Astral Boutique's blog

Rainmaker

I just spent the past few days working an entirely different day job- as a bird goddess. 

In a life-size nest, built by Dylan!

My friends in the band Lasher Keen teamed up with Bay Area filmmaker Lara Miranda to create a music video for their song "Rainmaker", and they gathered their friends to play all of the characters:

(yup, that's a fog machine- essential!)

Getting into full costume with hair and makeup (including body paint) took many hours each day:

Lara applies some finishing touches to my face.

Even fully made up, you still have to eat:

Here is Bluebird, playing the Moon Goddess, hanging out and waiting for her scene (the desert-like shots were done in an old mining area):

Dylan trying out his costume- no paparazzi!:

Sarai as the Horse Goddess (on her own Clydesdale horse!):

Robert as the pyromaniac Fire Demon:

Lara on set:

Mugging, as usual, with Bluebird and Emily (one of the Clay Goddesses- this brave girl spent the entire day covered in clay!):

My wonderful headpiece and costume were made by Bluebird:

What an awesome time, and what a video this is going to be! Holy moly! It's going to take a while before we see the finished product, but meanwhile, you can enjoy some of Lara's other work, like this wonderful Faun Fables videos:

Photos by Lasher Keen and Lara Miranda

God Rest Ye Merry Pagan Folk

Twas a starry Solstice eve, and merry folks were gathered together to keep the creative fires burning high...

Bluebird, Dylan (of the rockin pagan band Lasher Keen), Leonna Sapphire, and moi, at Bluebird and Dylan's gorgeous home. Solstice gifts: Dylan's cookie jar (filled with freshly baked Russian Tea Cookies from Leonna), Leonna's rainbow piano socks, wrist warmers crocheted by Leoanna, and my beautiful scarf, which came all the way from Africa!

Best holiday soundtrack ever (Dylan is originally from Detroit, so he knows what good music sounds like):

Needlepoint Christmas stocking, open wine bottle, homemade playdough and game of Cranium:

Dylan processes the Mistletoe which he picked himself, while fur people Lakshmi and Mochi look on:

O Tannenbaum...

Leonna brought holiday songs with alternate Pagan words! Best idea ever!

We were belting out those carols at the tippy TOP of our lungs! I am so glad there were no neighbors anywhere nearby!

Dylan's mistletoe bunches are ready, and Bluebird returns to the needlepoint...

Dylan shows us his amazing hand-carved wooden harp with gut strings, just arrived after a six month wait.... Wow. Wow. Wow.

Cutie Pie Pies.

...and to all a good night.

 

Dr. John and San Francisco Bliss

I just returned from the amazing Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco- three days of amazing free (!) music in Golden Gate Park. The weather this year was incredible... sunshine all three days! T-shirts and shorts, bare legs, mom and dad and grandma and babies and dogs and hippies and magic brownies... the park was about to lift off the ground from the good vibes. 

One of my favorite acts was Dr. John and the Lower 911. It was my first time seeing him live- and what a venue to see him in! Dr. John is from New Orleans, and he brings all the fun and magic and musical tradition of that city to his work. He had the (very willing and able) crowd in Golden Gate Park partying their booties off on Sunday! 

This is the song that first hooked me on Dr. John:

This video for the Scott McKenzie song "San Francisco" has some footage that could have just as well been shot this weekend- dancing girls! headbands! bare feet! and a parade of kooky characters on Haight Street, where we went on Saturday night. Remember, if you're going to San Francisco... be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.

 

The Little Town

On Fourth of July weekend, we drove up the Highway 20 the the "little town" of Washington. When you wind your way down the river canyon and onto the main street, the first thing you see is a big sign: "Slow Down For Dogs, Children, and Locals". There are literally dogs sleeping in the middle of the road, and the locals- well, they are also running off the leash. At all times. Children drive ATVs down the middle of the street and the bar at the Gold Rush era hotel is always packed with people drinking red beers. I can't take pictures of all of this cause then I would just feel like a total Tourist (sorry!)... there is a very special feeling in Washington, like you have entered a lawless world (literally- there are no police in the town) where Everything Goes. There are a lot of beards, a lot of motorcycles, and not a whole lot of teeth. The back porch of the Washington Hotel has the best view of the Yuba around, so that's where we were, eating onion rings and being Americans.

I AM wearing red white and blue: 

Bar jukebox:

Happy inter-dependance, America!

San Francisco Days, San Francisco Nights

Last weekend: a San Francisco-double-birthday-wear-your-favorite-princess-or-Halloween-outfit-unicorn pinata-walloping-adults-playing-guitar-and-drums-on-the-sidewalk party!

Followed by an epic walk on the beach and a concert (I won tickets!) at Cafe du Nord having my mind blown by Anna Calvi...

Catching Up

Oh my gosh, it has been so long since I last blogged! Life was moving way to fast to be recorded these past several weeks. Still, this blog serves as my own record of what happened, and I want to fill in some blank spots.... starting (ridiculously as it may seem, in this week leading up to Thanksgiving) with HALLOWEEN!

My band played a show on the Friday night before Halloween. I played in two of the four bands that night, and Chris played in all four, which meant four costume changes for him as well as being the roadie for several vehicles full of heavy music gear. (And people think rock music is all fun and games!) The show was at St. Joseph's, an old church in Grass Valley, and the vaulted white ceilings were the perfect setting for the laser light show that two local folks put on for us that night. They had just bought an elaborate set-up to do these shows, and our event was their "publicity" demonstration. I have never seen lights like these, except for moments at huge stadium shows! When my band, which was doing all covers, played "A Forest" by The Cure, they shot hundreds of green lasers at the stage, and made the whole church look like an enchanted wood. Wowsa!

Most of my pictures are from the well-lit dressing room backstage... one of these days I will upload the video footage of us playing. Meanwhile, here is a peek into our night:

Chris as a unicorn, my friend and bandmate Cynthia as Catwoman

Bands and friends 

Good vs. Evil- Chris with our friend Zach as Satan

Graham (partner of Amber from Violet Folklore) exuding a Day of the Dead vibe

Sasha and the Shamrocks- we reversed our hair colors! We are trying to look very goth and serious here. I think we are succeeding. 

Me as a giraffe, Chris as a mosquito

My beautiful friend and neighbor Leonna Sapphire, and Tyler, my bassist

Lights and lights

Friday night, of course, was merely the beginning of Halloween weekend. We went out the next two nights as well! Saturday we went to the local "Fright Night" in Nevada City, which is kind of like an indoor version of the old Halloween street party in the Castro district of SF. Here we are with our good friend, who took on the Unicorn mantle:

Everyone decided that Chris was not just Elmo, he was Tickle Me Elmo... which he wasn't expecting. He got tickled all night long by strangers! Here he is with the Count:

Halloween proper we saw some great live music, including the psychedelic western band Spindrift from L.A. that were so right up my alley! Here we are with our friend Dan, who obviously won the (unofficial) costume contest of the evening with his Psycho outfit. He even had a knife that he stuck out the shower every once in a while.

Chris was Andy Warhol, if that isn't already obvious. The funny thing is that no one recognized us since we were so made up!

Okay, that is gonna do it for the holiday catch up...I feel some sense of victory that I managed to get that done before the next one! Ha ha! I have lots more to blog about but we are getting snowed in (again) in the Sierra foothills and it's time to cozy up for the night. Hope you all are well!

 

The Bunnies Have Left The Building

Okay, I was hoping for some more Bunnyhenge pictures (since I saw some VERY posh cameras snapping away all day and night long) but I think everyone is as carried away by the whirlwind of summer as I am! (But if you DID take pictures, post them on Facebook- nudge nudge.) Really, this one, taken with my own camera, sums it up completely: it is 8am, and we are surveying the post-party scene by the light of day, and greeting the early risers.

 

My conclusion is that everything went amazingly well, especially considering that we took on waaaaaay more than we should have (20 bands??!?!). People met and mingled and danced and romanced, art and joy and love were shared, and a fabulous time was had by 99.9% of the attendees. One of the neighbors (way up the road) was pissed off, but most of the neighbors were actually right there enjoying the party, and totally stoked. Anyhow, it is good practice to talk to the police every once in a while, right? (The cops showed up when the music had already switched to the acoustic portion of the night, and were not very concerned about us-- in fact, they told us "this is the kind of party we would like to hang out at if we were off-duty!" It is still being debated whether we consider this a compliment.)

As a hostess, and a "Good Girl" (most of the time- ha!), I wanted to please everyone, and have everything go "perfectly", despite having created an event that was always destined to be loosely controlled chaos. My friend Melanie summed it all up very well: "It is impossible to please everyone." I will take this important life lesson to heart, and try to keep daring to create imperfect but very expansive things. Though it's going to be a while before I host a big party at my house! Someone else gets to take the next turn.....

Here we are, with a few years taken off of our lives from sheer exhaustion-- but it was well worth it! Thanks again to everyone who played, and everyone who helped out, and to the Sacramento Crew that were the inspiration and original cheerleaders of Bunnyhenge. I love you all!

