Coastal afternoon walk

I took a late afternoon stroll along the coast at Fort Funston, often pausing to behold the long sweeping waves of the Pacific. Hope everyone is enjoying a bright start to the new year.

Woohoo! Yasuko and the Melt Banana crew will descend on San Francisco tomorrow night with another show of torrential noise rock. I can’t think of a better way to expunge the excesses of holiday madness.

It’s been 14 years since I first fell in love with Plaid’s Not For Threes album. For the record, 1997 was a very good year for Warp Records, which also put out Aphex Twin’s Come to Daddy and other releases by Squarepusher, Mira Calix and Autechre. Catch the duo tonight at Mezzanine, who are touring to promote their new album, Scintilli.

I made a sun print by brushing wide rows of white, red and black Dye-Na-Flow colors using a foam brush onto dampened cotton cloth, followed by placing a plastic stencil on top. I brushed a little black on top of the stencil for extra definition.

Laying down stencil on painted cloth

I then took the fabric outside to bake in the sun before removing the stencil.

Drying in the sun

Removing the stencil

The entire process took about half an hour, a surprisingly quick way to achieve stunning color and patterns.

Finished textile

I’m going to turn this piece of fabric into a book cover! I also tried out the lustrous metallic Lumiere paints with a soy wax resist on cloth. They come in these cute little squeeze bottles:

Jacquard Lumiere Paints

Mirrored glass reflects the surrounding forest

Sweeping landscape views

From Tham & Videgård Arkitekter comes the Mirrorcube, a sleek mirrored prism suspended in a forest near the Arctic Circle. It accommodates a double bed, living room and bath, with 360 degree views of the surrounding country from within as well as a roof terrace.

It’s my favorite of the seven arboreal cabins commissioned by TreeHotel, though the others also deserve a look: check out the hotel’s UFO-shaped vessel and gigantic bird’s nest.

Venice Beach

Mmm… there is nothing quite like a lazy day at the beach in Los Angeles. Even a good book begins to feel like work when you can simply close your eyes and drift off to the sound of waves… and after living in a city where the beaches are freezing, I was happy to go south where the sand was soft and the waters warm enough to play in.

Neutra's VDL Research House II

It was also exciting to see Richard Neutra’s VDL Research House II (1964), built after his original studio and family home was destroyed from fire.

CASSINI MISSION from Chris Abbas on Vimeo.

A/V Performances Flyer for GAFFTA

Tonight at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts: A/V Performances, featuring Rafael Anton Irisarri, Morgan Packard, and Agraph. Should be a sweet evening.