Zona

Talk at ya in a month.

Negro y Blanco y otros - Contigo Avanzar



This video was made by a collection of Bolivian musicians. The song talks about eradicating poverty, establishing universal basic education, promoting gender equality, reducing infant mortality, providing better prenatal care, combatting serious diseases like HIV and malaria, bettering the environment and other goals in Bolivia and the world by 2015.

The guy playing the electric guitar is Grillo Villegas. I've spoke about him before. He wrote the song. Contigo Avanzar. Advance with you.

You also get to see a wide variety of Bolivian faces. Maybe you'll see why I love Bolivia so.

Let's kick off the weekend postitos because I'm tired and sun burned.

FRI:

I was enjoying the fireworks the other night when the odor of marijuana invaded my space. Too many Vancouverites need to grow up once and for all. Wine. Drink wine at these events. Don't fuck with me and my grandson with your second hand pot smoke. Did you know that BC bud is grown in a sespool of liquid chemicals? You might as well be sniffing chemicals that they use to rinse out oil tankers.

SAT:

I had a night dream that I went into a large room for a steak dinner. There was music a few couples dancing. An old woman grabbed my hand and wanted to dance. I said I wanted to eat first and plotted how to eat and get the hell out of there. Two other women at the table laughed and told me that the woman hits on every newcomer. My future in a retirement home?

I have a day dream about Sunday dinner in some European estate with a long table with linen and fine china. Light breezes and the sun partial blocked out by trellised vines.

I headed out for Point Roberts to check the p.o. box when I realized I had forgotten my passport. I HATE having to go back for anything but this time I had too. So I pull into the driveway and as I am about to open the front door I discover that I had my passport in my front pocket all along.

I have a funny belief when stuff like this happens. I believe that my delay kept me from some sort of great harm. It's like I was prevented from being at some place at the precise time and now some catastrophe was averted by my absence. Maybe it's somebody's prayer for my safety answered.

 

 

I got flipped off in traffic. The guy thought he insulted me but he didn't. If you flip somebody off and they see it in their rear view mirror it aint worth shit. I laughed and waved. You see, it was a merging traffic situation and I had already let one car merge ahead of me. I don't let two. So black SUV man flipped me off. I hope the woman in the passenger seat was impressed because I wasn't.

He's just lucky TV series Zona Boy wasn't around.

TV series Zona Boy would have slammed on the brakes, turning his red machine sideways blocking both lanes making escape forward impossible. The sound of cars screeching to a halt would have made escape from the back impossible as well.

TV series Zona Boy would have exited the vehicle calmly and doofus in SUV would have thought to do the same until TV Zona Boy whipped the Baretta .40 cal with twelve in the mag and one in the pipe from the small of his back. Then in a panic SUV limp dick would have locked his door. Not gonna work this time panty waist.

"Get out of the car or I shoot you through the window. Get out and live. Stay in and your blood ruins the upholstery".

So he gets out. Smart move. Soon he's flat on his stomach as his blonde passenger ruins her upholstery with her urine. I don't imagine the view down the working end of a Baretta barrel is a pretty sight.

"I let one car merge in front of me already bud. That means YOU merge behind me. UNDERSTAND?"

"yes sir"

"Now stick that naughty digit in your mouth."

"yes sir"

"Bite until it bleeds."

"yes sir. ouch"

"Have a nice day butt hole hair."

"thank you sir"

Don't fuck with TV series Zona Boy.

 

 

When losers find a raft

I didn't notice the shirt when I shot the pic. It completes this pic.

I dug up my old high school prom pic in honor of the 30 year grad anniversary

Green hair

Plastic hair

Geisha hair

Hair with breasteses (my favorite kind)

The road down to English Bay passes through what some might call a liberal part of town. The guy with the bubbles was about 12 stories up. It was quite beautiful to watch his pre-fireworks display of celestial artistry. 

What? Did you think I was gonna sit my ass on a blanket all afternoon when I had a zoom lens at the beach? 

Going down to watch the fireworks at English Bay tonite. I've been given the perfect camera gear backpack (side pack actually) for my birthday. Time to break it in. It should make my combat lens reload tactic much easier than jamming the zoom into my front pocket.

It's Italy's turn in the fireworks competition.

If they don't impress me I'm never gonna stop giving Smelly Danielley shit about it.

My Canada box set is finished.

Nine discs.

Eight rock and roll and one hip hop/soul/pop cause I'm versatile

The hip hop/soul/pop contains tunes by,

Ridley Bent
Sweatshop Union
Sky
Jacksoul
Remy Shand

Groups who got their own CD,

Matt Good
Tragically Hip
Big Sugar
Jann Arden

Gee ZB, your birthday is in three days. What would you like from el blogo sfeero on that day?

