the beautiful day

i really need my own digital camera. i'd rather post a photo of how beautiful it was yesterday than write about it. so i'll just give you a snippet:

after dinner i grabbed dini's leash for a baywood stroll. dini is the pound puppy my mom and bill rescued instead of going for one of robert's border collies. she's a sweet, incredibly amicable pooch. and i had just spent an hour doing dishes and just felt like i need to get out, breathe some fresh air and look at the water.

my mom lives in a nook of a town. it's almost like a throwaway from your distant memory: small, meandering streets. quiet quiet neighboorhood. and little shanty old-school beach houses mixed in with newer monstrocities. dini and i took a left and found ourselves along the shore of the backest part of the back bay. a bonfide stand of pompous grass. rows of colorful canoes, overturned and orderly napping on the dry bay grass. egrets. gulls. herons. the bluest sky. the bluest bay. quiet. not a stir.

i held my breath. and felt thankful for many things.

viva la mexico

johnny o left dub-ay a month ago for a job south of the border. pics are finally up but don't check 'em out if you have problems with jealousy or envy. great photos of a great location. and hounds in the office to boot. looks like things are good for senor olmstead.

my new favorite slo site

i found wooden cracker while looking for pictures of the railroad building after the fire. there were pictures a plenty and many from my neighborhood. which meant that i went back a few times to read more on his site. the last few days wc's been putting up some more great slo pics. his is the slo site i wish i would have made.

check out his latest pics of the j.p. andews building. i have to agree: i also hope this turns into swanky martini bar. we need more places for the out-of-college crowd.

good work music, part four

i lost my connection to kcrw. darn. so i moved on. buddha bar IV, dinner.

tidbits and snippets

rem's recently moved. i invited him to join some friends seeing frida at the palm. he said it would take him 45 minutes to get to slo. (nothing takes that long around here unless you live in santa maria or paso).

marya: where do you live? the boondocks?
rem: just past the boondocks, actually.

+ + + + + + +

i was showing chester my arizona pictures and opened up one showing a painted ceiling.

chester: what are those dots?
marya: ceiling decorations. it's an arc.
chester: arc deco?

cuspages

happy birthday to jeannette and happy birthday to kyle, two intrepidly friendly souls who bravely straddle the cusp of scorpio and sagittarius.

speaking of sadges, i got great advice from one mizz katherine hunter this week. she says she's noticed that lots of virgos (and that would be me) cling furtively to arguments and view points, while sag's gallop fearlessly away. this was in response to a very strange email i got that made me feel kinda icky and sticky. so, on ikat's advice i galloped away and never felt better.

more arizona travel pics

part two of the mother and daughter arizona sojourn is finally installed. this one includes pictures from arcosanti, montezuma's castle, sedona, and the grand canyon. not nearly as long as the first installation.

overheard

marya: i love ralph wiggam!
craig: ralph wiggam for president! oh wait. we already ... have ... ralph wiggam for ... president.

more music to get you through your workday

i did a little power shopping at lunch today. looming, countless meetings in the afternoon have been known to inspire/push/create lunchtime shopping binges. today it was things for my ears: four CDs and a new pair of super-red earrings.

» The Jayhawks :: Tomorrow the Green Grass
» Mark Olson :: December's Child
» Diana Krall :: Live in Paris
» Blossom Dearie :: Blossom Dearie

i had the weirdest weekend. there was the what-has-become-de-riguer situation of working all weekend. only it wasn't all weekend -- but some here and some there. no matter, i was in the office both saturday and sunday and put in double-digit hours.

saturday night every fun thing happened on the same night and i could only do one. richard and bailey had a dinner party at their new house at the foot of bishop's peak. ben and robin had a power party out at their place in the hills of cayucos. friends were celebrating another friend's final mortgage payment with many irish bands playing into the deep of the night in los osos. and victoria williams and mark olson were playing at the cambria hoot.

the hoot won. a sold-out show of a performer the likes of us in slo county never thought we'd see and only 60 or so seats available. the venue was a hidden art studio in the heart of the east village. i had to ask three different shop keepers where it was -- none knew. i wasn't the only one trying to find the studio -- i ran into an acquaintance, peter, still in his leather with his motorcycle running, asking about the same venue. finally a woman at robin's pointed me in the right direction. "go down this road, and see where that porch light is shining? it's in there." a line of people patiently waiting to see if they could get squeezed in.

i have to say that it was one of the weirdest shows i've ever seen. it was more like we were voyeurs in an artist's studio watching something be created. victoria took a long time between songs (taking guitars off, putting guitars on, taking harmonica holders off, putting harmonica holders on, disagreeing about the next song to play, being perplexed about the next song to play and having what seemed to be very subtle arguments with her husband mark olson) and sometimes didn't even finish songs, but it was still a good show and i'm really glad i went. it was nice to have something a bit more raw than our normally normal and pasteurized events that seem to make their way to the central coast. my favorite part was when she was on stage alone (no drummer, no bassist) singing standards. her odd vocals and unique timing bring old songs to a new location -- maybe a hillside or a city street or a back alley.

i could have listened to her husband and bassist mark olson all night. he had more of a stage presense than victoria and i just felt drawn more to him. so today i bought an old jayhawks album and his latest, december's child (the title song must be about v.w.)

then yesterday was blast-from-the-past catch-up day with andy gus. old highschool friends, andy and his twin sister becky were often the center of our social circle. sometimes we'd end up slumber partying at their house, a mishmash of co-ed sleeping bags as andy would invite his friends and becky hers. countless friday/saturday nights, ballgames, parties, phone calls. coming of age. i had a great group of friends.

