And... Go.

I'm talking to a friend the other day about the long and storied career of the Wu-Tang Clan . And about the members of said hip-hop ensemble who have had, to put it bluntly, underwhelming careers. To say nothing of the innumerable side projects that the Wu have sponsored, lent variations on their logo to, or been loosely affiliated with. And we hypothesized that U-God should've just been spun off years ago to captain his own, lesser chapter of the Wu elsewhere. Like the West Coast, no, not even... The Great Lakes Wu-Tang! [If you happen not to be a comic book geek and a hip-hop fanatic, background on why this is funny can be found here and here .] -PAR

Spotted this taped to a phone booth on Avenue A. -PAR

Snapshots from the remainder of the time spent on the West Coast. As ever, you can click on any of 'em to embiggen. I'm now back in NYC, and slowly getting myself up to speed again... Vacation over. Back to work, and life, and gigs, and all the rest. -PAR

Snapshots of the first few days in Santa Cruz... Family, wandering the coastline, generally goofing around. More to follow. -PAR

Get to California. Spent a day in Berkeley, record shopping, lunching at Intermezzo (DUDE), then partying with friends all evening. Then, down to Santa Cruz. More pics to follow. -PAR

I finally got a new gallery up on Mallfellows . An incomplete, blurry, lo-res travelogue of my whirlwind trip to Charlottesville a few weeks back... And a kinda accurate representation of just how it seemed for me to be back in the old hometown for a few days, and catching up with everyone. -PAR

Saturday evening I fly to California for nine days. See some friends in the Bay Area, then a little over a week in Santa Cruz. Sitting back and relaxing, enjoying incredible coffee and great food, seeing the family that I see far too rarely, real live vacation. It's been too long since I set foot in the Pacific, and it's almost time to remedy that. But I've got a typically manic week in NYC to get thru first... -PAR