Another year ending. A walk through the snow to the lake and around in my new snow boots. Nice to know even at 40 below my feet will be warm. A quiet frenzy of days without work and tasks to do.
Trying to find my creative space after a year of job madness taking all of my time and energy.

Nailed a few barn boards back on the gray barn. Maybe get another year out before residing. I miss the warm weather when I can beat away the day murdering vines or clearing brush. Shoveling snow somehow does not quite do the same. Though plenty to shovel.

January 15th 2008

Fabulous foggy morning. An elegant skateboarder slaloming down McAllister into the mist. An almost invisible city hidden below Nob Hill. A brisk and cold morning walk imagining more than a century ago when my walk from Alamo Square over Nob Hill to the Tully's at California and Davis would have been an adventure.

Colony Room Distilled  -  The Beginning of the end for the beloved New Langton  10-28-08

The week before Emily's reading, she and I attended the Colony Room to scope out the scene. After a delicious dinner of Sushi and something not quite yet tofu at a delightful hole in the wall Sushi place in the Castro we slid down 18th to Folsom and other to New Langton. Baffled at first by the space (I thought we were in the same New Langton I knew but that it had received some kind of extraordinary renovation stripping out the bare fittings it had had) until the director explained it was new and the old space was adjacent and accessed through a barely finished hole in the wall I was none the less enchanted by the corrugated walls and vertigo inducing ceiling.

Despite the huge volume of space, the scene felt warm and intimate. A trick of the red glowing light perhaps but a welcome feeling none the less.

On the back wall a video projection, universally ignored. Scattered through the room, a spare crowd. On the left a bar light by hanging barrels turned lamps (my mother with her passion for electrifying everything would appreciate the work) on the right the Alice in Wonderland passage to Langton past, behind a red Toyota pick up truck with a white camper roof housing a portable still, the source of that evening's special cocktail. A kind of anti-moonshine (or anti-freeze), it was Makers Mark bourbon run through the still until it lost all color but retained that sickly sweet bourbon flavor. Vaguely reminiscent of holiday sweet, it would turn out to be a drink that stayed with me well into the next day.

More social than performative, the evening turned into an unexpected delight. Perhaps it was the smallness of the group or the moonshine but somehow the we're all in this together feeling led to an easing of some of the usual art/social anxiety and awkwardness. After admiring her from afar I had a wonderful chat with Ann Colvin..

Great weekend.  Friday night Yoga.  Saturday Kevin Killian's reading at Margaret Tedesco's (read all about it on Dodie Bellamy's blog here: http://dodie-bellamy.blogspot.com/2010/10/lost-and-found.html?spref=fb).

More Yoga this morning (my body almost feels human again after weeks of endless days no Yoga).   A drizzly Divis Farmers market (nicely free of dogs and strollers).   A Cafe Fore afternoon.  A meander through Cookin'  (Judith in rare form but stock a bit spare).   A stop at the cheese shop and a visit to Parish Trust who've expanded back and added eyeglasses...

No sign of anything at the new Bi Rite location next store...Hope something soon though the perfectly preserved relic there now is a nice tease peaking through the windows.

Check out Howard Junker's post from Litquake.   One correction.  We all got on the bar and read.  I read Between (posted here now -- see the other TAB_

How Boring! No Post in Almost a Year!

As bad as my blood letting but both are back. I will start putting new work up here as it comes to life.

Back in Dodie's workshop and finding some small windows of time again so a promise I might even keep.