chase the light

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Good morning! First things first. Breakfast. “Ask ChatGPT. What’s the best breakfast burrito in Astoria, Oregon that is currently open?” Turns out ChatGPT is a life changer on a road trip. It was at this point I discovered I could be in the absolute middle of nowhere and ask ChatGPT what sights there are to see and it came up with the best things. I asked it so many things on the trip. “What are the best beaches to watch the sunset near Fortuna, CA?” Boom, three beaches listed and why one might be better than the others.” I won’t bore y’all with listing everything I asked it in a month’s time period but I got to see Guy Fieri’s hometown because of it.

Where was I? Oh yes, breakfast burrito at Taqueria Los Compas. Well yes, it couldn’t have been better, thanks ChatGPT! As I was sitting at the table eating I spotted a Quonset hut behind the food truck and noticed a sign that said visitors welcome. What the what? Are they building a train down there?! Well not exactly they were refurbishing one from the ground up. I walked right down there and blurted out “Your sign says visitors welcome can I have a poke around!?” Sure! Come on in the old prospector train engineer looking dude told me. Man, I got more than I could have ever expected. He told me absolutely EVERYTHING about this train. At one point I was thinking whoa dude I’ve got to kinda hit the road… But he was too kind and it was all so awesome. Really nice guys and I asked what the end goal is for the train and he smiled and said, “…for it go down track making chugga chugga chugga chugga chugga noises”. Haha! My man, I dropped $20 in the tip jar and thanked him for his time and generosity. Train people are into it.

Next up, the Goonies house which I didn’t get to yesterday. They really embrace the whole Goonies thing in Astoria. I think most have just come to welcome it now. I don’t think that was true in the past and the current owner of the house has made the interior up to match the film. He was a fan and bought the house. I liked all the neighborhood signs saying don’t block our driveways and things but they’re all in the spirit of the film. After visiting the house I went back down to the Courthouse Film Commision and found a woman painting a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mural. So I pulled over and said hey! Then she said hey back! She invited me into the fenced area and we talked about what she was doing. She used to be a set painter on films but lives in Astoria now and does murals. Her husband does too and he was painting the Goonies one but wasn’t there at the moment. So cool. My photo of her and her mural got had by my broken camera so a little sad about that. Inside the courthouse I picked up a few momentos and of course a Baby Ruth.

I headed back to the downtown core and found a little sailing club and popped my head in. First through the building though was a workshop like space. Maybe a community centre. I found a woman in there making a cover for a stool and she quite happily told me what they do in there and I was thinking man I’d be in here every weekend. Cool space. Lots of clamps. Ya have to love clamps.

Outside the doors was why I stopped. They had a little pond for radio controlled boats. Not the fast ones mind you just the little bobbing boats for relaxing. Hung out for a bit watching and it was quite relaxing. But I’m a ramblin’ guy and have to hit the road…

I fueled up and on the way out of town I stopped at KFC to get a drink. My goal is to drink as much Iced Tea as possible in the States as Iced Tea is not a thing in Canada, Ugh, stupid Canada. Whyyyy? Much to my delight when I went inside I said what’s your largest Iced Tea and she showed me a half gallon container of Iced Tea! Whaaaaa? God, KFC you get me. Give me that thing!! What a treat. And a large cup of ice. The spoils of America. Next up Ecola State Park. Home of more scenes from The Goonies but also the final scene from Point Break. So yep, I’ve stood on the beach where Bohdi and Johnny Utah fight and say their goodbyes. Vaya con Dios.

After purchasing the Chester Copperpot Key from the Oregon Film Commission I was able to line up the rock formations near haystack rock just like the movie. Then I made my way down to Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock. Nice beach to walk along but not much else there. Very touristy little town and bit like Laguna but shit. Saw a carved puffin then left.

Then, THEN! Roadside attraction alert! Is that a giant corndog on top of a small roadside eatery? Why yes it is. Not only that but that right there is the birthplace of the corn dog! Originally known as the Pronto Pup! Who knew?! Look it up! Oregon, you surprise yet again. They even had a small children’s ride out front. I indulged and I can say it was mighty goood. So sorry Original Hot Dog on a Stick in Santa Monica this OG wipes the floor with you, but Disneyland Corn Dog Cart? You’re still king.

