colorful protest for another world

The above was the headline of the paper here in Hamburg on Thursday, love.

There are a few things here that I especially like. Timed light switches that turn themselves off after a certain amount of time to save energy. Two buttons on the toilet that are for different amounts of water to flush your #1 or #2 down. And of course the availability yummy things around every corner. Just received a call from Dirk who works at Deutschalandradio Kultur (seems somewhat similar to npr) who is meeting me in an hour to do an interview for a show he is producing on craft. Pretty rad.


Here are some selected photos from my screening of Handmade Nation at Kampnagel and walks around town..... the rest of the photos are here.


Afternoon coffee & snacks where had here at Kandie




Kampnagel is where Viva La Craft // Girl Monster was held


backstage, ja!


Koko Von Napoo from paris played


Ladies of Viva La Craft left to right: Harriet Vine (tatty devine), Kathi Glas (chicks on speed), Melissa Logan (chicks on speed), Rosie Wolfenden (tatty devine) & Alex Murray-Leslie (chicks on speed)


Temporary Hamburg office set up at Melissa's apartment

I'd love to have a word with you.....

I think this trip may have already romanced me into wanting to move overseas. Even though I have traveled so much, I think this trip, and the timing, may have opened new idea trap doors in my mind. Who knows I suppose. I've been at the theater all day doing AV checks and watching people arrive for the program. There is a band from Paris, artists from London, the ladies from Chicks on Speed from Germany and Barcelona and the photographer Wolf from Vienna. It is really amazing to get to be a part of this event and meet all new folks who are doing incredible work. AND to my relief my film plays properly, which was a in the back of my head concern until the AV check today. Countdown two hours until the program starts. I'm glad I feel well rested after my xanax induced exhausted jet lagged sleep last night.

It's time for a German beer and if you are interested read this article passed along to me via artist Orly Cogan (who I get to do a studio visit with in NY, I can't wait), is pretty interesting.

No photos, how boring.

Gingko press:: Hamburg

It's so weird how things pan out. Sitting on the table next to me is a copy of "Made For Skate" published by Gingko Press, 2008.

I had no idea that Gingko was based out of San Francisco and Hamburg. Alex, one of the ladies in Chicks On Speed that is responsible for bringing me here to Hamburg got connected with Mo the owner (?) through a mutual friend. Mo offered up the corporate apartment which is in this amazing building (second photo). I was planning on staying with Nadine and Melissa where we had dinner tonight, however, there was extra room here so here I stay.

Sydney & Noodles



Stopped into Kampnagel to check out the space, the building is insane and there was this amazing little shanty type community out back with a little dream house I'd like to ship back to Milwaukee.


Time for red wine to help with my exhaustion. The clock on my computer reads 3:31pm and the clock here reads 10:37pm. I have no idea how tired I am or if I am hungry or full or neither.

St. Pauli

It is insane to walk around in Hamburg and see a flyer on the street with your name on it first thing.


Photos from my walk this afternoon HERE. I'm on my way to the theater to check out the space where the screening will be.

three is the magic number

In Anaheim for the Craft & Hobby Association trade show this weekend and I had an extra day to kill before work. It just happened to be my homie Jason's 32 birthday and he just happens to love Disneyland.


The castle looked so much smaller then I had remembered.







"In 1965 Disneyland had real women in mermaid costumes floating around the submarine portholes, but the "mermaids" started getting sick from the chemicals in the water, so in 1967 Disneyland had to rely solely on it's animatronics to give guests the thrill of seeing mermaids."





The tea cups scarred me as a child.

Plenty of Disney for a long long time......

tell me tell me tell me

I mentioned a bit back that while in Seattle my friend Kathleen got me a Bob Dodd ring as a gift. Today she forwarded me the link to her friends shop where she picked it up. Take a bit of time to look at these beauties and learn about the maker himself. The entire website as a whole is worth checking out.

