good vibes

confession: I stole this beautiful video from Alex Incyde [thanks Alex!] but it’s too cool to not share.

one reason I am drawn to music more than any other art form is this: when you strip away everything–context, history, instruments, culture– sound waves are basically just vibration. and if you strip away everything about us as cognizant humans–our conscious brains, 9-5 jobs, food preferences, families– at our physical core we are made of cells, which are made of atoms, which are also just vibration. not to sound like a completely stoned hippie, but everything is vibration. music doesn’t only speak to us emotionally and psychologically, but it resonates with our bodies on a fundamental physical level. ask anyone who lays their hand on their chest near a pounding soundsystem, or claps in unison in church, or taps their foot to a symphony orchestra. the visceral experience of sound is profoundly centering and wholly familiar, deeply rooted over thousands of years in the human subconscious.

anyway– aside from the beautiful song in this video, each frequency is illustrated on paper by a needle. it’s a gorgeous piece of art that captures my love for the sound/vibration/human concept. stuff like this makes me want to go back to school for sound engineering, or vibroacoustic therapy, or neuromusicology, omg so many cool things to learn!!@1

“I’ll be gone” by KORB [it's much better quality on Vimeo, although I can't embed it here]

more art + science

remember when Miro and I went to see his friend Lucy’s exhibition, “The Effect Effect”? yeah– it was awesome. she is equal parts genius, weird, down-to-earth, and crazy [I won't even get into the cookie incident]. we had an Indian feast followed by yummy scotch with Lucy and her wonderful fiancé before they flew back to NYC, and I got that warm, fuzzy feeling, like I’d known her all my life. damn Canadians.

click for a great review by Matt Stromberg for Art Practical.

Art and science have had myriad associations throughout the years, from Da Vinci’s technical drawings to Robert Rauschenberg’s “Experiments in Art & Technology” to, more recently, David Hockney’s optical studies. Even if artists and scientists don’t directly acknowledge their connection, they have one. Both begin with theories, and through experimentation, arrive at conclusions. Canadian artist Lucy Pullen’s spare show at Ping Pong Gallery locates itself squarely within this lineage. Whereas some artists have looked to chemistry or geometry, botany or anatomy, Pullen draws inspiration from quantum theory. Luckily, her work does not require one to be a physicist in order to be rewarding or thought-provoking.

I love this stuff!

February already!?

my brain feels heavy. this caffeine isn’t working. where the hell did I put my daily planner?

remedy: more good music STAT.

dine at home, dine about town

to help myself endure this lovely hangover from last night’s Haiti benefit [which went swimmingly, by the way], I’m thinking about food! delicious, delectable food. mmmmmmm.

Rachel, Regina, Alison and I are about to have lunch at Sens for San Francisco’s annual Dine About Town thingy. I’ll come back with a recap!

before the show last night, Lauren came over for dinner and we cooked an awesome pizza– I combined several recipes I found on the interwebs and just winged it. [winged? is that a word? wung it? whatever.] I don’t usually toot my own horn, especially in the kitchen, seeing as how I’m dating The Best Chef Boyfriend in the Entire World… but this came out really, really well and it’s super easy. score! I will definitely make this again soon. the only thing I’d do differently is make my own pizza dough– didn’t have enough time yesterday.

butternut squash, sage, and goat cheese pizza w/ caramelized onions

you need…
butternut squash, I used half of a medium-sized one
garlic, several cloves depending on your stink-tolerance-level
fresh sage
mozzarella
goat cheese
2 yellow onions
pizza dough
olive oil
S + P
little bit of cornmeal

first caramelize the onions. slice ‘em up [I like long slivers]. heat a few tbsp olive oil on med-high heat in a deep, heavy-bottomed skilled. throw in the onions, coat with oil and stir every 5 minutes. I added salt about 10 minutes in. keep stirring every 5 mins for about 30-40 mins. make sure they don’t burn, but leave them alone enough to brown. I totally forgot to add balsamic at the very end but they still smelled and tasted amazing, as cooked onions always do.

preheat the oven to 500 degrees. peel and cube the butternut squash into 1/2-inch pieces. toss with olive oil, chopped sage, minced garlic, salt + pepper. spread on a baking pan and roast for about 20 mins [tossing once halfway through] or until the squash is squishy.

roll out the pizza dough. I lightly oiled a sheet pan and covered it with cornmeal, then laid the round dough atop. squish the squash bits with a fork so the mixture is kinda spreadable.

then place on the dough: squash mash [add more sage if you want], caramelized onions, as much crumbled goat cheese as you can handle, and top with mozzarella. bake for 10-15 mins depending on how much your dough needs to cook.

we ate it with some simple, spicy arugula tossed with olive oil and lemon. and of course Lauren brought delicious wine. you should make this, and then devour it with a wonderful friend.

beats I’ve been digging lately

this post is for Liz, who wanted music recommendations. :) that’s like asking me, “what kind of… food do you… eat?” or “what… air do you like breathing?” but I’ll try anyway! there’s a reason why this is not a music-only blog. it would completely consume me and you’d never hear from me again.

Liz does a much better job of showcasing great music on the never-ending playlist.

electronic

The Bunker Podcast
delicious deep techno and house. my favorites are Alland Byallo [9/14/08] and October [12/2/09].

Mux Mool
weird doodly electronic hip-hop– Miro introduced me to this a few days ago and I can’t get enough.

FaltyDL
I’ve talked about Drew on here before but his music still makes me happyyy. I’m loving this unsyncopated shifty stuff.

Lusine
gorgeous, floaty textures and harmonies. do you have an album/artist you love listening to while driving? this is what mine would be if I was driving a hovercraft over the coastline in the year 2047.

Trifonic
I love this local duo. they somehow make electronic music feel warm and organic.

acoustic

Jeff Buckley
RIP. of all the albums in the world, Grace is the one I want if I’m stranded on a desert island forever.

John Vanderslice
awesome analog musician; fave album is Emerald City. this song makes me SOB LIKE A BABY. I highly suggest getting the album because as much as I love the live performances on Youtube, the analog bits are produced really well.

Antony and the Johnsons
he’s got the most crazy vibrato I’ve ever heard! also, hooray for queer-conscious music. more please.

classical etc.

Beethoven’s Symphony 7, Movement 2
my faaaaaaavorite. hands down.

Debussy, Prelude to an Afternoon of a Faun
lately I’ve been re-living my imaginary “what if?” music career. I owned this solo in high school orchestra, and I reeeally need to pick up my flute again! this is probably my favorite Debussy piece but I’m totally biased. wait for 5:20 omg goosebumps.

OH MY GOD I need to stop before I spend the entire day embedding music clips. holy shit.

kiss my sweet ass

“Ah, yes, leave it to jasmine to soothe the savage beast, for jasmine in its delightful way performs an olfactory pantomime of glad animal movements from times gone by. A few other flowers may be as sweet, but jasmine is sweet without sentiment, sweet without effeteness, sweet without compromise; it is aggressively sweet, outrageously sweet: ‘I am sweet,’ says the jasmine, ‘and if you don’t like it, you can kiss my sweet ass.’ Expansive, yet never cloying; romantic, yet seldom melancholy, jasmine has the poise of a wild creature, some elusive self-sufficient thing that croons like an organic saxophone in the tropical night.”

~ Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume

Unite for Haiti

because we can’t all hop on a plane to Haiti, we’ve organized a benefit event here in San Francisco. club Mighty donated their space, I’m working the door, and all of these artists are playing for free– including Joe who was Nice enough [see what I did there??] to squish this show between two back-to-back Canada tour dates. Katya, Lud, Miro, and our music community have worked really hard to make this happen, so come shake your booties and support a wonderful cause!

all proceeds will go to Doctors without Borders (not Yele like it says on the flyer).

SXSW

who: a crapload of musicians, Miro, and me [cross your fingers CROSS THEM]
what: South by Southwest Music and Media Conference
when: March 17-21
where: Austin, TX
why: duh
how: let’s hope I can sell enough random shit in my apartment to pay for a plane ticket

the lineup is so ridonkulous I won’t even post it here. so many people, so much talent, so many cool events and topics and speakers and panels and concerts and omg my head is going to explode.

better than a Happy Meal

first of all, happy Martin Luther King, Jr day! to help you celebrate, NPR has put together an awesome playlist of Songs from the Civil Rights Movement. click and enjoy.

last night Rachel and I answered Obama’s MLK call to service [one day early, sorry dude] and volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House of San Francisco. this organization provides temporary housing for families with a child receiving treatment in a nearby hospital. often when a child experiences a life-threatening illness, the parents are left to sleep on chairs or conference tables in the hospital lobby and eat a steady diet of vending machine “food.” some hospitals offer temporary housing, but many divisions [like neo-natal emergency, for example] do not. can you imagine being airlifted by ER helicopter with your sick child with nothing packed and having to sleep in that cold, institutional environment while dealing with a family horror?

the House of SF is quite small compared to others– there are only 10 rooms– but it helps the place feel cozy and intimate unlike a larger hotel or dorms. to be eligible the families are required to live at least 50 miles away, so it really does feel like a home away from home. there is a comfortable common area downstairs, a fully-stocked kitchen, a playroom for little siblings, a basement full of free washers and dryers, and a cute backyard area. almost everything– hand soap, shampoo, extra futons, detergent, and loads of healthy food– is provided by the House.

