Inspirational Place’s Neighborhood

Smoothie

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We visited the Berkshires this weekend, it was lovely. We grabbed some lattes, looked for hiking clothes and ate at a small-town pub after.  The region is more mountainous and forested than our region, the Valley.

We drove past an incredible home. It was white with silver shutters, and it was traditional yet semi-modern. I wish I knew the name of house styles so I could have identified it.  

We have a creative artist neighbor who does sidewalk chalk art every day. One guy calls it "The Gallery" because we all see her fabulous drawings when we walk to the breakfast place on weekends. I'm looking forward to having more artistic space on our new property.

People in the Berkshires live a much more cozy lifestyle, the forests are right outside their windows, along with the rushing river and mountains. Fireplaces and faux-fur hiking boots in mudrooms are the norm.

I found a cool example of a modern home, south-facing windows, in Natural-Home Magazine. It's a Zen Ranch Colorado Straw Bale Home. I'd love a place like this!

Throws

We shopped for hiking boots this weekend, I overheard the funniest conversation. A woman and her mom were trying on some clothes, lamented that the sizes were all wrong.

"These clothes aren't made for American women. (Looks at label) See? 'Made in India'. Women over there are made differently. That's why all our jobs are gone, because the were all sent over there".

I had to laugh. Haven't we gotten a grip on a global economy yet? When will we get with the program? Other countries have a prospering population, universal health care. Other nations are united to solve climate change issues. Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands allow gay marriage.

There's an exceptional article in the Boston Globe this week called "Why Fundamentalism will fail.

In Christianity, the fastest-growing wing of the church is the Pentecostal/Charismatic wave...accounting for one in every four Christians. One writer has called them “main street mystics.” Among Muslims, it is the gentle but ecstatic Sufi version that is growing fastest, not the suicide bomber cults. All these movements...represent a fatal threat to fundamentalism.

Surveys have shown that the rapid growth of evangelical Protestantism in Latin America has not produced a replication of the American religious right, but rather a moderate leftward tilt. A majority of Brazilian evangelicals, for example, voted for President Lula, who ran as a Workers Party candidate.

With raspberry too

As we all know, real change takes time. News reports are saying today that the single-payer health care plan is off the table. The real news is, it's a very hot topic. It has energy. Thousands of grassroots organizations and nurses are supporting the idea.

Bernie Sanders is introductiong S703 to Healh Care Reform.

Please write to the White House and support Universal Health Care for the 37 to 47 million Americans without insurance. It will save us money! And tell them we want the bill delayed if it doesn't have one.

• the only problem with having my closet now clean and organized is that i find myself wanting to sit in it. for not particular reason. i want to just go in and plop myself in the middle of the floor. just to marvel at the beauty of how being clean and organized really revitalizes me. of course, there is still that half of a shelf and my cd collection that needs to be done. maybe i'll get some of it down tonight.

• we went to cathy's little M's 5yr birthday party yesterday. it was fun! the kids had such a blast. cath had hired a clown. and when the invitation first mentioned about a clown, i was a bit concerned. i have an irrational fear of clowns. not a phobia, per se. but they have always given me the creeps. i was happy with this clown, though. she was whimsical and cute and really knew how to create good chemistry with the kids. and the children did love her! not only did they get a ballon twisted into something they loved, she put on a great magic show that starred a cute rabit in the end. the kids got to sit on a chair have hold the rabbit on their lap for about 30 seconds each. and then, after lunch, each of them got to have their face painted of their choice. chaeli was so crazy about the clown that she said, before going to bed, that she hopes she will meet the clown again someday.

• i'm hungry. it's a weird kind of hunger. i feel like i can eat a lot today. which isn't good, really. because i know that if i allow myself to go nuts, i'll feel like complete crap at the end of the day. but, i have brought some healthy snacks so hopefully, i can stay good.

I finally spent the gift card that mom, Keegan, and Karina sent for my birthday.  I know you're all dying to know what they got me.  Well, what their money bought.  Whatever...

