The Heated

Hearts!

2012-01-31T10:43:00.000-08:00

By now everybody is probably used to me printing my little hand-drawn, every day objects on towels. Well, I got all modern on you with this one. I tried looking at old Valentine's Day cards to get some inspiration for a design but quickly realized that most vintage cards rely heavily on terrible puns and blatant racism/sexism. I was not inspired at all. In then end, I decided that I didn't want to smack you in the face with Valentine's Day but rather coax you in for a closer look. It's subtle enough to keep using all year long. At any rate, they are available on white or natural towels.

Custom Cutting Board

2012-01-10T11:49:00.000-08:00

We all wish we could make amazing hand-made presents for our loved ones each year, don't we? But, please. Like we have that kind of time/ability. I ended up going with a cutting board for my wife. Yes, I have some woodworking abilities but there was no way I would have been able to craft a homemade cutting board for her during the busiest time of the year without her knowing. So, I picked up a sturdy wooden board from Pot and Pantry instead.

It didn't occur to me to customize it until my wife mentioned she would like that. That reminded me of a party we had, years ago where a woman brought over some fruit and put together a fruit salad. It looked delicious but, as another party-goer remarked, "Is it just me or is there something savory about this fruit salad?" Sure enough, she had cut the fruit on an onion-y, garlic-y cutting board. It was gross and I had to choke the whole salad down because of good manners.

Lest the same fate befall me or my wife, I decided to take my wife's mention to heart. Originally, I thought I would go with the same ink I use on my dish towels but then I remembered I had some non-toxic gel stain from a different project lying around so I went with that instead. So far, it's held up to water well and I kept the screen, just in case. Below is the process I went through to get it made.

I usually start with some hand-drawn sketches. Here are all the elements I knew I would need to put the design together, using the onion for the "o".

I assembled the drawing in Photoshop and then printed out my transparency.

I did some test prints first, which really helped the print on the board come out well on the first try.

I let it dry for 24 hours and then put it to use. Now, if you come over and want to chop things, you can't claim we didn't warn you.

2012 Resolutions

2012-01-04T09:53:00.001-08:00

Here is my to-do list for 2012. Some are huge projects and some are little things that I've just been wanting to do. Some are things I've already committed to do, so that's kind of cheating but who cares? Last year was about staying the course but I think there will be more innovation and growth this year.

Renegade Craft Fair: Holiday Sale in San Francisco

2011-12-11T14:58:00.001-08:00

I drop out of touch every year around this time. It's not on purpose, it's because I'm spending every spare moment printing and hustling my wares. It's the most wonderful time of the year! Come see the fruits of my labor, including rad new designs and sale items at the Renegade Craft Fair this coming weekend, December 17th and 18th. The Heated and This Humble Abode are sharing booth #162! at the Concourse Exhibition Center (635 8th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-4901) on December 17th and 18th, 11:00 am - 6:00 pm.See you there.

Heart in High Heels

2011-11-15T07:32:00.001-08:00

This particular event is pretty rad because it features all women artists and designers. It's happening this Friday, November 18th at 31 Rax (3309 Mission Street, SF), kicking off at 6:00 pm. Not only will I be there, I'll be offering a selection of towels at 30% off. 30% off, people!

Chair Repair

2011-10-31T12:37:00.000-07:00

We've been slowly putting together a dining set over at our house. A few months ago we found some chairs in need of some love on craigslist. A friend re-covered the worn out seats. In the meantime, we had scored a table from a store in Santa Cruz and our dining set was almost complete. Then, a day after our chairs came back re-covered, padded and looking great, one of the chairs snapped. I wasn't too surprised and I had already noticed that two of the chairs had already snapped in the same exact position. Luckily, I have the skills and tools to fix such a crack.

Here's the chair.

I used a knife and these paint brushes to get the glue into tight spots.

Here's the crack itself, held open with a screwdriver.

Here is a dry run of the clamping process. Whenever you're gluing something, always do a dry-clamp first. I taped that piece of wax paper resting on the seat in place around the leg, just in case I spilled some glue.

You can see that I used enough glue by the way it's gushing out of the crack. Also, those little wooden blocks are to protect the surface of the chairs from getting marked up from the clamps. I also wrapped the wooden blocks in packing tape so they wouldn't stick to the glue.

Good as new!

Barely noticeable, right?

Be Mission Market

2011-10-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

Mission Local is a great local blog that covers all the important shootings in my neighborhood! I kid, I kid. They cover a wide range of topics and I read their blog on a regular basis. So, I'm pretty excited to be a part of their new marketplace, the Be Mission Market, where they sell products from vendors based in San Francisco's Mission District. You can check it out here: http://missionlocal.org/bemission/

Low Horse

2011-10-17T11:50:00.000-07:00

I've talked a bit about how I switched my office job's old desk with a standing desk. I had hoped that this stool would allow me to rest my feet on the lower rung when I wasn't sitting on it but there wasn't enough room for my knees to fit underneath the seat. I remembered seeing a project via Make a while back for some low saw horses and I decided to just make one as a foot rail. This was my first attempt at doing joinery with hand tools only. I learned a lot and the project turned out just fine. Here's the tutorial from Make if you're interested: http://makeprojects.com/Project/Low-Horses/813/1

As with any project, careful measuring in the beginning will save you heartache in end. I had just sharpened my chisels so this was a great project to try them out on.

Here are the feet before I carved them. I just used some simple pine 2x4s I had lying around.

Here is the glue-up of the foot and the rail.

One of my joints fit perfectly. The other? Not so much but it still held together after the glue-up.

If this was something that I was going to use in my shop, I would have taken the time to really smooth those rounded edges but since this is something that I'm using in my cubicle to put my feet on, I took some liberties.

Here's my set-up. My keyboard and mouse are on a (very fancy) pull-out tray and now I can rest my feet on my standing rail all I want.

Mail Center

2011-10-05T09:52:00.000-07:00

My wife and I have had this little crate as our mail center for a long time lying flat on a table in our hallway. We recently sold the hallway table and I realized that the crate didn't have to lay flat anymore. I used some copper wire wrapped around small nails to make sure the mail doesn't fall out. I ended up adding two more rows of wire after the initial two pictured below. I also gave it a good once-over with some sandpaper because you know I like it smooth.We've hung it up and it's been working perfectly for weeks now.

Total Furniture Failure

2011-09-12T14:41:00.000-07:00

This post has more swears than usual. Please make a note of it.

In an effort to continue to improve my woodworking skills, I took a woodworking class at the Randall Museum this summer. I knew that I would be familiar with a lot of things we were going over but it has been a while since I'd been in a professional shop and wanted to gain some new skills.

Unfortunately, the class was a total failure. Our class had ten students in it and we were all trying to do the same operations at once so each operation involved waiting and waiting for the other students to finish. Often, other students asked to go ahead of me, "just real quick". I always said yes even though any woodworker with even the smallest amount of experience will tell you, nothing happens quickly in woodworking. The class was titled "Zen and Sawdust" so I tried to get my zen on by not getting all bent out of shape with people cutting ahead of me. This proved to be a mistake.

This was also the first time I felt like some of my classmates were sexist.This never happened at the woodworking classes at City College. But at the Randall Museum, there was a moment, standing at the table saw, where two guys stood there and gave me instructions. I was shocked. Number one, the advice they were giving me was unnecessary (which I know because I've been using a table saw for two years. I didn't tell my classmates I had experience because I didn't want to sound boastful but TWO YEARS OF EXPERIENCE). Number two, as this was happening, I thought, "They would never do this if I were a guy." I mean, I don't have proof of this, or anything but it just felt like bullshit to be in a class where we should all assume everyone is at the same level and have some people assume they knew more because of their gender. I hate that shit.

I'd also like to say that the safety training was extremely lacking. On the last night of class, I was giving two classmates instructions on how to use the table saw. My advice was to stay to the left of the blade and to not move your left hand at all. One of my classmates said, "I don't know. It seems like if it was going to kick-back, it will fling the board off to the left of the blade." I then watched him inch his left hand closer and closer, just begging the saw to take his fingers off. AND THIS WAS THE LAST NIGHT OF CLASS!!! There are now nine people who think they know how to use a table saw who actually have no idea. As a huge safety nerd, I find this completely unacceptable.

So, fine. It was crowded, mildly sexist and not very safe. And yes, I missed one class. I asked if I could make up the class but was told not to worry about it because it would move faster if I was out of sync with the rest of the class. That turned out to not be the case ("just real quick") and when we got to the next to last class and my teacher said I might not have time to taper my table legs. So, I busted ass to get them ready to be tapered because that was literally the only operation in the class I hadn't done before and I wanted to learn SOMETHING. But the teacher didn't have time to help me so a classmate helped me taper the legs instead. This too proved to be a mistake.