Rachel and I worked with Hands On Bay Area to prepare and serve last night’s dinner. it was fun to meet new people, cook a delicious menu [including tandoori chicken, ravioli, and CUPCAKES!!%], and hang out with some really grateful parents and cute little kids. I can’t imagine what they must go through, and we can’t make it all better– but we can help with the daily stuff like putting hot food on the table, and hope that it’s one less thing they have to worry about.

at first I had a hard time putting “Ronald McDonald” and “hospital” in the same sentence without thinking of the gloriously unhealthy fast-food chain and our national obesity epidemic– but in truth, the SF House only receives 15% of its funds through the Ronald McDonald charities. the other staggering 85% comes from private donations and fundraisers, and has nothing to do with McDonald’s. insane. Starbucks delivers their day-old pastries daily; last year Maytag gave them loads of new appliances after a US show; Sealy gave them 10 new queen-size beds; the hospital around the corner provides a shuttle service to the different branches; a shop down the street donated half of their parking lot to provide free parking. and every day volunteers come in to cook. I thought the House director was going to cry last night describing all of this, and it makes me really proud to live in such a compassionate community, despite our problems.

with everything going on in Haiti last week, I felt terrible and helpless, like everything I was doing in my life was totally insignificant. Miro gave me some great advice– reach out locally, and do what you can here. while we can’t go clean up the destruction leftover from that earthquake, we can donate some money and show our love for the less fortunate through other means. every bit of positivity we send into the universe matters.

on that note, I’m gonna curl up on the couch with a good book [it is POURING outside!], admire my flowers, and think about the next volunteer opportunity. enjoy the day off. xo

the little things

yesterday Miro and I walked around the Castro and I bought myself a pretty bouquet of golden ranunculus. these are some of my favorite flowers ever.

fresh blooms always make me smile.

garage-y goodness

it has been a wacktastic few days… lots of ups, a couple of major downs. but it’s all good– tonight is yet another wonderful Surefire Sound party at the Triple Crown, featuring some awesome 2-step, garage, and dubstep. the $$ I would’ve spent on alcohol tonight was already donated to Haiti relief efforts, and now I’m looking forward to some musical healing.

The Effect Effect

tonight we’re going to an exhibition opening at the Ping Pong Gallery for Lucy Pullen, a friend of Miro’s from Halifax. the reception is 6-9pm but the exhibition runs through February 12th.

I’m really interested in an artistic interpretation of the fundamental wholeness of the universe, as well as tangible references to physics and light. should be fun!

In his essay, WHAT IS CONTEMPORARY, Giorgio Agamben describes the contemporary as “he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time so as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness (1).” The contemporary is precisely the person who is able to see the world in the obscurity of the present, at its visible limit – ever present and out of reach. By extension, the contemporary painter might be he or she who attempts to capture the essence of this infinite obscurity, thus making visible the elusive invisible.

The night is abstract. If the hour for classical art is mid-day, the hour of contemporary art is midnight (2). The works in this exhibition include six nocturnal landscapes painted at dusk, and three aluminum, crystalline forms. The paintings are landscapes in the classical sense, but abstractions in the contemporary sense. Bohm’s quantum theory suggests that one needs to look onto the world as an undivided whole. In this wholeness all parts of the universe, including the observer and his or her instruments, merge and unite. Painting by observation at dusk, Pullen explores this wholeness and the totality of our world as dynamic and flowing. While the paintings synthesize the individual woods, trees, mountains, and rivers, they simultaneously record their time, the contemporary hour when nature commingles with abstraction’s special darkness. Pullen paints using Payne’s Grey on aluminum, a decidedly thoughtful choice; the intermediacy of the chosen pigment shade speaks to metaphorical “shades of grey” – the difference between story and fact, the moment of diffusion where things are unending and limitless, without concrete reality, full of nuance. The world is at its visible limit both formally and conceptually. The paintings and artist are contemporary.

The sculptures are beautiful forms belonging to a family of forms known as space-filling polyhedra, solid figures with many plane faces. These pieces do not belong to the cosmos in the same capacity that the rocks, the trees, the rivers belong, however, very tangibly these forms reference crystalline stars, cosmic rays and beams of light.

Haiti donations

with the overwhelming tragedy in Haiti right now, it’s hard not to feel stunned and helpless. part of me wants to hop on a plane to go pull victims out of the rubble, but it’s not that simple. please consider donating $ to one of these organizations. the tiniest bit helps– even just ten dollars, the price of two beers at happy hour. Haiti needs it more than we do:

Direct Relief International [my choice]

Mercy Corps

Doctors Without Borders

International Orthodox Christian Charities

Partners in Health

International Red Cross

*update: just found a great list of organizations posted by the New York Times.

nostalgia

this photo makes me miss Decibel Festival so much, my heart aches.

after three amazing days of dancing, laughing, and enjoying new sonic textures deep into the night, there was a huge Sunday afternoon picnic in Seattle’s Volunteer Park. here is our smiling music family, surrounded by golden September sunshine, cold beer, blissful dogs, massive love, and deep earthy basslines delicately rolling over the hills and shaking every blade of grass. what an epic experience– I really don’t have the right words.

in this photo: Mary Anne Hobbs, Sara/Hera, Victor, Jacob, Miro, me, Ennis/Moldy, Ryan/Cyan, Dean/DJG, and Sander/EPROM (all of Surefire), Katya of Big Up Magazine (cute blond Russian by my side)

disaster preparednesOHMYGOD

just kidding, I’m not paranoid. really.

today I did a little research on creating an earthquake preparedness kit thingy, and the most organized and unbiased information seems to be on San Francisco’s own 72hours.org. it’s a comprehensive website about dealing with all types of disasters [tsunami, contagious disease, world shortage of wine, etc], and it even outlines stuff like how to clean contaminated water, use plastic sheeting to seal vents, or volunteer before/after something strikes.

after reading the very detailed earthquake instructions [if you are trapped in debris, tap on a pipe or wall so that rescuers can hear where you are] and FREAKING THE F%@! OUT, I was hit pretty hard by the reality of living in SF. earthquakes and geology have always fascinated me, so when we experience the low-Richter rumblers that wiggle our walls and shake the chandeliers, I’m more inclined to giggle than scream. but the truth is I’ve been sitting on a ginormous fault line for the past nine years and still don’t have an emergency plan, let alone some cans of Chef Boyardee in a box. and that is kinda dumb.

from the website, here are some tips on how to build a kit:

After a major disaster the usual services we take for granted, such as running water, refrigeration, and telephones, may be unavailable. Experts recommend that you should be prepared to be self-sufficient for at least three days. Store your household disaster kit in an easily accessible location. Put contents in a large, watertight container (e.g. a large plastic garbage can with a lid and wheels) that you can move easily.

Your basic emergency kit should include:

~ Water – one gallon per person per day
~ Food – ready to eat or requiring minimal water
~ Manual can opener and other cooking supplies
~ Plates, utensils and other feeding supplies
~ First Aid kit & instructions
~ A copy of important documents & phone numbers
~ Warm clothes and rain gear for each family member.
~ Heavy work gloves
~ Disposable camera
~ Unscented liquid household bleach and an eyedropper for water purification
~ Personal hygiene items including toilet paper, feminine supplies, hand sanitizer and soap
~ Plastic sheeting, duct tape and utility knife for covering broken windows
~ Tools such as a crowbar, hammer & nails, staple gun, adjustable wrench and bungee cords.
~ Blanket or sleeping bag
~ Large heavy duty plastic bags and a plastic bucket for waste and sanitation
~ Any special-needs items for children, seniors or people with disabilities. Don’t forget water and supplies for your pets.

A component of your disaster kit is your Go-bag. Put the following items together in a backpack or another easy to carry container in case you must evacuate quickly. Prepare one Go-bag for each family member and make sure each has an I.D. tag. You may not be at home when an emergency strikes so keep some additional supplies in your car and at work, considering what you would need for your immediate safety.

~ Flashlight
~ Radio – battery operated
~ Batteries
~ Whistle
~ Dust mask
~ Pocket knife
~ Emergency cash in small denominations and quarters for phone calls
~ Sturdy shoes, a change of clothes, and a warm hat
~ Local map
~ Some water and food
~ Permanent marker, paper and tape
~ Photos of family members and pets for re-identification purposes
~ List of emergency point-of -contact phone numbers
~ List of allergies to any drug (especially antibiotics) or food
~ Copy of health insurance and identification cards
~ Extra prescription eye glasses, hearing aid or other vital personal items
~ Prescription medications and first aid supplies
~ Toothbrush and toothpaste
~ Extra keys to your house and vehicle
~ Any special-needs items for children, seniors or people with disabilities. Don’t forget to make a Go-bag for your pets.

I know this is awful but now I’m picturing a cute little dog running around with his go-bag and a dust mask and whistle.