December

I hate December, not Christmas (so calm down). It’s all the extra stuff people insist must happen. In theater December is traditionally the cash cow so we put extra effort into our product. Work is good but I never see non-industry people and my family have a hard time keeping track of where I’m at. By the middle of the month I’m ready to quit life and crawl into some little burrow and sleep for a million years. But the shows must go on.

December run down:

Theater:

• Mid-month mixtape took a break, wheew!
• Did props and set dressing for LPT’s An American Christmas at the Hotel Del Coronado

The band:

• We are closer to a launch event!
• We are trying some bizarre ideas
• If you’re in SoCal and want to come to our feedback launch party gig thing let me know and I’ll get you on the list.

Extra stuff:

• Made more edging…
• The shenanigan at work is done, pictures coming to the facebook page soon.

November

It was a whiplashy sort of month. I was fully expecting to lose my contract in December but at a late hour the producer announced to us his decision to extend it by six weeks. It was actually a good happenstance because it forced me to clarify my career goals and I revised my resume.

The next challenge in that arena will be negotiating a deal to get those goals accomplished. Lord help me, I've never tried this sort of thing before.

Anyway, here's the project run down for November:

Crochet edgings; made lots of sample bits. I'm thinking of selling them and making a bit of a side business out of them.

Godzilla series continues on instagram.

Began writing That Hideous Scream a follow up piece to From Above. 

Wrote/recorded demos for songs.

Ran out of ideas for the Kitchen Experiments, oh well.

Also began a shenanigan at work. More on that later, *wink.*

October

You know that moment when you realize you smell bad and you can’t remember when you last showered but you’re pretty sure it was a Wednesday and today is Tuesday? It’s been that kind of month.

October a lovely month

The Kitchen Experiment will be a regular feature now. I’m aiming to have one up once a month. If you find them enjoyable and helpful let me know.

Made bags

Got called in to help my friend Michael finish his set for LPT’s Around the World in 80 Days. Elephant ears!

Mistakes Were Made closed on the 21^st, no more fishy.

I returned to miXtape 1 November and there was much rejoicing.

Oh right, and my band finally named itself and we’re working on some visuals here’s a sneak peek.

Last but not least we have the Halloween costume for this year. This one's had more effort put into it than the last few. I don't know maybe it was because I was dancing Thriller for a Halloween carnival so I had to look like I tried.

This concludes the part with pictures.

I'm working on a newish script in addition to the other stuff that's always in progress. I feel like I had something else I wanted to tell you but I can't remember it... oh well.

November promises to be interesting. Things to look forward to:
the new Kitchen Experiment (I don't even know what it is yet!)
the band's photo shoot (hopefully soon I can tell you the name but we're waiting for a show to announce it.)

Kitchen Experiment: Edible Mask

Just in time for Halloween I get this brainstorm to make a mask that I can eat at the end of the night.

What I did:
Made pastry dough and put it over a form made from foil mixed peanut butter and cream cheese with honey and cinnamon spread it on and used raisins for the eyes and a prune for the snout. I was aiming for a coyote it kind of worked. For a first attempt it’s good.

Obviously you can do almost any sort of mask this way. The challenging part is finding the support for the dough during baking. Also, if you want to add strings to it you may have to think about reinforcing the outer rim of the mask.

Note: try to roll out the dough in one sheet. I ended up patching this one together and it didn’t separate from the foil how I wanted it to.

Enjoy!

Kitchen Experiment: honey wafers

I was reading Ezekiel, the performance artist prophet who made that weird bread, and there was a line about "fine flour, olive oil, and honey" that got me thinking wafers. So I invented this recipe.

Note: these things bake really fast don't leave them unattended in the oven.

Preheat oven to 350F(ish, the numbers on my dial are rubbed off)

ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/8 cup olive oil
salt
honey
water

In a bowl mix flour, salt, and oil as if making pastry. Add water slowly to form a soft dough. Divide into small balls, roll them out thin. Place on baking sheet. Drizzle with honey. Bake for up to 5min but watch them your goal is to have them crisp not burnt! Enjoy.

These make a good vehicle for fruit or ice cream.

April was a long time ago...like 5 months. I could say I was busy and that would be sort of true but I think more than anything else I was distracted so I didn't post all the wonderful things I was working on.

So let's get this thing started.

I've got an album with the pictures of the projects I'm referencing up on my G+ profile Link

June I started taking pictures of the nylon ball I've been working on back stage at miXtape. You can currently see it's progress through August.

Also in June we put the finishing touches on the house remodel. I have a picture of the group installation in the dining room in the album.

July I finally got around to making curtains for my "office."

August I took a picture of a little Godzilla.

September I finished the Red River Jacket, a lovely little table cloth, and Hobbs! Hobbs is a gift for a friend of a friend's kid. The table cloth was just a whack-out to keep me from going mad. The Red River Jacket is the tangible result of a road trip. Ask me about it later.

Yarn Ring

Yarn ring:

I "invented" this ring after being given a piece of yarn with some spiritual significance for me. The challenge was to find a way to incorporate it's presence in my daily life. Most of the others who also got this yarn tied it to various objects. My instinct was to tie it to myself but I wanted it to be more permanent than just knotting it on.

I wove it into a loop and sprayed it with a polycrylic finish spray. Now I wear it as a pinkie ring.

If you want to know the meaning of the ring you'll have to ask me in person.