On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Here’s some pics from the San Francisco Balloon Juice Event of 2010.
schrodinger's cat
Invisible pictures?
edited to add: Have become visible.
jwb
Great pics! DougJ looks just like I imagined him.
ETA: DougJ went and fixed it so we can actually see the pictures now. He spoiled all our fun.
tagged45
Maybe the party was so good everyone blacked out.
Shell
Must have really been dark in that restaurant.
Geeno
So who’s who?
FormerSwingVoter
Is DougJ the one on the left?
licensed to kill time
So far it’s a pretty hip looking crowd – but who’s who? I totally understand if people don’t want to be identified, but dang!
DougJ
So who’s who?
I’m not totally sure who wants to be identified, so I’ll let the people who were there ID themselves in the comments if they want to (or not, if they don’t).
None of these is me. I didn’t like how I looked in the picture.
Napoleon
Ah, as I suspected. You are a bunch of DFH!
jwb
@FormerSwingVoter: I’m pretty sure the fourth picture is DougJ.
Zifnab
Someone is going to have to change his screen name to “Sideburns”.
Xenos
So the hipsters are wearing black now? Or has Goth gone mainstream?
I have been out of circulation for about 15 years, I realize.
grass
@Napoleon:
They’re wearing far too much black to be DFH, no tie dye in sight. Vampires or Goths is my bet.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
So far it seems that everyone who met up likes black clothing…lol!
Same here. I guess we all like Johnny Cash. ;)
It would have been nice to meet up but a 700 mile round trip to do so on short notice just couldn’t happen right now. Do this again later this year (with a bit more advance notice!) and the wife and I will be glad to ride the bike down to SF.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@Zifnab:
Sideburns? Those are “mutton chops”.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
More like “Lambchop”…lol! I had sideburns like that in the late 70’s and the pics haunt me to this day. ;)
LT
@jwb: Is DougJ the one on the left?
*Damn, someone already said that. Gotta move fast at BJ.
erlking
I’m jealous as hell. You all look great. It looks like fun and it’s in my favorite city in the world.
Kevin K.
It’s good to know that Alfred Molina reads Balloon Juice. He rocked as Doctor Otto Octavius.
schrodinger's cat
But where is DougJ? we has a curious.
Svensker
I’m the cutest one.
jwb
@LT: He did say he was wearing a pink shirt and leather blazer, right?
ETA: So that has to be him in the fourth picture.
Colette
I’m the one who’s not Doug.
Lev
I would have traversed the 40 miles from the East Bay for this, but my girlfriend was in town. Schedules!
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Hi Lambchop! ;)
Punchy
Names goddammit!
geg6
So…other than a wondrously beautiful woman of about my age and with hair almost as short as mine, everyone at BJ is all of 25 years old?
Damn.
Napoleon
BTW, I like the “Good News for Conservatives” tag.
LT
@Kevin K.: HAHAHAHAHA.
Funny. And Alfred looks a little too happy if you know what I mean.
James K. Polk, Esq.
Bah, so jealous that you guys got to meet up. Too many demands to do it this time…
R-Jud
@Svensker: The lady with the ginormous glass of wine? Agreed!
Ash Can
@geg6: I know. What the hey? Everyone at BJ is either older gals like us or dashing young gentlemen half our age? I mean, that’s just…that’s just…
That’s just jim-fine-ass-dandy with me! :)
geg6
@Ash Can:
LOL! Well, now that you put it that way…
Napoleon
@Ash Can:
Sorry to bust your bubble but I am a guy about the age of that woman with a half a gallon of wine in her hands.
Dee Loralei
I’m jealous, anyone else in Memphis? And Doug, I gotta say it’s totally unfair and just wrong of you to put up other peoples pics and withhold your own. Who cares if you don’t like how you look in the pic? We might, and the people you did post may not like their likenesses either, ya know. So damit, cough it up.
Chat Noir
@Ash Can: I’m 43 and not too proud to say it. It’s kind of like that old radio ad that Lauren Hutton did when she was 50 (it was for some health supplement). She said, “Someone asked me if I’d like to be 18 again and I said only if I can have my 50 year old brain.” There’s a lot to be said for the wisdom of age.
