boating for beginners

in the city / in the park

2010-12-15T18:51:00.001-08:00

in the city / in the park, originally uploaded by sophiesunset.

It's been almost a year since I posted anything here -- busy days, happy days, difficult days. I left my job of three years at Randy Thueme Design at the end of April to take a long delayed honeymoon with my partner. We traveled for six months and are now transitioning back to the U.S. We think. At the end of November we went to New York City after family visits upstate for thanksgiving. I hadn't been in the city since 1997, and then only briefly. It was inspirational, invigorating, and utterly fascinating. It's as if I grew new eyes in the last ten years.

Finally being able to experience The High Line park firsthand was a major highlight, as was The Guggenheim. The only 'Goog' left on our list is the one in Bilbao. We'll get there someday.

Christmas Day in San Francisco

2009-12-28T10:07:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since i updated this tiny little blog. Two review sessions in Marin, followed by two days of licensing exams, with much studying in between. Lots of deadlines at work, happily. To be employed and actually LIKE your employer is a true blessing. And then...surgery. Some massive fibroids had been getting a free ride for too long, and causing me too much pain, so out they came.

As a result, this has been a holiday season of rest, recovery, and reorganization. My husband has been channeling his worry over me into purging, condensing, and labeling all the bits and pieces in our home. Which is awesome. I have been de-duping my print photos, organizing negatives, and generally purging my half of the equation as best i can from the couch. It's amazing, as always, to peer through the flotsam and jetsam of one's life. Pictures of women i dated, san francisco sweethearts i no longer remember the names of, pictures of events i had utterly banished from memory, mystery dogs, and even more mysterious party photos. I refuse to believe the card catalog of my mind is full all ready. I do, however, suspect that I did the mental purging years ago, and am just now catching up in the material plane.

2009 is a year of Big Winter Storms in the Mid-West, where my family all lives, and where my cousin Tom and his partner Thomas are getting married (Iowa! yay Iowa!). San Francisco, however, had a sunny, gorgeous Christmas Day. We count our blessings daily.

West Oakland Sunset

2009-10-29T21:30:00.000-07:00

Hopped off BART on my way to Berkeley to meet Eric Cook for din-din. The sunset was too spectacular to zoom past. So I got off, and spent the 4 minutes before the next train arrived soaking up a brilliant sunset over the Ci-taaay by the Baaaa-eee-aaay. Whoah. oooo whoooah O O O.
You know the song. This is one of the many reasons for the crush. Love you, SF. xo A

4 yr old Photographer

2009-10-10T20:03:00.001-07:00

In the process of cleaning, I finally found some film (yes, film) that I had developed for my niece. I had mailed her some disposable cameras when her brother was born (Nov of 07) to give her a project to do while all the adults were (in all likelyhood) ignoring her. The reports were that she had a ball, and I finally got the film/cameras back from her mother then next time i was in Michigan (late Aug early Sep 07).

I got the film developed at a Walgreens thinking I would see my niece again before I had to leave. That didn't happen. So, when I got home to SF, I put it somewhere 'safe' until i had a package together to mail to her. Which means those pictures were never seen again...until now. I just sent them off to her with some Halloween goodies. She probably doesn't remember taking them, so it might be a little surreal. But that arc is finally closed. Some of them are really interesting, too.

A day in the Life

2009-08-31T23:03:00.001-07:00

Walking home from work...
San Francisco SOMA to Glen Park
August, 2009.

Holga goes to Hilton Head

2009-06-15T23:00:00.000-07:00

I shot my first roll of slide film in the Holga while in South Carolina on a family vacation. The cross-processing produced some really lush colors - I'm very happy with the results. This image is my favorite. Vulnerable, sweet, introspective, and a little dark if you notice the hand...or funny. Depending on your mood, I suppose.

Have been very busy, but well. More ruminations to come after all this wedding hoo-ha is over! Yay for hoo ha!

getting it all wrong

2009-04-02T11:44:00.000-07:00

El Tonayense is selling beans & rice, folks, not drugs.

I seriously suspect that the wide range of nearby neighborhood corner liquor stores (and their junk food) contribute more to student ill health than the Taco Truck. El Tonayense is actually serving FOOD, not processed chemically enhanced crap.

How about investing in health education and phys-ed rather than penalizing a taco truck for student behavior? I can't even tell you how often i ate my lunch from the taco truck while working at 20th & Florida. It's good food. Fresh. And it's affordable. The fact that lots of children and their families live in neighborhoods with no grocery store or produce bodega in this town seems like a much better issue to focus on.

How far do you have to walk to buy a head of lettuce or broccoli?
How far do you have to walk to buy a bag of chips?
Seriously?

more from Burrito Justice here.

Love song for San Francisco

2009-03-27T12:39:00.000-07:00

I LOVE MY TOWN. WHOLE HEARTEDLY.

World Water Day

2009-03-22T21:04:00.000-07:00

when i looked up the word 'potable' as a young girl b/c i encountered it in a national geographic article, i was shocked. We take so much for granted. Rainwater Harvesting is another very critical solution to many of the problems explained in this video. please pass it on.

www.charitywater.org

More Holga More Goodness

2009-02-28T23:21:00.000-08:00

Finally cracking out the good old Holga again after too long.
What fun! What projects I am already cooking up!
Analog, yay!

wandering the museum

2009-01-18T20:34:00.000-08:00

Spent a part of my Saturday in the MoMA -- Martin Puryear is a revelation. Sublime. Transcendent. Utterly devoid of irony or snark. Just luminous and thoughtful. It was an utter joy to simply stand in the presence of his sculptures...and they had prescence. Personality. Some almost vibrated with their own life.

