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Days go by

The last few weeks have been in-tense! Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle - it's been everything at once, and it's hard to parse everything out and try to make sense of all the pieces. It feels like it's all coming together though and that feels amazing.

Cecilie is on an A340 tomorrow from Copenhagen, flying more than a third of the way around the world and finally landing here to stay for a while. She's closed off her projects in Denmark and with any luck will be reporting on the US election here for the Danish media (if not the election, she has a few other projects lined up). We're going to hole up in the Salish lodge for a couple days over Christmas just to get away from everything. You Twin Peaks fans out there will know the Salish Lodge as "The Great Northern," the lodge where Agent Cooper stayed while he was investigating the town. It's going to be great!

Hannah told me she just landed her dream job a couple of days ago, as a director for a large international NGO based in the US. It's going to mean working on larger-impact projects in the US than she's done before, with the occasional trips out to international donor-funded projects. I'm thrilled - it's what you'd wanted, Hannah.

Jeremy, Diana and Paloma are heading off to Switzerland, following the dream they've had for a while to live in Europe (or in Diana's case to live in Europe again).

And I just landed what seems like a dream job too - can't talk about it publicly yet because of NDAs, but it's a global strategic role that should have a much larger footprint than I'd had before, and more of a public communications focus. A bit more travel than before, which is fine. And it's working with people I know and like.

And... and... I am so digging living in Cap Hill Seattle. I've been out to three live shows in the last couple of weeks, all in venues that are easy walking distance from my apartment. I didn't realize how much I've missed having good places around where you can just go out and see some fun local act, as opposed to having to hold off and see just the megaconcerts. Saw Voxtrot/Tullycraft, Tullycraft/Rachel Flotard, and Shonen Knife so far - they've all been a lot of fun.

At the Tullycraft show last night a light fixture blew during the opening act and set part of the backstage on fire, but it felt like it was part of the show. They put the fire out, the crowd cheered, and the show rolled on like nothing happened.

Even something super-domestic like getting watches repaired has turned into some kind of scene from a film lately. I dropped off some watches that needed new batteries at a little retro-kitsch shop I found down the street. When I showed up a few days later to pick them up, the owners were having an impromptu party with some regular customers and we all hung out chatting and drinking some good vino they'd uncorked.

Everything about these days feels magical . Like it's all coming up roses finally. I feel lucky, and very grateful for all of this. And for all of you. We're all flying forward through time together.

San Francisco ( II )

Just got back from a weekend in San Francisco. Second time back since I left in 2000, and it still feels a little strange to be walking those streets again. A lot of memories. But it was awesome to connect with a bunch of my friends.

The best part was connecting Jeremy, who I know from the San Francisco scene, with Marcella, who I know from the old Florida scene, with Marton & Nada, who were in the Europe in the World group in Holland & Denmark. I love that sense when it feels like we all should have been friends from the beginning. Hanging out in a place like Noc Noc on Lower Haight (which has a hell of a lot of history of it's own), and seeing that it's all working.

We even ran into an old colleague Sean, who Jeremy & I used to work with at EMusic during the Bubble. We should have known something was up when the night started with Jeremy seeing the old bouncer from Endup walking down the street as we were trying to catch a taxi. (The less said about Endup the better!)

I got to catch up with some family too - my San Francisco-based cousins and my cousin from New York who was also in town for the weekend. I'm a little short on close family these days so it was a really different and happy kind of feeling to be surrounded by family again.

Here are some pics. At first I was feeling kind of bummed because I only have my work laptop PC with me in Seattle right now, and it doesn't have Photoshop. So it's been difficult to play with images. But actually the Facebook picture album utility is pretty good. Very basic from an imaging standpoint but I like the commenting functionality. So I think I'm going to start linking to that from Art-Damage from now on, including on the photo page. Let me know what you think.

Love you all, as ever. I really do.

San Francisco ( I )

Heading off to San Francisco in a half hour to wish Jeremy & Diana goodbye before they fly away to their new life in Switzerland. Seven years I was trying to get them to move to Europe, and now they're gone three months after I move back to the States. Nice, guys.

Just kidding, good luck and Godspeed in Swissyland. Here are some pics from our last get-together in Berlin two years ago.

I'm looking forward to catching up with a bunch of folks in SF - it's become quite the social occasion. I wish I could blow off work on Monday so I could stay another night in the City.

Looks like a night on Lower Haight planned for Saturday though. That's going to be surreal. Let's hope I don't have a fit of post traumatic stress disorder like the last time I visited. God knows a lot has changed since the day I left in 2000. I wasn't expecting to come back, then.

Snowing in Seattle

Was on a shopping expedition downtown yesterday when a freak snowstorm hit Seattle. Apparently, this never happens. The temperature was just at freezing, maybe a degree or two above, so the snowflakes were these great big clumpy things, not the fine delicate flakes you get when it's really cold. And it was just pouring down - it looked like someone was shaking a giant bucket of snow over the city.

I thought it was great because people were coming out of their shops & cars to just stare up at the sky in wonder, some of them catching snowflakes on their hands & tongues. I love it when something happens that knocks people out of their routine and makes them take notice.

The downside was trying to get back home to Capitol Hill. The name is at least half correct because the neighborhood really does sit on top of a steep hill. The Seattle roads are just not designed for snow & slush and neither was my little Honda Civic. So I was kinda holding my breath as the brave little thing was fishtailing up the hills back towards home. For the first time I found myself wishing I'd bought one of the big Land Cruisers I went dune-jumping in when I was in Dubai.

It was really cozy to hole up in the apartment as the snow kept coming down througout the night. I was disappointed this morning when the weather had turned to rain and washed it all away. Something about the first snow makes me feel like a kid in New York again. Seeing your breath in the air, all the girls in knit hats & sweaters, the whole city looking clean and innocent somehow.