About halfway through the very last class, I realized that two of my legs were tapered incorrectly so my table wasn't even going to fit together. The teacher said he had some extra legs somewhere, then wandered off to help another classmate taper her legs correctly. I waited around for maybe ten minutes and talked to another classmate whose table was also not working out. Not only did was her table a complete failure because she also had to ask a classmate, rather than the teacher, for help, she had also noticed how bossy the males in the class were. In short, it was a complete waste of time and money. I didn't want a table. I wanted to know how to taper legs correctly. My only thought at that point was, "Fuck. This." I gathered up my stuff and walked the hell out.
So, if you're thinking of the Randall Museum for woodworking, perhaps consider City College first. It's free and superior in every way. You may have to be on a waiting list for a while, but it's so worth it. You can take the class four times too! For free! If I hadn't already taken it four times, I would be back there RIGHT NOW! "Furnituremaking and woodworking" is the name of the City College class and it's on the Evans campus. You can find it listed under "Construction"

Here's my $300 piece of shit. I've already started cutting it down into other things.

The Projector Cover

2011-09-12T13:36:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty excited with how the cover for The Projector is shaping up. It's also the first time I've successfully screen printed paper, so that's exciting too!

Woodworking Takes Patience

2011-09-01T07:54:00.000-07:00

Especially when you don't cut it right in the first place.

Summer Memories

2011-08-30T11:59:00.000-07:00

Yeah, summer isn't officially over yet but I had such a great time camping with my family and friends in July that I got inspired for a new design. Like always, this comes on a flour sack dish towel, which in my mind is the only dish towel material worth having. It's my job to dry the dishes in our household so I actually know a thing or two about it. The flour sack is thin enough so that it actually absorbs the water and then it dries in a snap. Anyway, of course I'm biased. Allow me to introduce "Camper".

Art Final

2011-08-22T11:55:00.000-07:00

Perhaps you recall that I took a basic drawing class earlier this year. Our final was to take a still from a film noir and draw it in charcoal. My teacher was really impressed that I went to the library and found an actual book with pictures, rather than just finding one on the internet. Yeah, I'm teacher's pet and I don't care who knows it. I think I picked up a lot of valuable skills from that class that I've already been able to use for The Heated.

Here's the film still I worked from. The actress is Lily Carver and the film is called "Kiss Me Deadly". I may just have to rent it.

Tickets For The Projector

2011-08-17T15:03:00.000-07:00

I've got an idea for the album cover (you know, those 12 songs that I recorded last year, then mixed, added extra vocals to and whittled down to 9 songs). The album will be called The Projector and these tickets will play a part. Notice how the outside ring of tickets are tan and the inside ring of tickets are blue. That's because the sun bleached the heck out of them. I thought I was buying tan tickets but blue is good too.

Location:Guerrero St,San Francisco,United States

The Mission Community Market

2011-08-10T20:03:00.000-07:00

I'm vending at the Mission Community Market tomorrow (Thursday, August 11th). The weather is supposed to be lovely. Come on out to Bartlett Street and at 22nd Street in the Mission (duh). 4:00 pm - 8:00 pm. They were kind enough to give me a little lovin' via their site today. Check it.

Stool For Standing Desk

2011-08-09T15:36:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I switched over to a standing desk at work. I've been actively working on correcting my posture for years now and feel that this is a step in the right direction. Plus, my butt cheeks have left permanent indentations in my office chair and that's just wrong. I've changed my schedule at work so that I'm down to only four days a week so the timing seemed right.

But just as sitting for nine hours a day can't be good for me, neither can standing, so I picked this up at a thrift store over the weekend. When I'm not sitting in it, it's under my desk so I can use the ring around the bottom as a foot rest.

The new set-up really blew my co-workers minds. One woman seemed almost upset at the idea. It's weird when people react so strongly to something that does not affect them at all. I've joked about putting up a sign that says, "Ask me about my standing desk" because nearly everyone wants to talk about it when they first see it. So, be prepared for that if you want to make the change.

My feet have been fine. The only thing that's caused me some discomfort is the back of my calves where they hit the backs of my knees. Who knew that little muscle did so much for standing?

Austin Trip

2011-08-08T14:48:00.000-07:00

This Humble Abode and I went to Austin last week and right before I left, I decided to buy an iPod touch, mostly so that I could have a camera that connected directly to the internet. I didn't end up taking too many pictures while we were there but I'm pretty excited to be able to blog more regularly. My old digital camera has been a real trooper but the batteries run out after about ten pictures and it's a total pain in my ass. Plus, Angry Birds.

Anyway, we stayed with our pals Natalie (who runs Miss Natalie) and Ben (who runs Salt and Time). A good time was had by all, despite the fact that is was over a hundred degrees every day we were there. It really made me appreciate the cool ocean breeze of San Francisco.

Jenny thought this sign was awfully suggestive.

Salt & Time at the HOPE Farmer's Market.

Beer.

Women. They Rock.

2011-08-05T08:07:00.000-07:00

Damn it, I hate that I forgot to post this earlier. What is my problem? At any rate, if you're around tomorrow (Saturday, August 6th), it's the WomenRock (a Bay Area women's music collective) has free music all afternoon/night long at the Box Factory (865 Florida Street, SF). I'm working the bar starting at 2:00 pm and playing a set at 6:00 pm. There will be dishtowels for sale too. You can come by and watch some rocking, then go out to dinner or something, really make a night of it.

Speedball Knows Customer Service

2011-07-18T11:37:00.000-07:00

When I was attempting to learn how to lino cut a few weeks ago, one of the cutters that came with the kit totally broke upon first use. I'm one of those curmudgeons who actually takes the time to write angry letter to my representatives so it shouldn't surprise you that I taped the broken cutter to a note explaining that it had broken and could they please send me a new one. Speedball sent me a whole box of them, which proves to me that they have got their customer service department together. Thanks, Speedball.

Indie Mart Next Sunday, July 24th

2011-07-16T16:45:00.000-07:00

Renegade is clearly the biggest craft fair of the summer (and it went great!) but let me tell you that Indie Mart is nothing to sneeze at either. It's one day of well-selected local designers selling rad stuff on the street behind Thee Parkside in Potrero Hill. I've met some really cool people from this event. Plus, it will give you an excuse to shop and listen to bands (or DJs if that's your thing) while drinking and eating good food. So, it has everything! Say hi if you come by.

Renegade Prep

2011-07-06T17:27:00.000-07:00

Last night we assembled a mock-up of our Renegade Booth (which will be booth #82, by the way) last night in our kitchen. Usually we merchandise while we're in the booth but this time, we actually planned where everything is going to go. It feels like we're getting it down. Renegade is this weekend (July 9th and 10th) so I should hope that we're at least somewhat prepared for it.

We've nicknamed the fixture with the window "Big Ben". Last week, I painted Big Ben black. I think he looks just fine in black.

I've got some new products and designs.

Fishy!

Guess what it says inside?

New Design!

2011-06-30T11:59:00.000-07:00

I don't think I officially introduced everyone to my latest design, "Goldfish". Not too shabby, eh? You can get one online or you can swing by the Renegade Fair at Fort Mason on July 9th and 10th (and get some deals!).

Pride Show This Friday, June24th

2011-06-21T14:54:00.000-07:00

That's right, Wild Side West (424 Cortland, SF 94110) is having me back, this time for a Pride Weekend Party. I'm on first at 8:00 pm and let me tell you that they are serious about this starting on time so get there! It's free and it will be a blast! Woo! Here's a flyer for the show. This flyer is extra-rad because I didn't even have to make it. Someone else did. Someone else! Someone else!

Renegade Craft Fair

2011-06-20T11:08:00.000-07:00

It's Renegade Craft Fair time again! Myself and this humble abode will be sharing booth #82. It's worth noting that the summer fair is back at Fort Mason. This year, preparations have felt much less hectic than in the past. Much of that is due to the fact that this is the first year where I could afford to buy a ton of towels well in advance, so each time I printed a design, I was able to print for Renegade too. It took a few years but I knew that someday I would be able to get my production in line.

I have a new design to introduce at Renegade as well as a few new products to test out. I'm pretty excited to show you what I've got! More information and web flyers can be found here: http://www.renegadecraft.com/san-francisco

Learning Linocut

2011-06-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to learn how to do linocut for a while now. As a screen printer, I feel that it's important for me to have more than one trick up my sleeve and linocut seems like a simple enough way to expand my repertoire. So I dove right in.

