taupe, smokey taupe, carriage ride, neat sail...

these are all names given to shades of color of paint. matte, flat, eggshell, luxe, semi-gloss, latex...names of finishes. i am painting today! just one big wall in the living room. i might do the hall tomorrow. (i'd do more of the living room but i can't move the piano by myself)
i've decided to blog my efforts. i'll keep the text brief (so that i can get to the painting), but post some pix. first off, the foundation of all good work: breakfast!

note the Larrupin' sauce. this is a loving tribute to the Tom/Onion from Los Bagels in Arcata. *pine*
for the record: the book is PG Wodehouse's "Life With Jeeves", coffee from Stumptown roasters, Portland OR.

last night i moved the furniture and taped off the moldings. the light isn't that good at night in this room so i was wearing a head lamp while taping. there is an inverse relationship between the rad usefulness of the head lamp and its ability to make one look like a dork. NO REGRETS!

more in a few..
here we go! i started with the trim. remembered to turn off the pilot on the heater (why has that been on all summer?)
i was going to do 2 coats of trim, then do the walls, but time is of the essence so having completed the trim, i'm just going to launch into the first coat on the wall.

these pix are grey b/c we have an overcast sky today (HUZZAH!), but the color looks terrific! can't wait to get the first full coat on. and so: to it!

trim painting soundtrack: Roxy Music: "Siren" followed by Preservation Hall Jazz Band: "Preservation"
next up: Helio Sequence: "Keep Your Eyes Ahead"
now drinking: mineral water. refreshing!

i had a special request from my ms. cp for a pic of me in the headlamp. please keep in mind this is a simulated action shot, so the light in the room is quite bright. :)
COAT ONE APPLIED! behold:
this pic has a yellow cast to it. :\ and b/c all the trim is covered with masking tape, you can't see the nice contrast between the new paint and the white trim.
here is the rest of the wall, continuing to the left:

i don't want to jinx myself, but so far i haven't walked in any wet paint spills, or gotten paint on too many things that i hadn't intended to paint (my legs, for example).

i've got another 3 hours to let this dry. on my list: get in a walk and some quality iced joe. and maybe some tacos. what's not to love about tacos?

days in the neighborhood

i took this pic surreptitiously from my car. it was meant to capture an actor/comedian, of whom i am a huge fan, who happened to be standing on the opposite corner. i felt like an ass taking the pic, and was kind of relieved that it turned out i was holding the phone so low that he was obscured by the car at the light. no real story here, i just thought it would be a funny pic for the page. intersection of note: Commonwealth @ Los Feliz Blvd.

in an effort to take advantage of time off this summer, i've been doing a lot of sewing and knitting. i've got a still-unfinished dress draped across my sewing machine. i have to move the pieces every time i want to use the machine. i put in some time on it last week: finally got the collar in. next up: easing and shaping the sleeve caps. not a ton of work, really, just tough to get my (summer scattered) mind around it.

last fall i bought a book called "one yard wonders." it's full of projects that require only one yard of fabric. i thought this would be helpful in my plan to use some of the yardage in my closet. many of the pieces are one yard or less, intended when purchased to be used in quilts. so far i've made 3 projects from the book. really two, but i made one twice. :)

here is what i finished this morning: a new ironing board cover:
i LOVE this fabric. i bought it at least 8 years ago while on vacation in Arcata. i bought enough of it to make a dress, but as the years passed and i filled out *cough* i lost my enthusiasm for a dress that might draw comparison to the little cows on the bottles. so, i've been toting YARDS of this for YEARS. i used a little of it when i made some potholders a few years ago.

i used the pattern to make covers for the smaller, tailoring ironing board that i have:
there is a 2nd board for pressing sleeves on the underside of this board. i've got two more small domestic projects like this that i'd like to make: a clothespin apron and a sewing machine cover. as ever, choosing the fabric is that bit that slows the whole process. i vacillate between the cute/kitschy and the pretty. eh.

last month i made a bag for my pal l.'s birthday. this was also in the one yard book. i used light cotton where they recommended a heavier cotton/canvas. i had trouble finding fabric i liked for her in the heavier weight, so in the end went for the pattern i liked best.

it wasn't a complicated pattern. the bits that took the most time were the curved seams. since i used a busy fabric, i didn't stew about whether there were folds in the curves. i had a couple of small ones. (excluding 2 full days of fabric shopping) overall it took about 3 days to make. you could cram it into two, but it would have to be pretty focused. i had a deadline, so worked at a steady clip for the first day, completing the exterior of the bag. i spread the lining and clasp construction over a couple days.
here are some construction pix:
the finished bag exterior:

the lining: the (comically small) pocket pinned in place & the top band with half of the magnetic clasp in place. [this was my first time installing a mag. clasp. it's heavy for such a light weight bag, but otherwise i dig it]

