No Low Income Allowed

The immediate neighbor to the West of us is dead.  Rhonda came by to say that.  Liver related she said. He drove up maybe six months ago and parked.  New address, new views.
He lived in the red and white RV.  That's his car in front of it as well.
Rhonda said he came from good family, had a house a couple blocks away but lost it somehow after the mother died.
That new place being built, all shiny gold, that one looking down on the red and white RV.  Views of our Six Palms.  No low income units going in there.  I guess it was urban legend that idea that all new development must include a percentage of affordable units.  I wonder if a certain percentage of money is being dedicated to put some nice public art on the building.  Probably.  Pretty sure that's a law now.
I can hardly say much myself, seeings how I'm part of the gentrification of the area.
Life and death rolls on no matter what.  Living high and looking down or the other way round.  Bad liver, good family, good heart, bad family.  It's all the same. There's going to be a final sunset someday pointing the way, through the palms, through the metal studs.
Color him gone.

Make it spooky he said, like a cemetery at night without a moon, with fog and mist and creaking branches.
The first of images from that shoot to go to press.  I know you can't really see it very well here. It's because it's dark and spooky and mystic. That's ok, like they say, "Always leave them wanting more."
This is up on the viewing/critique wall at ADG and should be able to be viewed/critiqued soon at your favorite place to buy wine.

Power of Ten

It's gotta be in the power of ten somehow.  Like that Eames video, The Power Ten, the scale difference between finishing up something the day before to today is vast.

From working with veneers that were shopmade to .040" to these two slabs requires different handling strategies for sure.
From using tweezers to carabiners and a come-along.  From not breathing so I don't breathe something out of place to gasping for breath.

A small jewelry box.

These two slabs were hella heavy to stand up.  They're 2.5" thick.  First one I muscled up with a clean and jerk and came close to dying from it falling on me.  The second one I pulled up with a come-along.  They'll stand there for a month until I get to them.
Going to be close to 8' of hand cut dovetails in the project.

Two Period Pieces

I guess the horizon is calling me.  Or least starting to whisper in my ear.  Most things I start I will eventually finish although there is a chair I started to build when I lived in Coldstream, British Columbia circa 1976 that is dead in the water.  That will never get done.

These two period pieces circa 2007 and 2014 though are up and running.

Praise the Lord!

The circa 2007 is the two year photo project which was finally delivered and hung.  Got to spend time with Taylor and Nick as well so that was enough to justify everything.

Trying to make sense of something I hadn't looked at for a few years

Couple from when I was making the frame.

The photos were numbered as far as date of shooting.  This is number one.  I was very high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on a solo trip.

Circa 2014 I don't remember how it started.  Probably just from wanting more knowledge.
I purchased the hardware which also came with a set of plans for a saw used by French Marqueters since the 18th century.  The Chevalet de Marqueterie.
The knowledge came to me from Patrick Edwards.  Start your journey here.

Built a couple pieces of the saw and it started to gather dust from there.  Put into deep storage but I thought up a project to start on that would require me to finish the chevalet.

The plans as well as the box they and the hardware arrived in.

So you sit on it, put what you're cutting in the jaws and step on the foot pedal to hold it place and pull and push the saw back and forth to cut.
The whole object really just functions as an elaborate way to hold a saw.

Working to plans is super weird for me.  It becomes an exercise in doing something without needing to figure out why you're doing it this particular way.
I added leather to the seat

The saw has two adjustment points that allow it to cut square to jaws that are holding the work in place.

And the saw is held to rod by these wedges.  I made it tight enough so the carriage bolts really don't need to be tightened, that's why they're just sitting there.

Now let's see what comes out it.

Into the Mood

"I want to make sure it's nasty weather."
"Going for super moody spooky mystic dark imagery."

"Bring your Gore-Tex."

And that was about it for the creative brief.  The way I like it.
I asked if he wanted to say something more about the job starting tomorrow up in The Russian River Valley.
"Nope."
"Good, the less you say, the better the finished product."

