4 : 24 A.M.
Pnuk

My good friend from Hawaii-time, Nelson, was up in Portland on Friday, so Kris and I drove down there to hang out and talk story. It's always a good time traveling with Kris. Lots of old, nice cars on the way down, like an Impala with double headlights and wide tailfins, and the minty Chevy Fleetmaster. (As well as an El Camino, "world's first pickup car")

I like to visit Portland, it's a little like Seattle, but the people are a little nicer to strangers, I think. Even the disaffected street punks don't quite have their "against" act quite down. When I went back to my car before leaving, two young street dudes had set up in front of my car, so I had to shuffle through a little of their fast-food detritus. "Oh.. sorry bout that," one of them said. "No, we aren't!" amended the other one. I guess I caught them by surprise.

Nelson told me stories of the custom motorcycle shop he works at, Chica Custom Cycles. They weld frames themselves, bend bars, and fabricate whatever else to make artful machinery. Nelson is one of two mechanical guys they have there, and one of two english speakers, too. Despite their radical geometries, the cycles are comfortable to ride, though it's probably a good idea to wear more than a string bikini while on the road (cf. pictures on their website).

Probably one of the funniest thing about Nelson is that he's really good at telling stories about how other people tell stories. He related his experiences with Jason Jesse, a somewhat idiosyncratic pro skater. (Quote: "Socks. Wear them once, and throw them away. I don't let quitters ruin my day anymore.") On his way up here, Nelson visited him and found a map on the front of the house drawn for him with little arrows indicating "U R HERE" and "I R HERE". He restores motorcycles and has a line of skate wear featuring graphics that are unrelated to skate culture, such as a picture of Jason himself firing a machinegun into the windshield of a van at point blank range. Nelson affected Jason's disjointed conversational style pretty easily. It reminds me of how Brian Wilson talks these days.

We spent some of the afternoon in Django music, digging through used CDs. Since Kris and Nelson are both music enthusiasts, this was kind of like hanging out with the two record store guys in "Hi Fidelity". They don't have any giant secondhand music places like that in Seattle, that I know of. Nelson's a little spoiled, music-store wise, because he lives near the new Amoeba music that opened in Hollywood last year.

It's kind of hard to explain why Nelson is so cool to hang out with. You just have to try it.

"My new DJ name is 'Stay-Puft Daddy'" -- Kris