They really, really, didn't allow photography. And for once, I understood why. The postcards and images I've seen online were hollow echoes of what I had just seen. If you are in San Francisco, Go. Tomorrow. Seriously.

After that, I strolled down to the 1000 journals project display that was a part of the larger 'participatory art' exhibit. I had missed the documentary about it earlier in the year, and was happy to get to see some portion of the project first hand. No Homework = the possibility of wildly satisfying days...

10 years ago in Albuquerque - I loved that dress

2008-12-30T20:06:00.001-08:00

oldy picture of moi, originally uploaded by sophiesunset.

several things have lately brought the odd speeds time can lurch and the wobbly circles it spins around us... facebook photos that don't feel like ancient history actually peeking back at me from 14 years ago. Visits from friends of another era. And most strikingly, being at the Last Gasp Christmas party with friends from my current orbit, and them being shocked/surprised that I worked there. Standing in a room with my beloved old co-workers, and my beloved friends, and realizing how much water and time has flown between. I felt almost stranded. The value of the few people in my life who can span the full arc of my time(s) has bumped up immeasurably since that night.

Now that I am done with school, and settling back into a fully articulated adult life, it's time to reconnect some threads.

tick tock

2008-12-16T21:49:00.001-08:00

tick tock
Originally uploaded by zeekomkommer

This photo says it all for me right now. Taken by a brilliant Dutch woman named Anneke. December.

Good Morning Sunshine!

2008-11-18T00:07:00.000-08:00

Woke up mid-month to a glorious little burst of bloom from one of my favorite little plants: my Faucaria tuberculosa.

They only bloom once they are at least two years old, so it's sort of her birthday now, I guess. Sometimes it's the little things that can make your whole day.

Election 2008

2008-11-03T22:04:00.000-08:00

I can barely focus I'm so anxious, hopeful, and emotionally wrapped up in the results of the election tomorrow. It is a watershed moment for the country, for my state, for everyone. Are the American people going to rise up and remind the rest of the planet that we aren't, as a whole, war-mongering idiot greedy bastards, or will the unthinkable happen, and McCain will somehow squeak out the necessary electoral votes to drive this country completely into the ground? Will hate and small mindedness usurp civil rights in the state of California?

I am a 'glass is half full' kind of woman. I want to believe that if, in fact, everyone (or even 70% of people) show up at the polls, and if, in fact, every vote is counted, and if every registered voter is allowed to vote, that the US will again show itself to be full of brave, sane, decent people. That's a lot of if's I realize.

I want my niece to grow up in a country she can be proud of. I want her to have reproductive choice, the freedom to worship as she chooses (and not live in a theocracy), and clean air and water till the day she dies. I want her to grow up in a country that chooses a brilliant thinker, inspiring speaker, and thoughtful leader bringing a message of hope and sincerity over an impetuous, entitled, military hawk who graduated at the bottom of his class.

Please, please, let this end well.

pleasant surprises

2008-09-20T14:19:00.000-07:00

Sean and I went to Oakland to hear Kreamy 'Lectric Santa play at a warehouse on San Pablo Ave this week. I love going to KLS shows, but I realized while we were at the show that my expectations of the other bands I might be seeing were really, really low. I realized this because I found myself actually LOVING all the bands I'd never heard before. When did I become such a little pessimist?

It was fantastic to hear solid, well crafted, loud, vibrant music that was able to shake me out of my weeknight torpor into some honest enjoyment. In a filthy, smoke-filled warehouse. Surrounded by 23 year olds.

It is important to me to stay open.
Open to the new, open to expansion, open to wonder.
This night was a good reminder of that, in a small way.
Stay open...even if it makes your hair stink.

Le P'tit Laurent

2008-09-01T20:47:00.000-07:00

Sean and I have started to settle into our new digs in Glen Park. Yesterday was a Big Project Day that had him in the backyard with his radial arm saw building shelves (which turned out beautifully) and had me in the front finishing up the planting strip after a trip to Flora Grubb Gardens to visit my old friends (human) and pick out some new ones (Luecodendron, Melinis, & Anigozanthus).

We were pretty whipped by 8.30 and in need of some sustenance. We had also gone to Coinstar earlier in the day...and I decided we should treat ourselves to the very-charming-and-always-busy French Bistro downhill in the village.

Le P'tit Laurent did not disappoint. So delicious. So comforting and warm. I had the soup of the day (watercress + asparagus in a chicken + cream base) and Sean had the French onion soup. We then moved on to a beef thingy for him, and steamed salmon on a bed of spinach, potato, and mussels for me. OH MY YES.

It was the perfect end to a fabulous day. We'll be back.

when i was young(er)

2008-07-21T23:47:00.001-07:00

I've been thinking about my old friend Nancy a lot in the last week, and in the process of unpacking, found this polaroid of us...in Utah? New Mexico? Has to be one of the two. She was a marvellous housemate, field mate, and pal. I look 18 here. Or at least a good 10 years younger than now. Time is so squirrelly.

What I did Friday

2008-06-23T12:34:00.000-07:00

Crazy weekend. Tragic accident involving dear friends, lots of tears and worry and sadness....but also a lot of amazement at how wonderful the people around me are, and how blessed and lucky I am to be whole, well, fed, and loved.

On a positive note, I spent friday getting ready for our move into the Pink Palace, and repotting my cactus. It's not really the right time of year, but they were so root-bound and out of control that I just did it anyway. Here are the happy results of my labors.
BEFORE:

AFTER:

Schoooooool's out! For! Evah!

