Day 44 - ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Andy Sanchez

Shalom's father Andy gave me a tour of his work and the shop. These first few pieces (the eagle, the bench and the front of the entertainment center with the Santa Fe floral design) were in the house, then the others were in the showroom. Then he showed me all the wood and how everything is made. He said, "we like to say that our work is stories, and the pieces come with them" or something like that, and "we used to decide what we were going to build and then get the wood to do that, but now we look at the wood first and decide what to make from that."

It's a family business - his son Aaron works with him, and all 9 of the kids have some artistry in them. I think the chess set here may have been made by his son? (it's cowboys & Indians themed, not pc but historically accurate) Anyhow, it reminded me a bit of my great grandpa, who used to make and sell furniture made from polished agates (some of the Sanchez pieces feature agates as well). It was all beautiful.

(this photo on the left below is a close-up of the "waterfall" in the table above. :)

Day 42 Part 1 - Shameless Plug for Cousin's Company

My cousin Marie is starting her own children's clothing company - Magpie by Marie Gurule. Here are some of the designs I photographed from the piles she had at her house:

Day 27 - Seattle: Shopping, Street Fair & Open Mic!

Day 27 = June 5

My friend Rachel Nichols (who I know from my bluer days), lives in Seattle but was too busy to meet up. However, she did give some suggestions - to go to Pike's Place Market and then Fremont Market on Sunday. Cassandra & I enjoy this type o' shopping and the weather was great both Friday and Saturday, so a great deal of shopping transpired, including - on Sunday - purchases of a blue tee w/an elephant, an earring/necklace set, and various presents for friends & family. We also consumed some lovely pizza while sitting on the grass. We did not buy this troll, but Cassandra wanted it. :)

After the market, we headed over to do some power-shopping at Target/Kohl's for a certain little sis who is getting married soon. A care package was in order. Mission accomplished - go team!

We returned home for dinner (Tom cooking again - mmm! :) ) and then sped off to see my friend from college, Naomi Wachira, perform for the Conor Byrne open mic (it's an Irish pub). It was her first time, and she was a little nervous. It was also Cassandra's first time attending an open mic. The place was packed; we were lucky to get seats near the front!

I was pretty psyched to find some videos of the songs that were played on Sunday - here is a video of Naomi's friend Holly singing 'Orphan Child' w/Naomi & and another girl singing backup (tho' she just sang it solo at the open mic)...and a video of Naomi singing the first song she played at the open mic (which was recorded outside the venue that night!) I cried during both Naomi's songs. It's so wonderful to see your friends doing something you can see is exactly what they were made to do.

There was some decent talent there (which isn't always a given for open mics), and even bands doing promo for their shows. We heard a few songs by great little bands with adorable names like The Gloria Darlings, and The Local Strangers. Actually, here is another video (sorry I'm getting carried away, but this is another song performed that night)...by The Local Strangers:

On the way home, Cassandra drove me out to a dock where there was another beauteous view of Seattle. A nice last shot before bed. :)

Off Topic - The Ubiquitous Michael Castillejos

So, Michael's part of my church community in Brooklyn and he and his wife Mary lived about a block or two from me in Carroll Gardens. He's an actor and sometimes model. For instance, at some point he was in this Verizon ad...this was a long time ago. It looks something like this:

I took this pic on the subway last year. It's kind of a comforting thing, being out in the world in NYC and seeing a friendly face. By fortunate coincidence, Verizon seems to love him and continues to use this photo all over the US, which brings a reminder of my Brooklyn years every time I see it. In fact, a month or so ago, Tommy and I drove out to deliver some stuff to the carriage house where he is staying in Prescott, WI, and I swear that on the way back we saw not one but two billboards with Michael's face on them. I think Erel and I also saw one on the way to the airport in DC. At one point last year I saw it online (maybe on Facebook) and a co-worker and I had a long debate over whether it was Michael or Adrian Grenier from Entourage. My points were a) I see this guy every week, it is definitely him, b) he has brown eyes not blue eyes for goodness sakes, and c) he's HISPANIC and Adrian has a European/Apache background (info gathered from Wikipedia as I've never watched the show)...come on, buddy. I really should've wagered some $ on it.

He was at the wedding in NYC on May 13; I told him of my run-ins with the photo-him and he laughed and said he has started telling his friends, "lo, I am always with you, even to the end of the age" or something like that. :)

Anyway, was just reminded of him today when a friend posted a link to his latest musical fun. I hereby present "what Michael does in his spare time":

Girl Get Out of Me from Mike Castillejos on Vimeo.

Pretty cool, I think. :)

Day 14 - Brooklyn, Manhattan & Hoboken, NJ!

Michelle (www.michellehan.com ;) ) was on a crazy schedule while I was in town due to her art business burgeoning. It was only 4 years ago (or so?) when we were praying for one another and encouraging one another to invest more in our art...and now she actually employs 2-3 other people to help her run her business! So, I went to her at the Brooklyn Flea and we hung out at her booth in the morning when business was quieter (while Jamie slept in). Here are some pics of an average weekend morning for Michelle...

Later, Jamie found out she needed to be in Ohio a day earlier to meet with her new boss, so we embarked on a whirlwind tour of New York City so she could see the other things on her list. This included Chinatown, the World Trade Center, and the Statue of Liberty.

Chinatown was Chinatown as usual. Less 'quality' items than I remember there being, but maybe we did not rummage around long enough to find the best places. At the World Trade Center site, as you can see below, there were a number of people sitting and staring at the site in silence. I like to think myself practical sometimes (& distanced enough from this event not to feel very affected), but I could not help being near tears at moments. Strange, how grief knows and finds us, when we least expect it. We ran into my friend Kevin Doyle, who used to do bus tours and now does World Trade Center tours. He's an actor, and dislikes the bus tours because people don't really pay attention...but thinks the WTC tours are much better because you have a small group of people who really care about listening and build bonds together through the tour, and he is always learning things as well. As I write this, I turned to suggest this as a possible job to Erel (who joins my travels on Day 16!), but then I think, she's very sensitive and she might just feel too much to do these tours. She's going to look into it anyhow.

As we left the building where we view the WTC, there were a man and woman in a glass box in some sort of abstract performance. We had no idea what it was about, but it was fun to photograph.

The Statue of Liberty was a great ways away - as you can (not!) see in this last pic - but our time sort of ran out so we were content with viewing it from a longish distance before returning to Brooklyn.

On her way out of town, Jamie dropped Christa and I off in Hoboken to watch Farewell Continental for the first time (for both of us!), at Maxwell's. It was a great show, and we stayed afterward to eat w/the band. A very exhausted Tommy came back to Brooklyn with us on the trains, so we could all go to church in Brooklyn in the morning. I am amazed we stayed awake long enough to make it home! Road trips = much sleepiness.