Bad Bunny Trimming

 

After making those Flying Geese blocks for the Bamq BOM, I ended up with a bunch of teeny-tiny HSTs™ to iron and trim. All because I didn't bring the special ruler along with me and so I had to make the Flying Geese blocks the "wasteful" way. I wasn't feeling up to going to Costco for our usual Super Bowl speed run, so I set up with my iPad on my sewing table and watched some of the game as I pressed. I may use these teeny-tiny's in the quilt that I make out of all the Bamq BOM.

And then I trimmed all of them. It was such a great halftime show. It was like a little mini history lesson and musical and dance party all rolled into one. I don't know Bad Bunny's music at all, I've only encountered him in movies like Bullet Train. He is quite a performer.

I know just enough Spanish to be able to catch a lot of what he was saying and singing, but I looked up the translation of how he first introduced himself: "My name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, and if I'm here today at Super Bowl 60, it's because I never, ever stopped believing in myself. You should also believe in yourself. You're worth more than you think. Trust me."  What a great message to start out with! 

I had a hard time simultaneously chair-dancing and trimming, but I was careful to take turns so I didn't cut myself. I can see why he's the most popular current artist these days. The NFL was smart to ask him to do the halftime show, they're looking to get a wider range of fans watching worldwide, and the ratings were record-breaking, at least for the halftime.

I'll admit I was crying a bit at the end, Bad Bunny saying "God Bless America" (the only words of English that he spoke) and then naming off all of the countries that comprise South, Central and North America was so beautiful and moving to me. The football that he had been holding the whole show (he got more yards rushing than the Patriots did, hah!), he then held it out and you could see that it said: 

TOGETHER WE ARE AMERICA.   

The big screen at the stadium displayed this very powerful message:

THE ONLY THING MORE POWERFUL THAN HATE IS LOVE. 

Here, here!

That was a really good combination to keep me going until I was all done.

Afterwards, I loved reading all the how-they-did-it information about the complicated production of the half time performance. It was really quite impressive technically, because the limitations of not ruining the real grass playing field and getting set up and off on time. The couple that was shown being married during the performance, actually got married.  This interview with one of the 400 people who wore 50 pound grass costumes (seen above) is a great behind-the-scenes peek of how something like this works. That would have been very fun to be a bunch of grass!

In case you missed it, here's a link on YouTube to the whole thing.

Musical Interlude

 In lieu of any sewing related content, as there hasn't been much of late around here, how about some new-ish (and old) holiday songs I've been enjoying this year:

For enjoying today, (Happy Solstice by the way), here's a great one to celebrate with: Winter Solstice Song by Lisa Thiel.

Leslie Odom Jr. (he played Aaron Burr in Hamilton on Broadway) and Cynthia Erivo (she plays Elphaba in the new movie Wicked), two divine voices on Winter Song.

Somehow I missed this song from 2008, it's The Hives with Cyndi Lauper, A Christmas Duel

I recommend the entire Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings album, It's A Holiday Soul Party, but here's just one of the songs, God Rest Ye Merry Gents. There's even a great version of Little Drummer Boy on here too. 

Tim Minchin's White Wine in the Sun always makes me cry, but it's so very good.

From the Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas Special, the "kidnapped" Kevin Bacon and the Old 97's with a pretty good and new Christmas song. Mostly fun to watch if you liked the GoG movies.

And last but not least, a short history on The Waitresses and their very excellent song, Christmas Wrapping.

Into The White

Whew! Finally done with all of the quilting on the Lone RR. 

The small bits of white fabrics are all done. 

I could have used a grey or even black on these, but I thought it would look better with white thread.

I trimmed off the edges a little roughly (ie this isn't "squared-up") and pinned the quilt up on the design wall.

Hey hey, I like it! So close to all done...

 Finishing off this series of quilting process pictures with music videos with "Into The White" which is a fabulous b-side by the Pixies.

Power's Out--Again

 We had a big wind event last night and into this morning, 68 mph gusts, so of course our power is out. We have almost no cell service, and internet until the Comcast batteries last on their towers. 

We have the generator going, and are hoping that our brand-new refrigerator doesn't mind the power outage too much. We sure don't want to lose yet another fridge worth of food.

Most of the roads are blocked, and there are at least 10 fires started from the downed power lines, some in the areas that already burned last year. For some reason PG&E didn't turn off the power preemptively like they did several times over the summer. So of course stuff is burning, it's been very dry so far this winter, and very warm this past week. Not a good combo, we're hoping the wind lets up asap.

I'm off to try sewing with my machine plugged into an extension cord that leads to the generator, wish me luck. I've got a project to finish!

