ah yeah, the Kingdom of Bojon is getting jazzed for our upcoming mardi gras party this friday, february 28th at broadway studios in san francisco.
putting the finishing touches on our plans for some slammin' brass, tasty hurricanes and beads galore.
broadway studios is located on broadway at montgomery in north beach. doors will open at 8pm and stay open 'til 2am.
from 8 to 10 we'll be spinning some funky, mardi gras-style brass and serving up 2 FOR 1 HURRICANES.
at 10, the Brass Monkey Brass Band takes the stage in full new orleans-style regalia.
if you have not heard these guys before, you're really in for a treat. brass monkey brings the full ensemble of brass energy in the style of new orleans' own Dirty Dozen, Rebirth and other brass bands, with a traditional lineup of tuba, saxes, trumpets, trombones, bass drum and snare.
after brass monkey, we've lined up a special performance by DJ Zuca, who mixes tribal, afro-venezuelan house grooves with funky, soulful live percussion.
and, of course, we've got beads, beads, and more beads. just received a big shipment direct from the french quarter.
caught an article yesterday that waxed poetic about the allure of beads and the inevitable "flashing" that accompanies them. explained one female college student enjoying mardi gras for her fist time:
hmmm . . .
in addition, Trevor Hewitt and the mixed elements crew have helped us set up an after party at Cloud Nine. from 1am on, entry to Cloud Nine (7th and mission) is free for those with a bojon stamp. the Cloud Nine party will run until at least 3am.
advance tix will be available for this bojon gig via the site through thursday. tix will be available at the door the night of the show.
so this friday promises to be a doozie. come one, come all . . . it's gonna be a stone cold groove!
the illustrious Bojon Conundrum - the notion that the more free time i have, the less free time i have - hounded me big time the last few days.
coming off of President's Day, i was dealing with a short week and a lot to do. i put together a tight To Do list, knowing that if i stuck to plan, i could get a fair amount done and still squeeze in a few quality surf sessions.
however, things started to go awry on wednesday when i dropped my cell in the parking lot while down at the beach checking the surf. now, of course, i had done this a million times before, but this time the phone went blank. totally dead. wouldn't boot up no matter what i did.
as anyone with a cell phone knows, the phone itself is a minor concern compared to the phone numbers programmed into the dumbass thing.
the irony here is that i'd lost this very phone no less than three times, but always managed to get it back, each time vowing to copy down all of the numbers. in fact, one late night i started MARCHING through this project. i got to the letter "J" before i got distracted.
anyway, after catching a few waves i cruised back to my house, tried a fresh battery and prayed to the cell phone gods, but came up empty. i then proceeded to go on a mini crusade to see if some service shop could work a little magic. four shops and three hours later, it became clear that all numbers from "K" on were gone.
so at this point, my weekly schedule was slipping badly. i decided to get an early start on things for thursday to try to restore some order. my plan was to hit the surf first thing and then get to work.
i drive a beater Subaru that strictly gets me to the beach and back.
thursday morning i decided i'd put in a little power steering fluid to address one of the humming noises the car was making. i released the latch on the hood and grabbed the car manual. however, the directions for the power steering fluid recommended driving the car first so the engine would be warm.
i figured i'd drive to the beach and put the fluid in there. ocean beach was no good so i rolled south along the great highway, and then merged onto the 1 to drop into pacifica. the road opens up a bit there, and i got the 'Bru going its max speed of about 60 down hill.
just as the road was about to level off an updraft caught the hood and opened it flush in front of the windshield. holy calamity, 60 mpg and no visibility. the very second the hood came up, it occurred to me that i had released the latch earlier and then never secured it.
shit.
somehow i managed to pull the car over to the side of the road without incident. fortunately the hood did not go flying over the top endangering other drivers. unfortunately, what probably kept the hood from doing so was that it crushed the end of my surfboard on the roof.
bummer.
went home to deal.
let's see, my normal surf repair guy's name is Lance. but with "K" on gone from my numbers, i had no digits for him. was referred to Lance by my friend McQ. no number for him either. finally found someone in the "A" through "J" range that had McQ's number. but McQ no longer had Lance's contact info. he suggested i call one of the local surf shops that had originally come up with Lance. did so, and they said Lance was no longer repairing boards, but they gave me the number to this guy mark down in none other than pacifica.
well geez, i'm not driving all the way back down to pacifica without getting in a surf, so i grabbed one of my other boards.
everything went relatively smooth from here, but i did not get back to my house 'til mid afternoon. at this point, the week's schedule was totally cooked. looks like i'll have to play catch up all weekend.
dawned on me that none of this would ever have happened if i had a traditional office job.
again the Bojon Conundrum makes its presence felt.
looks like i may have to grab a job one of these days just to get my schedule back on track.
on second thought, nahhhh!
allan weisbecker is an author with a tremendous talent for spinning elaborate and hilarious tales while maintaining a completely matter-of-fact writing style. his sharp wit sneaks up on you, masked by a conversational flow that is utterly subtle in its poignancy.
his two books In Search of Captain Zero and Cosmic Banditos are both outstanding reads. In fact, Cosmic Banditos comes with an eleven-star (out of five) Bojon approval rating.
these days, agent weisbecker has set up shop in costa rica and sends out a periodic newsletter called the Down South Perspective (you can sign up for this through his website). the newsletter is not about anything in particular; it just provides updates on his activities in costa rica (mostly surfing), his latest writing exploits, and anything else he feels like discussing.
anyway, his latest installment included a passage that just cracked me up and serves as a perfect example of his writing style. He is describing an old buddy from Montauk named Bo Bo who has come down to costa rica for a visit:
Here’s one.
