The miles pounded can only be matched in number by the smiles and good times experienced over the past few days. I bolted out of Santa Cruz early Friday morning around 8:00 am. I got in a bit of a surf and a short nap in Ventura then buzzed down to my good buddy Kinny's art studio for a visit and art jam. I finally got the pleasure to meet Dave a.k.a Clysdalle and watch him and Ken lay down the fine lines of their crafts and answer my barrage of questions on their various projects and techniques. It just numbs my mind to see how effortless and tightly these guy can bring there mind candy to fruition. I had the idea of video taping or possilbly streaming the art jam via ustream.tv. Unfortunately, it looked like I had spaced the bag with my laptop and gear at my Mom's house in Ventura so I was only able to snap a few pics. Ken moves so fast when he is creating that he cannot be photographed unless using a special stop motion hi tech camera, but here are a couple pics of Dave finishing up work on a piece created on Santa Barabara driftwood that he was working on when I arrived.
Saturday afternoon, I met up with my ol friend Karl who happens to live right around the corner from Ken's studio. Karl took me for a ride in his new BMW and helped me gather a few last minute art supplies. We then went out for an awesome lunch of Lebanese food at a place on Tustin St in the city of Orange called Zena's. They served up really tasty food with excellent service at a good prices on a nice outside patio that had a cool little waterfall. After lunch Karl took me over to meet his family, show me his place and some of his photography. Saying so long to Karl and his family I then pointed my wheels towards the Inland Empire and the city of Rancho Cucamonga for the Tiki Treasures and Polynesian Pin Up Show.
Lil Wahine and Tiki Ray delivered a slam dunk of an event down yonder in the Inland Empire near the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. There was beautiful ladies, dazzlin' jaw droppin' art and plenty of friends both old and new to say hello to and lots of folks getting their tiki on. The Smokin' Menehunes long with very special guests, Bill Tapia and Palika on ukulele, founding member Spike on guitar and the man they call Squid on the skins. The fellas brought with them the musical ambiance to set the island mood proper. The time went by way to quick and once again didn't get to talk nearly enough with everybody who came out. Again, I had the notion to try and tape the event but was without my gear and therefore out of luck. I wasn't even sure if I would be able to get on a wireless network so the streaming experiment never even got off the ground. I headed north around 1:30 am listenin' to the CD Lucas Vigor had given me and drinking coffee. I pulled into Ventura around 3:30 am ready for bedtime and a nice round of sleep.
The first thing I did was check to see if my laptop and equipment were inside my Mom's house. They were not. I freaked thinking at one point my computer, ipod and everything else in my bag was taken from the truck when I wasn't looking. I was completely tired, but so completely bummed thinkin' about my missin' other brain, that I had a sleepless night wondering where my laptop was and who had all my music, information, addresses, phone numbers, podcasts, pref settings, work templates, notes and everything else that sits on my hard drive. I have a back up of most of the data, but there is plenty on it that is irreplacable and if lost it would be gone forever. The next morning I called my Mom, who was home in Santa Cruz, to tell her the sad news of my "stolen" stuff. Well it turns out, the people who live next door to her in Ventura called and let her know that my bag had been sitting in the driveway. I must of been so busy when loadin' up that I drove off with out it. Fortunately, my Mom is the type of nice lady who takes the time and gets too know her neighbors so they all watch out for one another. Turnsout, the folks next door had spotted my lonely and accidentally abandoned bag and took it inside their home for safe keeping. Well, after hearing this news, I peeled myself from the ceiling, I wiped the tears of happiness from eyes and went next door and got my gear. WHEW! What a dum dum I be, I am so happy I didn't lose my belongins' and that the neighbors were lookin out for me. It would of been a terrible blow to suffer and very difficult to recover from especially with my move only a few weeks away. So with this happy endin' I will leave you with a slide show of some to the pics I had shot during my trip.