Divine Mansion, Divine Ocean

I met my friend Jen at the very first place where I went to herbal school, the California School Of Herbal Studies in Forestville, CA. She had completed their full-time program and was living on the property, and we got to hang out when I stayed over on the Saturday nights (I used to sleep in the garden, since classes were on both weekend days and I was coming from out of town!) She runs the Wellness Center at the Herbal Symposium every year, and while I am always psyched to see her, we never get to spend as much time together as I would like (the Wellness Center is usually packed, 24/7, with women and their kids having "away from home and camping out" issues-- insomnia, caffeine withdrawal, period cramps, tick bites, constipation, dehydration-- you name it and there will be someone who has it, in a crowd of 500). This year I actually got to see a lot more a Jen, who played banjo in the Lady GaGa tribute at the Talent Show, and then busted out her banjo at the fire circle later on. She invited me to a dance party at her house in Sebastopol, where she lives in a place called The Divine Mansion. "Come see the Mansion in Action!" she said. Now it's a good three and a half hours from the foothills to Sebastopol, which is by the coast in Sonoma County, and I had just returned from the Symposium, but who can resist seeing a Mansion In Action? I threw Chris in the car and put pedal to the metal.

It really IS a mansion- an Arts and Crafts (my very favorite era of architecture) mansion made originally for entertaining guests! (The family's house was separate.) The main floor is huge and open, with a giant porch looking down on the whole Sonoma Valley below.

 

The "servant's quarters" are below. Right now, six people live in the Divine Mansion. 

 

The main room, scene of much Getting Down the night of the party:

 

Yeah, that's right, a disco ball.

 

For some reason Bert and Ernie were in the wood stove!

They are ready for a hoe-down at any time here. In fact, several of the house members are in a marching band! 

 

Linda at the piano:

 

Jen's room! It used to be a reading room/sunroom.

Jen's amazing hat collection:

The kitchen:

Jen is a practicing Herbalist, and the original Cloak Room is now her Apothecary! 

 

Left to right: Scott (Jen's man), Jen, moi, Linda, and Chris!

Funniest picture ever:

 

Chris and hound:

Before we went home, we HAD to see the ocean. It had been way too long.

Now I always considered myself a creature of the ocean, and thought I would live by the ocean "when I grew up". We considered Sebastopol as a place to move when we left the city five years ago, but we decided it was "too close" to San Francisco (an hour away), and that we would feel "obligated" to go into the City all the time-- we were very burnt out on everything urban at time. 

This reasoning seems ridiculous to me now, since I wish I could see all of my Bay Area friends much more often then I do. And what was I thinking, that I didn't need community at all? That I wouldn't develop a huge network of friends here, and end up at art shows, concerts, birthday parties, etc.?

 Honestly, I guess that's where my head used to be at, since when we moved up here at first I was totally content to just sit by the river, by myself, for the first three months or so. But then I realized I needed people. Very much. And I desperately wanted to be "obligated" to be part of people's lives! I think this was probably the biggest learning experience that I had in moving up here... that while I love nature, I love human beings just as much. 

I never expected that lesson, but that's life, teaching you things even when you never signed up for the class, and bringing on the Education even if you never even read the course catalog. Damn.

Anyway, we'll see if we do end up back near the coast eventually... it could happen. I feel so at home with morning dew from the fog on my skin, and I can really breathe at the ocean, literally. I always had exceptionally bad allergies to pollen and grasses, and living inland the past five year has been really hard on my sinuses and lungs, despite taking very involved measures to remedy this (acupuncture, herbs, diet changes, etc.) Of course, now I feel rooted in the foothills. 

I am lucky that my dilemma in life is choosing between two amazing places to live, when people in most of the world can't even choose anything at all. I am so grateful for all of my ancestors, right up to my own parents, who worked so hard, and dared to come to America, and come West, so that I could live an eternal Bohemian Dream in this wonderland of California. Thanks guys! I hope that those who are now passed to the other side can get some vicarious enjoyment from my love of this extraordinary life.

 

Pacific, I heart you forever.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Witch Camp 2010!

So, it's taken me almost a week to digest and integrate my experience at the Northern California Women's Herbal Symposium. This year was a HUGE heart opening, mind-expanding trip! My heart chakra literally felt sore for days afterwards. That is some "hippie shit" but it's true, I tell you! 