I got to Tillamook too late to tour the cheese factory so I’ll do that first thing in the morning. The hotel is probably the nicest I’ll stay in and the room is actually huge. They have an aquarium room for some reason with axolotls and the 4 were named after characters from How to Train your Dragon. I included Toothless in the photo gallery. Then I did my obligatory late night shop at the local grocery which happened to be a Walmart Superstore. Found some film just in the nick of time because I was running out today. (Future me says, “Great, $50 of film to put in MY BROKEN CAMERA!!! dammit”) Annoying thought of the evening is that I’m still not really any further south than Portland at the moment. After all that driving I’ll be trying to dream of cheese tonight.

After a wonderful night of sleep in the upstairs Air BNB guest room, Sean and I walked to get some breakfast. Fantastic food and I actually didn’t want to leave Portland today to be honest. Next time will be a few nights to explore more. At least it’s in a days drive.

I brought my 4×5 camera along and set up an American Gothic style photo of Sean and Jill replete with a spikey rake for authenticity. One of my other goals for this trip was to shoot 4×5 pictures of all my friends on their front porches/yard/stairs/etc. It turned out I didn’t get to see many people so I kept the camera in it’s backpack for the rest of the trip.

So, I’m in Oregon, but now I’ve got to go back into Washington to get back into Oregon to get back into Washington to finally end up back in Oregon tonight. Where I end up is appropriately called Cape Disappointment. Heading north I once again stop at the same northern most In-N-Out Burger for a 11am breakfast hamburger. See, it’s a thing. Back in Washington I turn west and get back into Oregon in about an hour because Oregon has a pokey uppy bit along the coast. I finally arrive in Astoria!

Side story. I used to work at a movie theater in the mid 80s. Right in the prime 80s time of Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller, Back to the Future and The Goonies. All legends. I saw them all tons of times and Back to the Future you could just go to the Universal Lot and Pasadena to see filming locations but the Goonies! Oooh the Goonies… That seemed like a real place, and it was. Astoria, OR. I always wanted to go there and 41 years later here I am. The next few days is all about The Goonies.

I got to Astoria pretty late in the day so I checked into the motel first. I’m staying in low key simple accomodations because I won’t be spending anytime in the motels except to sleep. I’m always going to grab breakfast on the way out of town anyway. Motel story coming up.

I did a quick tool around town and found some vintage shops. Rescued a little camera from one of them. A Yashica FX-2 which I already have but with the state of cameras it’s good to have a back up copy of one incase you need to raid it for parts. Besides the fact that it was $20 and after a bit of coaxing the winder and exercising the aperture in store I got it back to working order. I think they thought it was really dead so they priced it like that. (BUT WAIT! A month later I’m watching Justin Scarred’s post about Astoria, Goonies and the Short Circuit 40th Anniversary which took place a couple weeks before I was there and look what I spotted on the shelves! OMG! The camera I bought! That was random.)

Onto the first sight was a house just a block away which was in the film Short Circuit! Another 1986 time period film. Johnny 5! So cool. Then off to the Astoria Jail from Goonies and although it was closed I got my pictures. The Fratelli’s car was parked out front so I parked mine out there too! Across the street was the city hall and then off to the bowling alley I went. In the opening scene of The Goonies Chunk is at the bowling alley… well, just have a look below. That was pretty cool. They had some great merch including Chunk’s shirt but the bowling alley itself was selling old pins for a $1. One dollar?! So yes, I bought one.

I also went by the Kindergarten Cop school. A 1990 film but we’ll allow that. I drooled at a custard place but too late as it was closed. Booo to small towns for that reason alone.

Next up I wanted to see where the big bridge in Astoria leads to. It’s in all the films but they never really mention where it goes. It was right above the hotel so I drove over it and it leads right back to another part of Washington! Ha. Cape Disappointment to be exact. So I thought oh what the hell let’s go! I drove for about an hour and it was nice and all but the Lighthouse at Cape Disappointment had a party tent set up right in front it and blocked the views of the really nice lighthouse. What?! Laaaayme. Not going to lie it was a pretty long hike to the lighthouse and it was getting dark really fast. Knowing how far I’d walked to get there and how far I have to walk back to the car and drive back to Astoria… Eek. Anyway found a nice deadman’s style cove and got a good picture of the tree on the tiny island. I scurried back to car in case pirates a la One-Eyed Willy were about.

I got back to Astoria in Oregon again and it was pretty late now and as it’s a little town everything closes up except for the grocery store. I always love a late night visit to grocery stores but first I need to stop back at the motel to drop off cameras.