And I'm checking the Tesla website to see when the heck they're going to install our power wall.

Meanwhile, if you have power and bandwidth go watch this awesome NPR Tiny Desk concert from Tank and the Bangas. Tank was singing one of the songs in a movie we watched last night, One Night in Miami (very awesome) and I loved her voice so much, I looked her up and found this. What a presence, what joy and emotion!:

Bombino!

My husband and I got to see Bombino in Santa Cruz recently. He's an amazing musician from Niger and I've been enjoying his music for a couple years. Even though I don't speak the languages he sings in, the emotions come through in his performance. The band had the whole crowd dancing with joy to the irresistible rhythms.

 The super-cool drum (with duct-tape).

He had a very joyful, calm stage presence and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole concert.
Here's an in-studio video of a song off of his most recent album:

Cornucopia Of Fun

	Yes that's the name of this blog spelled out in cats.  Which you can do   with any words you choose here.  Thanks to the blogess for once again providing something that I did not know I needed until I saw it on her blog .

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• I'm having sporadic fun over on Pinterest, (thanks Jaye for suggesting it!),  you should definitely check it out if you like :
• remembering pictures
• making collections
• finding inspiring new pictures
• finding inspiring new artists
• being able to find something again and not have to print it out...

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You know that saying to make a new thing a habit to do it for 30 days straight?  Try Chains for keeping track.  It's a cool visual app that is a little customizable and fun to see all those days stacking up in a row.

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If you need to be reminded of how very very small you are, or how very very big you are, you should check out this: It's A Matter Of Scale

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A combination of one of my very favorite bands and one of my very favorite books.  If you like The Decemberists, Infinite Jest, tennis, funny music videos and/or utter catastrophic global thermonuclear war you have to check out this video.
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Another musical treat, listen to some messed-around with songs by Radiohead for free on their website.
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Another app, this time on the iPad, which Maureen recommended as a fellow color lover, a great color matching game, Blendoku (also on android too)

Sleep, Sleep Through The Night

Here's another recent gift I've made, this time for my newest niece Charlotte!  It's a double flannel blanket, started out at about 1yard and 1/4.  I received one like this and it was one of my favorite gifts I ever received as a new mom.  Just such a handy size and shape for all sorts of situations.  It will get softer and softer every time it gets washed.  I thought this donut hole print was fun and lively.

I was going to stitch words all around the edge, but it felt a little too stiff, so I just stuck to the first part of a e line of a song I used to always sing my boys to sleep with.  "Sleep, Sleep Through The Night".  Nope, they don't remember me singing it to them, so I did when I was asking them and they liked it.

MLK by U2
Sleep, Sleep Through the Night
And may your dreams be realized
If the thundercloud passes rain
So let it rain
Let it rain
Rain on me
So let it be
So let it be

In case you've never heard the song, give a listen, it is not your usual U2 song, and it starts out very very quietly.

This Could Be A Good Time

 Another imaginary landscape in watercolor pencil and crayon for December 13th.  No words this time.

For December 14th, a collage with fabric scraps, printed paper napkin, stamped images, pen, circular ink daubers.
Words in the margin say: Dragonfly says.  Words in the collage say This Could Be A Good Time.
Which is one of my favorite lines from a great song called "High Sierra Morning" by Diane Patterson off her new CD World Awake.  I had just gotten to see her perform live, and this song was one of the ones stuck in my head (in a good way!)

All of a sudden it's time for Thanksgiving!  Can you believe it?  Are you ready?

And all of a sudden we're hosting the family, and some friends, all together 14 people if everyone comes.  Which is awesome, and I can't even express how much I'm looking forward to it, but it is going to take some doing to pull off.  Good thing my son Zach is coming home from college for the first time on Wednesday, (yay!), another set of hands that like cooking will be helpful.  

I've dug out my recipes, made my list, now to steel myself for a trip to the store tomorrow.

Here's some of what I'm making, I recommend  all these recipes, I've used them before in case you're looking for something yummy to try this year:

Artichoke Parmesan Sourdough Stuffing

Cranberry Orange Port Compote

Green Beans With Almonds and Shallots

One new thing I'm trying is Thanksgiving Star Cider, I have a feeling I'll be needing it...

We're also having plumbing issues (of course), and I have a big hole in the kitchen ceiling, lovely, so very very appetizing. 

 Hopefully this will go off better than the first time we ever hosted Thanksgiving when our stove element decided to go out in the middle of cooking the turkey.  Yes, we finished the whole thing by turning the broiler on and off every ten minutes for hours.  It actually turned out pretty well considering.  

