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Chuck

Location: San Francisco

Date: July 25th, 2002

Additional: I really really hate driving. Especially in big cities like San Francisco where there are never any parking spaces, and the cabbies drive like WWII kamikaze pilots. Still, when I learned that my favorite author and god among men, Chuck Palahniuk, was going to be giving a reading in a small San Francisco bookstore, I knew it could only mean one thing... The Department of Surrealism was going on a road trip!!!!

Accompanying me on this epic journey to the farthest reaches of the Bay Area, were my two best friends; Scott and Jed (seen on the left, practicing his kung-fu on a couple of unsuspecting pigeons) plus another Sacto pal, Audrey, who gets special brownie points for being our girl guide on this dangerous excursion.

Of course, any trip to San Francisco is really just a blatant excuse to visit Amoeba Records, and spend loads and loads of money.

To my credit, I made it out of there without completely draining my wallet or humping the side of their used indie aisle, but it took even more willpower to resist the urge to run screaming back when I didn't end up spending anything at the anarchist bookstore down the street.

Bizarro Scott (below, right) had the right idea, and decided to go in with no money, yet even he succumbed to the irresistible Amoeba urge, and walked away with a rare find indeed: a used copy of Buckaroo Banzai for the Betamax player in our livingroom.

    Behold: THE TOILET OF THE FUTURE™. It's self cleaning, with locking steel doors, motion-activated sinks and hand driers, and an emergency 911 button just in case the toilet becomes self-aware and decides to hold it's human captive prisoner. Did I mention that it also talks? Scary stuff...

    Below: Yours truly bravely enters the maw of the beast.

    Below, and to the right: Though I've never been to San Francisco what it wasn't dreary and overcast (one of the things I like most about the city), we amused ourselves for a few minutes by trying out sunglasses. Well... my friends did. I was actually more interested in the big color poster to the left of the booth featuring the talking cartoon syphilis.

Left: a church on the way to our bus stop with lovely gothic windows.

Below: Chuck Palahniuk reads next to a backdrop of hot gay porn.

If you can't tell from the photos below, the A Different Light Bookstore, probably isn't your mother's favorite bookstore (not unless you happened to be raised by two of them). The reading started at 7:30pm, but Chuck was there half an hour ahead of time to start signing books for all the people who arrived early. The reading was simply amazing, and Chuck was just an incredibly friendly, incredibly fascinating speaker. Unfortunately, my digital camera doesn't do movement very well, so the photos below barely do the man justice.