Souvenirs From The Late 20th Century

The Zulu Lounge

Over twenty years ago, in May of 1990, Tania and I moved to Long Beach.

At the time we were involved with a group of artists, actors, musicians and short-film makers (who had migrated from Colorado to California together) which we had met through our job working at an interior design company’s warehouse in Costa Mesa/Irvine.

I was writing a lot of poetry, and one day at work I mentioned to Tania and our friend Brian that I needed a place to read my poems out loud, and get some feedback…

So we formed a Wednesday night group called The Zulu Lounge which met in the garage of Brian’s rented house in Irvine to read poetry, share our art, smoke cigarettes and drink.

I Like To Smoke by Jon Christopher – The Zulu Lounge – 1990

Here’s an audio recording of the first poem ever read at The Zulu Lounge. This was one of the “Smoker’s Rights” poems I was writing at the time called I Like To Smoke.

During the middle of this poem I try a flip a cigarette into my mouth…

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From The Lounge To Long Beach

When Tania and I moved to Long Beach, so did many of our friends from this group.

Three of the guys from The Zulu Lounge – Brian, Phil and Kirk – moved into an apartment on Broadway which had several bedrooms and, most importantly, access to the roof.

Soon after they moved in they threw a very big house-warming party…

I barely remember it, and I don’t think we have any photos of the night, but I still have the audio-invitation cassette tape and my Fish Pass.

When Cassettes Were King

In 1990 the cassette tape was king. We listened to most of our music on cassette tape.

If you wanted to share some music with a friend, you made a mix-tape and gave it to them… a special kind of gift you listened to over and over again.

That’s probably why I kept this particular cassette tape. It’s both a sound collage of audio theater and an amazing invitation to a party.

An Audio Invitation

Here’s the audio from the cassette tape – It’s about 31 minutes long and very funny, strange and unique souvenir from the late twentieth century.

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Included in the cassette invitation was a FREE Pass To See Chilly Willy Talk, and Entrance to The Attic of Doom – Enter and Worship

The Fish Pass

The prime party spot that night (if I remember correctly) was on the roof, which required a special Fish Pass – which we were suppose to share. I think the idea was to keep the number of people on the roof limited…

As you can see I kept mine. Here’s the photo I took of it today…

Note: If you have any photos from this party, please contact me so I can add them to this page…


Related posts:

Orange Orbs Over Long Beach

Ever since I was a little child I’ve wanted to see a UFO, but in all my years of watching the sky I’ve never had any luck seeing a real UFO. Well, that has changed…

Last night, around 7:00 pm, our neighbor called us to the back balcony to witness the final moments of a string of orange orbs flying past Long Beach. It was an awesome sight – the video just doesn’t do it any justice, but I offer it here for your enjoyment and speculation…

Here’s my report I filed with Mufon.org last night – this morning (Sunday, November 14th) I got a call from a Mufon investigator named Steve who was following up on my report. During our discussion I found out that orange orbs are the most commonly UFOs reported – but it’s a real UFO…

MUFON CASE#26561

Just before 7:00 pm this evening (November 13, 2010) my wife and I heard our downstairs neighbor calling us to the back yard. My wife went out and then yelled for me to come outside quickly because there were “UFOs out here..”

I ran out to the back balcony and looked up to see several bright orange orbs in the sky, looking towards the ocean and the direction of Catalina Island. I quickly ran back into our apartment and grabbed my point-and-shot digital camera.

I returned to the balcony and was able to record the last 2 and a half minutes of the sighting while the last orb brightened for a last time and then faded to a dark gray and continued on it’s course. I personally saw two bright orange orbs, my wife saw three (because she went outside first) and our neighbor said she saw 7-8 orange orbs, all in a line across the sky.

I am not sure how far away the orbs were from us, but they were unlike anything I have ever seen. They seemed to burn from inside, but it wasn’t what seemed to be propelling them. They did not fall through the sky like burning debris, but like a vehicle moving on a set course from west to east across the sky.

