A sunny day for the Fremont Solstice Parade.
The best entry by far was the 200-300 naked
body-painted cyclists who kicked it off. What
was I doing sitting on the sidelines? Drinking
beer and enjoying it with friends on the porch
of Fremont Coffee, I guess.
Afterwards, I made it over to the parking lot
of Priceless Works for
a pavement picnic. Jesse and Adria were
peddling their wares as others literally
cooled their heels in two plastic kiddie
pools. With the help of Craig, Jesse, and
Olive Burd, I assembled Flattened
Can Spiral 2, which by Olive's count
consisted of 439
traffic-smashed units. (The first one had 163.)
It's a temporary
sculpture
I look forward to re-creating, but this one
came to an even more premature end than I
intended when Craig
fell while being chased by 9-year-old
Olive and neatly bisected the spiral. After
that it became merely a question of where to
drink next.
In the past few years, Fremont has become
overpopulated with overpriced, tacky bars
which attract hordes of drive-by
drinkers--recent college grads with big new
auto payments looking for a fight or a fuck.
It's ugly. By midnight it was just me and
Jesse looking for a place to cap off the day
with a quiet drink when it occured to me that
one of Fremont's first bars, still
undiscovered, might be the best, and it was.
The Asian Wok and Grill is a
huge space with delicious inexpensive food and
a cozy little bar tucked in the back where the
drinks are tall and owner Danny Wong is
generous with his talk. You might want to
check it out. Jesse
and I closed it down, hit a gas station for a
couple of talls and rounded out the evening by
watching the traffic from the Hwy 99 41st St pedestrain
overpass, the just-about-summer night
still and warm.
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