Sunny Day Real Estate - One

Disco 4 - He’s Santa Claus

Santacon was crazleberg this year.  Crazleberg because we thought we were going to separated from the whole thing when the ferry company oversold tickets on purpose and made the boat leave early, stranding hundreds of Santas helplessly at Pier 39 at 10 in the morning.  They probably did this on purpose because they somehow knew the power of 500 drunken Santas.  We set your alarms to get up early for this crap, imbibe all the right beverages,  get all the way over here, buy ferry tickets and the thing leaves?  so we desperately tried to figure out what to do.  Kind of like that show Amazing Race but starring intoxicated Santas.  Off to the Bart station.

If we fit just 9 santas in an Altima we could drive to the Bart station.  I’m sure that definitely wouldn’t have been a disaster at all, nope, not even.

A day without watermelon Blunt Wraps is just another ordinary day.

Our Bart partners in crime.

By the time we reached the 12 st Oakland  station, we had coalesced into a Santa force to be reckoned with.  Santa Power!

We finally made it to the destination which were these two ginormous bars.  This is where things started to get crazy.

I tried to keep my composure but I’m just not really good at being repeatedly hit in the face. With a Santa mace. By an Elf.

[See post to watch Flash video]

[See post to watch Flash video]

[See post to watch Flash video]

Then we went back on Bart and went to this place in Berkeley called Jupiter to eat lunch.  I thought the day would end there but boy was I wrong.  Back onto Bart to go back to SF.  The whole train was one big Christmas carol.  I’m sure the regular folks just looooved us.  You just could not avoid being in a mass of Santas wherever you went.

Off to Zeitgeist for arm wrestling.

Still going?  Yes!  Got randomly picked up by one of those Cable Car bus thingies that dropped us off at Union Square.

We also dispensed 639 candy canes to the (un)willing public.

Then the traditional ending for our group- crashing Harry Denton’s.  Last year we we went there by mistake when I got it mixed up with the Gold Dust Lounge.  We were the only ones there and were treated like royalty which was so hilariously weird.  This year other Santas found out about it too which made it fun because we didn’t feel the class separation of Santa/Rich people so much.   Then we ended the night at Puerto Allegre.  All in all, a 12 hour day of ridiculousness.  Maybe that’s why today I feel brain dead and every muscle in my body is sore.  I totally appreciate what Santa goes through, man.

We were in a pretty good location in Portland.  Cute little neighborhood and we were real close to that cool all-vegan grocery store called Food Fight that I’ve heard about.  And the Herbivore store had just opened up next door.  No one knew I had a faux leather jacket on and it was very confusing and traumatic for them.

Beautiful river stuff.

We baaarely made it on the train taking us from Portland to Seattle.  They were closing the gate and we ran in all James Bond style, jumped on the train with sparks flying all around.  We had to drink beer just to chill out.  The conductor totally busted the people sitting next to us for drinking on the train, then just looked at Anna and I as we were drinking our beers and didn’t say anything.

Once we got to Seattle, our very good friends picked us up and we went to Becky’s house where I met Jerome.  My first impression was that he was going to immediately kick my ass.  Then, almost by instinct, we exchanged bro smiles and were instantly bff.  He taught me how to use a sword.  That’s the definition of friendship.  I thought I was going to either be grazed and/or get covered in glass.  Welcome to Seattle!  Jerome rules.

While waiting for Anna to do stuff I decided to hit up this place called Wayward Cafe.  Part of the reason I travel is to check out Vegan-y food so I checked it out and it was aiight.

My Mom went to Washington State back in the pre-me days so it was cool to check out.  No one ever told me that it’s the most beautiful school ever.

My Mom used to hang out on/in Lake Washington back in the day, so I called her from there and we chatted.  I imagined her waterskiing in 1958.

Ohh shit dawg!

Randomly ran into the ReLoad store.  Really sick bags and other handmade stuff.

I heart R2D2 mailboxes.

The Seattle Public Library is amazing.

On the way up and then back down the escalator they had this art project thing where there was this egg shaped head with a dude’s face projected on it and it was talking.  I never told Anna this, but this really pissed me off for some strange reason.

I wish I had a dog in Seattle.  One can only dream.

