Instead of working from home I’ve been going into the office to do my work for Yabla.com this week. It’s been fun to be around the hubub of Chinatown — it’s a buzzing hive! Near the office are mostly fruit/vegetable stands with a few fish markets to throw off your sniffer. It’s weird to pick up a basket of strawberries and smell fish.

Another mystery plant from San Diego.  Here are the facts:

1. Low bushes right near the water

2. Fleshy red fruit

3. The fruit opens up and has plum-like flesh with milky white juice. I put my tongue to it and its sweet and delicious, but I didn’t actually ingest any. The flavor was a bit like Maguey (from Mexico/South America) Is it edible?

Anyone got a name for me? I’d love to know what this pretty plant is. That milky juice is so weird — a science fiction plant!

Jordan was nice enough to be my hand model. I love this guy.

Here is the bud of a delightfully weird flower I ran across in La Jolla. It may come as no surprise that it seems a Dr. Seuss design — he did live in town.

Here’s the whole, open flower:

It’s about, 6 inches long and very velvety and pliable, like it would make a nice dress.

If anybody knows what this mother is called, I’d be much obliged for the info.

Man, these sunny pictures are making a NYC Fall look very gray.

Not only was that tour a really good time, but the big bonus was that we got to stay at a very nice motel right on the water in La Jolla. I got my own room for the very first time in all my zillions of shows on the road. When I woke up in my own bed I felt like I’d arrived. When I realized I was in my very own room, I nearly peed myself with joy.  Here’s a picture taken by Caralie of us enjoying the beach the next morning:

PHOTO BY CARALIE BALCOM

Please ignore the fact that I’m wearing the exact same clothes as when we left Phoenix three days earlier. It didn’t smell so great in the van.

PHOTO  BY JULIE

I just got photos from our early October tour-ette (not to be confused with Tourette’s Syndrome). Look how bright and awake we look at 5am! Actually, I don’t quite remember what time it was — just that it was really early. We are about to set off from Phoenix to San Diego to set up the installation and play at UCSD.

A new crew on this trip — from left to right Jalen (drums), me, Jordan (guitar) and Caralie (bass).  I was really impressed by them. It’s hard to find a crew that you can stand on the road…very hard. And to have so much fun is even nicer. Also they play well, which is important, but not as important as being able to stand someone in a van for 24 hours.

One thing that sucks on the road with AQ: if you join my band, you have to be totally okay with assembling trees, laying sod, washing teacups and generally working your ass off on stage and off. They did very nicely.

A note: Jalen (far left) is the youngest drummer I’ve ever played with. I’m really impressed with his musician smarts as well as the speed at which he learns parts. I can’t think of another drummer I’ve played with who learns faster.  And believe me, I’ve played with plenty — plenty of really experienced, and even some high profile dudes who ain’t any faster. Really inspiring.

OK, so one of my films made it into this cool film festival in Indianapolis, and because of that I was invited to their opening gala event. All the supporters of the fest were there as well as the film makers. It was very high-brow in a way I’m not used to. I was seriously under dressed.

A great thing about this party was that they had an awesome cover band and a huge dance floor. That’s wonderful, except that NO ONE WAS DANCING.

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..and this was before I had any free booze. I love my friend Ray (on camera phone) giggling.

Heartland Film Festival was great — I got free tickets to all the films I wanted to see, met a bunch of filmmakers with actual budgets and great films, and I got to see my film on a big screen and talk about it with the audience. One awesome thing was meeting the film makers who were on my Shorts program. They made documentaries about children in Uganda and Thailand.  They were very gripping and well made films. You can check them out here:

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It was kind of embarrassing to be in between these two very serious films. It was sorta like “Hey, I know childhood prostitution sucks, but let’s talk about cupcakes!” At the Q and A I felt a bit like I was wearing a clown costume standing while standing between Mother Theresa and Ghandi.  But people were interested and asked questions very nicely. The project is going to be in Indianapolis (at Harrison Center for the Arts) on May 1st, so it was a nice way to let everyone know.

I took my park to University of California San Diego. All of the pieces barely fit into a 15 passenger van including 3 passengers (the band) and the driver (me!). The gallery was perfect for it and all the students seemed to enjoy — they all climbed the ladders and ate the cupcakes and blew on the horns. The lawn was a particular favorite.  Lots of kinks left to work out, but everything is operational.