andy has the coolest job ever. designing bags and other stuff for all kinds of outdoor gear makers. designing and then travelling all over the world to see how things are being made, field testing gear, and doing the tradeshow rounds. andy looks great and it was fun hearing about his adventures and travels and life in the pacific northwest.

q: what do you call the death penalty in the lone star state?

a: texacution

if you're a salon member, check out the steve earle article.

more perfect work music

morning becomes eclectic, kcrw, santa monica.

andy gus is in town. andy is a high school friend who i haven't seen in years. ages. aeons. he lives in seattle and designs nifty things you probably buy at r.e.i. and i'm hoping we get to hook up for some coffee or lunch. he's making the old high school rounds, meeting up with all the old gang.

perfect working music

just bought: the soundtrack to kissing jessica stein (very fun movie, too, if you are looking for a fun rental). am currently bathing myself in ella fitzgerald's manhattan and am stoked to have been turned on to blossom dearie. there's nothing better than finding a new cd to love.

pictures of the fire damage

check out wooden cracker for pictures of the fire damage.

two fires in one day

last night i woke up to sirens. and then more sirens. and then more sirens. and then more sirens.

i live down the street from the main fire station for my city, so i didn't think much about the noise until the lights from a cop car got me out of bed. the neon circling lights cast circus colors on my wall. i could hear voices from its radio. i threw on jeans and headed out the door.

fire. smoke. seven engines. a focused flood of water forcing itself into the second story window of the railroad building. i watched from a block away for twenty minutes. then i walked closer and found friends sitting along a cement wall across the street. we sat mostly in silence in the heart of the night. watching the firemen climb ladders, enter windows, point hoses, put on gear. from the distance we could hear the whine of a chainsaw. mega-flashlight beams illuminated the dark smoky windows.

the railroad building is home to cool businesses. at least one artist, catherine abel. the yoga centre. big brothers/big sisters. an architecture firm. a law office. our city baseball team. and the web design shop from whose site i got the above photo.

it is one of the coolest buildings in slo town. i always wished the top floor was apartments. last night, however, i was glad that they weren't.

earlier in the day there had been another fire. griswold's radiator, a barn-ish, beat-ish, weathered and tired building. i always liked its roots feel, marking slo's progression and slo's history like an old scar you got in kindergarten. a marker for the old-timey-town san luis once was. i guess you could say the same about the railroad square, where the men came to work in the olden days.

the house i live in now was once a hotel to those men. those workers. my entire neighborhood was built for these men. including the old brick building that stood in flames last night.

today i couldn't shake the loss, even though the buildings don't look that bad from the street. it was a loss for my city and neighborhood. a wound for the businesses and the artists. new scars to mark where we've been as we travel into our relentless future.

[postscript: i've heard through the grapevine that atleast two artists (not sure how many studios were in the building) didn't lose any of their artwork. good news.]

still working, but there is music happiness

yes, i'm still planted in the aeron and glued to a magical combination of monitor/keyboard. what helps: two new cds: Badly Drawn Boy [Have You Fed the Fish?] and Little Wings [Light Green Leaves]. Both are great and took some pain away from working another long night.

i love the sf gate morning fix

aka, why i love mark morford

"== Oh Boy More Fear And Gluttony Whee ==
Dark stormclouds of sadness and pain passed over the collective soul of the United States and indeed much of the universe today as the Republican Party won control of American government and will hence have much less trouble passing more invidious laws that further its adorably sniveling and very, very mean-spirited agenda of war, big business, corporate inbreeding, heartlessness, artlessness, cultural degradation, homophobia, misogyny, racism, fear, dread, gluttony, and uptight sexless puling about everything that doesn't gibe with rich whitebread Americana doctrines of money and power or vague karmic misery and sneering fear of anyone who makes less than six figures or has genuine orgasms or really loves the environment or personal freedom or alternative viewpoints or laughter. "Hail Satan!" giggled a heavily shellacked Elizabeth Dole as she stepped into Jesse Helms' crusty, moldy, homophobic pink slippers. "Let the Dark Days begin!"

the mirror project, arizona style

arcosanti :: sedona :: grand canyon

argh. still at work. but meanwhile...

kristin is more deathrock than you.
bret is back and obsessed with montreal.
ben is still in the dumpster
carrie is taunted and berated by her classmates in the locker room
stu is like drinking too much good champagne
craig is god therefor search & destroy
jason is not likely to attack downfield
kurt is the only actor who can play a convincing action hero
darin is married to sharla and together they have four children
mette is nothing but an angel
ryan is saucy's dreambook
jeremiah is a babylonian term used to designate a sweet cake
marya is an inspiration and someone who i would love to meet someday .


shani is a totally different cat.

jdr is lookng for a great season this year.
carsten is the only major planetary body in the system.
macker is a wonderful community event
mel is enraged by the british.
shmoopy is the little mermaid.
shane is a mean mean man
capoeira is all of these things
rebel is one hot looking heel and a neo classic soul artist.
becca is slowing down her teen time.

everybody's working on the weekend

it's a full house today at Ye Ol' Dub Ay. everyone's working. including me. i'm wearing a black shirt, dark blue pants and brown shoes. ahem. i know it's a fashion statement, but i'm not so sure the statement is a positive affirmation. meanwhile, people are giddy. the type of giddy one gets after stress or late nights or weekends or all of the above. everything seems funny. must listen to's for weekend working: cake, comfort eage; m. ward, the end of amnesia; little wings, wonderue; michelle shocked, dub natural.

overheard

marya: i think we should go get a six-pack.
kristin/kb: i can't drink though.
marya: kristin, can't never could.