Milestones

1. I got my first locally-earned bit of income this week - a payment for this volunteer coordinating gig that keeps me busy.

2. One or two ears of corn in the garden are finally mature enough to harvest.

3. MB & Ian managed to transfer understanding of the picking pattern to the opening of King for Day - which we have been using as an anchor exercise.

4. An email arrives inviting me to be one of the artists featured in a 2-person show next June here in Seattle.

musings on water exercise

Yesterday there was a moment in the water exercise class when I felt myself moving easily and gracefully through the water. This isn't always the case, of course. The class is rigorous and I'm usually scrambling. But in this particular moment, my movements were large and free. It surprised me. In a split second I saw that it was because I was uninhibited. No one could really see my body as I was submerged nearly up to my shoulders - and this invisibility produced a sense of freedom.

And I can't get over how beautiful the water is when we manage to get it restless and sparkling. I don't take my camera to the pool because I don't want to have to deal with watching over it. And what I'm seeing that is so beautiful isn't necessarily something a camera can capture. The camera could grab a moment, or compress several moments - and neither of these is what its all about. And in anycase, I'm quite satisfied to experience it 'real-time' - at least for now.

The music they play at the pool during these sessions is often jarring - even when I enjoy the selections, as I do when it is Aretha Franklin or the Beatles. The problem is that the rhythm of the music always seem at odds with what we are doing in the pool. I'd like to commission work that had poly rhythms so one could entrain with the rhythm that suited one's ability. It is very very strange to be moving one's body to a given rhythm while the Four Tops are cooking along at a different pace. Of course, when it is Olivia Newton John, I just want to close my ears. I wish at least one of the instructors was into silence.

More snaps from visiting Z

I guess I can delete yesterday's post now.

David and Zora

It is too late for anything but a quick glance at the contents of my CF card, so this is all I have to offer.

David Foster Wallace February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008

It is 6pm and I'm already exhausted

Up very late last night with TTA work. First order of business was the design of the program. I prepared two versions. One is exactly as planned. The other one is an attempt to provide a map of the performers in the credits/company listings. (An idea CG characterized as 'dopey' but that I feel has merit.) Surprisingly, the second one - the 'dopey' one - was easier than the first - largely because Jaxie had a very specific way she wanted the indenting of the credits to appear and InDesign was uncooperative about letting me do it and I was forced to 'format' it mostly 'by hand'.

Here, in my 'circular' presentation of the company credits, there was very little formatting required - just a big circular text container.


The rest of the evening was devoted to printing on the Behemoth. But first, cartridge replacement and paper swap. And calibration. And creation of a printing profile for the new paper. The printing gods were with me because my yellow ink cartridge mysteriously got very low (and I don't have a replacement on hand) - yet I managed to print more than 40 square feet of prints over the evening and have 8 milliliters of yellow left. A little too close for comfort.

Banner 56'x22"

So I began the day today with less than a full tank of energy.











Met at CG for morning sitting and then headed over to Jenny's for a SusBallard work party. We silkscreened 2nd-hand t-shirts bought at the Goodwill. I have never silkscreened before - so just learning something new made it worthwhile.

Slipped away around 1pm to headed back over to CG's for the house guitar circle. Sagging energy levels were evident here. I'm not even sure I can explain what we did - and not because it was complicated. The time went by remarkably quickly and very soon I was back at the work party - where they were mostly done and just cleaning up. Jenny has chickens - and these birds wandered around underfoot like some dogs do. So the clean up was made amusing by the presence of these funny birds.

And here's a photo I took of Scott and his young son. Scott is the graphic designer working on the festival - and the lead for the silkscreening booth.

Technical rehearsal (& screen test!)

Last night was the first rehearsal back in Fremont Abbey. It was sobering to get back into the space and face the set-up again.

What fun! (Not!)

And finally making music again...

A cameraman in our midst...

Travis' business partner is wanting to do a short documentary film on the project so he dropped by to make some preliminary test video footage.




After Igor had to split for a gig, Ian stepped up to the riser for the remainder of the rehearsal.

Another deep oceans TedTalk from David Gallo

a remembrance

As I prepared to go to bed last night I was very aware that I would be waking on the anniversary of 9/11. It is shameful that the current administration has so distorted and politicized the meaning of that date, so that simple, somber remembrance is almost impossible - except in the quiet of our hearts. Thinking most especially of Hellboy Tom who lost so many friends that day seven years ago. I have dug out my Hellboys CD and am listening to 'Missed the Train' - at top volume!

What is this ad trying to say? #1

Sometimes I just want to scream at web advertising.

Sustainable Tuesday

Today is largely devoted to Sustainable Ballard....except for making tonight's dinner which is a loaf of freshly baked bread and Alice Water's Minestrone. The green beans are direct from my garden as is the kale which I used to substitute for the spinach. A small sweet potato substituted for the zucchini.

