Wednesday April 21st, My Party People

What are you doing next Wednesday? You know you don't have plans. I know you don't have plans. Come to my show. The Matinees and The Better Maker will be playing. The Better Maker even made this flyer just for the show?

Why don't you come? Oh, you have work the next day? Psh, I'm on at 9:00. You'll be in bed at a decent hour. Oh, you don't have five dollars? Can't help you there, loser. Ok, ok, I'm sorry. That was mean. I'll buy you a beer. No, just one beer. Fine, two beers and a hooker. Come to my show!

New Design Advice

My screens turned out! I love new designs. It came out so crisp too (though you can't quite tell from my blurry pictures... holding still is hard). I'm a real screen printer!

Saturday Chores

I don't mind burning screens so much anymore. Today, I went three for three. One is a new design. One is a new screen for an old design. One is a secret. Tomorrow, I'll test them and really see what's what.

Vise

Last week, my wife texted me and said, "Your vice is here." Since I am a complete and total ass, I texted back, "My vice is at home in the liquor cabinet. What you have there is a vise," and so it is! I've really wanted one for a long time so that I can get to carving my ridiculous wooden creations at home. Now it's here. And it's so heavy. And I have only vague ideas on how to install it. Tonight, I'm going to take it out of the box and get to measuring. This is an exciting step for The Heated Design Studio.

Driving Into The City

The latest from my Twelve Songs Project (wherein I give away a song for free once a month for all of 2010) is up and ready for you to download. It's maybe the closest I've come to writing a happy song, written after driving home to San Francisco from Santa Cruz with friends after we'd attended a going away party. This party marked the last of our friends to leave Santa Cruz and it just felt like we were all growing up and stuff. Anyway, check it out below, why don't you?

Knit-One-One

Near the Sweet Adeline Bakery in Berkeley, is a cool little place called Knit-One-One (3360 Adeline Street, Berkeley CA). I'll let them explain (because it's 9:45 pm and I'm tired): 

knit-one-one is a thoroughly unique, modern center for crafting-know-how. We offer classes for all skill levels, outings to some of the best-kept-crafter’s-secrets in the Bay Area, and events which combine inspiration, fun, and frolic. 

One of the events they hold is a local craft fair the first Saturday of the month. The Heated and ciuccio will be manning a booth this Saturday. It would be great to see you, if you're available. Below is a picture from a previous craft fair because I know you don't actually read the words I write. You skim and then look at pictures. It's fine. I'm no different. That's how I know what you're doing.

You want details? Boom!

Next Sale: Saturday April 3, 10 to 4:00 pm (the day before Easter Sunday)

Where: the knit-one-one studio, 3360 Adeline Street Berkeley, CA, 94703 (near Ashby BART and Sweet Adeline Bakery) Lots of FREE parking

Show Review: El Rio, March 22nd

As you know (because I am awesome at marketing, a.k.a. "harassing") I played a show last Monday night at El Rio. The day before the show, I woke up feeling completely worn down. By mid-day I had chills and my throat was feeling tickly. So, of course I started to really worry that I was going to catch the cold that my wife has had, which made her lose my voice. It's really bad to lose your voice before a show.

A word about me and colds. It used to be that when I caught a cold, I stayed sick for weeks. Weeks! This is undoubtedly because I used to smoke like a chimney. Besides staying sick for a long time, I also got sick often so there were a few years where I was perpetually ill. But then a few years ago, I quit smoking and got my act together. Now, I think I've only been sick once this year, maybe twice, and my recovery time is one week. God, I love not smoking.

Anyway, I had chills and just felt off so I got into bed around two o'clock and just kind of hung out in bed all day. I was pleased when I felt fine upon waking up the next morning. The show itself nearly went off without a hitch (I forgot the lyrics to the second song in my set and had to play a very abbreviated version) and I reached an important milestone in every band's career: SOMEONE CAME TO MY SHOW TO SEE ME WHO I DON'T KNOW PERSONALLY! Except now, I do know her personally because she came to my show. All in all, I brought out ten people on a Monday night. Success!

Other than that, Seattle's Eighteen Individual Eyes really impressed me. Two great guitar players, one of whom sings beautifully, plus just the right amount of bass for their sound plus this awesome drumming that was frenetic yet loping at the same time. They had these really weird song structures and all these interlocking parts... I just liked it. I was telling one of them how I had played in Seattle about ten years ago and she said, "oh! You've been doing this a really long time." I have. Yes, I have.

Mama Lion was cool too. I didn't get to see too much of their set, to be honest as I was working the door for the last leg of the evening but from what I could hear from outside, I liked it. Posted below are some pictures from my set as well as a thirteen second long video.  It was my wife's first time using the video camera and apparently the default film-time is thirteen seconds. So enjoy it! Every damn second of it! This song will eventually be released on the Twelve Songs Project. Oh, never mind on the video. I guess Blogger isn't feeling video anymore?