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For those who don't know, apparently October is the Open Studio month in the art world. This is the time when large groups of artists in various cities open up their studios for people to come around and see the "grit" or art making, as well as hopefully buy something.       One of the first cities where I checked this out was up in Chico. Their studio tours took place over a couple of weekends this month, as well as in the neighboring towns of Oroville (my hometown) and Paradise (a deceptively blissful, yet wholly inaccurate town name.) Overall, I was quite impressed with the tour and enjoyed it a great deal. Sure, there were your part time soccer mom artists on it whose work wasn't the greatest, but there were also a lot of genuine artists as well. There were people who were much more interested in the craft than the being of artistry if that makes sense.       This was something of a contrast to San Francisco where the studio tours seemed to bring out much more of a "scene" group of people. The number of artists that I truly respected the work of were quite few. There seemed to be a suspicious amount of Art Academy students who had learned the basics of technique, but had no clue how to actually make something that was interesting.       There were some highlights in the group like Hilary Williams (a print and doll maker) and Paul Madonna (graphic artist I suppose is the best description.) Paul is rather well known in the city and his studio, which was actually his apartment, was freakin' flooded with people to the point where it was hard to walk around in. It was there that I finally saw the bored housewife in a track outfit with painted toenails that I know so well from my days growing up with artist parents. Paul showed himself to be a good professional by giving her a lot of "Mmm hmm" and "Right, of course" as she was annoyingly hogging him to ask about a commissioned work. Maybe she ended up following through, but I seriously, seriously doubt it. These groupies are trouble.       At any rate, these studio tours are very cool and a lot of fun. Whether you're unable to draw a smiling sun with a crayon or able to paint like Van Gogh, I think that they're something anyone can get something out of. Of yeah and there's the art buying. I way, way, overspent.

When going up to Oroville to visit my mom last weekend, I looked back over San Francisco as I drove out on the Bay Bridge. It's a heavenly sight. Yes, it's true that it's full of buildings that worship the sky on the tip of the peninsula as little illuminated phalli, but still, it's something else to see the wash and stretch of humanity sweep over downtown. The only thing better than this is of course seeing it again when you return. That view is even better, unobstructed from the top deck of the bridge.       Going to my childhood home reminded me of some of my first memories outside that area. My most vivid were of San Francisco and the exact same view I was seeing last Thursday. As a child it was amazing. Coming from such a small town, the size of everything was simply overwhelming. And while I've become adjusted to this and don't look up when walking through the Financial District, the ever-changing nature of the City (see One Rincon Hill) will always ensure that I'll never get bored living here.       I don't know why it is that this particular time when leaving the City struck me so much more than others, but I suppose that after living here nearly four years, it's starting to feel like a real home. Of course, a home where you always find a new room on a daily basis.

For your viewing pleasure from a recent trip to Oroville, I got to flex my Canon 30D a bit and see what it could do. Mighty solid camera, but I'm curious if the auto focus issue that I've heard a lot about is true. I did some product photography over the weekend with it and had to manually focus it for all the shots, but that's pretty normal given the tight quarters one is working in.       Oh, don't be worried that the photos don't start with the cute little dog I put here. You'll get to her soon enough if you thumb through them.

After my recent trip to Oroville, I was brutally reminded of the fact that sweats and gym clothes should not be worn in a non-gym setting. Ever. This naturally begs the question as to why anyone spends the lewd amounts of money required to buy Juicy Couture (their site is definitely dope though)?       These are sweats. These are velour or whatever. These are not good. Even the hottest of models who have asses that should be canonized look like hell when they wear this stuff. I see girls walking around San Francisco who would light the street on fire in a pair of basic jeans, yet they douse all sexual fires by wearing these dumpy sweats.       I suppose it's what marketing and a brand name will do for you. I'm a jeans kind of guy. Naturally I own a few suits and even a good tuxedo. Sometimes I'll try something different and hit up a trend just because, but you would never, ever catch me wearing this crap unless I was going as an asshole for Halloween.       It mystifies me why people wear it and was a little shocking to see that there was little change from the fatcart assisted stroll at Orovillian Walmart to the trendy jaunt at Union Square when I returned from far up north.

