look
image by f’kir elderfae, using a photo by after5media from last year’s “second skin” performance @ the exploratorium
i like being turned into art.
Filed in art, friends, photos | Comment (0)rock bands and hottubs and bunnies, oh my
weekend was:
3:00 friday, left work, BARTed to millbrae with whit&nicole, jay picked us up and we went for yummy thai food dinner in palo alto, had pre-show drinks etc. on the sunny and grassy knolls @ google HQ which is right next to Shoreline venue, went to NIN/JA show, rocked out so hard i had neck ache for next 2 days. two 90-minute sets, first NIN then Jane’s, both excellent in their own ways and i really hope it wasn’t the last time i see either of them. more than a little disappointed that there was zero on-stage collaboration, not even for an encore. perry farrell’s corset+custom clothing was super haute (can you believe he’s 50?), and dave navarro is still so HOT. jay’s got lots of linked footage on his blog.
saturday AM, woke up with neck ache and slight hangover, but got ready and picked up kelly and we drove the 2.5-3 hrs north through wine country to harbin hot springs to meet up with the current bride-to-be and friends. spent sat-sun afternoon soaking in the sun and the pools, eating delicious foods, and pretty much just blissed out. had a mini bride-appreciation ceremony-ritual next to the super cool cave-like waterfall underneath the roots of the giant fig trees, which we lit up with our headlamps tied to trees, other than that, no other “bachelorette” hullabaloo. it was a different experience being there without an obvious partner and did feel a little bit more defensive/skeeved out by the somewhat aggressive prowly types. definitely would never go there alone, not out of fear, but just….not as fun.
came back sunday afternoon, then went into SF for the evening and hung out in the mission and then with reagan & nicole in whit’s hot tub. so much hottubing this weekend.
monday morning got up and went to china camp with jay and zach and hiked while they biked. first time hiking with an iPod – and there was definitely dancing involved. i listened to fleetwood mac most of the 90-minute hike. discovered i hike a lot faster to music and don’t pause/meander as much. more aerobic. gorgeous sunny day with perfect blue skies.
later monday eve we watched “hank and mike“, a fairly twisted movie based on the premise that easter bunnies are real (not “THE easter bunny”, but millions of worldwide workers, kind of like postal carriers), with a very dark humor bent – kind of like “Elf”, but definitely, definitively, not suitable for children. in fact, not suitable for a lot of people. loved the overly evil corporate character played by chris klein. the farcical opposite of FP-speak. better, and way darker, than expected reading the description. netflix it.
during the movie i also experimented with some new hair color and i now have EXTREMELY bright red hair. bordering on hot pink in the sun. not sure if i like it yet better than the other red – we’ll see how it fades. it’s an actual DYE that i used instead of a pigment, so if it holds up i’ll be super excited to not deal with the messy punk rock hair dye anymore.
i was all over the place this weekend – south bay, north bay, west bay, east bay. i got a bit tired of driving around, but it was a good long wonderful weekend and actually felt like a little vacation instead of just a blur between friday and monday.
this weekend: ZimTrix wedding in the woods! yay!
Filed in autobiographical, friends, music, tv, books and movies | Tagged with false profit, NIN-JA | Comment (1)justice isn’t always on your side
the CA Supreme Court held this morning that Prop8 – the voter-passed amendment to the CA Constitution that defines “marriage” as only between a man and a woman – is to be upheld and not ruled unconstitutional.
The language of Justice George’s decision seemed almost regretful, as he wrote that “our task in the present proceeding is not to determine whether the provision at issue is wise or sound as a matter of policy or whether we, as individuals, believe it should be a part of the California Constitution.” Instead, he wrote, “our role is limited to interpreting and applying the principles and rules embodied in the California Constitution, setting aside our own personal beliefs and values.” — “California Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Same-Sex Marriage”, NYT
all over Facebook and Twitter and everywhere else people are saying “i’m so disappointed in the Court” and “WTF is wrong with California” etc., but i wasn’t expecting anything but what happened, because that is what i expect courts to do.
to be honest, while i’m extremely sad that Prop8 is still in effect and sickened that so many Californians are so closed-minded and homophobic and stuck to “traditional values” in a constantly-changing world, i totally don’t think that the courts should be overturning anything voter-passed unless there was some sort of legal reason why the act was invalid (which they determined it wasn’t), and i agree with George’s statement of why they did what they did. maybe i have too much blind faith in the supposed non-partisan function of the legal system, or i’m missing something, but i don’t want court justices deciding our morals and values, even if i agree with them.
