February 27, 2004
Still rainy and wet. Virtually all the local chamber of commerces claim this is the Land of Sunshine (an alleged 360 days worth by some estimates) but you’d hardly believe it by looking out the window. Makes for great studio fires though.

Still wrestling with the “Injun” cover painting. Yesterday I thought it was finished, but then I got to looking at the scan (see at right), and got nervous. I’m going to make another go at it this weekend.

As you may know, my son Thomas is studying abroad (Spain). Perhaps that should be abridged to “studying broads.” Case in point. Here’s yesterday’s missive from our studious lad:

“I went out with my friend Frank who’s from New York last night. The guy is a genius. He doesn’t drink and he needed a wing man to go out with. I always thought the little tricks people have was just a load of crap but he knows what he’s doing. He shows up early to the club (around 12:30 here) when it´s not crowded and he can actually talk to people without getting pushed around and yelling. Slowly the place starts to fill up and by 2 it’s packed. By now he’s already gotten one english girl’s number while I talk to her friends. Anyway, we then cruise on to the dance floor. This is when my friends and I probably wouldn’t talk to anyone the rest of the night. Frank busts out a small digital camera and takes a picture of this group of girls dancing. The girls, to my surprise, love this and want to look at the photo and take another one because they think they look bad etc. And we’re in. We get some numbers and he does it again. Then, at 4 we suddenly have to leave. Frank explains that there reaches a point when the girls get frustrated from being pushed around and the music blasting and the last thing they want to do is chit chat with someone. So you work it while the nights still young and the girls are in good spirits. He also thinks this particular place is the best for picking up girls because the music is very upbeat and happy. I had never been there and he just got to Valencia 3 weeks ago! Is this crazy stuff or what? I never knew people could know this much about hitting on girls. Frank, by the way, is a model in New York going to school at Rutgers. He is of Cuban descent, taller than me and very fashionable in a New York way. That´s it. I just thought it was fascinating.”

Ah, to be young and know it all.

Great caption on a cartoon in this week’s New Yorker:
“Gays and lesbians getting married—haven’t they suffered enough?”

Posted the wrong quote yesterday (and it was a repeat to boot). Here’s the right quote for yesterday’s posting, although it works fine with today’s comments:

“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
—George Orwell