Craft binge!

I hate shopping. I hate waiting in line, I hate trying things on, I hate the mindless materialism of the mall, and I hate the salesgirls who pronounce "thank you" as "theeenk yeea" presumably taking on some sort of sorority girl accent. So I taught myself how to sew over the past few weeks. Its definitely easier than shopping (especially in terms of total time spent), and it's very satisfying to make things from scratch. I bought a sewing machine, and mostly relied on internet tutorials for explanations on how to thread a sewing machine, how to make a pattern, how to hem, etc. There are lots of great tutorials with pictures on sites like instructables, craftster, and craftzine.

Here's some stuff I made.

Lined messenger bag. This was the first thing I made with the sewing machine, and by far the hardest thing I've made, because of all the pieces you have to cut out to make the box shape of the outer bag, inner liner, and batting. Also I added magnet clasps which needed to be hand-sewed. The whole process took about 4 hours. But it was worth it, it's a great bag. I wouldn't recommend anyone just starting out making this first though.

A camera case and a wallet. These were both pretty easy, about an hour each. I found patterns online and just followed the directions.










A grocery tote. This was pretty easy- about a half an hour to make. Learning how to square a bag was pretty key- cut down the time of making the bag box-shaped from an hour to about 15 minutes. It's lined and pretty sturdy, so I'm going to use it as a grocery bag. Down with plastic bags!







A shirt. I reverse-engineered my favorite shirt to get this pattern. It ended up being pretty easy- you just put an existing shirt flat on a table, trace it, then cut out two shirt pieces from new cloth. I didn't make separate sleeves, the sleeves bits are just part of the cut out shirt piece. I hear shirts are much harder with separate sleeves.







A skirt. I also reverse-engineered my favorite skirt to get this pattern. It's made from 4 pieces of cloth: skirt front, skirt back (which are the same), a wide piece for the waist (no zipper or button needed since the fabric is stretchy), and an optional border piece for the bottom. I added the border because it was easier than hemming the stretchy fabric. Turned out cute.






Overall, I've learned that:

• the amount of time to make something is directly proportional to the number of pieces that need to be cut out and sewn
• big fabric stores like Joanne typically stock mostly fabric that's in surprisingly poor taste, and some really nice stuff can be found in the bargain bins
• traditional patterns and the instruction set that comes with a sewing machine make no sense, stick to picture-heavy internet tutorials
• use stretchy materials for clothing- the fit is better and you don't have to be as precise with your pattern
• cheap-o sewing machines like my Brother 2125i work just fine, you don't need a fancy model with an LCD screen
  

Dog-sitting

We are in Oakland, house and dog sitting for Mike and Sarah. Camper (green kerchief) is Mike and Sarah's dog, and Cody (the fat one) is Mike and Sarah's usual dogsitter's dog (out of town for a funeral). Camper is a very high energy dog, with a bark that would keep an army of thieves away at night. Fortunately, he has decided we are his friends. Cody is an extremely sweet, mellow dog. He mostly just looks around inquisitively and falls asleep on our shoes. But we still think cats are better than dogs.



Conveniently, Cody and Camper wear each other by wrestling.










So with a pad close to the city, we've been exploring San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland this week. Lots of great food and peace graffiti in Berkeley. Here is one small swatch of the Peace Wall. We tried to go to Chez Panisse (the birthplace of organic, local CA cuisine), but there was a line out the door. So instead we went to a bookstore and found a Chez Panisse cookbook instead. The eggplant lasagna was amazing.

BBQ Oysters, and other highlights of the northern california coast

Skip and I spent the last few days exploring the northern CA coast via Route 1. We made it up to Mendocino county, and the drive was beautiful. Most of the coast that we saw is surprisingly unspoiled by development because of the sheer cliffs jutting up against the ocean. All our pics can be found here.

Nearest to San Francisco is Muir Beach. The beach is set against a wildlife preserve and nestled between two sheer cliffs. The beach itself isn't very long, but it was packed with picnickers, swimmers, and even a few horseback riders. Trails near the beach take you up the side of the cliffs and connect up with the California Coastal Trail. The views are spectacular, and over the southern cliff you see a view of Pirate's Bay.


We camped one night near Point Reyes, a peninsula historically populated mostly by dairy farms. As we made our way along the peninsula, the weather changed dramatically from hot and sunny to cool and misty. We did part of a hike along the western tip of Point Reyes, and there was so much fog you could only see maybe a hundred feet in front of you. Then we went to the southern tip to Point Reyes Lighthouse, and down on the rocks at the base of the cliff we saw many many sea lions, whose cries echoed along the cliffs. Ar! Ar! Ar! They are small in this picture, but you can see them if you look closely in the rocks. They look kind of like slugs from this distance.

