awesome

ROGER BALLEN

pater

today, in the context of my future, he said you will be better than your mom.

i am elated!!!

my mom's restaurant is my home. it really is. the people who work for her are wonderful. they are unbelievably kind and humble. i went into work today and i saw p'lek (he has the same name as my mother, and the same birthday). i haven't seen him in years! he started working for my mom in his mid 20s as a cook during the late 80s. he's come and gone many times. he has his own restaurant now in northridge, ca now. he was so excited to see me.

he said that him and p'pop were just talking about me and my brother. "you know, p'pop lives so close. im going to drive over there and get him." and so he went, and he came back with p'pop. they're all really into motorcycles. p'pop was also really happy to see me. i haven't seen him in easily ten years. hm yes they're family- they watched my brother and i grow up. they use to pants us, hide our turtle lucas and say they made turtle soup, or convince my brother to stay still and not move until p'pop came back from a delivery.

5 of them, old waiters, cooks, delivery dudes are going driving up the canyon on their bikes tomorrow and then they're going to pick me up for lunch. so excited!!!

special attention to blue bottle, san francisco:



wade lent me his books. have been reading tolstoy non-stop. i love his lust. i put in time for annie dillard here and there. i continue to work for mom, steve sometimes, and then i see my girls, megan and taska. annie was just here!! my room could be more clean, and i could spend more time doing archery. im up in sf for thanksgiving and am pretty excited to visit blue bottle!

been thinking about new work- palm trees? yesssssss. and interviews, a lot of interviews.

is visiting l.a. once a month to do interviews and help my mom get organized a bad idea? i think it would be really nice. maybe my brother would come too.

i am going to pay all of my student loans tomorrow!!! i am going to be free.

at dawn, boats go out with nets

the northerner's always say
"good feeling comes from a nap
good taste comes from a dumpling"

but the southerners still say they're just dough stuffed with meat, nothing special.

my agenda, which was fine at the beginning of the day, is now an annoyance because my mom just reminded me.

really into this:

http://interviewproject.davidlynch.com

and this, chris burden, our city lights:




also updated website finally. it can be seen here. or here: www.july1986.com

what's next. also, what is next?

color photographs made from april 2008 - august 2009. somewhere around 23, give or take two, photographs that constitute a new body of work.

"the more i work, the more i see things differently, that is everything gains in grandeur that day, becomes more and more unknown, more and more beautiful. the closer i come, the grander it is, the more remote it is." giacometti