Somehow I found myself at two functions in a week that were like 10 year reunions with mixed groups of people from several high schools/ages/places. One of my old-school coffee shop kid friends was having his 30^th birthday, then another coffee shop kid had a BBQ in LA and invitied some San Diegans up. It felt really good to be catching up with old friends.

     At the 30^th bday we watched an amateur documentary I created back when I was 15. My dad had bought me a camcorder one Christmas and I toted it everywhere, capturing some fairly embarrassing, goofy, and incriminating teenage behavior. I had hours and hours of old footage of tons of teenagers at coffee shops, peoples houses, band practices, shows, random streets...etc.etc. including a few people who had passed away.

     What was really interesting about one person in particular who had died at a young age, was what I had caught on film and how it related to his life. As young kids, I asked him the question “What would you do if you had a million dollars?” He answered that he would buy a hearse, move to New Orleans and then buy a “shitload of cigarettes and beer.” It turns out that within the short number of years he had left (I found out at the party) he did move to New Orleans and died (of an overdose I think) there. It felt good to know he had fulfilled his dream...and all of us were surprised to see the footage of him speaking knowing he had done what he set out to do.

     There was another person in particular that had died that everyone in the social group were pretty good friends with. When he came on screen everyone got really quiet and it felt like we were all sitting in a time warp togther. It was really fulfilling for me to finally show the video complilation I made so long ago...I had hung on to it for the last 12 years and just didn't show it to anyone. Occasionally I mentioned it, yet it always became like a “yeah, that would be really cool to watch” subject and didn't really manifest. People that came to the party not knowing were kind of shocked it existed. I was a bit nervous playing it...however, nearing the end of the night people came up to me and genuinely thanked me for it...not just for bringing it, but creating it in the first place. I remember being 15 and getting questioned a lot for filming, I even had one person (who was dealing drugs) grab my camera, take the tape out and rip it up in front of my face (I taped a lot of people smoking pot back then). I was pretty upset after that, it had my high school dance recital on it, not just teenagers goofing off and socializing.

     I felt a real feeling of completion showing the video to everyone, I had no idea I would feel that way about it, kind of humbled by my own doings. There I was 12 years later...feeling the benefits of what I had created so long before. One person came up and thanked me so much, explaining that she had tears in her eyes when she saw one of our dead friends. Our friends' mom was there also, and was laughing hysterically because she finally got to see some of what her kids were doing after school, saying how she had always wondered what the heck we did during those hours. It was great to combine celebrating Zack's 30th Birthday and what we called a "Java Depot Reunion," the name of the coffee shop where alot of it all began...

     The BBQ I went to was simliar in that it was like a 10 year reunion. The coffee shop kids were kind of a mixture of goth/punk/raver...alternative lifestyle...smoker, artist, musician, creative-type people finding our way through the suppossedly “becoming an adult” life...some people have really grown then since then. Some are professionals in Hollywood, one person I knew became an LA Laker, others create video games, one worked for Dreamworks...one is becoming an EMT...one is a professional make-up artist, one owns a tatoo shop in San Francisco...

     So I found it fascinating to be up at my friends place, observing the contiuation of his love of music and some of the darker forces of life...his roommate who said she was Atheist and yet surrounded herself with Christian imagery. This dolphin painting was a "painting by numbers" she changed the colors to:

And I met some new people (she said she always wanted wings)...

Aaron's Room & Car:

(The "Don't be caught dead in fur" is a rare PETA/Twin Peaks limited edition)

     These two events were better than any 10 year reunion I could have imagined...I'm not sure if I'll make it to my high school reunion anyway since they've been so lax about the planning and no one knows what's going on with it...

     All I can say is to be with people that no matter how many years apart, when we look deeply into eachother's eyes, exchange the words “I love you” and reconnect in ways indescribable—is absouletly priceless. Experiencing and knowing deep in the heart that  thatperson is, and has been one of my “soul mates” through this thing we call time, is unparalleled. I give gratitude for those people and these places within us.

A "music note" on Aaron's wall: