Yesterday's camp consisted mainly of one long hike back to the creek where we found the young salamanders (Pacific Giant Salamanders, I now know). We found more salamanders resting on the bottom of the cold, clear creek. One girl is absolutely obsessed with them, and I had to keep her from injuring any amphibians in her enthusiasm. We also found a beautiful Alligator lizard that looked like it was either gravid or a very efficient bug hunter. On the down side, the kids fought a lot, and I had to mediate a number of times to help patch wounded feelings. One boy kept picking up sticks and threatening people, especially the one girl (the salamander enthusiast) who seemed to delight in teasing him. By the end of the day the boy decided that he didn't want to come back the next day.

The Irr.App.(Ext.) show, which was part of the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, went by in a bit of a blur. I hitched a ride up with M. and R. in a minivan full of equipment, and we met up with G. at the venue. I had some great Vietnamese food in some hole in the wall place near Market st. with G., Jim (who was presenting and performing in the evenings festivities) and Sigtryggur, who had flown in from Iceland to headline the evening.
Jim's set was a nice drone, lit by little lights in colored jars attached together so that when he left the stage they all dragged behind him. I was pretty tired at this point, not having found a nearby coffee vendor, so I was a bit nervous about how things would go when we got on stage.
Before we knew it, we were all stumbling out onto the stage, groping around for our stuff, and putting on a show that was a bit rough around the edges. Some of the microphones stayed off when they should have been on. The sequence of things seemed mysterious. Timing was not always precise. The film from the projector bypassed the take-up reel and piled up on the floor behind G. The scorpions, who are miked for the cool scuttling noise they create when moving across cellophane, ended up merely being a visual element. Still, in reviewing the video, it didn't sound too bad. People clapped too. M. said that the whole thing was a blur - probably because he had been awake for two hours longer than me. I think the main problem is the complexity of our various props and sundry makes it a little difficult to set up and check everything quickly. We did get positive feedback, although most of it was from people we know.
Sigtryggur ended the evening with a solo set using a mixing board, some cd players, and a few other odds and ends. The hat and the large bottle of alcohol he kept swigging from were amusing, and so were his humorous pantomimes. The music ranged from gentle drones to savage waves of noise. His pelvis even impersonated Elvis. Silly.

Today, camp went much better. Everybody got along. We made musical instruments, followed by ruckus. Then we took pictures of everybody holding newts. Salamander girl hugged hers. Then we made frames for the pictures that came out pretty cool. We finally used the river rocks that I hauled up to our table a couple of days ago - I had the kids lay them out in a line that meandered through some of the plant beds near our table.

I still haven't gotten my car looked at. The place I usually go, which I like because it's open on weekends, doesn't fix transmissions. They recommended a place called Tranny Man, but I don't know if I could go there with a straight face. It sounds gender conflicted. It's almost as bad a name as this linoleum place that used to be in the area - a place with the mirth inducing monicker of Linoleum Dicks.

cds I listened to in between times of much business: "Clear Spot with Steven Stapleton" - a two hour radio show of Steve playing stuff, including one hour of different versions of Mack the Knife, and Test Dept/Brith Gof "Gododdin"