fiancee.  Aerick was covered in the second photo essay.  Domenica and Aerick are of that strange breed of eccentrics where they have a crisp way of dealing with what's in front of them, but don't seem to carry the emotional weight of cynicism.  I met Domenica in the library shortly after my last photo essay was published.  Domenica brought out her digital camera to show me her 'photo essay', but first she had to check to make sure she had taken off all of the 'dirty pictures', which charmed me.







This is Thea and Peter.  They used to be a couple, but now they're just good friends.  I am indebted to them and them alone for tremendously assisting me in recently moving out of my old house and cleaning it up.







Bryan's play.















I was really traumatized when the state-wide smoking ban went into effect, and I couldn't smoke at Le Voyeur (my bar of choice).  So I joined the Eagle's Club, which as a private establishment allows smoking.  Standing in this photo is Scotty, the bartender.


































That same night, I went to Le Voyeur.  In the bar of Le Voyeur, there were nine French guys from two different bands, that were on tour here.  I was delighted at this, because I love all French people.  I introduced them to Melanie (who recently went back to France, but was the official French person in Oly indie rock).













After leaving Le Voyeur I went to see Melanie and Calvin play a show.  Calvin is a genius at storytelling to crowds. 









Tender Forever.





I went back to Le Voyeur, where two of those French guys were back at the bar.  I bought them some drinks.






I went to Santa Monica for Christmas.










My dad's career has been one crazy ride.  He speaks epically about the things he's seen working in rock and roll, then film, then high finance, then Video On Demand, and now a USC professor.  My dad sort of indirectly taught me how to give pep talks to musicians.






My dad's walls are covered with his enormous photography collection.  The photo in the middle is an Avedon of my dad feeding 'The Band', whom he was road manager for.














I went on a walk every night staying at my mom's apartment in Santa Monica.














My aunt got me 40 ties from thrift stores for Christmas, which was one of the most eccentric gifts I've ever received.






My mother would never pass up a ride on a neighborhood swing.











This is Ben Johnson.  I had an excellent conversation with him flying from LA to Sacramento (he got off, I returned to Sea-Tac.)  We pretty much covered all the bases, and had double large drinks.  He's a fifth year student at UC Davis.  I forgot what his major is, but his career ambition is to brew beer.  I told him of the legend of the Crunk House, which relocated to Davis from Santa Cruz.  Now that Tyson is in Boston and Jed is in Oakland, I don't know who's carrying the torch.  The Crunk House is going to get its own page on my new website.  I taught myself how to dance at one particular Crunk House show.






Ron makes $17k/year playing the organ and directing music at a Lutheran church.  He's sort of this quiet type but perfectly amenable to engage in brisk conversation.  We had had a few conversations here and there since I got to Olympia, but this night he invited me to his house to watch an experimental film by Brian Eno.





The film's box instructed that you turn your television on its right side.











The film is video paintings.  The model for the paintings was moving in extreme slow motion, and the video was digitally processed to look painterly.  The pace of the video is so slow that you have to readjust yourself, get that it's not a movie.  It has a cool ambient soundtrack by Eno and Daniel Lanois. 






I got permission from Ron to post all of these pictures of his home.  I really like photographing living spaces, especially kitchens, that really look lived in and not like out of a magazine.