2008-05-24T12:22:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe not forever, but for a good looooooong time.
This blog is about to become more active...because I suddenly have my free time back! Okay, I got it back about a month ago, but I've been recovering from the final effort of finishing my Landscape Architecture program.
That's me after my first nap in Acapulco. zzzzzzzzzzzz. S and I ran away to Mexico for some much needed R&R and to celebrate my newfound freedom from homework. Fantastic!
We're back in SF now, and all the unstructured free time is frankly a little dizzying and a lot exciting. I have time to stop and look at stuff again.

...and get my Holga out for projects, too. Yay for projects! Yay for finishing what I started and launching a new stage of my lifestory! Yay!

video feature live on flickr!

2008-04-08T21:53:00.000-07:00

More often than not, I would have no idea that some new fangled thingy in the great world-wide-web-x.0 was happening if it weren't for Scott Beale. Within mere minutes of flickr's video feature going live, I knew about it. wild. Entirely b/c of him. So, in his honor as the Great Alert Master he is in my life, I am posting a little squid-vid:

For AWC who is coming to town so soooooon

2008-03-28T23:47:00.000-07:00

This morning was perfect on our block. Coffee and dogwatching would have suited me much better than heading for the train and work. I cannot wait to see you, friend!

oaklandish

2008-03-21T20:27:00.000-07:00

We cruised over to the East Bay for our dear friend Paul's opening at the Johansson Projects gallery in Oakland this Thursday. We were also celebrating our 4 yr anniversary. We were also pretty whipped from our week, but happy. This put me in a loose, positive, open state that somehow was perfection for looking at art. A gin & tonic from the Stork Club prior didn't hurt.

I love a kitteh who believes...

2008-03-16T12:42:00.001-07:00

see more crazy cat pics

Last Weekend for The Heavy Hand

2008-02-18T19:15:00.000-08:00

Tickets are going fast for the last weekend of Sean's play - if you've been planning to go 'later'...later has arrived. And you may miss the boat if you don't get ON it. Which would be a shame b/c it's his best work yet, and the actresses are hot, talented, and fabulous.

SEE BELOW AND GET YOUR TIX BEFORE IT'S OVER.
Opening Thursday 2/7! Check out KnifeBeatsFinger’s newest original play.

The Heavy Hand is a gritty bar-room family drama of addiction, love, romance and murder. A skilled bartender tries to save what’s left of her family while pouring drinks for the people who are hopelessly in love with her … until someone gets hurt. Will anyone escape from the depths of alcohol, sex and drugs to break out on their own? Or will greed, and the torrid affairs of the heart, steal hope from a brighter future? One thing is for sure, no one will be left unscathed by machinations of The Heavy Hand.

Premiering downtown at the wonderful Stage Werx Theatre, a re-imagined space designed and operated by the theatrically-inclined McKenzie Sisters.

The Players: Tina Arriola, Maggie Mason, Eden Nelson, Esther Selk, David Chambers, Jon Fast and Mike Spiegelman.

Directed by Helena Nolan. Written by Sean Kelly. Set by Paul Andrew Hayes. Costumes by Sheena Pee.

Seats are only $12 in advance or at the door. Seating is limited.

Advance tickets: http://www.acteva.com/go/kbf

Wheelchair access available.

Mature themes and language.

Address:
533 Sutter Ave SF, CA 94102
gmap: http://tinyurl.com/35lese

Remaining Show Dates:

Thursday 2/21 8PM
Friday 2/22 8PM
Saturday 2/23 8PM
Sunday 2/24 2PM

Spring has sprung

2008-02-17T12:14:00.000-08:00

holiday hiatus is over - time to post picture or two in honor of this glorious weather we've been having after the rains and flu-bugs of January. Yea! Yea for bees and flowers and buds and beautiful girls in skirts! Yea!

More Holga = Happier Anneke

2007-11-11T19:47:00.000-08:00

In honor of my dear friend being in town, I gave myself 'permission' to splurge on film and developing for my Holga camera. I love the experimental rough beauty of the whole process. It's good fun, and I end up with images that I really love.

We took a drive down Highway 1 to get some good California Pacific Ocean time in before she had to fly back to Bogota. Lovely day, relaxing drive, some good walks, a taco stop, and all in all, a really wonderful way to spend time with a friend. One of the things I'm going to love being able to do once school is over, is take more pictures with my little Holga.

Olafur Eliasson

2007-10-14T23:28:00.000-07:00

San Francisco Bay Residents and Visitors:
DO NOT MISS THIS SHOW.
Go to the Museum of Modern Art.
And don't forget to hit the second floor for the second bit. A room geothermally cooled to 14F inside a museum is not to be missed. Neither is what is inside of that room. Neither is the 360-degree room for all colors.

"I don't think that my work is about my work. I think my work is about you." -O.Eliasson 2007

And while you're at it, hit the Joseph Cornell exhibit.

Trachycarpus fortunei

2007-10-03T15:23:00.000-07:00

Went back to the old digs for some delicious Ritual Coffee, a sunny spot to do my school reading, and to chat with some of my favorite people. Picked up a Betrock's Cold Hardy Palms and got it post-it annotated by Jason (that brunch date is coming, I swear!). Squeezed Laura and kidnapped Cindy for a site visit trip for our Studio L4 project. A fantastic, sunny morning. Here's some Trachy trunk detail in honor of my palm nerd friends. Happy October!

Quercus suber

2007-09-04T20:35:00.000-07:00

This morning was a rare treat: breakfast at one of my favorite little places, Chloe's, with one of my favorite people, Savannah G. She was in town briefly from New York, where she works at Printed Matter. I haven't seen her since my days in Albuquerque, but she looked the same - lovely, luminous, and full of interesting things to say. Plus, my Jarlsberg and avocado scrambled eggs were delish. On the way home I decided to walk by a favorite grove of trees to round out the morning - the cork oaks in Dolores Park. A hidden treasure. Thanks to Conway Chang for pointing them out.

It was a wonderful start to the week.

Urban Thoughts

2007-08-05T20:42:00.000-07:00

Anytime I travel, I find my mind strays in the same direction whenever trying to digest a new environment, new city, new landscape. The same questions pop up and I've come to realize that these questions have been with me for a long time. They are a part of how I approach the world.

Where does their water come from? Where does their waste go? How could the quality of life be improved through plantings/green roofs/living walls? What plants are appropriate to this climate and urban environment? What does that mean? How do people get from home to work to school to play? What do I find beautiful about this place? Why?

Colombia was greener, and grittier, than I imagined. As much as we bemoan car culture in California, I've never appreciated our emissions testing/regulations so much as when walking along the Septima in Bogota getting dizzy from the diesel. Bogota is otherwise a sparkling, shiny, modern city...stylish and rainy like Milan.

La Paz was a city of dust, magic, dogs, street life and color. It felt like being in a movie that Jorge Luis Borges would have made. Labyrinths, cobblestones, blind alleys, hills that climb and climb and climb and then disappear, parades that last all day, mountains that you can see wherever you are. But almost no green. The roof of the world is gold, not green.

Delicious Weekend... and its not over yet

2007-07-01T14:02:00.001-07:00

Mussels with garlic, buttered noodles and veggies for dinner on Friday, and cloudberry jam on toast on Sunday. The joy of yummy food never wanes for me. Mmmmmm and now we are off to a birthday barbecue for one of my favorite people ever, made it to yoga class this morning, and I got a phone call yesterday from Kyriell so over all my life is absolutely full of goodness. And cloudberry jam from Norway.

Kite Fight!

2007-06-24T18:58:00.000-07:00

A beautiful, sunny Sunday in San Francisco. What better way to spend it than flying kites on top of Bernal Hill...and doing battle! Rick Abruzzo organized the gathering, and Sean and I bought some pirate ship kites at our local dollar store, and went up on top of Bernal with his parents (who are visiting). It was great fun, our kites survived much better than we ever dreamed, we won a few fights, lost a few, and got to hang out with our buddy Paul and made a new one (Tiffany) and generally had a good old fashioned tiring time. Woo! I'm going to miss things like this when school is back in session, for sure.

finished and started

2007-06-10T15:06:00.000-07:00

The photo album project has been finished for a bit, and now I'm moving on to a tripartite goal: portfolio, travel planning/research, and Lily's blanket. My daring, darling niece is about to gain a baby brother, and I think she might be in need of some special things JUST for her. And I also know that if she spurns it, her mama will nap with it, 100% guaranteed.On more than one occasion I have wanted to zip Denver to Chicago to make seeing my family easier. That or a teleportation device.

Speaking of family, I'm getting ridiculously excited to see my brother in Bolivia. See where he's been working, meet his people, see his neighborhood. I'm trying to read up, study the maps, and get my head around where we are going to be in a broader sense. We won't be there that long, and who knows if I'll ever go back...so I'm trying to make the most of it! A little worried about the altitude, but what will be will be. We'll drink our water and coca tea and hope for the best! Even if we move slowly the whole time, we'll still be there, taking it all in.

At long last

2007-05-21T18:00:00.000-07:00

School has been out for a month, and I've mostly been relaxing, catching up on some much needed sleep, watching the NBA playoffs with Sean, and trying to see my lady friends more often. Per usual, I have a list of projects I want to get done in my 'down time': get my portfolio together and polished, finish the photo album from my 2001 trip through Europe with my mother, finish the quilt for Lily, sort through all the garf I've been meaning to sort through since I started school, bind that journal that is all but sewn, etc. Well, I've started one project. And I only have two months before we leave for South America. It's hard to get motivated to bust ass (even on stuff you WANT to do) when that's been your M.O. for so long. If I finish the photo album and the portfolio, I'll be happy. If I finish the photo album, the quilt, AND the portfolio I'll be ecstatic.

Ritual Roasters cafe at work = love

2007-04-22T19:13:00.000-07:00

Potentially a financial disaster, but my productivity is about to go through the roof.
When it's good, it's reeeeeeeeally good.
Coffee, that is.
Back to the drafting board.
More after school's out.

please tell me it's not done

2007-04-01T20:27:00.000-07:00

Sean and I stopped by the new ginormous federal building on our way home from grocery shopping. We had the city carshare, so why not check it out? Word on the street was the landscaping was done and was open to the public.

I hope the word is wrong. Please tell me it's not done, someone. The only green is a small patch of totally inaccessible turf, and the vast expanses of DG are going to look like hell in no time. There is nothing, nothing to break the wind whipping across the plaza. My heart goes out to the poor London Plane trees that are already withering in its blast, garbage swirling around their trunks. ug.

The whole building teeters over your head like the clumsy bloated thing you might already have in mind when you think "federal government". double ug.

movement

2007-03-31T00:37:00.000-07:00

lots of shift, motion, and possibility in the air these days.
new paths, commutes, options, and ideas pushing their way around.

Shot this at Aquatic Park in Berkeley...well the tracks that run along the back side of it. As Los Lobos wisely said, "everybody looooooooooves a train." But more to the point, everyone (me for sure) loves a train track. all that metal stretching straight off into the distance.
Speed implied.
Escape guaranteed...or at least a needed change of scenery.