I wouldn’t want to be in my early 20s again.
geg6
@Napoleon:
Huh? That looks like a modest tasting portion to me. ;-)
And just so you know, I, myself, like mature men. Though I don’t mind goggling those sweet young things. Men and women really aren’t all that different. LOL!
R-Jud
@Chat Noir: Word. I turned 30 at Halloween, and I don’t want to be in my early 20s again. Shudder.
Ash Can
@Napoleon: That’s OK, I’m sure you clean up just fine too.
Ash Can
@DougJ:
Then next time don’t moon the camera, silly.
@Chat Noir:
@R-Jud:
Hear, hear. The saying is correct — youth really is wasted on the young.
ajr22
The W.o.W thing is starting to make more sense.
beltane
@Chat Noir: Now that I’m 41, I finally feel that I could do high school the right way. Looking at old pictures, I have no idea what I was so insecure about back then.
licensed to kill time
{{{psst}}} – I have always wanted to see what JC looks like but never wanted to ask here for fear of invading his privacy; don’t tell anyone! The most we get is an inadvertent knee intruding on a Lily pic…
Colette
@geg6:
Funny, that was actually one of the topics of conversation last night.
And I agree with @Dee Loralei: DougJ, if I have to look at that highly unflattering (although admittedly quite representative) picture of myself, we should get one of you, too.
Edit: DougJ’s much-maligned black leather blazer/pink shirt combo was actually very nice looking. And I challenge him to prove it.
Midnight Marauder
@DougJ:
You mean like the DFH that you are?
Comrade Mary
Colette, you’re a silver fox! (I will reserve comment on the fine examples of jailbait — at least, until they properly identify themselves.)
Oh, and I found DougJ in his other favourite outfit.
R-Jud
@beltane:
This is how I feel about college. There were a lot of really cool things I could’ve done/people I could’ve gotten to know better, but I passed them up to moon over some boy or other. Dumb girl.
@licensed to kill time: I think he’s said before that he looks a bit like the actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
Citizen_X
So the BJ rule is: everybody wear black?
(Good, because I’m up to code in a black shirt.)
Chief
Wish I was in Frisco again. Wish I could afford to live in the Bay Area. Oh, well.
Sounds like a good time was had by all.
twiffer
wow…someone’s mom has a GREAT basement…
sorry, had to be done. [grin]
Comrade Mary
Whoops! Here’s more DougJ, inverted.
NickM
It looks like the woman with the big smile and bigger glass of wine ordered the “Althouse” – four shots of wine, add a jigger of wine, and more wine to taste.
Ash Can
@Colette: We never like our own photos, do we? You needn’t be concerned about this one; you look elegant.
geg6
@Colette:
That stunning woman is you? You are the shizzit!
And that is a tasting portion, right? Please tell Napoleon. He seems to think that is a large glass of wine or something.
Napoleon
@R-Jud:
I feel the same way about parts of the past, particularly when I was young, which is why one of my favorite lines out of any song is the one from Sheryl Crow: “There ain’t nothing like regret to remind you you’re alive.”
==-+
Oh this is bugging me, I’ve met Mr. Muttonchops before, but I can’t remember when/where. Pretty sure it was a few years ago.
Gus
@R-Jud: I would go back to my early 20s if I could leave and come back to my mid-40s at will.
DZ
Everyone is so young. I’m 62. I guess I don’t fit the BJ demographic, but I think I’ll hang around.
DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio
That’s me behind the lady with the glass of wine.
.
.
.
.
.
Heh. Made you look.
DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio
@DZ:
You are not the oldest one here.
geg6
@DZ:
Dude. My man is 62. He surely fits my demographic. Heh.
DZ
@DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio and geg6:
Thank you. I feel much better already.
LT
@Ash Can: Smart elegant beautiful indeed.
gopher2b
I’m quitting Balloon-Juice. Just felt like saying on this thread. No specific reason.
-Gopher2b out.
The Raven
@Colette: “DougJ, if I have to look at that highly unflattering (although admittedly quite representative) picture of myself, we should get one of you, too.”
Heee. I sent him one, I don’t think it’s bad. But I hate the one of myself so much that I refuse to forward it. (I left the good flash equipment home this trip, to keep the Terribly Silly Administration from fiddling with it, and I rather regret it.)