And we went back to playing some music.

Supposed to rain the next few days, probably muddy as shit out in vineyards.
Hot coffee in a Thermos weather.  Hunched over cold.  I'm bringing pieces of plywood so the legs of the ladder have some mudshoes to keep from sinking.
Am trying to come up images for a wine label.

Love, love these types of jobs.

So, I've been biking around West Oakland the last couple days with a camera and one lens just to sharpen up a bit.
Into the Mood.
The Mystic.

 I couldn't tell but it looks like some PG&E nuclear waste holding area.

When I do bike around the neighborhood and photograph, I have a Exposure story going on so the new ones I sprinkled in here.  West O

Came across a street memorial for a drive-by that was front of a "Welcome to Oakland" sign
Still finding churches to shoot, can not believe how many there are in this part of Oakland.
Can't believe how many people are living on the street.  In their cars, in RV's, in tents, in America.

And after years of promising to deliver, I'm making good.
I had spent two years shooting a personal project, bought a huge ass printer to print them out and made five complete portfolios.  Gave two to my kids and promised a frame that the photos can be viewed and changed out for next one.
That was years and year ago.
Since I'm in a tying things up mood lately I wanted to get this one off the books and onto a wall.
Putting it off for years and took a day to make.  Seems silly not to have done this.  Sooner.

Making it smooth.

Shavings arranged.

The EastBay WestBay Boys

Had a rare back to back last night and the night before.
Doesn't happen much anymore.  Difficult herding the two WestBay boys together long enough to play some music with them.  We talk a big game about getting together but for the most part it's just that.  Talk, not sing and not play.

Thursday night was at the Vice Room with the EastBay'ers, Friday night was at the kitchen of Carroll in SF.

We like to play in near darkness apparently so I'll show you that.

Jules, his banjo and Mike on the wall.

Here's Tony talking to SIRI.  He had just invented a new cocktail and was telling SIRI to write it down for him before forgetting it.

We were told in photo school, "If you can't make it good, make it big."  What that means is you can take a ordinary shot and blow it up real big, it becomes 'gooder' somehow. 
Well, I can't even do that.  Meghan played with us on Thursday night as well but damn, I don't even have one photo of her I can make big, so like they also told us in photo school, "Don't show something that you have to apologize for."
So, you'll have to imagine Meghan with her violin and bangs and the ways she stands with one bent leg.

Last night.  In the WestBay, SF.

First lots of talking.

Then lots of tuning.

Then a tiny bit of music.

Then a race to Bart to catch the last train to Oakland.

Redirect to a Religous Experience

This place isn't the right place for this.  So like looking at a reflective surface, I'm a bouncing you to a place that better allows the story to unfold and to be told.

Jesse James and his experience in Death Valley.

Outgrowth

Me, this morning reflected in a bottle of Rosé Champagne I was photographing.
Last night, now that was so different then this morning.

Next door neighbor, Crystal used the studio to record and video one of her original pieces of music.  Nine piece orchestra.  Crystal plays the cello.

Mark, her husband setting up the mics, Crystal warming up.

 The rest of the players start to arrive.

Tuning and Mark still fiddling with the mics

Crystal had done some changes from the last time the group had played it.  They nuance out the differences.

Conductor asked how she wanted a particular part to be played, Crystal says "Like a slingshot to the Universe."

Checking sound levels before the audience is allowed in.

And of course, my camera gets put away since it gets in the way of listening so the last one of the evening is after final claps and the conductor wants a group shot.

I'll admit I'm not up to speed on classical music.  I just don't understand the math behind I guess but wow, last night I got it.  The opening violin parts were so fraught with impending failure I found myself clenching my fists until they were out of danger when the thicker string instruments came in to strengthen their resolve.  Gorgeous, lush, resonant without the razorness of other more live sound spaces.  Like the conductor said, it was the space between the notes that sounded so good in here.