I awoke earlier than I had the previous day (and after an entire bottle of wine, too!), showered and packed. My meeting with MICHAEL BRANDON at Raging Stallion was at 11 am, so I got dressed and took all my stuff downstairs and checked out. I asked the lady at the desk if I could leave my car in their lot until 1 pm, and she was cool with that, so I put my bags in the back and walked the 1 1/2 blocks to Raging Stallion.

I buzzed in, and a nice young woman opened the door. Just as she was asking who I wanted to see, a loud, booming voice called out, "Jett Blakk!", and I turned to see J.D. SLADER coming down the stairs. He grabbed me in a bear hug and said, "Welcome to Raging Stallion!" He apologized that Michael Brandon wasn't in that day due to his not feeling well, and then took me on a tour of the company, 3 stories of loft spaces. Everyone was very nice, and the tour ended at the office of CHRIS WARD. I sat down at Chris' desk, and we chatted about the industry and where we thought it was going. Chris raved about the pleasures of shooting HD and told me that BEDROOM EYES was shot almost entirely without lights. He also gave me some tips, and I was really impressed by his business saavy.

J.D. then took me to lunch at an Italian cafe called ROCCO'S.



I've often found that places like this have the best food, and I was not wrong here. I got a beef and spinach-filled ravioli in cream sauce that was delicious. J.D. was excellent company. He is hysterically funny, telling tales out of school about various porn stars in that loud, booming voice that probably informed half the restaurant about how the industry works. lol. But to their credit, no one even looked twice at us.

We then went back to Raging Stallion where J.D. put together a HUGE stack of porn for me, including 4 of his music cds. I thanked him and Chris again, then walked back to my car, where I stuffed the porn in the back seat and headed for the 80.



Now, I have the sense of direction you'd find in a homing pigeon with alzheimer's. After passing several exits for Vallejo, I called CVK and asked him to Mapquest my location to see where I was. He said it seemed that I was going the right way, and not to worry. After another hour of not seeing anything familiar, I called again to discover that I was, indeed, headed north instead of south. I continued another 15 minutes to where the 80 connected wtih the 5, then took it south.

CVK had informed me that morning that the 5 had been closed for a day after I slipped through and now only had 2 lanes open. In some cases, he said, the police had to escort travellers through the area. Several hours later, when I was about 10 miles away from the burning area, I started to smell smoke and see the ground on both sides of the road was scorched black. It was now about 7 pm, and traffic was light. Even with only 2 lanes open, there was no congestion of any kind. Then, as I drove through the thick of the area, I could see the fires still burning in the distance. I fished out my cell phone camera and took this picture:



I got home around 8:00, tossed my bags on the floor next to Jekyll and Hyde, then grabbed CVK in a big hug. I was about to kiss him when he stopped me and said, "Don't. I have a scratchy throat, and I don't want you to get sick." My life, sigh.

All in all, I had a great time in San Fran, and I want to thank everyone who took time out of their busy schedules to meet with me. It was a blast.

Tomorrow, some cool news, and a special offer to readers of this site!

JBK