Pigs & Spiders
So who’s going to conduct the BJ meetup for us New York Liberal Elites?
licensed to kill time
@gopher2b: I seem to recall you saying this before – is this like Gopher Groundhog Day or something?
Notorious P.A.T.
What a hip bunch )
L. Ron Obama
That wine glass is only 1/3 full people.
You really are optimists.
GReynoldsCT00
@gopher2b:
Was it something somebody said?
Hob
The mutton man is me. DougJ is the guy I’m talking to out of the frame. I don’t know why he’s being shy about the pictures– those hickeys were barely visible and the Senators were all wearing masks.
(Funny about the black clothes – I didn’t notice, I guess I’m just used to being around lots of black clothes. It wasn’t a particularly gothy event though, there was laughing and stuff. And I did wear a bright red kitty hat, just didn’t get a picture of it.)
Joshua Norton
@The Raven:
That’s what PhotoShop is for. There’s some people I’ve never met who think I look like George Clooney thanks to PS.
geg6
This is way OT, but has anyone read this yet?
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100201/hayes/single
I highly recommend it. Highly.
Yutsano
@Hob: Black really does look good on everyone, although personally a male (especially a straight one) who isn’t afraid of a little color makes a great statement. Plus FWIW I like the chops.
twiffer
@licensed to kill time: the immutable laws of blogs/discussion forums state that anyone announcing departure of said blog/forum isn’t fucking going away. if anything, posting will increase.
licensed to kill time
@twiffer: Well, if John Cole is any indication of that immutable law he provides proof to that axiom; hence it is now a theorem.
Maude
@Colette: You look lovely. You have that pre 9/11 friendly look on your face. I’d almost forgotten what that looked like. You are also classy.
Matt in HB
Apparently black is the new black . . . at least for wine-drinking coastal elites.
Jamey
ISSAT A BIG ENOUGH GLASS OF WINE, OR WHAT, MISS?!
Too bad I live in the Eastern fifth-column enclave, or I would have bent an elbow with my Western fifth-columnists
Hob
Also, that picture of Colette does not do her justice AT ALL.
CaseyL
I totally envy you for your get-together. It looks like it was great fun and you all look terrific.
Seattle BJers, arise! Arise and organize; march and organize; get our asses organized and march down to a pub! Or something!
Seriously, dudes: I think the last time we talked about meeting was, like, 2 years ago. And at least one of us (me) doesn’t even have a job, so it’s not like we’re overscheduled!
Colette
@Hob: Thank you. It wouldn’t take much photoshopping to make me look just like George Clooney.
Dreggas
Wish I was there LOL.
We should do a Who’s who of balloon-juice and post pics.
gwangung
Seattle BJers will always have a discount with the Pork Filled Players.
Dreggas
and for the heck of it…moi
Svensker
Colette, you look fabulous. (And the wine looks just right for sharing.)
Lambchops has identified himself (one of those tall blonde guys with a ponytail who makes all the girls weak in the knees, SFMO, of course :) ). So that leaves the shy guy in the leather jacket (which is always a killer combo). Not that I’m treating you guys like objects, or anything. But hey. Just call me Mrs. Cougar.
No fair that DougJ has not shown us the goods.
Dreggas
@Svensker:
as someone who happens to think Cougars rock, i am happy to see it appears I am surrounded by them LOL.
ImJohnGalt
I’ll be in LA first week of Feb. for the TED Conference, if anyone’s going for drinks. Of course, I’m pretty much a lurker here, so I think that means I have to drink in the storage closet while everyone else has fun in the main bar.
Tax Analyst
@ #32 Ash Can:
If I’m half your age you’re about 119 now. But being in the L.A. area I was not at the SF meet last evening.
The “dashing”, and “gentlemen” parts are somewhat questionable in my regard as well.
Tax Analyst
licensed to kill time said:
Maybe he/she is going “Gopher Galt”. ??
Mike
LOL irl at “Good News For Conservatives” underneath the picture of the guy with the big sideburns.
SteveinSC
I don’t give a fuck who any of the pictures are, I’m just proud, happy and glad to be among fellow DFH’s. The people in the pictures would be the kind I would want to be my comrades anyway, even if they are just a dream. Au barricades, mes amis!
Svensker
@ImJohnGalt:
Say, aren’t you going with John Cole? He keeps talking about going Galt and he’s not disappearing into a Colorado valley obviously, so maybe he’s hanging witchoo.
