wave to the astronauts as they say goodbye

the end of an era

mike has been with our band for six? seven years now? it's been so long, it's hard to keep track. our toxic beach show was lovely, beautiful and spectacular, but i am so terribly sad that it is our last show with mike.

it was a really beautiful day there at toxic beach. we arrived at around noon with all the equipment. there was a small contingency of tweaked out biker guys who had claimed a tiny patch of the park for a wake that they were holding for one of their own. we had learned this when the father of the victim came up to us and told us about the wake. his son was stabbed just down the street by his girlfriend.

adam spoke to someone else at the wake who described the girlfriend as great. "one of the top five," the guy said. she was one of the best speed dealers around here.

"so, what happened to her, though?" asked adam. "did she crack?"

"oh yeah... they all crack."

as odd as the combination of indie pop and biker wake was on toxic beach, there was a harmonious feeling between our tribes. the father had told us that his son liked good rock and roll and this would be much better than the boom box that he had brought. the sun was shining and the lord was on our side, he told us.

toxic beach was littered with the weird debris that you would expect to find in your sketchier parts of town. an old trojan condom wrapper found itself next to a kitchen knife handle. adam kicked them both out of the way because it bothered him too much. it bothered me too, but i just figured i wouldn't look in that direction. fortunately, the view that the audience got to see was pretty stunning. the bay stretched out behind the bands towards oakland while the bus graveyard sat off to stage right. taggers had spray painted every last inch of each decomposing corpse and it resulted in colorful entropy that was photogenic in a post-apocalyptic urban way. to the left was the cement factory with its mountains of concrete, standing guard over these denizens of music.

the sun was shining and the day was warmer and more beautiful than any other shimmer kids guerrilla music fest that we had ever thrown before. our friends had arrived with their babies or pregnant spouses. it was a little bewildering to realize that we've all started to hit this age where our tribe was expanding through marriages and pregnancies, but it was also great to know that we were still making the music and bringing the friends and family together. we would have it no other way.

sometimes, a cosmic coincidence happens and it's just too weird to understand.

josh wrote the song 'society of rockets' based on frank chu's sign. frank chu is this guy who walks through the financial district of san francisco every day with a sign. his signs, professionally printed rather than handwritten, always say something that he apparently feels very passionate about:

impeach
andrew jackson
12 galaxies
zegnatronic
rocket society

they never quite make sense and the words change from week to week or day to day, but he seems really concerned about it. he doesn't show any bemusement about what he's doing. rather, he seems like he just wants to get the word out.

frank chu showed up at toxic beach today. he has no idea that we have a song about him. he was here because the biker guy who was stabbed by his girlfriend was a bike messenger who knew chu. while at the wake, he saw that we had a sound system set up and asked if he could say a few words on the microphone for his cause.

we were honored.

<08.25.03>

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