While it can’t be seen because of the video quality, the orbs continued along their eastern course as dark gray orbs, each with a very dim orange glow inside.

Included with this report is several graphics I made this evening right after the event:

1. a time-chart of the path of the one orange orb I was able to videotape. [see below]
2. a map showing our field of view and the flight path of the orange orb. [see above]

The video is unedited.

The graphic at the top of the page shows the direction the orbs were traveling, and the graphic below shows the time sequence of the video.

If anyone else saw this event, or has extra information to add to this report, please send it to me and I’ll add it to this post.


Related posts:

One Year On The Road

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In honor of our friends…

Our friends, Russ and Laura, have been traveling by bicycle across the United States since last Summer on an open-ended journey.

For several years before they left Long Beach to follow their dreams, they were a major part of our Friday night Happy Hour crew which met every week to unwind and share our ideas, dreams and latest creative works.

Over the course of many Happy Hours we were privileged to watch their shared dream take shape, acquire wheels and take them out onto the great American pilgrimage – the open road.

In honor of their One Year On The Road, a group of us got together last Friday, August 13th, so we could record a video “congratulations” to them.

Included in the video is Chris, Dominic and Jayme, Katie and Rick, Tania and myself, and Richard (the Jesse Ventura look-alike…)

This video was edited by myself on Saturday night, August 21st, with much input from Tania, Enjoy!

Links:

You can follow their journey on their website and also on their Facebook page:

Website: http://pathlesspedaled.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Path-Less-Pedaled/94377691671?v=wall

Until later, best of health.


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My Wife – The Cover Girl!

The District - Tania on Cover - December 9, 2009

Above: Tania on the cover of The District – December 9, 2009

The District Weekly – December 9, 2009

The new issue of The District came out yesterday with an article that has been much anticipated around our home…

Rachel Powers, a writer for The District, has been putting this article together since the summer, and our friend and professional photographer, Russ Roca, took the photos several months ago.

We had no idea when the story would come out, or that they would choose this photo (above) for the cover shot…

I think it’s a great photo. That’s my beautiful wife, doing what she does everyday – giving her time, energy and love into making other peoples lives better.

I’m very proud of her!

The story is about the amazing place Tania works at called “The Village” which serves the homeless, “mentally ill” population with real care and true compassion.

Long Beach is finally learning about this world-famous and very successful resource in their own downtown.

People who work in the mental health field come from all over the world (right now there is a group from Japan visiting for a week) to do an “Immersion” and find out how the philosophy of The Village works.

The article does a great job of explaining the simple, but radically different approach The Village uses to help remind people that they are somebody of value, to reawaken their forgotten dreams and to both start and continue on that road back to health and stability.

Tania started working there in September of 2005 – how she got there is a story for another time – and since then she has grown in amazing ways.

I feel honored to be a part of her story and to be able to offer her my unconditional support for the work she does.

Article Links

Best Practices – The District Weekly, December 9, 2009

The Village Website – Information Page


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23 Years of Love!

The Jon and Tania Story – In 23 Photos!

To celebrate our Anniversary today, here’s a gallery of photos of us together from 23 years of love – From 1987 until now, with one photo representing each year of the journey.

Enjoy!

The Great Journey began on October 12, 1986…

A poem I wrote on the day Tania and I started going out…

October 12, 1986

I stood before the chamber for many days
I wanted to be sure before my choice was made
What’s this fear of what my emotions have to say
That’s to conventional thinking when my heart has it’s way

Not a great poem, but I’m sure glad I wrote it down at the time…

Note: Back then I was always writing “for” when I meant to write “of” – that chamber of days has contained 8,401 days so far.

My heart had it right, and I’m glad it had it’s way!

ALSO Related…

The Plan and Do Box, created in 1991 around the time of our 5 year anniversary.

Inside The Plan Box - The Do Box

Click the photo to see all the Plan and Do Box Photos


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