Chad Things

Did i ever mention i love my friends? Well, Emily got the girls together and made this HOT calendar. Pictures were taken earlier this year, and they just had their release party last night at Shine. From the back of the calendar

“While visiting a friend’s garage, I noticed he had no girlie calendars displayed. Instead of buying a calendar that had some unknown hot women, I thought it would be much more appropriate to create a calendar featuring my own hot friends. Thus, with tireless help from talented photographer and friend Gwen McKay, this calendar was borne. What this calendar doesn’t reveal about these women is that not only are they beautiful, but they are also incredibly smart – a deadly combination. I am fortunate to have such an amazing cast of friends, and I want to thank them all for their participation in the creation of this calendar.” – Emily The Great.

These 2008 calendars cost $20 – lemme know if you want one.

I am so happy to see my friends rallying around Otto to raise the money he needs (see last post). Good people.

But I’m also happy to have creative friends that actually do stuff. If you know Jason and Monica, they’ve thrown many great events, and their latest project, swapsf, is awesome (no, jason doesn’t own that word). But i’m not here to plug that – i’m here to plug a short play – The Old Ones. Sorry, you can’t see it live, but you can watch “The Old Ones” on youtube.

Our big brother needs help. Luckily, he has many friends and family helping him – especially Lee on the ottoshutt.com blog. But the most important thing is how Otto and others are facing this challenge. Otto says it all better than i could even imagine. He has always been one of the guys you look up to, a natural leader, but now Otto is one of my heroes.

Last weekend Shayna and I had our housewarming, and it was a great success. We had many friends show up, delicious food and beverages, and good times had by all. Well, until about 7pm when we had to leave because the noise was bothering the old ladies upstairs. We knew it might happen, so we just got everybody to go around the corner to Dovre club, bar at 26th and mission. The housewarming was planned to go from 2 till 10, so we had a few people show up after 7pm. One of them, Stephanie, said it best when she said “This is the best housewarming at a bar i’ve ever been to”. Amen. Thanks everybody for coming !!

Last of my big trips for the year – Burningman. My ninth time going, always glad i went. This year’s favs include the dust storm thursday, my boy pete hudson’s monkey-snake thing (read wired, mercury news, grist.org), the big rig, and the oil rig tower (hello? coolest fire EVER). Oh, and the glowing ping pong balls – best visuals ever. And how could i forget our very own monkey island art car. Good times, good times. Check out my flickr pics and the youtube videos.

I’m finally getting in gear for this year’s Burningman. This will be my 9th year going. Yeah, i’m old, and nine times may seem like alot, but each year is different at burningman and for me (where i am in my life). Why do i keep going? why don’t i get burned out? Well, i see burningman as life – you get out of it what you put into it. You don’t have to party or drink or build large things that take all your time. You just have to participate. You do have to abandon some comforts of home, but you get more creativity and freedom in a larger context. I like that alot.

This year i’m going small again, minimal planning, small camp of friends tied together by the Monkey Island Art Car – brainchild of Sir Checkoway (and chef ben as the workhorse). The island is a ford taurus station wagon with the back chopped off, wood platform for the island, rocks, green plants, a generator, dj setup, and tastee beats. Right up my alley, and i’m lucky to have close friends that let me join in at the last minute. Sadly, i’m not staying with the brasstax bunnies – they’re way over at 3 o’clock and we’ll be at 9 o’clock area.

I’ve only been back in SF for about 2 weeks, so i’m still getting my feet wet in this year’s theme – the Green Man – but its right up my alley. Mainly cuz i’m looking into doing a Green MBA – environmentally and socially aware business – but i admit i’m still just looking.  But if you know me at all, you know i love nature – especially hiking in mountains.  I read that the man will be on a green mountain peak this year.  Can’t wait to climb that mtn !!

I also put together a list of DJ lineups at Burningman 2007. This will be updated till i leave on Monday. Enjoy.

It was a big year for me. I quit yahoo, travelled, had alot of fun, got back together with shayna, and was happy most of the time. That last part is key, being happy. However, the most significant event was quiting yahoo to find myself. I opened that can of worms 9 months ago and have not made much progress, but intend to over the next couple weeks before my travels kick off again.