New Project Old Idea

2007-03-21T23:20:00.000-07:00

As my daily writing habit has pretty much eaten it in lieu of school, reading, and messing with other things, but my compulsion to log, chronicle, etc continues I'm jumping on the the 365days bandwagon rapidly picking up speed on Flickr. One self portrait a day for a year. Quite a collage at the end of your year. It seems like a good skeleton to hang something on. Not sure what, but something. I love series, I love photography, and I'm a bit of an odd collector. Ask me about my MUNI archive. I've seen calls for materials before ("i need old muni passes for my project!") but there's no way I'm giving up Devil Girl Chocolates boxes full of transfers. In chronological order. Nope. Not sure why, but it seems like a good skeleton to hang something from someday.

You get the idea.
You will see the results...just not for a year. Maybe I'll do a monthly post of the 30 or so snaps at once, but not daily. That feels excessively navel-gazey in public.

I'm curious about what it will kick up for me mentally.

good writers listen

2007-03-11T15:37:00.000-07:00

This past Friday I attended the Spatial Recall: The place of Memory in Landscape and Architecture Symposium over at the College of Environmental Design at Berkeley. Far and away the most provocative, interesting, and set-your-brain-on-fire talk I heard was the 11:20 am talk by a Finn.

Selfhood, Memory, and the World
Juhani Pallasmaa, Architect; Professor Emeritus, Helsinki University of Technology

I found an old lecture by him online which echoed some of his many lines of thought that I'm going to paste below. It was wonderful to have someone reaching up and bringing down threads from literature, visual art, philosophy, and politics and weaving them to the task of designing space for human use. Mindbending, fun, and inspiring. Here's a little tiny taste of Mr. Pallasmaa:

"The time of art is regressive time - in the words of Jean Genet: `In order to achieve significance, every work of art has to patiently and carefully descend the stairs of millennia, and fuse, if possible, into the timeless night populated by the dead, in a manner which allows the dead to identify themselves in this work.'11

T.S. Eliot's Wasteland, one of the great works of poetry, is a splendid example of the way in which a creative mind, aware of tradition, combines ingredients from completely different sources. The temporal origins and boundaries of images loose their meaning in this creative fusion. Wasteland, as all great works of art, is an archeological excavation of images. The poem cross-connects historical images of timeless myths with the commonplace life in the poet's own time. The poem combines references from the Bible to Ovid, from Vergil to Dante, from Shakespeare to Wagner, Baudelaire to Hesse. The poetic work begins with a motto quoted from Petronius' Satyricon and ends in the reiteration of the final incantation of the Upanisad.

All great works are collaborations, which invite the deep memories of culture to surface through their imagery. In his book The Art of the Novel, Milan Kundera argues that all good books are always wiser than their writers, because good writers listen to the wisdom of the novel. In the same way, great buildings are wiser than their architect, because they are products of a collaborative effort between the individual creator and the entire history of the discipline."

Not that the rest of the symposium wasn't really fascinating, but Juhani made a fan of me.

Extended Remix

2007-03-07T20:54:00.000-08:00

So my birthday celebrations really started in earnest on Friday night, March 2nd, when I went out with Sean and our buddy Fivepockets to see the Extra-Action Marching Band and get delicious gin gimlets at a cozy neighborhood bar.

Saturday, my actual birthday, was spent picking up a new dress and contacts, re-potting some succulents and installing a new Euphorbia horrida in its new home. Very satisfying. I cannot wait till I have dirt to plant, or a large porch to really get nuts with the container garden. Mid-day Sean, Joe, and I were 'actors' in a Lee Walton performance /ephemeral art piece curated by Southern Exposure Gallery. It was a beautiful day and a really interesting event. That night we had fiesta with a whole Slew of Pisces folks. I wore my new dress and I drank my champagne out of a coconut. ARRIBA!! Sunday was back-to-back school (with a hangover) but then....

Sean and I ran away from home to Santa Cruz (night at the boardwalk and a motel) and spent Monday in Monterey at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, possibly one of my favorite museums EVER. There was a giant octopus! And we got to see the sea otter feeding with almost no crowd! And the jellyfish room! And the sharks and sunfish! And! And! Plus, the central coast smells different..warmer, saltier, all the things that trigger 'vacation brain'.

I had a ball. In another life, I'm an invertebrate biologist spending my days in the intertidal zone in big rubber boots. Oh yes, Ed Ricketts, I would have wanted to know you.

Birthday from Bolivia!

2007-02-22T14:49:00.000-08:00

I've got a good feeling about this year already...and I'm sick as a dog so that's saying a LOT. Yesterday I got a package from my brother in Bolivia! The return address was 'Karl, Bolivia' which cracked me up. Mostly, it was totally a Karl Present: a festive combo of little things that added up to a lovely picture of where he is. The calendar he sent me feels like the Bolivian version of taqueria calendars (of which I am a huge fan). And it made me miss him.

Getting bonafide snail mail, with excellent stamps, from someone you love far away, is a far superior experience than email. Not that I don't love the immediacy of the digital age, but seeing his handwriting, and knowing that these things had been touched, purchased or found, packaged up, and had made their way through the postal systems of the world was and continues to be WONDERFUL. As soon as I'm done running myself ragged with school, letter writing and mail-art are up there on the list of Things I Will Get To Do Again. Of course, they have to get in line behind Writing, Photography, Collage, hiking, Bookbinding, and learning Spanish. But still. They're on the list!

Smells like Spring

2007-02-13T13:47:00.000-08:00

February is the dead of winter where I grew up. Where I went to university. So even though I've lived in San Francisco for nine years, the fact that in February the streets become an explosion of Acacia yellows and plum trees snowing pink is still disorienting. Lovely, but disorienting.