I marked my cuts. This design is intended to be sea grass, by the way, for a nautically themed print I've been working on.

Then I got to carving. This part was really fun. I could see doing much more intricate designs in the future.

The inking of the stamp gave me the most trouble. I started out rolling it on this glass sheet I have but after much experimentation, I switched over to a piece of cardboard. You really need to get the ink rolling smoothly in order to create a clear print. After all that, you'd think I got a shot of the print but no, I didn't. The truth is that it looked really weird combined with screen printing. Oh well. At least I have the basics down. I have it on my to-do list to take a picture but I haven't posted in a while and it's starting to give me anxiety. Onward!

Pegboard Towel Rack

2011-05-24T15:21:00.000-07:00

There were a few months this year when we couldn't open our back door because the frame had swollen to such epic proportions that the door didn't fit anymore. While we waited for it to be fixed, we had to "lock" our back door by propping a 2x4 between the door and the wall. Basically, the poor door was a goner and when the rainy season stopped, it got replaced. I had to replace my previous door rack (which was literally a piece of wood with nails hammered into it for hooks) with something wider. I decided to hobble together something out of pegboard to make it more adaptable.

I glued a small piece of MDF to the back of the pegboard. Here it is, clamped and drying.

Here's the finished product. I'd wanted to paint it white to make it a titch less utilitarian (read "ugly") but frankly, I needed to get back to screen printing and didn't have time to wait. This rack is key to my screen printing because it holds my test prints off of the table, keeping everything clean and accessible.

Here's the finished product.

Oh, this? Just one of the first towels I ever printed, hanging out in all its swatch-ed glory.

Punk News Podcast!

2011-05-17T15:16:00.000-07:00

I wish I had made a bigger deal about this when it happened because it may be the single coolest thing that's happened to me this year. Punknews.org is a site that covers punk rock bands. Now, I used to be in a punk rock band but haven't tried to claim that cred for The Heated cuz let's face it, The Heated is a bit tamer than that. But the lovely Rich Verducci took a listen (after an exchange we had on twitter over Dr. Dre and Eminem's wholly unsubstantiated, secret love affair), liked what he heard and was kind enough to include me in their weekly podcast, which you can listen to by going here:http://www.punknews.org/article/42427

I read Punknews every damn day so this is a huge deal for me. Then, when I listened to it, and heard the lovely things Rich had to say about my music, well... it was nothing but pure awesome. Thanks, Punknews! You are the best!

Wild Side West Show Review

2011-05-16T14:44:00.000-07:00

It's crazy how my camera running out of batteries brings my blog to a screeching halt. And by "crazy" I mean "stupid". Anyway, I had a show that I told you all about and I wanted to tell you how it went. It went great! The opening band, Tik-Tik Fly, were rad. I already mentioned that their rhythm section is a tap dancer and their songs were lovely too. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of them. Here's what I did get pictures of. Spoiler alert, they're mostly of me.

Me, rocking. You can tell it's for real because I'm a little blurry.

Still rocking. Look at that hand blur! Wow, I play fast like lightning.

Not a bad crowd for a Sunday afternoon.

The P's and Q's! If you get the chance to see them, do it!

The bartender won a tie from this humble abode in the raffle. Pretty suave, eh?

We had fun!

Doesn't it look like she's shooting something out of her finger? Like magic.

I Have Friends

2011-04-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

Some of you may be surprised to find out that I am not the only one of my friends who write and play music. I know, it's crazy. Rueben deGroot and I go way back, like to 2006. Things were simpler back then. The financial crisis was known back then as the "real estate boom". A fresh-faced Daniel Powter sang to us about having a bad day. Oh, and Rueben lived in San Francisco back then, rather than in Kingston (Canada!) as he does now.

We played music together back then and had general good times. The thing that really sets Rueben apart from most musicians I know is his voice. His beautiful voice. I don't swing that way but if Rueben crooned a song just for me and I'd had a few glasses of wine, I'd consider it. Just saying! Anyway, Rueben came to visit earlier this year and brought me a CD of his most recent album. My CD player is broken and the CD player in my computer makes it sound like an airplane is taking off in my living room so the disc sat around for a few months before I realized that I can actually rip CDs into my hard drive. Duh. I love a few of these songs so much that I really want other people to hear them too so here they are. I would like to especially recommend Mandolin, Little Red Mixer and Baby Wake Up (which tends to get lodged in my head). Anyway, here's what's what.

<a href="http://ruebendegroot.bandcamp.com/album/hey">Hey! by Rueben deGroot</a>

The Union

2011-04-18T10:17:00.000-07:00

I released this video a few weeks ago but hadn't gotten around to posting it on ye olde blog yet. I've played drums for a long time but seeing as how I live in an apartment, I don't get to practice too often. Still, I bust them out for special occasions, like a song that needed some percussion. You can tell that I'm a true band geek by the way that I silence the cymbal during the quiet section. That's some orchestra-level skill right there, people.

Also, somehow I lost all the footage of me playing guitar for this track too. There are lots of guitars squeezed into this song and I was hoping to show that. Oh well. Next time.

If you're interested in more details (like lyrics) you can click here: http://theheated.bandcamp.com/track/the-union

Show May 1st!

2011-04-15T11:32:00.000-07:00

There's a rad show coming up that I want to tell you about. It's not just rad because I'm playing, it's rad because it's a fundraiser for my friends who are participating in the AIDS Lifecycle. I'm really impressed with people who set big goals (like traveling from San Francisco to Los Angeles on a bicycle) so, of course I want to help out. To help, I made a flyer. Making a flyer, while having its own set of difficulties, is not as hard as riding a bicycle from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Just for the record. The event starts at 3:00 pm and the music will start around 4:00 pm. I'm on second so you do the math.

Here's the flyer. Not bad, huh? Feel free to grab it and use it however you want.

The whole process for the flyer started with some felt.

I wanted to create a scene from the ride itself and have been a little obsessed with that whale recently, so why not throw that in too?

I was having trouble figuring out how the whole thing was going to stick together until I remembered that I have an adhesive specifically for getting fabric to stick to things.

Last time I opened up this adhesive, it had separated a bit so I wrote a note on top to remind me to mix it up.

After all my felt pieces had a good amount of adhesive on them, I left them to dry overnight.

Here's a picture of Jenny taking a picture to be turned into a flyer. It's all very meta.

Baguettes

2011-04-12T15:21:00.000-07:00

The latest round of bread baking went way better than the first round. I decided to attempt baguettes. Here is the recipe I used: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/classic-baguettes-and-stuffed-baguettes/i-recipe#

One of my neighbors has recently gotten into baking too and she let me in on a secret way to proof the bread: boil some water and pour it in a pan, leave the pan in the bottom of a cool oven and let your bread rise in there. So, I did that and I got my bread to rise! I ended up with loaves that were nicely chewy, although they could have been a bit lighter and the crust could have been a little crispier. But overall, I was quite pleased.

Here are the loaves sitting on my heater. I only left them there for about 15 minutes right at the end of their multiple rises, while I preheated the oven.

Here they are before I tossed them in. Not bad, ed?

And here they are fresh from the oven. The recipe said to let them cool in the oven to get extra crisp crust. I don't know that I would describe my crust as extra crisp but it was definitely not chewy!

Aw yeah! Bread.

Helpful Neighbor

2011-04-06T13:55:00.000-07:00

Last week, our neighbor knocked on our door and asked if we could help him and his twelve year old son move a couch upstairs. They had already gotten the couch up in the doorway but it was too heavy for them to get up the stairs by themselves. Jenny and I helped maneuver it up the flight of stairs, down the hall and into the far room. On the way down the hall, the dad knocked a photo that belongs to his wife off the wall and the frame totally cracked apart.

"She's gonna be pissed," the dad said.

"Well, maybe not. She knows what happens when you leave men alone," I replied.

"Did you hear that?" he asked his son. "She thinks we're men!"

The glass in the frame didn't break. It was just the corners that blew apart on impact. "I can fix it," I told them. I took the frame from them, clamped and glued it up, let it set, cleaned it and put it back together. If you ever get the chance to live next door to us, don't pass it up. Just sayin'.

Art Class

2011-04-05T11:28:00.000-07:00

Last week was spring break. Normally that means nothing to me but this year, I'm actually taking a class that's not strictly online so it felt like a real break to have a week of from a class that meets twice a week. The class is basic drawing and it has been really helpful in showing me actual drawing techniques.

This one was created by taking a piece of a plant, laying it down on a piece of paper with a grid drawn on it and translating that to a larger scale grid on my drawing pad. Then we colored in all the negative space.

