japanese eyelights.

First off, the trip to Japan was totally bliss filled and mega. In a lot of ways. I had never been to Asia so everything was so visually stimulating. My eyes hurt and my senses were at their limit. So rad, though to feel it all like that. Plus, the Rubies record is out there first so we got to really feel the impact of that 'new release' feeling. The people were so unbelievable gentle and good. I made some friends for life. Thank you Japan.

kyoto view...

kanazawa garden...

amy, me, terri. at an old samurai house in tea town, kanazawa. james took this one.

fumi. our man, mister tour-de-force. he runs Rallye/Klee- the label we are on in Japan.
he took such good care of us. coolest dude ever.
at the james turrell 'open sky' room at the modern art museum in kanazawa. one of the best museums i've ever been too. a exhibition by kiyoshi awazu was mind blowing. coolest graphics ever. also the installation room 'liminal air' by ohmaki shinji
liminal air...

finally! seeing the album in stores...

our first show of the tour. tokyo @ o-nest.
suprise sighting: erlend's brother.
pepe california opened. they were rad. also seeing miyauchi yuri play the first time was ecstatic. watching music this night made me feel like a child. it felt cool and new.

later in the tour, i joined yuri for a couple songs. his guitar playing is so beautiful.

ok i had to bust some design inspirational pics. these aren't the best photos but you get the idea. some cool design that climbed up my alley, if you know what i mean.

yes! oh and i noticed a bunch of cool stuff designed by 'D BROS'-
i felt like we were tight bros. we have similar typography tastes...
where are they. dag, i want to cook dinner for those bros.

have you heard of naoshima? it's this island dedicated to art. you cruise around and find sculptures and old houses filled with amazing work. highlights: james turrell's work everywhere especially 'open field', walter de maria, tatsuo miyajima at the kadoya house art house project, the architecture of tadao ando, chichu art museum and 'water lilies' by claude monet. it wasn't only the art, but it was the way in which they used the artful mind to display it. we stayed one night at the benesse art museum (we had the craziest 'foodie nightmare' meal of our lives) and then the next night at a ryokan (japanese inn). sleeping on tatami mats is awesome actually...and staying at ryokan's rule for plenty of reasons. mainly because you get to chill with the owners and they cook good food for you.

arrving at naoshima...post sunset...fog. i was real stoked to see the sea. see the sea. saw the saw.

i was so stoked everytime i saw this dude. blowing smoke rings? wha?

james (our california drummer) and amy in the hotel kimonos. james was all about the baths at the hotels.

in kyoto...

kinkauji (the golden pavilion) in kyoto. this was so beautiful that it hurt to look at. pure golden magic.

chrysanthemems. the japanese flower. they are so dense...i want to carry one like a small kitten.

terri took this one of me at chichu art museum. moments later, they were onto us. no photos allowed.

lambi. i'm in love.

terri took this.... me with chocolat & akito. the absolute coolest folks in tokyo.

chocolat & akito. how can i explain them. they were like diamonds hanging on a golden thread from a giant japanese maple tree on top of a hill at sunset. showed us around, made us the best cd mixes ever, and told us great stories of the past. check out their music.

japancakes. the official snax entry. parts 1 and 2.

candy caps. best presented by a friend sitting in front of you on a train. have them 'surprise' you with a quick hand movement from behind the head rest. get's me everytime.

chocolate covered potato chips. these are good. kinda wish they were saltier.

balls balls balls. terri liked hers. i didn't really 'get' mine.

the wrapped ones are salty sweet crackers. the big ones were savory.
dudes, so many rice crackers. roll your "R's" when you say 'rice crackers'

homemade designer tofu. it goes off. homeboy gave us some
for the train later. we scarfed. bonito flakes, fresh ginger, ponzu.
best breakfast in a square ever. enjoy with hot suntory tea from the vending machines. yeah, suntory times. ps. i was imagining running in bill murray in tokyo ala 'lost in translation'. does every girl have 'older man crush' on him?
ok, not food but they made the cut. i wanted to eat them.
again, not food...but visually edible don't you think? the one on the left has wings. the one on the right has ears. which is cuter?
c'mon! felt food! i was dying of laughter of the felt fettucine on the upper left. hangin' down.
sorry for the crappy photo.
more homemade tofu. so so so so good.
gyoza in a crepe?
typical tempura set. the pickles were the highlights....
bacon wrapped enoki mushrooms? wha? yumville.
tight buns. these were my absolute favorite. the fluffy steamed dough. the spiced veggies. some pork. yumtown.
pretty much the only brand of chocolate in japan. cool logo. a buck a block.

tokyo goes

TOKYO! in the zone. arrived yesterday and so far so great. new ideas, new smells, new strange clothing. there are really good snacks here. so exciting to see the 'rubies' record in all the shops and on the listening stations. the light is new. branches look smoother, wind seems quiet. so much more to come. yes, things are really cute. rubies tour japan. i like meeting new people. we are happy.

mexico!

back in mexico! today, in mexico city for 3 days. tagging along with whitest boyssss alive. a festival called manifest. i want to see the city! the air is clear and feels good because the last week in santa barbara was so ashy. the california fires have taken over. there is this strange orange haze every where and it was sad to not go swimming in the pool on danielle and i's birthday. been totally twinning out. fun to get back to that. i am proud of the people that make art and music in a graceful way. erl told me a great story about an indian. i wanna be that.

going going gone

gotta, wanna, musta, gonna, go away. back to stockholm tomorrow. finally getting inside of things. i had such a fantastic day yesterday. i love people more and more. i hate music sometimes. more visuals.eirik was sad the day after the elections in bergen. the bad people won so he bought a suit. brown of course.

