Far too beautiful of a day. Laura and I took Crystal to school at 7, I dropped Laura off at school at 8 and then met up with Revaz at Urban Grind, rappin about politics, friends, ladies, and the upcoming elefant show.

11 a.m. left the eerie literary quietude and darkness of urban grind. The sun was already strong and it took my eyes a while to adjust. Picked up Laura and we went to Balboa Park - free Museum Tuesday for MOPA and the San Diego History Museum. MOPA had three impressive exhibits but by far Robert ParkeHarrison blew the other two away. I had never seen anything so magical from photography before. ParkeHarrison’s work can be considered activist, socially conscious, environmentally aware, but really the dude is dope for creating such surreal images. My favorite piece by far was of the artist in a lot of felled trees with headphones hooked up to the cut trunks of each tree. It was called “Listening to their stories.” Another article about ParkeHarrison can be found here.

Today was the first time I had ever been in Balboa Park’s San Diego History Museum. It’s amazing that despite living here for more than 7 years, I still come across entire neighborhoods that I never knew existed. The museum is so-so: there was an exhibit about movies that had been shot in San Diego (most of them in the 40’s and 50’s), a strange bridal dress exhibit that had all these old women gasping about how beautiful the patterns, etc., etc. and finally an architecture exhibit that actually kept my attention. In fact, more impressive than the museum itself is the website that they keep. A timeline of San Diego’s History can be found here.

We stopped by the Centro Cultural de la Raza to check out a small exhibit entitled “Mujeres Unveiled.” I had read that the exhibit pondered how veils have both been used to cover up women (metaphorically - as in to not give them a voice in society) and to take away their culture (as in France where it is now illegal to where a muslim headscarve). All I can say is I was expecting more from the exhibit.

The sun was starting to get strong and we grabbed a couple of ice cream cones from McDonalds and drove down 25th to Farmer’s Market in Sherman Heights. If you’re looking for Authentic Mexican Food, this is the place. You can’t beat it. We had some Barbacoa and Chile Rellenos and bought some fajitas de pollo and pre-made mole (don’t tell Laura’s mom) that we’re about too cook up right now. Then, inevitably it was off to the beach. The rest of San Diego must have been following us. The place was packed. Mostly freshmen and sophmores from UCSD splashing each other with the still cold water. Young men and women groping each other while pretending to play football. It was nice to see. Laura and I plopped down; she started another on another canvas of her loteria sequence and I was detirmined to finish The Sound and the Fury. That didn’t happen, but it’s slowly become a little less painful to read and I think by tomorrow I’ll finally be able to start something else. My skin is taught and pink. I’m sure I earned at least four new freckels today.

As you can see down below, Kevin put up his first entry from India. More should shortly follow.