Hello friends of the digital super-highway. I'm here to update you with the latest happenings and occurrences that are of the greatest importance to you and yours. I'd like to start by saying, December sucked. Retail frenzy is no funat all, so let's not talk about it anymore. Come to think of it, 2008 can be happily swept under the rug of time. ...Well, I'll mention this one last tiny snippet of December and we'll be done with it.

This is the December moon in Willits, California. The cultivation of marijuana is the primary industry of the surrounding area.

Besides the hyper-shopkeeping of the holiday season, I spent some time with the accountant in this remote off-the-grid cabin outside of Willits. My accountant is Hunter S. Thompson. I'm serious. The last "meeting" we had with him was done at Mooses (or whatever the place is called now) in North Beach on Obama-rama election night. The place was a zoo. ...We did taxes. This is his cabin in Willits, it has no electricity, book keeping is done by candle light. So, that's what we do. ...Ask me about the night he walked through hot coals. His name is Tom. He's my Gonzo accountant. Who's your accountant?

I finally got myself a new point & shoot camera. Lugging around the SLR all the time is a pain. The P&S better compliments my primary leisure activity - riding around aimlessly on a bicycle and photographing inanimate objects.

Actually, the first day my new camera and I were out roaming, there was one destination. I wanted to ride out to the beach and check out a new funky coffee shop I'd heard about - Trouble Coffee on 46th & Judah.

It was a pretty cool spot. Small funky businesses make SF the unique place that it is. On a related note, I'd like to use this soap box to say fuck American Apparel's plan to open shop on Valencia Street. There's plenty of other neighborhoods in SF to buy chain store goods at, let's keep it that way. Let's keep Valencia Street a sanctuary from the culture-killing homogeneity that plagues 95% of the American landscape. (ok, I'm done ranting now).

Rambling around the Sunset District.

Beautiful decaying rusty surf mobile.

Judah Clean Center.

Log-Jamming in Golden Gate Park

Quality is my Recipe. I love signage.

I love rich primary colors.

San Francisco Tenements.

Royal Gardens Lunch BBQ. Dog Patch SF.

SF Gravel has a cool sign and picturesque truck parked out front.

Variety is the spice of life (as they say).

StarGlo. 3rd Street.

After a-ramblin' round our fair city, one develops a mighty thirst for frothy oat soda. Say hello to Jay Howell & Co., quench the thirst, and listen as they play the disco hits at Casanova on Tuesdays.

A week ago, I took a Letter Press how-to at SF Center for the Book. It was boss.

Letter Press is rad, the look and feel of the individual pieces of type is amazing. I want a table-top press and 200 drawers filled with assorted wooden-type for myself. I want it all.

Well actually, the plan is to take 3 of these how-to courses and then be able to come down to SFCB and use their presses.

We made this goofy zine in the class. It was neat looking, despite it's non-descript content.

(I'll spare you the close-up).

Teacher & Students of the SFCB

Along with the rest of the artistically inclined population of San Francisco, I went to see Raymond Pettibon lecture at CCA.
It was one of the most ridiculous things I've sat through in a while. Pettibon, champion of the 1980's punk aesthetic, blathered on incoherently for over an hour about ...I'm not sure what? I don't think he finished a single sentence without starting off into another one. Either he's the worst public speaker of his generation or the greatest avant-garde performance artist of the last 30 years. Seriously, it was unreal. If you have a chance to see him lecture, I'd recommend going. I guarantee you'll have something to say about it.

Back at the ranch, we hosted the opening reception for our latest art happening - Bill Daniel & Santiago Mostyn's SOME WORD PICTURES.

(left) photo by Santiago Mostyn, (top right) photo by Bill Daniel

Colossus of Roads in S.F. by Bill Daniel. O.G. freight train graffiti.

Mural photo by Santiago Mostyn.

Don't work yourself to death in the full-time working trap, scrawlings by Santiago Mostyn

Photo by Santiago Mostyn.

Photo of 1990's SF graffiti by Bill Daniel.

Photo by Santiago Mostyn. Santiago has a photo book that just came out on Tim Barber's TV Books that you should check out, it's called All Most Heaven.

Opening night jamboree.

Santiago's dad is jazz musician. Him and about five other musicians marched up 16th Street from the BART station banging out amazing New Orleans style/Afro-Cuban parade beats for the opening. It was awesome.

Bang on the drum! I've never seen it, but look for Santiago's dad on his own hosted SF public-access television show. Radness.

Paparazzi time: Dan Wolf and Mat OBrien

Monica Canilao and Tara Lisa Foley

Ivy and Erick

Amy Browne Towne

Sausalito Hppy House Boat by Bill Daniel

Boxcar graffiti by Bill Daniel

Mural-sized photo by Santiago Mostyn

Photos by Santiago Mostyn

...And Mr. Santiago Mostyn, himself. Come checkout the show, it'll be up at N+P through February.

Also, went down to LA last weekend to visit the family and check out New Image Art's 15 year anniversary show.

The Breeze Machine and I drank $8 beers out of plastic pint-glasses at the Roosevelt Hotel and did what you do in LA ...gawked at girls with big silicone boobies. We also had a meeting with some TV execs about Breezy's new reality show Cougar Hunt. Here's the premise of the show: Breezy basically coaches 20-30 year old dudes on how to score an older Cougar sugar mama. It airs on the Discovery Channel this fall.

LA car in front of LA wall.

And my one (awesome) photo from the New Image Art show - No Age playing to the mob. Best photo ever. Yes sir. And with that, my friends, I leave you.
Until next blog time.
-Andrew