I wish I could act
like this is somehow a fluke. It'd be this great
relatable story of that "one time" when you too lost
all your shit. However, it's just not the truth. I
lose my keys, my wallet, my cell phone... constantly.
It never ends man. In high school a teacher made me a
key chain that was a huge 2 foot long tube as a joke -
because he was sick of looking for my keys with me.
This is just a part of me, and it's exhausting to say
the least.
The reason is
simple. My mind really does race at nearly all times.
I'm always thinking about a video, a song, the
journey, the surroundings.. and how those surroundings
could FIT in a video, a song, or the journey. It's to
the point now where I just feel like a giant sponge
taking all this shit in and examining it for later
use... and all I've done is walk out my DOOR. And you
just can't create as much shit as I do without
droppin' some things and for me it's almost always my
fucking keys, cell phone, or wallet. However it kills
me that I travel the entire globe for 5 weeks and
don't lose a thing yet a day-trip to San
Francisco I lose everything. Clearly my radar was out
overseas but this is just ridiculous.
So we're at a gas
station and it's hot as hell so I go into the bathroom
to change from my jeans to my pajama bottoms and
realize I have all this shit in my pockets, and no
pockets on the pajamas. So I take everything out, put
it on the toilet paper holder and realize I have all
this change. My focus goes to how the hell I'm gonna
carry all this and I put all the change in my shoe,
then make the biggest mistake of all. I actually
use the bathroom.
The toilet might
as well be a creativity portal because I've yet to sit
down at one and not start thinking about videos or
songs or something. At which point the fact that my
wallet and cellphone were on the toilet paper holder
vanished from my mind.
EVEN AFTER I GRABBED TOILET PAPER
I never noticed the wallet & cell phone. No it
wasn't until an hour and a half later that it occured
to me and amazingly? Because I'm on the streak of a
lifetime? Called them (thanks to Paddy's receipt) and
they were turned in. Even luckier? My friend Pat
stayed up in San Francisco an extra day and will be
able to stop off the highway and pick them up for me.
Wow. That's about as fortunate as you can get. Also -
I had no money in the wallet (except 50 Kenyan
Shillings worth about 70 cents). So even THAT is
lucky. If you're gonna be this absent minded, luck
helps.
The reason
for the trip to San Francisco was to support
Paddy's short film "The Spam Job" that was
appearing at a film festival up there. It's
an incredibly funny and unique film about his
beloved can of spam being stolen and it's a
true story to boot. As you can imagine, I'm a
bit of a fan of auto-biographical stuff
(hahahaha, captain obvious strikes again) and
it's just my favorite thing Paddy has done.
So even though I can't begin to express how
badly I didn't want to travel - Paddy's a
badass and it feels like a big celebration.
We're all happy when one of us pulls off
somethin' cool. Add Padraic Culham on
Facebook and get updates for when it's
showin' in your town 'cause you won't see it
online for a loooooooong time - if
ever.
Of course I
couldn't waste an opportunity for yet another city and
another running video for the big world-wide thingee
(which will finally be completed this month). However
I decided to include the entire video without edits
'cause it's kinda cool how it lasts the exact amount
of time it actually takes to go from the top to the
bottom of Lombard Street in San Francisco. For those
that don't know - it's in the Guiness Book of World
Records as the "Crookedest Street in America". A
stupid-huge tourist attraction that I don't really
understand... but I ran down the middle of the street
which was kinda dangerous and stupid (it's NOT for
pedestrians to say the least). So that makes it fun to
watch:
(btw - there's
something ridiculously cool to me that Cameron comes
up at the end 'cause I was re-using
the tape from
London. It's a total "huh?" moment that only Journey
readers will get)
Heh, I like this
video blog thing. I think I'm gonna keep doin'
it.
Wow, just occured
to me - I should contact Guiness. I so own that shit.
World's Longest Running Video Blog - now that
Wikipedia finally recognizes it... I bet I could
actually get in that book. Talk about a childhood
dream realized - and I didn't even have to clap
for 3 straight days.