Hmmmm. How about 48 comments?

Why 48?

You have got to be the dumbest voice in anybody's head around.

Screw it, let's boogie

I have the next six days off so I'm finally going to get of my ass and do something I've been telling myself I wanted to do. I'm going to compile a "box set" of Canadian tunes. Here's a partial line up.

Disc 1:

Big Sugar faves (done)

Red Rover
Better get used to it
Butterball
Let it ride
On the scene
unk title (but it's a great tune from Heated)
Kicking stones
Digging a hole
If I had my way
Nicotina
I don't mind
Hammer in my hand


Disc 2:

Tragically Hip faves (pretty much done. just needs a couple of tweeks)



Disc 3:

Matt Good faves

Disc 4: (and 5 and 6 and...?)

Two or three songs from bands like,

Wide Mouth Mason (Companion, Midnight Rain, Why)
Jann Arden (she might get her own disc)
Sass Jordan
54-40 (She la, Ocean Pearl, Nice to love you)
Edwin (Alive, Let's dance, and one or two others)
Our Lady Piece (Naveed, Superman's dead, One man army)
Big Wreck
Kim Mitchell (All we are)
Default
Nickelback (relax Binsk. just a couple from The State)
Tea Party (The messenger, Angel)
Blue Rodeo (Lost together, Try. Try is one of my all time fave songs by anyone, anywhere)

and a few others


No Rush, no Bryan Adams, no Supertramp. I just want tunes on this set from bands I've discovered since I moved to Canada in 1999.

There will be some one hit wonders like Age of Electric, Our Mother Earth, and others who I can't think of right at the moment.

I'll update later with complete disc lists so you Canadians will know how cool I am.

SUGGESTIONS ARE APPRECIATED

UPDATE:

Jann got her own disc.

Waiting in Canada
Thing for you
Will you remember me?
Where no one knows me
I would die for you
Sleepless
In your keeping
Sorry for myself
The sound of
Weeds
Could I be your girl
Gasoline
Wonderdrug
Living under June
Good mother
Another human being

I started with a "welcome to Jann" song and ended with two of her finest. Good mother is one of the most touching tributes you'll ever hear and Another human being was inspired by a trip she took to Africa. She sponsors a child there and made a public service spot for television supporting the organization that she donates to. Another human being gets to me every time I listen to it

My spirit yearns for something that I cannot identify. It feels like I have very little time to do a lot of things. I am tired but sleep feels like a waste of time right now. My head feels like a balloon filled with warm air. I cannot be anywhere but the here and now for some reason. Like a dream where you need to escape something. Everything is moving in normal speed but I'm in slow motion and my feet are encased in blocks of lead.

I want to shoot a thousand, TEN thousand photographs. Anonymous people. Unrecognizable pieces of far off places. I want to produce results that split the critiques down the middle between genius and insanity.

My silence starts August 1 but I want to start now but I can't.

Not quite yet.

Then when I begin to speak again I want some to hear whispers while others hear shouts.

One month of silence followed by one month of noise.

Soon.

In the meantime accept today's observation of two girls. Both young but one younger.

The younger one had an aura of extreme energy controlled for now because no effort or task was required. I asked her what she was going to be when she grew up and she said an actor or producer. That made sense to me but I think more to the production. I told her I could sense that she was going to dominate anything she attempted to do. I told her mother that her daughter was a "dynamo". This girl will reach and grab and not let go. Her mother beemed and then gave her daughter a kiss.

The older girl was prettier and just a bit older and plumper. I caught a sense of somebody who was going to find fame in adult entertainment. Then I thought to myself that I was thinking that soley based on the fact that she had large breasts and I shook it off. Then I looked at her mother's ID photo and sensed a woman who hounds her daughter. There were two daughters but she gets on this one more. They say that parents clash with the child most like them.

I looked at mom's face and didn't see the same thing. Then I looked at the girls face and saw a sort of happy. When I went back in my mind I sensed that my thoughts at the time somehow alarmed the two and they quickly put on masks.

Interesting.

Weekend dead ahead. Here's some post confetti or postetti

FRI:

I got a package from the lovely Chloe. A CD and a bottle of liquid intoxicant. The printing on the label is all in Greek. I'll probably understand what it says when I down the contents. I think she's trying to get me drunk and seduce me. Thank you Chloe!! XOXOXO (It works everytime BTW)

I realized yesterday that since I have been extended in Canada, I can count of having vacation time around my 25th anniversary next June. The wife will mark the occasion in Bolivia. I haven't decided where I'm going celebrate. Vegas leads the candidate list.

