So last night Mike and I went out to the Mendenhall Valley about 15 minutes from downtown Juneau to see the Violent Femmes play. I didn't even know they were still playing together, but it seems they've done about 3 different tours of Alaska in the past decade or so. I was surprised by how many people told me that they weren't going because they've seen them a couple times already. Hey, if I was in a washed up rock band, I'd have no problem going through a set of 20 year old songs for a free trip to Alaska. They're old, about mid forties now, but it was a really fun show. Mike and I got our groove on, but I didn't get too greased up on account of having to work at 7 this morning.
So I was walking away from some tables when I noticed that the singer of the Femmes was sitting at one of my coworkers named Gretchen's table. He had a dorky hat on and could have been confused with any other tourist, but I spotted him and told him, "Hey, good show last night." Later on in the day the drummer came on and, after spending over an hour on the payphone talking about the international air guitar competition, went to our bathroom and peed on the seat, then left it up. This angered my female coworkers, who have something against pissing on seats. I was too because I had just cleaned the bathroom.
It's a mean heat wave in Juneau right now. I think it hit 80 today, and rumor has it it's pushing 90 down in Ketchikan, a town a few hours south by ferry. Another beautiful, cloudless, warm Alaska summer thanks to global warming! Woo hoo! As my new friend Aurora put it, "Once it gets past 75, I'm pretty much useless." I'm feeling about the same myself, which makes me wonder how I drove the length of Baja California last month with Christina without sleeping for 16 hours a day. The rains are gonna come next month, then I'll be longing for the sunshine.
Tonight begins the solstice celebration, but since I'm a cheap ass and I'm limiting myself to 40 bucks a week including records I'm just gonna kick it at camp and play my gee-tar and try to finish Under the Banner of Heaven. Those crazy mormons.
Tomorrow we're gonna have a bonfire on the beach and get drunk in honor of the longest day of the year. It'll be kind of a milestone for me, like the midway point of 2004, a year that has boiled down to Finishing College, Going To Alaska and Saving Lots of Money, and Returning to Chile to Hike Like A Motherfucker and Visit friends and Carola, then Rock Out on New Years in Valpo.
Okay, I'm gone daddy gone.
Bear count is at 1, bald eagle at 2. I only saw the ass of the bear; at first I thought it was a fat woman crouching as she worked her way through some bushes in the most illogical black skirt. One of the bald eagles landed on the branch above my tent while campmate Mike Stanger and new friend Ryan and I were cooking some rippin' pasta. I was hoping it was some sort of nature blessing, though I began doubting when I woke up a couple mornings later to find a two foot long dead fish with a fat talon mark behind the left gill lying peacefully outside my tent. I took the shovel and flung that fucker as far as I could; no sense in attracting bears.
I'm working at the Fiddlehead, a cool little local restaurant that's been around for some 25 years and makes good veggie food along with the dead stuff. Oops, time's up.
First new entry in a while. I'm in Juneau, Alaska for the summer. More to come...