Filed in culture and random linkage, politics and news | Tagged with prop8 | Comments (4)self-documentation of the human experiment
as our attention spans shrink, textsfromlastnight.com/best-nights is definitely overcoming best of craigslist.org as the go-to place for stupid-human reporting, although less diverse. txts from last night is mostly about getting drunk/having sex. not a lot of socio-political humor there. anyone here posted one yet?
Filed in culture and random linkage | Comment (0)QOTD (and every day)
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Filed in oracles, personal favorites, philosophical ramblings, QOTD | Comment (0)“One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am — a reluctant enthusiast…a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains, bad the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space.
Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to your body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators.
I promise you this: You will outlive the bastards.”
all that’s fit to print: 3/25-5/21/09
trying to recreate the last 2 months in my mind here is proving extremely difficult. i can barely remember what i did last friday, let alone at the end of march. but for continuity and record-keeping sake, here it is, filled in where i can recall how i felt/what i thought/the nuances.
what i’ve been doing since 3/25:
3/27: Metamorphica with Miss Velvet Cream. Blogged. jay has more photos.
3/28: anja’s birthday party at a quirky little farmhouse type place down on the peninsula with chickens and a trampoline and huge treehouse. pulled back muscles climbing into treehouse. drank heavily. avoided trampoline. last guests standing as the sun rose.
3/29: brunch at the soap factory (?) did i go to this? jesus i don’t even remember. it’s on the calendar though like i did.
4/1: got waxed down there for the first time evar by my beloved friend Nicole Burke. it hurt so bad i swore i wouldn’t do it again, but now that my body has forgotten the pain and i see the long-standing results, i just might. check her out if you are in SF and have skincare/waxing needs. she is super special and awesome.
4/3: we got up stupid early and flew to NYC to spend some time in Brooklyn with our friends chloe and marc. it was chloes birthday. friday night, we went straight from the airport to a lovely dinner at a vegetarian bistro. then we went to the first night of this weekend-long event:
Event: Luminous Flux: a weekend of video art, performance, dancing
Venue: Galapagos Art Space
Address: 16 Main St, Brooklyn, NY United States
the music was OK, but the event was super under-attended which gave it a empty, listless feel. the space was really cool, although the pools of water everywhere, cutting the main floor into very small walkways and isolated alcoves made the thought of it being any more crowded seem like not a good idea, especially not a dance party. we had a drink or two and then left.
saturday morning we went to Diner for breakfast and then wandered around williamsburg, and then me and jay and chloe went to see a performance by STREB Extreme Action dance company in the afternoon. the pieces were highly kinetic and gymnastic, but graceful and choreographed, like a dance. lots of moving parts and moving people, bouncing all over, leaping, defying gravity in all kinds of ways. something i could totally see myself doing. there were a lot of children present. the most exciting moment came when during one of the “10 second performances”, a woman lit a small amount of fuel on fire on a soft pad and then proceeded to belly flop onto it, which theoretically should put the fire out. except that it didn’t. and they weren’t prepared for that. there was no wet towel, no bucket of water etc. ready on the side of the stage to put her out. she had to get up, on fire, and run offstage to be put out. FIRE SAFETY FAIL. she was ok in the end, just more than a little bit shook up.
then lots of people came over to marc and chloe’s and we stayed up all night talking and debating and playing music and rolling around on the carpet. jay and i went for a walk around brooklyn just after dawn, and i have to say, while dawn in most places is enchanting, even in west oakland, dawn in brooklyn? not so much. i think NYC is just a bit *too* gritty and urban (and dirty, and too hot/cold) for me to ever really be comfortable living there. the only place open we could find for breakfast at 6:30am on a sunday morning was a total greasy spoon under the freeway, and i think they thought we were total freaks.
sunday afternoon after we finally all woke up we went to Queens to visit some other friends and had a long brunch. then i don’t remember what we did for the rest of the day. nothing, probably. we went to a lot of bars and restaurants in williamsburg throughout the weekend.
monday was jay’s birthday, and marc and chloe left and went on a vacation to south america, and jay and benjamin and i wandered around the village and soho until a bunch of people met up at some restaurant (thai?) and then went out to some more bars. shit, this is getting fuzzy. lots of walking and eating and drinking happened all weekend.
