friday flickr links: Kaarel Nurk and Michele Arcila

i love this man's photos! it's nice to look at them in their sets.
the colors! the light. the composition. the portraits, the landscapes.
i particularly like this set and this set.

and this woman's photos. also good to look at in sets.

yum!

my faves of late.

bolt

beautiful fabrics that i bought at the great fabric store bolt on alberta st. in portland. what a small, but great selection they have! i'm really excited about the top ones. i think the colors on alberta st. inspired the top purchase. that and they're just great patterns.

another pattern i am loving is this one by abigail percy. wow!

portland thoughts

so at first portland, oregon made me really excited. all the new colors and buildings. all the green, wow so much green. the ridiculous amount of cute tree-lined residential streets with sweet houses and flowers bursting from the yards. the friendliness!! i felt like i was in some kind of twilight zone with the friendliness. everyone saying at least hello and thank you to the bus drivers and often having whole conversations with them. and genuine words, not just a passing thanks. people next to me in the cafe asking if i want any parts of their paper. strangers chatting up strangers. and merchants being all friendly. drivers!!! stopping!!! for pedestrians when pedestrians aren't even looking like they're about to cross the street yet!!!! i tell you it made me wonder why SF people are so surly and rude a lot of the time. (i think the SF surliness is probably in large part due to our high cost of living, a constant worry in the back of people's heads about survival. and the fast pace??)

all that green and all those houses kind of made me ache. a tugging at me.

but i also didn't see much queerness, diversity or art there. (of course i was only there 3 days and i'm sure i only saw a fraction of the city). in a lot of ways portland also felt similar to SF, being on the west coast and being a big city...

i don't think i'd move to portland without a friend or partner. so much of home is about familiarity and friends. it would be hard to leave this familiarity and my friends. and sometimes i think if i move, i want to move to a much smaller town. or someplace really different from SF. oh i just don't know! do any of you feel this constant dissatisfaction/wonder about moving? i know about half of my friends here feel this way and the rest don't. i just find it hard to imagine being able to buy a house here. hard to imagine being able to do art as much as i'd like here. and although i do believe in living in the moment, i also need to be able to imagine a future of possibilities more beautiful and fulfilling. more green and gentler than this.

ah oregon...

a few of my favorite pics from my oregon trip above. i spent 3 days in portland and the rest driving back down to sf with my friend liz.

1. arcata, ca
2. bandon beach, oregon
3. colors in portland
4. tranny-man transmission sign in brookings, oregon

view whole set here.

i got to meet the very endearing abby there. she, her hubby and i ate some burritos and went to a punk club on alberta st. (though we left before the music started and after the lead singer said check really loudly about 47 times into the microphone.) abby claims she rambles when nervous, but she really just is funny and comfortable to be around. thanks again abby!

my trip made me think a lot and left me even more confused about where i want to be than i was before the trip. more on that maybe later this week...

to oregon and back

i'm off to oregon. back to blogging next monday.
1. look at pinky leon (he actually stares at himself in the mirror A LOT. unusual for his eyes to be closed like this. vain kitty.)
2. sun in SF

vacation all i ever wanted

on my trip to so cal, i appreciated:

the beautiful hills surrounding my parents' house. they were still green but turning yellow in spots-yellow grasses and with yellowish orange flowers.

the quiet (i really want more of this!)

but also the loud chirping of various and many birds waking me up around 7:00 am

the view from my childhood bedroom window

flowers

delicious nature smells

beating my dad at ping pong for the first time ever (but mostly just appreciating that he put up the table for us to play and agreed to continue to play for 3 out of 5 after he had won 2 out of 3)

warm weather

being fed

the fact that for the first time i really didn't care if i ran into anyone from high school (a long overdue fact at almost 33 years old!)

a truly fantastic exhibit at the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego (see it if you're there!)

Material Possessions fabric store (i appreciated this store a little too much)

these two sillies (look at rolf's smile!)

and of course, my parents (dad not pictured because he stuck his fingers in his nose to ruin his pic and thinks i deleted that from my camera) and dear friend lindy and her family

HOWEVER, i missed a lot:
my cat
my housemate
my SF friends
my computer
my bed
swimming at the pool
not needing to go to strip malls for anything
city folk of the ruffled, rumpled, eclectic, haggard, queer, colorful, poetic, creatively dressed kind

tuesday i'm off to explore oregon and won't be posting. (tips still welcome! :-))

red

1. fancy red shoe hovering in the shoe store window
2. red stitching on a dress i found at SCRAP, basically for free (or maybe for like a dollar. the french lady eyeballs your basket and tells you how much it all costs! mine is usually 7-12 dollars and is filled with reused paper and envelopes and fabric.)

i added some more poems (by others) to my color pics on flickr. will add more too.

thanks stephanie and mav for organizing the color week 2!

