a visit chez Lulufrank

I finally made a date with daughter so visit her new digs:Industrial Oakland, Bart trains overhead, big trucks making wide right turns unto side street where I finally park, right next to the family owned Thai restaurant, tucked cosily in the old foundry complex, called Vulcan, that is home to about 100 artists. We sit on the deck of the restaurant and share a couple of Thai ice teas, and I get a little more of a sense of where she lives and how. It feels safe, despite the area,and behind the gate, is a little village of funky doorways and garden patios, where art is always prevalent.After a maze of factory coridors covered in paintings, we get to her place, where she has a loft bedroom, that feels like a nest, tucked up a tiny staircase.Below, in the common area, pandemonium:the other tenants deal in junk, and boxes of it, bicycles, buddhas and piles of such allow a narrow path to the kitchen.We listen to her new music, and she tells me how much she loves Biolay, the new French singer-composer.Afterwards, we walk around to the dog park and loop back to the parking lot. We have fun taking pictures of the village that reminds her of Mexico, even if she has never visited the country, yet.