Saturday, September 29, 2007

Feet at the Fair

Greetings from Dallas!
I am working on a project at the Texas State Fair with Pat Harsch of Team Sandtastic. Our sculpture is located insided the coloseum on the fairgrounds, so if you are heading to the fair anytime between now and Oct. 3, do come by and say howdy...

So far, we have carved the Dallas downtown skyline (while exercising plenty of artistic license). We will be adding more fair icons and some other fun stuff over the next few days. I will be shooting photos of our progress and uploading them from my iPhone onto my Flickr Stream if you are interested in viewing our progress.

On Oct. 4 I will fly off to San Diego to participate in the next episode of Sand Blasters.

Monday, September 24, 2007

music music music!

The ol’ sandbox has been humming the past few days - the house is full of musicians (Raina Rose and Co.) who came for the backyard concert and are having a hard time leaving. ‘Sokay with me - the next guests aren’t scheduled to arrive until Wed. and I love hearing someone who knows what he is doing tickling that old piano up there. But how the heck am I supposed to get any work done with that sweet banjo stuff wafting down into my office from the back deck?

I think by every standard the first-ever house concert at the Sandbox Inn was a raging success. The musicians were (and still are) happy; the attendees sure seemed to enjoy what they were hearing and papa Raybo, the mastermind who put this thing together, was grinning ear to ear all night. The Saturn Street Strummers played a few tunes to warm up the house - we’re an easy act to follow! - and it was one of our best performances to date, I do believe. It was kind of a bummer when the police showed up to tell us someone had complained about the noise. (Raina has a voice that sounds a lot like what is commonly described as “angelic,” accompanying herself with an acoustic guitar mildly amplified. It was 9:30 PM on a Friday night but still too much for one of my neighbors to handle. What on earth does this person do during spring break, bikefest and pretty much every weekend during the high season, I wonder?)

It was truly a magical evening - “magical” is a word lots of folks who came were using - and if you are the neighbor who complained, I’m sorry but that is not the last house concert at the Sandbox.

And then we have a real honest to goodness music festival coming to SPI in just a matter of weeks! I am really looking forward to it. Tonight I spent some time downloading iTunes tracks from some of the artists that are scheduled to make an appearance and I have to tell you we have some excellent stuff coming this way. Robert Earl Keen is no stranger to SPI and he has many fans here -- my favorite song of his is “Out Here in the Middle.” The rest of the names are new to me, but after surfing around iTunes a bit the artists I am most looking forward to catching are Patrice Pike, Mike Doughty and Ginger Leigh -- but I also downloaded a track each from Grupo Fantasma and Los Amigos Invisibles just for grins -- I think they will be added to my “go fast” iTunes playlist (excellent music to shovel to). The festival pass is a real deal so grab one quick and please encourage everyone you know to come out and support this event, all the local venues participating in it and the local businesses sponsoring it. (Including the Sandbox Inn, which just happens to still have a vacancy that weekend!)

Friday, September 14, 2007

dreading the phone


why?
it’s not telemarketers and its not creditors. It’s not crank callers or heavy breathers or naughty kids getting their jollies. It is a good friend or beloved family member - someone I don’t talk to often enough - calling and the conversation goes something like this:
“so good to talk to/hear from you. Been busy? Me too! Can’t wait to see you next ____. By the way, is there something going on with the server? I seem to be having email problems....”

I am the hub of this network of friends, colleagues & competitors, former lovers, distant cousins, parental units and sisters. And they all want to talk to me today not because they love me (though I know they do) but because the email isn’t working. At all. Nada.

That in itself would be problem enough but today is not just any day. Of course. Today is the due date for Sand Blasters next sketches. Six sketches per team is the requirement. Nearly half of the upcoming shows’ sculptors rely on (you guessed it) MY server to keep them connected to the world. And today that connection is seriously broke.

The server guru is on it. I know this in spite of the fact that he is not currently returning my calls. (No news is not necessarily good news, but probably less scary then... the news.) Last I heard he was describing some sort of firewall that was rejecting all incoming mail. ?!

We do our best and that is all we can do.


Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Raina Rose at the Sandbox Inn

Now that the busy tourism season is behind us here on beautiful South Padre Island, I find myself casting around for new and creative ways to use all this lovely space I have acquired here at the Sandbox Inn. The indoor space is large and the outdoor space is larger and it has occurred to me that it could be well utilized for intimate house/garden concerts for 50 or so fans of The Good Stuff. My friend Raybo - who picks guitar and mandolin with some of the best in the world - concurs and has convinced the lovely and talented Raina Rose to come perform here at the Sandbox the evening of Fri., Sept. 21 starting at 8:30 PM.

Hailing from Portland, OR, Raina Rose has been compared with Joni Mitchell, Ani DeFranco and Suzanne Vega. She was a New Folk finalist in Kerrville this year and her music has been described as “Light, flighty, and airy folk rock with an indie pop twist.” You can hear samples of her music on her website and myspace pages.

Tickets are $20 and include food and drink. There will only be 45 sold and may be purchased from me (956-459-2928) or Raybo (956-746-9707.)

Hey Dad Feets!

How's the weather in Nairobi? Did you ever get your luggage? Got your e-mail but when I tried to respond it bounced right back. Looks like you are forwarding everything through your aol address and that mailbox is full so you need to empty it or you will get nada messages.
love ya,
cin

Thursday, September 06, 2007

photos from the World Championship

I am coming to you live from beautiful Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia. I have one more day until I start my (solo) entry -- in the meantime I will be uploading photos from my iPhone directly into my flickr stream linked from here. Enjoy!

First photo: Amazin' Walter and Christy (from South Padre Island) hard at work on their duo piece

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Wednesday, September 05, 2007

So who can tell me what THIS is all about?!

http://www.energycurrent.com/index.php?id=2&storyid=5020

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