Okay, motel story time… I stayed at the Atomic Motel in Astoria. Looked cool had a retro space vibe and some themed rooms. Well, cheaply themed but clean place. There are no keys so they write your door passcode on a sheet with the wifi code and other information. I take a picture on my phone of the piece of paper in case I forget the code. Smart right? Right? Then I memorise the code over and over and over. 8437 8437 8437 8437 8437 8437 8437 8437 Also to note is that the office closes at 7pm and there’ll be nobody on site. Oh you know where this is going. So off to the grocery store I go and buy a few things like some cereal, milk, snacks, etc. It’s now about midnight and I get back and grab my things and head to the room. Uh, where’s my phone? Oh no it’s in the room. I forgot it but no problem I memorised the number, right? Right? 8347 enter, red blnking. What?! 8347 enter, red blinking. That’s the number I swear. Maybe it’s like a demagnetized hotel key and the system is broken? 8347. Nope. 8744? Nope. Oh no the door has lock locked because of too many tries. I have to wait ten minutes. Try again 8347? I know it’s 8 at the beginning. 8438? 8743? 8734? Locked out again for 10 minutes. Ooo this sucks. Well clearly the door is just not working.

Alright, am I stuck sleeping in the car tonight? I do have a pad and sleeping bag. I went and read the sign in the office and sure enough they have a phone number to call but I. don’t. have. my. phone. I see one room upstairs with a light on. Do I bother them? Hell yeah I do, their light is on! So I knock fairly confidently so it didn’t seem weird and some dude answers and I apologize and explain the situation and if he can call the manager’s number. He agrees (whew) and I wait and wait and wait. He eventually comes out and says hey the manager is on the way back here. She’s going to give me a lift somewhere anyway so you lucked out! Uh, dude, where are you going at 1:30 in the morning with a hotel manager? Suss. Anyway, what a relief I just have to wait for her to arrive so I just go back to the room and decided to give it another try. The 10 minute lock period is over and I try again. 8437, green blinks, click. MOTHER FLETCHER!

Epilogue: I slip inside the room embarrassed, turn the lights on, have some cereal, leave the door slightly ajar, wait for the inevitable knock on the door from the building manager, which happens, apologize to them, no problem. Two hours of late night stress, done.

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Current time line interjection… See that? I brought my XPan along on my trip and shot 13 rolls of film! 13! One of the main points of this trip was for it to be a photo adventure to take loads of film pictures. I went out of my way so many times to get panoramic photos like these. Unbeknownst to me my camera’s shutter had silently died and gave no indication or sound that it was broken. I just went on my merry way not knowing there was a fatal error going on. So, much to my dismay when I got home and took everything to the lab and $200+ dollars later… there was this photo and a couple more on the first roll but after that nothing but 1/2 frames and shutter blurred images. I can’t even believe it. It was totally devastating. The amount of time I spent shooting with that camera was profound and now its life had just ended on the first day of using it and I had no idea. Ugh. So… the rest is all just iPhone. So sad and just not the same. I’ll make a little memorial gallery at the end as my R.I.P. for my beloved XPan. The handful of “artsy-smeary” photos I could salvage deserve a place in the world. Some are still quite good in that state, but ugh, just gutted. Okay, well, with that said, Day 2!

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I got up very early this morning to make my way off Whidbey and to get to Portland. Said my goodbyes to my sister and brother-n-law and got in line for the ferry. Something like 6:00am but the terrible night of sleep was going to make for a rough day. I wasn’t first in line but I did get a spot at the front of the ferry. It’s only about 20 minutes so went upstairs to the cafeteria and picked up a drink and a souvenir sticker. An unfortunate thing has happened to the souvenir world where absolutely everything is AI generated. So I vowed to try and buy obviously human designed things as much as a could. In image two you can clearly see the eyeball of the Orca on the white eye patch. Yeah, that’s not where the eyeball is silly computer. And that looks nothing like the Space Needle. Le sigh.

Pointing the car to Portland there were a lot of signs that caught my attention. Sleater-Kinney! What? I never knew the band Sleater-Kinney got their name from a road! TIL. Also Longview (Greenday), Rush Road, Castle Rock (Stephen King) etc. As it was past 10:30am I was able to stop at the farthest north In-N-Out for a breakfast burger. That’s a thing ya know. It’s also now the closest INO to Vancouver. A mere 5 hours. That done, I’m finally going to cross the Oregon border. Come take me dysentery. Spoiler alert, I survived.

The first thing I wanted to do is stop at Blue Moon Photo and Machine. I find out why “Machine” once I get there. I needed some film and just to have a look. Nice to see so many cameras, films, and… typewriters. Yep, I’ve entered Portlandia for real. Typewriters are the machine portion of the name.

