july 27, 2002:

the summer rages on. the clarendon hills finally finished recording the tracks of their tenth and final song for their first full length record eponymously entitled: "all day, all night, all right." mixing commences immediately, as does artwork, lyrics sheet, and the scrounging of spare change to actually produce it. in the meantime, elbert is busying himself building his own guitar effects pedal from scratch and getting his elbows greasy modifying his bike. christine walked the 10 kilometer AIDS Walk San Francisco two weekends ago and raised a modest $45 in pledges. pepito is wallowing in east bay nostalgia by listening to blackball record's double 12" collection of jawbreaker b-sides, "jawbreaker ETC," while reading aaron cometbus' 600+ page magnum opus, "despite everything".

the c-hills broke out the hairspray, tightly cuffed and rolled their jeans, and embraced preppy sweaters for their show last friday at 21 grand-- a tiny art space in oakland. it was an "80's Flashback and Junior High Dance Night" fundraising benefit for the kearny street workshop's annual asian pacific american arts and music showcase: APAture. in celebration of the glorious decade that defined their youth, the c-hills performed three 80s covers: OMD's synth-pop single, "pandora's box," minor threat's hardcore classic, "filler," and finally, the east bay's best kept pop secret brent's tv's forgotten favorite, "in january." afterwards, the rest of the night was spent spreading dance wax on the floor and reminiscing to 80s singles like "borderline," by madonna, "u can't touch this," by oaktown's pride and joy, mc hammer, and of course the end-all-be-all of 80s dance mixtapes: "bizarre love triangle" by new order. the above photos were snapped by jay mochamonkey. more shots of the party can be perused here.

in an homage to the greed and excess of the 80s decade, christine took overzealous advantage of the night of dollar drinks. downing an unwise combination of beer, kamikazes, and vodka and cranberry juice, the following pictorial serves as a cautionary public service announcement regarding the emetic consequences of "partying till you puke." chris is much better now, and swears, just like the last time, that she'll never do THAT again. she also apologizes contritely for the mess in the safeway parking lot.

july 18, 2002:

the clarendon hills are united once again. for at 3:06pm on thursday, july 11th elbert passed his phd qualifying exam at stanford. with the tip of his index finger, e triumphantly slid his glasses up the bridge of his nose and downed a single beer in celebration. e confessed to experiencing a hang over and "dry mouth" the next day. "Initiation of the DNA Damage Response," was originally slated as the title for the forthcoming new c-hills LP (which may or may not be completed in time for pinoisepop7 at the end of august.) as undeniably catchy and memorable a title as it is, the c-hills lamentably discovered it to be a bit too unwieldy to fit on a cover. subsequently, e stole it for the title of his qualifying exam proposal paper instead. read an abstract of it here, if you dare. A+++.

while elbert was wasting precious time and energy chasing after the frivilous pursuit of a doctorate in molecular pharmacology, christine and pepito are more wisely spending their summer in front of the silver screen. first was lil bow wow's hollywood and b-ball debut in this summer's critically acclaimed hit "like mike." not only do the NBA likes of AI, GP, c-webb, j-kidd, the admiral, and vinsanity make cameo appearences, but the dastardly and dashing crispin glover is in it too. best movie about ballin' since hoop dreams (the crowd outside jack london square was unreal.) then on saturday, eugenia "hook ups" chan got pepito, christine, and mimi into peaches christ's soldout midnight mass (the now infamous dragqueen hosted out-of-control summer movie series) showing of "showgirls" at the venerable bridge theater. filled inflatable pools, neon drag queens, strap-on dildos, large popcorn lapdances, and running motorcyles down the aisles. all of this before the movie even started. without a doubt, "showgirls" rivals russ meyer's legendary raunch film "beyond the valley of the dolls" as one of american cinemas greatest moments.

the c-hills played their first show in over a month two nights ago. with kids tightly jammed up front within kissing distance and others crowded on top of the stove or perched on the fridge, the c-hills fumbled their way through eight sweaty songs in annie's creaking, little kitchen. los rabbis brought the roof down next, or more accurately, nearly precipitated the 2nd floor to cave in. the oakland PD showed up before against me could play. probably a good thing, as i could hear (and feel) the kitchen floor crying "uncle" all during fiya's set.

upcoming show! this saturday, july 20th at the brainwash laundromat with the skyflakes and scrabbel. its free. you have dirty clothes. its a date.

with elbert still missing in action, pepito escaped the tediuous paradise known as the bay area and reawakened his inner masochist by basking in the wonderfully oppressive heat and humidity of chicago. warm summer nights with cool breezes are best savored when they feel earned. not to be outdone, christine braved the naked elements of the rubicon river with friends cory, foresta, and melissa. at the end of the week, c and p happily reunited at SFO airport. while there, c spotted billie joe coming off the same arriving plane as p's. dressed in an unassuming jacket, shirt, and baseball hat, it was amusing to see him playing the role of doting dad with his two kids at the baggage claim area-- a fascinating contrast to when he was snorting coke off kristina's desk last summer. nobody else noticed him.
   p and c spent july 4th grilling boca burgers, playing softball and scrabble up in the small, unmarked town of bolinas. a reclusive, insular community of maybe a thousand, the town registry boasts an intriguing and eclectic mix of denizens: graying hippies, leftist intellectuals, spacey new agers, migrant farmers, counter-culturalists, token artists and writers, and a fair share of landed gentry. bolinas is a seeming twilight zone where class and counterculture coexist, tractors park side by side with SUVs, and the bourgeosie are in love with bohemia. impossible contradiction? obvious hypocrisy? social utopia? witness the july 4th parade, and you decide: