Earf Dai

So what's been going on in San Diego? Well for one thing its fucking hot. 100 degrees the past two days and climbing. But on the positive side, I had quite an interesting Sunday with my friend Matt, a.k.a Jerksamillion to avoid confusion. By the time I woke up I knew I would get destroyed by the Sun (like in Super Mario 3) if I tried to skate that day (Sorry Jon!). So instead, I decided to head down to the EarthFair they have in Balboa Park the weekend before Earth Day every year. On the way, I gave J.A.M. a call and he invited me to share in pizza if I picked him up. After the grease had settled we were on our way!

Because traffic is so bad at this event, we had to park down by the Velo track in North Park, but luckily found a shady spot to keep the whip in. The walk up the hill was pretty ridiculous though. While we were walking to the park and passing by the zoo, Matt suggested we go visit our friend Pete if he was working. We called him, and it turned out not only was he working, but he was on his lunch break! And not only did we visit with him, but offered us an impromptu tour of the World-Famous SD Zoo! How could I refuse such a generous offer on this, the day of his daughter's wedding?

Pete first showed us where the apes were, and gave us info on the Bonobos...

and the Gorillas. He pointed out a part of the 2 inch thick viewing glass that had been cracked down the middle by an angry silverback. Damn son.


Pete had to go back to work, so me and Jerksamillion checked out the other animals on our own. There was a huge line to see the Giant Pandas, so we settled with the line-free enclosure of the Red Panda, who was labeled the 'lesser panda' :( Well you still matter to me, buddy!

There was also some vandalized bamboo nearby that had Parker's name written all over it, literally. We all know how you got those bamboo boards now, bastard.


Here's some Okapi. Okapis?... Okapi.

We also saw a variety of monkeys, deer, pigs, birds, and this Polar Bear, which is on an all-carrot diet, apparently.

Needless to say, the arctic animal was not taking well to desert heat. Stay up, player.

Being lazy Americans, we decided to pay for a skytram ride back to the entrance instead of walking. It provided some nice photos, though.




Here's me standing next to a lake of piss.

Leaving the Zoo we continued on to Earth Day, which was packed to say the least.


Before you get the preconception that Earth Day is filled with nothing but hippies, let me inform you it is really more of a community gathering. Moms and Dads bring their kids, young couples bring their dogs, and there are as many non-environmental groups setting up there as the flower children. From the fire-and-brimstone fundamentalists to the Gothic Volunteer Alliance (?lulz) every concern political, environmental, spiritual and secular was met.


These guys were selling organic vegetables and abducting people to dance in their cult, I mean, circle. No, wait, cult.

The fixie crews were there doing their thing, Peta and Greenpeace hocked their wares and...whats this? Free clif bars?
And lo, we were bestowed with the tiniest clif bars in all the land!

Here's some other pictures of the more famous Balboa landmarks, if you havn't seen them before...



Eventually, we made our way over to the World Beat Center area, in the course of Matt's unsuccessful search for frozen lemonade. It was around here that we ran into Eric Mooremoney by chance! We took a minute to catch up before he disappeared from the crowd and my camera lens. The theme of this area (outside the building) was decidedly 'reggae'...


with some exceptions.

The inside of the WBC and the area surrounding it, however, seemed to be more about traditional African and Chicano culture.



We went inside to watch a crazy drum circle/traditional dance go on for an hour. It was like a sauna in there, I couldn't imagine drumming this long in normal conditions! These guys were definite pros. Also, I got to see more white women doing traditional African dance then ever before in my life!

lordhamercy

We made our way back to the fountain through a canyon, and Matt walked across this fallen tree first try. Booyaka!

Passing behind a building to avoid the sun, who should we have run into but that Ol' Beau Cottington! He was there with his wife and mother-in-law for a little sun and fun!

Beau also showed off his new road bike to us. J.A.M asked him if he took it off any sweet jumps.

This picture doesn't really show it, but this dog was so big I could have ridden it like a horse. Matt even asked them if I could. He made a lot of friends that day.

There really were an unusual amount of dogs there that day, in every shape and size. I took a picture of this uglier-than-usual one...
which apparently is/was a pig.

After that, we pretty much decided to call it quits and hauled our sunburnt faces outta there.

The real Earth Day is this Wendesday. If you want to learn how to do your part, visit www.earthday.net. Thanks for reading!