tuesday 4/7 we got up and went to Diner again for breakfast, and then left too late to get to the airport on time and missed our flight. whatever, we made it home eventually. i liked just hanging out in NYC instead of trying to be a tourist. it was nice.
on thurs 4/9 we went to the newly renovated and now totally awesome California Academy of Sciences in GGP for this year’s rendition of Yuri’s Night. last year and the year before, recall, Yuri’s Night Bay Area was held at NASA Ames research center and was a HUGE party. they scaled it down this year, and it was less space/NASA-y, but the CAS was most excellent. the aquariums are awesome.
on friday 4/10 i went to see a modern dance performance at Yerba Buena by Marie Chouinard that was super amazing (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and The Rite of Spring). as usual in modern dance, the costumes were minimal, if at all – all dancers were all very muscular and topless, some had antlers or horns or other animalistic accessories, and there was no stage decoration other than lighting. the dancing, choreography, and movement, however, was absolutely amazing and stunning. i sat there for the whole performance, watching every tight body movement (we had pretty close seats, which was awesome). despite the minimalist decor and costumage, the amazing movement made me think of a herd of stags in the woods – alert, graceful, powerful, and the stage seemed full of trees and flora and never empty in my mind. our group left the performance and proceeded to leap around outside for several minutes, our bodies responding to that which we’d seen.
THEN, on saturday the 11th, one of our party crew formations threw an all night dance party at an indoor underground oakland spot – an original 1800s saloon, complete with original bar and stained glass, now turned into entertainment venue and speakeasy of sorts, hidden inside the facade of a victorian house that you would just drive by without blinking on a completely unassuming street. we helped set up the party in the afternoon, then returned later that night for the party, and were there until about 8am. it looked something like this. when we left, it was easter morning, and i admit i had a twinge of shame for coming out of an all-night party while others were all dressed up and on their way to easter morning church services. we all celebrate life in different ways…
new york, yuri’s night, the modern dance, the underground party – that was a really long week. i think i slept all day on sunday the 12th. and, during this whole time i was dealing with ongoing back pain issues that really sucked and seeing a chiropractor once or twice a week. that’s over now, thank goodness.
wed 4/15 i had dinner with stephen and then we went to ecstatic dance and danced until i was almost too tired to drive home.
friday the 17th was stephanie’s birthday party. funtimes in the little studio.
saturday 4/18 we went to jen bennett’s birthday party at Pixar studios in emeryville, which was a fun afternoon in the sun, plus we got to tour the inside of the studio and see some sneak peaks for the newest film.
sunday 4/19 i went hiking on mt. tam in marin with reagan and claire and it was super hot and we didn’t make it to the top. plus, jake the dog hurt his paws walking on the rocky fire road and we practically had to carry him down, which was sad.
the 20th-24th i biked to work all week. it was awesome, and i’ve been doing it not every day but many days a week since.
tuesday 4/22 i had dinner with mary – yay!
4/23 i had alchemy fashion show rehearsal that was slightly unnerving
friday the 24th chilled out in oakland, and then saturday….
april 25: false profit presented the 3rd annual Alchemy art and fashion party at the California Modern Art Gallery in downtown SF. blogged and photos:
two of the best of me:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kylehailey/3479088070/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kylehailey/3485000298/
lots more:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/alchemy09/
http://www.claytonjmitchell.com/alchemy
http://www.cultouremag.com/alchemy3/
(because of this The Black Angels “Manipulation” is my new favorite song. bonus! )
i think it was a smashing success.
sunday 4/26: our friend jack’s birthday party BBQ in the mission. all day long. ended with everyone horizontal in the living room many hours after the sun went down.
on 4/29 i had dinner with san francisco love story at Cha Ya vegan sushi, during which we talked about all manner of things, from love to faith to food to shoes. nice.
on 5/1 it started raining again.