This wasn't part of our homework but I used some techniques to make a design I had been thinking about for a dish towel. It's new for me to work on such a large scale but I'd say it's working.

I also don't usually use a felt tip pen but to get thinner lines for screen printing, I went big with thicker lines and then shrunk it down in the computer for output to a screen.

Here's a smaller piece of the crocus.

Here's a picture of the finished design, printed on a towel. I call it Spring Bulbs.

Another Whale

2011-03-31T09:05:00.000-07:00

A long time ago, when I was still in woodworking class and had access to fancy machines, I made a whale from some scrap wood. It came out so cute that I've always wanted to make more of them but have been feeling like I don't have the right tools. Then it occurred to me that people have been woodworking without fancy tools for centuries so I should suck it up and give it a go and so I did.

First, I made a dark, clean outline for my cuts from a stencil I created. The original tail of the first whale I made never felt quite right to me so I tried a different shape for this one.

Making sure that your outline is clear really helps guide the process.

Then I started hacking with my miter hand saw and a small jigsaw that I'm clumsily learning to use.

Once I got the basic shape cut out, then I started hacking at it with my chisels.

The process moves slowly, especially since this is the first one I've done in a while. I still have a long way to go and that tail still doesn't feel right to me but I'm working on it. That whale will be smiling in no time.

Gastronome

2011-03-30T10:58:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty excited to have been a part of a new magazine out of Australia called Gastronome. They interviewed me (which, as you know, I love) and I sent some Party Bird's over for a giveaway they're doing. You can check out the preview here: http://www.facebook.com/GastronomeMag?sk=app_4949752878

Biking Casualty

2011-03-28T09:35:00.000-07:00

I've had my first bicycling casualty. I was riding up 15th street as it started to rain. It wasn't raining too hard but there was enough water that it was getting all over my glasses. So, I plucked them off my face and put them in my breast pocket. As I was clearing the crosswalk at 15th and Valencia, they flew out of my pocket and into the street. So, I pulled over and went back for them but it was too late. A car tire had gotten there first. Dang it.

I don't wear my glasses too often unless I'm driving, riding my bike or going someplace where I want to see what's happening far away from me, like a concert, a ball game or a bar where the menu is posted up on the wall in tiny font. This is the first pair of glasses I've had so I'm sad to see them go. Please allow this blurry picture to demonstrate the damage. On the plus side, now I get to pick out some cute new ones and I've learned a lesson about putting things in my inside pocket while riding my bike.

The Cover Of Dwell('s website)

2011-03-04T08:38:00.000-08:00

I kid, I kid, I was not on the cover of Dwell. I was however their product of the day last Friday, which is just rad. The product that made it up there is my new tote bag. These tote bags are great because they're certified organic and made in the U.S.A. I have one more tote design too.

To be honest, it's been a real pain to print on them. I've gotten so used to printing on plain, non-bumpy cotton that it's taken a bit of cursing and luck to get somewhat consistent prints on this new, totally bumpy canvas. I know I can figure it out and I definitely remember all the cursing when I first started to screen print so this brings back those happy memories! At any rate, a huge thanks to Jordan at Dwell for keeping The Heated on her radar.

Photo Booth

2011-02-22T10:33:00.000-08:00

My wife and I live in a cave. Ok, it's not really a cave. We live in a lovely apartment that has the same lighting characteristics as a cave. Without strong natural light, it's a real pain to take lovely product photos and since we both have businesses (you can see my wife's lovely items here), I thought it best to create an amateur photo rig. She posted a few photos of the results on her blog: http://thishumbleabode.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-lighting-rig.html

I was inspired by this article at Craft but decided that we needed a strong white background against which to take our photos. So, I put a little something together.

I started with some scrap hardboard I had lying around. This particular hardboard had a fake wainscoting routed into one side but I was never able to really use it for anything so I went ahead and cut it down.

I made the first cut with my jigsaw. The 2x4 is clamped on there to act as a guide for my jigsaw. But honestly, no matter how careful I am, the cut always comes out all wonky. I made the second cut by hand, just following a straight line I'd marked and it came out way better. But I was careful to make sure that I would have at least one edge that was cut at the factory, so I could be sure to have one true, flat line as the base of my background so that it wouldn't be all wobbly.

Here are the three pieces I cut. The next step was to apply some hinges. Since the hardboard is only 1/8" thick, I used machine bolts capped with nuts on the other side to hold the hinges on. If I had tried to use plain wood screws, I don't think the hardboard would have been thick enough to give me the hold I needed. The last thing I wanted was to get all the hinges on there only to have them rip out.

Once I had the hinges on, I slapped on three coats of flat white paint.

Now, I have a free-standing background. I taped a piece of white paper to the back and picked up a few photoflood bulbs from a local photography store. I placed these bulbs in those clamp-on light fixtures I got at a hardware store. Results so far have been mixed. Jenny got a few really great shots of her ties but my towels and totes have been a different story. It's hard to photograph white and off-white fabric against a white background. It may require a few more lights to get it right. So, we'll keep trying.

We Stand In Front, In Video Form!

2011-02-14T08:29:00.000-08:00

When recording the final track for the Twelve Songs Project, I decided to go ahead and make a video too. Last time I did this, my recording engineer got on my case for not turning the actual audio from the video recording up a bit to give it more of a room sound. So, I did that this time. Oh, how I wish I'd taken video of me playing the guitar solo too. Playing guitar solos makes me feel like a real badass!

Fresh Baked Bread

2011-01-31T15:21:00.000-08:00

Every new year, I resolve to bake more. This year, I appear to be on it! Check out this wheat bread I baked recently. Looks perfect, right? It kind of is except it was a little dry and I made way more than our humble, two-person household should consume at once. So, next time I think that I'm going to use more white than wheat flour and see if I can fix the dryness factor.

I'm still thinking about a theme for this year's resolutions. This year is going to be all about expansion and building on the groundwork I've already laid in both my screen printing business and my music.I have an album's worth of songs to release and I'm taking a drawing class in the hopes of taking my design work to the next level. I actually accomplished all of last year's resolutions, which makes me very happy. So this year, I'm thinking this is what needs to get done. I just need to remember that resolutions are like the bread in that they're probably not going to be right the first time.

Bring creativity back. I've been working so hard to lay the groundwork for The Heated and it's good work but I've had to put more of the creative work on hold to do it. It's time to get back to the creative stuff now and I'm really excited about that.
Read more books. I don't have cable but that doesn't stop me from getting in some television time before bed every night. I'd like to change a lot of those television nights to reading nights. So far, I've read Just Kids (it was great!) and am working on A Guide To The Good Life.
Release an album. Release videos around the album.
Put things off until I have to do them. This may sound counter-intuitive but I've found that a lot of my stress comes from not getting things on my to-do list done because I've tried to schedule a bit of extra time in there. So I'm going to open up my interpretation of my to-do list in that if something is listed at to-do on a Monday, it doesn't really need to get done until it really needs to get done and I'm not going to worry about things until then. Make sense?
Oh, and I almost forgot, bake more.

Tiny Little Stonehenge

2011-01-25T12:38:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, I rode my bike out to Heron's Head Park, in the Bayview district. I'd been meaning to go check it out for a long time but just haven't had the time. But this past weekend was uncharacteristically warm, especially for January so I made sure to get out there.

Heron's Head Park is a restored marsh surrounded by industrial blight. Of course, that was something I learned only after getting out there. I don't know why I had pictured it to be more of an oasis than it was and maybe I didn't venture far enough out in the marsh itself to get that feeling of being surrounded by natural beauty. As it stands, I was surrounded by a dump, a ship-yard and a PG&E plant.

I've been drawn to this neighborhood many times before. My furniture class was around the corner and I've been up on that notorious hill for work. It's made guest appearances in my dreams. Who knows why certain places call out to you and get trapped in your subconscious?

Off to the right is the most notoriously violent housing project in San Francisco. They also have amazing views and it's only a matter of time before they're ripped down and turned into condos. I'm just editorializing here but truly, I'm amazed they've been standing for as long as they have.

I believe the little outlet with the trees is India Basin. Clearly, it's a little more polished and I'd like to get a better look at it. Next time.

Honestly, I like the look of nature surrounded by industry. Something about the juxtaposition, the ugly and the beautiful, holds meaning. It makes the ugly beautiful. No small feat.

You can barely make out the small dots on the water but those are all birds. The biggest attraction of the park, besides the eco-center (which was closed when I arrived but is a nice little building with a living roof, rain catch system, etc), is the birds. I saw more than one older gentleman with those one-legged camera stands, fitted with telephoto lenses. If you are into bird watching, get out there ASAP.

