Forts, Visionaries, and Squaw Valley

First off, I would like to say that Dave Wilson of 'Ribbons Publications' is one of the most gentle people I know. How does he make the simple seem other worldly and turn obvious mindblowers of nature-notions into purist sketches and still carry on like a 5 year old discovering that plants have roots and people have teeth and everything seems to fall into place just as they should? He invited me to the fort he is currently working on. I brought my new/old friend Leslie who is also a graphic designer and lover of things. We climbed a hill, fell into a mountain crotch, ate plums, drank champagne, and stood in the long light.


Here is a mini patio I made in Vanessa's backyard. The wood was piled up against the back fence, dying to play. I have some more ideas that I want to see happen here.

Jeffrey Manson makes kaleidoscopes. He also makes beautiful color & light patterned projections. He also plays music from within the color filled room he creates. This happened last Friday at a small nook of a gallery in Oakland (Temescal) called 'Smokey's Tangle'- I had a super time and got to play and sing during the intermission. Here are two images from that. Those are Vanessa's eyes in there.


He also made this video using Terri's footage- set to a Rubies song. The Studio remix of 'Room without a Key':

Here are two more hard working musicians. Kori and Jason from Mates of State. I went and saw them, Broken Social Scene, Rogue Wave, Andrew Bird, Spoon, and a bunch of other bands play at 8,000 feet elevation in Squaw Valley in Lake Tahoe. I arrived on Sunday, took a gondola up to the top of a mountain, got stoked, and sat side stage for 3 hours. Then, jumped in small lakes, danced on beds, swam in bigger lakes the next day, talked about knowing what a perfect melody is, played black jack for 3 hours and won $200 in Reno, ate a 'california burger', saw Thomas's favorite pier, thought about summers in Tahoe as a child, woke up, made decisions, got quiet, took a nap on the sand, had epic talks, and asked Kevin Drew if we could be friends forever after he read me his 'first kiss' journal monologue and put $300 on red at the roulette wheel and won at 3am. These are the moments! Paced social activity. Curating the perfect 2 days can solve months of grey area. This is all part of the plan.