Summer's almost over...

In the past thirty days I've... been to New York and ate a wonderful vegan meal with Yvonne and Megan. Von told us all about working with Spike Lee, Megan talked about her PR project working on Plastic Little www.plasticlittleraps.com. I was in Philadelphia sitting on a panel at Penn and met Max who runs space 1026, an artist collective in Philly www.space1026.com/. Then I went back to Berkeley to host a guest from New York via Olympia. We went to Santa Cruz in an attempt to go surfing only to get the news that the next wave would arive 5 days later, the following tuesday. We drove back listening to Prince's greatest hits, on tape, with my car's busted speakers. A few days later I left for 6 days of Reggae on the River www.reggaeontheriver.com . 30,000 peaceful, beautiful, reggae and ganja loving northwesterners. I had the time of my life, loving the music and dancing until my body cramped up. Highlites included Salif Keita, the dustyfoot philosopher www.thedustyfoot.com and Ziggy Marley www.ziggymarley.com. I was home for a few days then left to backpack in Kings Canyon, South of Yosemite. I wrote the following blog entry when I came back.

i climbed a mountain this past saturday. On any normal saturday I'd be riding my bycicle around berkeley or getting some reading done, but this past saturday I climbed a 12,000 foot mountain with 40lbs of food, clothes and sleeping bag strapped to my back. I'd like to say hiking 42 miles, busting up a perfectly good pair of hiking boots and enduring a trillion bug bites made for a fabulous vacation, but I can't. Maybe even the raspberry picking, mushroom hunting and swimming in fresh water streams would make it sound more vacation-esque, but it would still be a stretch to liken my trip to a vacation. On real vacations you get pedecures, not blisters. You get up at noon, not dawn. You chill out, dance and sing songs. There is something anti-vacation about marching up mountains in silence in fear of running into another bear or rattle snake. Well, you win some and you lose some. Next time I feel like backpacking I'm marching my ass to the video store to rent brokeback mountain, then I'll march my self over to trader joes to grab some soy- ice cream and pita chips and will march my self right back to my living room. IF I still have enough energy I'll march myself from the couch to bed. That makes for a real vacation.

Weds. was my birthday and tomorrow I leave for NASCO anti-oppression action camp http://www.nasco.coop/programs+&+services/anti-oppression+action+camp/overview.en.html
in the Sierras. Summer is almost over...