081703

 

Berkeley, CA

Sunday August 17, 2003

     7:21am  I woke up at the cleaners and now I'm walking to the park for breakfast. They should be serving pretty soon. Let's see if I can bum a cigarette off of somebody.

     8:22am  I was eating at People's Park and I asked these homeless guys, "Hey, do you guys have any weed?" They told me, "Hey, why don't you do something else besides flying your sign? Why don't you ask for money?" I told them, "Man, I'm trying to get rid of money. How am I going to be asking for money?" They all think I'm crazy, just like I want them to, hehe.

     8:31am  I was walking around hoping to get smoked out somewhere. I saw my friend Kiko and Lisa. They were puffing on a bowl and they let me sit down and take a hit. I appreciate it, brother. That was very nice of you.

                   This lady in the park stopped and read my sign and recommended that I listen to this song by Annie Lenox..err Concrete Blond. It's called Some Call it Love, maybe.

     10:24am  I walked out to Telegraph and saw this dude, Merlin. I asked him if he had any tobacco and he said no, but he could take me to some weirdo who had some. We walked up to Channing and he introduced me to this girl, Naya.

 

                     She had just gotten into town. She had a tarot setup and was doing tarot for tips. I immediately took a liking to her. I asked her for a cigarette and she let me roll one. I asked her if she had time for a story and she patted the ground, telling me to sit down. I sat there and told her my whole odyssey story. Afterwards, she suggested we go sit on the other side of the street in the shade. I agreed and asked her if she could give me a tarot reading. She did and she told me a lot of stuff that didn't surprise me. She said that the cards showed her I was going to have a female companion soon. I was real stoked.

                     Naya is giving me a suggestion to hunt down the long version of Weezer's Sweater Song, live. She said it has this really cool rant at the beginning. I told her I think I had heard it before, but the one I heard had this gay guy talking at the beginning. She wasn't sure, but I think it's the same one.

     11:11am  Jeanette was nice enough to give me a cigarette. I appreciate it, Jeanette.

     11:49am  I had a really interesting conversation with Naya. A really interesting morning, for that matter. She gave me a tarot reading that reinforced a lot of my stuff. She even told me that she sees a woman in my life soon, or something to that affect. I don't remember it exactly. I wish I would've recorded it. Well, there's a hopping crowd on Telegraph. It's almost noon and I'm going to go fly my sign and have some cool shit happen to me.

     12:00pm  The first person I asked to read my sign read it and I got their email address. Cool.

                     This girl stopped, I gave her time to cross the street and everything. She read it and told me, "Wow, I really appreciate that, thank you."

     12:50pm  Wow, that was refreshing. Sonya stopped and she said, "Okay, I'm going to ask you how."

     12:57pm  Jose was nice enough to give me a cigarette. I appreciate it, Jose.

     1:30pm  Tyler, just out of the blue hooked me up with a couple sandwiches. Actually, Tyler corrected me saying, "Jesus gave you a couple sandwiches." Thanks, brother.

     1:36pm  Chris gave me a cigarette. I appreciate it, Chris. That's very generous of you.

     1:54pm  I went back to hang out with Naya on her corner. That corner is where Eid's Electronic store is. Last time I was in Berkeley, I got hooked up with some blank microcassettes from Eid, or Mr. Eid, I don't know. Well, just to try my luck, I told Naya, "Okay, watch me get hooked up. I'll be right back." I walked in, saw Eid and asked him if he could spare any tapes. He promptly reached in a drawer and pulled out a blank sixty minute tape and handed it to me. He told me, "This is all I can spare today, but try back another day." Sweet. I totally called that from the beginning.

     2:07pm  Dave hooked me up with a cigarette. I appreciate it, brother.

     2:17pm  Let's see. I had a good conversation with Naya and reloaded all the stuff in my bag, organized it. I needed to go to the bathroom so I gave Naya my Future Shock book which she's reading right now. I told her, "If you care to peruse it while I'm gone you are more than welcome to." So she's reading that. I walked to People's Park looking to get smoked out. I'm still looking around.

     2:28pm  Holly was nice enough to give Naya a cigarette. That's very generous of you, Holly.

     3:30pm  I came to take a shit at Cody's. I came back outside and started asking people to read my sign. Some guy just handed me a salad and bread! Oh cool! That's cool. Awesome. I wish I would've gotten his name for my book, but he kept walking. Hmm, now that I have my salad I am going back to Naya's corner to eat it and offer her some.

                   I don't know how it came up, but this dude was telling Naya and I, "Three weeks without food, three days without water, three minutes without oxygen to your brain." Those are the limits until death.

     4:47pm  We are a little late, but we are compensating. Noah was generous enough to come smoke us out at People's Park. He was the one who told us about what I just recorded earlier. He said it, so you'll know.

     4:49pm  Noah smoked us out near the swings at People's Park. Then, just out of the blue, Naya ran up a tree. She's just climbing a tree. She's so rad. She just kept going. She almost fell all the way down, but caught herself. She's pretty determined. I hope she doesn't hurt herself. Be careful, Naya.

     7:44pm  Michael was generous enough to give me a cigarette. I'm on Ashby and Shattuck. Thanks man, everybody gets credit in my game.

                   Billy just hooked us up with some pizza. Badass. Wow, it'll come back to you, dude.

                   I don't record at all the rest of that day, but Naya slept at the laundromat with me and all the other bums.

Next day..