feather2pixels

Like the ephemeral San Francisco cherry blossom, the beautiful flower that is spring open studios has come and gone. And to the extent that the passing of the weekend reminds us of the many mysterious cycles and rhythms of nature, spring open studios reminds us of the very meaning of life itself.  Where some may find no meaning in sitting around a mostly empty art studio for 48 hours, waiting for a tide of  approval that may never come, others will find illumination.  Through it all, the one unchanging truth is that all shall find free wine.

CELLspace studio artists populated the gallery space and I took the opportunity to set up one of the walls with collected works from the Two Feather Press screenprinting co-op membership.   In my mind, our unofficial motto is screenprinting improves everything and maybe that’s why I thought this spread looked so great.

…And when I arrived at the studio on Sunday morning there was a not insignificant pile of cash under my door.  Apparently some anonymous early riser–bless your soul  whoever you are–indulged in a small shopping spree through our highly affordable offerings.

Thanks to all my friends who stopped by in support.  I really appreciate it.  After the wads of cash, your encouragement always makes it worth it.

Beau walks into the gallery

surprise packs for $2 sold like hotcakes at a hotcake stand with three hotcakes available.

Dispatch from the San Pablo Bay tusnami:

(San Pablo Bay 3/11/11)

We lucked out this time.

@jonF taking off for the #Wovenhand show at @BottomOfTheHill. Hell yes.

Last week, a few people held a belated surprise birthday party for To-Shi-O, who is my beloved roommate of lo these last three-and-a-half-plus years. By complete coincidence I also happen to be To-Shi-O’s beloved roommate of lo these last three-and-a-half-plus years and so I was invited. To the best of our combined ability we dressed in costume as Him, transcribed His paper crane tattoo upon our forearms, and greeted Him in the way of his own tongue, thus consummating the cult of To-Shi-O. And the good thing about belated surprise birthday parties is that they are all the more unexpected.

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My hybrid geometry/art class for ninth graders, “Creative Geometry,” was in full full effect over the weekend. Our second annual art show took place at the Oakland Museum of Children’s Art, and my kids were fantastic. Six of them were there hours early and stayed until the end of the day to help out. This is what it looked like from the inside.

So after the screen printing area at Cellspace was ransacked by a former employee (once upon a time Cellspace had employees), I was given the opportunity to put my woodworking skills to the test.  The test in question was successfully building a new lightbox with which to expose screens, about a one half on the carpentry difficulty scale from one to ten, and I am ashamed to say that I could barely manage it.

Woah.  I think I blacked out there for a minute.  Anyway where the hell was I?  Oh yeah, Danny came to San Francisco.  With his girlfriend.  Then they broke up (fomented by her glimpse of how a Fischer boy might grow up?)   In the meantime we went camping at Lake Shasta where we rented a speedboat and I re-contacted a devastating bout of poison oak from 2006.  The urushiol oil from that summer was in my sleeping bag.

Then Tim came.  Tim was my longtime college roommate and together we have been everywhere from the Syracuse Carrier Dome to evicted from Melwood Street in Pittsburgh.  This time, we kept things low key and in the area.  We ate pupusas.  We hiked to the top of Muir Woods.  We screen printed.  Tim had his first and second savory crepe and his balls didn’t fall off.

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Then summer school started.  This year, summer school is a pre-college academy at U.C. Berkeley, where me and Adrienne are pulling out of our asses a class we call “Creative Geometry.”  It is supposed to be a hybrid art-math class.  Or is it a math-art class?  Either way, we now know that casting thirty two-part plaster molds with high schoolers in inadequate facilities is less fun than one might think.  Some might even call it unfun.  It’ll work out, though.  It better: we scheduled a one day show of student work at a museum in Oakland next month and so far the only confirmed attendees are Jancie and Adrienne’s mom.

Jill got married in rural Pennsylvania last weekend.  The crab cakes were outstanding.

Three unusually good things happened to me in recent weeks:
1. I got excused from summer cruise 2008.
2.  I procured a private studio space at CELLspace
3. I procured a free plane ticket to anywhere in the 48 contiguous United States.

I turned 29 last week.  To-shi-o got me a wind turbine for my bike.

Softball ended.  On the final night, we combined barbecue forces with our opponent and the game that followed was the best yet.  They set up a portable, full-sized flagpole and the national anthem was played on trombone.  Their mascot (a giant pitcher…of beer) ran the bases at the stretch.  The dugouts sang me happy birthday during my final at-bat (a clumsy, one-out single to 3rd base) and we preserved our no-win season.

And everything else I wrote down:

I’ve spent the last two nights at Will Franken shows. Will Franken is a comedian. I think Will Franken is the best comedian. Will Franken is a Libertarian. Who would have thought the best comedian would be a Libertarian? Usually I find Libertarians distasteful, even more so than Republicans sometimes.
The following is a list of famous Libertarians:
1. Clint Eastwood
2. Dwight Yoakam
3. Kurt Russel

The following is a list of famous Librarians:

1. J Edgar Hoover
2. Marcel Duchamp
3. Casanova

These writings are getting awfully negative. C.W.(formerly unhappily known as Freckles) pointed this out to me on a midnight bike ride to the sea and I think she’s right. Here are some positive thoughts to kick off the last even year of the decade.

-The grilled halibut at our 2008 faculty retreat was excellent.
-The biker I ran over last week insisted on a ride to 24th and Potrero instead of money for his broken foot.
-No class on Tuesday or Thursday this semester.
–CELLspace (where I screen print) is making me a spare key so I can come and go as I please. It could even be ready for the summer.
–The Mountain Goats on three consecutive nights at three different SF venues this winter.
-Ten predicted feet of snow at Tahoe this weekend.
-A too-good-to-be-true Kasper Hauser/Will Franken show at SF Sketchfest this January.
-Chance encounters at the no left turn sign at the intersection of 19th and Church streets.
–Double decker busses, killer tigers, and SPAM maps.
-BYOB with no corkage fee at Tajine. Lamb.
-The excitement back in my fitness goals, with inspiring expert instructors, personalized whole-body workouts, and the greatest outdoors in San Francisco.
-The U.S.P.S. Marvel superhero and America’s superlative stamps.
–Pitt 13 WVU 9
–Pitt 65 Duke 64
-End of semester emails from happy students.
-New neighbors, old penpals, family fans, calls from New York City, afternoons at Vesuvio.
-And of course: The Shanghai Dumpling King.

Just as I’m starting to feel totally unappreciated in my teaching career, good old Lisa R. shows up at my office with a rainbow roll in one hand and an orphaned dachshund puppy in the other.  Last year, I was compelled to graduate Lisa R., who seemed to miss a lot of April class but pass a lot of quizes.  It worked to my advantage.  According to rumor, she made a donation to the alumni fund on the condition that I was rehired this year.  At any rate it was a welcomed gesture for a down and out teacher and her pup had a really long tongue.

Raviv leaves tomorrow morning after a week or so in the Bay.  Saturday ended up being the perfect day.  We toured the Haight (“all this street is nice”), watched an unlikely throttling of the West Virginia University Mountaineers, stopped by a little art show (all my postcards sold out on opening night!), and met up with a Bud-drinking Adrienne at The Bottom of the Hill for the best show I’ve seen there in a while.  Raviv actually just got back tonight from a one day trip to LA.  As I sat at my desk, overlooking the yellow glow of 24th street, he appeared out of nowhere.  Without thinking about it, I suddenly felt happy he was back.