Here is mine (pulled this image from the site)

Q: What happens when you google treetent?
A: You find magical structures that you want and can't have.

we cannot escape serious problems of the recent past as we race into the future

......a lot of the time my dad has good shit to say. The above is from his daily horoscope.

How have I never heard of this band? via the rockersnyc blog:


And my recent obsession with Nina continues:


This is pretty good montage:

You can get anything you want

I was very pleased that this was on TV tonight.


Once when I was little my parents took me to go see Arlo Guthrie at the Rose Bowl.
My favorite scene in the movie is the wedding party.

look around you

Let's move here before India

Later on, once we arrive at our modern oasis in the woods, I may want to space out to this track.


Know those movies that changed your life when you were a kid?

Merlin

P.S. this is my dad.

you can't chase the night into day

{you can't take the milk from the milky way}


I would like you to listen to this loud while driving at night or maybe while laying on a sunny dock by the lake in the summer with headphones.
+++++++++

Exuma "you don't know what's going on"

i want to melt into it

Kathleen, my dear friend from high school, came to my book signing in Bellevue. She brought me a gift that is so very amazing and special. Wrapped up all fancy in a box was a celluloid ring made by a man by the name of Bob Dodd. I haven't taken a good photo of my ring yet but it has 1977 on the face of it. I love it and want to eat it.

"Robert Dodd lives in Illinois and has been handcrafting celluloid rings since 1937 — that's over 70 years! These incredible, light-weight pieces are painstakingly assembled from 20-150 separate pieces of rare antique celluloid (the material was popular in the 1870s) with no molds and no glue. Heat is used to shape the plastic and acetone bonds bits together. Robert's rings are on display in the National Plastics Center & Museum in Massachusetts."
More information and images here.

My Bob Dodd ring made me think of candy from papa bubble which is divine. It is highly recommended to visit one of their boutiques if you are in Barcelona, NY, Tokyo or Amsterdam. After going there I had many daydreams about custom candy I wanted to commission.


If you are in one of those cities you should pick up one of these first.

Nothing like a bottle of wine imported from your dad's favorite winery out West to keep you warm on a below zero night home in Milwuakee.

" ... when someone blushes, doesn't that mean "yes"? "

just two martinies & a single cocktail later::

Some things I can't forget from the past few hours before I slumber .....

Sunlan lighting next to a bar we went to that specializes only in light bulbs

After a much too late dinner outside Tiga where we ate a meal of delicious couscous, veggies and pulled chicken, there were three lovely people singing out of the Sacred Harp. It was so random and unexpected and their voices were as raw and dreamy as dreamy could be. Obvs this picture doesn't do anything any justice but it will at least remind me of what I heard. Wished that my phone had video to capture it a bit more for reals....

Somehow tonight twin flames came into discussion at the table, this link couldn't be more embarrassing but explains the out there concept- anyways, after a quick text to Andrea who is familiar with the topic, she sent me her favorite twin flames image that she seemed to have on hand. Wow.
And, my oldest friend from forever ago Seyta, my hostess here in Portland not only has the most amazing custom hats from a local milliner as well as the most beautiful classy shoe collection but shared with me the most incredible perfume ((I am more interested in the story then the scent)) called Josephine she got at the Perfume House which is right around the corner from her home, that has an amazingly romantic story ".......Le Vanquer Napoleon and Josephine. Before his coronation in 1804, Napoleon approached master perfumer Francois Rance and commissioned him to make two scents, one for himself and one for Josephine. The perfumes were designed so that if Napoleon and Josephine were in the same room, her scent would dominate, but if the two came together, the two perfumes would merge to create a whole new unique fragrance. Napoleon made a rule for the perfume to not be released for 200 years after the coronation."

risk takers we break the rules

Today besides my normal intake of water I drank a weird amount of bevies in this order all before going out to dinner:
1 cup of coffee
1 horseradish infused bloody mary
1 cup of coffee
1 iced americano
1 glass of guava *kombucha

*side note:
In Olympia there is a resturant called Quality Burrito that has these amazing cocktails made with home-grown Kombucha. Never expected I would drink a Makers and kombucha on ice with a twist of lemon.