5/2/09: another metamorphica drawing workshop and costuming and performance art experiment, this time with us doing butoh. already blogged. awesome.
sunday 5/3, we battled the forces of exhaustion and inertia keeping us on the couch with our laptops and travelled on foot into SF and played tourists for the day in union square. we went to several art galleries and saw some truly amazing art. i fell in love with this piece. it cost $95,000.
on tuesday 5/5 it was vera’s birthday and we celebrated with her.
thursday 5/7 i went to the sf ballet for the first time with my old hooping friend, philo hagen. the ballet was jewels by balanchine. on the surface, i find the ballet fairly aesthetically boring, especially when compared to the type of modern dance i saw in april. but then i start thinking about what it is and it gets interesting, and our point of view way high up in the highest balcony and rather far away also gave an interesting perspective. it appeared as though the dance was happening inside a diorama, and due to there being a half dozen thick white lines running parallel across the stage, i assume to mark movements for the dancers and not visible to those in the better seats, it also reminded me somewhat of marching band movements, and also a bit like a video game, or a scene from Tron. my mind did keep wandering off a bit and i wasn’t as much inspired to move my own body, unlike when i was watching the modern dance, but it was still pleasurable. after that i briefly went to a potluck birthday dinner for mary f, then went home.
on friday the 8th, i was lucky enough to be visited by one of my old college roommates and we had a long lunch at Jupiter beer garden in berkeley and caught up on life, which was very nice, because i don’t see many of them very often anymore. later that night, justin, reagan, whit and nicole came over and we all had a long and very nice dinner at Miss Pearl’s Jam House in Jack London Square, followed by a couple of drinks at the First and Last Chance Saloon, which as been in continuous operation since 1883.
saturday the 9th was Neva’s first birthday party! in the afternoon, and then i think we collapsed for the rest of the evening.
sunday the 10th was the annual HowWeird street faire in SF, but i just couldn’t bring myself to deal with the crowds etc. but i did go and do the after-party fashion show, modeling for Kayo Anime and Miss Velvet Cream. that was exhausting enough, i can’t imagine having been outside in the sun at the street festival all day beforehand.
tuesday the 12th i had a super yummy dinner at burma superstar with miranda.
the 13th-14th i coordinated and helped conduct one of my annual work conferences which meant tons of preparation and then 12+ hour days of being “on”. tired!
saturday the 16th we were guests at chloe‘s uncle’s house on the peninsula for her west coast birthday party, which included a pool, dodgeball, gardens, dinner, etc. very generous and wonderful.
sunday the 17th we threw the annual Spring Training outdoor party in the oakland hills on a super hot and sunny afternoon. clothes came off. people were dancing in the fountains. it was awesome.
“spring training” references getting ready for the summer season, which for most of me and my crew means many strenuous engagements, from outdoor parties (disco camping) that last 3 days and involve little sleep to rock climbing and backpacking in the mountains to 100-mile bike rides to seriously exhaustive collaborative community projects and art ventures. from basically june 1 – september 1, the last and final stretch usually being the epic week at burning man at the end of august, life is usually spectactularly non-stop.
actually, it starts before june 1 this year. tomorrow night, we’re going to see Nine Inch Nails/Jane’s Addiction (trust me, i’ve been refraining ALL WEEK from twittering/blogging non-stop about how excited i am about this!), then this sat-sunday i’m going to Harbin hot springs with some girl friends for a bachelorette party where EVERYONE will be naked, and then monday’s a holiday. next weekend, stephen and mary are getting married in the santa cruz mountains and so there will be an amazing party in the redwoods (just maybe less disco), and THEN it will be june 1.
things i would like to accomplish this summer/early fall in addition to all that’s already planned:
–spelunking in the California Cavern! who wants to go with me? i’m serious.
–kayaking on lake merritt
–hiking/camping in either yosemite or lake tahoe
and then there are the “big plans” for fall…..
2009 is approaching half over, people. and it’s been wonderful so far. i am tired but optimistic today, and looking forward to the rest. life is good.
Filed in art, autobiographical, bay area gems, events, fashion, friends | Comments (4)tinker womps it
http://ghettoboxsf.com/sk/tinker_womp_live_set_at_project_one_5_14_09.mp3
file under: put on your headphones and move.
if you “aren’t into” electronic music, i kindly suggest you try again. this is a good starting point.
Filed in friends, music | Comment (0)in pictures
beloved people and places in my life, in case you haven’t looked lately: flickr
words coming soon.
Filed in photos | Comment (0)QOTD
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“My theme is the intellectual decline of conservatism, and it is notable that the policies of the new conservatism are powered largely by emotion and religion and have for the most part weak intellectual groundings.”
–Richard Posner, a Reagan appointee, and an important figure in the conservative movement.
the comments/debate there on thinkprogress.org are interesting and worth reading, esp wrt the difference btw being an economic conservative and a social conservative.
~via
Filed in politics and news, QOTD | Tagged with QOTD | Comments (2)