Blue and a poem by Langston Hughes

i'm not religious, but i appreciate certain things about churches. i like the (generally) quiet, respectful attitude people get when they enter. i like the energy. maybe i feel this energy because churches are foreign to me (not having grown up going to church). they make me unsure and a bit excited. but it also seems like the energy may be from all the people who've entered there and reflected on their lives there, examined their thoughts and hearts there, considered their deepest fears and hopes and surrendered them to the place or to their idea of god. the humility.

and there are the churches that are filled with joy and singing and call and response from preacher and congregation. a joyful and very interactive energy.

the energy from weddings, funerals and other milestone ceremonies.

i also appreciate all the beautiful artwork in churches. the skies especially.

the top photo is from a tiny, tiny white church in Old Town, San Diego. it's just a small rectangle building with some little paintings high on the walls. i like the turquoise blue in this painting and the flowers on the simple brown frame.

the second photo is from my parents' house. they have a big sandstone (occurs naturally) in the yard and this was the view of it on my recent visit, early one morning.

The Dream Keeper by Langston Hughes

Bring me all of your dreams,
You dreamers,
Bring me all of your
Heart melodies
That I may wrap them
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers
Of the world.

black

these are parts of a print of a dove from the 1960's i think. it's by my uncle, k. lonna, and was given to my parents. see more parts of it in my color week 2 set.

see other color week participant photos here.

brown

you can see me in nejlika's eye

white

just got back and am posting white late for color week.

i ate some valium on the plane (made it with just one this time, which is really good for me). i think the valium makes me kinda loose and quite weepy.

i am reading a terrific book, extremely loud and incredibly close by jonathan safran foer. i think it will be a favorite. i love the old people characters in his books and the love for them and the love between characters. it's such a moving and tender book so far.

i planned to put some poems up each day for the color week, but will have to add those later when i have more time.

hi there

just a quick note. down in so cal visiting family and friends. will see if i can upload pics later. if not, i'll be posting in between my mini vacations around june 14. see you soon!

a sunny weekend

visiting erica who is house/dogsitting in bernal heights. this is cooper, the orange, sturdy, love dog.

gallery store just opening in bernal

between some houses

new summer shoes (cat tail not included)

en overraskning! (a surprise)

got this sweet package from camilla in the mail. what a surprise and what a treat! tack sa mycket camilla! det gjorde mig verkligen jatte glad.

pinky leon i don't think has a very good nose. when i visit other dogs and cats, he never seems to notice/sniff me/my stuff. the only things he likes to sniff are eyelashes, breath, toes, and the occasional furniture. boy did he enjoy the swedish bark camilla sent though! that got a big, big sniff. (it was my favorite part too i think, though i like photo of the dogs in the woods. {is that really morran? i've never seen her like that! she's usually having tea parties. fikande med dockor. but i have seen her toppling some of her crocheted friends over lately...}and i am interested in the poetry book. i know i've seen that one in mormor's collection or in the house of someone i know...)

thanks again! tack tack. stor kram!

flowers for misabi

my mom and her horse misabi. misabi had to be put to sleep the other day. my mom got misabi when misabi was 5 (is that right?) and they've been friends for over twenty years. when misabi came to our house she was dark dappled grey and here she is all white. misabi was a gentle and sweet and beautiful horse and will be dearly missed. love to you mom!

another lovely horse pic found on flickr

grime vs. green

this post from andrea really has me thinking. andrea just moved from a block away from my house, to the east bay.

i think a lot about moving to the east bay. a lot! and i think about moving to portland. and i think about moving to sweden. i think a lot about moving. but i also have been known to use moving/the idea of moving as an escape from personal troubles. and i realize those follow wherever you go generally. and so i try to think about making my home where i am, making my happiness where i am.

but like andrea, i'm tired of the grime and ready for more green...

i like this comment of hers: "It's as if this self-respecting environment fostered even more goodness." i think about that related to sweden a lot, a country whose environments (urban, suburban and natural) are generally clean, cared for and respected. and it seems in turn, people respect their enviornments/themselves/each other more. in sweden they have allemansratt, which directly translated, means every man's right. it means everyone has access to nature in sweden and can be in it respectfully (picking berries or flowers, but not all the berries or flowers, camping anywhere, but not leaving your trash, etc.) when everyone has equal access, people take care of nature better.

my housemate erica talks about wanting to start a campaign with community leaders to make mission street (and the mission) clean. there is the argument that this will lead to (more) gentrification of the mission and push a large Latino population out. cleaning up the Mission would also threaten homeless, drugusers and prostitutes. and will all these people just be relegated to a new, uncared-for neighborhood then? and if i move somewhere cleaner, more beautiful, will i be more inclined to ignore the existence of uncared for places and people/racism/homelessness/others' suffering? at the same time, it seems the lack of city interest/funds in making the Mission clean is a kind of racism. it's complicated. all the problems are interconnected. (like andrea also says in her post, one gets in trouble when one only looks at it from one angle.)

do we just try to deal with these issues locally, or do we need a revolution? can't we all have green and beauty?