Sunday. Boy-howdy but I did rattle on yesterday. Not sure why. I'm still not altogether clear on what it takes to get a license to smoke marijuana here in the city. From the looks of it and from talking to one or two people as I was standing in line it takes sixty bucks and you're pretty much guaranteed to get one if you can state that you have one of the fifty or so conditions they list on their advertising cards. The whole thing had a more Madison Avenue marketing feel to it with attractive ladies walking about giving out glossy color cards and fliers promoting the various wares than other recent festivals I've attended; real money, in other words, spent on sales and marketing. Clearly the politics have changed and there's capital “M” money involved. Still, you go to these things, you learn, you take a couple of pictures.

Up this morning after another good night's sleep, to breakfast and back, the overcast morning similar to the way yesterday started, the sun coming out later in the morning but never hitting the highs they were forecasting for the afternoon. Yesterday got into the low seventies was my thought, not into the eighties. Which was nice.

The Oakland Gay Pride Festival today. They were saying fifty thousand people attended last year's event and they're hoping to double that number today. We'll see. Yesterday's outing didn't go all that well with the pictures. I went through them, thought about them, made mental notes on how to do better in similar circumstances the next time around. Set specific goals (hup, hup). At least give a feel for the event in the photographs: the crowds, the dress, the flavor. (hup) On days like these I feel I learn at about half the rate of a real photographer. And there are often more than just a few days like these. (hup, hup) What the hell, some of them turned out.

Later. OK, two street festivals in a row is enough for one weekend, quite happy at the moment there's nothing out there I'm aware of scheduled tomorrow. Not that I won't check, but two hours running around yesterday, two hours running around today with the cameras at the ready is more than enough for this old fart photographer. I got some pictures, hard not to at a gay pride event, but I think I'm a little too burned out at the moment to tell. Another section, anyway, probably two for artandlife. So good. That's good.

Evening. I'll finish the Oakland Pride photographs tomorrow after identifying just barely enough to make two artandlife sections (some forty photographs). Some are interesting, some are less interesting, but they're OK. Maybe try photographing something a little different in the next couple of months just to change my direction. Nothing spectacularly different, although anything off the path for me is radical behavior anymore.