Looking at my Flickr sets, I’ve been pretty busy. I’ve definitely enjoyed friends and events in San Francisco and the bay area as well travels in the U S and A (borat) and Costa Rica. Travels include many snowboarding trips to tahoe, my cousin’s wedding in Ft. Lauderdale, Dusty in Sarasota, WMC in miami, Coachella, Hikes to Mt. Tam, Mt. Diablo, Kings Canyon, and Yosemite; New Orleans, The Carolinas, Pirate Summercamp, Swimming Priceless, Raindance, Burningman, Road Trip USA, Lusty Wedding in Tahoe, Rick and Zetta wedding in Costa Rica, and Christmas in Atlanta. Other fun stuff includes many amnesias, Checkoway’s bday, Class 6.2 Cycroan, brewery tours, QUITING YAHOO, Bay to Breakers, Many Jason and Monica events, and just being with my friends. My family also had a big year – We had one death (my grandma) and one birth (my sister’s baby katherine) last year, in addition to 3 weddings already mentioned. I even summarized my pics in Flickr Best of 2006.

Those were the broad strokes. Here i am, January 2007, reflecting the past and envisioning the future. What does it mean to quit your job to find yourself? I’ve been asking myself that for a while. Most people don’t really know what that means, implying it’s a rare thing. Do people think about stuff like this or do they just go through the motions of life. Hop in the raft and float on down the river and see where it takes you. Perhaps they have found themselves – floating down the river is what they want. But i’ve tasted things that make it hard to go back. I know what it’s like to really enjoy your job, even though most of the time i didn’t. I know how to put my all into something. I know how to really have fun. REALLY. I know it is possible to change your life significantly for the better, and that makes me question my current life. I feel extremely lucky and blessed. So what do i do with myself? The only thing i conclude is that i have to find myself – be confident in who i am and what i’m doing so i can put my all in it and feel good about it. Put my all into what? Not easy. Could be a careers. Could be a woman or a family. Could be a calling to help others. Could be something i have yet to discover. Could just be doing a bunch of little things the best i can.

2007 will also be a big year for me. Cheers to hoping for a good one.

It’s been a couple months since i updated my huge readership on what i’ve been up to and what i have planned, mainly cuz i’m not anything close to a real writer, but here it is. Basically i spent August in SF preparing for burningman, went to bman for 8 days, and been kickin’ it in SF since, except for a 3 day trip to Yosemite, which OWN3D!!

So yeah, burningman was delicious. I mean that in a rock-out with your art-out kinda way. It was my eighth year, and my best. 2003 is a close second, i prolly had more fun then, but i never really left our boombox camp. This year was well rounded: we had a nice, small camp, met new people and got closer to existing friends, had many nomad adventures where we saw lots of art installations, participated in many camps, found lots of old friends, enjoyed a beverage or twelve, and danced my ass off. Yes, my favorite moment and when i decided it was my best year was on thursday night, dancing to lorin at the root society dome (10:00/esplanade). Other highlights include the belgian waffle, serpent mother, Neverwas Haul – the jules verne steam engine car from 100 years ago, a swimming pool, the pendulum tower ride, war of the worlds, and much more ..

About a week after burningman, shayna and i decided to get some yosemite. Git sum. We came back from bman and decided this real world stuff wasn’t that great. And since shayna had never been to one of the most beautiful and most visited national parks in the country, we had to go. We drove up saturday, stayed in a tent at Curry village for $100, hiked around taft point and sentinel dome on sunday, camped in a tent at lower pines sunday night, and monday embarked on the best day hike i’ve ever done – half dome. It took us almost 12 hours, and it was teh bomb.

So thats where i’ve been. I’ll post where i’m going soon – plans are finally being ironed out this week.

Priceless is the name of the campout thrown by false profit and downLow crews. It was an amazing 3 day event in Belden, 2 hours north of Sacremento, filled with tastee bass, hot sunny afternoons, cool rivers, and soft sandy beaches.

Did i mention the bass? Ernie told me it had more bass than the boombox did at bman in 2003. Damn. And the DJs were kick-ass – Ernie on friday night and several others saturday night, including the live combo of Ooah and Troubled Youth. As expected, they all served up heavy bass, breaks, organic beats, and a dash of hip-hop. My booty is shakin’ right now just thinking of it.

Besides the music, my favorite thing was the beach and river. Belden is basically a general store/bar, plus a few cabins and tent sites, situated along the feather river. The sandy beach is about 30×50 feet, mostly in the shade, on a hill adjacent to the river. The river is about 30-40 yards wide, 7.5 feet deep at deepest point, but fairly strong current in the middle. Next to the beach it is shallow and no current, great for the kidz or lazy chad. People would just be kicking on their rafts and tubes, starting an occasional water fight, are swimming across to the other side where you could jump off some rocks. I also enjoyed the gentle rapids downstream – fun to get a bunch of people on floaties hooked together and then get tossed about. The other thing that amazed me was how pure and silky the water was. It was beautiful just being in it.

