family portraits

I wouldn't normally feel the impulse to publish a portrait of myself on my foto-journal, but Adrian took a nice portrait of me that reminds me a lot of the photographs taken of my Grandmother by Genthe. I've also included a shot of Adrian and one of Simone's hand.
We are off to Guadalajara today for two events. One is the big opening party of the Contemporary Art Musuem, and the other is to see the Whitest Boy Alive play. They were asked to play the opening as well, but they can't do two shows in one night. It's such a small world out there, because my one art contact from Mexico City (Jose Garcia, Proyectos Monclova Gallery, Celeste Magazine ed-n-chief) will be there and is travelling with Erlend's friend. We have been in touch because I'm looking for a gallery in Mexico that could potentially house the work that comes from Casa Rincon's creative forces (artist's in residence). I think something incredible will happen over time with this creative space.

Report from Adrian #2

We're seeing some striking progress now in The Glass Cube. The walls have a beautiful, smooth layer of plaster, the "banco" (built-in sofa-bench) is fully formed, the floors are floating. The glass brick window is in; I can hardly believe the precision, less than a quarter inch of mortar between bricks. The deep reveals are doing their thing. Alberto, the electrician, has put the fans up and installed the no-noise dimmers that Danielle brought from the US. Also worth mentioning that danielle saved me from buying some hideous fans and instead we have some cream colored tropicalia ventiladoras. Mark and I are starting to enjoy some more carpentry. We hung a window and a door today and checked in with Donato, the carpenter who is making us the "puertas gruesas" (fat doors) and a big, small-paned window. We'll get a drawing up of the window soon.

Still managing to get some sunrise waves and sunsets too when not overly busy. Seeing the tail end of a heaving overhead swell. Late season? Early season? I don't know, haven't checked a surf forecast site in over a month. Here, it's called looking out the window. (For the snerds out there, I'm elated daily by my 6' 10" and 7'10" Duncan/Wilderness Stubbies.)

During the week, Adrian and Mark have been tending to the studio, on the weekends we CHILL. The workers on hire have been moving fast, and have been doing beautiful work. All the fans are up, the walls done, the electrical outlets in place, and the glass bricks have been laid. It was so satifying to watch the last one go in...we clapped and whistled for Bernard.

They poured the concrete floor in the control room today, and tomorrow they will poor the floor in the band room. After the floors are set, they will burn and polish them. The result will be a rich dark charcoal color. These photos are from the in between moments. During the weekends, the Whitest Boy Alive boyz have been playing various shows and festivals around Mexico. The goal is to have the studio ready by Thanksgiving, so the WBA can record their second record in the brand new studio digs. So far - we are on track!

Back On

Due to a beach fire, our internet was down for 5 days. I think it was a good thing, as everyone sort of resorted to slipping into reading, talking, cooking, and basically slowing down for a spell. We are back on now, so I will start uploading photos from the last few days of beach moments and the progress of the recording studio.

On November 1st, we set up our ofrenda for Dia de los Muertos - the candles burned for 3 days and the food magically disappeared.

LA MARKET

Today I went to LA's 'Market' with my colleague Gina, as part of fashion week. I went there to photograph collections for blaec.com to carry next year, as well as assist in the actual selection process. What fun! If you are interested in seeing what we picked out from a great group of designers (from Crispin & Basilio, Jovovich-Hawk, Dallin Chase, Sally Tseng, and lot's of new ones). I put a slideshow up of our pics here:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/67724397@N00/2768a9 . There are quite a few so beware. Fash-own!

Ping Pong and laughs at Casa Rincon Last March

I found a video clip that reveals a bit of magic and fun at Casa Rincon. Friends in pockets of different coves throughout the house and a view of the beach and back again. Simone left today at 6am and has arrived by now. The WBA boys are off to Mexico City this weekend to play a music festival there. Then I head down on Monday. ...Until then I'm working in LA during fashion week's 'market' on Saturday and will be saturated in fashionista craziness and buzzing ladies. I'll be representing blaec.com , where I photograph clothes, help come up with fun fashion related ideas as well as assist in new designer choices, etc. I mean hey, I like good clothing design. It will be a total switch when I get down to me-hi-co-co. Can't wait.

Tropical Hobbit Village

A view from the sand of Casa Rincon. Swiss Family Robinson anyone?

The Beginning of the New Music Vortex at Casa Rincon

Back in March, we had a ton of friends down at Casa Rincon and this is when the idea to build a recording studio was born. Here is a typical tropical musical scene at Casa Rincon. The scene: Dan, Erlend, and Davide strumming and plucking, Lindsay chilling, Eric on surfboard repair duty, and Mark looking on. The waves are beyond the palapa, providing the background soundtrack.

Adrian's Report #1

Had a great day today. Went into town to send off Michelle and get some music equipment with Mark, E and Machat. Got pulled over for running a red light, barely, and they took my license, also lost my ATM card, but cancelled it before anything happened. Then went to the music store in old town vallarta, right near the movie theatre and Naranjo (the rad restaurant). We bro'd hard with the music store and E bought a beautiful used cream colored drumset, a PA and some Euro power converters. The store has really good stuff, vintage fender's, new euro pre apms: kind of like a Mexi Cowboy Star (remember that one by Cabrillo Blvd.? Maybs?) but less cracked out. Told them about the studio and they were stoked and told me that they do all the acoustic design for the nightclubs in Vallarta and can get us any acoustic panelling that we need, also cables, mics, software, whatever. The guys names are Charly and Nacho. Then we went to Riso's, probably the best supermarket in Vallarta, where I actually found yeast and wholegrain flour for Marcin to make his French friend's mother's bread recipe. Then Erlend left his ATM card in the ATM. Called his Dad to take care of canceling it. Also went to get mark in between who I had left at the Airport to say goodbye to michelle. He had walked about 2 miles into town thinking I would see him on the way to get him. I didn't see him, but he saw me and hopped in some dude's truck, all, "Me Llamo Marco! Vamos al Aeropuerto!" He found me there and we had espresso in the new wing of the airport. Then we went back to get Machat and E. I finally figured out where that offramp is for the road that goes around the city to the old town. Very lush and tropical above the city, very Night of the Iguana.

In the end, the good outweighed the lost license and two ATM cards. Also, loving the White Boyz, quirky bunch. All down to build and cook, and make a joke, ja.

Mary, Annie, Feisty

My friend Mary Rozzi (photographer), sent me this photo today. It's of her looking over the shoulders of Feist and famed photographer, Annie Leibovitz. Feist was photographed by A. Leibovitz in NYC for a feature in this month's Vanity Fair. Mary was asked by A.L. to be at the shoot, as during her research of Feist, viewed Mary's portraits and admired them quite a bit. An amazing day for Mary and Leslie... So happy for them both. How exciting! Cheers to the rad gal pals of the circle of radness for bringing such awesome creative life experiences into their worlds.