amy gave me a tour of the place we played in Goteborg. inside of a mountain. so ruling except for the wierd dungeon sex vibes it had.

this was hanging over henrik's window in the room where we all slept. i liked it. it made me peaceful.

sunset on a boat ride out to 'steering' island. this was a good day.

third sister. sister sandwich. jenny and sara wilson. i love them.

erl doing push ups before a really small hike. i was laughing.

been so long

but i'm back in bergen, again. it's been a year since i've been here, recording. staying at erlends moms. so nice. finished a short rubies tour. a lot happened. sweden shows. norway shows. signing contracts eating strange snacks. meeting good people. staying away from bad ones. getting wallets stolen. recording on the water near the woods in bergen. new song! meeting good drummers . missing better ones. staying picky but losing perspective.
my masked friends in stockholm.

first morning in bergen.

key player, karl-jonas. making plans.

licorice and 'polka' ice cream in stockholm.

masked girls. ghost with legs.

more key players. lars and marcus.

dan in gothenburg. 'studio'

raddest church/cemetary ever. on an island near gothenburg.

it's done.

i can't believe it. the mixing of the rubies album 'explode from the center' is done. we master this week and now have to do artwork. but YES! i feel everything.

the only living girl in new york.

it feels good here. people are out...summertime is here! i'm wondering about this city and it's peoples. i could live here. get a room and call it home. there, back in ventura, are my boxes. i can't believe i packed oil and vinegar when i moved out. sitting there in storage. mary's dog is licking my leg right now. he has soft ears. singing, clapping, and dancing with my friends on conan was super fun. i wore a headband, whoa. to have lupe (pipas), gary (ladybug transistor), grizzly bear (who's performances were beautiful and unexpectedly tender), patrick daughters (great director and good viber) and mary rozzi all by your side on conan? rad. a long day and lots of sky blue. feist is unreal. her performances at town hall were the best i have seen her. the dynamics were absolutely stellar. cosmic, dude. i got to hang with dude that made her videos which was fun. connecting with the dots of visualvibes. dot is cute.

mary's couch is comfortable. i like sleeping in small spaces because it feels like a box. totally safe and no one to blame. could it be possible i'm obsessed with pizza?
mary and i are working together again! working in paris last year on the feist stuff was totally transcending- and now we've found an excuse to work together again. i'm doin her website. i'm gonna touch it all over. she just got asked to take pictures of celine dion which totally cracks me up because i used to make fun of celine dion because she is weird. i found out that the 4 poster series i did for feist (scanner art with crystals!) is going to be sold in colette in paris. so stoked. i'm staying in chinatown. i have 6 more days in new york city.working feels new again. i want someone to put out the rubies record. it is finally done. i am sending it off to labels now. i am so proud of it. i just got asked to sing on a tune by Shinichi Osawa. it sounds kinda like röyksopp. fun to sing on someone else's music. japan, here we come. i drank coffee and feel weird. don't you hate that? butterfly stomach. i want to hang out with you.

tanglewood

check this scene out. suprise beach ribbon world. they had it all set up with these ribbons and hot soup. it was rad. it got weird when the tide started getting higher and higher- trapping us. trapped by ocean. what a cool way to get trapped. i've been bouncing back and forth between north and south for a while now. getting used to it but i think my cats miss me. that makes me feel bad and a little good to be missed. rough mixes are done! sending off to label world. scary. i keep teetering. i am getting lots of design jobs but it keeps me from the thing. doing rogue wave art now which is great. i think there will be images of the sky.

back in brown

dude. what is happening? swirl. colors and thoughts and mountains of new ideas. 3 recent images. 1: jerome and sam in front of san francisco candy shop. we just ate a really good breakfast. 2: saw this outside the window where we ate. something about the lines of the slices of bread stacked next to each other on the roof of the fire alarm. was really strange and cool to look at this. *bonus* cool composition. 3: nat pointing to green new sprouts on old tree. this was by mollusk surf shop/art gallery. i'm sitting in bed back at the chattanooga flat in sf. so nice to be back here. i'm a bit confused in santa barbara back there. i need space. leslie and kevin have rocked me once more. they came to stay with me and visit the sb crew and we had such a nice time after watching the taping of her performing on the tonite show. i met an old crush of mine from the movie 'dead poets society'. that was fun. i want to go to baltimore.

the rough mixes: had to start over. everything needs compression.

Everywhere

it's done. i have worked since september on the art and related designs for feist's new record 'the reminder.' i've seen bits of it on busses, in the metro, on the streets, in the shops, on your computer. i am standing %100 behind this artwork. i put everything into it and
i think the record is outstanding.

here is part of the 6 panel digipak art without any text except for the front.
and i like how the vinyl version came out.
the front/back:
the inside:
also the 4 posters i did that i hope to see at some point. universal/polydor said they were going to be 4 feet high. sweet.

some button designs:one of the tshirts:

rules and ribbons

it's been a while. not sure where to stop, start, or end. 9 hours of a strange day last saturday when this shot was taken by my sister. amy was stomach flu-ey and i was feeling at odds with myself but d got me up and out of that. guest house livin and straight no pimpin. they are building new sidewalks here downtown. no main street really to walk on or around so the main artery in plugged so the ants are flowing. people wandering. i've been working on rough mixes of the entire album. question is now about the elusive 10th song. did one with erlend that i really enjoy and i am thinking of sneaking it in there. problem, it was recorded once as a call and response song. i wrote it outside my parents house on a guitar. it turned into a pop synth tune. now i want to document it as it should. voices and acoustic guitar. is it going back?