First off, I used it to buy Brian's Christmas presents.   Hey, why not.  Between them and Brian I have $125 worth of gift cards.  I have about 5 or 6 books lined up already.  I always want more more more books, of course. But sharing is nice.   And, well, Brian already told me that really all he could think of for me to get him were the two Avatar books.  Easy.  Done.  He's getting James Cameron's Avatar: The Movie Scrapbook and The Art of Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Adventure.  I was tempted to get him James Cameron's Avatar: The Reusable Sticker Book to be funny, but I decided it wasn't THAT funny.  I might still order it before Christmas though... Because even though it's not funny, he'd probably actually sit there playing with the stickers.  Seriously.  

Don't worry, I wasn't gonna spend all of my birthday money on Brian!  No No.  I ordered myself some things from my wishlist.  To add onto my to read pile -- Beautiful Creatures, Tempest Rising (Jane True), and Soulless (The Parasol Protectorate).  And Brian wonders why I've decided that perhaps I need a Kindle for Christmas :p  He never orders books and thinks sometimes that ever he wants one. HA! I keep Amazon in business.  Time to re-organize my bookshelf again maybe... I think I really am out of room probably. 

Also, I still have Brian's birthday gift card left to spend.   Oh how I love Amazon.  My only real shopping addiction.  They're ev0l and good both.  

J Tillman - Year In The Kingdom J Tillman Tour Dates 11/10/09 Pike Room  Pontiac, MI 11/11/09 Horseshoe* Toronto, ON 11/12/09 Motore* Montreal, QC 11/13/09 Space* Portland, ME 11/15/09 Middle East* Cambridge, MA 11/16/09 Bell House Brooklyn, NY 11/17/09 First Unitarian* Phila, PA 11/18/09 9:30 Club* Washington, DC 11/19/09 UVA Chapel Charlottesville, VA 11/20/09 Grey Eagle* Asheville, NC 11/21/09 Earl* Atlanta, GA 11/23/09  Bottletree* Birmingham, AL 11/24/09 One Eyed Jacks NOrleans, LA 11/26/09 Walter’s* Houston, TX 11/27/09 Mohawk* Austin, TX 11/30/09 Modified Phoenix, AZ 12/01/09 Casbah San Diego, CA 12/02/09 Troubadour* Los Angeles, CA 12/04/09 Great American Music* SF, CA 12/11/09 "The Crocodile"* Seattle, WA 12/12/09 Mississippi Studios, OR with PGM Read More Fleet Foxes http://weheartmus... Fleet Foxes are a five-piece Seattle-based band signed to Sub Pop and Bella Union. The band came ...

J. Tillman @ The Music Box Theatre, Minneapolis, MN 11.6.09
+ abridged album review

J Tillman ♥ Music Box

Despite his minor fame with unpopular, critically-ignored Fleet Foxes, Josh Tillman has been active in the music scene since 2004.  This past September he released Year in the Kingdom, a 9-track odyssey through stoic mountain towns by way of moderate folk sensitivity.  Merely 28, Tillman evokes an image of timeless worldly servitude that befits his preferred musical genre but also confuses.  He acts the part in person—bearded, casually nondescript, a man of few words; yet once he hits that first note, it’s obvious there’s something judicious beneath the weathered layers.  For one, the quality of his voice is beautiful.  There is simply no masculine way to describe it.  The probability that Tillman drinks and indulges like a big boy is high, but you wouldn’t know by listening to him sing.  Perhaps the impressive facial shrub is actually a clever disguise, masking a sweet, even-tempered fellow who rescues kitties and bakes things for charity.  Doubtful, but my point being Tillman’s ambiguity—it’s equally believable that he wandered into town from the wide blue yonder as it is that he stumbled on stage from the local, artist-packed watering hole.

