I've been seeing a lot of cop activity lately. Seems like every time I go down
Valencia street I see someone getting busted, with multiple police cars or
paddy wagons or whatnot.
For instance, last night, I was coming back from seeing some music at 26 Mix at about 2 am. Walking by the police station at Valencia and 17th I see 3 or 4 cop cars peel out of the parking lot and zoom up the street. A few minutes later as I get to Guerrero and 16th, a block from my house, I see where they were going- at 15th are 4 cars and about 8 cops standing over about 4 black teenagers sitting on the sidewalk. One cop has a dog on a leash and a couple others have flashlights and are looking for something on the street and sidewalk. Probably they think the kids ditched some drugs and they're trying to find the evidence. Apparently they fail because as I walk by (on the other side of the street, to be safe), they let the kids leave, and they walk off toward the projects. One interesting thing is, this guy in a car is rubbernecking while waiting at the light there, and when the light turns green he is still there, staring out his window trying to figure out what the cops are up to. One of them yells at him, "you got a green light, sir, move along." Cops are sensitive about being watched, aren't they?
Anyway, that was at the end of a big but mostly fun evening. A dinner party/meeting of the SFEMF steering committee at Miya's house, and then over to 26 Mix to see Christopher Willits and Taylor Dupree play. Willits is local, recent MFA grad from Mills, who does Oval-style glitch/click electronica. Dupree is from New York and does very minimal, "lowercase" ambient electronics. It was nice. The visuals were cool too, some algorithimically generated colored shapes squirming and pulsing. I drank a whiskey sour and a mojito (if there's no mojito node I promise to node it tommorrow, cuz that is a godammned great drink. Probably my favorite drink for the last couple of years. Though the bartender last night didn't make the best I've had. In fact I think I can make a better one.), and I sat and talked with Wobbly and Xopher Davidson and David Kwan and the guy doing the video, "christmas grave" (Chris Musgrave).
It's great seeing good live music but even better when there are cool people there that you know to share the experience with, and make the time more of a social experience.