SAN FRANCISCO

Today I have 10 benches I’m contracted to build for a restaurant, and there’s pressure to make them great. I’ve been working really intensely for several weeks though, on multiple projects. I’ve noticed that when I make mistakes is when I get burned out and my environment becomes chaotic and ill cared for. So today, rather than press on with intensity on work tasks, I decided to slow down, plan, do the dishes, do the laundry, wash the sheets, and do something creative that documents where I am, regardless of how mundane it may seem.

I’m tired, and not brimming with inspiration. The washing machine is humming with a load of dirty towels. The sky is grey as I type with the computer in my lap and the dog sleeping next to me on the couch. Arrayed in front of me on the dog scratched up coffee table I made are various binders and journals I use to keep track of ideas and ways of practice. The phone is buzzing with text messages about a music rehearsal I don’t feel like I have time or energy for.

All of that being said, I’m glad I took time today to enjoy the quiet, and take care of tasks that allow me to feel focused and intentional. I’m going to record a very short improvisational song on the EP 1320 next, because I have it my notes to do so. Then I will put that song here and be done, trusting that I have learned something that brings us closer to the life we’re meant to be living.

I MIGHT NOT LIVE TO SEE MY DREAMS IMPROVISED SONG

THE LIGHT SWITCHES

THE EP 1320 IS A SAMPLER BY TEENAGE ENGINEERING THAT HAS SAMPLES OF MEDIEVAL THEMED INSTRUMENTS AND SOUNDS.

RAMONA HAVING SOME SLEEP WHILE WAITING FOR HER AFTERNOON WALK.

MY FRIEND GAVE ME THIS BUTTON AND THE MESSAGE I USED TO TAKE A BREAK TODAY AND RECLAIM SOME TRANQUILITY AND ORDER.

PARTS FOR THE BENCH I’M BUILDING TOMORROW CLAMPED AND GLUED.

COMPLETED JOURNALS IN MY ARCHIVE ROOM THAT I DON’T KNOW YET WHAT TO DO WITH.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

On this date we endeavored to promote Pop’s Gardens, our small business, and to make some money selling art we made and tools and instruments we no longer used.

The sale was successful. We met lots of neighbors and friends and made about 600 dollars. We worked really hard and long so that’s not much money. I like how Keith Richards kept a journal of how much money the Rolling Stones got paid for each show they did in London and other small English towns early on, and I like reading baseball box scores in the newspaper.

I sold a combination tape player, radio, cd player that I purchased at the Sharper Image located at the Inner Harbor shopping area of Baltimore, Maryland when I was thirteen years old with my friends Sarah and Rachel Bizer who were visiting from Massachusetts. I listened to a lot of cds and tapes and baseball games on that player over the years. It played music at many parties in San Francisco at my house, and at a beach house I went on a vacation with my family to in North Carolina as a child. The CD player part of it no longer worked very well and there was paint spilled on it from when I hastily painted my house in order to move away for that long period that started in 2014. A smiling Russian man bought it for 5 dollars.

I sold a wheel barrow I bought to move rocks and bark at a project in Sonoma county to a guy who jumped off a work truck and offered me cash. I forget now how much but I think around forty dollars.

I sold a plate joiner I bought to make cabinets efficiently but didn’t really use because the people didn’t want the cabinets to look like they were made out of plywood. I think I got sixty bucks or so for that.

I sold some boxes and boards that serve as artistic wall hangings for bromeliads and sea shells that Joni helped me make for a holiday craft sale at the Rock Band Land Music school that didn’t wind up selling there.

I sold some other items that I forgot and some that are pictured below. Joni sold lots of clothes and some dishes.

Also, I met Joni’s friends and her cousin. They were really nice and liked looking around my garage archive room and how organized it is. This effort now in typing is an attempt to take a step further than just having everything accounted for and in its proper place in time. I don’t know what will happen, or if I will have time later to edit and format it better, but I had it on my list to write all this down, and now I have.

Joni made this very good flyer for the event. Sometimes the amount of effort we put into our work shows up a long time later. This is a digital collage. The sale had the feeling of being a long the side of a river and this picture looks like that. Also, I’ve wondered whether Cabrillo Street used to be a river that went to the sea.

I sold some of these VHS tapes from childhood. I remember the ending of the Bob Marley one is good. It’s some nice footage of the sun going down in Jamaica.

I sold this midi controller I used while traveling between 2014 and 2018. Everything you don’t use you are meant to sell.

I sold one of these birdhouses to my very nice neighbor Keith. It takes a long time to make these birdhouses and I wonder if I spend too much time keeping track of what happens to them, where they go, or making them at all.