Fire Water in Providence

Providence has a cool arts installation called Fire Water which are burning fires installed along the Providence River. It happens several times throughout the year. We were lucky enough to be here during the Halloween Fire Water. Sara, Nancy and I, friends from Houston and LA, walked along the river. The Fire Water event set the Halloween tone by piping classical music through the city and people meandering in their costumes. Very mellow compared to San Francisco's scene.

The best part was that we smelled like we had been sitting in front of a fireplace when we got back to the hotel. Very autumn.

All My Stuff in One Place

I'm all moved in and it only took about three hours to load everything in and then another three to unpack. All my stuff that was in storage in Houston is now unpacked and there are approximately seven Giant boxes to take to Good Will. After those are gone I'm sorting through my books and getting them down to the most valuable arts books.

The two men I hired yesterday as day laborers did a spectacular job moving everything carefully. Nothing was broken. Many missing bits and pieces however from the consolidation of my stuff in Houston storage. Much went off to Good Will out there. But that's OK. I didn't miss it before and don't miss it now. It is so good to have all my things on one place instead of having them in storage. I'm shocked by how much paper I've been carrying around and how many knickknacks.

Off to IKEA tomorrow to beg for some missing screws and to pick up some other bits and pieces.

Stuff Run Over

Reading through my recent blog posts I realized that the post I wrote on Saturday didn't make it from my iPhone to the blog. This means that my post "Runover in Threes" doesn't make sense. So, here's the back story.

My "stuff" that has been stored in Houston for three years arrived in the Bay Area last week. Saturday I went to check it out. Although I was able to open the lock on my storage crate it was drilled shut on the top of its door. On the front was a handwritten note saying, "you may want to consider upgrading to a new crate that is in better condition." Just then a man on a forklift came over and I told him that I couldn't open the crate. He took a crowbar and was able to pull most of the door open and then used a drill to remove the screws that were holding the remainder shut.

Finally the door opened and the inside was filled with boxes and boxes of stuff. I instantly felt overwhelmed, having lived so simply for the past three years. The one and only box I opened was filled with memory boxes - memories I had hoped to forget. Some of the storage boxes were crushed.

The helpful man said that I could change storage containers right then and there. But that meant that I would have to unpack this giant crate, the size of a small bathroom, and pack all the stuff up in a new crate. No thanks. He offered to keep this crate near the front door so that it wouldn't fall apart in future moves if I needed to access it again.

It wasn't until I stepped outside that I understood what he was saying. As I walked to the pickup truck I had borrowed for the visit, I noticed some strange papers here and there on the parking lot. They were there when I had arrived but I didn't give them a second look. Now that I did I noticed that they were my photographs and artwork - images I had made in college. They were run over. What was going on? I picked up the various piles and put them in the truck. All I could feel was shock. As I drove out away I noticed another pile of my work several parking lots away. I retrieved that one too. What had happened? How long were they out there?

Telling Rene about the story he helped me figure out what probably had happened. We put all the clues together and realized that the crate probably fell apart in transport and perhaps my stuff started to fall out. That's why the door was drilled shut in places.

The experience was like having my most private thoughts exposed to the world and run over. The only spin I could put on it is that these are the objects that wanted to be with me and therefore made themselves visible. The rest of my things can just go in the dump.

A Secret Straight Addiction

I confess, I have a secret addiction that began about three weeks ago - using a Chi flat iron to straighten my hair. So satisfying to crank up the iron and flatten out the hair. Makes it so glossy. Check out the results in this image from last Friday. These irons look a bit like crocodiles without teeth. Go ahead, chomp out the frizz and curls. I can take it. With this hair tool I could possibly even live in Houston without humidity making an impact.

Plug and Play

My first blog post from my new iMac which I've named "April". Plug and play to the extreme. I plugged this beautiful baby in and it sang to me. What a welcome! First the happy mac welcome sound, which I didn't even know I missed until it played, then a welcome show with music. Sing to me. 

Photos soon...

The experience of walking into the confusing Apple store nearly turned me off from buying April but I kept my cool and found a "Specialist" named Zac to help me figure out which Mac to purchase. He was very patient and followed me around, both the store and my thoughts, as I tried to figure out which system to purchase. April has a GIANT 20 inch monitor. Zac was enticing me with the 24 inch one but this was already over-kill. 

Buying a Mac feels totally self indulgent, and you know what, I'm ready for a little self indulgence. Today I filed my divorce paperwork and to celebrate I'm nurturing my inner-creative by purchasing a creative computer. 

I use to be a Mac person. For college graduation my parents bought me a Classic. The screen was so small I had to scroll back and forth to see a full sentence. It was best used for Tetris. Then my first job in California introduced me to the big design type systems, perfect since I was working at CopyMat in Salinas the Design Center Manager. That was ions ago. 