This miniature Stonehenge was constructed on a bench. I sat next to it and scarfed down a "chocolate thing" from Arizmendi. Heron's Head wasn't exactly what I was expecting but I think I need to give it another go and get all the way in the marsh to really see what it's all about.

Hey, East Bay!

2011-01-19T20:26:00.000-08:00

Cmon! My picture is directly on the flyer!

Friday, Jan. 21st
1608 Webster Street, Oakland CA
10:00 pm

Tea and Travel Interview

2011-01-13T08:30:00.000-08:00

It's very exciting for me when someone wants to do an interview with me. I certainly can't be the only one who spent time in her younger years answering imaginary interview questions, right? Guys? Ahem. No? Ok, then. Anyway, this feature was atypical for me as it was not design or music focused but rather, tea focused. How rad is that? Anyway, you should check the feature out and check out the whole blog in general. Many thanks to Deborah Huff for thinking of me.

Twelve Songs Project Complete!

2011-01-10T14:39:00.000-08:00

I'm extremely pleased to announce that my quest to record and release one song a month for all of 2010 is complete! Now there is the business of further mixing and culling until I have an actual album to release. I'd like to thank all of you who lent their support in various ways. This could not have happened without you and you are awesome.

It's Coming!

2010-12-08T21:06:00.000-08:00

And I'll be there.

Market SF

2010-12-03T08:38:00.000-08:00

I was really excited last night to be able to stop working at 9:00 pm. What I'm trying to say is that I've been busy and I should have told you about this sooner but if you're in the mission on Saturday and in the mood to shop and possible drink at the same time, get thee to Market SF and do just that. I'll be there with my dish towels (oh, and I have a sale happening right now: 10% off if you use the code HOLIDAY2010 at checkout) and Jenny will be there with all her this humble abode awesomeness.

Off The Line

2010-11-30T10:26:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to squeeze some new products into The Heated's line up. I'm considering prints, as you can see below. I also got the most beautiful tote bags in the mail yesterday. They're made in San Francisco from organic cotton so that's rad. It's great to integrate the buying local ethos into my supply chain so smoothly. You'll have a chance to check them out soon.

Craft Night!

2010-11-16T13:30:00.000-08:00

Have I mentioned that I'm hosting a gathering of local crafters next week? The Heated is playing a show at Mojito (1337 Grant Avenue, San Francisco) next week (Tuesday, November 23rd) and my set is really long (9:30 pm - 12:00 am). My special guest, drummer Zarah Gamaldi (founder of Crafters Local 415), suggested that we make it a craft night so that people can get some work done and get to know other local crafty types while we play. The show is free, parking is plentiful and we'll have the space set up so you can get some work done. You'll also have a chance to win a screen printed tea towel. So, that's cool.

Note: I realized that I put the cross street as Grant and Vallejo when Mojito is in fact, on Grant. The cross streets are GREEN and Vallejo. My bad.

The Apartment Tree

2010-11-15T13:47:00.000-08:00

Maybe I've already talked about the notebook I keep, or rather, notebooks as I'm now on my third one. I started keeping a notebook with me to write down all the things I need to get done, along with ideas on things I'd like to do someday. Mostly, these notebooks are big to-do lists but I also like to doodle and write down my dreams sometimes. I've found it tremendously useful to have a place where I can put things so I won't forget them. But you do have to remember to go back through them from time to time. Recently I went back through one from last year and was struck by the fact that not only did I remember to do this but that I hit the nail on the head with my little sketch. This is a new design I'm unveiling for the holidays and I call it "Apartment Tree".

note: As I was writing this blog post, I realized that my intention last year was not to design a dish towel but rather to actually make miniature trees! Maybe next year.

Last year's notebook reads, "Maybe next holiday season, you could make little 'Apartment Trees'?"

On the left is a folded dish towel that I created this holiday season.

Press Performance

2010-11-12T10:12:00.000-08:00

It's important to keep your equipment in good repair so I recently gave my printing press a tune-up. I scraped all the old adhesive, lint and ink off of it then I applied a fresh coat of adhesive. You could use a spray adhesive while you're screen printing but I hate spray adhesive. It's toxic and it can mess up your screens if any of the airborne adhesive drifts on to them. Plus it irritated my allergies. I prefer to use a spreadable adhesive called Table Tac. I also cleaned the hinges with some steel wool and then got some candle wax up in there to keep them from rusting. It's damp in that back room.

So shiny and fresh!

I wish I had a before shot of the press but I don't. Here it is all cleaned up.

I put these felt strips on the ends of the screen to keep the screen from resting on the press itself. This way the screen only comes into contact with the material I'm printing when I apply pressure with my squeegee. That helps with getting a sharper print. Raising the screen a little is called "offsetting".

Um... I used to forget to offset all the time but not anymore.

I also used to forget to lint roll, but not anymore.

I was making some green ink. Custom color!

My wife said the dishes pile looked pretty nice. I agreed and took a picture.

Here are towels waiting to be printed. The clothespins mark the center of the towel It's quite a pile I've got stacked up.

Better Homes & Gardens

2010-11-10T10:23:00.000-08:00

In early November, I started selling red Party Birds out of nowhere. Months earlier I had sent a red Party Bird to Better Homes & Gardens so I was hoping that was it. A customer on Etsy confirmed that it was indeed featured in Better Homes & Gardens but when I went to the store, they only had the October issue and it wasn't in there.
Then my brother called and said that he receives a subscription (he totally tried to pawn this fact off as his grandmother-in-law's fault, by the way) and I wasn't in the November issue. So, I contacted that nice Etsy customer and she let me know it was in a special interest publication titled Food Gifts. It looks great! I couldn't be happier with the way they presented it. Also of note is the fact that there is a bacon creation in the glass pan. Yum.

Me Play Drums

2010-11-07T18:21:00.000-08:00

I found this old blog post that I never got around to editing. It probably had something to do with me playing drums. That seems as good a segue as any to tell you that I have a new song out called "The Flood Building". Yet, there is no snare drum in "The Flood Building". But there are shakers so... close enough?

Yeah, that Dwell!

2010-11-04T16:06:00.000-07:00

The most exciting thing happened a few days ago. The Heated's very own Design Advice towel was chosen as the "Product of the Day" by Dwell magazine. Here's a picture of what that looked like and here's Dwell's website.

The Union

2010-10-12T12:13:00.000-07:00

The latest song from The Heated is out now. It's a song about a lot of things but I would say that the main theme is that sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do in order to make it. I think that's called growing up or something.

<a href="http://theheated.bandcamp.com/album/12-songs-project">12 Songs Project by The Heated</a>

Anyway, I'll let you in on a little secret. C'mon and get a little closer. A little closer. A little... oh, that's too close. Whoa. Ok, I shot video of the recording process behind this song and hope to have it released ASAP. ASAP may be a few weeks to a month. But I've really been wanting to show you all what goes in to this project. It's a lot of me making funny faces with headphones on.

Trash Can Pannier

2010-10-01T11:31:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I started riding a bike. I mean, I've ridden bikes before but not in the last two decades. But all of a sudden, I had a new commute and I wanted to give biking a try. So far, I love it. Yes, the cars make me nervous at times. But since I am a safety nerd, I took a road-skills class offered through the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. It's free(!) so if you've wanted to start riding in the city, I highly recommend this course. The fewer jerk bicyclists we have blowing through stop signs during rush hour traffic, the better. It's made me a better rider and made me feel a lot more comfortable and safe riding on the streets of San Francisco.

Anyway, I'm a big believer in hand signals but found that trying to signal with a bag on my back was difficult. I take my lunch with me to work every day so not taking a bag is not an option. After brief research on panniers and how much they cost, I figured there must be something cheaper out there. I checked out some Instructables panniers and finally settled on a trash can pannier after coming across this guy's post. Most of the plans I looked at were for ones that can be removed easily. Since I live in a city where anything not bolted down can disappear, that was not an option so I used zip ties to keep it attached. Here's what's up.

Materials:

small plastic trash can

zip ties

Tools:

drill

snips (I'm sure that scissors would work too)

permanent marker

I found a small trash can at my local hardware store for less than five dollars. As I already owned the zip ties, that makes the total cost of this project less than five dollars. I am awesome.

I started by getting the location right, making sure that the trash can was far enough back that I wouldn't kick it while pedaling. I marked the points where it hits the rack with permanent marker.

Then I cut between the marked lines with my snips.

Once I got it snipped to my satisfaction, I marked where I wanted the zip ties to go through. They attach around the bike rack. I used two on the top and two along the side. I drilled on both sides of the lines, using a bit large enough for the zip ties to pass through.

