16th Street Station

16th St StationAfter a bit of a summer lull, things are picking up again in Rocktober, so be sure to check out my gigs page - I'll be playing with the Darkades ("whirled" music jam band) at a music festival way down at a ranch in the eastern foothills of the Sierras on Saturday, October 2, and with Blue Rabbit (indie/alternative rock) at Red Devil Lounge back in San Francisco on Thursday, October 7.

Meanwhile, Zach Heffner of Verdict Photography is building his portfolio and business, and I agreed to suit up and improvise for a while at Oakland's old 16th Street Station for a sunset photo shoot earlier this month - a budding modeling career? ;-)

Mr. Heffner and his team were easy, professional, and a lot of fun to work with. (Hehe, I've always hoped I'd be able to say that!) Apparently, a number of hip-hop music videos have been shot out there, but Zach's idea was to contrast the urban decay with the more traditional, "uptown" look of a cellist in a tux. Check out some the excellent results on my photos page and on his site under the artists portfolio.

After the adventure, I woke up in the middle of the night and wrote this renga (ancestor of haiku):

the drone of traffic
on the overpass, joined now
by an ice cream truck
playing 'turkey in the straw'
in a sunset serenade
for the ghost below:
a train station abandoned
after the last quake,
lovelier now than ever
with the ravages of time.

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