I had a big old Mac for a long time until I sold it at a yard sale in Oakland. I think the year was 2000. Actually, not that long ago. But the nine years between then and now were when the Mac got fancy. Selling my Mac I instantly felt out of the cool-Mac loop. As the years passed the gap widened. 

In Houston my job with Aurora Picture Show was in a full Mac environment and by that point I was full PC. I instantly took a disliking to that clever Mac sitting on my work desk with all its fancy gadgets and whoo haa. But you know what? I think I was a bit jealous of all the creative stuff I didn't know how to use. 

Here's my chance to get jiggy with it. Where are all the wires and the clunky CPU? Gone! Now to figure out how to download images and why is that globe bouncing at the bottom of my screen?

The nicest feature is that I can partition the hard drive so that it can be a Mac and a PC. The best of both worlds. 

Kaiser Knows All?!?

I just had the most freakiest experience when signing up online for access to my new Kaiser Premanente health insurance plan. I had to answer a few questions - with multiple choice responses. How in the world they knew this information about me I will never know because it was not on my health care application form and I never previously enrolled with Kaiser.

It knew...

My address when I lived in Salinas, CA
I am/was connected to Stephen
My sister Marlene's age - how did it even know her name?
That I graduated from Golden Gate University

Either they are reading my blog, I am being stalked or everything is connected through my social security number.

Rene Magritte Gets Googled

In honor of Rene Magritte's 110th birthday today Google is using this fantastic logo. One of my favorite images and I had the pleasure of seeing it at the Menil Collection last week in Houston.

Goodbye Houston

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Storage for Life

Here's one of three storage containers with all my stuff in Houston. It is all in good shape and I even snagged a pillow.

Houston Rocks!

I'm loving being back in Houston. Resisted at first visiting my old house but did a drive-by and it was fantastic. I noticed that the new tenants have the same rickety old table on their porch. This city has so much to offer. Chatting with Roberta about her quality of life and seeing her huge house filled with art I realized that living in an affordable city certainly has its advantages. Food for thought.

This evening I hook up with my friend Jenny and then possibly George and Victoria. But first and foremost I have to find an ATT store to fix my crackberry and the Dessert Gallery to get a huge slice of cake. Satisfy two addictions.

New Old Friends

When I lived in Houston I had no idea that just a few miles away my classmate from elementary school had settled her family in the same city. Through the power of Facebook we reconnected and today I was able to visit Roberta. She looks the exact same after all these years. Amazing reconnecting first with Hal and then Roberta. Next Stephanie who lives in San Francisco.

Back in the Bayou

I am back in Houston for the National Arts Marketing conference www.artsmarketing.org and it feels fantastic to be here. The past couple of days I was getting worried about my visit. Didn't know how it would feel to be back here, especially considering al my stuff is in storahe in some mystery Houston location. I have the opportunity to go visit it but what's the point really? I'm doing fine with my few posessions in Alameda.

Driving out of Houston's Hobby airport in my snazzy rental car a few hours ago the first thing I noticed is that this city smells like BBQ. A lovely welcoming fragerance. My friend Sara is hosting me this week andher cozy little garage apartment is about six blocks from my former Houston home. Driving around is like re-drawing latent map ib my mind - the same experience I had upon returning to San Francisco four months ago.

I had some Tex Mex for dinner at Chuye's which I actually only dined at once in the ten months I lived here in 2005-06.Would you believe I even bought one of the restaurant's t-shirts? It has martinis on the front and says "group therapy". I think I needed a Houston full-on experience to get in the Sothern groove. Let's just hope I don't meet any Palmetto bugs.

This blog was actually launched when I moved to Houston! Am I retracing my steps?

The Rain is Here

Rain, rain, rain and although it looks like Houston flooding this is San Francisco. I had to buy some rain gear today and have waterproofed everything.

Art as Health Insurance

Last night Nicole and I attended a Kathak Dance www.kathak.org rehearsal at the 0brava Theatre Center in San Francisco's Mission District. The dance is a combination of yoga, singing and meditation. More accurately the yoga and chanting become the meditation.

The combination of movement and voice are built on layers of mathematics calculations. As the dancers become proficient in each new level they add another layer. Proficiency is realized when you have reached the capacity for your mind to wonder. This moves the dancers out of their meditative presence requiring new layers of complication which they describe as splitting the mind. One woman was able to sing, dance and play an instrument with 16 beats of movement. I'm confused just trying to explain it.

Watching the dancers, who are all women, you can see the joy and intensity they are experiencing by their facial expressions. It was awe inspiring to see their transformation into the meditative state.


Their guru, who taught them the methodology and inspired their self-created choreography introduced two of the youngest group members who have been studying with him since they were little girls. He asked them to share what it iis they do for their profession. One is a film maker and the other prices health insurance. The guru said, "this is your life insurance. It keeps you healthy. If only these women could make a living from their art."



