Sunday, Sept 1 2002
Zen Sushi - Los Angeles, CA

Just the thought of playing at a sushi restaurant, got us salivating from the minute we booked the gig. Again, Katherine from Wire Graffiti set this one up with us.....mucho thanks to you! You rocked it!

We happen to have friends and family down in LA, which always makes it fun to play dispite the terribly shitty way they run their music venues down there. The whole pay-to-play bullshit. Oooooh it just chaps my hide!

Anyway, Mark's parents came out to have sushi with us. Actually the sushi was a bit dissappointing. When the sashimi is so thin that you can't tell it apart from the pickled ginger....well, you know there's a problem. Whatever, it's sushi....I'll shut up.

Johnny the actor was kind enough to drag lots of friends out with him to the show. And we all had a great time hanging out after. Thanks Johnny, you really made the night.

I didn't get to sing my karaoke song downstairs at the other bar after the show, cuz this was the beginning of Mark's terrible work saga that plagued us for the next week. He has this crazy job that made him work weekends, and nights and mornings and basically every waking and sleeping hour of the day. So he was scheduled to be in the office at 8:00am the next morning (labor day). But being the rock star that he is, he decided to play the gig, then fly home to work. Not sure when he actually sleeps, but anyway...

So we crashed after the gig, took him to the airport in the wee hours of the morning, and then I drove the gear home to SF.

Home...so close yet so far away. Of course the main artery back to SF is the 5. And it's early September. Everything is dry and withered outside, and brushfires are a common thing. But when does one pop up that manages to close the entire 5 freeway for 24 hours??!!

Yes indeed. No 5. But of course I didn't find that out until I was about an hour and a half out of town. (thank you very much to the hotel desk clerk that assured me it was open). And of course no one in LA posts detour signs that actually detour your ass anywhere. And I don't live in this city, nor do I have a map of it. And it's labor day weekend. And everyone is trying to get everywhere. Mass chaos. Traffic galore, and an 11 hour drive back to the bay area.

Good thing I got Mark's sweet ride. And it was a nice day. And the 101 up the coast was pretty. And I was in a good mood. I rocked and rolled with the punches.