Next stop was across town to the iconic Multnomah Falls. Yes, the falls with the funny name and beautiful look. If you don’t know these falls you’re lame and should un-lame yourself. I’d like to return to these and some other falls in the area as it was just too busy. Even my friend Sean gave me a heads up that I needed to book a sparking spot in advance. I’m staying with Sean tonight and will be good to chill out and relax. Picked up a little souvenir pin and headed out.

I arrived at Sean’s and it’s like we’d just seen each other last week! When in fact it’s been quite a few years. I first met Sean on the film Dinosaur at Disney. He was also my Supervisor at Imageworks and later again Dreamworks. So got to hang out with a newly minted Oregon retiree. Oregon is awesome by the way. After chatting for a bit we walked around the neighborhood and it was soooo Portland. Great cafés and shops and not single chain store. It’s like the whole city is an artisanal zone or something. Amazing. We went and checked out the Bagdad Theatre… speakeasy? It’s a bar inside the theater but behind the screen! Above the bar you can see the back side of the stage screen. Absolutely beautiful in there. Pictures 13. 14. After that we got in the car and headed downtown and just drove around a bit. Stopped to check out the Portland Theatre where Jerry Seinfeld just happened to be performing that night. Had I planned better… I’m liking Portland though. Good vibes. I’ve only driven through on the Great Storage Unit Relocation Odyssey from a few years back. After a few more sights we headed home and stopped at a 7-Eleven for drinks and the owner was Moroccan and had little Moroccan and American flags everywhere for the World Cup. Ha! Go Moroc!

So Day 2, done. Wiped out and Sean and his wife have the most lovely very Portland craftsman home that they’ve done up beautifully. Best Air BNB in Portland. Five stars!

Something wacky with the gallery, but who cares right? You’ll be okay. New gallery plug-in! You’re welcome!

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It’s been about five years since I’ve had time off so it’s my turn to change that. Since I’ve set aside a whole month to do this my thought was if I saw something that piqued my interest, just stop, take a picture, and just enjoy. You have plenty of time. Turn that car around and go see the largest ball of string if it presents itself. Souvenirs will be ceramic pins, stickers and random bits and bobs. Nothing extravagant.

So first day eh… what should we do?? Well, the first day goal is to get to my sister’s by tonight. Easy first day drive and saves a night of hotel costs. I tried to save where I could because this road trip could get quickly out of hand cost wise. Especially with the cost of petrol.

I also decided I’d check Facebook Marketplace for any camera gear I might have been looking for while I plod along. I’ve been looking for a wide angle lens for my ESII and lo and behold on the far far outskirts of Vancouver metro someone had one up for sale. So before I even cross the border I’ve got a lens lined up. She found it under the house in a box and had no idea what to do with it. Like, one lens in a box, under the house that they’re selling and only just found it after a couple of decades. Well, for $20 I know what to do with it. Put it on my Pentax! After checking out the lens I pointed the car south and headed towards the border at Sumas. Never crossed there before as it’s out in the middle of nowhere. It’s also the closest I’ve ever been to Mt. Baker. It’s nice to see volcanoes fairly close up. It’s only been 6,700 years since a major eruption so fingers crossed. Not today Satan Pele.

Crossing the border is always stressful but now that I have Nexus it’s an absolute breeze. Best money ever spent. Literally less than 20 seconds with an officer and always less than a minute wait. Well hello USA! After a bit of driving I cut over towards Anacortes and headed down Whidbey Island. This was to just avoid the cost of the ferry at the bottom of the island. See? Cutting costs and I just saved $20 bucks. I arrived at a decent hour but still pretty tired as it was still about 5 hours of driving. My brother in law refurbs trailers whenever he gets a hold of one but my parents have their trailer there so I stayed in the “Casita”. I sat outside too long and got absolutely ravaged by mozzies. Oof.

Short story time. Back when I went to school in San Francisco one of my friends had a little Casio keyboard that I loved to noodle around on. (This trip will be full of nostalgia for me) Anyway, I found the exact one on ebay last year and had it sent to my sister’s. I just never got down here until now. So I caught up with my sister and then played my little keybaord late into the night. My brain just wouldn’t shut off so I got a terrible night of sleep.

Oh and I remembered a goofy little funeral dirge I made up when I lived in the dorms. Look how mucky and tiny that keyboard is! Can’t even believe it works really.

Yay for galleries, right? Ya get more pics!

3000+ miles later.