**bonus: you can see the old ironing board cover under the pieces here. it's stained from steam and batik wax: eyesore is the word that comes to mind.
here is the finished bag:
i'm going to make one for myself from some grey wool suiting. (of course i bought the suiting when fab shopping to make this bag.)

i've also been logging some long hours reading and staring off into the blowing palm trees at my favorite cafe patios round town. and knitting. so far: 3 pair of baby booties, and 10 baby clothes hangers. 'tis the season among my friends. in an effort to get some of these knit goods out the door i'm sending the booties and hangers separately.

after a light rain this morning, the sun has broken out. i am heading out for some patio/cappuccino time.

of note:
pre-post lunch: rad salad that included bleu cheese crumbles, eye of the hawk ale
music: m. ward, "post war"-->frightened rabbit, "winter of mixed drinks"
on deck: pedicure

sometimes i dream of willie mays

it's been slow going, but i've revved up my post-card and letter writing mojo and am putting missives into the post again. here are two cards i posted this week.
the title of this post is from a song by the Baseball Project. it's a recollection of being a kid and making the trip to Candlestick Park to see Willie play. i've been on reminiscence overdrive for the last month and this song has been in heavy rotation in the homestead.


further postcards...

i wrote this a couple days ago to my pal, m. in s.f. The pic is of a statue behind the SF Giants' ball park. it's commemorating the SF Pacific Coast League team, the Seals. (damn, but i've got baseball on the brain lately. O! Summer!)

Weds June 30, 2010: the last day of June. Tomorrow begins the torturous countdown to the end of my vacation. alas! This afternoon finds me sitting at a neighborhood cafe, feet up, Americano at hand, writing a few cards & putting some effort in toward my summer reading.
I just had this moment: sitting in breezy shade looking @ blue blue sky, trees & power lines, the door to the cafe was propped open & I could hear Peter Frampton singing, "Show Me the Way." Took me directly to summer 1975--sitting by our backyard pool, listening to KFRC and those big, open, endless summer days. Too many chores as an adult. housekeeping. the minutae of day to day living gets in the way of those wide-open days. well. in the coming month i'm reducing that drek to its bare minimum! Deadlines be damned. oh! i am going to Outside Lands this yr. if yr not in MA that weekend think about coming out w-me! Gordo's! mmj! what could be better?


#2: written to my long ago san jo roommate, mel. some of the things i wrote to her are similar to the card #1. mel & i were roommates when we both worked at tower video. when i moved to humboldt, we corresponded for awhile. eventually we lost touch. thru the tendrils o' f/b we were recently reunited.

the day finds me sitting on a patio in a residential part of Echo Park. For some reason this summer i've been particularly reflexive-thining about summers past. I suppose it's b/c I have so many strong memories of summer from my childhood. The result is that i'm listening to a mix of songs from 1974 on my headphones and staring off into the trees & power lines. ("Rock the Boat" -> "Bennie & the Jets." heady stuff :) )I'm reading Michael Chabon's "Mysteries of Pittsburgh" for probably the 4th time. it's set during the summer. the summer after the narrator finishes college. I love this book. I know if I'd read it when i was younger i'd love it, but from a very different perspective. I'm an absolute fan girl for m. chabon.
I've been doing quite a lot of sewing & knitting: baby shoes by the gross. I've got a rad dress that's been on the back burner for months. it's a 1950's style shirt dress made in fabric decorated with red, yellow & green tractors. My no-pressure goal is to have it finished in July. I have 5 yds of Elvis fabric that i want to use to make another, but FIRST THINGS FIRST!
While i was in portland i got to see Ron & Dave (i can't remember if you knew dave...) it was terrific. Really something to be w-these guys who knew me @ 19. After so long Just one of th things that put me in that reflexive place. Whew. Since getting home its been on odd mis of pure-slack & high drama. Me, i'm more about the slack. :)
ps. attended 25th anniversary of Pee-Wee's Big Adv. last sunday. FANTASTIC fun! "Pee-Wee, listen to reason!"

can't get "South Hampton Dock" out of my head.

