SEPTEMBER 2005. Nate went out to see Dave Matthews with an escalade full of friends. i, on the other hand, went to the Silverlake Street festival and met another gregarious ex-pat new yorker bachelor in his fifties. i'm standing on the sidewalk by the port o potty waiting for jenny lewis to come on and this guy takes one look at me and starts playing 20 questions. At first i was like oh shit another quikstar hustler, but he turned out alright in the end. We parted as friends and he gave me his card. i also ran into an old college associate Donny T from my Visions of Utopia seminar. Same old Donny. Rilo Kiley did come on after all- it was an ok show with fans packed like sardines in the crowded street. it seemed like all of L.A. was squeezed into that section of Sunset... So many beautiful women in summer dresses and beach tans. School starts for most this monday so one last hurrah at this free annual outdoor bonanza. The performer herself was nowhere as memserizing as Adriana Evans at The Temple. Gosh I was hooked on evans- what a voice! what a performer! that girl could please a crowd. Even The Hanks at the Troubadour had a more driving energy than Kiley. eh. different strokes for different folks.

Still, this event is the biggest i've ever been to so far. Bigger than the X games, bigger than the Espy awards, bigger than the crafts festivals at Malibu and Laguna Beach. It was about the size of the gay pride parade in San Francisco- just thousands and thousands of people. Which reminds me there was a section tonight sponsored by The Echo Club playing catchy gay electronica. Driving back home from the party i was struck by how remarkable L.A.'s streets look at night. even though there are too many cars on the road there is a throbbing pulse about the city that you just can't find in the suburbia of Pasadena and Manhattan Beach. drive down sunset at night. Try franklin street on a sunday afternoon. Suffice to say, i still cant decide the best place to set up camp.