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	What's New (as of June 2004) New Feature Articles My next feature for the S.F. Chronicle is on "transit villages," and will appear later this summer. I also re-formatted my "Feature Articles" page and added links to the S.F. Chronicle archives. Check it out by clicking on the "feature articles" link above. Spring Travels 2004     Peripatetic might be the word I'm looking for...two trips to Hawaii, one to Virginia, and another car camping trip around the southwest. Two monster rock-n-roll jams shook the Island of Hawaii during my visit, the last one rocking "The Bunker," site of many previous jams. Captured on film is my impromptu slide work with an empty Beck's beer bottle...(below) the recording of this jam is floating around the guilty parties, so it remains to be seen if this is the worst slide guitar ever recorded or merely a contender...or, as Steve Toma remarked, "Elmore James got nothing on this!" Ha. Just to show these young punks nowadays what two 50-ish geezers can do more or less for fun, Steve Toma and I framed up most of a spacious garage in a couple days of lousy weather. Yeah, we still got what it takes... Then I jetted off to Virginia to look in on Jim Erler's new house site at Smith Mt. Lake, and was delighted to participate a bit in the layout of the new lakeside manse. In between such serious stuff we kayaked and fished--shocking results below. The other trip took me to Oahu, and the stunning beach at Mokuleia (above). Interesting wreck of an airliner out there, assembled for the filming of a new TV show "Lost." You almost forget you're sharing the island with a million other souls; only a few other people within sight. Another highlight was dinner with old compadre Colbert Matsumoto and his family. Also worked on my "research" for an article on the "best manapua in Honolulu." I need another trip to confirm the results of the survey.... Then came Jeff Blair's visit to Berkeley--our first meeting since 1978 in the waning days of the old People's Party of Hawaii, just before Jeff left Honolulu to teach English in Japan, and comrades Ken E. and Dexter Cate and I each made our way to the Big Island. For more on Jeff and the Triumvrate, please see the "My Hidden History" link at the top of the page.    Did Elmore James drink Beck's?         photo by Steve Toma                   Other Stuff Lest anyone think it's all play and no work, I also finished a 7-year project by the name of Verona, my third novel, and several significant website projects just to keep my hand in HTML and design. "King George Is Back," the satirical song about President Bush I helped Mike Dakota record, is still getting plenty of hits on the Web. If you haven't heard it, click on the title to give it a listen. (Lyrics are by Mike, lead guitar by me.) Book/Film Reviews Two books that have received plenty of press but which are worth the hype are What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East by Bernard Lewis, and Of Paradise and Power by Robert Kagan. Each is well-written, and succinct. I also finished The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence, which is a most interesting work which deserves additional commentary at a later date. Also worth reading are Global City Blues by San Francisco architect and New Urbanist Daniel Solomon, and The New Transit Town edited by Hank Dittmar and Gloria Ohland, a fine work on urban planning. The great southwest                   Jim Erler and I with the estimable Tosca, on Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia                   Me and an unfortunate striper bass, Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia                     "What's New: Feb. 2004" "What's New: Jan. 2004" "What's New: Sept./Oct. 2003" "What's New: July/Aug. 2003" "What's New: June 2003" "What's New: May 2003" "What's New: April 2003" "What's New: March 2003" "What's New: February 2003"