**another day, more quality hours logged at Kaldi cafe. wrote this p-card to my pal, p. in white plains**

Sunday May...15? 16? eh. Sunday.
Walked into Kaldi coffee this afternoon and heard something familiar playing. Turned out to be a Marillion song...one of those that at one time was in heavy rotation chez moi. A couple of yrs ago I pulled a bunch of old CDs out to sell. I gave a few of them a last spin to see if I wanted to keep them. This Marillion album, "Misplaced Childhood" was one of them. As anthemic & prog-y as ever, but my heart wasn't in it. And so, to Amoeba...
This album was so a concept record that I can't remember the song title b/c they were all so obtuse. :)
Anywhoo. It kind of blew my mind to hear it out in a cafe, not in the studio apt. of a friend w-a bunch of D&D figurines. Since I'd outted myself as having a soft spot for the Prog during that R. Waters Coachella set, I knew you'd be the right ear for this story. :)

**a couple years ago p. & i spent a day @ coachella. the headliner that night was roger waters. he was playing a varied first set, then coming back and performing "Dark Side of the Moon." i had to leave early b/c i had an early work day. as r. waters took the stage, p & i had some dinner, then started across the grounds to leave. now. this is when my dormant pink floyd zeal came to the surface... we got near the stage, i recognized the song he was playing, grabbed p's arm and yelled, "it's "Fletcher Memorial Home" from "the Final Cut!" I've never heard him do this before!" at which point we stopped to listen. 20 min later, p was laying on the grass and i was still enthralled by the music.
now i wanted some coffee for the long drive home. while waiting for joe, waters & band took a break, and came back out to perform "Dark Side". at the end of "Time" i told p. we had to make a break for it or i wouldn't leave until the end of the show.

i was what you might call a serious teenager: distracted by the cold war, and the threat of a nuclear war (ahh, the 80's). the anti-war, critical of the existing powers (ronald reagan, margaret thatcher) era of pink floyd was right up my alley. it wasn't a new thing, i credit my brother with turning me onto them when i was very little. he was 13 when "Dark Side..." came out. he called me into his room, had me put on his headphones, then played "On the Run". that's the wild stereophonic piece. blew my little mind.

my parents wouldn't let me recreate the album cover of "The Wall" on my bedroom wall, so i used the back side of a 4' x 5' sheet of paneling, then hung that up. when "The Final Cut" came out, i left school early and caught bus 82 to tower records to buy it. when i heard on the radio that the band had broken up, i went into our basement found a plastic floral wreath, spray painted it black, and hung it on my locker door at school.

so, i was serious, but still a dork. and i still listened to Cheap Trick, Triumph, the Greg Kihn Band, so it wasn't all about dying in a mushroom cloud or during a nuclear winter.
(after typing this i reached over and grabbed the thesaurus on my desk. i've had this thesaurus since i was 9 yrs. old. this is a pic of one end: ha!)

i don't have any pink floyd albums on CD, and don't ever play the records. but i still have most of them. getting completely caught up in the music walking across that field at coachella, was a total surprise to me.

since roger waters started releasing solo records in the mid-80's i've been to lots of his shows. oh my, some good times, those shows. (again, ahh, the 80's ;) ) but i don't think i'll see this "wall" tour. maybe it's the cost, maybe the scale. eh.

i have a feeling side 1 of "Meddle" is getting played tonight. that run from "One of These Days" to "Seamus" is pretty fucking great.**

absolute trust keeps me moving in the Right Di-rec-tion

**since getting back from my road trip i've been getting back into the postcard writing groove. i wrote this while sitting outside Kaldi coffee in Atwater Village. when i walked in to order my drink, "The Good Thing" by Talking Heads was playing. Made me smile.
below is a card i wrote to my friends stacey & harlan in texas. the picture on the p-card is of a quilt sewn by Annie Mae Young. it's from the photos of quilts from Gee's Bend.**

5.14.10 Thurs
Things Rad & Not So Rad (NSR): talked myself into riding my bike to this cafe (Rad). On the way mailed 2 bills, 4 postcards & 1 letter (Rad). All the patio umbrellas have gone missing from the cafe (NSR), but it is cool & breezy enough to sit in the direct sun (Rad!). was served a stellar cappuccino (rad). Decided to try a Japanese drink b/c it's clear & carbonated. turned out to be soda pop (NSR) alas. A Eurythmics song from 1988 or so just came up on the shufle (Rad). For a few boyfriends between 1988 - 1997 this served as my record to listen to upon breaking up. Now, I just love it. :) (neat) Im in week 3 of what I hope will turn out to be hiatus (not just unemployment) (Rad). Grant-Lee Phillips played Largo last night for the first time in many months (super rad). The old casket store/funeral service shop has moved up the street. in its place: some kind of medical marijuana UNIVERSITY. (just plain odd). for the first time since my job ended i have nowhere i have to be tonight (fucking awesome). took a week long solo road trip (rad). saw 2 minor league b-ball games (OH, SC) & 5 concerts in 5 states (rad). Brilliant way to leave my old gig behind. :)