As The Proclaimers didn’t once say.
I would drive five hundred miles
And then I would drive five hundred more
Then I would even drive five hundred miles again
And then I would again drive five hundred more
Then again tag on another five hundred miles
Then I would have to drive five hundred+ more
Just to be the man who drove three thousand+
Miles to fall down at my door
Da-da da da (Da-da da da)
Da-da da da (Da-da da da)
Da-da dum diddy dum diddy dum diddy da da da

I’ll do the real math later,

Saw some things that made me happy. Saw some things that made me sad. I shot 13 rolls of film. I even got to shoot a video with my dad for an E-Trike company’s website and youtube channel! He got paid a decent amount and Ioved how personable he came across in the video. I was able to coax an Oscar worthy performance out of him. Proud of him. Ha!

It’s good to be home though.

Fifa is arriving next month and it’s already madness in the city. They wrapped Science World up as a football. It’s done now and looks great. All sorts of construction and people are crawling all over the place. I so can’t be bothered with it all so I’m on the verge of a road trip to Southern California. Need to get out of town while this beast visits. Although Fifa is in L.A. too. No matter I’d rather be there.

Quick thoughts are stop to see my sister, stop in Portland, swing through San Francisco, hit up Casa De Fruta of course, Central Valley, zoom through L.A. at first and then visit the parents. Disneyland and time in L.A. to see friends. If anyone wants to see me, hit me up. If you don’t I’ll never know and that’s okay too. I like Pina Coladas and getting caught in the rain. Going to hit all the familiar neighborhoods and eats. Even Ciclavia will be on so bringing my bike along for the road trip. Just hanging out for a bit this summer.

I bought a Pentax ESII recently and I ran a test roll through it to make sure it’s working properly and the above photo proves it is. Nice! Also explained on my Instalame. The camera shot the cover of London Calling and that makes it cool. Have you even bothered to look at my Instagram? How rude, because it’s chock full of Vancouver oddities. Like and subscribe ya goon.

Of course I took the photo, I’m also not in it. Of course. Not everyone is there for our weekly lunch but this is the largest lighting team assembled in a long time. In other news, this summer a new concert venue is opening just in time for FIFA. It’s also the new venue for all the summer time outdoor concerts. Freedom Mobile Arch. Ugh, sponsership names are so terrible. Irvine Meadows > Verizon Wireless Amiphitheater. Armed with a presale code I secured a front row seat to the Queen, Sarah. Amazing, after all these years I’ve never had a front row seat to any concert but oh yeah Sarah McLachlan up close. September 6th, can’t wait, niiiice.

Every Olympics they fire up Vancouver’s Olympic Cauldron at the start of the Opening Ceremony. It costs so much to burn they only run it for two hours. A full two weeks would cost $200K. Ain’t nobody laying down the Benjamin’s for that. So every two years we get to see the flames. It is nice. By the time I arrived after work the crowd had dispersed and even more so when it started to rain. Then promply at 6:00pm out it went. See you in a few years Cauldron. You are beautiful.

We’ve had the most insane and beautiful fog recently. Walking the streets with streetlights and cars headlights glowing through fog has been amazing. Late in the day I went to the rooftop terrace. I work in a verrrrry tall building. The views were gorgeous. Off in the distance I could see the new Oakridge Centre being built with all its cranes. Way off in the distance is Orcas Island with its highest peak in the San Juan Islands. Crazy how close they are.

Not a bad year really. Some crap things but mostly got to tie up some loose ends that had been hanging around for a bit. Didn’t get to travel at all as I had to wait for some paperwork to get sorted but that finally happened. You can’t leave the country while that’s going on. That was the most crap thing really. So that’s not too horrible. I’m looking forward to some long and short distance travel this coming year. L.A.? S.F.? Vegas? Hawaii? Japan? Paris and Venice? That’s the short list but we’ll see how much of that gets checked off. Let’s forget that little bit for now.

One big thing that I didn’t accomplish was my “Walk to L.A.” I thought it would be fun to track my steps around town this year as I greatly increased my walking routine. Walk to work, walk to lunch, walk to just walk somewhere. So I set a goal to walk from home aka The Apple Store in Vancouver to my old home The Apple Store at The Grove in Mid-Wilshire of L.A. Turns out the weather and just being ill a few times greatly affected my goal. So instead of the 1250 miles/2000 kilometers I needed, I only got in 1000 miles/1609 kilometers. Hmmmm… That means I only made it to just south of San Jose in California. I like to think I at least got to Casa de Fruta. Which is still amazing to think about! I WALKED from Vancouver to like Gilroy this year. That is crazy. I only have to average about 4 miles/6.5 kilometers a day but once you get behind it’s hard to catch up so consistency is key. One week of illness can set you back 30 miles/48 kilometers. My biggest day of general walking was February 26th with 10 miles/16 kilometers. Which doesn’t seem like that much but it really is a pretty good distance if you look at it as a long string on a map. I plan to add some Lions Gate Bridge walks into the mix this year to boost the numbers. It’s about 2/3rds the length of the Golden Gate Bridge and within walking distance so it should be a decent round trip. I’ve just never done it.

