Blowing Out the Candles!

On the occasion of Mabel's forth birthday party--specifically at that moment of apotheosis, the blowing out of the candles, when, I am convinced, Mabel and all her small compatriots believe the true changing of age occurs--I took my second ever instant photo using my old Polaroid camera and the new clone film made by the Impossible Project. And, well, you can tell. Indeed, it turns out to be almost impossible to shoot with this film in direct sunlight without the resulting image being goofily blown-out. But, hey, if ever there's a moment when a blown-out photo is apt, surely it's at the moment of blowing-out, right? I only wish you could see better the four candles shaped like fours on top of the chocolate-chip-banana cake--Mabel's conception from start to finish, her parents' execution of which got full marks I am proud to say.

The Employee Art Show

This week I participated in the annual Chronicle Books employee art show. The thing about working in a creative industry is that the people working in it tend to be ridiculously gosh-darn creative. Which makes this event super fun, because loads of cool things made by loads of cool people are on display. But you'll indulge me, I hope, in choosing just to show you what I myself made this time around: little collages based on memories--specifically those random memories, often from your quite distant past, that sometimes suddenly present themselves in your mind for no earthly reason that you can discern. Is there a name for those?

We Now Resume Our Regularly Scheduled Programing: the Poem Saga on the Spring of 2006

May 9, 2006
Vacation

the Kabuki for a massage and the baths
all the little things there that I always notice and love
all the different kinds of tile
and the way the water makes ripples of light on the ceiling
and the way the steam rolls out and up the ceiling
whenever someone opens the steam room door

The next day I walked down to the Ferry Building
to shop for Bill’s wedding anniversary gift
a prussian blue trivet
eggplant-colored pot for cooking rice
and a cookbook since it’s the paper anniversary

oh and while I’m on the subject
I can’t resist mentioning what he got me
tickets to New York for memorial day weekend
I’ve never been
I’m so excited I can hardly stand it

anyway as I was walking along
there was a white pair of mannequin hands
lying in the window of a men’s clothing store
quite a chilling sight that has stuck in my head ever since

And then there was our trip to Monterey and Carmel
Oh my goodness so much
The amazing bright blue
bottle green
and brownish lavender
of the ocean
completely different than the colors of the ocean on our part of the coast
Our little white attic room at the bed and breakfast that felt so hidden away
The myriad wonders of the aquarium
in particular the jellyfish so unbelievably beautiful
and the gigantic silvery tuna
sea turtles
a hammerhead shark that came right up the window and startled me
and the corals in pinks and oranges almost too intense to be believed
The grey-blue, tan, and white round rocks of various sizes all over this one beach
And berry pie with ice cream eaten at a roadside cafe on the way home



image source is here

The Who, The What, and The When

When you are a book editor you see a lot of book trailers. These trailers are usually created by super talented authors in conjunction with super talented video making people, so they tend to be pretty fantastic. So when I say that the video trailer for The Who, The What, and The When--a book by Julia Rothman, Jenny Volvovski, and Matt Lamothe that I recently edited, all about the forgotten sidekicks and helpers of historical figures, illustrated by loads of amazing illustrators--is my favorite book trailer of all time, you will know that that means quite a bit. Seriously, it's so good it gives me chills. Watch it here. It's probably also worth mentioning that this is the book that the inimitable Brainpickings called "the most generous book in the world."

Yay Grandparents!

Here is Mabel with her maternal grandparents, my own dear mother and father. I believe the occasion was a joint birthday celebration we had at Grandma's house for Mabel and Daddy's respective August birthdays. As always when the kiddo hangs out with any of her grandparents, amusement and affection abounded.

A Panda (and Her Stick of Bamboo)

Around July Mabel always suddenly and decisively decides what she wants to be for Halloween. This year it was a panda, and further one of her parents needed to be "a stick of bamboo"--and the lucky parent who got to do so was me! And then we went trick-or-treating with our pals. It was great fun.

At Lage: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz

I've been working, in a modest capacity, on the exhibition-related book for Ai Weiwei's huge site-specific show on Alcatraz (a show complicated and made all the more intriguing by the fact that  the artist cannot leave China and has never set foot on the infamous prison island) for many months now--but nothing could prepare me for the vast, beautiful, political, and ridiculously brilliantly interwoven-with-their-site artworks themselves. Six separate big and amazing installations spread across four different buildings of the complex. I went with couple of pals on Halloween day and it's no exaggeration to say our minds were officially blown. Just, wow. If you're in the Bay Area between now and next spring I strongly recommend you go. Seriously. It's a once-in-a-lifetime not-to-be-missed kind of thing.