Weekend Warrioress

The fast-approaching Halloween weekend is going to be madness.

First off, I'll be vending Adornments for Tarts lovelies at Steampowered, the Steampunk Convention, with my mates from the Etsy Steam Team. I'll be there all three days - October 31st, and November 1st & 2nd.

But wait! You may be wondering - doesn't Baby Seal Club open for Mutaytor at the Cirque du Sebastopol on Saturday night?

Your post-apocalyptic craftista siren is keeping impossibly busy, as ever. I'll be sneaking out of the SteamCon on Saturday night to run home and sing my heart out, and then back the next morning to keep selling my work. Sigh.

Picture from our show at the San Francisco Burning Man Decompression, courtesy of 94114photo.

Things That Please Me: Baroque Architectural Details

Yesterday I happened to be in the historic City Hall in Providence, Rhode Island. While I was supposed to be focusing on the interview at hand, all I could do was gaze at the opulent detailing around me in the 1878 building, which Google kindly informed me was in the Second Empire Baroque architectural style, popular in the late Victorian period.


I snapped a few photos surreptitiously - of the deliciously patterned walls in plaster relief...

The shamelessly decadent gilded curves on every available surface...

The ridiculously ornate lamps with frolicking plump cherubim...

Now, I'd like to think I've evolved from the Z-Gallerie fleur-de-lis wall-sconce aesthetic of my younger days, and I've sworn off Design Toscano for good - but I have to admit that cornices and crown molding still give me a thrill.

Here's the curious part. For all seven years that I lived in San Francisco, I was fortunate enough to be happily tucked into one of the more famous "Painted Ladies", reputed to be a former bordello built in the late 1890's by Francophile architect James Francis Dunn. And I just today discovered that my old house was one of the few San Francisco examples of the Second Empire Baroque style, which caused me to swoon only yesterday in Providence!

That would've been me at 19, peeking out from the second-floor balcony. You can't see the winged mermaids on the roof in this picture.

Can I help it if I'm mysteriously drawn to decadence and excess, even in architecture?

Black Cat, White Cat

I find myself melancholy, trying to write a brief tribute to my poor Nimbus, who left us for the big donut-bed in the sky over the weekend.

It's the end of a feline era. Nimbus and her sister Carolina, to whom I said goodbye last spring, were born the month I graduated high school, and kept me furry company through a parade of houses and boyfriends and jobs for, uhm, more than fifteen years.

Nimbus kindly eased our transition by keeping us up all night with her grating senile meowing for the past few months, so we were definitely ready to let her go. Didn't stop me from crying, though. My home is now kitty-less for the first time in my adult life.

Fortunately, she was forever immortalized in psychedelic cat YouTube fame in this video a few years ago, with music and imagery by the illustrious Stache.

Oh, the purr! I intend to go out and rent Emir Kusturica's Black Cat, White Cat in honor of both my dearly departeds. Perhaps a zany Balkan comedy will cheer me.

Farewell, Nimby. All the peacock feathers and pets you could wish for in heaven, my sweet!

Red Letter Day

Yesterday was an unusually lovely day for me. Not only was I recognized with an award at work, which was wonderful, but an interview with me was published on the Steam Team blog! Thanks to Hyla for letting me wax poetic about my work.

Here's me basking in my fleeting Interwebs glory. Actually, it's technically me basking in Burning Man glory, but, you know, basking is basking.

And as if that weren't enough, last night we had the pure joy overload of seeing David Byrne in concert, from the second row. Suffice to say, it was a wondrous performance, and served only to confirm to me that the man is a genius. Everyone should acquire his newest album, and soon. The only thing that could have made it better is if he had played "Burning Down the House" accompanied by the Extra Action Marching Band, which I hear he did at the San Francisco show.

And this weekend, Baby Seal Club plays at Decompression, closing out the Circus Stage. Should be brilliant, and with any luck, we'll cross paths with Fou Fou Ha and the Golden Mean again.