I had the great fortune to meet one of my favorite artists this week - Marc Johns, better known around here as draw.vox.com!
Marc stopped by the Six Apart office to have a look around and then we headed to the corner pub to have some beers and french fries with Steve and Kimmie.
He even drew another Post-It for Vox!
Bonus: Check out two other Post-It drawings on art is the new religion.
I think the cat's out of the bag to most of you, should I just come out and say it: I'm moving back to San Francisco.
Six Apart, a company that I love dearly and have worked for since the summer of 2005, has lured me back. At first it was a difficult decision (anyone who knows me knows I'm exceedingly slow and methodical about making up my mind, and usually unwilling to change it) but I realized - after I got through my stubbornness and anxiety - that this is a great thing!! Special thanks to my boss Alex for being so supportive and also to my good friends who helped me weigh the pros and...well there really weren't that many cons. I'm extremely excited and grateful to have a wonderful job and so many awesome friends and coworkers to come back to!
On a practical note, I'll be looking for a one bedroom apartment (or large studio) during the first half of April with the goal of being moved back by early May, so please send me any leads you may have! It breaks my heart a little to leave Austin because I am and always will be a devout Texan, but Jetblue's direct flights from SFO to AUS starting on May 1st should help me cope. And should give my Austin friends no excuse to not visit me.
So there you have it. Life is unpredictable. Life is good!
It's been a busy, unpredictable, delightful and confusing year so far. I'm lucky to have wonderful friends and coworkers and no shortage of delicious things to eat and drink.
I finally started shopping for Christmas presents yesterday. I tried to buy local and handmade, hitting up the Blue Genie Art Bazaar, the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar, and the Keep Austin Bizarre. (If any of you have shopping to do in Austin, the Blue Genie event was the best of the bunch.) I have a few things left to pick up today and then I'll be done, or really close to done.
While we're talking about gifts, here's my completely unreasonable wishlist:
I have an especially big crush on my Vox neighborhood lately.
Firstly, there was the unveiling of the new blog banner I commissioned from Draw (a.k.a. Marc) for my TypePad blog. Isn't it beautiful?
Finally, when M-----l offered up a real handwritten letter to anyone who wanted one, I jumped on it. And he wrote me this great letter that made my day:
I found this on my friend David Poe's Flickr stream.
Poe's apparently working on a new record, I can't wait to hear it. In the meantime, here's "The Drifter":
My friend and frequent character in this blog Jeff Klein has a nice writeup on Spin.com today.
Go there to listen to the track "Sleepwalking" from his forthcoming digitally-released EP I Sing The Body Electric.
Jeff's doing a residency at the Living Room in NYC this month, so go see him and tell him I sent you.
I've been missing my friends who live far away.
Yesterday I got a text message from my friend Dave Doobinin in NYC:
He followed it up with a wine-soaked voicemail last night, and it made me nostalgic for nights walking around Manhattan or drinking at Luna Lounge, singing Vanderslice lyrics to each other.
I also found some photos on my phone from my trip to Austin in June.
The first thing I did after I dropped my stuff off at Chad's house is drive over to Chris, Monica, Booher and Jeff's place. Chris showed some Texan hospitality by greeting me with a frosty beverage.
Here's Jeff at the Longbranch Inn, their friendly neighborhood watering hole.
One night Jeff and I squared off with Chris and Monica in a game of Cranium. For one of the challenges, I had to look at word on a card, then draw it with my eyes closed. Jeff had to guess the word before the little sand counter ran out. Here is what I drew (remember, I couldn't see what I was drawing):
Most of you already know I just took a weeklong vacation back to my ol' stomping grounds of Austin, Texas (for the few of you who don't already know, I'm from Texas and lived in Austin for 6 years). It was wonderful to see friends, eat copious amounts of Tex-Mex (I consumed more butter, eggs and cheese in one week than I have this entire year), wear a dress and sandals all day long (without having to carry a jacket around), move at a snail's pace, and never have to fight for a parking spot. Austin's airport is probably the best one I've personally been to (which isn't saying a whole lot) and before I got out the door I was talked up by three different people, and not in a single-girl/sitting-duck kind of way. I forgot that most people in Texas are just friendly. They talk to you. For no reason at all. After having spent the past 7 years in San Francisco and NYC, the random friendliness is almost shocking.
My rental car was a surprising shade of Longhorn burnt orange, so a few people on the street gave me the hook 'em horns sign. It was of course really hot there - in the 90s during the day but getting down to around 75 at night - but it felt really nice. Not a whole lot was going on the week I was there, oh except for a gigantic biker rally, which meant the city was overtaken by roaringly loud motorcycles with burly dudes at the front wheel and their scantily clad women sitting on the back. I guess there's no helmet law in Texas, but some women really tempted fate by riding around in a bikini top and short shorts. I said a silent please-don't-wreck prayer for all of their exposed skin. Oh yes, and the big news was the private party played by Prince, which three different people told me three different stories about before all swearing me to secrecy, ha. My friend Chad's neighbor was the only person I knew who got in, by donning a catering outfit for his friend's company, and he said the setlist was meh because he only played two recognizable songs. (Sorry Anil.)
Speaking of Chad, I stayed at his adorable two-bedroom house just north of Hyde Park, and plotted the entire time about how I could somehow steal the house out from under him. We made pretty good roommates though. Chad and I have been friends for probably ten years now, and he's always game to chat for hours, swap music, and suggest really good shopping trips. I think his beagle Eno took a shine to me after all that togetherness.
One afternoon Chad and I visited Trail of Dead's Mob House Studio to see my friend Mike McCarthy. He's currently recording The Sun, but also played us recent tracks he's done with my friend Booher's band Zykos and Spoon.
Austin hasn't changed much, but there is a lot of new condos going up and the East side is really growing. I also saw three or four scooter shops; I guess scooters are popular there now. I had some oats-cream at a vegan bakery, which tasted like soft serve ice cream without all the sugar. Chad also took me to a great vintage store called Feathers on South Congress, and Jeff took me to Allen's Boots to look at fancy $500 cowboy boots. Alas, neither of us bought a pair.
Last night I saw some great friends and went to three different events, all within a one-mile walk from my office.
I started by walking a few blocks to the Tempest Bar to celebrate Eve's birthday and hang out with a bunch of my fellow SFist writers. Last year Eve graduated from being the unpaid and uber-talented Editor of SFist to landing a rare blogging job that pays, courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle. For those reasons, and also for her secret and sordid indie rock past, Eve will always have infinite amounts of cred in my eyes. Plus she's just really fun to hang out with. Happy Birthday Eve!
Afterward, I met up with Audree to watch her fire dancing class. They happened to be practicing in an alleyway that was half a block from the Tempest Bar, right by the San Francisco Chronicle building. They've been practicing for about 6-8 weeks now without fire, and last night was the first time they actually lit up. I've known Audree for several years now, and I was so proud to see her take up a new skill so quickly! She was a natural at it and didn't show any fear or nervousness, even while swinging balls of fire around her head and body. I love it when you learn or see something totally new from someone you've known for a long time.
Eve happened upon us as she was walking to her car and Tim snapped some photos. Audree's in the black shirt. Read Eve's writeup about the scene on the Chronicle's Culture Blog.
Then Audree and I went to see Spoon at 330 Ritch. The show was pretty good - they played a nice mixture of old and new songs, and I got a thrill when they played "Fitted Shirt". Such a great song about such a strange subject. I saw JV and a few other friends I hadn't seen in awhile, and then we called it a night.