I know... I've been slacking a little bit with the ole blogger here for the last two weeks. It's certainly not due to a lack of anything to say as those who know me would attest to, but more the fact I was feeling pretty chunky last week with Revenge of the Cold. This thing that was dogging me, literally all of November came back the minute I tried to do some exercise. Real bugger.       It also happens that I was out of San Francisco and in my hometown, Oroville. I'll probably get some pics up from the recent trip, but it was a nice time despite the constant rain. Everything is so lush and green up there now. It's really mu favorite time of year. I guess I should move to Ireland if I like green lands all the time.       It's also funny that I've notice how much the traffic has gone up on this site. Partly that's from a link off Wikipedia for Bay to Breakers photos, but it's also due to the new tagging feature. It's amazing how much Google done likes those tags. I'm really kinda shocked to see how much of the search traffic links to a tag page. And I just did it to make things easier to find! Google seems to agree that yes, things are most definitely easier to find and they'll send plenty of folks my way because of it. I can only imagine what might happen if I was to tag all 750+ articles, instead of the just the 50 or so that have it now!       Well, anyways, off to another week and getting ready for my Croatian final... Just remember, Never Get Drowned After Visiting Long Island when you need to remember Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Vocative, Locative, and Instrumental for the Croatian/Bosnian/Serbian case structure. Just the bit of Slavic knowledge you needed for the day, right?!! Right...

For those who don't know that old saying, "A one horse town", Oroville at various points in its history fits the definition. This is not because it is small (somewhere around 45,000 people these days) or because it is incredibly poor, but more the mentality.       For one thing, the transition from hybrid cars to jacked-up pickup trucks is something else when I visit from San Francisco. The guys (and bizarre girls) who drive these things don't seem to realize that with what they'd save on gas and tires, they could probably stop eating at Arby's and possibly upgrade to Jack in the Box's two tacos for 99 cents package. Oh yeah, there's an Arby's there by the way, which is where you eat if you're a real cowboy and have a stomach you don't care about. My personal favorite are the not one, but TWO Taco Bells. And a Walmart? Oh yeah, they got a Walmart.       Beyond all of this, I found on my last trip that the lack of design work for flyers, billboards, and publications in general is pretty amazing. There seem to be two fonts: some kind of Times New Roman thing, and then some kind of Arial thing, possibly in a bold. This artificial limit on typography doesn't warrant more creative design though as it does for some. No, things are laid out in a pretty staid fashion, filling in text until there's no more room for it in whatever is being designed.       Even through all of this, I do like the town. Probably more to the point, I love the geography of the town. Much like the same as I feel about Arcata, it's the people that don't fit me too well. There are folks who try to do things now and again, but the stuck in the mud folks always put up a fuss and the multiple real estate agents on the City Council shoot down anything that isn't going to make them money. Even given all of this, things are changing and some good folk are moving in because it costs less to live there. Of course, you need to come in with money because there are few if any jobs outside of the service industry. I guess the biggest reason for the change is that the people who would have loved to see a good hangin' back in the day are dying off. Just for kicks, check out the filming locations on The Klansman.

Crap! What is it with carmakers these days? Besides Volkswagon, all of them are still including these damned donut spare tires that aren't worth the scant rubber they're made of. Why do they do this? Is it a cost or weight thing? I'd be happy to pay the extra ten bucks or whatever it is to get a real spare tire if that's all it takes since these bicycle tires you wrap on your car in an emergency are pretty useless.       I discovered this after last weekend when I rented a Pontiac Grand Am G6 from the local Budget. As a side note, I gotta say that this isn't a bad car. For being something that GM, the crapper of all car manufacturers puts out, it's pratically amazing. There's pep. There's handling. There's comfort. I'm not sure how it would last long-term, but the couple of hundred miles I drove in it weren't bad at all. That was, until I got a flat.       I had to bust of the donut and figure out this freakin' Rubik's Cube of a tire jack and wrench (something else that has been over-engineered) to replace the tire. Once on, it was just sad. This miserable little tire surrounded by all these real tires. I felt embarassed for it.       I hear that you're only supposed to drive 50 miles at 55 miles per hour tops on these. Let me tell you that because it went flat on a Sunday, I was forced to do an impromtu experiment which led to the discovery you can easily drive 160 miles (Oroville to San Francisco) doing 70 miles per hour without any problems. I even think my gas mileage was better! Even still, the donut sucks big giant donkey butt and needs to go.