On the way home from doctor appointment #1 but prior to doctor appointment #2 I was overcome with this lightness of spirit, this general upbeat faith in it all that can only mean one thing: spring.

High puffy clouds and bright, low angled sunshine. Most peculiar. Most welcome.

heliotrope

2007-02-04T22:46:00.000-08:00

Got my first roll of b&w 120 film back last week...which was a sad week.

The father of two of our dear friends died, and no matter the circumstances, losing a father is hard, hard, stuff. And there is no way to see people you care about in pain, and not feel deeply sad for them, and think about your heart and the loses it will weather down the road. I am blessed to have a lot of pain coming my way. As odd as that sounds.

for all my fellow student peeps out there this will totally save your evening

2007-01-24T17:24:00.000-08:00

No really. A four pack of Tab energy drink and playing a stream from these folks, and any amount of productive, creative work is possible. And for my friends living in the boondoggles, this is a link to having your house in boondock state magically transformed into a film noir set or swinging party house. Seriously. Sean Kelly told me so it MUST be true. (without him my life is much less richly colored)

Monster Truck Jam!

2007-01-15T16:33:00.000-08:00

Friday night Sean performed in the San Francisco SketchFest (wooo!) and did his sweetened and condensed version of PowerUP! I utterly failed to take photos, but he was amazing, funny, and on point. Saturday night, however, it was HIS turn to be entertained and I got to come along for the hoots. For a woman who believes that 2 stroke engines should be outlawed, and jet-skiis banned for all but Emergency Rescue purposes, I was amazed at how much fun I had. The garlic fries didn't hurt.

Holga Time!

2007-01-05T22:25:00.000-08:00

I received a Holga 120N camera for aChristmas present from Sean and it is sooooo truly appreciated!
Another image maker has entered my life, and given me an excuse to squeeze a little more art into my day to day. I figure one roll a pay period will help keep me sane and on budget!

The first roll was an experiment to see where my light leaks were and how this whole contraption worked. Very fun! This is one of my favorites from the first roll. I had the mask set in funny so all the frames overlapped. Cool effect, I think.

Michigan Musings

2006-12-26T20:04:00.000-08:00

This year Sean came home with me for Christmas...I really wanted to see my family after all the medical excitement of 2006 and the imminent departure of my brother for a year in South America. It was good to be home. Mentally a lot of work, but lovely, and good. Last time we were in Michigan, we only got a day with my sister and her family, but this time we had 3 good visits. Very special.

Chex mix, lasagna, walks out at the nature center, visits with Wickham and Margaret Allen, aunts, uncles, cousins, Grandma Swinehart and a James Bond movie later, and we're back in San Francisco.

Airplane travel has always been emotionally jarring for me - even more so this time around. My body is back home in our sweet little pad, but the rest of me is still winging over Iowa on its way here.

Tompkins County Time Warp

2006-11-26T12:13:00.000-08:00

College years are formative years, whether you want them to be or not. I was blessed to be able to attend Cornell University for my undergrad years...tumultuous, action-packed, mentally exciting, sad, and stressful. Among other things. If I knew then what I know now* my life would be very different.

I haven't been back on campus in ten years. Sean, his parents and I recently took a road trip down to Ithaca during our visit back east for Thanksgiving. I realized several things over the course of that afternoon:

1. Ithaca actually IS gorges, gorgeous, and all the rest of it. It is an epic setting for an epic education. I have never felt so fortunate in regards to setting.
2. My love affair with libraries is very, very real and permanent. To be unmoved by the collection at Cornell is to be fundamentally numb.

3. Cooperative living was key to my overall education as an adult human being.
4. My sense of smell is tightly bound to my ability to remember things. Not a physiological news flash, but having a smell hit my nose and having my brain spit out "Louie's Lunch Truck" was amazing. I had forgotten it even EXISTED.
5.Cornell Outdoor Education was, is, and will hopefully continue to be an oasis of madness, excitement, challenge, fun, and home to some of the best people I have ever had the privilege of meeting and getting muddy with. What a resource for that campus. Dang.

*anyone who tells you grades aren't the most important thing is lying, misinformed, or just a fool. Even if that person is your advisor, the dean of undergraduate engineering, he's WRONG. No one cares about the level of education you received, they want a number. Period.

Dancing in your Diapers at the Rickshaw Stop!

2006-11-13T11:01:00.000-08:00

The Devil-ettes, a fantastic Go-Go Dance Troupe here in San Francisco, is normally MC'd by Sean's comedy partner and good friend Jon Fast. Jon is, however, very busy travelling around the world with his wife Jen right now. Sooooo, Sean has been his substitute while he's seriously out of town. Which is great for both of us: He gets stage time, another announcing gig that involves hot women rather than robots locked in battle, and I get into the shows for free (the hot women don't hurt).

On November 4th, they threw a party called Pip Squeak A Go Go at the Rickshaw Stop, and to say it was a wild success does it no justice. Apparently there are a LOT of parents who miss going to Devil-ette Shows, going to clubs in general, and think it would be fun to have their tykes learn to Go Go Dance from bevvy of hot women. The place was packed. Balloons, the littlest boots you've ever seen, wiggling in every corner, and lots of veeeery styley parents.

I shot the tiniest video ever of Sean announcing while Stacey, Ruthie, and Jamie taught kids the swim, the shark, and some other beach themed moves:

Friday Flickr Fun

2006-10-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

If you have a flickr account and haven't wasted some time monkeying around on fd's flickr toys

you're missing out. I was feeling a little romancey today, given the pumpkin carving last night and not having L2 homework this weekend, so I made a mosaic for Team Seanneke:

Sap-tacular-web-a-bration, my friends.
Have a great weekend!