I bought a fair share of cameras this year and shot most of them. I have a bit of a project in mind for all of them but who knooooows. It’s all about finding time. So much lack of time. I’ve got a few concerts coming up. One I’m oddly really excited about. In August, The Guess Who are playng at a brand new venue that is being built right now. It’s called the Freedom Mobile Arch. The Guess Who? Aren’t they some old fogey band that no one listens too? Yes, kinda. For many years now a fake band with something like the original drummer has been touring around under The Guess Who name because he somehow ended up with the performing rights. No Canadian venues would even book them so they just toured around the States year after year as one of those crap cover band billed as the original band. Anyway after many many years the two who really are The Guess Who won the rights back in a court battle! Randy Bachmann and Burton Cummings are now back in the saddle and hitting the road. I heard a recent interview with them and they were besides themselves in how excited they are about playing again. It’s surprising how many hits The Guess Who, Bachmann Turner Overdrive and Burton Cummings solo have had. So it’s going to be a good all killer no filler set! Looking forward to These Eyes, Stand Tall, Share the Land, American Woman, etc. Will be a bunch of olds grooving out but can’t wait.

Oooh ooh and in a very strange show coming to town I’ve got tickets for David Letterman and Zach Galifianakis. The code for getting presale tickets was “beards”. Yep.

I’m going to act cool and say yeah yeah I’ve been into The Beta Band since the early days! Just go with it. The Gig Hunters, the unofficial name of our WhatsApp group where we diabolically plan gig hunting, was going to see The Beta Band at The Commodore Ballroom. Either you went wow, or you went who? A rather revered band from the late 90s. So revered I’d never heard a single song from them. I’m in though because, ya now, why not? They reformed after 20 years for this tour. I enjoyed it and I didn’t enjoy it. Some parts were sort of Peter Gabriel brilliant but then they break into record scratching and almost rap and it was always taking not so great turns. Some would say awesome but some (me) would say confusing. It just didn’t work. Total vibes then poof. Anyway, I enjoyed it and I didn’t enjoy it. I’m really glad we had reserved seats for this one. Nice to hang back above the crowd.

Lovely Sunday along the river watching logs. Got a wave out of one of the tug boat operators. Well, that was relaxing.

Well that was it. The final time to see The WHO. The setlist was nothing surprising but it was chock full of hits. Let’s get the complaints out of the way, Daltrey just doesn’t have the chops anymore. He’s all over the place. Some songs he changes the melody so much it becomes a weird version of the song. There’s no fire. I Can’t Explain was lethargic at best. Terrible song to open with and they’ve been doing that for years. Pete’s windmills are actually slow. lol “Let me swing my arm around so the crowd goes wild” No fire on stage. That said, even if they’re going through the motions it’s still cool to see Pete and Roger performing. Love Reign o’er Me is still legendary. Won’t Get Fooled, Baba, fantastic. The WHO were my go to band in High School. That’s the time I really dug deep in their catalog and discovered all the gems of demos and lost recordings that Pete had laid down in his home studio. While I was working in London I could look out the window across Wardour St, and see the old Marquee nightclub. I’d think, wow it’s just right there before my eyes where The WHO got their real start. 90 Wardour St, Tuesday nights. Then I read Pete Townshend’s autobiography and learned so much about his life in Soho. He had an apartment on the top floor of 87 Wardour st. and kitted it out with a studio. I remember walking out the door and standing there looking up at the windows where Townshend had written and demoed songs in the late sixties and probably got started on Tommy. So cool.

My first time seeing The WHO was at The Forum in L.A. in the summer of 1980. It was the much delayed Who Are You tour and amazingly was less than two years after Keith Moon had died. This 1980 show was also just 6 months after 11 people died in the Cincinnati stampede. General Admission seating was banned for years after that. I’m surprised my parents even let me go.