**follow up: i sat in the sun writing p-cards and knitting long enough to get a sun burn on my shoulders. sigh. amateur hour, i tell you! also: it's official, the show i worked on last season was cancelled. so: we call it unemployment, not hiatus.**

also, after typing this it took me 15 min of jumping through log in & transfer links and pages to post it b/c blogger switched something around. i wasn't notified BEFORE i typed it. pain.in.my.ass. grr.

anything to not clean any more: postcards from march!

this pic is of a plaque outside of Stage 2 on the Sunset-Gower Lot where i used to work.

since thursday i've been cleaning my apartment. i've been tearing things apart, so it's slow going. however, last night i started to see some real progress. i have a few tasks to do that will take me out of the apt, so things are on a bit of hold until tomorrow.
today i have to take my car for it's bi-annual smog check. it's 20 years old this year, but well cared for. i'm hoping for the best. a few years ago my car stereo was stolen. while the car was in my car port. sigh. two days after the stereo was stolen, the thieves broke back into the car to steal some wiring they'd missed the first time. as my car was like a convenience store for thieves, i decided not to replace the stereo. well, after driving a rental car with a working stereo for a week, i've decided that if my car passes its smog test i'm going to put in a new stereo. something not too shiny, but SOMETHING. (the stereo that was stolen was one i'd bought only 4 months previous. i'd replaced all the speakers in the car, too. so all those terrific speakers are in there laying dormant.)

right.

during my cleaning i found a xerox of some postcards that i'd meant to post here. so in the interest of clearing stuff out of the apt, i'm posting them now.

card 1: written to a friend in san francisco who i knew was in chicago for some music

Saturday 3.13.10
Today is my first day off since President's Day and it's gotten off to a weird, but ok start. weird: cell phone & smoke detector both beeped at intervals during the night and woke me. (it was due to a power outage.) But! this morning i found my MISSING SINCE NOVEMBER flip flops!? They were sitting on the shoe rack the whole time (they were hidden among the skirts of hanging dresses). And now, i am sitting outside a new (!) deli cafe on hillhurst, drinking a good coffee, enjoying a scone and reading a little John Hodgman.
I'm particularly grateful to him this morning b/c the novel i'm reading has gotten very heavy hearted and i just couldn't bear to read it this morning. so. two cups (1/2 caff) into saturday. You are, no doubt in the vicinity of the Vic as I write this. Oh! I got a reservation confirmation for PFT (Paul F. Tompkins) last night. woo! now, i just need to finish work on time that night. :)
If i go home right now I just know i'll start doing chores. Just don't know if i'm ready for that yet... Hope to see you soon!

card 2: written to my sister & brother in law who live in the bay area

3.21.10 Sunday -- 2:30pm
It's been slow going getting my sunday m.o. in action: finally sitting out on a patio w-an iced coffee drink, listening to some great music. Yesterday i took out my earphones just in time to overhear a woman say to her friends, "It's like Tyra Banks says, 'the way to tell a good model from a bad one is the amount of airbrushing they require" immediately i put my earphones back in, and remembered what compels me to wear them in the first place. :)
Just had the standard "baseball is too slow for me" conversation with the owner of this cafe: he's not a baseball fan. as we started discussing team strategy more customers came so we had to stop chatting. can't wait to point out the diff. between Ntl. & Am. Leagues to him! When i go in for another drink, i'll pick up the conversation there. :)
Hope spring finds you enjoying your home office/pool!

**ok, i sound a positive dork about baseball in this second card. spring training will do that to me. my fervor mellows out a bit by mid-may.**

Quaker Brand is the Favorite Brand of Grits of the Charleston Riverdogs

**friday morning. i've definitely caught some kind of bug. sore throat, exhausted. eh. i'm still in the hotel, waiting for the food to arrive. my bags are all packed and waiting by the door, so as soon as i eat, i'll be back on the road, heading for raleigh.

here is the second half of my annotated show notes from wednesday's my morning jacket show in charleston sc. again, this is a cut and paste from the mmj forum.**


ok. in the interest of finishing what i started, but not being up until 2am, i'm going to list my set list notes as written. this might be comedy since the notes are not so clear. ;D

another great thing about seeing the show with Ruckus is that i could say to him, "there's only one bass in tom's guitar rack. you think their travelling light on this trip?" without him looking at me like i was speaking to him in a foreign language.

when the band came out carl sat at the pedal steel, so i had no idea what they were going to play. here begins the transcription...

