1/30/2009

The list of craig

I put an advertisement up for musicians today. It's time to get The Heated going places.

1/25/2009

My wife, she really loves me

The Heated was once again featured on a blog about design! This one was on this humble abode. Sure, it's my wife's blog. What of it? She has good taste and I got my interview questions in promptly. Plus, I put out. She's been doing these features on various designers that she likes. I think she might like me as more than a designer, though. Jealous?

1/23/2009

Show review: El Rio last Saturday

I can do better than telling you how the last show went. I can share video with you (don't crank the sound... it gets louder... sometimes)! Oh, technology. How you enrich my life... except when my shared drive disappears and it takes me three hours to figure out how to get it back in my network. Then, I hate you.



There were a few weird things going on with the mixing board causing the microphones to drop out. The entire mixing board actually died one song into Ayla's set. But her resourceful mind realized that she could plug the microphones into amplifiers and soldier on. Anyway, it threw me off my game a little bit and I had more stumbles than usual. Overall, it went well and there were a ton of people there so hurray for Saturday night.

Camp Out was very sweet. They reminded me a little bit of Electralane but that's most likely due to Maddy's voice. Plus, Jackie had this super-cool, all-white drum set so yeah, I liked them. Ayla Nereo was remarkably good as well. I couldn't wait to clap when songs were over. We did a little cd trade at the end too so I can continue to check her stuff out. Good deal. Except, I'm not sure where it went. Probably lodged in the back of my amp. I know I had it in the car on the way home. I'll find that sucker.

1/22/2009

Ta-dum

The tangerine design is up (except my brilliant merchandise manager is calling it a" clementine". Fancy.). Details on the giveaway forthcoming... that means, I haven't thought of how this is going to work yet. But don't fear. I'll come up with something. I'm also going to make the tangerine slightly smaller because tangerines are small (I'm a design genius), which means I need to re-burn a screen this weekend. Stupid burning screens. 



1/21/2009

Tea cup tea towel

The world domination of my tea towels continues. Thank you, poppytalk. If I had known that fancy design blogs would be so into these towels... well, how could anyone have forseen that? Just so you know, I spent a few hours screening towels last night and I'm almost ready to unveil the tangerine. You'll get your chance to win one soon. It's almost like I'm getting this whole screen printing thing down. Almost. I still mess up about four screens before I get one I can use.  

1/15/2009

Newsworthy

The Bay Bridged also included my show for their Weekend Picks. Sweet. I've been trying to tell all my friends and associates that this is going to be a good one. Now that it's been recommended by not one but two San Francisco music blogs, I feel so validated. 

On that note, I got an email earlier in the week from Radford Bishop, who actually came and stayed at my shitty, one-bedroom apartment in South San Francisco (The Industrial City... we all pay our dues) while he was on tour years ago. This was while I was still in The Pre-Teens and we played a few shows together. Anyway, he managed to track me down through that new bio I put up for The Pre-Teens on last.fm (I knew that was a good idea). I don't mean to toot my own horn, but here's what Radford had to say about my old band:

The PreTeens have actually been a huge influence for me!  You guys were pheonomenal. I play those 2 cd's for everyone I know just about (I still listen to songs from both albums on a weekly basis, if you can believe that) and encourage them to buy the cd's online. 

So toot toot, motherfuckers (too much?). Now, that is a fan. Look, sometimes I need a little ego boost. Ok, all the time. I'm only human. Radford's band is good, yes? I can hear a little Pre-Teens in there. I want to listen to more but my wife has had the stomach flu for the past few days so I've had to sit around and watch her sleep. Priorities!

1/12/2009

That is what I am talking about!

The Deli Mag choose my show as their featured show for Saturday. Sweet. Thank you, Deli Mag. Please don't forget that it starts at 7:00 pm. I'll be on first and I'm very prompt. Then Camp Out. Then Ayla Nereo. Excellent.

1/11/2009

This is my family

I know I've been on this huge "I'm such a gay-ass lesbian" tangent lately but check this out. My Aunt Leonor was on NPR's All Things Considered. I talk about my aunt fairly often as I'm pretty sure that she had a lot to do with how accepting my parents (specifically my dad) have become with my soft-butch love parade (we all call it that, right?). It took work and patience, people but my father took part in my gay wedding ceremony last year. So, we've reached an understanding. I'm so proud my aunt went out and made such a difference in other people's lives. I love to tell her story. That's my blood. My tolerant blood.

1/08/2009

I'm not interested.

As I was walking home from work today, I saw two young men walking towards me, up the sidewalk. They caught my attention because they were wearing suits with nametags, which really made them look like they worked at a hotel. But as I got closer, I realized that they were not bellboys. We smiled at each other and one of them pulled out a flyer and said, "We're from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Can we talk to you?"

Without even thinking, I waved them off and said, "I'm gay. You don't like my kind." I wasn't even thinking of the whole gay-marriage debacle. I was just thinking, "I'm gay and I have no problem with it." And they say we recruit? Ok, I've recruited one or two for my people, myself. Zing! God, I love being gay.

1/07/2009

Tell me we aren't all the same!

I mean, it's eerie.

1/06/2009

So original

I went out and put up flyers in various establishments up and down Valencia Street on Sunday evening. I must admit, I was really happy with the way this flyer came out. The deer and the tree are actually two totally separate images. It just occured to me to make the tree smaller and they'd look like they belonged together. So I went out to put up my awesome flyers and noticed another band had the exact same idea I did. They had a deer and it was the same size as my deer, facing the same way. Man. It was very "collective subconscious". Theirs was hand-drawn but othewise, it was the same damn flyer with different band names on it. If I run across the other flyer again, I'll take a picture.



You should come to this show, by the way. Please notice that I'm moving up to weekend shows. Sure, it's free and starts at 7:00 pm but I'm still happy. Plus both Ayla Nereo and Camp Out have been so nice in their emails that I have positive feelings about how things will go.

1/05/2009

Cheese

I don't photograph well. It's not an opinion. It's a fact supported with hard evidence. By studying a myriad of bad photos of myself, I've learned that I should tilt my head back a little. Otherwise, schnoz central. My nose doesn't look that big in real life but with the right lighting, it's schnoz-tastic. Plus, I get these weird neck wrinkles. Also, I shouldn't smile with my mouth open as my chompers are huge. Anyway, here are some of my favorite fuck-ups from the photo shoot along with one I feel came out particularly well. You'll hear more about what this photo shoot was for but the basic premise is that it might be on Etsy in reference to those tea towels.

It's like a four-year-old when you tell them to smile. I look so airbrushed too.



I'm not entirely positive what was going on here but clearly, that owl needs a good talking to. I'm telling him what's what.



Well, this one is kind of awesome. And extremely dorky.



Good lord.



What the hell? You might want to click this one just to see what's happening with my eyes. Classic Cristina.


This one, I like. We all deserve at least one good picture.