julie's coffee and tea garden in alameda has a great back patio, with bright sun covered benches and shady coves and everything in between, plus plants and iron wings.
i love finding new favorite spots in alameda. i keep thinking i've seen all the cool stuff in alameda, but not so, luckily. this morning i discovered thomsen's garden center/vines cafe run by husband (in the cafe upstairs) and wife (in garden center downstairs). they've been there over 30 years and the place is super charming, with nooks with benches and surprises all over the cafe—birds flying above the molding, patterned floor, stained glass windows. i had to have a fika and buy a couple of plants, which i plan to hang stephanie style.
a few years ago i saw this make episode on reuben margolin, an sf kinetic sculptor. randomly, last weekend, i saw one of his pieces, tule wave, in real life at the david brower gallery in berkeley. so beautiful and calming. see it in motion.
congratulations to courageous argentinian, sofia gatica, who has been fighting monsanto for over 10 years and is one of six leaders awarded the goldman environmental prize. (there's a great short video in the article too.)
it is completely baffling and disgusting that monsanto is allowed to continue their "work" (more like greedy exploitation and poisoning), given the long history of their products and actions killing, sickening, hurting people and the earth. the list of their truly evil deeds is so long and so many people fight against them (usually unsuccessfully and sometimes while having their lives/livelihoods threatened by monsanto in the process). how monsanto-ans live with themselves is a mystery.
i know i've posted about gunta stölzl before at some point. photos above of her weavings/sketches from the book bauhaus 1919–1933: workshops for modernity
thought i'd post some recent dog flickr/tumblr favorites since i posted cats the other day.
this guy above was sniffing around in the plant nursery and would not stand still for a proper picture (despite the fact that the owner says the dog regularly has his picture taken by strangers).
as a child i loved sylvester and the magic pebble and the amazing bone by mr. steig. today i checked out the book william steig drawings, which includes many of his new yorker drawings. his drawings are so scribbly and ugly and beautiful and hilarious. amazing how something so scribbly can capture so much about gestures, life. in the introduction, lillian rose writes of steig's drawn world:
it's a place without money or machinery or 'things.' it's a world populated by artists, farmers, knights, ladies, gentlemen, lovers (many, many lovers); by lions, dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens, birds, fish (congenial creatures all of them, but with every human fault); by drunks, violinists, bums, actors, clowns...an intimate, pastoral, not too dangerous world, where poetry rules and time does not pass.
this book contains a bunch of drawings of people serenading animals and vice versa. too funny.
i don't know why i requested this book from the library, when i was obviously going to purchase it.
these two must have so much fun together. so much wacky creativity and oddball knowledge between the two of them. you can tell they enjoy each other from their interview on city arts and lectures. it's airing again on sunday. (looks like there's no podcast...) maira's take on cake is brilliant.
another, a lullaby, by jonathan johannson: du sa(you said)
lyrics translation approx: you said something about, about the other side/ you said something about, you said something about us/ you said something that never left me/ you said something that stayed
guess i'm collecting oldtruckphotos now. old trucks are plentiful on the island.
found jonathan johansson this weekend. you might like his songs even if you don't know swedish (considering i can only understand about half of what he's singing...). and then found rockfotoemma, a blog of a swedish musician/band photographer. here's a photo of hers of aforementioned jonathan johansson).
enjoying the weird glowy dusk-storm coming light on the way home today. i like that the days are getting lighter. fast saknar sverige idag. har gjort bort mig. det måste man göra ibland. men också gör att jag vill fly lite grann. får bli in i en bok istället. lyssnar på kent idag: lsd, någon? den här skivan blir bättre o bättre. skulle vilja se dem i stockholm en dag.
om man är urtråkad kan man rufsa till håret o ta lite photobooth foton.