For reasons I cannot fathom I was never able to cook the cannellini beans. I followed the directions perfectly the first time - and they overcooked. Unable to soak them the second time, I was prepared for a very long cooking time - but had to leave the house, so I turned off the heat halfway through the cooking and just left them on the stove. When I returned from my errand, they too, were overcooked. I tried for last time this morning, using the pressure cooker, which is my default method of cooking beans. And strangely, though I had three times the water required, half the beans were overcooked and half terribly undercooked. I resorted to using the beans I thought to use from the start; a batch of navy beans I'd cooked a week ago and froze and extra portion of. I also added some rainbow pasta shells for good measure.

Minestrone
from Alice Waters ’The Art Of Simple Food’
Serves 8

1 cup dried cannellini or borlotti beans, soaked overnight and drained
2 teaspoons salt, and more to taste
3/4 cup olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
5 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
3 cups water
1 small leek, finely chopped
1/2 pound green beans, cut into 1-inch lengths
2 medium zucchini, cut into small dice
2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
2 cups (about 1 pound) fresh spinach leaves, stemmed and chopped

1. In a large, wide pot, combine the beans with water to cover them by 1 inch. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for 1 hour or until the beans are tender. Add a generous pinch of salt at the end of cooking. Drain and reserve the cooking liquid. (This will yield 2 1/2 to 3 cups of cooked beans.)

2. In a flameproof casserole, heat the oil over medium heat and add the onion and carrots. Cook, stirring often, for 15 minutes, or until tender. Add the garlic, thyme, bay leaf, and 2 teaspoons salt. Cook for 5 minutes longer. Add the water and bring to a boil.

3. Stir in the leek and green beans. Continue cooking for 5 minutes. Add the zucchini and tomatoes. Continue cooking for another 15 minutes. Taste for salt and add more, if you like.

4. Add the cooked beans, 1 cup of the reserved cooking liquid, and the spinach. Continue cooking for 5 minutes. (The soup simmers for 45 minutes.) If the soup is too thick, add more cooking liquid. Remove the bay leaf.

GARNISH

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan, or more to taste

Ascii water fall

Water is either on or off. Think of a player piano...

Water Exercise & Women Against Sarah Palin

This morning, Gitta sends along an email from http://womenagainstsarahpalin.blogspot.com/
It includes an invitation to add your name to the list of women who are troubled by and concerned about Palin's selection. Rather than repeat the whole thing here, I'll provide this link. That blog has turned into quite an interesting collection (including Margaret Sanger's grandneice and Gloria Steinem.) Check it out!

For weeks now I have been planning to sign up for the Ballard Pool. It is 5 minutes from my place (driving) and about 20 walking - and would answer my quest for exercise. I dropped in last week to check out the facility and peek in on a water exercise class. I was a little disappointed to see a pool full of mostly overweight women. I thought it couldn't be very effective exercise if this is the result. But the young woman at the desk assured me it was a workout. After a week of procrastinating, I finally went down with my swimsuit and dropped in on the water exercise class. Today I found more women my age and similar condition (must have been the Labor Day holiday) and I also noticed that for some, it is a purely a social event and they pretty much ignore the fellow at the front of the pool who was leading the group. I'm not sure how aerobic it is, but it does address the muscles and that is worth something. The music is more than a little annoying (one of the reasons your standard aerobics have never appealed to me.) but the water is beautiful. I kept finding myself distracted by the shimmering surface. The sessions are mid-morning - which is a difficult time to pull myself out of my work. But I will try it for another few weeks and see how it feels.

another garden artifact

McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate has certainly diverted attention from McCain himself. But what are we learning about Sarah Palin in all this attention she is getting? Very little as far as I can tell. My friend Max Weinstein forwarded an email from Anne Kilkenny, a politically active housewife in Wasilla AK that details some of Palin's political history. But the letter explicity requests no posting on the internet. Wishful thinking on Kilkenny's part, as that letter went viral within days - and has now been published by The Anchorage Daily News. I encourage anyone interested in Palin to check in out.

monthly open circle

A sad day. The newest member of the team left town last night. For now, all we can do is wish him well.
One benefit of his brief stay is that the roadmap into the performance team began to be drawn and IB is navigating that path now. It was beautiful to watch Ian - fresh, new, uncertain - in the circle with the performance team at this afternoon's rehearsal. The rehearsal itself - at least as much as I stayed for - was great fun. Curt was just running the team through the active repertoire in alphabetical order to see what state each piece was in after the break - just one time through for each piece. The sudden discovery of forgotten notes made for amusing spontaneous improvisations.

Before the rehearsal, nine of us (including two non-TTA team visitors) circulated under Curt's suggestions for two hours. Good, intense work. Though I found myself selfishly wishing we could have circles like this without the visitors. It would be interesting to see where we could go with this work.