Bo Bo used to travel to Mexico a lot. (Being Bo Bo, he spent some time in jail there.) One time he decided to bring some parrots back to the States. The importation of birds from Mexico to the U.S. is illegal.
This did not bother Bo Bo. It was merely a problem to solve.
Here’s how Bo Bo solved the problem: Bo Bo put six parrots in the hubcaps of his pickup truck and drove back to the U.S. thus.
“Four out of the six made it,” Bo Bo explains. “They were dizzy.”
great stuff!
considering a regular entry that touches on what people are doing outside of the office during decidedly "office hours." came across a guy the other day on my way back from the beach who was painting a landscape of the city. i snapped this shot on a monday around 11:15 in the morning.
highlighted for me how much cool stuff goes on during the day.
reminiscent of a killer commercial from a few years back that a friend of mine brought up the other day. in the spot, a guy wearing a business suit on his way to lunch in the financial district spots an SUV heading out of town totally packed with surfing and camping gear. the concept at once inspires and confuses him, and all he can do is dreamily say to himself, "but it's tuesday. people work on tuesdays."
there's a lot going on out there. probably worth checking in on some of it . . .
ha! so it turns out there is a city in Italy named Bojon. check out the following passage which comes directly from a trusty Google search:
If history does not attract you, there is the chance to have hours of fun offered by our company of actors; our theatre stages wonderful plays by Goldoni, Pirandello, Brecht but also those in the local idiom.
Summer in Bojon usually offers several days of games among the inhabitants themselves: divided into several contrade they compete to win simple prizes (hams, cheese, eggs and other foodstuffs - barrels of wine included) offered by local shops. Some examples of competitions are pig hunting (believe me, it is the funniest thing you can ever try in your life!) or the funny attempts to push a cock into a goal without killing it, or at least not before the games are over!
hmm, road trip anyone?
ah yes, the infamous Banana Yammock.
apparently, this slight variation on the Bojon Banana Hammock is sweeping the nation in Yamaica . . .
a rather intriguing paradox occurred to me the other day: the more free time i have, the less free time i have.
since i'm not working right now in the conventional 9-to-5-401k-cubicle sort of way, one would think that i've got all the time in the world to do things like return phone calls and answer emails. or even send out a few resumes.
well, actually, it's quite the contrary: i'm totally booked.
i surf in the mornings, and then race home to catch a late morning breakfast and read the paper. next i take a quick spin around the Web before heading out to knock out some errands (random mix of grocery store, dry cleaners, post office, hardware store). then i'll come home and grab lunch in the back yard so i can squeeze in some quality sun time.
then i'll set off on whatever project i am working on at the moment. some recent examples include building a chest of drawers, organizing my tax files, cleaning out the storage room, etc. before i know it, the afternoon has passed (sometimes before i am able to catch a proper nap) and it's time to hit the gym for a quick workout. home by 7 in time for dinner with the lady. then depending on the day of the week heading out on the town, watching some tube, or reading a book.
boom! the day draws to a close and i feel like i've been on the move the whole time. friends ask me why i haven't returned their emails? my mom wonders why i haven't called her back. my dad shakes his head at how little effort i've put into getting "gainful employment."
what can i tell these people? i'm slammed. every part of the day, filled. would love to get together for lunch, but i'm on a tight schedule. would love to come in for a job interview: how about three weeks from thursday. yeah, mom, i'll be home for christmas . . . if i can swing it.
decided to call this phenomenon: The Bojon Conundrum
looks like i may have to grab a job one of these days just to free up the schedule a bit.
on second thought, nahhhh!
the Tao section of the bojon website sets forth the range of definitions for the term "bojon," and it touches on the concepts behind the bojon philosophy. nevertheless, as a starting point for the content that appears in the Buzz section of the site, it makes sense to elaborate a bit upon the basic tenets that make up the bojon way.
bojon possesses both a literal and a figurative meaning. on a literal level, bojon means having no job.
that's right, no cubicle, no hours, no boss, no PowerPoint presentations, and no TPS reports. in the glory days of the Dot Com rise in the late 90's, being bojon meant that you cashed out, you hit the jackpot. hasta la vista, baby, you were set for life.
but this literal sense of bojon can come with a downside. with the downturn in the economy and the demise of the Dot Com pipe dream, being bojon more likely meant you were laid-off.
plenty of free time, but no steady pay check, no stock options, no PTO days, no health insurance, no sure way of paying the rent, etc. perhaps fun for a bit, but definitely not long-term sustainable.
it is not until you consider its figurative meaning that the true essence of bojon begins to take shape. on a figurative level, bojon means inner peace, the type of solace that comes from pursuing your passions and dreams.
in this sense, bojon is about finding your calling and going after it. it's about asking yourself what makes you tick, what gives you inspiration, and chasing it down. it's the fulfillment that comes from determining what you want to do with your life and trying to make it happen.
identifying one's calling is hard enough; having the courage, the confidence, and the gumption to pursue it is harder still, but this is the heart of what bojon represents.
the no job aspect of bojon is the lighter side of the equation: hey, eternal recess, what a concept. nary an eight-year-old would turn it down.
but the quest for more, for that sense of accomplishment, for that sense of inner peace is where the bojon concept gains some substance.
in many ways, bojon can be viewed as an ideal, something that sits on the horizon, perhaps, acting as a guiding principle. no doubt, there will have to be compromises along the way. reality, circumstance, and chance all have their say.
the bojon call to arms is to keep yourself honest: compromise is one thing, capitulation is another.
get out there and live. make things happen, thrive in the successes and learn from the defeats.
the bojon way is a celebration of life, and the hope is that the content on this site reflects this...