When I fastened the trash can to the rack, I made sure that the part where the zip tie tightens was on the outside of the rack, not inside of the trash can. Once you cut the slack from zip ties it leaves a really sharp edge and that's the last thing you want inside your pannier.In fact, I sanded the edges of the cuts I made in the trash can too. I like it smooth, baby.

Make sure cut the slack once your zip ties have been fastened. You don't want anything interfering with your back wheel.

That's it.

Done and ready. When riding, the helmet is on my head, not in the basket. But now I have a handy place to store all of my safety gear.

I want to put one on the other side now. There's enough room for my shoulder bag (including lunch) and a bike lock in the pannier but not enough for my nicer work jacket. An additional pannier on the other side should be enough room.

If you think I don't know that it's ugly as sin, you're wrong. But that's not the point. These puppies are light, functional and I have a hard time picturing someone wanting to steal them. Plus, I can put reflective tape on them and up the safety. I haven't made the covers for them yet. Once it starts raining, I'll get those together.

The Heated performing at Bike Church... 'nuff said

2010-09-28T21:44:00.000-07:00

Let Us Pray ...and Drink Coffee

2010-09-15T18:16:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty damn excited about the show (Bike Church) I'm playing this weekend at Manifesto Bicycles for a few reasons. One good reason is that I used to work with one of the owners and am expecting to have an old work reunion of sorts. Also, you know I love playing with Winfred E. Eye. This may be the last show I play for a little while too.

It's not that I don't like playing live. In fact, I love it. But I've come to this realization lately that my friends can't come to the shows I play very often because we're adults with day jobs. It's hard to stay out late for me and for you. So, I'm going to shift my focus towards more daytime shows (like Bike Church!) and online video goodness. I'm still working on all the details but in the meantime, get your ass out to the East Bay and eat some brunch (Jon's Street Eats) while drinking half priced coffee from Sub Rosa, then go shopping at 1234 Go! Records.This shindig kicks off at 11:00 am.

Leaving The House With The Burner On

2010-09-08T21:09:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is the latest from The Heated. Uh... it's a little dark. People like getting depressed, right?

<a href="http://theheated.bandcamp.com/track/leaving-the-house-with-the-burner-on">Leaving The House With The Burner On by The Heated</a>

Cheap Beer Taste Test

2010-08-30T16:06:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, Uptown Almanac (that's a local blog for people who think Mission Mission got too popular and sold out, man) ran a story about a cheap beer taste test. Clearly, the concept stuck with me and a few weeks ago, I held one of my own. The big winner? Tecate! The bowls on the table have salsa in them. You've got to have a palate cleanser, people.

I doubt their party had these handy scoring sheets. Then again, I doubt their party had old nerds like me in attendance. Anyway, if you want a copy of the scoring sheet to hold a party of your own, hit me up. I really should edit them to have "meh" as the middle rating and "ewwww" as the lowest rating, which is what Foster's got from all of us. It's Australian for "skunky", mate.

Not El Rio, El Rincon

2010-08-23T20:48:00.000-07:00

I'm having this stupid anxiety that because I've been playing at El Rio so much that people will get confused and go there this Friday when really I'm playing at El Rincon. El Rincon was recently shut down for a few nights when a cop got shot in the foot out front (after the club had closed, it is worth noting). So that probably means cheap drink specials? It's on 16th at Harrison. You'll recognize the sign from when you go to that weird little shopping center near Potrero. See?

Anyway, I'm opening (9:00 pm and you know I don't do tardy) and The Better Maker is playing too along with some Portlanders. Those Portlanders know a thing or two about what makes music lovely so get your ass out for what promises to be a somewhat terrifying evening. I'm kidding. No one will get shot. Someone might get shots. Probably not me.

Making. And Rocking.

2010-08-18T20:26:00.000-07:00

The 3rd Annual Rock Make Festival is totally on this weekend. I will be there with my tea towels, ready to take the whole damn thing by storm. Hopefully not a literal storm. Anywho, my booth will be along 18th Street. There are going to be beer gardens and a ton of amazing bands. Here is an example of an amazing San Francisco band called Tartufi that also happens to organize the music aspect of this happening*. What they do is insane, both musically and organizationally.

(*In San Francisco, we call them happenings. I'm kidding. Don't call it that.)

The Middle Of The Night

2010-08-16T21:12:00.000-07:00

I played a show last week at the always lovely El Rio. The sound on this recording came out pretty good. The room was quiet. I think I had their attention. Chalk one up for Cristina. Check out how the mural's toe on the wall was about to go up my nose. If you'd like to hear another version, you can go here: http://theheated.bandcamp.com/track/vigilance

Ionosphere

2010-08-06T14:51:00.000-07:00

I released a new song then forgot to put it on my blog again. Bad blogger, bad. Anyway, here's Ionosphere. The story behind this recording is that it was done in my sister-in-law's tiny camper while on vacation with a group of friends (luckily, my recording engineer was among them) along the coast of Northern California.

<a href="http://theheated.bandcamp.com/album/12-songs-project">Ionosphere by The Heated</a>

Window Shopping

2010-07-25T17:26:00.000-07:00

Check out what my friend Gitane (who makes these too!) saw while in Portland, OR. Those are my towels, just hanging out in Elsa & Sam's lovely shop. Exciting!

...In Which The Heated Is Asked To Play With Two Remarkable Strangers From Texas

2010-07-19T18:17:00.000-07:00

Look, with Renegade around the corner, time is a commodity that I am short on and I already wrote the dorky press release for this show when I listed it on so I'm going to just post that. Is that ok? You'll still show up, right? I'm headlining, people!

Press Release: The email The Heated received from Golden Arrow Holy Face & Wols had the following subject. "...In Which The Heated Is Asked To Play With Two Remarkable Strangers From Texas." The Heated is based in San Francisco and the remarkable strangers, engaged in touring, received word from a friend in the area that The Heated is your go-to when looking for a bedroom folk companion on a bill at El Rio. It all came together and now you have the fortune of catching a great night of local and touring music at one of your favorite bars. But wait, that's not all. Opening the evening is Charles Sommer of The Cannery. All of this for only $4.00 at one of the best bars in town. 9:00 pm start time.

Mama Buzz show with Tracy Minicucci

2010-07-18T12:44:00.000-07:00

East Bay. Holler! Check out what's up, my friends across the bay. Free and all ages, so you can bring your baby or even your teenage child. Bring 'em if you got 'em. Mama Buzz Cafe. Saturday, August 7th. 8:00 pm.

It Was Wild

2010-07-15T21:17:00.000-07:00

That show at Wild Side West was almost the highlight of Pride Weekend but not quite. The highlight of Pride Weekend was the party that happened at my house after the Dyke March. The party happens every year because I live close enough to Dolores Park to walk and everyone needs to pee. I made fried chicken. It was delicious. Other than that and the Wild Side West show, I laid really low this Pride. What can I say? I'm an old lesbian or something. I stayed up until midnight. Party!

The Wild Side West show was really fun though. There's something about playing in the middle of a bar that just can't be matched. The bar was very receptive to both The Heated and Audrey Howard. Audrey pretty much always brings the house down because she plays hard rock guitar like a bad ass. I'm jealous of how hard she rocks. I'm so earnest and dorky and she's just cool. Sigh. Swoon. Anyway...

Oh, and wifey made me a tie. I guess I'm pimping her ties lately. Whatever. They make me swoon too.

I've Been Ignoring You Again

2010-07-12T20:48:00.000-07:00

It gets this way around big craft shows (Renegade Fair is coming!). The house is in complete disarray. There are towels strewn in the hallway (your brown owl is coming soon, my etsy orderer), the front room is crowded with wifey's ties and the kitchen... well, actually the kitchen is clean. Go us! We're actually constructing a complete new booth this time around and it's given me a chance to use my (finally) installed vise on my new workbench! Check it.

First, I had to build up the thickness of enough of the table to support the screws on the underside of the vise. If I had it to do over again, I would have extended this longer than I did. It's a little saggy in the middle.

I glued it once.

Then added another layer.

I attached the vise to the underside of the table and installed the legs.

Then I screwed a section of 2x4 into the wall to anchor the table to, for added stability.

Finally, it was standing. I put a coat of oil then wax on it. That's supposed to be good or something. I'm making stuff. I'll show it to you soon.

The Song About Jerks

2010-07-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

Yes, I've written a song about how people are jerks and how I can't stop obsessing about how people are jerks. It's also a little bit about Moses. Anyway, it's called Vigilance. You can listen to it. Right now!