It was an interesting concept to thin of art as being so vital to life that it was considered health insurance. Today I was struck again by this realization when I received an email from a friend in Houston. I had written her asking if she was okay after the storm. Her response was that they had no electricity and their house gate was broken but they still had enough sunshine to paint. Art as health and life insurance.

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Release Your Inner Blogger

If ya'll are in Houston, TX on November 11 come on down to the National Arts Marketing Project Conference called Priming the Pump and join my Roundtable discussion Release Your Inner Blogger.

Pulling Myself Together

Yesterday I rented a Uhaul and picked up my final two moving boxes from San Francisco and brought them to Alameda. It was like a right of passage riding my bike to the Uhaul place, renting the truck, sitting in Bay Bridge traffic, paying the toll, working my way across San Francisco, picking up the boxes, again sitting in Bay Bridge traffic, dropping the boxes off at my new place, returning the truck and then riding my bike back home. This was bookended with my favorite yoga class and seeing the movie Mama Mia.




Unpacking the boxes this morning I discovered all the little bits and pieces that make a place feel like home. These are the collections of things I brought to London and continued to grow over the years. A collection of glass hearts, hand crafted eggs, my etchings, scarves, and ceramics. Placing them around my place I instantly felt like this is home. Unfortunately there were a few broken items but not bad considering they were shipped from the UK to DC and then on to SF.


Seeing Mama Mia with Rachel and David was the ultimate ending to the day. Meryl Streep, as always, is an inspiration. Clearly I identified with her character as I dreamt last night that I had her long, long blond hair. More than her hair I felt touched by the duality of her character's strength/vulnerability, calm/panic, age/agelessness, creativity/practicality. This photo captures it all, especially the setting - her bedroom in Greece.



After leaving the film we chatted about saving for the future. What is it that I am saving for? Rachel reminded me, the farm and continuing my work in international civic leadership. How quickly I was distracted from my clearly-stated goals during my whirlwind reconnection with Bay Area life.


This image of Meryl stretching herself apart and at the same time pulling herself together while jumping madly on her bed is how I'm feeling these days.

Zap! Reconnected

I've been back in San Francisco all of five days and it is like I never left. My calendar is filled with meetings with old friends and new ones. When you live your dream career your friends just naturally blend into being your business partners.

Amazing realization -I'm back to being the happy, optimistic, friendly, "connector" I was before I moved away three years ago on July 3, 2005. Although I quickly fit into the Houston scene it was such a brief respite of only 10 months. Then London was two years of extreme personal and professional growth. It never felt like home.

When I first landed here last Saturday I was nervous about being back in San Francisco. Was I going backwards? Was I going to over-commit to projects and get under-paid again? Were people going to ask me about my failed marriage? Was I going to be able to start again? But I have evolved and so have my friends, my network. We're all a bit more mature, a bit wiser and more grounded in what it is that makes us tick.

I found my heart again in my lovely home by the Bay, San Francisco.

Art-O-Mat

At the Tenleytown Whole Foods in Washington, DC there is a fantastic old cigarette machine that now dispenses pieces of art instead of cancer sticks.

The machine is called an Art-o-mat and in it are the mini works of 30 or so emerging artists.

Marlene and I pondered all the possible art choices and settled on supporting a pinhole photographer Emily Long. For $5 I now have one of her original pinhole images abandoned shed, southern cook county, il carefully adhered to a block of wood the exact size of a box of cigarettes.

DiverseWorks in Houston, TX has one of these machines but I never made a purchase when I was there. Now when I see these machines I'm going to make a purchase.

I Left My Heart in San Francisco...

...and now I'm going to find my heart.

After much soul searching and following my heart I've realized that San Francisco is where I belong. That was where I lived before these three years of adventures through Houston, Connecticut, London and DC. It is where I have been the happiest and now I am going to move back.

So, June 28 open up those golden gates, California here I come! Over the next month I am going to continue my welcome back to America Whistle Stop Tour of the East Coast. Next week in Connecticut and Maine, later in the month in Philly. Then... off to San Francisco via Virgin Atlantic airlines first class. I figured it would be appropriate to have a UK airline take me home.

Here, There, Everywhere, Nowhere

You haven't heard from me in a few days because I'm too confused to write a good post. I thought that moving back to the States would be the decisive move that would clarify my life. But in the process I created a completely unstable base.

If you've been reading my blog for a while you'll know that I've been on the move since 2005 - from San Francisco to Houston to Connecticut to London and now DC. In every city I've made amazing friendships and worked with some fantastic organizations. But each move has required me to start again with housing, friends, jobs, activities... Although it is wonderful to have all these friendships it also hurts to say goodbye.

Now when people ask me where I live and what I do I have no answer. Starting over again. It takes a lot of energy to find inspiration each time. I think that I need to look at the next for to six week as a holiday and use the time to have some fun for the summer. How often do you have the opportunity to take a breather and be inspired?