We stayed in Georgetown which ruled and there was this awesome bar called Georgetown Liquor Company.  They had tons of vegan food options and they even had a Bush countdown thingy!  Oh and zillions of restaurants have Feild Roast veggie meat in their sandwiches.  Field Roast is going to be taking over the world.  We stayed two blocks away and Anna convinced us to infiltrate the headquarters, so we met the receptionist.  She hooked us up with hella Field Roast schwag.  I told her I eat one of their sausages every morning for breakfast and there was an awkward silence.  Like ‘yeeeeeah, you’re kinda weird dude’.   Time to go.  bye!

We had an amazing vegan Thanksgiving feast at our friends’ house.  I had three dinners.  Every five minutes a different animal would appear.  I joked with Rick that I’ll probably see a horse soon and he said they have a horse (of course)!  Amazing people and an amazing time.

The next day we took a mini bonus road trip into the mountains to see waterfalls and, what else, drink beer in an old mining town.

I love what you do for me Roslyn!  This town hasn’t changed since like 1860.  It’s where they filmed Northern Exposure.

Roslyn Brewing Co was awesome.  Dark lager is amazing when it’s 21 degrees outside.

Jason bought this scarf at the gas station for like $1.  His tip is to always buy something random at a gas station while on a road trip.

We got to our Treasure Island hotel room just in time to swill vodka, change into our threads and hit the show.  The show ruled!

Elevator antics!

It rained and a lot of people were afraid to go out so it was kind of quiet and creepy on the strip on Friday night.  The rain made all the lights even more sparkly.  The lack of people made it extra fun and easier to get away with being drunk and obnoxious in public.  Just kidding, we were totally sober and well behaved the whole time.  Seriously.

The view from our room.

The ride home was kinda rough because were not into spending 9 hours in a car again.  So Kevin worked on his car stereo DJ skills.  Dude pretty much invented the art of car stereo DJ’ing.

Boris the tortoise held down the spinach-side of things.  Boris and I are bff.

Then we took this canoe ride down the Russian River.  One of the raddest things I’ve done in a long time.  But I didn’t know I’d experience river rage, the counterpart to road rage.  These people hanging out on the river think it’s hil-ar-ical to totally spray the crap out of you with water guns.  It’s funny the first four times and quickly gets annoying.  I think next time I do this I’m going to get some sort of gas powered water nozzle and just mow everyone down who seems like a threat.  The canoe ride goes for EVER and just when you run out of alcohol and chips and you think it’s never going to end, you reach the end where the bus takes you back to the car.   Such an adventure.

This is one of my favorite posters ever.  Doesn’t it just make you want to grab an instrument and use it as a weapon?

We’re working on a show where we do track stands the whole time.  Ok, we’re not but it would rule if we were.

Kevin’s new Casati.  Full Italian goodness.

Hmm, which cheese tastes better, the cheesey cheese or the not so cheesey cheese?

Then we went to this market on Clement street that was the gold mine of good eats… if you like vegetarian intestine that is.

Now I like veggie food as much as the next guy, but for some reason when I’m ready to munch I’m probably not reaching for the vegetarian swallow balls.  Just sayin.

Mmmm, gizzard.

What the?!  Oh nevermind, I just thought I saw a swazi on that jar of  mushroom related product.  It must have just been my imagination.

We liked the Bison in Golden Gate park so much we came up with a song (like that fish-heads song).  ‘biiison, biiison, snuggly mangy biiison…’  It was the theme song of the day.  Someone mentioned something about dingleberries and now I can’t look at bison the same way ever again.  Thanks.

Had to quench our thirst/warm up/dry off at the Beach Chalet.  They make some pretty good brews.

In some cultures, randomly coming up face to face with a giant purple head means something really important.  I just can’t remember exactly what.

Crazy bike antics!  No joggers are safe.

Words can’t express how stoked I am to eat this sandwich.

[See post to watch Flash video]

[See post to watch Flash video]

What did you mean there’d be hills?!

Blogblock!

oooh, artsy.

Then we ended up at Puero Allegre.  This is what it looked like after a couple margaritas.  I used the ‘drunk’ photo preset on my camera.

Soo waitin for this guys album to come out.  Anyone who rides a carpet is in my crew fo sho.