The next day we camped in Caspar, CA. We saw miles of bright sunny beaches, and hiked around Point Cabrillo Lighthouse where we found more sea lions. Inside the lighthouse are displays of the intricate architectural plans used to build the lighthouse, and stories about and artifacts from the wreck of the Frolic, that had been carrying Chinese goods to San Francisco in 1850. Near Caspar is Russian Gulch, a huge park with beaches, trails, and a sink hole near the sea named "Devil's Punchbowl" which apparently spits huge streams of water during storms. Even on a sunny day it looked menacing. It's amazing ships were able to navigate at all around the sharp craggy cliffs.

When driving through Caspar the breeze blows the most wonderful smell into the car: it's a mix of desert (sage, sand) and northwest (sun-baked pine needles).

And finally, BBQed oysters may sound questionable, but they are delicious. We stopped at Bodega Bay on the ride back home and had lunch at the Two Crows Roadhouse. Everything was amazing: the best fish & chips and best clam chowder I've ever had, plus the unexpectedly delicious BBQed oysters. The atmosphere at Two Crows is pretty laid back and unpretentious- I half expected grandma to emerge from the kitchen and give a few yuppies a scolding.

The Church of Saint John Coltrane

Last Sunday while visiting San Francisco, Skip and I visited the Church of Saint John Coltrane. It's not a church that worships John Coltrane (as I had hoped) but rather an African Orthodox Christian Church that uses Coltrane's music as a tool of worship and teaching. The service was 3 hours long, and about 2.5 hours of that was pure music. The church had a lead singer/ rabble rouser and live band (drums, keys, bass, two saxophones, clarinet) and Coltrane songs were adapted into raucous, joyful hymns interspersed with long meditative instrumental solos. Audience members were encouraged to sing along, bring and play their own instruments, and bang on tambourines.

The music was breathtaking and the musicianship was superb. The keyboard player effortlessly held down supporting chords, transposing when the singer would change keys unexpectedly, and played an amazing solo in Love Supreme -- all with his eyes closed.

About half of the people attending seemed like regulars- they greeted each other, clapped, danced, and sang with little inhibition. The other half of the people were like us: curious, jazz-loving, and slightly shy passersby.

I found the service to be intoxicating and pleasantly overwhelming. I hadn't been to church in many years, and consider myself an agnostic still recovering from Catholic school. As I sat in the comfortable chairs in this church, lost in the saxophone solo, every so often a woman in the back row would loudly mutter "oh yeah!" and "praise the lord!" I found myself flashing back to Catholic services I attended as a child. Catholic Mass couldn't be more different: the pews were hard, the sermons austere and often ominous, and the congregation held themselves to strict, ritualistic discipline: blank faces, clasped hands, stand, kneel, recite at the right time. Even singing in Catholic mass was disciplined and solemn. As I child I always gazed enviously into St. Paul's AME Zion Church I passed as we walked to mass. Inside St. Paul's everyone was singing, dancing, clapping, in what seemed like natural and happy rejoicing.

I feel as if I stepped into my childlike ideal of St. Paul's when I attended this service. Even though I'm not Christian, and don't believe in the scriptural passages quoted in the sermon, I couldn't help but be inspired by the energy of the place, the joy of the musicians, and of course the beautiful music of John Coltrane.

Welcome to Davis!

Davis is a fabulous hippy town. I love being able to bike everywhere- the whole town is flat and nothing seems to be more than a few miles away (this compared to the hilly 8 miles I used to bike to work in Seattle). Everywhere I go I see more bikes than cars. There's even a bike church. Also, the Davis DMV manual refers to police officers as "peace officers."

It's hot and sunny, and I'm on vacation and working my way through my book backlog, so I got a hammock. Above my feet in the picture you can catch a glimpse of the palm tree growing in our backyard.

The food so far is excellent. I had the best Greek food I've ever eaten at Symposium. Apparently Bill Clinton agrees. All the produce in this area is surprisingly fresh- you can get a great salad even at the diner. I guess this is what you would expect from an area with so much agriculture. Also, we discovered Himalayan food- also excellent.

The Delta of Venus cafe/bar is great: excellent Caribbean food, a relaxed yet well-populated scene, and reliably good music in the evenings. It's also a convenient 5 minute bike ride away. Last week we saw Agent Ribbons, The Dodos, and Jennifer Gentle at DoV. Only caught the last few songs in the Agent Ribbons set, but they seemed like a fun band- loved the powerful and theatrical lead vocals.

The Dodos blew me away. Perfectly synchronized hard driving virtuoso guitar vs virtuoso drums layered with passionate soaring vocals. The drum setup was interestingly unconventional- the snare was way off to the left side, the symbols were doubled up to make a more scacatto sound, and the drummer had a tambourine strapped to his left foot. The use of building tension with repetition and building up vocal layers with a memory/delay pedal reminded me a little of Animal Collective. The energy of the live show was wonderfully overwhelming, and the precision of the duo was impressive. I'd love to catch this band again.

We went to the Sacramento drive-in last Friday and saw the Simpson's Movie (awesome, go see it). The drive-in was totally fifties- even the sign declaring "no refunds due to fog" was in an old fifties font. Outdoor movies here are popular (it's actually warm and not rainy enough to pull them off). Hoping to check out free film noir nights on the projection screen outside the Davis Baskin Robbins.