This year I let myself off the hook insofar as even making it to classes.... I just wanted to really be on my own schedule, and let the day take me where it would. Ever since leaving my day job, my inner Night Owl has emerged with full force (shaking off her wings somewhat huffily, and asking me what the heck I was thinking the past decade, trying to get out of bed before eleven a.m.). Anyway, there is amazing "night life" at the Symposium around the campfire, and that is where I found myself til the wee hours every night. (I did end up in a couple of classes, by happenstance!)

One of my best friends in the whole universe, Linda, came this year. Linda lives in San Francisco, and we do get to see each other a lot, but the Symposium is our very special yearly Hang Out Sesh. We got to spend soooooooo much "quality time" together, mostly laughing our heads off. There is just nothing better in life!

Here is a whole gaggle of friends, old and new, in front of one of the tepees in the main camp:

  

Linda, me, Deborah, Tamaura, Erica, Summer, Liza (with Erica's daughter in front)

Summer is my good friend from Nevada County, one of the neatest and sweetest gals you would ever want to meet. It was her first year at the Symposium, and I was so glad that she was "feeling it" (the special magic of being with five hundred ladies who are into plants, magic, and community) like I do! Tears of joy.... tears of joy.

 

More Nevada County lovelies: Deborah and Tamaura, at the Marketplace! I bought this awesome silkscreened t-shirt (with a horseradish plant!) and a pair of Tamaura's very special, energetically charged feather earrings. 

 

A new friend, Arielle, who is a beautiful spirit with an angelic voice. She sang a version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" at the campfire that moved everyone to awed silence.

 

My new friend Liza, and her amazing necklace that she made from securing different pieces of metal together with wire! I am so inspired by her art.

 

I loved this idea of making a waist-belt/fanny pack out of the top of a pair of pants (with some added embellishments). There are always sooooo many pants at every thrift store, and I imagine a lot of them end up in the landfill. This is such a practical way to recycle them! And it is a fairly easy project, you wouldn't have to be a seamstress to do it. The belt buckle was added, and you could add anything extra that you loved!  

Sunday evening is the big Ritual, which included a ceremony for young girls who are celebrating their first Moon, and a celebration for women who have entered into Crone-dom (post menopause). Everyone wears their most festive outfits, and gathers in a huge circle to welcome the Maidens, who process towards us. Here comes the parade:

 

In my dreams, I paired this beautiful caftan with an elaborate pink feathered head dress. In reality, I am not that much of a pre-planner, but I realized I had brought these ruffled bloomers in my bag "just in case". They made a perfect last minute head dress (and also made everyone crack up)!

 

This is the Crone's Celebration, which involves, well, a lot of laughing. The woman on the right is the eldest crone at the Symposium- she is 90 years old! In her youth, she danced with Martha Graham-- and she is still dancing. She did an elaborate interpretive dance for us that involved howling at the sky. She made getting old look like so much fun-- because clearly, at a certain point, you can get away with ANYTHING!

 

I am so thankful to everyone who works so hard every year to make the Symposium such a special event. I don't know any other experience that is like it, and over the years that I have gone (I think this was my seventh time!) it has enriched my life deeply. The support and encouragement of these powerful women has enabled me to step out into my own power in the world, and do things that the shy/socially phobic/worrywart part of me never thought possible. 

It is so great to have people on your side when you are living a whole life on the Path Less Traveled. During the years I have been going to the Symposium, I decided to go the Herb School instead of staying on the regular academic track. I decided to move to the country to try out a whole new life, with no friends and no job waiting for me. I decided to deal with my stage fright and rock my heart out, even though I am self taught and I am "too old to be a rock star". I decided to start my own business, even though "the economy is in the toilet" and "a steady paycheck is safety". I have always wanted to live a life that uses my intuition and creativity, and I feel like every year that I go to the Symposium I get a big Thumbs Up saying "right on, sister, you're doing great!" In my every day life I don't always get that support and feedback, and believe me, I need it. We all do.

The Symposium is a safe, special place where women can truly open up, share, connect, become inspired, and feel recognized and honored for their work in the world. This is a lot for a gathering to aspire to, right? So imagine my joy when I see it actually happening every year, for myself and for hundreds of other women. Wow. 

 

Me n' Linda
  
          

Into The Woods

So I am breaking up my blog about my weekend into two parts, because I had a mini-adventure before I went to the Women's Herbal Symposium! 

My friend Chia (who is from Nevada City, originally) lives in the hills above Laytonville (site of the Symposium), and since I am no longer tethered to the ol' Day Job, I took an extra day out to go and visit her. 