I am missing something

home reminds me of other homes

Not sure what it was tonight that made me think of living in New Orleans for a hot second oh so long ago. New Orleans has it's untellable stories as well as the hazy memories and the epic tales, one of which is my expierence with the following-

On a visit there pre-living in the city I had the luck of being taken to Ernie-K-Doe's Mother In Law Lounge. This was in 1999 or 2000 just a few years before K-Doe's death in 2001. The bar, from my understanding was run by K-Doe and his wife, who's name I believe is Queenie. All I knew about Ernie-K-Doe was that he had the hit "Mother In Law" that was popular, a #1 chart buster in fact, in the 1960's. I had no idea what to expect at this spot except that he may be there playing music.



A bunch of us rode our bikes there. The outside looked like not much but had this epic mural of K-Doe, his wife, Quintron and his wife Miss Pussycat painted on the side. We totally lucked out that night and K-Doe himself was there playing music with a back up band of three other gentleman. This is one of my all time favorite pictures that I have captured in my life- sorts timeless no?



In 2002 I moved to NOLA for a short 4 month stint that spanned not only Christmas but New Years and Mardi Gras. By this time K-Doe had passed away. However, I was at one of the most bizarre parities I will ever attend, for Mardi Gras of course, at the Spellcaster Lounge (home of Quintron and Miss Pussycat). To set the scene, Queenie, K-Doe's widow, an elderly African-American woman, was bartending in full white face in a tight Elvis Presley costume with a huge pompadour. The party was in full effect with the most mixed crowd of people I have ever been around- really, all walks of life. All. There was a ton of bands playing and it must of been close to 4 or 5am when I had the awesome experience of seeing a bangin' basement performance of downsouth bounce king DJ Jubilee. It was insane, and let me tell you, he did not hold back with it his old school hit "Do The Jubilee All". There is nothing like a proper New Orleans party, in a basement, to make a girl want to keep living.

Dream about the days to come

Flew into a drowning city last night.


Drove into the burbs to my dad's house through pools of standing water on the freeway- totally insane. There is so much standing water the freeway's are closed in certain spots and I had to cancel my Vancouver book signing today, which was actually a relief since I get to skip the two way 3+ hour drive. It's always nice to come home to the Northwest even if I forgot my new rain boots. I packed my suitcase with my head in the clouds yesterday.....

Some crappy iphone pictures of the past 24 hours:





Slept in today, then started the day with fresh carrot and apple juice at dad's house, a trip to the coffee shop (where I took a photo of the flyer below) and then straight to a local winery for a tasting. Merlin knows how to live.




Family, circa 1977, Minneapolis MN


Unearthed from a pile at my dads, a 1970 Greatful Dead ticket stub

Music videos & acid trips

In August I did the set design for a music video my best friend Sam Macon directed here in Milwaukee for Decibully.


Stills from the making of the video are here.

It is best to watch this in the HIGH QUALITY option


And...... sometimes people you know from Minneapolis do acid, crash cars, sue each other and end up on daytime court TV. Then someone you know from Olympia finds it on Youtube and sends you the link:

We'll take what we want and give the rest away

My homie Justin finally posted my soundtrack to the end of the world:

download it here

Steve MacDonald sent this link over this weekend from his visit to Milwaukee last year for his art show at Paper Boat. Wooden Robot played a show at the Cream City Collective.....

Tonight is a night for....

Stupid layover less than two hours away from home in Chicago for 3+ hours. Nothing like drinking beers alone at Chili's in the airport after a weekend in Knoxville, TN







photos here.

goodbye & hello

And that was that. Here we are 2009.

Monica Canilao & Swoon at the Luggage gallery in SF, my favorite art show I saw in 2008



I would like to be all cozy up in this shack right now with a chocolate ice cream & a good magazine.