<a href="http://theheated.bandcamp.com/album/12-songs-project">Vigilance by The Heated</a>

Wild Side West Show Next Thursday, June 24th

2010-06-18T14:05:00.000-07:00

That's right, me and my friend Audrey are going to tear it up right before Pride weekend. The Wild Side West is a neighborhood gay bar, which means that it's filled with all kinds of weird, local people so get your weird ass out there for a free show! I tried to make the flyer a little Westerny, just for you!

Rockit Room Show Review

2010-06-09T20:49:00.000-07:00

Let me start off by saying this was clearly Erica Dreisbach's show. She lives in Brooklyn now but used to live in San Francisco so all of her nice friends came out for this special show, as nice friends do. Of course, Erica and her ukulele killed it. I mean, she was funny, her songs are funny and she had granny-panties for sale. What's not to love? The whole room sang along. Yeah, yeah. So, she killed it... it's a tough act to follow, man.

Sure, I could bullshit you with some story of triumph, how the whole room became entranced with my music and I had to bat the ladies away with a stick (which, I would never do, ladies). But the truth is that the all the good people who showed up to see Erica did what people do, hung out and talked whilst drinking during my set. It was cool and there were moments when I had the room almost quiet with my musical sorcery, which I am going to consider a success. Plus, Broke Ass Stuart and Dustin Shey (overall creative dude about SF who writes, makes music and understands the webs) both gave the show a twitter shout out (do you care about twitter? I am here: http://twitter.com/theheated), and getting people interested on a larger scale is what it's all about folks. Plus, it was really cool to play acoustic once more. I think I'll do that again. A huge thank you to The Heated supporters who came out. Your presence is more appreciated than you could ever know. Overall, I give this show a rating of good!

Pirate Cat Radio

2010-06-06T09:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Erica Dreisbach and I got our promotion on over at Pirate Cat Radio. We each played a twenty minute set and got interviewed by Kieran, who DJs the show Torrential Dissonance and was kind enough to book us in the first place. It went so well, which is really nice because I have gotten super-nervous in radio interviews before. Once, I literally forgot my name on-air. I'm so grateful that Pirate Cat exists. Where else can local nobodies such as myself come around to plug their stuff? Anyway, now is not then and I don't mean to brag but we nailed it! Come to our show on Monday at the Rockit Room in the Inner Richmond and witness our awesome!

Podcast of our performances can be found here, about three quarters of the way in: http://podcasts.dreamhosters.com/pcr/TorrentialDissonance2/TorrentialDissonance2-20100605.mp3

Ohio

2010-05-31T14:00:00.000-07:00

The latest effort from The Heated is out now. Check out Ohio below. You may have noticed that I changed the cover art of the 12 Songs Project. Really, the first one was thrown together quite hastily and it showed. So I made a new one. Improvement, yes?

<a href="http://theheated.bandcamp.com/track/ohio">Ohio by The Heated</a>

poppy(shop)

2010-05-30T12:35:00.000-07:00

For those of you in the East Bay, check out Poppy Shop next weekend (June 4th - June 6th). This pop-up shop features great artists (and me!) and should be so very cool.

Details:

poppy(shop)
June 4-6
11 am to 6 pm
3217 Lakeshore Ave
Oakland, CA 94610

Indie Mart

2010-05-30T12:13:00.000-07:00

I've heard such good things about Indie Mart that I decided to apply and I got in! Come check it out next Sunday, June 6th outside of Thee Parkside in Potrero Hill (San Francisco). There will be some amazing goods available, made by local merchants. There will be music, drinking, DJs and BBQ! Not to be missed!

Modern Problems

2010-05-27T10:53:00.000-07:00

The flyer for this upcoming show at the Rockit Room (Monday, June 7th) is making me giggle. Get off the phone, mousey! This show will be acoustic which is really where I started out so I'm excited to see how it goes. Please note this show is free and I may be inclined to buy a few pitchers for fans. If that's you, let me know when you arrive and beer shall be yours. Not that I'm bribing you (hint: I'm bribing you).

Rockit Room: http://www.rock-it-room.com/

Damion Wolfe: http://www.myspace.com/damionwolfe

The Heated (that's me!): http://www.theheated.com

Erica Dreisbach: http://www.myspace.com/ericadreisbach

House Party 2

2010-05-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

So, I wasn't the only one to think the potluck at Chicken John's warehouse was rad. Check it out. That's my wife's recipe, by the way. She makes a mean cocktail, it's true.

Highly Unsettling

2010-05-20T18:01:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure I speak for everyone when I say, "Auuugghhhhh"!

House Party

2010-05-18T20:10:00.000-07:00

The night after the Underground Farmers Market, Iso Rabbins had asked if I would play at a party they were having the next night in some warehouse in the Mission. Of course I said yes. I had a wedding to go to earlier in the day (which was just the cutest wedding ever!) so I packed all the gear up in the car and went straight from the wedding to the warehouse. There had been some confusion the night before over the address of the warehouse but everyone kept saying, "It's a big, red warehouse with a mural on the side that says 'Fail To Win'."

I'm one of those nervous types that researches exactly where things are before I go. Who are you people who just kind of head out in a general direction and expect to arrive with no problems? I need cross streets! So, of course I researched exactly where I was going and realized that I was going to Chicken John's warehouse. To those of you outside of San Francisco this might not ring a bell but for those of you in SF, well, it still might not ring a bell but the man ran for mayor and it was hilarious. He was a lovely host and I'm sick with jealousy over his warehouse space. The show itself was really cool because it was just good people hanging out in a great space, eating good food and generally enjoying each others company. Plus, there was a beer-brewing demonstration.

The stress of the whole weekend took a bit of a toll though and by Monday morning, my throat was on fire and my sinuses were all blocked up, which was terrible news because I had a show on Wednesday at El Rio. I took it easy and drank a ton of my favorite drink when I'm sick (lemon juice, ginger and honey) and was feeling fine by Wednesday for the show. (to be cont...)

For The Greater Good

2010-05-07T14:04:00.000-07:00

Dang it. I keep forgetting to immediately post here when new songs go up. For your consideration, For The Greater Good.

<a href="http://theheated.bandcamp.com/album/12-songs-project">For The Greater Good by The Heated</a>

Playing To A Crowd Of 2,000

2010-05-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

You heard that I played at the Underground Farmers Market, yes? To be honest, the whole thing was overwhelming but ended up being great. First off, the line to get in was crazy long. Of course, I got the skip the line (but then was too nervous to eat) into the SOMArts building and was greeted with wall-to-wall people, buying and eating great food. There was a stage at one end of the venue that looked out to all the vendors and the surrounding mass of people. So, I set up my stuff and played and it was a little weird. No one was there to see me specifically or to even hear music so I figured my role was to provide a little entertainment. Was it the best performance of my life? Hell no.

My tuner wouldn't work, which was ok until my guitar went out of tune. Tuning just isn't really my thing, which is why I bought a damn tuner. It could have been something with the building's electricity. All I know is that it threw me off. That and I was worried I was blowing out the eardrums of all the vendor's near me. Of course, I asked them if it was too loud but were they telling me the truth when they said no? Was I killing their business? This is how anxiety-ridden people operate. Luckily, I came armed with a variety of cover songs. Which song finally won everyone over and made me feel like the night was totally worth it? "When You Were Mine" by a certain Prince Rogers Nelson but popularized by Cyndi Lauper. I have more show to review but as always, time is a factor so I leave you with this.

Not So Fast

2010-05-01T13:03:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be so easy to install the vise I bought but it turns out I have to build a whole new workbench. There's a lesson in there somewhere about needing a workbench with a vise to build a workbench but I'll be damned if I know what it is. All I know is, this is going to take a while.

Measuring. That's a good first step.

Gouging a large chunk of wood from the current work table. Why not?

Doing the whole thing with my bare hands. Fun!

Close to accepting that it's just not going to work.

Wednesday April 21st, My Party People

2010-04-15T19:04:00.000-07:00

What are you doing next Wednesday? You know you don't have plans. I know you don't have plans. Come to my show. The Matinees and The Better Maker will be playing. The Better Maker even made this flyer just for the show?

Why don't you come? Oh, you have work the next day? Psh, I'm on at 9:00. You'll be in bed at a decent hour. Oh, you don't have five dollars? Can't help you there, loser. Ok, ok, I'm sorry. That was mean. I'll buy you a beer. No, just one beer. Fine, two beers and a hooker. Come to my show!

New Design Advice

2010-04-12T21:49:00.000-07:00

My screens turned out! I love new designs. It came out so crisp too (though you can't quite tell from my blurry pictures... holding still is hard). I'm a real screen printer!

Saturday Chores

2010-04-10T15:30:00.000-07:00

I don't mind burning screens so much anymore. Today, I went three for three. One is a new design. One is a new screen for an old design. One is a secret. Tomorrow, I'll test them and really see what's what.