Chia met me in town, and then I went on a few errands with her as we made our way towards her house. I have been in Laytonville at least a half dozen times, but I always go to the same place, the health food store. Interestingly enough, there was a whole other world going on at the other stores, one that appealed much more to local culture and needs. The "regular" grocery store across the street, for example, had teenagers out front, selling tickets to the Rodeo, and loud, "down home" cashiers who were happy to gab about the weather with me. Just a half mile off the main drag was this Feed Store, where Chia bought some hay, and some meat chickens (as in, chickens you raise for meat- just like it sounds. My apologies to my sensitive vegetarian readers). There was a crew of Good Ol' Boys (and gals) stationed inside, sitting on barrels and participating in the hallowed country tradition of Bullshitting. There were cages full of chickens and turkeys and pigeons, and some really cute puppies running around in the mud and the sawdust. (Chia thought about the one that looked like the Little Rascals dog pretty seriously, but since it looked like it might have Pitbull in it, she wasn't sure it would get along with her other dogs.) I wanted to take pictures of everything and everyone, but I became acutely aware that I was a tourist- after all, I was the ONLY one without giant "Muck Boots". I didn't want them to think I was from "the city"!

 

I followed Chia's truck for about 30 minutes from the Feed Store, on a beautiful country road that wound through meadows, fields, and a Redwood Forest. We eventually turned off onto a dirt road, which, after the constant rain this spring, was more of a mud road. Chia had more confidence in my Honda than I did, but I did manage to pilot it up to the "parking lot" where guests without 4x4 trucks stage their cars before the final ascent to her property. I got out of my car a little shaken from the journey, and Chia decided to go easy on me as she piloted her truck the last 15 minutes to her house. She put on some classic country music and let me know that she was taking it slow for my benefit- normally, gunning her truck up the curves is a sort of sporting event for her. I appreciated her sensitivity. 

The first thing I said when I saw her house was "you didn't tell me how cute it was!"

 

I love the siding, which is made of fence boards. What a great idea. 

Here is Miss Chia, reminding me of the cover of the Vashti Bunyan album Just Another Diamond Day. Note the Muck Boots.

 

It was still super cloudy out, so I wasn't able to take proper photos of the interior of her house as I would have liked to. Every nook and cranny has something magical and inspiring tucked into it- and nooks and crannies the house has plenty of, especially upstairs in the multi-eaved "loft". It is one of the coziest, most charming houses I have ever been in!

Looking out to the garden- everything is late this year, thanks to the weather.

 

 

The path to the privvie, with Aero the dog (waiting to play a game of Stick)

 

Ham, the chocolate lab, a big lover:

 

For a mad tea party:

 

Chia loves her chickens- she has a whole coop full of girls who are almost at the age where they will start laying eggs. One of these ladies, Fannie, the Bantam, used to be her House Chicken, but she has since returned to her feathered flock. Sigh. They grow up so fast.

 

This is the rooster, Earl- that's short for Early. You can guess how he got his name.

 

Chia's boyfriend Josh doesn't appear in these pictures- what can I say, it was my first time meeting him, and I didn't want to put him on the spot- but he was such a great host, making us dill encrusted wild salmon and sitting around playing guitar with us into the wee hours (wee for him- he has to get up at dawn to do chores). Chia is learning guitar and I busted out the Donovan song book, and was SO HAPPY that all three of us could strum along together. Joy! 

I ate a bunch of chocolate, and I was so wired to be on my first night of vacation, that I stayed up writing by the wood fire long after they had tucked in for the night. As much as I dislike windy, scary country roads, I really like the private, magical places where they lead to, and I get very inspired when it is just me and the Wild. Though my city friends think my place in Grass Valley is "the country", it has neighbors and a phone and a regular bathroom and wireless and is part of "the world". Getting really, truly away from it all is very freeing. (There even was a time when I seriously considered moving to a commune in far Northern California, because of this very feeling. That commune made Chia's house look like it was in the middle of Manhattan- it was three hours from ANY town, and in the winter, you had to snowshoe five miles down a trail to get to the one tiny store in the whole area- you couldn't even get out with a four wheel drive. I loved the idea, but they had this communal outhouse that just freaked me out. They say you get used to it, but, come on, I was an only child.)

Here is Chia, seeing me off in the "parking lot". I love this tiny, adorable head, and the mud-caked truck. She is an actual Bad Ass.

 

Thanks to Chia for having me out. I am seriously in love with green, ocean-misted Mendocino County (it is a love affair that started in childhood, when my family first visited, and seems to get worse every year), and I am so glad that you are there now! I can't wait to go back.