Spoke to Leisha Hailey today. We chatted about her music and Alice and how she wants me. Take THAT, L Word fans. :p

SAT:

I just found out that I'll be off on August 6th. That's the day the Pride Parade hits downtown Vancouver streets. Camera and I will be there. Oughta be fun.

SUN:

I spoke to not one, but TWO vampire women today. One claimed that she was a good vampire and that the other was evil. Of course my thought when it comes to vampire women is that they're ALL good. You can see these two vampire on USA Network's The 4400.

.....out of ten times

One out of ten times I can make a three point shot
Two out of ten times I can make a twelve foot putt
Three out of ten times people say Bush is okay
Four out of ten times when I feel like shooting, it's cloudy
Five out of ten times I finish what I start
Six out of ten times my wife gets into bed without waking me
Seven out of ten times I'm not interested in talking to somebody who is standing in front of me
Eight out of ten times I play golf by myself
Nine out of ten times I have to adjust the seat when I get in the car in the morning
Ten out of ten times, when people tell me the picture on their ID is a bad picture, it ends up looking EXACTLY like them.

War has broken out in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel. People are dying on both sides as American vacationers wonder why they can't be swept to safety instantaneously by American forces emblazoned with a big red "S" on their chests.

THIS is what I hate about traveling Americans. They think themselves different than others. I had a man in Aruba talking to me almost to the point of screaming because he was sure that his human rights had been violated. Something had been done to HIM that he knew should not have happened to him on the island of Curacao.

Was he jailed and beaten by corrupt police? Was the town where he was staying shelled by forces from the island of Bonaire?

No.

What his was livid about, and wanted me to rectify instantly, was that when he checked into his hotel the desk clerk had held onto his passport. It was, of course, returned to him when he checked out. Many of you who have traveled the world know that this is a common practice with hotels. Then he was livid with ME when I told him that when he was in a foreign country he was subject to that country's laws and customs.

The American and Canadian embassies in Beirut are now overwhelmed by citizens who believe it their right to be transported like starship crew out of Lebanon.

I wish that I was a computer photo changing wizard.

I would then switch the faces of the family in the photo above with faces of a family from Darfur or North Korea or Bagdad or any of the Central African countries.

Then nobody who works for a western embassy would care.

And that my friends, is my twice annual monthly political thought of the day.

Now it's MY weekend.

Golf
Photography
Sleep
Vedge
Maybe blog

My oldest is pregnant
The next one is on tour
Then comes summer school girl
The youngest is a farmworker

The baby is the prince of the house

Dad reflects a lot
Mom stays up too late

A friend has been following my blog lately and is quite taken by a couple of you girls. I won't say which girls but I WILL say that you have no reason to be afraid.

Another friend is commenting about my sexual preference and I will spank her next time I see her. She's just busting my balls. I'll have to dig up that pic of me and her in a Tijuana whore house. THAT'LL learn her!

Song of the moment: Nada One by Heart

Moment's over

Sweet dreams most of you

Good morning Euro buddies

Here are the kids in order of age. I went through the pics and cropped out my fave of each of them. The picture of my youngest smiling like that is quite rare. He's a happy kid but he prefers to look "cool" when you take his picture. 

Allow me to present Lady Zona and the Zonlings. As they get older these opportunities get fewer and farther between. This is the best picture I've gotten of them since they were all much younger. The son on the right is actually taller than the son on the left but son on the left isn't too fond of that fact so he's standing on the fireplace hearth 

Maybe it IS because I am a confident man

I'm not afraid to say that a man is hot, or attractive, or good looking. I say the same about women. Of course I am attracted to women in very different ways than I am to men because I am heterosexual.

I have friends of all sexual orientations and I interact with them on various levels, none of which is sexual in nature. I am comfortable around people of all sexual orientation because at my age and my body shape I am fairly sure that I am not the object of desire that my ego sometimes makes me out to be.

I told a woman the other day that she was gorgeous and given the setting in which we found ourselves (two paths crossing in random circumstance) she knew that I was sincere, and told me that it made her day.

I told a member of a men's water polo team that he was a good looking man and he looked at me funny.

I ask gay men if they came up to Vancouver to get married and if they say no I ask which one is afraid of commitment and they laugh. They know I'm a straight man but instantly sense my tolerance of their life choices.

It's the same with lesbians and I get pretty much the same response.

I see the faces of gays and lesbians loosen up when they realize that I have no problem with who they are and I engage them in polite conversation and humor. It's too bad they don't find that more often.

I'll quote a line from a gay man in a TV series if any of you wonder if maybe I'm actually a little gay.

Two straight men were wondering if a guy in a bar was gay so they asked their gay friend if he thought the man was gay. He looked down and quickly said,

"Not with those shoes."