Vise

2010-04-06T19:47:00.000-07:00

Last week, my wife texted me and said, "Your vice is here." Since I am a complete and total ass, I texted back, "My vice is at home in the liquor cabinet. What you have there is a vise," and so it is! I've really wanted one for a long time so that I can get to carving my ridiculous wooden creations at home. Now it's here. And it's so heavy. And I have only vague ideas on how to install it. Tonight, I'm going to take it out of the box and get to measuring. This is an exciting step for The Heated Design Studio.

Driving Into The City

2010-04-02T09:50:00.000-07:00

The latest from my Twelve Songs Project (wherein I give away a song for free once a month for all of 2010) is up and ready for you to download. It's maybe the closest I've come to writing a happy song, written after driving home to San Francisco from Santa Cruz with friends after we'd attended a going away party. This party marked the last of our friends to leave Santa Cruz and it just felt like we were all growing up and stuff. Anyway, check it out below, why don't you?

<a href="http://theheated.bandcamp.com/album/12-songs-project">Driving Into The City by The Heated</a>

Knit-One-One

2010-03-31T21:59:00.000-07:00

Near the Sweet Adeline Bakery in Berkeley, is a cool little place called Knit-One-One (3360 Adeline Street, Berkeley CA). I'll let them explain (because it's 9:45 pm and I'm tired):

knit-one-one is a thoroughly unique, modern center for crafting-know-how. We offer classes for all skill levels, outings to some of the best-kept-crafter’s-secrets in the Bay Area, and events which combine inspiration, fun, and frolic.

One of the events they hold is a local craft fair the first Saturday of the month. The Heated and ciuccio will be manning a booth this Saturday. It would be great to see you, if you're available. Below is a picture from a previous craft fair because I know you don't actually read the words I write. You skim and then look at pictures. It's fine. I'm no different. That's how I know what you're doing.

You want details? Boom!

Next Sale: Saturday April 3, 10 to 4:00 pm (the day before Easter Sunday)

Where: the knit-one-one studio, 3360 Adeline Street Berkeley, CA, 94703 (near Ashby BART and Sweet Adeline Bakery) Lots of FREE parking

Show Review: El Rio, March 22nd

2010-03-29T11:48:00.000-07:00

As you know (because I am awesome at marketing, a.k.a. "harassing") I played a show last Monday night at El Rio. The day before the show, I woke up feeling completely worn down. By mid-day I had chills and my throat was feeling tickly. So, of course I started to really worry that I was going to catch the cold that my wife has had, which made her lose my voice. It's really bad to lose your voice before a show.

A word about me and colds. It used to be that when I caught a cold, I stayed sick for weeks. Weeks! This is undoubtedly because I used to smoke like a chimney. Besides staying sick for a long time, I also got sick often so there were a few years where I was perpetually ill. But then a few years ago, I quit smoking and got my act together. Now, I think I've only been sick once this year, maybe twice, and my recovery time is one week. God, I love not smoking.

Anyway, I had chills and just felt off so I got into bed around two o'clock and just kind of hung out in bed all day. I was pleased when I felt fine upon waking up the next morning. The show itself nearly went off without a hitch (I forgot the lyrics to the second song in my set and had to play a very abbreviated version) and I reached an important milestone in every band's career: SOMEONE CAME TO MY SHOW TO SEE ME WHO I DON'T KNOW PERSONALLY! Except now, I do know her personally because she came to my show. All in all, I brought out ten people on a Monday night. Success!

Other than that, Seattle's Eighteen Individual Eyes really impressed me. Two great guitar players, one of whom sings beautifully, plus just the right amount of bass for their sound plus this awesome drumming that was frenetic yet loping at the same time. They had these really weird song structures and all these interlocking parts... I just liked it. I was telling one of them how I had played in Seattle about ten years ago and she said, "oh! You've been doing this a really long time." I have. Yes, I have.

Mama Lion was cool too. I didn't get to see too much of their set, to be honest as I was working the door for the last leg of the evening but from what I could hear from outside, I liked it. Posted below are some pictures from my set as well as a thirteen second long video. It was my wife's first time using the video camera and apparently the default film-time is thirteen seconds. So enjoy it! Every damn second of it! This song will eventually be released on the ~~Twelve Songs Project~~. Oh, never mind on the video. I guess Blogger isn't feeling video anymore?

Is "Rose" Code For Something Else?

2010-03-16T20:10:00.000-07:00

First thing this morning, it became apparent that my wife lost her voice. She still had it in the middle of the night and I know because around midnight, I farted loudly (please don't act as if you don't and also, she gave me the ice cream. She knew what she was in for.) and for a moment she was so silent that I was sure I'd pulled it off when she said, plain as day, "Nice." But this morning her voice was gone and when I realized that I had the floor, I used this song to torture her. It went well.

(I like how there's some jackass with an air-horn in the audience who pipes up within the first thirty seconds of the song. Don't they know that's the song everyone came to hear? I'll bet they do.)

Show At El Rio, March 22nd

2010-03-12T18:44:00.000-08:00

Lobster claw! I whipped this little beauty up recently and thought it seems proper to get it out there. The show will be on a Monday night and I'm on first which means 8:00 pm, sharp at El Rio. It would only be proper to then stay for Eighteen Individual Eyes (on tour from Seattle, show some hospitality as they seem to enjoy a good time, party-wise, from what I can tell on their blog. They like shots!) and then, closing out the night are fellow locals, Mama Lion. Music! Fun! Monday, March 22nd!

Restitution

2010-03-10T18:38:00.000-08:00

I've been feeling badly about how I maligned poor Dodos and Mates of State. Bands gotta mature, I guess. To make up for it, I'm sharing my two favorite songs from Time To Die and Re-Arrange Us.

7x7

2010-03-08T08:03:00.000-08:00

The Heated's dish towels are carried at a local store called Candystore Collective here in San Francisco. A local magazine, 7x7, (so named because that's the approximate area of San Francisco, seven miles by seven miles) did a feature on Candystore and somehow The Heated snuck in there too. Score! Check it out:

Oh, and while we're at it, I forgot to post it here at the time but the lovely Style Wylde interviewed yours truly about some music stuff. My favorite quote? "My musical history involves hardcore marching band geekdom." Yeah, that's right. I'm a full-on geek. Although you may have already had an idea about that (see above picture with the "who me?" face). Anyway, it's a good read because I'm very interesting.

March

2010-03-05T08:03:00.000-08:00

I swung by the protest against the state budget cuts to education yesterday. The protests I've been to here in the past were mostly regarding gay rights and were more sparsely populated. This one was different. There were a ton of people and many of them were children and young adults. It left me feeling sad and worried for how fragile our country seems right now.

What's On The Player

2010-03-03T21:02:00.000-08:00

There were a few small disappointments last year in albums from bands I really like for their previously energetic offerings that just fell flat, energy-wise for me. Mates Of State with Re-Arrange Us grew on me after a while and I still listen to it on a regular basis. The Dodos Time to Die had some damn good songs, and again, I still listen to the album. It's just that I've spent a lot of time air drumming and head-shaking my way through previous albums so I was just a little bummed to find that the songs from both bands came with a lighter touch. Who was going to fulfill my energetic longings? I've got a lot of energy, people. It needs releasing.

Is it strange that NPR introduced me to Mariachi El Bronx? For those not familiar, there is a band called The Bronx, who I never listened to. I meant to check them out and kind of gave a few songs a listen here and there but nothing really grabbed me. Then, on a car trip across the Bay Bridge, sitting in traffic, there was a story on how The Bronx decided to put out a mariachi album. This was over the holidays and I remember hearing the songs and vowing to check it out. Well, I made good on that and bought the album. And I love it. That was month ago and I still listen to it all the damn time. It fulfills my needs. Consider the following.

Examine This!

2010-02-17T20:18:00.000-08:00

My juggernaut of press coverage continues! Behold the lovely things the Los Angeles Gay Culture Examiner had to say about this little lesbian. The truth is that I love showing off my gay side. Consider the following:

The Sky

2010-02-09T20:05:00.000-08:00

Lately, the storms in San Francisco have been giving us amazing skies. We don't usually see clouds like this. In between raining, the sky looks this way.

(This crane freaks me out.)

(This last one is from Berkeley, on a different day than the rest)

The World's First?

2010-02-07T13:29:00.000-08:00

Actually, Regina and I already know that this is not the world's first mixing/ironing session. It's the second. We had the first one a few weeks ago. This is just how The Heated gets down on a Friday night. Woo hooo!

(My ear itched. On the inside.)