more corndogging

Mark & Dirk, two enthusiastic Laguna Beach High "punkers," as they were known by the preppies, stoners, and jocks of the day. Mark formed a band in Laguna and also negotiated a space to play occasional weekends in a warehouse section of Laguna Canyon, away from potentially complaining homeowners. We called our little club "The Inferno" and even made a banner to hang behind the stage. The gigs brought together kids from the surrounding towns and we broadened our horizons a bit. This all went down at the close of the Cuckoo's Nest era in Costa Mesa, the best club the OC has ever known. I managed to see a couple gigs there before the city shut it down for good. The Nest was a place you could usually see about 3, sometimes 4 classic bands in one show for around 8 bucks. Like Black Flag, Circle Jerks, and Agent Orange... maybe 999, Dead Kennedys, Adolescents...or maybe the UK Subs, Fear, Flipper... or perhaps something a little darker like 45 Grave, Christian Death, and Funeral. It was counterculture heaven in a sea of bland suburban hell.

adrift

Photo copyright 2000 Gazelle

Venice, Italy

tidepool...rocks...mountains

Photo copyright 2001 Gazelle

I would most certainly rather be traipsing through this tidepool, over those rocks, and through those distant mountains than working right now...

watching pt. 2

Photo copyright 1999 Gazelle

we were fuckin' corndogs pt. 2

Laguna Beach High School punk contingent, 1981-82 school year. That's me 4th from the right. The coming-of-age journey to gigs, drunken parties, girls, counterculture, and arrests for curfew violations was in full swing (or slam)...

See my ass in part 1.

watching

Photo copyright 2007 Gazelle

Recently, I've travelled a bit by plane, subway, and ferries. Aside from those times when you meet an interesting person and engage in conversation, it's watching people that passes the time better than anything in these circumstances. The things people do and say, the clothes and accessories they wear, the mannerisms - all this makes for high quality, cheap entertainment. Maybe that's part of what Walker Evans had in mind with his subway portraits...

"Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long."

- Walker Evans

It's high time I plot some new photographic staring and eavesdropping.

change in the weather

Photo copyright 2007 Gazelle

Sunset over the Strait of Juan De Fuca, Washington.

island style

Photo copyright 2007 Gazelle

Cattle Point, San Juan Island, with Lopez and Orcas Islands in the background. Hanging in the San Juans is a bit like hanging in the Caribbean of the Pacific Northwest - always relaxing, beautiful, and very funky.

restored

Photo by Manfred@thisfabtrek.com

"Inside the vital Gnaouan circle of drumming, I was linking up disparate bits of musical teaching, connecting threads running back through those tonic rhythms that had first stirred me in youth...Here were the cadences, figures, and motifs I'd heard Elvin Jones play in New York with Coltrane, embedded within a continuous culture: drumming as conversation, healing, and sustenance. Preserved through exile and slavery, the Gnaouan drummers still exorcised and entertained in the markets and oases of southern Morocco. The rehabilitating energies of the drums acted directly upon me, assuaging months of drifting and doubt. Emotions rose and receded, mixing with tears and smiles. I felt restored, filled with a new desire to play. I'd arrived at what I'd come south to find."

excerpt from Native State: A Memoir

darfur's children