Maker Faire 2008

Of all the fairs and expos I've been to in the last few years, Maker Faire (http://www.makerfaire.com/) takes the cake. This gigantic festival at the San Mateo Fairgrounds, May 3-4, gathers an impressive and astounding array of hobbists, craftsmen, artists, inventors, musicians, mechanics, and active participants in same event space, intermingling with each other and crossbreeding new ideas. There is something for absolutely everyone. If gadgets are your fancy, you can watch robot wars, model warship battles, rocket launching competitions, or try your hand at welding, test paper airplanes in a wind tube, deconstruct mechanical toys, test ride a silly looking vehicle, or jump into a live-action video game played on court where you wear electronic hats. If you have a knack for fabric, you need look no further than the SWAP-O-RAMA, a large hall filled with tables of clothes, fabric, ribbon, felt and fun sewing machines, felting machines, and silk screening stations. You can take home anything you create for free. At the end of the day, local designers showcase clothes created on site from scraps and recycled clothing articles. Then, between exhibit halls, the fair grounds are filled with performance stages, giant sculptures, miniature golf games, and other attractions. There is so much to see it, it could take weeks to try every hands-on table. Mark your calender and buy ticket far in advance. Otherwise, the line at the gate could take few hours. Event traffic alone caused a jam on Highway 101.

The popularity of the event is certainly encouraging. In world where the hand production of physical objects is rarely central to worklife, it is exiciting to see that making things is regaining popularity and prestige. Everyday we're surrounded by mass produced goods, often devoid of personal significance. Most of the goods we buy are manufactured half way around the world by people we will never see, and through processes we neither witness or understand. We have little to no connection to way in which it things are put together, the origin of the parts, the place of the contruction, or human lives involved.

We may prize a cheap chair for IKEA or a shirt from Gap for the great deal we found and the amount of money we saved, or because they fit a style we would like to emulate, or because of their inherent functionality. However, due to the low price and the source, we can often replace it with an identical copy. It's not inherently unique and special.

The Maker Faire offers an entirely different way of relating objects, while promoting creativity, innovation, community building, sustainability, dexterity, and PLAY!!! It is so refreshing to see thousands of people interacting with eachother with curiosity, enthusiasm, and pure joy. Closeted craftspeople get their moment in the spotlight to shine and share in open and free flowing environment. Ahh, heaven!!!

Rachel tries a machine that attaches raw wool to fabric with a set of 5 or 6 plunging needles and no thread.

R2D2 shows off

A lobster clock?

See the rest of the photos at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/roaring.tree

The Plight of the Bumblebee

This picture is for Angie, whose obsession with bees lead to a photo essay and calendar. As I understand it, bees and bumble bees in particular are in danger all over America and their demise threatens key crops such as stone fruits and almonds. Today, beekeepers actually truck in trailers filled with bees to pollinate fields all over California and their services are in demand. Introduced foreign bee species, endemic diseases, loss of habitat, and the overuse of pesticides all contribute to diminishing bee reserves. To counteract this prevailing trend, a new underground movement is afoot in Bay Area communities. Organizations such as Garden for the Environment (http://www.gardenfortheenvironment.org/) promote urban beekeeping in local workshops over on 7th and Lawton, in the Inner Sunset. I can attest that their homegrown honey is delicious!

Sausalito and Sunday in the Park

LoveJoy's

For a completely frivolous and cozy afternoon tea, LoveJoy's on Church street is the perfect place. The quirky and inventive decor features mismatched china sets and a tasteful collection teatime treasures and collectibles. Unlike other tea houses in the City, the full spread includes enough tasty scones, sandwiches, and salad to leave you satisfied and a bottomless teapot to quench your thirst. Be sure to reserve a table well in advance. Weekends and especially Sundays are booked weeks ahead of time.

http://www.lovejoystearoom.com/

Hum. Well, since it is so often booked on Mother's day, it's easy enough to just copy to the entire menu, style, and theme at someones home. Here's a quick list of menu items and accessories to create the same effect. These are mere approximations of the actual recipes and may not taste exactly comparable because I've only eaten there on one occasion and only tried a fraction of their entire repetoir. But, the ingredients seem simple enough to locate at any grocery store or WholeFoods. Moreover, the wonderful thing about LoveJoy's is the tasteful, yet intentional, visual chaos created by contrasting colors, patterns, and textures. While the general style and shape of the dinnerware generally comes from the same era or aesthic, it need not match! So, everything can be found for a few cents at your local GoodWill on the next "dollar day"and returned later as a donation if you don't want to keep it.