I was only 14 at the time when my family friend John drove us up to L.A.. He was only 17 and had just gotten his driver’s licence. I can still picture the view from our seats. Way up in the banners of the Lakers players. I’d never been to L.A. like this on my own really and it was amazing. Pulling into the parking lot at “The Fabulous Forum” was incredible. Look at that place, it’s like a palace. We were living in our own road trip movie and the final scene was us seeing The WHO. The band The Only Ones opened and I didn’t like them. Lousy punk, and I’ve checked them out recently and still don’t like them. Ha. Then when The WHO came on it was the loudest thing I’ve ever heard. The beginning of my hearing loss journey. I’ve been able to see The WHO five times now and one missed time when my mom refused to let me go to the L.A. Coliseum show. That was in 82′ when The Clash opened and I even had paid for my own ticket. It still pisses me off because I never got another chance to see The Clash. 1982 Clash would have been epic.

Another funny thing was not long after The 1980 show a friend and I were skateboarding down one of our local streets and he had his guitar slung around him and I was sporting my WHO concert T-shirt. A woman in a dark green VW Bug sped by and pulled over and then starting taking photos of us. We were coming down the sidewalk and I was thinking, well this is weird. The next week we were in the newspaper and I was happy to have my WHO shirt in the photo. There’s a small gallery below to get the post show vibes.

So that’s just a little portion of my WHO life. There are many other stories like when I met Daltrey at a weird ABC concert show at The Palace and got his autograph. You, dear reader, wouldn’t read that far down so that’s that. Get some sleep, my ears are ringing, and for The WHO the Song is Over. What an Amazing Journey.

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Well well well look at that! I’ve recently taken it upon myself to be the unofficial studio photographer but I shoot film! at all company events! I’m different, look at me, right? Ha!

This was the second year of the dog races. I took some last year in black-and-white, but it just looked too bleak and hot out. I thought a bit of colour this year would be good and everybody at work seems to like the XPan photos. Now they’re even showing up on the ILM LinkedIn account so that’s fun. Also we had monthlies at work today and they were even in the slideshow there, so ha! I shall continue on with this bit of fun. Checkout the small gallery below.

My dad was in town so I took him along and all had a good time. Hot dogs and burgers were catered so I ate my fill. Since it’s on casino and horse racing land it’s 19+ so no kiddies running around even though they’d very much like it. It’s only about 15 minutes of actual dog racing but it’s our summer bbq for the year.

Amazing night. I saw Neil once before at The Bridge School benefit in 1999. All acoustic then and not a full on Neil show. This. This was beautiful. Hearing the warble of his voice on the first song just brought an immediate feeling of calm. A set full of sweet acoustic melodies and raw slashing guitars that every grunge act owes a debt. I certainly spent a lot of time with Rust Never Sleeps spinning on my turnable in ’79.

First time to Deer Lake Park and it’s a natural amphitheater that slopes down to an old Irvine Meadows type stage. All surrounded by big beautiful trees. Colorado’s got Red Rocks, but we’ve got Green Trees.

Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) was just so brilliant (oh that guitar) and Old Man being sung by a now old Neil Young seemed even more beautiful. Both are on the video. Also, I’m always so impressed by the audio quality of my iPhone. Dang man, I wish I had this for concerts of yesteryear. He was so good though and he’s in good shape voice wise compared to a lot of his contemporaries. Attended the show with my show bro Craig. On the second song he leaned in and said, “This is waaaaay better than I thought it would be.” Indeed, indeed. The show finished at a reasonable 10pm.

Get a load of that setlist! Southern Man! Ohio! Mr. Soul! No Heart of Gold tonight but heard that in ’99. You can have your sports games, cinema, blah de blah but nothing better than a concert with a legend who can still bring it.

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Yur lis’nin to See Jay Oh Arr AM 600.

Occasionally i have to make my way down to Richmond. Where? Yeah, exactly. It’s in the out in the middle of nowhere part of Richmond. There’s an old radio station transmitter out there for CJOR which was in operation from 1926 to 1988. It just sits now. It always reminds me of the film American Grafitti. One of my favorite scenes is when Richard Dreyfuss goes to a small radio station outside of town to get the “Wolfman”, Wolfman Jack, to dedicate a song to the mystery girl. Amazing scene. I love the random ice cream bit and of course twist at the end where Dreyfuss sees he’s been lied to.

Sometimes when I pop down to the States I hit an antique mall in Bellingham. After a visit with my sister I went to Penny Lane Antiques and had a mooch around. A few sellers had some cameras but I found an old Brownie Flash Six-20 with the actual flash unit. I played around with a bit and everything seemed to work. There were even batteries still in the chambers and they hadn’t leaked. Check out those old Eveready’s with the 9 lives cat on them! $20, why not?

