1/31/2011

Fresh Baked Bread

Every new year, I resolve to bake more. This year, I appear to be on it! Check out this wheat bread I baked recently. Looks perfect, right? It kind of is except it was a little dry and I made way more than our humble, two-person household should consume at once. So, next time I think that I'm going to use more white than wheat flour and see if I can fix the dryness factor.


     
     I'm still thinking about a theme for this year's resolutions. This year is going to be all about expansion and building on the groundwork I've already laid in both my screen printing business and my music.I have an album's worth of songs to release and I'm taking a drawing class in the hopes of taking my design work to the next level. I actually accomplished all of last year's resolutions, which makes me very happy. So this year, I'm thinking this is what needs to get done. I just need to remember that resolutions are like the bread in that they're probably not going to be right the first time.
  1. Bring creativity back. I've been working so hard to lay the groundwork for The Heated and it's good work but I've had to put more of the creative work on hold to do it. It's time to get back to the creative stuff now and I'm really excited about that.
  2. Read more books. I don't have cable but that doesn't stop me from getting in some television time before bed every night. I'd like to change a lot of those television nights to reading nights. So far, I've read Just Kids (it was great!) and am working on A Guide To The Good Life.
  3. Release an album. Release videos around the album.
  4. Put things off until I have to do them. This may sound counter-intuitive but I've found that a lot of my stress comes from not getting things on my to-do list done because I've tried to schedule a bit of extra time in there. So I'm going to open up my interpretation of my to-do list in that if something is listed at to-do on a Monday, it doesn't really need to get done until it really needs to get done and I'm not going to worry about things until then. Make sense? 
  5. Oh, and I almost forgot, bake more.

1/25/2011

Tiny Little Stonehenge

Over the weekend, I rode my bike out to Heron's Head Park, in the Bayview district. I'd been meaning to go check it out for a long time but just haven't had the time. But this past weekend was uncharacteristically warm, especially for January so I made sure to get out there.

Heron's Head Park is a restored marsh surrounded by industrial blight. Of course, that was something I learned only after getting out there. I don't know why I had pictured it to be more of an oasis than it was and maybe I didn't venture far enough out in the marsh itself to get that feeling of being surrounded by natural beauty. As it stands, I was surrounded by a dump, a ship-yard and a PG&E plant.

I've been drawn to this neighborhood many times before. My furniture class was around the corner and I've been up on that notorious hill for work. It's made guest appearances in my dreams. Who knows why certain places call out to you and get trapped in your subconscious?

Off to the right is the most notoriously violent housing project in San Francisco. They also have amazing views and it's only a matter of time before they're ripped down and turned into condos. I'm just editorializing here but truly, I'm amazed they've been standing for as long as they have.

 I believe the little outlet with the trees is India Basin. Clearly, it's a little more polished and I'd like to get a better look at it. Next time.

Honestly, I like the look of nature surrounded by industry. Something about the juxtaposition, the ugly and the beautiful, holds meaning. It makes the ugly beautiful. No small feat.

You can barely make out the small dots on the water but those are all birds. The biggest attraction of the park, besides the eco-center (which was closed when I arrived but is a nice little building with a living roof, rain catch system, etc), is the birds. I saw more than one older gentleman with those one-legged camera stands, fitted with telephoto lenses. If you are into bird watching, get out there ASAP.

This miniature Stonehenge was constructed on a bench. I sat next to it and scarfed down a "chocolate thing" from Arizmendi. Heron's Head wasn't exactly what I was expecting but I think I need to give it another go and get all the way in the marsh to really see what it's all about.

1/19/2011

Hey, East Bay!

Cmon! My picture is directly on the flyer!

Friday, Jan. 21st
1608 Webster Street, Oakland CA 
10:00 pm

1/13/2011

Tea and Travel Interview

It's very exciting for me when someone wants to do an interview with me. I certainly can't be the only one who spent time in her younger years answering imaginary interview questions, right? Guys? Ahem. No? Ok, then. Anyway, this feature was atypical for me as it was not design or music focused but rather, tea focused. How rad is that? Anyway, you should check the feature out and check out the whole blog in general. Many thanks to Deborah Huff for thinking of me.

1/10/2011

Twelve Songs Project Complete!

I'm extremely pleased to announce that my quest to record and release one song a month for all of 2010 is complete! Now there is the business of further mixing and culling until I have an actual album to release. I'd like to thank all of you who lent their support in various ways. This could not have happened without you and you are awesome.