Acrofish, who is an old friend of mine, has posted some pictures from our mutually misspent youth. Look through them and find me, if you can. A couple of shots include Mike Sammon, my old friend who died recently (since I posted about his passing, I've found out that it was due to a blood clot of some sort).

I managed to make it up to the city last weekend to catch a couple of films being shown as part of the 8th annual San Francisco Independent Film Festival. Out of all the films being screened, I decided to go see Dario Argento's Jenifer and Don Coscarelli's Incident On and Off A Mountain Road (based on a Joe R. Lansdale story!). These are both part of Showtime's Masters of Horror series, and as such were projected via video projector rather than actual film projector. Still a treat to see them though. In attendance were Don Coscarelli and Angus Scrimm (Coscarelli directed Incident..., and is probably best known for the classic 70's horror film, Phantasm, which starred Angus Scrimm as the mysteriously villainous undertaker known only as the Tall Man). They did a short Q & A after the screening, which was nice. More Phantasms on the way, apparently - as Scrimm put it, "Oh, why not?" G had interviewed them earlier in the day, so I managed to get in for free as a plus one on the guest list.
Jenifer, which played second, is probably one of the most gruesome films Argento has done, which is saying something. I'll not review it here in detail, but I will say that it is unlike any other Argento films, possibly because he didn't write it. I just read that they come out on DVD in March too, along with the other films in the series. This is good.

I also went and saw Huun-Huur-Tu play at a venue called Don Quixote's in Felton (of all places), and as usual they put on a great show. I've been a fan of Tuvan music ever since I saw Werner Herzog's Bells From the Deep many years ago. The film, a documentary on Russian mysticism, has a segment featuring a young tuvan singer. Sometimes you've just gotta hear more. Huun-Huur-Tu are one of the first tuvan bands I heard, and I've seen them a few times over the years (most notable, perhaps, was the show they did with Kronos Quartet at Stanford) and the utterly alien sounds they produce keep me coming back for more. They're also good animal mimics, making very believable horse sounds with their voices and instruments, not to mention the bird calls... but I ramble...

As for the week at work, I took the kids on a truly epic long hike yesterday. Most people either go to the reservoir or the peak during the long hike. Our group managed to do both. To do this, I utilized my childhood knowledge of trails surrounding the reservoir. It was a lot of hiking, but the trails I used as a kid hooked up quite nicely with the trails I now use as an adult. Hmmm. We saw a Great Blue Heron too. Magnificent birds, herons. Later, just before getting back to camp, we came across a very small, very angry California King Snake by the side of the road. When I picked it up it bit me several times, but due to its rather unimpressive size it didn't do any damage. I noticed that it seemed to have some trouble crawling, but I couldn't see any visible injury. Maybe it was just stressed. I let it go away from the road and away from the kids. The rest is up to the great unknown.
Earlier tonight a girl passed out in the dining hall. We have something we call "special talents" where campers come up and display their... well... talents. This girl's talent was apparently her ability to turn purple. Of course, if you're turning purple, that means your oxygen supply has been compromised, which can of course lead to dizziness and loss of consciousness. Lesson learned. She was only out for a moment, but she ended up being both freaked out and embarrassed.

Now the week is almost over. Not to worry though. Next week will be here before we know it.