DougJ
People are really surprised that San Franciscans wear a lot of black? Haven’t you all *been* to San Francisco?
Thomas
Wish I’d been there. Its awesome you all did this. Balloon juice. Come for the posts, stay for the comments.
RedKitten
Awww…those pics make me haz a sad, ’cause I’m way the hell up here and am very unlikely to ever meet you guys IRL. Although the hubby and I were talking about maybe taking a trip to Boston in the next 5 years, so perhaps some juicers could be persuaded to take a trip to Beantown to hang out and have a few brews.
And Collette definitely looks like the kind of person I’d have a lot of fun hanging out with.
Comrade Darkness
@beltane: High school is seriously a trial by fire, that I, frankly, could not navigate without far too much stress. College was a breeze after the social hellhole of high school, which maybe was the point? I don’t know. Those bad memories make it possible for me to give all home schoolers a “sure, whatever”, even to this day.
And Dougj, why don’t you have one of these where you live? That one I could probably make it to.
goblue72
@DougJ: I never really noticed the black fashion thing – that always seems more like a NYC style. However, I did notice when I moved out here that West Coast peeps were REALLY into designer blue jeans. I distinctly recall being told that the first I needed to do was upgrade my blue jeans because the ones I wore just weren’t going to cut it – at least if I had any hope of getting laid.
mcc
Oh, um, picture #2 is me.
Yutsano
@mcc: Dammit, I was convinced that DougJ was pulling a psy-op on us and trying to spread plausible deniability. At least we have a face with three names here so far. Plus y’all know what the big DougJ looks like.
prospero
the hipster doofus on the far right looks a little like stephen merchant. probably not as tall or as funny. but the look of posed existential terror in his eyes is sort of reassuring in this day and age.
Hob
@prospero: I have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about, but glad to help reassure you, I guess.
Litlebritdifrnt
I am thinking that a NC BJ get together is in order, I know there are a whole bunch of us here, hows about it?
Svensker
@mcc:
So you’re the black leather jacket shy one. A favorite color scheme.
Ben Richards
what about houston? the monster truck show is coming back in 2 weeks. let’s party!
Herb
Y’all need to take the show on the road. A major tour. Get to planning. I’ll start saving for the tickets.
Cat Lady
@mcc:
Congrats on the Wolcott shout out/
asiangrrlMN
@geg6: Ditto that! Colette, you are goooooorgeous! And so elegant. Hob is a handsome fellah, and yeah, mcc is rocking the black leather jacket! You look like my kind of people, quite frankly. Glad that a good time was had by all. Hm. I am thirty-eight, so I guess that puts me squarely in the boring demo.
@Dreggas: Gotta say, you are cuuuuute!
Hob
@asiangrrlMN: What is this boring demographic you speak of? I’m your age. It’s the good-time-having demographic. For one thing, having a good time is much cheaper now because it takes only half the quantity of beer to get me schnockered that it did when I was 20.
mcc
@Cat Lady:
What?
*googles*
…huh, that’s interesting.
Eljai
sonofabitch! Missed out because I was working late last night! It’s just as well, I’m not as photogenic. But I’m sure I was there in spirit. And I wear black everyday. It saves time.
asiangrrlMN
@Hob: Holy shit. You’re MY age? You look like you’re in your mid-to-late twenties!
I was saying boring in relation to the older women/younger men demo being talked about further up in the thread.
And, it’s never taken more than half a drink to get me tipsy. I’m a cheap date!
Suzanne
Sometimes I think I want to move to another country but since I probably wouldn’t I would love to move to San Fancisco. It’s one of my favorite places…in the world. I know it’s expensive there but it’s my goal.
Hob
@asiangrrlMN: The hard part is to be tipsy for more than 5 minutes before just falling asleep.
Also, that’s one of the only flattering pictures ever taken of me. I think the camera felt guilty about what it did to Colette and was trying to be extra nice. You should see my driver’s license, it looks like a 55-year-old axe murderer who’s too tired to swing an ax.
Phoebe
You people are all adorable, as I’ve always suspected.
vheidi
@Ash Can: especially after seeing Der Rosenkavalier last night
vg
It’s nice to be able to put a face on the people I’ve argued with on this site. Puts things in perspective.