It was an amazing day. The sun was warm but the breeze was cool... perfect weather with minimal pollen... Still I was too sleepy to really go out and Carpe the Diem... so there was napping and movie watching and a few hours of reading, there was a little (but not enough) work paperwork. In the morning I worked in the costume shop. There's not really a point to this snapshot but I also wanted to put up the little video I took of my neighbor's dog, it will make you smile. Guaranteed. Ok have a lovely rest of your day. Much Love.

Daily Affirmations from Tilden Park

Verboten

There are the things you are not allowed to mail to Germany


Through the US Postal Service here are the self-explanatory ones;
Absinthe.
Arms and weapons, including firearms, parts of arms, ammunition, and imitation arms.
 Human remains
 Live plants and animals
 Perishable infectious biological substances.
 Radioactive materials.

And here are the odd ones; 

Articles bearing political or religious notations on the address side.
-- So no Jesus stationary?

Melatonin.
 -- Why?

Playing cards, except in complete decks properly wrapped.
 --WHAT?!

Pulverized coca beans.
--Again... What?!

There are a few things on this list that I want to hear the story about. If anyone out there can tell me why playing cards and cocoa beans are contraband I'd love to know why.

DHL lists these;

Standard DHL prohibitions plus: Imitation and pirated products, Swastika, Hazelnuts, Peanuts, Brazil Nuts, Pistachios, Figs

--It's odd how they sneak "swastika" in with legumes and tree nuts...

Animal products
Animal skins
Asbestos
Ivory
Pornography
Precious metals & stones

(I guess you can send your asbestos, pornography and ivory through the US Mail)

FedEx has a very long list including;
Fighting Dogs, and Racist propaganda... but nothing about playing cards.

Very curious.

A finger Labyrinth

I followed it, with eyes shut.  I heard birds and cars and wind. 
Fingers followed the groove others have followed before me.
Quiet for a moment, in a park. 
Journey complete; I returned to the tasks of the day.
I want a finger labyrinth at home now!

Security Light

The collective has spoken.

Despite the well meaning people who think clowns are fun, the Google auto-fill knows what is really on our minds.  By Merely typing "clowns are"  This is what you get;

The European version of clown (not full white face, no Bozo talking) is slightly less scary, but really perhaps it's just time to retire this cultural phenomenon.  Balloon animals are just as enjoyable when they are made by someone not wearing any make up at all.

Stuffed.

I went to the store this morning with the intention of buying some pan dulce and coffee only to discover that the massively heavy bag I've been carrying around didn't have my wallet in it. When I got back to the shop I decided to play "What's in your bag!"

First thing in my bag was a smaller make-up bag

Contents of the make-up bag included;
 4 lipsticks
1 pencil sharpener
1 Neosporin,
2 eyeshadows
1 lip brush
1 acne spot treatment,
1 70spf sunscreen
2 hairbands
1 hair clip
2 wig pins
1 corset lace

But wait... here's the rest of the contents of my (shockingly small) bag;
3 receipts
1 BART ticket
4 chapsticks
trash
1 spray hairgel (not for me)
1 roll of elastic
1 package of needles
1 origami needle holder
1 digital camera
1 cell phone
1 pair fingerless gloves
1 waterless toothbrush
1 package hot cocoa
5 snaps
1 reproduction Victorian button hook
1 skirt bar
1 toupee clip
1 wig pin
1 pair 8" scissors
1 pair thread scissors
1 fabric swatch
2 highlighters
4 art pens
1 eraser
1 mechanical pencil
2 gel pens (1 black, 1 blue)
6 spools of thread
1 ipod (not pictured)

Sometimes during Tech I just keep stuffing things in there "in case I need it".  There is a point however when there is no way to find the things you need.

The bag now contains;
 wallet, phone, camera, ipod, scissors, 1 chapstick and well...
  most of those pens (I need a lot of pens, don't judge.)
Much better.

Scents

Idyllwild smells like cedar, pine and vanilla crushed under your feet.
New York City, in the summer smells like thunder and sweat, in the spring it smells like cinnamon.
Berlin has this odd mix of spices I cannot name, but it is oddly savory.
London smelled of wet concrete and brick.
The redwood forest smells like petrichor even when it hasn't been raining.
Monterey smells like salt water, fish, pine, and funnel cakes.

Berkeley must smell like something but I can't tell.  My nostrils refuse to clear. They have shut tight so that I can only detect the strongest of smells through a perpetual allergy induced sense blindness.  This season seems to be worse than ever and frustration is building.

Heston 1 ; Hollywood remake 0

Charlton Heston was a bit of a nut-bag but he did make some good movies;
A la;  Omega Man, The Agony and the Ecstasy, Soylent Green, Ben Hur... and of course
Planet of the Apes... By "good" I do mean "Awesome".

