intellectual properties

bad unkl sista: the study of soft: march 5&6 2010

hopefully i’ll be performing with BadUnklSista both of these nights next weekend - it should be intense, and beautiful.  come check it out, esp. if you’ve never seen BUS.

The Carpetbag Brigade and Bad Unkl Sista present two kaleidoscopic double-bill evenings of fun, disturbing physical theater and Butoh.

In “The Study of Soft”, featuring live music by Totter Todd (of Heavyweight Dub Champion), Pym (iampym.com) and F’kir Elderfae (Bad Unkl Sista), Bad Unkl Sista fuses multi-genre dance forms, live and original produced music, art installation, video and couture costuming into a continually evolving Butoh-based performance experience. For 2010 Bad Unkl Sista has begun a year long study of soft, and brings a different show to CounterPULSE each night.

The Carpetbag Brigade’s “You don’t know Jack” returns to CounterPULSE taking a Jungian twist on “Jack and the Beanstalk” with a dash of PTSD to create a surreal, comic tragedy of an alcoholic dead man and the shadow of his wildly dysfunctional family. Inspired by Robert Bly’s “The Sibling Society”, this funny, nightmarish fairy tale is a potent brew of physical theater, dance and a live musical score created by the ensemble cast.

tickets are $15-25 at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/100860

requires a 1 hr. commitment

This mix is, among other things, a mark of the season, an ongoing fight for honesty, a need, a desire, a campfire, a peripheral vision, balance that isn’t a compromise, a thin blanket of snow, a tribute to Christopher Alexander, a dream seeking words, a roll across the shoulders, an acceptance of the unknown process, and a brush against the edges.

1. download/burn/stream/whatever/GETIT: http://benchun.net/2010/01/pattern-language/

2. listen.  see if you like it.

status update: week six

so, here i am, in the Sixth Week of Pain (now with CAPS!), with an update since the last post.

if you’ve been following along (i’m pretty sure most of you have stopped reading by now, but this is my life-blog, so sometimes the mundane takes precedence over the political/arty/witty; don’t worry, your regularly scheduled programing will return at some point), you know after many weeks of seeing chiro and massage therapists with no results, yesterday i saw a family practice doctor (who specializes in GERIATRICS - how old am i getting?) about my back problem (ongoing since at least 2004), and his medical opinion is that i do not have symptoms of anything major (nerve damage, slipped discs, arthritis, etc) and that it is all probably due to muscular stress and contractions, most likely attributable to many (15? 1994-present) years sitting at desks/in front of computers for 8+ hours a day with less than perfect posture (good news if true, but contrary to that of my chiro; bad news, as that is what i do for a living; but good news in that if it is self-inflicted it is therefore self-curable). he gave me an Rx for a muscle relaxant, tips on avoiding bad head posture, and told me to come back in 2 weeks if the pain was still present.

i stressed that i was in daily pain and that it was affecting my work, and that i had already done everything i could over the past six weeks to address the problem with no improvement, and he said he understood and he said that he would also request an MRI from the health insurance company to see if there was something else going on but wasn’t feeling too confident that it would get approval, as they usually reserve that for more “extreme” situations with different symptom patterns (loss of movement, numbness in extremeties, etc). i will know by the end of this week or maybe next monday if the MRI is approved. i almost started to cry right then and there, but didn’t. (i had already cried on the way to work yesterday morning, and but held out until AFTER i left the doctors office to cry again.) he said the best thing for now would be for me to take the muscle relaxer and actively avoid anything that aggravates the situation until it calms itself down. if it doesn’t resolve itself, he will refer me to another specialist in January.

i can’t take the muscle relaxer AND function at work (causes me to fall asleep) and so can’t take it during the day if i’m in the office, which is where i feel the most pain.  after taking the relaxant last night (and totally passing out cold), i felt about 80% better this morning than i did yesterday morning (yay!). the pain/stiffness is still present, sitting at my desk still hurts, but i think if i can avoid aggravating it, the muscles will slowly relax and get better. hopefully.

so now i am going to work short days today/tomorrow, take this thursday off and have a long weekend in Tahoe with some of my bestest friends where i will do no computering or sitting at desks and lot of lying on the floor and in hottubs, take the relaxants, and hope it goes away.  i am also working on a plan to modify my desk to standing position, but in the meantime i’m working on modifying it myself as much as possible and taking long breaks between sitting.