Oh, and the people. Can’t forget those that put this together – the 2 crews, false profit and down low. Don’t want to get into names, since i don’t know everyone, but they all did an amazing job. Especially the firedancers sat night – Flame Gypsy and Sexy Bitch from LSD Fuego. And the rest of the campers were great – friendly, sharing, and some of the best dancers i’ve ever seen. I hope they do it again – belden or wherever. I look forward to checking them out at burningman.

Vacation is awesome. Especially in Florida, with friends, and great music. Thats where i was last week – the Winter Music Conference in Miami. This was my first year, but luckily tons of my SF friends were down there to guide me to a thoroughly kickass time.

Four of us got a room at the palms – me, Fritz, Juan, and our prime guide, Sir Checkoway. When i say prime guide, i mean it – ’twas Checkoway’s fifth year, and he definitely shed his wisdom upon us. We started it off Wed at an M3 event – the remix hotel cocktail party – where i got to see DJ Krush and spend $16 on 2 cans of corona. Yes, cans, and yes, $8 each. But they also had reps from tons of companies like pioneer, denon, apple, showing off their latest and greatest DJ hardware and software.

Later Wednesday night we hit Suite Lounge to check out Steve Porter, a big house DJ. Besides that mad cash required for miami, the only other thing that sux is getting into the hot spots. Sometimes even being on the list doesn’t guarantee entrance, especially if you’re a guy. Getting their early, paying huge covers, and being on the list will usually work – and it did for porterhouse that night. I must point out that one of the dudes on before porter was really kickass – phillip gold of phil and fluff. Finding new sound like this is one of the many reasons miami was soooo nice.

The night quickly turned into dawn, and then late morning before we slept. Thursday afternoon smacked me in the face with the arrival of the rest of the SF posse – juan, dingdong, stef, j9, jay, tamo, trav, stephan, et al. A few of us hit the palms secluded beach before getting ready for the night. That evening we hit the green gorilla party (SF representin’) at the marlin bar – one of the best vibes of any miami party. We also made our way off of south beach to miami for the Future Sound of Breaks V 4.0 party at Nocturnal (next to Studio A and Space). Cool venue, music was good, but not great. Saw Donald Glaude, Baby Anne + Jen Lasher, among others.

Friday Afternoon was another family affair, hanging out at the Catalina hotel where Tamo and Viajay were spinning. That place had a real nice pool as well as .. how you say.. very miami scenery lounging around the pool area. Later we hit my favorite event of all of miami – The Stanton Warriors at the Betsy Ross Hotel. Dominic (one of the 2 stanton warriors) started spinning in their hotel lobby area with just a handful of booties shakin, but within a few tracks the entire place erupted. Too bad i was too busy dancin’ to take any good pics.

Saturday our retardness started growing roots – with fritz leading the pack. Still, rule number one of the trip was music – so we pressed on. In the afternoon we hit opium garden, a kick ass venue but the music was just begining. We aborted early and hit the beaches, then later walked down collins for some house party. One noteworthy stop was some hotel playin’ solid chicago house – the sound republic. We were a bit too tired to shake it, but hung out for a couple beerz. Later that night we cruised the strip, checking out chevy caprice with 22 inch rims and pick-up trucks with the doors opening straight up delorean-style. Heh.

Sunday woke up at the crack of dawn to meet some peeps at the pawn shop – good crowd, good beats, but only stayed a bit – then hit BED for some SF reuniting. That was trouble – we ended up hanging out at our friends pad on the 28th floor of some apt complex. Later we missed our our flight so we hit up the IO lounge for some more breaks and dnb.

Monday i was broken, but rule number one forced me out for one last rally. Nothing great, we did the usual tour, but the basic nyc party at the beach plaza hotel was a nice way to end the trip. Juan and I slept that night in order to catch our super early flight and work the next day. However, Fritz and Checkoway stayed and powered thru to see danny tenaglia play an amazing 17 hours straight. Well, they actually only caught 13 hours of it – 3am to 4pm tuesday. Damn.

All in all, great trip, but man does my wallet and my liver hurt. Not sure if i could repeat it again, but i’ve said that before. I’m definitely glad i went. Fer shure.