Good Night

2006-10-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

Friday the 13th was a logistical challenge, but other than that it was a fantastic night. Sean was the M.C. for the Devil-ettes as part of the Dresden Dolls headlining show at Bimbo's. Melissa O and I trundled off to North Beach to catch all the action and cheer for Sean. Bimbo's is one of my favorite venues ever, and one of the few good reasons to head to North Beach on a Friday night (Brenda Sanders, Specs, the Lusty, and emergency Canoli being some of the others).

Two things of import happened:
1. I finally at long last got to see the Dresden Dolls perform live. Kapowiee.
2. I finally at long last got to see Loop Station perform live. Kerdingle!

Inspiring, endorphine floodingly good music surrounded by all the atmospheric trappings of Bimbo's and the gussied up audience.

We then headed in the Wello-mobile over to the Clay Theater for the midnight movie: Plan 9 from Outerspace. I knew Ed Wood was famous for making bad movies, but I didn't really think they could be THAT bad. It was. That. Bad. Sean and Melissa fell asleep on either side of me, popcorn in our hair, and a cold breeze blowing around the ankles. The Devil-ette's danced in front of the big screen twice before the movie, which was really and truly the best part.

tangled

2006-10-05T20:51:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I think way way way way too much. Like most people, not for the best of reasons.
Not for award winning reasons, either. Not even for amusing reasons that I'd like to share later.

It's Fleet Week in San Francisco which is its own horrific topic worthy of much discussion, but here's what it did today: pointed out some issues of scale.

Interior noise: not so bad.
Quality of life: still pretty cushy.

A good chunk of the world hears that noise and ducks, shudders, or tunes it out because it's always been there. Actually, I have no idea. I have the priviledge of guessing on that. Fleet week makes me angry and uncomfortable for one week a year. On the scale of relationships I could possibly have with fighter jets: not so bad.

Tired

2006-09-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

September 30th and the weather has shifted in San Francisco. It's Fall...or our version of it. The sinus infection that lodged in my head up in Yosemite has yet to leave the building. Argh. It's like trying to breathe underwater. My blood is tired.

Nothing curry and Chinese herbs can't fix, though.

Respitory distress aside, I'm enjoying the subtle California shift in seasons. Time to find some cords and a new sweater, though.

Back from the Burn

2006-09-10T20:57:00.000-07:00

Another fun year out on the playa with my man and the SF peeps. In many ways it feels like a week-long birthday party for Sean...his favorite people, good times, crazy weather, fireworks, scantily clad and wacky everything, and lots of unstructured time to explore and play.

The Flaming Lotus Girls' sculptures are always a highlight for me. Visually powerful, clever, well thought out, beautiful, and built by old friends. This year they brought out Snake Mother which created a heated plaza of sorts...a hallmark of theirs that I assume is intentional. Both the Phoenix last year and this year's Snake Mother are laid out in a way that creates interior space/public gathering places that are actually encompassed by the art, but still open to flow, movement, and the sky. Highly functional beauty.

Here's a little video Sean and I made of the other major piece out there, Uchronia, to try and give a sense of scale to the pictures. Also, anyone remember the red-haired girl from Kids in the Hall? FACT!

Tiny but Aggressive

2006-08-28T22:18:00.000-07:00

So Sean and I went to Six Flags-MarineWorld this Saturday to celebrate him busting booty on a variety of projects, me being done with Saturday classes until next spring, and a host of other good-news items. We had a ball. Rollercoasters, funnel cakes for him and roasted corn for me, giraffes, tigers, sea lions, ancient cheetahs, and...LORIKEETS. They loved me. To be fair, they loved my hair and sweaty shirt, I think. Sean ended up handing me his nectar cup and filming a little clip, since he wasn't getting any Lori action, and I was getting mobbed.

I need to get out more

2006-08-28T21:26:00.000-07:00

While cruising around Flickr, I came across someone who had posted a map of all the places they had been (country-wise). So, being curious, I followed their link, chunked in my information, and waited for the html to do its thing and voila....a color-coded map as to where I'd set foot on this planet.

What a first-worlder problem: I feel provincial. I haven't seen nearly enough, smelled enough, tasted enough to satisfy my curiousity and interest in the world. Modern travel has spawned it's own problems, but it definetly has it's perks. Like thin-crust pizza with your Mom just over the Academia bridge in Venice. Or making out with your man in a cave in Thailand. Sigh.

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Before I went back to school,

2006-08-15T21:33:00.000-07:00

I had a lot of time to make things. Photographs. Books. Pastepaper. Marbled Paper. Collages. Mobiles. Actual pen to paper letters to friends with homemade envelopes. Lampshades. Letterpressed one-sheets. Poetry. Stories.

I was driving home after a BBQ and trying to squeeze in one more errand (groceries) while I had the City Car Share Car at my disposal, and got sidetracked. By the light in the neighborhood. By rusting things. By colors that used to make me stop and take notice instead of the chin-nod and 'ooo' while I hustle past of late.

A good shock to the system coupled with an empty apartment creates gaps, pauses, opportunities, for your old habits to find a little time with you. So the eggs and zucchini waited while I walked around the block...