I found out later I’d need a little adapter to be able to use the flash and tah dah thanks ebay! I have a box of vintage flashbulbs and I popped one in to test it. Snap crackle pop the flash fired in that glorious vintage way as smoke and the smell of something burning rose up. So cooool!

But, the most intriguing thing about the camera is it still had a roll of film in it! I checked to make sure it had been fully shot and I wound it forward and then nervously opened the camera! Success! The roll was rolled up tight and I sealed it off to get it ready for development. I toyed with the idea of developing it myself because rarely after all this time are there usable images. I’ve seen many a Reddit post about disappointing results after all these years, but I thought I’d take it to the lab and let them do it properly. I got the roll to The LAB and they were cool with attempting to develop some old film on 620 film and I went back the next day to pick it up. I didn’t receive a call from them saying nothing was on the roll so all seemed to go well. As I unrolled the negs on the light table the most amazing set of images lit up below me. All perfectly exposed and perfectly developed! Wow! Amazing. I couldn’t believe what I’m seeing. After closer inspection I could see all the clothing was probably early 60’s or late 50’s. The camera itself was made between 1946 and 1955 so I’m betting the roll was shot early 60’s and then forgotten about. Most people would have replaced a five to ten year old camera that is no longer made but they probably finished the roll and then forgot about it. For years and years and years and years. What’s trippy to think about is this camera has been sitting around somewhere with this roll of film in it for almost 60 years! Kennedy was assassinated and this roll of film might have already been shot. I was born and this roll of film already had images on it. The Beatles came and went. Men walked on the moon and this roll was sitting in this camera. The Vietnam War came and went and all of the 70s went by. Star Wars came out and so did Grease. Then the 80s decade came and still this roll of film sat in this camera in some house somewhere. I was sitting in Mr. Roger’s math class thinking how much I hated him and this camera was sitting somewhere with this very roll in it. Nirvana, 9/11, and here we are today with this undeveloped roll of film from yesteryear. Then very recently (it wasn’t there last time) someone decides to take it to the antique fair not realizing it’s actually a little time machine. Fortunately black and white film handles time very well compared to color film. Until I looked at the images on that light table no one had ever seen these images before. Not even the owners of the camera. So bizarre to think about and down below are the images the owners never even saw. A real life Don Draper right there.

I say this every year but it’s not what it used to be. Of course it’s not as the show floor has shrunk massively since the late 90’s but the conference itself with talks and demonstrations seems pretty robust. It still holds a place in my heart. The second photo above is where the registration was. You used to have to wait in massive lines or go the weekend before to pick up your badge. We were the only ones in there and got our badges in about 1 minute. My first taste of Siggraph was in Los Angeles ’95, but the 1996 New Orleans conference I think we can all agree might have been the best Siggraph ever. My gawd the parties, the attendance, and show floor were huge and I nabbed an interview with Disney Feature Animation and my career jump started there. Everyone else turned me down. Ha! I had to sit on my job offer for almost 7 months because the job didn’t start until 1997. So I plugged away at my other jobs while I waited to start. Crazy times. I took my son a few years ago to his first Siggraph and he got to play some of the games that students had made at their University and he seemed intrigued by it all. I got him a pass this year and we walked the show floor together at lunch and it was cool to see him light up about certain things and shrug at boring things. Oddly enough not a lot of A.I. wording around. I didn’t see a single mention of it on signs or from presenters although a lot of software is just integrating it.

Outdoor pool is open. Sun’s out, guns out and not a soul in sight. Just a bald eagle nesting high in the tree above.

Gaffigan is pretty damn popular in Canada and he brings a lot of Canada-centric humor that he tailors for the shows. I hesitated getting tickets and then he sold out 2 shows. Then he added a matinee and I hesitated and it sold out. Then he added a new day and it sold out. Then he added another matinee on that third day and I just barely got a ticket. How barely did I get a ticket. That’s my seat below. Last row, last seat in the row in the farthest corner of the theatre. LOL But, I’m in the building! I can relate to Gaffigan. The parent humor is spot on it’s painful but good to know someone can laugh about it. So weird to think bands tour and set up this big show and have tons of people around. A comedian just walks of stage and has a stool and a bottle water and charge the same price as a band. There’s no way they’re not making bank next to a band. And they usually only do an hour. AND he did two shows back to back! Making bank I tell ya! The woman next to sat with one of her children while the husband sat on the other side because they couldn’t get four seats together. You’re in demand Jim!