Year in the Kingdom remembers a simpler era that Tillman was not alive to experience.  Softer tracks cite 60s folk influences like Joni Mitchell, had Mitchell penned her songs in a humble log cabin, without basic comforts save for canned beans and a faithful canine companion.  The sparse “Age of Man” is a few twangs/few stringed instruments short of Americana territory, while “Though I Have Wronged You” reminds us that Tillman isn’t seriously concerned by FF comparisons.  At times matter-of-factly somber (“There is No Good in Me”), the album lulls its listeners into a false feeling of peace (albeit reflective, disquieting peace) that does not prepare the ears for the sheer force of Tillman’s live rocking.

Kingdom-the-album clashed awesomely with Friday night’s show at the Music Box Theatre in Minneapolis.  I now have a physical point of reference for the expression “it blew my mind,” as I’m pretty sure I lost a piece of my skull when Tillman blew my mind.  Similar to the structure of the studio tracks—gentle start, build-up, full instrumental progression—the show began as one would expect had they listened to Kingdom:  Tillman + band = traditional 3-dimensional engagement.  Then, maybe a third of the way into the set, all hell broke loose.  Cue roar of full instrumental capacity, skin-tingling whine of amped slide guitar, psychedelic transformation, and crazy apeshit thrashing.  On top of everything unholy, we, the audience, bore witness to grown men playing plastic recorders and finger cymbals. Surely I wasn’t the only one to lose some head mass by the end of the night.

Cerebral hemorrhage notwithstanding, strong tracks like “Though I Have Wronged You” sounded ridiculously swollen with intensity and deliberate flair.  Not showy, per se; rather, phrenic but perverted by foggy invention.  It was like walking into the Louvre for the first time—extraordinary but strangely unfocused, as if the senses were forced into overdrive.  Had I lapped a taste of Tillman’s sweat*, the experience would’ve been complete.  Unfortunately, there was no exchange of bodily fluids; there wasn’t even an encore (a mumbled “thanks” and the musicians made their hasty exit).  It didn’t matter.  How do you follow an act like yourself?

J Tillman ♥ Music Box, Minneapolis (11/06/09)

A few random thoughts without homes:  in high school, Tillman visited Crown, a conservative Christian college in St. Bonifacius, MN; Miracle Whip is the default condiment of Fargo, ND, this according to the band; Josh’s younger brother, Zach, opened the show and also played bass for the elder Tillman’s set.

J. Tillman is currently on tour in support of Year in the Kingdom.  Upcoming shows include stops in Chicago and New York.  For more information or to listen to select tracks, visit his Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/jtillman. 

* I’m not a creeper, promise.

 11/09/2009 03:26:24 ♥ lara (/lara206.vox.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ myspace.com/jtillman

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Super model Molly & the Haight

I had allot say on this shoot and then I had allot of nothing to say..
Took inspiration from a few old school paints, some French documentaries , Childhood, youth, death, and coming of age..and Maria Callas, sempre Libra ( for the black and white hair toss)
Thanks to the lovely Molly @ Ford . Great day to shoot and great people, this is the reason I love San Francisco, who would have though such a beautiful location would be smack in the middle of the Haight.. the smell of pot was in the air and spirits were high.. the Highlight of my day, a passerby saw us shooting and blurted out : " that's some awesome white trash" haha you'll see why.And Special thanks to Oliver and his owner Linda who saved the day! can't wait for part two with the deer hounds!

Ok, today, I have:

Is that a dragon I see before me?

Night 1:

Flamingo Dancer returns from the bathroom and Mr FD asks:

"Did you see any dragons?"

"Yes," said I. "They were bar-b-queing the yaks"

"I hope there are some leftovers for breakfast" he says and goes back to sleep.

Night 2:

Mr FD returns from the bathroom and I  ask:

"Did you see any dragons?"

"Dragons!" Mr FD exclaims. "I am sick of slaying dragons. Day in, day out, nothing but dragon slaying. At least they could keep it down to one a day." He returns to bed and goes back to sleep.

Dragons and yaks in our backyard...the neighbours are not going to be happy at all.