Orbit

2006-08-06T21:22:00.000-07:00

Friday night, Sean and I went to see the latest Erika Shuch Project piece called 'Orbit'. It's a difficult thing to convey in words, performance. The use of video and lighting in this performance was among the best I've ever seen. Live, hand held footage, pre-recorded that mixes with live action, projections that wiggle and bleed in synch with dancer's movements. Amazing stuff. The topical center of the performance, ostensibly the phenomenon of orbit (attraction to an object that is moving and you are always missing, creating what looks like intention, like smooth movement) but incorporating loneliness, both of the whole human race and the individual, was handled deftly. No saccharine overstating, no naive simplistic oh-woe-is-us, but thoughtful, powerful dialogue and movement.

One of the dancers I really, really, could have done without, but one extraneous role in a production that so much thought, time, and collaboration has gone into, is a small thing in the end. But MAN did she bug.

If you can get there next weekend, GO!

Lights, fog, action!

2006-06-25T22:02:00.000-07:00

The Dyke March has always been my favorite part of Gay Pride Weekend. Last year I missed it to fly home, and the year before I was working at the club. Since I've given up working security for time with my fella, ironically enough, I was able to go this year with one of my favorite lady friends who is also bi and involved with a fella and had an absolutely fabulous time. We were joined later by another dear friend who is also bi... and an ex-security guard. It's fun to be on the 'other side' of the crowd...especially when the crowd is so foxy and funny and festive!

As much as I loathe our current administration, I am not unconscious of the fact that the US is still a much better place to be queer than some, and that San Francisco feels like home for a reason: our mayor flies the queer pride flag from City Hall, and a huge pink triangle adorns Twin Peaks, for everyone to see, and where the cops are barely concealing smiles, not arresting anyone on principle or shutting down the march with firehoses. "Luxury" and "wonder" are words I want to use, which is a little sad. Every square inch of the planet should be safe for people to love whomever they love. Being queer is still dangerous, and people all over this country are beat daily or worse, but for one shiny, glittering, wig infested weekend, it's just a big party of love love love in San Francisco. Wooooo!

Happy Gay Pride Everyone!

Roasty Toasty

2006-06-22T20:06:00.000-07:00

We San Franciscans are not used to such heat and sunshine!
It's odd - being somewhere strange and new (Thailand) made blazing heat...interesting.
Being at home and working with no A/C and bad ventilation is just...sweaty.

Being drenched in sweat is novel, however disorienting. It's supposed to be fog season. All this bona fide summer action is making me a little Michigan-sick. I want a wading pool! A dock to jump off! Slurpees! Big hardwood trees with fat, fat leaves!

And Ron Spittka, wherever you are, I want my hot-pink china slippers back.

Descent

2006-06-06T23:36:00.000-07:00

Sometimes your friends are so clever, talented, witty, and downright amazing you want to tell the whole world. Sadly, I think only my sister and best friend read this thing, if anyone. If you see this and have yet to experience an art installation by Paul Hayes, get your butt down to The Canvas Gallery. Pronto!

Delicate. Beautiful. And slightly creepy. And I mean that in a good way.

Rainy Sunday

2006-05-21T19:49:00.000-07:00

Rainy Sunday
Originally uploaded by sophiesunset.

It's almost June in San Francisco, and Bernal Hill should be turning gold, and summer getting on with it's bad self. Of course, summer in San Francisco isn't exactly warm (it's fog season) but it should be DRY by now.

It's not. Everything is wet, lush, and green.
The plants are likely as confused as I am, but seem to be handling it better.

Thailand and Back

2006-05-15T00:18:00.000-07:00

So we're back from Thailand...chosen due to my interest in Buddhist history, neither of us having been across the Pacific Ocean, and Sean's desire for both warm air and water. The experience was breathtaking in many different ways: beauty, contradictions, smells, tastes, wildlife, and on and on.

Bangkok is all everyone says and more. The Andaman coast is stunning.

However, I still can't get over the fact that the government can install modern air-conditioned skytrains in Bangkok, fund a massive new airport construction project, but there isn't potable water or a reliable sewer system in the same city. Infrastructure. Shouldn't it start with the basics for your own people, rather than polishing the entrance ramp for tourists? I'd rather be able to drink the tap water than have shiny new airport, frankly.

mirror sand

2006-04-27T23:20:00.000-07:00

mirror sand
Originally uploaded by hkvam.

Cruising Flickr mostly results in my coming down with a fierce case of wanderlust. There is a woman in Iceland who has photos up that positively make me wish I had never gotten rid of my down vest...and for a trust fund. Dang.

Escape from the Dark Tower

2006-04-27T21:05:00.000-07:00

After two long years of employment in a law firm, on the 10th floor of The Dark Tower (1 Maritime Plaza), I am gleefully employed in a nursery/garden design firm. The transition has been veeeery interesting. I laugh more. Work flies by. I have energy at the end of the day. I feel 'dressed down' and everyone around me thinks I look sooo nice (what a refreshing change). I no longer have a double life - my day is spent in an environment I love, and that directly applies to what I'm studying in school. People crack jokes...that aren't mean spirited.

I didn't understand what a toll a sick work environment was taking on me..until it was gone. Like a bad roomate you normalize to survive the lease. May I never have to put myself through that again. Weeehoooo!

Art Nouveau and Marble, Marble, Marble

2006-03-27T19:22:00.000-08:00

The last time I was in a church was for my sister's wedding... but I found myself inside St. Ignatius this past Friday. For a choral concert to raise funds for Pro Busqueda.

I couldn't get a decent photo of the truly stunning candelabra at the foot of the Virgen de Guadalupe mural, but if you get a chance, go in the dang church to check out the art.

All due respects to Jeannette Winterson

2006-03-26T22:09:00.000-08:00

...for the blog title. This won't actually be nautical instruction, no no.
Missing the time to read fiction lately. Vacation will change that.