On the Road Again

Hitting the road this week. Destination: Warrenton, Texas - the Fall installment of Antique Week. Miles and miles of fields, cow pastures, circus tents & junk as far as the eye can see. Will be visiting favorite vendors, scouting material/people for Refueled magazine & recharging my creative battery. Will spend nights at a secret, undisclosed location outside of town, where I’ll post pixs and happenings from the show. Stay tuned.

REFUELED Magazine "Style" Issue

The second issue of REFUELED magazine, to be released in November, will be packed with style. Refueled’s “style” issue is holding true to its “alt-country/americana” roots by featuring contributors who blur the lines in the country arena - such as the young Illinios photographer Cari Ann Wayman. Her cinematic, often haunting images are like listening to a Jim White song or The Tallest Man on Earth. Beautiful and emotion filled.

Texas Food Trailers

Texans have long had a love affair with food and trailers. My top three just happen to be in my three favorite locations in the lone star state. The Food Shark; Marfa: A 1974 Ford delivery truck originally outfitted for barbecue. Now serving Middle Eastern fare from across the Marfa Book Store.

Flip Happy Crepes; Austin: A 1966 Avion Trailer. You could wait up to an hour for the most savory crepes around, but in the end it’s all worth it.

Sack Lunch; Warrenton: A vintage Airstream owned and operated by Sharon Bright and located behind Clutter twice a year during Antique Week. The goat cheese, balsamic marinaded tomatoes & organic greens sandwich is a breath of fresh air out in the middle of the country.

A-3

A beautiful 1920 Gibson A-3 mandolin from Matt Umanov Guitars in New York.

Inspiring Me at the Moment.

El Cosmico Party .08

Dance to Amy Cook & Alejandro Escovedo, sleep in tents/teepees/nomadic dwellings, eat delicious meals from the world famous Food Shark and drink at the .08 El Cosmico party October 10 & 11 in Marfa, Texas.

"Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth" - Walt Whitman

Dinner Dates

Would love to sit down and have dinner with these two ladies. BBQ, interesting conversation and then finish it off with a nice cigar. So cool.

Salvage Love

Check out the salvage love behind Blake Dollahite's Austin home in the September issue of Dwell magazine. All of the doors were salvaged or bought cheaply at a local Habitat for Humanity ReStore; much of the flooring was made by milling old roof decking; he made his own light fixtures; and during breaks he surfed eBay. For the sharply peaked ceiling of his bedroom, Dollahite chose raw corrugated metal. The reflective surface brightens up the space and elongates the room. Using a beat-up white credenza he’d had in storage for years, Dollahite created an antique-inspired vanity for his bathroom, which he fitted with a robin’s-egg-blue sink. With an aged mirror and small light fixtures, the compact space resembles a country doctor’s office.



Photos by Misty Keasler

Music+Art

MUSIC+ART THAT IS INSPIRING ME AT THE MOMENT.

Nick Jaina has painted faces at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, hung posters in Greenwich Village, toured all of Canada, has been rescued on a farm outside Indianapolis, has been stuck in the El Paso Greyhound station, propositioned while hitch hiking the hill country of Texas, and has been broke in San Francisco. He has written many songs and plays them on the piano, guitar, mandolin, harmonica, accordion, organ or what-have-you. He has played drums with the Be Good Tanyas, synthesizers in the Menomena side project Lackthereof, produced the Kitchen Syncopators, played lead guitar in Myshkin's Ruby Warblers, played in an experimental electronic band at the opening of a Dollar Tree, played trumpet with the Maybe Happening, held the hand of the devil and shot God out of the sky. His songs are rich with faith and despair.

Listen to "Maybe Cocaine" here.




Western Fifth's "Stand Like A Thief" & Pumpkineater Records compilation - CD Packages from Metro Fader Studios.

Weekend Soundtrack

Friend Ani DiFranco sent a advance copy of her new cd "Red Letter Year" for me to give a spin. Due to drop Sept. 30th, Ani's 20th album since 1990 ranks as one of the folk singer's cheeriest, funkiest and most collaborative to date.

Welcome to Blogland

Detourdesign: graphic design, photography, furniture design, architecture, found object collection, musical masterpiece, or some other aesthetic creation.

The Mantra Trailer

Parked at the intersection of imagination, evangelism and propaganda, The Mantra Trailer is a traveling mediation space, recording studio and site of mysterious broadcast in the form of a 1972 breadbox trailer. The Mantra Trailer invites us to contemplate, chant, voice and explore our prayers, aspirations, desires, frustrations and petitions for the transformation of self and society, or whatever resonates within us, even the nonsensical. By-passers drawn to the Mantra Trailer are invited inside one at a time to contemplate and record their mantras in privacy. Meanwhile dialogue is initiated on the outside as people encounter the exterior spectacle of the trailer.