Months ago, I'd put Alice Water's 'The Art of Simple Food' on the wait-list at the library. Even though they have 39 copies in the library system, there were so many others in line for the book, I only now just got my hands on a copy. And I'm really enjoying it. I don't need to own this book (I'm still in my anti-acquisition state) but I wish I could savor it with a less rushed sense of reading it. It is the kind of cooking book I like best - she delineates the aspects of a recipe that need to be respected (and why!) and which are open to improvisation. As a result, this book actually teaches you how to cook! Last weekend, when I was trying to follow a couscous salad recipe from another book, I had misgivings about the amount of water the recipe called for. I scrimped when I measured the water, and still came out with soggy couscous. Clearly, I should have followed my instincts. That, and another experience I had mid-week with a polenta recipe, pointed out that sometimes recipes can be wrong! Funny that I'd never considered that before - and now - having finally begun to learn how to cook, I see that some of my early failures - failures that often caused me to restrain myself in the kitchen - may have simply been a case of a poorly written recipe or a bad proofreader.

Aster frikartii

More garden artifacts from my walk this morning...


I've suddenly been seeing a blue-flowering plan everywhere. It's name has been on the tip of my tongue for days and I've been periodically crazed trying to recall it. Today, in a flash it came: aster frikartii. Whew! Now I can get on with my life.

Aster Frikartii

More Dark Gardens material....

Non-stop studio work at the computer today. It is 8pm and I've been here since 9 with a few bathroom/snack breaks. I'm still not done. Good thing I took a walk this morning.

From this morning's walk

Before hunkering down for SustainableBallard work...

TNMT on Phinney Ridge!

Today there was no doubt. When the alarm went off, it was dark outside. After a few moments, the pre-dawn light began to soften itself into the room.

The car started without incident and after the sitting, I headed up Phinney Ridge. To ensure that I got some exercise, I chose a path that was mostly uphill and not likely to produce photographic detours till I would reach the top. The strategy worked well, but for one minor exception:
From later in the walk:

Home to SusBallard activities and then to MB’s for guitar practice. Ian joined us and we worked together on a series of variations of the ‘anchor exercise’. Muscles in my left thumb that I didn’t know about before revealed themselves in this work.

An evening with spreadsheets organizing volunteers and tasks. Posting Craigslist notices soliciting volunteers and Freecycle notices soliciting materials.

Photographic ideas are swirling, but I haven’t found the right materials to make the ideas manifest. Every now and again, I catch a mental glimpse in my mind’s eye, but nothing yet that I can bring into being as a photograph. I’m looking for the right sort of pigment that I can use to enhance my subject matter. So far, none of the materials I have on hand will work. Keeping an eye open for other ways of achieving the qualities I’m aiming for.

~~~~

Finally, the first ear of corn has appeared. Not a sign of any others on the other plants.

The Hat

Curt having a good time at yesterday's barbecue.

Blue

Entered my car to drive to C’s for the morning sitting and even before starting the car it made a horrible sound. Just depressing the brake was what produced the sound. Turning the car on, a very large, red warning icon appeared on the dash and two error messages turned up on the panel display. I retrieved the auto manual from the glove box to look up the errors, but found no easy guide to the error messages. Turned the car off and tried again. The horrible noise persisted. Turned it off and tried again. The actual operation of the car seemed unaffected, the brakes seemed to work. After a few minutes, the horrible noise stopped.

After the sitting, I felt the urge to get in the car immediately and see if anything had changed, but decided I might as well take my morning walk up Phinney Ridge just in case my car had other plans for the remainder of my day. Camera in hand, I made my way up the hill and back down, making nearly 250 exposures over the course of my walk. Even considering that many of these involved adjustments of aperture, ISO, and exposure inclination of the same subject, this volume of images is unprecedented.

When I returned to my car, I found it in the same state as before – operational but with a glaring error condition prominent on the dash. Drove it home, called the dealership, and made an appointment for mid-morning. A SustainableBallard phone meeting slipped in the small window before taking the car to the dealership.

~~~~

Home now awaiting word on the car. SustainableBallard is keeping me busy. That and a service call to my cell phone provider. (After reviewing my phone bill, I decided I was paying too much for such poor service. (When I am home, my cell phone has no coverage unless I leave it on the kitchen table. And even then, calls often do not come through.) So I have placed a service call to see if I can solve this problem. If not – at least be liberated from my contract to find a service that will work. )
~~~~

Called the dealership – and it seems they can find nothing wrong. I hope it was just an isolated fluke and not the beginning of problems. $110 is a bit much too pay to have them simply turn off the alarming red alert signal.

Tonight, I’ll be speaking (on behalf of SustainableBallard) to the Fremont Arts Council. These are the folks who put on the wacky annual Solstice parade – an event I have missed the last two solstices. They are something of an institution here and I confess to being a little apprehensive.