so that’s it. an obvious diagnosis from the doc, and i’m not sure if it’s true, but i’m hoping. it’s sunny today, and the silver lining has been spotted. (fingers crossed)

many thx to all who have offered kind words of support, advice, and encouragement.

song of the day

Blue Skies - Noah and the Whale (or youtube for video)

This is a song for anyone
With a broken heart
This is a song for anyone
Who can’t get out of bed

I’ll do anything
To be happy
Oh cause blue skies are calling
But I know that it’s hard

This is the last song
That I write
While still in love with you

This is the last song
That I write
While you’re even on my mind

Cause it’s time to leave
Those feelings behind
Oh cause blue skies are calling
But I know that it’s hard

I don’t think that it’s the end
But I know we can’t keep going
I don’t think that it’s the end
But I know we can’t keep going

But blue skies are calling
Oh yeah blue skies are calling
Oh blue skies are calling
But I know that it’s hard

thx for that this morning, KALX

@MsKbizzle + a certain few others.  you know who you are.

ARTumnal

Miss Velvet Cream Designs (Scatha), originally uploaded by Kyle H Hailey.

Tamara, Antje & I in Miss Velvet Cream designs @ the Black Rock Arts Foundation annual benefit fundraiser, 11.20.09

SF: it draws you out

“Everyone always says, “There’s SOMEthing about San Francisco.” And then they proceed to try to nail it down by making lists of the things that make this city what it is… But you can’t do that and actually capture that something. Maybe because it’s different for everyone. Maybe it’s not actually something and people just need to justify why they live in a loud, crowded, dirty city with a bunch of loud, crazy people.“

–my friend calli, who is featured today in “i live here: SF“, a photoblog project that photographs and interviews people about how and why they live in SF, which i’ve been enjoying for quite some time.

i often feel this way about both NY and SF. how do we justify this rent, this noise, this pollution, this crime? our cost-benefit analysis can only be understood by others who live here. and it seems to be totally different for everyone, but always coming out on the benefit side. see also: i live here: mat.

and then this:

I dance and perform. Something I would have never had the courage to do if it weren’t for the people in this city who drew it out of me.

this, above and beyond the amazingly beautiful scenery and mild weather and endless varieties of food and art, is why i also love SF. because i find myself doing and being things here i don’t think i could anywhere else - and it’s not just that you “can” - the radical acceptance and “anything goes as long as you aren’t hurting anyone” culture of the bay area allows for great freedom of expression. but it’s more than that.  if there’s an artist, a freak, a maker, an activist, a chef, a writer, a climber, a builder in you, anywhere, inside, you almost have no choice.  this city draws it out of you.

where i am right now

“the mark has been made, do you encounter the strength to stand next to it?”

–@faernworks

this almost made me cry.

public option - berlin 2009

when doing things with our friends in which we are feeling awesome, like rock stars, particularly when we have a posse roaming around in cities other than our own, we like to take that to it’s logical conclusion and form bands, giving ourselves band names and discussing the details of our latest album release and tour and how hard fame can be and maybe even going as far as trying to get special treatment at hotels, restaurants, bars and clubs. you may recall that we formed Tapestry for our tour of Las Vegas in December 08.

Europe Tour 2009:

the band: Public Option (bandmember Anita Drink not pictured)

the album (album cover above): Sportsplatz (released on Intelligent Records, 2009)

the single: China Box, #1 in Berlin September 2009

the rest of the photos can be found here.

8/28-9/7: with a little help from my friends

all that said, the last week+ of my life has been highly enjoyable and as everyone gets back from burning man and i see all their “i’m so tired and dusty!” comments and the photos, looking uncomfortably similar to last year’s and the year before and the years before without any of my own memories attached, i am hungover and happy and content to have done and seen and said the things we did, with friends whom i realize, sometimes, for better or for worse, i treat and love like siblings.

the workweek went as it usually does the week before labor day, quiet except for the oh-wait-its-the-the-end-of-the-fiscal-year! firedrills, and between working and sleeping we accomplished quite a lot:

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Summer 2009: in bits and pieces

i haven’t done a ‘this is what i’ve been up to’ bulleted post since the end of may, which means this one covers June, July, and August. wow. so i guest that makes this a “Summer 2009″ who/what/where/when summary. much of this has already been referenced in singular posts or tweeted, but if i don’t summarize like this i lose track.

after the beautiful zimtrix wedding came JUNE:

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