--tonight i want to celebrate with you: IT'S ON.

--@ dawn! diff jim bit (i think this was referring to a really loud, or odd key start to the song by jim)

--gideon --diff outro. (i think this was an uptempo outro. i love when you're digging a song and it takes an unexpected turn. i was thinking "where are you going?!" it's exciting {i sound like an absolute dork, but it's been a loooong time since i've seen a show. so.})

--OTR: the sun is down now, but still dusk. tom & carl exchange a "ready?" type look. the eyes in back drop are lit red

--wonderful man!

--amazed: at end jim shoots pat w/toy gun as he falls

--touch me pt 1: enter drunken bargers

--golden: ok. side bar: overall the crowd was great. the people around me were having a great time without being creeps. but. the drunk chick contingent was strong. the "this is my song! let me tell you why while they play it!" girls were out in force.

--thank you too: jim's gretch beautiful! (i'm not a guitarist but i have a soft spot for the sound of these.) end of song patrick mimed shooting jim

--mags! mid-set mahgeetah. it's crazy to hear it coming out of such a slow groove like TYT. starts off a bit swingy. fucking brilliant.

--lay low

--low down!

--wonderful

--librarian: the girl to the left of me (non-drunken contingent) was miming some of the story of the song. kind of sweet, really. :)

--STEAM: NONE OF THIS IS PHYSICAL really beautiful. really. (this tour coincided with the end of a very demanding job. so, being outdoors, singing, hollering, dancing, being on the road, it's all part of a big joyous picture. and that is what i was thinking here.)
at the end ruckus tapped me on the shoulder and said, "best steam engine ever"

--smokin from shootin: WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! soooo good to see mmj doing this again! at the top of the song the stage was bathed in read light, by the end it was glowing white. striking!

(crazy how they ride the momentum of smokin into...)

--end of run thru: carl leap! 3 guitars up front just badass (this is just rock show fucking badassery. i just kept shaking my head at the epic-ness of what was happening up there.)

--touch me pt 2: tom uses a pick on this song. who knew?

(here they tried something new...insteading of ending cold after TM pt2, they segued into OBH. they may have done it last week: i've kept myself in strict set-list black out since the tour started. ;) )

--OBH: big fun! carl came out to the edge of the stage, playing and dancing with the crowd
--------------
ok. nothing could have prepared us for this:
--over the rainbow: the sax player in PHJB, the man whose name i don't know, but is listed on the set list as Weenie, stepped into a spot and played this solo. fucking stunning. just heart breakingly beautiful.
soooo happy this call was made. (whoever suggested this in the set-list, this was an inspired move. cheers! )

--wordless: knee slide!

(phjb comes out...)

--evil urges! (not used to hearing this in the middle of a set!)

--DANCE: OUT OF CON... (this is what i scrawled as i was leaping around, grinning at ruckus and losing my shit. WHAT A GREAT TIME!! currently i am nursing a bit of a sore throat. all evidence points to my activity during this song. ;D )

--HIGHLY: continued mayhem with the band and PHJB

--carnival time: love watching many of the guys on stage singing along to this

--move on up: curtis mayfield. curtis mayfield. curtis mayfield. huge!

the sound was terrific! even up front. the mix coming thru the audience monitors on stage was so even. often bo's music gets lost amid the guitar amps close to the stage, but not last night.
as i was leaving the show i kept singing out loud the bright horn part from move on up. ;D and i realized that i was in such a hurry to get to the show (arrived in charleston just in time for rush hour) that i didn't make note of where i parked. since this wasn't the oakland coliseum, that was not an issue {like that roger waters show in 1985...}.

there were a few cars post-show tailgating as i left. the people behind me were playing james brown. fucking a.

it's been so long since i've (we've) seen mmj perform these songs live that everyone is a surprise.
and now it is 2am. and i intend to leave here at 9. so.
thanks for tolerating, and often encouraging my profanity-laced stream o' consciousness reviews. :D


damn. what a great fucking time!

**for the record, i was up until 2am writing this. it never goes as quickly as i'd like to think.**