the sadness, black widows and passing notes

I'll admit it... I'm pretty blue about moving out of my studio. It's been the bomb ass of studios. Not only is it by far the biggest place I've ever worked in but it's also the first place that I let myself get completely comfortable. The space was mine, and my awareness of that fact gave me a confidence that I had heretofore never experienced as an artist. For that reason, even though I'm stoked to be done with school it is with a heavy heart that I leave this space.

All is of course not lost, however, as I do have a spot lined up in the new Verge project on 19th Street, although that won't be ready until the end off this month and with my next show coming up I'm getting a little uneasy. I'm packing like a fiend and getting stuff ready for other shows and as a result everything feels way up in the air. I know it will be fine but still.

To make matters more complicated, in the transition I've decided to move some stuff into storage that I don't need hanging around while I pursue new projects. That said Skpr and I packed a truck load of stuff to take out to the garage OMF's been keeping in West Sac.



After opening the garage door Skpr commanded me not to move. I thought what(?), there's nothing in here but an old car... then I looked around and it was seriously like a horror movie. Just standing in the entrance to the place we counted eight full grown black widows. EIGHT!!!! There were cobwebs hanging from the ceiling, and shooting up from the corners of the room to the edges of the car most of which contained at least one resident. Ack! It's making the hairs stand up on the back of my neck just thinking about it. After a moments thought I decided to take my storage else where so as not to pick up some stowaways to bring to the Brick House in October. Fortunately, I'm able to stash my stuff in the Verge for the time being.

Like a bright and shining light in all of this mayhem, OMF has offered to teach me to play bass which has been awesome! So far it's coming to me fairly smoothly, although I played cello for many a long year growing up so I would hope I hadn't lost all of that. The one thing I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around is the whole passing note thing. I keep skipping them when I'm messin' around and then I get thrown off. Now that I know what they are though I'm realizing that I've noticed them in songs forever and just didn't know that's what they're called.

So far OMF's shown me a basic rnr bass line, louie louie (of course), and wild thing. Fartin' around last night was soooo fun! I haven't played music with another person in probably 10 years and I kept giggling whenever I realized that we were in time. Today I spent many a long moment working on the Barney Miller theme and Sanford and Son.

Bwanna, bwanna...

Bowling

Divine inspiration

So I actually wrote this Monday and have been too busy to post...

The ol' man and I were invited to an impromptu BBQ last night and I went all out. In a fit of inspiration ignited by all of the wonderful stuff for sale at the farmer's market right now and because of a gang of rotting stone fruit I had laying around I busted out some serious eats. In one hours time I made a delicious peach plum crisp - sans recipe, although really crisps are so easy I guess a recipe isn't completely necessary - and a yummy roasted veggie pasta salad also sans recipe. This plus a bottle of two-buck and some fresh fish and we were ready to hit it.

At the BBQ we were greeted by an out of town friend - hence the reason for the get together - plates of fresh fruit and veggies drenched in balsamic vinegar, steak, and tasty, tasty, chicken. Everything came together into the most delicious pot luck/BBQ/dinner party ever.

Roasted Veggie Pasta Salad

1 small eggplant
1 large summer squash of your choice
2 tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped olives
1/2 cup feta crumbled
1 torpedo onion thinly sliced
Juice of one lemon
1/4 olive oil
Handful of torn basil
2 cups of "screw pasta" dry
Salt/Pepper

Let's start with my dirty little secret... I love me a George Forman grill. Can not get enough. The ol' man got me one for Christmas a year and a half ago and I use the shit out of it. Sometimes you're in a hurry and you don't wanna waste coals on a couple of measly vegetables. Anyhoo, slice the eggplant and squash in large flat pieces, toss with o.o. and grill. While the veggies are cooking slice onions, chop tomatoes, and start your water a boiling. When the veggies are done cooking chop and toss with tomatoes, onions, lemon, oil, olives, and basil. Add pasta and cheese and boom! The best part about this is that you can swap out the veggies with pretty much anything on offer at the market, carrots, peppers, mushrooms, etc. If you wanna get crazy grill the onion along with the veggies before slicing... tasty.


Peach Plum Crisp

1/2 basket squishy plums
1/2 basket squishy peaches
1/2 cup brown sugar plus 2 tblsp
1/2 cup unbleached flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts or almonds
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup or so butter chilled and chopped
1 teasp cornstarch
Liberal shake of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400. Slice peaches and plums and put in a small deep baking dish then toss with 2 tblsp brown sugar, cornstarch, and a-shake-a-shake the cinnamon. Mix the flour, the rest of the sugar, the oats and the nuts in a bowl. Chop with a pastry cutter or two forks until it looks like little peas. Spoon the mixture on top of the fruit and bake for 25 minutes or until the fruit bubbles and the top it nice and brown.

I made the crisp first and by the time it was done my salad was done and it was time to hit the road. I wish I could plan everything that well...

wanna know what's nasty?

This is.

Can you say doofus?

So in the end I didn't get shit done in my studio this week. I really need to plan my months around deadline because this happens every time. I got all my one million obligations going on and then BOOM deadline hits and everything stops. Everyday this week I've woken up planning my day around studio time and then for one reason or another it doesn't happen. Granted I realize that on a sorta subconscious level I'm in denial about moving out of the world's best studio but still.

Next week I'm gonna get work ready for the two shows that open in August and then start separating things that can go into storage vs. stuff that I need to work on right now. I'm really nervous about trying to get a solo show together while transitioning between studios. I was hoping to have moved by now but the city planning commission had other ideas.

Ah well what are ya gonna do? Today I'm gonna recover from my stupid hangover which is the result of drinking on an empty stomach last night before presenting the award for best pop band. Can you say doofus?

Muy importante!!!

A tipster just alerted me to this blog and petition going around to save Sacramento's taco trucks.

Excerpt:

"Sacramento's taco trucks a part of our California culture, they are clean and safe to eat from (all are inspected as often or more often than restaurants, and on average all are substantially cleaner and have less violations than restaurants, due to the fact that most are owner-operated, cleaned out daily and have visible kitchen areas). Please help us keep them!"

Word! So check it out and sign the petition!!!!

Smitty, bye, bye

I took one last pic of the Smitty 'stache Saturday night. I say last because he assured me that once it touches his eyeballs a la Dali he's shaving it off and that this will probably happen abroad. Perhaps I can mail him a little bell to ring once it gets that long addressed to Dave Smith care of the side of the road, India.