Monday, June 8, 2009

CreepyHead and the Glimmer of Hope


I've had a set of negatives packed away in a box for years, since a mid-late 80's college class when I shot and developed several black and white rolls with a borrowed camera. This weekend, Eugene who has a negative scanner, generously converted them to digital. Let the flashbacks begin.

This was an interesting time in my life, probably the time I look most fondly back on in many ways. A time of experimentation of every kind; sexual, social, mental, musical. Minimal responsibility and no concerns about the future. I felt truly free for the first time.

I lived a number of places over those years, but the place I have the most memories attached to was the 4th street house. An up/down duplex conversion with a cool older stoner upstairs, and full use of the basement for us downstairs. There in the subterranean dark, with squinty red eyes and flickering Christmas lights across the ceiling, we'd crank the amps and freak out on the stereo-delay freight train of sound crashing again and again against our heads.

Many of the pictures are out of focus, too dark or just plain bad. There are a few good ones that I'll share. The best stories from that time may not be so tellable here though. Like this one. One night at the end of a party, I'm sitting on the front porch with a girl friend in my lap. That upstairs neighbor comes down and in the dim light he stands and we sit and gaze off down the street. We're chatting on for a minute or so before he glances down and notices that we don't have any pants on. He says goodnight and goes back inside leaving us to the warm summer air.

2 comments:

queasyfish said...

The glimmer of hope thing was something said during an acid trip while jamming, or trying to, at that time.

queasyfish said...

The glimmer of hope was something said during an acid trip while jamming, in the dark basement - then noticing the windows. Brian said it I think. Brian...