Menu

• Fine, loose tea (herbal, green, black, fruit...anthing would work)
• Fresh scones
• Tea cookies (mmm...McVitte cookies, my FAVORITE)
• English clotted cream
• Jam/preserves(preferably homemade)
• Seasonal fruit cut into bit sized and decorative shapes (pineapple, melon, berries)
• Mixed salad greens with flower petals (from a local farmer's market)
• Vinaigrette salad dressing
• Gourmet coleslaw
• An assortment of tiny tea sandwiches. Spread any of the following between two slices of standard, plain, white or whole wheat bread. Then cut away crust and cut each square into diagonal triangles. Or, use a cookie cutter to shape perfect circles and place them on tiered serving trays. The sandwich fillings tend to be comprised of only a two or three ingredients in thin, delicate layers.

Sandwich fillings

• Olive and fig tapenade (try blending black olives and preserved figs)
• Humus with pureed artichoke hearts
• Stilton and thin pear slices (This filling was the BEST!!!!! )
• Butter and cucumber slices
• Pureed apple, walnut, and chicken salad
• Roast beef and horseradish

Plates, decor and accessories

• 1 flowered tablecloth
• 1 napkin holder
• 1 lace coverlet
• 1 antique cream server
• 1 antique sugar server
• 1 tiered serving tray with three, stacked, circular levels supported by a vertical rod going though the center of each. The lowest and widest level is about the size of a dinner plate.

Each place setting included the following:

• 1 antique or vintage teacup with matching tea saucer
• 1 lace dolie to go under the tea saucer
• 1 lace place mat
• 1 poreclain teapot (the crazier or more unique the better!)
• 1 dessert plate
• 1 teaspoon
• 1 tea strainer
• 1 small tin cup to hold the tea strainer
• 1 lace or flowered napkin

BON APPETIT!

Freedom from Braces

Top three reasons to celebrate April 26:

1. Tevye's liberation from braces.
2. Shakespeare's birthday
3. The anniversary of the first evidence showing the top quark subatomic particle.

Thank you Tevye for the trivia!

Pass the Matzah!

Pepper hosted a Passover meal with a "Love and Justice" theme last Sunday which drew at least a dozen people. Having been raised in a completely different tradition, I felt honored and delighted to participate in the ancient ritual. That being said, I doubt the proceedings of ancient orthodox passovers could have been this ecclectic or politcially correct. She used a script from an online Zine and which included directions on how to make the event "Trans-friendly." With readings from good old MLK, wonderful company, reflections on world events, and plenty of matzah ball soup, who could complain? If the event remotely resembles other Jewish gatherings, I'm sold.

Want to try your own new-age Passover next Spring? The full script is available at http://colours.mahost.org/events/haggadah.html.

God Dag

Yes, we're moving to Norway, the land of fjords! The picture is actually from a cross-country ski trip in Yosemite this winter, but I imagine Norway looks similar and has as much snow. Matt's there already and calls on Skype, gushing with enthusiasm, spilling glowing reports of the landscape, people, and culture.

I am so intruiged and excited. The City of Oslo, where we will be living, is surrounded by mountains full of hiking and skiing trails, and open waters for sailing and boating. Norway is a socialist country with a well-educated, English-speaking populus that loves outdoor activities. A calendar online lists annual festivals and events to keep us busy. I also spotted dance, meditation, and yoga studios that must attract like-minded folks.

So far, learning Norwegian has been quite amusing. Phrases bounce along with a jaunty cadence and many words vaguely resemble or sound like English equivalents. Starting in July, it will be interesting to see how my research matches the real thing.