I think that the supply and demand as shown by Amazon truly illustrates my point;

Heston's Apes released 1965; only 7 copies starting at $8

Hollywood remake crap, released 2001: nobody wants, starting at 42 cents

Seriously Hollywood, give us some rough edges, give us some story telling, give us Charlton pounding the sands cursing those damn dirty apes.  Polished special effects don't make people like movies.  Also just so you know, if you try to remake Soylent Green with some schmuck like Tom Cruise, I will find you, tie you to a chair in front of a giant television and make you watch nothing but Jar-Jar Binks scenes from Star Wars Phantom Menace until you scream out in pain and your eyes are too sore to blink. 
Thanks so Much.

Bahnhof der Kunst

I walked into a building in San Francisco today that made me think about this art gallery Alex and I visited in Berlin... It was tall and filled with odd noises... the building in SF is a ferry building turned into a chocolate factory and has a sparseness coupled with a randomness of objects that took me across the globe in a flash...

I recall finding parts of this museum that was once a train station and wondering if we had accidentally left the museum portion of the building. After a few minutes wandering in dimly lit hallway you turn a corner and find something strange hung on the wall with a plaque and suddenly you find that you're ok...

In retrospect I really like the sense of bewilderment that this building gives you, it is an experience in itself, like wandering the woods and finding discarded treasure.

Sadly we were not allowed to wander through the chocolate factory.  I'm sure the oompa loompas would not have approved such activity.

Brevity/shopping win

See this handsome man in his suit? Yea, I bought him that. I love it when actors buy the costumes I find for them.

Brevity/distraction

Things that I need to buy;
1. Pants (old pants all too big)
2. Cell Phone (old phone is 5+ yrs old and starting to die)
3. Luggage (old luggage just about disintegrated traversing European cobblestones, but this can wait)
4. Postage Stamps (uh... you know because they don't take these things for free)
5. New Eye Liner (down to an inch nub)
6. oil change for the car

Things that I actually managed to purchase;
1. New headphones. 

Yep.  That's it. Shopping failure.

Fog

THE fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
---Carl Sandberg

Yo?

Ok this is a little random and just odd enough that I had to make a vid of it to share...


I tried the CD in a CD player... it's Billy Ocean disguised as Yo-Yo Ma... weird.

morning brain...

I woke this morning to the sound of Paul Simon and thought "that's odd... I love this song".

I fought with my arm falling asleep while I was half asleep and finally a loud song by the Ting-Tings startled me again.  I realized that I was Supposed to be awake. All that music had been planted... by me!

I've engineered my early morning alarm so that about an hour before I should wake up a thunderstorm starts my playlist... not enough to wake me up but enough to push my dreams forward, then slowly the list cycles through quiet "please wake up" songs like Oliver Mtukudzi's 'Wake Up' and Paul Simon's 'Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes'.  Eventually the list turns loud with Prince and U2, hopefully by this point I'm feeling the need to get up, if that all fails the lists gets worse and worse until I am listening to Miley Cyrus and Band Aid.


I know it sounds complicated, but a normal alarm is so easy to just turn off (or throw across the room) while still in a dream state, rendering it totally ineffectual.  Every time it goes off I forget that there is a reason to be awake.

There is a fog that takes over my brain and it just doesn't burn off until about 10am.  My brain is the Pacific coast.

More evidence of my Mom's awesomeness

I confess, I keep every letter I ever receive. I've kept notes passed to me in high school. I've kept misspelled Valentines from 2nd grade... so sue me. I also keep other random papers if I really like them, like this;

In college I got very sick and my mom flew out to take care of me, while recuperating we played hangman... only that stick figure guy is just too predictable... these are the more creative ways of killing stick figures with words.

I think this explains a good deal about me. Thanks for indulging me Mom.

Random internet stumble...

Traffic was slow this Sunday evening. Between the Folsom street fair, a Giants game and the usual Sunday tourism it took a long slow crawl to get to the bay bridge... but I tell you it is impossible to get road rage when the road looks like this;



I love San Francisco.

Random knick knacks

for Tech week the theatre is putting me up... tonight I am sleeping next to these creepy gnomes...

apparently when you are old and live in a place without street sweeping you need one of these;

That is all... now I sleep (if the gnomes don't come to life and eat me)

photos

I got a random package in the mail from my high school. Back in the day we had headshots that were posted in the lobby of the theatre to let everyone know who was in the company... and here are mine;

I still look a lot like I did at 17. Perhaps I shouldn't moan and roll my eyes as much when bouncers ask to see my ID... I mean I don't think I look like a 17 year old, but perhaps this proves otherwise...

I thought it might be funny to try and reproduce these unnatural poses... the tilted glamor pose was almost do-able
I couldn't get my mouth to do this again though... at least I look a little older than 16 year old me...