In case you're looking for music for the holiday, you gotta check out the NPR All Songs Considered

  Songs for Stuffing Thanksgiving Mix.  It's awesome, and includes Alice's Restaurant naturally...

Hope if you're celebrating Thanksgiving this week it is filled with peace, joy and fabulous food.

Treasure Island

This past Sunday we went to The Treasure Island Music Festival in the middle of the San Francisco Bay on, you guessed it Treasure Island, (the island that the Bay Bridge goes through). It is a Naval station, but they let them use it for this festival, this is the third year I think, and we'd heard it was a fun show to go to. It was what is currently called an indie/folk/rock show, there were plenty of hipsters, freaks and just plain folks there on a pretty, cold, foggy, windy day. There were a lot of bands slated to play that my boys like a lot, one that I love to pieces, so it made it worth the attempt. My brother joined us too which was really cool!

I copied this picture off the local music website Bridged because it has the three boys in it, there they are towards the back working on some communal art. The three boys are my two teenagers Alex and Zach and their friend Jake. I didn't take my own picture of them because I figured they'd be pissed off at me, but a passing stranger, no problem ,right.

The first band we caught was Vetiver, which is a local SF band. They were really good, folk/rock type of music. Up in the bleacher section of VIP seating were some really cool monsters. We saw them again on stage at the very end of the show.

The bigger stage had a great video screen as a background, where they showed closeups of the bands that were playing. Nice since we couldn't really see their faces too well from as far away as we were.The first group on the big stage that we caught was Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. Alex Ebert, the lead singer seemed, well, um, let's say really really out of it, (like maybe not quite knowing where he was) but he sang the songs kind of quietly, took most of his clothes off (it was freezing and windy!) and the rest of his group gamely soldiered on and backed him up. Especially the woman up on the big screen here, I believe her name is Jade Castrinos. She had an absolutely gorgeous voice and the most adorable smile and dimples, they should have had her sing more. They did one love song/duet "Home" that had me in tears it was such a touching song.
I think this is the best picture I took all day, catching their drummer Josh Collazo, right in mid-stroke, hair flying.

A view of San Francisco across the bay and through the fog.
There were several other bands that we saw all of or part of their sets, but I didn't photograph for one reason or another, Grizzly Bear (one of my new favorites), Bob Mould, Beirut, Yo La Tengo, The Walkmen.

And finally, sunset zoomed past into dark, and The Reason for me to be at this show, The Decemberists took the stage. They performed their newest release The Hazards of Love from beginning to end, completely, perfectly and even better than I'd imagined they could. Amazing stuff. Not for everyone though. If you liked 70's prog rock/story songs and like the current indie/folk stuff I'd recommend it. The crowd really got into it, especially during the bloody and thoroughly vile song "The Rake's Song" all singing along while 5 of the band members pounded out the rhythm on various drums.

I tried zooming in for some good pictures, but that just made it worse, but still of course pretty because of all the cool colored lights used on stage. The big video screen behind the band showed a really beautiful/weird animated/live-action video that went along with the music. A lot of it was gorgeous and suited the music really perfectly, some of the rest was a bit too abstract. They are going to release a DVD of this video along with the Hazards of Love music that it goes with, it will be called "Here Come The Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized". Hopefully in time for the holidays, hint hint.

So blurry, but so beautiful anyways.

The blurriest yet, guess I was really just enjoying the show! I took a few videos, and the music part turned out ok, but the poor camera was trying to focus on the closest things (ie peoples' hands going up in front of me), so they aren't worth showing you here.

Standing behind Alex and Jake, as The Flaming Lips take the stage. We also got to hang out with Jake's parents and aunt, which was really fun, made it a grown-up outing as well as a family outing. It was great to be able to go to a rock concert with our kids, and also be able to let them roam around on their own and feel pretty good about it since they were sticking together. I don't know how much longer we'll be "allowed" to be near them at a concert, or if we'll keep liking the same music, but for now, it is a fun thing to do as a family and with our friends.

Alex and his friend Jake with the blazing Flaming Lips light show in the background. They're wearing the freebie headbands emblazoned "winner" and "loser" that they scored at the show. I think this is Alex's "Mom, stop bothering me and let me watch the show" look.

The glowing ball at the center contains the lead singer of The Flaming Lips, Wayne Coyne. He is inside a giant, see-through blow up beach ball that he then tries to walk in, right on top of the crowd. He mostly ended up crawling because I suppose it is really hard to stay upright when you're rolling around on top of the crowd's heads. It was a trip. And hilarious too. Just like the rest of their show, really funny, fun and energetic.

I hope that next year's lineup is this good, I think I'd like to go again.